Mermaid Precinct (ARC)
Page 5
Lisson nodded.
“That,” Torin said, “is well beyond the Castle Guard’s jurisdiction. We would be completely within our rights to leave you alone.”
“So if you want our help, you do things our way,” Danthres said. “If you don’t, then you may go ahead and sail on with a murderer on your boat.”
An uncomfortable silence hung over the Pirate Queen’s cabin for several seconds. But Danthres was firm in her demand. If nothing else, she was half convinced that the murderer had already leapt overboard since the nose count and they’d figure out who it was when that person didn’t show up for an interview. In case that didn’t happen, though, she wanted the Rising Jewel in dock.
Finally Chamblin said, “Sailing Master Lisson, would you be so kind as to set sail for the Cliff’s End docks?”
“Bring her to the same spot you brought the dinghy,” Danthres said. “That’s the dock extension that’s still under construction. It’s a bit rough, but if you could handle the rocks and reefs by Sorlin, you can handle that. And it’s enough away from the other boats that you should be left alone, especially once Boneen ensorcells you.”
“If he can,” Torin said. “Those are quite powerful wards.”
“Then we’ll put guards on the Rising Jewel. But I want you in dock and protected, and the murderer kept on board until we find whoever it is.”
Lisson nodded and moved off to carry out Chamblin’s order.
Torin looked at Chamblin. “Take us to where we may do our interviews, please?”
Chamblin let out a long breath and shook his head. “I don’t like this.”
“The Pirate Queen’s been murdered,” Danthres said softly. “I don’t see how there would be anything to like.”
SEVEN
Jaim sighed as she pushed open the door to the Dancing Seagull and found herself faced with wall to wall people.
It didn’t used to be this way. Time was the Seagull didn’t start getting seriously crowded until after sunset. Dockrats and sailors would head there for a night of hard drinking after a day of hard work.
Midafternoon, though, was usually—well, not quiet, but at least you could actually see the bar from the doorway, unlike now. Now, Jaim didn’t even have any empirical proof the bar existed, blocked as it was by a sea of bodies.
Pushing her way through, she found herself at the far end of the bar, where Mom had, as usual, saved a seat.
“Hola, Mom.”
“Hola, Jaim.”
As she climbed onto the stool Mom had saved for him, a dwarf on the next stool muttered, “She wasn’t lying. Amazing.”
“Excuse me?” Jaim said.
Putting a hand on Jaim’s arm, Mom said, “Leave it alone, Jaim.”
However, Jaim was in a foul mood, and ignored her mother’s advice. “You think my mother lied?”
“Place is packed,” the dwarf said. “You shouldn’t be takin’ away seats from folks that wanna sit.”
“Listen, you little—”
“Jaim.” Mom spoke in her sternest tone.
When she was a girl, that tone always shut Jaim up, but she was in a really bad mood.
“My family has been coming to this bar every afternoon for almost two decades, dwarf.”
The dwarf looked her up and down. “Came when you were an infant, did you?”
“Actually, yes. See, I run the fishing trawler the Estarra. I got it from Mom here and my Dad. It was called the Feathered Wing back then, but Mom renamed it after Dad died.”
“I’m—I’m sorry.” The dwarf sounded stunned. “Look, I just—”
“Every single day, our boat goes out there. It used to be just the two of them, then I went with when I was old enough. After Dad died, I took over.” That part wasn’t strictly speaking true. Mom went with Jaim for about a month after Dad died, before she realized that she didn’t want to run the business without Dad, so she bequeathed it all to Jaim. But that part wasn’t really the dwarf’s business. “Every day, for all that time, the routine has been the same. Me and my crew board the Estarra and go out at sunup. We catch several netfuls of fish and bring them back to port just before midday. Then I go to Kala’s Fish Emporium, she buys my catch, I split the take with my crew, and then I come here to have a drink with the very same mother you just accused of being a liar.”
The dwarf seemed to be shrinking into his stool. “I said I was sorry.”
“You said you were sorry my father died. I’m sorry, too. Because if he was still alive, he’d have pounded your fool head into the ground for talking shit about my mother.”
Mom then added, “And he would’ve pounded your fool head into the ground for your foul language.”
That broke through Jaim’s foul mood, and she burst out with laughter.
Next to her, the dwarf tentatively laughed also, and said, “I’m sorry, truly, for any unkind thoughts I might have had. I actually buy my fish from Kala’s, and if you’re her source, you do good work.”
“One of her sources,” Jaim said. “Though you’d think by now she’d stop haggling. Every day it’s the same—I name a price, we go back and forth for twenty minutes, and then she winds up buying the catch for the price I named in the first place.”
Mom shook her head. “She’s always been like that. I think she gets off on it or something.”
Jaim reached for her drink, and realized it wasn’t there. Glancing next to her, she saw that Mom didn’t have a drink, either.
“Haven’t you been served yet?”
Before Mom could even respond, the dwarf sipped his ale. “Been nursing this one for two hours. Damn bartender’s too busy serving all the bahrlans.”
“The what?” Jaim asked.
Mom was laughing. “It’s a word in Ra-Telvish, it means ‘filthy’.”
“Elves ain’t good for much,” the dwarf said, “but they know how to craft an insult.”
“C’mon, I doubt all these people are from Barlin,” Jaim said.
“Been listenin’ to ’em bitch and moan all day,” the dwarf said. “Talkin’ about the housing in New Barlin, talkin’ about how hard it is to find work.”
“Not just the bahrlans,” Mom said. Jaim winced at her use of the slur. “Lots of locals having trouble finding work, too. Saw Abo on my way in here trollin’ for work.”
Jaim frowned. “I thought he was first mate on the Breeze.”
“Yeah, he was. Brotherhood o’ Wizards confiscated the boat, and now he ain’t got nothin’. A year ago, they’d be linin’ up to hire someone with his experience, but now there’s too much experience, not enough boats.”
“Experience? Pfah!” The dwarf slammed down his drink. “Barlin’s landlocked, there’s no ‘experience’ there at all. Nah, they’re just takin’ up all the cheap-shit sailor jobs, swabbin’ decks and the like. And they take lower wages, too!”
“Well, when you’ve lost your home to a fire and are living in a strange city-state,” Jaim said, “you’re desperate enough to take any wage. Not surprised that captains’re willing to pay less if the refugees are willing to take it.”
“Shoulda gone to Iaron an’ worked the mines, or bloody Velessa. Let the king an’ queen deal with it, ’stead’a stickin’ Lord Doofus on it.”
The barkeep finally came over to them. “Sorry ’bout that, been crazy today. The usual?”
Mom nodded. “And make it snappy, will you please? It’s not as if it’s a surprise that my daughter and I are here in midafternoon.”
“Sorry,” the barkeep said again. “Still trying to get the hang of mixing a Prefarian Sunset.”
The dwarf scowled. “What in Xinf’s name is a Prefarian Sunset?”
“Popular drink in Barlin, apparently.” The barkeep looked at the dwarf’s almost-empty mug. “Another ale?”
“Sure, not like I’m goin’ anywhere.” The dwarf gulped down the rest of his ale and slammed the mug down on the bar.
“I’ve never seen you in here before,” Jaim said.
“Usually go
to the Joba’s Arms, but that place is even more overrun with shit-sucking bahrlans. Figured I might get a lead on a job closer to the docks, but that ain’t workin’. Ain’t had any work since we finished New Barlin.”
“You worked construction on Albinton?” Jaim asked.
The dwarf nodded. “Then once it was all done, I didn’t have no more work. Came down here to try to work on the new dock construction, but all them jobs is taken—by bahrlans! I make their houses for ’em, then they go an’ take my work away!”
The barkeep came back with three ales and put them in front of Jaim, Mom, and the dwarf. “Thanks,” Jaim said.
“No problem.”
“Hey, barkeep!” came a voice from further down the bar. “Three Prefarian Sunsets!”
“For Xinf’s sake,” the dwarf muttered.
Somebody else yelled, “Hey, why can’t you bahrlans drink a real drink?”
“Excuse me?” the person who ordered the drinks said. Jaim couldn’t quite make out who all was talking, as there were too many people. But the voices were shouting over the susurrus of noise in the packed bar.
“You heard me. In Cliff’s End, we drink real drinks, not your Barlin shit.”
Jaim winced, not liking where this was going.
“Oh, great,” Mom muttered.
“What’s wrong?” the dwarf asked.
“The main reason why we come here in the daytime is because the brawls usually happen at night.”
Jaim shuddered as she gulped down a good third of her ale. The Dancing Seagull was famous for its late-night brawls, to the point where Mermaid Precinct usually had a patrol of night-shift guards standing near the bar around midnight every night just in case.
“Nah, this won’t be a brawl.”
The dwarf spoke with more confidence than Jaim had, as now she could see two people, one an elf, the other a human, pushing each other about halfway down the bar.
“Where do you get off callin’ Barlin drinks shit, pointy-ears?”
Someone else cried out, “Barlin drinks are shit!”
“Nobody asked you!”
“His ears ain’t even that pointy.”
Jaim put her hand on Mom’s wrist. “We should go.”
“Yeah,” Mom said.
“Oh, stop it, you two,” the dwarf said. “It’s just people blowin’ off steam. Saw this in Joba’s all the time. It’ll bl—”
Before the dwarf could finish, he was interrupted by an ale mug colliding with his head.
“Ow!” he cried, putting his right hand to his right eye.
Jaim saw no transition. One second, people were standing around talking and drinking, the next arms and legs were flying, punches and mugs were being thrown, and it was utter chaos.
Quickly, Jaim hopped off her stool and crouched between it and Mom’s stool. Mom did likewise between her stool and the wall. Jaim was very grateful that they had always sat in the corner of the bar—it was much easier to cower and stay out of the fighting.
A stool went flying overhead, crashing into the wall and shattering, splinters of wood flying about. Jaim raised her arms to shield her head from the debris.
Mom, who had done likewise, cried, “Nnnngh!”
“Let me see,” Jaim said, reaching around the stool to take hold of Mom’s arm.
There was a large splinter jutting from her forearm.
“Get it out, for Mitre’s sake!” Mom cried.
Mom only invoked Mitre when she was in serious pain, so Jaim knew it was bad. She tugged at the splinter, and it came out.
Blood started pooling where her skin was cut, and Mom put her hand over it. “Dammit. This is out of hand.”
“Yeah. I just hope it doesn’t last too long, I want a healer to look at that arm.”
“Let’s get out of here alive, first.”
Another mug went flying overhead, clattering to the floor after striking the wall.
Then, minutes later, it was all quiet, except for a lot of heavy breathing.
Hesitantly, Jaim rose from her squatting position to see what was happening.
People were slouched over tables, stools, and the bar itself. Others were sitting clutching limbs, bleeding, hyperventilating, and generally looking horrible. A few others were, like Jaim, sticking their heads out to see if it was safe.
One of those was the dwarf, who also had been hiding under one of the tables behind where he’d been sitting. He still had his right hand over his eye. “Xinf, this hurts,” he was muttering.
The door flew open, and two guards with mermaid medallions etched into the chests of their leather armor came bursting in. “All right, that’s enough!”
“Good timing,” Jaim muttered.
Then someone screamed. Looking around, Jaim saw that it was the human from Barlin who was arguing with the elf.
“Soza’s dead!”
One of the guards ran over to the human, and looked down at the floor.
“Yeah, he’s dead all right,” the guard said. Then he raised his voice. “Don’t nobody even think about leavin’ this bar! Yo, Jax, get one’a the youth squad to head to the castle and get some detectives down here. We got us a murder.”
The other guard, Jax, nodded and headed to the door.
Jaim cried out, “And a healer, too!”
“Excuse me?” Jax asked.
“There are people here who are hurt, including my mother and my new friend here.”
“Yeah, we’ll take care of that,” the first guard said.
Again, Jax nodded, and this time he left the premises.
“How long we gonna have to stay here?” Jaim asked.
“Till we say you can go. For now, sit tight.”
Jaim sighed. She liked it better when it was quiet before the refugees—before the bahrlans came.
EIGHT
“I can’t believe she’s gone.”
Torin sighed. He’d spent the last several hours interviewing members of the Pirate Queen’s crew in the galley, with a break only long enough to disembark as the Rising Jewel approached the docks. He went ahead in the dinghy with Lisson to tell Jayson and Gonzal to send for Boneen and to also get two more guards from Mermaid to keep people away from this section of the incomplete port extension. Only members of the Castle Guard and of the construction crews were to be allowed in.
After that, he’d gone back to questioning members of the crew, almost all of whom had started the interview the same way. This latest was a deck hand named Gavin.
“I’m afraid she is gone,” Torin said as gently as he could—which was less so than it might have been had he not already expressed the same sentiments dozens of times already.
“Who would even do that? She was the finest captain that ever ran a boat.”
“That is what we wish to find out. Having said that, I would think her list of enemies would be quite long.”
“Yes, but they’re all people who would attack Rising Jewel directly and try to kill all of us. Her enemies were foes of pirates, not of her personally. This was personal. And that doesn’t make sense, because everyone who actually knew her as a person loved her.”
Torin had to admit to being impressed. This Gavin fellow seemed to have given this some thought, which put him one up on most of the rest of the crew. They were all just devastated at the loss and didn’t really think past that.
“It is my experience,” Torin said after a moment, “that nobody is loved by everybody.”
“Then you never met the Captain. She was amazing.”
Torin leaned forward on the bench, elbows on the table while facing Gavin, who sat on the bench opposite. “No, but I saw the results of her actions. The people who didn’t get food because she raided a convoy. The soldiers who were forced to go into battle with substandard equipment because she stole from a sword distributor. The places of business that had to close because their supplier was raided. There are, I’m quite sure, plenty who have gone to bed cursing her name and woke up the next morning doing the same.”
Torin smiled. “I never mentioned inns, but your point is well taken. However, my point still stands—not everyone is necessarily going to think highly of the Pirate Queen.”
“Perhaps. But as I said, Lieutenant, everyone on this boat was devoted to her. We all loved her and would die for her.”
With a sigh, Torin said, “So you’ve no idea who might have poisoned her?”
“I’m sorry, Lieutnenant. I mean, everyone had access to the rat poison, so it could’ve been anybody—but it also couldn’t have been anybody on this ship. Look, I’ve only been here a year, and I’d die for the Captain. And us new recruits are the ones with the weakest loyalty to her—most of the people serving on Rising Jewel have been with her for years, decades even. Nobody on this boat wanted her dead.”
“You said, ‘us new recruits.’ Who else is new?”
“Oh, four of us came on board all at once about a year ago. We lived in Sorlin, you see, but the community disbanded.”
“You’re from Sorlin?” That surprised Torin.
Gavin nodded. “Rodolfo, the boatswain, he invited anyone who wanted to join the Captain’s crew to come with him, and three of us took him up on it.”
“Hm.” Torin rubbed his chin. “Very well, Gavin, thank you for your time.”
~*~
“Goodness, is that you, Danthres?”
Looking up in shock at the familiar voice, Danthres saw the tall, wiry form of Rodolfo enter the wardroom. He was much more muscular than he was when Danthres had last seen him, and had grown a rather large mustache, but it was definitely him. She recognized the twinkle in his black eyes instantly, as well as the lilt in his resonant voice.
Like Danthres herself, Rodolfo was half-elf and half-human, but the only evidence of his elven heritage was his height and slightly tapered ears. Otherwise, his dark coloring, dark eyes, and flat chin made him look completely human.