Page 74 of Valour

Mei looked pleased, or as pleased as she ever looked, and said, “Someone else will need to cook the breakfast. It’ll be nice for someone else to see what I have to put up with, cooking for two crews, with all your ridiculous requests. This will be like a holiday.”

Hester shook her head in wonder, eyes snagging once again on the two skeletons by the throne. Holy Hell. Mei was batshit crazy too. A dark horse, indeed.

“Get out of here. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Mei said, shooing them away.

As Hester and Charlotte made their way out of the tunnels, Charlotte said, “You think she’ll be alright?”

“My gut says she will. Lord above. I didn’t expect that.”

Charlotte rubbed at her arms, as if trying to wake herself from a dream. “I thought I might die. Thank you for coming to find me.” She paused. “That was some very impressive magic you used back there.”

Hester swallowed and glanced side-long at her friend. “Mei knows now, too. It doesn’t scare you? Now you’ve seen me use it?”

Charlotte linked her arm through Hester’s. “Not at all. We have seen our share of frightening things on this voyage, but you are not one of them.”

1st October 1915, Weddell Sea

What was taking Mei so long? If she wasn’t back in the next few minutes, Hester was going to go marching right into that ice cave, or palace, or whatever it was, and demand her cook back.

She took the last sip of her tea and was just about to get up from the galley table when she heard a faint whistling from down the corridor. The whistling grew louder until Mei entered the galley, a satisfied smile on her face. She sat down opposite Hester and took out her pipe. She lit it and leant back, putting her feet up on the table, and closing her eyes as she puffed away. Smoke rings rose to the ceiling.

Hester stared. Had never seen Mei look that way. So…serene. “Well?!” She had to know everything. “Tell me all the sordid details. Are you going to see her again?”

Mei cracked one eye open and smiled like the cat who’d gotten the cream. “I don’t kiss and tell. And no. She has gone to other hunting grounds.”

“Oh, come on. You have to tell me everything. Your captain commands it.”

Mei closed her eyes again, puffing more smoke. “Like you told me about your magic?”

Hester poked at the lumps of milk powder floating in her tea. “Will you tell the others?”

“No. You should be the one to tell them.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

“That’s your choice. I won’t force your hand.”

“Thank you.” Hester paused. “Now will you tell me everything?”

Mei laced her hands behind her head and tipped her chair back. She removed the pipe from her lips and mouthed, “Eleven.”

“Eleven? Eleven what? Oh!”

Mei smiled, her eyes still closed. “Oh, indeed.”

24

IN WHICH THERE ARE THREE SEALS IN ONE DAY

6th October 1915, Weddell Sea

“Do you have to start up this racket four times a day?!” Hester yelled at the dogs, who had begun their ridiculous orchestra of howling, sat around their kennels on the lower deck. What was more perplexing was that just as unpredictably as they started, they stopped and pretended like nothing had ever happened. Hester gave a frustrated snarl and stomped off to stand at the bow. She squinted into the vast white, the sun and oh-so-blue sky, and gripped the rail. A black shape was not too far away. “Seal!” she squeaked. By God, it had been months since they’d had fresh meat.

She ran for a rifle and then made haste down the ramp and onto the sparkling floe. Seal steaks for dinner. What a treat, she could almost taste the tender, fishy meat on her tongue. She skidded over the ice and snow and threw herself to her front, peering through the rifle’s sight and placing her finger on the trigger. Her stomach growled.

Crack.

A shot fired, and the seal slumped.