Tantamount

by Thomas J. Radford

  “Right,” Jack rumbled, looking down at Sharpe, considering. Piper seemed a forgotten thing on his shoulder.

  “Now, Jack,” Nel ordered.

  Jack shrugged with one shoulder but started towards the dock, Piper's head and arms swinging carelessly behind his back.

  Chapter 8

  Water was being pumped from the dry dock onto the Tantamount and it was going to cost them. Water was expensive out here on the Rim. But then fire was more expensive. Damn Sharpe.

  “Why?” Nel demanded, kneeling down in front of Sharpe. He rolled his head to look up at her. Expressionless. Arrogant. Blood oozed sluggishly from a cut above his eye, turning his coat of flour into a gooey paste. But he didn't say anything.

  His eyes rolled back in his head when Nel slugged him in the jaw. She stood up, rubbing her knuckles. Turned out there was some advantage to not being able to feel them.

  It took them a time to bring the fire under control. By smothering the fire inside the hold it was starved of air and killed itself off. Scarlett found Nel shortly afterwards on the dock.

  “Some of our cargo is missing.”

  Nel stood up from the rigging she'd been going through, wiping a soot stained forearm across her brow. The rigging was spare from the hold and was spotted with burnt fibres. It would have to be cut down to salvageable lengths and re-spliced to become usable again. And it was hardly the only damage to contend with.

  “It went up in smoke,” Nel said bluntly. “There's nothing we can do about that.”

  Scarlett made a face, like it was a personal failure on Nel's part that it had happened. “Not from the fire,” she said. “From what was already offloaded onto the docks.”

  “What about it?” Nel scowled. The cargo had been the last thing on her mind. The Tantamount had been wounded, again, and Nel felt that injury like it was her own. The soot stains on her hands might as well be blood. She hadn't even had time to check on Horatio yet, nor investigate the inside of the ship.

  “Someone took it,” Scarlett said coolly. “Your girl.”

  “My girl this time?” Nel said. “What in the hells are you on about?”

  “Violet,” Scarlett said the name distastefully.

  “Violet?” Nel said. “Don't waste my time. Our ship was on fire, there's no way she was ransacking your precious . . .”

  “She did,” Scarlett told her. “Onyx saw her. She took a box of the medical supplies and ran off into town.”

  Nel remembered the look on Violet's face in the Rimward slums.

  “I need those supplies, Vaughn,” Scarlett said. “Too much was lost in the fire as it was.”

  “One box can't make that much difference.” Nel grimaced, knowing she was quoting Sharpe.

  Scarlett's face was set. “You need to find her. Now.”

  “It's not my problem and this is a damned charity run,” Nel reminded her. “A mercy mission. Violet's going about it the wrong way, but she has the right intentions.”

  “Plough her intentions,” Scarlett snapped. “If I wasn't afraid of what might happen here I'd get the supplies back myself. And there wouldn't be enough left of your girl to fit into the box they came in.”

  “Don't threaten my crew,” Nel said, letting her hand drop to the hilt of her wand. “Not now, not ever.”

  “You're forgetting who's in charge here,” Scarlett said.

  “I don't forget, Scarlett.”

  The two stared at each other, deadlocked.

  “Fine.” Scarlett looked away, her eyes becoming distant for a second. “I'll find her myself.”

  The dock shuddered, Onyx looming over Scarlett's diminutive form. When Scarlett spoke, she did so towards Nel, but there was no confusion over who her words were meant for.

  “If anyone else touches the cargo . . .” She let the tension build for a moment. “Kill them.”

  Nel swore. She glanced hurriedly at the golem. It had already settled back into its passive state, looking like a harmless statue. One that would shortly be without a master to rein it in. Scarlett had already left, not waiting to see Nel's reaction.

  “Dammit,” Nel fumed. “Jack! Don't let anyone touch the damned cargo. I'm going after Scarlett.”

  Smoke rose from the docks. Violet watched it curl away and spread out into a mushroom where it met the envelope around Rim. Minutes went past and the column became a cloud, hanging over the docks where the Tantamount lay.

  The box of medicine she'd taken from the ship, medicine shipped all the way from the seedy, smoky underbelly of Cauldron, lay forgotten at her feet. Something had happened to the Tantamount, she felt that in her gut.

  Violet didn't hear the locals coming up. Didn't notice when one of them opened the box. It wasn't until someone grabbed her shoulder and spun her round that she came back to the real world.

  “You was with himself, weren't you?”

  Violet took a step back from the man, suddenly realising she was surrounded. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of the hungry eyed crowd. As a group they made Korrigan Jack look doe-like.

  The man held up grimy hands to show his good intentions. “Easy, lass, ain't nobody gonna hurt you.” He glowered at the folk around them. “Hold your horses, folk. Give the girl a second here.”

  Violet drew a short breath. “You know Sharpe, right?” she queried.

  “Aye.” The man chuckled, displaying a row of yellowed teeth. “Himself. Said someone would be coming back. Didn't figure it for such a little one.” He shrugged.

  “Where's your friend?” she asked, searching the crowd. “The Draugr? Where's he?”

  “You didn't seem too taken with him last time, lass.”

  Violet flushed. “Felt bad, wanted to say so.”

  “Yeah, well Wallace ain't here, lass. Sorry, you'll have to make do with me. Name's Grouse. But what you got oughta make up for it. Got something for you back, lass.”

  He held out a leather tube. It was worn but still too clean to have come from the slums.

  “What's this?” Violet took it, still eyeing the crowd. Several of them crowded round the box she'd brought, enough that she couldn't see what was in there.

  “From himself.” Grouse shrugged. “Said it was for your captain. Didn't say other than that. Other than you should keep it close.”

  Violet stared at the package. A small voice in her head told her to run now. There was more going on here. And somehow she knew it was all going to be her fault.

  “Who are you?” she asked Grouse.

  “Who put you up to this?”

  “Put me up?” Scarlett was amused enough to stop. They'd been searching through the slums for almost half a bell now. For someone whose legs were so short Scarlett could set a pace when she had the mind.

  “All our troubles have come from your crew, not me,” Scarlett reminded her.

  “Not that. This run. Who cared enough about a backwater brushfire to put a Guild contract on a bunch of medical supplies?”

  Scarlett shrugged. “Someone who could foot the bill. Beyond that I don't care.”

  Nel didn't buy that. Not at all. “You seem bent on seeing this through. Ebon must have made it worth your while.”

  Scarlett gave her a withering look. One that said Nel was wasting her time fishing.

  “Charity runs like this must make you feel good,” Nel went on anyway. “Must make up for some of the damned nasty things you people do with the rest of your time.”

  “You know what will make me feel better?” Scarlett commented, picking up the pace again. “Dealing to that girl of yours.”

  Nel's hand gripped her wand tightly. “I warned you about threatening my crew.”

  Scarlett's voice was starkly cold. “You have your priorities, I have mine. If you're concerned, then start praying she hasn't done anything with that box she stole.”

  “Those medicines are meant for the needy,” Nel said. “Plenty of folks here need them, just as much as those further inward.”

  Nel scowled when she realised sh
e was echoing the arguments Sharpe had made earlier. She could have done without the irony that they'd had some influence on her after all.

  Scarlett snorted. “Medicine isn't some plug you can shove in a hole to stop a leak. You give it out without thought it'll just make things worse. Besides, nobody cares about the wretches out Rimward.”

  Then why the trip in the first place, Nel thought before giving voice to her concerns. “I'm surprised that anyone cares about any place this remote.”

  “I certainly don't,” Scarlett muttered. “Though it seems your man did.”

  Nel stopped. “What's that supposed to mean? That's the second time you called Sharpe my man.”

  “I didn't have to explain who I meant, did I?”

  “Try explaining what, then,” Nel challenged her.

  Scarlett shrugged. “He's part of your crew, that makes him your man.” She didn't wait for Nel, kept up her quick pace.

  “He's no more part of my crew than you are, Scarlett, and that wasn't what you meant by it. Was it?”

  “You're wasting your time trying to figure out what I mean and what I think, Vaughn. The way he watches you could be taken any number of ways.”

  “What way?” Nel snapped. “And what watching?”

  “Like he's expecting something,” Scarlett said. “And since we both know he's not really one of your crew, why don't you tell me this. Do you even know who he is?”

  “Do you?”

  Scarlett smiled. “Let's just say I recognise him.” The Guildswoman stopped. “There. That's her.”

  Violet was ahead, surrounded by Rim slum folk.

  “She still has the box,” Nel observed. “Doesn't look like she's done anything with it yet.”

  “Good.”

  Nel had been watching Scarlett. The woman was ice, that much was obvious. All business and no heart. So when Scarlett went for her wand, Nel went for hers. Nel was faster. She had the tip of her wand under Scarlett's pointed chin and her hand around Scarlett's wrist before the Guildswoman could draw it back. Nel squeezed hard until she felt the joint flex under her fingers. Scarlett gasped in pain and dropped her wand.

  “Go for the other one and I'll really hurt you.”

  “You'll regret this.” Scarlett grimaced as Nel forced her chin up higher.

  “I told you not to threaten my crew,” Nel reminded her. “You didn't listen.”

  “You're a fool,” Scarlett said bluntly. “You've no idea . . .”

  “Skipper.” Violet was almost underfoot now, the stolen box in her hands.

  It was empty.

  “What did you do?” Scarlett snatched for the box, oblivious to Nel's wand. She shook it, peering inside. There was nothing to be seen. A look of fear came over her face— it was almost enough to make Nel lower her weapon. Almost.

  “You little fool,” Scarlett whispered, holding the box. “What did you do?”

  Violet drew away from her. “I gave it away.”

  “To them?” Scarlett gestured around, indicating the Rimworlders.

  Nel could see Violet biting down on her lip, confused and frightened.

  “This whole place,” Scarlett said, throwing the empty box away. “This whole place is going to burn . . . because of you.”

  “What do you mean?” Nel demanded. She stepped around Scarlett, grabbing Violet's arm.

  “We'll never get them back,” Scarlett told her. “They'll disappear into these slums. Rimworlders, refugees. You couldn't get them back if you wanted!” Fierce determination lit Scarlett's eyes. “We need to leave this place.”

  “We're leaving.” Nel pushed Violet behind her. “You're not getting back on my ship.”

  “Don't,” Scarlett whispered, “be so sure about that.”

  Violet screamed. Nel dove to the side, something dark rushing past the space where her head had been, whipping displaced air until it shrieked. Nel turned as she fell, lashing out with her wand, kinetic force discharging at whatever had attacked her.

  The charge burst on Onyx's obsidian chest, splaying outward. It didn't seem to bother the golem. It raised one arm, the sharpened protrusions catching the light.

  Nel rolled. The dock was reduced to kindling splinters instead of her. She attacked with her wand twice more, scraping a few flakes of stone, but little else.

  Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she dove again. Twin charges shot past her—Scarlett had regathered her wands and joined the fray. Nel tried to put Onyx between them but a few shots across her bow put paid to that idea. Scarlett was showing her talents now and all Nel could do was duck for cover.

  Nel flicked off a shot at Scarlett, then dodged behind a shack. She didn't see where Scarlett went but Onyx's oversized fist demolished the corner of her chosen building. Demolished it and then froze. Nel stared, confused.

  “Skipper?”

  Cautiously, Nel emerged from the demolished shack. Violet stood over the Guildswoman, a brick clutched in her hand. Scarlett lay sprawled, wands kicked out of reach.

  “Good work, lass,” Nel said after a moment.

  Violet dropped the brick. On Scarlett, of course.

  Nel stared at Onyx. The golem remained frozen, as always. The same way it had during the voyage. That was . . . odd. Nel could freely admit she didn't know much about golems but it seemed to her that the golem should have at least finished carrying out Scarlett's instructions. Instead its animation seemed to be tied to the Guildswoman herself. And her being conscious.

  Nel eyed the golem suspiciously. Behind her she heard a moan. The golem twitched, creaking. Violet kicked Scarlett in the head and the golem stopped moving. So did the moaning.

  “Weird,” Nel muttered. She took aim and fired off a shot at the golem, aiming for what should have been its kneecap. The shot ricocheted off. Nel flinched even though the charge went skyward.

  “Have to remember that, Skipper,” Violet said, glancing up at the fast vanishing charge.

  “Hope we don't have to,” Nel said, eyeing the unconscious Guildswoman. The thought to do something permanent about at least one of her many problems had occurred to her. No more than that though.

  “Don't think this gets you off the hook, lass,” she said sternly. “We're going to have a long talk about what you did.”

  Violet wilted under her glare. “I was just wanted to help,” she said weakly. “To do . . . something.” She clutched a hand to her chest, head downcast.

  What was the worst that could happen? Scarlett had certainly been afraid of something.

  “What was in the box, Violet?” Nel asked her.

  The girl gave a helpless shrug. “Medicine?”

  “What did it look like?”

  “I don't know, like medicine. What should it have looked like?”

  “Forget it,” Nel sighed. “We need to get back to the ship.” There were more supplies still on the dock. She could check them over herself and see what all the panic was about.

  She glanced at Scarlett's prone body as they left. The right thing to do would be to take her with them, the golem notwithstanding. Anything could happen if they just left her lying there. But it was just a thought. After all, it wasn't her problem.

  “Skipper . . .” Cyrus deflated at the sight of Nel as she stormed past him, kicking her way through the cargo. Violet trailed after her, a meek little shadow in her footsteps. The Tantamount's crew pulled away from them, exchanging nervous glances with each other, faces and bodies still marred by soot from the fire and clean up.

  Nel sank down beside her captain. His face was grey, a large, purpling contusion lending the only colour to his skin. Strands of stringy hair were brushed back and Gabbi was wiping him down with a rag that was crusted with grime and blood. The ship's cook didn't look up.

  “He looks worse than he is.” Gabbi sounded like an automaton. “They both do.”

  The other was Piper, laid down beside his captain. His big chest rose and fell steadily though his jaw hung open and slack, a small trail of drool r
unning down his cheek.

  “Is he gonna be all right?” Violet crouched down alongside Piper. She took his burly, tattooed hand in her two smaller ones, holding it close.

  “Knock like that may have done him some good,” Nel muttered. She searched the crowd. “I don't see Quill.”

  “He was on the ship,” Gabbi said tonelessly.

  That did not surprise Nel.

  “Would somebody like to tell me,” she raised her voice so the whole crew could hear her, “where in the hells my damned ship has gone?”

  All her crew found ways to avoid meeting her eyes. She could see for herself the frayed ends of guide ropes, floating just outside the Rim's envelope. They'd been torn free, either given way under pressure or held and their contacts ripped out. There was no sign of the Tantamount.

  Nel ran a hand through her hair in frustration. “Is anyone else missing? Was anyone else aboard the ship?”

  “Everyone seems to be here.” Gabbi was morose. She brushed the captain's hair again. She didn't seem to know what else to do.

  “Where's Bandit?” Violet asked. “I don't see him. Wouldn't he be with Piper?”

  Gabbi shrugged.

  “Brilliant,” Nel muttered. Her ship was gone, her navigator with it and with him her only crewmember capable of launching a ship. So unless Quill had finally seen fit to follow through on his longstanding threat to leave them all and take the ship with him she needn't look far for her culprit.

  Sharpe.

  He'd come to, freed himself, found the ship otherwise deserted and managed to somehow suborn Quill and make him take the ship out.

  She frowned.

  That didn't make sense. What had Sharpe been trying to accomplish? He'd set fire to the ship with himself inside it, now he'd made off in that same fire-damaged ship. The irony was there if she could stand to look at it, and granted things hadn't gone the way Sharpe had likely hoped. But still, it struck her as too convenient that all of Sharpe's actions had left the ship unloaded, unmanned, and sent both her and Scarlett running off to the other side of Rim. Even if the golem hadn't come running after its master, Onyx wouldn't have been able to get back on the ship to stop Sharpe. He was too heavy.