“...are you really a captain?” This came from the shadow person, who apparently wasn’t dead.

“Yes,” Seren replied slowly. “But why were they frightened that I was a captain?”

“They’re not supposed to take the captains.”

“Why are they taking people in the first place?”

“We’re part of the trade.”

She tried not to sigh in frustration at the little drips and drops of information she was getting. “Okay, so there’s a trade, and we’re part of it. What happens during these trades?”

“We get traded for goods and materials. What else do you think we’re traded for, idiot? Free air?”

Seren shook her head. “What goods and items then? There’s nothing in here, so are they keeping all of that in another part of the ship? It didn’t look that big when they brought me aboard.”

The person who’d spoken didn’t speak up again.

“Can you prove that they’re trading us for things? Or is that your best guess based on everything you’ve seen so far?” She tried to be nice about it. When her dad chided her for not telling the truth, her father was the one who rescued her, saying that truth was sometimes only true from one person’s perspective.

“...can’t prove it,” they finally muttered. “But we stop, someone’s usually taken out, and we can hear people moving a lot more than they normally do.”

“Okay, then we need to take that into account. They stop somewhere. Does that mean they anchor, or is this a stop in mid-air?”

“I... don’t know.”

“When you hear voices, do you hear a lot, like there’s a crowd, or do you hear one or two, like it’s a private conversation?”

The shadow’s head area tilted. “I don’t know.”

“Can you make out any languages or words? Things that’ll let you know where they’re stopping at or who they’re talking with?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” they screamed, throwing themselves against the bars on their door. “Shut up! Just shut up and leave me alone!”

Seren drew back from her door, nerves screaming for her to run away even though there was nowhere to run to. She didn’t like it when people yelled at her when she was trying to help.

“...Sorry,” she finally said. “But if you had those answers, then I might figure out how to escape.”

“There is no escape,” said the human leaning against a wall. “You leave the ship and go right into the waiting hands of other people.”

“How do you know that? These cells don’t have windows.”

“That’s how I was captured.” There was a slight sigh. “I was told not to go to the docks after nightfall, and I did, because my brother told me of a ship awash in blues and greens that was coming in to anchor. I wanted to see it, and I did. It looked amazing from the outside, all those lines glowing in the dark. And then one of the ship’s crew found me in the shadows. They took me, and no matter how much I cried out for help, no one came.”

The pain in their voice was almost more than Seren could bear. She’d at least chosen to run away from home, and had reasons to be far from her fathers. This person had wanted none of that.

“I’ll get you home,” she swore. “I might not know how right now, but I promise you I won’t stop trying!”

“Thanks.” The answer was so soft that for a few seconds she thought she’d imagined it.

There was a sniff from the shadowy one. “Yeah, thanks for committing yourself to making them angry with us. If you get caught, then they’re just going to punish everyone here.”

She heard a few whimpers; the noise making her bite her bottom lip. “Then you’re going to have to help make sure I don’t get caught, aren’t you?”

If they said any other answer, she didn’t want to know. Instead, she started thinking about all the different reasons they could be traded.

“Wait a second!” She rushed back to the cell door. “If they captured you on the same island that they’re handing people over at, then why didn’t they just hand you over the next time they passed it?”

“Because there’s more than one island that needs people, or at least needs some kind of tribute.”

“This makes little sense. The more people that know about a group that’s going around kidnapping beings and giving them out like...presents, shouldn’t equal that more people get taken. It should cause someone to know about this and put a stop to it.”

“Nobody cares enough.”

“Your families do, I’m sure.” Seren thought about how her parents would have reacted if she’d been taken from their home island and traded somewhere else. “And friends.”

“Maybe.”

And that was the last word she could get out of the being. They bundled themselves in a ratty blanket and turned away from Seren, signaling that their talk, as brief as it had been, was at an end.

With a frustrated sigh, she leaned back against the wall in her cell and drew her legs up. Rive and Vachlan would find her. She had to have faith in her crew. In herself as well, and that meant that even though she wanted to give up and just have a good cry, she wouldn’t.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Footsteps drew her from her thoughts. A series that just stopped outside the door and whispered; she could an itching between her shoulder blades that this was going to involve her and it would not be good. The door banged open.

“Captain Serri.”

She looked at the pair of boots which were stopped in front of her, following the scuffed up toes and sides to a pair of loose mustard yellow pants, then a teal vest, and everything else was blocked off by a bushy brown beard. Their skin was a dark red, pale in places where there were faded scars and cuts. The beard moved as they looked down, and Seren could see a wobbly reflection of herself in three very wide golden eyes. The top one, which was in the middle of the forehead, blinked.

“Come with me.” They turned, and she started to get up, her hand already reaching to push off of the ground, but then she thought better of it.

“No.” Seren smiled as they turned around and looked at her.

“No?”

“We haven’t been introduced. I don’t know who you are, and I refuse to go to some unknown place with you.” She spread out her hands, palms open. “In fact, I don’t even know where I am.”

“... Captain Mimrez. Factionless. Not here.” Before she could respond to any of that, they reached down, grabbed her by the arm, and hoisted her into the air so quickly that her feet left the floor. “You do not question me, you obey me.”

They dropped her, and she hit the floor hard.

“Get up.”

Fear grabbed her, and this time she stood up.

“Move.”

They motioned for her to walk before them, and she did, glancing around to see if there was going to be any help from anyone else in there, but there was nothing. Seren walked through the doorway and stopped, unsure where she should be going. There were corridors to the left and right, as well as a staircase going up and down.

“Up.”

Seren took a deep breath and forced herself to climb the stairs. They mimicked the captain behind her strangely. The bottom bits, and the steps themselves, were scuffed and...not broken, but more well used. Especially since the tops of the railings were smooth under her hands, and painted in alternating stripes of red, teal, and yellow.

She made it to the next floor, which was half open deck, and she could see the sailors jumping around, making sure each of the white sails were catching full gusts of wind and that they were steering in the direction that the navigator was yelling out.

“Continue right.”

Well, that answered the question of where she was supposed to go from here. She walked in that direction and found a smaller set of stairs leading upward.

“At the wheel.”

Once again, the wood was colored, but this time it was all red with small slivers of teal and yellow that looked like they were bits of wood painted onto the railing? A closer look as she kept going showed that something clear coated the railing and trapped those other bits of wood onto the red.

The wind, smelling faintly of salt, played with her hair as she stepped to the wheel.

“Captain, who’s this?” the navigator asked, turning toward Seren and then looking back at the sky. “And why are they here?”

“Captain Serri of the Picotree Drop, Raintide faction.” She held her hand out as the navigator’s jaw dropped.

“MIMREZ! We’ve been over this before. We cannot take other captains as hostages!”

“Ask your men, Morva, why they picked up one that we did not need.” They moved to stand next to the wheel and flicked two fingers into the open air. Immediately, two guards walked up to guard the entrance to the stairs and Seren saw her opportunity to escape and drop from low to improbable.

“Right, then. Let’s get this sorted out.” Morva moved away from the wheel and Captain Mimrez took it. “You’re a captain, I’m a captain.”

Seren’s eyes flickered to where Mimrez was standing, and Morva snorted.

“Ze’s not, don’t bother. Now, what the hell am I going to do with you?”

Seren stood straight, looked at this new person, and squared her shoulders. Her dad always said that you had to try every angle, and that sometimes the most obvious one was always overlooked.

“Captain Eaion, release me back to my ship, along with those you have kept captured down below, and then turn yourselves in to the nearest authority.”

There was a pause, and then all four of them, Morva, Mimrez, and the two guards at the stairs, began laughing as hard as her father did when he had drunk a bit too much wine.

“You’ve got guts, kid, I’ll give you that. I mean, I’m not doing any of that at all, especially not the part where you want me to turn myself in, but that was funny. Also, I’m not Captain Eaion. That was the name of this ship’s original captain.”

Morva clapped Seren on the shoulder, and they have hands made of iron.

“Listen here, you little brat. You’re in my world now, and that means you listen to me. If I tell you to jump, you just do it. Don’t ask any stupid questions.”

Her brain whispered that there was at least one question she could ask and probably get an answer about.

“What type of people put poison on their blades when they fight?” Seren blurted out. The surprised look on her captors’ faces almost made her laugh, but she could hold it in.

“Assassins, swords for hire. Most people aren’t idiots who would hurt or kill themselves with a slight nick from their own weapons.”

“People who do not have confidence in their fighting ability.”

Morva nodded. “Also, nice distraction, but you’ll notice I was watching you the whole time.”

Seren shrugged. “I wasn’t trying to run. I wanted an answer.”

The two captains—co-captains?—looked at each other.

“Still need to figure out what to do with you.”

“I heard below that you trade people to communities, and they’ll grant you safe passage through dangerous parts.”

“Yeah... That’s right. Can’t give them a captain, though, against the rules.”

“Why?”

Mimrez looked at Morva, and they both shrugged.

“Do you actually like having to do this?”

“Like? “ Morva’s face twisted into what Seren saw with disgust. “No. But it gives us access to places that we can’t get to, except for these passages.”

“Then why not put me in and see if I can keep those passages clear?”

“You think we’re being lied to?!”

Seren held up her hands and shook her head. “Not exactly. But think about it. Who does this trade benefit?”

The two weren’t slow with their answers.

“The houses. They get a person, and we get the rope if we’re caught.”

“Houses. All spoils to the victor.”

“And what are the spoils?” Seren pressed.

“Passage spoils.”

“Mimrez, she’s fishing for information. Don’t tell her anything more.”

“If I'm going to take down the ‘trade’ of people for safe passage, you have to give me all the information you know.”

Morva bit her bottom lip, then turned to look at Mimrez.

“Guards!”

Seren didn’t look behind her as the two from the bottom of the stairs thudded up to where they all were.

“Take her back. She’ll be the next one given out.”

“But the other person is weaker—”

Morva pulled him closer. “Did I make a mistake?”

“No, but—”

“Then do what I say, not what you think is correct. Take her back under, dress her for the ceremony, and if she has questions, don’t answer her. She needs to go in blind if they're going to use her.”