It wasn't until after a storm blew over - after having knocked the trireme from side to side and flapping the sails around like gulls' wings in a hurricane - that the winds died all together. The sails hung slack and empty, but the ship still moved forward. That was when Nasim had noticed something odd about the ship. Andy had noticed certain tasks completing themselves a while ago, but it wasn't until he looked back into the oar deck and saw them paddles pulling themselves that Nasim was forced to agree that something was inherently wrong about the ship.
Either that, or Andy's theory that the ship was haunted held some water. Oh gods, what an unforgivable pun.
When she'd brought it up, Nasim had just assumed that Andy, a daughter of Macaria, would be overly obsessed with dead people. Nasim just couldn't reconcile the image of Andy sitting on the deck wearing pink pajamas with someone who might be able to see and control the dead. Every time he tried, he just had a really strange image of zombies with pink hair bows.
"I wonder if Robin did it," Nasim muttered, once more opening the door and peering inside. The benches all were empty, but the handles of the oars dipped up and down in a creepy, silent dance. The rhythm they bobbed to was beaten out by a drum at the bow end of the ship by an invisible drummer. "With the magic he used to make the ship."
"He doesn't have magic," Andy reminded him. "He used your magic last time. I think you'd know if he was drawing on your power again. Besides, Robin wouldn't do this without telling us."
"He didn't even ask me to rig up an animation spell," Nasim said, aware that he was pouting slightly.
"I'm still telling you: ghosts," Andy said, as though that explained everything.
"Ghosts do not exist, the spirits remain in their graves until..." Nasim trailed off. Until the Day of Judgement comes. That was an Islamic belief. "How could you possibly like sitting in graveyards if you believe in ghosts?" he demanded.
"Spirits go to the Underworld when their body dies," Andy said. "They don't live in the cemeteries."
"Then what are they doing here? On a ship? On our Black Pearl?" Nasim asked, raising one eyebrow. Andy met his eye and then shrugged.
"Hey, you said Robin wouldn't do this without telling us," Nasim said slowly.
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, he didn't ever tell us what happened to his hand," Nasim remembered. Andy didn't say anything, but she looked worried.