He put one hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Do you have faith, Elia?”
She nodded. “I believe in the g–”
She never finished her sentence. Mascardi buried his dagger in her chest, swiftly and deep. The girl coughed up a stream of blood onto his shirt, creating a dark stain over where his own heart was.
In one sharp motion, he tossed her body to the hungry waves of the darkness around them. The girl fell like a rag doll, and with a splash, she was lost under the unfamiliar water.
Mascardi closed his eyes and took a deep breath. In his mind, there was only Vario now, and the wrath that would be unleashed upon the ship.
When he opened his eyes again, Basco finally looked away from him and departed, pleased.
***
Mascardi slept with his door double locked. Basco, sharing the room, stayed awake. The night glided away slowly and steadily like the ship on the water. When dark blue diluted the black, Basco gazed at the East through the porthole, wishing for the coming of the dawn.
First, there were a few thuds, like furniture being thrown from one end of the room to the other.
Mascardi shot upright; Basco nodded at him. After a moment came a cry of pain and agony.
He couldn’t wait any longer. Unlocking the door, he stepped out into the corridor, along with the other sailors.
Taking the turn to Vario’s room, he found Odet whimpering in a pool of blood, thrashing like fish out of water.
“Odet! Talk to me!”
With Basco’s help, they turned him on his back. His hand covered his right eye as an endless stream of blood flowed through his fingers. Mascardi pried the hand off and immediately averted his face. Odet’s right eye had been viciously destroyed by the deep cut of a blade.
“Bring Alaoso, now!” he bellowed, and from somewhere in the far end of the corridor, an “Aye, captain,” sounded, and then the healer’s name from many voices.
Mascardi didn’t ask Odet anything; he kept staring at the stairs that led up to the deck. The healer arrived in a moment and leaned over the young man, muttering.
“Let him do his job,” Mascardi ordered and stood up, surrounded by crew members that sought answers.
“Everyone! Grab your weapons,” he said quickly and snatched a trident that’d been mounted on the wooden wall as a decoration. In a few leaps, he was on the deck, searching for Vario Darani.
***
“Where is she?” the colossal man roared again, frightening a couple of sailors by waving his sword around. Mascardi regarded him like a wild beast. He pushed the trident forward, the pointy tips of the long weapon aimed at the man’s chest. Vario turned to the captain and marched towards him, heedless of the danger.
“Vario, I am warning you! Stay where you are, else every man here will attack you, and by Arkallis, you will fall, even if you take half of us down with you.”
Vario released a cry as he attacked Mascardi with his blade. The captain leaped abruptly to the left to avoid the blow and struck with his trident. It pierced through Vario’s thigh, but if the wound was deep, you couldn’t tell by the man’s reaction.
“Vario, stop!” Basco shouted, his curved blade pointed at the giant. More voices followed, and the man stood still, his nostrils flaring like a bull’s.
“What did you do to her?” he demanded.
“I killed her,” Mascardi admitted unabashedly.
Vario lunged again. Before he could reach his target though, Ginom’s whip struck his shoulder, coiling around it. He pulled at it and forced him to take a step. Vario looped his arm twice around the rope and pulled. The man flew in the air without the slightest resistance and sprawled face-down on the deck.
In the meantime, Mascardi shoved the trident towards the man’s throat.
“I will kill you, Vario, even if I don’t want to. And I don’t want to because we all need you! But if you want to die for a highborn whore, then by the gods, I was wrong about you.”
Vario cried out again but hesitated.
“We have important work ahead of us, Vario. Adventure, monsters and riches await us. Only a fool would turn his back to the gods. Tell me. Are you a fool? Will you refuse the destiny the gods have in store for us?”
Vario’s breathing slowed, became more regular. His pupils returned to their normal size. His mouth had acquired an ugly grimace that would scare even a demon.
“I had to kill her because I didn’t want anything to distract you from our mission. I didn’t like it, but it had to be done.”
Vario seemed to calm down. Hatred and resentment replaced the blind rage, and the captain knew blissful sleep would be a thing of the past from now on.
“You should have asked me first,” the captain chastised him, removing the weapon from his throat and relaxing his posture. “On this ship, I am king, judge and executioner, Vario, you know the rules.”
Vario didn’t respond, but it was just as well for Mascardi. Around them, a circle of silent men had formed, who were scared to even breathe in case they further aggravated the situation.
“I want to kill something,” Vario roared, showing Mascardi that it was mostly his pride that had been wounded.
The captain smiled. “Soon and as many things as you like,” he promised.
Vario nodded and headed for the stairs. Odet stood there, with a bloody bandage wrapped around his dead eye. Terror was painted in the other one. The young warrior had never suffered such injuries before.
As Vario reached him, Odet’s bowels almost loosened, but he held on as if his life depended on it. When he stood over his face, Odet broke down and started crying. Vario came even closer. His deep voice sounded as if it was welling from an infernal place.
“From now on, you’ll always keep your one eye open when you guard something of mine.”
Odet sobbed and Vario went down the stairs to his cabin, laughing. As soon as the laughter faded away, Mascardi was able to take a deep breath again, and so did the rest of the crew.
***
“Did you kill her then?” old Karil asked with a dark expression as he filled two cups with rum.
Mascardi sat opposite him in the small cabin, his hair disheveled. Tiredness and worry had lined his face. He waved away the drink the old man offered.
“Don’t try that on me, captain. When I drink, you drink.”
Mascardi relented and accepted the drink, wetting his lips.
“You drink like the Lothenian girl you are,” he scoffed. Mascardi wasn’t in the mood for that now.
“Of course I killed her, that’s what I’ve been telling you.”
Karil nodded, satisfied, and gulped down his rum. “You did good. All daughters must die.”
Mascardi shuddered whenever the old man spoke like this, but it was another one of those things he had to put up with. He thought of one of his sons – Mario, the eldest. He was the only one who had left the estate to find his own way, barely fourteen years old back then. When he found Mascardi and asked to follow him, the captain had slapped him so hard, he’d broken half his teeth. “Consider this the first sample of the pirate life you’re seeking,” he’d told him. “Lesson one. Pirates have no teeth.”
And he’d left him lying in the dirt and never saw him again. When he talked with Karil, he regularly recalled such moments of his life.
“What did you see?” he asked.
The old man looked at him. “All daughters must die, you hear me?” he insisted.
“I hear you.”
“I’ll make sure you don’t forget.” He sat heavily on the chair across from the captain. “Damn mushrooms,” he mumbled. “The visions are becoming more and more demanding, damn the Goddess’s Veil.”
Mascardi waited.
Karil drew out a big, old card from his coat and tossed it on the table towards Mascardi. The worn card showed two lovers entangled like snakes. The old colors had faded into a suspicion of red, yellow and grey.
“You showed me this card the other day, Karil,” he reminded him
.
“The Lovers.”
Mascardi nodded.
“This was Vario’s,” he pointed with his finger, “as I told you.”
“I remember. That’s why I did what I did. I do listen to what you say, old man.”
Karil inclined his head, satisfied. “And you must keep on listening to me, captain.” He leaned over the table, as if getting to the most important part of the story. When old Karil wanted something from Mascardi, he assumed the round-eyed, childlike expression he so rarely exhibited. “That’s why we must find her.”
“Damn you, Karil!” the captain shot up to his feet, cursing. “How many times do I have to tell you? We will find her, I promised.” By his frantic motions, it was obvious that exhaustion had taken a toll on him. Karil didn’t seem to mind his outburst.
“I saw her in a vision again, you fool,” he said darkly. His solemn eyes sparkled, and a sardonic smile formed on his bearded face. “She’s there on the cliffs, singing, drawing men to the edge, leading them to the rocks with a single note. One by one they fall into Revedon’s arms and crash like sickly birds with ruined wings. Her voice is a spider’s web – it pierces through mind, flesh and bone and leaves the soul wandering naked and weak-willed in the Astral World, searching in vain for the gate that leads to the emerald waters of the Underworld! Mascardi, by the Mother and the Daughter, we have to find her!”
Mascardi shivered. He gulped down his drink; his body didn’t agree with the rum. He massaged his temples with his fingertips.
“You have my word, Karil. I know this is why you joined us. I promised we will find her, and you promised to tell me everything you see.”
“And so it shall be done,” Karil added.
“And so it shall be done,” Mascardi echoed.
Then, he finished his drink, slammed the cup on the table, nodded at Karil, and left the cabin.
***
Morning arrived fast. The sun climbed higher in the blue sky and the ship continued traveling on the lonely waters, undeterred by the turmoil inside it. Mascardi hadn’t slept at all the night before. Now, he was on the deck again, talking with Alaoso. The healer had also had a difficult night, taking care of Odet both physically and mentally.
“Bring him here,” Mascardi ordered with a hoarse, barely audible voice as he shielded his eyes from the relentless sun.
Alaoso frowned. “He’s asleep, captain. He’s running a fever. His eye is completely destroyed, and the risk of infection is still high.”
“I won’t say it again, Alaoso. Bring him here.”
Alaoso couldn’t believe this. He paled at this unprofessional request, but in the end, he complied. A few moments later, Odet climbed the stairs up to the deck with Alaoso’s help, looking like a wounded animal. A disgusting crust of dried blood and pus had formed on the bandage and spilled down his face like a revolting waterfall. Stumbling, with the healer’s aid, he stood in front of the captain.
“Leave us, Alaoso.”
The healer hurried away.
“C- Captain?” The fever was making it difficult for him to speak.
“Where is your bow, Odet?”
His good eye bulged with surprise. “What?”
“I asked, where is your bow?”
For a moment, the young man’s simmering anger seemed to give him strength. Then he coughed and almost vomited as the pain racked his body, overwhelming him with dizziness.
“D- Downstairs, captain.”
“Go get it then,” Mascardi answered quietly, leaving Odet in a sea of doubt.
The young man’s mouth trembled as he tried to grasp the inconceivable order. After a while, he obeyed, and retreated to his cabin to fetch his bow.
A little while later, he returned. Mascardi had been wondering if he would succeed in that, but the young man had, using his long bow as a walking stick.
The anger had crystallized on Odet’s face; he huffed in pain and exhaustion. “How can you let him go unpunished? How can you allow him to do such things to me?”
Mascardi’s expression instantly turned dark and hard. “Such things?” he inquired wryly. “What things, Odet?”
Odet was close to tears. “He… He…” No more words came.
“Listen to me, kid. Here, we are all seamen, and we live by the laws of the sea. Do you know what that means?”
Odet didn’t move.
“I guess you don’t. Each one’s worth is measured by what he can do. Vario can do a lot. He’s the best killer I have ever seen, and for that, he is worth a lot, do you understand?”
Odet couldn’t wrap his head around Mascardi’s words. In his mind, a little something called justice meddled with things.
“What is your worth?” the captain asked, catching him off guard.
“What?” Odet stammered.
“What is your worth? For example, Vario’s girl had no worth.”
He let his words sink in. Odet paled.
“I- I am a good archer.”
“You were a good archer,” Mascardi corrected him.
Odet took two steps back, defensively.
“What I would like to know, Odet, is whether behind the whining and the fear, you still have some kind of worth.”
Odet clenched his teeth. He could sense the threat and now regarded Mascardi as if he were a wolf. How could he talk to him like that? He had loyally served him. He knew him since he was a child; Mascardi was like a father to him.
It took him a moment to remember the rumors about Mascardi and his children and whether or not he loved them.
After considering his current position carefully, he tried to regain his composure.
“It wasn’t the eye I use for aiming,” he stated.
“What?”
“I didn’t lose my good eye, captain,” Odet rephrased. “I aim with the other.”
“Really?” he asked, slightly sarcastic.
“On my word, captain. This was the one I was shutting when I aimed, you understand?”
Mascardi smiled. He leaned over and pointed at the mast about twenty feet away. “Show me.”
Odet swallowed. He looked at the mast with his one eye and started trembling. Then his hand trailed the familiar bow string; he touched the arrow on it and felt the goose feathers caressing his two fingers.
“See, like this,” he said and instinctively tried to close his maimed eye, out of habit. “Ah!” he groaned in pain as the motion invited a new cascade of blood and pus. Dizzy, he almost vomited and collapsed, but he managed to hold on. Sweating like a horse, he assumed an archer’s stance. He looked at the mast for a moment, then released the arrow and watched it fly through the morning air, until it pierced through the middle of the wooden mast with a satisfying sound.
Odet allowed himself a half smile and glanced at Mascardi. Visibly pleased, the captain returned the smile and clapped his hands.
“Excellent. Odet the One-Eyed Archer, then. That, kid, is the kind of name that is forever remembered in the songs!” He patted his shoulder in approval. “Now go get some rest,” he said and left.
Odet took a deep breath, pleased. It was way too soon to feel good, but he was surprised by the sense of satisfaction and validation that nested inside him. Before he could get too happy about it, he passed out.
***
The next days went by peacefully. Mascardi was able to sleep again, Vario laughed along with the other sailors and played dice with them on the deck, Odet was getting used to his impaired vision and Basco surveyed the ship and the crew. He spoke to Dizan, who was preparing the songs that Mascardi had ordered for when they reached the islands.
“They’re just songs,” he confessed one day. “Don’t expect a masterpiece.”
“People don’t remember masterpieces, Dizan, because they don’t understand them. Mascardi wants people to understand,” he assured him, and the bard surrendered himself to his creative impulses again.
One afternoon, when the sun sank slowly over the sea’s veil, the seagulls circled over the main
sail, a sure sign they had found dry land. Soon, Loriax appeared before them, showing its teeth from early on.
THE PORT OF THUNDER
Beyond the island’s high mountains, soundless lightning bolts furiously struck the rocks. The flashes of the gods’ pummeling streaked ceaselessly against the black sky, and the sailors watched in awe, gathered on the deck. Mascardi smiled ecstatically. His blood boiled as he heard the calling of adventure. Forty years he’d waited for this.
The ship glided past a gigantic cliff on the northern part of the island, sailing slowly and quietly towards the western bay, where it would be able to drop anchor. Dozens of feet separated the coast from the island’s remote settlement, where any resident who’d chosen to dwell on the Island of Thunder would be.
When the ship’s bottom grazed the sand, a fair distance from the rest of the vessels, Mascardi gathered his men around him on the beach, in a tight circle of trust. He held a trident, and a curved blade hung from his belt. Heavy chains were wrapped around Vario’s neck, with a heavy, spiked, metal ball at their end. Mascardi had argued with him a lot the previous days, stating his concern about the combination of chains and lightning, but Vario wasn’t receptive to orders as to how to do his job.
On the beach, all of them knew the part they had to play. Ginom with another two men set off to torch the anchored ships. Mascardi didn’t want anyone to escape. He only spared one ship as a prize.
As black smoke started smothering the horizon, the men started climbing the steep steps to the citadel. New fires bloomed brilliantly in the dark, and they knew people would certainly rush to see what was happening. Mascardi was the lord of chaos, and he knew how to exploit such a situation better than anyone.
When they arrived at Loriax’s settlement, on the northern part of the island, they saw the endless sea stretching its black waters like a veil around them. Behind their backs, lightning bolts struck the vast expanse of the island. Its size was difficult to grasp. An entire country lay between forests, sharp rocks and high mountains that hid the mysteries of the gods and the Sentinel.
21 Seagulls Page 3