Page 35 of The Sea Witch (Salt & Sorcery #1)

Ben woke that morning to find Alys already up and dressed. Her gaze was shielded as she watched him rise.

He knew better than to press about what he’d seen in her dream last night. It didn’t stop him from wondering.

“Any chance of getting a razor to rid myself of this?” He rubbed his chin, though the rattling his manacles gave him his answer

before she shook her head.

“You won’t pass muster on a naval ship with that beard,” she answered coolly, “but you’ll make a fine addition to a pirate

company.”

“My happiness knows no bounds.”

A tap sounded on the door. At Alys’s permission, Cora stuck her head in. Cora tossed her head back to flick brown curls off

her face as she pushed the door open with her broad hip.

“Breakfast for you and the sailin’ master, Cap’n.” Cora held up two bowls, and the scent of honey, milk, and oats drifted

across the cabin.

Alys grabbed her bowl on her way out the door. “I’ll take mine topside. Watch him while he eats, and then bring him to the

upper deck when he’s ready.”

Ben’s stomach clenched to hear him spoken of with such remove. Treated like a pet spaniel no one wanted, a responsibility

to be fed and exercised, and naught beyond that.

“Aye, Cap’n.” Cora set the second bowl on the table and stepped back before motioning for Ben to begin eating.

He took his seat and went through the mechanical motions of breaking his fast. Spoon to bowl, then to mouth, swallow porridge,

and repeat the process.

It didn’t matter how she behaved toward him. They weren’t friends. He had his goal, and he’d hold fast to it. She couldn’t

feel betrayed if they meant nothing to each other.

But who was the woman in her dream? And the dream they had shared before? She had a face very similar to Alys’s. And it surely had

something to do with why she left Massachusetts.

It was a private agony, one he wouldn’t normally be privy to, were it not for the way they had infiltrated each other’s dreams.

She needed to speak of it to someone, unburden herself, or else the sickness of sorrow would consume her from the inside out.

“Susannah’s not a gossip but I managed to drag an account out of her,” Cora said, leaning against the bulkhead. “Nearly got

yourself killed on that island.”

“We were all in danger.”

“Don’t come over all stiff naval officer,” Cora chided affably. “Susannah said you made a fine showin’ of it. Tryin’ to protect

the captain. Grabbin’ yourself a club and lookin’ like a right fighter. And you didn’t show a lick of fear, not even when

monsters were chasin’ you down.”

“Merely performing my duty.” He couldn’t stop himself from puffing his chest, then rolled his eyes at himself.

“Hurry up and eat, Sailing Master. Thérèse promised she’d show me how to summon that prickly spell of hers. I’ve got this—”

she held up her hands and a cascade of red sparks fell from her fingertips “—but it never hurts to add somethin’ to the arsenal.

You know,” she added with a pointed look, “in case a prisoner gets out of hand.”

Ben finished his porridge quickly. He washed up before Cora ushered him out of the captain’s quarters. As he made his way topside, Alys glimmered inside him, drawing him up through the ship, until he surfaced on the top deck.

She was on the quarterdeck, yet she didn’t so much as glance in his direction.

Something heavy settled in his gut. Perhaps he’d eaten his breakfast too quickly.

Luna approached, bearing a backstaff and compass. “Shall we, Mr. Priestley?”

He exhaled. This he knew. Navigation. Charting and mapping. At least when it came to his official duties, he could find his way.

Shortly after seven bells, the wind gusting across the deck kept the worst of the day’s heat at bay, and Ben turned into the

breeze, letting the sweat on his brow dry.

A shout went up from the crow’s nest.

The crew member quickly climbed down the mainmast and hurried to Alys, standing on the quarterdeck with her second-in-command

and Polly, the first mate. Ben followed the lookout, curious to know what she’d seen.

“I spotted something flying toward us,” the woman said. “It’s no gull or some other seabird.”

“A familiar?” Alys asked her second-in-command. Stasia only shrugged in bafflement.

“Off the starboard bow,” the lookout added.

Following the lookout’s pointing finger, Ben peered at the spot in the sky. Sure enough, the bird seemed to be on a direct

course for the Sea Witch .

Alys pulled out a spyglass. “A bird of prey. Black-and-white feathers, hooked beak, a scissor tail.”

She handed the spyglass to Polly. “A kite of some kind,” the first mate said. “Exhausted, too, by the way it’s flying.”

A minute later, the kite circled the ship, crying out as if in distress. Many members of the crew gathered closely as it landed

on the quarterdeck railing before collapsing to the planks.

Alys rushed forward, gathering the kite carefully in her hands. She spoke in soft coos as the bird made feeble, weak sounds. Ben had never seen such an extraordinary sight, both a wild raptor permitting anyone to touch it and Alys’s tender care of the animal.

“Water, and a cloth,” she called over her shoulder. “Meat, cut into small pieces. And a blanket. On the double.”

After a few moments, someone appeared with everything Alys had demanded. Gently, Alys wrapped the kite in the blanket, and

dribbled water into its beak. With even more care, she fed the animal pieces of meat, one at a time, seemingly uncaring about

the kite’s sharp beak plucking the food from her fingers.

“Easy now, girl,” she crooned softly. “You made it. You’re safe.”

Patiently, solicitously, Alys tended to the bird. More crew members gathered around, murmuring comments and suggestions, until

Stasia barked that they needed to see to their duties, or else she’d make them pick oakum. They scattered, leaving Alys, the

quartermaster, Ben, Polly, and Luna.

The kite seemed to gradually recover its strength, reviving enough to shake off the blanket and perch on Alys’s arm. It ruffled

its feathers before settling down.

“What’s your name, lovely?” Alys said.

To Ben’s shock, the bird responded with a cry.

“Hello, Anwuli,” Alys said, her voice still low and careful. “You’ve come a very long way to find us. I’m Captain Tanner.”

The kite cried out several times, and the women all nodded, as if they understood it. Ben glanced at them in bafflement.

“Yes, yes, I see,” Alys said pensively, her brow furrowed. “When?”

Anwuli made another noise.

Alys turned to Luna. “How long will it take us to get there?”

The navigator pursed her lips in thought. “A day, day and a half, if we push with a few spells.”

“What do you think?” Alys asked the quartermaster.

“A different mission from what we typically do,” came the reply.

“We’ll put it to the crew,” Alys said.

“They will seek to know what their captain wants.”

“I think...” Alys rubbed her chin. “Who are we, if we refuse? No better than the men keeping them prisoner and treating

them like commodities.”

“What—” Ben began, but Alys held up her hand, cutting him off.

“Take a vote,” she said to the quartermaster.

Stasia strode away. Alys continued to tend to the kite, stroking it and murmuring soothingly. A few moments later, the quartermaster

returned.

“They all vote aye ,” she said.

“Set in a course and speak with Hua,” Alys said to Luna.

“Aye, Cap’n.” The navigator hurried away.

“We’ll do our part,” Alys said to the bird. “All you need to do now is rest.” She turned to her second-in-command. “Tell the

company to ready themselves for something new.”

“Tell them what ?” Ben demanded when Stasia climbed down the companionway and began speaking to the crew.

She glanced at him as if she’d forgotten he was there. “We’re making an alteration to our course.”

Alarm shot up his back. “The fail-safe—”

“Has to wait. This takes precedence.”

“Explain to me what this is.”

She stroked the chest feathers of the kite as she set it on the railing. The bird closed its eyes and nestled down. A moment

later, it appeared to fall asleep.

“Anwuli is a witch’s familiar,” she explained. “The witch, Olachi, is being held captive by Richard Kinnear.”

“The Jupiter patrols past his compound. Even from the ship I could see that the walls surrounding the fortress were exceptionally thick.

At least four feet, if I were to hazard a guess. Keeping intruders out.”

“Keeping his merchandise in.” Her lip curled in disgust.

“I... ah.”

He wasn’t innocent. Naivete couldn’t last when this place was your home. Obviously, he knew how much of the Caribbean’s economy

worked. Human beings treated as commodities to be bought and sold and worked until they died. And it sickened him. Yet he

was only one man. He’d walk quickly past the auctions with his gaze firmly on his boots.

Say Strickland had negotiated with Kinnear to patrol, would the admiral even listen to Ben’s protestations?

There’s nothing I can do to stop it. So Ben used to tell himself.

“Kinnear and his men plan to sell Olachi and almost fifty other women they’ve kidnapped off of ships around the Caribbean.”

Ben gazed at the hot blue arch of sky. But it held no answers. Nothing to give countenance to the fact that the Royal Navy

assisted in cruelty. And he... he was tacitly part of that.

“Olachi’s going to liberate herself,” Alys continued. “The other captives, too. She needs a big enough vessel to ferry everyone

away. Anwuli was sent to find me and the Sea Witch. For a week, that poor bird’s been flying, looking for us.”

She nodded in approval as Hua turned the wheel to a new direction. The crew were also adjusting the sails for their new course,

following Polly’s shouted instructions.

“Little George’s fail-safe.” Ben’s entire purpose on the Sea Witch was to find and destroy the fail-safe, but this new direction unbalanced his plans. “What of that?”

“Helping Olachi and her fellow captives comes first now.”

“Your treatment of slave ships, the navy has reports. I’ve read them. But I’ve never heard about anything else, not the kind