Unto his gloating murderers.—No more
Those serried ranks sextuple of fanged white
Shall scare the shallows and appall the shore,
Never again wreak havoc and affright,
Ranging the Gulf Stream, weltering in gore;—
Poor Shark! Man-eater! learn of Man, to fight.
? The Shark, William Henry Venable
SILVERFIN'S DELIGHT at managing to keep the Portuguese gold out of the hands of his former kin was short-lived.
Phallandia was as disgusting as he had remembered.
They might as well have been marooned on an island with no inhabitable land in sight. To the south, miles of sheer cliff-faceboxed them in. To the north, a beach full of Portuguese that were rapidly dying from some kind of hell fever that needed to stayPortuguese. And even if they had gotten beyond, hundreds of miles and tribes of very angry Natives still sat between them and any kind of civilization - civilization that would, in any case, have them hanged for piracy.
The single cask of fresh water he'd managed to recover untainted from the wreck was dwindling quickly, barely augmented by the tiny stream of fresh water Hank had discovered in the cliffs. Certainly not enough for over three dozen men who were trying to repair a ship.
On top of that, Silverfin had the distinct impression that Hawk was slipping him extra rations. He couldn't tell the captain that when he was swimming his gills could filter all the moisture he needed from the sea.
The food situation was even more dire, with their supplies ruined by the sea. One of theOrca's longboats had survived the wreck, but even the most competent fisherman on the crew seemed incapable of pulling anything substantial. Probably those asshole sharks, Silverfin thought.
As for Silverfin, well, he was, for all intents and purposes, under beach arrest.
"Just let me go out," he said to Hawk again. "I'll bring back loads of fish. I'm actually quite good at it."
Hawk frowned. The furrow between his brows deepened. Silverfin tried his best hopeful smile despite being quietly disappointed that Hawk still thought him clearly incompetent in this regard.
"Am I really good for much else?" he finally tried, and Hawk sighed.
"Fine. But I'm coming with you."
There was both an art and a sport to hunting the dumb fish. Silverfin settled in the bow of the boat with spear in hand, eagerly scanning the clear blue waters underneath. It would be far easier if he had his tail, of course. Or even if he could be in the water, luring his prey with the Siren's song. But he was certain he would still find success.
"I don't think they're going to just come to you," Hawk remarked, squinting down at the water in the bright sunlight.
"It's all about patience," Silverfin murmured, frowning. The shallows should have been teeming with life, and yet he could see no sign of it.
When a large, dark shadow passed under the boat, he understood why all the previous men had failed. "Assholes!"
“Even so,” Hawk’s hand was suddenly hot against Silverfin’s lower back, where his shirt had ridden up exposing his flesh exactly where his tan faded into the pale skin of his newly acquired ass cheeks. “Perhaps you and I can use this time apart from the men for something more... relaxing than slowly dying of starvation.”
“Are you... actually making a pass at me right now?” Silverfin squinted at his lover. “You know, for someone who is in control of so many men’s lives, you’re awfully unaware of your surroundings. I’m frankly amazed you made it out there, on theopen water, for as long as you have. I will attribute this to your uncontrollable lust for me, of course, and I’ll assume you have not felt this way for a very long time...”
“You talk too much,” Hawk grunted. His hand slid down to cup and squeeze Silverfin's ass.
Only the dark and looming shadow passing under their boat again was enough to keep Silverfin from grinding back into his touch. "There is something," he said pointedly, "in the water below this boat that wishes to eat us."
Hawk smirked. "Like the mysterious things that took Pane's trousers? I could give them a run for their money."
"Like the asshole that took my leg!"
That, at least, sobered his lover. Hawk leaned out to look down into the water, frowning. "Well. I suppose that would explain the trouble with the fish."
"You think?"
