by Simon Archer
“I have information,” I answered. “‘Tis a long story, but it seems Admiral Layne is delvin’ into even darker magics than expected.”
“Are ye bloody serious?” Captain Binx exclaimed. “These have been tellin’ me tales I barely believed. Had I not known witches meself, I’d be laughin’ this off as sea-addled yarns!”
“Aye, I be quite serious,” I said, “but all o’ ye should enjoy our victory here. Methinks I’ll retire to The Hullbreaker an’ mull things over. We can talk on the morrow.”
“I would go with thee, my Captain,” Ligeia spoke up.
“The mayor wants t’talk with ye, too,” Shrike added. “Though she be drinkin’ against Gol an’ Jimmy both.”
I grumbled under my breath and looked around the bustling square until my gaze lit on a group surrounding a table and cheering madly. That had to be the drinking contest.
“Right,” I said. “Now have some bloody fun. Captain’s orders.”
Without another word, I stalked off into the crowd, townsfolk and pirates alike parting before me. Ligeia strolled along in my wake. Mary would make much of this later, and I suspected I’d be hearing from Binx and Shrike as well. My plan grew bigger by the day, and though it grew harder to grasp, I felt that I still had it well in hand.
We still needed a bigger fleet, stronger ships, and the best captains in the archipelago. Meanwhile, the Admiralty raised the dead and consorted with dark forces. Of course, I still had Mary Night, Ligeia, and Tiny, but were they enough, even with the additional witchcraft and magic brought along by Nagra, Ember Spark, and Adra Notch-Ear?
How long would it be before the Admiral called in the Sisterhood to hunt a few rogue witches? I suspected we’d been both good and lucky so far, but news would travel, and Mary seemed to a major point of contention.
I’d ask her about that later.
When I finally pushed through the crowd, I found the old woman Brigh smirking brightly at Jimmy Mocker and Gol the Clanless, who sat across from her at the little makeshift table. Both sides of the battle had a line of small, wooden cups arrayed in front of them and turned upside-down.
Jimmy was listing hard to port and looked more than a little green around the gills, while Gol and Brigh faced off. I could smell the sour odor of the strong, new wine, and immediately knew why my first mate looked so ill. They’d been drinking the stuff quickly, and just from the cup I’d had, I could easily imagine how much it could churn a man’s guts.
“Ye wanted to see me, Brigh?” I interrupted. There was too much on my mind for me to join the game, and I didn’t have much interest in making myself sick.
“Ah, aye! Wanted to thank ye, Cap’n!” the mayor gushed as she turned toward me. She grinned widely and winked the eye furthest from her two competitors, then raised one hand. “Quiet!” Her voice went through the crowd and noise like a bosun’s whistle, and left silence in its wake.
“There,” she continued, her bright eyes on me. “On behalf o’ Winemaker’s Run an’ our whole little island, I would like to extend the hospitality o’ our town to ye and yers, Cap’n Bardak. We ain’t got much, but we can give ye folks a good resupply to see ye on yer way, an’ any ship flying yer colors will always be welcome, long as they don’t abuse that privilege.”
“I’ll make sure they don’t, mayor Brigh,” I said, straightening my back as I thumped my chest in an orcish salute. “For one, I am glad we were close enough to you t’be of assistance.”
“As are we!” someone in the crowd yelled.
“More drinking!” someone else called.
Brigh and I laughed. “That’s it, me hearty,” she said. “Maybe we’ll speak o’ this more on the morrow if yer still in town.”
“Might be,” I mused. “Might not. Depends on whether or not I can find all my crew.”
That brought another roar of laughter.
“We’ll make sure t’cart ‘em home, Cap’n,” Brigh said brightly. “Now, do I deal ye in, or have ye got things to do?”
“Things to do,” I replied, “but thank ye all the same.” With that, I dipped my head respectfully to the old woman, turned, and made my way through the crowd in the direction of the docks. Ligeia continued to drift along in my wake. For a little while, we walked in silence, quickly leaving the boisterous revel in the square behind us.
“You seem troubled, my Captain,” the siren observed at last.
“Aye. Dark thoughts, lass. Adra showed me some things that weigh on me a bit,” I explained. “Did ye not feel a disturbance in the sea and sky?”
“I did,” she said after a moment of reflection. “The elementals seemed to be agitated about something. Was that you?”
“It was,” I said with a nod. “Apparently, I’ve the gifts of a shaman, and Adra means to see me trained.”
“You will accept?” the siren asked. “I should think that you would.”
“Aye,” I replied simply.
“Good.” She nodded firmly. “Power can be dangerous if it is untrained.”
I snorted. “I hardly need ye to tell me that, lass,” I said affectionately. “Seems it can be dangerous when it’s trained, too.”
She hissed softly, her form of laughter. “You speak true, my captain. So, why do you seek your ship rather than the company of your men and your women?”
“Answers,” I said with a shrug. “I’d like to talk to the captive, an’ if ye be willing, I could use yer help.”
“You wish me to bring something to dine upon?” she asked, recalling our first meeting and the interrogation of that particular soldier.
“Nay, lass. Methinks this man is less dedicated than most, an’ that may serve us well.” I shrugged and paused as a shape detached from the shadows near the dock and started in our direction.
The human who stepped up was unfamiliar to me, and I paused, eyes narrowed. Ligeia just studied him flatly.
“Ahoy, Cap’n,” the man said. “We’ve not truly met. I am Drammond Screed, off o’ Sirensong. ”
That name was familiar from the meeting we’d had back at Caber, where The Black Cat had officially joined my little fleet. Screed was the blackheart Tabitha had recommended to me, and Kargad had taken him on as probationary crew.
“What do ye need, Drammond?” It paid to be congenial, at least until I needed to crack some heads. The fellow didn’t have weapons out, and he hardly seemed dangerous to me. He wasn’t terribly tall or broad but was a bit bulkier than Jimmy or Shrike, which made him slightly larger than my left leg. For a pirate, he was tidy, ginger hair and beard all neatly kept. His green eyes were shifty, though, and his attention kept drifting to Ligeia.
“Information, Cap’n,” he said. “Tabitha gave ye the manifest, aye?”
I nodded slowly. Tabitha said that she’d gotten the thing from her sources, and I suspected that particular informant now stood before me. There was only one way to find out.
“How do ye know about that?” I sniffed and regarded the man thoughtfully.
He shifted a bit but met my gaze. “Because I gave her the bloody thing.”
He didn’t seem to be lying, but there was something about him. Any man who’d approach me behind the back of any of the commanders bore watching.
“That be all, sailor?” I asked, breaking my gaze away to start to move past him.
“No, Cap’n. Have ye read it?” Screed asked.
“Nay. I looked it over a bit but ain’t had time to peruse and mull it over. Ye have somethin’ to say, an’ ye don’t want anyone else to hear it. Fair enough, but I ain’t keen on secrets.”
“What about her?” Drammond nodded in the direction of the siren, who just regarded him with her gaze gone flat.
I waved a dismissive hand. “She’ll not spill yer secrets, but she might chew out yer guts for wastin’ our time. Stop sailin’ round the damned island an’ get to the point.”
“Fine,” the man huffed. “The Golden Bull carried a thing o’ wonder, The Black Mirror, that Old Corso was sendin’ out to the Admi
ralty. I ain’t sure what the bloody thing does, but there are lots o’ tales an’ mysteries around it. It’s brought rack an’ ruin in its wake, too.”
A chill ran over my skin, and a cold breeze swirled around us. The touch of the air was in it. Whatever was being said caught the attention of the elementals that had taken to following me around. Now, I’d heard of this Black Mirror, but only in passing. It was a priceless artifact stolen by an Imperial explorer from a ruin in the far south of Milnest, and it had passed through several hands before ending up in the treasury of the mad emperor.
None of the tales said what it did if anything, but if the Emperor had been shipping it to the Admiralty in the Archipelago when that ship went down, then I’d bet my tusks it was a kind of weapon.
“Why are ye tellin’ me this?” I asked pointedly.
“I thought ye might like to know what ye’re really after, Cap’n,” he replied, smiling faintly behind his neatly-groomed beard.
I gave a sidelong glance at Ligeia, who stood still and expressionless at my side. I’d get no immediate help from that quarter, so I just played my cards close to my chest.
“Thank ye, Mister Screed,” I told the man. “I’ll have a closer look at the manifest an’ see what I think about this.”
“O’ course, Cap’n,” Screed said with that faint, smirk of a smile. He gave me a quick Admiralty salute and drifted off in the direction of the town square and the continuing celebration.
Ligeia and I watched him go, then looked at each other thoughtfully. “Ain’t precisely sure what I make o’ that,” I observed as we resumed our walk towards my ship.
“I believe that one desires conflict,” the siren said quietly.
That matched my own observation, but the man hadn’t served long with any of my people. Kargad might have a first impression, and I’d certainly have to ask him, but the most likely source of information I had would be Tabitha Binx. Once I’d had a look at the bloody manifest and talked with Mary and some of the others about this Black Mirror, I would have to have a talk with her.
For now, though, my gut was warning me about Drammond Screed.
13
W ith Adra’s lessons behind me and my ardor cooled, I rather enjoyed Ligeia’s serene, insightful company. It wasn’t that I missed Mary, it’s just that I had a lot on my mind, and the siren’s presence helped me focus.
My witch, in the mood I expected she was in, would have been quite the distraction.
I retrieved the manifest from my desk and began going through it to look for any reference to that Black Mirror Drammond spoke of. The siren, as I expected, stripped off the dress she’d worn and perched on the edge of my bed to watch me.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” I muttered. “Here it is.”
The entry in question was buried late in the manifest, hidden amongst an impressive array of booty. If we managed to secure The Golden Bull , we’d have enough gold to keep my little fleet going for years, even adding a few ships. We could certainly be a much larger thorn in the Admiralty’s side.
Thing is, there was that one strange entry. There were no details, no estimated value, just a simple statement on one waterstained line of a page covered in cramped writing: “Black Mirror (1)”.
I leaned back and rubbed my temples. “So, Drammond did not lie about the entry in the manifest.”
“What did he lie about?” Ligeia asked.
“I ain’t bloody sure,” I admitted. “Perhaps somethin’ to do with Tabitha, or even to do with the manifest itself.”
At that moment, the door of my cabin opened, and a disheveled, bloodstained Mary Night slipped in, a bottle clutched loosely in one hand. “Oh, Captain!” she called out, then spied the siren and the manifest in my hands. “Ye seem busy. Do ye not wish me here?”
I shook my head and glanced over at Ligeia, who just smiled faintly. “Come in, Mary. Ye always be welcome here.”
“Good,” she said deliberately. “Because I am not sure I could make it anywhere else.”
With that, she half-walked and half-staggered over to collapse face-first on my bed, still holding the bottle. Ligeia let out a soft, hissing laugh and retrieved it before it fell to the floor.
Mary would be quite useful in solving this mystery if she were not drunk and half-asleep. I felt a flash of guilt for turning down her offer back in town, but Adra had left me with far too much on my mind, then Screed had only added to it.
I went back to the manifest and let the siren care for my witch. My eyes scanned further down the page and hit on something else, an item on the list of things to be picked up, something called the Huntsman’s Spear. Once again, there was no description, but I had a vague feeling in my gut that I knew what that was.
Sebastian Arde had wielded a spear in our final showdown, and while I’d broken the haft, I had the blade locked away. The sight of the thing greatly disturbed my witch, and I’d never asked her to explain why.
Hell. What other items of magic were listed in the shipping manifest and orders of The Golden Bull? Why were they dropping off some items and picking up others? What did Layne still have? Just looking at this damned thing raised so many questions for me.
I especially wondered why old Corso wanted to retrieve the Huntsman’s Spear from the Admiralty in the Archipelago. That was a mystery to be sure.
“She sleeps,” Ligeia murmured as she slid from the bed and padded over to me. I glanced up from the ledger and smiled faintly when she perched on the arm of my chair.
“It’s likely I’m far more worried about Screed’s words than I should be,” I said and slipped an arm around the siren’s waist.
“Likely.” She squirmed a little and leaned against me, returning the favor by slipping one of her arms around my shoulders. “Who will you choose to trust?”
I sighed and closed my eyes. Tabitha saved my life back in Caber, so I was inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Screed, though, was a new recruit and not even one on my own ship. If he were spreading trouble on Kargad’s ship, he’d be in for a surprise.
“I suppose I need to have words with Cap’n Binx, then,” I grumbled. “Cut right through the shit and see what she has to say.”
“I doubt you would learn much tonight,” Ligeia whispered in my ear. She pressed against me, nearly in my lap at this point.
“Not tonight, lass,” I said, frowning slightly. My mind, hell, my very spirit, was still reeling from what I’d seen and done under Adra’s tutelage. While I could perform, my heart wouldn’t be in it, and my siren deserved better.
I peered deeply into her eyes. There was a hidden depth to their flat, black gaze that I had learned to find during my time with her. She was a predator of the sea, true, but Ligeia was a deeply loving soul besides.
“At thy convenience, then,” she said with a faint smile and a blink of her secondary eyelids. “Do ye wish to sleep?”
I pondered that for a moment, then answered with a shake of my head. “No, not particularly. Ye got somethin’ in mind?”
Once again, she smiled faintly. “Would ye swim with me, my Captain?”
That actually sounded inviting. I’d done very little swimming for fun since orcs didn’t float terribly well. Ligeia’s kiss had fixed that, so I didn’t need to worry so much about keeping my head above water, and in some ways, it made it easier to swim. I was still prone to sinking, though.
Perhaps the awakening touch of the elementals in my spirit prompted me, or maybe it was just the idea of spending a bit more time with Ligeia, but I gave her a grin and a nod. “Aye, lass. I think I would.”
We slipped out together and emerged into the cool air of the main deck. Off in Winemaker’s Run, the party continued. A pair of guards stood off to port, flanking the gangplank leading down to the slightly listing dock. They didn’t glance back, and I scowled a bit.
Ligeia caught my arm and pulled me towards the starboard rail, where I’d had a rope ladder installed. This was specifically for the siren to use, and it certainly ea
sed her movement from sea to ship. At the rail, she just stepped up on it and dove, vanishing beneath the dark waves with barely a ripple.
I wasn’t about to try the same and end up in a belly flop or worse. It was an easy matter for me to slip over the side and clamber my way down the ladder. Once I hit the water, I let go and dropped slowly through the darkness until my feet hit the bottom.
The first breath was always the hardest, as used to breathing air as I was. One that initial discomfort passed, I opened my eyes and began to walk forward on the uneven bottom out towards the center of the harbor. The water here was deep enough to allow ships to pass easily in and out, perhaps ten fathoms or so at the deepest, with a sharp slope that led up to the shore beneath the docks.
Seagrass waved in the gentle currents as I walked along, tickling the lower half of my legs. Winemaker’s run had a surprisingly clean harbor, with very little floating debris or junk.
Well, aside from the flotsam left of the ships we’d fought.
Ligeia drifted up to me with a smile on her face and swam slow circles around me as I moved forward. It didn’t take long before I leaned forward and began to swim. I preferred walking along the bottom since it was a lot of work to keep myself from sinking.
Swimming was still faster, though, and the siren was in a playful mood. Maybe that was what I needed to distract me from my brooding mood, so I just let go and indulged, swimming after the lithe, darting figure that danced just beyond my reach.
I finally managed to catch up with her when we reached Tiny, where he rested on the bottom of the harbor. She squirmed and pressed her lips against mine before she slipped away and led me to the makeshift throne on the Dragon Turtle’s shell.
Ligeia droned a wordless call that filled the water around me, and the massive beast surged upwards. Moments later, we broke the surface in a surge of spray, and the magic of the siren’s kiss cleared my lungs almost immediately. Above us, the stars glittered through the breaks in the near-perpetual clouds.
