Phoenix Burning (5 page)

Immediately the crew started to push and shove, yelling over one another to be heard. Toby winced and glanced at Ayla as Crocker threw a punch at Marcus. Ayla leaned on a table away from the melee, with her right arm tightly folded over her broken one.

“Stop this!” the captain roared.

A table crashed to the floor. Hiko hid behind Toby and D’von moved to his side.

Rahul hauled Nisha to safety and Rita burst from the pack to stand with them. “If you want to do this, Captain, it doesn’t have to be Toby!” she panted, “D’von’s the right age and I’ve passed for sixteen – remember Kabul?”

D’von’s face lit up and Ayla looked away from the fight, offering what seemed to Toby to be a genuine, gentle expression. “It’s a good offer, D’von, but there’s too much risk of you being rejected by the order if they realize that
Rita’s not a teenager. Toby and I stand a better chance of being accepted as the Sun and Moon.”

The captain sucked air through his teeth. “Rita, could you work with D’von?”

Rita nodded swiftly.

“All right then,” he roared. “This isn’t a democracy. Settle down or you’ll all be on a charge.”

The battling crew fell silent.

“I’ve made my decision. Rita and D’von are going to Gozo. Ayla – you’ll give them the pills and
if
we retrieve two inverters, well … I’ll make sure you get one.”

Fury darkened Ayla’s green eyes. “You can’t cut me out of my own plan!” She poked him in the chest, looking as if she wished she was using a knife and not her fingernail. “She’s too old. It won’t work!”

When the captain ignored her, Ayla appealed to Toby. “They won’t get picked. If they’re turned away, we’ll have to wait another year for a second chance. And by then we’ll be too old to try ourselves. You may
as well
throw those panels away.”

Toby looked at D’von. Yes, there was a chance he’d be picked by the order and get inside the sanctuary. But would he be able to sneak around and steal the inverters without being caught? D’von was not as slow as he looked; there was a deeper well of cunning inside him that had
surprised both Toby and Ayla in Tarifa, but he was honest, open and did as he was told.

Hiko gripped Toby’s hand. “You can’t let him go,” Hiko whispered. “He’ll be caught.”

Polly glared down at him. “Be quiet, you,” she squawked.

Toby turned to the captain. “So … are you planning to keep Ayla prisoner on the
Phoenix
until the heist is over?”

Ayla’s eyes widened. “You can damn well
try
.”

Toby put his hands on his hips. “If she gets away she’ll go to Gozo and tell the order that Rita isn’t sixteen.”

The captain frowned and Toby carried on.

“Or she’ll get herself another partner and go in without the
Phoenix
.” He turned to the crew. “If that happens Ayla will get an inverter for the
Banshee
and the
Phoenix
will get nothing. Nell has the map, same as us. You want the
Banshee
getting to the island first? Even if we
could
translate our map, we can’t do a long sea voyage without those inverters. It may as well point us to the moon.”

Polly swayed from side to side. “I don’t like where this is going,” she murmured.

“If we don’t join Ayla, there’s no way to stop her cutting us out.”

“There is one way.” Peel ran his finger along the knife he kept at his belt.

“Peel!” Toby snapped. “We’re not murderers.”

“We’re
pirates
,” Crocker spat.

The captain rubbed his eyes. “We may be pirates, but we don’t murder little girls because it’s convenient.”

“Little girls!” Ayla bristled.

“Shut up, Ayla.” Toby spun round. “If we could trust you, we wouldn’t be having this problem.”

As Ayla smirked, Dee shoved her into a chair. “We should never have heard her out. You think she’s not planning a double-cross?”

“Toby’s right,” the captain groaned. “I don’t like it, but he is.” He twisted his compass. “I don’t trust the girl and nor should he, but he’s bright enough to keep an eye on her and make sure he gets an inverter for the
Phoenix
despite any hidden agendas.”

“I don’t have—” Ayla interjected.

“Enough,” the captain growled. “Toby is going. But Rita and D’von are going, too, as insurance. If they’re the ones to get picked, all the better.”

“They won’t,” Ayla stated confidently.

Dee slid her blade free and Ayla closed her mouth.

The captain sighed. “It’s not ideal, but I can’t think of any other way that doesn’t put a stain on our souls.”

“The stain doesn’t have to be yours.” With a terrifying suddenness Dee raised her knife.

Ayla was still seated. As she tried to get up, to protect
herself, her foot caught on the chair leg.

“No!” Toby screamed.

Fast as a snake, the captain grabbed Dee’s wrist. The knife hovered above Ayla’s chest. She kicked backwards and the chair toppled, taking her away from the blade. She rolled from the seat and in one smooth movement moved into a crouch, flicking her long coat away from her face.

As it settled, Toby realized that she too had drawn a knife.

“Where’d she get that?” Crocker called into the shocked silence.

“That’s one a my kitchen knives. Get if offa her,” Peel roared.

Ayla lunged towards Dee and the captain swung his second in command behind him. Ayla froze as she came face to face with the captain. Her knife hand trembled.

“Drop it!” Marcus ran to disarm her and the captain raised a hand.

Toby could hear the harsh rasp of Dee’s breath even over the pirate’s muttering.

“No one is to harm our visitor.” The captain spun to Dee, putting his back to Ayla and her knife. “Do you understand?”

“It’s the only way.” Her face was pale, her scarf a livid slash of colour around her dark hair.

“It’s not
our
way.” The captain opened his hand and released her. “Toby’s right – if we let her go, she’ll sabotage our own attempt on the inverters and if we try and keep her prisoner she’ll do all she can to escape.”

“So you’ll allow your son to go with her on this crazy mission, to risk his life, just so you don’t have to take hers?”

“Careful, Dee,” the captain warned.

“I’m your second in command, why won’t you
listen
to me?” She spun to face Toby. “You’re a pirate, stop being a hero.”

Toby sighed. “It’s not heroism, Dee; it’s good sense. Rita’s too old. Yes, she and D’von might get into the sanctuary, but they might not. I
have
to go: it’s the best thing for the
Phoenix
.”

As Dee moved to object, the captain spoke first. “Toby, take Hiko and get the boiler running. It’s almost a week’s straight sailing to Gozo. We leave at first light.”

“No!” Dee shook her head. The captain caught her arm and lowered his voice. “You know better than to undermine me in front of my crew.”

Dee pulled free of the captain’s hold. “I’ve been on this ship as long as you have. I’ve supported every decision you’ve made, but not this one.” She shook her head.

“You
will
support me, or at least remain quiet—”

“Or?” Dee’s eyes blazed.

The captain sagged. “Stop forcing my hand.”

“I can’t stand here and watch you—”

“Then don’t!” the captain groaned. “Theo and Simeon will be back in a few days. If we leave at first light, they won’t know where we’ve gone. Someone needs to stay behind and tell them where the
Phoenix
is. I was going to ask Arnav, but…”

Dee’s mouth flattened into a line. “You’re ordering me off ship.”

“We both need to cool down.”

“You need me to make you see sense. And I’m not just your second – I’m navigator, too.”

“Rita can navigate, she’s spent enough time on Steerage. Toby can be Second.”

Toby paled. “What?”

“It’s about time, Toby.” The captain raised his voice. “Any of my crew disagree with the fact that Toby should be second in command while Dee’s off ship?”

There were a few mutterings, but the crew said nothing. Even Peel and Crocker kept their voices down.

“So, you don’t need me any more, is that it?” Dee slammed her knife back in her belt. “If you order me, I’ll go, but I won’t come back.”

Toby jolted forwards. “Don’t say that.”

“Of course you will,” the captain said.

“No. You don’t respect me or my opinion. You don’t need me any more so I’ll get another berth.” She looked at Ayla. “I hear the
Banshee
needs new crew members.”

Toby caught his breath. “You wouldn’t!”

“Well, Captain?” Dee’s eyes were hard and dark as steel.

“I’m ordering you off ship.” The captain’s voice almost trembled.

Dee swung round and stalked towards the mess door. She paused at Marcus’s side. “Marcus?”

“I’m with you,” Marcus said quietly. His freckles stood out against the paleness of his cheeks and sweat stuck his red curls to his forehead like bloody smears. He looked at Toby. “Toby, I—”

“I know,” Toby murmured.

“Take care. And don’t trust
her
.” Marcus tilted his head towards Ayla.

Dee too looked at Toby. “Keep Nix close.” She called Marcus to her side. “Start packing our things, we have to be off the
Phoenix
by nightfall.”

It was cold on deck. The sun’s meagre heat had vanished when it dipped below the horizon; now only the residual red glow of its light remained. Peel had lit his barbecue but wasn’t cooking. Despite the chill, the whole crew remained on deck. Toby, D’von and Hiko were clustered around the salvage hooks. Toby was running a cloth up and down the length of Nix while Polly hunched on his shoulder. Other crew members pretended to swab the deck, repair rigging or coiled ropes. In an unspoken pact, they were waiting for Dee and Marcus to emerge.

The captain was below deck watching Ayla. Uma had checked her arm and announced it was healing well. Ayla had then, showing unusual sensitivity, retired to the sleeping quarters.

Finally the hatch leading to the storage area opened and Dee stepped on to the main deck with a bulging canvas bag over one shoulder. Her long curls were tied back into
her red scarf and there was a smudge of soot on one cheek. Marcus followed behind her. The crew immediately stopped what they were pretending to do.

Toby clenched his fists as Dee walked among her friends, touching hands and faces, pounding shoulders, murmuring farewells. Tears pricked his eyes, but he refused to allow them to fall. He had known Dee his whole life.

“Toby?” Polly squawked low, so no one else could hear. He shook his head and passed her to Hiko.

Dee reached Nisha and put her arms around the other woman. Rahul pressed her upper arm, his own face drawn and miserable.

When Dee indicated that she would speak to him next, Toby felt something inside of him shatter. He ran towards the galley hatch, grabbed the wheel, turned it and dragged open the door.

“Toby…” Dee called.

“Just go.” He turned and found himself face to face with her.

“Tobes.” She held out a hand, but Toby jammed his arms straight down at his sides, his fists pressed against his thighs.

“Why are you doing this?” He forced the words out.

“You know why.” Dee sighed. “It’s the right time for me to move on. You’re Second now.” She gave a grim smirk.
“Ayla’s given me a note of recommendation for Nell. I might try the
Banshee
after all.”

Toby choked.

“You don’t think it’s a good idea?” Dee raised her eyebrows. He shook his head and Dee held out her arms. “Say goodbye properly. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

Toby stood still. His arms felt as if anchors were weighing them to the deck. Slowly he raised them.

“Thank you.”

His chin rested on Dee’s shoulder and her hair tickled his nose. He tightened his fists on her back. “It’ll be all right, Toby. We’ll see each other again.”

“Not if we find the island,” Toby croaked. “Isn’t that the whole point of this?”

“I suppose. Though I will see you again, I promise.”

Toby nodded, no longer trusting his voice.

“We’ve got to go.” Dee turned and walked to the gangplank. At the top she tugged at her scarf – the red bandanna that every crew member wore. Slowly she unwound it from her hair. Taking his cue, Marcus uncoiled his from his throat and handed both to Uma.

Then, together, Marcus and Dee left the
Phoenix
and jumped on to Ayla’s lifeboat, which had been prepared to take them from the ship to Faroe Rocks.

Toby ran to the gunwale in time to see the small boat
vanish into the darkness.

“Will they be all right?” Toby asked Uma.

Uma closed her fist around the discarded scarves. “Marcus has a tent, fuel and flint in his kit. Peel slipped supplies into the boat. And there’re caves. With all the combustibles that wash up with the tide they’ll be fine till Theo and Simeon get back.”

Toby stared after them.

The boiler room was empty. Toby slipped through the door and checked the gauges. The water levels were good. The soot needed cleaning out of the blowers, but otherwise she would be ready to push the paddles in the morning.

Gozo. Toby looked out of the porthole where a tiny glow sputtered, a fire had been lit among the rocks.

Everything was changing.

Toby fetched the brushes and began to clean, taking comfort in the familiar routine. Polly’s weight was missing from his shoulder and for a moment he wished she was grumbling about the soot in her feathers. But she no longer had feathers and she was with Hiko now.

For a little while Toby wanted to pretend that everything was as it had been before the
Phoenix
had heard of the sunken solar panels. He imagined a blue and scarlet Polly
up on her perch above the attemperator, Dee on the bridge with the captain, Marcus playing Perudo with Crocker and Harry napping in the storage area when he should have been working.

As his muscles burned, he kept his mind’s eye on the memory he created and refused to think of anything other than the job he’d done a hundred times before. When he finished, he stored the brushes, arms shaking with exhaustion. Then he fed more fuel to the compressor and topped up the combustion chamber.

At the door he hesitated and shook his head. If he went to the sleeping quarters, he’d find Ayla. Toby remembered the last time they had sat together on his bunk, the trembling pressure of her lips. It wouldn’t be like that ever again. She needed him to complete her plan, but their bond was broken. His ears rang with the memory of their conversation on the
Banshee
.

“It’s over then?”

“How can it be anything else? After what your family has done to mine.”

Ayla had been right, there could be nothing more between them than the plan to get the inverters. He leaned his forehead on the hull and listened to the chug and grind of his resting ship. He wanted to go to Ayla, but she had betrayed him.

He turned back to the boiler room and unrolled a blanket from beneath his ‘useful one day’ pile. He kept it there for the nights he had to nurse the boiler. It had been a while since he had slept in the heart of the
Phoenix
. Curling up beneath the control panel, Toby allowed the whistle of superheated steam to soothe him to sleep.

The North Sea was rough and junk rose and fell on either side of the
Phoenix
, banging into her paddle cages despite the ice-breaker hull pushing it to each side.

Toby stood on top of the bridge and braced himself on the main mast as he shaded his eyes to watch Faroe Rocks turn into a distant smudge. The sails above him snapped in the brisk wind, pulling the
Phoenix
onwards, and he shivered.

“You can’t avoid me forever.” Ayla climbed the ladder towards him then crouched on top of the bridge. The
Phoenix
tipped into a thrashing wave that carried salt spray and a tumble of cans over the gunwale. As she rubbed the poisonous spray from her face Toby saw that today she had plaited her long hair, but left the short half sticking wildly up. The stinging salt had reddened her cheeks but she had her collar turned up against the wind, covering the burn mark on her shoulder. The glitter in her green eyes added
to the savagery of her appearance. As the ship tilted, Ayla rolled into the rigging and came up grinning.

“I waited for you last night.” She greeted him with a tilt of her pointed chin. “I thought we should talk. Where did you sleep?”

“Somewhere else.” Toby tightened his grip on the mast.

Ayla wrapped one hand around the mast, just beneath Toby’s. “Remember the last night we spent in your sleeping quarters?”

“Of course.” Toby shivered. “I spent the next morning in the brig of the
Banshee
.”

“You’d have done no different.” Ayla refused to look down. There was no shame on her face. “I was in an impossible position. Can’t you understand?”

“I suppose.” This was her way of apologizing. His little finger slipped down the mast, as if to touch her thumb but he pulled it back. “There’s still our parents, our history hasn’t changed.”

“I know.” Now she dropped her gaze.

“I never got a chance to say I’m sorry.” Toby shuffled awkwardly. “For what my parents did to yours … to your sisters.”

“I don’t remember them.” Ayla looked out over the salt as though she could see her family in the distance. “I’d turned Astrid into an imaginary friend – I thought I’d just
created a reflection of myself to play with.”

“But she was your twin.” Toby hugged himself. “And what about your big sister, Freya?”

Ayla shrugged. “Nell won’t talk about her – I’ve asked.”

“The captain won’t tell me about Judy, either—” At the look on Ayla’s face Toby bit off the sentence.

“Why would you want to know about
her
?” Ayla flinched back from him.

“She
was
my mother.” Toby sighed. “I just wanted to know
how
she could have done what she did. How could anyone?”

“Right.” Ayla settled back down.

“And your father, will Nell speak about him?”

Ayla shook her head. “I get it. It hurts her too much. Those scars won’t ever heal.”

“And that’s why the
Banshee
will never work with the
Phoenix
. You know that better than anyone.” Toby frowned. “So I don’t understand why you came up with a plan that involved me.”

Ayla sat and patted the bridge roof. The
Phoenix
rolled and knocked Toby into her. Swiftly he moved away, leaving space between them. Their legs dangled above the bridge door. D’von looked up from his cleaning job and waved. Ayla returned the gesture, her face relaxing.

“You like D’von,” Toby said.

Ayla nodded. “He doesn’t overthink. He’s a good guy, isn’t he? Not like us.”

Toby inhaled sharply.

“You know what I mean. You and I, we’re born pirates. D’von – he’ll be a pirate to please you, and a great one. But he’d have been just as happy on land, in a smithy, or a bakery or something. You or I would go insane in a job like that.”

“So you think you’d have set sail in the end? Even if your family hadn’t…”

Ayla shook her head. “Perhaps not. But I’d have always been unsettled and a little miserable and never known why.”

“You think the salt’s in our blood?” Toby covered his bare face as the
Phoenix
pitched and spray hit them again. Above them gulls wheeled as the Irish coast blurred on the horizon.

Ayla nodded. “You and me, we’re alike. You said it once before, we make a good team. I thought about other partners for the plan, but I kept coming back to you. I know you can fight, I know what you’ll do in a tight spot and I can trust you.”

He stared at his hands for a long time. “You can trust me,” he said. “But can I trust you?” He leaned further from her. “You expect me to go into this sanctuary and work with you to find the inverters. How do I know that
you won’t just take them and leave me behind?”

Ayla pressed her lips together. For the first time she looked uncomfortable. “I won’t,” she muttered.

“You did before,” Toby insisted. “You took the map, snuck out and left.”

“That was different. I almost died saving your captain and crew, doesn’t that count for anything? I promised I’d rescue Captain Ford and I did. Make me promise, if that’s what it takes. Ask me not to betray you when we’re inside the sanctuary.”

Toby stared.

“How about if I swear on Astrid’s grave?” Ayla hopped down, and thudded on to the deck. She looked up at Toby and lifted one hand to her heart. “I swear that while we’re in the sanctuary I’ll have your back. I won’t betray you.” She dropped her hand. “Is that enough?”

“I don’t know.” Toby exhaled. “It should be.”