by Lucas Thorn
“She’s a tough little cricket,” Halvir said. Ran his big fingers through his thinning hair. “Good swimmer, too.”
“Sure. Sure she is.” Maks looked to make a mental stock of the situation before nodding to himself. “Well, we ain’t gonna get fed sitting around here. I reckon we’ll have to work for breakfast. We’ll head on in to Flowing Tears. Grab some supplies. Then I’m all for getting to Cold and finding out why the fuck our crew got themselves eaten by draug. No offence, Saja, but the fucking Madman’s gone more than mad to be chowing down on our boys.”
“No offence,” she said, not quite cheerful. “I’m sure Ihan will tell us it was all a mistake and nothing personal. Something like this has to happen now and then, I guess. He’s not called the Madman for nothing, right?”
“That’s a fatalistic way of looking at it,” Maks said. “We lost friends, remember?”
Halvir clicked his teeth. “It’s the Crossbones way, Maks. You should know that. You can’t fight the tide. We’ll get to town. Crossbones is a place where death comes fast, and you don’t always see it approach. The captain knew that. Our crew knew that.”
“Speaking of tides, I need beer,” Saja said loudly. “Just letting you know.”
“I think we all do.” Halvir slapped his belly hard. “And lots of it! Drink to the crew, all of them. A cup for every man and woman lost. Double for the captain.”
Nysta found herself nodding at the thought of something harder to drink than water. Anything, really, to get the taste of salt from her mouth. Shrugged back into her jacket and unconsciously dropped her hand to the hilt of A Flaw in the Glass. Began to drift her fingers over her knives. Touching each as her lips mouthed their names. She’d lost a couple to the draug. Few more to the sea as she was tumbled to the shore.
One or two of which she regretted losing.
Found Maks’ one good eye watching her and returned his look with an impassive stare of her own. “You want something, feller?”
“Nothing,” he said. Looked around and grabbed Geri by the scruff of his neck. “You move on up ahead. Keep an eye on the trail. I don’t want any draug jumping us.”
“You think they followed?”
“Nope. But it don’t hurt to be careful. Could kill us if I’m wrong, though.”
“I’m on it, then.” The young man flitted off toward the trees. “Trail’s this way. Already found it this morning.”
The ferns and low-growing brush which lined the coast quickly gave way to a forest of damp trees. Mostly spruce still brushed with moisture left by early morning mist.
After an hour, the sun was spearing warm rays through the trees and the sky was a pale shade of blue. Gulls, roused to raucous song by first light, were drifting away into silent observation as the five figures moved steadily down the road.
The white birds arced overhead, wheeling out on warm winds in search of food.
Saja wiped sweat from her face and breathed deeply. The young woman, more tired than she was letting on, was slowly falling back and the elf found herself at times almost alone between Maks and Geri and the other two raiders.
Looking back, she found Saja purse-lipped and looking troubled. Not responding much to Halvir’s occasional probing.
Not sure what to say, the elf began to feel the kind of nervousness which comes from unfamiliarity. She didn’t know these people. Didn’t know this place. Yet, she had to trust they knew what they were doing and where they were going.
And also trust their intentions.
Which, she realised with sudden disgust, she’d done.
Despite the fact they were thieves, mercenaries and raiders. She hadn’t questioned their motives. Not once.
“Getting soft,” she murmured.
Halvir looked up. He was limping heavily. “What’s that?”
“Nothing,” the elf said, watching another flock of white birds streak past overhead. “Just wondering if I’m getting to be too much like them.”
“Huh?”
“Gullible.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The island called Temple was like most islands in the Crossbones. A mountainous spine sticking out of the ocean with only a narrow strip of flattened coast around it. Clinging to the sides, forests of spruce mingled with rare copses of yew.
Moss and lichen tasted the rocks and trees with creeping tongues. Curled claws of small ferns squeezed into the shadows beneath the trees and around them, forming a thick underbrush which gave vague hints to places where bodies could be easily shrouded in soil. A thought she was beginning to toy with as the four raiders lapsed into silence. The kind of silence she found awkward, especially as an outsider.
There was tension here, she thought.
She just wasn’t sure why. Or how much was due to her.
Her hands continued to brush slowly across the handles of her knives. And as her fingers moved, so did her eyes. Flicked from Geri to Maks.
Noted their weapons.
Geri still had his axe in its loop on his waist, but also a dagger shoved down his belt at the back. Not a good dagger, and he didn’t look after it. Salt and water had worked to scar the iron with rust. But the blade was thick and had a firm point so could still kill. Maks, however, looked after his knife which waited in a weathered sheath on his hip.
Axe in its loop on the other side. And he carried a small sword in his meaty right hand like he was expecting trouble.
A seasoned raider, used to prowling unfamiliar lands and expecting violence at any breath.
Cursing inwardly, she accepted she hadn’t considered him a threat before.
Another knife in his boot, the butt only barely visible above the fur lining.
Still bringing up the rear, Saja’s axe was tucked loosely into her belt. No loop. She shifted it around often as it nudged into the side of her waist. No knife the elf could see, but the young woman’s jerkin looked heavier on the right side.
A dagger, then. Not very big. Probably sheathed against her lower ribs.
Then there was Halvir. He bore two axes which he’d managed to cling to while struggling in the surf. A long knife strapped to his thigh. She’d never seen him draw it. She’d seen him use the axes, though, and he was quick.
Had the two raiders dropped back so they could pin the elf between Geri and Maks?
Her violet eyes thinned as Geri looked over his shoulder and his electric blue eyes met hers. He looked for a second like he wanted to spit at her. Instead, said lamely; “It ain’t far.”
She shrugged at him. Chose to say nothing.
But warmth moved sluggishly through her body as her suspicious thoughts invited adrenaline to trickle into her blood.
Maks, sensing the change in her, slowed his pace for a moment. “Everything alright?”
“I’ll let you know.”
Not sure how to take her comment, the one-eyed man frowned and looked away. Set his sights instead on the road ahead which began to curve around the shoulder of the mountainous rise it’d been following. In the way it curved, there was a promise of steep climbing that made the elf want to groan.
Geri jogged onward after a quick exchange with Maks. Tugged his axe free as he went.
Halvir stepped wide, moving into the brush without being told to. Drew his axes and shouldered his way into the gloom to look for draug. Or anyone else who might want to take advantage of their shipwrecked state.
She was surprised by the tightness of the group. The way they kept moving quickly across the land despite their shared bruises and deeper wounds. Even Halvir hadn’t fallen back too far. Most sailors she’d known seemed to hate being on land too long. Certainly wouldn’t have marched so efficiently after leaving the sea.
But these were raiders, she reminded herself.
Fighting men first. Sailors second. She’d simply gotten used to thinking of these raiders as sailors who sometimes fought. In the cold light of morning, with the draug apparently left behind, she’d let their killing abilities slide from the front of her thoughts.
&n
bsp; They made a living journeying south and attacking small towns and sometimes fortresses. They knew the need for stealth and cunning as well as strength and power. Resilience was key to their success.
Watching them fan out, she squeezed fingers around A Flaw in the Glass but stopped short of sliding the enchanted blade free. “We expecting trouble?”
“Not that I know of,” Maks said. “But with the Madman acting up like that, who knows? I’d tell you to loosen those knives in their sheaths, but I reckon you already got to that point a while back.”
“I don’t trust easy.”
“Figured that, and I can’t say I blame you. I don’t trust anyone in the Crossbones. Not even myself.” He wiped sweat from his cheeks with the back of his hand. “Was a time when you could count on your neighbour. That time’s long gone. World’s been changing for a while now.”
“Doom and gloom this early in the morning, Maks?” Saja gave a skip to catch up, choosing to walk beside the elf. “Don’t listen to him. It ain’t that bad. Ihan keeps us together.”
“Ihan’s old,” Maks said, not meeting the young woman’s eyes. “And his ideas are old. He hasn’t said anything coherent in years.”
“You’re old, too.”
“Yeah, I am.” He tucked the sword under his arm and stretched his fingers, popping a few knuckles as if to reinforce the point. “So I’ve seen the changes around here. When I was young, the Madman meant a lot to the Crossbones. And Ihan was strong. He talked more often. Even came out of the temple sometimes. Nowadays, he just cuts stone and ain’t said more than a grunt. And look at Geri, Saja. He thinks becoming a draug when he dies would be the worst thing that could happen to him. To his soul. He wants to go to a better place. Not a worse one. And I can’t say I blame him. It’s something to think about, right?”
“Geri’s an idiot,” Saja said with a snort. “The Temple’s part of our heritage, Maks. Sure, sometimes the Madman comes down hard on us. Sometimes his draug take one of our boats. And the Ox just had his turn. But that’s the price, right? The price we pay for the Madman’s protection.”
“So, you’re happy he took your friends?”
“No, I’m not happy. Do I look happy? But I believe there’s a reason. A purpose to what he does no matter how mad he is. All of us aboard the Ox believed that. Okay, maybe not you. And maybe not Geri. But the rest of us, we believed. Maybe Rule’s sending more ships this year. Maybe there’s more draug needed. We just don’t know. But I’ll trust him until I find out otherwise.” She sighed. “Because we owe him for keeping us safe from Rule for this long. If it weren’t for him and the draug, we’d all be dead now. Or worse, slaves. Slaves to Rule. All of us. I won’t be a slave, Maks. I’d rather be food for fish.”
The one-eyed man looked away, unable to hold the intensity of the young woman’s stare. “The old ways are dying, Saja,” he said. “Things change. You’re still young, you know. One day, maybe you’ll understand.”
“Things don’t change all that much.” Stubborn and proud, Saja lifted her head as she walked. “And I don’t give a shit what you and Geri think. I’ll still pledge my flesh and bind my soul at the temple.”
“He’s not worth your worship!” Sudden venom hissed in the old raider’s words. “He’s no god. He’s just a crazed thing which hasn’t learned to die.”
“Reckon dying’s a lesson I wouldn’t want to learn either,” the elf put in.
Saja grinned. “See? Even an elf can see the Madman’s got the edge right now. So, he hasn’t learned to die. Means Rule can’t kill him. And we need that now more than ever.”
Maks shook his head, looking suddenly more tired than before. “I won’t fight you, Saja,” he said. “But I’ll pity you if you don’t mind.”
“Fuck your pity. Keep it. Shove it up your ass.”
“Fine.” He moved faster, putting some distance between them. “It’s your soul. Do with it whatever you want.”
They watched him go, though where the elf stared with impassive expression, Saja looked more concerned. “Did he seem strange to you?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Nysta said. “He any different now than before?”
“I don’t know. But since this morning, it’s like I don’t know him. Like his eyes belong to him, but the person looking out through them is someone else’s. Someone I’ve never met before.” She shrugged it off, sucking a deep breath of clean air. “When you’re at sea, you try not to press buttons, you know. We all got beliefs. Not everyone goes by Ihan’s way of thinking. And the Crossbones has always had more than its share of beliefs. I know lots of people think putting our trust in the Madman makes us just as insane as he is. But there’s a kind of freedom in being crazy, you know? It means you don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not. Sometimes I wonder if we’re the ones who are insane. Not him.”
Halvir appeared out of the dark, a thoughtful look on his face as he slid one axe into its loop but kept the other in his big fist. “Shouldn’t poke Maks, kid,” he said. “He’s a bear you don’t want to piss off.”
“Ah, fuck Maks. He’s an asshole sometimes. What about you, Halvir? You gonna pledge your flesh?”
“Already did,” he said. Grinned wide. “Was drunk at the time and pissed all over the altar. Ihan yelled at me about it the next day. Couldn’t yell at me at the time, of course. He’d had more beer than me. Like you, I figure I won’t be using my body when I die, so fuck it. He can have it. We owe him like you said. I reckon it’ll be fun looking down from the Shadowed Halls while my body keeps killing Caspies. Surely that’ll make us special, right? The Old Skeleton would have to give us a great place at the table for that.”
“Right at the top.” Saja nodded, patting her stomach. “Right near the meat. Dragon meat, it’ll be. Thick fucking slabs big enough to feed a hundred men.”
“Dragon, is it?” He smirked at her. “Dragon’s for the best warriors. For you, I reckon all you’ll get is mouse.”
She punched his arm and was about to fire off a playful retort when Geri let out a strangled shout and cut her short.
Maks powered ahead, giving up all pretence at stealth, and the other three quickly followed with the elf deliberately pushing herself to the rear. Still unable to trust this wasn’t some kind of plan to draw her out and cut her down. But, on seeing the young man’s horror and grief laid bare across his face, she quickly put her suspicions down to paranoia.
“They hit it,” Geri sobbed, breaking down in the arms of the one-eyed man. “They fuckin’ hit it. Flowing Tears, man. It’s fuckin’ gone. It’s gone, Maks. Look at it. Look what they did.”
“Shit. I see it, kid.”
The elf finally made the top of the small ridge and looked down at the town below.
Or what was left of it.
Burnt to the ground, it rested like a sodden black grave inside the embrace of a pale white cove ringed by solemn trees. Waves clattered along the shore, fingering the ashen debris. Toying with skeletal remains.
Instead of following the road down, the two men leaned on each other as they made their way down the side of the ridge. It was steep, but not too steep that they couldn’t stay upright.
“Holy shit.” The words dribbled from Halvir’s mouth.
“He’s never hit a town before,” Saja said. “You ever heard of him hitting a town?”
“In the Crossbones? Not in my time.”
The elf, who’d seen more than a few burned-out towns and homesteads in the Deadlands, noted the lack of smoke and figured the town had been attacked some time ago. Some of the surrounding trees had been destroyed, too, but mostly it looked contained to the little town.
A bit too contained, she thought.
Magic?
It would be an easy answer, she allowed as she watched the two men pick carefully through the town. Then followed Halvir and Saja down the ridge where they stood on the edge of the burned mass.
The elf knelt and picked up a sifted a handful of dirt and ash. Cold and moistened by mor
ning mists. She sniffed. She’d never been too good at the arts of tracking or reading the environment, but she figured it was old burn. Weeks, not days, old. At least.
Dusting off her hands, she looked up as Geri cried out again and the two men converged, Maks reaching out to wrap an arm around the younger man. To share his grief as his body shuddered and convulsed.
“I think he just found his family,” Saja said quietly. “Poor guy. He’s a bit of an ass, but he didn’t need this.”
“No one does,” the elf said, still unable to dredge any semblance of pity up for the boy. “You knew this place?”
Saja shook her head. “I’m not from here. Closest I ever came to Temple is stopping at Cold when I was young. I’m from Stormnotch, an island further east. Town I come from is even smaller than this. Place called Gallowsbridge. I shouldn’t be here. Really, I shouldn’t. But they needed someone. I was just helping out. Maks thinks being neighbourly is an ancient customer, but my pa doesn’t. Neither do I.” She sighed. Waved a hand at the destruction. “I’ve been on three raids. On one, we took four towns in a single season. So, I’ve burned down a few places in my time. Kind of funny in a sick way when it’s one of your own. What about you, Halvir? You ever been here?”
“Once. The captain’s daughter lived here.” He couldn’t stop staring at the scorched ground. “Was married to a fisher or something. Shit. This ain’t been a good day for the Blue Ox. Beginning to wonder if Nemo was right. If we’re really cursed.”
When Geri and Maks returned, Geri’s eyes were red but dry.
And Maks seethed.
His single eye glared at Saja as he approached, sword aimed at the devastated town. Light flashed off its honed edge. “See this? You see it? This is what your pretend god did to good people. Real good people. Men. Women. Fucking children, Saja. Children were here. You can see their skulls in there. Go look at them. Look at their fucking skulls. And there’s bites taken out of them. The draug ate them, Saja. They fucking ate children. You tell me what the reason was for it. Go on. You tell me.”
“I don’t know,” she returned. She looked shocked by the big man’s rage and took a step back, unconsciously dropping her hand to her axe. The elf wondered if the two did start trying to tear each other apart, which side she’d end up on. It’d be impossible to stand apart. “But if he did this, then he-”
