Corvus (Stars and Sails, Book 1)

Twenty-six

"Well come on!" Wagner said. Aiden descended the ladder and crawled into Tanner's cramped quarters. He couldn't believe Wagner wanted his help. Wagner never wanted to talk to Aiden unless it was to say something about his appearance. That was all well and good, he supposed, but now he was getting the royal treatment. Aiden didn't want Wagner's attention and he certainly didn't want to be back in Tanner's quarters.

"Look in that box." Wagner emptied the contents of a smaller one onto Tanner's cot and riffled through it with a lantern in his hand.

"What am I looking for?"

"Anything with money signs on it." He paused. "Or a lease." Wagner shoveled papers off the cot. After a few minutes, he noticed the way Aiden was so timidly scanning the papers in the box. Wagner walked over and kicked the box. "That's no way to do it!" he said. His eyes caught onto the shelves. "Go gather that there gold for me."

It was mostly pyrite. Aiden had seen it. He debated whether he should tell Wagner before Eli Hale came down and revealed it. Both would likely spark Wagner's temper, but it was better if that temper wasn't directed towards him.

"This is pyrite, sir," Aiden said. "Mostly pyrite."

"Pyrite?" Wagner laughed. All the laughing subsided into a cold, dry, huffing for air. "Why is there pyrite on the shelves?" He set the lantern on the small end table by the door.

"Don't know, sir."

"No," Wagner said. He shuffled over to the door. "Hale!"

Eli Hale was down the ladder within seconds. He had probably already been waiting up at the top. He dusted off his hands and looked at Wagner with wide eyes.

Wagner's voice went soft. "He says this is pyrite."

Eli Hale looked at the jar. After nodding, he handed it back to Wagner. "Sure is."

"The devil hang that man!" Wagner shouted. He threw the bottle at the wall of the cabin. Pyrite and glass exploded into the air in streaks of silver and gold. It was like a blistering flash of petrol catching fire—of flame on flame on flame. Wagner's face grew redder than Aiden had ever seen it, but the tip of his round nose and the skin around his eyes stayed pale like he had sun poisoning. "Hang that James Tanner until he can't breathe, 'till he can't breathe!" He kicked at the box with his foot over and over until it collapsed into itself and the papers bulged out. His breathing shallowed to a wheezing, a desperate battle for air in the cramped cabin. Eli Hale backed up against the wall. "Hang him! A mutt! A criminal! A thief! A lia--" Wagner hacked, unable to finish his sentence, bent over and clutching his stomach. When he recovered, he tore the mattress off the cot and threw it at the shelves. All the bottles fell and rolled to the ground. They shattered, one by one. Pyrite and gold covered the floor like fine sand. "Hang him! Hang him! Hang him!" Wagner fell to the ground, his back pressed against the frame of Tanner's cot. Now , shallowly gasping. Eli Hale headed up the ladded to give Wagner his space. Aiden followed.

While Wagner was down moaning in the cabin, Amelia Rose rode up to the mine on her horse. She didn't look at Aiden as she dismounted and made her way up to The Princess of Aydesreve. She stopped on the gangplank.

"Is my father here? I must speak to him urgently," she said. She still didn't look at Aiden, only at Eli Hale, who pointed at the deckhouse.

A sob escaped from Tanner's Cabin.

"Father?" Amelia Rose made her way up the gangplank. She leaned over the combing to look at the trembling feet of her father. "Father!" She hiked up her skirts and descended the ladder.

"You shall not," A sob from the cabin, "You shall not descend ladders around a bawdy bunch of men. I will not tolerate it, my little porcelain cup."