Page 59 of Seven Oars
“She and the girl, Daphne, quarreled over a book,” Alyesha said, drawing Ucai’s attention to herself.
He made a low sound in his throat.“I thought you were friends.”
“We are. Friends have disagreements, no?” Alyesha offered him a coy smile from beneath her lashes.“Like your crew.”
“Our crew is built on strength. Only the strongest can lead us. We test ourselves because strength ebbs and flows. That’s why we fight. And you fight over this?” He pointed at the Holy Guide.
Rosamma blinked. That wasn’t always why the pirates fought. Sometimes it was over sleeping nodes, the choice of music, and dumb jokes.
But whatever helped him sleep at night.
“The book has a special meaning to Anske,” Alyesha explained, looking at Ucai earnestly.“Daphne wanted it.”
He moved closer to her, his weird nostrils fluttering as he inhaled.
Meanwhile, Massar walked a slow circle around the room. He examined each woman in turn, pausing near Daphne… then Rosamma.
She went still, afraid to trigger him and unsure how not to. He seemed disturbed by her very existence.
Time dragged. Each minute stretched painfully long with the pirates invading the Cargo Hold, claiming it like their own.
They lingered, one watching Alyesha, the other Rosamma.
It was suffocating, like the bag on the head.
Phex remained on high alert, but they left him alone.
Finally, they left, trailed by the robot, without punishing the women for the chaos in the Cargo Hold.
Evidently, fights weren’t a punishable offense on Seven Oars. It was a twisted kind of freedom: the freedom to rip each other’s throats out. And the women seemed to have been granted it, assimilated into this… culture.
There was a collective sigh of relief.
Fawn muttered,“Thank God. That beady-eyed skeletal fuck gives me the creeps. I’m telling you, he’s on a sex offender roster somewhere. Maybe multiple. Probably likes to diddle kids.”
Rosamma refused to think about Massar and his obvious interest in her. It was easier that way. She’d promised Phex she’d work on her fear, and not thinking about what scared her seemed like a legit strategy.
Sassa rounded on Alyesha.“You were batting your eyelashes at them. Are you for real?”
Alyesha looked back, surprised by this direct attack.“What did you want me to do? Get under the blanket and hide inside a hoodie?”
“You were flirting with apirate!”
Sassa’s reproach failed to penetrate Alyesha’s composed veneer.“Wishing the pirates away won’t make them disappear, dear. I’ve never hidden from a man in my life.”
Sassa’s nose went up in the air.“More like the opposite, apparently.”
“Are you trying to judge me?”
“I’m trying to understand why you wantmoreof their attention. You’re not a nitwit who thinks about peens all the time.”
“Hey!” Fawn pointed a finger.
“To put yourself in front of an alien—how can you?” Sassa was flabbergasted.
Alyesha’s mouth formed a thin line.
“Practice.” Her voice was flat.
