Chapter 14 #2
Silence falls between us, and I realize Weston is waiting for me to speak. He must know I have a million questions about the map, and is giving me an opportunity to ask, and an opportunity to show his trust by answering.
I think for a moment, prioritizing what I want to know before speaking again.
“You already know where camp is.” It isn’t a question.
He nods. “We do.”
“How?”
His head quirks to the side, his eyes narrowing, like he doesn’t know why I asked this question. “Everyone here was once a Voyager, remember?”
Exactly as I thought, but I needed to hear him confirm it.
I didn’t understand why Dane never saw this obvious fact, or if he had, why he explained it away.
Weston had an entire crew of people who once were Voyagers.
Every person on this ship would have known everything about us, including where we lived. Having a map never would have mattered.
“But you never attacked us.” Again, another statement, not a question.
“I had no intention to.” I try to analyze his tone, his expression, to find the lie, but I can’t.
This seems like the most authentic Weston has ever been with me.
There’s no air of authority or fury. The only other time I’ve seen or heard him this real is when I watched relief flash over his face back in the cave, back when he was assuring me I was alive.
Goosebumps erupt over my skin at the memory and I ignore them, grateful they are hidden under my long sleeves.
“Why?”
“There’s nothing I need at camp anymore.” His eyes find mine, and I feel a flush of heat creep up my neck.
Anymore.
That means he managed to get whatever he was searching for. But if he didn’t attack camp, how?
“What did you need from camp?” I take a chance asking, trying not to be obvious I’m prying. Hopefully, he is caught up in the conversation and will just answer without thinking.
“Any other questions, princess?” he grumbles, completely ignoring what I asked.
Fine. Still keeping secrets.
I move on to the obvious question in front of me and hope he doesn’t dodge it.
“Why do you need a map?” I ask. “You aren’t searching for the waters. You already know where they are. Stassia told me every Castaway has found them.” I eye him curiously. “What are you looking for?”
He rolls his lips together, and I hold my breath, waiting for a response. I can tell he is trying to decide whether to reveal his secrets, despite the entire conversation about trust earlier, and I see the moment in his eyes that he decides to.
“We’re looking for a way home.”
His words crash over me, followed by a flicker of doubt.
Home.
Are the Castaways only trying to get back to our world? They aren’t trying to steal the healing waters, not trying to use them for their own gain. They’re simply trying to return, after being denied the help that every one of us came here seeking?
Have we been wrong about them the entire time?
No. We can’t be. If he was telling the truth, he wouldn’t be capturing everyone as soon as they left the mountain. Why would he need to take every Voyager as soon as they left, if his only motivation was to leave?
This is a manipulation, another mind game, and Weston doesn’t think I see it.
He’s trying to get me to sympathize with him, to keep pushing me onto his side, to turn me against Dane by directly contradicting everything Dane has told us. He doesn’t know that we’re both playing the same game.
“The Guardian is the only way on and off the island,” I say. “He is the one with the dust. Why haven’t you just told him you want to leave?”
“Dane and I don’t see eye to eye,” he says. My eyes flick down to his abdomen, where the large scar I saw marring his skin hides beneath his shirt.
There is reason for their animosity, caused entirely by Weston’s actions. Of course Dane won’t help him if he is trying to steal the healing waters, but would he if everyone on this ship wants to leave empty-handed?
“Why haven’t you just sailed the ship and left?”
“We’ve tried. It will only go so far, then just stops.”
So, the dust truly is the only way on and off Dawnlin.
I gaze down at the map once more, thinking through this new information, when my face snaps back up to his, my jaw slackening slightly.
“You’re trying to find the dust.” It’s almost a whisper, but with as close as we are, he has no trouble hearing it.
He nods slowly, confirming my guess.
Satisfaction explodes in my chest. I know what their goal is now, even if I don’t know the exact details of a plan.
I’ve still won. I convinced him to trust me, and now I can use this knowledge to plan my escape.
Now that I know about the dust, it is only a matter of time before he trusts me with more.
And by the time I am ready, I will be so engrained in the crew, they will never see it coming.
“Thank you, you know, for trusting me.” I look away, my insides squirming. Was this what he felt like when he apologized earlier? Gratitude toward Weston is not something I thought I would ever feel, even if it isn’t exactly for the reasons he thinks.
“You’re welcome,” he grumbles softly.
He straightens and strides back toward the door. Before he reaches it, he pauses and turns back to me.
“Now that you know about the dust, you can have a shift. We leave at dusk. Get some rest.”
He leaves me alone, my thoughts reeling. No one has outright said what a shift is, but after everything he just admitted to me, I can only assume it is when they go search for the dust.
The Castaways are out looking for the dust every night, trying to get home without the healing waters.
They say the island deemed everyone unworthy, but what if that isn’t true?
What if someone lied? What if they have been trapped on this island, holding the cure, but unable to leave without tipping off Weston?
And if so, who could it be and why haven’t they tried to get back to Dane?
So many possibilities spin through my mind, and I feel like there is more I don’t know. Who is lying? Because what I know from Dane and what I’m being told by Weston and the Castaways is not adding up.
There is one thing for certain, though. Tonight, after weeks of captivity, I’m finally getting off of this ship.