Page 26 of Tell No Tales
"Don't mention it." He motioned toward the door with his head. "The galley is no place for discussions."
Vadim nodded. The storeroom behind Tim's washing station had an opening with a ladder into the true hold. Sound carried in the hold, especially when it was as empty as it was now.
Vadim understood Tim's caution where Martiz was concerned, but he didn't think it warranted. Coryn knew enough to hurt Vadim. She'd already accused him of having a soft spot for "that seeker," before he'd recognized it himself.
She wouldn't take the time to interrogate Martiz, either. She only wanted to make him bleed, the same way he'd cut her and healed her, over and over. The same way he'd hurt Gulde, the sweet elder lady who made all the island's clothes. She'd bled for Beatrice's kindness, but the only result had been the return of a few sparks. Gulde had not become a siphon after so much ill use, but Martiz's healing had restored some of her original fire element. Thankfully, there was no longer a bounty on fire weavers' heads.
When Vadim returned to the crate, he caught Klaus standing on his mattress, flipping through Hesse's journal on the sail bed. He startled at the sound of the door, but then he lowered his chin and looked up through his dark eyelashes. Klaus had perfected the look in the pleasure houses, but that didn't make it any less alluring. Vadim still wanted him.
He closed the door and held the tray out in offering before sitting cross-legged on the mattress and setting the tray down between them.
Klaus dropped to his knees and to one side on his elbow. He picked at the cheese and hard tack with his free hand.
"Is this all you eat for lunch?" Klaus asked. "There's no meat?"
"We save the fresh meat for the evening meals until we run out. Then, we'll eat the sausage and jerky for breakfast and start fishing for dinner."
Klaus nodded. "I remember we had fish for breakfast that first morning."
"I wanted to earn my keep." Vadim didn't know exactly what he'd hoped to accomplish, but Efren had been cold and Tim even more so. Vadim wasn't sure what had changed with Tim, but he was grateful. He'd been on poor terms with his ship's cook more often than not in the navy.
"It's unusual for a ship to have a mundane cook," Klaus said as Vadim took a bite of cheese. "What's Tim's story?"
Vadim almost choked on the cheese, since the comment seemed to follow Vadim's own thoughts. Finally, he swallowed it down. "He's a good cook."
"I'm not saying he isn't," Klaus said. "I'm just saying someone like Petri would be better suited for a ship's cook, since they're also an air weaver."
"They hate sailing," Vadim said. "Tim loves being on the water, though I'm sure his joints ache when we sail south in the winter."
"I've never seen him on deck!" Klaus frowned.
"Once we run out of meat, you'll see him fishing." Maybe Vadim had pissed Tim off when he'd requested the task. Vadim's fishing was a sure thing, while Tim could dangle a pole over the side and hit or miss for hours. Vadim had never understood why people enjoyed fishing that way, but Tim certainly did.
He felt compelled to continue talking while Klaus ate, to pass the time. "Tim retired from the navy when we were discharged." The mundane man had a few years left before he would earn his pension, but he didn't care. Efren had been so taken with the man's convictions, he'd hired Tim on the spot.
Efren was a good captain and a better person, far better than Vadim could hope to be. Vadim already had the beginning of a crush when they were kids. Having the chance to sail with Efren as an adult was a dream come true, one that quickly turned into a nightmare as Coryn asked more and more of Vadim on the side.
"What were you thinking just now?" Klaus asked as Vadim finished off the last of his hard tack. "You looked wistful and sad."
"It's nothing." He grinned at Klaus. "I was only thinking of the past."
"How did you come to be a pirate?" Klaus asked.
"Efren found me before Coryn did." Empress Delilah had asked Vadim to become Hugo's bodyguard when Hesse died, but he'd refused. He was better suited to sailing. He'd been misguided to believe the empire's true enemies lay to the north in Glamiere and beyond. "We were stationed in the same fleet, so when we were discharged, we found each other in the crowd. Efren already had picked out his ship."
"Ooh," Klaus looked intrigued. "Did you steal it?"
Vadim laughed. "You don't know Efren." They'd paid far too much coin forStarlight Specter, but she was fast and sound, and that was all that had mattered.
Once they finished lunch and enjoyed the cocoa candies Tim had made, Klaus talked Vadim into a quick walk around the deck to stretch their legs. Vadim got the impression Klaus didn't want to go alone. Klaus and Niall eyed each other warily but offered nothing more than greetings as they passed.
"You should talk to him," Vadim prodded once they returned to the crate for the afternoon. "He was your best friend once."
"That was a long time ago," Klaus said. "We were kids. I grew up faster than he did, and he never caught up. He didn't have the same hardships."
Vadim nodded. "He was an apprentice, and you worked in the pleasure houses. You resented him."
Klaus snorted. "I wouldn't say that. Niall had it rough, too. Master Othelio was more of an overseer than an expert craftsman. Niall learned his trade within the first year, and then the old man kept him on as free help, always dangling his master's mark like a carrot."
