Chapter Twenty-three

                                    

                                          
Dark and Sykes descended the incline into the lagoon in silence. 
                          
The excruciating minutes before Barton and the others departed had left Dark shaking with suppressed rage. His and Sykes' boots made soft whooshes as they passed through the undergrowth and into the shallow water. Elias's body lay where he'd fallen. Blood and brackish water blended to create a macabre watercolor around him. 
                          
Dark forced himself to meet the boy's sightless eyes while Sykes knelt beside him. 
                          
"Poor lad didn't have a chance," Sykes said, examining the black wound in the kid's chest. "Passed right through his heart." 
                          
Sykes closed Elias's eyes with a careful swipe of one giant hand. 
                          
"I shouldn't have let him go alone," Dark muttered. He clenched his hands reflexively. His vision was becoming hazy. 
                          
Sykes sighed. "He insisted on it. None of us could have known Grimm would do that." 
                          
An animal shrieked somewhere off in the jungle. Dark's head shot up and he scanned the shadows between the trees, searching for a movement, a flash of eyes watching. Sykes lifted Elias's body and stood up. 
                          
"We need to leave, Dark. The smell of the blood will attract predators." 
                          
Uneasy, Dark turned his back to the jungle. The hairs on his arms stood on end. Sykes was already trudging through the lagoon, glancing to the sky to determine their location. 
                          
"We'll go west," he called back to Dark. "Back to the ship. Keith and Kaspar should be ready to report." 
                          
"Sykes--" 
                          
The big man rounded on Dark. "Whatever ye want to say can wait," he growled, his accent thickening with his anger. "We need to catch up. I canna let Grimm get away a second time." He looked down at Elias, lying in Sykes' arms. He sighed and lasered Dark with a stare. "This was Grimm's doing, Dark. I need ye to put aside your guilt and help me make him pay." 
                          
Dark ripped the coat off his shoulders and tossed it over Elias. "Let's go." 
                          
For the first time, Sykes's mouth twitched with a smile. "There's tha' captain I know. Follow me." 
                          
Moving as quickly as they could, they traced the path out of the jungle, following the stars for guidance back to the sea. When at last the trees fell away to reveal the grey beach and the water rolling gently in the surf, they let out internal breaths of relief.  
                          
It ate away precious minutes, and the sand sucked at their muddy boots to hinder them, but Dark and Sykes made the slow trek back to the Ebony where she waited in the bay, her sails already dropped. 
                          
"Kaspar must have made it back," Dark muttered, quickening his steps, splashing through the shallows until he reached the overturned dinghy waiting for them. 
                          
Sykes deposited Elias inside once Dark had flipped it back over. The pair shoved against it against the tide, leaped in and seized the oars. Sykes began rowing fervently, the oars catching and tossing seawater into their laps. 
                          
Dark reached down to cover Elias with his coat, looking up the curved deck of the ship to see if anyone was watching over the side. The stars were bright and illuminated the form of Raoul pacing at the starboard rail. 
                          
The second mate tossed down a rope when he spotted their boat, hoisting up first Elias's body, then Sykes, then Dark. Two crewmen ran forward to haul up the dinghy while Raoul turned to Sykes and Dark, his face drawn and serious. 
                          
"We have their heading," he told Dark without preamble.  
                          
"Set sail, lads!" Dark shouted at the waiting pirates, who leapt into action. He looked at Raoul. "Kaspar and the others?"