Stemming the Tide

by Rosie Scott

  “Cal,” he repeated pointedly, stopping my panic. “You are my best friend and partner-in-crime. I will not leave you.” Koby wandered forward a bit and turned to me. “Look at me.” When I did so, his black eyes portrayed nothing but loyalty and honesty as he continued, “I refused to fight for freedom unless you were by my side, remember? I would not leave the underground without you. I will not return to it without you. I swear on my life.”

  Convinced by his reassurances, the panic attack subsided, dissipating until only the hum of leftover manic energy vibrated through my veins. Overwhelmed with gratitude for him, I blurted, “When Neliah told me you asked about me this morning, I called you a meddling asshole.”

  Koby surprised me by chuckling. “I believe it. Why tell me this?”

  “Because I feel bad about it,” I admitted. “That's not what you are at all.” Without thinking about it, I stepped forward and grabbed him into a tight embrace. Though Koby and I had both hugged surface-dwellers who were more prone to showing friendly affection and initially taught us how, we had never embraced each other before. It felt both awkward and right. Koby stiffened at first, in a state of disbelief and bafflement, but then he patted me on the back.

  When we parted, Koby seemed at a loss for words. Finally, he laughed awkwardly and looked away. “You're becoming more like a surface-dweller every day, Cal.”

  “We are surface-dwellers now,” I reminded him.

  “I suppose that's true.” Koby cleared his throat and gazed back over the ocean, seemingly at peace. “Don't worry. It wasn't an insult.”

  Twenty-nine

  Alea Darvish had the caramel skin of a human of Naharan birth. Black hair hung in greasy strands down to her chin and shook with her trembling from rempka withdrawals. Troubled brown eyes shifted back and forth between Koby and me. She blinked rapidly by squinting her eyes and then closing them, which seemed more like a tic than natural movement. After capturing her in the battle when the pirates returned for a second shipment of ferris, Vallen allowed others to pick over her armor and belongings, but he otherwise treated her well. Alea wore a simple stained tunic and slacks; the infected and pus-ridden needle wound at the crook of her left arm indicated that the ties around her ankles and wrists were partially for her benefit.

  “I'm Koby Bacia,” Koby began from his chair that faced Alea's, before nodding over at me where I slouched in mine. “This is Calder Cerberius.” I tilted my head in a lazy greeting as I noticed a flash of recognition pass through the pirate's eyes. “We've heard that you're willing to talk for your surrender.”

  “I've already talked,” Alea replied, before sniffling.

  “Not to the right people,” Koby said. “Not yet.”

  Alea huffed and turned her head, glaring at the interior shack wall. The sunlight from outside poked through the cracks and imperfections of the rough wood. Every once in a while someone would pass by the building, their shadow dancing through the rays before they went still once more. Alea focused on this movement while ignoring us.

  “You know us,” I spoke up in a drawl, approaching this situation delicately. “By sight or name?”

  Alea jerked her head back to the center and squinted with another tic. “Both. I was with Cale when he sunk your cog. I saw you—” she nodded at me “—before and after your transformation.” She turned to Koby and admitted, “I know him only by name. Cale got your names from Astred. He had no idea which one of you was which, only that Vruyk wants you both dead.”

  “Vruyk wants us dead,” Koby clarified, noticing her distinction. “Not Cale?”

  Alea rolled her eyes and sniffled again. “Cale's so fucked up from rempka he doesn't know what's happening half the time. He even told me he likes you both. You killed Astred, who he hated, and you're making things exciting. He was actually disappointed you guys didn't join the gang. He was under the impression that, and I quote, 'the lizard one's as kooky as me.' Cale's attracted to crazy people.”

  “It sounds like you weren't just a member of his posse,” I commented.

  “No,” Alea admitted. “We were fucking.”

  I didn't allow the resulting surprise I felt reach my expression. “So why talk to us now?”

  “Because like I said, Cale's out of his mind on drugs. He wouldn't know loyalty anymore if it bit him in the ass. He lost any merits he ever had to his rempka addiction. After we came here and he left for Silvi and kept me on the ferris crew, I decided being apart from him might be good for me. Then we were attacked when we got here, and...” she trailed off, and her eyes fell to her lap. “None of this is worth dying for.”

  After a short silence, Koby requested, “Continue.”

  “Yeah...so,” Alea began with a sigh, flinching twice in another tic. She chuckled dryly, angrily, and admitted, “I guess you could say I'm a scorned lover. In many ways, Cale has ruined my life.”

  “How so?” Koby asked.

  “He introduced me to rempka,” she said, nodding toward her ruined arm. After a flash of darkness passed through her eyes, she added low with disgust, “And to Vruyk.”

  “They have history,” Koby prodded.

  “They met in Chairel,” Alea affirmed. “I think Cale said it was sometime in the 320s. Cale was fleeing Celendar because his crime sprees finally caught up to him. He was wanted for thievery and murder, but it was learning and using elemental magic without a license that put him on Chairel's most wanted list. He ran across Vruyk in the western Cel Forest, surrounded by the bodies of a Celdic hunting party. The two hit it off right away. Vruyk was looking for companionship and hadn't found compatible people yet. He often said the orcs were too stupid, humans too unambitious, and the Celds too weak. Cale wasn't particularly strong at the time, but he was crafty and ambitious. Vruyk liked that and saw how it could benefit him. He was born in an orcish tribe in the nearby Cel Mountains, the son of an orc father and an enslaved human mother, rapist and victim. He left after killing his father in some sort of coming-of-age ceremony the orcs do. He bragged about eating his father's heart after ripping it from his chest. I never believed it because I saw over the years how Vruyk hated the Blades of Meir meddling with our slave trade affairs. You'd think cannibals wouldn't fight with cannibals, right?”

  I huffed. “I wouldn't think cannibals would stick with any code at all.”

  Alea shrugged and flinched. “I don't know. Either way, Cale believed it. He said the orcs are raised as cannibals and that Vruyk slaughtered that Celdic hunting party he'd killed and ate jerky made of their flesh the whole time they traveled south to Nahara.”

  “Did Cale eat it?” Koby asked.

  “No. He said the idea grossed him out.”

  “Why did he stick with Vruyk?” I inquired.

  “The two complemented each other,” Alea replied simply. “Cale was the brains, Vruyk was the brawn. Cale had high hopes of running a criminal enterprise, but he needed Vruyk for muscle and intimidation.”

  “You said Cale was the brains,” Koby reiterated with an edge of disbelief.

  Alea huffed and wrinkled her nose. “He absolutely was, believe it or not. Before rempka fried his brain, he was intelligent and ambitious. If it weren't for Cale, this gang wouldn't have seen much success at all.”

  “We heard rumors in Al Nazir that they got started in the slave trade,” I prodded.

  Alea shook her head. “They were slave traders before they were pirates, but at first, their focus was the drug trade. Cale and Vruyk originally went to Nahara just to flee Chairel and find mercenary work. They ended up getting hired on as sailors and spent some years on the seas. They learned how to shapeshift in Silvi. Apparently, they did so many drugs there that Cale got the idea to start smuggling rempka into Nahara for gold. Once they returned, that's what they did. Cale knew where to get rempka in Celendar, and although he was banned from there and had no desire to go back, he found middle men to make the deliveries. If it weren't for Cale, Naharans wouldn't know what rempka was. The only drugs to go through there be
fore that were ferris and hallucinogenic mushrooms from the wildlands. Rempka wasn't produced in the wildlands at the time, so Cale relied on its original source.”

  “How'd they get involved in the slave trade?” Koby asked.

  “By seeing it in action while in T'ahal,” Alea replied. “Cale and Vruyk went there to pick up rempka from the smugglers and ended up catching the tail-end of a slave auction. Cale asked the seller how much he paid for his slaves, and he said he didn't. That's when Cale realized just how many loopholes were in Nahara's laws allowing nearly anyone to become a slave if they were outnumbered or in deep trouble with the authorities or the rich. Before you know it, Cale was finding places to hit and Vruyk would go there and get captives. Soon enough, they had enough gold to attract followers, some of whom were people they'd tried to sell into slavery and ended up pledging their loyalty for freedom.”

  “Were you one of them?” I questioned.

  “No,” Alea said, lowering her head to her right shoulder so she could scratch at an itch on her nose with her sleeve. “I was looking for reasons not to kill myself and stumbled across Cale selling rempka. I didn't have enough gold for it, so he offered a trade.”

  “A trade?” I prodded.

  Alea gazed pointedly down at her body. “I had what he wanted, he had what I wanted.”

  I frowned. Even to a non-monogamist like myself, trading sex for drugs didn't sound like the most appealing prospect. “Yet, you stayed with him and formed a romantic bond.”

  “You talk about love like you don't know how it works,” Alea replied, raising an eyebrow. “Love is blind and it is stupid. At the time, I was sixteen and fleeing my father, who often mistook me for my dead mother when he was drunk. That Cale wanted me at all was reason enough for my mind to obsess. Cale was the first man to touch me like a woman.” She hesitated, coughed, and admitted, “Other than, you know.”

  Her disturbing implications were all too clear to me. “I'm sorry,” I offered.

  Alea seemed surprised by my sympathy, but she said nothing of it. She only rolled her neck to crack it and continued, “When I met Cale, he used rempka but wasn't yet addicted. He was handsome and the leader of a gang that had ties in every city of Nahara. He was powerful. That's what attracted me to him. Vruyk, on the other hand, made me feel uneasy, but he was just Cale's partner at the time and abided by his wishes. Years went by, the sea monster shows up, and Cale gets the idea to take to the seas and pick over ships and loot. It was the best decision he ever made, because we started gaining ships and cargo and even more drugs and captives.”

  “You're making it sound like Cale was the mastermind of all of this,” I commented.

  “He was.”

  “Then when did that change?” Koby asked. “Cale even referred to Vruyk as 'boss' in Nahara like he reported to him.”

  “It changed when Cale got addicted to rempka,” Alea said, a deep resentment tainting her features. “His addiction makes him loopy, careless, and sometimes really confused. The power dynamic between Cale and Vruyk started shifting when Vruyk realized he could take advantage of that. He started treating Cale like a subordinate five or so years ago, and over time it stuck when Cale started believing it. Cale started reporting to him rather than vice versa, Vruyk's ego grew, and he took over using everything Cale taught him.”

  “If Cale is the one who hurt you, why are you hateful of Vruyk in particular?” I questioned.

  “Before he was an addict, Cale was crazy but he was also protective of me. Vruyk...” she trailed off and looked away. “He wanted me and many other women in the gang. The orcish culture taught Vruyk that if you want sex, you take it. Cale's opinion was that we were stronger as a gang if half of us didn't fear the leaders. He watched Vruyk carefully to make sure he didn't cross any lines. But once Cale was out of his mind on drugs?” She shrugged. “He no longer cared or knew what was going on half the time. Vruyk knew how protective Cale was of me, so he used me in the ultimate power play. He asked Cale if he could have me. Such a suggestion would have caused a fight back when Cale was right of mind. When Cale reacted positively to that for the first time in his life and suggested I give Vruyk what he wanted for the betterment of our group, that's when I finally knew things weren't right.”

  “How did Vruyk take the rejection?” I asked.

  “I didn't reject him,” Alea replied, meeting my gaze again. “I was out of my mind on rempka and did it for Cale because I still loved who he once was. Thank the gods I have little memory of it, but what I do remember makes me sick.” She swallowed hard as if warding away nausea and admitted, “Vruyk told me I reminded him of his mother and that's why he'd wanted me for so long. The disgusting implications of that reminded me of home and suffering the abuse of my father. I remember shooting up that night and staring at the ceiling as I hallucinated, wishing I would die.”

  Hearing her long history of sexual abuse and resulting desolation made me feel some sympathy for her despite her history of being a slaver. It seemed the surface could be just as degradingly perverse as the underground.

  “And here I thought I couldn't like Vruyk and Cale any less,” Koby mused, sighing and sitting back in his chair like he needed a break.

  “Why do you two fight against them?” Alea asked. “I thought you were in this for the stolen ferris.”

  “They're slavers,” Koby replied. “We were slaves.”

  “Of theirs?”

  “Of the underground.”

  Alea admitted, “Slavery is so common in Nahara that I don't really understand how that motivates you, but I won't question it. I welcome their demise. With Vruyk in charge, things will only get worse. Cale's days are numbered. He is no longer who he once was. His body is failing him. He doesn't seem to understand that, though. Cale lives each day like he will live forever.”

  “You've said that this ferris operation is extremely important to Cale,” I said, remembering Vallen's reference to it in his letter.

  “It is,” Alea affirmed. “Deep down, he realizes he's losing his power to Vruyk. I think he believes that if he expands into new territory and builds a new enterprise, he'll regain some of the power he's lost. Any sanity and motivation he has left, he's funneled into this.”

  “Are there tensions between Vruyk and Cale?” Koby asked.

  “Not outwardly, no. Everything they do against each other is hidden or manipulative. Neither of them have put much thought into what they're doing, if you ask me.”

  “What makes you say that?” Koby prodded.

  “Cale is obsessed with getting into ferris smuggling, but he hasn't stopped to think about how he'll likely overdose before he sees success with it, or how if he wants to take the credit he'd have to kill or dominate Vruyk. He doesn't have the awareness left to do that even if he'd survive it. And Vruyk doesn't realize or care that he's a terrible leader. He strikes fear in his own people, and for as smart as he thinks he is compared to his orc brethren, he doesn't always act logically when it comes to business. He relied on Cale for that. With Cale's mind lost, Vruyk is only ruled by anger or greed.”

  I exchanged a glance with Koby. Anger guiding Vruyk's decisions was a good sign for us and our plans of goading the pirates into a battle with the leviathan.

  “We fought Cale once more on the seas,” I told Alea, shifting my weight in my chair. “He knows we survived and he knows we've beat him here.”

  “Then he'll be coming here next without any doubt,” Alea replied. “This is all that matters to Cale right now. He'll see the ferris operation succeed or die trying.”

  “I want to ask you about Nahara,” Koby spoke up, his mind on gathering information that could help us sabotage the pirates in the future.

  “What about it?”

  “Tell us about the slave trade routes.”

  Alea's twitchy face grew a smile. “Should've figured you guys were after the slave trade considering the mess you made of the tunnel in Llyr.”

  Koby couldn't help but grin. “That was a beautiful
day.”

  “I'm sorry to say that the other routes aren't physical locations,” she explained. “Vruyk and Cale would simply send out groups of men in three directions to capture people wherever they could and sell them in T'ahal. They'd patrol the sands between Llyr and Al Nazir, T'ahal, and Jaalam. A lot of that died down when they turned their focus to the seas. They kill as many ship defenders as necessary, capture the others and their cargo, and deliver everything to Llyr.”

  “So Llyr is the main city where everything is based,” I commented.

  “Right.” Alea rolled her eyes up to the ceiling as she thought. “To keep the Naharan guard off their backs, they hide many of their stolen vessels in Llyr's eastern harbor. Official and mercenary ships use the western harbor. They mostly use the eastern docks for fishing and quick travel between Llyr and Nairi. We never bothered the fishers since their tiny boats were worthless to us, so the fishers never reported our activities there to the guard.”

  “It sounds like any true ships in the eastern harbor belong to pirates, then,” Koby murmured.

  Alea nodded. “They take the recently stolen ones there, strip them of cargo and loot, and prepare them for sea battle.”

  I glanced over at Koby and smirked at the excitement that ran through his eyes. “I can only imagine what you're thinking,” I drawled. “Ships. Fire. Explosions. Screams.”

  Koby snorted a laugh and gave me a mischievous grin. “Maniacal laughter.”

  I chuckled.

  “It'd be a good place to hit,” Alea admitted with some confliction.

  “Yet, you sound regretful,” I pointed out.

  Alea wrinkled her nose in another tic. “Of course. This has been my life for years. It saddens me that it came to this.”

  “Do you wish to rejoin them?” I asked carefully.

  “No,” she replied immediately. “I want to get off rempka. Stay off it. After that, I'll...I don't know. Perhaps I'll find some work here, but I hate the humidity. The other man...Vallen...he told me he'd let me go eventually. That's still the plan, right?” She glanced at us hopefully.