Come Away

Chapter 7 - Secrets

The corpse man scans me over. It sounds like his throat is coated in ice when he speaks. "Are you the captain's trinket, pretty lady?" His teeth flash against the oncoming night. "Or are you just along for the ride?"

Other crew members start laughing and shrieking, and I run to the stairs in hopes that Darren is on the high deck. My skin tingles at the thought of crossing through all these strange people to find him. Taking the steps two at a time, I nearly collide with someone at the top.

The moment I realize it's Cináed, I fall into his arms. "It's you." I breathe, embarrassed at how relieved I sound.

"Good of you to join us." He says, letting me rest against him for only a moment before lifting me by the shoulders to separate us. "I am demonstrating the art of sailing to your brother."

I glance around Cináed to find Darren standing at the wheel, holding onto it with both hands, a wide smile pressing into his cheeks while a breeze tosses his dark hair around like long grass.

"Darren." I breathe, my rapid pulse slowing at the mere sight of him.

Ignorant of my panicking, Darren barely glances at me. "Hey Raisin, Cináed says I have a knack for sailing." Pride oozes from the words as Darren's gaze remains focused on the horizon. "He says I can be the helmsman all night if I want."

Cináed's tone is chiding, but his eyes sparkle with amusement as he watches Darren. "I said you may help as long as the weather fares. Now keep her so, sailor. Straight and true."

Darren's grin melts into a firm line and his knuckles wrap around the wheel. "Aye, captain." He calls.

At this point I'm holding back a snicker and turn to face the canvas of gray sky to keep from laughing out loud. I don't know why watching Darren interact with Cináed lightens my chest and makes me smile like this. But there's something almost natural about it.

A clear and sudden memory appears in my mind. Two-year-old Darren waddling along behind a man with full, dark hair that matches the toddler's. I'm six and love to run circles around my squishy baby brother, my skinny legs moving in a blur over the yard. A woman's sweet laughter reaches my ears and I turn to smile at her.

And that's when the memory dies as it always does. No matter how many times I've tried to see the woman's face, the images fade and I'm left longing for more memories of my brief childhood, stolen away soon after that memory occurred.

Blinking at the moisture in my eyes, I inhale the crisp, salty air to wipe the thoughts from my mind. Darren and I are starting over now. Reminiscing on the past isn't going to provide for a better future.

Cináed stands beside me, his arms folded across his chest. His feet are bare, his pant legs rolled to his calves, and the top buttons on his loose shirt are undone. The wind catches at his loose fabric and tendrils of hair like a playful creature. Cináed seems more at home standing here on this deck in the middle of the ocean than I can ever remember feeling in my life.

"You surprise me, Roisín." He says, his eyes watching the people on the deck.

I swallow. "What do you mean?"

"My crew members are... unusual to you, yes?"

Willing my gaze to leave him and wander to the deck, I see the corpse man mopping, a chubby creature with a tail climbing along a rope, and a beast tightening the sails, his body like a man but his head like a hairy bull.

I stare for awhile before lifting my gaze to the safety of the horizon. "Yeah, they're something else." My voice is strained, but keeping up a light conversation under the circumstances is a lot to ask for.