Viper

by Bex Hogan

  ‘Was just warming her up,’ Milligan says, equally unhappy to be chastised.

  As Adler takes a seat, I stare at him. Is he seriously going to watch Milligan torture me?

  He smiles back. ‘Don’t worry,’ he says. ‘I haven’t forgotten about your dearest Bronn. He’s being prepared for a keelhauling as we speak. But I thought I might wait till Milligan’s done with you, so you can come and watch. Wouldn’t want you to miss all the fun.’

  ‘You’re a coward. So pathetically jealous of Bronn that you have to kill him? And not even brave enough to challenge him face to face because you know Bronn’s ten times the fighter you are.’

  Adler’s eye narrows but he doesn’t reply, and instead switches his attention to Milligan. ‘Hurry up, woman, I haven’t got all day.’

  Milligan nods with anticipation. ‘Yes, Captain. Now where were we? Ah, yes, fingernails.’

  She walks behind me to where my hands are tied, and she strokes my fingers. ‘Which one first? Let’s try . . . this one.’

  A searing pain shoots through me, crippling me, and I cry out despite myself.

  Milligan laughs. ‘Like that, did you? Good, because there’s plenty more to go.’

  And she yanks out another one. This time I manage not to make a noise, but it takes every ounce of control to bottle my pain deep inside, far from her reach.

  This displeases her greatly. Where’s the fun if she can’t hear my suffering? Her eyes flick over to Adler. I can see she wants to impress him, but he remains emotionless, merely an observer of her work. Milligan walks round to examine me and reconsiders her method of torture. ‘Perhaps I underestimated you. Maybe we’ll try something else. Broken toes or broken fingers? Which would you prefer?’

  There isn’t really a good answer to that question so I say nothing, just watch as she tosses the hammer around in the air, catching and spinning it with the skill of someone who uses it a lot.

  ‘Toes,’ Adler says, making the decision for me. ‘Break her toes.’

  I didn’t think there was much left inside of me to destroy, but he just managed to find it. Even after everything he’s done I can’t believe he’s directing my suffering with such casual indifference.

  Milligan smiles. ‘Toes it is.’ She twirls the hammer one last time and is squatting to the ground when Toby rushes into the room, breathing hard from his sprint.

  ‘What?’ Not wanting to be disturbed at such a moment, Adler practically bites the poor boy’s head off, causing Toby to flinch.

  ‘Water raptors, Captain. Sighted off the port bow.’

  I wonder if they can feel my pain, if the bond works both ways. Is an attack on me an attack on them?

  I see Adler’s conflict. He doesn’t want to miss my suffering, but equally he doesn’t want his ship shattered into pieces by the water raptors. He swears at Toby before making his decision.

  ‘Carry on,’ he says to Milligan. ‘I want her screaming by the time I get back. And as for you,’ he adds, turning to Toby, ‘stay here and watch. About time you grew a backbone.’

  I can see Toby about to protest, which only angers Adler further. ‘Or perhaps you’d rather come with me and be fed to the raptors?’

  Toby shakes his head, staring at his feet, and Adler gives him a look of disgust before turning to me. ‘Don’t have too much fun without me.’

  And then he’s gone, leaving me alone with Toby and Milligan.

  ‘Sit down, boy,’ Milligan says. ‘And don’t interrupt my work.’

  Toby does as he’s told, avoiding looking directly at me.

  Milligan doesn’t bother disguising her contempt for him. ‘Never thought there’d be someone on this ship more useless than you,’ she says to me.

  ‘If you think I’m so useless, why not untie me? See if you’re still able to butcher me then.’ With Adler gone I try one more time to drive her to the potion. Because if I can’t get her to drink, my feet are going to be shattered.

  ‘Must hurt,’ she says, not taking me up on my suggestion, ‘having your own father want to punish you like this.’

  ‘It might, if he actually was my father.’

  Confusion clouds Milligan’s expression. Apparently Adler hasn’t shared this information with his crew.

  ‘Didn’t he tell you? Maybe he doesn’t trust you enough with such things.’

  Her response is to punch me hard in the stomach, winding me so I’m unable to speak. I’m not going to get a better chance.

  ‘Water?’ I gasp at her, coughing for air.

  She smiles at my plea and reaches for my flask, just as I hoped she would. ‘Thirsty, are you? Me too. Hard work this.’ She taunts me with the drink. ‘Don’t mind if I help myself, do you? Seeing as we’re in no hurry.’

  I don’t mind at all. In fact, for the first time since Grace died, my fight to survive stirs inside me.

  I watch Milligan as she opens the flask, taking an appreciative sniff before guzzling its contents, glancing sideways at me as if taking my rum is another way to torment me. I feign desperation so she doesn’t suspect anything, and it drives her on until she’s drained it dry.

  Milligan wipes her mouth with her sleeve and belches. With a cruel smile she picks up the hammer once more, ready to resume my torture, but almost immediately concern appears on her face. And then she’s retching, tearing at her throat as if somehow she can pull the poison back out.

  Milligan reaches towards me, her eyes screaming for help, but I’m tied up and can do nothing – even if I wanted to. As she falls to her knees she gives me one last look of disbelief before slumping to the floor.

  I take a deep breath. Esther has given me a chance. But my ropes are tied fast and there’s still someone in the room who could kill me.

  Toby has grown since I left the Maiden, stretched as if put on the rack. He’s pulled out his dagger, and looks nervously at Milligan lying on the ground, before stepping towards me.

  ‘Toby . . .’ I have absolutely no idea what his intentions are.

  He’s still as quiet as ever, saying nothing as he moves to stand behind me, and I think I’ve forgotten how to breathe when I feel the cold edge of the blade against my wrists. Seconds later, the rope is sliced in two, and then Toby releases my feet.

  He gives me the smallest smile as he places the knife into my hand and then walks silently out of the room.

  Sneaking through the Maiden poses no challenge for me. I’ve been doing it since I could walk, though never with the urgency I have now. But as it happens there’s barely anyone around. The only two Snakes I meet on the way are familiar to me, and so when we fight I choose my blows carefully, stunning them rather than killing them. Pain blazes on the raw skin once protected by fingernails, despite having wrapped them in cloth before leaving Milligan’s torture chamber, but I push through it. I won’t let anything stop me now.

  When I cautiously lift the hatch to peer on to deck I see why my journey up has been so quiet. The water raptors loom in the distance and are definitely heading this way, so all hands are working on getting the Maiden moving again. Bronn’s tied to the mizzenmast, his keelhauling temporarily delayed, while Adler shouts orders to his crew as if somehow this mortal peril they’re in is all their fault.

  Even from here I can see Bronn’s been beaten and can’t tell whether he’s conscious. Angling my blade, I catch the sun and direct the glare on to his face. His eyes open, looking for the source of the annoyance, and when he sees me, his relief is visible.

  I climb from the hatch and walk with confidence across the deck towards Adler. Most of the crew are too frantic to notice I’m there, but those that do stare at me in disbelief, too stunned to react. When Ren sees me he holds my gaze before giving me the briefest of nods and a rare smile. I’ve earned his respect.

  ‘Adler,’ I shout to the man I used to call father, ‘it’s time we ended this, once and for all.’

  Now every head on deck turns to look at me, and no one is more surprised than Adler himself. He hadn’t thought me
capable of this.

  A couple of deckhands rush forward to capture me but Adler bellows out to them, ‘Leave her!’ The crew shrink back as though he’d struck them. They can hear his fury as well as I can.

  ‘Milligan’s losing her touch,’ Adler says, casually stepping towards me as if two lethal water raptors weren’t pursuing us.

  ‘Drinking always was her weakness.’

  He nods in understanding. ‘So here we are, Marianne. Just like old times.’

  ‘Not quite. Then I would have done anything to make you proud.’

  ‘Apart from complete your Initiation?’

  ‘I may have wanted your approval, but I never wanted to become you.’

  ‘And yet, you already have. Killing Briggs the way you did? Couldn’t have done better myself.’

  ‘I am nothing like you.’

  ‘Keep telling yourself that,’ he says with a smile. ‘But you have blood on your hands and I couldn’t have asked for more from my daughter.’

  ‘You are not my father.’

  There’s a slight murmur of confusion through the watching crowd, and I can tell Adler would have preferred them not to know that particular piece of information. But he recovers quickly.

  ‘Something you should be thankful for. Your real father was a coward. Died without any fight. Your mother on the other hand?’ Adler gestures to his missing eye. ‘Now she showed spirit.’

  He’s trying to get under my skin and it’s working. It’s taking every scrap of self-control I have not to rise to his taunts.

  ‘If you like spirit so much, why did you try to kill Esther?’

  He narrows his eye, processing the information. All this time he’d believed Esther was dead.

  ‘Didn’t you know? She’s alive, despite your best efforts. If it makes you feel better, I think she might hate you even more than I do.’

  ‘Alive?’ In that one word there’s more emotion than I’ve ever known him to express. For a second I see he was once capable of love, albeit in his own twisted way. But then it’s gone, replaced by anger. ‘Well, thank you. Now I know. Once I’m done with you I’ll go and finish the job.’

  ‘You loved her!’ I shout, furious with myself for putting Esther in danger. ‘You carved her into your figurehead! Why would you want her dead?’

  ‘Because she betrayed me. And I don’t forgive betrayal.’

  ‘Nor do I.’

  He raises an eyebrow and laughs. ‘You think you can kill me? Marianne, even if I thought you had the guts, do you honestly think you’re good enough?’

  I look him dead in the eye, hoping my confidence masks my terror. ‘Try me.’

  His smile fades. ‘I had hoped it wouldn’t come to killing you. I’d far rather you join me. Give me the Western Isles and I’ll extend my protection to you. When the East falls I’ll let your prince live. I’ll even take Bronn back despite his duplicity.’

  ‘I would rather die than join you.’

  ‘Then allow me.’ And with no warning Adler dives at me, his dagger ready to strike.

  He pushes me to the deck and I’m forced to drop my own dagger in order to grab both his wrists, desperately resisting the blade’s progress towards my throat. He’s ridiculously strong and for a moment I remember these arms reaching down to pick me up as a child. I felt safe in the hands that are now trying to kill me. But they never held me with love. I was nothing more than a trophy to display, to be polished, to remind him of his greatest kill and his highest prize. With a surge of blind fury I bring my knee up into his groin and he releases his grip just enough for me to roll away.

  Before I’m even on my feet he’s standing in front of me, cutlass in one hand, dagger in his other, while I have nothing. He lunges in my direction and I have to dodge swiftly out of the way, snatching up a length of broken chain left forgotten on top of a barrel, and holding it taut to block his relentless strikes. Sparks fly as steel hits steel, and I can hear Talon circling above us, shrieking out objections to this disturbance.

  ‘You’re a disappointment,’ Adler says as I struggle to fend off his attack. ‘Grace taught you nothing.’

  The mere mention of her name causes my hatred to flare up towards him and in the split second he takes to move his arm back for momentum, I release one end of my chain and swing it diagonally from side to side. Now Adler’s the one blocking the lethal metal as it whips across in front of him.

  ‘She taught me enough to destroy you, you lying, treacherous, murdering, manipulative bastard,’ I say, and with that final word I lash the chain down to knock the dagger from his hand.

  A glimmer of uncertainty crosses Adler’s face, and then he clicks his fingers. I sense the approach behind me and duck just in time to avoid a cutlass being brought down on my head. Apparently Choke hasn’t forgiven me for besting her at the palace and she attacks with ferocity. Adler bows out from the fight, unleashing three more of his Snakes on me, and I dance with them, gliding, kicking, striking and weaving to attack then defend as required.

  ‘Didn’t expect me to play fair, did you?’ Adler laughs, but I don’t waste my energy answering, focusing entirely on my opponents: their body placements, their shifts of weight, the angle of attack, their weaknesses. Two are easily dispatched – a broken arm and a sharp jab to the throat – but for each I take down Adler adds two more until I’m fighting half a dozen people and, though I’m holding my own, I’m not sure how I’ll be able to beat them all – especially if Adler keeps ordering others into the fray. I’m outnumbered.

  And then I’m not alone. Two cutlasses join my side, quickly removing Choke and Turner from the equation. Bronn and Ren stand beside me, challenging anyone to keep coming for us. The others pause and it’s as if someone’s temporarily frozen us all.

  ‘Ren?’ Adler says, the betrayal an unpleasant surprise.

  ‘I’m sorry, Captain,’ Ren says. ‘Your time has come to an end.’

  Adler laughs. ‘Three against fifty? I don’t like your chances.’

  ‘Four.’

  Adler turns to stare at Toby who’s hovering at the mizzenmast, clearly having cut Bronn free as he did me. Adler’s laugh now borders on maniacal. ‘Oh, well, if they have you on their side, then I surrender!’

  But though some of the crew join him in mocking Toby, not everyone does. The tension becomes razor-sharp and I can almost taste the mutiny in the air.

  I need to convince the rest of the crew to join me, need to prove that I’m worth switching allegiance for. If I am to be their captain, I can’t just win their respect. Right now they have to fear me, more than they fear Adler.

  ‘There may only be four of us, but have you stopped to consider what I’ve done?’ I’m looking at Adler, but I’m addressing the crew. This is my pitch, and it’d better be good.

  ‘You think we’re here by mistake? I lured you into these waters. You’re here because I wanted it. Time and again you have underestimated me. Briggs, Cleeve, Milligan – all dead because of me. And still you have failed to see the truth before you.’ I pause for effect, before gesturing out to sea. ‘The raptors didn’t just appear, that was no coincidence. They have to be summoned, called from their dark depths by magic and blood. You should surrender. They’ll be here in minutes and will destroy us all. Because it was my magic, my blood. They are here at my command.’

  The intake of breath is audible and the atmosphere shifts again. Nothing frightens these sailors like magic and myth.

  ‘You’re lying,’ Adler says. ‘Even you wouldn’t be foolish enough to summon creatures that would ensure your own death – imagining for a moment you were even capable.’

  ‘I am more than ready to sacrifice my life if it means the end of yours. It was always my plan. I do not fear death, Adler. Do you?’

  He glares at me; I see a brief glimpse of doubt in his eye before he blinks it away. ‘I would rather die than hand myself over to a girl like you.’

  ‘Good, because I would rather kill you than let the raptors have the pleasure.’ I
don’t wait for permission. This time I strike first.

  In one swift movement I’ve stooped for the knife he dropped and I fly at him. Chaos descends on the ship in an instant as almost half the crew attack the rest. Ren wasn’t lying when he said there were others willing to defect, and my speech has persuaded many that I’m worth backing, but I have eyes for only one man.

  We both know this is personal; every strike is intended to kill, and his blows come hard and fast, so that it’s all I can do to parry them, every ounce of his hatred towards me channelled behind each swing of the cutlass. He smashes through barrels, pallets and even the boards of the ship itself as he pursues me around the deck. I draw on every move Grace and Bronn ever taught me to survive the onslaught, swerving and twisting my body to narrowly evade his every swipe. I see a grappling hook and snatch it up, slinging it to block his blade even as it’s already slashing down towards me. My deflection knocks Adler off balance and gives me a spare second to regain my footing. It’s all I need to bring my knife up under Adler’s chin, leaving a deep gash.

  He pauses, looking at me with incredulity, as if he can’t believe I dared to do it.

  ‘Scared?’ I say, wanting to taunt him.

  ‘Of you, Marianne? You don’t have what it takes.’

  My foot rests on a cutlass that’s fallen from a dead man’s grasp, and I flick it up and catch it, holding it in my left hand. Now I’m the one with two weapons. ‘My name is Mairin of the house of Vultura. Star of the Sea. And I have exactly what it takes.’

  And then I launch myself at him and show him everything I’ve ever learned about swordplay. Moving with a speed both Grace and Bronn would be proud of, I slice and hack with a blade in each hand. Adler parries me well, but then I manage to strike his fingers with my dagger and he drops his cutlass. As he falters I kick him hard in the chest, sending him reeling backwards on to the deck. This is it. My chance to kill him.

  But I hesitate, the conflict I thought I’d resolved flooding to the surface. He’s all things evil, but there was a time when I loved him and some small part of me hasn’t forgotten that. Is he worth it? Worth becoming an assassin for?