Chapter 36
Thirty-Six
Cali lifted her head and blinked as the captain’s quarters came into focus.
The candles had burned to nothing, their wax shrouding the candelabra and pooling hard and cold on the table.
The brandy glasses were empty, and the basket held nothing but crumbs and the ghost scent of coconut and sea lime.
Cali straightened, working the stiffness from her neck with one paw, and it was only then that she noticed that there was no trace of Bonnie. Slats of pale light on the floor told her it was morning, but the captain’s bed hadn’t been slept in.
Then her ears pricked. Not at a sound, but at the absence of one. The ship was no longer cutting through the sea. It was bobbing, as if at dock, but there were no telltale sounds of a port city.
She moved to the window and pressed her nose to the glass. She’d been right. They’d stopped, but they were at anchor. The water between was flat and dark green, and beyond it, rising from a line of pale shore, was an island.
It was small enough that she could see jungle growth climbing to a central ridge.
And just visible above the canopy, the tops of several buildings, the gray stone worn and weathered.
Cali shook out her tail, smoothed her vest, and left the captain’s quarters for the deck, bounding up the stairs and almost walking into the back of Gert.
The quartermaster was propelling Marina across the deck, and the hellkin was not going quietly. She’d recovered whatever fight the previous night had taken from her, and she was thrashing in Gert’s grasp. Seraphina was at her usual post on the rail, a cold glint in her narrowed eyes.
“Where are you taking me?” Marina demanded. “What is this place?”
Cali took the stairs to the quarterdeck to stand with the captain for a better view. The sun was up but straining through a thin layer of cloud that softened everything to silver, and a cool breeze teased the sails.
From the higher vantage point, she could see the island more clearly.
The beach was narrow and pebbled, and above it the stone buildings were visible in fragments between the trees.
A path led from the shore upward, and even from this distance Cali could make out cloaked figures on the beach. It was clear that they were waiting.
Bonnie dropped her gaze to the hellkin. “This is the Island of the Penitent Yodelers.”
The pantheri cocked her head, certain there must be some wool left in her ears. Yodelers?
Marina went still. “The penitent what?”
Gert did not try to hide her smile. “They find oneness through yodeling.”
Which is probably why they had to decamp to a remote island, thought Cali, as she fought every urge to laugh.
“You should consider yourself fortunate.” Bonnie’s tone was calm. “The alternative was a deserted island. Nothing but sand and one pistol.”
“I’d rather have the pistol,” Marina said.
Gert smothered a laugh with a gruff cough. “A few decades of yodeling will do you good, hellkin.”
Marina’s red skin lost a few shades. “Decades?“
“The sisters are good women,” Bonnie said, “and even better yodelers. The island is self-sufficient. They grow their own food and keep their own livestock. Visiting ships are rare because it’s well off the principal routes.
” She rocked back on the heels of her black boots.
“And since you didn’t do any lasting damage to my jolly boat, I’ll stop by to check on your progress in five years or so. ”
Marina made a sound that might have been the beginning of a groan before she rerouted it at the last moment into a splutter of fury. Her gaze swept the deck in desperation, and it landed on Cali.
The shift was immediate. The fury softened. The eyes warmed. Marina had lost her powers, but apparently not the memory of them.
“Cali.” Her voice became gentle. “You and I were close once. You know I cared for you.” She took half a step forward, straining against Gert’s grip.
“I would have done right by you. I meant what I said. And Vaskel, whatever happened between us, I never meant it to go the way it did. It was a misunderstanding. You know me, Cali. You know I’m not—”
“I know exactly who you are,” Cali said, cutting her off.
She didn’t say it with heat. She found, somewhat to her own surprise, that there wasn’t much heat left in her when it came to Marina.
“I think Bonnie One-Eye is right. Some time thinking about how many people you’ve hurt, while you learn to yodel, might be the best thing that’s ever happened to you. ”
Marina held her gaze for a moment longer, her eyes flashing hot, then she seemed to understand that there was nothing she could say, and she looked away with a huff.
A low, resonant hum ran through the hull and up through the deck beneath Cali’s boots. It seemed that Tris agreed with her.
Gert steered the hellkin toward the rope ladder that led down to the jolly boat, and Marina went with her chin jutted high. She didn’t look back at the crew before she descended, but Cali moved to the railing to watch her get in Jolli.
The little boat made her way to the shore in the hush of the morning, her oars dipping into the water as the pirates rowed in time.
Marina sat in the stern with her eyes fixed ahead and her back rigid, defiant to the end.
As the boat drew closer to the island, the figures on the beach approached to meet it, brown-robed women with hands clasped in front of them.
The boat grounded on the sand, and the pirates hoisted Marina out.
There was a brief exchange that Cali couldn’t hear across the water, and then two of the robed women flanked the hellkin and the small procession began moving up the path toward the stone buildings, with the warbling notes of yodeling wafting behind.
It was only then, as the jungle closed around her, that Marina’s shoulders drooped, and Cali sighed. It was over.
The pirates rowed Jolli back to the ship, and when she was tethered to Tris again, both vessels seemed to release a breath. Cali rested a paw on the railing and felt the contented hum beneath her palm.
“Same,” she whispered.
Gert climbed back onto the deck and clapped her hands together. “Ready to return to Eldu?”
The crew cheered, and Cali forced a smile as the island fell behind.
The sails filled, and the ship found her pace, and Cali waited to feel awash with the satisfaction of a quest fulfilled.
She had done what she set out to do—hunt down Marina, rescue the jolly boat, and keep Thrain alive.
She’d even said goodbye to the woman she’d lost so many years ago.
She should have felt satisfied. She told herself that she did. But the wind rippled off the water and teased her hair into her face, and Cali found that the thing sitting in her chest wasn’t satisfaction at all.