Edward looked at the immense helm, Herbert's domain. He touched the familiar wood, staring at it for a moment. He could almost picture Herbert holding it, his wheelchair positioned at an angle so that he could reach the massive wheel. The thought made him smile.
"You know," he began, changing what he had planned to say, "this wheel is almost as tall as I am." Edward held his hand out, gesturing to visualize the height difference. It reached his neck at its highest point. "And yet, Herbert, our helmsman sat half that height." Edward moved his hand down, below the railing of the quarterdeck. "One would wonder if Herbert was manning the helm, or if the helm was manning Herbert." Edward's comment made the crew laugh. Then he pointed at the wheel. "Day in and day out, Herbert struggled with this beast, and he won." He clenched his fist. "He won every single day in his battle to ensure that each one of you got to where you wanted to go. To make sure that each of you was safe from storms. To make sure that we won any battle we had at sea." Edward let the words hang in the air for a minute. "Each one of us, at some point or another, owed our life to Herbert. And now we won't ever get the chance to repay that debt."
Edward needed a moment. And from the looks of it, so did many in the crew. His eyes were watering. He wiped them and took a few deep breaths.
"Herbert was my brother," he said. "We may not have shared blood, but he was my brother. We fought like brothers, too, as you're well aware." The crew chuckled again, and Edward could see a few wiping tears away as well. Anne, comforting Christina, wiped her eyes. "He was our brother. We were his family." The crew shouted in agreement. "Now, with his vengeance complete, may he rest in peace." The crew roared again at Edward's declaration.
Edward nodded to Pukuh to begin the final ceremony. As he had done before for others in the crew, he placed a piece of corn and a small piece of jade in Herbert's mouth: food for the journey he was about to take, and jade to pay for passage. Then he said a prayer, which the other crewmates joined in by bowing their heads.
The crew placed Herbert in a longboat and lowered it into the sea. They tossed a torch inside before letting it loose on the swells. As his body drifted out, some in the crew fired off muskets into the air. After three shots, they stopped, and it meant the service was over, but many continued to watch as the longboat went farther and farther out to sea, the fire reaching higher as it and Herbert drifted from the earth.
…
"So, Silver Eyes was putting everyone in a trance?"
Anne nodded as she took a bite from some food they'd brought into their cabin. "It's a shame you weren't there to see it. It was hard to imagine that the islanders could be so far gone from a simple trance, but I suppose it's a testament to your father's crew."
Edward and Anne, as well as the rest of the crew, had decided to stay aboard the ship after the funeral. They had a feast where many drank to Herbert's honour and recounted his time at the helm. Some even lamented being against him at first but gaining respect for him due to his tenacity.
After the feast, and after Anne saw Christina to her bed where she finally slept after some mournful drinking, Edward and Anne had retreated to their cabin where they sat leaning against their bed, a plate of food in front of them and a lantern nearby. Anne told Edward about what had happened on the island, and how Silver Eyes had controlled the crew to attack them.
Edward shivered at the thought of the men and women of the island, hollow-eyed and out for blood, and stronger than one with their full senses.
"What say we take a trip to the Devil's Triangle?" Edward said with a grin. "We can switch places: you join Herbert and kill my father, I'll take the ship and go after Silver Eyes."
Anne gave Edward a dark look. "Don't jest about such things. We've already been there once, and once was too much." She shook her head. "I cannot believe that what we saw there was real. If that's true, then we cannot go back. If we were to change something in the past, then it could have untold effects on the present. Our present, at least."
"That's not how I see it," Edward said. "Think about it. We were already well into our journey for the keys when we entered that mist. My father said that my visit to him secured his doubts about what he was going to do. And, you said William did the exact same thing that he had done in the past: he left the room where his king was and didn't go back in to stop his murder. The present was the same in both situations. Going back didn't change anything because it played out exactly as it had. Even if we go again, whatever happened would have already happened in the past, and the present would remain the same."
Anne raised her brow. "But what about Sam and Miss Alston?"
Edward opened his mouth to respond and then closed it again. He looked off to the side as he thought it over. Sam and Theodosia Burr Alston, whom at the time they had thought was their enemy, had been with William in his vision of the past. They had most certainly not been there with William when
