Zane Halloway: Omnibus Edition

by P. T. Hylton

  She put a hand against the bulkhead to steady herself. Thoughts of what the bald man Gerald had said came rushing back.

  “Let’s throw those we don’t need over the side and put the ones we do in irons.”

  Was it possible they’d already enacted that plan? That Caleb was right now treading water, calling desperately for help that would never come?

  No, of course not. She was being ridiculous. Whatever their plan, they’d be fools to kill Caleb. The king would pay for his safe return.

  Also, he was the damn King’s Sword. He was as good as his predecessor Faraday had been. A bit less technically accomplished, perhaps, but he made up for it with greater strength and just as much speed. Lily didn’t think he could single-handedly defeat a ship full of pirates, but she knew they wouldn’t have been able to take him out without anyone noticing. He would have put up a hell of a fight, even while sea sick.

  Unless they’d caught him sleeping, a little voice inside her head whispered. Then a simple knife between the ribs would have settled the matter.

  She took a deep breath and began searching the room. There were no signs of a struggle. And nothing was missing, as far as she could see. His sword was still leaning in the corner.

  Was it possible she was panicking over nothing? That he’d just gone topside for a walk on the deck?

  She turned and gasped.

  Captain Pass stood in the doorway.

  “Well,” he said. “You’ll be looking for the King’s Sword, then?”

  Lily nodded. “Have you seen him? Is he…is he all right?”

  Pass chuckled.

  Lily’s hand went to the hilt of her sword. “Tell me.” Her voice was a husky whisper. “What did you do with him?”

  “Oh, you misunderstand. I didn’t do anything. Young Caleb was a victim of Henry Longstrain. Now, I think it’s time for you to lay down your weapon. Then we’ll have a nice chat about what’s really going on here.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Zane had come straight to Amber’s ship, The Empire, after leaving Melody Longstrain’s vineyard. He’d done his best to convince Amber that the other widows were laying a trap for her. But she wouldn’t even consider the notion. She believed her husband had come back from the dead, but she wouldn’t believe her sister-captains would abandon their designated shipping routes just to kill her.

  “If they wanted me dead, they could have killed me at the meeting,” she said. “They had me outnumbered eighteen to one, after all.”

  Zane couldn’t argue with that. But that was the way the Longstrain widows operated. For years, they’d wanted Zane dead. But did they storm his house en masse? No. They attacked him one at a time, using overly complicated methods. To the Longstrains, everything was a game. Even revenge.

  “Let’s stop thinking about the what for a minute and think about the why,” Zane had told her. “Why would the others want you dead?”

  She smiled and patted the railing of her ship. “Simple jealousy.”

  Zane sighed. “Why are they jealous?”

  “Take your pick. Henry loved me best. I’m the most successful pirate. I have the best crew. I can out drink any of them. I’m better looking than the lot of them put together. I can out fight—”

  Zane held up a hand. “Fine. But if what you’re saying is true, if Henry really is back, why hasn’t he contacted you?”

  She scowled. “That’s the real question, isn’t it?”

  “Amber, there’s something bigger going on here, and until we understand it, I can’t advise you to take your ship out.”

  She squinted at him. “Oh, you can’t advise me? I hired you to find my husband, not to be my damn advisor. I’m going. If those bitches want to take a stab at me, they know where to find me. And if you’re right, if they are coming after me, that’s our best chance to find Henry, too.”

  “Fine,” Zane said again. “Then I’m coming with you.”

  Amber looked genuinely surprised at that. “I didn’t hire you to be my bodyguard, either.”

  “It’s like you said. This is our best chance of finding Henry. And I’m not missing that.”

  Amber thought for a long time before responding. “You can come. But remember who’s captain. You’ll address me as such, and you follow orders, understand?”

  Zane thought about throwing in some caveats, but he just nodded.

  “And, this is important, if you kill anyone on my crew, I will lash you to the keel until you drown. Are we in agreement?”

  Zane said they were.

  Now they were departing, and, as Zane watched the harbor town grow smaller and smaller, he began to regret his decision.

  He wondered if he might be insane.

  He had money. He had respect. He could have retired or kept working and took the safer jobs. If he had any sense at all, he would have stepped down from his position as one of the Ferox Society’s four assassins years ago, maybe moved back to Gippen where he’d started his career. He’d hated it at the time, but now he missed those innocent days.

  But he hadn’t retired. Instead, he’d taken on as a client a woman who wanted him dead. Then he’d pursued her insane idea that her husband was still alive. And, worst of all, he’d accompanied her onto a pirate ship which was now departing for a voyage into the Gamlond Channel.

  It was at least possible this was all a ruse to get him out in open waters and kill him. But he didn’t think so. However crazy Amber’s theory about her husband, Zane was convinced she believed it.

  The looks the pirates gave him were doing nothing to improve his mood.

  Most of them had been part of failed attempts on Zane’s life, and he’d taken the lives of some of their friends. Now he was suddenly coming along on their voyage to plunder the most profitable shipping route in the world. On top of that, their captain had made an announcement to the crew that Zane Halloway was not to be harmed.

  Zane understood why they might be confused and maybe a bit angry.

  He saw a few familiar faces on deck, but the one that leapt out at him was slight woman with a rapier hanging at her hip. She wore a top that left her stomach exposed, so Zane could see the thin scar from where he had stabbed her during a fight in a tavern two years before. She looked like she was struggling to contain the fury in her eyes each time she saw him.

  For the next three days, he did his best to avoid the rest of the crew, an impossible task on a sloop this size. He spent most of his time thinking. There was more going on here than what Amber was telling him. Lying clients weren’t exactly uncommon in the world of assassins. People often told him what they thought he wanted to hear. They made false accusations. A romantic rival could be portrayed as a rapist or a killer. A business associate might be drawn as a slaver or a thief. It was Zane’s job to ferret out the truth in the lies. He’d been a ferox for thirteen years now, and he’d gotten quite good at finding the truth.

  The thing these people never understood was that Zane didn’t accept jobs based on the moral righteousness of the client. He didn’t think of what he did as noble. In fact, he considered it a dangerous and disrespectful practice to cloak an assassin’s deeds in any sort of nobility. He was a killer, and he knew it. There was nothing nice or good or right about what he did.

  And Amber understood that. She too lived well beyond moral gray areas. Some pirates might believe the folk tales that romanticized their trade, but the Longstrain widows weren’t among them. They were ruthless pragmatists.

  On the third day of their voyage, Zane made the mistake of going below to the hold alone. He was hungry and bored and looking to find something to fill his stomach, even if it was the unappetizing fare that sustained men and women who spent weeks at sea.

  He was wandering in the near darkness when he heard someone descending the ladder. Followed by three others.

  He sighed and pushed aside any thought of food. Quite possibly, this was going to get ugly.

  The four pirates moved toward him, spreading out into a semi-circle that
blocked all avenues of escape. The only light came from the hatch behind them, which gave them an advantage; they could see him clearly, while he could only see their silhouettes. The light was enough for him to make out the slight woman he’d once stabbed. And the sword she was holding. The others were similarly armed.

  Zane gritted his teeth. She was an excellent swordsman. She would have made for an interesting fight under fair circumstances. As it now stood, she had three allies and Zane was unarmed.

  There was no use putting up pretenses. He wouldn’t pretend they’d come down to say hello.

  “I believe your captain made it clear I wasn’t to be harmed,” he said.

  “That she did,” the woman said. “She’s doesn’t like rule breakers. She’ll likely have the four of us swabbing decks and scrubbing bulkheads for two weeks. But you’ll be just as dead when we’re back in her good graces.”

  So much for appealing to their sense of logic, then.

  “That night at the tavern in Barnes,” the woman said, “one of the men you killed was my husband.”

  It made sense. Zane remembered the way she and one of the men had worked as a team, moving in complicated two-person forms. It had inspired Zane to try to do the same with Lily.

  “The captain may have given up on seeking revenge for her husband’s death,” the woman continued, “but I never will.”

  With that, she lunged forward.

  If Zane hadn’t been ready, leaning on the balls of his feet and prepared to react to the first sign of movement, she would have run him through. As it was, he just managed to twist to the right far enough that the blade slipped past him. He spun forward and grabbed the woman’s still-outstretched wrist with his left hand, and punched her in the face with his right. As he connected, he pulled hard on her wrist. The move had its intended result; she howled in pain and dropped the sword.

  Zane quickly scooped up the sword and held it at the ready, his gaze traveling to each of the pirates.

  The woman growled in fury and pulled a dagger out of her belt. The pirates brandished their swords, their expressions equally enraged.

  Zane had a sword, now, but he still faced a life-and-death dilemma. If he fought hard and got lucky, he might be able to survive this. Once he killed one or two of them, they would likely lose heart and beg off. Revenge is a fine thing, in theory, but few are willing to die for it. But he also believed Amber was neither exaggerating nor kidding about strapping him to the keel if he killed any of her crew members. And somehow he thought self-defense wasn’t going to be an acceptable excuse. She wasn’t the type of pirate to let one off on a technicality.

  The woman made a sharp guttural sound in her throat, and, as one, they attacked.

  Zane was ready. He moved sharply to his left, blocking himself from two of them with the bodies of the other two. He deflected the sword of the closest man, then spun behind him, again blocking himself from the others.

  He was alongside them now, so they all had an equal amount of light to work with. That cut the pirates’ advantage. A little.

  He was becoming aware there was no way he was going to live through this. Not without killing at least one of them. He had no choice. Better to survive now and throw himself on Amber’s mercy.

  Again, the woman gave the signal.

  But before the pirates could attack, a voice yelled through the hatch, “Enough!”

  Amber Longstrain came down and glared furiously at Zane. “This is how you repay my hospitality? By taking a sword to my crew members?”

  One of the pirates snickered.

  Amber whirled on him. “And you four, what did I tell you about engaging Ferox Halloway?”

  “You said—” the woman started.

  “I said don’t!” Amber yelled.

  She glared from one to another, finally turning her angry gaze on Zane. “I’d have all five of you whipped if there were time for such things. Unfortunately, there is not. We have a duck in sight. Get to your stations.”

  The four pirates scurried up the ladder. Something made Zane hold back.

  When the others were out of earshot, Amber said, “I appreciate you not killing them. They’re good pirates. Their blood just runs hot sometimes.”

  Zane didn’t respond to that. His heart was still racing, and he didn’t trust himself to say something that wouldn’t anger the captain further, so he changed the subject. “What’s this about a duck?”

  Amber turned toward the hatch and stared out into the light. “It was something Henry used to say. Most ships are like ducks. They float, they’re easy to frighten, and they’re likely to flee when you spook them.”

  “A ship.” Zane paused. This was the side of piracy he didn’t want to see. “Will you try to take it?”

  Amber laughed. “We’ll do more than try! That’s the reason we’re out here, after all. It’s heading north, so I’d wager it’s loaded down with spices.”

  She led him topside. The crew was bustling this way and that, each moving to their stations. Many of them were carrying long, tubular objects Zane recognized as thorns. Those particular thorns were favored by those who wished to do maximum damage and cared little for precision. Others were preparing ropes with grappling hooks secured to the ends. Zane saw glides attached to the hook, probably the cheap kind that just helped them fly a bit farther when thrown. Anything more would have required the deft hand of an abditus.

  Zane looked out over the sea in the direction the crew members kept glancing. Sure enough, he saw a ship. It was far enough away that he could block it completely with his thumb.

  Amber followed his gaze. “It’ll take us about an hour to reach them. Less if they keep heading this way, more if they see us and decide to change course. We’ll have to give chase eventually. It’s just a matter of when they’ll turn tail.”

  “And what if they’re faster?” Zane asked.

  Amber let out a high-pitched laugh. “There’s no such thing. Not in a ship that size.”

  They watched in silence for a long while. Eventually the man in the crow’s nest called down, “She’s a sloop, captain!”

  The same as The Empire.

  Amber looked through her eyepiece at the ship. “Still heading straight for us. Must be their first trip on the Gamlond Sea. Any salted captain knows to steer clear of sloops out here.”

  Zane resisted the urge to remind her she wasn’t steering clear of the sloop heading directly toward them.

  Amber turned to him. “You sure you don’t want to come along? Try your hand at The Sweet Trade?”

  He shook his head. For some reason, even though he killed people for a living, the thought of watching a ship being overrun with pirates turned his stomach.

  “The assassin’s too sensitive for a bit of real work, then?” Amber asked. “Very well. Stay safely aboard. Don’t think you’re getting a share of the plunder, though.”

  As the minutes passed, the ship grew closer and closer, still not changing course, and Amber began to shift her weight from foot to foot and mutter to herself. “Why aren’t they turning? They always turn!”

  “Captain!” the man in the crow’s nest called down. “On their quarterdeck!”

  Amber lifted her eyepiece and looked through it for a long time. When she lowered it, her mouth was a thin line. She looked at Zane. “It appears I owe you an apology.”

  She handed him the eyepiece. It took him a moment to orient himself, but when he did, he saw that the approaching sloop looked identical to theirs. A tall, black woman with long, flowing hair stood on the quarterdeck.

  “Petra,” Zane said.

  Amber scowled. “Ferox Halloway, I haven’t been completely honest with you. We’re about to come into a great deal of trouble, and before we do I think I’d better tell you the real reason my sister-captains are after me.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Lily shifted her weight, trying once again to relieve the pain in her legs. The chain rattled. She found a semi-comfortable position by leaning back against t
he barrel behind her, and she tried to settle in.

  She was chained hand and foot, and blindfolded. Why they felt the need to blindfold her after bringing her to this already dark hold, she did not know. Perhaps it was their superstitions about magic. There were some who believed abditus could perform magic by gazing into your eyes. That was foolishness, of course, a fundamental misunderstanding of the way magic worked, at least for humans. An abditus could build magical devices and was trained to use the more complicated ones effectively. But, without any devices or raw materials to work with, an abditus was no more dangerous than a normal person.

  That was the circumstance Lily found herself in now. They’d taken away her weapons, of course, but they’d also stripped her of her rings, her bracelets, even the lock pick she kept hidden in her hair. They’d found every one of them. She was helpless.

  There was one of two ways this could go. Either they’d ransom her back to the king or they’d toss her into the sea. Neither option was all that attractive. Jacob would probably have her head for allowing ten items from the royal armory to be stolen, getting herself captured, and—most of all—allowing the King’s Sword to be killed.

  She felt a pang in her chest at that thought. Caleb. Captain Pass had said Caleb had been a victim of Henry Longstrain. Was it possible the old pirate was still alive? But even if he was, how would he have gotten to aboard this ship? And was she even sure Caleb was dead? For all she knew, he could be chained in this same hold.

  The thought gave her a moment’s hope. The possibility she wasn’t alone down here was so sweet, she had to find out.

  “Hello?” she said, her voice tentative and shaky. She hadn’t sounded so much like a little girl in years. When she spoke again, her voice was stronger. “Is anyone else down here?”

  Her only answer was silence.

  She waited a long time. Here in the darkness, with the thump of feet on the boards above her head, the slap of the water against the sides, and the nearly constant groaning of the ship, it was difficult to distinguish one moment from the next.