“Well,Abraham was a decent man once,” Benjamin told me. “A good brother.I loved him dearly. He was everything I wanted to be. And now…” Heshook his head indisappointment and fell silent, unable to even finish thesentence.
“So, howdid you end up here? What’s with this island?” I derailed theconversation. I felt bad, he looked so pained.
He blinkedrapidly and inhaled deeply. “Uh, well, after we left with ourtreasure, we set sail for England. But we never made it. It took afew days to realize, but the sea had been turning us around incircles. Then, one day, this island rose up from the ocean and ourship connected with it.”
My face twistedin confusion. “You mean you crashed?”
Benjamin raisedone eyebrow in my direction. “No.” He sucked in a deep breath.“It’s some sort of tether. Keeping us here. We’re not able toleave. We don’t seem to age, yet we can be killed.”
“Holyshit,” I said in a whisperand looked away as my mind worked to process everything hetold me. “Wait, how do you know you can be killed?”
He stoodabruptly and adjusted his gear. “That’s enough.”
“Why?This doesn’t even begin–”
He spun aroundand bellowed, “I said that’s enough!” His deep, threatening toneshook through my body and I trembled before nodding. Clearly, thatwas a subject that couldn’t be touched. But Benjamin quicklysoftened, and I could feel the sense of guilt he suddenly harbored.He pinched the bridge of his tanned nose. “Let’s go forage beforeit gets too dark.”
Mytrembling chin moved up and down as I nodded. Part of me wasscared, but I was mostly angry. And a little sad. I was being heldprisoner on a ship that could never be seen. Never be found. What little hope I had ofHenry and my crew tracking me down vanished and I was left with anempty pit. My only hope was to leave a signal on theisland.
“Hey,look, I’m sorry,” Benjamin spoke. “I just–” He stopped to rub hisdirty, tanned hand over his short, dark beard. “I’ve never toldanyone that story before. Thereare parts I’m not ready to share.”
I sawanother opportunity to gain his trust, but I also couldn’t fightthe urge to comfort the giant pirate. He was vulnerable andhurting, that much I could see. I stood and touched my hand to hisarm in a comforting manner and gave him a smile. “That’sokay. There arethings I’m not ready to share, either. Maybe I neverwill.”
Like howI’m a time traveler,or how I sliced a sword through old Maurice’s body. Or how the manI love tried to kill me. The dark thoughts filled my mind, but Iforced another smile, to which Benjamin returned warmly. His bodyturned more toward me and he leaned closer, nervous and… wanting. Iretracted my hand and backed away, worried that I had given him thewrong impression.
“Let’s,uh, let’s go,” I mumbled.
Benjamincleared his throat. “Yes, of course.” He glanced up at the sky.“We’ve got about two hours before the sun begins to set. What canyou find?”
“Plenty,”I told him and grinned. But there was one thing he never reallyclarified in his story. Everything told me to bite my tongue, tolet it be. But I couldn’t. “Can you answer me one lastthing?”
“Perhaps,” he said cautiously.
“How longhave you guys been here?”
Benjaminstood tall with his hands on both hips as he seemed to contemplatetelling me the answer. Or whether he thought I could handle it.“I’ve no idea howmuch time has passed. But we first found ourselves stranded on thesecond of June, the year 1614.”
My eyes widenedin disbelief and I covered my gaping mouth with a hand. I suddenlysaw Benjamin and his men in a whole different light. It’s a wonderhe’s not lost his mind like his brother. My God, they’d been cursedfor almost a hundred years. “The siren’s gem…”
Benjamin noddedsolemnly. “My brother got what he wanted. He was rewarded for hisactions.”
I shivered atthe realization. “An endless reward.” No wonder Captain Cook wentinsane. They were cursed and tethered to the island. Unable toleave or age.
Forever.
***
Weforaged the island for a couple of hours. Well, I did, withBenjamin trailing behind. Quiet and lost in thought, he barely kepttrack of where I stepped. Which was a good thing. I easily found enough crowberriesto make a delicious sauceand dug up some roots of a few edible plants. I even foundsome wild rosemary. Strange that an island would manifest such asthis with no wildlife but be plentiful in vegetation. I nevercommented on it, though. I was too busy scanning for… something.Anything. A speck of a ship at sea. A way to leave behind asign.
“Youknow, I’m pretty hungry,” I told my watcher. “We should eatsomething.”
“We canhead back to the ship,” he replied.
But that woulddefeat my plan. “Well, I still have some things to gather,” I toldhim, trying to hide the deception in my voice. But I could tell hewasn’t convinced. I rubbed my belly then, reminding him that I helda child in there. “I just get so hungry these days. If we couldroast up a couple of fish really quick, I could finish finding theingredients I need.”
Benjamin eyedme curiously, but I knew he had a soft spot when it came to mybaby. He made the mistake of revealing that early on. Finally, hegave in. “Fine. Start a fire and I’ll go catch us some fish.”
Relief washedover me, and I gave him a grateful smile before he headed offtoward the water. I only had a short amount of time. With haste, Iassembled a fire pit with small stones but made sure to create animperfect circle, one with a slight point. Benjamin surely wouldn’tnotice, but someone who was looking might. The stones discreetlypointed to a tree, one that I dug a shallow hole at the base withmy hands and placed my beloved emerald necklace in, covering itwith just enough dirt to remain unseen, but could easily bediscovered. Henry would notice the disturbed earth. I just knewit.
By the timeBenjamin returned with two large fish, I’d had a nice fire burningand we roasted up a late lunch. We sat and ate in silence and, eventhough it was part
