The crew walked across the island, the trip taking about thirty minutes. Riley was quiet as she walked, thinking about her magic use.
She remembered it much more clearly than she had at Rendal’s compound.
She could still see the sword flying through the air, knowing she had complete control over it. She’d told it to go faster, and it had listened. She’d told it to hit the pirate’s face, and it had.
She’d told it to make sure the man died for certain, and the blade had burst into flames.
The blade she carried on her side.
Yet, she had no idea how to do it again, and Eric had said he had the same problem. Only, he still had more control than she did. He could do more things as soon as a fight started.
Worth stepped up next to her. “Sword good, aye?”
She came out of her thoughts and looked at him. Worth was back to grinning, the chalice gone from his hand.
“Yeah, it is, Worth. It’s the best sword I’ve ever had.”
“It magic.”
“You keep saying that, but then you also say I’m magic.”
“Cannot both be magic?” Worth asked.
“I don’t know.” Riley shook her head. “I don’t understand any of it.”
Worth nodded. “You will. You magic. William!” Worth started jogging, leaving Riley and catching up with the other Right Hand.
She watched him go, truly not understanding what the man was talking about.
They finally reached the pirate ship. It was a massive thing, almost a city unto itself. Riley stared up in awe, understanding that the captain might have a lot of ships at his beck and call, but the loot mostly flowed one way—to this ship.
The pirate who had led them here had already gone aboard. William was the first of their crew to reach the ship.
Riley stepped up next to him.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I think this thing is fucking huge.”
“No, skinny. About the woman.”
“Erin?” Riley’s voice lowered.
“Yeah. You think I got a shot with her?” William whispered.
Riley couldn’t keep the grin off her face. “You’re serious right now? We’re about to climb onto this huge pirate ship and meet a man who's had his throat slit twice, and you’re worried about a date with our newly acquired pirate?”
“Zip it,” William retorted. “Whaddaya think? I got a shot?’
Riley shook her head, still chuckling. The rest of the group was coming closer. “I think you’ll have to play your cards right. You don’t come off as the nicest man in the world.”
“But I’m definitely the most handsome.” He winked.
The pirate came back to the ship’s main door. “Come aboard and follow me. The captain is in his chambers. Only you six. The soldiers and their leader stay outside.”
“Fuck that!” William shouted.
Erin stepped next to him, putting her hand on his elbow. “It’s fine. This is normal protocol. They won’t hurt us.”
William flinched at her touch; Riley had never seen anything like it from the big man.
He looked back at Riley. “What do you think?”
“I think we don’t have much choice.”
William grumbled something unintelligible.
Riley turned back to Verith. “Stand guard here, okay?”
“Of course,” he answered. He seemed unperturbed, trusting the parley. Riley supposed that was because he knew more about it than she did, meaning Erin wasn’t lying to them.
“I’ll stay here too,” Lucie told them.
“Why?” Riley asked.
“If Worth goes in there, it’ll be helpful to have someone outside who knows magic.”
Riley nodded; Lucie was right. She gazed at the red-haired woman. “We’ve just met, Erin, but we’re putting a lot of trust in you. You understand that?”
Erin looked at her, the smile gone. “I know. My son and I were looking for a home. I think we’ve found it with you. You accept him, and that’s the most important thing. I only wish the rest of my family had made it long enough to see this. I’m not leading you astray. I think Twocuts will treat us fairly.”
Riley nodded and turned to William. “All right, chubby, you ready?”
“I liked things better when I was in charge.”
“Hell, I liked it better, too,” Riley answered. “You want to be in charge?”
“No.” William grinned. “If you die and I have to tell Mason, I want to say you’re the one who put us on the ship.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Riley looked up at the pirate waiting for them. “Let’s go.”
The crew walked up the gangplank, Riley leading the way. William came next, then Erin, her son, and finally the purple-mouthed Worth.
“No magic here,” Worth told everyone.
For all his drinking and jolliness, Riley understood that he might be the most dangerous of all of them.
They entered the ship and wound their way through wooden passages.
“Erin, have you seen Twocut before?” Riley asked.
“No. His ships stayed away from ours. The man is smart, which is how he’s gotten so many people under his banner. He would have lost against us, so he never challenged us.”
“You were pretty smart, too,” William commented. “You managed to make an entire community think you had more than two of you on board.”
Riley smiled, knowing what a compliment from William meant—even if sounded stilted as hell.
The pirate stopped and turned around. “This here is the captain’s quarters. I need not mention that very few people are allowed inside, and that yer here under the rules of parley. That means ain’t to be no fightin’. Ain’t to be no killin’. Ain’t to be no magic or whatever the hell y’all used in that alehouse. Ya understand?”
“We gotcha, pirate man,” William bellowed. “Now get outta the way and let us meet this damned captain.”
The pirate sneered, but he knew his place. He pulled no weapons, and wouldn’t break the sea’s code.
He turned around and opened the door, his voice louder as he spoke. “Captain Twocuts, I present those ya requested.”
Riley almost laughed at the man, who was trying to sound proper but was unable to do it correctly.
The pirate stepped through and Riley followed, the rest of the group entering and forming a line to her left and right—leaving Riley in the center.
The man in front of them was at the end of a long fur rug. Riley had never seen anything quite like it and had no idea what type of animal it was from.
The captain sat on a huge wooden chair, which was stained black. He wore black too, although Riley found it tough to decipher what he was wearing. Pants, a vest, and a shirt, but it looked like more. Somehow the clothes covered almost every part of him, including gloves on his hands. All of it black.
His hair was long and he wore it in braids, which fell around his face. His skin was deeply tanned, and his eyes were set deep.
The two scars across his throat were pronounced; much whiter than the rest of his skin.
“Aye, those I requested,” the captain said. “I suppose he ain’t bother gettin’ yer names, aye? The pretty blonde, there—what do ya call yerself?”
“Riley Trident, Right Hand of Assistant Prefect Mason Ire, loyal servant of New Perth’s kingdom.”
“A long name, aye. I take it ye know who I am.”
“We’ve heard,” Riley answered.
“No doubt from the redheaded bitch standing at yer side.” The captain said it with a smile, and Riley saw Erin match it with one of her own. “Aye, don’t take that too personally, Riley Trident, Right Hand of Such and Such. On the seas, we judge a person by their strength. We’ll rape, kill, and steal from the weak, but the one next to ya don’t count in that. I call her a bitch the same as I would a man.”
“Why did you ask us here?” William interjected.
“Well, ya carved up a few of my pirates, from what I c
an tell. And that’s fine. The strong survive on the sea, and ye all are mayhaps pretty strong. But ya don’t belong here, that much is clear.”
“I belong where I say I belong.” William’s voice grew louder.
“Aye, we got a live one, don’t we?” Twocuts smiled. “We can keep this civil. Indeed, we best, as we are operatin’ under certain rules.”
“What William is asking,” Riley said, “is why parley with us? Your men threatened us, and they lost. From what Erin says—”
“Erin?” the captain interrupted. “That’s the fierce Stormhandle’s name?”
“There was a reason you never attacked us.” Eric spoke for the first time, and his voice was icy. “Don’t forget that, Captain Twocuts.”
The pirate laughed loudly, though without menace. “And the dangerous son. Well met, lad. Please continue, Right Hand, loyal servant of Such and Such.”
Riley rolled her eyes at the slight but didn’t let her anger rise. “From what Captain Stormhandle says such action as we took is accepted here, so William and I are trying to understand why you called this parley.”
“You don’t belong on the sea.” The pirate looked at William. “I don’t mean any offense, big man. Them’s the facts, though. Y’all belong on land, but I find you out here on the sea, and it makes me wonder: what could make landlubbers venture out to dangerous waters? We’ve seen your ship. We saw your ship take Stormhandle’s. We stayed away because my crew is smart, and there are other things brewin’ on those seas.”
The captain dropped all pretense of levity. This was the cutthroat Riley had expected.
“I’m wonderin’ if what’s brewin’ a bit away from here has anything to do with you?”
Riley wasn’t going to lie to the man. “We’re chasing an outlaw mage. That’s why we’re on the seas. We came across Erin Stormhandle and had no choice but to fight. Same when we came here. Trouble keeps finding us, but our path is true. We’re here to find an outlaw mage.”
She wouldn’t mention Mason’s kidnapping. No one needed to know there was other valuable cargo aboard Rendal’s ship.
“Aye, I thought that might be the case. Or at least you were out here after someone new. I don’t know nothin’ bout no mages, although I hear Stormhandle’s boy there can light himself on fire and such. That true?”
Eric said nothing. Erin was quiet as well.
“Never mind. A ship broke apart days ago. Just completely crumbled into the water. Some of my ships found the survivors. They were floatin’ in the sea, survivin’ by holdin’ onto pieces of wood that hadn’t got waterlogged yet. Some of ‘em didn’t make it, of course, as things tend to go on the sea.”
The captain gave a sickly grin, leaving no doubt in Riley’s mind that his men had killed many—probably for sport.
“But the ones who did survive said something’ about a mage. Some of ‘em called him a magician. I don’t know the difference, if there is one. But they said a man broke the ship with his hand, which I don’t get even now. I didn’t believe it then. Said he had an army of magicians, too. I didn’t believe that either until I heard you all were causing a ruckus down at the alehouse. Now I wonder.”
“He broke a ship with his hand?” Riley didn’t see how that was possible either.
“That’s what they said.”
Worth nodded. “Magic. Not use hand. Use mind.”
The captain turned to the bald man, his eyes wide at Worth’s speech.
“If he says it, it’s true,” Riley responded.
“You’re a magician?” the captain asked.
“I magic,” Worth answered.
The captain sighed. “You are a weird lot, and that’s sayin’ somethin’ given everythin’ I’ve seen. There’s more, though. We have eyes on the ship. I keep eyes on everything out here on the seas, much as I can anyway. Two nights ago it sent up a distress signal.”
He smiled.
“My men ain’t as dumb as some of the other ships out here. They said those other pirates went streakin’ ‘cross the water like water snakes. And ya know what happened when two of ‘em got there?”
Riley’s palms were sweating. “What?”
“Nothin’.” Twocuts’ smile widened. “Absolutely nothin’.”
“Nothin’ is what’s between your ears, Captain Numbnuts,” William said and turned to Riley. “Look. I’ve heard enough. Whether or not Rendal had some ships stop by his and not fight him, it don’t matter, does it? We need to find him; that’s all that matters.”
“You’re not listenin’, landlubber,” the captain sneered. “Pirate ships don’t head to a distress call and then just stop. My men didn’t go because they’d been watching this ship for a while, and they knew somethin’ wasn’t right ‘bout it. Those other ships were dumb, but they should have sunk that ship after stealin’ all its treasure, ya understand? The two ships didn’t. They joined it.”
William turned around. “What do ya mean?”
“They ain’t flyin’ no banners, but they’re floating with it. That was two days ago. Now, I kept my ship on it, an’ I got little speed ships goin’ back and forth between this main ship and my others all the time. I wanted to know what was happenin’. Do you want to know, or you still got a hard dick to get out of here?”
William grunted, nodding his reluctant assent.
“Last night, a ship got too close to the three. I don’t mean close in that it should have been in any danger, but still...too close, apparently. It moseyed its way into your magician’s path, and now it’s joined them too. That ain’t normal. That ain’t natural. And this magician’s ship—if that’s what he is—is heading south. Heading toward us, best I can tell.”
Riley turned to Worth. “What’s it mean?”
Worth was smiling and looking at William. “He got big head, aye?”
“Go fuck yourself, tent man.” William tried to sound mad, but he couldn’t hide his grin.
“Seriously, Worth, quit playing around. What does that mean, what the pirate said?”
“Aye, means mage is magic,” Worth told them.
“I know that, but what about the ships?” Riley asked.
Worth chuckled. “He control minds. Ships now his. Men on ships now his. All his.”
William’s eyebrows got close together, and his expression grew concerned. “That’s not possible. How many men are on a ship, Erin?”
“Anywhere from two to two hundred.”
“We’ve got four hundred right here beneath us,” Twocuts interjected.
“So he’s got up to six hundred more people right now?” Riley asked.
“Aye, that’s what I’m tryin’ to tell ya, landlubbers. Your magician is getting an army together, and now he’s headin’ here. That means he’s comin’ to the island to gather the rest.”
“How strong would he have to be to do that, Worth?”
Worth only shook his head. “Very strong. Six hundred people at once? Very, very strong.”
Erin flashed a brilliant smile. “Hey, I conquered the seas for a decade with only two people. You got a lot more than that, plus your swordwork, Riley...This magician doesn’t know the trouble he’s in.”
“I gotta agree with the lady.” William put his hand on Riley’s shoulder. “Plus, we got me. Rendal doesn’t stand a fuckin’ chance with all that on our side.”
Riley rolled her eyes and looked at Twocuts. “What are you planning on doing?”
“I was plannin’ on leavin’. Whatever that man is doin’, I don’t want no part of it. What are you plannin’ on doin’?”
“I’m planning on kicking this mage’s ass, that’s what.”
Chapter Seven
Mason stood behind Rendal. He hated the man and wanted to just tip him over the rail right fucking now, but he knew it would be futile. The mage would levitate or some other bullshit and end up hurting Mason.
So, he stood in the bow behind the evil mage and listened for the man to pontificate.
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Re
ndal asked.
“Do you ever bore yourself?” Mason quipped.
“Of course not. I find my conversation riveting.”
Must be easy since you’re the only person who ever talks, Mason thought but did not say aloud.
“I mean, look around you. Do you see my power?”
Mason didn’t want to look. The wind was whipping past his face as the ship plunged across the water, and he only wanted to stare straight ahead. To look to either side might prove the man right.
Insane or not, Mason understood his power.
“What other person on the planet could do this?”
Mason said nothing.
He watched as Rendal looked to his left.
“Don’t you want to see?” Rendal pointed his finger to the left and Mason felt his head turning. He couldn’t stop it.
Two ships sat in the water—large ones, full of people.
“Watch them wave,” Rendal quipped.
Because it was all bullshit.
Mason saw the men on deck wave at Rendal’s ship. The necklaces they all wore lit bright enough for him to see, because Rendal was in control of their every move.
“Right now I’m in their heads.” The mage put his hand down, and Mason regained mastery over his neck. Rendal kept talking. “Has Harold told you where we’re heading yet?”
Mason knew the man could read his thoughts. There wasn’t any need to speak to him; everything Rendal did was for control. To instill fear in Mason.
“You may not bore yourself, Rendal, but you bore me. I don’t give a fuck where we’re going, because Riley is on the way. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that or why you make me keep repeating myself.”
Rendal spoke as if he hadn’t heard the Assistant Prefect. “And what I find spectacular is it’s not taking that much energy.”
Mason thought he knew why. He’d seen Rendal wearing a green bracelet and a red one, but now he had two green bracelets pushed close together on his wrist.
They were brightly lit, as was the red one was on his other arm.
Mason didn’t know how all this worked, but he thought the green ones were giving him extra power somehow while the red one connected him to the other ships.
“You’re powerful because you have those bracelets, but if you tossed them over the side, you wouldn’t be able to do any of this.” Mason sneered. “You don’t hold the power, those pieces of jewelry do.”
Hand of Justice Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4): The Dark Mage, Chasing Magic, Magic Rising, Magic Unchained Page 26
