Chapter 19 Like the Old Times #2
Pip gaped. The rest of the crew looked positively murderous, and they seemed this close to disobeying Calla’s order of keeping their mouths shut during this. Riley caught the uncertain glances thrown her way, from Venn and Merrow and Rowe and others. She knew what they were wondering.
Can we really trust her to have our backs?
Riley didn’t let it sting. She couldn’t. Because she also caught other looks, from other people, like Nyxen and Eryx and Gadrielle, and their utmost confidence verged on impatience. She could almost hear them.
What are you waiting for? Tell her to fuck off.
Riley braced herself. “That’s not happening,” she said. “You’ll have to pick something else.”
Neera quirked an eyebrow. “And who are you to make that decision?”
A beat of silence followed that pointed question, and Riley nearly flinched, nearly gave the whole game away.
Because the question hit like a punch to the gut.
Who was she? She was no one. Calla had agreed to let Riley take the lead with Neera, but what was her word really worth among these people who had been part of this crew for years?
Who had worked and bled and fought at each other’s sides?
She hadn’t even convinced Gadrielle she was fit to be a rig monkey yet, and they’d been needing a new one ever since Kittredge had taken off with Sable.
If Riley couldn’t even be trusted to climb, and she knew how to climb, then how did Calla trust her with any of this?
“She’s our captain.”
Riley blinked, startled. She turned to stare at the pirate who had thought to make such a jest. It was–Calla. And she looked entirely serious. Riley blinked again, once, twice, and then stared some more, and everyone else was doing the same thing, nonplussed expressions on all of their faces.
Neera included. Now that she’d finally taken notice of Calla, she wasn’t seeing anyone else, nor their reactions. A mildly disgusted expression settled on her features as she took in the blue of her skin, her webbed fingers, the fins she had for ears.
Calla’s features didn’t so much as twitch as she looked back at Riley and Riley alone, and gave her a subtle nod–no, a bow of her head.
Neera’s disgust deepened and deepened, and then–she burst out laughing.
It went on and on until, eventually, it faded into giggles.
“Thanks for the laugh, freak,” she said.
It was the kick in the gut Riley needed to get a hold of herself.
This might all be a ruse, but how dare she talk to Calla like this? “But really, who’s the captain here?”
Riley straightened up to all of her height, and she noticed how the other pirates were schooling their features.
Their shock. Their anger. Several hands rested on weapons, and as much as Riley wanted to see Neera brought to her knees, she couldn’t let this get out of hand.
Neera’s five bodyguards lounged against the railing in a show of complete relaxation, but just a few feet beyond, on the frigate’s deck, the rest of Neera’s crew was waiting, armed to the teeth.
“Did you not hear her?” Riley smiled, slow and measured.
Rule number one: don’t ever, ever, tell the truth.
“I am. And you’ll be treating my crew with respect, or you’ll leave this ship in pieces.”
Neera’s eyes widened, and she laughed again, but this time it was nervous. She shifted on her feet as she glanced at the Moonshadow’s crew again, standing at the ready as if waiting for Riley’s orders.
Neera’s unaffected mask slid back in place.
“Fancy ship you got yourself here, Riles,” she said, throwing her a wink.
“Sorry to say, though, you’ll have to find your long-lost pals by yourself.
I’m not interested in anything else.” With that, she gestured to her own pirates. “Let’s go. We’re done here.”
Riley just waited. She allowed Neera to get near the plank connecting the two ships’ decks together, then, at the last moment, she shouted loud enough for both crews to hear, “What about a challenge, Neera? Like the old times.”
Neera stilled. For a long moment, she just stood there, back at Riley, and Riley knew she had cornered her. If she backed down now, she would not only look weak to Riley, but to her own crew as well. Not to mention, her little brother.
Neera turned to face her with a glint in her eye, her smile turned predatory.
“You think you can finally best me after all these years? Oh, Riles. That’s adorable.
But I’d be remiss to humiliate you in front of your crew.
” Her smile told a different story. That humiliating Riley in front of her crew would make this whole thing worth it, even if she didn’t get what she’d come here for.
Riley smirked. “We fight to first blood. If I win, you hand over whatever it is you found on Sable.”
Neera stepped closer, head cocked to the side as she circled around Riley, like she finally had the upper hand again. “If I win, you hand Pip over,” she said, sounding positively delighted at the prospect.
“No.”
Neera stopped pacing, frowning. “You know that’s not how this works.”
“If you win, I’ll go with you.”
From the corner of her eye, Riley saw Calla freeze in place, and heard several sharp intakes of breath from the rest of the crew.
She hadn’t told anyone about this part, because they would never have agreed.
But they needed the information, and the only way to get it without bloodshed, without giving Pip up, was this.
A play on Neera's ego. One more chance to have Riley back under her thumb, to humiliate her.
Silently, Riley willed Calla to understand, to not ruin her plan, but she didn’t look at her. She couldn’t. Neera’s focus was entirely on her, the bait irresistible now that she thought Riley was captain. If she smelled any weaknesses, Riley would lose this.
A hunger took over Neera’s features, as if she already smelled weaknesses enough.
“Oh, my. I hadn’t realized you’d missed me so much, lovely.
You know, you didn’t need to put on this entire show for me.
All you had to do was ask.” She grinned, wide and ugly.
“You know what? I’ll throw in a boon for you.
When you lose, I’ll give your crew the information anyway.
Make it fair. They're about to be parting with their captain, after all.”
Riley breathed out slowly and nodded. At least if her visions tripped her up during this, Calla would still get what she needed to gain on Sable. If she fucked up, she only fucked herself over.
She could work with this.
“Deal,” Riley said, sliding her dagger out of its holster. Its blade glinted in Aelion’s last rays of light.
As if on cue, the rest of the Moonshadow’s crew came to form a wide circle around them. Neera’s five bodyguards completed the circle at her back, now a spark of interest in their eyes as they watched on.
Riley and Neera stalked each other in circles, light on their feet, ready to spring at the slightest twitch. They both pretended not to be tense, but their eyes did not stray from each others’. This game wasn’t about the naked blades clutched in their fists. It never had been.
“You know,” Neera said, making a show of flipping her dagger in the air. “The kids were heartbroken after your betrayal.”
Riley allowed her anger to pierce through her carefully constructed mask. Enough for Neera to see.
Rule number two: don’t let them see your feelings unless you can use them as a weapon.
“They kept asking how you could do that to us. What we did to deserve that.” Neera pouted. “I was heartbroken, too. Did I not treat you well? Did I not teach you well?”
A broken sound came from somewhere deep within Riley, strangled in her throat before it made it past her lips.
Neera took scent of it like a shark in water.
She lunged, dagger flashing through the air, jabbing at Riley’s stomach.
At the last moment, Riley jumped out of the way, and then she froze.
The sharp sea air bit into the sensitive skin of her stomach.
She looked down, slowly, at the cut in her shirt.
No blood. Riley let out a shaky breath and gripped her dagger tighter.
That had been too close.
Neera’s smile was mocking now. “Why would you do that, Riles? It really fucking hurt, you know?”
Riley’s fist clenched so tight around her dagger’s hilt that it shook. The more Neera talked, the more her mask was crumbling, and it bled into her stance, in the way her shoulders drooped, in the way she hunched in on herself, defensive, making herself smaller.
Neera was buying it all. Her next moves were more confident, and more careless.
Riley allowed her shirt, her expensive shirt she’d gotten back at the Gullet, to collect more cuts, but the blade never nicked her skin, and Riley started to believe it now.
That she could do this. Neera was nothing to her.
Not anymore. Just a sad excuse for a gang leader, unable to let go of her past. Riley was better than that.
“Do you want to know what I think?” Riley asked, breathing heavily. She flinched at Neera’s next feint, took a step back until she nearly stumbled on the pirate at her back. He was one of Neera’s, and he shoved her back into the ring with a cruel grin.
“Sure, Riles. Shoot.”
Rule number three: lie to me and no one will find your corpse.
Riley barely had the time to find her footing again before Neera struck. Riley ducked under her arm and swiped low at her stomach, allowing Neera to jump back just in time. “I think you’re pathetic,” Riley said as they faced each other again.
This, at last, was the truth.
And Neera could tell. Riley saw it in the way her nostrils flared, even though her grin grew wider. “Now, now, you don’t need to be such a sore loser. I thought I taught you better than that.”