Chapter 6 Best Friend #2
Turning away from them, I watched a group of young boys dart between the stalls, trying to snatch a loaf from one of the bakers.
He shouted, throwing a tin can at them; its clatter was useless in ending their antics.
It wasn’t their demeanor that gave away its lack of influence in diverting them, but the knowingness that hummed deep inside me—one that came from the experience of walking a life in their shoes.
A life that was once far more straightforward.
I pivoted, lifting my chin and catching a few onlookers’ attention. They nodded, a handful muttering greetings, which I returned with simplicity and nothing more. They knew better than to say my name too loudly, even if they recognized me from a long-lost life.
Not here. Not anymore.
I passed a cart loaded with smoked fish, their scales gleaming like moonstones under the sun.
Continuing my route to the man I’d come for, a woman offered me a wink and a cut of meat, but I waved her off.
I wasn’t hungry for that kind of memory, not when there were too many entanglements and deeper meanings behind every interaction here.
The booth caught my eye, set up in the same spot it always had been, to ensure returning customers.
Standing taller than my six-foot-two frame, a large shelf cast a shadow filled with sin across the cobblestone.
Decorated with varying colored bottles, intoxication hummed through their rainbow reflections.
The display never faltered, ensuring the man running it secured a significant profit, even if he didn’t play the role of opulence.
Standing right beside it was the man of the hour.
Clad in a flannel jacket and worn breeches, Arthur bantered jovially with another merchant.
The two exchanged a handful of belly laughs, hinting at something in their conversation being inherently hilarious.
Arthur’s lips parted in an open-mouthed grin, and each absent tooth spoke of another life that included the piracy and illegal activities that both Caspian and I had fallen into.
Arthur had been our introduction to the sea, a man of immense knowledge and wisdom as we began our journeys, just as he’d been the one to watch us crumble beneath one another.
Waving off his companion, he pivoted, scanning the crowd before inevitably finding me.
His smile bloomed like a ghost-petal lily after the season’s first thunderstorm—a pale silver or seafoam-colored flower that grew low to the ground along the coastal cliffs, one we pirates used to ward off death at sea.
It was a fitting comparison for him, considering the lore he clung to and the secrets he refused to share.
The ghost-petal lily was said to grow only where someone had drowned. Arthur claimed to know where one of Ellira’s Eyes was. And the last time we’d spoken, he’d said it “walked among us”—something he hadn’t bothered to elaborate on, no matter how drunk I’d gotten him.
“Ace!” he bellowed, opening his arms for me as the gap between us vanished. “Long time no see, boy!”
Allowing him to draw me in for a hug, my nose filled with the pungent odor of alcohol that clung to him like a second skin. “It’s good to see you, too, Arthur.”
I pulled back, sweeping his frame to ensure no further damage had been inflicted on him since the last time we’d seen one another. As if sensing my observation, he lifted his right arm, wiggling his two left-over fingers. “No worries about your friend, er, um—”
“Enemy?” I questioned, lifting a brow. “Good, I would’ve hated finding out that he’d wronged you once again.”
“No wronging,” he remarked, a deep grin sprawling across his lips.
Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “What?”
“He stopped by last night.”
“He was in Darswyth?”
Arthur simply nodded.
“What the hell for?”
He shrugged. “He stopped by, and I asked ‘em if he wanted a drink, but he oddly declined. Asked me about some girl.”
A girl? Caspian Vayne is asking about a girl?
“In what capacity?”
Wiping his thumb across his lips, he craned his head to the side. “In exchange for information, you’ll have to buy—”
I retrieved a dagger from my hip, burrowing it into his matted beard to find his throat.
“I do not believe you are in any position to try to negotiate with a pirate. Nor do I feel it is wise that you’d even attempt to do so with me.
” My tongue trailed over my canines as I narrowed my glower.
“I will not ask you again, Arthur. If you wish to keep your esophagus intact and continue scamming the pitiful morons that walk these filth-ridden streets, tell me what Caspian wanted and what information you provided.”
He groaned, looking up at me. “He was after a beautiful copper-haired woman. She’d run through the night market practically unclothed, likely from Seirdra’s Veil.
There was an air about ‘er, as if The Tide Eaters resided within ‘er, craving retribution for all the ways men have harmed their mothers.” A devious sneer coated his expression as he continued, “Your enemy may have gotten himself into a handful of trouble.”
I loosened my grip, shoving him away from me. “Where was he ported?”
“Same place as always.” His fingers lifted, pointing toward where we’d docked our ship.
“And when did they leave?”
“Dawn, sailing northeast.”
Pulling a pouch of coins from my pocket, I tossed it at him. “Get me my usual.”
“Not going to stick around for a drink either, huh?” he asked, turning his back to me to grab the most potent and expensive rum and whiskey he always kept in stock for me.
“Sorry, Arthur,” I hummed, lifting my chin skyward. “There’s far too much blue to sail to hunt down the man who nearly cost me my life. Knowing he may have a potential weakness, I won’t waste another second on land.”
Caspian had wished for war the day he’d left me bleeding at sea, stealing the treasures we’d acquired together, with a crew he still brainwashed into standing beside him.
And now that I’d deciphered his location after searching for him for eight years straight with no success in taking his life, I refused to let him slip through my fingers again.
It was time for me to wage my wrath accordingly, for he’d hidden from me for far too long.