It took us less than an hour to get the rest of the bodies from the next island. We were lucky to have discover no more feasts, although it looked like they had gone through their share of trouble with whatever wildlife had ever made on the island.

  The sea serpents that plagued the local fae would eat well if we didn't do our job. They would eat very well.

  As I tossed the last body onto the cart, Martin came at me with his sharp quips. "What if one of them was eaten and we had to get their their tracking medallion?"

  "There's an acceptable amount of loss. I think Stuart said ten percent?"

  "Oh so you don't have to get all of them?"

  I moved to the front of the cart. Martin helped me get into position. "No it would be ridiculous. The main reason that we are collecting and burning them is so they don't turn. The aether is strong here."

  Martin gulped. He knew what that meant and he wasn't willing to take any more chances that I was. That was smart of him.

  I wasn't going to begrudge a man not sticking around, due to the implication. It was the summer court after all and they were known for particular practices. Practices that I would like to avoid at all course. It was one thing to advocate for the use of people without paying them. It was quite another to advocate for using the things that were not quite people anymore. But that's not my problem to do with they or at least it wouldn't be so long as we kept our pace.

  "I get that we're getting the medallions and all but this just sounds like nonsense. We couldn't just leave the bodies for the sea serpents?"

  "Sea serpents don't eat the dead. It has to be fresh," I said. "Plus you know where we are right now?"

  He made a coughing sound as I pulled the cart. A very non-committal sound that told me everything I needed to know. He knew more than he was letting on to. That was it or he had a cough that he was trying to suppress. Either way, I picked up the pace, pulling the card along the way and making him have to nearly break into a run to keep up with me.

  "Sea serpents don't eat the dead. What the heck you talking about? What are you on about?"

  "You don't want to stick around and find out," I said. If there was one thing that he did not want to do it was to be stuck here on this island. Now that we had his boat, he was going to come with us.

  It made sense in a way. We didn't want to deal with an unaligned male... Man, he wanted to deliver the news that his package was delivered. There was a strength in numbers that could not be denied. Plus he was capable with the weapons I had seen him with. If there was enough space on th schooner I would have asked him for a spare but we were busy enough as it was.

  It was wonderful knowing that he would be able to heal anything I could inflict on him.

  Not that I was particularly likely to do anything to him. Was one of those things that you just wanted to keep in your back pocket in case of a bad day or a bad breakup.

  He huffed as he ran alongside me.

  "Hey. I get that we just met and all but that's... You can't drop a concussive grenade like that and just run away."

  "For your information I'm not running. I am basically walking carrying a cart full of corpses. To be a deer and put on your mask by the way. It prevents bad things from happening."

  He froze and slipped the company mask back up over his face. It was a shame since his cinnamon colored beard looked so welcoming. I could lose myself in its scratches if this kept on for too long.

  "Alright. Let me ask a different question. How many more Islands does the company have to clear then? There's only so many of them, right?"

  "There's only so many. We're halfway through it and even though you can't see some of these until we pass them, they are there. The maps we have don't really do this place justice."

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The chain of islands here formed nearly an entire circle, leaving a bright interior Where most of the C bottom could be seen. I could easily dive down there and touch the sand below if I wanted. It would have been a problem to navigate the schooner in the interior.

  Of course that didn't stop the summer court from releasing their people all around. From looks of it, they have been all dropped on the outside and they would have had to fight their way to the one of the designated pickup areas. The main area was one that we were approaching right now. The biggest island had at least 20 bodies we'd have to find and I was ready to call it a day.

  By the time we returned to start a small pyre it was clear that we wouldn't be making it much farther that day. That was fine as we had a week to go through every thing and find as many as we could.

  The sun was setting, Martin was yawning at the helm and Vivian was conked out in the hammock on Deck. We hadn't even thought about it, but there was enough room for sable hammocks above and below the deck and each were designed to be large enough for two sailors.

  It wasn't that we bought them that. According to Martin, they had all come that way because the crew that owned this ship before us had apparently used it for family trips.

  "I think was going to happen is that we're going to drop Vancouver for the night by the big island and try to grab a few corpses before we call it. Whatever we find will be burned, And we'll be out here on the schooner until the morning."

  "All right. Where can I stay. Are we doing fire watch?"

  I looked at him, dumbfounded. Some small part of my face must have given me away because he just shook his head and watered it off to the porch side, looking for a hammock. Not that Port and starboard were that far apart.

  I found myself unconsciously drifting towards him. "No we're not doing fire watch. That's why we're anchoring so far out."

  " That seems to be smart. Thank goodness it's going to be a warm night."

  I've really considered asking him to stay in a hammock with me, but that would be too forward and I didn't want him to know that I was going to be cold. Perhaps he would be been uncomfortable. And if there's anything I know it was that I did not want to hear about whatever he had issues with back home that it brought him out here. Because nobody came to the FAE realms without a really good reason. He might have come on a sabbatical with a special mission to kill somebody but he was definitely out here avoiding something else.

  It felt like maybe I would be able to get some good answers out of him once I pumped them full of breakfast in the morning. That's what humans liked right? Being full of sausage and hard tack?

  It must be because that was what we had in stock.

  He would have to deal with it.

  ---

  It wasn't surprising that the man was ravenous. I was more surprised that he knew his way around the complicated machine we used to heat up the meat we kept chilled.

  "Stuart, if you can keep this stuff cold indefinitely, I might stay on board for another year or two."

  I was in between two sausages both the size of my forearm. They were easily the tastiest thing he had prepared.

  Stuart held up a "Between this and the fresh fish, I think you might be spoiled for choice. I'm so glad that the summer court is into smoked meat."

  ---

  It was easy to see why they'd set up the schooner this way. There was a place to sit in the back on the hammock and there were enough in the interior to seat an extra 10 people. All that really mattered was picking the one that worked for you the best. And one of the good things about dropping anchor in a relatively close to the shoreline place was that you could easily see if someone was trying to sneak out to your boat. It would have also been easy for us to set up and get a fire going on the beach to make it blatantly clear. Braden was sticking up.

  So I spent the last half hour of the day with Martin dragging branches to the coast and then Vivian lit them up. It would give us light for many hours at and if anyone tried to sneak up on us they would be in Stark relief against the shadows and the water. At night which was lovely because it made me want to go swimming.

  But I was on duty technically and I had chosen the first watch. It was my solemn duty to make sure that no one made the board and that if a sea serpent came by I would have to raise the alarm. They didn't tend to attack without provocation but still laying there in the evening, looking at the stars and beautiful pyre on the shore, just a short swim way, I was wondering what blood right we'll be heading to next.

  " You look a bit apprehensive. Okay to tell me what's going on?"

  Martin was not sneaky at all on the slightest. He was however Not particularly loud. It was like he had gone to a couple of classes about being stealthy and then taking that advice and not really updated his tactics in a long time.

  " There isn't really much going on as you can see. I think that whatever you would have found on that island is is passed since then. Either that or somebody must have poisoned the water."

  "I have been meaning to ask about that. Is it true that every little island has a tiny little spring or a pool of fresh water in the center?"

  I shrugged. "I only know what you know. But that's probably the only way that they would get it.."

  "Makes sense."