PoraBora

Chapter Sixteen

Part Two

At a knock, Akoni looked up from his bed. Makaia stood in his doorway, or behind it, as he wasn't small enough a man to fit into Akoni's quarters.

"This is why I always send for you," said Makaia, deciding there would not be enough room for him if he squeezed between the metal shelf that was Akoni's desk and the bed. "Surely you feel cooped up, hanging in here all day."

"I work on a rig," said Akoni.

"I hear you did not choose it."

Akoni tossed aside a map he was holding, and it laid to rest on the bed. "Yet here we are."

"Why not give it up?" Makaia asked, leaning against the wall. It would be a problem if any of the crew needed to pass him. "If the role does not suit you."

Akoni had the sense the "if" was unintended. "Did you need something from me?"

"Your syphons speak your praise whenever I feed them," said Makaia.

Akoni snorted. "I hear in the halls you're the reason we make it through every storm. Men tend to speak well of their captains."

"Or perhaps we are two good men who do not like each other for petty reasons."

"Who can say if it was petty, once?" Akoni snorted.

"You admit you scam me with your oil prices due to hate."

Akoni would have stood if there was anywhere to go after doing so. "Scam, Makaia? I sell my oil for what it's worth. That you have always bought it suggests I've never priced it wrong."

"I know the other prices you set," said Makaia.

"Your accusations are baseless," said Akoni, though they were not. "Of course every island receives different prices. Distance. Weather. Availability, whether of oil or soak ships. The proximity of platforms. The storage available."

Makaia smiled. "I am always refreshed, speaking with you, Akoni."

"Get on with it."

"We are approaching Chief Simusi's fleet."

"We've caught up already?"

"Chief Simusi's fleet is in pieces."

Akoni rubbed his forehead. More good men, dead because people like him had big ideas for the gods. He only hoped Chief Simusi went down with his own stupidity. "You should reconsider your plans for Keasau. I believe I've said it already. This is the only possible outcome."

"It wasn't Keasau that sunk them," Makaia said.

"What?"

"Take a look for yourself."

Akoni followed Makaia out of the hull, and he already knew what it would look like before he made the surface.

The boats were strewn in pieces, oil pooled too little to have come from Keasau. Splintered wood floated with holes punched through. Some of it was ashen. A fire had likely swept through, down a ship to the motor well. Nothing could save it after that. Except there was enough debris to think it had happened to every single ship in the fleet.

Tua approached them crisply. "I think somebody else is chasing our god."

The other men on board looked in silence. There was little else to do, everywhere they passed. It was just another island of destruction.

"And they had a bigger fleet than Simusi," said Akoni.

"Who do we know that has a bigger fleet than Simusi?" Makaia asked.

Akoni knew of several islands, but almost all—including E'uela, Nu'ue, and Kehue—were well north and wouldn't have crossed with Simusi's fleet here. Not if they were chasing Keasau. Which left one man, and one fleet.

"Noikoa."

"I think so too," said Makaia. "And he doesn't appear to have lost a ship. His flag isn't floating anywhere, and none of the dead bodies are dressed as wau warriors. I'd wonder if that meant it wasn't him after all, but the idea that he wouldn't lose a ship doesn't astound me."

Of course, as Akoni knew, it wasn't Noikoa who didn't lose the ships. It was his commanding naval officer. Akoni's replacement. A man whose life would be better spent on the bottom of the ocean. Ikaika. Tua's brother, and not by coincidence. Akoni liked him less than Makaia, and not because it had been his idea to put Akoni on the rig.

"Perhaps they're not sailing with flags," said Akoni. It was a simple way to keep secrets, and nobody who sailed without their flags was ever up to any good. It was an easy lesson to learn when you spent the first four years of your naval career patrolling the seas and making sure fishermen were getting their fair share from Henoue's waters. Boats could look awfully similar without their flag to announce them. Akoni had always made a habit of boarding those that went without.

"We should assume everybody is out for the same thing, then," said Makaia.

"It doesn't matter how many boats Noikoa has," Akoni said. "It doesn't make a difference. Boats cannot capture Keasau."

"It makes me wonder how we ever got him in the first place."

Akoni didn't answer. He survived by second-guessing, and if his first guess was Noikoa, then...who else? Who else could have destroyed Simusi's fleet? He didn't look at Makaia. He would have heard cannons. He would have known. Would he? Or could the man have snuck part of his fleet while Akoni was in his quarters, enough to catch up to and take down one of the southern seas' greatest powers?

No. It couldn't be Makaia. Either way, Akoni resolved to spend less time below deck, and more time keeping track of what it was Makaia was up to that extended beyond the god.