A Game Of Changing Tides

Chapter Thirty

1868, The Dawrey Ocean

The sun was high, shining brightly just over top of Adelyn's head. The heat caused a layer of sweat to pool over her skin, and Adelyn wished she were below deck with a cold drink and a damp cloth. Still, she mopped, hard bent on proving herself to be more than just a useless girl.

Though she doubted even all the mopping in the world would prove that to Nikolai's crew.

Cleaning the floors didn't exactly make her feel necessary, but Adelyn could feel Nik's eyes on her. From his spot perched up on the helm, sitting back against the chair he'd dragged up beside the wheel, he had a perfect view of everything on the main deck. Including Adelyn, and the floor she had only half-way finished.

"You look tired," Harlem said, coming up behind her. Adelyn jumped, not having expected him to be there. She hoped Nik hadn't watched the interaction--he'd move on from calling her theif to dubbing her scaredy cat, or something equally aggravating. "And your face is the colour of an apple."

"It's just hot," Adelyn said. Even with her experience with the ocean back at the First Witches island, Adelyn couldn't help but want to jump over the deck and into the waves below. It probably would have been a much more comfortable temperature in the water than it was above it.

Harlem shrugged, shifting his stance so he stood in the shade casted by the mast. "Just a little."

Adelyn sighed, dipping the mop back into the bucket. She sloshed the soapy water onto the deck again, ignoring how it sprayed the bottoms of her ankles over her shoes. She'd pinned her dress up to her knees, something Nina had taught her how to do with only a few hairpins and an elastic. It made it a lot easier to move about, Adelyn noted, with all of the climbing ladders and in and out of hammocks they had to do aboard the siren.

Adelyn finally understood why Nina wore pants instead of dresses.

"You look different, you know." Harlem said pointedly, his lips pursed in the way he did when he was thinking. He had tells for everything, and Adelyn knew them all. She knew that when he was looking down, he was upset, and when he was squinting he was confused, and when he was thinking, his lips took on the appearance of a duck's beak.

"How so?" Adelyn said, still mopping. She could still feel Nik's eyes on her. Unmoving.

Harlem shrugged, looking over at her. He frowned, "You've always been strong and that, but now you're... I don't know how to describe it."

"Is it a good different at least?" she joked. Harlem shrugged, saying nothing, The simple action of it stung her more than she let him see. "Well, I don't know what to tell you, then."

Harlem grew quiet, and a silence hung between them once again. It'd been quiet between them too often since he'd boarded the Siren's Beckon; at Anne Marten's, they hadn't been able to go an hour without saying something to one another. Here, they could go several.

Adelyn sighed, thinking to herself that maybe it wasn't just her that was different. Maybe he was, too.

She thought of Nikolai's words the night before, about how the sea could change a person.

She wished he hadn't been so right.

Nina barrelled up from the lower decks, pushing open the door with such force that it hit the wall behind it. A small chip of wood broke off of the edge, hitting the floor a foot or so away. Nina looked at it and grimaced, turning to Adelyn and pointing her finger, "Don't tell Nik."

"Cross my heart," Adelyn said, smiling to herself. She forced her eyes to stay on the floor, and not to look up at the Captain.

"This ship is his baby," Nina said, stalking over and leaning back against the railing. Adelyn laughed to herself. "He'd behead me for something as simple as a scratch in the paint."

"Harlem, you're looking better." Nina commented, looking over at him and cocking her head to the side. The action, paired with her uncombed short hair and narrowed eyes, made Adelyn think of a bird. Inquisitive, curious... a little bit obnoxious.

Harlem shrugged, but Adelyn saw the pink tinge in his cheeks. When he looked up at her, she raised her eyebrows, holding back a smile. Nina was oblivious, though Adelyn was far from surprised by that.

Adelyn looked up at Nik again. He wasn't looking back at her this time; instead, his eyes were out on the sea. A few feet to his left, Xavier was looking out in the same manner. Hard eyes, shoulders set. They were bracing themselves, Adelyn realized after a moment, but for what, she didn't know.

Puzzled, Adelyn left the mop leaning up against the hinges of the door that led below deck. One step at a time, she climbed her way up to where they stood, her dress falling out of the way it was pinned along the way. She nearly tripped over the hem of it, and right then and there she decided that when they docked at the shore, the first thing she was going to do was invest in a pair of pants.

Anne Marten would have slapped her for having the thought.

"You have a look on your face," Adelyn said, leaning against the railing behind the wheel. Nik turned his head towards her, smiling smally.

"A dashingly handsome one, I'm sure."

Adelyn snorted, holding back a smile of her own. She bit into her lip, thinking. "More like a scared one."

Nik laughed lightly, "Trust me when I say, there's not much that could scare me."

"I don't mean scared exactly." Adelyn said, shaking her head. She didn't doubt his words one bit. Nik could be stranded alone on a sinking ship in the middle of the north's freezing and shark-infested waters, and she doubted he'd be all that afraid. "More like... more like something's coming."

Nik's head tilted to the side, just enough that she knew he understood. After a minute of nothing but whistling wind and men barking orders somewhere below, he pointed out towards the water. "See where the blue kind of looks... uneven? Like there's lines in the water?"

Adelyn followed his finger, looking out into the distance. Sure enough, she could see it. The fine line where the clear cerulean waters turned darker, shaded. Adelyn could just make out the discoloration in the sky above it, where the bright colours dimmed, and clouds took the place of blue sky.

"Yeah," Adelyn said, nodding slowly. "What about it?"

"Tell-tale signs of a storm." Nik said, his lip between his teeth. He shook his head lightly. "Have to wait until we're a tad closer to tell how bad, but..."

"We might be in for a rough night." Adelyn finished.

Nik laughed, "Afraid so."

"Well, if we can handle the island," Adelyn said, a hint of a smirk on her lips. She shrugged, "We can handle a few clouds."

Nik laughed.