Terrin hefted another crate with a grunt. The sun beat down on his sweat-covered back. Yestin moaned beside him as he lifted the other side.

“This is so unfair,” he huffed.

Terrin nodded in response as he trudged toward the underside hatch. Tristen’s large brown eyes gleamed below them in the bowels of the ship. He looked a bit frightened as Terrin and Yestin lowered the crate. They tried their best not to drop it and squash the skittish boy. Blade informed them the night they arrived they would have to work if they wanted food. He hadn’t been joking. Terrin assumed they would be lenient with him because of his injuries, but he was wrong. Blade told him to figure out a way to lift the crates despite his injured thumb.

Last night, after dinner, there was a soft knock on his door. He opened it to find Rowan wearing a somber expression, but before they could talk, Blade had called for Rowan. He hadn’t seen Rowan much since waking up that morning, but every time he did, the sailor slowed down and looked at him like he wanted to say something. Terrin puzzled over it while he lifted another crate with Yestin’s help and lowered it down into the hold.

What does he want to tell me? he wondered.

He soon released the thought as he struggled with the next load. The easiest part of the pirates’ ventures was stealing. The hard part was getting the barrels into the hold below deck. Yestin, Terrin, Tristen, and Rowan pulled straws to see who got the hot topside jobs because they were all the newest workers. The older pirates worked in the hold, taking inventory and placing barrels in a way that wouldn’t capsize the ship. Terrin and Yestin were the unlucky ones of the day. Ahren climbed up from the hatch and gave the two exhausted boys a wide grin.

“Wanna see how I load crates?” he asked.

They exchanged looks. Terrin wondered why Blade kept the dunderhead around. Even though Terrin barely knew Ahren, he could clearly tell the man was about as bright as a potato, and he lacked even the semblance of common sense. Blade didn’t seem to be the kind of person to tolerate incompetence, so Terrin mused he must be good at something; he assumed it was sailing. Yestin seemed willing to give him a shot as well because they were both tired of lifting cargo. Any easier way to do it was welcomed. They silently agreed and told Ahren “yes” in perfect harmony.

Ahren clapped his hands. “Watch this,” he whispered, excited.

He turned two of the barrels on their sides and rolled them onto a platform nearby. All four corners of the platform were connected to ropes joined at a knot, and then a single rope continued up and connected to the top of the mast. The two young men watched in rapt attention as Ahren arranged the crates to his satisfaction, and then he jumped up onto the rope ladder leading to the lookout. He scaled the net quickly, leaving the two puzzled boys on the ground. Terrin watched him for a moment and then studied the platform carefully, his eyes following the rope upward. At the top, it threaded around two pulleys and ended in a loop secured to a hook. An idea of what Ahren was planning to do formed inside Terrin’s mind. He didn’t like it one bit.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Hey Yestin, how much do you think he weighs?” he asked with worry in his voice.

Yestin studied the tall, muscle-bound man. “Two hundred and fifty, at least?”

Terrin felt a knot form in his stomach. “How much do those barrels weigh?”

He hadn’t lifted any of the barrels yet. They were the heaviest of all the cargo, so they had decided to save them for last.

“Eighty, maybe ninety at most. Why?” His eyes widened abruptly as he followed Terrin’s gaze, and he grew paler.

“I weigh about one-seventy,” Yestin said, watching Ahren climb up the mast.

Terrin looked down at himself. He was a six-foot beanpole. “I’m guessing I’m about one-sixty.”

He sighed and looked up at Ahren. If he remembered correctly, a pulley system with two wheels could lift something with half its weight. If this was going to end with an alive Ahren, then he’d need more weight. To be more precise, they would have to join the barrels.

“Here I come!” Ahren howled like a maniac as he wrapped the rope around his waist and under his arms.

“Ahren, no! You’ll smash into the deck!” Terrin shouted, but the lanky man didn’t seem to hear him. Terrin and Yestin dived for the platform before Ahren jumped, and it shot up into the air. He jerked in midair, and the rope went taunt, then the platform started to climb upwards at a moderate speed. Even with their combined weight, the platform still moved quickly.

“Imma bird!” Ahren squealed as he dropped past.

“He’s insane!” Yestin shouted, holding onto one of the corner ropes for support.

The platform slowed down as Ahren got closer to the ground.

“Hey! Where did’ja go?” he whined from below. Terrin scooted to the edge and looked over, then pulled his head back, his stomach lurching. They were a staggering distance from the deck.

“Ahren? What are ya doing? Were ya jumpin’ off tha mast again? Ya know that’s bloody dangerous, and ya ain’t supposed to do it. How are ya still standin’, anyway?” Pronn’s voice wafted up from below. Terrin could see his dark hair over the side of the board alongside Rowan.

“I’m not quite sure meself. It was real heavy too, even though I only used two barrels.”

“That’s strange. Maybe there was sumthin’ hidden in one of ’em. Maybe tha boys—’ey! Where is Yestin and Terrin?” Rowan asked, suspicion creeping into his voice.

“I dunno. They were ’ere, then they vanished when I jumped. Strange, huh? Well, time for delivery!”

Pronn dashed forward to stop him as Ahren ducked through the rope. He dove for the loop but missed, and Terrin and Yestin came plummeting toward the ground. They screamed and grabbed onto the edge of the hurtling platform.

“What do we do?” Yestin wailed as he clung to Terrin.

This is the end, Terrin thought dismally. He squeezed his eyes closed and, to his surprise, the next thing he thought was, I really won’t ever see Snow again.

He hadn’t thought about it in detail, but he’d considered he might see her when they reached the mainland. The deck flew up to meet them, and Terrin desperately looked for an out seconds before the platform smashed to the deck.