“Absolutely,” Zoey said. “Any other thoughts on skill points?”
“What about Naval Tactics?” he asked. “You know, the race and all. I figure that could be useful in not getting sunk. I could get that to at least novice, as well, and then have a little leftover to start working on the next level for Swordplay. I’m still a couple of points shy to get it bumped to competent in that.”
“Naval Tactics could come in handy,” Zoey said. “Still, this is a race, not a fleet engagement. Might want to go with something else. That said, I say think about it a bit, especially when since you’ll get a new ability next level. It would be a good idea to have that synergize with your skillset.”
“Good point.”
“What else does your sheet say?” she asked. “Anything about the ring?”
Ethan directed his focus to where all the traits he’d gained were on the page. At the very top of that section, it still listed Ring Bearer, but right under that, there was a new one. “Oh, that’s weird.”
“What is?”
“This,” he said, turning the page so she could see and pointing to the line. “Undying Love: Connected.”
In a hurry, Zoey fished out her own sheet and confirmed what they both already knew with a nod. “I’ve got it too.”
“What does that mean for us?”
The corner of Zoey’s mouth drew back, and she shook her head. “It means having shared both a supernatural bond and intense, life-threatening events, we’re stupid for each other in a way mortals will never know.”
“Of course, I’m stupid for you,” Ethan said, chuckling. “Still, nice to know you feel the same.”
“I should also add, it’s only going to get worse.”
“Worse?”
Zoey shook her head and stuffed away her character sheet. “Stronger is a better word for it,” she said. “It has four levels: Connected, Bonded, Enamored, and Devoted. Each one comes with stronger benefits and well…quirks.”
“I like the benefits part, especially since you still owe me a girlfriendy reward.”
“Not those kinds of benefits.”
“Figures. What are they, then?”
“Small boost to combat skills when fighting together, along with the occasional chain attack and a massive boost to parrying,” she said, clearly trying to think back to what she’d learned about the trait at some previous point in time. “Oh yeah, seduction resistance, and increases to crits and damage when the other is critically wounded. Few other things, too, I can’t remember. Shared feelings and then thoughts, maybe? We’ll need to check the manual when we get back to the ship. Anyway, the stronger our bond, the bigger the bonuses to all of that.”
“That sounds handy. What about the quirks?”
Zoey made a face like she’d taken a swig from a carton of curdled milk. “We don’t do as well when we’re apart. Penalties to everything get more severe the more devoted we are. I’m sure you’ve noticed that already. I have.”
Ethan pressed his lips together, thinking back to recent events and how things simply felt off when she wasn’t around. “Yeah. Yeah, I have.”
“We also start annoying people when we’re together.”
“Like with Katryna.”
“Yep,” she replied. “There are also some other things that are slipping my mind, but we can look those up later when we get the chance. That said, the one that always stuck with me was Faithful till the End.”
“Why’s that?” Ethan asked, both intrigued and wary as to what it would entail.
“It’s an automatic pickup trait when we’re devoted and can be tragically romantic.”
“Explain, because I’m really trying to avoid the whole tragedy here.”
“It’s simple, really. We’ll never leave the other in a fight, regardless of circumstances. It’s usually a good thing because of the insane bonus we’ll have together at that point, but it’s been the undoing of more than one set of lovestruck vamps—ancient ones at that, hence the romantic tragedies.”
“I see,” Ethan said, trying to decide on how he felt about where this was headed. “I don’t mind the romance part or the fighting bonus part, but if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to win this thing still and go home, alive, and in one piece.”
A new voice joined in the conversation. “Found your pet.”
Ethan turned to find Katryna and Maii a few paces away. “I don’t think he likes being called my pet,” the ahuizotl said, before yawning and entering into a deep, downward dog stretch. “Pride and all.”
“I’m not your pet,” Ethan said.
Maii smacked his bloodstained lips together and looked up at Katryna with a knowing grin. “What did I tell you?”
The smugness on the creature’s face put a knot in Ethan’s stomach, and he reflexively toyed with the ring he had. When he finally noticed what his subconscious was doing, Ethan spent a few seconds looking back and forth between the metal band and the ahuizotl.
Katryna picked up on his angst first or at least was the first to speak on it. “Something wrong?”
“Raise your front leg,” Ethan said, keeping his focus on Maii.
Maii complied with a shrug, hoisting his left paw up into the air like a dog giving a shake for a treat.
“Scratch your head with your tail.”
Again, Maii shrugged and complied. At first, he seemed annoyed, but when the claws found the sweet spot behind the right ear, the look of bliss washed across the monster’s face. “Ooh, yeah. I like that.”
“Hey!” Katryna said, snapping her fingers to grab Ethan’s attention. “What’s going on?”
When Ethan didn’t answer immediately but instead kept his focus on Maii, Zoey filled the swashbuckler in. “His ring’s tarnished,” Zoey said, pointing to Ethan’s hand. “And it burned him not that long ago.”
Katryna looked down at Maii with indifference. “Are you free now?” she asked, with about as much concern as she probably had when taking a swig of rum.
“No,” he replied.
“Would you tell us if you were?” Ethan asked.
“I see no reason why I wouldn’t,” Maii answered. “It’s not as if I haven’t already told you I’d be free of it one day already.”
Ethan relaxed a little at that last point. The ahuizotl had indeed made that crystal clear, but even with that in mind, Ethan had questions—questions and worries. “Okay, but why is this ring loose and tarnished if it still controls you?”
Maii leaned forward, examining the piece of jewelry like a minor curiosity found in the bottom of a strong box. “I’m hardly the enchanter, so I can’t say I’d be able to offer you a good explanation,” he said. “But I’d wager it has something to do with the last spell that witch doctor tried to get off before I ate him. I guess it hit me a little more than I thought.”
“You killed the witch doctor?”
“That was implied when I said I ate him,” Maii said, flashing the largest predatory grin Ethan had ever seen.
“How much stronger did that make you?”
“Oh, quite a bit more than I’d dared to hope,” Maii said. The creature rolled his shoulders a couple of times to show off bulging muscles. As he did, his dark coat took on a bright sheen that rippled with colors. “Do you think we could find another to eat? I’d like that.”
“I’m sure you would.”
Zoey tugged Ethan by the arm. “Can I talk to you for a second in private?”
“Yeah. What is it?” Ethan replied.
Zoey tightened her grip around his elbow and dragged him away several yards. When they stopped, she dropped her voice to such a quiet whisper, even she probably had trouble hearing it. “I’m not sure we should take him along anymore.”
“You think he’s lying about not being free?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him.”
Ethan frowned. He’d had that nagging feeling as well, but he didn’t want to be down a pet monster, either.
“You know,” he said. “You were the one who said I should have a pocket ahuizotl. We even went with that when I started picking abilities.”
“Yeah, I know, but that was back when I thought you’d be closer to being a vampire lord than you are now.”
“I’m pretty close.”
“You’re pretty not,” she replied. “A lot of things around here would still tear you apart in seconds, him included.”
Ethan flattened his lips into a tight line, not liking what she’d said. “We’ll have to agree to disagree,” he said as he massaged his bruised ego. He didn’t want to think about still being weak or incapable of standing up for himself. That was the old Ethan. The new Ethan, Captain Ethan—vampire lord (to be) Ethan—was anything but helpless. And he loved every bit of it. That said, a perfectly valid point popped into mind, one that he was quick to share. “We might need him against Azrael,” he said. “And winning that race is the most important thing of all.”
“It is, but we can’t win if he kills us,” she said. “And even if he doesn’t, he could still muck things up enough so that we don’t win.”
“Well, we don’t know either way yet, right?” Ethan said after mulling over her words. “We’ll keep an eye on him and keep him happy. After all, we’re only talking two weeks. We can manage that, right?”
“I hope so.”
Ethan nodded definitively, as if such an action had the power to make it so. “We will. You’ll see.” With that, the two returned. Katryna was lazily reloading her pistol, while Maii simply sat on his haunches, quietly watching him.
“Alright, Maii,” Ethan said, “I want you to give me your word you’re not tricking us.”
“On my honor,” Maii said, with a deep, sweeping bow of his head.
“And you’re not going to eat us, either,” Ethan added.
“Provided you don’t attack me, yes, Master Ethan, I have no plans on doing such a thing,” Maii said.
Ethan wasn’t sure how much he believed such oaths bound a creature like Maii, but he’d wanted Maii to make them simply so he could see how the ahuizotl reacted. Sadly, he felt as if he hadn’t gleaned a thing. He still had no idea whether or not Maii was telling the truth, but he was willing to delude himself enough to give Maii the benefit of the doubt. “Alright, good,” Ethan said, “because I’m quite certain as long as we’re friends, you’re going to get your fill.”
“I’m quite sure even if we weren’t, I’d still get it,” Maii tacked on.
Ethan narrowed his eyes. “I believe I said for you not to mess with me.”
“Merely stating a truth,” he grinned. “But if such things are unsettling, I shall keep them to myself.”
“Let’s just stay focused on what matters: the race,” Ethan said. “And with that in mind, we have a crew to organize and preparations to make.”
* * *
Three hours after sunrise, from inside the longboat, Ethan hoisted himself up the rope ladder and climbed aboard the corsair’s frigate. Jean Bayard, along with a dozen and a half others, had sailed the ship around the island and had dropped anchor about fifty yards away from the docks of Lenada. There it now sat, rocking slowly, surrounded by crystal-clear water, waiting for Ethan and the others to divvy up whatever spoils they found aboard.
“Oh wow, look at that guy,” Ethan said, pausing near the top of the rope and pointing. Off to the side, across the tops of vibrant coral, a colorful octopus made his way along, tentacles stretching in all directions. “Wonder if he’s friendly. He looks cool.”
Katryna grabbed him by the wrist and helped him up the last couple of feet and onto the deck. “Cool, yes. Friendly, no.”
“No?”
“No,” she said. “Augustus is one of the grumpiest things on this island. Best to leave him be.”
“Maybe he’s misunderstood,” Ethan said, shrugging and thinking he’d still like to meet the creature. “I bet a little shrimp would go a long way to making him friendly. Who’d turn down free shrimp?”
“Trust me, the four separate people he killed last month all thought similar things,” Katryna said, drawing back the corner of her mouth. “He goes from passive to aggressive in the blink of an eye, and he’s so venomous, I doubt even your special blood would save you.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Ethan said.
At that point, he redirected his attention to the corsair ship. She held a total of three masts, all sporting a square rig with currently furled sails. Sixteen cannons lined the main deck, eight to a side, each one looking a lot shorter than the ones Ethan’s ship held. Those, however, were not the end to the ship’s armament. As they’d rowed over, Ethan had counted another eight gun ports on the deck below, putting the total number of cannons she sported to thirty-two, not counting the four small swivel guns mounted near the bow.
“Nice ship,” Zoey said as she climbed onto the deck. “Too bad we can’t take her.”
“Why not?” Ethan asked. “We get first dibs, right? Or rather, next dibs.”
“No, you don’t,” said one Thomas Drake, cutting into the conversation. Thomas was a giant of a man Ethan had met not even an hour ago and was also the appointed leader of the thirty-three men who opted to remain on Lenada and rebuild the town. He stood near the stairs leading to the quarterdeck, built like an ox, dressed in light breeches and an open shirt. A cutlass hung off his hip, while a trio of pistols stuffed into his belt were all within easy reach, and he stared at Ethan with eyes that had thousands of nightmares behind them. “You’ll get your share of what’s here. No more. No less.”
“I’ll be deciding what we take, seeing how you’d still be in chains if we hadn’t come by,” Ethan said, squaring off with the man. Deep down, he didn’t want a confrontation, but he also knew from the moment they’d met, Thomas wasn’t the sort of person who took kindly to weakness. “Just be glad we’re not taking the whole ship.”
“As if I’d let you,” Thomas said.
“As if you could stop me,” Ethan said.
Thomas started for him, and Ethan reflexively went for his pistol. Before the confrontation could escalate, Zoey appeared between them both. “Gentlemen,” she said, arms outstretched, voice firm. “You two only have to be cordial for a few more minutes with each other, and fighting helps no one.”
“I have a town to rebuild and men to look after,” Thomas said, narrowing his eyes. “I suggest you keep that in mind when you tell me what you think you’re going to take.”
“You do,” Ethan said, his words firm but genuine, and to that, Thomas relaxed. “And we don’t need much,” he went on. “In truth, anything in excess will only slow us down.”
“What are you thinking then, extra lines and fabric, or just part of the coffers?” Katryna asked.
Ethan nodded, but as he scanned the ship's deck, he once again took note of the armament it had. “What’s with the stubby guns?” he asked, nodding toward the closest one. “They seem a little…weird.”
Thomas snorted with a mocking laugh. “Never seen a carronade? What sort of captain are you?”
“One from very far away,” Ethan said, not missing a beat. “Mind telling me what’s so special about them?”
“They’re devastating for their weight at close range, that’s what, since they don’t have long barrels and can fire much bigger and heavier shot,” he said. “The tradeoff is they’re terrible at a distance. If you’re not up close and personal, a long gun is what you want.”
Ethan nodded. “Zoey, are these lighter than what we have? It looks like they might be.”
The vampire eyed the guns for a few seconds before replying. “They should be, by at least a few hundred pounds.”
Ethan ran a quick mental calculation, hoping his mighty eleven INT points were up to the task. “That means we’d be about five thousand pounds lighter if we swapped our guns for these?”
“Sounds right,” Zoey said with a nod. “We’d also be firing thirty-two-pound shot
instead of nine.”
“So, we’d essentially be fielding nearly four times the firepower for a lot less weight.”
“More or less.”
“Then how is that not good for a race since we’ll also go faster?”
“We’ll get chewed to pieces if we go up against anyone who realizes what we have and stays far away,” she said.
“Which won’t matter if we’re out running them.”
“True,” she said. Her hands found her hips, and she drummed her fingers on them for a moment.
In the meantime, Ethan turned to Katryna. “What do you think?”
“Not sure,” she admitted reluctantly. “I could see the decision go either way. You’re the captain. It’s your call.”
“That I am,” he said. He still liked his idea a lot, actually, but at the same time, Zoey’s point that they’d be weak stuck painfully in his mind. Still, being faster had to be the right choice, he thought, and being unexpected had to have its benefits, too.
“Alright, Thomas,” Ethan said, turning to him. “This is what we’re going to do. We’ll take the carronades, the shot that goes with them, and a hundred pounds to go directly to our crew. We’ve already found triple the coin back at the fort. You and the others can have everything else, including this ship and whatever cargo it has. That should be more than enough to let you rebuild.”
“Absolutely not,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t mind giving the men their share of coin, but each one of those guns is worth a small fortune. There’s no way in hell you’re setting sail with all of that.”
“They may be worth a small fortune, but you’re getting the cannons we have already on the Victory in trade,” Ethan said. “And from what I can gather, you’ll want those on the shore anyway.”
Thomas grumbled to himself for a few seconds. “Fine,” he eventually said, sticking out his hand. “It’s a deal.”
Ethan smiled and shook. “Done. Now let’s get these moved so we can be on our way.”
Chapter Thirteen
Engagement
The Crew (Captains & Cannons Book 2) Page 11
