by Tamara Moss
Bayani was wrestling to free himself from Bear. Pelita was busy telling Siana, the vigil holding her, about a feather she’d found.
Behind them was the rowboat waiting to take them back to the Winda, their sacks of possessions already inside.
‘No one needed to betray you,’ Governor Jani said to Captain Shafira. ‘As soon as I saw the blast, I sent my people to find anyone without an identity tag. You think I wouldn’t recognise bahatsi powder? I was part of the Kaneko Brown war. I’m well acquainted with that particular explosive.’
‘To be fair, I didn’t know you were here,’ Captain Shafira said conversationally. ‘How’s your son, by the way? The most recently missing one, I mean. By the Gods, you’re good at losing sons, aren’t you?’
Governor Jani’s lip curled. ‘Resorting to comments about my family? You’re off your game, Pirate Queen.’
Lintang studied her captain. Outwardly she looked fine, but was Governor Jani right? Was Captain Shafira still thrown from their encounter with the propheseeds?
‘Are you sure you brought enough vigil?’ Captain Shafira said, scanning the group. When she lifted her blade, Rodney and Nandi shuffled back. Captain Shafira smirked.
‘There’s no need to sacrifice any of my people,’ Governor Jani said. She reached up to touch her necklace. Instead of a merry light like the vigil, it held her polished gemstone.
The clouds whooshed to the ground. Captain Shafira wrenched Lintang behind her as the mist cleared like blown smoke, revealing a monstrous creature. Even with the stars and moon no longer hidden, Lintang had to stare hard to understand what she was seeing. The creature’s face was flat and its mouth was fanged, sort of like a blue-tailed howler, but its body was long and stripy, and its tail seemed to be that of a snake. It was larger than Captain Shafira.
It let out a thunderous roar.
‘Only a cloud beast,’ Captain Shafira said. ‘Not so bad.
‘Not so bad?’ Lintang said.
‘Could be worse. Ready to try shika? You’ve been practising, haven’t you?’
Lintang winced. No, she hadn’t been practising shika. She hated shika.
But she forced herself to draw a slow, careful breath, and tried to clear her mind like the helmswoman Zazi had taught her.
Breathe in, breathe out.
If she was still and calm for long enough, she was supposed to be able to connect to Ytzuam, the country of the Gods, and bring down an ancestor from the stars to help her fight. She was terrible at clearing her mind, though. And she hated being calm.
Especially when she was facing a predator.
The cloud beast leaped towards them. Captain Shafira spun out of the way. Lintang was less graceful – she thumped to the sand as she dived aside – but she escaped the claws of the creature. Her sack of belongings tumbled out of her grip.
Breathe in, breathe out.
The cloud beast must’ve realised Captain Shafira was the bigger threat. It lunged at her, and she blocked its fangs with her sword. She swiped; it dodged. When it lunged again, she flipped backwards, rolling the mythie off her with the force of its own momentum. Sand sprayed in every direction.
There was a familiar shriek, and a flash split the starry sky. Keelee, the lightning bird, swooped low over Captain Shafira before soaring up again.
Lintang grinned. There was no way they could lose now.
‘Lintang!’ Bayani cried.
The vigil were escaping down the beach, taking Yamini, Pelita and Bayani with them.
‘You get them, I’ll deal with this,’ Captain Shafira said.
Lintang ran after the vigil.
Breathe in, breathe out.
‘Yamini!’ she yelled. ‘His right knee! Kick his right knee!’
Yamini twisted and jabbed her own knee into old Lei’s weak joint. He released her as he crumpled to the ground. She grabbed his sword. ‘Here!’
She tossed the sword to Lintang, who caught it by the hilt and charged after the other vigil. Maxie rushed to meet her head-on. Lintang forgot all about shika as her blade hit Maxie’s with a ringing clang. These swords were lighter than the ones she was used to; better than wood, but they felt different and unfamiliar in her grip. Maxie’s sword went spinning from her hand. She gaped at Lintang in astonishment. Yamini dived to scoop it up before Maxie could.
There was no time to rest. Siana swiped; Lintang ducked and sliced her leg. Siana yelled, releasing Pelita, who ran free towards the water, screaming, ‘Wheeeee!’
Bear put up more of a fight, but he was trying to attack one-handed, still keeping a grip on Bayani. Bayani managed to pull free, and Bear turned his full attention to Lintang to ward off the constant stream of blows.
‘Why are you doing this, kid?’ he panted. ‘You’re set for the navy!’
He was still trying not to hurt her, as if this were one of their performances.
‘It’s complicated,’ Lintang said. ‘But, Bear, this isn’t –’
She heard a shift of sand as someone crept up behind her – they would never learn a new tactic, these vigil – and spun to meet a second blade from Nandi, but the impact never came. A sword was at his throat, held by a furious Yamini.
‘Retreat!’ Bear yelled.
All ten vigil turned and raced away, Lei hobbling along last. At first Lintang was pleased, and a little surprised, that she had managed to defeat the whole unit. But she turned to find Captain Shafira sprinting over, a determined look on her face, the cloud beast chasing her. She was leading it right to the vigil.
Lintang grabbed Bayani’s hand and pulled him towards the ocean. Yamini raced after them. Pelita was already there, her sarong hitched up as she jumped around in the waves. Beyond the rocks were the shadowy figures of two rowboats filled with people.
The Winda’s crew were on their way.
The cloud beast had almost reached Captain Shafira. Lintang had a moment of terror that it would catch her, but in the last breath Captain Shafira dropped flat to the sand and when the cloud beast pounced, it soared right over her, barrelling towards the vigil.
‘No!’ Governor Jani, who was still at the mouth of the river, clutched her necklace again. ‘Don’t attack my soldiers! Go for the enemy. Go for Shafira of Allay!’
The cloud beast veered away from the vigil and turned again towards Captain Shafira, who jumped up and dug into her pouch. ‘Catch!’
Lintang caught a glint of glass in the moonlight before the cloud beast swallowed the vial of Curall whole. She smirked. ‘It’s medicated,’ she said. ‘Good. Serves the governor right for using a mythie for her own gain.’
Bayani frowned. ‘You’re right. That’s an awful thing to do.’ He watched as the cloud beast continued its assault on Captain Shafira, who managed to block the attacks without injuring it too badly. Then he cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted, ‘Cloud beast! Don’t listen to Governor Jani! Run away!’
Lintang raised an eyebrow at him. ‘You think that’ll work?’
‘The gnome listened to me, didn’t it?’
The cloud beast hesitated in the middle of swiping its large paw at Captain Shafira.
‘What …?’ Yamini whipped around to stare at Bayani. ‘Are you doing that?’
Governor Jani stalked forward, still clutching her pendant. ‘Attack! Kill her!’
The mythie burst into a cloud again, lifting to the sky, thundering and brewing and deeply black over Captain Shafira. Lintang gasped, thinking of the prophecy – darkness and woe – but there was a welcome shriek, and the lightning bird swooped between Captain Shafira and the cloud.
‘There it is!’ Governor Jani shouted. ‘Now!’
The vigil, who had hung by the edges of the forest, rushed forward, withdrawing small objects from their belts. Lintang couldn’t figure out what the objects were until the vigil threw them at the lightning bird.
‘No!’ she cried.
Darts. They were throwing darts. At least one hit Keelee, who faltered in mid-flight. Lintang screamed, terrified
the bird had been wounded, but it righted itself and flapped higher.
She dared a sigh of relief. ‘Those gnomes! Did they really think they could kill the lightning bird with simple darts?’
But Bayani gripped her arm and stared at her, the whites of his eyes gleaming in the moonlight. ‘No,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t think they were trying to kill it.’
Yamini stepped forward as the lightning bird soared over the canopy and towards the mountains, its low cry lingering in the air like a wail of grief. ‘The darts were dipped in Curall,’ she said, her voice faint. ‘It was the governor’s plan all along.’ She looked to Captain Shafira, who was staring helplessly after her protector. ‘The lightning bird has been medicated.’
Captain Shafira tried to follow Keelee towards the forest, but the vigil rushed to block her, confident now the pirate queen’s invincibility had been taken away.
‘No,’ Lintang said.
She thought of the horrifying fate awaiting her captain. If Keelee really had been medicated, there was nothing to stop the prophecy coming true.
‘No!’ she said again.
She started forward, but someone grabbed her shoulder. She spun around. The other crew members had reached the shore, dragging their rowboats onto the sand. Xiang, the tall, graceful weapons master, had stopped Lintang. Xiang was capable of everything from bringing down a beast to hitting a beetle with a dart from the blowpipe in her hair.
‘Get in the boat, and head towards the Winda,’ she said. ‘Zazi’s waiting to winch you up.’
‘But the lightning bird –’
‘I know.’ Xiang’s expression was grim. ‘We saw.’
Above them, the dark cloud continued to froth and billow, but the cloud beast seemed to have lost its blood-lust, either because of what Bayani had said or because the Curall was starting to take effect.
Lintang struggled to make her tongue work. Her words felt sloppy and wrong. ‘C-Captain Shafira told me you – you tried to medicate it and – and missed every time! How could they h-hit it if you missed?’
Xiang hesitated as the others rushed past. Eire, the first mate, had her khwando out, with an axe on one side and spear on the other. She raced towards the vigil, her necklace of fangs jangling. While Captain Shafira’s fighting style was more defensive, Eire attacked viciously, with little care whether she harmed her opponent. It didn’t matter if her enemy got hurt. All that mattered was survival.
‘Captain Shafira lied to you,’ Xiang said. ‘We never tried to hit the lightning bird. We needed it.’
‘What?’
‘Go.’ Xiang pushed Lintang onward. ‘Get out of here. We’ll catch up with you later.’
‘Come on,’ Bayani said, dragging Lintang to the nearest rowboat.
Lintang realised she’d left her sack of belongings in the sand, but there was no time to go back for it now. Pelita clambered into the boat as they pushed off. Lintang and Yamini took oars on opposite sides and fought against the choppy waves. It took all their combined strength to make it past the rocks.
Lintang kept looking at the shore, trying to make out Captain Shafira in the chaos. Her captain was vulnerable. In danger. Lintang didn’t know how to comprehend it.
She caught sight of Captain Kona among the Winda crew on the beach. His mother was about to have a nasty shock.
Lintang rowed until her arms were aching and her hands were full of blisters. It was lucky she’d done that endurance training with Eire or she didn’t think she would have made it.
When they finally bumped against the hull of the Winda, she collapsed forward. Bayani lunged to support her while Pelita patted her on the back. Lintang was so exhausted she barely noticed Zazi winch them up.
Avalon the carpenter was there to help them onto the deck. Yamini leaned on him and groaned. They were both about fifteen, though Avalon was taller and leaner than Yamini, with dark hair and beach-white skin. Twip, the silver squirrel-like creature on his other shoulder, chittered to Pelita in greeting.
‘Zazi,’ Lintang said weakly, ‘the lightning bird …’
‘Shh,’ Zazi said. ‘Rest first. Bayani, Pelita, tell Dee we’re heading to the mess.’
Bayani and Pelita ran ahead while Lintang leant on Zazi. They climbed down the hatch steps. When they reached the mess, Lintang sank into a chair and accepted a mug of fresh water gratefully. Her arms trembled as she lifted them.
‘That’s going to hurt for days,’ Yamini said, wincing as she too reached for water.
Pelita danced around the mess with the bald cook, Dee, whose hooped earrings swung wildly as her big body thumped upon the floorboards.
‘My little starflowers are home again, home again,’ Dee sang.
She pulled out the clam shell with inked-on eyes from her belt and snapped its mouth open and closed, saying in its squawky voice, ‘About time too!’
Pelita cackled.
‘You all right?’ Bayani said, sitting beside Lintang.
She finished gulping down her water and shrugged. She didn’t know if she was all right or not.
Hewan stumped into the room. She was the oldest crew member, with springy grey hair and thick, warm clothes, no matter what the temperature. One of her legs was a wooden pole.
She sat down with her medic kit. ‘Anyone need patching up?’
‘Me!’ Pelita pointed to the claw marks on her cheek from the gnome.
Hewan brought out a jar of green sterilising gloop. ‘Sit down, then.’
‘No!’ Pelita said, and ran to hide behind Dee.
‘What happened on the beach?’ Zazi said.
Lintang couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
Yamini spoke instead. ‘Governor Jani was there. She set a trap.’ A pause. ‘She medicated the lightning bird.’
Avalon fell back against his chair. Zazi shut her eyes.
‘A Vierzan beat Captain Shafira?’ Dee said. ‘Impossible!’
Lintang couldn’t hold it in any longer. ‘Why did Captain Shafira lie to me? Why did she say Xiang had already tried to medicate it?’
‘That was a lie?’ Yamini said.
Zazi and Hewan glanced at each other.
‘Because she was ashamed,’ Zazi said. ‘She had decided to use the lightning bird for the good of her crew, rather than free it from its mythie state.’
‘She didn’t want to,’ Hewan said.
‘She didn’t have a choice.’ Zazi seemed grim. ‘Not really. She felt she had to protect us.’
Pelita tried to take Dee’s hand to make her dance again, but Dee didn’t notice.
‘There’s always a choice,’ Bayani said.
Zazi lifted her eyebrows. ‘Is there? Bayani, have you ever noticed there are no barnacles on the Winda?’
‘Huh?’
‘Barnacles. We never get them. Why is that?’
Bayani and Lintang exchanged bewildered looks. Pelita gave up trying to get Dee’s attention, and continued dancing on her own instead.
‘Every other ship has barnacles,’ Zazi said. ‘They need to careen regularly. We never have that problem.’
Lintang frowned. ‘Maybe it’s the euco oil rubbed onto the timber. Quahah said it kept bugs away. It might keep barnacles away too.’
‘All right, fine. Who rubs the euco oil onto the timber? Where are the barrels of oil stored?’
Lintang couldn’t answer.
‘Another question. Who rings the dawn bell?’
‘I – I assumed Yamini …’ Lintang trailed off. During her sentence as cabin girl, Yamini had pounded on the wall between their room as the dawn bell was ringing, so it couldn’t have been her. And Yamini shrugged like she didn’t know, either.
‘Who changes the candles?’ Hewan said. ‘Where are the extras?’
‘Why didn’t the candles set the wood alight when the siren tipped over the ship?’ Zazi said.
Lintang hesitated. ‘I don’t –’
‘Why is the wind always blowing in the direction we need to go?’ Hewan said. ‘Why do we ne
ver come across any storms at sea? How has Mei been able to work on the rigging all by herself for such a big ship? Why is there so much space below deck? How do we have room for so many cabins? Where did the hammocks come from?’
‘Are you saying the lightning bird is doing all that?’ Yamini said.
Avalon scratched behind Twip’s ears, listening quietly.
‘We’re saying there’s a reason the captain had to make that difficult choice.’ Zazi clasped her large hands together on the table. ‘We all have bounties on our heads. Without the protection of the lightning bird, we’re in serious danger of being captured, or even killed.’
Alarm crept along Lintang’s spine. It didn’t seem possible, but the consequences of losing the lightning bird were even worse than she thought.
Now their protector was gone, none of them were safe.
Dee made them a light dinner of filleted silvertail and cheesy bread, and they ate on the top deck while the rest of the crew rowed back.
Avalon sat on a crate while Pelita chased Twip. Yamini stood against the railing, her face tight with anxiety. Lintang watched her. Yamini was intent on hating Lintang, claiming Lintang had stolen something from her, but less than a season ago they had made an alliance. Lintang still hadn’t figured out if she and Yamini were friends or enemies.
She joined her at the railing. ‘Captain Shafira doesn’t think you betrayed her again.’
Yamini tensed. Lintang watched the reflection of the moonlight ripple on the ocean. The two rowboats were almost at the Winda. Desa’s mountains loomed like shadowy monsters behind them.
She hoped everyone was unharmed – the crew and the vigil. She had grown attached to those ridiculous people, even though they supported the UR.
‘She knows you’ve changed,’ Lintang continued. ‘Why would you bother staying here, stuck as a cabin girl forever, unless you were completely loyal to her?’
Yamini stared at the rowboats without replying.
‘She’s not going to kick you off the ship, Yamini.’
‘Just shut up.’ Yamini turned away from the ocean. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ She stalked to the hatch and disappeared down the staircase.