The Captive Kingdom

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

  “I know you’re not a real physician yet,” Teagut began, “but that’s all right because I already know what’s wrong with me.”

  “What’s wrong is that you abandoned your post, and if the captain finds out, you’ll be in trouble.”

  “I — wait!” Teagut twisted around as I raised my head and grinned. He did not. “You!” His eyes narrowed. “You’re the solution to my problem. The captain will forget that I abandoned my post. All I have to do is turn you in.”

  “Turn me in for what? As far as anyone knows, I am up in that crow’s nest. And you are trapped in here, under my treatment, with everything I think I know about medicine.”

  “Then you’ve got to help me,” Teagut said. “It’s your fault I’m in this situation.”

  “Well, to start, are you really ill or do you need an excuse for the captain?”

  He gulped. “Which answer gets me away from you?”

  “The second.”

  “Then that’s my answer.” He lowered his voice. “I came here because there’s a rumor about a medicine Tobias made. One that … makes you sick.”

  We hadn’t even been on this ship a full day, but Tobias had made this formula, spread the word about it, and found a lodestone. That was impressive. In that same time, I’d only attempted a mutiny, and it hadn’t even succeeded.

  Teagut pointed to a small shelf behind me. I reached for the bottle he was pointing at and gave it a shake. Liquid sloshed inside.

  A knock came to the door and I heard Roden’s voice on the other side. “Tobias?”

  “Tell him I’m busy,” I whispered.

  Teagut repeated my message and Roden responded, “May I come in?”

  “Absolutely not,” I hissed.

  “No,” Teagut said. “I’m, uh … spurting blood at the moment.”

  I rolled my eyes. That was the best he could do?

  But it seemed to work. Roden said, “Maybe you heard a few things while on the deck. You and I need to talk.”

  “Ask him what he wants to talk about,” I whispered again.

  Teagut did, and after a moment, Roden responded, “I just … I thought you might remember back to Farthenwood, to Conner’s contest for the false prince. Only one of us was supposed to survive that, remember? But for a while, you and I had an alliance, and that kept us alive. I’m asking you to hold to that again. Stay with me, Tobias, for your own sake.”

  Again, my temper bristled. Not only because Roden had made me think of a time that still bundled me in knots, but because he was speaking of it inaccurately. Their alliance had not saved anyone’s lives. I did that. All that their alliance had done was to …

  “Almost get me killed,” I mumbled.

  Teagut looked up at me, alarmed. “You’re going to get me killed?”

  “No! Well … probably not. Hush and let me think.”

  Had I really understood Roden correctly? Strick told him to get me on my knees — that had been Conner’s plan too, in his own way. Now it appeared that Roden was asking Tobias to help him achieve that goal, so that both of them might have a chance to live.

  I heard Roden’s footsteps as he left, but I still had Teagut to contend with. He said, “The only oath the pirates care about earned them the same branding on their forearms that you have. Is it true that Erick is dead?” I nodded and he added, “Then you are our king again, Jaron. What do you want from us?”

  “Until I say otherwise, I want you all to stay alive. Which means for now, you will have to follow the captain’s orders.”

  Teagut tilted his head. “We are pirates! Not dainty servants laying out tea towels and seating ourselves on a filthy deck for hours. Now, I know you won’t ask all of them out there to risk their lives for you, but let me help. The Prozarian vigil with me is a talkative fellow, and maybe I have information for you.”

  “What is it?”

  Teagut sucked in a breath, feeling quite proud of himself now. “I told you, Jaron, I am a pirate. If you want the information, a few coins in my pocket might help me remember it.”

  “I have your knife in my pocket. It also might help you remember.”

  He frowned. “We’re headed to a place called Belland. The Prozarians attacked Belland a month ago.”

  “I know about that.”

  “But what you don’t know is that just before returning to sea, the captain brought several things with her, all of it inside a green trunk that was so heavy, she almost couldn’t push it up the gangplank. The Prozarian with me rushed over to help her and about got himself run through with a sword for the favor.”

  “Why should this trunk matter to me?”

  “He saw her packing its contents into a closet behind her desk before she slammed her door shut and the room has been kept locked ever since, whether she’s in or out of it. No one is allowed to see what’s in that closet.” Teagut shrugged. “I figured anything she protects so carefully might be interesting to you.”

  “It is. So how do I get into her office?”

  He held out his hand. “That information was free. I’ll expect payment for anything more.”

  “Fair enough. But I don’t have the coins yet.”

  “Try to pay me before Belland,” he said. “Nobody believes you’ll make it to land.”

  It probably wasn’t a joke, but it made me smile anyway. “I’ll do my best.”

  I put the bottle Teagut had showed me inside my jacket and reached for a long rag instead.

  “If you fake an illness, she may decide you’re not worth the risk of keeping you on board. I have a different idea, but I’ll give you a choice. Either way, I will send you out of here with physician’s orders that you are not to be on vigil duty for the remainder of the voyage. Your first choice is that I can break your wrist and then bind it for you — that I will do out of the goodness of my heart. Or I can simply bind the wrist and let you pretend that it’s injured, but if you choose that option, there are terms.”

  He swallowed hard. “What are the terms?”

  “At some point in the near future, I will ask a favor of you. You must do what I ask, in the moment that I ask it. Then all will be equal between us.”

  “What is the favor?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Well, I don’t know that yet, or I would’ve asked you now. But no worries, it won’t be anything I’m not willing to do myself, and at no point will you be required to sing from the bow of the ship. I cannot guarantee where else your singing talents might be required.”

  He frowned. “Why would I —?”

  “The point is that we can help each other, or not. Promise to help me, and I will keep you out of trouble with the captain and get you out of any future vigil duty, which means you will avoid all the trouble I will certainly cause before this trip is over. You don’t want any part of that, do you?”

  “No.”

  “Then shall I bind your wrist now, or break it first?”

  He frowned up at me. “Bind the wrist now. Your terms are fair.”

  They may have seemed fair in that moment, but he didn’t know me very well. If he had, he would have chosen the broken wrist.

  I couldn’t get back on the main deck again until the next shift change when the new vigils would be busy receiving orders from the previous watch. So after sending Teagut away, I had some time inside the sick bay. I leaned into the corner, hoping for a little sleep, but that was impossible. Directly overhead, I soon heard the captain yelling at someone.

  “How dare you abandon your watch, even for an injury!”

  Ah, Teagut and his fellow vigil had been caught.

  They mumbled their apologies, then Strick informed them they would go without meals for the day.

  The captain’s quarters went quiet again, but my mind had already begun to turn. I had a way inside that cabin … more or less.

  If the layout was similar to other caraval ships I’d seen, then Strick’s locked closet would be directly above the cabinet where Tobias kept his medicines and other supplies. Digging
through them, I found a bone saw, which would be used only in the case of gangrene or a crushed limb, or another serious injury. Or if I needed a way into that closet.

  I had planned to rest until the next shift change, but no sooner had I lain on Tobias’s bed than one of the pirates strode across the deck shouting that everyone had ten minutes to report to the captain on the main deck for the morning assignments.

  I groaned. That gave me only eight minutes to sleep, and two minutes to figure out what to do once I got on deck.

  When the time came, I pulled Tobias’s hat low, wrapped a cloak around my shoulders to avoid anyone comparing his build to mine, then crowded in alongside the other crewmen up to the deck. Even as they grumbled to one another about being pulled from their beds so early in the morning, I kept my head down and my hand on the knife I had stolen the night before. Most of the crewmen had been asleep when we were called, so I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by half-opened eyes and men who were more concerned with the chill in the air than looking my way. Once on deck, I lined up with the others and tried not to glare at Roden, who was near the front. I was desperate to know what he had wanted to speak to Tobias about, what his plans were that made him think back to their alliance at Farthenwood.

  Wilta was standing on the deck behind him, her head down and arms wrapped around herself as protection from the cold. I felt sorry for her, but there was nothing I could do to help without revealing myself.

  Amarinda was not here, notably, and that worried me. Wilta didn’t appear to be treated well here; could Amarinda be faring any better?

  Strick called Teagut and his companion forward, explained their offense and punishment, then said, “The only reason their punishment is not worse is because I am merciful enough to believe their reasons were just. But the next time a vigil abandons his post, regardless of the reasons, he had better be prepared for the worst I can do. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, Captain,” the crewmen echoed around me.

  “Where is our physician? Where is Tobias?” Strick called out.

  From my place near the back, I raised my hand. Strick said, “Get up into that crow’s nest and check on Jaron. He hasn’t responded to anyone this morning, and I want to know if he’s still alive.”

  “Yes, Captain,” I replied, in my best Tobias imitation. Roden was the only one who’d know our voices well enough to tell the difference, but if he knew, he said nothing as I stepped forward, angling my body away from him and the captain to climb.

  I slid into the crow’s nest to find Tobias shivering with cold and clearly upset with me.

  “Y-y-you s-s-said you’d be back.”

  “As soon as I could get here. This was as soon as I could get here, Tobias.” I withdrew my cloak and wrapped it around him, then returned his hat. “Now, look over the side of the nest where they can all see you and tell them I’m sick.”

  Tobias’s eyes widened. “I-I’m the one who’s sick.”

  “No, you’re cold. If you become sick, I will feel terrible guilt, and honestly, I don’t have time for that, so as a favor to me, don’t get sick. But I want them to believe I am sick. Tell them so.”

  Tobias groaned, then did as I’d asked, shouting down, “Jaron is sick.”

  “Nobody gets sick from one night out in the cold,” Strick called back.

  With a glare at me, Tobias replied, “I’m the physician on this ship, and I can promise you, he’s sick.” He rolled back to me, angry again. “We’re the ones who are sick, to stand beside you from one misadventure to the next.”

  “We? You and Roden?”

  “Me and Roden and Amarinda — everyone who has ever known you.”

  I stared back at him as if I’d been slapped, but there was nothing to say. Tobias had just said exactly what he meant, what Roden had meant when he tried to resign as captain of my guard. Maybe Imogen would eventually speak those same words.

  “Did you at least see Amarinda?” he asked. “Is she safe? Is she still alive?”

  “I didn’t get in.”

  He grunted with irritation. “Then what was all this for? You should have stayed here, where you belonged, and I could have gotten into the office.”

  “I tried, Tobias.”

  “What good did trying do for her?”

  After too long a silence, I patted the pocket in Tobias’s tunic. “I have your mixture that imitates an illness. How much does it take to bring on symptoms?”

  “Where did you … it takes a while for symptoms to show. That won’t help you here.”

  Wilta called up, “The captain orders you to bring Jaron down. She’ll determine for herself if he’s truly sick.”

  I pulled Tobias’s tunic over my head and kicked off my boots, and he did the same.

  “How much do I take?”

  Tobias shrugged. “A gulp should be enough.”

  While he finished dressing, I pulled the cork from the bottle, then drank some, trying not to spit it out all over Tobias. Licking the bottom of my boot would have tasted better.

  “That was a long gulp,” he said. “I just told you a gulp.”

  I frowned at him. “Maybe you should have explained the difference between a long gulp and a regular gulp.”

  “If I had intended for anything but a regular gulp, I would have said so.” We fell silent again while we each dressed, then he said, “I threw one of your boots over the crow’s nest last night.”

  “You almost hit Roden.”

  For the first time since he’d come up here, Tobias smiled. “Did I?”

  “I couldn’t have aimed better myself.”

  “And why are these carpenter tools up here?”

  “Obviously, I’m thinking of building a birdhouse.”

  “That’s not even close to obvious.”

  “Put them up on the rail of the nest.”

  Tobias finished buttoning his tunic, then slipped on his boots. “Why?”

  “Just do it!”

  “Fine.” Tobias did as I asked, then peered down at the deck far below. “You go first.”

  “No, you go first. I need time for your formula to work.”

  Tobias climbed out of the crow’s nest and after he was down, I followed. I was definitely tired from the long night, but that wouldn’t pass for illness.

  I was halfway down the ladder when the captain said, “If you come down, you will immediately fall directly to your knees before me. If you won’t kneel, then climb back up there.”

  I paused on the ladder, not because I was thinking over her offer, but because the first wave of a fever struck me. It hit my flesh like opening the curtains in a darkened room to full sun, and the sudden heat in my body was scalding.

  That first wave settled in my gut, and I started back down again.

  “So you agree to obey my orders?” Strick called to me.

  “I need to go to the sick bay.” It was becoming harder to keep my grip on each rung as I descended. Not only was I weaker, but my vision was beginning to blur. It was inevitable that eventually I would reach for a rung that wasn’t really there.

  Then I did.

  And I fell.

  I must’ve landed on or near some crewmen who broke my fall, though I ached so much, I truly didn’t know whether the fall made anything worse for me than it already was. I was sure things were much worse for the people trapped beneath me.

  “Stand aside!” Tobias pushed his way forward and pressed a hand to my forehead. “He’s burning up with fever, and that fall did him no favors.” He called out, “I need two men to carry him down to the sick bay.”

  “Wait!” Roden entered my field of vision and placed one hand on my head, then looked at Tobias in a panic. “He really is sick?”

  I sat up, trying to make myself heard by as many crewmen as possible. “It’s this cursed ship. I wonder who this illness will strike next.”

  At those few words, most of the nearby crewmen backed away, leaving Roden alone near me. He leaned in closer. “Is this real?”
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br />   “Make a different bargain with her. I will not kneel, not even for you.”

  “How did you —” He cut himself off there, then added, “I think I’m getting closer to —”

  “Take him to the sick bay,” Strick said. “Tobias, you will report to me within the hour. I want to know what’s wrong with him.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Two crewmen lifted me and headed toward the lower deck. Tobias followed, but Roden stepped in front of him. “We’ve got to talk.”

  Tobias glanced at me. “Not now.”

  Roden began to reply, but Tobias quickly pushed past him. As they followed me down, Roden said, “Have you been telling us the truth all this time, Jaron? If you have any secrets that we should know about, there isn’t much time left to tell us.”

  “Then don’t waste my time with questions that make no sense.” What time I had left. I felt awful.

  Tobias had me placed on a table in the sick bay, then hung out his sign and locked the door. I curled up in a ball to take the edge off the pain, and Tobias began rummaging through his supplies.

  “I’m the one who’s actually sick,” he muttered. “I’m the one you abandoned in that horrid crow’s nest, but somehow you’re the one in need of care.”

  “Am I even still alive?” I asked him. “What was in that bottle?”

  “Nothing that should have produced these effects.” He hesitated, then pulled another bottle off his shelf. “Jaron, what bottle did you grab? This is the one that gives symptoms of illness.”

  I fumbled for the bottle in my jacket and showed it to him.

  Tobias groaned, and I thought I heard him curse, which he rarely did. “You took a medication for pain.”

  I looked back at him, certain I had not heard him correctly. “Why do you have a medication that causes pain?”

  “It stops pain, unless you take too much of it. We’ll have to watch you and see what happens.”

  I forced myself into a sitting position, or what appeared to be a sitting position, though I was certain the room was angling. “Here’s what will happen. You’re going to discover that I injured myself in that fall, and it will require a painful surgery.”