Page 62 of The Sea Witch (Salt & Sorcery #1)
It took far too short a time to outfit Ben for his voyage back to the Jupiter . Alys cursed her crew’s efficiency as the cutter was loaded with adequate food and water to get him to the flagship—it was
a delicate balance, since it had to appear as if he’d escaped.
Flasks of water and a crate of hardtack and salted meat were loaded into the hold, small enough to be jettisoned when he got
close to the naval ship.
As she and Ben watched the last of the provisions loaded into the cutter, he shrugged out of his coat and waistcoat.
“It will look suspect if I present myself to Strickland resembling a pirate.” He folded the garments and set them aside. For
good measure, he tore several places on his shirt and rubbed a bit of grime on the fabric.
“They suited you well.” Alys resisted the urge to sigh as his transformation was stripped away.
Cora brought forward his old coat and waistcoat, much shabbier than when he’d first set foot on the deck of the Sea Witch , and he put them on.
“Like wearing someone else’s skin.” He grimaced.
By the hard set of his shoulders, his wide stance upon the deck, and the new toughness in his eyes, he wasn’t the same man he’d been all those weeks ago when he’d first burst into her life like a fusillade.
Alys clenched her jaw. Every moment, he slipped further and further away from her, and he was still aboard her ship.
“Give me two days from today,” he said. “I’ll try to send word that the passage forward is safe.”
“You’ll be surrounded on all sides by the navy.” He wouldn’t be safe. Something could happen to him, and she’d be too far
away to do anything about it, unable to help him.
“Have no doubt that I’ll find a way,” he answered, stepping close so that no one around them could hear.
“My doubt isn’t for you ,” she said in a low voice, “or what you’re capable of. It’s the rest of the world that I don’t trust.”
“We only have ourselves.”
“But is it enough ?” she demanded.
“We’re connected, intertwined. Nothing’s concealed, everything is exposed.”
“I don’t know if it’s going to last, when we’re no longer together. It might fray apart like so much rope.”
“If I could promise that it will hold, I would.”
“Captain.” Susannah came forward. “We’re ready for him.”
“Yes, all right,” Alys clipped.
Glancing back and forth between Alys and Ben, Susannah eased away.
“Please, one goodbye.” Ben embraced Alys, his hold strong and steadfast.
She held herself stiffly, her arms at her sides. She couldn’t let herself press against him, rest her cheek on his chest,
grab on and grip him tightly.
He cupped her jaw and looked into her eyes. “I care for you, Alys. And you feel something for me, too, whether or not you
say the words. We’re joined now, in our dreams, and in our hearts. That will always guide me back to you.”
“Please,” she choked. “Please go now.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and then another one, softly, on her lips. “We will see each other again.”
Then he was gone, climbing over the railing and down to the waiting cutter. She stood at the gunwale to watch him.
He seated himself at the tiller, and untied the boat from its rope anchoring it to the Sea Witch . When this was done, he gazed up at her, far above him. The blue of his eyes was the same blue as the water, and now even
that would be ruined for her, because she would never again sail upon the sea and not think of him.
Stasia shouted, “Witches, we summon the winds.”
“Aye, aye,” came the answering cry.
Alys couldn’t join the magical members of her company as they called upon the winds to fill the cutter’s sail. Instead, her
hands knotted into fists and her throat burned when the sail billowed and the boat pushed away from the Sea Witch . The cutter grew smaller and smaller. Even as Ben steered the boat, he looked back at her.
She still felt him within her, the strands of him braided with her own heart. His worry. His determination. Yet they stretched
and grew muted, distance dampening the peaks and depths of his emotions inside her.
The cutter turned into a dot, and the glow of Ben’s presence inside her became a tiny flicker of light in the midst of darkness.
It disappeared over the horizon, and finally Alys turned away.
Before they could sail to the next step in the search for the fail-safe, it was essential that the ship reprovision. Stores
of water and food were getting dangerously low, and the stars only knew when there would be any allowance of time to replenish
them.
It also gave Alys something to think about besides the fact that Ben was no longer aboard the Sea Witch .
She’d avoided her quarters all day, his presence everywhere in her cabin.
He was either standing at the table where they would review charts and discuss their course, or else he lay in the hammock, asleep but wary, or he stretched across her berth.
She was in her quarters, briefly, when Jane came in and began taking down the hammock.
“Leave that.” Alys didn’t like the snapping tone of her voice, but it had come out before she could stop herself.
Jane blinked at her. “If that’s what you wish, Cap’n.”
“It is,” came Alys’s clipped response. She stalked from her quarters, fleeing from Jane’s confused look.
Ben was gone, though no one knew for how long. There was no need to keep the hammock if he wasn’t around to use it.
But he might need it. He could be back within a few days. And then where would he sleep? There was always the possibility that they’d
share her berth, yet it was narrow and hardly held two people, especially someone of his size. They’d keep the hammock for
a while, and maybe she might have her berth widened so that both of them could fit into it comfortably...
Alys marched up to the quarterdeck and took the helm from Hua. Better to give herself something to think about besides these
fucking circles that had her spinning and spinning.
Had he reached the Jupiter yet? Was he safe? Did he think of her at all or, now that he was back aboard his naval ship, did he consider his time aboard
the Sea Witch a temporary madness, best soon put behind him? Though she was aware of him, she could no longer sense him as acutely as she
once had.
“Fuck,” she snarled to herself.
She let the wind in her face and the motion of the ship upon the waves do their best to chase away her endlessly cycling thoughts.
And yet there was nothing in the whole of the Caribbean that could possibly wash away the heartache gripping her.
With relief, she put in at the island of Saint Bernadine.
There was a decent-sized town there, sympathetic to buccaneers and a safe place for a pirate ship to reprovision without worrying about any naval ships or governments to make life difficult.
She docked the Sea Witch , and immediately members of the crew hustled down the gangplank to assist Cecily in securing food and drink for the ship.
Everyone else was given two hours of much-needed shore leave. A skeleton crew remained behind, with the promise that the next
time they docked, they’d be given several days of sanctioned leave.
Alys stood at the gunwale. Stay on board, or go ashore? On one hand, she didn’t have the stomach for the revelry Saint Bernadine
offered. On the other, the Sea Witch was haunted everywhere by Ben’s presence.
She stalked down the gangplank, Stasia at her side.
Saint Bernadine boasted a low mountain in the center of the island, with the town crouched at the base of the peak, like an
imp at the foot of a demon. The town bustled as goods were loaded on and off ships, and taverns did brisk business, filled
with pirates eager for a little pleasure after hard weeks at sea, and tapsters eager to take their ample coin. The air was
heavy with salt and sweat, music and laughter and shouts clanging together.
Alys’s head throbbed, and her chest ached even more.
“Go on,” she said to Stasia, waving her hand toward an open-air tavern. “Find a warm and willing soul to share a bed with
for a few hours. Nobody with any sense will refuse such an offer.”
Stasia eyed the people in the tavern, many of whom eyed her back with interest. She cut a sleek and dangerous figure, dressed
in a long dark coat, her eyes lined with kohl, and Eris perched on her shoulder. Yet she gave everyone a dismissive shrug.
“When I take a person to bed,” she drawled, “I prefer a more expansive window of time.”
“In Kingston, you grabbed Pretty Daniel Delacroix and hauled him into an alcove with a convenient couch. You were there for
no more than a quarter of an hour.”
“He was not worth more than fifteen minutes,” Stasia answered. “All show, with minimal performance.”
Alys glanced at her friend. “I don’t have need of accompaniment.”
“All the same,” Stasia replied, “I am precisely where I want to be.”
“I’m only walking to the top of the mountain.” Alys stopped and faced her. “There’s surely more entertaining use of your time
than hauling your carcass beside mine.”
“We have had an abundance of entertainment these past few weeks. Parleys, searches for waterfalls, helping captives free themselves,
battles with naval ships, more battles with Redthorns, sea creatures attacking the ship.” Stasia looked at her steadily. “A sedate walk is exactly what
I require.”
Alys exhaled, even as her friend’s loyalty warmed her. “Follow whatever wind carries you.”
She marched ahead, keeping her strides long. Yet Stasia could walk at a brisk pace, too, and soon they had left the town behind
as they neared the foot of the mountain. Trees and low scrub dotted the base, thinning out as the mountain rose higher.
Once, this tropical landscape had been new and strange to Alys, so different from the thick forests of pitch pine and black
oak of Massachusetts. Yet now, she knew it as well as she knew her own freckles, and she strove to find comfort in the gumbo-limbo
and palm trees that swayed in the hot breeze.