by Jeff Hook
Protection? Hishano had done all of that annoying stuff to protect Karugo?
If Hishano could still fight, then so could Karugo. He stood up, lit his fist on fire, and slugged a surprised Jack.
Jack recovered quickly. “You’re dead now.” He dodged a shaky sword slash from Hishano and grabbed Karugo by the shirt, slamming the boy effortlessly into the deck. At the last moment Karugo thought to turn on the fire where he was being grabbed, but it only slightly singed Jack’s fingers. He had to turn the fire off before he hit the boards.
Freddy was nursing his arm, but still found time to stab Hishano in the sword arm.
The sword clattered to the deck.
The difference in skill was just too great.
“Why do you prolong the inevitable?” crowed Freddy. “I’m not complaining, this is fun, but I just don’t understand… you could have been eaten by a shark by now. Dead. Comfortable.”
“Life isn’t about comfort,” said Hishano. “It’s about doing what’s right. No matter what.”
“That kind of thinking is why you’re going to die.”
A new voice roared at them from across the ship. Ishū. “Set it on fire!”
What?
“Set the ship on fire and jump!” yelled Ishū. “It’s our only hope!”
Jack’s eyes widened in fear. That was how Karugo knew it was a good idea. Maybe their expedition would all die, but these lying pirates would die as well. Karugo turned his flames on full blast, even where he touched the ship’s dry boards.
“What are you doing?” yelled Freddy, suddenly distracted from killing Hishano. “We’re fifty miles from land! We’re going to drown!”
The fire spread outward from Karugo. Flames billowed from him and licked the floor.
This was his power. This was what the island had suppressed.
He stalked toward Jack, who stepped back unsteadily. The pirate released his power and the ship was hit suddenly with a wave, an unexpected rocking that made almost everyone stumble.
“You’ll burn down your entire ship, just to kill an enemy?” Jack asked, almost wistfully. “You would have been feared through the entire ocean.”
Ishū dashed in and swept up Hishano in his arms, running for the railing. “Come on, Karugo! Jump overboard!”
Karugo ignored him and stepped toward Jack. His hair pulled upwards, whipping violently as if in a strong wind, and his flames expanded until he could see nothing but fire.
24
Death and Taxes
Guffy was sad to see all of his friends so dejected. It was a fuddlemuffins kind of day.
“I’m sick of fish,” complained Ezra. “Eating them, controlling them… you know that fishy taste? It’s even stronger when you’re in their head.”
Syldris pulled spikes out of her skin and tossed them like throwing knives, each one spinning through the air then thudding into the wall exactly where she’d aimed it. Growing along the wall, spike by spike, was a smiley face — fangs and eyes complete, with the outside circle less than half finished. The left horn was there, and she was just now getting down to the left jaw line.
They’d been looking for Far-eye Freddy and Stylin’ Jack for almost four days. Without Freddy’s ability to see into the distance and Jack’s ability to repel water they moved more slowly and haphazardly.
Sink 'em Sam paced the deck, deep in the decision-making process. Everyone knew not to bother him at times like these. The burden of leadership! Guffy thought Sam was so brave to bear all the decision-making for everyone.
Eventually the captain frowned and sighed. “I guess they’re not really Odvalan if they’re from the islands,” he muttered to himself.
“Everyone!” he yelled out, and waited for the crew to come to attention. Most looked over fairly quickly, but Syldris threw one more spike before turning to Sam. “We’ve searched many days for our departed traveling companions. In that time we have seen no sign of them. It’s possible that they were knocked out by the gust of wind and drowned. I don’t know why we haven’t found any trace, but I do know there are sharks around here. Ezra’s even swam as some of them to expand where we can look, and it’s come to nothing. It’s time to call off the search.”
Everyone appeared appropriately sad.
“We’re going to have a burial at sea. But first we need to decide our next move.” His voice lifted, becoming strangely jovial. “Our quartermaster has told me we’re low on water, and I can see just by lookin’ at your ugly mugs that we’re low on morale, so I have an idea. We are currently sailing under the flag of the Mezazi Empire, and they would be very angry if they heard of us pillaging in their ship.”
“Come on!” complained a crew member. “I could really use some pillaging right now.”
“Yeah! We’re so far away from the core, they’ll never hear of it!”
Guffy laughed. What jokers. Of course they wouldn’t pillage a town. Sam would set them right.
“Instead of pillaging,” announced Sam, “we’re going to collect taxes!”
The crew cheered, Guffy included. Responsible people paid taxes, so that must make the tax collectors extra responsible! It wasn’t nearly as good as apprehending known criminal Evyleen the Uncatchable, but it was something.
But wait, could they really just go collect taxes on a whim? Was that how things worked?
“What’s the nearest inhabited island?” asked Sam.
Their substitute navigator, the one tasked with replacing Freddy, fumbled with the maps. His unfortunate power was that his fingers randomly turned ghost-like, making whatever he was holding slip from his grasp. It was fine as long as he worked at a desk and didn’t carry inkwells, but now half of the sheaves of paper fell right as he was about to say something. Two of them were caught by the breeze, so Guffy reached out and grabbed them with his extensible arms. The navigator put on an ingratiating, embarrassed smile — one he’d used many many times.
“If the stars are to be believed,” he mumbled, “and I do believe they are. They haven’t changed in as many years as we’ve been keeping track, at least not quickly. Yes, they are quite reliable. If the stars are to be believed, then we are approximately here.”
He stuck his finger at a point on the map and it went through.
“Cursed wind,” he muttered, even more softly than usual. “Well, we’re about here. And after drawing multiple radial circles around our present position—”
“Just get to the point!” yelled out a crew member. “Where are we, uh, ‘collecting taxes’?”
Why was the crew member using those finger quotes around ‘collecting taxes’? Did he not believe in taxes? That didn’t matter; the government believed in them and that made them real.
“Yes, of course,” said the navigator, withdrawing even further into himself. He mumbled something nearly inaudible.
“Havlam Island!” yelled Sam, patting the navigator on the back. The navigator grinned sheepishly, and only flinched a little when Sam yelled right past his ear. “We’re collecting taxes from Havlam Island!”
25
Havlam Island
Karugo woke with damp sand under him.
Hishano was beside him, the rip in his side an ugly scarring gash. His face was the palest of greens, as if he’d been drained.
Ishū stood on the shore, waving toward the ocean. In the distance a dolphin leapt into the air, lifting his flipper in what could almost be called a wave.
Karugo remembered a flaming ship, a horrifying battle, a shocking betrayal… he could even, if he thought hard, remember brief moments of wakefulness on the trip here, Ishū’s arm holding him tight while dolphins pushed them from behind.
But none of those affected him as much as he would have thought. Where he should have felt relief or horror or anything at all there was only numbness.
Only one thing broke through, a feeling that he’d never thought to imagine. Jack’s affection might have been a lie, but Hishano’s wasn’t.
Maybe the others on
the island really hated him, maybe they didn’t. They’d kicked his grandpa out of the Elder Council just for creating him, and they’d made his life nearly unbearable, in their own little non-violent ways, as long as he could remember.
But he didn’t care what they thought.
Ishū collapsed on the sand beside the two boys.
“You look just about dead,” said Karugo.
Ishū laughed gruffly. “You’re one to talk.” He let the silence stretch a moment, then sighed. “I’ve been awake two whole days since we left the ship.”
“Why?”
“This was the closest island… and I didn’t want to drop you.”
Karugo considered the statement. Someone staying up for multiple days just to take care of him? That didn’t sound right. “What about Hishano?” That was probably why Ishū had made the effort.
“I tried to help,” came a weak voice from beside him, “but I wasn’t strong enough to hold on to you. It had to be Ishū.”
Karugo was shocked. It was him that Ishū had stayed up to save.
He felt his mind drifting, more peaceful than it had been in years.
Two people that cared for him. He didn’t have to be liked by everyone. One was enough. Two was… he closed his eyes. If two people liked him, and not just because he was family, then that meant he wasn’t completely worthless. If two liked him, then maybe eventually more would as well.
Here on this distant shore, far away from his family and almost everyone he’d ever known, he found a feeling he’d only dreamed of before.
He felt hope.
Discover More of the Pirates and Powers World
Volume 2: The Wilder World
The world outside Tandoku Island is terrifying, deadly... and awesome
Karugo, Hishano, and Ishū have washed up on Havlam Island, a place with more tri-snakes than people. They have a week to earn enough money for passage off the island, or they could be stuck there for another six months.
But it's not as easy as running errands for the local ninja rabbit... the wild animals are hostile, a devious talking cat is dead set on finding Tandoku Island, and Sink'em Sam's pirate crew is preparing an invasion.
Available March 22, 2019.
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Free Novella!
Sink’em: A Pirates and Powers Story (FREE Novella)
Sink'em Sam steals from the rich, gives to the industrious, and kills anyone who gets in his way.
Before he became the government lackey chasing our heroes, Sink'em Sam was a notorious pirate who gave merchant captains panic attacks, inspired absolute loyalty in his crew, and singlehandedly revived a dying continent.
Sam steals mountains of mezgol, wins seemingly hopeless naval battles, and visits Barkston... the mysterious pirate haven hosted by the Corgi Empire.
But the Mezazi Empire won't sit still for long, and the world may be changing too fast for Sam to keep up.
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