He left the warmth of our bed
Child if I’m being truthful
I did not even grieve
For years I laid next to him, and I prayed
That he would finally leave
The truth is I knew he held me
But held no love inside
We gave it our all for happiness’ sake
Lord knows, lord knows, we tried
She carried on, each verse she sang more haunting than the last. When her song ended, the deck remained silent for several long moments. Zander heard a sniff and looked over to see Abdoul wiping his eyes, the effect of the song’s sorrowful lyrics apparent.
“Ah, Captain,” George crowed from the other side of the deck. “It’s been too long since you blessed us with your voice.”
Ace smiled affectionately at the older man. Her eyes swept over her crew, filled with fondness for the ragtag group.
“Get some rest, you all,” she said softly. “We’ve got a big few days ahead of us.”
The crew began to shuffle around, cleaning up the remnants of their evening before heading to bed. Daniel and Amir settled in near the helm, preparing to take watch together, as they often did.
“I didn’t know you could sing,” Zander told Ace as he stood.
“Aye, well, if I sing too often, this lot will start treating me like their mother.” She smirked at him, shrugging.
Suddenly, the air between them changed. It grew heavier, like they were standing together in a cloud. Zander’s breaths came quicker, and the tips of his fingers tingled, but not from anxiety. It was more like a compulsion, a desire to move, to do something. It spread through his body like a phantom, begging him to close the distance between them, wrap her in his arms, hold her tightly against him for the rest of his life.
Zander could not have known this, but Ace felt it too—a writhing in her soul, like hands that meant to burst from her chest and pull him toward her. Their souls, no longer content with the slow magnetic draw toward one another, ached to be united once again.
A strangled cry sounded from the main deck where Thomas stepped on a stray piece of glass. The string of obscenities that left his mouth pierced the tender veil surrounding Zander and Ace, and Zander realized his hand was suspended in midair as he reached toward her face.
Her mouth turned up at Zander’s bashful smile, but rather than lower his hand, he reached forward and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Perhaps I can get two or three songs a year out of you, too,” he said quietly.
Ace’s eyes shone, and she nodded. “Aye, you can.”
“Fucking goddamn Theo and your goddamn theatrics!” bellowed Thomas. A boot flew across the deck toward Theo’s head, and he ducked, causing the boot to fly past him and hit Amir in the jaw. Amir yelped dramatically and picked up the boot, throwing it back at Thomas and hitting Declan just beside him.
Ace held her hand exasperatedly over her face. “I’d better make sure Thomas is going to get through the night,” she said. “Goodnight, Zander.”
“Goodnight, Ace.”
Once, he was a raven.
He lived in the woods near the sea, and he flew above the shoreline each day gazing at the great water beyond. He knew the fish that swam there, and the people that came to catch them. He knew the gulls and the crabs, the seals and the starfish. But one day, he found something new.
The sun reflected off her scales as she cut through the water, so quickly he almost mistook the glimmer for a discarded piece of glass. Turning, he followed the phantom reflection. Gliding high above, he mimicked her sudden twists and turns, playing in the breeze as she did in the waves, until she came to a secluded pool.
He descended to get a clearer view as she lounged in the pool, half in, half out of the water. Her torso was roughly that of a human, albeit differently colored, and its lower half extended into a long, fish-like tail, its scales various shades of green and blue. As she lounged in the pool, the end of her tail occasionally whipped upward, sending water cascading in an arc that reflected the colors of the rainbow.
Moving closer, he let out a tentative noise to alert this new creature to his presence. Upon noticing him, she made a noise of her own that he guessed was some sort of language. He responded, and the two went on like that for some time, each speaking without understanding the other. It was a pleasant conversation, nonetheless, until she retreated into the water and swam away.
The next day, he flew to the pool again to see his new friend. He carried with him a trinket he’d found, discarded on the beach by careless humans. It was white like a pearl, and round like one, but flat. It contained two small holes and a ridge around the outer edge. He quite liked it, and was confident his new friend would, too.
As he’d hoped, he found her lounging in the pool. He approached, guessing the noise she made upon seeing him was one of greeting, and placed the trinket just on the edge of the water. She opened her mouth, baring sharp teeth in a gesture he recognized from humans as one of pleasure, and threaded the trinket into her hair.
The next day, she brought him a seashell. He carried it home, careful to keep from cracking it, and placed it amidst his treasures.
And so the two went on like this, bringing each other gifts, conversing in languages neither could understand, and playing upon the waves of air and water that made each of their homes in a synchronized dance, until the waves no longer brought her to his shore.
5
Five days later, early in the morning, they made port in Bermuda. Zander found himself getting excited for the long journey to Portugal. The eight days they spent sailing to Bermuda was the longest they’d been on open water so far, and rather than inducing soul-shaking terror like Zander anticipated, it was rather invigorating. He’d spent nearly his whole journey from England to Barbados hiding in his room, questioning every life choice he’d ever made. In contrast, this journey was quite pleasant despite the breakneck pace, mainly because he spent so much of it by Ace’s side.
The port they docked in was familiar to both Ace and the crew, all of whom had made the journey before. Apparently, the journey was a semi-annual event.
After docking, Ace gave the sailors their instructions—Theo and Yarrow were to visit a man named Robert, from whom Zander ascertained they often bought supplies such as ammunition, nails, and lead sounding weight. Sean and Santiago accompanied George to find food and spices for the galley.
Jurgen, Raphael, Bagu, and Saila were tasked with trading watch. “I want two of the four of you on board at all times, got it?” Ace told them. “If you’re going to get drunk, give yourself enough time to sober up before you come back and begin keeping watch or I’ll have your hide.”
