“But will it be enough?”
“It’ll have to work.”
“But do we need them both? The man looks like too much trouble to deal with. I say we gut him and deal with the girl.”
Being underestimated always works to my advantage. But sometimes I find it offensive. That often makes me violent. It makes me question whether I should allow them to kill Riden, just so I can beat the hell out of all three of them without Riden watching. I couldn’t let him see what I’m capable of doing to them. I hate that I have to hold back now.
The men continue to argue among themselves as I decide what to do.
Riden interrupts my line of thinking. “Now, Alosa, would be a good time for you to employ that same tactic you demonstrated when we first met.”
“Are you certain you wouldn’t like to handle this one yourself? I’m just ‘the girl.’”
“Stop talking!” a sailor shouts.
But I’m not really listening to them. My eyes are on Riden. His eyes widen meaningfully, frustratingly. Then he relaxes. “Please.”
“I said—”
Perhaps it’s the fact that Riden remembered exactly what I did to those two crew members when they stole me from my ship. Or perhaps it’s that I like the sport of it. Or it’s the idea of showing these sailors exactly what I can do.
But if I’m being honest … it’s because he said please.
This prompts me to action in a way I can’t explain.
I slam my heel into the foot of the sailor on my right. Then my free hand goes to the other sailor’s throat. I place one hand at the back of each man’s neck. With one choking and the other stumbling, it isn’t difficult to connect their heads. Hard.
That wasn’t part of my routine back on the ship. But a little improvisation goes a long way. This situation is a bit more dire. For one, it isn’t one I had planned for.
There’s only the man with the sword left. He stays right where he is, though his eyes have widened significantly. “Stay where you are or I’ll kill him.”
I roll my eyes. “Go right ahead. You’d save me the trouble.”
I’m not sure whether I should laugh or not at his confusion. “What?”
“I’m being held prisoner by pirates. If you say more of your men are coming, then you can help me. We can use him as leverage as was suggested before.”
He looks to his fallen shipmates.
“Sorry about that. I don’t like being held against my will. Now please. Say you’ll help me.”
The sailor focuses on Riden, which gives me the distraction I need to reach for my boot. “Is what the girl says true?”
“Trust me. The girl’s more trouble than she’s worth, and you can’t believe a thing she says. You’d be better off killing her now.”
I see sweat drip down the sailor’s face. The hand on his sword trembles. “That’s enough.” He turns his body toward me while keeping his sword on Riden. “I’m—”
The dagger flies straight and true, finding its place in the sailor’s chest.
Thank the stars I still had it on me. The dagger-hidden-in-book trick is one I will never take lightly should I ever need to intentionally get kidnapped again. And it was a wonder Riden hadn’t checked me for weapons when he found me sneaking about the ship that night.
Riden stands up straight. His mouth is slightly ajar, his eyes wide. “I thought you … I thought—”
“You thought I’d really turned on you. Probably should have, but oh well. Too late for that now.”
I walk over to where Riden stands when others enter the storage room.
“What happened here?” Draxen asks. He looks neither worried nor upset by the bodies on the floor.
I wait for Riden to sell me out to save his own skin. He could easily tell Draxen that I left him to die, telling the pirates to come aboard when an ambush was in place. It would be a little farfetched, considering there were only three men on board. But still plausible.
“It was my oversight,” Riden says. “I thought the ship was clear. I told the lass to go above and bring you over. Then they came out of a hidden room. I handled them.”
“Excuse me?” I say. He is not taking credit for my kills. Not that I need Draxen to know I’m capable. In fact, it’s probably best that Draxen thinks I’m not.
Riden ignores my outburst. “I think you’ll be pleased with what else awaits in the hidden room.”
That distracts me. I look over Riden’s shoulder and see three chests filled with coins. There could easily be more behind other panels.
Draxen’s eyes are on fire as he stares. He alone advances, taking stock of it all.
“They’re smugglers,” Riden continues. “Looks like they’ve just delivered their cargo, whatever it may have been. I suspect that after the storm, most of the crew left to go get a new ship and return here. They weren’t about to leave all this wealth behind. These men were left here to guard it. I probably wouldn’t have found them if I hadn’t heard one of them moving through the wall.”
“Yes, yes,” Draxen says. I doubt he heard a word Riden said. He’s still staring into the wall. “Take the girl back over. The men and I will handle this. We need to be quick before the rest of their crew returns.” Almost as an afterthought, he adds, “Well done, brother.”
Riden nods.
And just like that it’s back to the brig I go.
* * *
Riden opens my cell and thrusts me inside.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Following orders.”
“I thought we were past you hauling me around. Haven’t we established that I can walk on my own?”
Riden stands at the opening of my cell. He hasn’t shut me in yet, but he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at the ground. “Why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“You saved me.”
“Yes, and then you took credit for it. What kind of thanks is that? That was damned insulting. I ought to—”
“That was for your benefit.”
I’m too full of energy to sit. I usually am after a fight—should I not exhaust myself to the point of passing out. Father did have me do that on several occasions so I would know what it feels like to be worn thin, so I could be mindful of my own strength. It’s important to know how much energy I have, in case running becomes the better option. But so far no one except my father has been able to wear me out to the point of losing consciousness.
“Just how exactly was that for my benefit?”
Riden grows very serious. “I don’t know what you’re doing. I do know you had an opportunity to escape from us back there, and you didn’t take it. And you stopped them from killing me when you had no reason to. Now that leaves me with two notions. Either you’re not so despicable and heartless as your prior actions would suggest. Or you have some sort of ulterior motive for keeping me alive and staying on this ship.”
“I’m still not seeing how you claiming my kills is a kindness to me.” Riden thinks I’m up to something, eh? Guess I will have to up my act. I need to rid him of the idea.
“You don’t know my brother. So allow me to explain something to you. If he thinks you’re up to something, he’ll kill you. Now I owe you my life. So consider my silence part of my repayment.”
“There’s nothing to be kept quiet. You’re overlooking a third option, Riden.”
“And what’s that?”
“I was looking out for myself. There was no guarantee I could trust those men. If they found out who I was, they could try to use me for leverage just as you do, especially if they’re smugglers, as we suspect. And if something were to happen to you, Draxen would have someone else question me. And there’s a good chance I’d hate him more than I do you.”
Riden watches me. No amusement. No gratitude. No anything.
What is he thinking?
Finally, he says, “I suppose I didn’t think of that. Of course I should have considered that your only concern was for yourself.”
/> “I’m a pirate,” I remind him.
“Yes. I just can’t figure out if you’re a good pirate or a really good pirate.”
“I’m not sure I know what that means.”
“Just know that whatever it is that you’re hiding from me, I will figure it out.”
Clinking metal beats a steady rhythm. Not that of swords, but of chains. I know the sound well, as I’ve spent much time practicing how to get out of them.
At the sound, Riden goes ahead and locks me into the cell. Did he decide that our conversation was over, or does he not want Draxen to see him talking to me through an open door?
Draxen and two pirates—one who I’ve never seen before and the third pirate who helped bring my things down with Enwen and Kearan—lead two of the smugglers, who are clad in manacles, down the stairs. The conk to the head I gave them must not have been enough to kill them. ’Tis a shame for them, because death likely would have been better than whatever the pirates could have in store.
I may also be a prisoner, but they need me alive and in good health if they expect a ransom from my father. These two smugglers, however, do not need to be traded. Nor do they need information from them because the gold has already been found. The fact that they were brought on board alive, then, spells disaster for them.
“What is this?” Riden asks.
“Ulgin’s getting a bit restless,” Draxen says. “I thought he could use this.”
Riden nods, though he doesn’t look happy about what he knows will happen next. Yet he opens a new cell far away from mine. The pirate I assume is Ulgin leads the smugglers inside.
“And I came down to collect you,” the captain continues. “What with our fortunate find and all, I figure the men could use a payday on land. There’s lots of gold to be spent. I want you to oversee the distribution of each man’s share. We should be upon the shore by nightfall.”
I knew we were close to land, despite everyone’s misleading. The smugglers who left their shipmates aboard their broken ship would have had to take the time to find a new ship and then find where their old one had drifted off to. It’s no wonder they haven’t come back to it yet. And rather fortunate for Draxen and his crew that they happened to stumble across it.
“What are we to do with the princess?”
“Nothing at all. That’s why I brought Sheck down here. He’ll be guarding her until we reach land.”
“Is that really such a good—”
“I think she’s been having too good a time of it, Riden. It’s time we remind her who we are. Don’t know why you chose Kearan and Enwen, of all the crew, to primarily oversee her. If they didn’t have their particular talents, I would have tossed them overboard long ago. Almost bloody useless.”
Riden looks like he wants to argue. Very badly. But he doesn’t. “Let’s see to the gold, then,” he says instead.
For the first time I turn my attention to Sheck. And nearly jump away.
He’s pressed up to the bars, staring hungrily at me. I feel as though rats crawl across my skin. Actually, I think I would prefer it if rats were crawling against my skin.
When I was little and faced with a new challenge each day, I would look to my father for help. He would instruct me and then send me into the fire pit—figuratively speaking. I always got burned. And I learned quickly that turning to him for help was useless. He never assisted. I either succeeded or suffered the consequences of failing. There was no relief. Long afterward, I might be given some advice and encouragement. Sometimes even comfort. But in the moment, there was no aid. It wasn’t long before I learned to stop turning to others for help. It’s never an option, so I don’t even think about it.
Which is why when I am faced with the hot-blooded pirate, my first response is not to look to Riden. Or to ask Draxen to have someone else guard me. No, I handle my problems alone because that is the way things are.
“There isn’t a problem, is there, Alosa?” Draxen asks. His sneer is full of poison.
I say, “I’ve never had a problem I couldn’t handle myself.”
Chapter 6
THOUGH MY TIME SPENT with Sheck and Ulgin was only a few hours, it felt like much, much longer.
It started with Sheck walking back and forth in front of my cell, never taking his eyes off me. Occasionally he would reach through the bars, as if he could grab me. He was trying to get a response from me. To see me afraid. I never gave him the satisfaction. I stayed to the far end of the cell the whole time. Though I was tired and could have used a rest before I sneak out of my cell tonight, I didn’t nap. I couldn’t risk rolling over in my sleep, coming within reach of Sheck’s searching hands.
But that was not all that prevented me from sleeping. There was also the screaming. Ulgin, like Sheck, is not a complicated pirate to figure out. Each pirate has their vice. For some it is drinking, for others it’s gambling, for those like Sheck, it is deriving forced pleasure from a struggling woman.
But Ulgin—his is seeing pain in others. So I sat, facing away, while Ulgin tortured those smugglers to death.
Draxen keeps vile men in his company, but I am neither surprised nor terribly bothered by it. My father has much worse men at his disposal. Some of them I know enjoy the taste of human flesh, right off a living body.
I have no such creatures within my own crew. I value other traits above an affinity for torture and power over those weaker than oneself. I value brilliant minds, honest souls, and those with long endurance. I forge relationships based on trust and mutual respect, not fear and control.
Empathy for human life is something my father tried to beat out of me. He thinks he succeeded. Most people do. And while I can kill evil men without guilt, the suffering of others pains me as well as it does them. It hurts, but I can handle it. Bad things happen to people who may not be deserving of such punishment. The world continues on. I continue on. Because if nothing else, I’m a survivor.
So it is with relief that I look upon the dead smugglers. Their pain is gone at last.
Shortly after, Riden comes below with two pirates I haven’t met.
“You’re relieved, Sheck. Go ashore with everyone else. You may, too, Ulgin, once you’ve cleaned this up.” Riden’s posture is stiff, and he looks at Sheck with such disgust, I’m surprised his tone doesn’t reflect his feelings.
Sheck hasn’t said a word during the whole time he’s been down here. I wonder if he can talk at all. He looks me up and down one last time, as if memorizing every part of me. Then he races out of sight.
Riden turns to me next, his face blank now. “This is Azek and Jolek. They will be watching over you while I go ashore as well.” Riden steps right up to the bars, trying to get out of earshot of everyone else. “I know to expect some sort of attempt at fleeing from you, what with us being so close to shore and all. So let me save you the trouble. There are five men guarding the ship above deck. They know to watch out for you.”
There’s a slithering sound; Riden and I turn to see Ulgin dragging a sheet topped with the bodies of the smugglers out of the brig.
Riden looks at me then, and it might be the poor lighting, but I swear his eyes are wetter than usual. He is not anywhere close to tears, but he might be feeling … something.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers.
And then he’s gone.
He’s apologizing as though Sheck and Ulgin are somehow his fault. Or maybe he’s apologetic for some other reason. I never know with Riden. Sometimes it feels like he’s trying to help me. Other times, he’s obviously doing the complete opposite. He subjected me to Sheck and Ulgin, yet he never ordered me to give him my dagger. I know he saw me take it off the dead smuggler back on the ship. Did it slip his mind? Or did he want me to have it while I was belowdecks with those two?
Either way, I still don’t know what to make of Riden.
Doesn’t matter at the moment, anyway. I have a more pressing problem. Riden assumes I will try to escape this ship in some way. He already suspects me of being up to somet
hing. Of being more than just a prisoner on this ship. He knows I’m hiding something.
Which means if I’m to keep up appearances, I’ll have to escape the ship.
Then get caught on purpose.
Oh, the ridiculous things one has to do when one is a pirate.
The two pirates ordered to guard me sit in front of my cell, playing dice. I suppose that since they’re not permitted to go ashore and spend their money, the next best thing is to gamble. I myself like to gamble as well, just not with money.
“Sixes beats sevens, don’t it?” asks Azek.
“Sures do. But nines beats them all,” Jolek says.
“Then how comes you have more points than me?”
“Because I’m better with numbers.”
Honestly, it doesn’t look like either of them can count very well. But each time the other starts to get ahead, a similar argument will break out.
They’re both so focused on the game that they don’t pay any attention to me, which works perfectly to my benefit.
I return to one of my bags, the one holding the books, and take out a book on sailing, another subject I have mastered. The spine of this book holds my lockpicks.
The simple fact is that each time I break out of my cell and get caught, Riden will be determined to learn how I managed it. My key-swap trick was bound to work only until Riden tried to use the false key. Now I have a second method for getting out of my cell, which I’ve been using for the last several days. It’s actually been quite easy, since Kearan and Enwen fall asleep quickly, and Kearan’s snoring masks the clicking of the lock.
Azek and Jolek don’t look up until the door creaks open. They stand from their chairs and stare at me.
“Didn’t thinks she could do that,” Azek says.
“You don’t think,” Jolek says. “You just pretends to.”
Rather than let them make the first move, I grab each man by the collar at the back of his neck. Easier to strike than to dodge, Father says. I use the same head-bashing trick I performed back on the smuggling ship. I take care not to break either man’s neck—if for no other reason than the fact that they didn’t leer at me as Sheck did.
Daughter of the Pirate King Page 6