Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Nothing else matters now.
When I wake up in the morning, I find that Maren is gone. Again.
I immediately panic, springing out of bed, the image of Sterling forcing himself on her last night still ingrained in my head. There’s been so much violence and horror as of late that I don’t trust the world anymore. I’m waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me every second of the day.
I slip on my breeches and rush out of the room, calling her name, then hear her answering from down the length of the main deck, so I hurry along past her room and the officer’s quarters until I find her in the galley. She’s sitting on the wood counter with Nerissa standing beside her, looking like two peas in a pod at this point. Beautiful creatures of the sea.
But then I’m looking at Maren’s arm which is bandaged up, then I’m looking at Sedge standing to the side of her, holding a roll of gauze.
“What’s going on here?” I ask. “What happened to your arm?”
Maren gives me a faint smile and I realize she looks paler than normal. “Nothing. I just nicked myself while I was helping Sedge chop onions for the pages’ breakfasts.”
I try to swallow down the lump in my throat that comes with the fact that Henry won’t be having breakfast as usual. I dissolve the sorrow with a shake of my head and look back at her arm, then at Sedge who just shrugs innocently. Finally I eye Nerissa, who also shrugs, although she’s doing it with a demure smile.
I squint at them. “If I find out there’s been some misbehaving…” I warn them.
“Then I volunteer Maren for the spanking,” Nerissa says wickedly.
“Hmmphf.” I make a disgruntled noise. “Well, you’re up terribly early considering the night that we—”
“Land ho!” Thane’s voice booms from above on the deck above. “Land ho!”
We all exchange a look of shock, this moment coming sooner than I thought, and then I’m running out of the galley and flying up the stairs to the top deck. The crew is gathered along the rail pointing to the distance where the sun has just risen. I run over and follow their direction. I don’t even need a spyglass to see it, there’s a line of low haze on the horizon and just beyond that, the peninsula that sticks out at the north of the Bay of Banderas.
I don’t know what I feel, to be honest. During every voyage across the Pacific, land has represented a change from the monotony at sea. Personally I don’t mind that monotony, the sea means freedom to me and the land is just a place to get in trouble. But the crew loves it when we pull into the harbors. There are fresh victims for us to feed on, fresh cunts and cocks to fuck, and fresh treasures to steal. The Brethren aren’t like Maren, we aren’t sea-going creatures to start with, and even I will admit there’s a sense of grounding there that you don’t often get floating above the waves.
It also represents the start of the pirate raids for us. We go up and down the Pacific coast of New Spain, from the Bay of Banderas to Acapulco, looting galleons from their wares, whether it’s gunpowder, silk, ivory and jade coming from Manila, or heaps of silver coins, wine and weapons just setting out from Acapulco. Either way, the galleons are always loaded and even with their convoy with them, things get chaotic close to land and easier for us to take over.
Now, however, our purpose isn’t the same as it was when we left Manila. When we left we had a hold full of treasure to spend and barter with when we got to this side of the ocean. We also had a prince and a princess to hold for ransom. But the prince is long gone, the princess is now a pirate—even if she doesn’t think so herself—and the treasure we have in the hold doesn’t seem as important as the chance to fight Edonia. We all know she lives somewhere along this coast, and so even though getting to land is imperative for the crew, it’s not the end of the battle for me.
Maren appears beside me, squinting at the horizon.
And she’s another reason why the sight of land is bringing forth so many conflicting feelings. Our voyage together is coming to an end. I love her and she loves me and yet I don’t know if that love is strong enough to prevent her from returning to her home if given half the chance.
“Wow,” she whispers. “I never thought land would look so strange.”
“Strange?” I ask.
She nods, and I’m noticing she looks a little unsteady on her feet. “Yes. The last I saw it were the islands, and it was good riddance to that creepy place. But so much has changed between then and now, between here and there. I thought I knew what I wanted the last time I saw land. Now that I’m seeing it again, I’m not sure what I want.”