by E. S. Bell
Selena stepped onto the boardwalk and glanced down at the coin in her hand. The rough edges bit into her skin. Whatever An-Lan had said, it didn’t feel right to carry it. Not now. Perhaps someday or perhaps never. She almost let it slip through her fingers, to let it land in the sand beside the boardwalk. Instead she tucked the coin into an inner pocket in her tunic and began to walk.
The more distance she put between herself and An-Lan’s shop, the more unreal it all seemed and she began to feel foolish again. The Two-Faced God has been generous to me, even if I bear its wound.
Selena sighed. The only voyage she would be taking, it seemed, was one back to Isle Lillomet. She strode toward the scriveners.
She didn’t hear the footsteps closing in behind her until it was too late. Rough hands grabbed her from behind, dragging her into an alley that smelt of piss and refuse.
Selena’s hand went to the sword at her hip, but her attackers slammed her into the rough wooden wall that formed one half of the alley. The back of her head struck hard.
“Luxa—”
A filthy hand clamped over her mouth, silencing her before she could weave light. A face pressed in, and Selena saw it was the captain she had humiliated several night’s past. Mallen. One other pirate helped pin her to the wall, while a third stood behind Mallen, a lusty grin on his face and a dented cutlass in his hand.
“Hello, lassie,” Mallen hissed. “Remember old Mallen? We got some unfinished business, you an’ me.”
Selena forced herself to remain calm, but she was held fast and Mallen’s hand on her mouth made spell-casting impossible.
He nodded. “Aye, that’s right. You’re trapped, little mouse, and this time no dragonman to stand between me an’ what I’m hungerin’ for.”
He let go of her mouth long enough to slap her so that her teeth cut her lips, and then his hand clamped down again.
“You stay put, now, and this’ll go easier.”
Selena felt a real pang of fear cut through the pain. She prayed for a passerby to help but just then a bolt of lightning sliced open the sky and the downpour drenched them all instantly. It did nothing to dampen Mallen’s intentions; his rough hand squeezed her breast through her Aluren tunic.
And then Selena saw him.
The tall man in the black long coat. He was standing at the mouth of the alley, partially obscured by a stack of crates. As then, he was smoking a cigarillo but the driving rain doused it. Selena watched him toss the butt aside and then he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. The rain seemed to bother him not at all. He settled in to watch, and anger burned Selena’s fear away.
Mallen saw her watching something behind him and it was enough for him to loosen his guard. Selena felt the weight of him pressed against her ease a bit. She hadn’t the room to drive her knee into his groin, but she twisted and kicked her heel into Mallen’s kneecap. His roar of pain drowned out the grinding sound of bones breaking, and the pounding rain drowned out both. He stumbled backward and fell hard on his rump with a splat, clutching his shattered knee.
The other pirate holding Selena was smart enough and quick enough to deliver a quick jab into her throat. The pain was swift and jagged. She gasped for air even as she twisted her arm free of the pirate’s grasp, ducking a second blow that would have caught her full in the face.
Her sword was in her hand even before she had found her breath, and she leveled it at the two pirates who now both held cutlasses. She spared a glance at the man in the black coat, in case he was another enemy to be faced. But he only observed, a small, crooked smile on his lips, as if the whole situation amused him.
“Cut her bloody head off!” Mallen screamed from the ground, flailing in dirt and filth that was fast becoming mud.
The pirates moved apart in the narrow alley, one to each side of her, trapping her between them. She took several wheezing breaths but her voice was still no more than a croak. Blood dripped from her mouth and she was soaked to the skin. She brushed away the hair that was plastered to her face with her shoulder and her attackers used the slight lapse to attack. They came at her, one from each side, blades slashing in deadly arcs.
Selena’s sword had longer reach than their shorter blades. They had to come in close, and despite her wounds and the rain and her cold, Selena’s sword flashed with blinding speed. In seconds, both men were bleeding and cursing and backing off to reassess their strategy.
Mallen limped to his feet. “Bitch.” He drew his own blade. The steel glinted as lightning flashed above. “This ain’t goin’ to be easy for you now.”
Selena readied her sword. The alley was too narrow to swing wide unless she chose to jump in the middle of the three men; a poor strategy. And then Mallen’s hand blurred. Selena dodged what she thought was a flung knife and was blinded by shit-stinking mud instead.
Instinct and years of training with the Aluren saved her.
Still blind, she brought her sword up on her left and felt the steel clash with one pirate’s weapon. She kicked out with her right leg, catching the second pirate in the gut. But his cutlass sliced her upper arm and she felt a peculiar tingle—along with biting pain—that was her own hot blood pouring out of the gash. Mallen hobbled towards her and the first pirate was attacking again.
Selena wiped the mud from her eyes and nearly paid for it with her life. The first pirate’s blade whistled at her head and she ducked under, but it was close enough she felt its wind, even in the relentless rain. She jabbed her sword out and felt it punch through the man’s midsection. Her wounded arm screamed in pain from the effort but she pushed it aside as she had been trained to do. Still crouched low, she swept her foot in a low arc, catching Mallen at the shins as he neared. He screamed and went down again in a spray of mud.
Selena retrieved her sword from the first pirate’s midsection and swung upward, coming out of her crouch. Her blade sang as it slid against the second pirate’s cutlass and both weapons thudded against the wall. She held her sword with both hands, pinning his blade. The pirate’s left arm was free and he grabbed Selena by the jaw and slammed the side of her face against the wall. Her cheek scraped against old, splintered wood and she grunted in pain. She pulled off the wall, swung her sword back and then forward, and cleaved through the pirate’s arm below the elbow as he tried to block. The man shrieked into the storm as his arm fell to the mud at their feet with a sickening thump. The front of Selena’s tunic darkened in a wash of the man’s spurting blood. He dropped his sword to clutch at this stump, staggering backwards and howling
Selena found she could speak again, but now she didn’t need a spell or her sirrak summoned. One man lay dead, curled around a gut wound that had bled him out. Another slumped against the alley, holding his severed arm, his face gray with shock. Mallen cowered at Selena’s feet as she leveled the tip of her sword at his throat.
“Tell me why I should spare you,” she said hoarsely, her breath coming in harsh gasps. “Tell me how I won’t find you stalking me again if I let you go.”
“You won’t, I promise,” Mallen whimpered. “I promise you won’t.”
“You will,” said a voice, and then the man in the black long coat swooped down like a raven. With practiced ease, he drew his knife across Mallen’s throat, opening a grotesque gash. Blood poured. Mallen gurgled and gasped and then slumped forward, face down in the mud.
Selena swung her sword to face the stranger, her hands shaking. She had forgotten about him. He paid her no mind, but wiped his blade clean on the back of the dead man’s coat and tucked it back into his belt. He then pulled the collar of his long coat up to better cover his neck.
“How about this rain?” he asked with a grin.
Selena blinked, momentarily stunned silent. “What…Who are you?”
“Name’s Julian,” the man said, offering a black-gloved hand to shake. Selena kept her sword between them. He shrugged, his rakish smile not diminishing in the least. “Captain Julian Tergus, if you want to stay formal about it.”
The man smirked. “Cold blood? This one would’ve jumped you tonight, gimpy leg and all. Maybe bring six men instead of two. Look here.” He bent over Mallen’s corpse, inspecting the inside of the man’s wrist, and then, not finding what he was looking for, he used his knife again to cut away the sleeve of Mallen’s coat.
“What are you doing?”
“There it is. See here?” Julian Tergus showed her a symbol burned into Mallen’s upper arm; a shiny scar in the shape of a lick of flame. “He’s part of a pirate collective. You let him live after hurting him this bad—to say nothing of the humiliation—and he’ll bring the full force of his collective down on you. Don’t know which collective; this symbol doesn’t look familiar to me but…” He glanced about the alley. “It’s best if we move along, smartly now.”
“Should we?” Selena asked, crossing her arms. The cold seeped into her skin like the rain seeped into her clothes. “You just stood there. Watching.”
All traces of humor left the man’s face, diminishing the handsomeness that was cut into his angular features. His hair was dark and somewhat short—the rain plastered it down over his gray-green eyes in the front but his neck was bare. A small gold hoop pierced one ear.
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
Julian Tergus was quiet for a moment, and then jerked a thumb to the pirate who bled from the stump of his arm. The pirate’s skin was ghastly white and he moaned.
“You going to do something about him or do you want me to? Not a good idea to leave witnesses.” His hand went again to the knife on his belt where there was also a flintlock holstered and two scimitars hung around his waist.
Selena backed away from Julian to the injured pirate. The rain was letting up. She sheathed her sword and knelt beside the man.
“I had better not regret this.”
She took hold of his arm above the place where she had sliced it off and gripped it hard. With her other hand, she poured seawater from her ampulla over the bloody stump, causing the man to cry out, then sought the sky to where the moon floated, hidden though it was behind storm clouds.
She closed her eyes and murmured. “Illuria.”
An orange hue glowed under her hand, and spread over the pirate’s stump. Selena opened her eyes to watch the skin knit together, leaving a raw, puckered scar.
The pirate rolled his head and peered blearily at Selena. “We were going… to hurt you. Why did you…?”
“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” Selena snapped. “I can’t promise you’ll live.”
“Why…?”
“Because it’s my duty to help,” she replied with a pointed glance at Julian Tergus, who was watching her through the smoke of a fresh cigarillo, shaking his head.
She stood and almost fell, catching herself on the wall. The healing had drained her strength in a way the battle with the pirates hadn’t. She staggered toward the street.
“You can’t let him go,” Julian said, indicating the remaining pirate. “He will bring down his entire collective—” He sighed. “Too late.”
Selena turned. The pirate who’d been staring at the stump of his arm was gone. Another wave of dizziness crashed over her. Julian Tergus made to steady her but she waved him off with disgust.
“Leave me alone.”
When the dizziness passed, she tromped through the mud passed him, stepping over the body of the pirate she’d stabbed, and out onto the street. Sloshing steps told her he followed.
“You know, you could use a little godly intervention yourself,” Julian said, catching up to her in two long strides. He gestured at her face where her cheek was scraped raw, and at her arm that still bled. He held up his cigarillo. “And you sound like you smoke about fifty of these a day.”
She whirled on him and almost fell again. This time, Julian’s hand shot out and steadied her. His voice hardened. “You should have let him die.”
Selena tore out of his grasp. “What do you want?”
“I don’t think you heard my introduction. I’m Captain Julian Tergus.”
She stopped as his words struck home. “A captain. You have a ship?”
“I do.”
“I need a ship,” she blurted. Her head reeled and her limbs felt heavy, as if she were walking underwater. This isn’t safe. Got to get back.
“So I’ve heard,” Julian said. “This entire putrid little island has heard. But you’re in luck. I’m for hire. I’ll take you to Isle Saliz. You and your lizards and your shapeshifters and anyone else crazy enough to sail with you.”
Selena’s hopes soared and then darkened again. “Those men attacked me. And you just watched.”
“Haven’t we discussed this already?”
“Why didn’t you help me?”
Julian Tergus’ expression grew serious. “Because Saliz is no pleasure isle. Because the voyage is long and through rough seas. Because the waters around the island are filled with danger: nasty creatures that have been known to take down ships larger than my Black Storm. And if we make it there with our skins intact for whatever business you have, Saliz itself is a thick tangle of jungle filled with the gods’ know what horrors within.”
“Yes? It is all those things. And?”
Julian peered hard at her. “I wanted to make sure the woman who is going to be taking my crew and my ship into such a dangerous place has the mettle for it. I won’t be doing your dirty work for you.”
The two regarded each other on the street that was still mostly empty. He was tall and handsome and broad-shouldered and skilled with a weapon. But Julian’s gray-green eyes—the color of sea glass or the shallows after a storm—met hers and there was a coldness in them she didn’t like.
“I’m sure the coin I’m prepared to pay would help ease your concerns.”
His cold expression shattered as his face broke out in the rakish grin that bothered her more than it set her at ease.
“That too.”
Selena hugged herself, pondering what to do next.
“Come,” Julian said. “You’re shivering, though it’s hotter than a potter’s kiln out here.”
Selena glanced at him sharply but he pressed on.
“There’s a tavern not three steps yon. It isn’t much to look at but it has a hearth in the common room. I’m sure the barkeep can be persuaded to light it for you, for a penny or three. You can warm yourself over a drink and we can discuss the particulars of our arrangement.”
Selena nodded. “Very well. After you,” she told him, her hand resting on her sword.
He grinned. “If you insist.”
She did not smile back. “I do.”
Captain Tergus
The Whitecaps was a name that made Selena think of clean white linens and porcelain coffee cups. Instead, the tavern was dim and dingy, with wooden slats for walls that were stained with the soot and smoke of a thousand cigarillos, and from lamps that left oily smudges climbing their cups. The common room was packed with grizzled old sea dogs. It did have a hearth, as Captain Tergus had promised, with a pot of hot cider set over it to boil. The tables before it were empty, its heat keeping the sailors away. Selena sat as close to the fire as she could and when the cider was ready, she took a mug. The mug was chipped and not altogether clean, but the tingle of warmth on her fingers helped a little.
Julian Tergus watched her from across the small table. He drank red wine, grimacing at the first taste and then leaving it alone. “Something to eat?” he said. “I can’t vouch for the cleanliness of the plate they’ll bring it on, but their pickled herring won’t kill you.”
“No, thank you.” Selena inched closer to the fire. Her clothing was soaked through and try as she might, she could not still her shivering.
I should have gone back to the inn as now I’ll have to explain this.
“You have rooms near here?” she asked the captain.
“Do I live on Uago, you mean?” Julian said.
“I’m no pirate. My home is my ship.”
“What is it you do, Captain?” Selena sipped her cider. It smelled better than it tasted.
“I transport cargo. Passengers. Whatever needs to get from here to there.”
Selena was about to ask another question when a strong shiver wracked her. She felt the weight of Julian’s gaze on her, watching her hands tremble enough to spill her cider.
“Are you ill?” he asked slowly. “Can’t say I’d be too eager to take you onboard, close quarters, if you’re ill.”
“I’m not sick,” Selena said. “Tell me about your ship.”
“Tell me why you’re shivering as though we were in the Ice Isles in the middle of winter, instead of on Uago at summer’s end.”
“No.” Selena set down her cider mug. “Despite what you said about testing my ‘mettle’ this is your interview, not mine. I owe you nothing until I decide to hire you and your ship, which I have not yet done. Should we come to some sort of agreement, I will tell you what you need to know about my…situation.”
Julian sat back in his chair. “Fair enough. We can pretend that you have a half-dozen other captains waiting to be interviewed after me, each with a ship as fast as mine and each with the same willingness to sail you through dangerous waters to a dangerous island. To say nothing of taking aboard your dragonman.”
Selena cast her gaze to the flames. “I’m tired of this island and its men,” she murmured. She caught him watching her with a milder expression. “Don’t pity me, Captain Tergus. Just tell me what I wish to know.”
“Very well. She’s a brigantine. One hundred and ten spans long.”
“Small,” Selena commented. “Two masts?”
“Of course. But topsail gaff-rigged and speedy as you could want.”
“Guns?”
“Four, and I don’t want more. I won’t have her blown to bits in a gunfight she’s not going to win. She’ll outrun any ship that thinks to make trouble.”
“Good. I don’t care for cannons. Or flintlocks, or any other gun for that matter.”
