When Amanda opened her cabin door the next morning she found Sirius standing there looking as surprised as she felt, and holding a pile of clean clothes.

“I was, er, just about to knock,” he said as he handed her the pile. “I thought you might like something clean to wear. There’s no showers or anything on this boat, not with fresh water anyway, but we’ve a washtub for laundry on the next level if you need, and a washroom with buckets of saltwater. I can show you later. Where we go today there will be some freshwater pools and we’ll restock.” He paused to check she was paying attention. “Don’t go near any pools surrounded with grass, make sure it has a beach, so you can watch for snakes. The poisonous ones stay out of the water. And don’t stray too far, there’s nowhere to go on this island and it’s not visited very often. You don’t want to get left there. You’ll need to strap your feet up as well.”

“Uh, thanks.” Amanda took the clothes and before she could ask about why she would need to strap her feet he’d already left.

She tried on the clothes, swapping blue denim jeans for brown soft cotton trousers, tied at the hip with a drawstring and loosely hung elsewhere. She supposed they were meant to fall just below the knee but on her they reached almost the ankle. The white throw-over shirt he’d given her was likewise too long in the sleeves but she easily solved this problem by rolling them up the elbow. It otherwise fit comfortably. In the pile he’d also included a pair of dark socks. These too had once been worn by someone with a taller stature than her measly five foot and a bit. Her boots had always been snug though so at least that stopped the socks for sliding.

Amanda joined them on deck a few minutes later, having grabbed breakfast on the way up. The sun was higher than she’d expected. The midnight adventures and lack of a window in her cabin had thrown her body’s clock out of sync. She was used to rising before the sun not the other way around.

Sirius stood at the ship’s bow, a foreboding shape. Beyond him Amanda could make out the rough outline of a string of islands. None looked quite as big as the captain did right now, but the proximity likely had something to do with that.

He turned as she approached.

Before he could say anything she asked “Is that it? The Corpse Islands?”

He gave a brief nod. “We should be close enough to lower the dinghies in about an hour. Have you eaten?”

She held up the apple she was carrying, the remains of her hastily grabbed breakfast. “I ate some bread on the way up.”

“Good,” was his reply.

She stepped past him, right up to the bow of the ship so she could get a better look at the approaching islands. “Why do they call it that? The Corpse Islands.”

“Some ancient curse.” The tone of his voice suggested one he didn’t believe in. “Supposedly the island takes a life for every group of visitors that set foot on her. No one died last time we were here though, at least no one from our crew. So who knows.”

The lighthearted and slight faux spookiness to his voice make her turn to look at him. She noted the small smile and glint in his eye. She gave a smile back and raised her eyebrows. He was teasing but it was subtle, anyone else might have missed it, hell she almost had herself.

He smiled back now and she admired the way the light caught the green in his eyes, making them look as if the depths of the ocean was in there, hiding beneath emerald waves. She’d never seen hair so dark nor so supple. It danced in the warm northerly wind, weaving like a cat flicking a million tails.

“It’s all just superstition of course,” he told her as he turned to face the island again, “But it keeps others from pillaging the island clean. That and while she’s easy enough to get to, she’s hard to sail away from. There’s some nasty fish in these waters, ones that’ll tip a dinghy if you drop anchor too far out. To get close enough we gotta go through the reef and there’s no room for turning around once you do. Once in the reef from this side we have to go out the other side. It’s tight but this is a good crew and we’ve done it many times before.”

As they approached the islands Amanda noticed some of the men start to wrap their ankles in thick ribbons of cloth.

“Here take this.” One of crew handed her several strips of course cloth. She stood staring at it in confusion for almost a minute before Sirius appeared next to her.

“You’ll want to wrap that cloth around your ankles thick and high. The snakes on this island are aggressive. Yet another reason not many folks set foot on her. They’re deadly poisonous but also small with teeth to match. Put enough cloth around any exposed skin and they can’t get their fangs in far enough to inject the venom. And don’t climb any trees. They’re small brown things about this long.” Sirius spread his hands about two feet apart.

“That’s the brown fang you and Shiv were talking about?” Amanda asked as her mind ran through all the snakes she knew.

Sirius nodded.

While there were several brown snakes about that size she knew of only a handful that were poisonous and only one that was aggressive. Amanda wondered if it was the same one. She remembered what the head looked like from a picture in a book her sister owned. It had been a unique overly square shape. She was sure if she saw it she would be able to recognise it. Snakes weren’t uncommon in Little Rock and she’d seen many different ones on her travels with her father across the desert. This one didn’t live in Little Rock though. It was an island snake that liked a certain type of tree which just made her more curious to see if it was the same one. She’d only seen it in her sister’s book and it had gone by a different name.

“Hard to Port!” someone yelled, interrupting her thoughts. “Yer too close to the reef!”

Sirius disappeared from her side and a moment later there was a large jolt to the ship. Men rushed about in a hurry. Amanda just stood still watching, unsure if she should be doing anything to help but not knowing the first thing about how to sail a ship. And while she’d been on ships before, none had ever hit a reef.

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Soon everything calmed down and Sirius returned to the bow of the boat followed by Shiv who was swearing. “I told you he wasn’t ready to steer us in.”

“He needed the practice,” Sirius replied as he stood at the very tip of the bow and studied the water ahead.

“There’s no point,” Shiv replied as he observed what Sirius was doing. “You can’t see well enough from down here, and there ain’t time to get in the nest,” Shiv complained.

“There is, but I don’t need to. I can remember the line and I can see the landmarks on the beach. The crow will keep us on course, I’m just suggesting adjustments.”

“Like he’s kept us on course so far.”

“Wasn’t his fault. I was watching from down here before too. I should have been paying more attention...”

“No, it was Sonny’s, who I said wasn’t ready to steer. He’s got hands of lead that boy.”

“Shiv,” Sirius warned in an even voice.

Shiv walked off with a grumble.

Amanda watched Sirius as he peered forward over the front of the bow and occasionally called back adjustments to be passed along to Sonny. She waited until it seemed like they were in clearer water before she asked, “Is the ship okay?”

Sirius turned. “We’ll know when we get there. I doubt it’s broken through but as to how scraped up she is we’ll see. This reef’s not so bad. It’s the one coming out that gets you.”

“Is Sonny going to steer for that one?” she asked trying not to sound too worried.

Sirius gave a laugh. “No, I’ll do that one. He needed the practice though and it was a good learning opportunity.” He pointed at her ankles. “Wrap your feet. We’re almost in.”

Amanda strapped her feet up. She’d done this sort of thing before, although that had been to keep the leeches out, not to prevent snake bites.

Sirius yelled to drop the anchor and then there was another flurry of activity as the men readied the longboats. She hung back at first, not sure if she was to get in yet. Eventually Sirius gave her a nod, and she climbed over the side.

It was a long way done the ladder to the water. She paused a moment to take it all in. Not a deadly height to leap from but you wouldn’t want to fall wrong either, and you definitely wouldn't want to fall into the row boat from here. As she dropped down out of the sun’s light she felt a sudden decrease in temperature and a light wind, neither cold nor warm which caressed her skin. The rope ladder swayed beneath her feet. Not wanting to be told to hurry up she began her descent.

She dropped into the row boat next to Shiv and a sailor she’d come to know as Billie. She immediately noticed that Billie hadn’t strapped his feet. Her staring must have been obvious for the next thing Shiv said was, “Billie here’s got his own method of dealing with the snakes.”

Amanda caught the hint of mocking in Shiv’s voice. Whatever method Billie used evidently Shiv didn’t think much of it.

Billie was either used to the disbelief or he took Shiv at face value. “It’s simple,” he started to explain with some arm waving, “The snakes hate coconut.”

“They hate coconut?” Amanda asked. She’d certainly never heard of any snakes like that.

Her question was answered with a groan from Sirius who had just landed in the boat with a loud thump and managed to catch the last of the conversation.

She caught his eye and they managed a moment of silent shared amusement before Billie continued on.

“Yeah, so you see, you rub the coconut on yer legs and it keeps the snakes far away. I ain’t never been bit.”

“Yet,” Shiv mumbled as he casually picked his teeth with a knife almost as large as his face.

“Take us around the other side.” Sirius instructed to the rowers. “I want to see what damage that reef did.

They obliged.

Amanda now focused on this new perspective of the ship. She’d hadn’t seen much of it when she’d first been brought aboard. From this angle it was impressive. It was a dark, almost black wood but she could still make out small knots and knobs and one or two lighter coloured planks nearer the top. They’d obviously been replaced at some point. And beneath the bow of the ship there was the figurehead, the front half of a burly dog, black as the rest of the ship and mouth open with it’s fangs bared. It was at this that she stared the longest. Even so far up it was intimidating but also strangely beautiful. She could tell whomever had carved it had put a lot of attention into the details, even the paws had nails.

“The ship’s named for her,” Shiv said as he followed her eye-line, “The Black Dog.”

“Suits the captain too,” another sailor piped in, “He’s named for a dog too, the one in the stars. It’s like he was fated to lead us.”

Shiv rolled his eyes. Amanda looked at Sirius. He was doing his best to focus on studying the hull of the ship but she could tell he was listening.

“Or maybe it’s cause he’s a good captain,” another crewman argued, “And nothing to do with your stupid stars.”

“They’re not stupid,” the first retorted. “They’re bloody useful for telling where to go.”

“That may be so but…”

They fell into bickering. Amanda tuned them out, now more interested in the hull of ship given they’d come around to the other side.

She could see no damage above the waterline but of course that made sense given the reef lay beneath the surface. She tried to see where Sirius was looking and squinted, having difficulty at making out anything that lay beneath the dark waves.

She thought for a moment he might jump in to get a better look but after awhile of staring he sat back down and motioned for them to continue to shore.

When they were several metres out the captain stood up again and leapt overboard into knee deep water. He made his way to the front of the boat and without any help pulled them a fair way up to the sandy shore. There must have been almost 20 men in that boat and he made it look easy. It would have taken enough strength that Amanda had to wonder at his powers. Neither a stongarm or a telekinetic would have been unusual.

She caught Shiv looking at her, an element of suspicion marred his face. As friendly as they had been the look reminded her that this was not a crew to cross and she still felt lucky they hadn’t asked her what her powers were yet. Even out here that seemed taboo in all but the most friendly of circumstances. A woman on a ship was one thing but a firestarter was quite another. Even the lamps on the ship were all either infusements, electric, or powered by the glowing blue caterpillar that the crew fed occasionally. There were no candles or lanterns anywhere.

As Sirius stood off to one side of the bow to survey the sandy beach and nearby jungle, the other men all piled out around him. Further down the shore other boats were being pulled ashore by groups of several men and further up the beach men were studying the various fruit bearing trees.

Amanda got out last, amazed to feel the sand sink beneath her feet, much softer than the hard wood of the ship she was now so used to. As she went to take a step forward she felt the land move beneath her, swaying left and then right. She stumbled sideways and nearly into Sirius.

He caught her. “Careful there. It takes a bit to get your land legs back if you’re not used to it.”

“Sorry,” she apologised and then gave a laugh. “You’re telling me.” She made the rest of her way slowly up the beach, watching her feet at first until Sirius gently grabbed her by the shoulders and spoke into one ear. “Look at the trees, roughly horizon level, not your feet.”

Amanda did so and did find it was much better. “You know I have been on a ship before,” she told him not unkindly. Although she immediately regretted it when he replied, “Uh huh,” in an amused town. She was glad her back was to him and he couldn’t see the redness she was sure was working it’s way up her neck. Why had she said that? He chuckled as he walked past and she was vaguely aware that she hadn’t heard him laugh much in their time on the ship so far. It was a nice sound.