Chapter 3
Chapter three
Sofie
The last time I heard such a symphony of blades being drawn, I was in the training yard at Dewspell Academy in my third year. I hadn’t thought much of it then.
This time, the discordant music was as grim as the fate Bluebeard had already handed me.
Now, or later? I suppose it didn’t matter when I died, but I thought I’d like to make this pirate’s life miserable for just a little longer. So I turned, magic at the ready.
“If you think the only spells I know are curses, try me,” I said, one hand going to my hip and the other rising before me, a small distortion of light the only hint that I was gathering magic for an attack spell. “I don’t think you’ll like the results.”
The man I’d mistaken for the captain last night—Aoki, Bluebeard had called him—was the first to speak, but had only one word to say. “Captain?”
It was like he was ignoring me completely.
These pirates weren’t taking me seriously enough by half.
Deciding this would be a good time to put my fate back in my own hands, I took a step toward the fallen captain, who was just now trying to rise from his knees. I let the spell forming at my palm unwind in favor of other, more insidious magic.
The magic I seemed to be best at.
My wet hair whirled, then landed at my back with a slap as I pulled the strands of a curse out of the raw sea air, settling them over the captain. In an instant, I had them tightened around him like corset strings.
Bluebeard gasped, then fell to the cabin floor again.
His crew rushed towards me, blades rising.
“Stop!” I commanded. “Or do you want your captain to suffer?”
With a sharp hiss, Aoki called off the attackers. Behind him, the wind died in the sails, untended by anyone. Everyone on the ship—even the little cabin boy, with a heap of Bluebeard’s clothes and a folded bath sheet tucked under one arm, had a dagger in his hand.
“Captain Bluebeard,” I decreed, weaving power into my voice, “I curse you to eternal slumber, should you prick your finger on…”
A slow, warming smile spread across my lips as I considered my options. One glance at my surroundings and I found the one I liked best—one I liked more than any curse I’d ever cast before.
“...a splinter of wood.” I laughed, hiding the nasty burn of rebounded magic; he had some kind of protection spell in place, of a type I hadn’t encountered before. I hadn’t even detected it.
Covering my blunder, I then stepped over him as I entered the cabin. My cabin. “I do wish you the best of luck, captain. Now. Have we settled the matter of who will be staying in this cabin? Or should I add a little more flavor to your current…predicament?”
As if the tightening spell prevented him from breathing, Bluebeard gasped and noisily sucked in air, rolling back onto his hands and knees. When he finally stood again, he wavered. “How?” he rasped.
“Goodness. My magic did a number on you, didn’t it?” I clucked my tongue as I moved past him. “An unintended consequence of mixing magics, I think, since I only meant to hurt you a little.”
He said nothing, his nostrils flaring with anger as he continued to sway on his feet.
“Does that mean it’s true, then?” I prodded, straightening the coverlet on the captain’s bed—my bed. “Is the mighty pirate Bluebeard actually cursed, or is that just a convenient excuse for what happens to your brides?”
Did that mean I was cursed, too? I didn’t feel any different, except for the persistent sting from my partially rebounded spell.
My mind was racing. Did the little princess feel it, when I put the curse on her?
What if it hurt her? I sat down on the bed, fighting a shiver that wasn’t entirely from the cold as I wondered what happened to the captain this cabin actually belonged to.
But I was better off not thinking of the possibilities.
Now was not the time to let fear take hold.
I was playing with fire, challenging a man like Bluebeard in front of his crew. Humiliating him in front of his crew. He might decide I was more trouble than I was worth and toss me overboard, and we were nowhere near land right now.
I thought of the swift presences I’d sensed in the water, sharks and all manner of sea creatures.
I didn’t fancy meeting any of them. So I reminded myself I was born to a shield-maiden of Aegle and a proud warrior father, and that I had bested better fighters than this Bluebeard with my magic. Even if he was twice my size.
It was not a comforting thought, then, noticing how the cold water had sapped my strength. Fatigue was creeping in, working its way into my bones after the spells I’d just cast.
I needed to get out of these wet clothes. Fast.
All hope of that ended when Bluebeard slammed the cabin door shut behind him—with him still inside the cabin.