I fall in step beside him, my hands restless with no weapons to steady them on. “Then why is he on your crew?” Bear’s smile flashes in my mind. “It could get him killed one day. I know you like to think the only pirates that will ever make it on this ship will be in chains, but—”
“He’s earned the right to choose.” Rune’s voice is soft, but unyielding. “Why do you care?”
I know he’ll take my hesitation as a victory, but I don’t have an answer. This crew is a means to an end. A temporary solution. And not all of them will survive it. “I don’t.”
We come back around and approach the foremast, and he pulls his hair up into a tie, bunching it in a messy knot over his head. “Well for the record, I don’t think you’ll murder him. You’re too self-serving. But if you ever hurt him I really will toss you overboard.” Then he flashes me a grin and leaps up the first few steps of the mast’s ladder, his shirt lifting to show coiled muscles and the dip of his spine. “Tavi!” he yells.
“Aye!” Tavi calls from above.
I watch him climb until the sun forces me to look away. He’s only gone for a moment before Tavi slips down with lethal grace, and he drops down beside her, his boots thudding on the solid wood. “Map meeting,” he says, tossing his chin towards his room. “Tavi, grab Elioand meet us, yeah?”
“Sir.” Tavi nods, not sparing me a glance.
We move to the navigation room attached to Rune’s quarters. It’s small, little more than a wide table with a few bolted chairs. Maps of the islands and the mainland’s coast hang on each wall. Tavi fiddles with a small chest in one corner and rises with the treasure map while Rune tosses his massive body into a chair and Elio takes the seat to one side.
“Alright. We’re headed for the closest island that’s marked. But Tavi and Elio raised some valid points.”
Tavi joins them, and they spread the map over the table. I cross my arms and lean against the curved wall, trying to act like seeing it doesn’t put a lump in my throat. I’d like to believe that without it I could carve a new life. But my skills don’t lend themselves to honest work. And the more entrenched I end up in society, the more likely it is that someone will learn who I am. My only real hope lay in getting this money and finding somewhere remote, alone. Trees, grasslands. No questions. No chance of the past sneaking up and pressing a blade to my throat.
“Mainly—” Elio says, running a broad, tanned hand over his chin, “why bother with the riddles at all? The other islands are dangerous. The map marks the treasure right off. Why not go and see if we can break whatever lock the key is for? Worse, what if someone has already beat us to it?”
“No one’s beat us there. The island is largely untouched; it doesn’t appear on any other map I’ve seen. When we went—”
Rune cuts me off, his eyes darkening with suspicion. “You’ve gone there before?”
I shrug. “Following the same logic Elio is, yes. My—captain, Captain Ivor figured it wasn’t worth doing all the steps. Why risk it, when we can dig for days or blow holes across the island? Tide knows we had enough sluggar bolts for it.” My father had no interest in the riddles, not when there was no guaranteed reward at the end. The thought of him has trepidation snaking up my legs and into my stomach. I swallow it down. Love is a cruel, sharp thing, and his grief at finding me gone would have been all rage, whether he’d found the map was missing or not.
They exchange looks. “And if you didn’t find it,” Tavi asks, “how do you know it’s there?Why gamble on this map”
I shrug. “Because I found the room. All I needed was the keys.”
“The room,” she repeats, as if she hasn’t heard correctly.
“Yes,” I say in a rush, annoyed it even needs to be said, “there’s a room under the island with a wall of solid stone and a spot for a key.”
Elio’s brows are pushed together, drawing out the light crow’s feet that bookend his eyes. “And the bolts didn’t work against the door?”
I sigh. “I didn’t tell anyone I found it. Plus, lighting loose sluggar bolts underground would be a death wish, would it not?”
They don’t say anything for a while, their eyes dropping to the map in turn.
Rune’s eyes flick to me. “There’s four other key symbols. I assume that’s how many riddles you have?”
I nod.
“And you’re sure you remember them correctly?” Tavi asks, ever the optimist.
“Yes.” I’ve grown tired of explaining myself, but Rune isn’t done. His attention drops from my eyes and lingers over my neck, but his expression stays unreadable.
“It’s about time you gave us the first, then.” He stands and sources an ink and quill from a trunk in the corner. He places them at the open space of the table, but I shake my head as subtly as I can. Writing wasn’t part of my education, though I can read. Somewhat. He watches me again, like he’s cataloguing the information, then pulls the parchment back to him while he sits. “Let’s hear it.”
We still have two days until we make it to the island, but telling them early shouldn’t interfere with anything. I nod and take a quick breath before speaking.
Twin serpent’s teeth, one gaping maw,
Deadly to sleep, silence a flaw
To step is to leap,
