Zane Halloway: Omnibus Edition
Page 32
It reminded her a bit of her ferox placement exam. She’d woken up alone and bound then, too. But at least she’d had a lock pick.
She reminded herself she’d gotten out of bad situations before. The dinner-turned-bloodbath at the elf Ewrkind’s home. Taking her placement exam years before she was ready. The incident with the King’s Guards and the bandits only a week before. She’d survived all those, and she could survive this.
Finally, she heard footsteps approaching.
She sat up straight. She should prepare. Do something. But what was there to do? She had to admit, she was completely at the mercy of her captors.
The footsteps grew closer, then stopped. She heard someone sigh.
“Lily, I’m so sorry this happened.”
A hand touched her head and pulled the blindfold away.
Caleb stood before her, shirtless, with a sword at his belt.
She drew in a deep breath. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. And you?” He smiled crookedly, as he always did when making a joke.
She laughed with relief even as the tears welled in her eyes. “I’m chained up in the hold of a ship, so I’m not great. What happened to you? They said something about Henry Longstrain.”
There was a long pause. “Yes. About that. Before I explain, I want you to know I never lied to you. Not about us. My feelings were real. They still are.”
Lily felt a chasm open up inside her. It was as if she were falling. She didn’t know what Caleb was going to say next. She almost didn’t want to.
“I selected you for this mission because I love you,” he said. “I couldn’t leave you behind.”
Her tongue felt thick in her mouth. “What are you talking about?”
“Lily, the thing about the Longstrain pirates targeting the Robert’s Revenge was just a ruse. We’re not out to find the Longstrain pirates. We’ve already found them. I’ve always known where they are.”
Her mind was reeling, trying to take in what he was saying. “They said you were Henry Longstrain’s victim. What did that mean?”
He chuckled. “That’s just Pass’s way. Always so cryptic. He learned it from Petra.”
“Petra? Petra Longstrain?”
“Yes,” Caleb said. “She’s the real captain of this ship, of course. Pass is her first mate.” He paused for a moment. “I’m sorry. There’s so much to explain. I’m not doing a very good job of it.”
“No, you certainly aren’t!”
“Fine, let me try again. I’ll be as straightforward as I can. My name isn’t Caleb Col. And I don’t get sea sick. And didn’t spend my childhood on a farm, not all of it anyway.”
“What? Why? Why did you lie?”
“Revenge,” Caleb said. “Longstrains lie for revenge. But, Lily, I meant what I said. I love you. My father had a knack for many things, but probably the most important was his ability to find special women and align them to his cause. I think I have that ability, too.”
“Your father?” Lily asked. “Henry Longstrain was your father?”
“Yes. That’s why Pass called me his victim. He…he wasn’t a good father in the traditional sense. He abandoned my mother while she was dying. He left me in the care of a friend. But he gave me something important. A legacy!”
She felt a hand touch her leg, and she pulled away.
“Don’t you see?” he asked. “I want you to join me. Help me claim my destiny.”
A voice called through the hatch. “We’re closing in on them.”
“Fine,” Caleb said. “Just give me another minute.” He turned back to Lily. “I’m not asking you to make any decisions now. I understand you’re probably upset. There’s so much to tell and not enough time to tell it. What I am asking is that you help save the lives of everyone aboard this ship.”
Lily did her best to keep her voice calm. “What do you mean? Who’s trying to kill us now?”
“One of my father’s wives has gone rogue. She’s the only one who wasn’t kind to me when I was a child. She’s also the only one my father married in a church, which means she’s the only one he married in the eyes of the crown. She owns the sole claim to his inheritance. The titles he’s owed pass to her. Unless I’m alive. Titles go to a son before a wife, you understand?”
“No!” She spat the word at him. “Not in the least. Titles? What titles would a pirate have?”
Caleb smiled. “My father was more than just a pirate. So much more. Look, I’m not interested in the titles. But she doesn’t believe that. She’ll kill me and everyone aboard this ship to stop me from claiming them. You don’t have to understand. You don’t have to promise to continue our relationship. All I’m asking of you right now is that you help me save this ship from Amber Longstrain.”
Lily’s eyes narrowed. Amber Longstrain. The woman who Lily and Zane had fought in the tavern that night so long ago. The woman who’d stabbed Zane with a poisoned dagger. Lily believed that woman would kill everyone on this ship if it helped her get what she needed.
“Can we run?” Lily asked. “Captain Pass, or whoever he really is, said this is the fastest ship on the Gamlond Sea.”
“Tied for the fastest. Amber’s ship is a match for it. It’s too late to run. She’s almost here. Besides, she has something we need. Something that proves my father was more than just a pirate. Something that will make the ones who smeared his name pay.”
“Are you talking about Zane Halloway?” Lily asked.
Caleb laughed. “No, he was a simple puppet. Halloway held the knife and made the killing blow, but it was the machinations of another that ruined my father.”
“Longstrain!” a female voice called through the hatch. “You’d better get up here. It’s almost time.”
“On my way,” Caleb said. Then, in a softer voice, to Lily, “Will you fight Amber Longstrain with me? Then, I promise, I’ll answer all your questions.”
She only thought about it for a moment. These things that Caleb—Caleb Longstrain!—were saying were too big, too upsetting. She didn’t even know how to begin to deal with them. But fighting, that she could do.
“I’ll need my sword,” she said.
“Of course.”
“And my magical devices.”
Caleb hesitated.
“You’re asking a lot in wanting me to fight by your side after what you just told me,” she said. “I need you to show me a little trust in return. Besides, if you want us to have the best chance against Amber’s crew, I’ll need my things.”
He nodded. “I’ll see to it.” He bent and unlocked her chains. “The Guards don’t know. I’ll tell them after, if we survive this. But it was important to me that you know the truth. Just in case the worst happens.”
She stood and rubbed her chafed wrists. “Get me my things and I’ll make sure the worst doesn’t happen.”
They made their way topside to the main deck. Caleb barked an order, and one of the pirates ran to a cabin and returned a few moments later with Lily’s sword and satchel. From the way the crew hopped to obey Caleb’s orders, it was clear they knew who he was, or at least that he was someone very important. They certainly hadn’t acted that way when he’d merely been the King’s Sword. Was that by his order? Had all of them known all along?
There wasn’t time to wonder about such things.
She turned to Caleb. “Tell me what to expect.”
“They’ll call for our surrender first,” he said. “When we refuse, they’ll use thorns. They won’t try to sink the ship. Not unless they have to. They’ll focus the thorns on the people, maybe the masts if they’re feeling particularly nasty. Then, when they have us hurting, they’ll use ropes and grappling hooks. They start boarding and it’ll be hand-to-hand from there on out. Once we get to that point, I’m confident we’ll beat them. It’s your job to make sure there are enough of us left to survive the hand-to-hand stage.”
Lily nodded. This was going to be messy. “And what will we be doing?”
“An abditus apprentice,” Lily muttered.
“There’s no one else I’d rather have fighting alongside me.”
She ignored the comment. She wasn’t ready to pretend he hadn’t lied to her. She might never be. Her eyes drifted up the mast. “I’ll need the crow’s nest.”
Caleb nodded. “That’s smart.” He let out a sharp whistle, and the lookout scurried down the mast. “All yours. Just wait for my signal before you start.”
Lily grabbed the ring out of her satchel and slipped it on her finger. A moment later she was gliding through the air. She came to rest in the crow’s nest and surveyed the other ship. She knew it was the twin of The Gully, but from here it looked much larger. It was close enough that she could see movement on the decks, but not so close that she could clearly see their faces. That was a shame. She would have loved to know where Amber was so she could take out all the anger she was feeling on the pirate.
Lily looked down at her own ship. Caleb and the woman Lily now knew was Petra stood on the quarterdeck, facing toward the other ship. Lily silently cursed them for their stupidity. If things didn’t go the way Caleb predicted, if Amber used her thorns without offering the chance for surrender, Caleb and Petra would make easy targets in their lofty position.
Except they wouldn’t be hurt. Because Lily would take care of the thorns.
She knew what type of thorns the pirates would be using. It was the same kind she’d seen aboard The Gully. She’d seen plenty of them back home in the castle, too. They were known as Cull Flames, named for the abditus who’d created them, Richard Cull. They were both brilliant and simple. Lily had been required to make one in her final month at the Abditus Academy. The design was straightforward, as was the usage. The only thing that kept the weapon from being in every household in Opel was the price. The raw materials were very expensive.
And it was entirely possible to put a hole clean through your home with a Cull Flame.
The King’s Guards stood huddled together on the starboard side. They had their swords drawn, but Lily could tell from their hunched positions they were uncomfortable. They’d fought plenty of battles, but none like this. They couldn’t know what to expect. The rest of the crew seemed jittery; they were in constant motion, and even the ones standing in one place moved back and forth from foot to foot. But they seemed focused. Every eye was on the approaching vessel.
Lily had a sudden thought. Her tangles were proximity based. If she used her tangle to disable the Cull Flames, it would have a more potent effect on those closest to her. The ones on this ship. That wouldn’t do.
She muttered a curse and rummaged in her satchel for the only shimmer she’d brought. It was also her largest magical device; the square object would occupy one of her hands, but what choice did she have? When Jacob used this shimmer, he became invisible. Lily was far less skilled and her results ranged from semi-transparency on her less successful attempts to a near invisibility that made her almost impossible to detect on her better ones.
She’d have to take her chances. She activated the shimmer and the glide, and she began her descent to the main deck.
Amber’s ship was close enough for Lily to make out the name now. The Empire. Pretentious and self-important, much like the woman herself.
When the ships were starboard to starboard, Amber called across. “Permission to board The Gully, Captain?”
It was Caleb who answered. “Permission denied. Unless you’d care to hand over those papers you’re hiding.”
Papers? What papers?
Lily didn’t spend time pondering it. She moved silently across the main deck toward the starboard rail. When she reached it, she again touched her ring and leapt. The glide carried her safely across the water and onto the main deck of The Empire.
Amber called across the water. “I’ll still be boarding, even if you won’t have me willingly.”
“I doubt you’ll find the reception much to your liking,” Petra said.
This wasn’t going like Caleb had said. There was no order to surrender. Perhaps the rest of the exchange would go more peacefully than he’d predicted, though it didn’t seem likely.
“Ah, she speaks,” Amber yelled. “I thought maybe the pup had tamed you.” When Petra made no response, Amber said, “Prepare to be boarded.”
The pirates on both sides raised their thorns. Lily activated her tangle.
Amber turned toward her crew. “On my mark. Now!”
The pirates braced as they held their tubular thorns. And nothing happened.
“Did you scabs hear me?” Amber shouted. “Attack!”
Again, nothing.
One of the pirates yelled in a throaty voice, “We’re trying, captain. Nothing’s happening.”
Amber looked confused. “Of all the damn fool things I’ve ever heard—”
At that moment, the pirates on The Gully used their thorns.
By Lily’s estimation, maybe half of them fired. The rest must have been close enough that Lily’s tangle disabled them. But it was enough.
Cull Flames were designed to send a concentrated ball of fire at the target. The flame was hotter than anything seen outside a blacksmith’s forge, and the ball could burn through both men and wood. The genius of the device was that the fire disappeared after a few seconds. That was what made it a highly effective nautical weapon for those who wished to badly injure, but not destroy, another vessel. In other words, pirates.
A man next to Lily screamed in pain as a ball of fire hit him in the chest. His scream was cut off as the area between his shoulders was instantly consumed. The flame disappeared a moment later, and the man fell to the deck, his hollowed out chest now a smoldering black cavity.
Another volley of Cull Flames hit The Empire, then another. And suddenly at least ten men were dead. If the crew was the same size as The Gully’s, that was nearly twenty percent of them.
Two thoughts struck Lily simultaneously. First, this lopsided battle was her doing. And second, her shimmer wouldn’t protect her from Cull Flames.
The main deck of The Empire was quickly devolving into chaos. A man with a blackened stump where his left arm should have been careened into Lily. She lost her grip on the shimmer in her hand and it dropped over the rail. She watched with wide eyes as it plopped into the sea below.
She was visible now, but no one seemed to notice her through all the madness.
Then a voice cut through the din. “Defense! Prepare to defend the ship!” It was Amber.
At the sound of their captain’s voice, the crew seemed to regain their heads. Grappling hooks sailed through the air, and latched onto The Empire’s rails. Then pirates from The Gully began to board.
Lily drew her sword and headed for Amber Longstrain.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The moment the Cull Flames failed to fire, Zane knew they were in trouble.
Amber hadn’t told him much. “I haven’t been completely honest with you,” she’d said. “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.”
There were papers, she’d said. Papers that had belonged to Henry Longstrain. The other widows wanted them.
As she spoke, Zane looked through the eyepiece again. Another figure joined Petra on the quarterdeck. For a moment, Zane thought it was Henry Longstrain. But this man was far too young. And he was taller than Henry had been.
Zane passed the eyepiece to Amber. She looked, and her face grew pale.
“Damn me for fool,” she said. “Here I am believing ghost stories. It’s not Henry my sister-captains are following. It’s his son.”
Amber told Zane about Caleb Longstrain. He was the son of Henry’s first wife, the one who’d once been Amber’s captain and who later died of the wasting sickness. The boy had spent his formative years split between pirate ships and the
home of Henry’s trusted friend, a farmer named Victor Col.
The ship was drawing closer. It was approaching at an angle, and Zane could see the two figures on the quarterdeck even without the eyepiece now.
Something about the story didn’t fit with what he knew of the Longstrain widows. “Why would they allow Henry’s son to lead them? Certainly every one of them has more experience than he does.”
Amber scowled. “Aye. But he has something they don’t. A birthright. See, those papers I have prove something’s owed to Henry. As his only legal wife, it goes to me. Excepting for existence of that boy. Titles pass to sons before wives, savvy?”
“Title?” Zane asked. “What title?”
Amber gave him a crooked smile. “If we survive this, I promise to explain everything.”
Zane cursed himself for ever accepting this job. He was trapped in a family feud in the middle of the sea. And both sides had flame-shooting thorns. Likely as not, they’d sink each others’ ships. Maybe the Longstrains would get Zane after all, albeit accidentally, while killing each other.
As they pulled alongside the other ship, Zane retreated to the shadows. He wanted to see how this played out. He’d set out to find Henry Longstrain. Instead, it seemed he’d uncovered a deeper mystery. This was a battle between Longstrains, and he didn’t have a stake in it either way.
The fighting began, and immediately things went terribly wrong for Amber and her crew. Their thorns didn’t work and Petra’s did. Either Amber had bought an unusually poor supply, or Petra had an abditus aboard.
“Defense!” Amber called. “Prepare to defend the ship!” She glanced down and saw Zane. “You too, ferox. If they take the ship, you’ll be the first one they kill.”
Zane paused for only a moment, then nodded. The Empire had already lost perhaps a dozen pirates. It was time for Zane to even the odds. He drew his sword and went to work.
A swarthy, bald pirate was climbing over the rail. Zane ran toward him. The man had his sword in his hand by the time Zane reached him, and his eyes were burning with battle lust. He greeted Zane with a manic smile. Zane easily parried his attack, and stabbed him in the belly. The big pirate went down.