Malock returned his attention to Garnal and said, “So you're a graduate of the Academy, too?”
The pirate snapped her claws open and shut, as if amused. “Of course not. I met a practitioner of the Thief's Way some twenty years back who agreed to teach me how to do it. I had to kill him, however, because he was planning to hand me over to the authorities the entire time so he could get my bounty and never have to work another day in his life. Quite the lazy thief, he was.”
“Wait,” said Malock, putting a hand on the back of his head. “If you're from the Northern Isles, then what the hell are you doing down here in the southern seas? Trying to expand your territory?”
“I was about to ask you the same question, actually,” said Garnal. “I know who you are, Prince Tojas Malock of Carnag, though I am surprised, because I always thought you royals were too delicate to go on a dangerous voyage into unknown waters.”
“My reasons for being here are none of your concern, pirate.”
“And my reasons for being here are mine, prince,” Garnal said. “But I can tell you why I am on this ship, specifically: I am going to take it.”
Malock laughed, which he immediately regretted because it made his head hurt. “Oh, really? You may be tough, Garnal, but there's over a hundred sailors on this ship, all of whom are even tougher than you. Maybe you ought to rethink your plan.”
“You assume I am alone,” said Garnal. “If that were so, I would not have been able to stop your ship cold.”
“So you summoned the moss,” said Bifor. “I had no idea you were a botamancer.”
“Not me specifically, mage,” said Garnal. “Rather, a certain member of my crew did that.”
Malock looked around and said, “Your crew? I don't see anyone but yourself. If you're trying to intimidate us, it's really not working.”
“You will be intimidated soon enough, gold blood,” said Garnal.
Without warning, the ship lurched to the port; this caused most of the crew to fall over. Malock just barely managed to retain his balance, while Garnal looked completely unaffected by it.
“What was that?” said Malock, looking around in surprise.
“My men making a point,” said Garnal. “If you refuse to stand down and let me have the ship, I will have my crew sink it to the bottom of the ocean and kill the whole lot of you. Seems like a reasonable deal to me.”
“Don't you have a ship of your own?” Malock said.
Garnal's expression turned to fury very quickly. “Don't change the subject. Give us the ship or you go down with it, like a real captain would.”
“Doesn't seem to be a way out of this, Captain,” said Bifor, who was one of the few sailors not to lose his balance when the ship lurched. “Even if we take out Garnal, her men will probably rip a hole in the ship's hull and we'll sink anyway.”
“Not helping,” Malock growled.
His mind raced, trying to think of a way out of this. This was far more difficult than it should have been because his mind was still heavy with drunkenness. His mind felt like mud and more than once he found himself distracted by something not immediately relevant to their current situation, like Vashnas's jacket or that odd discoloration halfway up the mainmast.
Garnal didn't look like she was in a hurry at all. She was whistling a tune he didn't recognize, rocking back and forth, and occasionally looking up at the sky as if concerned about the weather, even though the sky was clear. She almost looked harmless.
Malock looked at the rest of his crew. Banika and Vashnas had fallen when the ship lurched and had not yet gotten back to their feet. None of the other sailors seemed likely to do anything. The only thing Malock figured they needed to do (this thought came slowly) was figure out how to stop Garnal's crew that were under the ship. If they could just do that ... but they couldn't.
Malock's arms dropped to his sides. “All right, Garnal. You win. I'm not going to sacrifice the ship and the crew just to stop you.”
Garnal's feet skittered across the deck happily as she said, “Excellent, quite excellent. I expected your royal arrogance to get the better of you, my precious prince, but for once you listen to reason.”
Without warning, the ship lurched back into an upright position, knocking over the few sailors who had remained standing from before. Malock himself almost fell before being caught by Bifor, who helped him up.
“Men!” Garnal yelled at the top of her voice. “Climb aboard! The ship is ours!”
Malock wasn't sure how her men were supposed to hear her, but a moment later, he heard people climbing the sides of the ship and then a dozen pirates climbed over the bulwarks. A quick glance told Malock that all of the pirates were aquarians, just like Garnal, though not all of them were crab-like in appearance. They had rusty, sharp-edged swords tied to belts or their backs and they looked like they knew how to use them. Their hungry eyes and gaunt bodies added to their terrifying appearances.
“All right,” Garnal called out, her voice loud enough for the entire crew to hear her. “You heard your former Captain. I am now in charge of this vessel. You are all my slaves and will do whatever I or any of my men tell you to do.”
A large commotion started, but Garnal shouted, “Or would you rather sleep in the bottom of the ocean tonight? It's your choice.”
That silenced the entire crew quickly.
“Good,” said Garnal. “My first order, as Captain of this pathetic ship, is to turn this ship around. We are heading north, back home, where the Gray Pirates will rise again more powerful than before. Anyone who hesitates or tries to sabotage this voyage home will be immediately executed on the spot by whichever member of my crew is closest. Understood?”
Malock's hands balled into fists, but he knew he couldn't order his men to attack Garnal or her men. He sensed how betrayed and angry the rest of his crew felt, but there was nothing any of them could do without jeopardizing the entire voyage.
“Good,” said Garnal. “Then prepare the sails and turn the rudder. We are going home.”
***
Chapter Seven
The next three days were the worst Kinker had experienced on this voyage so far.
By all appearances, the basic schedule of the Iron Wind had not changed. The fishing crew still hauled in the trawl at breakfast, lunch, and dinner; the cleaning crew scrubbed the deck; Vinji remained in the crow's nest, and the rest of the crew continued their various duties around the ship.
But in reality, a thick atmosphere of fear and tension filled every nook of the ship. The Gray Pirates monitored every activity, which might not have been so bad if they were not drunk and violent all the time. The Pirates seemed to have discovered Malock's secret store of wine because they were constantly seen with the drink, gulping it down, carousing loudly, and partying well into the night.
This might not have seemed so bad, but the drink made the Pirates even more violent and volatile than usual. Often they beat sailors for no reason at all, except perhaps because they could. Kinker had so far avoided a beating, but poor Gino got beat upside the head by a lug of a pirate who got angry when Gino accidentally dropped a fish instead of giving it to him.
In addition, the Pirates often ate more than their fair share. At mealtimes, they'd gobble down the fish that Arisha prepared, leaving only bones and scraps for the rest of the crew. As a result, hunger, which was always a problem on the ship, became even worse than before. It was quite common for Kinker to have only a few pieces of fish a day, if even that, because the scraps they did get were not distributed evenly among the crew, turning every mealtime into an every-man-for-himself brawl, which Kinker refused to participate in, knowing that he could not beat the younger sailors even if he wanted to.
As for Malock, he was kept locked up in his stateroom. Banika, Vashnas, and Bifor had been taken to the hold, where they were kept under lock and key all day every day. As far as Kinker knew, none of them got even scraps, causing him to realize that the Pirates were slowly starving those three. He didn't
know why the Pirates didn't kill those three right away, but as he never understood pirates in the first place, it perhaps wasn't as shocking as it could have been.
In particular, Daryh, Garnal's first mate, was bad. He was a botamancer, the one behind the moss from earlier, and had apparently at one point been a accomplished academic before being fired for reasons Kinker didn't know. The only reason Kinker knew any of that was because Daryh usually monitored the fishing crew and spent long periods of time ranting about the idiocy of the Academy and how he would love to slit the throat of every one of his former colleagues if given the chance.
Not only that, but Daryh showed a creepy interest in Jenur, despite he being aquarian and her being human. More than once he would try to run his slimy hands up her behind or grab her breasts, but to Kinker's relief Jenur would always glare at him and make him back down. Well, it didn't always work. The first time she slapped his hands away, he hit her and threatened to rape her right there before being summoned by Garnal to discuss something. He never followed up with that threat, but it did make Kinker worry for Jenur more than he already did.
The uncertainty of it all was the worst for Kinker. It was almost impossible to tell what pleased the Gray Pirates and what didn't. Kinker suspected, too, that once they returned north, the Gray Pirates would simply slaughter them all, as the crew of the Iron Wind would no doubt be more of a liability than help then. Perhaps they would keep Malock to use as a bargaining chip, but the rest of the crew had no worth in their eyes, which was why Kinker knew they had to overthrow the Pirates somehow.
Kinker was no hero, which was why he kept his head down. He doubted there was anything he could do to defeat these Pirates. He thought it best to let them have their way, at least for now. Without Bifor or Malock, Kinker didn't see how they could possibly beat the Pirates. Not to mention he could not plan a mutiny with the fishing crew while Daryh constantly watched them. He heard every conversation because once, when Deddio whispered to Kinker about doing something to defeat the Pirates, Daryh jumped to his feet and kicked Deddio in the crotch.
So the entire situation seemed unlikely to change, unless a miracle happened. Kinker went to bed every night praying fervently more than ever for Kano to intercede, to provide them with a miracle, but so far the goddess had yet to answer his prayers. At this point, he doubted she would.
On the third day, not long after lunch, Daryh was summoned by Garnal to the stateroom. At first Kinker thought this meant they would be free to plan in secret, but then Daryh called one of the other pirates to take his place, an octopus-like aquarian named Hino. Unlike Daryh, Hino seemed more attached to his drink because all he did was sit back against the mizzenmast, downing a bottle of wine while occasionally hurling drunken insults at the fishing crew, though because he spoke in the aquarian tongue, Kinker never understood them.
Having just tossed the trawl back into the water, the fishing crew were hard at work cleaning the fish. It was not difficult work, but due to Kinker's deep hunger he had a hard time concentrating. That was why it took him a moment to notice Jenur subtly tugging at his shirt sleeve in a way that Hino wouldn't notice (although considering how drunk the pirate seemed to be, Kinker doubted he would have noticed even if she'd been blatant).
“What?” said Kinker in a low voice. “What do you want?”
“Your permission for what I am about to do to you,” Jenur replied in an even lower voice. “It's going to be painful, but I think it will be just what we need to kick these pirates off our ship and save Malock and the others.”
Kinker looked over his shoulder at Hino. The pirate was still sitting against the stateroom's back wall, swinging his now-empty bottle of wine through the air like a bird.
“What do you mean, it's going to be painful?” Kinker said, looking back at Jenur. “How painful, exactly?”
“Not very painful,” said Jenur. “But painful enough that you might feel it for a few days.”
“A few days? Jenur, whatever you're planning to do—”
Kinker had always known Jenur was stronger than she looked, but until her fist smashed into the side of his face, he hadn't really understood it. The blow knocked him flat off his feet, causing him to crash to the deck and let out a sharp intake of breath. This was then followed by a kick to the gut from Jenur's booted foot, the blow hitting him so hard that he thought he saw stars in his eyes.
The rest of the crew gasped in response and Deddio even said, “Jenur, what the hell are you doing?” but no one tried to stop her, perhaps because they were afraid of her.
At the same time, Hino was perhaps not as drunk as he looked because he was there almost instantly, his tentacles flailing as he shouted, in a heavily accented voice, “Break it up, you two, break it up. What's the deal here? Daryh said no fighting!”
Through watering eyes, Kinker saw Jenur take on a completely innocent expression as she turned to Hino. “Oh, this old perv just tried to touch me in a way I didn't like. I was just defending myself, you see.”
Hino glanced at Kinker and said, “Doesn't change a thing. Daryh told me to keep the peace until we get to—”
Kinker wasn't sure what happened next. All he saw was a knife slip out of Jenur's sleeve into her hand, her arm jerk upward, and Hino fall to the deck silently. The pirate lay in a pool of ever-expanding blood, which Kinker moved away from to avoid getting stained with it.
Jenur held out a hand to Kinker, which Kinker reluctantly accepted. He glanced over his shoulder at Hino and noticed a cut in the pirate's throat from which blood was leaking. The rest of the fishing crew just stood there, looking on in disbelief and confusion, which was exactly how Kinker felt right now.
“Sorry about hitting you so hard,” said Jenur. “I needed to make it look real enough so the big lug would decide he needed to do something about it.”
“You killed him,” said Deddio, his eyes on the pirate's corpse. “And expertly so, too. How did you know that slitting his throat right there would kill him instantly?”
Jenur wiped the blood off her knife on Hino's jacket, not looking at any of them as she said, “Doesn't matter. What does matter is rallying the rest of the crew to get Hino's friends.”
“But how do we do that?” said Kinker, rubbing his face, which still hurt from Jenur's fist. “There's still a dozen or so murderous pirates who have Malock in their custody. Not to mention Bifor, Vashnas, and Banika are also in the hold, which is guarded.”
“I know,” said Jenur. “I already figured out how we're gonna save everyone. Kinker, you and I will make our way down to the hold, where we'll kill the guard and free the prisoners.”
“But they took Bifor's wand,” said Deddio. “Even if we freed him, I doubt he would be able to do much against them. Mages need wands to use their magic, don't they?”
Jenur shook her head. “Wands are helpful, but they only channel magic. A mage's real power lies in their devotion to their gods. But we probably do need to get Bifor's wand. He obviously needs it; otherwise, he would have escaped by now.”
“How do you know that?” said Kinker. “You're not a mage.”
Jenur, once again, ignored the question. “Last I saw, Garnal had taken it. She probably has it on her person, so if we want to get it back we'll need to steal it from her.”
“Steal it from her?” said Gino with a gulp. “Isn't that like trying to steal from an oversized crab that knows how to chop you into a million pieces?”
“That's why I've decided upon a change of plans,” said Jenur. “We don't have much time until Daryh returns, so we need to act as natural as possible. Attacking now would only give the pirates time to kill Malock or sink the ship. We need our attack to be so sudden that they don't have time to do either.”
“Then what's the plan?” said Gino. “I'm all ears.”
“Firstly, only one of us will be going below deck to free the prisoners,” said Jenur. “And that will be Kinker.”
“Hold on,” said Kinker, holding up a hand. “I'm not a fi
ghter. What if the guard tries to attack me? I'd be toast.”
Jenur immediately held out another knife, similar to her own, and said, “Act as natural as possible. When he raises his neck, stab him directly in the throat. Do it right and he'll die without making a sound.”
Kinker took the knife uncertainly and turned it in his hands. “I'm not very fast.”
“You just need to be fast enough,” said Jenur. “Anyway, I'm going to sneak around and find Garnal. I'll try to snatch the wand from her; if I can't, I'll slit her throat and then take it from her. The rest of you should stay here and act like nothing is out of the ordinary until I or Kinker return.”
“What about the corpse?” said Gino, gesturing at Hino's body. “Do we—”
“Toss it overside,” said Jenur. “No one will notice and by the time any of the pirates do, they'll all be dead. Let's go.”
-
Malock wasn't used to feeling hungry. Back on Carnag, he had always had three meals a day, and they were big meals, too; roasted black fish, fried calamari, strawberry pudding, Friana chocolate cookies, the freshest of Carnagian bread, and so much more.
Even after running out of their food stores, Malock had remained well-fed, in contrast to the rest of the crew. True, he didn't have the same variety and richness of meals that he had had back in the Hall of Carnag, but he did have three meals a day; this he accomplished by hoarding what little food that hadn't gone bad and making sure he got more food than the rest of the crew at mealtimes. As Captain of the ship, he felt that he needed to remain well-fed more than the rest of the crew did, so he often ate as much as he pleased.
Now, however, Malock's stomach grumbled with hunger. In the three days since the Gray Pirates had somehow managed to take over his ship (he was still wondering how that happened, to be honest), his meals had dropped from three to one a day, sometimes even less than that. Whenever he was fed, he was spoon-fed by Garnal, which was always an awkward experience in part because her claws made it almost impossible to grip the spoon correctly, and even when she succeeded in gripping it, she always spilled more food on his shirt and lap than in his mouth.
The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock Page 11