Dak nodded. He liked this guy. “That’s right. Brothers.” He elbowed Sera just to rile her a little. “This one has been a brother to me since before I can remember.”
Sera elbowed him back, much harder. “Yes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to save this one from getting his throat slit or his face beaten in by thugs. Not the strongest boy, I can tell you that. Ugly as a burnt stick, too. But he’s all I got.”
Ricardo and his two friends looked from Sera to Dak and back again, their expressions somewhere between surprise and delight. Then they all burst into laughter.
“It’s gonna be a long voyage,” Ricardo said when the chuckles died down. “It’ll be good to have friends. Especially if this rumor about a mutiny is true.”
Dak’s smiled vanished at that. Reality struck home. “Hey, what do you think about all the people lumped with us? Any chance . . . you know, that they could be involved with the plot?”
Ricardo scoffed and smacked his friend Francisco in the head, ruffling the boy’s mop of hair. “People like us? This riffraff? No way. We’re the dried scum on the bottom of the bucket.”
Dak took a second and scanned the room, searching their company, barely revealed by the soft light of the lanterns. Shaggy hair, ratty clothes, dirty faces, rotten teeth. The lowest of the low, with no aspirations but to earn a next meal. This was exactly what they needed.
He brought his attention back to Sera and their new friends. “How much can we trust you?” he asked Ricardo.
The boy held out his hand. Dak shook it.
Ricardo gave a stiff nod. “Completely. If you’re alone on a voyage, you might as well be dead. Why are you asking? Why so serious all of a sudden?”
Dak looked at Sera, who he knew understood the thoughts going on in his head. Both of them had doubts about their mission, even after hearing firsthand that the Amancio brothers worked for the SQ. It didn’t help that Salvador and Raul seemed all right, while Columbus seemed like a jerk. But the fact of the matter was this: The SQ ruled the world of the future with an iron fist, and the Cataclysm that Brint and Mari had spoken of seemed to be coming faster and harder with each passing day. Dak and Sera had experienced the evidence up close and personal.
They were Hystorians, and it was time for action.
Dak, his resolve solid, faced Ricardo again. “Riffraff is a good name for this group. We might need to turn them into an army.”
28. Awake in the Night
SERA HAD always known that she and Dak shared a special link. As different as they were, they thought alike, and often came to the same conclusions. And she’d shared his line of thinking over the last few minutes.
They were here to do a job. Going to Columbus with what they’d learned was out of the question — there wasn’t much of a chance he’d take their word over the Amancios’. Which meant they’d have to get directly involved. But if they were going to stop a mutiny, they’d need help. And the sorry bunch of runaways and criminals surrounding them might be their best shot at finding any. Especially since the SQ probably paid them no attention. Looked at them as powerless and therefore worthless.
“What’s this army stuff about?” Ricardo asked Dak. “Why ya need such a thing?”
Sera leaned forward and whispered in Dak’s ear. “Are we sure about this? Totally?”
“Hey, no secrets,” Ricardo snapped. “Not a good way to start.”
Sera sat back. “Sorry. I was just making sure. This is a big deal.”
“I think it’s okay,” Dak said. “We don’t have much time — it’s supposed to happen soon.”
“What’s supposed to happen?” Francisco asked.
Daniel — the older man who looked lost in a world of his own — suddenly laughed. “Sun’ll go down, I bet. Then the moon’ll come up.” He laughed again, this time with a snort.
“Oh, jeez,” Ricardo said, but his tone was more playful than annoyed or embarrassed. “Our friend is a lot smarter than he looks. Aren’t you, Daniel?”
“Two plus two is four,” the man responded. “Four plus four is eight. Take away the four times two and zero is your mate.”
“Huh?” Dak asked.
Sera liked the man. There was a twinkle in his eye that said he knew more than he was letting on — that maybe he didn’t know how to socialize and this was how he’d learned to make up for it.
“Anyway,” Ricardo said. “What were you getting at?”
Sera decided it was time to go for it. If they were going to do something about fixing this Break in history, they needed help and they needed to get started.
“You heard what the captain said,” she began. “That there’s rumor of a mutiny planned. Well, we actually already knew that and . . . we’re here to stop it.”
“How could you possibly know about it?” Ricardo asked. “Did someone send you?”
Sera hesitated. Telling the complete truth was not an option, but maybe she could avoid lying, too. “Exactly. We have friends in high places and they sent us here, secretly. I know it’d be impossible to prove everything to you, but we know exactly who is plotting against the captain.”
“Who?” Francisco asked, his eyes alit with interest.
“Would you rat brains shut up!” someone yelled from across the room.
“Sorry!” Sera answered.
Everyone in the group scooted closer together and leaned in. Sera couldn’t help noticing Ricardo smelled of fish as Dak started whispering even more quietly. “It’s the Amancio brothers. I know, I know — hard to believe since they’ve obviously earned the captain’s trust. But it makes sense if you think about it. Pulling off a mutiny isn’t easy, so you’d need someone high up to be in charge of it. Otherwise it’d be difficult to make the rest of the crew follow the new leaders once it’s done.”
“Do you know what they’re planning?” Ricardo asked.
“From what I’ve re —” Dak stopped, and Sera knew he’d been about to say something about what he’d learned in history books. Fortunately, he’d caught himself. “We were told that three days after we launch out to sea, the two brothers are going to take the captain in the middle of the night, gag him, bind him, and throw him overboard. The next morning, they’re going to blame the disappearance on two other officers, men who are fiercely loyal to Columbus, then throw them off the ship before anyone really knows what’s going on. Just like that, we have new leaders and the voyage keeps on truckin’.”
Sera winced at that last word. She might not be a history buff like her best friend, but she was pretty certain they didn’t have trucks in the fifteenth century.
“Wow,” Ricardo said. “Serious? That’s all supposed to go down three nights from now?”
“Yep.”
“And how do you know all this again?”
Sera answered. “We have very good sources and powerful bosses.” She hoped that it was enough.
“Who do you guys work for?” Francisco asked. “Come on, you can tell us.”
Sera looked at Dak, eyebrows raised.
“Let’s just say we’re looking out for the interests of Queen Isabella,” he said. “She believes in Columbus, and we believe in her.”
Ricardo grinned. “And you believe she’ll come through with a handsome reward for your loyalty, I bet.”
“Then you’ll help us?” Sera asked.
“Oh, we’ll help you. Won’t we, boys?”
Francisco nodded, shaking his mop of hair again, and Daniel laughed, which from him evidently meant yes.
“Good,” Sera said. “Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow we can scout around, learn some things, maybe even get some evidence. Then tomorrow night we’ll see if we can rally the rest of the people down here.”
“Sounds good,” Dak said, and the others all nodded.
Sera wrapped her blanket around her shoulders and lay down, squirming and twisting until she found the least uncomfortable position that she could manage. She still had the Infinity Ring tucked away in the satchel, which she kept strapped around her body and cradled to her stomach. She expected to have a hard time falling asleep, but all that scrubbing from earlier caught up to her and pulled her into dreamless oblivion.
The world was dark when she was jerked awake, a rough, callused hand gripped tightly over her mouth. Someone had her arms pinned to the hard floor below her. She struggled, tried to free herself, tried to scream, but it was all pointless. All she could hear was her own muted whine.
Then a voice whispered in her ear, the breath hot. “Shut your trap or I’ll slit your friend’s throat. Now.”
Sera stopped, went completely still. She couldn’t see a thing.
“That’s a good lad. Now you’re coming with me, nice and easy. If you scream when I let go, it won’t be pretty.”
The hand left her mouth, then she was pulled up and onto her feet. Someone stood behind her, keeping her hands clasped painfully in the small of her back. She heard the smack of stone against stone, saw a spark, and then a lantern lit up, its flame small but casting enough light for her to see a man standing just a couple of feet away, regarding her coldly.
With one eye.
29. The Brig
"LOOKS LIKE we have some talkers in our midst,” Eyeball said. “Talkin’ about things that ain’t none of their bidness. And . . . spying.”
Dak and Riq were right next to Sera, held by two more of Eyeball’s thugs. She couldn’t even move enough to turn and get a good look at them.
A few people had awakened on the floor around them, including Ricardo. She eyed him, trying to warn him to keep quiet. The thought crossed her mind that maybe he had betrayed her and Dak somehow, but the look on his face was genuine shock. With some fear thrown in.
“Nothin’ to say for yourself, eh?” Eyeball asked with a sneer. “At least you’ve got some gumption, I’ll give you that. Take these brats to the brig and make sure they don’t get no breakfast.”
Sera concentrated on not crying as the burly men dragged her away.
She didn’t think it possible, but they went even deeper into the ship, to a dank, smelly pit that had several small cells along its length, each outfitted with bars and chains. All of them were empty, which didn’t surprise Sera considering they had just left the dock. They had the honor of being the first criminals of the voyage.
Eyeball opened up one of the cells and the men literally tossed Dak, Sera, and Riq into it. Sera landed with a thump, smacking her head against the wall. She cried out, the first sound she’d made since being taken. Dak grunted then rolled up into a ball, moaning with pain. Riq lay on his stomach, his head nestled in his arms as if he were asleep.
There was a rattle of chains then the click of a lock. Sera looked back to see Eyeball staring down at her through the bars of their new prison.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he chided them. “I should’ve known you three wastrels were up to something when you came beggin’ to get aboard at the last minute. And sneaking around like that. The only reason I don’t throw you on the docks right now is because I want you in me sight. Answerin’ me questions when the time’s right for askin’. I hope you three enjoy discomfort and pain.”