All eyes on me. I was the last to enter the room.
It’s time for the first meeting.
“I’ll make this short so you can eat,” I say. “I know that for those of you who haven’t been on board, the dredge can take getting used to, but that will come with time. There are some things you must remember. You cannot leave the ship. You may not go outside or up on the deck. If you do anything to compromise our mission, the consequences will be swift and severe.”
A few heads nod, but most people remain still. According to the manifest, eleven of the crew have been on a dredge voyage before and the others have not. To work on the ship, they’re required to have mining or machinery experience, or to be an expert in another area for which we have need. They also have to be able to swim and shoot. In my opinion, those last two aren’t necessary anymore. Not now that we have my armor.
I make eye contact with a couple of men at the back who look greener than the rest. The ship’s getting to them. The motion, maybe, making them sick. Or the noise. Or the heat of many bodies in close quarters.
I fold my arms. I’m sweating, but so is everyone else.
“Our job is straightforward. We gather gold and kill any raiders who try to harm us or interfere with our mission.”
Someone raises a hand. “I heard that when we have to turn the ship around you might let us out to have a look.”
“The instructions we were all given say explicitly otherwise,” I say.
Disappointment crosses more than one person’s face. Why did they think there was a chance? They all know the Admiral forbids it.
Maybe they think I’m some kind of rogue. Or that I’m weak, and they’ll be able to push me around.
“I’ll call meetings as needed,” I continue. “For now, enjoy your dinner. It will be the one time that your seatmates smell as fresh as they do.”
It’s a poor attempt at humor, but they laugh. I sit down. I’ve done what’s necessary. Stated the rules, demonstrated that I plan to adhere to them, shown that I am not completely cold and without camaraderie. You can’t command a ship that way. I don’t know much but I know that. I think I’m relatively safe from mutiny because no one wants to harm the person who designed the ship’s armor and who can best keep it running.
Except maybe the person who left me that note.
I lift the cover off my dish and the smell instantly makes my mouth water. Around me, others are murmuring in surprise.
It’s not stew or any of its incarnations, the usual mishmash of food put together and seasoned to disguise its age or toughness. It’s separate, distinct, beautiful food—meat with wine-colored sauce, crisp salad greens, crusty-outside-and-steaming-hot-inside bread.
Heads swivel to the serving area but Tam has disappeared.
Naomi leans over to me. “Reminds me of that story about the children and the witch in the wood,” she says. “Why is the Admiral fattening us up?”
I laugh, remembering. “This ship isn’t made of candy.”
“That it isn’t,” she says, and her face goes grim.
Maybe the Admiral is going to eat us. Isn’t that how the other story ended?
“Excuse me,” a man says, standing up. “I beg your pardon. If I could offer a few words as well.”
Chaplain Clair. I remember him from this morning and from the manifest. A prickle of irritation rustles through me. I never said he could speak.
The chaplain is short, smaller than me. And he has a sweaty red face and a twitchy little nose and big patches of wet on the underarms of his uniform. I want to roll my eyes.
“You may speak,” I say. “But keep it quick. We need to eat.”
Right then, there’s a clamor at the door. Heads turn and I see Brig pushing into the cafeteria with two crew members, both men. Brig and the man on the right are trying to restrain the one in the middle, who’s struggling. Has there been a fight? No blood, that I can see. But the man they’re holding has wild in his eyes.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Brig says. “But he was trying to get off the ship. He came onto the bridge and tried to climb through the window.”
“It’s driving me crazy,” the man in the middle says. Jonah Miller, I remember, from the roll call earlier. “The noise. How slow it is. Just let me off and I’ll walk back to the Outpost. We haven’t gone far.”
“We’re not going to stop the whole dredge and risk the crew,” I say. “Stopping makes us vulnerable. Once we’re in motion, we stay in motion.”
He casts his eyes around desperately, trying to think of another way out. “Let me jump off the deck,” he offers, his voice tinged with hope.
“No one goes on the deck,” I say. “And no one jumps.”
“So there’s no way off.” His shoulders slump. “There’s no way out.”
“Of course there is,” I say. “We could put you in one of the dredge buckets going back into the water and out you’ll go into the river. We won’t even have to stop. If you don’t drown or get caught on any machinery, you can swim your way to shore and walk back to the Outpost.”
His eyes go wide. My words have given him a new source of panic.
“If there’s a way off, then there’s also a way for the raiders to get on!”
He’s trying my patience. “If they attempt to get on that way, they won’t make it far,” I say. It’s true that the buckets dragging the river bottom for gold are large enough to hold a person, if the person were small and curled themselves up tight. But I’ve equipped the bucket line with the guillotine—an enormous blade that each bucket passes under as it arrives inside the ship. No one over the age of ten or so could make themselves so small that they wouldn’t have some part sticking out—a head, an arm, a leg.
The room is silent.
“You can go out,” I say. Bluffing. “I’ll help you do it myself. But there’s no way back on.”
Jonah’s eyes are still wild. Brig holds on to his arm. I tilt my head. “Get him out of here,” I say. “Send him through the buckets. Off the ship.”
Will Brig do it? I’m interested to find out more about my first mate. It’s against the Admiral’s orders. No one’s supposed to leave the ship. Period.
But then Jonah starts to weep. “I’ll stay,” he says. “I’m sorry.”
“Then get back to work.” I nod to the other crew member who’s holding Jonah upright. “You stay with him. Report any other problems immediately.”
Brig meets my gaze as they start toward the door.