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:  C H A P T E R  S E V E N :

 The strange lady took me to the back room of the cabin as quickly as she could. Her hands were calloused yet soft, and when she came closer I saw a pair of gold earrings looped through her ears. I glanced over my shoulder to Avarice as he moved away from the door, one hand on his hip and the other on his forehead.

I nearly tripped entering the room. She shut the door behind us and ordered me to sit myself down on a wooden chair in the corner. It was such a small compartment that I only took two steps to get there. The knife from the door was still tightly clenched in my fist, but I realized now that the blade was chipped and hardly sharp. I kept it in my lap.

"Who are you? How do you know my mother?" I asked, but she was in a rush and didn't answer until she fetched a first aid kit from a cabinet at our feet.

"Lanore lived here for years. We knew each other well," she told me, and then instructed that I lift my chin up so she could tend to my wounds. A cold substance was slathered over it, and I felt it sting as the cut was cleaned and then dabbed over with a cloth. "You look just like her."

My ears heated up. "Thank you."

We were both quiet for a while as she tossed out the bloody cloth and deemed the wound reparable over time. She seemed to know a lot about my mother, and what was going on on the ship, but what I wanted were answers. She never answered my question about who she was.

"Why did Avarice take my mother?" I asked. The girl refused to look me in the eye as she returned her things to the cabinet.

"Cannot tell you, but it is not safe for you here," she murmured, her hand coming to my knee as she crouched down to her knees. She was incredibly scrawny, I realized, after observing her knobby knees and elbows, and how nimble her fingers were. Her neck was long and braced with a tight-fitting necklace that looked as though it was made of cloth, and studded with gold metal loops like her earrings. My head was swimming, and the waves of questions crashed against my throbbing forehead. I pressed a hand to my temple to relieve the stress, especially after gaining the woozy tug on my conscious at the sight of her scars. There was a considerable amount of marks up and down her arms.

She clenched her fist into the skirts of my dress, and let go abruptly when knocking sounded on the door.

"Unlock this door immediately!" It was Avarice. I had the fleeting urge to crack open the tiny window over my chair and dive into the ocean. But then I remembered how my fear of the ocean waves trumped almost anything Avarice could do, and thought better of it.

The girl jumped up and raced to the door, swiftly loosening the lock and letting the door swing open. A moment later, she was being dragged from the room by her dress. "I thought I've told ya not to lock them doors, girl!"

"Yes, master, it won't happen again," she agreed, nodding her head frantically. I had bolted up out of my chair, but paused when I saw her do this. His grip loosened and eventually he pushed her away from him. All she had to do was agree and he backed off.

But, master?

He turned his back on me and marched over to his desk where he took a seat and leaned it back. He shooed the girl away, who ran off to the door beside the one we were just in. After she scurried behind the door, Avarice confronted me with a gesture towards the chair across from him.

I hesitantly went there, and slowly sat down as he started speaking. "I'm surprised ya haven't made any moves, dearie. Ya haven't stabbed a single man." He held out his hand towards me. He wanted the knife back.

I dropped it in his outstretched palm and sat back in my chair. "I want to know why I am here. My father's people will find Avarice of the Sea and cut it down--it would be easier for you to just release me at Brunmere," I announced, holding my chin high at first before remembering that the stinging there was from the two slice marks under it. I brought my eyes to meet his, just as a smirk slid the right corner of his lips up.

"There's somethin' ya don't know. When ya fell from the cliff, everyone thought you were right dead, floatin' to the bottom of the sea if Cody hadn't jumped in to fetch ye. From on top of that cliff, those blokes thought ya died right then and there, never mind just unconscious. If yer father's comin' after me, it'll just be for revenge, and revenge is a sore coward's trick."

As he took a sip from his brandy glass, he swallowed my hope with it. Even if I tried to keep the distain off my countenance, it was still there and it stopped my heart from beating.

Father thought I was dead.

Theo thought I was dead.

And Ambrose...

"But why me?" I croaked, my throat constricting so tightly I could feel it squeezing the tears out my eyes. I loathed Avarice even more at that moment. He tricked my family, my Ambrose, into believing that the seas gobbled me up. I would trade arranged marriage over this any day.

Avarice remained silent, studying me with a calm, casual look on his face. I slammed my fist on the arm of my chair and leaned forward. "What do you need me for!" I screamed. "Tell me!"

He tsked at me, puckering his lips as he stroked a curl in his beard. "Best ya don't know, princess. Just know this: Once I've gotten what I need, you best believe Avarice of the Sea is where ya wanna go. None other ship is gonna treat you half as well as we do here."

The moon's on her shroud, and to light thee afar

I needed to escape.

Brunmere was on the horizon, and as it grew in size, I made myself perfectly well and suited on the steps of the quarterdeck. There was no need to call attention to myself, especially when the crew was already weary of me after a shout out from their captain.

I prodded at the spot where my necklace used to be, only now it was in the custody of Captain Avarice and strung around the neck of the mannequin beneath the glass case. Eventually I resorted to biting my thumbnail and stealing side glances at the captain's door. The only other female on the ship, one who'd been here for quite some time, was in there. How someone could survive this environment was beyond me, for as the light began to dim, and the shore was in view, I realized that all day the men had been drinking, and by night they were sober and agitated, and full of headstrong impulses.

The worst of it started when Avarice came in to instruct the crew around, bellowing out orders, shouting with a voice that echoed like we were all stuck in a bowl, and his words instantly became amplified off the walls. Their pirate tongues were beyond my realm of expertise, and half of the words that flew out of his mouth were not in my vocabulary.

Avarice shed his captain's coat and took up arms, working as one of the crew to fight against the storm rolling in from the sea and heading in towards the coast. I could tell we were coming in fast, and he was helping them slow down the ship as best he could. His best just about made everything worth while.

Despite his age, which appeared to be in his thirties but I knew it was only possible for him to be older than forty, he was strong and had the energy of all the other pirates on his crew. His son compared evenly with his father, though perhaps even more toned considering he spent all day under the sun reeling in ropes, working on the deck, and other tasks I could not count.

Cody had positioned himself on the far end away from me. I noticed how Avarice kept to his end, and realized even if their relationship leaned heavily on a captain-crew atmosphere, I could tell there was a father-son aspect they both tried to hide. Observing the two of them trying to avoid their differences reminded me of my father, who opted out of confronting me all together, knowing that we would both react irritably and regret it all later.

I still wished he would have told me about his plans with Valens, but I knew if I ever returned home, I would forget all about it and hug Father as if it never occurred to me that he had planned to marry me off to Eli.

When.

When I return home.

It was only a few hours before the sun would set completely, and we were approaching an inlet tucked away between two high cliffs. They removed the red flag from the topmast, and displayed a much less intimidating one I'd seen on the Valens ships riding into shore. It was a stolen blue flag, sporting their white symbol on the cloth. I frowned at the sight, but bit my lip to keep myself quiet about it.

It was illegal, and it made my stomach squirm.

"Maxine!"

I leapt at the sound of my name being called, but as soon as I stood up, I deflated when I realized it was the captain calling. He held a hand out towards me, gesturing for me to come near. I did not want to leave my spot on the stairs of the quarter deck, but his persistence hurried me over where he clasped his hand onto the back of my neck to hold me still. We were standing back from the pirates as they prepared the boats to take us to shore.

He leaned in close to me, and whispered in my ear with his foul-smelling breath brushing against my skin and making my toes curl. "Ya won't be movin' an inch from this ship, ya understand me?"

"And if I do?" I dared to ask, keeping my eyes forward. I saw Cody approaching out of the corner of my eye, and Nash from the side, making markings on a piece of paper folded over a plank of wood. He was with a skinny fellow wearing spectacles, andI soon realized none of their presences made me feel any relief.

"It won't be pretty, darlin'," Avarice murmured, and patted me on the shoulder before stepping back.

Cody had just about reached us when his father held his arm out, stopping him from coming any closer. "I'm to take her to-"

"No ya aren't. Archer can do it, you've got work ta do," Avarice replied, the stern look in his eyes, daring Cody to object. I saw him look between me and his father, hesitance as clear as a cloudless sky. It caused his eyebrows to fall and crinkle on the scar running through his brow. There was something off with the way he reacted to the news, and it made me weary to have him sent off like that. I found myself forgetting about the sword incident earlier.

Avarice called over this Archer fellow, and when I saw who it was, I almost wished Cody had been the man for the job. His sun-bleached curls were hardly longer than his shoulders, where the tattoos started on his sleeveless arms. I cringed when Cody handed over the key ring to the sleeveless pirate, who was hardly kind when it came to glaring at me from across the boat. He had an obvious problem with me, and now Avarice was trusting him to take me to the bottom of the ship.

It was going to be a disaster.