I was still hunkered down on my knees, arms around Haseong's shaking frame, as I stared up at Fei. Just earlier today I had spoken to her as an ally, a friend — we spoke about trust. Now she was standing before me, arm in arm with the enemy, handing over Pi's copper keys — the keys we had claimed together.

"You're dead," Iseul said from behind us. "I watched you drown."

Fei didn't bother to look up. She was loading bullets into a pistol. "Spare me your idiotic mumblings, Captain So. It isn't my fault your cunning only reaches to the end of your sword."

"Miss Ngai was to act as a double agent," Kwangsun said. "Pretend to drown, infiltrate Captain Bak's company and steal his keys. It was all my plan, if anyone is curious."

Fei rolled her eyes minutely.

I couldn't raise my voice above a murmur. "You lied to us."

Her veil showed nothing but a satirical smile. "Oh dear Mr. Bang, I thought you would understand by now. Wherever you think I am, I'm always two steps ahead. Besides, you always have been too quick to trust, haven't you?"

A snarl hissed past Haseong's lips. "I told you what would happen if you betrayed us."

"Is that supposed to intimidate me? A nebulous threat from a man huddled on the ground like a beetle?"

Haseong was about to get to his feet, but Fei raised her gun to the ceiling and fired. He threw his hands over his ears, dropped back to his knees.

"Fei, stop!" I growled.

She just smiled, walked forward and plucked the woven hat off Haseong's head. "This is farewell. I expect to see you both soon." She winked at me.

"Tars, restrain them," Kwangsun called to his crew. Two men came over and held us down, next to Iseul and Shao. Haseong hung his head, whispering under his breath. It's all my fault.

"It's time, my dear," Kwangsun said to Fei. The two turned and brushed their hands over the back wall. The layer of dirt, cobweb and specks of diamond fell away, a wall of begrimed metal appeared underneath. A panel was embedded at eye-level, notched with patterns in the shape of a six-pointed sun.

Fei and Kwangsun pressed each of the keys into the corresponding slots. Something in the wall clicked, clanked and thrummed, the sound of locks aligning. Kwangsun gave the wall a rough shove — spiders skittered, the remaining dirt fell away as a door cracked open before them.

Kwangsun was pumping his fist, nearly barking in triumph. Fei pushed past him, through the door. Some crewmen left their watch and followed into the hidden room.

Immediately Iseul started bucking and thrashing. Her guard just laughed.

"Keep struggling, wench. It's quite funny."

"Unhand me right now or I will wrest your head from your neck!"

"What she means to say is," Shao said quickly, "we'll pay you gentlemen handsomely if you let us go."

"Save it," the man holding me down said. "We've no use for your meagre bribes now that Captain Ahn has discovered the treasure."

"You're both simpletons if you expect a damned cent in addition to your fixed stipend," Iseul said. "With Pi's fortune, what need does Ahn even have for a pirate crew anymore?"

They continued arguing and negotiating with little success. I'd never wanted to resort to violence more in my life; a kick to the ankle, an elbow to the forehead, would free me. I could hear Fei and Kwangsun in the hidden room, chests opening, gold coins pinging, paper money scuffing against the pad of a thumb. Those were our winnings.

Then there was another sound. It came from above, echoes in the earth, repetitive like footsteps. I closed my eyes, blocked out the voices around me and focussed...

"Fan out! The pirate scum are somewhere in these tunnels!"

Oh Lord. The navy.

"Haseong," I whispered.

He was controlling his breathing, hunkered over so his knees pressed to his chest. As soon as I said his name, he understood, his eyes opened.

"Blast it."

The footsteps were getting close, the rattle of guns getting louder; within a few seconds, Kwangsun's henchmen caught on. Just as the naval officers flooded into the chamber, the crewmen broke into a sprint headed for the hidden room.

The door swung closed before they could make it inside. They turned back to the troop of men still plowing in through the tunnel, drew their swords and guns. The sailors reciprocated.

A barrage of gunfire. The smell of blood permeated the air.

Haseong crushed his arms over his head, crumpled to the ground. I moved toward him but a man grabbed my arm, yanked me to my feet. I spun around and shoved him hard — he flew backward, heels over head and slammed into the wall across the room.

Oh no. I hurt him. I clutched my hands to my chest.

Somebody else grabbed me, bound my wrists together with rope — I knew better than to fight again. Another was dragging Haseong out of the chamber, Iseul and Shao close behind. The other officers were pounding on the immovable metal door. Surely the secret room had an exit of its own; Fei and Kwangsun may have already made their escape.

The sailors escorted us out of the mine, into the forest's dim daylight. Haseong had his head down, twitching like the guns were still going off. He hardly reacted as one of the men said his name.

"Bak Haseong, confirm your identity... speak!"

He just turned his head back halfway, nodded. I could see his fangs pushing out behind his lips. He was trying incredibly hard to control himself.

"Huan Shao?" they said next.

Shao muttered an affirmative.

"So Iseul?"

"Get your hands off me, you white bastards!"

They took that as a confirmation. "Ahn Kwangsun?"

They were addressing me. "Uh. No. Ban... Chun?"

"Very clever," Iseul scoffed.

"For the crime of piracy, including the murder of numerous naval officers and robbery of His Majesty King George IV's vessel, you four are hereby sentenced to death by hanging."

They forced us through the bounds of the forest, onto the beach where rowboats were waiting. We were transported to one of the many ships anchored in the water, watched by rifles once again. Farther along, I could see our ship had been reclaimed. Iseul and Shao's ship as well, but Kwangsun's was nowhere to be seen.

Haseong looked like a wire pulled taut. I inched my shoe toward his, nudged him.

He kept his head down, whispered too quietly for a human to hear. "The silk has worn off."

When he looked up, I saw his eyes were bright red, not dulled by the fabric anymore. Wonderful, even more to worry about.

"Keep your eyes closed," I whispered back. "Hang on."

The sailors ushered us aboard, then walked on our heels as we struggled down several sets of ladders. I could surmise where they were taking us — not only because the ship was the same make and model as the one Haseong and I had sailed. They unlocked the heavy door to the brig, a room of grungy jail cells under leaky ceilings, lit only by lanterns and one small porthole.

"Put them in separate cells," said one of the sailors. "And Bak stays tied up. Wouldn't want the journey to be too comfortable for him, now would we?"

The men shoved each of us into our own cells and locked us in. As soon as they left the room, Iseul set to work circling her cell, kicking at the bars, looking for an out. Haseong sequestered himself as far as he could from the humans, legs folded up to his chest. I pulled the swatch of creased fabric from my pocket and bit away at it.

"This is not how I wanted the day to close." Iseul was jostling an empty wooden box left in her cell. "Please tell me you have your picklock."

Shao was laying like a plank on the floor. "If I recall correctly, it's in the drawer of the nightstand, next to everything else that might be helpful in a predicament like this."

"Goddamnit. Fuck the navy — and fuck Kwangsun and that battle axe by his side."

While the two were distracted, I sidled up to the edge of my cell and whispered Haseong's name. He came to me, leaned close so I could reach through the bars and replace the silk in his eyes.

"Have mine worn off?" I asked.

"Yours are okay. I... may have been crying, I think they disintegrated faster because of it."

I sighed. I wanted to say something to comfort him — I wanted to say a lot of things — but separate cells of a military lockup felt like an awkward place to do it.

"Hey," said Iseul, "what are you two doing?"

We met eyes, and then he turned his back to me. "He's untying me."

"Er, yeah." I pulled at the knot binding his wrists together.

She was squinting at us through the bars. Her face was grave and dubious, as usual, still bleeding from her nose and a cut on her forehead. "At least I know you're not a demon, Bak. A demon would have freed himself by now, he wouldn't have let a little gunfire frighten him like a mouse."

"Watch your tongue. I may yet be a demon." I poked his back; he sighed and said, "All I am is a human. Keep the guff to yourself, I don't want to hear it."

She scoffed through her nose and paced in her cell.

I already had the knot figured out, but I was hesitant to pull it loose. "Haseong, are you okay? Tell the truth."

I saw his head shake. "I was stupid to trust her. I should have torn her apart the moment she invaded our ship."

"Something about it... it's not right. I feel like she was trying to tell me something."

"You're doubting whether she betrayed us?"

"I don't know, I'm not sure."

"It's easier for you to trust Fei than to trust me?"

I was caught off guard; my words stumbled. "Look, Haseong—"

"Never mind, don't say anything. I'm... wound up. The gunfire, I can't explain what it does to me. And besides that, the blood coming off those two is... difficult to ignore. Iseul sneezes once and I might lose control entirely."

I bit my lip. I could feel his agitation, I wanted nothing more than to allay it.

Finally I pulled the ropes away, got up and crossed my cell. Shao was still laying on his back, hat over his face.

"Captain Huan?"

He lifted the hat, looked up at me suspiciously. "Yes?"

"I don't mean to be a bother, but the lesions on your face seem rather serious."

"What's it to you?" Iseul was at the bars again, protective of her partner.

"I could help you clean yourself up — wounds should not go unattended."

"How do you intend to treat them?"

I shrugged off my coat — fine wool, part of a sailor's uniform — and tore a piece of the lapel. "I've no medical supplies, but we can make do."

"How do we know you won't reach through the bars and throttle him?" Iseul asked.

"Why would I do that?"

"Maybe Bak put you up to it."

Haseong spoke up. "As much as I'd love to settle the score, Chan would likely disown me if I even suggested it."

Shao sat up, shifted toward the bars. "I appreciate the gesture, Mr. Bang. If I could be such a nuisance?"

"Of course." I rolled up the fabric and dipped it into a puddle under the dripping ceiling.

"Wait, how do you know the water isn't tainted?" Iseul said.

"It's just sea water." I passed the fabric through the bars. "No gasoline, mould, excreta, etcetera. I, er, have a good sense of smell."

Shao blotted away at the cut on the side of his face, cringing. "I hadn't expected Ahn's crew to be so brutal."

"I'll kill everyone who touched you," Iseul murmured grimly.

"You said the same thing about Yu Chinwha's crew," Haseong said. "And how many of them did you do away with?"

"The greater sum, actually."

Haseong looked at her. "Really?"

"We met them at the first key. I took the opportunity."

Haseong's jaw clicked in and out. "Well. They deserved it."

"Captain So?" I held out another dampened cloth.

She sniffed through her bloody nose, shrugged and reached out for it. Shao passed it to her. She growled against the pain and palmed her upper abdomen. I noticed her breathing patterns were irregular.

"Are you hurt?" I motioned to her hand.

She shrugged again. "It's tolerable."

"Take a deep breath please, slowly."

She looked rankled to be given orders, but did as I said. As her lungs expanded, I could hear misaligned bones clicking and grinding together. Her tenth and eleventh ribs were fractured.

I rolled up my jacket and passed it through the bars. "I'm afraid two of your ribs are broken. Use this as a splint."

She looked at me curiously, wrapping the jacket around her torso. "Are you some kind of a doctor?"

"I have... experience with the sick, though I'm not trained."

"There's more to you than meets the eye, Mr. Bang," said Shao. "We appreciate this."

Iseul concurred with a grunt, shifting onto the floor of her cell. "To be fair, a few broken bones won't matter much when we're dangling from the gibbet."

"Don't say that," said Shao. "This isn't what the end looks like. I promise you."

His hand snuck through the bars. Iseul laced their fingers together.

I glanced over at Haseong. He met my eyes and quickly looked away.