Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
The sand slurped at Cali’s boots as she ran, her breath coming fast, her eyes fixed on the hellkin swinging an axe at the water’s edge like someone possessed.
Bonnie’s sword sang as she drew it, the blade catching the moonlight, and Cali already had an arrow notched in her bow. Thrain’s boots squelched the sand somewhere behind her, and she could hear him puffing, but she didn’t look back. She couldn’t take her eyes off the small boat.
Jolli floated at the shore where the low waves burbled, and every time Marina swung the axe toward her painted hull, the little boat lurched sideways.
The deliberate, deft sidesteps sent the axe blade whistling through empty air into the waves, which splashed up in a churning froth that soaked the hellkin from the waist down.
Marina screamed and swung again. Again, the jolly boat bobbed away, her painted sides shimmering as if she was taunting the hellkin. She might have been. A merry creaking sound rose over the waves, sounding every bit like laughter.
Marina didn’t hear them coming, even though they made no effort to quiet their approach.
The indignity of losing a fight with a rowboat consumed her, and she was too busy hauling the axe overhead in another furious attempt.
She was still screeching when Bonnie reached her, and the pirate captain’s sword came down in a short, controlled arc.
The strike wasn’t at the hellkin, but at the axe itself.
The flat of the blade connected with the axe handle and knocked it clean from Marina’s grip, sending it spinning end over end to land in the wet sand with a squelch.
Marina spun around, but Cali already had an arrow notched, the string drawn back to her cheek, and the tip leveled at the hellkin’s chest. Her claw twitched with the desire to let the arrow fly.
The moonlight caught Marina’s face. Her crimson skin was mottled darker with rage, her hair was wild from the salt wind, and her eyes blazed with fury. She looked from Bonnie’s sword to Cali’s arrow and then at the small knot of pirates who had fanned out behind them.
“That boat,” she said, breathing hard, pointing an accusatory finger at Jolli without looking away from Bonnie, “is a menace. It tried to kill me.”
Behind the captain, two of her crew had already waded into the shallows. Jolli allowed them to take hold of her without complaint, leaning gently into their hands, while Gert ran her palms along the hull in careful inspection.
Marina watched this and made a sound of pure outrage. “You see that?” She jabbed her finger again. “It’s possessed, I tell you.”
“She,” Bonnie said.
Marina blinked, her outstretched finger slumping. “What?”
“Jolli is a she.” The pirate captain’s voice held a distinct edge. “We’d prefer you not misgender her. Also, she’s not possessed. She simply takes a dim view of those who steal her and then try to hack her apart.”
Marina’s jaw tightened. “It spun in circles for two days. It rowed itself into rocks. It tipped us into the water three times. I was only defending myself.”
From the water, Jolli rocked back and forth, slapping the waves as if she was clapping.
“She,” Gert growled from the water.
Bonnie crouched, retrieved the axe from the sand, and then handed it off to one of her crew without comment. Or she tried to. Thrain materialized at her elbow, still catching his breath, and took the weapon from the pirate’s grip before anyone else could.
He turned it over, checking the blade, then looked at Marina with cold eyes. “You stole my axe.”
It was only then that Marina’s gaze moved past Bonnie and locked onto Cali and Thrain. “You two.”
Cali kept the bowstring taut as she gave the hellkin the barest nod. “Hello, Marina.”
“Is this your idea of revenge?”
Cali glanced at Thrain. He raised his eyebrows.
“Let me understand this,” Cali said. “You stole a jolly boat, spent days being outwitted by it, tried to destroy it, and somehow that’s something we arranged?”
“I wouldn’t give us that much credit,” Thrain said under his breath.
As a pair of pirates moved toward her, Marina whipped a hand behind her back and produced a dagger. Her gaze pinged to Bonnie as she took quick aim, but Cali was quicker. She let her arrow fly, striking Marina’s hand in the stretched flesh between the thumb and pointer finger.
The hellkin shrieked, and the dagger flew off course, missing Bonnie and landing harmlessly in the sand.
The pirate captain cut her gaze to Cali, her eyes wide. “Thanks.”
The pantheri didn’t waste a moment before notching another bow while watching blood flow between Marina’s fingers as the hellkin clutched her wounded hand. “My pleasure.”
“She’s a crack shot, our Cal is,” said Thrain, puffing out his own chest.
“So I’ve heard.” Bonnie gave her a wry smile. “Nice to see you in action.”
Cali’s fur tingled all over. The strike itself had always been reward enough, but she found this particular compliment made her feel all fizzy inside.
Despite being wounded, Marina turned and attempted to run from the pirates, but her feet sank in the sand and within moments her arms were being yanked behind her back and her wrists tied.
Then her gaze landed on the hellkin who’d led them here.
Cali had almost forgotten him. Marina evidently had not, because she lunged at him and almost fell face-first into the sand.
“You,” she spluttered as the pirates yanked her upright. “You led them to me.”
He looked back at her without flinching. “You let one of your own crew get taken by the sirens. You’re getting what you deserve.”
Marina’s lips thinned to a blood-red line, but there was nothing she could say to that.
The halfling pirate who’d been checking the inside of Jolli for damage grabbed the oars. “We’ll take her back to Tris, Cap.”
“Easy as you go,” Bonnie said, as a gnome hopped into the back of Jolli with the halfling and took up an oar.
The little boat began pulling away from the shore, effortlessly cutting through the shore break and heading for the harbor. Marina spat into the sand, and for a moment, Cali thought she might lunge after the boat.
Gert marched up from the water and took hold of Marina’s arm, while the other hellkin was steered to walk beside her.
Marina did lunge at him, but the orc jerked her back so hard that her head hit the Quartermaster’s shoulder.
Thrain grunted his approval from his position behind Gert, while Marina shuffled along in silence.
Cali fell in step with Bonnie at the back of the processional. “I assume the pirate ship who’ll take charge of them is in port.”
Bonnie glanced at the hellkin who’d led them to Marina, then to where the docked ships twinkled through the dark. “For him, yes.”
Cali flicked her gaze to Marina. “And for her?”
The captain released a slow breath. “I have something else in mind.”