Page 77 of Astrid at Sea

Viktor nodded in agreement. “They’ve got us digging all over the place. We’ve found two spots where some gold has been buried, but it’s not much. The pirates are adamant about much more, but I’m not sure.”

“Even if you find all the King’s treasure, they’re not going to let us go,” I told him. “They’re going to be even more determined to kill us when they realise that we’ve killed three of their own.”

“I know,” he sighed and squeezed me tighter. By this point, he was squeezing me a little hard, but I couldn’t bring myself to complain. Not when I needed the comfort just as much as he did. “We need to come up with a plan. There are fourteen of us, and only five of them left. I know they’ve taken all our weapons and supplies, but if we can get our hands on something, we can try to overthrow them and set ourselves free.”

“There might be weapons on their ship,” I murmured, remembering Frode’s dagger I had used to kill him and Sven. “There were no weapons on the bottom deck, only some food, but if Frode had a dagger hidden in his room…”

“There’s a possibility that the others might also have weapons hidden in their rooms.” Viktor snapped his fingers as he finished off my sentence.

Our hands tightly clasped together, Viktor and I wasted no time rushing back onto the pirate ship. We started in the first room, and without much effort, we were able to locate two daggers. One was hidden under the bed, and the other among his personal belongings. We found five more in the following five rooms and two more in the room opposite Frode’s–the third pirate Viktor had saved me from.

It appeared that even though they were a band of pirates that sailed the Seven Seas together, wreaking havoc wherever they went, they didn’t trust each other.

Viktor had been missing for quite some time now. If they hadn’t already, one of the pirates would come looking for him soon enough, and that was not a risk we were willing to take. The daggers were sharp but small, so the element of surprise was still the best weapon we had.

Once we were back on the sandy beach, Viktor turned to face me. “You need to stay here and hide, my siren.”

“What? No!”

“Hear me out,” he said, his lips twitching slightly at the corners in a barely-there smile. “As soon as they see you, they will know something is wrong.”

“But–” I tried to protest, but my husband cut me off.

“You’ve already been through so much, done so much. I can’t bear the thought of you having to go through anything else, my siren,” he whispered, bowing his head to nuzzle the tip of his nose against mine. If the moment wasn’t so dire, I would have melted in his arms and ordered him to take me right then and there. “I’m so sorry that you had to go through that alone. I should have been there to stop it from happening, to protect you, but I’m so proud of you for being able to protect yourself,my siren. My strong, brave wife.” He held me to him, his hands delicately cupping my face and tilting it up so he could pepper kisses all over it. “But you need to let me do this. Let me protect you, my siren. Get onto The Serpent, where I know you’ll be safe. Wait for us.”

I pursed my lips, though, after a few moments, I couldn’t stop them from curling down. “I’m not happy about this, Viktor. I want to come with you. I want to fight by your side.”

“I know, but I can’t risk putting you in any more danger, my siren,” he sighed and brushed his lips against my forehead. “Stay safe for me. I’ll be back with everyone before you know it, and then we’ll leave this Hell hole.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to try and sneak back without them noticing. I’ll hand out the daggers to the crew, and we’ll strike when they least expect it.”

“And if they do notice you sneaking back?”

He shrugged. “We’ll make it work, my siren. We outnumber them.”

I knew there was nothing I could do to stop him, that this needed to be done, that this was something that he needed to do, so even though I wasn’t happy about it, I sighed and gave in.

“Come back to me, pirate,” I whispered and rose on my tiptoes for a kiss.

“Always, my siren,” he promised.

Viktor slid one of the daggers into my hand and gave me a lingering kiss before he turned around and ran toward the treeline, disappearing behind it.

Soon, we would all be free, but I could only wait for now.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Viktor had promised to be back as soon as possible. While I knew he was probably trying his best to keep his word, it felt like he had been goneforever.

I don’t know how much time passed, but I waited until I couldn’t wait any longer. With the dagger Viktor had left me snuggled tightly in the palm of my hand, I began trekking up the shore in search of him and our crewmates.

I would be relieved to run into even Crosby right now.

I had nearly made it to the treeline when my ears perked up at the sound of faint laughter, and my eyes widened in fear. It didn’t sound like any of our crewmates, and even if it was, I doubted any of them would be laughing so freely like this while held under captivation by murderous pirates.

When the laughter became louder, I took Viktor’s advice and hid. I rushed back to the closest ship–the pirate ship–and took shelter on the side hidden from them. The plank to walk up onto the ship was on the other side, so there was no logical reason for them to wander onto this side of the vessel and discover me, but I couldn’t help but worry that my hiding spot was flawed. Holding my breath, I willed for my heart to calm down, irrationally afraid they would somehow hear it and discover me.

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