Page 30 of Take No Prisoners
Their laughter was a sound Efren wasn't sure he'd heard before. They sounded at ease around Niall, something they'd never been around their captain. "I don't think so, but I can't remember! No, it would have been early morning when I made deliveries, so I doubt anyone was inside. The barkeep testified he'd haggled over the price of the beer, and out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning had struck the roof of his establishment and it started on fire." They shrugged. "How was I to know he didn't have lightning rods? The building wasn't grounded. Of course it went up in flames."
"It sounds like you remember well enough." Efren grinned to soften his harsh tone.
"It's all coming back to me now." They nodded to him. "I should turn in. You've made it much easier to sleep with Tovey and Stan in separate sails. Thank you, and good night."
"Good night." They were just as silent leaving as they had been arriving.
"Stan and Tovey?" Niall asked. "What's their story?"
"Lover's spat. I told them to work it out at our next port of call. When on the ship, they've agreed to stop bickering, or one of them will find a new captain when we reach Aquarion. So far, they both want to stay aboardStarlight Specter."
"How long have they been with you?"
"Codger Tim, Stan, and Vadim were my original crewmates when we set sail seventeen years ago." The admission didn't hurt nearly as much as the thought of Vadim had stung even a week prior. Yes, Vadim had been his first mate since he'd first boardedStarlight Specter, but he'd been absent the last five years. That fact didn't have to stab Efren in the heart every time he spoke of it.
"Olivia and Tovey joined two years later," he continued. "Hannah has been with us for ten, as they said."
"And now me." Niall grinned. "Or are you not looking for a crew member?"
"I haven't considered it," Efren said. "You're a potter's apprentice. Don't you want a storefront of your own in Glamiere?"
"Maybe someday."
Niall stepped up to the wheel beside him. He leaned into the touch as Niall's arm slipped around his waist.
"I'm more interested in defeating Coryn. Vadim seems to think I can help."
Efren didn't want to think about Vadim, not with Niall watching the waves with him. The moon rose, its reflection shimmering off the dark water.
"How did you learn to call sharks?" Niall's voice was soft, as though he didn't want to disturb the moment.
"Even before the empire turned on us, Aquarion was rather brusque in their methods for training weavers. They separate anyone with magic from their parents when they create their first weave. My parents left me on Aquarion, so I had nowhere to call home, unlike Vadim and Stan. Vadim's aunt lived on Horseshoe Island, and Stan's father was a teacher at the school."
Efren shook his head to dismiss old memories and return to the story at hand. "One sunset, I was so lonely while Vadim and Stan were off having dinner with their families, I wished I had a friend. That's when I saw her. Arrowtip, the shark with the notch in her dorsal fin. She was far smaller then, just a little thing able to swim in the shallows. I thought she was going to take a bite of my toe, the way something had taken a bite from her fin. I fell backward in the surf trying to get away from her. Imagine my surprise when she brushed against my shin and circled back around." He laughed. "Didn't even cut me until I tried to touch her flank and she spun at me. Shark scales are smooth down the body, but they're sharp the other way."
"What did she do when she smelled blood?"
Efren laughed. "I didn't give her a chance to think about it. I hauled ass out of there. The next day, I was catching fish with Vadim. I kept a fish when it was time to return to the barracks and sent Vadim ahead of me. I returned to the place I'd seen her before, and there she was again. I gave her the fish, and she's been with me ever since. Well. Most of the time."
"You said she returned."
Efren had hoped Niall had missed that. "I should have known Vadim was back on the water the moment she disappeared. I hadn't seen her in six months until today. Tovey's right. She's been following Vadim's ship because death follows in his wake. He can't sail from one port to the next without killing something or someone."
Niall laughed. "It surprises me that people consent to die."
"Nay," Efren said. "It surprises me that anyone thinks they can kill him first."
He glanced out at the moonlit waters and wondered where Arrowtip was now. "She followed me from Aquarion to Hearthstone and back when I first enlisted."
"What happened with the navy?"
"Same as what happened to your parents, I imagine. I enlisted because Hesse wanted to unite the islands under the empire. We conquered the unincorporated islands to the east, and things were peaceful for a time. Then, Hesse was murdered by a healer, or so Coryn said. By the time anyone thought to question it, Coryn had moved from royal guard to general over the full military. She said no weavers could be trusted anywhere near the imperial family, and that included all military forces. We were all dishonorably discharged, except Tim. He's mundane. He says he retired, but they discharged him, too, when he swore he wouldn't sail for a navy that didn't have weavers protecting his ass."
"And then Coryn claimed the western islands, including Aquarion, for the emperor." Niall sounded as bitter as any islander, enough to make Efren wonder where the boy had spent his youth before his parents had been killed. Efren had only seen Willamina at port over the years, and never at home on Aquarion.
"Aquarion is too far from Hearthstone to coordinate an outright attack," Efren said, "which is what she would need to do to take the island from the pirate elders."
"Are you safe, then?" Efren understood the unspoken question. WouldStarlight Specterbe safer for Niall than his parents' ship had been?
