So it is with relief that I look upon the dead smugglers. Their pain is gone at last.
Shortly after, Riden comes below with two pirates I haven’t met.
“You’re relieved, Sheck. Go ashore with everyone else. You may, too, Ulgin, once you’ve cleaned this up.” Riden’s posture is stiff, and he looks at Sheck with such disgust, I’m surprised his tone doesn’t reflect his feelings.
Sheck hasn’t said a word during the whole time he’s been down here. I wonder if he can talk at all. He looks me up and down one last time, as if memorizing every part of me. Then he races out of sight.
Riden turns to me next, his face blank now. “This is Azek and Jolek. They will be watching over you while I go ashore as well.” Riden steps right up to the bars, trying to get out of earshot of everyone else. “I know to expect some sort of attempt at fleeing from you, what with us being so close to shore and all. So let me save you the trouble. There are five men guarding the ship above deck. They know to watch out for you.”
There’s a slithering sound; Riden and I turn to see Ulgin dragging a sheet topped with the bodies of the smugglers out of the brig.
Riden looks at me then, and it might be the poor lighting, but I swear his eyes are wetter than usual. He is not anywhere close to tears, but he might be feeling … something.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers.
And then he’s gone.
He’s apologizing as though Sheck and Ulgin are somehow his fault. Or maybe he’s apologetic for some other reason. I never know with Riden. Sometimes it feels like he’s trying to help me. Other times, he’s obviously doing the complete opposite. He subjected me to Sheck and Ulgin, yet he never ordered me to give him my dagger. I know he saw me take it off the dead smuggler back on the ship. Did it slip his mind? Or did he want me to have it while I was belowdecks with those two?
Either way, I still don’t know what to make of Riden.
Doesn’t matter at the moment, anyway. I have a more pressing problem. Riden assumes I will try to escape this ship in some way. He already suspects me of being up to something. Of being more than just a prisoner on this ship. He knows I’m hiding something.
Which means if I’m to keep up appearances, I’ll have to escape the ship.
Then get caught on purpose.
Oh, the ridiculous things one has to do when one is a pirate.
The two pirates ordered to guard me sit in front of my cell, playing dice. I suppose that since they’re not permitted to go ashore and spend their money, the next best thing is to gamble. I myself like to gamble as well, just not with money.
“Sixes beats sevens, don’t it?” asks Azek.
“Sures do. But nines beats them all,” Jolek says.
“Then how comes you have more points than me?”
“Because I’m better with numbers.”
Honestly, it doesn’t look like either of them can count very well. But each time the other starts to get ahead, a similar argument will break out.
They’re both so focused on the game that they don’t pay any attention to me, which works perfectly to my benefit.
I return to one of my bags, the one holding the books, and take out a book on sailing, another subject I have mastered. The spine of this book holds my lockpicks.
The simple fact is that each time I break out of my cell and get caught, Riden will be determined to learn how I managed it. My key-swap trick was bound to work only until Riden tried to use the false key. Now I have a second method for getting out of my cell, which I’ve been using for the last several days. It’s actually been quite easy, since Kearan and Enwen fall asleep quickly, and Kearan’s snoring masks the clicking of the lock.
Azek and Jolek don’t look up until the door creaks open. They stand from their chairs and stare at me.
“Didn’t thinks she could do that,” Azek says.
“You don’t think,” Jolek says. “You just pretends to.”
Rather than let them make the first move, I grab each man by the collar at the back of his neck. Easier to strike than to dodge, Father says. I use the same head-bashing trick I performed back on the smuggling ship. I take care not to break either man’s neck—if for no other reason than the fact that they didn’t leer at me as Sheck did.
The deck is nearly empty when I get up top. There might be a couple of men leaning against the railing near the bow of the ship. I wonder if Riden merely exaggerated the number of men who would be guarding the ship or if some of the pirates abandoned their posts. Being left behind is never a pirate’s first choice when there’s gold to be spent.
I can see the shore ahead. It’s not far, but I still need a boat.
“Abandoning your mission?” a voice asks me from behind.
I spin around and find Theris standing casually, a coin between two of his knuckles. Glancing over at the bow of the ship, I note that the other men on deck haven’t noticed me yet.
“I have business on land,” I say quickly.
“Did you finish what you were sent here to do, then?”
It’s a struggle to keep my voice quiet when all I want to do is lash at him. “No—not that it’s any of your business. I’ll be back shortly.”
“I have my orders, and making you part of my business is one of them.”
Blast my father. Can he not trust me to do this alone? “That’s nice, but I don’t need or want your help, so stay out of my way.”
“I’ll do better than that. I’ll distract the men so you can go ashore without being noticed.”
“That’s not necessary—”
“I’ll do it anyway.”
I glance heavenward. Then I reach for the pulley to lower down a rowboat.
“You’re not going to swim it?” Theris asks.
I look over my shoulder, narrowing my eyes. “Why would I?”
“I would have thought it would be easier for you. Is it not?”
Just what does he know or think he knows about me? How much did Father tell him?
“I thought you were distracting the men for me.”
“And I thought you didn’t need my help.”
I ignore him once I hear the light splash of the boat connecting with the sea. His footsteps finally recede as I lower myself down with another rope. Putting Theris out of my mind, I start rowing. ’Tis not my favorite activity. When going ashore with my crew, I always make someone else do it.
Such are the privileges of being captain.
Can’t be more than a few minutes when I reach shore. It’s night, and no one is patrolling the dock. Good thing, because I haven’t any money on me.
Not that I can’t just procure some. But that takes time and a little planning.