Sirius was in the mess eating lunch alone when Shiv walked in. He paused in the doorway as if not quite yet decided at how to continue. Eventually he broke the silence. “I noticed the girl’s still on board.”

“Mmm,” Sirius grunted something non-committal between another spoonful of muesli.

Shiv took a seat opposite him. “I thought we were going to put her on a ship heading back to Little Rock?”

Another grunt. Another spoonful.

When Shiv didn’t reply, Sirius eventually looked up. Meeting Shiv’s expectant gaze he said, “I made an executive decision.”

“On what grounds?”

“On the grounds that you were drunk and we needed to set sail.”

Shiv narrowed his eyes.

Taking note of this, Sirius continued. “We had a break in the weather and needed to make use of it. A second front in coming in fast from the side. Might even hit us tonight. We need to get ahead of it.

“You could have passed her off to another captain before you left.”

“She was also drunk. I didn’t want to leave her in that condition with some stranger. Don’t trust any of them enough.”

“What are you talking about? Captain Johnson was heading back toward Little Rock. There’s no nicer guy, and his crew’s a bunch of lambs. They wouldn’t have hurt a hair on her head.”

“They weren’t going direct and it wouldn’t have been fair.”

“We’re not going direct. She’d have been fine and she’d have gotten over it, or have you forgotten that she snuck on board this ship in the first place.”

“She’s proven herself useful, with the pegasus and the other creatures. We’ll get her back home eventually.”

“Captain Tully was going direct,” Shiv pressed.

“Tully’s an arsehole.” Sirius barely paused in his eating, only stopping briefly to reply to Shiv between mouthfuls.

“He’s not that bad.”

“He’ll be stuck with the storm anyway.”

“He’ll be faster than us.”

Sirius paused in his eating then and stared Shiv down as if trying to figure out his angle.

Shiv decided to spell it out for him. He spoke plainly. “You like her.”

Sirius snorted a little too quickly. “The whole crew likes her, she’s charismatic,” he replied, trying to brush off Shiv’s concern.

Shiv was having none of it. “You don’t need a woman on board distracting you.” Conceding on Sirius’ point he added, “None of the crew does. Now she’s a nice girl-”

“She’s useful,” Sirius interrupted.

Shiv gave him a hard stare.

Sirius continued. “She helped with the arasnids, and with the beetles. I don’t know what else might be down there since we still have a few more shipments to search, and when we do I want her with me.”

“A woman who got blackout drunk her first night in Wildwater?”

“If sobriety was a requirement to be on this crew, we’d be more than half a ship down, and I’d have to find a new quartermaster.”

“I wasn’t that drunk.”

Sirius met Shiv’s dark brown eyes with his own piercing green ones.

Shiv conceded initially with a sigh, but a moment later he came back with one last rebuttal. “So she’s one of the crew now?”

“Until we get her back home. Don’t forget what she did for Billie either.”

Shiv sighed, fully resigned now. He shook his head. “She’s gonna worm her way under your skin and you’re gonna end up giving her that pegasus. I can see it.”

“That won’t happen.” Sirius gave Shiv a final, firm look.

Shiv didn’t argue. Instead he stood and retreated to the doorway. He paused a moment and then looked back. “You know muesli’s a breakfast food?”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Says who?” Sirius replied.

“Hmm,” Shiv murmured, and unable to come up to a more satisfactory reply, he left Sirius to his lunch.

Sirius sighed. He had to admit there was something to what Shiv said. He was starting to doubt that keeping the pegasus was the right move. There were consequences to giving it back to Amanda too though, if it even was hers. Was there doubt about that? Sirius put down his spoon with a frown. She was obviously good at bluffing and at reading people. What if she was just playing them? He rubbed his temples. What he really needed was more time to figure it out. More time to figure her out. And it wasn’t like anything else he had said had been wrong. And if he maybe enjoyed her company, well that was just a bonus wasn’t it? He knew what he was doing.

He put his bowl away and went in search of the woman. He knew where he was likely to find her, with the pegasus. And he was right. She spent a lot of time down there now, stroking it and whispering things to it. He wondered what she talked to it about. Wondered what it would feel like to have her hands run over his body the way she stroked that damn horse.

He watched her silently from the doorway for a little while. He was good at moving about quietly, he had to be, growing up in the house he did, where one wrong footstep or too much noise might mean a slap across back with the strap, or worse. The coat helped too of course, at least he thought it did. It had belonged to the previous captain and it was enchanted. He wasn’t sure exactly how or all the things it did but he had noticed that sneaking about was far easier when he was wearing it.

He thought about joining her and talking to her but he didn’t feel quite in the right mindset at the moment. He considered finding Shiv again and mentioning that he was having doubts about the pegasus but given the talk they’d just had he didn’t think Shiv would be very receptive to that. Instead, he did the rounds, checking in on what the rest of the crew were up to and sent a bunch of them to continue the search of the cargo. He consulted the maps and checked the sky. The new storm seemed to have backed off a little, at least for now.

He was standing on deck peering though the telescope when Shiv found him again.

“That’s interesting,” Shiv remarked. “Looks like it’s eased up a bit.”

“That’s good isn’t it?”

“Maybe.”

“You think it’ll pick up again?” Sirius turned to stare at the sky in the direction they were headed. It was overcast but not otherwise foreboding.

“Maybe, can’t say, probably not as bad as that other one if so, but you feel that in the air? The stillness? The silence?”

Sirius nodded. “Sirens. You think I should find some earplugs for Amanda?”

Shiv shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Woman never hear their songs. Just make sure the men have them. We probably won’t run into them but these are their waters so just in case.” He shrugged again. “They probably know but…”

“Yeah,” Sirius agreed. It had been awhile since anyone had jumped overboard in pursuit of a siren’s call and Sirius intended to keep it that way.

“Oh, fuck me!” Alice exclaimed as he pulled the lid off the top of a crate, ripping the nails right out as he did with magical strength.

“What?” Amanda asked as she stood on tiptoes trying to see over the edge.

The crew had spent some of the last day or two, ever since they’d cleared out the beetles, inspecting some of the other cargo in the hold. After the two animal incidents and in spite of Michael’s protests and the ‘no questions asked’ policy, Sirius had ordered a full sweep. Now she, Alice, Thatch, and a couple of others were spending a few hours continuing that work.

Eventually she gave up and just climbed up the outside of the crate.

“Careful, don’t get too close,” Alice warned.

“What is it?” she asked again.

“Snakes.”

Amanda peered cautiously over the rim of the box and then breathed a sigh of relief.

“Errr! What are you doing?” Thatch cried in alarm as Amanda leaned down into the box to pick one of the wriggling black and yellow things up.

“Don’t worry,” she called back to them. “These ones are harmless.” She climbed back down and held the snake out so they could see.

They all took a few wary steps backward.

“Are you sure?” asked Thatch.

Amanda nodded. She smiled as the snake coiled itself around her warm arms. “This is a carpet python. Morelia Spilota. Perfectly safe. People keep them as pets. I know my snakes. See.” She gently stroked the creature’s scales. Then she glanced back at the crate. “That’s a shitty condition to keep them in though, all cramped and probably way too cold. Poor things.”

“Poor things?!” one of the crewmen remarked skeptically.

“Are those snakes?” Sirius asked with a sigh from the doorway. He’d come to check how things were going and was not looking happy to find even more wild animals stashed away on his ship.

Behind him, Michael, who had followed him in, exclaimed, “What are you doing with those snakes?!” Put them back in that box now!”

Sirius walked over and peered into the crate.

“She says they’re harmless.” Alice pointed at Amanda.

With the python now hanging around her neck Amanda turned on Michael as he approached. In a commanding voice and with fire in her eyes she chided him. “How dare you keep them all packed together in a box like that. These snakes need space and water and warmth. Your treatment of them is barbaric. You have no right to call yourself an animal handler.”

Michael took a threatening step toward her but Thatch stepped between them. Michael hesitated and warily eyed up the rest of them.

“What about food?” Sirius asked.

Amanda glanced at him. “They only need to eat every couple weeks.”

“They only need to drink every couple weeks too,” Michael protested.

Sirius looked to Amanda.

She rolled her eyes. “Technically that’s true but it’s not very nice.”

“We’ll have arrived by the time they need feeding or watering,” Michael told them in a huff.

Amanda glared at him.

Sirius peered into the crate again. “How many snakes are in there?”

“22,” Michael replied.

He sighed audibly. “22 snakes. And they’re not poisonous or likely to strangle anyone in their sleep?” He looked to Amanda again.

She shook her head. “Not unless you count the other small animals. We should probably keep them away from the puppies. They just need some more space. Somewhere that’s a bit warmer with shelter and water. Maybe if you have another spare room?”

Sirius nodded. “Maybe they could stay in the library. It’s warm in there.”

“Library!?” Amanda exclaimed. The ship had a library?

“Shiv won’t like that,” remarked Thatch.

“Where else then?” Sirius asked.

“There’s a spare cabin next to Mathais’ room,” Thatch remarked with a sly smile.

“Wait…” Michael’s face fell. “Are you talking about my room?!”

Thatch’s grin grew wider.