Chapter 8 Sofie
Chapter eight
Sofie
Dark dreams, filled with mist and a sneering mask of a face, faded abruptly as something nudged me into wakefulness.
The weather had turned warmer over the past week, and the skies were far clearer than in the northern parts of the Prevarian Sea at this time of year. Sunlight streamed through a gap in the curtains, but a shadow—a silhouette—was still present in my mind.
With a gasp, I bolted upright in what passed for my bed, then jumped to my feet.
A foul wave of rum filled the cabin. Jax had gone to bed late after celebrating with the crew below deck. Apparently finishing the ledgers was very important. Something about keeping or improving a bard…it hadn’t made much sense.
What I did understand was that Jax was still sleeping off his drink. The bed linens were going to reek now, both of alcohol and of sweat.
I heaved a long-suffering sigh. So much for my chance at ever sleeping in the bed again. I didn’t even want it now.
Not that it mattered right now. I recognized the tingling sensation that had awakened me. Another ship was trailing us.
And the captain was too hung over to care.
What a sorry excuse for a pirate captain!
He wouldn’t have lasted a year on Aegle, where I had learned my augury skills as part of my training to one day be a household priestess, since fighting and raiding were out of my…
natural skillset. My father used to affectionately call me a cold water shrimp.
At some point, though, I had stopped needing to go through the rituals in order to tell when ships were approaching our island. It was the first hint that I was developing strong magic.
So I knew this like I knew my own name: Blue Moon was being pursued.
As before every battle, I felt a wave of ice sweep over me. I hurried out of the captain’s cabin and up the stairs beside it for a better vantage point, hands tingling as I rallied my magical energy for the fight.
I was halfway up the stairs when a force yanked me back.
I screamed, nearly loosing a spell blindly like a novice. Only I didn’t fall to the ship’s deck.
I was dangling by the waistband of my skirt, my toes swaying like a pendulum a bare inch from the deck.
A broad hand spread over my belly, righting me as I was set back on my feet. The culprit who’d pulled me off the steps in such an undignified manner was none other than Jax.
Of course it was Jax.
“There’s a ship chasing us,” I said, annoyed. “Do you want my help, or would you rather let it catch us?”
“What did I tell you yesterday, wife?” Though Jax’s voice was all gravel, his eyes crinkled. He was unable—and probably unwilling—to keep the amusement from his eyes. “I have a fleet. Collectively called Carabosse. It would be tedious to name them all every time.”
My heart sank. “We’re not under attack?”
“Not from one of my ships. And in case you were wondering, there are three more trailing it.”
I huffed, rubbing my back. “You didn’t have to yank me off the stairs like that.”
“It seemed prudent, before you set fire to something I own.”
He was making me regret telling him about my magic. Unconsciously, I raised a hand to touch my dwarvish-red hair before stopping myself.
“Turn around,” Jax said, amusement lacing his deep voice.
Regretting every movement, I did as he said…and beheld a distant speck of land.
I had completely lost my bearings over the last few weeks.
“Where are we?” I asked, trying to compare the barely visible shape to the jutting coastlines I recalled from maps.
“That,” said Jax, sounding proud, “Is Starfall. The chief isle of the pirates, and part of the archipelago known as Prevaria. Something few outsiders ever get to see.”
When I hurried to the ship’s rail to get a better look, Jax followed. I couldn’t help but notice he didn’t offer me a spyglass, even though I knew he kept a collapsible one on his person. The Lady de Gorm was currently using one about ten feet from me.
I squinted into the sunrise, as if that would help.
“I’m not sure an isle of pirates would welcome a sorceress of Dewspell,” I said, a sense of dread building inside me. Bluebeard was hardly the only pirate Dewspell had business with. Our sorcerers were known to take down the ships of pirates who made pests of themselves.
Dewspell didn’t take kindly to their ships being robbed, or any disruption of trade to Elchion.
“You’ll be out of place,” Jax agreed, missing the point, “as much as the Lady de Gorm would be in your grand libraries.”
My head snapped towards him in surprise.
“What?” he asked. “I have heard of the world’s greatest magical library. Libraries, since it’s really several.“ Jax tisked. “You do so love to underestimate me.”
“The feeling is mutual.” I turned back to the dot of land, scowling at it. It didn’t make its shape any clearer.
“You’re wrong about me,” the Lady de Gorm said belatedly, collapsing her spyglass. “I’d be right at home in those libraries. Especially the deep, dark ones with forbidden books about outlawed magic and cursed things. And the secrets of the world of monsters.” She shuddered. “Delicious.”
“They’re not forbidden,” I said, unimpressed. “Dewspell doesn’t ban any knowledge. They’re just restricted.”
“What’s the difference?” Jax asked, clearly expecting there was none.
The difference was, if you could prove to the librarians and professors that you could follow the rules—and that you wouldn’t take all that dark knowledge and turn into a new incarnation of the dreadlords who once plagued our realm, or a cursed king like Haakon the Harbinger of Gerhelm—someone would write you a pass to go read whatever you liked.
I doubted Jax or the Lady would ever qualify. “I wouldn’t expect pirates to understand,” I answered.
“Oasis would,” Jax said, sounding proud.
“Oasis? Is that one of your crewmembers?”
“My first crewmember.”
I gave up on the approaching isle, and turned from the ship’s rail—only to collide with Jax’s chest.
He continued to not move as I cried out in surprise. It took me another moment to realize his hand was wrapped around my elbow and forearm, steadying me.
He grinned down at me.
“In another pair of hours, you won’t be the only sorceress on board. Oasis may not have your fancy education, but she is better suited to this life than you are.”
“Not shocking,” I said, expecting he meant this to sting. “Why doesn’t she break the curse, then?”
“If it was made of wind magic, I’m sure she would’ve. But dark magic is more your specialty, is it not?” He might’ve winked at me then, but I was trying my best not to look at him.
He was standing uncomfortably close, still gripping my arm.
“Oasis is a friend since my boyhood,” he continued, “sailing toward us on Temerity.”
“Oasis,” I repeated, trying to picture Jax as a child and failing. “What happened, couldn’t think of any other synonyms for blue?”
Jax barked a laugh. “It’s a common practice for pirates to use an alias, for obvious reasons. I was hardly Bluebeard at the beginning.”
“So that explains Omar,” I said sarcastically of the boatswain, the only crew member besides the cabin boy not to use a name meaning blue or one of its shades.
“There’s no explaining Omar,” the Lady de Gorm said with an eye roll. “He thinks he’s too famous to take an alias.”
I shot a quizzical look at Jax that was full of exasperation. I’d been on this ship for weeks, and everyone still avoided explaining even the most minor details. It was as if I’d barely earned their trust. The trust of pirates—the last people on earth whose word I’d trust.
“I’m the second pirate lord who’s employed Omar,” Jax said with a shrug, finally releasing my arm. “He once built the first working sandship—then was left for dead after his cohorts stole his design. The man who became Whitebeard found him.”
That was Omar? I’d heard of sandships that sailed dunes like they were water. “How did he end up here?”
“He met Safira, obviously,” the Lady de Gorm said, sounding bored as she strode away, her boot heels clunking across the deck. “People with hearts make fascinating choices.”
Jax snorted. “Don’t let her fool you, pet. The Lady de Gorm has plenty of heart.”
It took me a moment to realize Jax was talking to me. “Pet?” I asked, frowning up at him.
He shrugged. “It wouldn’t do for someone to sense a division between us while we’re on Starfall. My fellow pirates don’t need anything else to exploit.”
My brows must’ve knit together at that, for Jax was soon laughing at me…
…and reaching out to smooth the furrow between my eyebrows.
I recoiled from his calloused touch.
“That won’t do, either,” Jax said, clucking his tongue. He leaned in, so close I could smell the rum in his sweat from the prior night’s reveries. “The curse has left me unable to die, but it doesn’t mean I’m invulnerable.”
I drew away from his nearness. “That’s not what Mr. Smalt told me.”
“The crew is different,” Jax said, somehow still too close to me. “As you said, I’m the touchpoint for the curse—and the one the Bride enacts her vengeance upon.”
“If that’s true,” I said, “then why is the crew cursed?”
“To make me suffer.” Jax stepped back at last, making me realize how shallowly I’d been breathing. He held out his arms, saying loudly, “It’s all about making the bridegroom suffer.”
I scoffed. “Curses aren’t that simple.”
“This one is.”
“Let me study you, and prove it.”
He laughed. “Some other time, pet. I’ve got to prepare.”
“For what?” I crossed my arms.
“For my triumphant return, of course.”
Goddess of the North, was I ever sorry I’d asked.
“Did anyone ever tell you you’re a narcissist?” I asked, my hands tented on my hips.
“Is it still narcissism if you really are that magnificent?”
I sighed. “So that’s a no.”
“I’ve had nine wives,” Jax answered with a grin. “And countless paramours in countless ports. What do you think?”
I rolled my eyes. “I think you’re exaggerating.”
“Is that what you think of me, pet? A narcissist and a liar?”
“A pirate and a thief,” I corrected.
He stepped towards me again, bending to lean closer to my face. “I steal hearts on occasion,” he murmured, eyes dancing. “You’d best guard yours.”
I shoved him in the chest. Hard.
“Best lay off that rum.”
“In rum, truth,” he said, mocking me by staggering backwards overly far.
“That’s wine,” I retorted.
“Is it? I’ll be sure to find you a glass while we’re on Starfall.” He walked backwards as he departed, ducking to avoid the rigging without even looking. “Maybe then we’ll learn what actually goes on in that little red head of yours.”
I made a mental note never to drink in front of him. The last thing this situation needed was for him or the crew to know the horror that was my inner workings.
Like the fact that I was starting to care what Jax thought about me.