*** HAHA so yes I'm posting another chapter even though I told myself I wouldn't and that I'd start actually spacing out my chapters. Why, you ask? Bc I've lost all control over my life :D
Also bc I'm eager to get this story rolling my dudes. ROLLING. Especially bc when classes start up again I won't be able to post as often.
Ok sorry it's late and i am very tired and I'm going to shut up now***

Chapter 5

At sunset, the crew members on the unmarked, suspicious-looking sailor vessel began to untie from the dock and raise the sails.

Aveline and Ari met by the harbor just as the sky blended into pink. Her feet were bare and covered in sand. He smelled of flour and wheat cake.

"Here. It's chocolate-raisin," he said solemnly, handing her a wrapped loaf of bread. She wordlessly traded it for a broken sand dollar and a small bag of silvers.

Ari's mouth twitched. "I suppose now I don't feel as badly for stealing those candlesticks from the palace."

"Actually, you should, because I sold my necklace for this."

He glared. "Who would pay an entire bag of silvers for a cheap necklace?"
Aveline lifted a shoulder, and then dropped it. "Someone who thought it was genuine pearl?"

"Ah." Ari chuckled and gracefully lifted her onto the loading ramp.

The horizon was already beginning to wither into violet as the ship pushed off of the shore.

On board, it was a regular evening like any other; not very quiet, people without shoes scurrying along the deck and sweeping floors, raising masts, and cleaning dishes.

Dinner was vegetable broth and Aveline's loaf of bread. The Captain and his First Mate discussed logistics with the crew as they sat cross-legged on the top deck.

"The palace needs dirty work done," Ari announced resignedly, pulling his knees into his chest.

"How long will this errand take?" Inez questioned, raising her wooden bowl to her lips.

"It's difficult to tell for sure," he replied. "But Aveline and I think that we should at least consider it. Those stuffy royals are going to pay us. They've more than enough money, God knows."

"I dunno, sir. We never worked for anyun' before," Another crewmember said doubtfully.

"We do jobs for Lords all the time," Aveline pointed out from her reclined position on the floor. "How is this any different?"
"'Haps because we'd be working for the Queen?"
"Point taken," she admitted and looked to Ari, crossing her legs at the ankle. "I believe both sides have a compelling argument. Captain?"
Bristling slightly, Ari climbed to his feet and brushed his hands together.

"Your first mate and I have already made a decision," he declared testily, his features straightening into an impressive glower that abruptly silenced his crew. "However," he added, "simply to spare your piteous egos, we may settle a vote. All in favor?" His voice was soft and serene, but it somehow sounded like a threat as he flashed a frightening grin, baring pearly-white teeth like they were fangs.

It was unanimous.

Ari clapped his hands together, dark eyes glittering predatorily. "Perfect. You are dismissed."

Without another word, his crew obediently hurried away, filing off one by one. Their scattered steps followed them below deck or across the ship as they scrambled to finish their assigned tasks.

As soon as they left, Aveline exasperatedly buried her head in her hands. "Why, Ari?"

"What? I'm expected to keep them in line," Ari protested. "A few unspoken threats go a long way." He was right, and he knew it, and he knew she knew it. Or something like that.

He gracefully unfolded his legs and stretched, like a lazy panther, then sauntered over to the side of the ship.

Apreuna was retreating into the horizon, the last of the firelights twinkling defiantly against a bottomless mouth of black-blue. It was quite lovely, as usual, Ari thought dryly— as lovely as it was dead. And brown. And cactus infested-

"It's quite an excitement, with the royals, I mean. Do you think any of the palace court had anything to do with it?" He inquired, not needing to look to know that Aveline was standing silently beside him.

"Perhaps," She surmised. "It's nearly impossible to break into any of the palaces, much less the royal bedrooms. It must have happened from the inside."

They fell silent.

Meanwhile, Lyla Quincy was barely breathing from inside the tool closet, straining to hear their conversation.
She couldn't believe she'd managed to sneak onto the ship in the first place. The most daring she had ever been was when she had jumped off of the high cliffs on the desert coast near the palace.

And come to think of it, that had been on accident; actually, she had been pushed. By some obnoxious Duke's son, no less.

It had been easier than she had expected. While Ari and Aveline were out, their crew was preparing the ship and Lyla had simply waltzed on deck without being stopped by anyone. Fortune — maybe being practically invisible had its perks.

She had been fairly sure that she could last for at least twenty-four hours, and it had probably only been four or five, but she was beginning to doubt her prediction. Her palms were starting to sweat when she heard footsteps nearby. The Captain was saying something.

"...We can postpone it until after this assignment?"

"I think so," This must have been Aveline; the sound was more soprano and less rough.

Lyla couldn't feel her legs. Crackling, snapping static crawled up her limbs.

One of the muffled voices travelled closer, stopping in front of the closet. Lyla shuddered, closing her eyes. Her heart rammed against her rib cage in a frantic attempt to escape. She tried not to breathe.

The door banged open. Reddish-gold light from the setting sun streamed in, and Lyla's heart stopped completely.

She opened her eyes.

Ari Carondelet was staring straight at her, his eyebrows raised interestedly as he regarded the occupant in his closet space. He took a thoughtful bite of the crisp apple he cradled in his fingers.
"Aveline?"

"Yes?" His first mate floated by, fiddling with the hair that she had messily piled on top of her head. As soon as she caught sight of Lyla she halted in front of the closet, looking immediately confused.

Ari jerked his chin in Lyla's direction. "Is she yours?"

"Um," his pretty friend said politely, "no." She tilted her head to the side like a bird. "Wait, I know you. You're from the Apreuna palace."

Ari shook his head in disbelief. "Truly?"

Lyla gulped. "No." She could barely hear her own whisper.

"What are you doing here?" They didn't even look particularly angry, only startled, and Lyla hurried to explain herself.

She cleared her throat. "Please," she croaked, and this time it was a bit louder. "I'm so sorry, I only wanted to go to Kibet."
The Captain's eyes zeroed in on her, narrowing suspiciously. "Who the hell are you?"
"My name is Lyla Quincy," She blubbered helplessly, surprised to find that she was crying. Tears leaked freely down her cheeks. "I'm the Grand Duchess's daughter. I'm not a spy, I swear it! Truly, I was only trying to leave... I promise! Please... please don't hurt me."

"Lady Quincy? Lyla? Lyla, calm down," Aveline was saying. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Well, that's up for debate," Ari began loudly-

"Shut up," she interjected, whirling on him.

Though clearly amused, he looked as if he was about to argue, and Lyla was silently panicking as her head darted between the two. "I-I ran away," she blurted, not even daring to lie. "And then I was here, and then-" Lyla's incoherency was interrupted as Ari pushed something cool into her hands. It was a bottle, she realized quickly. Water. She snatched at it like a peasant girl and gulped it down without the least bit of decorum.

Aveline, wide-eyed, looked behind Lyla's shoulder. "Uh, how long have you been standing in there?"

Lyla stared down at the empty cup in her trembling hands and said nothing.

There was a brief pause as the two most intimidating people she'd ever met patiently waited for her to collect herself. Her heartbeat took its time slowing down.

After a moment, her limbs began to gain some feeling back in them. Lyla inhaled deeply, shakily- in, and out.

Ari kept folding and then unfolding his arms. Finally he shattered the silence. "So you need a ride to Kibet?"

Lyla nodded furiously. "Yes, and that's all."

"Why?" He quizzed, clearly suspicious, and she didn't blame him. Lyla decided that she'd better explain herself soon before they threw her into the ocean, or shot her, or ended her life in some other creative way.

"I want to find the missing prince," she burst out, sensibility chasing the words out of her mouth before her fear could stop them. "I cannot stay in that palace anymore. I've never been outside of the kingdom, and if I have to spend another day sewing until my fingertips bleed, I'm going to go mad. If I don't leave, my mother will force me to marry, likely to some old Duke with no teeth. And now the prince is missing, and no one could figure anything out, and then once there was a chance to find out what was happening, I had to go, I had to..." She stopped because she was overpacing herself and her breath was pulsing through her in short stabs.

There was another heavy pause. Aveline and Ari were scrutinizing her, carefully. Lyla wondered what they saw. A babbling mess, most likely.

She fumbled with her hands, trembling— she could not lose this chance. "I'll pay you," She blurted, desperation twisting her gut. She frantically tried to remember how much money she had brought.

"What could you possibly give us? A fancy petticoat? No, thank you," Ari snorted.

"Are they going to send Apreuna soldiers after us for kidnapping you?" Aveline inquired- offhandedly, as if it did not matter to her either way.

Lyla pulled on the hem of her dress. "I doubt they'll even notice I've left. I'm only a Lady, and I have no responsibilities in Apreuna," she asserted firmly, as if she had no doubts, though she was quite lacking in confidence and did have doubts. Several of them.

Ari and Aveline looked at each other rigidly, like they were having a hushed sidebar using only their expressions.

Eventually, Ari shrugged. "Alright."

Lyla's mouth fell open. "'Alright?'"

"That's what I said, runt." He looked as if he was going to scold her, but then his gaze caught on something behind her shoulder. "Aye! What are you doing? That's not how you clean a dock, idiot!" The Captain stormed off, presumably to insult someone else, and Aveline turned to Lyla, unfazed.

"You wouldn't be the first stray we've picked up," She beamed, as easy and open as the windswept curls around her face.

She began walking, and Lyla followed her because she didn't know what else to do, nor was she quite sure what was happening. "There is supper below deck if you're hungry, and there is an empty cabin if you'd like me to show you."

Lyla heaved a sigh at the thought of sleep before she abruptly paused, shaking her head. "You're truly letting me stay? Here? In a room?"
"Of course?" Aveline gave her a strange look. "Is there a reason why we shouldn't?"

It almost would have sounded threatening, had the other girl not been looking at her with dark, inquisitive eyes and a kind smile. Lyla hurriedly shook her head.

"That's what I thought." Aveline quirked her lips to one side. "So. You must be exhausted from... well, you know, standing in the tool closet for three hours."

Lyla wasn't sure whether to be relieved or suspicious. "Five," She corrected, rasping slightly. Then she coughed. "I was there for five hours."

The other girl drew back to look at her, horrified. "You could have just asked us for passage to Kibet. It would have saved you quite the trouble."

If Lyla had been emotionally balanced at the moment, she would have laughed. "Aren't you a dangerous criminal?"

Aveline bobbed her head graciously, as if Lyla had offered her a hugely flattering compliment. "Don't make me blush." She stopped in front of a large door near the stern and leaned towards Lyla conspiratorially, like she was revealing a confidential secret. "However, criminal or not, contrary to popular belief— Ari and I don't mindlessly torture anyone who dares to speak to us." She paused. "Or I don't, at least." Aveline glanced pointedly at Ari who was shouting at someone on the other side of the ship.

"But would you have granted me passage? Me, a foreigner and a royal?" Lyla persisted, unsure why she was continuing in the argument.

Aveline regarded her thoughtfully. "Is that not what we're doing now?" She had a point, but Lyla didn't have time to think about it. "Inez?"

The door opened a second later. A serious-faced girl in a thin brown slip stood there, regarding Lyla for a moment, and when she looked at Aveline, her forehead was faintly lined in confusion.

"Inez, this is... Lady Quincy?" Lyla's new host glanced at her sideways.

Behind the girl named Inez, there was a lighted room filled with a small group of dirty-faced children. Some held steaming mugs or were in the middle of pushing each other off netted hammocks. It briefly surprised her how young they were; the tallest boy couldn't have been more than fifteen. Some of them wore muddy trousers that had been cut to their thighs, probably to make labor easier in the heat.

And they all were looking at her.

Lyla flinched under the attention.
"Just Lyla, please," she said tightly.

"Right. Inez, this is Lyla. We still have a few slices of bread left, no? We'd better, because it's supposed to tie us to breakfast."

Inez slowly swept a jet-black strand of hair out of her face. "We do."
"Perfect." Aveline exhaled, and she suddenly looked very tired. "The Captain and I need to figure out some sort of plan for this trip. I'll see you at breakfast, assuming I haven't thrown myself overboard by then." She rolled her eyes as she pulled the door shut in front of her.

Leaving Lyla alone.

With these people.

Lyla briefly contemplated a poorly planned escape, avoiding Inez's piercing gaze as she put her hands on her hips and surveyed Lyla like she was examining a hunk of meat. "You must be a native. Look at your mop." She reached forward, pinching a chunk of Lyla's hair. "It's almost white." She was scowling, and she had a sharp, husky voice, but it somehow almost sounded like a compliment.

"Who's the girl, 'Nez?" Some boy shouted from the other side of the room. There were a few murmurs of agreement.

"Oh, shut it, Henry." Before Lyla knew it, Inez had clasped long, brown fingers around her wrist and was dragging her towards a small wooden cupboard with a broken handle. She yanked the cabinet open and rummaged around for a few minutes- her other hand still firmly fastened around Lyla's forearm- and produced a hunk of brown bread. Lyla's stomach grumbled on cue. She'd never missed supper before, and where was she going to sleep? Surely not on the hammocks with everyone else...

"They'll hush if we ignore them." Inez pushed the loaf into her hands and practically shoved her out the door, slamming it on the boyish noise. She continued to tow Lyla down the deck like a rag doll until they reached a surprisingly large sitting room, and through that room, into another door, and just as Lyla was becoming dizzy, they came to a smaller chamber with a trundle bed and eggshell walls.

"This is your cabin," she declared roughly. "Didn't you bring any bags?"

Lyla found her voice quickly. "Oh— I might have left it in the... closet?"

"The tool closet?" Inez shook her head and pivoted around. "Um, fine. One moment." She fixed a stern gaze on Lyla. "Stay."

While Inez was gone, Lyla tried to make sense of her room. It was cleaner than she would have expected, and there was a wooden desk in the corner, with lavender candles and a few books perched atop.

She flopped onto the trundle bed, bouncing slightly. It was soft. Creaky.

She tentatively pulled a piece of bread off of the loaf Inez had given her and squashed it in her fingers.

The room was significantly smaller than her chamber in the palace, but she hadn't been expecting a bedroom at all. Actually, Lyla hadn't even expected them to spare her life-

"There's a washroom down the hall," Inez announced, bursting back into the room and throwing Lyla's valise down on the floor. "I'll come fetch you for breakfast tomorrow before the Captain decides what to do with you."

This didn't sound particularly promising.

Inez closed the door much more loudly than Aveline had, and then Lyla was alone.

She glanced down at the bread in her hand, and then at the quilt on the bed.

She couldn't believe she was doing this. But it was too late now, and she was on a pirate ship, miles away from home, with a gang of thieves, sailing off to the middle of nowhere.

Lyla frustratedly swiped a hand under her eyes, which had suddenly become damp of their own accord. I chose this.

She crammed a handful of bread into her cheeks and curled up on the quilt, tucking her legs underneath her lap.

It was good, heavy bread, and Lyla thought she could taste chocolate. She tore off another piece, and eventually, she couldn't stay awake.

***LOLOLOL hope you liked ;)
Vote/comment please!! ***