The Briny Deep

by Simon Archer

  I hopped down from the deck to the seabed and strode slowly away until I found a rocky outcropping clear of seagrass. I swept a few small crabs from it and sat down cross-legged with the spear across my knees. Then, I closed my eyes and opened myself to the ebb and flow of the spirit world. The dead teemed about me in frightening numbers, but they kept their distance. Something about the ship held their attention. Most were sahagin, but there were no few others. The lascu had long hunted these waters, it seemed.

  While I had expected a strong elemental presence, I was disappointed. There were some sea spirits above, but the area around the ship was nearly a desert aside from the teeming assortment of animal and plant life. There was nothing to do about it, though. I had to catch a ride to the surface.

  I focused my attention on one of the larger elementals drifting above and exerted my will to call it downward. With uncharacteristic reluctance, the near-formless thing angled downward and drifted slowly to me. If I failed to hold it, it would swim away rather than do anything else, which was unusual in and of itself.

  What made the creature so reluctant to approach? It seemed extremely wary of the ship and the dead, despite a strong sense of curiosity related to me. Likely it saw few air breathers alive down here. As it grew closer, the feeling of resistance increased, but I had no intention of being denied. Finally, when it was about twenty or so feet away, it gave up and swept down to me in a rush of water that almost unseated me from the rock.

  A slow smile crept over my face as I stood and drew the elemental closer. When it wrapped around me at last, it surprised me to discover that the creature was warmer than the cold water of the depths. Its embrace was oddly comfortable, and from here, it was much easier to control. Did Adra know about this, I wondered?

  Once again, I urged the water elemental upward with a silent effort of will, and with a sudden burst of motion, it shot for the distant surface, carrying me along within its liquid form.

  30

  I n the arms of the elemental, I reached the surface about the same time as the other three. With another command, my elemental swept them up in a wave and plunged through the battle to the shore. Dead fishmen and not a fair few of my pirates littered the beach, but each and every sailor had made a hard accounting of themselves.

  The sahagin were fleeing when we emerged from the water, plunging past us to dive into the water of the sea’s eye. There was an unhappy situation awaiting the survivors. The baby lascu were running wild among the dens and caves, killing and eating everything they could find. While we might have to clear the little monsters out to raise the ship, I didn’t think we’d have to worry about the sahagin.

  I dismissed the elemental, and it plunged back into the sea in short order. Then, with the women hot on my heels, I ran to where my crew had drawn up their lines to make their stand. Our arrival brought out a loud cheer that joined with the jeers and shouts directed at the backs of the fleeing sahagin.

  Then the crew saw Tabitha, unconscious in Ligeia’s arms, and the cheer died quickly. She suddenly wiggled, coughed, and raised her head. “What in the bloody hell?”

  I grinned in relief. Getting Tabitha away from the wreck and whatever had enspelled her had done the trick. “We’ll talk later,” I told her as Ligeia carefully set the soggy, black-furred woman on her feet. “Do ye remember anything after we got to the ship?”

  Tabitha started to wring out her shirt and shook her head. “Nothin’ til just now, really.”

  “We will explain,” Mary cut in.

  Out to sea, Tiny let out a triumphant bellow, and I gazed out to see all four of my ships still floating and the tiny figures of crew hurling the bodies of fishmen overboard.

  We’d won. It hadn’t been cheap, and I felt like I should have been here, but all in all, it was a victory. Despite the sense of urgency from the looming presence of the distant ghost ship, we had earned a rest. Tomorrow we’d start working to raise The Golden Bull, but tonight we’d eat, drink, make merry, and get some gods-damned sleep.

  I wasn’t about to leave our dead lying on the beach among the carcasses of the sahagin. Even as tired as we all were, I saw to the construction of funeral pyres for our fallen, and we dragged the dead fishmen away from where we’d been and cast them into the sea. There were scavengers and predators of the waters that would feed well in the aftermath of this battle.

  Unfortunately, we had little dry wood, but with the aid of Ember Spark, we sent our dead to their next lives with fire and chants. Even the non-orcs of the crews joined in. We would turn no one away from this rite. Everyone in the crew was clan, at least to me, and a majority of them accepted this. Still, a few stood off to the side and watched. Some few of Tabitha’s crew, and, not unexpectedly, Drammond Screed.

  As the fires burned, the orcs and any others who wished to see their comrades off chanted in Orgik or Targik, stomped, clapped, and raised our hands to the heavens. The shamaness, Adra, moved from pyre to pyre and whispered something to fire and the dead. She would sit vigil until only ash was left, then gather a bit from each pyre as an offering to the elements and the ancestors.

  I shot her a questioning look after I’d done my traditional duty as captain and personally laid each of the fallen on their pyre. A headshake was my answer. I was done insofar as she was concerned, and in this, she spoke for the dead.

  Once the dance and chant were done, and the fires were burning, most of us set up camp or commandeered one of the dinghies to return to our ship. I was one of them. I didn’t want to stay on land any more than I had to, now.

  Instead of Mary or Ligeia, it was Captain Tabitha Binx that met me when I slipped away to the beached boats.

  “Care for company, Cap’n?” she asked in a softly purring voice.

  “Only if ye don’t mind that I seek a bath and bed,” I replied. “Mary wants t’ speak with yer witch, and Ligeia’s off to see to Tiny. Perhaps she even means to parley with any survivors in yon eye, an act I’d not object to.”

  She nodded and smiled up at me, her eyes a bit wide and pensive. “I feel a need to speak with ye,” the Ailur woman explained. “An’ mayhap ye’d share that bath?”

  I nodded as a few more sailors came up, including Jimmy Mocker. All of them looked tired and smelled of black powder, blood, and fish. I wrinkled my nose as I peered at my first mate. “Damn, but ye bloody stink,” I teased.

  “Yer not fresh as roses yerself, Cap’n,” he snorted, then eyed Tabitha. “Nor are ye, lass,” he continued. “Wet cat ain’t as bad as wet dog, but it ain’t exactly pleasant, either.”

  “‘Least I ain’t smellin’ like a cannondeck what rolled in an abattoir,” she grumbled back. “Ye could at least wash off in the waves.”

  “An’ end up smellin’ like a bloody fishmarket?” He snapped. “I think not.”

  “That’s fuckin’ obvious,” Tabitha smirked.

  “Peace, both o’ ye. Else take a stroll over there an’ duel it out whilst I go back to my ship for booze, bath, an’ bed,” I said with a deep chuckle. Neither of them seemed truly angry, else I’d intervene more firmly.

  Jimmy let out a laugh and held a hand out to the Ailur. “Ye be as good at takin’ the teasin’ as ye are at givin’ it, an’ yer lasses acquitted themselves like the maddest bastards I’ve ever had the pleasure to fight beside. They came outta the sea like the wrath o’ the gods on yer rowboats and right pulled our asses out o’ the fire when the second wave o’ fishmen hit.”

  He chuckled. “Thought I was a fucking goner, but then comes Jenny Nettles with a mass o’ screamin’ wenches… pardon, gun-maidens, sword-maids, whatever the hell they were… they brought hope an’ death. Then the damn dwarves on The Hullbreaker started shelling the gods-damned beach…” My first mate shook his head in disbelief. “Ye missed a damn sight, Cap’n. ‘Tis a right honest success of a crew ye assembled, an’ bloody misfits all.”

  Tabitha purred happily at the praise while I grinned and helped the wounded and tired aboard the dinghy, then helped Doga
r push her off. Oarsmen struck a rhythm as we set off through the choppy sea to The Hullbreaker, where it rode at anchor.

  About halfway there, Jimmy leaned over and fixed Captain Binx with his gaze before asking, “Do ye know if Jenny be lookin’ for a man, or if she be havin’ someone already warmin’ her bed?”

  “Jimmy fuckin’ Mocker,” she replied. “Ye lookin’ to steal my first mate or somethin’?”

  “Nay, Cap’n,” he protested, holding his hands up as she leaned forward and grinned at him, her ivory-white fangs sparkling in the night. “Just be lookin’ to court her, if she ain’t got someone already. Any woman that can shoot as well or maybe better’n me is one I’d like t’get to know.”

  I smirked to myself. As long as I’d known the foppish musketeer, he’d complained incessantly of being unable to find a woman that could meet him on equal ground. Mary was a witch and made him nervous, as did the other women that gravitated to me. He had some sort of on-again-off-again thing with Gol the Clanless, but that seemed more based on physical needs than any real compatibility.

  They continued to banter while I let my mind wander. I was bone-weary and ached from the exertion of our deepwater explorations. The magic I’d worked had taken more out of me than I expected, then I’d dived into the task of seeing my crew to their rest. I let my eyes drift closed.

  Off in the distance, thunder rumbled.

  We rowed up next to my ship, hooked up the droplines, and waited as we were winched up to level with the deck, then disembarked. I flagged down the officer of the watch. “Fill the big tub an’ the small ones, an’ get more water hot. I don’t be wantin’ my ship smellin’ like a gods-damned fishmarket.”

  “Aye, Cap’n!” the burly orc saluted and dashed off, yelling orders to the sailors that still remained aboard.

  Jimmy split off to do whatever it was he did. Gol had stayed behind at the island, at least until the dinghy rowed back to ferry another group of sailors. I led Tabitha down below decks to where I’d had part of the hold sectioned off into four smaller rooms and one large one. Heavy wooden tubs were bolted to the decks in each, with the largest in the room at the very stern of the ship. Several of the crew were filling the big one with steaming buckets of water when we entered.

  This tub was big enough for at least four good-sized people, and would easily fit Binx and me, though I did pause and ask, “Ye do mean to share with me, aye?”

  She eyed the large tub, then grinned sidelong at me. “I need somebody t’ keep me from drownin’ in that.”

  “Ye can’t drown any more, lass,” I laughed and shrugged. “But ye be welcome, anyway.”

  Tabitha smirked and winked at me as she gave a twitch of her tail. Her fur looked rough and disheveled, crusted with salt. As bad as my hair and beard felt, I could scarcely imagine the discomfort and itch over all her body from it. She didn’t complain, though, and I respected that.

  We stood and watched the sailors fill the bath, then bring several more steaming buckets that they set aside before giving me a salute and disappearing back out to take care of the smaller tubs.

  “Gods!” the Ailur exclaimed as she started shucking off her clothes. “I thought they’d never be bloody done.”

  I laughed and undressed as well, though I kept an appraising eye on her. She wasn’t deliberately trying to draw my attention, but I was curious what Tabitha Binx might look like under her rather revealing garb. She’d ditched her customary jewelry and decorative scarves for our dive, donning instead some tight, cotton pants and a vest that held her ample chest in a tightly-laced grasp.

  That was the first thing she removed, and let out a satisfied, purring sigh as she dropped it behind her. She was easily as big in the chest as Mary, and the black fur that covered every inch of her skin hid just enough to entice. The pale peaks of her erect nipples poked through the fur, though I imagined if the circumstances were different, they’d be mostly hidden.

  Next, the pants came off. She was a curvy little thing, with a tight backside below her long tail, muscular legs, and long, slender feet whose toes were tipped in pearly claws. Nothing was visible through the fur between her thighs, but the way it fell gave just enough of a hint that I couldn’t help but smile.

  Tabitha wasn’t shy about returning my appraising look while I undressed, either, and her eyes roamed shamelessly over my chest and then drifted downwards as I untied and dropped my pantaloons. That was when her yellow-green eyes widened, and a smile touched her lips. She’d definitely seen something that impressed her.

  I climbed into the bath first, and water spilled out as my bulk displaced it. Then she slid in opposite me and stretched out with just her chin above the surface. Both of us let out nearly simultaneous sighs of pleasure at the comforting feel of the hot water.

  “Soap?” she asked, her tone almost pleading.

  “I ain’t a barbarian, lass,” I replied, fishing off the side of the tub with my right hand to scoop up a rough bar of what remained of the elven soap I’d pillaged. This I held out to her, and she took it almost reverently in both of her small hands. She lifted it to her nose and took a deep breath, then closed her eyes in unmistakable bliss.

  “Oh, gods…” she murmured. “Bardak, ye be the most amazing orc I’ve ever had the pleasure o’ meetin’.”

  “Thank ye, Tabitha Binx,” I said. “Anythin’ I can help ye with, there?”

  Her eyes opened, and she gave me a mischievous smile. “Only if I get to help ye right back,” she replied.

  I gave a nod and sat up a bit while she handed me the soap back.

  “Have ye got a brush?” Tabitha asked.

  I just chuckled and reached back down to the supply table. “Aye, towels too. Admiralty service spoiled me for bein’ a screamin’, unwashed barbarian with their weekly requirement for baths.”

  “Weekly, hm?” she smirked, then dunked her head back and under the water to get her hair wet. Her fur all lay flat against her skin, and the water had picked up a faint tang of salt from the both of us.

  “Aye. Now, sit here an’ turn yer back to me,” I told her.

  Her smile widened, and she slid to the underwater bench and did as I bade her.

  I paused and said, “Actually, lass. Ye may want to stand up.”

  “Oh, aye. True,” she said and rose.

  “Anything ye might prefer me not to touch?” I asked. It was better to make these things clear upfront, rather than risk claws across my face.

  Tabitha shook her head vigorously. “I am all yers, Cap’n,” she purred. “Pamper me as ye will.”

  I felt a definite stir in my loins at those words. They hinted at far more than a desire to be clean, and I was more than happy to oblige.

  31

  U sing the spice-smelling elven soap, I thoroughly lathered up Tabitha Binx’s muscular body, from the top of her head down to her thighs where the water covered the rest of her legs. She didn’t make it easy for me, either, and I should say that the little Ailur woman was quite responsive to my touch.

  Her grip tightened on the side of the tub, and she let out a soft little mew of pleasure when I got to her breasts, then squirmed as I worked down over her stomach. That long tail lashed in what I imagined was frustration when I didn’t go further down but shifted to her back and arms.

  I was careful to work the soapy lather into the roots of her fur and hair. It wouldn’t do to leave any salt that deeply embedded, and I was a considerate creature, despite the fact it was all I could do to keep from bending her over the edge of the tub and taking her right there.

  There was no way to hide my erection as I continued soaping her up. I worked the lather into her quivering tail, then beneath it and over that firm, round bottom. Her muscles were delightfully tight beneath my touch, and I added a level of massage to my ministrations. The kitten wanted to be spoiled, and I was an orc of at least some culture and patience.

  She’d be so worked up when I finished, that I expected she’d throw herself at me like a she-orc in bre
eding season. For now, though, I wanted to see just how far I could take it.

  “What happened to ye down there?” I asked as I worked my hands up her back. It wasn’t yet time to work on Tabitha’s belly and the treasure I expected to find between her muscular thighs.

  “Down where?” she mewed. Her ears were saddled to the side as her head tilted a little back, and her tail twitched back and forth against my legs beneath the water.

  “At the ship,” I replied. My strong fingers kneaded at the tension of her neck and shoulders now, and she let out a little moan as I found some knots. “Ye went all strange, an’ Mary had to give ye the eye.”

  “I… don’t know…” she whispered. Her ears dropped all the way back, and she squirmed a little under my hands.

  “Ye wanted one o’ the crates,” I continued. My right hand moved to the back of her neck, thumb and forefinger massaging away the tension I found there. This was so unlike either Mary or Ligeia, but it was fun. Tabitha obviously adored the attention to the point that I could have had her already if I’d wanted.

  I wasn’t done, yet, though.

  “I did?” Genuine surprise rose in her voice.

  “Aye. When Mary tried to stop ye, ye tried to stick her with that harpoon ye had.” There was no need to keep secrets, not really. I let my hands wander back across the Captain’s shoulders, then drug them slowly down her back before I slipped my arms around her and caught her breasts in my hands. She let out a gasp and arched her back, then practically fell into my lap as I drew her back against me.

  “Oh, gods,” Tabitha mewed at the feel of my swollen manhood against her backside. “I’m so sorry. Tell her I’m sorry. I don’t remember any o’ that.”

  “She knows, I be thinkin’,” I murmured in one of those large, triangular ears as I released one of her breasts and slid my hand down. With my other hand, I retrieved the soap, and then, just by touch, I worked it into the fur of her lower belly.