A Mutiny in Time (Infinity Ring #1)

Sera smiled sadly, and looking at her best friend, everything going down the drain, she thought of his lost parents. “I’m so sorry about your mom and dad.”


Dak seemed surprised, but grateful. “Thanks. I just . . . I just hope we can figure this out and maybe help them.”

“Yeah, me, too.” She thought of her Remnants, and how they might stop if they pulled off a miracle and managed to fix all the Breaks. Again, she wondered if it was better not to have them, or to at least hold on to those pseudo memories. Either way, she felt like she lost.

She sighed and put the Infinity Ring away, then tried to get comfortable. Maybe her mind would work better after a long nap.



She woke up later to the sound of rattling metal.

Dak was shaking the prison door back and forth, the iron hinges squeaking and squawking against the wood. But the door only moved about a half an inch in each direction. It was obviously doing no good.

“Chill!” Riq yelled at him, scrambling to his feet. “You’ll rip your own arms off before you get that door open.”

Dak took a step back. “Just wanted to get my mid-morning workout in. We’ve gotta figure out a way to get this thing open. And is anyone else in the mood to upchuck with the boat bobbing up and down like this? Blech.”

“It’s probably worse being down here where we can’t see outside,” Sera said. She stood up to join him, examining the chain and lock, then the bars that went from floor to ceiling with a gap of only a couple of inches along the bottom and top.

“It doesn’t look very promising,” she said. “But the three walls are made out of wood — maybe we can do something with that.”

They each took a wall and started inspecting. Sera crawled along the back one, which she assumed was part of the ship’s hull because of its slight curve and dampness. As soon as she had that realization, she stopped — it wouldn’t do much good to escape into the ocean and sink the ship while they were at it.

“I might’ve found something,” Dak announced.

Sera had just turned to see what he meant when there was a sound of hands and feet scuffling down the ladder. She looked to see Ricardo jump down the last few rungs and land solidly on his feet. He ran over to the cell, his face tight with worry.

Sera and the others rushed forward to talk to him.

“What’s going on?” Dak blurted right before Sera almost asked the same question.

“They’re gonna kill me if they catch me down here,” Ricardo said through heavy breaths. “But I needed to tell you something. We found the kid who ratted you guys out and made him spill everything. He said that when the Amancio brothers were told about you . . .” He stopped and his face grew pale.

“What?” Sera pushed.

Ricardo swallowed. “They ordered you be killed tomorrow morning.”





“DEAD BY morning. Just in time to get rid of us before their big mutiny,” Riq said.

Dak knew that he should be terrified — that he should go curl up in a corner and bawl his eyes out. But the immediate threat did something else to him — it made him realize he couldn’t waste one more second feeling sorry for himself or it’d be over for everyone.

“What’re we gonna do?” Sera asked. She looked at him and her eyes were hard. She knew the stakes.

Dak tried to clamp down on his panic. “Okay, Ricardo. Get out of here before they catch you. Sneak around and see if you can find us some weapons. Anything we can use to stop this from happening. Hide them where you can get to them later. Then you need to talk to every person you can trust — anyone loyal to Columbus. You’ll have to use your judgment. Don’t give out too many specifics, just in case. But we need to act tonight, as soon as the crew is asleep. Have people ready.”

“At least now you know we were telling the truth,” Sera said to Ricardo. “The Amancio brothers obviously want to silence us.”

The boy nodded. “I’ll do what I can up there. But what about you guys?”

Dak grinned — no one else knew about the discovery he’d made right before Ricardo had dropped in on them. “Don’t worry. We’ll be there to help.”

“Now go!” Sera yelled.

Ricardo ran to the ladder and shot up the rungs.



“That’s it?” Sera asked. “For the love of mincemeat, that’s your grand escape plan?”

“You got something better?” Dak pulled on the board again, felt it give an inch or so. It ran along the bottom of the wall between their cell and the one next to it, and if they could pull it all the way free, he thought maybe they’d be able to get another board loose, too. Just enough to crawl into the next cell — which was unlocked.

“No, I don’t,” Sera responded as she gave the wood her own tug. “But this thing seems pretty solid, loose or not.”

“Let me try,” Riq said, already gently pushing Sera aside. “You kids don’t have fully developed muscles yet.”

Dak felt he had to say something back to preserve his dignity. “Well . . . you don’t have a fully developed brain, so I guess we’re even.”

“Good one,” Riq said blankly.