Page 52 of Astrid at Sea

Maybe it was all in my head.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

We made it through half of the tour before remembering that Crosby was chained in the bottom deck of The Serpent. Even though he deserved everything he had faced so far, as well as what was coming for him when we returned to Jorvik, we couldn’t let him die of starvation. It was a cruel fate, and leaving him to suffer at the hands of it, we decided, was a little too cruel. Therefore, Viktor asked for a few crew members to unchain him so he could eat something.

I joined Roscoe, Hammond, and Caspian as we cut the tour short and returned to the ship. Viktor didn’t look too happy about it, but the tour was boring, and I got bored of people staring at me because I was the only female among the crew. Besides, I needed to take some food back for Kis.

“I don’t understand why we can’t just let him starve,” Hammond grumbled. “He deserves it for what he tried to do to you, Astrid.” That only referred to half of what Crosby had done to me as Viktor, and I had yet to disclose the full extent of the truth to the crew, as per my request.

“I agree with you there, Hammond, but the most we can do out here is make him walk the plank and leave him to drown at sea,” I sighed.

Caspian grinned wickedly. “I like that idea.”

“Of course you do,” I giggled.

“He didn’t seem that scared about walking the plank,” Roscoe reminded us.

“If we hold out until we return to Jorvik, his punishment will be worse,” I said.

“I still wouldn’t mind watching him jump off the plank a few times before we return to Jorvik,” Caspian grumbled, making us all laugh. The grumpy mood didn’t last long as he turned to me with a grin and wiggled his eyebrows playfully. “I’m sure you can convince Viktor to make that happen once we’re back at sea.”

“I make no promise, but I’ll see what I can do,” I chuckled as we stopped in front of The Serpent. The ramp was still down from earlier, but before I could follow the others, I caught sight of something peculiar in the corner of my eye.

At the very end of the island, in the far distance, there were several ships of varying sizes. They lined the island’s shore along that side, partially hidden from view behind the tall tree.

In all our hunger, we must have missed them earlier. Or perhaps it was because the ships were strategically hidden behind tall trees, meaning that no ships would dock that way and see them.

“Why does this island need so many ships?” I frowned, and the others quickly matched my expression when they saw what I was looking at.

“I don’t know,” Caspian murmured, his frown mirroring mine. “Even we don’t have that many.”

Hammond stopped halfway up the ramp. “It would make sense of them to have a few, but there’s so many of them.” He craned his neck for a better look. “I count eight ships in total.”

“Why do they need eight ships?” Roscoe asked, confused. “How do they maintain them all?”

“It doesn’t look like they do,” Caspian snorted.

“To need eight ships, that must mean that they’re huge on sailing, but neither Brank nor Bjorn mentioned anything.” My frown deepened. “I’m surprised they didn’t mention it after Viktor introduced himself as Captain.”

“And they also said that they don’t get many visitors,” Roscoe reminded us.

Hammond frowned. “If they’re so big on sailing, surely they would have more friends and visitors.”

“And we would have heard of them if they ever sailed our way,” Caspian said. “It doesn’t make sense for them to have eight ships.”

“It doesn’t make sense, but I guess we can ask them about it later,” I concluded, still confused.

“Maybe at the feast,” Hammond mused aloud before turning to walk up the plank. We all followed closely behind him.

We cut across the top deck to the stairs leading down.

“What do you think they’ll be cooking at the feast?” Caspian asked.

Hammond shrugged. “Fish, meat, vegetables. The normal food that’s usually found at feasts.”

“I hope there are some rabbits,” Roscoe groaned, looking like he was about to start salivating at the mouth any moment now. “I’ve been craving rabbit since we left Isle.”

“Isle,” Hammond chuckled with a snort. “That feels like such a long time ago now.”

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