The Briny Deep

by Simon Archer

  “I think we’ve all heard o’ her an’ The Black Cat,” Shrike weighed in as he focused his attention on the Ailur woman.

  “An’ I’ve heard o’ ye, Mister Shrike,” she purred, a smile quirking the corner of her lips. “Full glad am I that ye sail under the Skullsplitter flag, rather than as part o’ Bloody Bill’s crew.”

  He let out a soft snort and shook his head. “Seems my change o’ career ain’t exactly a secret.”

  “I hardly thought it a secret, Cap’n Shrike,” Tabitha said with a grin and a playful wink. “I do know of all o’ ye, in one way or another, much as ye know o’ me. What’s more, I am more than willin’ to answer any questions ye might have for me.”

  Kargad drummed his fingers on the table. “How did ye get wind of us?” he asked pointedly.

  “Ye ain’t exactly been quiet. Besides, how hard do ye think findin’ this ship full o’ orcs was?” Binx retorted. “Me only quandary was how best to make contact with ye, an’ I had a bit o’ help and a bit o’ luck with that.”

  “Ember spoke to me on her Captain’s behalf,” Mary explained. “I suggested they try actually talking to Captain Bardak, or any of you, for that matter, instead of just lurking about and watching us.” She smirked faintly, her eyes sparkling.

  “An’ wouldn’t ye know? It worked,” the Ailur smirked right back at my witch and gave a playful wink. “O’ course, me an’ me crew have been trackin’ agents o’ old Death’s Head himself, an’ one o’ them tried for yer Cap’n. He ain’t nothin’ but a daisy-pusher, now, but he was willing to try his luck with a pistol ball ‘til I set him straight.”

  “An’ for that, I thank ye, Cap’n. Ye made quite an entrance,” I said seriously. The brawl had been a clever ploy to try and take me out, and Tabitha’s intervention had been well-timed. My eyes met hers for a long moment. We both knew that she’d bided her time to make herself look the best in my eyes, but she had intervened, and I wasn’t going to hold a short wait against her.

  Nagra studied the Ailur woman as well, her heavy brow furrowed in thought before she glanced sidelong at Shrike and shrugged.

  He nodded then. “The Wasp has no objections, Cap’n Bardak.”

  “Hmph.” Adra scowled. “A black cat brings luck, they say,” she muttered. “But what kind, and how much?” Her dark eyes studied her darkly discolored fingers as they flexed and relaxed on the table in front of her. “We shall see, I think.”

  Kargad’s mouth worked silently, then he looked to me and shrugged. “Sirensong don’t object.”

  “While I’d like to get Ligeia’s opinion on the matter,” I observed, “I ain’t seeing that we’ve got the time to wait for her to finish scoutin’.”

  “Not with a dead Imperial agent,” Ember finally spoke up. “I’ve no idea how long it will be before word reaches the Admiralty, either.”

  “Right,” I grumbled. “So we’ve a need for a new port an’ a new plan.” With a deep breath, I focused on Captain Binx. “Since I ain’t hearin’ any lamentation or protestation, Cap’n Tabitha Binx, be ye welcome to Skullsplitter Fleet.”

  “Skullsplitter Fleet, hm?” she purred. “I like that. Thank ye all for havin’ me. Ye won’t be disappointed.”

  “Good,” I said with a nod before I leaned back in my chair, the wood creaking beneath my bulk. “Any proposals for our next port o’ call, then?”

  “Actually,” Tabitha spoke up immediately, “I’ve something.”

  All eyes focused on the black-furred Ailur as she continued. “Potter. On Red Cliff Isle. If ye want to pursue the path o’ The Golden Bull , then that’s where we need to go.”

  “I’ve no objection,” I opined after a moment’s thought. “They’ve a small port an’ little attention from the Admiralty.”

  “Plus they’re fairly out o’ the way, aye?” Shrike mused.

  Tabitha nodded. “Aye. ‘Tis maybe one trading company deals with ‘em at all, an’ only for clay an’ ceramics. Nothin’ the war effort really has much need for.”

  Mary snorted. “You really can tell they fully support their witches. We could make great use of good clay pots and such.”

  “Glad to be a freebooter, aye?” Ember asked, grinning at Mary.

  “Oh, aye! ‘Tis better by far than my service in the Admiralty,” my witch answered.

  I cleared my throat. “So, ye say we need to sail to Potter, but ye have not said why.” My gaze focused on Tabitha as I twined my fingers together and rested my hands on the tabletop.

  “There’s a bloke there who sailed on The Golden Bull ,” she said and reached into her coat to retrieve a waterstained, leatherbound journal. “This here’s the ship’s manifest, if ye’ve any questions. I double-checked his name with the list o’ crew.”

  Shrike reached for the book when Tabitha dropped it on the table. “Where’d ye get this?” he demanded.

  “I have me sources,” she replied with a smirk. “They found this in a junkmonger’s at Tarrant an’ recognized it for the treasure it is.”

  Mary and Nagra leaned over to study the stained pages, peering over the human’s shoulder while I glanced over at Kargad. He shrugged and leaned back in his chair. I’d get no help from that port.

  “What else do ye know of this?” I leaned forward a bit to focus on Tabitha and ignore the quiet discussion going on between Mary, Nagra, and Shrike.

  “I’ve been tracking that treasure ship for years, Cap’n Bardak,” Tabitha answered. “I’d found ol’ Eustace on Potter, but I wasn’t fully convinced ‘til I saw the manifest an’ the man’s name.” Then she tapped her forehead with the tip of one clawed finger. “Ain’t my first voyage, ye know.”

  I chuckled deeply. “Aye,” I mused. “Ye’ve quite a name for yerself, Cap’n Binx. I think we’re in for quite the adventure.”

  “Long as it ends with us rich an’ the Admiralty run out o’ the archipelago,” she stated with a grin. “I have to admit that I’ve been waitin’ a while for this, Cap’n Bardak. Wanted t’ meet ye even when ye were arse-deep in Imperial business, an’ I’m right glad ye saw the light.”

  “Took them tryin’ to kill him,” Kargad added. “He finally figured out that he’d worn out his welcome.”

  “I don’t recall ye advisin’ me any different, First Mate ,” I grumbled, giving my old friend a sidelong scowl.

  He chuckled. “They fooled me, too, Cap’n,” he said with a sigh. “Bugger all, but it’s good t’be workin’ for ourselves.”

  “Ye say that now,” Tabitha observed, “but try keepin’ yer spirits soarin’ when ye ain’t got any victuals an’ ye be sittin’ becalmed while yer witch sleeps off a bender.”

  “That was only one time!” Ember protested, eliciting a loud peal of laughter from her captain.

  “Aye.” Binx chortled. “Ember is the best witch I’ve served with, an’ she told me tales o’ Mary Night. Total all those things up, add in that I’m a cat to boot, and ye’ll see why I might be curious about ye and all this.”

  “Well, then.” I crossed my arms and leaned back, the conversation over the manifest still going strong in my ear. “Have ye any needs, Cap’n Binx?”

  “Full supplied we are,” she mused, then looked around the table. “Have ye got any open berths? I've got an acquaintance lookin’ to ship out, preferably on a buccaneer vessel, but I’m sure he ain’t that picky.”

  Kargad leaned forward. “Me an’ Shrike are runnin’ a bit short-handed, especially if yer bloke’s got any experience.”

  Ember snorted, and Tabitha gave her an irritated glance. “Oh, he’s bloody experienced, he is, an’ a good sailor too.”

  There had to be a story there as the Ailur was practically bristling.

  “What’s this man’s name?” I asked.

  “Drammond Screed,” Tabitha answered quickly. “He used to sail under Von Kolter on The Hellmaw , then with Peter Wry on The Sparrow .”

  “Heard o’ them, but he ain’t made a name for himself, yet?” The name Drammond Screed did trigger som
ething in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t put a finger on it. Combined with Binx’s odd behavior and the growing scent of anger rising from her, this man was likely an old flame. Likely she had a little bit of heat left for the man, but I doubted it was ardor reserved for the bedroom.

  “Screed’s more a ‘keep yer head down’ kind o’ pirate,” Tabitha replied, her eyes meeting mine. “He’s a bastard, but he’ll keep loyal if ye throw him scraps on occasion.”

  “Sounds like a right pleasant fellow,” Kargad rumbled. “I’ll take him, then, since Shrike ain’t listening.”

  “Shrike ain’t doing what?” The skinny sea dog snapped his head around to eye the rest of us.

  “Listening, apparently,” I said with a smile. “Ye just lost a possible crewman to Kargad, my friend.”

  “Eh, fair enough.” He peered at Tabitha, then settled back in his chair as Mary picked up the manifest.

  “First, we do agree that this is likely the real thing as opposed to a forgery or belonging to a different ship,” my witch told us, holding up the journal. “All the seals are dated, but in order, and the damage to the book is consistent with time and with someone either swimming to shore carrying it or taking a dingy during a storm.”

  Mary continued, “What’s more, the manifest is different enough from the tales that I’d be hard-pressed to deny that it was not the real thing.”

  Tabitha leaned back and folded her arms now, her tail giving a twitch or two. “I admit I didn’t think the bloody thing was real when I first looked it over,” she added, “but the more I studied it, the more I came to believe.”

  “You weren’t the one studying it,” Ember muttered under her breath.

  The Ailur woman laughed and just looked smugly around at the rest of us.

  “How’s it different?” Kargad asked pointedly, right before I opened my mouth to demand the same thing.

  “If anything,” Mary said slowly, “the tales underestimated what The Golden Bull carried.”

  “Don’t keep us in suspense, lass,” I encouraged. “Ye be buildin’ this up an’ gettin’ us all excited.”

  “Now you know how I felt,” Tabitha purred.

  “Right, then…” Mary began listing off the catalog of wealth carried by the treasure ship, and the room fell into silence. There was gold aplenty, more than enough to build a small fleet from scratch, along with gems, jewelry, and no few treasures of the realm.

  After she finished, I was the one that broke the silence with a question. “Why in the hells didn’t the bloody emperor spare no expense to recover that thing?”

  “Deep water,” Tabitha answered. “She ain’t supposed to lie in the shallows, an’ if ye get too deep, followin’ the shelves…”

  “You find sahagin,” Ember added.

  I wracked my brain. “Fish-man?” I asked at last.

  “Aye, Captain Skullsplitter,” Tabitha’s witch replied. “They’re mentioned in some stories, and a couple of menagerie studies speak of them as well. I happened to see a preserved one in Tarrant a few years back. They’re supposed to be fairly common in deep water, though they do not normally trouble the surface.”

  “If they are what I think,” I said slowly, “then they troubled us, once.”

  “Aye,” Mary said. “Had to be. I apologize for not recognizing them after the fact, but all the bodies had been heaved overboard, and the situation didn’t give me a good look at them.”

  I frowned and nodded slowly. “Ligeia said nothing, either. We’ll ask her about them once she returns.”

  This adventure was already off to a questionable start, but with the promise of that kind of wealth, there was no way that I’d back off now. If we could salvage The Golden Bull, we could refit all of our ships, buy a few more, crew them, and actually begin to harry the Admiralty in a way they’d have to notice. Once I had Layne on the open waters, we could certainly take the fight to him.

  “Fish-men or no,” I said firmly. “Deep water or shallow. I mean to find this wreck an’ plunder her. Are ye all with me?”

  A chorus of “Ayes!” filled the War Room. It was time to sail.

  6

  W e all sailed on the night tide, four ships of varying sizes and crews making their way out of the Caber harbor under oar or witchwind while a handful of idle dockworkers watched us go. Above, the moon shone through the clouds, its pale light sparkling off of the waves and the polished deck of The Hullbreaker .

  Behind me, at the mast, Mary sang softly, calling to the wind that we would need once we reached open water. Oars stroked to the drumbeat below, like the rhythmic heartbeat of my ship as we led the way out of the protected harbor and into the open water off the coast of Loggerhead Isle.

  A short time after we hit the open water, Tiny breached off to the port side with a spray of froth, and Ligeia leaped from the Dragon Turtle’s shell to the deck, then bounded on her long legs up to stand beside me. She paused and searched my face with her dark eyes before raising one slender hand hesitantly.

  I caught it, pulled her close, and held her for a moment, her body trembling against mine. “Good to see ye,” I said to her.

  “I am pleased to be back with you,” the siren murmured, leaning into me as I turned back to one-hand the ship’s wheel. “Who is the fourth ship?”

  “A new friend,” I replied. “Cap’n Tabitha Binx an’ The Black Cat .”

  “Oh.” Ligeia frowned slightly. “If you trust her, then I suppose I can, too.”

  “She saved my life back in Caber,” I explained. “Like a bloody fool, I let someone get the drop on me.”

  A low hiss escaped the siren’s lips, and her head whipped around to gaze back at the town.

  “‘Twas not their fault, Ligeia. Agents of the Admiralty were searching for us, and we’ve not been hard to track, I fear,” I confessed. “None of us are used to stealth, and word travels fast in the Archipelago.”

  “Still…” she whispered, then looked up at me. “I found very little, my Captain. A few ships, a few merfolk. But there were no, what do you call them? Ships of the line?”

  I grunted my assent. What the hell did that even mean? Considering everything that happened, plus the fact that Imperial agents were out looking for us, I expected more activity from the Admiralty. “Anythin’ that struck ye as out o’ the ordinary?”

  “There are…” Her brow furrowed. “... currents of magic running through the water. Strange ones.”

  “And that means what?” I asked. The Hullbreaker picked up speed as Mary’s song built in intensity. Sirensong, The Wasp, and The Black Cat all picked up speed as well, spreading out in our wake.

  Ligeia stiffened against me for a moment as she tilted her head back and gazed at the mainsail billowing in the witchwind. “That,” she stated firmly, “but underwater.”

  Now, I knew that currents flowed beneath the waves and carried the sea creatures below over unexpectedly far distances as well as occasionally throwing ships off course, carrying wreckage far from where it originally sank. When I concentrated, I could even occasionally feel them.

  “Well, I reckon that explains what they are, but not the bloody why?” I grumbled as the siren slipped away from me and turned to study Mary while the witch worked. My gaze returned to the fore of the ship, sweeping over the hectic activity of my crew as I focused on my talent. With my knowledge of the seas and my feel for the wind and waves, I altered our course to what I felt was the fastest route to Red Cliff Isle.

  The other ships adjusted to follow, and I let a faint smile creep over my face before I reached up to rub a tusk. Was it loose? I had taken a couple of really solid blows during the fight in Caber, but nothing that I thought would damage my tusks.

  Jimmy Mocker had taken over from Shrike as my first mate, and he came sauntering up from the main deck, spared a glance at Ligeia, then saluted me with a fist to chest thump.

  “All’s in order, Cap’n,” the foppish man said with a broad grin. “Bord is grumbling as usual but reports that all the c
annons are in tip-top shape. He wanted more time to do some refits an’ play with that idea o’ his.”

  Bord’s ‘idea’ was a rotating, four-barreled breech-loading cannon that fired a projectile more akin to a target arrowhead than a cannonball. The dwarf claimed it could achieve more range and higher accuracy than the usual cannon, and he had talked me into buying him four six-inch guns to experiment with. The theory behind the thing seemed sound, at least as far as I understood how these things worked.

  I’d love to see the thing in operation, but Bord hadn’t even gotten it fully assembled yet. It was taking up a cannon slot belowdecks, a small hit to our firepower for the moment, but if the dwarf’s creation did what he said it would, we’d be able to upgrade all of our cannon.

  Off to port, the great ridge of Tiny’s shell crested and submerged again as the Dragon Turtle broke the surface to take a breath. I nodded at Jimmy. “Make sure he’s got whatever help he bloody needs, so he doesn’t come grousing to me,” I ordered. “An’ make sure he keeps the rest o’ the cannon ready to go. From what Ligeia says, things are quiet, but there are a few points out o’ the ordinary.”

  “Like what?” my first mate asked, sparing a glance at the two women at the mizzenmast.

  Mary continued her song. She could stop it, and the wind would stay with us, now that she’d finished laying enchantments over the three ships. Had Tabitha engaged Ember to do something similar? Likely she had, since the sloop, according to stories, had won engagements with much larger vessels.

  “Magical currents beneath the waves,” I replied, watching his face for a reaction.

  I wasn’t disappointed. Jimmy Mocker’s jaw dropped, and he gave me a look of disbelief. “Ye ain’t pullin’ my leg, are ye, Cap’n?”

  “Not at all,” I said as I looked away over the deck. Some of the crew had started a weapons drill in a cleared space, that was good. I’d have to join them later. While it would take a bit for my heavy muscles to weaken, especially with my orcish blood, the idea of practice and exercise held a good bit of appeal.