A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1)

“Slacking on the job, are we?” a voice said from behind them.

Sera spun to see that the Amancios had stopped directly in front of them. The taller one — Salvador — leaned over and put his hands on his knees.

“So you’re the ones old Eyeball brought in for us today, eh?” he asked. The man smiled, and he looked way too kind for someone about to throw the captain overboard. “Well, work hard and you’ll do great things here.”

He straightened, and then his brother Raul spoke. “Great things indeed. You’re going to be a part of history, boys. Is this your first voyage?”

Sera and Dak, both a little starstruck, only nodded.

Raul looked out at the distant sea, where the sun was almost ready to dip below the horizon. “Ah, there’s nothing more invigorating than the open sea. You pips are gonna love it.”

The two of them marched off, stopping to talk to each worker they passed.

Sera looked at Dak and raised her eyebrows. “Did we just get a pep talk?”

“I kinda like them,” he said, then got back to work.

Sera did the same, her shoulders aching with every push and pull of the brush.



They worked into the evening, right through the launch of the ship, which Dak was devastated to miss. But Eyeball had a talent for showing up every time Dak attempted to sneak off to the ship’s railing. He was still grumbling about it an hour later as they scrubbed by the light of lanterns. They’d finished most of the area they’d been assigned when Eyeball appeared again, seemingly out of nowhere.

“I heard you met the Amancios,” he said. “They approve of you wretches, I reckon.”

“They said that?” Sera asked, feeling a little burst of pride.

“Ha! No such thing. But they didn’t throw your tails off the ship, so that says it rightly enough. Now come on. You’ve barely done a blastin’ thing, but it’s time for a meetin’ with the captain.”

Barely done a blastin’ thing, Sera repeated in her head. She fought an urge to poke the man in his remaining eye. But it was all she could do to walk straight on the bucking, rolling ship.

The meeting he’d mentioned was for the whole ship. Nearly three dozen people packed onto the lower deck, body to body from fore to aft, some having to climb up onto the masts and rafters to fit. Christopher Columbus stood on the highest deck, looking mostly down on his men. And, unknowingly, one girl, Sera thought. The Amancio brothers stood to each side of their boss, which made Sera feel a prickle across her shoulders. The captain had no idea what history had in store for him.

Then Columbus began the meeting with a statement that emptied her head of all other thoughts.

“Listen up, crew.” His voice boomed through the night. “It’s come to my attention that there’s a mutiny planned on our voyage.”





THE REST of the meeting was a bunch of noise to Dak. He couldn’t focus, could barely hear over the chatter going on all around them. Columbus said something about how there’d be no stopping him, that the voyage would go on as planned. Dak wanted to look at Sera, talk to her, but he knew it’d be risky. Every eye on the ship was now searching faces for clues that might reveal who the scheming culprits could be.

And Columbus seemed even more like a pompous jerk than he had before.

Dak’s heart raced and his mind spun. Was their mission already jeopardized? What was their mission?

Columbus had grown quiet and was waiting for the crew to do the same. Shushes hissed through the air until everyone finally went silent.

Their captain leaned forward, his face grave in the lantern glow. “There’ll be no mercy. No quarter. Anyone who plots against me will be thrown overboard. Anyone who reveals those who plot against me will have their pay doubled. I’ve put Salvador and Raul in charge of this matter, so all suspicions and reports should go directly to them. For now, we will get our rest. You are dismissed.”

The crowd erupted again into sound, everyone talking over everyone else, bustling about and heading this way and that. But Dak couldn’t move. The Amancio brothers were in charge of investigating their own planned mutiny. He didn’t know if that helped or hurt his task. Sera stepped in front of him, a forced smile on her face.

“Well, shall we find our spots to sleep?” She said it loudly, with a piercing look in her eyes that said he needed to snap out of his stupor. Now was not the time to look out of place. Someone would suspect them.

He shook his head to get the cobwebs out and then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, we better.”

Eyeball appeared then, having pushed his way through the crowd, barking orders as he went. When he saw Dak and Sera, his eyebrow arched above his lonely namesake. “You two lookin’ a mite tired, I’d say. Better rest up before the sun pops her head over the horizon and says boo. Gonna work you to the bone again. You’ll see.”