Corvus (Stars and Sails, Book 1)

Thirty-three (Part 2 of 3)

"What do you mean he vanished?" Haworth asked. He pushed his fingers into his eyebrows and paced the length of the vessel.

"I looked at the cabin," Rafaele said. "It's possible he is still alive. Like he just..."

"Vanished?" Haworth threw out his hands and stepped under one of the flickering lanterns. "What do you have to say about this, Dirty Jim?"

Dirty Jim said nothing because she was mute.

"Okay let's stop fighting." Aiden stepped out into the middle of the circle. The cold air bit at his hands. He warmed them by pressing them against his neck.

Rafaele crossed his arms. The lowlight of dusk set a glow to his dark skin. "I was not the one—"

"I meant Haworth," Aiden said. Haworth spit into the ocean in dismissal. "We have to stay together if it's just the five of us."

"Well that's real easy to say when we get along like a pack of wolves," said Dav.

"What the devil do you know about wolves?" Haworth groaned. "You're like five years old."

"Am not!" Dav made an ugly face to which Haworth imitated.

Rafaele stepped back and leaned into the gunwales. The water rippled like a curtain in the wind behind him. Sickness brewed in Aiden's stomach. Rafaele pinched his nose. "You are not seeming so, uh," he paused for the word. "Astonished."

Silas Noble hadn't really admitted Aiden to go traipsing about telling people just what he saw at the lighthouse. He didn't want to relive it again either. He'd only been keeping the night watch because sleeping had been hard, what with the things Runa Hyde had said about him and his father.

Rafaele looked, eyebrows raised, waiting. Haworth ran his fingers through his hair, obviously frustrated. Dirty Jim never looked at Aiden, which wasn't very surprising. "It was like you said, Rafaele—he probably didn't die here." Aiden tapped his foot. "But he was poisoned. I found a vial."

"A vial?" Haworth asked.

"I don't know anything about it," Aiden said. In a sense, he wasn't exactly lying, but guilt still stung the bottom of his stomach.

Dirty Jim shuffled in his spot, sitting criss-cross on the deck at Rafaele's feet. Aiden caught a brief glimpse of his face. His eyebrows were folded in with worry, his hand raised up under his handkerchief, biting at his fingernails.

The pause continued until Haworth cleared his throat. "Am I going to ask it or are we all just gonna think about it?"

"About what?" Rafaele asked, cautiously glancing at Haworth.

He folded his arms. "Well, with old man Noble gone, who's paying us?"

"The Navy, yeah?" Rafaele asked.

"He didn't sound like he had the most cuddly relationship with them Durantans."

Aiden frowned. "If you want to leave at Longport, then go ahead. I'm seeing this out as long as I can. I don't got nowhere to go back to, and I can't—I don't just want to abandon Noble like this." Aiden said, straightening out his shirt. Aiden sort of cared about what happened to Silas Noble, but he couldn't help have ulterior motives. He was so close to learning something out about himself. He had to see this through to the end.

"Well come now, we don't even know where we're going," Haworth pointed out, pressing his hands against his temples. "I bet he doesn't even know where Zelley is."

"Then we have to go back," Aiden said. Haworth didn't look too convinced. "Maybe there's something back at his ranch—something that can help us find him."

"We have to make it to Longport first." Rafaele narrowed his eyes. "Convene with the crew. Make better plans," Rafaele said. "We are in need of a captain."

"I'll be the captain," Haworth said. "It's only right."

Rafaele shook his head. "It's not possible. You're the carpenter."

"Fine. I volunteer Dirty Jim," Haworth said, wiping his hands clean of nothing in particular. Dirty Jim was the first to shake her head in denial.

"Aiden, you should be captain. You lead us. Dirty Jim sails," Rafaele said. He crossed his legs. Dirty Jim brushed the dirt off the toe off his shoe.

"I can't be. I'm not anything like Captain Noble." Just like Haworth, Aiden took to pacing around the ship. Dav hung off the ratlines with one arm and viewed the sea through Dirty Jim's spyglass. In all of his imaginations of running away, it was never like this. He imagined he'd make it to some far away port and disappear into the city. Never would he have to mine for gold or think of Aydesreve. Or Amelia Rose.

Now he had to go back.

Whatever Runa Hyde had said at the lighthouse had stuck with him. Maybe she was right. There had to be a reason for his tattoo. There had to be a reason why fate was guiding him in the wrong direction. Within a day, he'd become the captain to a band of misfit sailors. Only days ago, he was no one doing nothing in the middle of nowhere.

"It was the vessel," Aiden said. "He didn't just disappear. It was the vessel from last night. It must have taken him." But it was prayer to Cepheus if they'd ever find out why.