With those frightening words, Squeaks had taken his leave. The prince hopped up to lock the door behind him, before returning to sit on the bed. He sat very close to Elwin so that the length of their legs were touching.
Elwin sat the soup bowl down and put his arm around Prin, hugging him close.
“I may have underestimated the –” He started to say, before his words were overlapped by Prin’s
“How long do you think we can –” Prin said. “Sorry, you go ahead.”
“No, you first, it’s okay.” Elwin said. He patted the prince where his hand curved around his side.
“Is it? Is it okay?” The prince’s brilliant eyes were back to giving away his every emotion, and this time was a pure anxiety, a need to be comforted.
“It has to be.” Elwin said. “Because it is what it is, and now we have to deal with it. Even if we did screw up royally.” He flinched. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that, that was not a very comforting thing to say. “I just mean we have to keep moving forward from here, whether it’s okay or not.”
“I’m sorry.” Prin said. He looked down at his lap.
Elwin wasn’t sure if he was sorry he had killed again, or just sorry they were now going through the consequences of their bad disposal job. Probably the latter.
“Don’t be.” Elwin said. “We did the best we could. It’s not like I had any better ideas. There are only so many places to stick a body on a damn boat.”
Prin laughed at that, it was a sad little laugh but better then nothing. Elwin would take it.
Then, the door was knocked on harshly and Elwin held his breath again, trying to be as still and quiet as possible. As though that would help anything. He felt Prin tense up in his arms, and he knew that he was doing the same.
“Come to the captains quarters.” A loud unfamiliar voice demanded from the other side of the door. “The captain would like to see you now.”
After a long moment of silence, the prince having reached over and grabbed Elwin’s hand, clutching it a little too hard. The voice added. “This is not a request.” Before walking away, heavy boot sounds retreating down the hall.
“I guess we really have no choice now.” Elwin said. He hoped that the prince would do all the talking when they were in front of the captain, who intimidated him a little if he was being honest. “Might as well go talk to good old Captain Beams.” He started to get up from the bed, but Prin motioned him back down.
“I think we should stall as much as possible.” Prin said. “I don’t see how there is any more trouble we could get in then we are already in so . . .”
“Whatever you think we should tell him, I will back you up on.” Elwin said. “Of course.”
Prin had a perfect coal-black ringlet of hair resting on his shoulder, and Elwin idly played with it. The worst thing he could imagine is if they were split up, anything else he figured he could handle.
“Just . . . play stupid I guess.” Prin said. “Whatever they ask, you just have no idea what they’re talking about. Okay?” He leaned over so that his face was in front of Elwin’s suddenly. His blue eyes gleaming with unshed tears that reflected the meager candle light. “If anyone gets in trouble for anything I want it to be me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Elwin put his hand on the back of Prin’s head, pulling his face closer still. He wanted to kiss him, but knew the timing was beyond inappropriate. Still, the want was there, and strong. “Are you scared?” He asked.
Prin pulled away and out of his grasp. The moment, no matter how bad the timing, now past for good. “No, no, just nervous.” He sat beside Elwin rigid and straight, like an ice statue, a glacier prince.
“What’s the difference?” Elwin teased. He knew his own calm was something akin to unnatural, but he always was good in emergencies. Or maybe he was just in shock.
Before Prin could answer the door was banged on again, this time much more forcefully.
Prin remained still, as frozen things do.
“Get out of there you scallywags!” Captain Beams voice was louder than Elwin had thought it could get. “Just because this is my ship, don’t think I wont tear it down to flush out some rats!” He paused for an answer, but when none was forthcoming, he continued. “Things will go worse for you if you make me have to.”
Elwin stood up and went to the door. The way he figured it, the captain wouldn’t actually have to tear the ship apart, not even tear the door down, all he would have to do would be to go get someone with tools and they would have the door apart at its hinges in five minutes. He didn’t want that to be five minutes that that Captain could continue to stew and work himself into a rage.
He unlocked the door and opened it wide.
The old man was standing there, his face red and his white beard swinging around like it had a mind of his own. He reminded Elwin of a fairy tale character, Rumpelstiltskin.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
There was a cool-headed looking man beside him, with greying temples and shrewd looking eyes. His manner of dress was very tidy, almost formal. Elwin had him figured for the first mate.
“What’s going on?” Elwin asked. He had meant it to come out all cool and manly but there was a hitch in his voice, in the middle of the sentence, that he happened to know thanks to Dolce, was a tell that he was getting ready to lie. Thankfully, these folks didn’t know that.
“What’s going on!? I could twist your ear right off your head you cheeky little boy.” Captain Beams said. “Come to my chambers. Now. For a meeting. And bring that one with you.” He gestured towards Prin as though he were an afterthought, but not one the captain was willing to forget about.
The prince stood up and got his walking stick, following Elwin out as he followed the two men back to the captain’s quarters. Elwin looked over his shoulder at him once, thinking that tears would be a good thing right about now. There were none.
As they walked several of the crewmen stopped what they were doing to watch them, Elwin recognized one of the nasty men he had worked with shoveling the coal. Yes, it was clear that people were saying stuff, as Squeaks had put it.
The first mate was the one who opened the captain’s door. It was not as Elwin had expected, an ornate and decorative affair, it was instead plain hard wood, just as the door to their own modest cabin, except maybe wider. The illustrations from Prin’s books had lied to them.
The first mate waited until they all had entered before following them and closing the door behind him.
The office held a heavy desk covered in papers and ledger books, what surface area you could see was scarred and pockmarked with age and heavy use. Behind it was a massive throne like wooden chair and in front of it a couple of chairs with red velvet cushions.
“Sit.” Captain Beams demanded.
The first mate cast Elwin a look as though to say, you don’t want to be forced into that chair.
Elwin hadn’t planned on making it come to that anyway, he didn’t need the reminder. He sat down in one of the cushioned chairs, involuntarily enjoying the comfort for a second before he was jolted back to the harshness of the imminent moment.
Prin sat down in the other chair beside him, leaning his walking stick up against the chair’s wooden arm. He seemed to have regained his composure. Although Elwin still maintained, inwardly, that a few tears in combination with that bruise could have done them a world of good.
He wondered if it would do them any good if he cried but quickly dismissed the notion.
“I heard one of my men is missing and the two of you are directly responsible.” Captain Beams said, coming straight to the heart of the matter. “On top of that, you ignore my summons! Making me look bad on my own ship.” The captain grumbled.
“Sir, theys just skeered.” A timid voice spoke up from the corner of the room.
Elwin looked behind him and nearly jumped out of his skin to see Squeaks standing in the corner, blending into the shadows like he belonged with them. He turned his head back to look at Prin, who wore the barest hint of a smile, happy to see his friend in their corner, literally and figuratively.
“They don’t look scared.” The captain narrowed his eyes at them suspiciously.
“Theys just kids, an shouldna be workin’ on a boat.” Squeaks said.
“I took pity on them.” The captain said, with a look that said, much to my regret. The corners of his mustache dropped.
“We all start in this line of work at about their age.” The first mate said.
“Well, young’uns or not, what do you have to say for yourselves?” The captain asked. “If you had a problem with one of my men, you should have just come to me.”
“It’s hard to go for help when some’ne has you cornered.” Squeaks said. “Lookit him. S’clear he aint so good at fightin’ but he had ta try.” He went to stand beside Prin’s chair in solidarity. “I toldya . . . What happened to me a’ready. So’s ya know what that man was like.”
“You told him?” Prin cast an admiring glance up at Squeaks, who was clearly playing the hero of the moment.
“It’s not the first thing I had heard about Mac that didn’t sit well.” The captain said. “But before now it was just rumors, and he always did his job reliably.”
The first mate nodded in agreement. “A lot of the men here came from rough backgrounds. It’s true though, I found that man unsettling, personally.”
The captain came around his desk and went to Prin. He bent down and touched Prin’s face, tilting it upward to get a better look. “That’s a nasty one.” He said. “Is it true that Mac tried to attack you?”
“I-yes.” Prin said. He blinked rapidly, casting his blue eyes like the eyes of painted cupids on a temple wall, up at the captain.
Well, it wasn’t tears but he was trying.
“You didn’t kill him, did you?” The captain released his face, having seen enough, and went back behind his desk. He sat with a heavy thud on his throne-like chair. “I don’t think you have it in ya. It was that one, wasn’t it?” He cocked his thumb at Elwin.
“No!” Prin protested.
“Yes.” Elwin said plainly, speaking over Prin. “And I’m not ashamed of it. Mac tried to drug me to keep me out of his way, but I didn’t drink as much as he had intended. When I woke up I ran back to the cabin and burst in on him – And I stabbed him to get him off Prin. I would do it again too. No regrets.” He hoped his story was close enough to the actual truth to be believable. It felt real anyway.
Prin gave him a look of utter horror. But he didn’t say anything to contradict Elwin’s story.
No one would have believed that the prince had killed that man, more then double his own weight anyway, Elwin figured. He was just trying to give them a story that sounded legitimate.
“They’re both good fellas.” Squeaks said, trying to help. “They would never do summing like ‘at for no good reason.”
“Well what in hells fury am I supposed to do with you two?” Captain Beams asked. “I can’t have murderers just hanging around my ship, taking a free ride and disturbing the crew!”
“If you put them in the brig they’ll be retaliated against.” The first mate said.
“Don’t you think I know that?” The captain huffed. “I can’t just let them do whatever they want, we’re still days away from port.”
The first mate scratched his chin reflectively. “We aren’t far from Peacock Island, not far at all.”
“I’m not getting close to that place, it isn’t done.” The captain said sternly.
“Peacock Island!” Squeaks said. “That’s the old name for that place . . . You can’t take ‘em there.”
“I’m not doing any such thing.” The captain crossed his arms over his chest with an air of finality.
“We do still have one of the old lifeboats left.” The first mate said. “Do for replacement but still sound.”
“Old or not, it’s worth money.” The captain huffed.
Elwin looked at Squeaks, who’s eyes were wide as he looked from Elwin to Prin and back again, as though trying to convey a silent message that they just weren’t smart enough to pick up on. But he clearly wished that they were.
“Sometimes it costs a little money to solve a problem.” The first mate said smoothly. “Put them out on the boat and they can make their own way to shore. Then they are someone else’s problem. Also, stops the men from drinking under the old boat at night. Frees up the deck space, etcetera.” He seemed well satisfied with this solution, even if the captain and Squeaks both seemed unsure about it.
What was this island like anyway? Elwin didn’t want to go to the brig so he kept his mouth shut.