Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

T o my surprise, Crosby found it much harder to integrate into life on The Serpent than I had imagined he would. He was usually so easy-going, and he had a lot of friends back at Jorvik, but things were different for him out at sea.

He started the morning in a chipper mood–the exact opposite of Laurence, who ended up with Crosby as a roommate simply because he was the only other person awake.

Crosby was determined to prove himself helpful and much more than an unwanted stowaway. He tried to take over the steering of the ship from Hammond, and perhaps if he were thinking clearly, he would have realised that it was far too soon for that. I wasn’t the least bit surprised when Hammond chased him away with a murderous scowl and harsh curse words I would never care to repeat.

Crosby then tried to help Jerrik with the fishing, but I laughed and watched as Jerrik jumped over the edge to escape him. But not before demanding that he get his blanket back.

After Jerrik, Crosby had gone out to look for Viktor, but he had been discussing something with Garth and Odin, both concerned about the lack of wind since yesterday. It was safe to say that interaction hadn’t gone down well.

When Viktor caught my eyes later, I sent him a pointed look. He sighed and nodded, making a point to invite Crosby to have lunch with us all. Crosby tried to join us all for breakfast, but he couldn’t get a seat in the usual circle where we all sat for meals. So, he ate outside the circle by himself, looking sad and mopey.

It was safe to say that none of the crew was particularly pleased about having Crosby on the ship, and I couldn’t blame them. Not when I felt the same way.

Viktor also wasn’t happy, and I couldn’t blame him either. Crosby’s presence here complicated many things, including the mess he made with our food supply on the bottom deck. We were all now waiting for Gustav to confirm just how much of a problem Crosby had caused.

“What’s on the agenda for today?” Crosby asked eagerly, rubbing his hands together as if he couldn’t be more excited.

Viktor sighed and spared him a glance but didn’t say anything. Instead, he glanced around the circle we were all sitting in.

“Who’d like to start?” He asked, opening up the floor for everyone to voice their concerns or any problems they might be facing. As Captain of the ship, it was his job to ensure smooth sailing for us all. Pun intended.

“Roscoe and I have been doing the cleaning lately,” Manny started, surprising us all. This was a first for him and a pleasant surprise. “But with how it’s been raining every night and the sick puddles everywhere–” He was a better person than me because he resisted the urge to glance at Crosby for that part. “–it’s just been a lot, and we could do with an extra pair of hands.”

“I agree with you, Manny. Since Crosby has been attributing to the mess, I think it’s only fair that he helps you with the cleaning,” Viktor said, turning his attention to the man in question. “Any objections?”

“None,” Crosby answered far too quickly, and we all burst out laughing at the terrified expression on his face.

I couldn’t blame him. Viktor at sea wasn’t quite the same as Viktor on land. I wasn’t sure which one I preferred. They were both pretty damn irresistible.

“Great, let’s move on to the next matter of business. Who wants to go next?”

Jerrik cleared his throat, drawing all attention to him in a very subtle way. “We’re at that part of the trip where there’s not many fish in the water. I don’t know if it’s a simple shortage or if something in the water is eating them all up. Either way, I’m struggling to get my hands on some,” Jerrik sighed, brushing his fingers through his wet hair. “This is the third day that I’ve barely been able to catch anything. I went in early this morning to try my luck at a different time of day, but still nothing. I’ll go back in again after lunch, but things aren’t looking good.”

“How long do you think this will last?” Viktor asked, a gravely serious expression on his face.

Jerrik shrugged. “I don’t know. It usually passes by now. Hopefully, things will improve as soon as we get close to civilisation.”

The expression on Viktor’s face was tight as he stared at Jerrik, their eyes locked. Even though I couldn’t tap into their silent conversation, I had a pretty good idea of how concerned they were.

I reached over and slipped my hand into Viktor’s, giving it a gentle squeeze. It was worrying that there was a shortage of fish–the central part of our diet while out at sea–but I was hopeful that things would get better soon. They had to.

“I’m sure the fish will turn up soon,” Crosby grinned, but no one replied.

“We need more hands at sea,” Viktor announced after a few moments, finally breaking eye contact with Jerrik. “Whoever has some spare time today, I want them out at sea. Take Chip’s rowboat, do whatever you need, but we must get our hands on some fish.”

He didn’t need to explain why.

A few hands were raised, offering their help—mine included. I wasn’t a good swimmer, and I had only been fishing with my father and brother a handful of times, but I was willing to try if it meant helping the crew.

Gustav finally joined us, having just emerged from the bottom deck where he had been inventorying our dried food supply.

“What’s the verdict, Gustav?” Viktor asked, subconsciously squeezing my hand. The simple action warmed my heart more than he could imagine, knowing that he relied on me when he struggled to stay afloat amid all these problems he was expected to solve.

“Things aren’t looking good,” Gustav sighed, shaking his head. He sat between Latham and Hammond and helped himself to the few slices of bread we left him.

“How can that be possible?” Caspian groaned, clicking his tongue in displeasure. “Surely, that’s the whole point of dry food. To last for a long time because it’s been dried?”

“Feel free to go down there and take a look for yourself if you don’t believe me,” Gustav snapped, clearly stressed.

Cooking and keeping us all fed were the main parts of his job description. If I were him, I would be stressed as well.

“Sorry,” Gustav grumbled the apology and sighed deeply. “I’ve checked it all. All the fresh vegetables we’ve been picking up from islands along the way have gone off. I think I can salvage some of the potatoes, but that’s about it.”

“What about the dried foods?” Latham asked.

“No good.”

“Why not?”

“Many of them have been unwrapped and left out, so much of it has gone stale. The rest isn’t in the best condition for consumption, but we haven’t got much else of a choice right now. Anyway, that’s not the bulk of our issues right now,” Gustav sighed, dropped the slice of bread he had been eating plain and brushed his hair away from his forehead. His face twisted into a grim expression. “I don’t know if you caught wind of the smell last night, but there’s a mix of urine and faeces in a few of the barrels. It wouldn’t have been an issue if those barrels contained packaged food, but as we were short on time, we just put a lot of it into the barrels without wrapping them up.”

“How many barrels?” Viktor asked, his tone deathly quiet.

“Two,” Gustav answered. “But three of the other barrels surrounding them have also gone off. We can’t eat any of it without making ourselves sick.”

That was five in total. The last time I counted, we had loaded eight barrels of dried food onto the ship. That left three for us. And that didn’t include the portions that we had already consumed.

“Faeces?” Garth called out in question while Roscoe exclaimed, “Urine?”

“How could that have happened? Who would do that?” Manny asked, looking a little green in the face.

At his question, everyone shared knowing looks before slowly, one by one, they all turned to stare in my direction.

“What? Why are you all looking at me?” I snapped at them, a deep scowl on my face. “I’ve only ever used a bathroom.”

Despite the severity of the situation, they all burst out laughing. My cheeks flamed at the notion that they were all laughing at me, and when I turned to face Viktor, he bowed his head to rest his forehead against mine and playfully bumped the tip of my nose with his.

“We don’t think it’s you, my siren,” he laughed and nuzzled my nose again. “Kis.”

“Oh,” I murmured, my cheeks flaming harder. “It’s not Kis either,” I denied, turning to face the rest of the crew. “Kis only throws up when she has carrots, but there are no carrots onboard. And I’ve set her up a little toilet in the bathroom. I’ve seen her use it a bunch of times. I’m certain Kis isn’t behind this.”

“I don’t think it’s Kis either,” Gustav said. “It’s far too much to be cat faeces.”

“Who else would defecate in the barrels of food?” Dagfinn asked, serious. Humour from the earlier misunderstanding had long worn off now.

“It was me,” Crosby admitted in a small voice. When all eyes snapped to him, he bowed his head in shame. “It was dark and cold, and I was stuck on the bottom deck for days. I couldn’t tell which barrels had food in them. I promise I only used the ones that I thought were empty.”

“Well, they weren’t empty, were they? Why would we bring empty barrels aboard the ship?” Odin snapped with a fierce scowl on his face. “Well done, Crosby! You’ve just royally fucked us!”

“You’re supposed to shit out food! Not shit on it,” Dagfinn groaned and squeezed his eyes shut, deeply frustrated.

“I knew we should have made him walk the plank!”

“How are we supposed to make it to Greenland without food?”

“Is it too late to turn back and go back to Mann? Of course, we’ll teach them a lesson in respecting women, but we need food.”

“We’ll figure out a solution to the food shortage,” Viktor spoke loudly, commandeering everyone’s attention like the true Captain he was. “But for now, Gustav and Hammond, I need you to look through the barrels and the little food we have left. If there is anything you think we can salvage, do what you can. Anything that we can’t, throw overboard.”

Everyone looked like they wanted to say something, even I wanted to, but Viktor’s definite tone kept us all quiet.

We were quick to move on to the important matter of where we would stop next since we had left Mann earlier than anticipated, but no one seemed to pay much attention, including me.

While everyone helped themselves to another glass of ale to get through the rest of the meeting, my eyes couldn’t help but flit toward Crosby. He looked so sad and lost, as if he didn’t belong here. Like he knew no one wanted him here.

Even though I knew the bulk of our problems were Crosby’s fault, I couldn’t help but feel bad for him.