“Hey, what’sa matter?” Mee nudged Elwin with her elbow, having immediately noticed him tense up and his face drain of color.

  Elwin couldn’t answer, his mind was whirring with the cricket noises of pure panic. As he waited for it to clear so he could use his senses again, images of Crow and then, the dead body of Hobbs and Aster’s burning shack fshed before his eyes like a badly done py.

  No no no. How could he have followed them? How? And would this be treated so casually? The captain not even informed?

  “You alright there?” Mee patted him roughly on the back.

  “I-“ Elwin, while struggling to reply, finally got a notion through his head. What if it wasn’t Crow? Could Crow have charmed himself onto the ship? Even getting a crew member to bring him food? Highly unlikely. No, if it were him he would have had to stay well hidden.

  Elwin’s mind fshed to a different face instead, one that was obstinate and clever, with emotional swings that could lead to such a crazy decision. One who had an almost sweet, childish crush on Prin. He wouldn’t put it past Valor at all to have somehow gotten himself into the hold of the ship and convinced someone to take care of him and bring him sandwiches.

  But if it was Valor, Elwin couldn’t leave him alone in the hold of a ship full of pirates.

  “You have to take me to the stowaway.” Elwin said.

  The tone of his voice must have been such that allowed no arguments. Because Mee just gave him a funny look, but didn’t try to refuse.

  “Sure, okay. Just grab the sandwiches.” She said.

  Mee led him through the pirate ship, past people doing their jobs, or standing around having a smoke or chatting. The atmosphere wasn’t bad on this ship, Elwin had to admit. Though he was a little too distracted at the moment to enjoy the view.

  Martin tagged along behind them, curious to see what the fuss was about, and no doubt craving the distraction.

  “There’s not much cargo beyond supplies at the moment,” Mee said, oddly apologetic. Like she thought Elwin would be expecting to see chests overflowing with gold, piles of ornate weapons, and maybe a dragon or two.

  She threw back a set of double doors and led them into a darkened room.

  Elwin had a brief nervous thought of traps and ambushes. But, wasn’t he the one who had insisted on being brought here? It should be fine. Even if it was somehow Crow, what was he going to do, take a shot at Elwin in front of witnesses? And trapped on a ship at that?

  Still, he walked slowly into the darkened cargo hold, spotting the light from a small oil mp in the far corner.

  The light cast bcker shadows on the already dark room, turning stacks of crates into castle towers and barrels of water and sacks of potatoes into monsters that slunk and slugged along out of the corners of the cavernous room.

  “Who’s in here?” Martin called. He seemed to be a little nervous himself, but also delighted at the prospect of adventure.

  “Aww, Mee what’d you do? Bring the whole ship down here for a visit?” A familiar voice asked.

  Elwin blinked, not sure he could immediately pce it. But he knew that voice.

  The person who walked out of the corner carrying an oil ntern was someone Elwin had genuinely expected not to ever see again.

  “Oh, hey, Elwin!” She said cheerily. Dru’s dark hair was slicked back from her face and trimmed, and she was no longer wearing gsses. This had the effect of seeming like she had removed a mask, or at least something that had softened her appearance. She looked very dapper in fitted grey scks and a long leather coat, although her outfit was distinctly cking in any added embellishments or accessories. But which was the disguised appearance? The old one, or this?

  “Hello?” Elwin was genuinely baffled.

  “Well it’s not exactly top secret that you’re down here. Not so good at keeping quiet, are ya?” Mee tapped her head. “Captain just keeping some pusible deniability, I reckon.”

  Dru eyed Mee’s hands until she handed over the sandwiches. At which point she sat right down on a crate and took several big bites in rapid succession. “This is soooo good.” When she had paused for air she added. “If I had stayed quiet I’d still be hungry right now.”

  “Doesn’t seem very comfortable.” Martin scratched his head. He was watching Dru eat, seeming just as confused by this whole thing as Elwin was. “Careful you don’t choke.”

  “I’m an old hand at eating.” Dru assured.

  Mee gave a snort of ughter.

  Elwin felt oddly disappointed that it wasn’t Valor. Although he had already been trying to piece it out in his head as to how they would have gotten him safely back home. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about that now. This one was on her own. And she seemed like she could handle it.

  “It takes some real brass balls to sneak onto a pirate ship.” Martin said. “Weren’t you afraid of being taken prisoner? Or forced off the ship in the middle of the ocean?”

  Elwin too wondered this.

  “Oh, she’s Captain Tompson’s niece.” Mee said. “So nothing like that will happen.”

  “O-oooh!” Martin said, then, after a pause. “Wait, that makes even less sense that you’re down here.”

  “She didn’t want her uncle to try and stop her,” Mee said.

  “He has some old fashioned ideas about what’s safe for a woman to do, or some rot.” Dru said dismissively. “Besides I didn’t want to upset him.”

  “Won’t he be more upset when he sees you’ve disappeared?” Elwin asked. He couldn’t understand the timing of this. Captain Thompson would definitely be upset now after losing both Aster and his niece on the same day.

  “I did leave a note, not to worry.” Dru said. “It’s not like he’s going to think you killed me or something!” She ughed a little too hard at this. Prompting Elwin to wonder once again, what it was that she knew exactly.

  “Are you joining up?” Martin wondered.

  “Oh hell no!” Dru had the grace to look momentarily sheepish. “I mean, excuse me and everything. I’m just not cut out to be anyone’s rank and file crew. Not me.” She turned back to Elwin, as though thinking he needed more of an expnation.

  “The isnd was getting too cramped for me. It was much too small. That’s how I am, once I have seen all there is to see and done all there is to do, there’s not much more reason to stick around, now is there?”

  “I used to be like that when I was younger,” Mee said. She reached out and ruffled Dru’s hair. It looked better tousled. “You grow out of that eventually and are just gd if you can get a decently paying stable job.”

  Dru stuck out her tongue. “I’ll never grow into being boring. Just shoot me first.”

  “I bet you have some stories to tell.” Martin said admiringly. He looked a little too much like he was buying into what she was selling.

  “You bet I do.” Dru winked at him. “But right now I’m going to take nap. Bring me some wine next time, would you kid?”