Chapter 67
The pirates shoved a silver hook through the rope at the base of my tail, pulling me up like a prized catch. Cheers sounded from above as I was lifted through the air.
Hands carried me over the stern. I craned my neck, searching for Kye, still in the rowboat below.
Nori had always chastised me for calling her a fish, but I suddenly felt like one, flopping lethargically over the deck. Someone grasped my arms and I scrabbled for the railing, fighting to heave myself over, but my strength hadn’t yet returned. They shoved my dress back on over my head, threading my hands through the arm holes.
From up here, I recognized the characteristics of a celerite ship, flanked by trebuchets in the front and back. A battering ram took up residence aft, the hull narrow and sharp.
It was a small ship. A ship for speed and death. For carrying men, not cargo.
I finally managed to transition back into my legs, stumbling over my feet as Eyepatch dragged me to a tiny cabin below deck.
Metal rings graced opposite sides of the room, under each sat an unadorned wooden chest, secured to the wall. The pirate pushed me to the floor, pressing his foot into my back. His knife sawed at the net near my hands. I bucked, and his foot pushed harder.
Voices laughed.
My head pounded.
Fear sliced through me, but underneath that, anger vibrated in my chest.
He shoved me upright, and the one with a pug nose slapped an iron cuff onto my wrist, threading the chain through the ring on the wall. I helplessly followed, hoisted by one arm. The lid of the wooden chest raked down my back until I was high enough to sit on it—which I did, desperate to create distance between myself and the gaggle of pirates who crowded around me.
They laughed and jeered. I couldn”t understand their words, but the way they mocked me made their context clear.
Pug Nose ran his finger from my inner elbow to my palm and then sucked it as if sampling a dessert, groaning in feigned satisfaction.
“Chutné, na ryby,” he cooed, patting my cheek with false care.
I growled, swinging at him with my free arm. He caught my hand, yanking up to tickle under my arm.
I wrestled away. With nowhere to go, I burrowed into the wall as far from him as I could manage.
Eyepatch gazed at me, his clawed eye vivid red. He leaned close enough I could taste his breath. “Pozor, táto ryba hryzie,” he said to the others, his voice low and gritty as his eyes fixed onto mine, lip curling.
Someone else answered, “Dám jej nie?o na zahryznutie.” The pirates howled with laughter.
Eye Patch didn’t join them. Staring into my eyes with a dark smile, he slid my wedding ring from my finger, then shoved into my side, my shoulders folding over my chest. Dropping my ring into his pant pocket, he fastened the other cuff onto my wrist.
They filed out, stroking my legs and arms as they went, snapping the door closed behind them.
For a few minutes, I sat alone, dripping and wincing in pain. I experimented with the chain, sliding it through the ring, testing to see if I could reach my feet. Even with one hand completely thrust through, I could barely get the other hand below my shoulders.
The door swung open, men swarming again as they dragged Kye in, conscious and alert. My shoulders drooped with relief. Already cuffed on one hand, they made less of a show as they strung him up through his iron ring and secured the other.
Heavy boots waded through the door, and the pirates made room for the leader from the beach. He leaned on one arm in the doorway, surveying us both, chewing on a piece of cured beef as it hung from his mouth.
“Hello,” he said, his accent so heavy I almost failed to catch the word. He tilted his chin back, letting the beef fall in his mouth, then spent a few more seconds chewing. “So kind of you to join us. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Captain Henri Kriska the Third. My men refer to me most affectionately as Black Teeth.”
Kye spat saliva, congealed with blood, at the captain’s feet.
Captain Kriska glanced at it and back at him. “I am most flattered. Would you do the kindness of introducing yourselves, so we may all be of equal footing?”
“Fuck off,” Kye snarled.
The captain smirked, examining his nails as he chewed. “If not, I”m at a loss. I need confirmation that I have the right people. Without knowing who you are, I might as well tie boulders to your feet and drop you overboard. Rations are tight. Pirates make poor fishermen. We can”t afford extra mouths to feed, and you look incapable of fulfilling chores to grant you free passage, occupied as you are to my wall.”
“He’s the prince of Calder, and I”m his wife,” I spewed through clenched teeth, partially to shut him up. Kye shot me a severe look.
Kriska tilted his head. “Your name, little wife?”
“Why do you want it?” Kye asked.
“Maren,” I spat, earning an even darker glare from Kye.
Kriska’s mouth twitched. “Ah, thank you. Since you seem to grasp the importance of your position, I shall defer to you when we hold meetings aboard Darkness’ Hourglass. First things first—how do you find your accommodations? Are you comfortable?”
Clearly we weren’t. But instinct told me he’d mock me if I complained. I straightened, ignoring the electric pulse in my side as my cuffs clinked over my head.
“Perfectly.”
“Ah, good, very good,” he trilled in his thick accent. “Please let us know if you need anything. Anything at all, we would be most happy to oblige.” He nodded at the other pirates enthusiastically.
His men around him jeered, their eyes boring into me.
“No, thank you.” I ground out, wishing he’d tell them to leave.
“What do you want?” Kye growled, his face scarlet with fury.
“Ah! Yes, yes. How rude. You must forgive me.” Captain Kriska pulled another piece of cured beef from a pocket and popped it in his mouth. He lifted his jacket, tugging a water-stained paper from his waistband. Chewing, he unfolded it. “Reward for one Maren Inoa, Lady of the Sea, ten thousand fraggs. If she is alone, take her by herself. If her prince is with her, kill him.” He refolded it, waving it ineffectually at them. “It goes on to describe you, but you already know how you look, so I’ll spare you. I bring you both onto my ship, where I invite you to cruise with me. For the rest of your days, in your case,” he motioned mildly to Kye.
“Why chain me to your boat?” Kye spat, his fists clenched tight over his head. “Seems easier to kill me on shore.”
I widened my eyes in warning at him, but Captain Kriska snickered. “Ah, to taunt a captor. My dear guests, we are not from your country. The word of a pirate is irrecoverable. In my country, I have a reputation to uphold. Someone paid good money to send me all the way here. Why do you think Calderian pirates were not contracted for this assignment?” Kriska raised his eyebrows animatedly, looking between us.
“So, you”re not going to kill me,” Kye said flatly.
Something had gone over my head.
“I might,” Kriska said. He looked at me, aiming his words at his men. “This one needs a drink.”
The man I’d clawed stalked into the cabin with a glass of water. My hands secured, he lifted it to my lips, and a strange scent entered my nostrils. I whipped my chin away, sending water over the rim. He grabbed my jaw, forcing my head back, and I clamped down. The pirate gave a sudden lurch and stumbled, then whipped around to face Kye, and I realized the prince had kicked him.
“Get off her,” he said, his voice dangerously quiet.
“Burian, Burian. She doesn’t want it, see?” Kriska waved the pirate aside and stepped forward, bowing low in front of me. “Perhaps she is not thirsty. Let us ask her like obliging men to a woman of true nobility. Malá rybaaaaaaaa,” he sang as he straightened, curving an arm to rest on his bent knee. His men laughed behind him. “Malá ryba, sing us your pretty song again. Your voice has been echoing in my ears since I heard it.”
I glowered at him. Across from me, Kye’s lips peeled from his teeth in a silent growl, the skin of his neck vibrant with rage.
“Malá ryba, do not worry. I shall keep your secret safe,” Kriska whispered loudly. “I just—pop!” Twisting an invisible key between his lips, he pretended to drop it into his pocket, patting it softly. “I only ask you to return the favor by drinking the water. It isn’t very poisonous. It’s only a dose of koren valeriany, ground into powder and mixed with water. I take it too when I get—what’s the word?” He glanced back at his men before facing me with a smile. “Cranky.”
One of the pirates snickered. I glared at Kriska.
“Malá ryba,” Kriska kneeled conspiratorially, resting a hand on my thigh. “Do you see Burian’s eye? Perhaps you do not know. I’m an honorable employer to these men. When they lose a body part—say, finger or hand—I compensate. It’s part of the pirate code, yes? Merchants pay hot piss to sailors. The King’s Navy, even worse. Can it be honest work if they are conned out of their wage? I provide for my men. They plunder under my name, and I promise that if something goes amiss, they will be paid for their loss.”
“Now, Burian might lose that eye. It looks very painful. Are you in pain, Burian?”
Burian grinned, his eyelid half-closed. Jagged scratches ran down his orbital bone, his eye bloodshot. “Yhet.”
Kriska sucked his teeth and then turned to me, tsking. “See, malá ryba? I can”t have such misbehavior on my ship. The other pirates wouldn’t approve. A mutiny might occur. I need you to drink the water. A glass today, a glass before we say goodbye, that is all. You have my word.”
“Don”t,” Kye commanded.
I turned my cheek away from Kriska. The pirate sighed audibly.
“Bring me Polina,” he said to no one in particular. Staring directly into my eyes, he ignored the men as they shuffled behind him, stretching their shoulders.
Polina.
I hadn’t seen a woman on deck—but then, I’d only been carried above for a few seconds before being stuffed into the cabin. Another cabin of another ship. Mihauna, what bad luck. I chanced a glance around Kriska’s head, looking for Kye, but the captain smiled and tilted in the way.
Pug Nose brought a wooden box to his captain. The hinges of the lid croaked as Kriska opened it. He lifted a chain, fluid and sparkling, catching the dim light like a string of diamonds.
It was an unfamiliar structure, the cable itself strong yet fine, a silver loop on each end. He stretched it to its full length, about as long as the chain of my shackles, and leaned in to show it to me.
“Meet Polina, malá ryba. Like you, she has hidden talents. She has the power to make people open their mouths—or shut them forever. Let me show you.” He dropped one end of the glittering cable onto the skirt of my chemise, dragging it across my thigh. Hidden teeth burrowed into the fabric. Kriska lifted the cable away and the teeth held on, hooked in like a row of needles. His eyes flicked to mine as the hem of my dress lifted, and he pulled the material out fiber by fiber, each tiny tooth releasing in protest.
“Will you drink the water like a good malá ryba?”
I stared menacingly at him, unsure what the threat was. Was he going to shred my dress? Fine. I’d spent enough time naked as a Naiad these past few months. I didn’t care. I was still too angry to be bothered with worries over my modesty.
He stood and stepped away, his humorous expression fading until he finally shrugged and looped his fingers into either end of the chain. It dangled, a glittering line between his hands.
In one motion, he turned and drew the cable over Kye’s head. The sparkling chain disappeared under the prince’s chin, his body lifting off the wooden chest. In an instant, his face turned violet. His eyes bulged. Hands chained, he twisted and wrenched, but the more he moved, the more the cable dug in.
“Stop!” I shrieked in horror. The clang of Kye’s metal cuffs vibrated through the walls of the room. He worked his mouth. No sound escaped.
Kriska’s shoulders ballooned under his shirt, the veins in his neck and face visible, his knuckles white as he held Kye suspended just over the wooden chest.
“STOP!” I scrambled to stand and slid off my seat. Blood ran down the length of Kye’s throat. Neck stretched, caught between Kriska’s pull and the weight of his own body, his feet danced across the floor, desperate for purchase. His movements slowed, distended like a rag doll in midair.
“I’ll drink it!”
“Ah.” Kriska released the cable from one hand and whipped it away with the other. The men in the doorway dodged the chain, bright red and glistening. It tore from Kye’s skin with a sound like ripping paper, and he doubled over, body raking with guttural breaths as blood dripped from his chin to the puddle of water at his feet.
“Kye?” My voice sounded watery in my ears. Shoulders heaving, he lifted a limp hand in response.
Burian shoved himself in the way, holding the water out to me, and I kicked at the air in his direction, warding him away.
“Just let me see if he’s okay!” I hissed.
Kye lifted his head, the veins in his eyes aflame. Tears streamed down his cheeks. I released a rough sob, my chains hard on my wrists as I struck the empty air in fury. He inhaled, the cavity of his chest filling and emptying like a listless fish out of water.
“Maren,” he wheezed, his voice full of raw gravel, “Don’t.”
One of the men awww-ed mockingly.
Tears tracked freely down my cheeks as I stared at him, bent and heaving for breath.
I refused to watch that again.
“Let’s move this along, eh?” Kriska said, motioning for Burian. The wide-shouldered pirate lifted the glass to my mouth, and I tilted my head to drink.
Water sloshed over the edges, down my neck and under my wet dress. The taste of bitter smoke oozed into my throat, leaving an oily film across my tongue and between my teeth. I retched as Burian lowered the glass, and he turned to raise his eyebrow threateningly at me.
The excitement over, Kriska patted Kye on the back of the head, shushing his breathing in false concern. He straightened and stepped out the door, the men shuffling behind him. “When she’s out, unchain her and leave her on the floor,” Kriska’s voice came through the wall. “I don’t need her hanging on her wrists and breaking them.”
The door slammed shut. A small window in the door shut as well, leaving us in near darkness. Patches of light streamed through the wood around us, and I was reminded sickeningly of my days aboard the Aspire.
Once more locked in the hold of a vessel, wooden walls on all sides. The ceiling of the Aspire’s cargo hold crouched lower than this room. But the walls here drew tighter, the space smaller. My knees almost touched Kye’s.
The confined space left me breathless. Trapped. I rested the back of my head against the wall, coaxing my shallow breath. The shaking in my hands. The panicked flutter of my heart.
Selena’s words floated up to me in the dark.
Naiads weren’t made for ships.
I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Vacouses don’t remember being incanted. But as I gazed at him, swallowing the knot in the back of my throat, I couldn’t help but curse myself for stealing his mind from him.
For leaving him defenseless and vulnerable among enemies.
Bent over, Kye’s body hardened into marble. Water dripped. Boots thudded. He exhaled, slow and silent. “It’s not your fault.”
Shame coiling in my chest, I inhaled, my breath quivering. My chest tightened. I forbid myself from crying. I hadn’t cried on the Aspire, even though I’d just killed my uncle and I’d been taken from the only home I knew. I’d been too filled with anger to cry.
Why should I want to cry now?
“Hey,” came Kye’s voice.
I opened my eyes. Across from me, he leaned against his side of the wall, legs lazily cast apart as though he sat on nothing more than a beachside chair, his breath continuing to rasp.
“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” Despite his careless posture, his eyes flashed with worry.
I swallowed hard, listening to the sound of feet above. The scrapes and scratches, the groan of the ship as it turned its sails. Kriska shouted commands and some thirty oars answered, thrumming through the water. The sea splashed against the wall of the little cabin, muffled and wooden.
Time passed; I didn’t know how much. Maybe twenty minutes, maybe an hour. A fogginess crept into the corners of my mind. I blinked, trying to focus.
“What did you mean when you asked why he wouldn’t kill you?”
He stared at me, Polina”s scarlet line a brilliant streak across his throat. “Kriska’s going to ransom me back to Calder.”
I nodded at the information, some of my worry alleviated. Kye was a prince. A commander. Someone of importance.
But where did that leave me?
My head felt like it was sinking. Someone had opened my skull and filled it with stone.
“Do you know what malá ryba means?”
“It”s Kravan,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “For little fish.”
“Why would he call me little fish?” I mused aloud, my lips beginning to grow numb.
“He”s a madman.”
“But shouldn’t I be a big fish?”
No answer.
I smacked my lips together, running a fuzzy tongue along my palate. “These men are Kravan?”
A beat of silence. “Yes. I’m trying to listen.”
Above, activity took hold over the upper deck, and we both craned our necks toward the sound. Someone dragged something heavy over my head. It lugged ominously, catching every grain in the wood.
“Can you speak Kravan?” I whispered loudly.
He gave a raspy sigh towards the door, eyes narrowed as he listened to the muffled voices above. ”Some.”
“What does nie?o mean?”
Impatient, he shook his head. “Something.”
“Okay, so you don”t speak it.”
“It means something.”
“What though?” I slurred.
“The word something.” He glanced at me, then sat up in alarm. A fresh wash of blood trickled down his neck, freed by his movement. “Leihani. Don’t fall asleep.”
“I’m not.” Reclining into the wall at my back, I pulled gently on my chains.
Why were my wrists chained?
“Don’t close your eyes.”
“I won’t,” I promised, but the thought was delicious. I tilted my head against the wall, resting in the nook of one arm, feeling my eyelashes flutter against my own skin.
“Ask me for more words.”
“I don”t know any words.” My head solidified, heavy as a brick—but somehow, my body weighed nothing at all.
He prodded my shin with his toe. “Ask me the Kravan word for island.”
Opening a groggy eye, I squinted at him in the dark. “What’s the Kravan word for island?”
“Ostrov. Ask me another.”
I shook my head. “I can’t think of any.”
“Leihani,” he hissed in anger. “Maren.”
But the scent crawling from him was acrid and sour, a cloud of fear.
The sea bobbed us side to side. Above, someone dropped an accumulation of rope. It thudded the deck, uncoiling in layers.
“Don’t close your eyes.”
“They’re not closed,” I murmured, though I realized they were. I tried to pry them open, but they refused to move.
Across from me, Kye swore under his breath.
The door swung open, hitting the wall and jolting me awake. I sat up straight, then nodded forward again, my head determined to remain unbalanced.
Rough hands unlocked one of my cuffs.
I tried to hit them—whoever they were—but my arm flopped of its own volition into my lap, heavy as a bolt of iron.
They guided me to the floor. I felt them stroke my legs, chuckling to each other. I kicked, but my feet didn’t respond.
Someone shouted. A ripple of noise followed, muffled and distant, almost as if I was underwater.
Was I sinking?
I forced one eyelid open.
Kye stood over me, his eyes darkened with a fury. He leaned forward against his chains, his body brimming with savage fire as he eyed the two pirates that backed away, treading past my head and out the door.
One of them called toward the upper deck. His words blurred, his voice echoing maddeningly in my ears. Then he turned back to Kye, a smile lengthening his mouth as his eyes narrowed.
Men swarmed through the door, their boots pinching the edges of my skin as they invaded the tiny cabin. Someone stepped on my wrist, another on my calf, neither one letting up.
Their focus wasn’t on me.
A crash against the wall vibrated the plankboards, but I couldn’t see anything past the legs standing above me, the arms thrown in the same direction, fists cocked toward the wall.
One of them flew back, tripping and landing on my legs. Another followed, blown out the door as if he’d been shoved.
Come on!A familiar voice screamed in rage. Come on!
The words punctuated the inside of my skull long after all other sound went out.