Chapter 17

“So there was something under the water?” Captain Vex asked.

“Yeah,” Will nodded, as he bolted down the last of the spotlight-lanterns on the railing next to the ship’s wheel. The other three hadn’t survived the fight on the prow. Captain Vex wasn’t thrilled about that, those lanterns were expensive.

Will’s hands hurt badly, but he still had a bit more to do before he could let the doctor look him over. Besides, there were a lot of crew worse off than he was. “I started to figure it out when the other ship started moving strangely the first time. Remember?”

“Aye. It seemed like it was pinned in the reef, and we were stuck on the ship, but it jerked back. Ships dinnae do that,” Captain Vex nodded, then tilted her head in thought. “Unless something is pulling on them,” she added a moment later, figuring out where Will’s conclusion had come from.

“Exactly,” Will nodded.

Understanding slowly dawned on the Captain’s face. “It would have tae be huge.”

“The only time I’ve seen a ship move like that before was a whaling vessel,” Will agreed

“So ye were thinking a whale was using a broken ship as a hand puppet? Why would it do that?” Belita asked, shaking her head.

“Well, something as big as whale at any rate. I think it uses the broken ship for the same reason the grindylow call for help. To get our attention,” Will shrugged.

“Crafty bunch’a freaky evil bastards.” Belita sounded horrified and impressed. “I’m right proper pissed at what they did tae my ship.”

“We should be glad we got away,’ Will said. “There’s not much known about Grindylows. I think most people who run into them aren’t as lucky as we were.”

“Guess there is that,” Belita agreed. “Luck was on our side tonight. We’re still floating after a reef, a storm, sea monsters, and bombs.”

“How many did we lose?” Will asked.

“Twelve so far,” Belita said sadly. “Might be another two before the night is through.”

Will felt like the air had been pulled from his lungs. “That many?”

“And another two dozen wounded. Five probably crippled for life. I’ve never lost so many, Will. Those are warship numbers,’ Belita shook her head, looking stricken.

Will didnt know what to say. He put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze for reassurance. She took off her hat and laid her head on his shoulder for a moment. It wasn’t like her to show that kind of vulnerability, but she was tired and raw, and no one else was watching. Will noticed, and wondered why she was willing to let him see her that way, but knew better than to ask questions. It was more important to just be there for her. Instead of talking he looked through the spyglass again. “Let’s concentrate on finding a spot to make land. That’s the best thing we can do for them right now.”

There was no one left to stitch. Bella had been pinching a suture needle for so long that her hand didn’t want to open. It spasmed as she spread her fingers and shook it out. Surprisingly, her hands and arms were the only parts of her that weren’t smeared with blood. Doctor Kalfou had been absolutely adamant that she wash her hands between each patient. She’d claimed sharing blood caused sickness. Bella had never heard that before, but she wasn’t a doctor.

The Captain’s cabin was horrific. The bed was a bloody ruin. Wounded sailors leaned against every inch of the wall and were laid out on the entire floor save for a narrow path from the door to the bed. The puncture wounds were the most immediate problem, and she was glad that part was over with, but the doctor still had her hands full with all the broken bones. Besides their awful barbed tongues, the Grindylows’ other favorite way to hurt people was to grab them and squeeze. They were frightfully strong. Half of those who hadn’t made it died because their throats had been crushed. Many others had awful bruises where the grindylow’s tentacles had wound around them and just constricted until bones popped. Doctor Kalfou’s current patient was breathing shallowly and frothing blood on his lips. His ribs had been squeezed until they punctured his lung.

Quinn, Reeve and the Norths had just finished carrying the dead out to the midship and laying them in repose. The Kestrel was solemn. Everyone aboard understood that they hadn’t won. They had survived.

“Danica, prepare to make landfall,” the Captain’s muffled voice echoed from the deck above them.

“Alright,” Doctor Kalfou spoke up. “If you can walk under your own power, or with a little help, and aren’t waiting for treatment, I need you to go back to your bunk.”

“It’s flooded,” a crewman said simply. “That’s where the hull cracked.”

Doctor Kalfou’s fatigue and frustration showed on her face, but before she could respond, Mister Reeve’s hulking form darkened the doorway. He’d been leaning against the wall just outside. The cabin’s ceiling was too low for him to be comfortable, and there wasn’t enough room for him anyway. He was covered in drying blood that was beginning to crack on his skin. “You heard the Doc,” he barked. “If you can walk, start walking. Where you go don’t be her problem. Go find the Quartermaster.”

With a chorus of groans and winces, the injured painfully made their way out the door. Those that remained were the ones who couldn’t move on their own: the unconscious, those with severe blood loss or broken legs, and the two amputees.

“Thank you, Mister Reeve,” Doctor Kalfou said with a tired smile. “Forgot you were waiting out there, I.”

Reeve shrugged. “I can wait. Don’t think I’m dying.”

“In that case, need to get cleaned up, you. The captain’s washroom. Go.” Doctor Kalfou said, gesturing to the door near the bed.

Reeve nodded and hunched his way through the room. He had to turn sideways to fit through the narrow doorway, and even then it was a bit of a tight fit.

Doctor Kalfou began stripping the layers of bloody sailcloth off the bed, looking pained when she saw how much blood had soaked through into the bedsheets. “Might not be any saving the mattress,” she sighed.

“Vex has running water?” Reeve laughed from the other room. “Well don’t that be just decadent. Gonna be stealing that for my ship.”

Bella moved to help Friday with the sails and the bedding. “I don’t know what we would have done without you,” she said to the Doctor.

“Had a few more casualties, but managed somehow,” Friday said gently. “Did well, you. Thankful for your help, I.”

“I’m not sure I would have gotten through my panic without you and Jack. I would have just hid in a closet,” Bella laughed sadly.

“There be no shame in fear,” Friday said gently. “It shows us the truth of who we are. If we can accept it, fears can become strength. If we reject it, we reject ourselves. That is the only shame.”

Bella didn’t know what to say so she just shrugged. “I don’t feel very strong right now.”

“Saved lives tonight, you,” Friday said firmly. “If that is not strength, nothing is.”

“There any towels left?” Reeve asked from the other room.

“No, they were used for triage,” Doctor Kalfou answered over her shoulder.

“Well, you ladies are in for a show then.” The big man awkwardly squeezed through he doorway again, concealing his manhood with both hands. Belita opened up her footlocker and pulled out a flowing yellow skirt. She passed it to Reeve with an amused smile. He took it and held it in front of himself, looking a bit less uncomfortable.

Doctor Kalfou began to look Reeve over. He was wounded in at least a dozen places. There were five puckered, angry looking punctures, and even more ragged scratches from claws. There were even a few ugly looking bite wounds.

Doctor Kalfou’s eyes narrowed. “It seems you heal very quickly, Mister Reeve.” Every one of his wounds looked like it was at least a day old, rather than an hour. The shallow claw marks were barely more than scratches. The swollen and inflamed puncture wounds were the worst of them, but they still looked significantly better than the other sailors who had them.

Reeve nodded and tapped his tattoo-covered chest. “My Animus.” He paused and thought for a moment. “My, ah, guardian spirit? Mine likes blood. Makes me heal faster.”

“Well that is ... useful,” Doctor Kalfou said, scanning her eyes over Reeve’s intricate tattoos. The pale patches of vitiligo on Reeve’s face, chest, and stomach made his tattoos very stark in contrast, but honestly Doctor Kalfou thought he looked a little like a patchwork quilt. From a distance he was just an odd collection of strange patterns and two-toned skin. This close to him, she could see how beautiful the ink really was. His body was covered in line after line of careful patterns. Waves. Islands. Shark fins. Overlapping diamonds like scales, or armor. At the center of it all, across his broad chest, was a pattern of triangles that looked very much like a shark’s mouth.

Beneath it all were many pale scars. She knew from her own tattoos that scars could easily mar the art, but on Reeve every scar was beneath the ink. Including the fresh ones that were still forming. She leaned in and looked closer. It looked like the skin directly beneath the tattoos was actually healing a bit faster than the rest.

“So there is magic in them?’ Doctor Kalfou asked.

“In all Akula tattoos. Most are not so strong. Mine is,” Reeve explained.

“Can see why you did not come see me sooner, I,” Doctor Kalfou said with a half smile. It was hard not to be impressed.

“My Animus is strong, but can only do so much. This is as much as I will heal with its help. For the rest, I come to you,” Reeve said with a small shrug.

“Well, might not like it, you. Stitches are best on fresh wounds. These punctures that have already started healing look inflamed. Going to have to flush them, I, which means opening them back up again,” Doctor Kalfou ran her curved stitching needle and a narrow-bladed knife through the flame of the candle on the nightstand. “Sit.”

Reeve looked a little exasperated, but sat on the bed. Bella started dragging the bloody sails and bedding out onto the deck, leaving the doctor to her last patient.

The storm was still raging. Here, near the island on the inside of the reef, the waters were calm, but the rain and wind had picked up. It was a warm, southerly wind full of fat water drops that slapped the skin and splashed down so hard that the spray gave the deck of the ship a shallow haze. The last time she’d been out on the deck she’d been naked. The water on her skin had felt surprisingly nice. This time, her clothes began to feel heavy and clingy almost instantly. Her fatigue and worn nerves made the annoyance of wet clothes much more aggravating than it should have been. She didn’t really know what to do about the bloody mess she was half-carrying, half-dragging so she just dumped it by the mast.

She was surprised at how busy the deck of the ship was. Danica North was directing about ten sailors who were dealing with the aftermath of the fight. The corpses of the grindylows were being dumped overboard, buckets of water were being used to rinse any blood away that was stubborn enough that the rain wasn’t taking care of it.

“Just leave two,” Danica said to the swabs as Bella passed. “The doc wants them.”

“There,” Will said sharply from nearby. Curious, Bella turned around and looked up at the helm, squinting into the falling rain. In the faint light of the mast lantern she could see Will pointing toward the shore.

“I dinnae see anything,” Captain Vex said. Bella walked up the stairs, wondering what they were looking at.

Will handed the Captain the spyglass and reoriented the spotlight-lantern towards a group of trees. “See that stretch of treeline that splits up the beach? There’s a break in the trees there. Looks mostly like a shadow from this angle, but I think there’s an inlet. Look at the water in front of the trees. There’s not much in the way of waves, but it’s enough to form an eddy at the mouth.” Will explained.

It took Captain Vex a few moments to find what Will was talking about before she answered. “I see it. Barely looks like anything. If that’s an inlet, I’m gonnae have tae swing wide and come at it from dead ahead. If I try tae come about too close, we’ll scrape those trees. I’ll need ye tae reef-spot for me.”

Will nodded and was about to reply when he noticed Bella. She gave them a small, tired wave.

“How are you holding up?” Will asked, looking concerned.

“Not a scratch on me,” Bella shrugged. She looked down at her bloody clothes. “I’m just tired and need to get cleaned up.”

“I think the whole ship would agree with you,” Will said with a small smile.

“Belita, your bed got used as an operating table. We’re not going to want to sleep in it until it can be replaced or cleaned,” Bella said, cringing a little as she delivered the news.

The Captain looked pained. “Go ask Mister North tae pull three hammocks and bedrolls for us.”

Bella nodded. “Where should I set them up?”

“Hold off on that. If Will is right, we won’t be sleeping on ship tonight,” Captain Vex said. Then she turned back to spying out at the oncoming eddy Will had found. “Lets thread this needle, Will,” she said, swinging the ship’s wheel and gently maneuvering the Kestrel closer to the inside of the reef.

Will gave Bella a nod and quickly unclamped the spotlight and hefted it over to the starboard outer rail. He bolted it back on again, and then started scanning the waterline below.

Bella trudged back down the stairs in search of Mister North, and nearly ran into Jack as she and Quinn came out of her room in the lower hall.

“Oh, hey,” Jack said, looking worried, relieved, and apprehensive. “I’m glad you’re here, I wanted to apologize for-”

“It’s alright, Jack,” Bella said, holding up a hand to cut the other woman off. “I’m not upset. There’s things to talk about, but they can wait.”

Jack looked relieved. “Where are you headed?”

“To find Mister North,” Bella said. “I’m trying to figure out where Will and I are going to sleep tonight.”

“I guess the Captain’s cabin isn’t really habitable right now,” Jack said, realizing the predicament. She threw her thumb over her shoulder. “North’s in the hold. Just follow the sounds of yelling.”

“Where are you headed?” Bella asked.

“The bilge,” Jack said, making a face that said exactly what she thought of her task.

“What’s a bilge?” Bella asked.

“It’s the lowest part of the ship, where all the runoff collects. There’s a pump down there. We’re going to see if we can put a dent in some of this flooding,” Jack explained.

Bella was impressed. “Will it work?”

“It will buy the crew more time,” Jack said.

“Time to what? I thought we weren’t in danger of sinking soon,” Bella asked.

“Salvage,” Jack said.

“What?” Bella was feeling like she was in over hear head again. There was so much about ships that she just didn’t know.

“Go find North. It will be self explanatory,’ Jack said. She was about to leave, but hesitantly added “If you and Will need a place to sleep tonight, you can set up in my room. I don’t think the water will reach that far tonight. I left the door unlocked.”

There were a lot of reasons that Bella might have felt apprehensive or conflicted about the idea of sharing a sleeping space with Jack, but tonight she was too tired to care. She nodded. “Thanks.”

Jack gave her a small smile and headed down the hall, followed by the impassive Quinn.

Bella found Mister North in the main hold, shouting.

“I don’t care where you put them!” North bellowed. “Just keep the path to the stairs clear, and move everything to the aft. Priority now is to get everything that isn’t floating clear of the water. I want two palettes under everything. Stack them crates to the ceiling. Nail up some cargo nets and put all the sacks in them!”

The hole in the hull had been steadily letting in water. From what Bella understood it took a long time for a ship to actually sink from damage like that, but it was still a significant problem. The Kestrel was sitting in the water with her nose tilted downward. The forward crew berth was flooded. Water was spreading out the broken door and flooding across the floor of the hold. The whole hold had at least some standing water in it, and toward the prow it was close to knee deep. Nearly all the crates were soaking up water, and some of them were starting to float.

The group of injured sailors were loitering near the entrance to the short hall where the doors to Jack and Morant’s rooms were. They had nowhere to go. Bella wasn’t about to interrupt Mister North right now. Getting hammocks could wait. She walked over to the injured group and said “Follow me.”

Then she lead them back to Jack’s door and opened it. “You can rest in here until Mister North is able to find you a better place.”

There was a smattering of thanks as they painfully headed into the room, sitting down on beds, footlockers, or just on the floor. The small room didn’t fit all of them. Bella’s brows furrowed in thought for a moment. She looked around the hall at the other three doors. She knew one of them was Morant’s room. The other two were being used by Morant’s group of porters. She knocked on the door across from Jack’s. After a few moments a thickly built man with short cropped brown hair answered.

He didn’t say anything. He just looked at her, glancing at her bloody clothes for a moment, and waited.

“We need to use your room as an infirmary for the injured for a little while,” she said.

“We got our own injured,” the man said.

“Did you go see Doctor Kalfou?” Bella asked.

“There was a line. Mister Lynch took care of us,” the man said.

“I’m not going to disparage Mister Lynch’s medical skills, but your injured really should check in with Doctor Kalfou,” Bella said.

The man nodded grimly. “You’re probably right. Still can’t let you in though. Lord Morant’s orders.”

Bella rolled her eyes in complete exasperation. Normally being non-confrontational was a carefully practiced survival skill. Between her fatigue and the aftermath of the stress she’d forced herself to endure, she no longer had any amount of patience. “Which door is his?” she said, over pronouncing every word to punctuate her annoyance. The man pointed across the hall at the door next to Jack’s, then shut his door. Bella looked pained.

One of the injured sailors, a man with a broken leg she remembered dancing with on the deck a week and an eternity ago, gave her a thankful smile. “Don’t go botherin’ a noble on account’a us, Miss Bella. You done more than enough for us tonight already.”

Bella shook her head firmly. “You saved that noble’s life tonight. The least he could do is give you a place to sit down,” She to Morant’s door and hesitated only a moment before knocking firmly.

Mister Lynch cracked the door a few moments later and peered implacably into the dim hall. “Yes?”

“We need a place for the wounded to convalesce. Your porters won’t let them in,” Bella said firmly.

“Ah. One moment,” Lynch said, then shut the door. It opened again a short while later. “Lord Morant’s answer is no. You will need to find another place for them.” The door shut again before Bella could reply.

The witch’s eyes narrowed as she glared at the closed door. She turned back to the group of wounded sailors. “Wait here.” Then she headed back upstairs into the rain. On the deck, the large hatch doors were open and Danica was directing sailors and riggers in hauling crates out of the hold below with ropes and pulleys. Bella found the Captain still at the helm. She’d just finished steering the Kestrel in a wide arc and was straightening the ship out again. The ship was now pointed straight at the island. It was little more than a dark outline against the stormy sky.

“Clear over here. Looks like we avoided the reef,” Will said, quickly unclamping the spotlight lantern from the rail. “I’m going to the prow to light your way.” He hefted the lantern and ran down the steps without waiting for a reply

Captain Vex gave Bella a glance. The witch’s expression was very clear. “What’s got ye all mad?” the Captain asked.

“Morant won’t let the wounded into any of his cabins,” Bella said.

Captain Vex looked frustrated and focused on the shoreline again. They were approaching the island fast, with no light yet. She could see the bobbing beam erratically lighting the deck as Will rushed to the prow. “I’m a little busy,”

“You and everyone else!” Bella snapped. “The hold is flooded, there’s nowhere for them to go, most of them are barely conscious, and nobody is helping them!”

Captain Vex’s eyes flicked to Bella, then back to the shore. Will was getting the lantern clamped but she still didn’t have a good view. “If’n I manage not tae crash the ship, they’ll have places tae sit down soon. Until then, put them back in my cabin.”

“You’re just going to let Morant do this?” Bella asked, surprised and upset.

“Aye, for now. Later there will be a reckoning, but first I have tae get the Kestrel safe tae ground,” Captain Vex said, never taking her eyes off the shore. Will’s lantern swept up and focused ahead, finally showing Captain Vex what she needed to see. Her aim was pretty good, but the waves had pushed the Kestrel off line. She turned to correct the course and hoped they had enough time to straighten out again. “Tell Mister Reeve to take over for Mister North, and tell Mister North I need him prepping us to sleep on shore.”

Bella was frustrated, but nodded and headed back down stairs. As she reached the deck she heard the sounds of wood scraping on wood. They’d reached the inlet and suddenly trees loomed around them. A low branch dragged slowly down the railing, catching on every post before thumping to the next one. She ducked back down into the hold hall and gestured to the wounded. “We’re going back to the Captain’s cabin.” The wounded men looked at each other, then painfully followed her back upstairs again.

She opened the Captain’s cabin door and ducked inside. Reeve was pulling on his pants while Doctor Kalfou poured a bucket of water on the floor to rinse away some of the blood. Reeve was bandaged in three places on his torso, and another two on his right arm.

“Mister Reeve, the Captain wants you to take over for Mister North,” Bella said.

Reeve grunted an acknowledgement. “She say anything about what we’re doing now?”

“Just that Mister North needs to prepare for the crew to sleep on shore,” Bella answered.

“Good,” Reeve nodded. He picked up his hook and headed for the door. “Thanks again, Doc.”

As the big Bosun left, the wounded filed back in. Doctor Kalfou had managed to clear away most of the piles of cut away clothing, amputated limbs, pools of blood, and other grim clutter. Bella sat down on the bed. She was used to staying awake through long rituals. Bonding her familiar had taken her nearly two full days. She’d always prided herself on her ability to keep focused. Tonight was testing her limits. It was the fear, and feeling like she was constantly in the way. Something had gone wrong at the end of her ritual, she had no idea if it had actually worked, and she still hadn’t had time to try to figure it out. It had been nothing but one crisis after another. Even now, with nothing left that she felt like she could help with, she still couldn’t let go of the knot of anxiety she’d been holding ever since she’d been recruited to help Doctor Kalfou with the wounded.

She knew where it came from. She just didn’t want to think about it. Focusing on tasks, trying to help the wounded, it had been a good way of not thinking, but now there was nothing left but waiting, and trying not to think about it became thinking about it. She tried to breathe slowly and evenly, closing her eyes and focusing on calming herself. It didn’t help. If anything, it was making her feel worse. The room still smelled like blood and sweat. The walls felt like they were closing in. She abruptly got up and went back out into the rain.

Her first thought was to head toward the prow where Will was, but as she got closer she could hear him calling directions back to the Captain, helping her correct the ship’s course as it moved down the narrow inlet. Now would be a very bad time to distract him. Besides, after she’d made such a big deal out of not worrying him so he could stay focused, going to him for support seemed like a poor choice.

“Where’s the bilge?” she asked the nearest sailor, focusing hard on keeping her composure.

He looked over his shoulder for a moment, seeming surprised at the question. He continued hauling on the rope in his hands, helping heft a cargo net full of supplies up from below, and gestured with his head. “In the hold. Just past the cabins, to the right. There’s a hatch in the floor.”

She thanked him and headed back below decks. She felt like she was going in circles. A small, mirthless laugh escaped her lips. It was an apt metaphor. Back and forth, round and round the ship, feeling like she was going nowhere, just like what she was feeling in her head. She found herself staring at the hatch in the floor without really remembering walking down the stairs or the hall. She wondered how long she’d been standing there. Recognition of what she was looking at finally dawned on her. Hanging from a hook above the hatch was Jack’s equipment harness, her hat, and her tri-barreled firearm. Quinn’s swords hung next to them.

“You’re losing it, girl.” Bella muttered to herself.

She hauled on the hatch, opening it up. The smell that hit her was terrible. She made a face, and took a small breath with her head turned away, then called down. “Jack?”

A few moments later she got an answer. “Yes?” Jack’s voice sounded strained.

Bella wrinkled her nose and started climbing. “I’m coming down.”

“What? Why?” Jack called up to her.

“I want to help,” Bella called back.

“That’s a bad idea, Bella,” Jack replied.

“Why?” Bella stopped near the bottom of the latter. She couldn’t see the floor. She was climbing down into disgusting, brackish water. The smell was nauseating. The only light was from a lantern hanging from a hook on the wall.The room looked something like being inside a ribcage. Curving beams narrowed downward and disappeared into the water. In the direction of the prow, the blige extended past the lantern light, a narrow hallway full of water vanishing into the darkness. The waterline was angled. The further into the dark the hallway went the higher the water was. By the time the light ran out it was nearly to the ceiling. Toward the stern she could see Jack and Quinn up to their ribs in the disgusting brine, doing something to a set of pipes that were mounted to the back wall.

“I just ... need something to do.” Bella didn’t know what else to say.

Jack looked back at her, concern on her face. “Are you wounded? Hurt in any way?”

“No, I don’t think so, why?” Bella asked. Jack had a way of asking completely unexpected questions. It gave Bella’s mind something to do besides spin, and in that moment she found that she was already starting to feel a little better.

“This water is just waiting to cause an infection. Do you have another set of clothes?” Jack continued.

“One more, yes,” Bella said.

“Alright. Come on down,” Jack shrugged, still sounding dubious. “Step careful. It’s deeper than you think. You won’t be able to touch bottom in the middle. You’ll need to walk on the curve of the walls, or tread water.”

Bella made a face and lowered her foot into the cold, slimy water. “Why is the room shaped like this?”

“Because this is what ships are shaped like under the waterline,” Jack said. “The keel is right beneath us, and the hull curves out from it.”

Bella looked at the room again. Now the strange shape of it made sense. It hadn’t even occurred to her that they were under water. “So what are we doing?”

“Trying to fix the bilge pump,” Jack answered, turning back to her work. “The water rose too high, now it’s flooded.”

“How can I help?’ Bella asked. Her skirts lifted in the water and billowed around her as she sunk deeper into the murk. She found the curve of the walls and awkwardly made her way towards Jack, using the rib-like beams as hand-holds. With how much the room was angled, it was almost like climbing.

“We’re trying to extend the intake pipe with some spare sections. You can help hold tools we aren’t using at the moment,” Jack explained.

Bella trudged through the water. “Alright.”

All she could see of what they were working on was part of a handle sticking out of the water. “That looks like the bathtub pump in the Captain’s washroom,” Bella said.

Jack nodded. “They’re all the same system. The bathtub pipe pumps seawater in. These other pipes pump bilgewater out.” She was crouched a bit, submerged to the neck and working blindly below the surface of the water. Quinn stood next to her with a large wrench in one hand, three lengths of pipe cradled in the other, and a satchel hanging from his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Bella asked.

“Trying to find the right pipe,” Jack said. “I think I have it. Can you take that stuff from Quinn?”