Page 69 of Virelai's Hoard
He howled, arms flailing, tripping back. A hand gripped the back of her shirt and tore her away from his head. She landed on her back, slid across the deck.
But the distraction had worked.
Sable was back on her feet, wiping blood from her nose and mouth before brandishing her machete once more. She stopped Thorian’s advance with a flick of her blade, then a slash made him take a step back, toward the railing. The mist was climbing slowly on deck, and Riley watched with growing horror as it thickened into slithering tendrils, licking at their feet.
As Thorian’s back hit the railing, he caught Sable’s next slash between his palms–her blade now trapped and useless. Riley could only watch from between moving feet as the machete clattered on the deck. He twisted his fists in Sable’s shirt and lifted her in the air, her boots leaving the deck as they snarled at each other.
Then the mist lashed at his feet. It circled an ankle. Lifted. He let go of Sable with a startled shout, cut off by his chin knocking against the deck. More tendrils circled around him, lashing his arms, his torso, pulling him back. Over the railing and into the sea.
Wide-eyed, Riley stared at the empty spot where Thorian had been just earlier. The pirates who’d witnessed the scene stopped fighting, cuts and bruises forgotten as they stood around, slack-jawed and silent.
In the next moment, they looked at each other, panting. Then at Sable, split lip and swelling cheek and a grim expression on her face as she eyed the mist–harmlessly incorporeal once more.
But not gone. Still looming. Still waiting.
Heads shook, as if no one knew what they’d been fighting about.
Calla was sitting in the middle of the deck, head gripped between her hands, her shoulders shuddering.
“Get the captain below deck. Now,” Sable said. The pain in her voice rang louder than her words.
No one argued this time. As she was led away, Calla looked back at her skin.
Or where the skin was supposed to be. A low layer of mist covered the entire deck now. The pirates shifted on their feet, murmuring, glancing to where Eryx stood. The young pirate’s lips were pale, pressed tight and grim.
Finally, for the first time, they spoke. “I’ll do it. I’ll go with them.” The words were said with great effort, but the crew just looked at them blankly.
“What do you mean,them?” Kittredge asked, looking around.
Eryx frowned. “You don’t see it?” They raised their arm, pointing at something in the thick of the mist. “They’ve been waiting.”
A flurry of heads turned to see.
Riley couldn’t make up anything at first. The mist was so thick now she could barely peer beyond the railing. Then, as if Eryx’s words had called it into existence, a dark shadow. Indistinct and distant, slowly taking shape, materializing into something solid. It dwarfed the Moonshadow with its sheer size.
Another ship.
If it could be called that.
A rotting, creaking, algae-ridden corpse of a ship, who looked like it belonged on the bottom of the sea rather than floating along the Moonshadow. Nothing on it moved, not a soul in sight. Riley startled when a plank extended from it, connecting the ghost ship to the Moonshadow’s deck.
The sailors stumbled away from it, knocking back into the crowd as they tried to put as much distance as they could between them and… whateverthatwas.
Eryx was the only one who didn’t look scared. Under the muted stares of the crew, Eryx approached the railing. Halfway there, they glanced behind, taking a good look at the frightened crew and the Moonshadow’s deck, as if trying to commit the sight to memory. Then they reached the plank.
A small squeak called out from under the mist’s blanket. Eryx’s steps faltered. They bent down, hands cupped, and as they straightened their back the mist poured out of their hands to reveal–Patch. Eryx hoisted him on their shoulder.
“Patch?” Riley called softly, lurching to her feet.
Eryx stepped up on the plank. The rotted wood shuddered. Dust shook off under their steps.
“Patch!”
What Riley did then was stupid. No, it was idiotic. And it was the only thing she could do. She pushed through the frozen pirates and raced after Eryx. The plank cracked under her feet, gave way, and she jumped off it just as it slipped into the water between the two ships.
With a groan, the ghost ship swallowed her whole.
22. Two Sacrifices, One Choice
