"Change course. Head west," Grace commanded her helmsman. "We'll take the scenic route to Nassau."
The helmsman shouted orders to the milling crew, who swiftly went to work changing the sails and rigging, and working with the helm to move the ship further to port.
Grace, feeling her job was finished, handed the spyglass back to her mate and headed to the quarterdeck ladder. Edward decided he would not join her and instead stayed put where he was.
"Wait, Captain," Herbert's voice called.
For a moment, Edward thought Herbert was talking to him, and he stifled his normal response when he remembered who he was. He looked over to see Herbert glancing through his own spyglass west, their new destination.
"What?" Grace's tone had shifted from annoyance to anger.
"I suggest we head east. We will be heading into a storm if we sail west."
Grace's brows furrowed as she glanced over her shoulder towards their destination. After a moment, she looked at her helmsman, who frantically sought his own spyglass.
"I see nothing," he said after nary a glance west. "The boy lies."
Judging the matter settled, Grace once more turned around to head back to her quarters.
"Are you daft?" Herbert shouted. "There's a halo around the sun, and the pressure of air has been decreasing as we've been heading north-west. If we go further west, it'll drop even further, and those clouds I see will be right on us if we head that direction." Herbert was pointing due west as he spoke. Edward looked to the sun, and he too could see the hazy ring around it, a visible marker of increased moisture in the air. He couldn't see anything wrong with the clouds, but Herbert's eyes were better than his. "Are your senses dulled along with your wits? Can you not smell the air? It's saltier than the stew we eat!"
If it were not for every eye being on them, hot and grim, Edward would have laughed at Herbert's comment. As it stood, the ire in the air overpowered the air pressure Herbert was trying to point out.
"Enough," Grace said, her words barely rising above the din of the ship, but still bubbling with anger. "Yer not the helmsman on this ship. I suggest ye hold yer tongue unless ye want it cut out."
"Captain," Edward interjected, "my brother has better eyes than most, and knows the sk—"
"Not another word from you either, ye pissant." If Grace had been angry with Herbert, she was spitting fire at Edward. Her glare could melt a glacier.
Edward pressed forward, not caring about the flames. "Your crew will die," he said calmly.
Grace gritted her teeth, her usual calm completely broken. "Below deck, both of you. Before I throw you overboard."
Edward held back his own frustration. This was partially his fault for drawing Grace's ire by refusing her. He took a deep breath before he motioned for Herbert to join him. The eyes of the crew followed them as they headed into the dark, but Edward was sure Grace would call them back when the storm hit. And he hoped it was sooner rather than later.
11. A Bell to Fill the Hollows
"Why do we wait and sit around like kittens?"
Pukuh, hunched down on all fours as he peered over a ridge at a nearby hamlet, looked nothing like a kitten. Despite his native garb making him look like a large eagle, there was no mistaking the hunter beneath the outfit ready to strike.
"We're not here to kill them," Anne admonished, "we're here to help them so that they in turn may help us."
"And this bell is to fill the life into their eyes?" Pukuh said, touching the bell wrapped around Anne's waist.
"That is the hope," Anne replied.
Anne, Pukuh, William, and a handful of crewmates stood on the outskirts of a hamlet, waiting and watching for an opportunity. As they had feared, and as their old crewmate Sam Bellamy had confirmed, the sounds of the bells across the island had triggered the men and women going about their lives. They, like the ones who had attacked them, were now mindless husks wandering about without purpose save to fight any who approached.
"That hope will be as hollow as those people unless we act on it."
Anne grinned at the one-armed warrior itching for a battle. She gripped his shoulder to gain his attention. "Patience."
Pukuh let out the tense breath he seemed to be holding and nodded as he showed her a small smile. After that, he relaxed a bit.
Anne turned her attention back to the hamlet, watching the people milling about. She, like Pukuh and William, was watching and waiting for an opportunity where they could use the bell.
They had learned that the people were drawn to sounds, but only when they couldn't see what produced it. Though Sam denied it, the hollow people did seem to retain some of their faculties, and they were able to judge what was human and what wasn't.
Communicating with each other was beyond them. Despite their having worked together to ram the general store's door, they worked independently. If several had heard a noise, they all had to see the source. None told the others what it was to save labour.
That knowledge would be to Anne and the crew's advantage.
Anne noticed one man splitting off from the rest and walking down one of the side roads leading out of the square. She motioned for one of the crewmates behind her to bring her a stone as they had discussed.
She waited a bit longer before tossing the stone over the ridge where she and the crew were waiting. The stone fell with a thud down the road, kicking up a small cloud of dust with it. The man was looking the other way when it fell, and it must not have been loud enough, because there was no reaction.
Anne lobbed another, larger stone down the road, this time using a
