Page 10 of Tell No Tales
"I would bore you in a matter of minutes, Your Majesty."
"Please. Call me Dee. I am not as frumpy as all that."
She was charming, witty, and beautiful, all the things Hesse had loved, but the female form had never enthralled Vadim in the same way it enchanted Hesse.
Vadim enjoyed Dee's company, but Efren had already offered him a place onStarlight Specter, and he'd jumped at the chance to leave Hearthstone behind for good.
A barrel slipped from its place along the railing and slammed into his calf, jarring him from his reverie. "Are you going to gawp at the sea all day," Stan asked from the top of the stairs, "or are you going to speak to him?"
Vadim had forgotten his reason for being on deck. He'd been waiting for Niall to leave the cabin, and now the captain was at the wheel. As he turned toward the stairs, he saw Niall and Milton at their sails for the morning.
"Thanks for the reminder." Vadim shoved the barrel back into place. He figured Stan would anchor it with another earth weave, but Stan didn't need his help.
Niall didn't even look at him as he approached.
"Death weaver."
Titles. That was how they would play their uneasy truce. "Spectral weaver."
"What do you want?"
"Did you rip something out of the wall of my crate yesterday?"
Niall glanced at him and sighed. "I knew he was lying."
"You did it." Vadim said it loud enough for Stan to hear.
"I ripped the screw from the wall, yes. He said you preferred a bunk to a sail bed."
Vadim shook his head. "I've always had a sail bed, even as captain ofImperial Fool."
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience, then." Niall glanced at Stan, who met them at the wind station. "I didn't mean to cause you unnecessary work."
Stan grinned. "No skin off my back. That sail bed will go down with the ship. I've anchored her through the crate into the bulkhead."
"I can talk to Klaus when he's on deck," Niall offered. "I'll send him to you the next time he wants to rearrange your space."
"That will be unnecessary," Vadim said. He intended to speak to Klaus on the matter, and then never again.
∞∞∞
Klaus
Klaus pulled on a pair of pants and left the crate to use the head. On his way back, he stopped in the galley to see what Codger Tim had fixed for breakfast. He grabbed a piece of hard cheese while the man wasn't looking and darted into the hold to scarf it down. Sharp, just the way he liked it. He wasn't even gone that long, but by the time he'd returned, the sail bed hung over his mattress once more.
He tugged on the wooden dowel that screwed into the side of the boat and found no give whatsoever. It was no longer a screw. It was melded to the wood of the crate and the wall of the ship.
The sail would be easy enough to cut, but that would be really fucking obvious. Klaus didn't want to invoke Vadim's wrath, at least, not over a sail bed.
He finished getting dressed and returned to the galley to find Vadim, Stan, and Tovey huddled over steaming bowls. Stan and Tovey had every reason to look tired and grumpy, since they'd been up all night for their shift. What was Vadim's excuse?
Codger Tim handed Klaus his own bowl of steaming oats mixed with fruit. They weren't unhappy about the food, at least. This was far better than any meal Klaus remembered from the orphanage. He'd had better at the pleasure houses, but only when the bakery brought them their day-old goods.
Klaus sat across from Vadim.
Tovey jumped beside him and glared at Stan. "Why the fuck did you kick me?"
Stan pointed at Klaus with his spoon. "That's our signal to leave." Stan poured the rest of his bowl into his mouth and came around the table to grab Tovey's bowl. "You can eat in the hold."
