The Bound Folio

by Rob J. Hayes

  One was a giant with a bald head and a host of metal spikes shoved through various parts of his face, and the other was a slight fellow with a rather kind-looking visage and long brown hair matted into locks. They grinned, seemingly hearing the shouts and figuring they'd stumbled onto a bit of sport. Beck sighed and resigned herself to slaughtering half the town, just as the muddy captain and crew came charging around the corner.

  “Right bit o' fun ya'v given us, luv,” said the muddy captain.

  “Not ta mention Bissy's broke both his legs in that fall,” put in one of the others.

  “Aye,” continued the captain. “Reckon it's time we made ya pay for the insult, eh?”

  Beck reached for one of her pistols when the tavern door crashed open and even more pirates filtered into the muddy dirt-way that passed for a street. In most normal settlements, Beck might have looked around for help from the local populace or lawfolk, but Mud Free was a pirate town. The local populace knew when trouble was brewing and knew better than to get anywhere near involved. The lawfolk were likely pirates themselves. She would get no help and knew it.

  “Stay out o' this, or I'll have ya all strung up by ya stones!” shouted the captain in a drawl that would have made most drunkards proud.

  “What about me?” said a woman from the doorway to the tavern. “Don't reckon I've got any stones an' yet it don't stop 'em being bigger than yours, Blu.”

  “You stay out o' this an' all, Elaina or I swear I'll...”

  “You'll what?” The woman walked into view. She was tall and tanned with shoulder-length black hair, tied back with a bandanna, and a straight, proud back. She wore bleached-bone tunic, baggy brown trousers with dark boots almost up to her knees, and a black coat over the top. “You'll run an' tell da' I was mean ta ya?”

  The captain, who was apparently named Blu, stepped forwards, and Beck noted the resemblance between the two in the lines of their squarish jaws and bright blue eyes. “I'll put ya in ya damned place, woman.”

  The pirates in company with the woman bristled and several swords rattled in their sheaths, while the pirates surrounding Blu yelled insults and let forth more than a little spittle. Beck couldn't help notice she was in the middle of what was becoming a full-scale street brawl, and she doubted anyone in the midst of such a conflict was likely to escape unharmed.

  The woman took a step forwards, her hand resting on the hilt of a sword at her hip. “Aye, ya welcome ta try, brother, but I reckon ya might just end up like Callup, an' I ain't sure I could explain ta ma' why I had ta cut up another one of her sons. Might be best ya just pack up an' fuck off 'cos this here witch hunter belongs ta me. Got myself a vested interest, ya might say.”

  Beck obviously wanted neither of the groups to have her, and she certainly didn't want them both tugging at her limbs. “Do I have a say here?”

  Blu narrowed his eyes at Beck, then spat, but she noted he made a point of not advancing any further. “What d'ya want with her?” he said to his sister.

  Elaina, however, made a point of closing the gap. “She's a pretty thing, don't ya think? Thought I find out what a cunt tastes like.”

  Elaina’s crew raised a jolly cheer at the idea, laughing and nodding, and a fair portion of the violent tension drained away; though it was, without a doubt, replaced by a different type of attention she was not entirely comfortable with.

  Blu backed a step and spat again into the mud. “Ya can have her then,” he said with a nasty grin. “Jus' make sure it hurts, eh, little sister.” With a dramatic turn and wave towards his crew, he stalked away with many angry — and just as many horny — pirates in tow.

  Beck cursed. Once again, she found herself surrounded by pirates, this time with the woman called Elaina within striking distance. Beck considered pulling one of her pistols, then decided it would be unwise given the current odds.

  “What is it you want from me?” she asked in her very best growl.

  Elaina grinned, an unusual reaction given that Beck felt her compulsion lock on to the other woman's will with a vice-like grip.

  “Ya don't think I'd have come and found myself an Arbiter without being at least a little bit prepared, do ya?”

  Beck gave a feigned smile. “What gave it away?”

  “Well, yer wearin’ a witch hunter's coat, for one.”

  “Ah, right.”

  “Lucky for ya, it just so happens I'm after an Arbiter, elsewise ya’d be in me brother’s clutches and no one wants to be there. Need your help, you might say.” Some of her crew laughed, grinning at Beck through an assortment of rotting teeth and extravagant beards. “Oh, don't let these scags scare ya much. I assure ya, it's nothing too dangerous.”

  “Why do you need an Arbiter's help?”

  “There's an item, once owned by my great, great, great,” the captain frowned, “great?”

  Another of the pirates, this one small and round with a bent pair of spectacles across the bridge of his nose, cleared his throat. “Great, great, great, great, great.”

  “Ah, thank you, Bob!” The captain waved a hand towards the small, round fellow. “'Bout as trustworthy as a broken clock, that one, but has an eye for detail. Great, great, great, great, great grandfather.” She peered at Bob, who smiled and nodded.

  “I'm sorry for your loss...” Beck scanned her surrounds for any hope of escape and found her prospects unlikely at best.

  “Many thanks,” the captain said. “So, this item is lost, or was lost. Reckon I know where it is, but don't reckon I can get ta it without some sort of help along the lines of the magical. That'd be you, I reckon.”

  “An interesting offer, don't get me wrong, and you all seem like proper, upright folk,” Beck looked hard at one of the pirates who appeared to be missing half an ear and all of a brain given that a portion of his head was caved in with a white stitch scar across his scalp. “Except for you, I do believe there is something wrong with you,” she said, eyeing the man. “That being said I feel I must decline. The Inquisition is simply not in the habit of assisting pirates, so I must bid you good luck in finding your heirloom and fare well.”

  The Captain laughed. “I'm willing to offer ya something for your troubles, something ya can't live without.”

  Beck sighed, but was admittedly intrigued. “And what would that be?” she asked.

  “Your life.”

  Again, Beck thought about reaching for her pistol and, again, her brain informed her it was suicide. “Ah, well…when you make such a tempting offer I don't see how I can refuse.”

  “Excellent,” said the Captain. “Glad to have ya aboard. The name’s Cap’n Elaina Black.”

  “Captain Black?” Beck felt the color drain from her face.

  “Aye.”

  “Daughter of the other Captain Black?”

  “Aye.”

  Beck resigned herself to what was likely a very uncomfortable rest of her life and consoled herself with the knowledge that it was, at least, also likely to be rather short. She smiled. “Wonderful! You don't suppose we could pick up my hat on the way to your ship, do you?”

  #

  Four days drifting at sea on board Starry Dawn, and Beck found herself experiencing a new level of boredom. It was true her training to become an Arbiter had been long, arduous, and at times dull, but she had always found ways to lift her spirits. Sometimes she would imagine the day she would prove herself worthy of becoming an Inquisitor, or sometimes she would torture initiate Darkheart in the hopes he would reveal himself for the heretic they all knew he truly was. Since completing her training, life had become a lot more interesting with rarely a dull moment. Wandering Arbiters travelled the world, experienced the four great empires of man up close and personal, and hunted down practitioners of dark magic. Beck had wandered almost everywhere; everywhere but the Pirate Isles, and Inquisitor Hironous Vance had seen fit to remedy that.

  Dwelling on her mission would only turn Beck's spirits darker so, instead, she decid
ed to focus on the here and now, and both were firmly rooted aboard Elaina Black's ship, Starry Dawn. Beck couldn't tell one form of sea-faring vessel from another, but the ship was small and sleek and cut smoothly through the waves. Her complement of pirates ranged from grime-ridden men with more fingers than teeth, to toughened women with skin darkened by the constant sun and who could easily hold their own against their bigger comrades. Most intriguing of all, of course, was Elaina Black herself.

  Far from the tyrannical, blood-thirsting maniac many of the rumors suggested, Elaina Black seemed young, full of life, and near permanently cheerful. The pirate captain spent most of her time on deck, jumping to tasks with the rest of her crew and rarely passing the opportunity to do any job that needed doing. She ran along the ship's railings with the grace of a lithe cat, climbed the rigging more surely than your average monkey, and bellowed orders in a volume more fitting a large orchestra complete with drums. Captain Black also seemed at ease putting herself on display; in the four days Beck had been aboard she witnessed the woman twice strip naked on deck to wash herself with sea water. Beck thought it odd it earned so little attention from the male members of the crew; no doubt they had seen it many times before.

  Beck had yet to learn any real information regarding this job she had been recruited for, despite questioning the captain many times. She could feel her compulsion, her magic gripping hold of Elaina Black's will every time she asked her a question, yet somehow the pirate seemed immune and only laughed. Beck asked a few of the other crew members and found their wills easy to dominate. It seemed only the captain had any real knowledge of where they were sailing and why.

  The shout of ‘land-ho!’ went up from above, and they shifted course a little, pointing them directly at the small spot of dry amidst the wet. Elaina Black dropped from the rigging a few feet from Beck and sauntered over, wearing a grin.

  “Tell me something, Arbiter,” Elaina said, her bright blue eyes shining. “Do ya know how to swim?”

  Beck tensed. If the captain had brought her out all this way just to drown her, the woman would find herself disappointed. “Of course. Do you think the Inquisition would send one of its agents into the world without being prepared?”

  Captain Black laughed. “Actually, I was counting on that. Ya see, it's almost time for ya to take a dip in the blue. Ya might want to, uh, lose the coat.”

  Beck snorted. “You coerced me onto this venture under the premise that refusing would be bad for my health. Diving into shark-infested waters seems just as bad for it, Captain Black. Perhaps I should take my chances against you and your crew instead.”

  The pirate held up her hands and smiled. “No need to get all dangerous, Arbiter. There's no sharks round here. Pol, any sharks round these waters?” she shouted.

  “Not a one round here, Cap,” a shout drifted down from somewhere in the rigging. “Water’s a bit fresh round these parts fer ‘em.”

  “See. No sharks,” Captain Black continued just before her smile disappeared. “Neither are there likely to be any ships, so even if ya did manage to kill me and all me crew, who exactly would be sailing ya home to your city of sun? Truth is you're good and fucked, Arbiter, so how about ya stop bitchin’ and help me out. Both of us will get out of this alive and happy. I'll even drop ya anywhere round here ya want to go once we're done.”

  Beck mulled it over and came to the conclusion she had little choice but to trust the pirate's word, at least for the time being. “And why exactly am I going for a swim, instead of you?”

  “There's a cave on the south side of that little island,” Captain Black said, staring out towards the island. “It's underwater and not too easy to find, or so the rumors say. After a little swim you'll surface into a cavern. Ain't much I know about the cavern, other than the chest that lives in it contains a bit of gold and a chart.”

  “All this for some gold?”

  “The chart, Arbiter. I want the chart.”

  “And you needed me because...?”

  “Cave ain't easy to find. Reckon it'll be a bit easier with someone who can see and breathe underwater.”

  Beck groaned. She could neither see, nor breathe underwater, but magic was capable of many things and she had the feeling denying those uses to Captain Black would be pointless.

  “Fine,” Beck snarled, wishing Inquisitor Vance had sent someone else to the Pirate Isles. “I do this for you, fetch you this chart, and you take me to Port Sev'relain.”

  Elaina Black's eyes creased into a frown. “Sev'relain, is it? Aye, we can do that.”

  An hour later, Beck found herself at the railing of Starry Dawn staring down as the anchor disappeared beneath the blue waters. The sea was clear and calm, but as the chain rattled away the anchor went so deep she lost sight of it.

  “Reckon that attire suits you, Arbiter,” Elaina Black said, joining Beck at the railing.

  Beck was dressed in only a pair of patched and worn sailors' trousers, loaned to her by the pirate captain, and the blouse that she usually wore underneath her tunic. She missed her coat, her pistols, and her store of charms and runes, but none would be useful underwater and would only serve to hinder her movement.

  “Ya ready?”

  Beck shot the pirate an acidic glare and backed away a step.

  “Take your time then.”

  Beck took a deep breath and looked inside for calm. She was well aware that the crew of Starry Dawn were gathering around, but their interest meant nothing to her. Even for an Arbiter like her, an Arbiter famed for her skill and raw power in the sorcerous school of magic, casting and maintaining two augmentation spells at once would be a drain, especially considering the surroundings she was diving into.

  Tapping into her faith, Beck reached out to Volmar and let her God's power flow through her, bolstering her magic. Beck whispered the first spell into her hands, letting the magic coil around her fingers where it waited for a suitable target, then she wiped her hands across her eyes and the magic flowed into them.

  The first noticeable difference was the world took on a glassy feel, as though looking at it through a window. Colors seemed a little less bright, and everything looked a little further away.

  “Fuck me if that ain't a little disconcerting,” said a voice nearby. Beck turned to find the source, and a group of pirates who were close by stepped backwards.

  Only Elaina Black stayed near her. “Are your eyes meant to look all fishy-like?”

  Beck grinned as the pirate captain swallowed a bit nervously.

  Again, Beck tapped into her magic, this time letting the words of the spell catch in her throat where they stuck, seeping into her larynx and flowing back down into her lungs. The air became thick and hard to breathe, the world too dry, the sun unbearably hot. Beck weathered the assault on her senses.

  “Now I'm ready,” she said to the gathered crew of Starry Dawn.

  Some of the pirates clasped hands over their ears, others turned and fled, all but running away from her, one whispered something about merfolk. Again, only Elaina Black held her ground, but the woman looked as if it were taking a supreme effort of will to remain there.

  “Your voice...” she said, her face a picture of disgust.

  Beck smiled. She knew her voice would sound distasteful to others, yet to her it sounded no different. “You wanted me for this, Captain,” she hissed.

  One pirate emptied his stomach onto the deck, while another dropped to his knees screaming to make the noise stop. Even through her glassy vision, Beck saw it took all the bravado the captain possessed to step forwards. She held out a small cylinder with a rope around it. “For the chart,” she said.

  Beck took the cylindrical case and slung the rope over her shoulder.

  Elaina held a knife. “Just in case,” the pirate said, flipping the weapon around so the handle was towards Beck. “The cave should be around here somewhere, closer to the island by a drop, I reckon.”

  Beck took hold of the knife
and placed the blade between her teeth.

  “Good luck down there,” the captain said. “We'll be waiting here for ya.”

  The assault on Beck’s senses was becoming too much. She needed to be underwater, so without another word she stepped up onto the railing and jumped, hitting the water hands first. She wasted no time diving under, inhaling lungful after lungful of water until the panicked drowning sensation stopped and she could breathe normally.

  The underwater world was alien and blue. It was bright and clear up where Beck floated but down below she could see it darken, yet her eyes still pierced the murk. Sand and rock and colorful coral adorned the sea floor and countless small fish darted about. Larger beasties occupied the water as well, and Beck was fascinated by a fish as big as she was, but with a beak for a mouth, and she watched it a moment as it chipped away at a rock.

  Looking up, Beck observed the black hull of Starry Dawn, the shadow of its bulk looming above her. The sun shone down, its light fragmenting on the surface, augmented by Beck’s magical eyes in an array of crystalline shards that beautified the new world around her in indescribable hues. She peered at the anchor’s chain that ran down past her all the way to the sea floor. Beck swam along next to it, descending further and further into the endless blue.

  One thing about the Pirate Isles, and it was something she was more than a little glad of, was that the water was warm. There was no chill sapping the strength from her limbs as she dove ever deeper. Upon reaching the sea floor, a patch of sand stirred and whipped into a frenzy as a small, flat creature no bigger than Beck's arm, decided it was time for a relocation. Beck watched the creature go, marvelling at its needle-like tail, before turning towards the island and kicking off, beginning her search for Captain Black's hidden cave.

  #

  Beck wasn't sure how long she spent looking, but by the time she came across the cave, no more than a small gap in a rock bed and overgrown with long, tendril-like coral, her arms and legs were tired from swimming and she felt drained from the sustained use of magic. It took quite a bit of effort to snap off enough coral for her to safely swim into the cave, and many little fish fled the destruction. Beck stared into the hole, wishing for a heretic or two to hunt, rather than risk her life in this dark, underwater cave. Procrastination over the job would do little but make the situation worse, so Beck threw caution to the unpredictable wind of the isles and dragged herself into the opening.