The Undead Captain Takes No Living - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I stared at that line of words, a chill creeping down my back.

Victor wasn’t here to arrest me.

He was here to force me to go to Ghost Port.

Cedric saw it too.

His expression turned even colder than before.

“Change course.”

Clutching a rope, Gloria shouted, “Where to?”

“Sunken Bell Reef.”

The Ghost Ship veered sharply.

A rain of arrows from the Navy warships skimmed past the stern and plunged into the sea.

A wide swath of blue fire ignited across the water.

It was the first time I learned the sea could burn.

And the first time I learned ghosts feared fire.

A crewman missing half an arm was touched by a spark, and his whole body dropped to its knees.

He didn’t scream.

He only drew in a very low breath.

As if he didn’t dare make a sound from the pain.

I rushed over and beat at the flames with my sleeve.

Gloria cried out in panic, “Don’t touch it!”

Too late.

The blue fire crawled up my cuff.

I thought it would hurt.

But the instant the flame touched my skin, it went out with a hiss, as if it had struck salt.

The crewman looked up at me.

The blue fire in his eye sockets flickered.

“Soul-Ferrying Blood.”

I didn’t understand.

But Cedric strode over in a few quick steps and seized my hand.

He rolled up my sleeve.

There were no burns on my wrist.

Only a very faint red mark.

Like a thin line, winding from my wrist bone to my palm.

Cedric stared at that line.

“Did you fall into the water when you were little?”

I nodded.

“Seven years ago.”

“At the bottom of a well?”

“Yes.”

His fingers stilled.

I looked at him.

“You were there too.”

He let go of my hand.

“I remember.”

“Then you should remember that back then, you couldn’t speak.”

His gaze shifted away.

I pressed him. “Who locked you at the bottom of that well?”

“The Navy.”

The answer came too quickly.

So quickly it felt like he had prepared it long ago.

I didn’t believe him.

But there was no time to ask.

The Ghost Ship plunged into a maze of jagged reefs.

In the distance, a broken tower rose from the sea.

A massive bell hung from its top.

Most of the bell was submerged, with only half of it showing above the water.

Gloria said, “We’re at Sunken Bell Reef.”

She pulled a small key from her waist and tossed it to me.

“Go to the lower hold and open Crate No. 3.”

I caught the key.

“What’s inside?”

“Something your brother left behind.”

That was more effective than any explanation.

I immediately ran toward the lower hold.

The farther down I went, the colder it became.

The wooden stairs were slick with damp, every step like treading on someone’s back.

Holding up the lamp, I found Crate No. 3.

A seal was pasted across it.

It wasn’t paper.

It was fish skin.

Two words were written on it: Leon.

I used the key to open the lock.

When I lifted the lid, there was no corpse inside.

Only an old blue-green tunic, a soaked ledger, and half a sack of coarse salt.

The character “Tang” was embroidered on the tunic’s cuff.

My eyes burned.

This was the outfit my brother had been wearing the day he left home.

I opened the ledger.

The pages had gone soft, but the writing was still legible.

The first entries were all cargo records.

Salt, dried fish, joss paper, iron nails.

When I turned to the last few pages, the handwriting grew messy.

As if the person writing had been on a ship lurching badly.

March 17. Ghost Port split open. Cedric refused to take me in.

March 19. The Navy pursued us to South Seven Pier. Lia is still at home drying fish.

March 20. I sealed the port with Melowen Salt. The price was half my living breath.

March 21. Cedric said I can no longer go ashore.

March 22. If Lia comes, stop her.

My hand began to tremble as I turned the page.

There was only one sentence on the final page.

Cedric cannot leave the ship.

Don’t let him die in my place a second time.

Footsteps sounded outside the door.

I spun around.

Victor stood at the entrance to the lower hold.

His white cloak was soaked with seawater, and the bow in his hand had already been put away.

He looked at me.

“Miss Ilya, don’t be afraid. I’m not here to kill you.”

I hid the ledger behind my back.

“How did you get aboard?”

“The Ghost Ship can take in the dead.”

He smiled faintly.

“I brought enough dead men with me.”

From overhead came the sounds of fighting.

A chaotic mess.

The footsteps of the undead, the clatter of the Navy’s armor plates, and Gloria’s curses all tangled together.

Victor walked forward.

“Give me the ledger.”

I backed away.

“No.”

“The evidence of your brother’s treason is in there.”

“So whoever you call a traitor is a traitor?”

Victor stopped.

For an instant, his expression looked exhausted.

“Leon stole the kingdom’s nautical charts, opened Ghost Port, and got an entire Sea Patrol Navy killed.”

“He wouldn’t.”

“Do you know what Leon was like three years ago?”

I was struck speechless.

Victor looked at me.

“You only know the brother who bought you candy and fought your fights for you.”

The words stung.

But what stung even more was that I couldn’t refute him right away.

Three years ago, before Leon left home, there had been many things he hadn’t told me.

He went out in the middle of the night.

New wounds appeared on his arms.

He argued with Father in the backyard, and the moment I came over, both of them shut their mouths.

Victor held out his hand.

“Come with me. I’ll take you to see him.”

I asked, “Alive?”

“Depends on how you define it.”

I raised my little knife.

“Then that’s nonsense.”

Victor sighed.

“Everyone from House Melowen has the same temper.”

He suddenly lifted his hand.

A silver nail grazed past my ear and drove into a wooden crate.

A scream came from inside the crate.

Only then did I realize a Face-Stealing Ghost had been crouching in the shadows behind me.

Victor had saved me.

For a split second, I hesitated.

And in that split second, he seized my wrist.

“Forgive me.”

The door to the lower hold was slammed open.

Cedric stood in the doorway, water dripping one drop at a time from his black blade.

When he saw Victor holding on to me, his gaze darkened into something terrifying.

Victor smiled.

“Captain Lu, what are you so anxious about?”

“She isn’t your living person.”

Cedric raised his blade.

“Let go.”

Victor didn’t.

Caught between the two of them, I suddenly felt the whole scene was a little absurd.

An Undead Captain.

A Navy rear admiral.

Me.

And the ledger in my arms that might get us all killed.

I took a deep breath.

“Nobody move.”

Both of them looked at me at the same time.

I pressed the little knife against my own wrist.

“If either of you tries to grab me again, I’ll bleed myself.”

Cedric’s expression changed.

Victor frowned too.

At last, I had clawed back a little control.

“Answer my questions first.”

I looked at Victor.

“Is my brother in Ghost Port?”

Victor said, “Yes.”

Then I looked at Cedric.

“Can you take me inside?”

Cedric paused for a moment.

“Yes.”

“What’s the price?”

He said nothing.

Victor answered for him.

“Ghost Port will keep him.”

The knife in my hand stilled.

Cedric looked at me.

“Don’t listen to him.”

Victor sneered.

“Then say it yourself.”

All at once, the sound of the Sunken Bell came from the lower hold.

Dong.

Dong.

Dong.

Each chime felt as if it were striking against bone.

Outside the ship, the seawater began to flow backward.

On the deck, Gloria shouted until her voice cracked.

“Ghost Port is open!”