by J. K. Holt
She broke the surface and gasped, but the next wave rolled her under again, and she pushed once more. The fight was starting to leave her, her legs becoming sluggish, wooden. She came up again, coughing, and heard water slapping nearby. Then, Dray was beside her.
“Okay, we have to swim now,” he said.
Tess turned, looking for shore, and when she settled on the lights glistening along the horizon, her heart faltered. They were so terribly far away.
“I don’t think I can make it, Dray,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“No. Tess, look at me,” Dray said sternly. “We don’t have to swim to shore. Only to Fish.”
What was he talking about? What could fish do to help them? She couldn’t make sense of it, and stopped treading water for a moment to decipher his meaning, immediately dropping below the water line again. Dray pulled her up, roughly, holding the edge of her shirt. “Tess,” he hissed. “Fight just a bit longer, okay? Trust me, you can do this. Just follow me. Ready?”
What else could she do? She nodded. She’d try for as long as she could. It would be a crummy rescue effort if she drowned, and she didn’t want to let him down. Maggie, lend me some strength. She whispered the prayer into the night, and kicked, hard, pushing herself through the water. Dray stayed beside her, coaching her, as they slowly left the shadow of the great brigate behind them.
When they’d been swimming for what seemed like hours, Dray grabbed her arm again. “Right, wait here.” Up close, he was pale, too pale, and Tess could see that the water was beginning to take its toll. The wind whipped at his wet hair, and his lips had become two lines of chalk against his face. The only constant were his deep grey eyes. He kept them trained on her, determined, and Tess did her best to remain afloat, just to look at them for a moment or two longer before she met her fate and succumbed to the call of the ocean floor.
“You first,” he said again, echoing his earlier command on the ship. “I’ll push, you pull.”
Before she could ask how she was meant to pull, he was lifting her, kicking as his head sunk beneath the surface. Then, from nowhere, strong hands from above grabbed her arm and pulled roughly, and she was, impossibly, rising, leaving the water behind. A rough line of wood drew itself meanly across her spine, and she twisted sideways, finding herself halfway into a small rowboat, bobbing resolutely against the waves. She reached out, grasped the nearest seat, and pulled herself until she flopped aboard.
“Muck and rot, you’re heavy as deadweight, girl,” a voice said, and she looked above to find Fish wiping his hands as he looked down on her. “Right, get up here, Dray.”
The boat tipped carelessly as he leaned over the side, and Tess rolled herself instinctively against the pull, grabbing the other side of the boat for purchase. After a moment, Dray cleared the side of the vessel and dropped down beneath her.
“Row, mate,” Dray gasped, waving away Fish. “We need to be well clear of her if we’ve any chance.” He looked out to the horizon, and Tess realized he was talking about the Blackbirder.
Fish shifted, grabbing the oars mounted at either side of his seat, and began the laborious task of moving them against the waves. Dray sat in the boat, lungs heaving, shaking his arms as if to return blood to them.
Tess tried to sit up, to speak, but found that she could not. She’d begun to shiver quite violently since leaving the water, and she found herself wondering why she was no longer feeling cold. Something told her it was a bad thing, and she forced a sound through her lips in a bid for attention.
Dray noticed, swearing, and began to pull at her clothes. He left her in her undergarments, throwing the rest of her soaked garments to the front of the boat, and pulled out a blanket from beneath the front seat, tucking it around her as if she was a baby. If her limbs were working, she would have done it herself, but they still weren’t speaking to her at the moment. He then repeated the process himself, wringing out his wet clothes and then using them to tuck beneath Tess’s head, a soggy but welcome pillow. He pulled out another set of dry clothes for himself and donned them quickly, throwing Tess an apologetic look. Then he grabbed a second blanket and settled himself on the floor of the boat beside Tess, his legs running along her own, feet close to her head. He leaned forward and began to rub Tess’s calves vigorously. “Just stay with us, Tess,” he said.
She looked up, and the sky was dazzling. The moon sat, fat and full, holding court while a million tiny denizens of the night shone like pinpricks in the ebony fabric of the cosmos. So beautiful… it overwhelmed the sensation of the solid boat beneath her, the sound of the frenzied wind around her.
She felt herself beginning to drift away, and the stars blurred. “Oi!” said Fish, and the sound pulled her back, begrudging, to reality. “Dray, get her talking. Or take the oars and I’ll do it.”
“Tess,” Dray said, scootching closer. “Can you talk?” His hands had moved to her upper legs, but she could barely feel them. She watched, mesmerized by the motion of his hands as she flexed her jaw. Her tongue felt leaden, but she willed it to work now. The first sound she made was little more than a moan.
She tried again. “Can’t…barely… feel you.”
“You will. Give it some time.
“Mnnn,” she replied smartly.
He rubbed harder, and Tess willed her teeth to cease their incessant chatter. Several minutes passed, and she began to feel Dray’s touch against her legs, a burning sensation not entirely unpleasant. Dray noticed her gaze and asked, hopeful, “anything yet?”
She hesitated, reluctant to admit it lest he stop. Feeling childish for the thought, she nodded. He nodded, relief crossing his face, but continued to rub.
Tess curled her arms across her chest, attempting to conserve body heat. She looked above herself and found Fish’s face smiling down on her as he moved in and out of sight, dragging the oars through the water. The sight of his goofy face, grinning, disappearing and reappearing above her lightened her heart and she laughed against her shivers.
She waited until she was confident she could form the words and then spoke. “Whose… boat is this?”
Fish laughed, delighted. “It’s mine. Della the second. Named her after me mum.”
“What about… Della the first?”
“Ah,” he said. “A wicked sea-bitch. Took her out in rough waves and paid the price, I’m afraid. Her skeleton’s somewhere along the shore now, rotting away.”
Tess recalled the decaying row-boat she’d sheltered under all those months ago and smiled, shaking her head at the chances. “I think I… met her once.”
Fish began to look concerned. “Dray, she’s talking nonsense.”
“No’m not.” Tess replied. She looked down again to Dray, who’d stopped massaging her legs. He leaned back now against the seat, exhausted and watching her warily. “How did you find me?” she asked.
Dray shrugged, as if it was nothing. “They’ve only the one ship in this harbor, Tess. Wasn’t hard to figure out where they would have taken you.”
“But…how…” she tried to formulate the question.
Fish helped her finish the thought. “How did we know you weren’t a spy just returning home to roost?”
“Exactly.”
“Gowan found us,” Dray said. “Burst in on us in the bakery, said he’d been to see the Turners and had come back to the Gull and you were gone. Signs of a struggle. He was convinced you’d been taken against your will.”
“And you believed him?”
“Wasn’t certain at first, but Ashe, Fish, and I went back with him and looked over the area. He was right, it did look like you’d put up a fight.” He sighed. “We thought, with that evidence, it was likely they’d taken you up to see what you, and by connection, we, knew.”
Tess closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the hard wood. “They know it all already, or… had guessed most of it. Except your mom’s …involvement- they didn’t mention her, and I didn’t say… Loren’s with them.”
The boat stopped its pull against the waves as Fish ceased rowing with the news. Dray shared a dark, sympathetic look with Fish that confused Tess. “We guessed as much,” Dray said. He kept his eyes trained on Fish until the rowing resumed, and then shook his head sadly. “Still cuts, though.” Tess wondered if the words were meant for Fish. A puzzle she’d have to sort out another time.
Tess considered. “But…you knew they wouldn’t be able to get more information from me... aside from maybe Tulla’s involvement. But still…”
Dray eyed her warily. “What’s your meaning?”
“Why did you come for me?” The question was direct and Tess was immediately self-conscious for asking it, but she plunged ahead. “Doesn’t seem like it was worth the risk, given that I wouldn’t…have been able to tell them much.”
She met Dray’s gaze and held it. Something lurked there, some guardedness, and she wondered if he would be honest with her. He broke the connection first, casting his eyes towards the sea. “Do you remember what I told you that night on the pier?”
That would have been when he and Ashe reluctantly drew her into their confidence. She searched her memory. “Dunno…probably something about how you didn’t trust me. Best guess.”
Dray shook his head. “I told you that if you chose to stand with us-”
Tess remembered in a flash. “-that you’d stand with me, if I ever needed you to,” she finished.
“Right,” he said.
The fact that he was fulfilling his end of the bargain they struck was bittersweet for Tess. He’d come for her- but out of obligation. She saw that now.
Still. “Thank you,” she whispered. She tugged a hand free and reached back to grasp Fish’s leg and squeeze. “You saved me from something very horrid.”
“A wet death?” Fish guessed.
Yes, that, but also… she thought of Bram and his hot, rancid breath and grimaced- she caught Dray watching her and realized he must be recalling Bram as well. “He got better than what he deserved,” he said softly, so that only Tess could hear it.
Dray had killed a man, not more than an hour ago. She wondered if the weight of that had settled on him, making itself comfortable among his myriad of other guilts, and she pushed the length of her body closer to his, ignoring her bruised ribs. When he looked up, startled by her movement, she mouthed to him- thank you. He seemed to sense her intent, and nodded imperceptibly.
Satisfied that he understood her meaning, she answered Fish’s question. “They were planning on weighting me down and throwing me over.”
Fish grunted in response. The strain of rowing had begun to show- a clear sheen of sweat covered his face and their movement through the waves had slowed. “Trade, Dray,” he said soon after.
Dray rose gingerly, careful not to jostle Tess, and they swapped places. From her place on the floor of the boat, Tess couldn’t tell how far they’d traveled. “Are we nearly there?” she asked.
“Not quite,” Fish answered. He took the second blanket from the floor and wrapped it around Tess, then settled into the same position as Dray had. “We’re going the long way round, north of the piers and town. It’s where I keep Della moored, and it will lessen the likelihood that they’ll overcome us if they find out you’re missing too soon.”
“They didn’t think you were a threat anymore- they would have left you alone… but with me gone missing...” Tess let them connect the dots.
Dray replied. “They don’t know we were a part of it. They didn’t see Della approaching or us leaving or we’d know it already. It’ll look like you got the better of Bram and escaped. With any luck, they’ll tear apart the ship first looking for you. Then, by the time they realize you aren’t there anymore, they’ll guess you jumped overboard and tried to swim for it. With your state, no one would believe you’d have made it all the way to shore. And even if they thought there was a chance, they won’t want to draw attention to themselves. They’ll just set up surveillance again. We’ll have snuck you out of town, or somewhere aside from the Gull, by then.”
Tess’s gut seized at the idea of leaving Gowan and the Muddle Gull behind, but she knew there would be time to figure it out later. She saved her breath from arguing the point. And Dray had a good point that they likely hadn’t seen Della coming or going. Wait.
“Dray- how on earth did you know where on the ship to find me? How did you even get on board?”
A rare chuckle escaped Dray. He continued his rowing for another moment before answering with a question of his own. “How do you think I snuck into the town hall?”
Tess frowned. She and Russ had left him in the shadow of the building a street away, so she’d not really seen him get there. And she suppose she had just assumed he’d picked a lock or broken a window or something. She threw out those guesses but Dray grunted his disapproval.
Fish was grinning again, the first time since they’d spoken of Loren. He rested his arm lazily across Tess’s legs and tilted his head. “You know, when we were kids, Draker Reed here was a troublemaker. He was so quick, though, you’d barely ever catch him in the act. And as his mum and dad got cleverer, he did as well. He’d sneak out only to find the doors locked when he returned. Got quite good at climbing as a result. Right up to the second story bedroom window, back into bed before they could nab him.”
“You climbed to the top of the building, at the town hall?” Tess said, admiration obvious.
“Close. Third story. They never lock the windows up there,” Dray said between puffs of breath as he rowed.
“So… Fish rowed you to the Blackbirder, and... you climbed to the captain’s cabin? From the bottom of the ship?” That explained how his clothes were dry. And why he was missing his shoes- he would have expected to make a wet exit.
“Aye, that’s right,” Fish said, beaming proudly.
“But…how did you know where to find the ship in the dark?”
A silence followed, filled only by the sound of the oars and the waves slapping against the boat. The wind had momentarily died, and Tess took the opportunity to pull herself up to sitting position. She turned and settled in next to Fish on the floorboards, facing Dray and waiting for him to answer. She quirked an eyebrow and stared at him so he’d know she hadn’t let the question go.
Finally, he grunted. “We’d been watching it for a while,” he admitted. “Trying to get an idea of its comings and goings, when and where it moored, when it pulled anchor, and where it went during the day.”
“How, though?” Tess asked, frustrated by her continuing confusion. “You don’t have a boat, other than this one, and I can’t imagine Fish rowing out here every day.”
Dray blew out a breath. “We had help.”
“Who?”
Fish lowered his head and gave her a look as if to say, must we make every connection for you? Another lightbulb went off then, painful in its obviousness.
“Tom. Ugh- Tom Engles. He was watching them for you, wasn’t he?”
At their silence, she continued. “That’s why you think he was blurred. And why you’d had that conversation with him about what to do if it happened. Isn’t it?”
They didn’t really need to answer her, though. She understood now. She shook her head, noticing for the first time that they had begun to run parallel to the shore, and had moved quite a ways north. Almost past the harbor and the town, Dray had begun to once again angle them in. They would soon be able to set feet on dry land again.
The idea was both reassuring and unsettling. As odd as it was, she felt safer than she had in a while, on this tiny rowboat at sea in the dark, with Dray and Fish. She reached towards Dray’s wet clothes, still bunched on the floor where he had rested. “May I?” she asked, glancing at him. He nodded, curious, and she picked up and wrung out the shirt as best she could. Then, with Fish’s help, she wrapped it as tightly as she could bear around her torso, circling and supporting her bruised ribs. She was loathe to put on the rest of her soaking clothes, having just gotten her small bout of hypothe
rmia under control. Eventually, she decided not to- she’d wrap the blankets around her like a toga instead- odd stares from villagers be damned.
They spent the rest of the time in silence, Tess watching as the outline of the shore drew closer. A faint light had begun to grow softly along the horizon behind them- dawn was not far off now.
Towards the end of their trek, the wind picked up again, but this time acting the part of the benevolent protector- pushing at their backs and easing the last piece of the journey to shore. Dray looked ready to drop from the exertion, and by the time they’d touched the sand, Tess wondered if she would need to take a turn rowing in order to save him from dropping from exhaustion.
They snuck back into town quietly, following the dirt roads and cautious not to draw attention to themselves. It would have been easier said than done, since Tess was dressed like she’d dropped out of a skit about ancient Rome, but they passed no one. All the early risers were on the other side of town, catching their boats for the morning.
“We’ll take the back alley to the bakery,” Dray whispered as their feet found paved stones again. “Less chance of being spotted, just in case.”
The town was still asleep this far from the pier. Curtains wafted, the odd door opened or closed, as gulls screeched above. Cats slunk across the shadows, and a haze was rising from the streets like a blanket being pulled from the slumbering buildings. Tess, careful of her step with her bare feet, seldom looked up, content to keep between the two sentinels on either side of her as they drew closer to their destination.
Finally, Dray whispered to Tess that the entrance to the bakery was just ahead. They turned a blind corner- and were set upon.
Men materialized from the shadows in every direction. Fish was knocked quickly on the back of the head and went down without so much as a fist thrown. Dray, quicker on his feet, dodged the knife of the next one and kicked out at the man who’d hit Fish. “Run, Tess!” he shouted.
She was grabbed from behind by an unseen attacker, but shrugged off her blanket and fled, further down the alley, screaming. “Ashe! Help!” Then, remembering the tactic that had worked so well previously, screamed “fire!”. A figure stepped in front of her and she collided with him- they went down together, and he fought to subdue her, quickly flipping her onto her back and straddling her, wrapping two iron hands around her throat and squeezing.
