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:  C H A P T E R  F I F T E E N : 

"Don't you sleep at all?" I questioned Cody. He shushed me and waved a hand over my face, urgently checking for the presence of any of his ship mates in their bunkers. When all came up empty, he hurried me over to the door that had his name on it, and we were inside within a second.

It was dark in the room, so he lit the lanterns and cast a dull glow throughout the cabin. I perched myself on top of the bed while he checked outside the balcony door before shutting the curtains.

"Ivan and I share the balcony. He don't come out much, but you never know," he told me before disarming himself of his weapons. I watched as he unlocked one of the cabinets and put his pistol in it, along with a few knives, and kept his cutlass sheathed and looped onto a post nearby.

"Didn't'chya hear me? Don't you sleep?" I repeated. He sighed and shut the cabinet door.

"What's the point of it?" he said as he took out an alcohol canteen, the kind that the daily wine was stored in, and took a long swig of it. I looked at him questioningly, and it took him a while to finish the conversation he started. "I mean, yeah I sleep, but there's perks to being the captain's son."

"Like what?"

"Don't gotta sleep."

"That's absurd. Everyone's gotta sleep," I replied, but he shook his head and offered me a drink. I pushed it away. "How do you function on so little sleep?"

"Avarice has side hands all over land and sea. He knows a few charmers, and the Outer Planes has an excellent trade for charms and the like," he explained. "Mhyra's a charmer. Well, used to be anyhow. She's not supposed to use magic on the ship."

I once heard rumors about charmers. My father once said that it was important to be on a charmer's side, but they liked to keep their practice quiet. He said that there was one in the court, but I never did find out who it was. They were just like everyone else, lest they practice the dark stuff. Black markets started with the dark stuff that everyone else was too afraid of practicing for themselves.

It was probably where Avarice got his sleep potions.

"Does everyone on the ship use them?" I asked, but he shook his head and sat down beside me, still emptying out his whiskey canteen.

"Nah. They clunk out in shifts. It's too hectic having two dozen men on deck at the same time," he said, sounding exhausted as he rubbed one of his eyes. It wasn't often that I saw Cody this tired, and I felt sorry for him then. He spent days on his feet, running around and doing his father's deeds, and I'd become uncertain that this was the life he wanted. I pictured him on his own ship, and the thought of him being his own captain made me excited to help.

"You said Avarice's father was a privateer," I said, and he nodded. He tipped his head back and drank a bit more. "What if you became a privateer for my father."

He nearly choked on his drink and coughed, covering his mouth with the back of his hand and stared at me with wide, startled eyes. "You damn near killed me there!" he choked, voice hoarse as he screwed the cap back on his canteen and tossed it aside. "Where'd this come from?"

"Oh come on, it'd be great! You could have your own ship, get paid lots--you could have your own crew," I said, pressing my hand to his arm to get him to understand how incredible this could be. There was no doubt in my mind that Father would readily agree to this, and he'd have Cody sailing on a brand new ship in no time. The white sails would be perfect, not a patch, not an extra stitch on them. The robes would no longer be frayed and worn from years of battery and weather--we'd have new ones replaced, and stock up on all the Damunian flatbread and wine he would need.

"Yer gettin' ahead of yourself, princess. I'm not interested in that kinda life," he argued. "I like it here. I've my men to take care of."

"But you could be captain-!" I insisted. "You don't have to be the son of anyone."

"Ya don't get it, do you?" he exclaimed, jumping up to his feet and pacing the floor, tossing his arms about as he battled against me with his harsh voice and angry scar wrinkling on his forehead. "I don't care 'bout that! Avarice's my father, and my captain! He's always been there for me, for the crew, an' I don't care if you have a problem with him, but I won't have you tryin' to turn me against him."

He was raising his voice so loud, I feared that it was echoing all around the hold and threw the boards overhead into Avarice's cabin. I bounced up and quickly shushed him and tried to quiet him down.

"He treats all of you like dirt, though! Can't you see that? Look-" I grabbed for his arm, and he fought me at first, but eventually I had a tight enough hold to turn the inside of his wrist up for him to see the branding marks seared onto his skin. "No captain should do this to you, especially not your father."

He shoved me back by my shoulder and snatched his wrist back. He glared at me with so much anger, I nearly mistook him for the man that sneered at Conroy earlier. "Get out," he seethed.

My skin pebbled at the sound of his chilling tone. "Wh-what?" I stammered, "But Cody, the treason mark-"

"Get out! Now!" he roared, pointing heatedly towards the door. I backed up, only to be spun around when he took a dangerous step towards me. I sprinted for the door and swung outside of it, slamming it shut behind me.

After a brief, stunned moment with my back against the door, I decided upon my next course of action. I took one step towards the hold, only to falter when the ship bucked to the side, and I managed to catch my footing long enough to sprint towards the stairs leading down below the hold. I descended into the belly of the ship, and down to the dungeon where I grabbed an extra lit lantern strung up on the wall. I continued down the next set of stairs, and finally around the corner to the metal bars glinting dully in the light.

"'Ello, girlie. What're ya doin' down 'ere on yer lonesome?" a prisoner called, rattling his hand on the metal bars.

"Got the keys now, do ya?" someone said, reaching a grimy hand out of the bars, crawling his fingers towards me as I wove around them.

"No, I do not," I said, skittering past the occupied cells with their calls coming after me. My spine rippled with unease at the sound of their wolf-whistles and their catcalls. I'd heard them before, but Cody or Harvey would be there to kick their hands away or shove their faces back into the cell.

I followed a random trail through the mazes of cells until I hit the farthest corner in the back of the brig. It was severely unused, strung around the bars with abandoned webs and rust. There was an ominous dripping sound somewhere far off, and when I rubbed my finger against the bar, a thick layer of dust came off on the pad of my thumb. The door creaked open when I jabbed at it with my toe, and I allowed myself to walk in with the lantern and kick aside the chain on the ground.

Eventually I felt inclined to turn the lantern off, knowing that it was already dark outside anyway. I settled down on my back, and after a while I wasn't sure if my eyes were open or closed because no matter what all I saw was black. Some time later, perhaps an hour, or maybe two, I felt myself slip away from consciousness and fall into a restless sleep riddled with the memory of Father and Theo back at home, and Ella on their wedding day.

A deep longing lacerated my heart and jolted me awake in tears. Cody's anger towards me rekindled the pain of losing my family, and I wanted more than anything to make this abduction as temporary as possible. I could feel the warm, calloused fingers of my father stroking my hair in parental guidance upon facing unrelenting tasks. I wanted to hug Father again and hear him tell me that everything was going to be well and good upon the morn.

The tears on my cheeks turned cold as they dripped onto the wood. My hair was in a disarray, hopelessly tattered and greasy beyond belief. It'd gotten to the point where all it was was frizz and tangled ends. It served as a pillow for me to rest on as I drifted back in and out of uncomfortable slumber.

The next time I woke, it was to the light of a lantern, so far away and small, entering the brig. I blinked myself awake from the sounds of the inmates clashing their hands against the bars and rattling them. They were shouting, but it was a joyful uprising of hoots and hollers, and moans of starvation being sated.

They were being given their meal of the day, and I knew as soon as the light drifted over to my usual cell, Cody wouldn't find me there.

The light halted at the entrance to the cell. The light cast long shadows that merged together in this far corner of the brig. I was too far away for the glow to reach me.

"Maxine!" His voice echoed for a long while. I stayed quiet, just like I had the day Conroy destroyed the tranquility of my stay here on The Avarice. "Maxine, I know yer down here!"

He started pacing back down the hall, to the far back even beyond the stairs. I debated making a run for the stairs, to try and trick him, but knew that if I stirred much further than inside this cell, the noise would be heard throughout the brig.

I checked the lantern on the floor and avoided it as I shuffled back away from it as the swaying lantern in Cody's hand started to retreat back this way. It was unavoidable when he came past, checking first the cell across from mine and then finally the one I sat in. I had my knees curled up to my chest, my chin resting on top of them, while my eyes squinted against the bright light from his lantern.

He stopped abruptly, hanging back for a moment before hooking the lantern onto a nail sticking out of the beams overhead. At first he didn't open the cell, only stood with his hands clutching the bars. "'M sorry, Maxine. I shouldn't've yelled at ya--it wasn't my place," he said, voice hushed and small. His apology crushed my already wounded heart, and I found myself tearing up.

"I just wanna go home, Cody," I whimpered, burying my head against my knees. He was in the cell in an instant, helping me to my feet so he could drape his arms around me. I nestled against his chest, feeling dull and insignificant with dried tears on my cheeks and eyes still stinging with fresh ones.

I felt the pressure of his lips on my hair, soothing me back into silence whilst rubbing a hand over my back, the other petting my hair. His massive, calloused hands were neutral in all forms of warmth and comfort, but I found myself appreciating their presence here to calm me down. I strongly disliked being so out of order.

"You'll be fine, believe me," he murmured to me, his accent a musical lull in my ear. "You've got me, the Monkey, an' that questionable fellow Nash." I laughed, smiling against his shirt and just wanting to stay there for the day. I didn't want anyone else to see my swollen eyes in the daylight, then everyone would know and understand my homesickness, and mistake me for someone less than I was before.

"Know-How," I mumbled.

"Yes, that blasted four-eyed man-whore." I shifted so I could wrap my arms around his lean torso, finding that the tighter I hugged him, the less of my smile he could see. "The sea life might not fancy yer home life much, but you've got a handful of this crew ready to lay their lives down for ya. I can't say they'd help ya get home, but I do know that we'll try our damnedest to make this place seem like it."

"Stop it, you're gonna make me cry again," I whined, laughing on the end as I pulled away from him. I smeared my hand over my eyes and cheeks, riding them of leftover tears, and looked up at his silhouetted form. There was a small smile on his lips as he nodded off towards the exit.

"It's nearly sunrise. Harv's out on the boom waitin' for it to come up."

"Count me in," I said, nudging him aside so I could exit first. "If you give me a head start, I bet I could beat you to the deck!"

He chuckled, shutting the cell door behind him as I was already taking off through the maze of cells, finding my way fairly easily through the dark with the light coming up behind me from Cody's lantern.