One small knothole in one of the panels allowed a single slim shaft of daylight to slice through into the gloom. Jun held out her hand to catch the tiny struggling ray in her palm as her hope narrowed to that same pinhole.
As surely as the sun shone this day, Jun was dead unless she could come up with a way to get out of this room.
She’d been deceived and by the undeniable evidence now surrounding her, Peng had planned this deception and betrayal for quite some time. Had he hired and used Will as part of his evil plan? And then betrayed him as well in the great hall? Or had Will’s arrival just played into his scheme?
Jun sank to the floor again and covered her face with her hands. She searched her memory for some sign she had missed along the way. Anything that would have alerted her to Peng’s plot. Will couldn’t have been part of this. That would be too much to bear.
No, this screamed of Peng’s exhaustive attention to every possible detail. He was too thorough in his execution of even the smallest task. It was one of his traits she used to admire. Jun’s anger raged. She’d make sure she was equally meticulous when she hung him by the balls and ripped his head off.
Jun’s eyes slowly adjusted to the dark as she surveyed the emptiness surrounding her. What could have spurred him to go to such extremes? Peng had objected to her relationship to Will, but this was so far beyond a simple act of jealousy. Peng couldn’t have executed all of this in so short a time.
No, her abduction had been cold and calculated. How had Peng managed to turn her own crew against her? She struggled to remember. They’d moved her below so quickly. Had it been her crew at the helm or had he changed out her men for his own?
Jun couldn’t breathe. The air in the room was stale and thick with the heat of the day. Stifling. Sweat ran down the channel of her spine. She pulled at the thick leather strapping of her armor.
Ignore the heat. Think, damn it! She got to her feet and began pacing the length of the room. Her boots sounded muffled in the contained space. The only image that continued to circle in her thoughts was Peng’s men knocking Will to the ground. A smear of blood upon the tiles. Was Will alive? Jun’s heart ached at the thought. Peng was a cold ruthless killer. Yet another skill of his extensive training she once admired. But that was when he was doing her bidding. Now…she cringed at the extent of the brutality she knew he was capable of. If Peng wanted Will eliminated, the deed would already be done. Will would already be dead. A sob caught in her throat. She tore at her armor until it released and she cast it from her. The silk beneath clung to her skin.
And what about the rest? Would Qi and Ting be spared? Her village? Her advisors? How sweeping was this mutiny? Were Peng’s men laying waste to them all? Executing them as she sat here, helpless to save them? And how long before she would meet her end like the rest?
The door swung open bringing a rush of cool air and Peng carrying a lantern and a pistol. He was alone and closed the door tight behind him.
“You wasted no time,” Jun spun on him. “I’ve barely settled into my new quarters.” Her rush to attack him was halted by the dark barrel of his gun pointed at her face.
“I’ve wasted years,” he sneered. “But no more. It is my time now. I’ve worked everything out to the tiniest detail.” His free hand swept the empty room. “And it was so much simpler than I imagined getting you here. Thank you for that.”
Jun’s back teeth were threatening to crumble under the tension in her jaw. All she needed was one slip. One flaw in his movements. She narrowed her eyes and watched, waited. “How long have you been planning this ridiculous plot?”
Peng lifted one shoulder. “What does that matter? And it could only be deemed ridiculous if it hadn’t succeeded so brilliantly.”
“Brilliant is not what I’d call this, but I applaud your dedication. It must have taken months to arrange. How did you ever manage to turn my entire fleet against me?”
“Oh, no, no…” Peng shook his head and gave her a pitying look. “On the contrary. You are still much loved by all. I’m counting on your fleet’s loyalty. Fighting so many would be foolish. No, fear not, your reign may be over, but your sterling legend will live on forever.”
The glib tone to his words scratched like iced claws down her skin, but he would never see her fear. She’d never give him the satisfaction. “How do you plan on getting away with this?”
“Easy. I’m using your lover.” Peng waved the pistol at her. Did that mean Will lived? Jun tried to keep her emotions in check. Peng would use any advantage.
He continued to gloat. “How fortuitous for me that he arrived when he did. I imagine it would have been weeks more planning had he not washed up on our shores and given me the perfect opportunity to conclude my plot against you.” Peng stroked his beard. “Soon everyone will know he came to our waters only to worm his way into your good graces so he could ultimately kill you for the bounty on your head. He was a fraud. A British spy sent to kill you. Being a weak woman, of course, you fell for his lies. I tried to caution you. It was I who saw through his deceit and continued to warn you against him, but you wouldn’t listen. Refused my sage counsel, and that is what led to your demise.
“When you finally discovered his treachery, you ordered his death, of course, but not before he confessed that his shipwreck had all been staged. There was no ship lost in the storm. The wreckage on the beach had been planted here. He warned you his men waited for him off the coast of Salahnama.”
Peng shook his head at her and ticked his tongue. “So ashamed you had been taken in, you refused to believe he had gotten the better of you. To save face, you pig-headedly sailed into the very ambush he’d warned you about. You were taken prisoner and tortured mercilessly by our enemies.” He laid a hand on his chest. “I tried to stop you, of course. Convince you to send your men instead. But your stubborn nature has always been your fatal weakness, Jun. You wouldn’t listen to reason. I even took my own ship to chase after you. But alas, I was too late. We defeated the threat against us, of course, but we were too late to save you. You died gloriously in my arms, bloodied and beaten, but not before you graced me with your crown. A final gift for all my years of loving devotion. Trusting me to take your fleet, and honor your wishes to make us the most powerful force in the world.”
Chilled sweat rolled down her temples. “No one will believe this.”
“They already do.” He smiled. “You will die the sad misguided hero, which is more than you deserve. But your tragic, brutal death will tighten the resolve of the fleet, and their anger and revenge will stoke the fires of our crews. We’ll be unstoppable.”
“Why, Peng?” She swept her arms to the sides. “Why go to all this trouble? You are the second in command. Why turn on me now when I have given you so much already? Made you my first mate. Gave you a position of honor amongst my men. Why would you—”
“Because it all should have been mine from the beginning.” Peng pounded a fist to his chest. “I should have inherited the fleet. I should have taken Fu’s place in every way.” He pointed the pistol into her face, his eyes wild. “But you marched in after his death like a bloody fool wearing his bloody armor and took what was mine.” Spittle formed in the corners of his mouth. “Even then I had hoped that you would in time come to join with me and we would rule together. So I humbled myself while you played the great ice empress. I sacrificed everything to serve you. How many times did I bow and scrape and kiss your hems. I offered you my life—my heart—and time after time you rejected me. You may have fooled the rest into believing your own propaganda, but you were never a queen in my eyes. Some may have forgotten what you are, but not I.” He sneered in disgust as his gaze raked over her.
A thick vein stood out on his forehead. Jun remained coldly silent. Letting him have his rant. Hoping to find some hole in his insane reasoning. Waiting for any chance.
Peng was silent for a long moment as he gathered himself. Whe
n he spoke again his anger had been replaced by something even more sinister. His tone was low. Chilling. “I’ve seen you. Watched you when you escaped into your precious garden sanctuary and thought you were alone. I’ve become quite adept at sneaking into the shadows. When you slip into your daily bath, I’m there. Finding my pleasure within a perfect hiding place. Hidden away to…entertain myself not ten feet from the sight of your tub. Fu confided in me one drunken night. He built the room behind the carved walls. It was a particular fetish of his as well to spy on you. Didn’t he tell you? All those times…watching. But then Fu was gone and in this, at least, I took his place. And there was no one to stop me.”
Bile rose in Jun’s throat. She began to shake.
“I’ve seen you let down your hair. Heard the small satisfied sigh you breathed when you lowered yourself into the water. I know the exact shape of your perfect breasts and how brazenly you slide the soap over your nipples. And how the water sluices over your thighs when you raise your leg to wash.”
Jun couldn’t feel her hands. His admission paralyzed her.
He waved the pistol lower. “At first I was repulsed to see that hideous flower covering your filthy cunt, but then it was all I could picture when I imagined you pleasuring yourself beneath the water. Your teasing fingers plucking at those garish pinked petals.”
It was all Jun could do not to cover herself as if she stood naked before him now. The cold numbing shock was giving way to a slow hot fury, however. The flames of her anger began to burn deep in her belly.
Peng’s eyes hardened. “But now you’ve spread your legs for him. A deaf man. An inferior westerner. A cursed man who washed up on our shores like a piece of discarded filth from the sea. And still you lay with him. Took him into your sainted bed. Sainted, ha! The great Jian Jun. Convincing everyone of her chaste life. Playing the grieving widow. The pure innocent. Ha.” He moved closer, jammed the barrel of the gun hard under her chin and spit into her face. “Once a whore, always a whore. Fu should have left you where he found you.”
Jun held his hateful gaze for a long moment. If she had her blade she would have split him open from his crotch to his skull. Instead, she forced herself not to blink. Furious tears washed her eyes.
She used them.
“I-I never knew, Peng. You never told me how you felt. I only took Will into my bed because I was so desperately lonely. Had you given me some idea of your feelings. Come to me.” She laid a hand on his arm, but removed it when he put more pressure on the pistol at her throat. “Fu’s voyeurism excited me. If you had let me know you shared his obsession, I could have danced for you like I did for him.” It took all she had not to gag on the words. “We could have been together. Been discreet. It’s not too late. You could stop all this nonsense. Turn this ship around. We could go back. Rule the empire together. As one. Side by side.” The lies turned to dust on her tongue. If she could play on his sick mania…get him to lower the pistol for just a moment…
He laughed and shoved her away from him. “Why would I ever want you now? I don’t want some used cast-off whore. And after what I found, I certainly don’t need you anymore. While you were busy fucking Captain Quinn, I was learning all I needed to know about how he made his way to our threshold. I discovered his secret.”
Peng fished into his pocket and pulled out sheets of paper. Jun recognized them at once. He waved the stolen pages from Will’s log in her face. “I’ll be the one to open up the world to our mighty force. I’ve uncovered the mystery guarding the west. Found a safe passage to unleash the Dragon’s Fire on the rest of the world.” He notched his chin. “It will all be mine.”
“Your people will hail me as their hero. In time, you’ll be an afterthought scribbled in the depths of some moldy history book while I will be proclaimed as the most powerful ruler to have ever lived.”
The corruption of his brain was complete. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. It was frightening to behold such a twisted sense of reality. There had to be a way to stop him. Jun’s hands curled into fists. “You’ll never get away with this.”
Peng laughed at her. “I already have.”
She swung her arms wide “Then please, I beg you, end this. If you’re going to kill me, what are you waiting for? Finish your perfectly planned plot. Shoot me.”
“So impatient.” Peng scratched at his beard. “I’ve waited for this moment for so long. Years. You must allow me to savor it.” He smiled a chilling smile. “Why not enjoy myself? I’ve earned this moment. But like any plot, it’s best when the plan is allowed to be fluid like the sea. Able to ebb and flow with the whim of fate. Much more enjoyable that way. Don’t you agree?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer before continuing. “I was going to order my men to kill Captain Quinn the moment I seized him, but then you promised to take his head yourself. I couldn’t help but get a wonderful idea. I wonder, would you still remove his head if it meant you’d save your own neck?”
The air rushed from her lungs. A thin ray of hope sliced through the darkness. “He’s still alive.”
“For now.” He tipped his head and studied her. “Don’t look so pleased. I suppose it wasn’t much of a bargain, knowing I’m going to kill you anyway. No bother. I’ll do your dirty work for you. Again.” Peng returned to the door and gave it two quick knocks. “I’ve been doing it for years. You’ve enjoyed waving that judgmental hand of yours and making me carry out your cruel punishments with every flick of your pale wrist while you kept the blood from your own hands.” The door opened and Peng moved to leave. “It’s about time you appreciated just how vile I can be for you, my queen. It will be quite a lengthy show. You should rest up.”
Peng’s slow smile sent ice through Jun’s veins. “I give you my promise, you will see your precious Captain Quinn once more before I slice him into bite-sized morsels for the sharks. You’ll have to wait just a bit longer to reunite, however. I’ve decided to give him a bit of a show as well. I do hope he likes surprises.”
Chapter 21
Will woke with his face in filth and his head trying to pound its way off his shoulders. What the bloody hell? He fingered the tender swelling at the base of his skull before the room started to spin. Closed his eyes, he tried to get his bearings. His stomach roiled. Where the hell was he? What was the last thing he could remember?
Jun. Jun’s face peering at him around the back of that bastard Chou Peng. As four men blindsided him. Will’s head felt like they’d tried to cleave it in two. What had they hit him with? A cannonball?
He struggled to sit, and cranked open one eye. Thankfully the room ceased spinning. Will placed his hands flat on the floor. The room may have stopped twirling, but he knew rocking when he felt it. Wherever he was, he was back on the water.
The ship wasn’t moving, however. Anchored, not moored, by the gentle yaw of the bow. Still, without knowing how long they’d extinguished his lights, he had no way of knowing where they’d taken him. He could be forty feet from shore or forty miles.
One thing he was certain of, he was in a cell. Iron bars made up one wall. Will curled his lip at the stagnant odor of unwashed bodies and fetid straw. They’d thrown him on a prison barge. By the pungent smell, he wasn’t the first inhabitant, nor the only.
He tried to stand, but the violent spinning returned. Maybe they hit him with the whole cannon. Will closed his eyes again as darkness closed over him.
When he opened his eyes once more, what little light penetrated this lower deck had shifted. Hours must have passed. Damn it, he needed to stay conscious if he was ever going to figure how the hell to get out of here. At least the pounding in his head had lessened some to just a blinding throb.
Slowly, Will made it to his feet without passing out or throwing up. Things were looking up. He moved to the bars and peered out. Cells lined the outer walls of the ship. It was difficult to see into the murky depths, but he could just make out the ba
re, filthy feet of one occupant and the curled figure of another.
The air closer to the door was only slightly better. Will tested the door by tugging at it. Nothing gave even slightly. The bars were solid and a thick block lock showed no sign of weakness. He slid down the bars to sit again.
Will blew out a breath. The last time he’d been in a cell like this, he’d been on his way to get his neck stretched by the British. Images of the heads he’d seen in the village reminded him that the Dragon’s Fire Fleet didn’t go in much for hanging. Shorter corpses were all the rage here. Loppings were more their style. What were the odds he’d pull his arse out of this mess? Death was an angry bastard, and he’d already cheated him out of his soul more times than he could remember. Odds were slim this time.
But where was Jun in all of this? His capture had happened too fast back in the great hall. One minute he’d been heading to confront her about the missing pages of his logbook, and the next he’d been tasting the floor tiles.
Will frowned, trying to bring up the image of Jun’s face in his mind’s eye. Had it been surprise he’d seen? Fear? Fear for him? For herself? He’d only glimpsed her for a sliver of a moment. But here he sat. Was it by her order that he’d been locked up? Had she taken his anger as aggression toward her? Had this been her plan all along?
She had to know he’d never hurt her. Regardless of what she’d done with his log. Even if it were true that she used him only to warm her bed so she could gain information. Yes, he’d be devastated that once again he’d let his heart lead him into a doomed-from-the-dock relationship, but it wasn’t the first time he’d been fooled by a beautiful face.
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