Page 26 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)
“Yes, Sable,” she nearly hissed the words, her accent slipping into the vaguely unsettling lilt of her mother’s stories. “Come with me. I will lead the expedition into the island. I am the captain. Do you have an issue with that?”
From the corner of her eyes, Calla noticed Kittredge and the two brothers taking a step away from her, as if to draw away from her impending ire. Despite herself, a flash of satisfaction flared in her chest. If only Sable were that wise.
But she hadn’t chosen her first mate because she was weak-spined.
“Is that wise?” Sable asked, Calla’s coldness washing off her as if it were merely a pleasant breeze.
Calla squared her shoulders. “It’s necessary.”
Sable settled her hand on the machete at her hip. “No. It’s not. Let me lead. We need the crew to be clear-headed. If you’re the one leading them, they’ll only think about protecting you.”
She’s going to challenge you. She wants to take your place. Don’t you see it?
Calla closed the distance between them until they stood inches apart. Sable stiffened as Calla looked up at her. “Oh, you want to lead, don’t you?” she asked, her voice smooth and composed.
Sable took in a sharp breath, knuckles white around her weapon’s handle as she searched her gaze. It took so little to push her first mate off-balance that Calla almost considered taking pity on her and dropping it. But she couldn’t. Not with the others watching.
“Calla…” Sable’s voice went soft, gaze still searching, until she realized that whatever she was looking for wasn’t there right now.
Not finding it seemed to pain her. She kept it off her face, but couldn’t keep it out of her eyes.
Those deep black eyes had always been so telling if you knew where to look.
“Yes. That’s what I’m here for. Please.”
The please made Calla blink. The haze of anger and frustration and fear that had been clouding her head cleared.
Where had that voice come from? It had sounded like her own, but wrong.
Like her thoughts had teeth. Calla looked at Sable again, not seeing a first mate angling for her title anymore, but rather someone that, no matter how much she’d been pushing away, was trying to wrangle a dangerous task out of her hands.
That’s what I’m here for.
Sable really thought that her brawn and her life was all she had to offer this ship. Calla. Was all she had to offer Calla .
She was still trying , after all this time.
With a deep sigh, Calla conceded, “Very well.” Sable’s eyes widened, her posture relaxed. “The island is too big for a single group to tackle alone in one day. So we’ll split the crew in two halves. One under my command, and one under yours.”
“Wait.” Sable frowned. “That’s not what I–”
Calla raised an eyebrow at her. She was perfectly aware that this wasn’t what Sable had in mind.
But this was what she would be getting. “And since you’re so adamant to be leading, I will issue you a little challenge.
” At this, the rest of her crew perked up, making Calla smirk.
“Whichever group first finds the next clue will get that barrel of aged rum Thorian has been keeping under lock and key.”
Thorian’s indignant scoff was drowned out by the crew’s gasps.
Sable’s frown only deepened, but then she glanced around her.
The rest of the crew was suddenly whispering about the challenge, an excited ripple in the air as discussions of those dreary dreams got shoved in the past, where they would hopefully remain.
When her gaze settled on Calla again, a muscle twitching in her jaw, Calla knew she had her.
They shook on it, then they each stood on opposite sides of the deck as the pirates picked who they were going to side with.
Venn and Draven faced each other head-on.
“I’m going with the captain,” Draven said.
Venn scowled. “No. I’m going with the captain.”
“Why don’t you both just-”
“No!” they both snapped at Kittredge, then glared at each other.
While the others picked their groups, the two brothers arm-wrestled to settle the issue. By the way Sable looked at them, Calla suspected her first mate was trying really hard not to knock their heads against each other’s and send them scrubbing every inch of the deck instead.
In the end, Venn, Ignatius and Thorian were amongst the pirates siding with Sable.
Calla arched an eyebrow at Thorian, and he just rolled his eyes at her. She supposed that was fair for setting the prize without discussing it with her quartermaster first.
Gadrielle, Draven, and Nyxen buffed up Calla’s group.
Draven and Venn started making faces at each other from across the deck, making a few pirates chuckle.
Eryx looked between them, then they simply took a step back, pulling out of the expedition altogether.
Someone was missing.
Calla looked around the remaining pirates, and her eyes tripped on Riley, where they eventually settled with a silent question.
Riley shrugged, her shoulders slumped as she rubbed at her arm. “Think I’ll stay out of this one, captain, if you’ll allow it. Those dreams spooked me. I’d really rather not set foot on that island.”
Where just a few moments earlier almost half of Calla’s crew shared Riley’s apparent reticence, her words were now met with a few amused, indulgent laughs.
Riley further shrunk in on herself, and something about that was so perfectly acted that Calla saw it for exactly that. An act. What was she playing at?
“You’ll stay guard with the others, then,” Calla said dismissively. “The rest of you, it’s time to head out!” She nodded at the deckhands. “Prepare the dinghies.”
In the chaos of pirates excitedly getting ready to search and plunder for treasure, Calla found Merrow.
“I’m trusting you with the Moonshadow,” she told the old man. She stepped closer, lowering her voice to a murmur, “And keep an eye on her, if you will.”
He didn’t need to be told any more than that. “Yes, captain.”
***
As the dinghies got lowered on the water, Calla’s skin crawled.
Looking at the pirates good-naturedly ribbing each other, she convinced herself the shivering was from the cold, and from being so close to the salt-water.
She looked down at it longingly, only just stopping herself from reaching her hand out and skimming her fingers across the surface.
The compulsion was so strong it was physically painful for her to show this amount of restraint.
But it was necessary. Just a while longer.
The Moonshadow shrunk in the distance as Draven pulled on the oars, his muscles rippling under his heaving.
Soon, they entered the fog, and the world around them momentarily disappeared.
Calla only knew the other pirates were still with her thanks to the soft grunts following their exertions, and the soft lapping of the water.
If she closed her eyes and imagined she wasn’t here, braving an island said to eat people alive, this would’ve almost been therapeutic.
The silly thought kept her entertained until the small boat landed against the sand, and Draven offered her his hand. A cool look was all it took for his gesture to falter, and she leaped on the sand unaided, careful not to get her boots wet as she walked on shore.
“If you grovel now, I might let you get a taste of that rum,” Venn called from one of the dinghies as he made it ashore. “But you gotta do it all nice-like, believable. Eh, what do you say?”
Draven grinned, a flash of white splitting his dark beard. “I say fuck right off, Venn.”
Venn laughed. “Your loss!”
Calla barely stopped herself from snapping at them. Now was not the time to mess around, but a good-humored crew was better than a spooked one. Loud and confident was preferable, if only by a slight margin.
As the pirates kept poking at each other, Calla knelt on the sand and sifted it through her fingers.
It was dry and cool from the night that passed, Aelion just now starting its warming ascent.
The two suns’ rays didn’t penetrate the thick fog that hung like a curtain beyond the sandy beach, hiding the sea and the Moonshadow from view.
If it weren’t for that fog, the island would have appeared like an oasis.
Rich and soothing, with lush vegetation, the clear ripple of a river flowing just a dozen feet from where they landed, and a gentle wind rustling through the trees.
Her crew’s shoulders relaxed visibly as they took in the visage.
Calla’s didn’t.
She let her voice carry to the crew dispersing around the sandy beach.
“This is not the time to get distracted,” she admonished, and it was enough for the others to loosely gather in their chosen teams. “The ones with me, we will follow along that river, see where it leads.” Calla turned to Sable, turning the corner of her lips up.
“Sable, since you’re so eager to put your machete to use…
” She gestured to the thick of the forest. There were no paths in sight.
To the snickers of her own group, she added, “Try not to get lost. I would hate to have to replace you.”
Sable scoffed. “No one could replace me.”
Calla looked at her first mate for a moment. Then, slowly, she nodded in acknowledgment. “We’ll meet back here when Aelion sets. May the best team win.”