A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1)

“Where do we sleep?” Sera asked. “Nobody’s shown us our room.”


Eyeball exploded in a fit of booming laughter. “Your room? Your room?” He paused for another round of guffaws. “You’ll be sleeping on the splintery floor with a dozen other louses like yourself. Now get belowdecks before I change me mind and make it the floor of the sea.”

Dak and Sera rushed off, rejoining Riq and following a small crowd of others who looked as pathetic as they. Down the ladders they went, into the stinky bowels of the ship.



As they descended, Dak noticed that Salvador and Raul had come along, not far behind, then broken off to go somewhere else. Before Dak could think about the danger, he grabbed Sera and Riq by the hands and led them in the direction the brothers had gone.

“What’s our plan?” asked Riq in a low voice.

“I don’t know,” whispered Dak. “But they’re probably going to talk about what just happened, right? Maybe we can listen in. Maybe we can offer to help with their investigation, so we can figure out who’s on which side.”

They rounded a tight corner just as a cabin door thumped shut ahead of them. Neither of his friends protested as he crept up to the door — in fact, they followed him, crouching close to listen. Dak’s heart pounded like a gorilla trapped in a cage — they couldn’t risk this for long. The three of them leaned in and put their ears against the wood.

The voices were too muffled to reveal which brother was which, but their words were clear enough.

“It’s going to be tougher than we thought.”

“How did he find out? I thought we’d rooted out all the spies.”

“I don’t know. But this better be the last time we have to do all the dirty work.”

“You know it will be. We’ll rise quickly up the ranks of the SQ once this is done.”

Dak’s heart had slowed, but it was also breaking. He’d known deep down that this was probably the reason they were here — that the mutiny was one of the Great Breaks, that it never should have happened — but it still hurt to hear it.

Heavy footsteps sounded, and the three of them straightened up and scurried away from the door — a good thing because Eyeball came thumping around the corner.

“Burn me crusty lid!” he roared. “Where’d you lumps go off to?”

Riq spoke quickly. “Sorry, sir. Somehow we took a wrong turn. Can you help us?”

Eyeball scrunched up his face, but he looked more annoyed than suspicious. “Dumber than a cured slab of ham, you three. It’s back this way.” He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

They headed that direction, Dak’s head buzzing. There was no doubt what they had to do now. Dak. Sera. Riq. The Three Pathetic Musketeers.

They had a mutiny to stop.





THEY ENDED up in a corner of a low-roofed room that would’ve looked cramped and uncomfortable before a dozen people packed inside of it. Two low-lit lanterns hung from the rafters. Each member of the crew had been given a scratchy wool blanket, and Dak and Sera now sat with their backs against the rough wood of the wall, people of all ages around them. Riq was just a few feet away, already lying down, his chest slowly rising and falling.

“How’d he fall asleep so fast?” Sera asked. It was the first they’d spoken since Eyeball had chased them off. But the shock of the dreadful news they’d learned — and what it meant for their mission — was evident in her eyes.

Dak shook his head back and forth mockingly. “The little cowboy is all tuckered out. Hey, I guess there’s not a shower on board, huh.”

Sera wrinkled her nose. “Imagine how bad this place is gonna stink in a week.”

“A week?” Dak asked. “Try a couple of months. These voyages aren’t like Caribbean cruises, ya know.”

“What’s your story?” someone said.

Dak looked over to see a boy, just a couple of years older than him by the looks of it. He was filthy, and the ship hadn’t even left yet.

“Our story?” Dak repeated. He didn’t feel ready to use his translation device to make friends quite yet. But it was now or never — they’d need help if they were going to mutiny against a mutiny. “Just needed some work, like everybody else.”

“How about you?” Sera asked. “What’s your story?”

“Got nothin’ else in life. My name’s Ricardo.” He nudged the boy to his right, a darty-eyed kid with messy hair. “This is Francisco. And this is Daniel.” He gave a jerk of the head to his left. Daniel was much older, but had a blank look on his face that made him look young.

“Where are you from?” Dak asked, but immediately regretted it. He didn’t want the same question returned to him.

“A small village about a hundred miles from here. Decided maybe we should skip town when the mayor put a price on our heads.”

The boy named Francisco spoke up, wiping the hair out of his eyes. “Like all our thieving was such a bad thing. People’s gotta eat, right?”