Chapter Text
Much like in the hold of the Wolf Rayet , the three girls were no better off in terms of an escape. It took all of five minutes to realize that they were completely out of options, allowing them to settle into yet another restless sleep in hope for a coming day. Day came, and with it no breakthrough or breakout. However, whereas Ella had given up before with the inane hope that someone would put a stop to the pirates in time by rescuing her, she now paced the cramped space with a vengeance. Her parents—her dad, was being lured here because of her. If she didn’t do something, Erebus was going to try to kill him. That much she was certain of.
Ella suddenly pivoted and ran full tilt at the iron bars, shoulder oriented toward what she believed could be a weak spot.
It was, in fact, not a weak spot.
“Ella!” Hadley yelped.
“Suns almighty, Hawkins!” Freya roared. “What are you trying to do? Dislocate an arm?”
Pain blossomed in Ella’s shoulder as she gripped the appendage and grit her teeth. For a fleeting moment, she worried she had done just that.
“We’re not ramming the iron like wild osrots!” Freya fumed. “Just because I don’t like you, doesn’t mean we don’t still need you uninjured. So could you kindly not freak out for two seconds?”
As Ella nursed feeling back into her arm, she was suddenly taken in by how confident Freya looked. Her voice rang with authority, her stance imposing, expression fierce. She really did look the part of senior officer. She also hadn’t just reacted on a whim like Ella had. Shame and frustration and jealousy boiled over inside of Ella all over again which was ridiculous. Of all the times to be worried about her future in the navy, why now when she could barely predict the next five minutes?
“Why don’t you want to be a captain?” Ella blurted out, her voice sharper than she had intended.
“What?” Freya demanded.
Hadley snapped a look between the two of them, brow now pinched together.
“I read your mom’s letter, remember? And, yeah, I’m still sorry about that, but why throw away that chance to be a captain?”
Ella wasn’t sure why she cared. It was something that had been bothering her for quite a while—why someone as confident and pretty as Freya would ever willingly pursue a rank below first officer, especially knowing that such a decision was so at odds with her family. Maybe Ella wanted to prove she was better than Freya. Maybe a small part of her enjoyed the competition.
Maybe.
Maybe, though, it was deeper down than that. Something compressed and compartmentalized within her.
Genuine concern.
“I’m not throwing anything away,” Freya interrupted Ella’s musings. “You snatched one look at one letter. That doesn’t make you some expert on my personal life.”
“You want to be a rigger, don’t you?” Ella pushed back, approaching the bars now.
“It doesn’t matter, Hawkins,” Freya ground out between clenched teeth.
“When we were in pilot training, you were always the first up and down the shrouds,” Ella continued.
“So?”
“So you’re good at it!” If Ella wasn’t suddenly so jealous, she might have realized she’d paid Freya her first compliment. “Just like how you’re good at everything! If you can do whatever you want, why don’t you do whatever you want ? It’s your future.”
“I am doing what I want.”
“I think you’re lying.”
“Why do you care so much?” Freya snapped, hackles rising.
“Because you act like you’re a hot commodity around the Academy! You strut around like you own the blasted school—”
“I do not!”
“—You go on and on about how I don’t want my future, yeah? Well, at least I’m not lying to myself about it!”
“I’m doing all I can to represent my family. Something you would never understand!”
“I’m doing all I can because I actually want to be an officer!” Ella roared back. “Stars, Freya! It’s…there are a lot of people who could only dream of being top of the class. Then someone like you snatches it up, and you don’t even want it.”
Freya was strangely quiet, watching Ella closely beneath her thin brow.
“Yeah, okay, I am jealous,” Ella huffed, turning away as raw emotion now spilled out inside her. “I don’t…I wasn’t…I know I wasn’t doing so great. It’s only my first year, and I was about to be expelled. I’m sure you’d have loved that.” A mocking laugh escaped Ella despite the sudden tightness in her throat. “But I do want that future. I don’t want to just represent my parents. I want it for me.”
She sighed as she pulled the mood stone out from under her shirt and gripped it tight. Shades of ruby red interlaced with bright blue were now captured by her palm.
“Did it really take you getting kidnapped by pirates to figure that out?” Freya snapped. “The only reason you were even failing was because you chose that. I don’t have that luxury. Don’t you get it? Tell me, what would your parents do to you if you got yourself expelled?”
Ella considered that question.
“They wouldn’t be happy,” she said morosely.
“But what would they do?” Freya demanded. “To you?”
“Do to me?” Ella echoed. What was Freya getting at? “I don’t know, ground me? Never trust me with anything ever again?”
Freya continued to glare at her.
“You’re acting like they’d throw me out,” Ella scoffed.
Freya’s aggressive gesture to herself made Ella’s stomach squeeze in sudden realization. Her lips parted as she tried to find words.
“Your parents will throw you out,” she breathed. It wasn’t a question.
“As in, you’re homeless and without access to an education now?” Hadley spoke up at last, pity writ all over her face.
“Not homeless, just sent away.”
“To where?” Ella swallowed.
“To a correctional school for young ladies.”
“What? Why?”
Freya turned to Hadley, “You mentioned convincing your family to let you attend the Academy? My father wanted me to attend, but only to paste a copy of himself back within the halls to relive his glory days.”
“What about your mom? What does she think about all of this?” Hadley asked. “Because my mom wasn’t really happy I wanted to enroll in the navy, but she still let me go, with my brother’s help of course. Can’t your mom say anything to your dad?”
Freya’s lips twitched into a brief sneer.
“She wanted her daughter to follow her into high society. To be everything she couldn’t—either a diplomat to some court drama or married off to a wealthy fruitcake to continue the family’s name. Her perfect little porcelain doll,” Freya snarled. “I’d rather die than do what she did.”
Ella and Hadley shared a look. A silent conversation and barrage of questions popping off in that one glance.
“Which is…?” Ella prompted, looking back at Freya.
“She married my father because he was one of the few decorated officers with money that even made it back from the frontier.”
Ella couldn’t imagine anyone marrying for status alone. Her mom had definitely been of a higher class (maybe not as high society as Freya) when she’d met her dad. It hadn’t stopped them from making it work.
“If I don’t achieve a rank as first officer upon graduation, I get replaced.” Freya was pacing she and Hadley’s cell now.
“Your brother?” Hadley muttered, coming to the conclusion far faster than Ella.
“When my father broke the news that I was to enter the Academy, my mother wanted another child to play dress-up with. Except, she couldn’t conceive, so they adopted my brother. Still, he doesn’t have our blood, so while he can carry on the family title in name, I can carry it through blood.”
“So, let me get this straight,” Ella fumed, threading fingers through the bars of her cell as she stared hard at Freya. “You’ve got your entire life planned out? You’ll become some bigshot in the navy and then what? Get married? Have kids?”
“Yes, obviously,” Freya spat.
“That’s stupid,” Ella retorted, finally understanding why Freya was so…Freya. “That is so stupid. Just say no.”
“I can’t say no, Hawkins!” Freya yelled. “Have you even been listening?”
Ella frowned, falling silent as Freya slowed her pacing.
“I figured, at the very least, once I graduated I could call my own shots, even with my family’s name. I thought…I wanted to be a captain.” She released a choked chuckle. “I really thought I did, but then we started pilot training, and I felt so…comfortable in the rigging.”
“Like you could be free? No responsibility anymore. Just space?” Ella asked. Freya turned to Ella with eyebrow quirked as if to ask how she knew that.
“Like I could do a job, do it well, and just breathe.” The darkness in her expression usually reserved for Ella now broke, allowing Ella the ability to see the real Freya for the first time. Then, her face contorted once more. “It doesn’t matter either way, and, at this point, I’ll be lucky if I even make it off this tub alive.”
“Don’t say that,” Hadley argued.
“Why?” Freya barked out a laugh. “Let’s not kid ourselves. We’re deadweight. All they really need is Hawkins.”
“Well, they’re not going to get me,” Ella retaliated.
“You’re in the brig of a Man-o-War a thousand sectors from home. Describe ‘got’,” Freya bared her teeth. Then she shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this to you of all people, but you were right the other day. I didn’t have to save you. Maybe I wanted a way out, so I stood up for you. Don’t think it was because I actually care.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Ella rolled her eyes, tired of this feud. Again, a forceful desire to tell Freya all about her dad’s scheming with White tugged at Ella. Who was he to decide what was virtuous for his daughter when he was sneaking around to get what he wanted? Maybe if Ella shared that with Freya, the girl would realize how wrong her family really was, and it would be enough to encourage her to chase her real future.
“We still have a chance,” Hadley whispered, looking terrified beyond her wits. “We can still find a way.”
As if in answer, heavy boots resounded on the steps once more. This time they were not the gentle thunk of that boy Tyler. Ella stepped away from the bars in anticipation.
One of the brutish pirates from a day ago appeared before them. He said nothing as he approached Ella’s cell and unlocked it. He moved fast, faster than Ella had expected with his size and stature. Within minutes he had an iron grip around her arms, yanking her out of her prison.
Ella pulled back, her bruised shoulder from earlier protesting.
“Let go of me,” she demanded. Sure, as if that had worked so well before.
“Fine.”
Wait, what?
The sudden loss of force on her arms sent Ella sprawling as she hit the floorboards on hands and knees. At once, she had her leg underneath her as she bolted for the steps. She took them two at a time, entering the secondary deck space she’d been escorted through the day before. Unlike the day before, however, the hold was now sparsely populated with crates and barrels.
And more pirates.
Some of the crew looked up from where they’d been securing materials. Carnivorous smiles broke out on a few of their faces.
Ella froze.
The man who had been sent to get her suddenly appeared behind her.
“You’re not getting far if you run, Little Bird, but I’ll give you a fair chance just because my mates and I would find it real entertaining.”
Ella’s eyes darted about the hold as she tried to now back up, only to be forced forward by a rough hand between her shoulder blades.
“Go on. Run, Little Bird,” he mocked as some of the pirates laughed and parted to reveal a straight shot to the steps at the opposite end of the hold. Ella knew it was a game to them, but the urgency fluttering up within her clouded her judgment. She started forward…
…and was immediately sent to the deck by the nearest rogue who’d stuck out his leg to trip her. Raucous laughter filled the space. Lying there against the floorboards, shame blossomed within Ella. She couldn’t save her parents. She couldn’t save her friends. She couldn’t even save herself.
“Didn’t even make it past the first body. Thought you navy kiddies would have a bit more spunk,” her captor shook his head, hauling her back to her feet, grip tight once more. This time, Ella didn’t fight him as she was escorted back to the top deck and toward the helm. More crew hung from the rigging up here, securing ropes and lines. Were they…preparing for takeoff?
Just before Ella ascended the steps to the helm and, consequently, Erebus’s stateroom, her eyes caught sight of a lanky form. Tyler was leaning against the gravity generator, mop in hand, bucket at his feet. So he wasn’t a prisoner, as Ella had originally suspected with his cuffs. He was their cabin boy.
Her heart sank further as the pirate holding her brought them up to the door while he rapped on the surface. A moment later, it swung open to reveal Erebus’s Zirellian boatswain. He stepped aside to allow them entry.
“Thank you, Gabranth,” Erebus remarked from where he sat behind his desk, observing some star charts. Gabranth nodded in response as he finally released Ella. She stood awkwardly in the center of the room as Erebus looked up and smiled at her. His gramophone scritched out a soft tune from its place in the corner. “You both may leave us, now. Layre, we’ll resume this discussion later.”
“Would you like me to—?” Layre began as Gabranth turned for the door.
“Yes, yes,” Erebus waved him off. “I trust you to take care of it.”
Take care of what?
Within seconds the door had shut behind the two men leaving Ella once more alone and vulnerable. She felt as though she had just been dropped into a viper’s nest, and the beast was ready to spring.
Erebus folded his hands on his desk and appraised her.
“How are you holding up?” he asked.
It was such a simple question, Ella was momentarily taken aback.
“Is that a joke?” she grumbled.
“I’d be more than happy to improve your accommodations if you stopped doing that pesky little thing where you try to run at the first opportunity,” he said, rising from his seat now. Ella took a nervous step back, but rather than approach her, he merely walked to the gramophone and removed the needle. The sudden absence of music paired with the loss of activity moments before made the room feel smaller somehow.
“You’re trying to kill my dad. Sorry I’m not cool with that,” Ella accused, surprised by the sudden boldness that had swept her up in its path.
“Ah,” Erebus tutted as he returned to his desk, picking up a baleen bone and very small carving knife. Settling back against the front of his desk while he whittled, he continued, “then there’s been some miscommunication. I’m not trying to kill your father.”
“But you said—”
“That we had some unfinished business,” he interrupted.
“Then…what is it? What do you want with him? No offense, but he’s never mentioned you ,” Ella crossed her arms, jostling her moodrock which, unbeknownst to her, had turned crimson.
“What a lovely necklace,” Erebus stated, jabbing his small blade in her direction. Ella looked down before grabbing it and clutching it in her fist as if to hide it. “Might I take a closer look?”
She shook her head, taking another step back.
“A gift then. From your father, I presume?”
Another small shake of her head.
“Mother?”
“No.”
“Hmmm,” Erebus hummed. “What about…an old friend?”
Ella’s breathing hitched against her best attempt to play it off. He couldn’t know about Silver. He just couldn’t.
However, while she expected Erebus to reach out and snatch the stone from her regardless, he instead produced a soft smile and returned to his work, shaking his head as if shaking off a memory.
“Let me tell you a little story, Miss Hawkins. About a young man, not much older than yourself, who grew up under very different circumstances.”
His knife inched along the baleen with careful precision.
“Am I correct to assume you’ve never had to wonder when next you’d eat?”
“I-I guess, yeah,” Ella stammered, thinking about her grandmother’s inn and how she would never let anyone go hungry. Thinking about her grandma made Ella think about home, however, and the sick sensation that she would never see it again gripped her once again.
“With two very fine admirals for parents, I’m sure you’ve accumulated a healthy bias against piracy as well. Have you ever considered the alternative? That pirates are people too? People who need to eat and drink and keep on like the rest of us?”
“I—” Ella started, then stopped. She supposed she’d considered it, but then she recalled her trip to Elpis with her mother where a whole town had been nearly brought to ruin by a pirate raid. Honest folk living simple lives had had their homes destroyed, business tarnished, loved ones threatened. At the time her mother had only been delivering cargo to the region. Ella had argued they needed to go after the fiends despite her mother’s orders being what they were. It had sparked one of their worst arguments.
“Trust me, I’m not here to defend piracy,” Erebus said, noting her wariness. “It’s a disease that festers among any imperial crop, but how does it take root?”
“Bad soil,” Ella mocked.
“And so if the soil is problematic, then what?”
“…Get new soil?”
Erebus jerked his knife at her again.
“Precisely. Now imagine the soil is our Empire. Mighty. Victorious. Illimitable. How does an individual who does not benefit from the pillars of this celestial society seek refuge?”
Ella was totally lost now.
“They survive,” Erebus’s voice grew low now, mouth snapping down at the corners. Just like the day before, his mask lifted to reveal something beneath that sent a chill up Ella’s spine. “They survive by any means necessary, but they cannot turn out the soil and plant new crop themselves when they’re reduced to mere parasites in the eyes of their rulers.”
He straightened up then, working his mouth in a way like he was resetting his facial expression.
“Regardless, back to the story of our young man who grew up as such a parasite.”
“You weren’t well off, so you turned to piracy,” Ella summarized. For a fleeting moment a memory of Jace Gunderson, farmer boy on Calatia, resurfaced. The moment when Ella had been distinctly aware of all she did have with parents who could afford her new shoes when necessary and a roof over her head with a bright future.
“Like I said, a disease,” Erebus shrugged. “The trouble with being young and naive in such an environment—you fall into quite a few traps. I made plenty of mistakes. I imagine you know what that’s like being young yourself,” he chuckled.
Ella fiddled with her mood stone.
“I found myself owing favors to a very abusive captain. One who did not take kindly to screw-ups.”
“Did you plan to kill him too, then?” Ella scoffed.
Erebus laughed.
“You’re so very devoted to painting a picture of me before you’ve truly listened. I’m not the murderer you think I am.”
Ella went silent. You kidnapped me, You Freak , she thought, biting her tongue so that she didn’t speak those words aloud and encourage him to murder her instead.
“You’re wondering how I weaseled my way out from under the thumb of a tyrant?” Erebus continued, before he pursed his lips with another curt shake of his head. “I’ll spare you the politics of such an endeavor. Some of the lads, myself included, saw an opportunity when a rival faction came under new management. Simply put, we left our kingpin and took up beneath a new flag. The flag of a captain who had gained quite a following among the pirate communities for good reason. He was charismatic, clever, and swift to deliver justice to the proper deceivers without dignifying cruelty.”
“He was a pirate,” Ella stated, though it was less a question and more an accusation.
“Of course he was,” Erebus waved her off. “Though, I suspect you believe my recount of him to be an aggrandizement of a scoundrel.” He stopped here and laughed under his breath as if at some private joke. “This captain may have been a scalawag, but to me he was…everything. A home, a livelihood, a mentor at a time when I needed one the most.”
“So, what happened to him?” Ella asked.
A strange thing happened then. A flicker of sadness encroached upon Erebus’s face.
“When his crew needed him the most, he left. Abandoned us to either perish in a battle he forced upon us or to be captured by imperialists who could not see us as anything more than parasites.” His voice fell away to become hardly a whisper. For a brief moment in time, Ella thought she saw real pain. A man who had been broken, ground down into dust by a life that had not been kind to him. She was surprised by the tinge of sympathy that struck her. She swallowed it quickly by reminding herself this man was dangerous, and no amount of tragic backstory could convince her he was her friend.
“That still doesn’t answer why you want my dad,” Ella cleared her throat.
“Yes,” Erebus acknowledged, setting his craft back down upon his desk and straightening up. “I want your father, because your father is going to help me get this captain back.”
“How?”
“Ah, now that is a question we’ll have to reserve for another time.”
“But if you’re not really after my dad, why couldn’t you have brought him here right away? Told him your story?”
“I cannot risk your father running to the navy right away. He’s an admiral. He has obligations. I’m what you might call a reformed pirate, though I doubt any empire would see it that way. Seeking him out would undoubtedly lead to my entrapment. It was easier to use you as leverage for this little…exploitation.” He chuckled again at his ‘cleverness’.
“He’d listen to you,” Ella argued. “I know my dad. He’d at least hear you out before he sentenced you.”
Erebus smiled again, though it was forced.
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. I suppose we shall see when he gets here, won’t we?”
Ella’s anxiety spiked once again.
“I want to thank you, Ella, for listening to me. I don’t expect you to have a change of heart, but I am encouraged to see your intentions are pure. Again, I apologize for the current accommodations, but if you would just be my guest a little while longer, all will come to pass as it was meant to.”
“You don’t give me a lot of options,” Ella grumbled under her breath as Erebus now swept past her to unbolt his stateroom door. As he did, some of the papers on his desk fluttered allowing Ella a quick glance at the map upon his desk.
It wasn’t of their current island archipelago. It was a map of the Terran Home Territories.
Of Sector Crescentia.
“Tyler!”
The shout startled Ella from drawing closer to his desk to uncover more.
At once the young manacled man ran up the steps to the stateroom, a scowl once more firmly planted upon his face.
“See her back to her cell for now, and bring me Gabranth. Oh, don’t worry, she won’t try anything, will you, Eleanora?”
He grinned at her. Ella flinched her gaze away as she stepped forward to stand beside Tyler.
“Come on,” he grunted, grabbing her bicep and dragging her forward, nearly making her stumble down the steps as Layre ascended on the other side, no doubt to continue his conversation that had been so quickly cut off earlier.
“I can walk,” Ella said flatly as she pulled her arm from his insistent tugging. He released her with a flourish and held up his hands as if in a ‘whatever’ gesture. They continued in silence then across the deck. As they took the steps down once more into the fore cargo compartment just above the brig, Ella again felt that claustrophobia clawing up her throat. Back to her cell. Back to being a pawn in a greater game.
“On babysitting duty there, Ty?” a pirate snickered from where he leaned against a barrel in the shadow of one of the ship’s ribs. “Maybe you oughta bring me an ale, Wenchy, while you’re at it.”
“Maybe you shut your mouth,” Tyler sneered.
The pirate whistled before his eyes slid to Ella.
“I heard of your daddy, Girlie.” The man stood up now revealing a stick-bug like appearance, albeit with rather humanoid eyes and a mouth. He lurched forward suddenly on needly hands and legs as he crawled toward her. “He’s the sumbint who took down a couple of my mates.”
Ella eased backwards, surprised when Tyler stepped in front of her.
“She’s captain’s property. You can’t touch her,” Tyler narrowed his eyes.
“Didn’t know you were loyalin’ up to our captain, Wenchy,” Needle-Man sneered as he used his thin body and multiple limbs to move fluidly around Tyler, one three pronged ‘hand’ brushing Ella’s shoulder causing her to jump back. “We can have a bit of fun with her and no one gotta find out. No daddy here to save you. Think I’d get under that almighty admiral’s skin if he got back damaged goods?” The man laughed again. “Tit for tat as they say?”
Ella froze. She wasn’t sure why now of all times she found herself completely paralyzed. His fingers were just reaching for some strands of her orange hair when Tyler’s hand shot out and grabbed the man’s spindly wrist.
“Don’t,” he seethed.
“You can have some fun too, Wenchy,” the man laughed. “She’s more your type than mine.”
Before Ella knew what was happening, Tyler had surged forward, fist flying for the pirate’s midriff—the largest part of his body. The man expected this, however, and moved as quick as that viper Ella was thinking about earlier. Within moments, Tyler was on his back, wrists and legs pinned down by the cretin’s spindly appendages.
“How’s that now? You think Captain won’t tighten those jingly little chains of yours until you bleed for threatening me, Boy?”
Tyler squirmed, lip curled in disgust.
Ella was just gearing up to throw herself at Pick-Up-Sticks to save Tyler when someone beat her to it. The man, Gabranth, from earlier suddenly appeared behind her, his arm snapping forward as he grabbed the pirate by the back of his neck. With a flourish, he lifted the man off of Tyler and threw him into a nearby stack of barrels. Tyler scrambled back to his feet, breathing hard as Ella unconsciously eased behind him once more. A violent shiver wracked her frame, her ears ringing. She’d been so focused on escaping, not being shot, she hadn’t even considered the other implications of being a young woman held captive aboard a tub of thieves.
“...You don’t get hauling these crates, Reggie, I’ll haul your corpse straight to hell,” Gabranth was shouting.
“Aye, Gab, I was just messing with the kids,” Reggie argued, righting himself from his tumble.
“I don’t give ten pieces of silver what you planned to do, you hull-sucking barnacle. This ain’t your flophouse. Get back to work,” Gabranth retaliated as Reggie scowled and skittered back above deck to fetch another crate and barrel. Gabranth then turned to Tyler and Ella. “What? Are you waiting to catch fetchflies, you sack of rot? Bring the Little Bird back to her cage and get on cleaning the heads.”
“Captain wants to see you,” Tyler said.
“Ain’t stopping you from getting her back below.”
“Yeah, I’m bringing her, alright?” Tyler spat as he once more grabbed Ella’s arm and towed her forcefully across the deck boards to the steps leading to the brig. For once, Ella didn’t protest, still trying to shake off the vulgarity of the pirate’s comments, his looming form, fingers brushing her hair…
As they stepped down into the dim space, Tyler suddenly spoke up, albeit under his breath.
“Nothing’s gonna happen to you, okay? The captain would kill anyone who touches you,” he assured her. As they approached Ella’s cell, Tyler finally released her, allowing Ella to meander back into the tiny space, still numb and tingly as the bars clanged shut once more behind her. Ella caught his eye with the intent to thank him, but the words died on her lips. Tyler appeared ready to say more himself before he shook his head and retreated back up the stairwell while Hadley, Freya, and Ella looked on in curiosity.
“You okay?” Hadley asked, breaking the silence.
“Um, yeah,” Ella swallowed, feeling returning to her arms and legs. “Sorry, I just—”
“Did something happen?” Hadley asked at the same time Freya said, “What did he want this time?”
“Um, I don’t really know. He just wanted to talk, I guess. He told me a little more about why he’s after my dad.”
“And?” Freya pressed.
“Apparently he’s got some unfinished business with a captain he used to work for. He thinks my dad is going to help him track that pirate down.”
“He couldn’t just kidnap your dad instead of us, then?” Freya snorted.
“That’s what I asked him, but he thinks my dad is untouchable being an admiral in the navy, so it was easier to draw him out with me.”
“That doesn’t feel right,” Hadley scrunched up her nose.
“He didn’t seem interested in hurting my dad or us for that matter,” Ella said carefully.
“Even if he doesn’t plan to hurt any of us, what is he planning with the armada he has just outside this hold?” Freya scoffed, crossing her arms. “I don’t trust him, and you shouldn’t either, Hawkins.”
“Of course I don’t trust him,” Ella rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying that we might be okay.”
“At the cost of what, though?”
Ella chewed her lower lip. Freya was right, but at the same time, all Ella wanted was to be home safe with her family. Whatever battles came of this could be figured out once she was back alongside her mom and dad. One problem at a time, as they say.
“He…did go on a weird rant about how piracy is a disease of the Empire. I also noticed the flag when we first boarded—it looks like the imperial crest.”
“If he’s not a pirate, he certainly employed pirates to capture us,” Hadley said.
“He called himself a ‘reformed pirate’.”
Freya snorted at that, “Right. And I’m a gillrat. Sounds like he enjoys mincing words.”
“What’s the purpose of telling you all this if he’s just going to keep us here until your dad arrives?” Hadley asked. Ella frowned, considering.
“I don’t know, but I get a bad vibe he’s trying to ‘convince’ me of something. He keeps going on about ‘our stories’ and how I had bias. I think he’s trying to prove to me he’s doing a good thing, but I don’t really know what that is yet.”
“Next time he brings you up there, keep him talking. Get as much out of him as you can,” Freya ordered.
Ella nodded, determined now. While a part of her prayed there wouldn’t be another ‘next time’, she knew Freya was right. They need to figure out who Erebus was and what he wanted with her dad along with any plans he had for the fleet of ships at his disposal. If Ella could get any information out of him regarding his exploits, she’d at least be good for something.
More boots on the stairs now startled her out of her reverie.
Already? she thought. Was her ‘next time’ right now?
Gabranth appeared once more in the dim light followed by another burly pirate—one of the men who had first secured them upon boarding. Ella half expected him to unlock her cell and manhandle her again for some other odd encounter of Erebus’s design. Instead, he moved toward Freya and Hadley’s prison. The hairs on the back of Ella’s neck rose.
“Wait,” she croaked.
“Change of plans, Ladies,” Gabranth boomed, throwing open the door and cornering Freya and Hads.
“Wait, hold on,” Ella begged as the men reached for her friends. “Wait! What’s going on?”
“Get off me, Rat!” Freya roared, trying to box the second pirate. All she managed was for him to catch her fist in a meaty hand and squeeze. She cried out as he yanked her arms behind her back, using a rope to bind her swiftly.
“Stop!” Ella cried out, throwing herself against the bars that separated her by mere inches from her companions. “What are you doing?”
“Different accommodations,” Gabranth announced as he secured Hadley who also struggled, her legs scrabbling for leverage to push back against his muscular grip. They didn’t stand a chance.
“What does that mean?” Ella yelled as her two friends were pulled from their cell. A cold sweat broke out across Ella’s skin. She thought about needle-brain’s words, we can have a bit of fun…
“Don’t hurt them, please!” she slammed her palms against the bars.
But Gabranth didn’t listen. Of course he didn’t listen. All Ella could do was watch as Hadley and Freya were dragged kicking and shouting down the aisle of the brig and further up the steps.
“Keep him talking, Hawkins!” Freya ordered. “Don’t worry about—argh!” Her arms were pulled further into an awkward angle cutting off her words as the four of them hustled up the steps and out of sight. Ella listened intently as the sounds of their moving bodies grew fainter and fainter. A scream caught in her throat. What was Erebus going to do to them? He didn’t want them! He wanted her, right? What had Gabranth said? Different accommodations?
Laughter filtered down from above prompting Ella to grab the lattice-bars and give them a violent shake.
“Stop, please!” she screamed. “I’m the one you want! Don’t hurt them!”
However, as soon as her own voice dissipated, so too did the laughter. Silence settled into the cracks of the hold slowly and then all at once much the same way the anxiety snaking in Ella’s stomach became a full blown forest fire of panic.
Nobody heard her. Nobody cared.
And no one was coming to save any of them.