Page 32 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)

With a little more goading from both Riley and Kit, Eryx started walking by themselves, a small smile on their lips. “Alright, alright,” they said. “I guess a small break can’t hurt.”

***

The more they played, the emptier the tankard got, and more coin clinked in Riley’s pockets. Eryx didn’t seem to care about losing, but Kittredge only got more determined to win the more she lost.

“I can’t believe this.” Kit threw her hands in the air at the latest roll of the dice. She narrowed her eyes at Riley. “How are you this lucky?” It would’ve sounded suspicious, but the quirk to Kittredge’s mouth kept Riley relaxed.

It wasn’t luck , exactly, but she was obviously not going to tell them that. So she just shrugged, grinning as she held her palm up for her winnings.

“Where were you at the last party?” Kittredge asked as she pressed the coin into her glove. Riley had half a mind to test out how many beatings it would take until Kittredge started reading between the lines–or gave up on playing. “Sable looked for you.”

Riley blinked and sat back, startled. “What do you mean?”

Kittredge tilted her head, lips spreading in a knowing smile as she folded her arms to her chest and leaned back in her chair. “It’s a big ship, Riley, but not that big. We know .”

“You know what?”

Eryx shrugged a little guiltily at what must’ve been a growing look of horror on Riley’s face. “Sable didn’t say, and tried to hide it, but she’d been antsy the whole night, very not pleased, as if she were waiting for someone. You were the only one missing, so…” They shrugged again.

“Well, you and the captain,” Kittredge corrected, her eyes unblinking as she looked at Riley. Studying her. “But we all know the captain never comes for these, so Sable had no reason to expect her .”

Riley swallowed, her mouth dry. The next dice they rolled, Eryx was the one who won.

It was the night she’d gone to Calla’s quarters, but she hadn’t expected to be missed.

Except Sable had, apparently. The thought sent an odd rush of warmth through her, despite Riley’s shifting under her two shipmate’s gazes, despite her discomfort.

She’d been wearing Calla’s gloves since then, tight and soft and molding to her hands so well they felt like a second skin.

Nothing had ever fit her better, not even when she was knee high and had the man who fathered her looking after her, seeing to her needs.

Riley dismissed the thought with a sharp shake of her head. Why had she gone there?

“I didn’t really want to be around people,” Riley said. “Went somewhere quieter.” She avoided the outright lie, didn’t claim she’d been alone that night.

No one had mentioned her absence, or the gloves, and it only dawned on her now, under Kittredge’s knowing gaze and Eryx’s indulgent one, that it wasn’t because they hadn’t noticed.

They knew. About Calla and about Sable. Everyone knew .

There was no hiding on this ship. What unsettled her even more was that neither gaze was judging her.

Merely teasing. And in the meantime, another roll was lost. They’d thrown her off kilter.

Eryx bumped their shoulder to Kit’s, laughing softly. “Come on, Kit. Lay off. It’s her first time living on a ship. She’s still getting the hang of it.”

Kittredge smirked. “Just thought it would be good for her to know, her being our friend now and all.” She pressed a finger beneath her eye, gaze suddenly intense. “We see more than we let on.”

With that, Kittredge laid off her, and Riley laid off the cheating. Inexplicably, the game became more fun that way.

A dull thud put a startled pause on that not long after.

It came from somewhere above their heads.

Earlier, Riley had heard similar sounds in quick succession and thought it might’ve started raining, so she hadn’t mentioned it, but this was bigger than drops of water.

Kittredge and Eryx frowned up at the ceiling, too.

They all got quiet, ears straining as they listened.

Moments later, there was a scrape. A muffled grunt.

Riley’s blood ran cold. The panicked looks on the other pirates’ faces echoed her own. They all shot out of their chairs with a start, though Riley didn’t know what she meant to do. Investigate? That sounded like a terrible idea.

“Do you think they’re just… Maybe Calla and the others just came back?” Riley asked in a whisper.

Eryx shot her a doubting look. It made her feel dumb.

As Kittredge headed for the door leading out of the storage room, it slammed shut on them. The metal scrape of a bolt being slid into place followed.

Kit rushed to the now locked door and beat her open palm against it, shouting, “Hey, you fuckers! Let us out! You’re gonna regret this if you don’t go back where you came from right the fuck now while you still can! You hear me?!”

Riley looked wide-eyed at Kittredge, startled by the bite in her voice.

“What do we do?” she asked as Kit paced back and forth, muttering curses to herself, and Eryx walked around the room, looking for… something .

They both paused at the sound of another thud, somewhere on their level now. Soon after, there was shuffling, the violent sounds of rifling through cabinets and overturning crates, low, angry talking in voices Riley was not familiar with.

Were they raiding the supplies? Shit. Her fingers shook, and she tightened them into fists.

“Kit,” she hissed. “What do we–”

“Here,” Eryx called to them from a corner. “Through here.”

The noises outside got quiet.

Kittredge and Riley approached, and Eryx revealed a small hatch leading to a small passage–a tunnel. A way out.

A loud bang shook dust from the ceiling beams, startling them into inaction. They listened as several boots thudded on the floor at a run, not concerned in the least with being quiet.

“Let’s go,” Eryx urged. “Quick.”

Eryx went first, with Riley and Kittredge crawling in after them. Even on their hands and knees, they were fast, and Riley struggled to keep up through the twists and turns. Where were they going? And what was this tunnel? She hadn’t been expecting anything this damned long.

Apparently, she wasn’t the only confused one. “Eryx!” Kittredge whisper-shouted. “We should go above deck! Where are you–”

“We need to check on Merrow!” Eryx whisper-shouted back.

“Merrow?! There’s no way to the officers’ rooms from here!”

“It’s an old smuggling–just–look. We’re nearly there.”

The answer gave Riley pause, and it was only when Kittredge bumped into her from behind that she shook herself out of it. “Smuggling? Who do pirates need to worry about?”

A sharp sigh blew out of Eryx. “It’s from the before times. Just–keep up!”

But that was centuries ago. As old as the half-rotted ships in Saltmere, only still standing thanks to the Quiet Sea. How had they gotten the Moonshadow in sailing shape if it was that old? She shook off the question, and the dozen others that surfaced. Now was not the time.

There were still faint sounds of the intruders, only coming from above now. They sounded like they were leaving. Riley hoped that was true.

Eryx stopped against a walled off section, and they fumbled with a hatch. A moment later, they were all through. Riley recognized the corridor leading to the officers’ quarters. Clearly, her explorations of the ship hadn’t been nearly thorough enough.

They took off to the chart room, and Merrow was right there–his body slumped against the open door. A bleeding gash on his forehead.

A strangled sound tore its way from Eryx’s throat as they crouched by Merrow, felt his pulse. Then they relaxed, just a fraction, enough to make Riley and Kittredge exhale in relief. Eryx fumbled with their shirt, took it off. They bunched it up and pressed it to Merrow’s forehead.

Kittredge rushed past Riley, and into the chart room, and came back out with a pitcher of water. She threw it in Merrow’s face.

The old man sputtered as he came to.

Riley just stood there, boots glued to the floor.

Beyond the door, the chart room was a mess, more than Merrow’s ordered chaos.

Maps and charts ripped up and thrown all over the floor.

Merrow’s chair, splintered into scattered pieces.

The desk’s drawer, always closed and locked tight, was now open. Empty. They’d taken something.

Merrow took hold of the bunched up fabric and kept it pressed to his forehead as he pushed Eryx away. “Stop crowding the old man,” he admonished them weakly. “I’ve had scrapes worse than this. Go up the deck. Sound the bell. We need to alert the others.”

They didn’t move.

“Who did this?” Kit asked, the bite still in her voice.

Merrow spat a glob of bloodied saliva on the floor beside him. “Who do you think? Pirates.” He peered inside the chart room. “They must be after the same thing we are. They got the first clue. For all the good it’ll do them.”

When they finally made it above deck, all three of them just stared, at a loss of words.

They couldn’t alert the others–the ship’s bell had been cut. But that was not the worst of it. Ripped sails, cut rope, slashed rigging. They’d been sabotaged.

Kittredge let out a slow whistle as their eyes locked on a ship, sailing away into the distance. “Captain’s gonna be pissed .”

A gust of wind made Riley shiver, and she wrapped her arms around herself. They were going to get in trouble for this. She could only hope they wouldn’t still be drunk by the time the others came back. Because she really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Calla’s fury.