10. Just on the Edge

Casper slipped an arm around Sienna's waist and ushered her through the door. She was half-dead on her feet already, though whether it was due to pain or exhaustion, he couldn't tell.

"Si. I like that." Her words were slightly slurred as her head lolled to the side, finding a resting place on his chest. "Like the sea but also my name. Celly would be proud. You're handsome and witty."

He swallowed thickly, ignoring the way his heart hammered under her head.

She's in pain. People say strange things when they're in pain all the time. And besides, it's only for a week.

The time limit that had seemed at first like such a shield of protection was proving to be flimsier and flimsier, and it had barely been a day. He wasn't even entirely sure what had possessed him to accept Sienna's proposal, other than the echoes of Jem's many lectures clanging around the inside of his head, and the brief moment of weakness in which he had allowed himself to hope that maybe, just maybe, this time would be different.

"You must find a woman who will be faithful to the point of death—unlike the faithlessness that you have shown me." The fae queen's eyes flashed bright with anger as she looked down at him. His knees ached from being shoved so roughly to the wooden deck and forced to kneel.

His jaw dropped, and a cold rope of despair began to wind itself around his middle. "Within the span of a week? That's impossible!"

Bright red lips curled into a satisfied sneer. She leaned in close, surrounding him with the sickeningly sweet smell of roses and belladonna, and whispering in his ear.

"That's precisely the point."

Casper shook his head. No. Sienna's faithfulness might last a week, but he wouldn't subject her to the life of loneliness that would inevitably follow. Besides, seven years was a long time to be apart. Even if she agreed to marry him at first, it wouldn't be long before she grew tired of waiting. The thought of having her and then losing her was worse than not having her at all.

And besides, it's not really her that I want. It's just what she represents.

Sienna whimpered into his jacket, reminding him that at the moment he had far bigger problems to deal with than the continued effects of a vindictive curse. Based on the sound when it happened, and the way her arm hung limp and useless at her side when she wasn't supporting it, he was fairly certain that her shoulder was dislocated. He led her to the table.

"I'm not hungry, just sleepy."

"I know." He kept one hand on her good elbow to support her while he removed the vase of flowers from the table. "I need you to lay on it."

She snorted. "I have a bed, you know."

"Yes, and I promise to get you into bed soon." His ears heated at the questionable way the words sounded in his own ears. "Not that I will be going anywhere near your bed, other than to help you into it. By yourself. Alone. Here," he added, guiding her so that she sat on the table's edge. "Take your coat off."

Sienna giggled and started working the buttons with one hand. "You're cute when you're flustered."

He resolutely ignored all feelings. "You're apparently very loose-lipped when you're in pain."

"And also completely incapable of doing this one-handed." She dropped her hand and ruefully looked down at her half-fastened coat. "I don't think it's coming off."

Bracing himself, Casper stepped closer and reached for the buttons. He purposefully avoided looking at Sienna's face while he worked, telling himself it was because the gesture seemed far too intimate and familiar for just over a day's acquaintance. The only sound as he freed the remaining buttons were Sienna's quiet breaths and the beating of his own heart.

Far too soon, and yet not soon enough, he was backing away from her with the offending garment in his hands. Her right shoulder was sloped and misshapen, evidence that his initial diagnosis had been correct. He called over his shoulder as he hung her coat by the door. "Can you lie on your back?"

"Mmm, not without help."

With a hand under her shoulders and a prayer to the Almighty for success, Casper lowered her carefully down. He picked up her right wrist. "I apologize in advance," he said softly, grimacing at the knowledge of what came next. "This is going to hurt a little bit."

She gave him a brave smile. "Well, it already hurts a lot, so that will be an improvement."

He pulled her arm straight, keeping it level with her body and turning her palm towards the floor. With firm, gentle movements, he shook her wrist up and slowly pulled it up towards her head. Once it was at her shoulder, he slowly started to rotate her arm. Sienna's entire face was scrunched tight, and tears leaked out from the corners of her eyes, but she kept quiet. Finally, when her arm was nearly to her head, he felt the shoulder slide back into place.

Sienna groaned and opened her eyes. She gazed at him fiercely through her tears. "You lied. That was more than a little bit."

Guilt at having caused her pain, irrational as he knew it to be, gnawed in his belly. He winced. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It also feels much better now." Sienna tucked her arm against her chest and held out her uninjured hand. He pulled her into a seated position. "How did you know how to do that?"

"I've had to do it more than a few times," he answered with a shrug. "It's a fairly common injury for overconfident sailors who insist on climbing the rigging during strong winds."

"Well then, I suppose I am grateful for your overconfident sailors for keeping you in good practice."

He nodded towards her arm, "You'll want to keep that in a sling for a few days."

Her face scrunched in displeasure. "That will make things a little difficult around here."

"What do you mean?"

"I need to replace the oil in the lighthouse lamp and rewind the turntable in a few hours. That's going to be hard to do one-handed." She gingerly straightened her arm and flexed her fingers, hiding a wince. "But I think I can manage."

"You don't have to do it by yourself. You have me."

For six more days.

Sienna retreated to her room after giving him stern instructions that he was to wake her before the noon hour. Once her door clicked shut, Casper lowered himself with a tired sigh into one of the cozy armchairs that sat beside the fire. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and steepling his fingers in front of his mouth. All of the excitement of their morning had distracted him from his main reason in seeking out Sienna, which had been to inquire if she had seen any strange or unusual activity out on the water in the last few weeks.

Nivem is in the perfect spot for both recruiting fae and distributing any illegal human goods. I can't believe we didn't think of it before.

In truth, he and his men had been so busy chasing down the smugglers after they came out of the breach, it was easy to ignore the small fishing town. After all, most of the ships they had chased down had been merchant vessels, not fishing boats. He had assumed that they came from one of the larger port cities up the coast.

But if the Doryss we met is the brother of Sienna's friend, that means that the smugglers have at least some presence here. They might have been trying to get a last catch before the storm, the way Daland was, but my gut tells me they were there to act as a decoy for someone else. The question is, who? And if they are from Nivem, where do they hide the goods?

A low knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. He glanced towards Sienna's room, reluctant to wake her after the eventful morning. The knock repeated, this time with a slightly different rhythm.

Knock, knock-knock, knock, knock. Pause. Knock, knock.

Recognizing the sound, Casper strode quickly across the room and pulled open the door in surprise. "Jem. What are you doing here?"

"I've got—"

Casper cut him off with a shush, glancing over his shoulder. "Lower your voice. Sienna is sleeping."

Jem's eyebrows rose to meet his cap, but he obediently whispered. "This late in the morning?"

"It's a long story; I'll fill you in later." He stepped back and gestured for Jem to enter, shutting and locking the door again behind him. "But what are you doing here? Where's Daland?"

Jem pulled his cap off his head, revealing a shock of messy hair that he tried to smooth down without much success. "Oh, he's still on the Petrel as planned, along with his other friends. Short John and Longest John were more than happy to take over. It seems they're actually rather fond of fishing."

Casper nodded slowly, absorbing the information. He would have chosen Richards as acting captain, but the Johns were not a bad second choice. "And you're not with them because…?"

"I have news." Jem tossed his jacket and cap over the back of the chair Casper had just vacated and plopped down, stretching out his long legs. "Doryss is in town."

He looked up expectantly, as if waiting for his captain to react. When Casper did nothing more than grunt in response, he narrowed his eyes. "You already knew?"

"I guessed." Casper took the seat across from him. "Sienna mentioned this morning that her friend has a brother named Doryss who's a fisherman. It seemed like too much of a coincidence for it not to be the same fae."

"So when we escorted them to the nearest port, we were actually bringing them home." Jem chuckled. "But if Doryss is from Nivem, that means that the smugglers we're looking for might be, too. At the very least, we have a point of contact now."

"Those were my thoughts as well. Did he recognize you?"

"I don't think so. I saw him from a distance and ducked around a corner when I saw him coming down the pier. But he walked right past the Petrel without even giving her a second glance, so I doubt that he'll be looking for any of us. It always amazes me that a little change in color and sprucing up of her sails can make her so unrecognizable. But, as my dear old Mormor used to say, ‘The best disguise is to be unexpected.'"

"Good. Hopefully it stays that way."

"You want to keep our presence here a secret?"

"As much as we can. At the very least, I would prefer that Doryss and his crew not connect the dots between me and the Flying Dutchman. With Daland and his fishermen friends gone, that should be a little easier."

"What do you want to do?"

Casper leaned forward and steepled his fingers together, tapping them against his chin as he thought. "I can't do much from here as long as I'm staying with Sienna." He sent a pointed glare Jem's way, but his first mate just grinned in response. "But I want you to see what you can find out about Erik."

"The scheming ex-fiancé?" Jem quirked an eyebrow. "How does he fit into all of this?"

"Sienna said that Doryss and his crew just started working for Erik."

Jem nodded slowly. "You think that Erik might be the one they were covering for the other night?"

"The timing certainly seems to work. If Erik is the smuggler we're after, that also means he likely has somewhere nearby where he stores the goods. It would have to be a place hidden enough or difficult to access so that no one would come upon it by accident."

"I'll see what I can find out." Jem gave him a mock salute. "In the meantime," he waggled his eyebrows meaningfully, "you should stay here and give Sienna your full attention."

Casper regarded him with a flat look. "I know what you're doing, Jem."

"Do you?" His first mate blinked innocently.

"I know you think it will work this time, but it won't. Besides, she doesn't deserve to be treated like that."

Jem narrowed his eyes. "Treated like what?"

"Like she's just a means to an end. She shouldn't have to suffer just so that we can be free."

"You're putting the happiness of one woman above your entire crew?"

"It's not her responsibility!" Casper dragged frustrated hands through his hair, remembering just in time the close proximity of the subject of their conversation and keeping his voice low despite its intensity. "And she's already been through enough."

A slow smile spread across Jem's face. "Hmm. This is definitely promising."

"What in the realms do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing." His continued smile said it was anything but, though Casper had no desire to argue the point further.

Let him think whatever he wants. His disappointment, at least, I know how to deal with. He'll follow me around with disapproving lectures for a few days, and then we'll go back to how things have been for the last fifty years.

"Speaking of your fiancée, what is this story you have to tell me? What happened?"

"Aside from nearly falling to her death, not much." Casper quickly recounted the harrowing experience. "I don't know if it was the pain or the adrenaline or just pent-up exhaustion, but she could barely keep her eyes open." His ears heated at the memory of some of the things she had said in her muddled state. "Even so, it was all I could do to convince her to sleep for a few hours before she shows me how to refill the lighthouse lamps."

Jem appeared troubled. "Where did this happen exactly?"

"There's an overhang just a few hundred meters in front of the house."

"Do you mind if I take a look?"

Casper's eyes widened in surprise. "I'll show you, if you want. Is there a reason why?"

Jem rose and threw his arms into his sleeves. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I wandered into the kitchen for a drink. A movement outside the window caught my eye—the moon was so bright it was hard to miss—and I could have sworn there was someone out there. Of course, when I went to take a closer look, they were gone."

Casper slipped on his own coat and hat and led Jem to the cliff's edge. "There," he said, pointing from a safe distance away. "The overhang extended another three or four feet past where it is now."

Jem lowered himself to the ground and cautiously crawled forward on his belly until he could look down and see the side of the cliff. Casper watched a frown deepen on his face as he examined the ground. "It wasn't an accident," he announced, pushing back and brushing his hands on his pant legs.

"What?" Casper started forward. "How do you know?" He stopped right behind Jem's shoulder.

"The edge is too straight, and in some places it runs against the grain of the rock. If the damage were caused by erosion or weather or other natural forces, it would have split along the weakest lines. This looks as if it has been cut in a straight line."

Casper was unconvinced. "How could someone possibly cut through a cliff unnoticed? Even with a blade strong enough, it would have made a massive amount of noise."

"I didn't say it was cut, only that it looked that way. As to the how—we're in Faerie, Casp. These fae have magic that does all sorts of things that wouldn't be possible in our realm."

"Even if that's the case, how did it keep from falling until right at that moment?"

"Look here—the top layer of dirt and grass isn't as cleanly broken. I would guess that whoever did this left just enough in place for it to hold until someone stepped on it, adding enough weight that it would all go crashing down." Jem's face darkened. "And with it being so close to the lighthouse…" His words trailed off.

"It was intentional," Casper finished for him, a feeling like ice flowing through his veins.

"It seems that way. Someone wants your fiancée dead."