Herera - Stories of The Purple Pearl

9. Sneaky sneaky

My blood was reverberating with every step I ventured further into Hachi's ship. It took every effort to keep my muscles calm. I was fiddling over the hold of my rapier, constantly making myself conscious of the daggers around my ankles. I was captured in a permanent fight mode, as if I could turn back every moment to go fight alongside my crew.

But I didn't. I couldn't. I still had work to do.

Instead of the appealing clanging sound of swords, or the familiar thudding of canons blowing holes in a hostile ship, the quiet was excruciating, both the surrounding's and my companion's.

Yui silently walked beside me, studying me as I sprinkled the content of my satchel on the ground, leaving a trail of sand behind us.

Fairy dust, he'd called it. I'd only given him an insinuating smile in return.

He had stopped asking, given up on receiving an explanation, knowing I would not give that piece of information away. He probably thought it was because I didn't trust him.

He wasn't wrong. I couldn't completely trust him, even though I actually believed he didn't have any alternate motive than revenge on Hachi.

I figured he'd want his ship back, the ship we were now walking on, but I didn't know whether he planned on actually taking it today. I couldn't read him, one of my biggest flaws when being around him.

I did know him enough, however, to know he had no interest in The Purple Pearl. At least I could trust him for that.

I'd decided to stay silent, but the consequential silence of that decision was torturing me.

Just as he was inhaling to say something, I said, "I heard Idir talk to you."

He closed his mouth and turned his head slightly to me, as we passed the small side halls and corridors, deeper into the ship, closer to the captain's cabin.

"For someone who claims that he can't stand the sight of me," he said, "he surely does that a lot."

"He doesn't trust you."

"Clearly."

"Can you blame him?"

His dark eyes pierced right through me. He could read me like an open book. I hated it.

"No."

I took another handful of sand – fairy dust – and scattered it around.

"Is he right?"

He grinned, his teeth, although a little yellowish around the edges, still white, clean, well-cared. "Absolutely."

I sighed, rolled my eyes and shook my head, all at once.

He laughed, and I tried to put the warm feeling away that accompanied that sound. Yui could claim he'd left all good things behind when Hachi cast him away, but that laugh was still filled with the same melody as years ago. He realized it, right before he shut his mouth again.

I suppressed a laugh myself.

He went on after a short silence. "I swear to all the sea gods that I have no alternate plan in mind. Yes, I want revenge, but..." he looked at me differently than when other people were around, but the same way as he did when we just met. "I'm not opposed to helping you once in a while. Making sure you don't die, you know."

"Even with all the charges that would immediately be eradicated if I were to be out of the picture?"

It was true. Many charges that caused Yui to be on the run were from my crew and my ship. Following the pirate code and the continental law, they would all just disappear when I'd died. He'd barely be on the run anymore.