Hidden Island Chapter 28, part 1 of 3

Hidden Island
Chapter 28, part 1 of 3

Will was surprised. He'd heard Bella talk about how evil hexes were before. "I thought you didn't hex people."

"I don't, usually. It's one of those things the Magistrate frowns on, but against pirates trying to kill us, I'm willing to bend the rules," Bella smiled. She finished crawling around and drawing the second circle as Will tied the mirror to the mast. Inside the mirror, Will heard Tonya arrive.

"I'm sorry it took me so long. I needed to get cleaned up. What's going on?" Bella's apprentice asked.

"Pirates are chasing them. Bella will use the mirror as an energy source to hex them, so we have to replenish the mirror from this side," Janie explained. "Help me draw this circle."

"Woah. All right. What's he doing here?" Tonya asked.

"Helping," Caine replied.

"You look like you're just sitting there drinking," Tonya snarked.

"That's how I usually help," Caine shrugged.

"Good point," Tonya conceded as she got down on her hands and knees to help draw a circle.

"You should just get a rug made," Caine suggested. "Would save you much time drawing on the ground."

"Woah," Tonya said, surprised. "Bella, would that work?"

"What?" Bella called from the other side. She was about ten feet away, but the ship and weather were noisy.

"A rug! A big circular rug, woven as a spellbinding circle!" Tonya called from closer to the mirror. "Would that work?"

"I don't know," Bella answered. "I'll think it through later."

I will finish roping the mirror to the mast. Water steadily dripped off the tip of his tricorn hat. The rain was still slow and heavy, but it was picking up. "What now?" he asked Bella.

The naked witch was finishing up the second circle. "I'm going to run through my whole supply of paint on this," she muttered. "Three more circles. Smaller, in a stack. One around the mast and the mirror, one in front of it, and one behind it." She shortened the protractor rope and started the smaller circle around the mast.

"This is a lot more complex than things I've seen you do before," Will said.

"It wasn't my original plan to do things this way. I'm improvising a bit, but it will work well. It's probably hard to tell, but many things come together in fortunate ways."

Will was suddenly very aware of his equilibrium. Usually, that was when he first noticed that his curse might be kicking in. It was automatic.

He'd developed a habit of mentally checking in with his balance anytime things seemed strange. It was a habit that grounded him and helped him stay focused when things started getting out of hand. Things seemed like they were headed out of hand, and Bella's talk of luck reminded him far too much of the conversation he'd just had about his curse with Jack. Jack might have been wrong, but his instincts told him she was onto something.

He couldn't help but feel suspicious of anything involving luck now.

The deck was shifting, and the wind blew too much for him to notice if he felt off-kilter. The feeling of the curse shifting things was often subtle, and he couldn't tell during a storm.

Will looked out into the black in the direction the ship hunting them had last been spotted, wondering if purposefully trying to engage his curse might have had consequences he couldn't see or feel yet. Or maybe he just had a guilty conscience.

"I hope you're right."

Lynch opened the door, and Jack barged in without any explanation. Lynch stopped her with a stiff arm, but she knocked it aside and kept moving. He reached for her again, but Morant stopped him with a raised hand. Jack gave Lynch a sharp look and finished walking into the room.

"What is it?" Morant asked. He finished buttoning his expensive black coat over his shirt and vest. "A storm?"

"And a ship. We're being chased and headed into the storm to escape," Jack said quickly.

Lord Morant looked exasperated but largely unconcerned. "I will remain here. Mister Lynch, help see to the defense of the ship." Lynch nodded, headed to a large chest against the wall, and opened it.

Jack left, pulling the door shut behind her. She crossed the hold to her cabin and walked in to find Doctor Kalfou still sleeping.

"Wake up, Doc," she roared. Doctor Kalfou's face scrunched in discomfort. She rolled her head to the side and cracked an eye. The lanterns shone through the doorway, casting Jack in silhouette.

"What?" the doctor asked unhappily.

"We're headed into a storm and being chased by pirates," Jack turned up the lantern on the wall, brightening the room.

"What?" The doctor sat up quickly, fully awake now, squinting and using her hand to shield her eyes from the
sudden light.

"Get dressed, arm yourself, and get up top. There will probably be a wounded person before the night's over."

Jack opened her footlocker and began rifling through it.

Doctor Kalfou tossed back her covers and pulled her locker from beneath her bed. "Where does the ship receive wounded?" she asked, shimmying into her trousers.

"No idea. Ask one of the Norths," Jack removed her belt and began individually sliding pouches, holsters, and sheaths onto it. She snapped a shoulder strap onto it and put the entire thing on again. The strap ran across her body from her left hip to her right shoulder, helping to distribute the added weight of the two pistols that now rode her left hip. The sheath of her machete ran lengthwise across the small of her back. She hefted her bulky firearm, settling its sling over her shoulder, and closed her footlocker.

Doctor Kalfou finished pulling on her boots and headed out the door at a run. Jack took a calming breath.

"Quinn, I need you."

Sailing into a storm at night, at full sail, was incredibly dangerous. The swabs were all tied into the masts and assigned hauling duties. They had ahold of these lines running to the corners of the sails and were pulled under the direction of Mister Reeve. The sails had to be adequately tilted to help steer, compensate for the wind, and keep the gusts from capsizing. Without the swabs helping, the riggers would have had no hope of saving the sails under control. The crew was in a tug-of-war with a thunderhead.

Lightning lit the night again. Will craned his neck behind him and waited, hoping for another to follow. It did, right as the thunder from the first rolled. He could make out the black silhouette of the other ship. It loomed much more significant in the distance than he'd hoped.

"Ship astern, due south!" came the call from above.

"She's gaining, captain," Will called over the storm.

"Gaining, aye!" Vex called behind her, acknowledging him. They couldn't see each other because of the arrangement Bella had put Will in.

He was sitting in a chair they had tied and nailed to the deck. Ropes were pulled tight across his lap, tying him to the chair so the waves wouldn't toss him out of it. The tabletop was sitting across his thighs. It was wet, but the glass top had been smartly made to keep water from getting to the maps beneath. The lantern from the mast before him was enough to see by. He couldn't move much but didn't need to for his job.

Tucked into his belt was a small silver hand mirror that Bella had given him. He had no idea what it was for, but she'd been unequivocal that he needed to keep it with him and keep it safe.

He had to lean to the side to see around the mast and have a clear line of sight for Bella. She was in another circle, like his. The pattern she'd drawn was complex. There were three circles in a line. He was in the southernmost one; the center circle held the mirror, and the mizzenmast, the northern smaller circle, was where Bella knelt. Around those three circles were the two larger circles she had drawn first. In the gap between the two larger circles, she'd drawn several symbols Will didn't recognize. The whole thing had taken almost all her paint.

"So, what do I need to do, Bella?" he called around the mast.

"Nothing! Just don't leave your circle! If your curse starts feeling strange, ignore it!" Bella called back.

"Usually, if I do that, bad things happen!" he replied.

"I know!" Bella called. "I'm trying to use that!"

"What?" Will was suddenly nervous.

"It's a fortune hex!" Bella called back.

"Report!" Captain Vex called out.

"Bosun!" Danica called.

"All present!" Reeve boomed

"Rigging!" Danica called again.

"All present!" Lace shouted down.

"Quarters!" Danica continued.

Up from the hold came Mister North's voice. "All secure! Passengers accounted for!"

Danica came up the stairs, holding the rail as the winds and waves buffeted her. "We're ready, Captain. Miss
Hunter, Mister Quinn, Mister Lynch, and the rest of Lord Morant's retinue are standing by below decks to help repel boarders should it come to that. I have Doctor Kalfou in your quarters preparing to receive wounded."

"The crew fully armed?" Captain Vex asked.

"Almost. The crew that responded early to the storm didn't bring weapons. We need to run weapons up to the riggers. Other than that, we're ready for a fight," Danica said.

"I want Colin here with me. You head to the prow," Captain Vex said, her eyes on the black horizon, focused in concentration.

"Aye," Danica said curtly, heading back down the steps as quickly as possible.

The winds and rain were picking up. Belita could feel the ship's timbers beneath her feet and the straining of the wheel against her hands. Her boat was protesting the treatment she was getting. Captain Vex spared a glance over her shoulder, knowing she wouldn't see anything in the blackness but would give in to the impulse anyway.

"Sails to half!" she barked.

"Sails to half! Sails to half!" came the echoing relay of acknowledgments from Reeve and Webber.

It was hazardous to head into a storm under sail, but they needed the extra distance from their pursuers. The risk increased as the storm grew and the deeper the ship got. Belita relied on board the vessel to tell her when things were getting more than she could handle.

Reducing the sail might get them caught, but it would be fine if they snapped a mast or capsized first.

The riggers worked quickly, hauling up the lower sail beams and re-tying the lines to secure the sails at the halfway point. Suddenly, Belita wished they'd been in a triangular sail configuration rather than square-rigged.

Square sails had a higher top speed but required more sailors to man them and needed to be adjusted quickly.

Triangular sails were great for navigating coastlines and tacking. They were more maneuverable, which Captain Vex needs most right now.

Speed was vital, but she could already tell this race wasn't about speed. All speed did was delay the inevitable.

Despite the grim thought, her heart pounded with excitement. A determined smile crept across her face, and she patted the ship's wheel encouragingly.

Caine and Janie looked at each other with identical expressions of surprise and concern.

"No," Caine said. Janie looked relieved.

"Why the hell not." Tonya barked, throwing her hands up. She'd just finished painting the transfer sigil on her chest and was ready to start. She hadn't expected Caine and Janie to become prudes suddenly.

"Because she doesn't want to," Caine said simply.

"We have to fuel this somehow! I can't do it all myself," Tonya snapped, frustrated.

"I shouldn't even be agreeing to have sex with you," Caine said archly.

"What? Why? I thought you liked me," Tonya said, not understanding the reluctance the other two were displaying.

"I do. You're a good kid," Caine said with a shrug. "You're just... way too young for me."

Tonya yanked her dress down and let the entire thing pool on the ground. "Does this look like a kid's body to you?" she growled. She cocked one rounded hip and rested her hand on it saucily. She had small, pert breasts and a round face that made her look younger than she probably was, but the rest of her body was unmistakably adult.

Caine sighed. "I don't know. That's the problem. I don't know, and neither do you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tonya demanded. "You think I don't know if I'm a kid?"

"How old are you?" Caine asked.

"Old enough," Tonya said through clenched teeth, knowing exactly where this was going.

"Really? I thought you didn't know how old you were," Caine said, not letting the subject go.

"I don't! I didn't even learn to count until after I started my first moon cycle," Tonya said defensively. "We went over all of this when Chance hired me. Just because I look young doesn't mean I am. I might be older than Janie!"

Caine raised an eyebrow. "Or you might be fifteen. That's the problem. We have no way of knowing."

"So what." Tonya snapped. "I fuck people for a living, Caine! I've been doing it for almost two years! If I was adult enough then, I'm sure as hell adult enough now!"

Caine sighed. "Yeah, I know. It just feels wrong, like I might be taking advantage of you. I'm old. Even if you are twenty-five, that's probably too young for me."

"Oh, you asshole," Tonya stared flatly. "I should-"

"Stop," Janie said.

The arguing pair turned to look at her, surprised and curious.

"This is not the time," she continued. "Tonya, I can help you find out how old you are. Not now. It will take time, which we don't have. Later. If you want to know, I can help you. Right now, we have more important things to focus on. Caine, if you don't have a problem with her profession in the abstract, you shouldn't have one now. It's fine if you aren't interested, but treating her like a child isn't fine to give yourself an excuse to back out."

"Fine," Tonya agreed. "So, are we going to do this or not?" she demanded of Caine.

Caine looked conflicted.

"The other option is Janie, and you two just said no to that!" Tonya threw up her hands. "It's just sex, why is this so damn difficult?"

"There's also you and Tonya. You two don't need me for this," Caine said, trying to change the focus off of him.

"Bella asked you to be here," Janie said. "I don't understand it, but I assume you do."

"Yeah. I do. She's guessing about something. She's not quite right, but she's close enough that I can't just leave," Caine said with a roll of his eyes.

"What the hell does that mean?" Tonya said, still grumpy.

"It means I can help. I didn't think I was going to have to have sex with someone to do it," Caine sighed.



To be continued