30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
T he scream is still pouring out of me as I wake.
It rips through my throat, way too loud for a human voice, and echoes back at me from the timbers and the rails, from the open stretch of deck and the air above it.
I jerk upright, lungs burning as I drag in breath after breath, my hands clawing at the planks beneath me.
I can still feel it.
The sand beneath my feet, the vision of Lark’s lifeless body falling, and falling, and falling.
The way the world went quiet right before it went dark.
I suck in another breath and choke on it.
The salt on my tongue tells me I am crying, but I am way too numb to really pay it any notice.
My thoughts are a spiraling mess, trying to make sense of what happened.
I’m still in the middle of the deck, where we ended my training. I swallow, my gaze flicking across the planks, the rail, the empty stretch of sea beyond. There’s no sign of blood on the spot where they slit Lark’s throat. There’s no sandbank. No other ship.
That shouldn’t be possible.
I press my palm harder against the deck, as if reassuring myself that it is real. I try to remember how we ended the training, but that specific memory slips away when I try to hold onto it, blurring at the edges. What I do remember is how everything softened, and how I lost the feeling of time.
My chest tightens. I fell asleep.
It was a dream. All of it.
I press a hand to my chest, my heart still hammering like it's trying to escape my ribs, but I will take any discomfort as long as it means that Lark is still alive. A throbbing pain shoots through my body from the back of my head, and as I carefully move my fingers against it, I flinch. The tips of my fingers are covered in blood. I must’ve hit my head against the wood.
“Risa.”
I twist toward the familiar voice instinctively.
Sable is half on his side beside me, one arm braced against the planks, the other already reaching for me.
His hair is mussed, curls falling loose over his brow, his expression twisted.
He looks as disoriented as I feel, like he woke up mid-fall and hasn’t found the ground yet. How did we not notice falling asleep?
“You’re here,” I breathe. “Why are we here?”
“I hate to admit this,” Sable answers, “But I have no idea.”
I push myself up and glance around the deck, which is slowly filling with members of the crew. I have to see Lark. See that he’s well and alive with my own eyes.
“Your head.” Sable is already crouching next to me, placing his thumb on my chin, before turning my head to the side so he can inspect my wound.
“We have to get you to the bonesetter,” he murmurs and helps me to my feet with one arm wrapped around my waist.
“No,” I say, but with my sore throat, the words barely make it out. “We have to leave. Right now. We can’t risk falling asleep again. Don’t you understand?”
Sable furrows his brows as he takes me in, his thoughts likely spiraling as mine.
“This sea is cursed, just like the others. Before we even realize it, we’ll be dreaming again. We will die out here, Sable. We have to lea—“
“There‘s no wind,” Sable interrupts me, and his muscles tense behind my back.
Meanwhile, the siren inside of me tries to rip free, clawing at my insides. My instincts tell me that we have to go.
“We cannot leave this bloody sea. But we can bring you to the bonesetter, so —“
“No,” I say again, and this time, my voice is steady. I step closer to him, so the crew won’t hear what I say. “Listen. I know you always say my instincts aren’t the sharpest, but right now my inner siren is pleading with me to get out of here. And fast.”
Sable's jaw tightens so hard that I see the muscles ticking beneath his skin as he looks over my shoulder and towards his crew, then back to me.
“And how,” he asks under his breath, “are we going to do that without wind?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper truthfully. “But the Glim is enforcing the sea’s will, right? Why would it keep us trapped here?”
“You know, the sea and I usually aren’t on good terms.” Sable mutters, and his gaze drops to the floor for a beat. “Especially lately.”
“The sea and I usually aren’t great friends either,” I reply. “But there must be a way to get out of here. Every sea has its dangers, but also its weaknesses.”
I begin pacing, my thoughts spiraling as I try to remember what my mother has taught me about the seas.
“The Sea of Crowns is known for its brutal storms, but there’s a short time period where the waters lie calm. The Sea of Renewal can heal, but takes a memory in return. And the Sea of Bones.”
“Can be survived by breaking the pirate's curse.”
“Exactly.” I stop in front of him with widened eyes. “And the darkness-infused sea we just survived is incredibly narrow. We made it through in what? One day?”
“Twenty-one hours.” Sable corrects.
My eyes roll. “Right. So what’s the weakness of this sea? There must be one. We just have to find it.”
The question is, where can we find out more about a sea that none of us has been in before. I press my lips together and begin tapping my finger against my thigh. “The books.”
The brooding pirate captain furrows his brows and looks at me, confused.
“What books? Those in my cabin are just sailors' tales and diaries from my father. I don't think we’ll find anything truthful in them.”
“We already found one truth,” I mutter before finding a steady voice again. “The drawing of the siren that looks like me. Whoever wrote that must’ve been here before. Maybe there’s more.”
Something flashes across Sable’s gaze, and a smile tugs at his lips. He gives me the tiniest of nods. As he turns towards the crew, folding his hands neatly behind his back, the smile slips away.
“If you see someone falling asleep,” he announces, his voice carrying over the ship without even raising it. “You wake them up. Splash them with water, punch them in the face, I don't care. If nothing is working, find Eryse.”
I curl my hands into fists and keep my gaze fixed on the deck as I zone out. My siren song is not in the slightest bit reliable. Sable continues barking orders, but I don't hear any of it. Instead, my feet move on their own, and the next thing I know is that I’m in the orlop, looking for Lark.
The little pirate sits on a barrel, white as a ghost, covered in sweat and shaking. In front of him is Nightglass, who presses a wet piece of cloth against his forehead.
“Lark,” I sigh in relief and rush towards him, throwing my arms around him and pressing his shaking frame against my chest. A single tear slips out of my eye, and pure joy floods me when he hugs me back.
I kiss the side of his head and then check his face for any marks anyway, to make sure that he is okay.
A solid hand on my shoulder makes me turn towards Nightglass. He looks confused, with his brows furrowed.
“You had the same dream?” he whispers. “Of my little boy?”
There’s no way. We can’t have.
“The same dream?” I whisper.
“That I died,” Lark says in a raspy voice. “They cut my throat.”
Nightglass flinches at his words and puts a protective arm around him. My throat dries up, and I bring my hand to my mouth to stop a gasp from escaping.
“You mean...” I stutter, not wanting the truth to settle.
“Aye,” He quickly nods. “I think we were all having the same nightmare.”
“Oh, Lark,” I take his hand in mine and give it a squeeze. “You know that something like that would never happen. Your father would never let any harm come to you, right?”
His posture straightens. “I can defend myself.”
A quiet laugh bubbles out of me, and I nod. “Yes, of course you can.”
“Lass,” Nightglass says, nodding towards my head. “Let’s get you to Harrow. There’s a pool of red on your white hair. Doesn’t look good.”
“I’m aware,” I straighten and smooth the folds of my dress. “But we can’t lose any more time. We have to leave the sea, or risk falling asleep again. And I need you in the crow’s nest to watch the Glim.”
“I obey the captain only.” He replies shortly.
Heavy footsteps make me turn my gaze towards the steep steps. Sable descends into the orlop, his eyes widening as he takes the scene in.
“Is Lark okay?” he asks Nightglass, his face twisted with concern as he strides towards us and inspects the boy himself.
“He’s good, just a little frightened, eh?” Nightglass says with a wink, ruffling his son’s hair.
I press my lips together and catch the exact moment it dawns on him that we all shared the same dream. His eyes widen.
“Wait,” he says, his gaze flicking towards me. “We were all stuck in the same dream?”
“Yes, Cap’n. Seems like it. Eryse came down here to check on Lark, same as you.”
He presses his lips together and scans the little pirate again before giving a curt nod. “Praise the seas, it was just a dream. Bring him to Harrow, just to be sure. Go to your station after. We have to follow the Glim and leave this bloody sea as soon as possible.”
“Aye, captain,” Nightglass replies with a nod and heaves Lark off the barrel.
Finally, Sable’s eyes meet mine. Something flashes through them, but before I can grasp what it is, it is gone again.
More members of the crew gather around us now, checking on the little pirate.
Even though it warms my heart to see how they all care for him, my stomach tightens.
It seems as though he’s not willing to acknowledge what happened between us, out there on the sandbanks.
Even though it was a dream, I experienced it as if it were reality.
For me, the kiss was real, and so was him telling me that I am his hope, and that he is willing to fight for his crew and himself.
But maybe for him it’s nothing more than a dream, a world in which he was not cursed, and I was not broken.
That’s why he was so careless, why his shadow was with him.
It all comes crashing in on me again, the ugly truth we call reality, like a wave crashing into cliffsides.
He leaves without another word.