by Ashley Nixon
“So that makes it fair game?”
Larkin crossed her arms and glared at him. The keys jingled in Barren’s hand and he moved away from his desk. Larkin watched Barren walk away from her with the keys.
“I…uh…do you have a jacket?”
Barren turned to look at her, perplexed. “A jacket?”
“Yes,” and her words came out in the next breath. “It’s cold…in the hatch. I came in here for a jacket.”
For a moment, Barren’s brows were still creased, but it smoothed with recognition. “Oh.”
He walked over to the trunk, and unlocked it. He searched for a little while through the clothes, and finally pulled out a brown jacket.
“And pants,” Larkin added.
Barren narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“My legs get cold,” Larkin added.
“And you don’t have a blanket?”
“You don’t exactly have the best blankets,” she argued, and that wasn’t a lie. They were thin, paper. Not at all warm.
She watched as Barren returned to the trunk and searched for a pair of pants suitable for her. She was relieved he didn’t question her further—perhaps he wanted her out of here as fast as possible. After a moment, he pulled out a pair of dark brown pants and handed them to her, then he shut his trunk with a loud thud.
“Perhaps you’ll mind your own business now that you can stay warm,” he said, standing.
“Yeah,” Larkin breathed, hugging the clothes to her chest. She turned and hurried away from the pirate, but before she left, she turned. “Why did you start drawing?”
She noticed Barren set his jaw. “I thought you weren’t looking through my stuff.”
When Barren showed no signs of answering her question, she said, “Well…they are very good,” and turned to leave.
“I started drawing because my father did,” he said at last. “It’s one of the few memories I have of him, and I don’t like for people to know.”
Larkin turned. “Does it ever help you to remember?”
Barren laughed, running his hands through his hair, and bracing his palms against his neck, leaving his muscles bare to the light, which made Larkin’s heart stutter in her chest. It was hard for her to really look at Barren and take him all in, mostly because her cheeks warmed every time she tried. There was no shame in being embarrassed by him, she thought to herself.
“No. I think I wouldn’t be so desperate for memories if the ones I had were good, but it seems the ones I have retained are all horrific, save for drawing.”
Larkin frowned. “And you’ve no memories of your mother, either? Not a one?”
He shook his head.
“Does William?”
“Would a fiancée not know?”
Larkin set her teeth. “I’m just thinking—he is older than you, perhaps he knew more about her. Perhaps she has more to do with his anger than we know.”
“William is kind of like you. He tried all the time to get my father’s attention in any way he could. He felt father was not proud. But I’d bet anything father was proud of William. Proud even when he understood his death had come at the end of his son’s sword.”
“Is that your hope?” Larkin asked quietly. “Do you hope your father was proud of William?”
Barren met her gaze. “I know he was. I always knew better than William how much my father loved him, but you cannot make another see love where they only see hate.”
Larkin wasn’t sure what to say. She couldn’t imagine her father being proud of her now. Not after she’d ruined their plans and publicly defended a pirate by injuring her fiancé.
“I should go,” she said, turning for the door again.
“Stay.” Barren’s voice was rough as he uttered the word, and Larkin froze. Turning toward him, her eyes were wide with shock. Then Barren continued, hurriedly, “You know, if you’re cold. You can take my bed. I’ll sleep on the floor. This was Cove’s ship…I’m still not used to such extravagance.”
Larkin shook her head. “What will your crew think?”
“At best? That I am a gentleman who gave up his bed for a lady.”
She raised a brow. “And at worse my reputation will be ruined.”
“True,” he said. “But you’ve been on a pirate ship for nearly a month now—I’m not sure your reputation is still intact.”
She smiled a little, but backed up to the door.
“Good night, Barren,” she said quietly.
“Good night,” he said.
She retreated to the hatch, and covered her entire body with her thin blankets, rubbing her face until the heat disappeared from her cheeks.
When black smoke appeared on the horizon, Larkin got a sinking feeling in her stomach. She looked around—there was nothing but ocean and endless sky. While the sight was normally comforting for her, at this moment, it only made her feel as if no one could save them if things got bad. She would have little to worry about if she actually planned on staying on the ship, but that wasn’t the case. Even if it were, she couldn’t deny she was worried about Barren and Leaf making it out alive.
The pirates were within a couple feet of each other—they looked different, their faces dirtied by coal, clothes tattered, and hair matted. Larkin imagined they wouldn’t stop there, even. To be really well-disguised, neither could be recognized from a distance or close up. The only scars that marked them as pirates were the ones over their hearts—the ‘X’s, and so long as they escaped before they could be stripped, they might make it out alive, or at least, that’s what Larkin heard Leaf say.
Cove turned to Larkin. “It might be early, but I think it’s best you hide now. If any guard sees you, none of us will be sailing away from Estrellas.”
Larkin shivered. Cove had said the Vasa couldn’t remain within sight of the island. It would be too suspicious. Larkin assumed Barren and Leaf had an escape plan—it probably involved a lot swimming. The thought made her arms ache. She turned and headed for the hatch, but before clambering down the dark stairs, she paused, feeling Barren’s eyes on her. When she met his gaze, his eyes were hard and his features tight. She wasn’t sure why, but every time he looked at her like that, it was as if he were welding her in place. If only eyes worked that way.
She disappeared beneath the deck, securing the door closed. She hurried to where she slept—toward the back, away from the men. She reached into her hammock and pulled out the pants and jacket Barren had given her, and started to change. She paused now and then when she heard the thud of boots above her, fearing she would be discovered. No one wanted her tagging along into Estrellas, but she really didn’t think Barren and Leaf could smuggle Devon out of the towers without her. So she was going in with them, without their knowledge. If she were caught, she didn’t believe those who ran Estrellas would harm her—she was Lord Christopher Lee’s daughter. Her word overrode any who dwelled within the walls of that island.
She left her corset on, as it would do well for a shirt, and it was all she had. If she’d asked Barren for one of his, he would have been too suspicious. She pulled on Barren’s jacket. It was far too big in the shoulders, and she had to roll up the sleeves in order to use her hands. She knotted her hair in a tight ball using her scarf. She imagined she looked ridiculous, but this was the best disguise she could muster. She secured a couple of daggers on her person—one in her boot as she had seen Barren do, and one at her waist, hidden by the jacket. Lastly, she had found an old hat in the back of the main hold. As she was fitting it on her head, she almost lost her footing when the ship groaned to a stop. She hurried to the gunport on the left and peered out.
Below her was a dock, small and slick. A few men stood there, all dressed in black, and all but one had masked faces. At first she thought they were guards, but then she noticed they all had weapons—strange swords with curved ends. She didn’t want to know what kind of damage they could do.
Her eyes shifted beyond the port to the rest of the island. There was nothing magnificent about
it, except for the horror it seemed to promise. In the dusk of the evening, the place was covered in shadow and orange fire. The walls surrounding Estrellas looked as if they would consume the entire island: black metal spires stuck out from the top of the wall, and curved inward. Two towers rose in the distance, one taller than the other. Both were connected by a covered bridge, illuminated in torchlight. The bottom halves of the towers were obstructed by two large gates, preventing entrance. The smell in the wind was ash, fire, and decay.
“Get moving, scum!” Larkin jumped when she heard a terrible voice tear the air. She cringed when she realized it was Hollow’s. She hated how disgusted the Senator sounded with his prisoners. She shrunk away from the window a bit when Barren and Leaf filed off the ship and stood below her. She noticed they kept their heads bowed and their shoulder slumped, as if the burden of their sins weighed them down.
“Didn’t think we’d get a shipment today, Ambassador.”
Larkin shuddered. Shipment. Like they were objects, not people.
“Jail was full, Cas,” Larkin heard Cove say. He was speaking to the biggest man of the group—the one without a mask. One side of his face had been burned badly, leaving most of his features to droop. His eye was red pulp. The other side was the shadow of the man he used to be. A knot formed in Larkin’s throat as she recalled Cove’s words. It is a place of torture, and if you survive, you become a member of their community. She didn’t need any more proof than what was before her to know Cove’s words were true. And she was horrified.
Cove continued his exchange with the man he called Cas. Every word that came from the guard was sharp and gritty—weighed down by the horrors he had experienced, no doubt. Larkin watched as another guard strung Barren’s and Leaf’s shackles together with a chain. The guard was not gentle, and the two pirates stumbled forward with the first jerk of the chain as they were led toward the tower.
The pull of the ship brought Larkin’s attention back to what she was supposed to do. The Vasa was leaving and she needed to be off this ship. She rushed to the opposite gunport and squeezed between the window and the cannon. The ship lurched a little, and Larkin hit the side of the gunport hard. The cannon rolled toward her, pinning her in place. She struggled, trying to wriggle her way out of the space. If she didn’t get out soon, she wouldn’t be able to carry on with her plan. With all her might, she pushed her weight against the cannon and tumbled into the water below.
She was not prepared for its horridness. The water was thick and the smell was worse—it dug into her pores, and burned her nose. She closed her eyes tightly, and pushed herself to the surface. A terrifying growl kept her from taking in a great breath and coughing up the horrible water that managed to slide down her throat. She clung to one of the slimy beams holding up the port to keep from being seen.
“Something ain’t right ‘bout that,” a voice grated, and her skin crawled.
“Rumors are goin’ in the Orient. People sayin’ Cove Rowell’s sailin’ with Barren Reed.”
“Take ‘em to the holdings…we’ll hafta rough ‘em up a bit. Find out fer ourselves.”
Larkin’s heart pounded in her chest. Barren and Leaf were sure to be discovered then. She recalled the face of Cas, the guard who had spoken with Cove, and cringed. The idea that they would endure torture made her frantic. She had to reach them before they could be hurt—she was their only hope now. Cove and the others would not return.
Larkin waited a few moments before peering over the deck. She watched two figures move to their posts on either side of the black gates blocking her entrance to the towers. She would never get in that way, and while she considered approaching them, the feeling in her stomach told her not to. If these men already knew that Cove might be in league with Barren, they’d probably know that Barren had kidnapped her, and as backward as it sounded, she needed to rescue Barren and Leaf, not be rescued herself…but how?
The smell of the water pierced her nose with a ferocity it hadn’t before and she realized that it was not the Orient which produced such foulness, but the island. Estrellas was responsible for the contamination. The sewage that flooded the normally pristine water had to be coming out through some sort of duct. It would also have to take water in.
Her sudden realization had her heart pounding, but she had a renewed sense of hope. She could do this. Despite the awful water, she dove beneath. She wasn’t yet a good enough swimmer to dive too far, so she grasped strange slimy things that erupted from the river’s wall, or dug her fingers into the mud in order to keep going down, hoping at some point she’d come to a drainage canal. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, forcing away every disgusted thought that entered her mind. When her lungs felt as if they were about to burst, she pushed herself to the surface.
Her breath exploded from her mouth, and she inhaled deeply, the thick water beaded off of her, the smell suffocating her. She wasn’t above long before she dove under again. This time she was faster, feeling along the wall, using whatever her hands came into contact with to force herself down farther and farther, until her fingers touched a slimy metal grate. Her entire body shuddered with disgust, but her hand grasped the eroded metal and she pulled as hard as she could. The grate didn’t budge.
The urgency and anger that overcame her next surprised even her as she began to pull on the grate obsessively. Bubbles escaped from her mouth, and filthy water took its place, sliding down her throat as her lungs begged for air. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She reached the surfaced and retched.
Frustration swirled—the longer she went without the knowledge that Barren and Leaf were okay, the more desperate she felt. She took a deep breath, making it to the grate quicker than before. She strained her arms, jerking it repeatedly. Each time she pulled, she felt it give a little more until finally the grate broke free.
She cast it aside and squeezed into the small circular opening, feeling the slime against her body. She fought the urge to gag. She shut her eyes tightly and pulled herself through the tunnel. If there was anything lucky about dragging herself through this duct, it was that the tunnel had a current as it took in water from the Orient, so she moved easily along, feeling when it veered left or right. At the last minute, it moved downward, sweeping her through the tunnel at a speed so fast, she couldn’t stop herself. Her heart jumped into her throat and she forced herself to keep her mouth shut tightly. Without warning, the tunnel ended, and she tumbled into a pool with a loud splash. She surfaced, gulping for air.
She rolled out of the pool. The stench of the water clung to her. She’d never wished so desperately for a bath in all her life, but that was something far out of her reach at the moment. On her back, she stared up at the ceiling—it was all shadow. Then she sat up and peered around the room—thankfully, it was empty, except for a torch at the door. The pool she’d landed in stretched around the room, and she assumed it carried water to various parts of the tower.
She pulled the small dagger out of her boot as she moved toward the door. She no longer had her hat, so she felt a little exposed. Not that her disguise would do much good while she roamed the halls of this tower.
She pushed the door open as carefully as she could, unsure if anyone stood outside. Fortunately, it opened into a shadowy, vacant corridor. She paused for a moment, listening as horrible sounds reached her ears—high-pitched screams tore her eardrums. She clung to the door to hold herself up. Though they weren’t close, it didn’t ease her fear any less.
She knew couldn’t stay in this place forever. She had to find Barren and Leaf. She took a deep breath and started down the hall, blade poised in her hand, ready for whatever she encountered. The sound of screams rose again in the distance. Larkin hesitated; her heart pounded against her ribcage hard and fast. Other sounds joined the screams now—moans, cries, barely audible whimpering. She knew her former beliefs about Estrellas were far from the truth that was now before her. She would never have believed her father could be responsible for such cruelty, but clearly,
something horrible was happening here and Lord Christopher Lee had played a role in it.
Holdings. I have to find holdings, Larkin thought desperately. If she kept her mind focused on Barren, perhaps she could keep her feet moving forward.
She rounded a corner after a long climb up a hall that moved steadily at an incline. She assumed she was somewhere on the bottom floor. All that she could see before her was a hall of rock, illuminated by torches. There were no windows, no doors, and the only things that suggested there was more to this tower, were the screams that consistently interrupted her thoughts. With a churn of her stomach, she realized that moving in the direction of those screams might lead her to Barren. It might also get her captured, but she didn’t have any options.
Setting her teeth, she quickened her pace. Part of her wanted to be mad at Barren for this. He’d pushed going to Estrellas, but really, she could only blame herself. She’d made the choice to come. She had believed she could help Barren, ensure his safety in some way. Mostly she wanted to prove the pirates wrong—wrong about her father and this place, and wrong about the way they saw her. Just for once, she wanted to have it right. Time after time, she’d believed in her father’s innocence, his goodness, and yet each time, he had proven to be anything but good. He’d gone along with the idea of her death, agreed to have privateers keep her from ruining his plans, and now this treacherous island.
The hall twisted to the right, and continued at an incline. At some point, she’d come to windows, doors, and guards. This was a prison, after all, and people kept watch. As she continued, it was like she moved in circles—everything looked the same, and the lights were dim and hurt her eyes. A pounding in her head took half of her attention, so when shadows formed against the wall, her heart jumped into her throat.
Quickly, she moved into the dark as footsteps drew near. She could just hear their conversation over the moans.
“Did ya hear? Cas brought in Barren Reed and his quartermaster. Said Ambassador Rowell deposited him at our doorstep.”
