Motley (#Wattys2016)

16: Fire

Under the water, Nori conjured an air bubble around her nose and mouth and dived deeper. She could barely see in the dark murky water, so she felt around with her hands, sometimes grasping seaweed and bits of kelp. Her hands finally felt solid rock, rough to touch, and she slid her hands along the rock until there was a space in the rock that she wiggled into. A cave!

Her head broke the surface of the water and her air bubble popped. There was a small hole in the top of the rock where moonlight shone eerily down through into the cavern, and there was a rock ledge to Nori's left. She swam over to it, panting for breath, and crawled on.

When she found her breath, she collected her thoughts despite her shivering with cold. She couldn't go to Kei, since that was where the Ivory Prince probably expected her to go. If Kei really was under threat, she wouldn't risk his life like that. The only other option was to find the Oxblood, and Ryota. He would be able to help her, if anybody could. Nori stood up and looked through her peephole in the rock. The Katsu was about half a league away. If she just swam behind it under the water, she wouldn't have too much difficulty.

Nori's mind was made up. She plunged back under the water with her air bubble. She swam around slowly in the night-chilled ocean, until after ten minutes of frantic searching, she saw the Oxblood docked at the end of the harbor with nobody in sight. Ryota had done his job well.

"Ryota!" she yelled from the water. "Ryota, let down a rope or something!"

There was no answer. She rolled her eyes, thinking he was taking a nap. Typical. She climbed up the side of the ship and rolled onto the bow. Her lungs were tight with cold. "Ryota!" Nori repeated. She folded her arms across her chest and tried to turn against the brisk night breeze.

"Nori?"

Ryota came up from the galley, holding a lantern. He had a strange mixture of emotions on his face; confusion, anxiety, irritation.

"I thought you were dead," he said quietly.

"Yeah, well, too bad, eh?" Nori laughed weakly. "Listen, you've got to help! The Ivory Prince- you wouldn't believe what he's done to Kei- he's singled us out! He and some of his crew, there must have been ten of them at least, they trapped Masa and Reiko, and who knows where Satoru is, even Masa hasn't seen him, and-"

Ryota held up a hand to interrupt her frantic babbling. "Slow down, Nori. Tell me what you want."

She took a deep breath. "Get the ship back closer to the city so we can rescue the others. Plus, get me a towel."

Ryota was stalk-still. His face was mask-like. "Nori..."

"Yes, what?" she said impatiently. "You don't want to steer the ship? I can do it." She started to run to the stern, but quick as a flash, Ryota swooped down and placed his hand on the planks, making black roots shoot up like a wall to block her.

Nori took a step back. Her brain was still waterlogged, it was hard to think. "The Ivory Prince," she murmured, "said something about a traitor."

"Really?" Ryota said, standing back up again and staring her straight in the eye. "I thought he would be more discreet about it."

She stumbled backwards with shock. No, it couldn't be. Not him, not Ryota, one of her own crew. "When..."

"When did I first make deals with them? When I was taken into questioning. The Ivory Prince, he can be pretty persuasive." Ryota took out a fat bag of clinking coins. "This is twice as much as we make, enough for me to get my own ship."

"Would you sacrifice your friendship just for money?" Nori screamed at him furiously as he stowed his coin purse.

"And then I sent them messages telling them where our ship was. You know my methods of communication, right? You remember the crow magic."