Paradise Cracked

by Jeff Hook

  Jack squinted. “You’re not shivering, or hiding, or doing any of the usual things… you okay?”

  “Once you’ve faced the worst,” Freddy said philosophically, “it’s hard to think about what more could go wrong.”

  But it was a lie. As soon as he said it he used his power to peer through the ship, looking for things that could go sideways. He saw the cracks in the wood from the battle, stretching all throughout the ship’s frame. He saw the sharks that had been driven into a frenzy over the cœurbrute blood and were desperate to taste something more substantial. Within thirty seconds Freddy was shivering from fear again.

  “There it is,” said Jack. “There’s the Freddy I know.”

  Distract. He needed to distract himself. Or at least soothe one of his fears with information. “Hey, Ishū,” said Freddy, “what did you call that thing? A mold fern?”

  “A moltfryn,” said Ishū.

  “How exactly did you come up with that name? Your island see those a lot?”

  “A dolphin told me.” Apparently the man didn’t think this worthy of note, because he just kept mopping as if nothing had happened.

  “You talked to a… dolphin?”

  “In a manner of speaking. They called us land-sharks, and they seemed scared of me in particular, but before we could really get going they swam away. Didn’t want to be anywhere near the moltfryn.”

  “But… why?” Their old crewmate Ezra could probably talk to animals, but he never did. Why would he waste time talking to his animal puppets when he could just take over their bodies and use them for whatever he needed?

  “Did you see the same sea monster I did? If I were a dolphin I would have fled as well.”

  These Tandoku were just too naive. This one had completely missed the point of the question; he probably hadn’t even thought of taking over an animal.

  Was this what Jack and the other pirates felt like when talking to Freddy? It was frustrating, but the sense of superiority was nice.

  He considered his options. On the one hand, having animal support would be great for getting to wherever they wished to go. Ishū could go scouting as a bird, or take control of sharks to clear the way for them, or help turn the tide in a battle. Maybe next time a cœurbrute came Ishū could control it and send it away — apparently talking to the thing didn’t work.

  On the other hand, if Ishū turned against them, and he very well might decide to — remote islanders often turned out to be bigoted nativists — giving him those powers would make the trouble worse.

  Eventually Freddy decided to risk it. With people this stupid it was easy to tell if they were planning something.

  “I want you to try something for me,” he said. “I want you to try and take control of a bird.”

  “What?”

  “Take over its mind and be the bird for a while.”

  Ishū shuddered.

  Okay, maybe a bird wasn’t the best choice. Didn’t Ezra say he hated being birds? “Or a fish. A fish would do just fine.”

  “No.” The man swiveled around his mop so that his back faced Freddy.

  “Oh come on. Aren’t you curious?”

  Ishū’s knuckles were turning white on the mop handle, and he was just about driving it into the deck. He spoke in a growl: “It is an abomination to steal someone’s consciousness.”

  Freddy sighed. Jack would know how to manipulate Ishū into doing it.

  Below decks, he could see one of the boys was stirring, which was the perfect excuse to interrupt the awkwardness of the situation. “One of your kids is awake,” he said. “Better go check on him.”

  Ishū put down his mop and started sauntering down to the bunks.

  Jack coughed, motioned for Freddy to come closer. He did.

  “People who want power but don’t have it are easy to control.” Jack spoke quietly, so as not to be heard by the greens. “People who have it but don’t want more… they’re a nightmare. Ishū’s not where we should be spending our time.”

  Freddy wanted to ask more, but they were interrupted by Karugo bounding up the stairs, smiling with an uncomfortable brightness and almost knocking over Ishū.

  He stood proudly, showing no sign of his injuries. The mangled shoulder, the puffy ankle that Freddy had been sure was a break… all gone. Not even bruising.

  That shouldn’t be possible. The boy’s power was fire, and a person’s super was always connected to their power.

  There was no way he could heal that fast. Not unless…

  “Let’s do it!” yelled Karugo. “Make me a pirate!”

  17

  The Blade

  Karugo was going to train and it was going to be awesome. He hopped out of bed, ecstatic to be pain-free, and sprinted up the stairs to the upper deck. It was almost midday — wow, what a sleep! Hishano was still sleeping… getting almost pulled apart must’ve been hard on him.

  His new pirate buddies were already up on deck. That Jack, he knew how awesome Karugo was going to be.

  Karugo hadn’t realized it was possible to feel this good. Sixteen years on the island and he’d only ever felt a dissatisfied haze, as if he was trapped in a cage that he couldn’t see, the bars made out of the bodies of the other Tandoku. But now he could see infinite possibilities laid out ahead of him, a life of adventure and happiness and love.

  “Let’s do it!” he yelled at Jack. “Make me a pirate!”

  Jack was cutting up yesterday’s enemy, the molt friend, and barely looked up. Wait, was his new friend Jack going to ignore him too? Maybe yesterday had just been a fluke. Jack had said that they would train ‘tomorrow’, as if he was trying to put it off. Was this one of the things where the pirates said one thing and meant another? The Tandoku always told him ‘no’, and that hurt, but if someone said ‘yes’ but meant ‘no’ that would be even worse.

  “You want to train?” said Jack without looking up.

  “Yeah!” shouted Karugo.

  “Okay, I got your first piece of training for you. You want to learn the blade? Get a lot of practice cutting up this big thing.” Jack spun his knife around so he was holding the blade between his fingers, then extended the handle out toward Karugo. It wasn’t the sword he’d used last night, but it was a blade.

  Karugo approached gingerly. He’d never held a blade before — they were only available to professionals who needed them — but he knew they were dangerous and he wanted to make sure he didn’t somehow cut himself or Jack while grabbing it. He put both hands around the handle and held his breath as Jack let go.

  “Okay, let’s train!” said Karugo.

  “See how I was cutting the cœurbrute?” asked Jack.

  Karugo nodded enthusiastically.

  “I want you to do that. That way you’ll get practice putting a knife through flesh.”

  Cool! Karugo set to work, trying to saw a slice out of the creature’s tentacle. He rubbed the blade rapidly but lightly back and forth along the outer skin, but soon realized that didn’t work. He slowed his movements and applied pressure, and in a couple slices he was through the skin and into muscle. Blue, oozing, stagnant blood escaped onto the deck, but aside from that and the rough outer skin, the tentacles were almost pure muscle.

  He got through an entire slice, then held it up and danced for joy.

  “I did it!” he yelled toward where Jack had been… but the man had changed positions, and was now lounging in the shade, hat lying over his face. “Hey Jack, did I do this right?”

  Jack sat up and put his hat on the normal way. “Sure did. You’ll be a fine pirate someday.” Then he lay back down.

  A fine pirate! Karugo wasn’t entirely sure what a pirate was, but the word was still clearer to him than ‘hero’. A pirate was someone like Jack and Freddy. Strong, capable men who didn’t walk on eggshells around him or shun him. Men who said he had potential for something besides trouble. Pirates were people who were wild and free and helped others wherever they landed, just as Jack and Freddy were training Karugo and h
elping the Tandoku find the crystal thingy.

  “What’s our next training?” Karugo asked excitedly.

  “Keep cutting,” said Jack. “Cut until that entire thing is in slices. You need lots of practice with the blade.”

  That sounded an awful lot as if he was just doing Jack’s work for him… did the pirate only like him because he was useful?

  Then he would have to keep being useful.

  He cut through the tentacle, getting closer and closer to the thing’s bulbous body, learning more about blade angles and pressure as his target got wider. The first half tentacle took him an entire hour to slice, but he got through the entire second tentacle in the same amount of time. The third tentacle was the one that had been singed by his flaming body, and he noted the change in texture, adjusting his strokes to keep them even despite the change. By then he was tired and sweaty, and he felt as if his cutting arm was going to fall off… but he kept cutting.

  Eventually Jack got up and started to gather the meat, salt it, and pack it in a box. That took some time, but Jack salted and stuffed far faster than Karugo cut, so pretty soon Jack was caught up.

  “Want to have a turn?” Karugo asked. He wouldn’t quit, but if he could just take a little break…

  “I think your left arm needs some training,” said Jack. Then the pirate went to lie down in the shade again.

  Karugo switched the knife to his left hand and remembered how awkward the knife had felt at first… but this was even worse! Now he knew what to do, but this hand started off clumsier than his right hand had been hours ago. That gap made it frustrating… but he kept on. He would learn. He would be a pirate, and Jack would like him even more every day.

  Every once in a while Ishū came through his area and mopped up the fresh blood. “You’re working hard,” Ishū remarked.

  “I’m going to be a pirate,” said Karugo. “I’m going to sail around helping people, and they’re going to love me.”

  Ishū raised his eyebrows. “Fish finally found his water. To think, all this time we were trying to make you climb trees.”

  The sun began to set as Karugo finished up the last tentacle and started in on the head of the creature. Strange, horrifying organs fell out, and he jumped back. Jack laughed. “Stab a man in the belly and that’s what you can expect. Can’t be jumping back scared… only thing to be scared of is their sword. Maybe next time we’ll get you something with bones in it, so you can learn how to work around those annoying little things.”

  “Yes!” agreed Karugo with as much energy as his exhausted body could muster. Stabbing a man in the belly seemed a little extreme, but he was sure pirates only did that in emergencies, like when they met a very bad person. Hadn’t the Elders said there were some very bad people out here?

  “Go to bed. You’ll need energy for tomorrow.”

  That sounded like his mother, but somehow it wasn’t as annoying coming from Jack. Probably because Jack was awesome and didn’t sound as annoyed when he said it.

  Karugo splashed himself with a bucket of sea water to get the worst of the blood off, then went downstairs to the bunks.

  Hishano was still sleeping. Karugo held his hand an inch above the other boy’s mouth and was glad when he felt the gentle exhale. Healing must really take it out of him.

  Karugo lay down in his own bunk and wriggled with joy.

  He was learning! He would be useful! And every day, as he proved himself and did their work for them, his new pirate friends would like him even more.

  Life had just gotten so much better.

  18

  Whatever It Takes

  It was the kind of night where Freddy could almost forget he was floating on a rickety wooden vessel over a miles-deep monster-filled chasm.

  But then there would be an unknown splash in the distance and he’d go into full alert, tightening his muscles and waiting for the creature to make its next move. If there was a second one in that area, he’d use his super. He’d investigate, give early warning if another cœurbrute came to devour them. He would shout, rouse the green people from their early slumber, give everyone time to prepare.

  Then they would… hopefully not die. If one of the larger cœurbrute came at them, they would probably die.

  “You’re jumpier than usual tonight,” said Jack.

  “I can’t wait to get back to dry land. Permanently.”

  “You got the coordinates, right?”

  “Unless the stars moved while we were in that bubble.”

  “Good, because this is our only shot. If we don’t get rich off of this, then either we live in hiding for the rest of our days or we’re right back on Sam’s ship, stuck there until we catch the uncatchable.”

  Freddy shivered. With that much time on the ocean, what were the chances of them running into another cœurbrute? Most sailors only saw one or two their entire lives, but most sailors stuck to the main currents and the well-worn paths through the Basin. Chasing Evyleen, on the other hand, would lead them to places where few ships sailed, where the currents provided no protection against the terrifying creatures. It was almost inevitable that they would run into another. If they ran into an eleven-tentacled cœurbrute, how much of the ship would it eat before Sam and Syldris could defeat it? Could Ezra chase it away, or would he flop on the deck like Ishū?

  “Have you thought more about what you’re going to do with your Timonite money?”

  “I don’t know… maybe get my farm back and live there peacefully. Or make a home on Tandoku Island. I kinda liked those people.”

  “No revenge?”

  “I don’t really know how to take revenge…”

  “With an innocence like that, I bet you’ll get your money stolen within a year. Do you think anyone would try to take Syldris’s money, if she had any?”

  Freddy shivered in fear. “I wouldn’t.”

  “Exactly. If we want to get rich we need to get to land and play this smart, like a Knyn. If we want to stay rich, well… we don’t have the vengeance fleet or a nation backing us, so we need to become like Syldris and generate our own fear.”

  Becoming like Syldris, becoming feared… no longer would anyone try to intimidate him, send police after him, take his land. He would be the one on top. But… was it possible for them? “Our powers aren’t exactly top tier.”

  “A fearless man with weak powers and a knife can terrorize ninety-five percent of the population. A paid-off local government protecting you can terrorize ninety-five percent of those remaining. For the rest, you pay bodyguards.”

  Paying off the government? Paying bodyguards? It sure was expensive being rich… but it was far better than a lifetime sailing forgotten waters on half rations with Syldris breathing down his neck. He could develop fearlessness and pay off some people if it meant his troubles would be over. “What do I need to do?”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” Jack leapt to his feet, pulled out two knives from his belt and tossed one to Freddy.

  Freddy scrambled back and let the knife fall to the deck in front of him. “What’s the big idea?”

  “Good instincts… the first prerogative is to avoid danger. Even better instincts would be to pick up the knife right after you jumped back, or to pull out one of your own. You gotta be vicious. Know what strikes kill, know what strikes cause pain… know, most importantly, how to make others aware that you know all this. Pirates don’t actually kill that often… but that’s only because people are afraid of them. Terror can cause one knife stroke to appear as a thousand in the minds of the herd.”

  “Wait, I thought we were going to be rich, not pirates!”

  “People obey the Mezazi because of their navy. People don’t cheat Knyn because of the vengeance fleet. All monetary power is backed up by physical power. Never forget that. You don’t want to be like Tandoku Island… nothing good ever comes from innocence.”

  Freddy picked up the knife. He wanted this new life for himself. It had felt good to be better than Ishū the other day. H
e could never be like Sam, but he’d rather be like Syldris or Jack than like his old helpless self. When chasing Evyleen, coming out on top with that crew had seemed like a distant dream, but here…

  No more fear, except in his enemies.

  “Show me.”

  ——

  Karugo woke early with his arms, figuratively, on fire. If his arms had been literally on fire it wouldn’t have hurt so badly, since he had some sort of protection from that, but whatever he had now caused a burning sensation any time he moved. The forearm muscles he’d used to grip the knife, the arm muscles he’d used to hold it steady, the muscles on his upper back he’d used to pull the knife back those hundreds of times… all of them screamed out in pain.

  He rolled over in bed and tested out each muscle in turn, morbidly curious. A lifetime of sitting in a classroom and getting glared at had not prepared him for life as a pirate.

  Maybe he didn’t have to get up just yet. He’d gotten up at midday yesterday and no one had said a thing, and it was just barely becoming light at the moment. Then again, Hishano was already up, and he heard the enticing noise of work being done above deck. He could just watch for part of today, until he was up to the task of training.

  Every movement hurt. Even walking used a dozen muscles he hadn’t ever realized were involved. As he climbed the stairs a surprise pain in his back flared up. He grabbed the railing but that just created a new wave of pain in his arm and shoulder. Karugo gritted his teeth and kept moving.

  Above deck, the sun was rising a deep red over the endless ocean.

  Jack glanced at him, a flicker of affection escaping the gruff exterior and making Karugo’s heart leap for joy. “You ready for more training?”

  How had they ever called these wonderful people devils?

  Despite all the pains, despite his body and mind screaming for him to refuse, Karugo’s soul won out.