Chapter 27 #2
Like they hadn’t realised they could need it, men started running towards the main mast of the ship to tie rope around their waists to secure themselves.
“Bury the hatchet! Anyone below deck is stuck down there for now.”
She started stomping past Alister with the intention to walk down the stairs to the main deck, but he grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Head to the Kannas Islands. We’re going to seek shelter from the storm.”
She turned to him, ripped her arm from his grasp, and stepped forward to be closer. “My ship can’t go that way! She’s too deep. Go to the Grutten Valley.”
The Grutten Valley was similar but wider; it wouldn’t shelter them as well. Kannas Islands had taller rock formations in its crescent-moon shape, which would give them as much calm as they could get with this kind of storm. Why would she choose to go to– It clicked with Alister.
“The shallows,” he said with a gasp of realisation. He hadn’t thought about them because it wasn’t an issue for his shallow-hulled boat.
“Aye, lad,” she sneered. “The shallows. Your ship can navigate through that cape in a storm like this, but mine can’t. Now go back to your own ship!”
Rosetta sprinted away before he could say anything else.
She tied a lifeline to her waist and started shouting orders from the main deck to her men. Her voice reached them all, even with the chaotic noise of the storm.
A large gust of wind hit so strongly, even he had to brace himself and step back. He expected to see her go flying with her light weight, but she remained fixed on her feet where she was. His gaze found the six cannon grenades around her waist.
They’re weights to keep her on her feet. Rosetta had increased her weight, so she didn’t get thrown around like a rag doll by the wind. No doubt this was her idea. She’s brilliant. He’d bet she usually had a proper weight belt, but Naeem had been unable to find it.
Alister found his feet stuck where they were as he watched her direct men with such finesse that even he was awed.
“You’re realising it, aren’t you?” Naeem shouted to him over the storm, water running in rivulets down his face. “Why we follow her, why we do what she tells us to.”
He was. Alister was finally looking at her as a captain who could be equal to him rather than a woman playing pretend. I’ve always looked down on her. He hadn’t realised it until this very moment.
A lightning strike above them flashed a hot, bright light, illuminating her. The thunder that immediately followed sounded as though it was trying to tell him something.
“She’s never needed your help.” Alister turned his gaze to Naeem as he spoke.
“She knows she’s too weak to hold the helm of her own ship through a storm like this.
She knows she’s too light to climb the shrouds right now.
She knows she’s not going to be of much use, but she won’t sit by idly and watch her ship struggle while she’s warm and cosy in her cabin. ”
Rosetta started checking the lifelines of her crew, pressing her boot to the mast as she tugged on the ropes with all her strength. She was making sure they were all tight and she wouldn’t lose any of them.
“She knows what she has to do to survive.” The face Naeem wore was so full of pride and full of faith, it almost shined from him. “She’s always been like that.”
“Aye,” Alister finally said. “I see it.”
He ran down the steps to go to her and caught her right before she tripped back, having to catch his own footing since he almost did as well.
He didn’t do it because she needed him to save her, but because he was intending to grab her anyway.
Holding her around the nape of her neck so they wouldn’t get pushed apart by the waves and wind tossing her ship around, he stared down at her.
Their hair blew over their shoulders, wet but no match for the wind. It was like the long locks wanted to become tangled.
“You’ve got this, lass,” he said, truly believing it.
She frowned at him; no doubt puzzled by the words he would have to explain later.
The blue of her eyes had never looked this dark. They were the exact same colour as the inky navy of the storm waves behind her.
“Grutten Valley, four days.”
She rolled her eyes. “The Laughing Siren can take a storm like this; better hope it’s not your ship that sinks.”
True. The Howling Death was smaller and had a larger chance of being barrel rolled. Thinking of his warship, Alister let her go without another word. He grabbed a rope and ran for his ship before it was too late. He flew through the air with his feet out in front of him.
Alister landed on the quarterdeck deck next to Pierre.
“You’re lucky!” he shouted. “Was just about to turn away.”
Taking the wheel, Alister, without hesitation, started steering his ship away to a safe distance.
Not once did he look back for the Laughing Siren to make sure it was following, safe, or nearby.
Not once did he let his eye stray from what was in front of him as he navigated his ship through flat sections of water between the growing waves.
The waves that did manage to hit the hull made the Howling Death rock violently side to side.
It was a struggle just to hold onto the wheel of the helm.
Alister often had to right his footing and brace himself. Everyone was working their hardest to control the sails while the winds blew. Frothing water sloshed over the main deck to wash out over the other side. Anyone caught in that current was swept off their feet and barrelled into the railing.
Darkness came long before the sun was gone, but once it descended, the only thing lighting the way was the crackling strikes of lightning. They occasionally struck against a wave in the distance.
The navy-blue sea eventually turned the blackest colour, as if God himself had poured ink beneath the crashing surface to create a nightmarish vastness to its yawning abyss.
Thick dark-grey colours blanketed the sky, not a star in sight to guide the way. The sky looked like it was falling, ready to crash down upon them. The clouds were rolling, as if they would eventually wash them into the next life.
The Howling Death was in that limbo place where the sky and the sea touched.
The only reason he knew which way to go was the compass necklace he hung around his neck. Alister fought against an element that could sink him with just one towering wave. Every hour brought worse and worse conditions as he fought against the tidal swirls.
Pierre and Alister took shifts steering. One would rest for a few hours, trusting the other to be in control enough to sleep a bit before the first would take over again.
When Alister rested, the raging and violent sea swung his hammock from side to side, rocking him like it was a mother trying to aid a newborn babe to sleep.
For almost two days, it never let up, never gave them any reprieve. He barely ate; it was near impossible for Glen to cook with the state of the ship.
Alister saw the large mass of volcanic land like an unlit lighthouse at the edge of the sea. It wasn’t active, but it was easy to spot from a far distance. She picked a good island to track.
It could be seen from miles away, even with the dark clouds that hid the sunlight. He’d been going in circles for the last day trying to find it.
Staying a safe distance from it while he tried to figure out which way the low, wide crescent cape was, the storm continued.
“I thought they would have beaten us,” Pierre said, coming up beside him since Alister had gotten one of the men to wake him.
Alister was attempting to safely move through the points of the wide cape while the waves pushed to change his direction.
The moment he passed them, he almost sagged with relief as the intensity of the water immediately dropped. The wind still knocked them around, but he no longer had two different elements fighting against him.
Inside the Grutten Valley’s storm-breaking rocks that circled them, everything seemed calm, a place of serenity and peace surrounded by violence. Mostly.
The harsh rain never stopped falling.
Alister’s brows drew into a deep frown. “Me too.”
The Laughing Siren wasn’t here.
It should have beaten them, since the Howling Death would have been thrown off course more. The size and lightness of his ship was perfect for fighting and chasing others, but storms often got the better of them.
“She’ll be here,” Alister answered with certainty.
He still told his men to drop both anchors and hunker down through the weather. They secured the sails, making sure they were neatly furled away. There was an air of tension throughout his ship as he walked below deck.
At first, he thought it had just been him, but it seemed all of them were worried for the Laughing Siren when it didn’t show over the course of the next two days the storm raged.
Silence fell on them as they ate. They drank, but his men did it with long, sullen looks on their faces that only deepened when they turned their gazes to him.
Alister always returned them with a plain expression, like he didn’t care, but as every hour creeped on and Rosetta didn’t come, he couldn’t stop his brows from being permanently crinkled together.
On the fifth day, the sun finally greeted them shyly behind heavy clouds.
“Do you think it’s a break, or should we expect more weather?” one of his crewmen asked him.
They all spoke to him periodically while they sailed, either when he was steering the ship or merely walking through its dark halls. Alister scanned his eye over the horizon to see the clouds moving further and further away, growing softer and lighter by the hour.
“We should have clear skies for a few days.” Whether the storm would return, he didn’t know. “Check the sails; I know some of them have tears.”
His ship had seen better days and they would use this chance to repair all the damage they could.
I gave her four days. It should have been more than enough time. We made it here in two.
After another two days of sunshine passed, seven days in total since he’d last seen the Laughing Siren, Alister was now ready to set sail again.
The winds were calm, the sky clear, the waves gentle. Even sea-loving birds squawked, telling all that the animals were confident enough to emerge from their hiding spots.
“It’s been a week, Alister,” Pierre said, heavy concern in his voice.
He’d come into Alister’s chambers to speak with him while he sat at his desk, mapping where they had come from to this island. He was mapping the course they’d probably taken.
It would have only taken a day to sail here with calm seas. Seven days she’d had to make it here, almost half of which had been calm.
Which meant Alister knew the truth now.
“Do you think her ship sunk?” He could tell Pierre was afraid to ask by the tone in his voice. The worry in it was unnerving and made his nose crinkle when he realised it was undeserving.
Alister threw his measuring compass against the large map on his desk. He didn’t care if he’d damaged it, not with the anger that suddenly burned up inside him like a hot, fiery tornado.
“Nay,” he snapped in a lethal tone. “Her ship is fine. The bitch just ain’t coming here.”
Rosetta, for whatever reason, wasn’t coming.
He turned his gaze up from the desk to glower at Pierre. He knew it was the truth. She would be here otherwise.
“Tell the men we’re leaving in an hour.”
When Pierre left Alister alone to brood by himself, he removed his eye patch and threw it at the table. His face itched incessantly because he wore it constantly. He’d usually sleep without it but had refused to in Rosetta’s bed.
He was furious, but most importantly, he couldn’t stop himself from feeling disappointed. Possibly rejected?
I wasn’t done with her. But apparently, she was.
Five days of storms he could have said they were lost at sea and couldn’t find their way, but it had been two days of sunshine and her ship still hadn’t dropped anchor next to his.
She told me she was getting sick of my shit. He picked up his measuring compass again to place one point of it against the desk. He spun it between his forefinger and the table, watching it twirl. She said that she would be a captain long after I was gone from her life.
He gave a chuckle. Has she been planning to use the storm as an escape the entire time?
He didn’t understand why she would have needed to. She could have just told him. Why would she direct us here then?
Wait... The tool fell from his hand. She’s got most of our supplies!
He wasn’t so stupid to have her carry everything, but she still had most of the grog water, rum, and food.
His gaze fell on the door of his cabin, realising they were going to need to find the nearest port if they wanted to eat in a week.
She stole from me! He slammed his fist against the desk, making everything on it bounce or rattle. Again!