by Jane Glatt
“You’re taking the Bright Breeze?”
“Shhh,” Ansdottir peered out past Jaak into the night. Calder closed his eyes in case they reflected the light from the open cabin door.
“My offer still stands,” Ansdottir said.
Calder opened his eyes. The captain was staring intently at Jaak.
“A full share, like always,” the captain continued. “Like you were never gone, on account of you growing up here and all.” Ansdottir straightened. “And thanks for the warning. Now you get somewhere safe and stay there.” She stepped back inside the cabin.
Calder ducked behind a tree as Jaak hurried past him back towards the square. If the pirates didn’t take the Bright Breeze, it very well could end up on the rocks. He’d always assumed that all captaincies were awarded the way they were for the Merchant Adventurers: by merit. Clearly Captain Olmar hadn’t followed that path. His very first impression looked closer to the truth: the man was a Clan Freeholder.
Once he was sure no one inside the cabin was watching, Calder followed Jaak back towards the town square.
DAG FINISHED HER meal and rose from her chair. The tavern was almost empty, and when she’d asked Inger about it, her sister had said that the crew of the ship in the harbour was banned because of the incident that afternoon.
Dag was relieved—the thought of Inger being accosted again had worried her. What if no one was around to help her? She caught a glimpse of Ursa at the bar. Not that she thought the tavern keeper would let anything happen to any of her staff.
Ursa beckoned her to a table near the bar, and Dag nodded and smiled as she headed over. She sat down and the older woman grabbed two mugs off the bar and set them down.
“It’s quiet-like now, so I thought we could talk,” Ursa said.
“Sure. Inger tells me the crew of the ship at anchor has been banned,” Dag said. “Thank you. I hated the thought that they’d be back in here causing trouble for her.”
“No need to thank me,” Ursa said. She took a gulp of her drink. “But I appreciate that you did anyway. Inger’s part of my crew and no one messes with me.”
Dag took a small sip—cider again—before setting her mug back down. She had a feeling she’d need a clear head for this talk. “Inger said you’re interested in my trip around the island,” Dag said, shaking her head. “I have to admit I was not prepared.”
“Not many people attempt it,” Ursa replied. “Though there’s a few places people go to by sea.”
“Yes, I did come across a boat on a beach early in my walk. I wasn’t worried enough about not making it on foot to use it.” Dag shrugged. “Not that I’m very good at rowing a boat anyway. And thankfully this morning I came across where the children live. They and their teacher were kind enough to give me food and water.” Dag rolled her eyes. “They must have thought me ridiculous, walking around the island without even a water skin.”
“I heard you were pretty thirsty,” Ursa said. “And a good thing that no harm came to you. Inger would have been devastated.”
“As I would be if anything happened to her.” As soon as she said the words, she felt an itch between her shoulder blades—her Trait was active. Ursa was hiding something, but not about the island. About Inger. She looked around the tavern, but she didn’t see her sister. She didn’t see anyone except Hanne.
“Staff’s gone,” Ursa said. “Like I said, quiet tonight.”
“Where’s Inger?” Dag asked. She knew something had happened—or was about to happen—to Inger.
“She’s part of my crew,” Ursa repeated her comment from earlier. “And after tonight she’ll be a full crew member.”
“A pirate?”
“A privateer,” Ursa replied calmly. “With a full share, like every battle experienced crew member.”
“Battle . . .” Dag stopped. “Skit! You have no idea what danger you’re putting her in.” Inger’s Trait meant that she would be seen by everyone. “She’s not had any formal training.” Dag had learned as part of her studies and had sparred with Inger, but her sister had no weapons training. Maybe they would keep her out of the fighting?
“Been learning ever since she got here,” Ursa said.
Skit, skit, skit, Dag thought. Every single sailor she fought wouldn’t be able to ignore Inger. Because of her Trait she would be the most obvious target in any fight.
“Where is she?” Dag asked. She got to her feet and Ursa simply watched her. Dag looked down at her cider. She’d only had that one sip, but she felt a little unsteady.
“I think you’ll just take a nice nap and miss all the excitement,” Ursa said. “Hanne!”
The woman scrambled from her table in the back to Dag’s side faster than a drunkard should be able to. She gripped Dag’s arm and Dag let her. Whatever Ursa had put in her drink hadn’t affected her as much as the other women thought, but she wouldn’t be able to fight them both. Even sober she wasn’t sure she could best Ursa. Hanne was another matter.
“Where are you taking me?” Dag purposely slurred her words as Hanne dragged her from the tavern.
“To a safe place,” Hanne replied. She hauled Dag out into the hallway, but instead of heading towards Inger’s room, Hanne pushed her in the opposite direction. She stopped in front of a door, and while she fished around for a key, Dag leaned against the wall of the corridor. But as soon as Hanne opened the door, Dag straightened and shoved the other woman through it. The key was still in the lock and she turned it.
In moments Dag was outside at the back of the tavern. She heard Hanne’s yells and Ursa’s bellowing reply as she ran around to the front of the building. There was a bright flickering light in the direction of the town square; Dag headed towards it. She had to keep Inger safe.
Dag rounded a corner and skidded to a stop. It was chaos in the square. A fire burned in the centre, consuming a pile of what looked like items from nearby cabins that the crew of the ship had pilfered. Half burnt chair legs scattered the ground in front of the fire, and while she watched, someone tossed a small table onto the flames.
A huddle of sailors that Dag thought might be drunk stood in front of the fire waving flaming sticks and logs at the group of pirates who were lined up in front of them, long guns pointed at the ground.
Dag spotted Inger’s uncovered head near the front line and blew out a breath. At least her sister was still in one piece. She pushed her way through the crowd until she was behind Inger.
“Inger,” she said into her sister’s ear. “Inger!”
Inger looked over her shoulder, the feverish grin on her face turning into a frown when she saw Dag. “Go away before you get hurt,” Inger said. “This isn’t your fight.”
“It’s not yours either,” Dag said. She swayed a little from the aftereffects of whatever Ursa had put in her cider and grabbed her sister’s arm.
“It is,” Inger said. “I’m making it mine. Just like I’m making these my people.”
“I’m your people,” Dag said. “And think about what will happen in a fight.” She leaned closer. “Your Trait.”
“My Trait,” Inger said. “It’s never about my Trait. It’s always about yours. I’m tired of everything in my life being about you.” She looked around. “These people appreciate me. Not my Trait and not my sister, me.”
Dag took advantage of Inger’s anger to pull her a few steps back from the edge of the crowd. They were still close enough to feel the heat of the fire but it was quieter. She looked around at the men and women pirates; they stood at the ready, not yelling, barely even talking. All of the shouting and cursing was coming from the other sailors.
“You can’t trust them,” Dag said, leaning in towards Inger. “Ursa drugged me.”
“She wouldn’t,” Inger said, but she looked a little less sure. “She was just supposed to keep you safe.”
“She was trying to,” Dag said. “By drugging me. Hanne was going to lock me into a room, but I got away from her.”
“Hanne’s a drunk,” Inger said.
“Now I know you’re lying.”
“Hanne’s just pretending to be a drunk,” Dag said. “And Ursa drugged me to keep me from coming here and talking you out of this.”
“You can’t . . .”
Up front the shouting suddenly became more heated. The pirates beside Dag and Inger silently shuffled closer together. Dag pulled a protesting Inger farther back, away from the fire and the sailors.
“Ready!” a voice called out, and guns were raised to shoulders.
Dag craned her neck to see . . . Margit Ansdottir, a stern look on her face, at the rear of the pirates. Ursa stood beside her, her head above the shorter people near her.
Inger tried to raise her gun too, but Dag grabbed it and kept it pointed at the ground.
“What are you doing?” Inger asked. “Let go.”
“No,” Dag said. “Are you really going to kill these sailors? No one has even tried to reason with them. Is that fair?”
“But Ursa said they were going to attack us,” Inger said. “We have to strike first.”
“Look!” Dag pointed towards the sailors, who seemed to have finally realized the trouble they were in and had backed up closer to the fire. “They’re not a danger right now.”
“I guess not,” Inger said. “But Ursa—”
“Ursa drugged me!” Dag said.
“Inger!” It was Ursa. She’d spotted them—well, she’d spotted Inger. If she’d noticed Dag, Ursa might have raised an alarm. “Come here.”
“You can’t,” Dag said when Inger tried to move towards the tavern keeper. “Who knows what she’ll do to me.” The pirates around them were starting to look at them in a way that worried Dag. But it was also as though they hadn’t really noticed them before, which seemed impossible given Inger’s Trait. Unless for some reason her Trait had cancelled out Inger’s?
“Come on,” Dag said. She pulled Inger through the crowd until they were at the front. Both the pirates and the sailors eyed them warily but neither side tried to stop them.
“Tell the privateers they’ve already won,” Dag said to Inger. “Keep their attention on you.” She took a few steps away from her sister. Inger shot her a look full of disgust before turning to the crowd.
“Privateers,” Inger called out. “It’s done. These unruly sailors have been stopped by you; by all of us. I was harassed while doing my work by one of them, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you; how much it means to me that you are willing to defend me.”
Trusting her sister’s Trait to keep the focus on Inger and her own Trait to keep the focus off her, Dag sidled into the centre of the sailors.
“You need to give up,” Dag said. “And do whatever they want you to do.”
“Why?” asked one, and Dag recognized the man who’d put his hands on Inger.
“Don’t be stupid,” another sailor said. “They aim to kill us and take the ship. I say let them have the ship and leave us alive.”
“Me too,” a third sailor said. “What do I care about some Freeholder’s ship?”
“You gonna become a pirate?” the first man sneered. “They aren’t going to shoot any of us. And I for one won’t be captained by a woman.”
“Then you could very well be killed by one,” Dag said. If even one sailor wasn’t compliant, the pirates might kill them all. And what would they do to her and Inger? She glanced over at her sister, who was still keeping the attention of the pirates.
“Shut up, Steen.” The sailor who spoke turned to Dag. “We’ll keep him quiet. What do you want us to do?”
“Here,” Dag said. “Tie yourselves up.” She handed them rope and returned to Inger’s side.
“They’re your prisoners,” she said to Inger, who nodded. Dag slunk away towards some bushes, hoping that what she’d done was enough to keep everyone alive. And keep Inger from becoming a killer.
“That was interesting,” a voice whispered, and Dag froze.
She wasn’t used to being noticed, especially when she was actually hiding. She looked over to see Calder Rahmson crouched in the bushes beside her. Why hadn’t she seen him when she’d chosen this place to hide?
“A Lucky spot,” he said with a shrug. “What you just did was dangerous. Why?”
Dag turned back to see the pirates walking past the fire towards the sailors. Dag didn’t relax until it was clear that the prisoners weren’t being shot; at least not this minute.
“I don’t want Inger to become a killer,” Dag said. “It doesn’t look like she’s in trouble.” She blew out a breath. “And no one ever notices me.”
“Yeah, well, someone did.” She followed his gaze to where Ursa and her companion were. They had their heads bent together and the conversation seemed heated; every once in a while, one or the other shook their head or waved a hand.
“Captain Margit Ansdottir,” Calder continued, “kept her eyes on you the whole time. That’s partly why I did. She is not happy about this, but I don’t think Ursa wants anyone dying on her island.”
“It would ruin her fiction of being neutral,” Dag said. “When the truth is that she is aiding enemies of the Fair Seas Treaty Alliance.”
“Which now includes you and your sister,” Calder said. Startled, Dag met his eyes. “Since you both helped capture a Freeholder crew.”
Dag blew out a big breath. Calder was right: she and Inger would both be considered enemies of the Three. But she thought that she’d be able to explain to Joosep that it was the least bad outcome: if she trusted Joosep enough to talk to him.
Was she willing to trust him with her and Inger’s lives? Her eyes strayed to her twin, who was helping the pirates secure their prisoners. Inger had been willing to kill for her new friends. Why? What hold did the pirates—and Ursa—have over her?
And who said the chance for bloodshed was over even now? The ship was still anchored in the harbour. She didn’t think the captain would be allowed to just sail away.
JOOSEP LOOKED UP at the knock on his door. He frowned when the door opened without his permission. Arnor poked his head in.
“Gustav is here to see you, Master Intelligencer.” Arnor’s smile was wide as he stepped out of Gustav’s path to allow the youth to enter his office.
“Thank you, Arnor.” His assistant quietly closed the door. Joosep knew he should be angry with Arnor, but his lack of protocol was a reaction to Gustav’s Trait, so how could he be?
Joosep indicated the chair in front of the desk and Gustav sat down.
“You have something to report?” Joosep asked. He had to consciously stop himself from smiling at the youth.
“Yes, sir,” Gustav said. He looked around nervously. “Sorry, should I write it down? I’m not sure how . . .”
“Ah, my apologies, you have not been taught what’s expected in a debrief,” Joosep said. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s happened?”
“Yes, sir.” Gustav sat up straight. “So, after we spoke I went around to see . . . well, to see if Tarmo Holt’s assistant Mykol would be the person I needed to . . . befriend.” Gustav leaned closer. “Well, he wasn’t. He’s not totally immune to my Trait, but I think he’s either too focused or too afraid to say anything about Grand Freeholder Holt. But as I was leaving, I happened to meet his daughter Saulia. The Grand Freeholder’s daughter, I mean, not Mykol’s. Saulia was visiting her father: it seems he’d promised to take her to buy a new dress but he’d forgotten. She said he does that all the time, forgets to meet her and her mother. Who is lovely, by the way; Asla, but I didn’t meet her right then. I mean, Saulia invited me to have lunch at their home, and since I was on assignment I thought it all right to accept. It means I missed lunch in the Hall, with my training group, so I’ll be marked absent. Was that all right?”
“Yes,” Joosep replied. “Your instructor was notified that there may be absences while you are doing this for me.” Even though he was smiling, Joosep was becoming concerned about the nervous way Gustav was talking. Did he talk this way to the Holt’s? Had he accidentally tol
d them anything he shouldn’t have?
“Did either of the Holt women mention the Grand Freeholder?” Joosep asked.
“Either of the . . . ? Oh, you mean Saulia and her mother,” Gustav said. “Well, neither of them said anything directly, just that the Grand Freeholder was always being delayed and dinner plans often had to be changed.” Gustav paused. “Oh, and Saulia likes to spy on her father. She swears that pirates were at their house late one night.”
“Pirates? Are you sure?”
“She was,” Gustav said. “And when I asked their housekeeper Maeve, she shushed me but then confirmed it. Two pirates came one night. Maeve let them in, but she didn’t give me a very good description: just that they were big and brawny.” Gustav paused. “That was my first visit to their apartment. I’ve been invited back to eat dinner with the whole family, including the Grand Freeholder.”
“Well done,” Joosep said. “And what have you told them about yourself?”
“They haven’t asked much,” Gustav said. “So, I told them the truth, or at least as much as I needed to. Of course, I didn’t tell them I’m an Intelligencer. I said I was sent here by my family for schooling before heading back to Lavais Island, where I’m to follow my Da into shipbuilding. Which would be the truth if you hadn’t found me.”
“Good, keep to that story. It’s simple and believable,” Joosep said. “I’ll look for another report after you dine with the Holt family.”
“Of course, sir,” Gustav stood up. “And thank you for trusting me with this.”
“There’s no one better,” Joosep said. And he meant it. In a few days the boy had uncovered a secret Holt had been hiding for who knew how long.
Gustav left his office, but Joosep could hear Arnor fussing over him in the outer office.
As long as Gustav didn’t give away his own secrets. Joosep had to admit he was still concerned: the boy seemed to have no guile, but he had already found a way into the Holt household.
And pirates! Why was the Grand Freeholder meeting in secret with pirates?