by Scott Rhine
“Thinking of retiring here?”
“Even a demon can desire a comfortable life.”
Sarajah sighed. “Fine. Murali has to find sun bears, Hindaloo has to recruit pirates, and Pinetto has to find artifact weapons. Any assistance you gave on those fronts wouldn’t be worth the constant bellyaching. You’re not going to charge me for this, are you?”
“No. It’s a wonderful thing you’re doing here. The boss will love it.”
“Help the church and school get started. Answer simple questions for the ladies only. None of them are ready for the third book yet. Don’t talk to Nesu; I don’t want you cleaning floors for him. But if he steals . . .,” she began.
The cat growled. “I’ll eat a hand first. A man that useful, you don’t eat all at once.”
As the group packed to go on their first exploration mission, Nesu cornered Sarajah alone in the library.
“Are you certain Ava’s the one for this task? She won’t betray us?” asked the black-marketeer.
“I drew a picture of her last night,” said the seeress. “Madam Ava’s card is titled ‘the Teacher.’ She ran a ladies’ finishing school for years. I’m leaving the funds with her with instructions not to trust you with more than one gold at a time.”
“You wound me.”
“Let’s just say that your sudden conversion raised concerns.”
“As you will.”
“Do you disagree with the terms of your punishment?”
Nesu cocked his head. “Lady Sarajah, if you had asked me to choose components for building my own heaven, I could have done no better. Regardless how our venture proceeds, I will be forever grateful for your intervention.”
“Hmm. We’ll see how long forever lasts when you have your next knock-down-drag-out with Ava.” She went outside to check on her favored.
Out front, Tashi gave their bags to the soldiers and native bearers. Once they were loaded and on their way, he pulled Sarajah aside. “Ava said that you might enjoy a walk in her flower gardens before you leave. The bird of paradise is breathtaking.”
“I suppose I should see a few of the sights in my kingdom,” she allowed. She fanned herself. “Maybe there’ll be a breeze or somewhere I can cool off before that boiling walk back to the Mallard.”
“They have a barn where you can strip down to that delightful, full-body underwear.”
“You just like to sneak places and make out. We have a perfectly good bed upstairs.”
“In a school, little ears can hear the delightfully obscene things you shout.” He nipped at her shoulder, making her shiver. In the end, he was very convincing in his argument.
Afterward, Sarajah lay in the hayloft of the widow’s barn with Tashi. As she stroked his hair with her glove, he said, “You’re pensive.”
“What, a woman who thinks too much is bad?” she asked.
“Ha. Creativity is good. Worry isn’t. It leaves little lines.”
“I have less money than I thought—fourteen years in stones.”
“So? We just need more financing for our return trip.”
“How? Ask Humi for another donation?” she asked.
“No. Find a pirate ship with a map to a trove,” he said matter-of-factly.
She chuckled evilly. “Now you’re thinking like a pirate. You might earn your own holiday yet.”
He nuzzled her. “What would I have to do to get my own day of the week?”
“You’re getting warmer,” she panted, clenching his bottom tightly.
“Oh, Alana, I want to be joined with your flesh so badly.”
“What?” she asked, pushing him away. Alana was the only woman Tashi had ever been intimate with. Their relationship had been adulterous, long-running, and heavily physical. She was dead, but obviously not forgotten.
“I want to touch your velvet skin with my own hot—”
“I already know that; the entire world knows that.” She might have slapped him, but he was one of a few men in the world skilled enough to block. She couldn’t stand him looking at her in lust at that moment, so she slid her dress on over her head. “Go back to what you called me.”
“Sarajah.”
“No . . .” Furious, she tied the ribbon at her waist securely enough to hold a hundred-foot rope. The set of her jaw told him he had to guess this right or it would be weeks before she would let him near her again.
The idea moved slowly through his brain like the sun coming up in the morning. Once it had risen in his mind, the light was large and unmistakable. “Oh, gods. I’m sorry. It must be the perfume.”
“You got me her perfume!”
“Unconsciously. I wanted you to have the best.”
“So you could visualize her better when you’re with me?”
“I don’t need to visualize. Below the neck, you look exactly . . .”
Sarajah was gone.
Chapter 38 – Following the Fault
The Mallard was too small for Sarajah to avoid Tashi indefinitely, but Pinetto tried to provide a buffer until they both cooled. When they were clear of the marina, he announced, “Archanos told us Ashter Island is on the rift but not where. My theory is that if we start at this end of the rift and go to the other, we have to encounter it eventually. Our first voyage is unlikely to locate Ashter Island, but we’re visiting the only island along the Babliosian coast. This visit will eliminate the most territory.”
“Sold,” said Sarajah. “What can we expect to find here?”
“The mountains are steep over most of the coast, but the few towns are wealthy and heavily fortified. Transporting goods over the mountains in winter is next to impossible, but sending goods by sea is cheap and quick. Pirates harass their smaller towns, new areas outside old town walls, and lone ships. The ambassador from Wayside gave us license to hunt them and take whatever we get from them as bounty.”
Tashi said, “You say this like my old teacher. There is another shoe to be dropped.”
“You get to knock pirate heads. Don’t worry about the rest. Murali, will the special net I requested be ready by the time we get back?”
“In one week, but it will be expensive, Lord Vizier.”
“Excellent,” said Pinetto, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s find some marauders.”
The third morning, they spotted a strange ship on the horizon. Here, they relied on the plague-runner’s expertise. “Most of you hide yourselves. Leave the woman above decks as bait. Break something obvious, like that sail. Limp toward shore like a wounded bird.”
“But there are nothing but rocks there,” complained the fisherman.
Hindaloo nodded. “Yup. Helpless prey.”
Sarajah gave him two dollops of wax and said, “Place these in your ears.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
The first large, merchant ship approached, showed its Babliosian colors, and offered aid. Sarajah smiled politely and refused it. “Archanos will provide.”
About teatime, a second ship, smaller than theirs, did likewise. When they left, Tashi complained, “Is everybody out here so polite?”
Near sundown, another large merchant vessel approached in the same manner as the first two. It bore a mermaid on the prow and the name Nothing Sacred.
Sarajah smiled wearily and began the same speech as before when she saw the crew had no uniforms. When the ragged captain sailed up beside them, he called over, “Is there any way we can help you?”
Sarajah shouted back, “Our alchemist is having trouble. The transformed cargo is too heavy.”
“We can help you lighten your load,” the foreign captain offered.
“Thanks, but we’ll manage.”
When the first grappling hook attached to their rails, the attacker said, “That wasn’t a request.”
“It feels like between thirty-five and forty men. It’s difficult to be precise with so many,” said Murali, using his waterfinder senses.
Tashi pulled the cargo lid off, revealing half their Imperi
al soldiers.
“Archers, thin the approach,” commanded Conifer.
Pirates died, but the archers did little more than slow the rate that cables were attached. Natives slid down the cables onto the Mallard.
One man tossed a large, black cylinder into the hold and the area filled with a cloud of dust that choked the Imperials, preventing them from aiding in the combat. Until they climbed out blind or the dust cleared, the men who were topside were on their own.
Two-foot, square doors dropped open on the sides of the pirate vessel and enemies with crossbows leaned out. Tashi told the others, “You handle the ones who try to escape.” Then he ran and jumped through one of the shot doors into the merchant ship.
Sarajah called out, “No explosions. We need the ship.”
The fisherman stood near the prow and threw his hunting spears with deadly effect. Any pirates the spears missed, Pinetto killed. Sarajah leapt onto the wheelhouse roof and targeted invaders sliding down the far rope. She spoke a word and slammed the tuning fork against the metal roof. Tapping the rift energy wasn’t as smooth as the Door energy at the Final Temple. The resulting screech, worse than fingernails on a blackboard, made nearby enemies cover their ears. One man let go of the rope to fall into the ocean between the ships.
Ears plugged, Hindaloo killed many of the helpless with his knives. One of the men kicked him in the face, however, and made him bleed. He used the offender as a shield when the first enemy archer fired. The second enemy archer struck the spear fisherman in the shoulder, disabling him. Pinetto threw an explosive dart into the third archer, causing the other enemies to take cover. Murali used his ax to chop off the nearest cable.
Then, Tashi went to work with a roar. He threw pirates from the open portholes to smash against the side of the Mallard, most of the men too broken to swim.
The defenders heard swords clang and screams. Poo-poo-poof.
When a series of smoke grenades went off inside Nothing Sacred, Sarajah said, “Take cover!”
POOF. The chain reaction blew hatches off on the top deck of the enemy ship. Debris of all sorts rained down on the Mallard crew: belaying pins, boots, rope, a mop, and bits of watermelon. Soon after, a massive wave of pirates slid down the ropes, heedless of a safe place to land. The ten pirates who made it to deck were soon circled by an equal number of the Mallard’s crew. “Surrender or die,” Sarajah boldly proclaimed.
The Imperials had fine armor and steel blades, whereas the pirates had only bronze scimitars and a few hide shields. Still, the captain spit in her face. The first two pirates attacked the same Imperial, wounding him before his fellows countered.
Sarajah aimed her wand at the pirate captain, focusing the sound until his teeth broke from the vibration and his closest eye began to turn white. She stopped when he dropped his weapon and held up his hands. Yet his men refused to yield. Their hatred of the Imperials drove them on savagely, fighting to the last man.
When Tashi returned, dragging a bag behind him, he limped and had an ugly bruise on his forehead. He was also covered with tiny, black scratches. “Shrapnel from that dust stuff. It’s pressure sensitive. If you land on top of the black cylinders, poof.” He gestured outward with both hands, dropping the sack. “It smacked me into the ceiling, sure as any giant would.”
“And the leg wound?” asked Pinetto, taking out wine and bandages to address the many injuries of the crew.
“Aw, I was fighting blind half the time. I just had to swing the Defender like a scythe and men fell over like hay. The one who got to me was only this tall,” Tashi said, holding his hand at hip height.
“Did you step on him?” asked one of the soldiers.
“No. He surrendered, damn him. He was the alchemist. I figured we’d want him for questioning.” He tapped the bag with his foot, and it gave a muffled complaint.
Chapter 39 – The Alchemist
The crew of the Mallard fished a few surviving pirates out of the ocean. Each person they rescued, Hindaloo would give an opportunity to join the expedition as a servant. When the first man refused, the plague-runner killed him with a dagger.
Pinetto objected. “They surrendered.”
Conifer backed the plague-runner. “The penalty for piracy is death, nephew. He’s being generous with any offer. We lost two men in the battle and four are wounded badly enough that they shouldn’t fight again for at least week.”
Tashi said, “Some pirate hunters—one little ship and we’re down to almost half strength.”
“We underestimated how much they hate the children of Osos,” Pinetto said. “We’ll stop in a Babliosian city and use our letter of marque to recruit some of them. It will also look less suspicious.”
“At this rate, how are we going to reach forty ships?” complained Tashi.
“Geometric progression,” explained Pinetto. “We double our ship count every time.”
“But the enemy won’t attack unless we look weak.”
The next two they rescued from the waves accepted servitude.
Meanwhile Sarajah cajoled and interrogated the leader of the pirates. When she accompanied him onto the deck, she announced, “In exchange for his life, the Black Cloud has signed over his ship. He’s going to show us how to use that great strap of rift-treated rubber sap to launch the packets of black dust at enemy ships.”
“Yes!” said Pinetto, fist in the air. “We should take the mini-catapult out of the hold and put it on the deck of the big ship, too. It could come in handy.”
Ignoring the outburst, she continued. “In exchange for a rowboat and supplies, he gave me a map to a small treasure stash on the nearby island of Tremador. It should cover our docking fees, ownership transfer fees, and other bribes.”
“He gave you all that?” Hindaloo said with wonder.
“I’m very persuasive,” she said in a sultry voice. “Anyway, he knew nothing about the fabled island of Ashter. As for other pirates, he said only about five ships work the Babliosian waters this season. With the war, a lot of independents have gone to work for the warlords.”
“Who are they?” asked Tashi.
“The old rebels left over from the great war between Archanos and Osos. They each have a couple decent islands and ships to guard them.”
“How many cutters the size of your ship or bigger would you say there are?” Pinetto asked the pirate.
“You’ll have to repeat that question, I’m a trifle deaf in that ear,” the Black Cloud shouted angrily. In the presence of an Imperial, he wouldn’t calm down or cooperate further. Pinetto left to experiment with the giant slingshot, checking the maximum weight and range of the device. Even without him, the dealing was soon at an end.
“The alchemist will know more, I’m sure. I’ll take care of him next,” said Sarajah, dragging the bag into the wheelhouse. While she questioned the captive, the men transferred supplies to the larger Nothing Sacred.
At first there was high-pitched shouting in the language of the outer islands. The heated discussion calmed after the first few beats. After two hours, the seeress came out with a short alchemist who wore a frightening bamboo demon mask with boar tusks. Sarajah told the waiting men, “The mighty alchemist Oomajib will be working for us from now on, as my apprentice. Oomajib’s father was the original Black Cloud, who invented the formula for the material. The treasure stash offered to us rightfully belongs to Oomajib, not the new captain, who assumed the dead one’s reputation. We can still have the treasure, but the pirate captain will need to make a new deal for the rowboat.”
The pirate said, “I’ll trade you the pirate name. It’s well-known and makes the victims cooperate.”
Oomajib chattered another objection. Sarajah translated, “And an oath to leave these waters. His real name is Padrok.”
The pirate growled, “Aye.”
Once the pirate was underway, Tashi whispered, “How do you know we can trust the runt alchemist?”
“That ‘runt’ is a fifteen-year-old child whom you almost suffo
cated,” Sarajah said, glaring at him.
“He stabbed me.”
Pinetto said, “We don’t have enough seamen to pilot both crafts.”
Hindaloo had anticipated this turn of events. “That’s why we brought the bearers. Send the fisherman back with the natives and the other injured.”
“No. We’ll all head back toward the Crooked Isle now, even if we have to tow the Mallard. I want to get Oomajib to safety. The treasure is on the way.”
“He almost blew us all up!” Tashi ranted.
“I have spoken,” Sarajah said, turning her back on the crew and returning to the wheelhouse with the alchemist. Tashi’s jaw clenched, holding back complaints. He went with the others to help ready the Nothing Sacred to sail.
“Can we ask him questions?” Pinetto requested.
She closed the door, preventing the wizard from pursuing the alchemist. “Ask me, and I will inquire if necessary.”
Pinetto narrowed his eyes. “How do I know you’re not possessed again?”
She shrugged. “Test me, then, but do it here. I must protect the alchemist.”
“I want a drop of blood from our new guest. I’ve already checked the prisoners.”
She sighed. “Make it fast.” Sarajah said something in rapid-fire islander and the masked alchemist held out an arm.
Pinetto took the hand and smiled reassuringly. “I won’t hurt you.” He pricked the alchemist’s thumb with a clean pin, then sealed the wound with a second, heated pin. When the pin sizzled, the high-pitched voice reminded him of something.
Sarajah saw his face change as the deductions trickled through his brain. “Don’t say a word,” she ordered.
He looked at the alchemist more closely. Casually, he said, “The school needs a new scholarship position. I’ll mention it to the men as my idea. I even have someone in mind, a child of one of the local men who died protecting us.”
“Thank you,” Sarajah said, smiling. “I’ll let you in to talk later.”
When Pinetto climbed the rope ladder over to pilot the larger ship, Tashi was on deck. “What’s her deal with that alchemist?”
