The Pirate Queen

Chapter 30

At the door, Ariel pulled a small iron key from her pocket and unlocked it. The hinges squeaked and a cloud of dust greeted them, but Ariel pushed forward into the dark.

"What are we looking for?" Eric asked, squinting as she moved around a space that looked like a sitting room.

Another light flared in the corner, followed by a second, and Ariel grinned as she handed him back the torch. "Light. What I need is upstairs, I'll be right back." Ariel picked up one of the lanterns and jogged up a set of stairs in the back corner of the tiny cabin.

If the King's mansion had been massive and grandiose, Edward Nott's cabin was tiny and quaint. The entire bottom floor was the sitting room, library, painting corner, and kitchen. Bookshelves half-empty lined most of the walls and what wasn't covered by a bookshelf was covered by a painting. They grew in skill level the further into the cabin Eric walked from a child's two-dimensional world to scenes so life-like it was as if he was looking out a window.

Eric kept shuffling through the room, wondering what most of the furniture looked like under their protective sheets. Was it as fine as what was in the Captain's quarters on the ship? Or was Edward more realistic in setting up a home on a nearly deserted island in the middle of the ocean?

He was about to lift the sheet on what was surely a couch when he spied a small wooden box sitting under the desk. It looked almost like a jewelry box, but there was no way Edward would leave something so valuable out in the open like that.

Glancing at the stairs, Eric listened for Ariel's footfalls upstairs before lifting the dusty lid. There, nestled amongst navy blue velvet, was a dainty silver necklace with a charm in the shape of a seashell. In the middle of the shell was a sapphire hardly larger than the head of a pin but still, it sparkled in the light from his torch.

Reaching in, Eric held the necklace up to the light, frowning. The chain was too short. It looked almost like a child's necklace, how delicate and small it was. But why would Edward keep something like that here?

"Alright, we can go." Eric turned, shoving the necklace in his pocket. Ariel came towards him with a wooden box under her arm, larger than the one he'd just opened on the desk but not by much.

"What's in it?" he asked, holding the torch up higher.

Ariel slid past him and opened the front door, gesturing him out. He followed without question, eyes still trained on the unremarkable box. "I believe it's my turn for a question?" Ariel answered, shooting him a look over her shoulder.

He scowled at her sharp memory. "Ariel, that's not fair. You've been rather vague about this whole two-man adventure and I would appreciate it if you'd give me the whole truth." He didn't mean to sound so hurt, despite the earth-shattering kiss they'd just shared. People, especially Christian, had given him partial truths his whole life, leaving Eric scrambling to fill in the rest of the picture himself. He didn't want to get that from Ariel too.

She paused beside the rowboat, examining his face and frowning, a hurt look crossing her face not at what he'd said, but what she'd done. Eric automatically reached out a hand to help her over the side. Setting the lantern she'd taken from the cabin on the bench, she grasped his hand, stepping in and pulling him with her.

When he sat, she took the quickly fading torch from his hand and chucked it into the water. "You row, I'll talk."

Eric frowned but grasped the handles of the oars. "Alright."

They pushed off and Ariel settled the box on her lap. He noticed a padlock keeping the lid shut, the only giveaway that there had to be something valuable inside the chest.