Chapter 11: Setting Sail
Shea
Shea leaves Beck behind for the main deck. She’ll be seeing him quite a lot on the voyage anyway, and with all the feelings he seems to be causing, she needs to clear her head and put some distance between them.
Her feelings haven’t changed. She knows she loves Jo, more than anything, but as she looks over at Beck and sees his handsome face, a strange fluttering fills the pit of her stomach.
Since she’d fallen for Jo a year ago, she hasn’t been with another. Sure, she’s looked at both men and women, but her feelings for Jo overpowered any sexual desire for some one-night stand. But this feels different; when Shea looks at Beck, she feels something she felt a year ago on a beautiful night such as this as she attended a grand Arethusian ball.
She almost laughed when Beck had gasped upon seeing the Duchess. It never fails to impress, and as she boards her fine vessel, she can’t quite contain her own awe at the magnificence of the dark-wooded ship.
A yowl erupts from above and Shea spots Caeruleus flying over the Duchess, making sure everything’s in tip-top shape.
She’s sure he’s relieved to be out of that cage.
The deck crew are scattered along the quarterdeck preparing for launch. Mister Tero is barking orders to release the sails and double-check everything’s tied down.
“Mister Tero?” Shea calls, inspecting the deck cannons.
“Aye, Captain,” the old sea dog greets.
“I see some sloppy cannon knots over here, I want these cannons tied down properly.”
“You heard her, you mangy deck rats. Herron, get over there and redo those knots! Nothing but the best, I want this ship spotless; we have guests, boys.”
Shea chuckles to herself.
Caen probably mentioned the extra navy men who will be joining them on the voyage. She smirks as Tero readies the ship with the intention to impress, as he was once an Arethusian naval officer himself. He’d finally admitted that little secret to Shea on their last voyage north.
Shea strides across the deck confidently, catching Caen speaking with Strom, the blind cook, who seems to have a messily written list of supplies. He’s shouting at Caen quite loudly and Shea is just about to interrupt when her eyes catch James pinning Aster to the steering wheel on the upper deck.
Her ears turn bright red and her eyes narrow. It’s not that she doesn’t approve of the relationship; she’d been ecstatic when they had apprised her. She just didn’t realize that would mean touching…and kissing…and well, that’s her little boy up there.
She hurries over to where Strom and Caen are arguing and interrupts with a sweet smile.
“What seems to be the problem, Mister Strom?”
Strom turns his milky white eyes in her direction, and she can see her giant quartermaster is just about at his wit’s end.
“Captain, I gave Mister Caen the list needed for this voyage of necessary supplies and he forgot three items! Potatoes, onions, and the most crucial. A spice for my secret sauce.”
“Strom, you have potatoes and onions!” Caen barks.
He rubs a hand over his face and Shea stifles a laugh.
“But not Arethusian potatoes and onions, nor my spice! Captain, these are necessary items, especially with Miss Joana coming to stay with us.”
Shea grins, glancing at Caen, who looks as if he’s going to strangle the cook.
“Well then, we’ll get them, Mister Strom. Mister Caen, there’s urgent business on the afterdeck I need you to deal with immediately. Strom, I’ll get you an errand boy to get the supplies as soon as possible.”
“But he has—” Caen objects.
“Afterdeck, Caen,” Shea orders, and Caen growls, stomping away up the stairs.
Shea places her hand on Strom’s shoulder, and he smiles warmly at his young captain.
“Thank ye, kindly, Captain. And might I say you’re looking radiant today,” Strom tells her and she laughs as he bows.
“How would you know? You old blind dog.” Shea lightly slugs him on the arm, and he chuckles and shrugs.
“Eh, it always worked with Paetre.”
The cook heads back down to the galley, leaving Shea with the list.
Above she can hear Caen berating James and Aster for the public display of affection, and Aster comes running down the stairs away from Caen, leaving poor Mister James to suffer his wrath.
Aster catches sight of Shea and his eyes narrow on his surrogate mother.
“You sicced Caen on us,” he accuses, his arms crossing.
Shea looks around and then points at her chest innocently. “Who, me? Of course not!”
“Yeah right. I’m sixteen years old, I’m not a kid anymore.”
“I know! You’re a very adult man, and as a very adult man I need you to run to port and collect these extremely important supplies.”
Shea thrusts the list out to Aster, who takes it. She whistles and Caeruleus meows before landing on Aster’s shoulder.
The teen looks down at the listed supplies and rolls his eyes.
“The grocery list? Really?”
He adjusts his shoulder under the weight of the Azulean Lionbird.
Shea nods. “Yup and you best get going. Caeruleus will help. You wouldn’t want the two of you to get left in Arethusa.”
“This is so not fair,” Aster grumbles.
He yelps when Caeruleus nips his neck for complaining.
Shea rolls her eyes as he glares at the creature but then reluctantly takes off toward the gangplank leading onto the dock.
As he leaves, Beck arrives on the quarterdeck with two Oceanan soldiers behind him. He stops Aster briefly, and Aster smirks, pointing back to Shea, who’s standing in front of the deck doors.
Caeruleus ruffles his feathers, and then her cabin boy disappears down the gangplank, out of sight.
Shea withholds the groan and waves back when Beck hails her. But before he can take a step toward her, she edges back to the afterdeck stairs, pointing over her shoulder, turning tail, and running up the steps.
When she glances over her shoulder, Beck is still grinning at her, and a small flip splashes in the pit of her stomach.
She quickly prays to the gods he won’t come after her and then stops, because for all she knows her father can hear her prayers.
And has never answered one.
Luckily Beck seems to catch the view of the bow and takes off in Mister Tero’s direction.
Shea turns her focus to James and Caen at the helm’s desk, talking about the charted course.
“ETA?” Shea questions as she comes to stand in front of the railing surveying the quarterdeck.
She tries to avoid looking at Beck as he moves to the bow for launch.
“If we can avoid enough encounters and perhaps keep the wind on our side, we can get there within a week as usual. Maybe more though if the monster attacks are more frequent,” James speaks up.
Caen clears his throat behind Shea and she turns to face her young helmsman, who seems to be blushing as Caen glares at him.
“Also, I apologize for my lapse in position, Captain, such a public display will not happen again,” James explains, staring at the ground instead of meeting her eyes.
Caen huffs and Shea smiles softly at James. She steps away from the railing and approaches the desk, standing across from him and placing a hand on his shoulder.
“James,” Shea murmurs, and the he looks up to meet her kind eyes.
“You’ll always be kids to me, understand? I’m happy for you both.”
James smiles brightly.
He salutes. “Aye, Captain. I understand.”
“Why don’t you head down and see if you can help Mister Tero with anything, while I finish up here with Caen? He’d quite like this launch to be our best.”
The three of them chuckle and James nods. “Aye, ma’am.”
Shea replac
es him behind the desk, looking down at the charted maps next to Caen as James hops down the steps to the quarterdeck.
Caen pulls a hidden chart from his vest and places it on the desk, using the compass on the table to flatten it out.
Shea examines the updated diagram of the ship, noting the new cannons, and the addition of two harpoon launchers on the quarterdeck.
“With the navy officers joining us on the voyage, I recommend recruiting them to gunner positions,” Caen voices.
“I agree. Are we stocked weapon wise?”
“That’s where our foreign potato budget went,” Caen snorts.
“Great,” Shea murmurs. “We need to be prepared for a fight.”
“You think it’ll be worse than before? I mean, from my understanding, the border has been up for a while. We’ve come face-to-face with sea monsters for months now.”
“But at a smaller rate, one maybe two a month…But if Perses catches wind of us, we could be encountering more attacks than before,” Shea declares.
Clapping sounds from the deck, along with hoots and hollers, catch Shea’s attention and she walks to the railing, smiling as she sees Joana come aboard with four Arethusian naval officers, including Soren, who she seems to be in deep discussion with.
Poseidon and Venus appear after her. Shea’s gaze lingers on her father for a moment, and she jumps back when his eyes catch hers.
Caen walks up to the railing and notices Poseidon staring at her. He places a protective arm around his surrogate daughter.
Shea can’t help but smirk when she sees Poseidon’s eyes narrow at Caen’s arm.
Jo finally looks up from her argument with Soren and spots Shea at the afterdeck rail. Two of the soldiers bring a heavy chest up the gangway, and Jo gestures to the double doors.
The crew continues working around them.
Venus and Poseidon head off to the bow where Beck is talking to Mister Tero, and Aster arrives on the ship, back from the market carrying three bags of supplies. Caeruleus takes two of them, flying off down the side of the ship through the galley window.
Catching the position of the moon, Shea would guess it’s past midnight, and they need to be getting underway.
“Where would you be taking that extremely heavy chest?” Shea shouts to the naval guards carrying it toward the deck doors.
They freeze, looking up at the pirate captain.
“To our quarters, of course, Captain,” Jo calls back with a challenge, and the poor soldiers look between the two women, unsure whether to continue to the room or not.
Shea grins down at the queen, satisfied, and nods. “Aye, of course. If I can see you a moment, Your Majesty.”
Shea notices that the request seems to catch the others’ attention as they too make their way to the afterdeck steps.
The soldiers take the chest down below, and Soren follows sullenly behind Joana as she climbs the steps to the helm with Beck, Poseidon, and Venus close behind.
Shea strolls back over to the navigation table, Caen at her side, and waits as the group files onto the afterdeck.
Jo leads the party as she comes to stand directly across from Shea on the other side of the table.
Soren stands beside her, with Poseidon and Venus close behind, and Shea finds herself, unconsciously, looking for Beck. She turns to see if he’s come up the steps and jumps when she finds him directly to her right.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Beck murmurs with a soft grin.
Shea can feel the tips of her ears heating in embarrassment and she quickly clears her throat in acknowledgment.
She turns back to the table, facing Joana, and notices the queen’s sharp expression as she looks between Shea and Beck.
The captain groans inwardly; the last thing she needs is her fiancée noticing the awkward tension between the neighboring leader and herself.
She pushes the thoughts away and straightens up, smoothing out the world map that now covers the ship’s weapons chart.
“Good to see we have everyone here. Now we’ve had various sources confirm Thetis’s information. We have a month before Perses hits Arethusa with the Lycon army as well as his own. It’ll take us just about two weeks to reach the Tenaro Islands, a week to resupply at Orena, and a two week return home. Which means we unfortunately won’t be able to make it back in time to take a stand in Oceanus,” Shea acknowledges, regretfully glancing at Beck.
Beck’s features harden, but he nods. “We know. With coordination from General Soren, one of my advisors, Senator Caius, will be leading an evacuation of Oceanus to Arethusa.”
“We’ll make sure everyone gets out before the invasion, you have my word, sir,” Soren declares, giving the young governor a small smile. “Although while we’re on the subject, I think it’s prudent to reiterate my concerns.”
“What concerns?” Shea asks, and Jo sighs.
“Soren, the decision is made,” Jo orders, turning a glare to the former naval man.
“Your Majesty, with all due respect, Arethusa is about to descend into panic and chaos. An entire nation will be entering our borders because of a larger threat. I can’t believe that you leaving is in the best interest of the queendom.”
“The noble council will be able to take on the weight of my absence. Lady Catherine will be returning soon from her leave, and I’ve put Countess Thetis in charge of the palace affairs while I’m gone.”
Shea’s eyes widen in surprise.
Soren’s do the same.
“A Lycon?” he gasps.
A sultry laugh cuts off Jo’s response, and the group parts as Countess Thetis arrives on the afterdeck.
“Don’t worry, General, I promise to be on my best behavior.” Thetis grins, curtsying to Beck and Jo. “Majesty, Governor.”
“Thetis, what are you doing here?” Jo inquires.
Poseidon finally breaks his silence as his eyes look around the Lycon elf. “Where’s the child?”
“He’s safe,” Thetis replies, and Shea can practically hear the from you she withholds.
“I figured there’d be a game plan meeting before you all left, and I thought I’d attend. As well as see you off. As I was saying, General, if Oceanus can spare their governor, surely Arethusa can spare their queen.”
Soren shakes his head, caught at an impasse. “Very well. If I can’t convince you to stay, then I must insist upon two naval ships to follow.”
This time Shea speaks up. “Won’t work. We’re going to need to be fast, and I can’t be worrying about two ships off the Duchess’s flank.”
“Considering that the queen and her future wife are setting sail into monster-infested waters and to the ends of the world, I think two ships is a happy compromise for a worried general,” Soren snaps, glaring at the captain.
Looks like the stand-off at the beach hasn’t been forgotten yet. Shea grumbles to herself, looking down at the maps to avoid Soren’s gaze.
“I won’t take abled men who have a better chance of protecting my people than dying at sea. One ship has a better chance of sneaking through the barrier and sailing to Tenaro. We’ve supplied men for Shea’s crew; they’ll be enough protection. That’s final.”
“But, Your Majesty,” Soren growls, and then he does something even more surprising. “Lady Shea, please understand—”
Jo slams her fist onto the navigation table, making everyone but the gods jump.
“General. I’ve given my orders, and my fiancée will one day be queen consort, but you will speak to me until then, as I have final say. Understood?”
Soren apologizes, “Yes, my queen.”
“Dismissed.”
Soren nods. He salutes, but not before catching Shea’s eyes. She can see within his gaze the message clear as day, Bring her back. Shea nods subtly—she will.
Soren marches down the steps toward the dock.
“Well…Glad that was all settled. I do have another reason for being here though,” Thetis comments, breaking the silence after Soren’s departu
re.
“What is it?” Shea murmurs.
“Venus.”
V looks over at the countess and steps closer, leaving Poseidon at the ship’s rail.
“Countess?”
“I know you had plans to sail with the Duchess, but if I might, I think it’d be best if you stay in Arethusa. People will be agitated and confused. Some will know of the coming threat while others will have a harder time accepting the truth. A woman of your talents might be useful. I’ve known claimed elves of Aphrodite before and their effect on crowds can be quite an advantage.”
Shea blanches, reluctantly imagining an orgy happening within the Arethusian palace gates.
As if Thetis can sense what Shea is thinking, she clarifies with a chuckle, “Charm speak, Captain, of course. In fact, I had a personal friend who was claimed by you back in Erebos. She proved most useful as a mediator.”
Venus looks back to Poseidon.
“It’s a good idea,” Venus muses.
Poseidon straightens, a sickly expression falling across his features.
“No. He’ll listen to you.”
“You’re his father, and I have a feeling a lot has changed. I need to stay, part of fixing our errors is helping the people we had a hand in creating. Perhaps I can do that best in Arethusa; maybe it was the reason I chose to stay there all along. The Fates are funny that way.” As V voices her last comment, she winks at Shea, reminding her of their conversation in the tavern so long ago.
The Fates are cruel mistresses indeed.
Poseidon sighs but nods.
He pulls V toward him, and for a cringing moment Shea thinks they might kiss, but they merely hug. It’s hard to look, but eventually they break away and V rejoins Thetis.
“Caen, alert the crew. We leave as soon as possible,” Shea orders.
Caen steps away without a word, passing James on his way up to the afterdeck. The teen’s eyes widen slightly as he sees everyone on his deck, but he passes through silently and readies himself at the helm.
Caen’s orders on the quarterdeck can be heard from above, and Shea notices that the vessel headed for Oceanus has set sail.
Beck is watching the ship sailing back toward his homeland.
“We best be off,” V notes, and Thetis bows to Beck and Jo once again.
The Veiled Descendants Page 11