Chapter 9 Lines #2
The antidote Emille had crafted still burned faintly in my throat, a bitter anchor keeping me from tipping into the hallucinations. But even with it, the mist carried whispers—soft and pleading—as though the sea had been waiting centuries to speak.
The Bane crept through the red waters now, its men staggering like drunkards. Lurching. Dropping. Shouting at ghosts I couldn’t see.
Fear had her fingers around their throats now.
Val stepped beside me, her grin sharp and merciless. “Orders, Captain.”
I didn’t take my eyes off the red horizon.
“Board her by force,” I said.
Val clicked her tongue. “You got it.”
And with that, she was shouting orders, and we were moving once more as the Bane slowed to a near stop, likely having dropped her anchor just before reaching the red and seeing the trap we’d set.
Her captain likely took us for easy prey, being anchored for what a captain with half a brain would leave her ship vulnerable like that.
A desperate one.
That would always be the answer.
Red mist clung to the air around us, rising.
“It worked,” Emille said.
“It worked.” Dilly echoed his disbelief.
“Get the boats ready, Inu,” I said, turning to the silent woman next to me.
She nodded and met my eyes. Her dark ones shining with emotion, neither of us dared to name.
“The last one,” she said.
“The last one,” I promised.
She turned without another word and began work on the newest set of lifeboats we’d accumulated. We were monsters all the same, but we would spare life where we could.
The Bane groaned as she stilled next to us, and the shouts and cries of the sailors aboard cut through the mist like a knife.
“Likely two minutes left,” Dilly said quietly.
“Then we will make this quick,” I said.
Val and several others on the crew went to work immediately, boarding the Bane and subduing the crew. It was likely the easiest time they had had of it, as none of them were present enough to fight. Instead, most of them were on their knees or leaning overboard, seeing visions that were not there.
As long as I lived, I would remember their cries. The grown men begged for the people they loved to be spared. I’d done this to them.
Within minutes, the Wraith’s crew had every member of the Bane tied and placed on deck. Most were disturbingly quiet, staring straight ahead without blinking. Others still cried softly. Those five minutes cost them more than most knew in a lifetime.
I wished I were more sorry than I was, but the truth is, I would have done it again. Maybe I was already the monster Bash had spent years crafting for himself. I doubted he’d be proud of whatever I was now. Yet I wouldn’t regret it.
Val appeared at the end of the plank on the Bane’s side and bowed her head.
“The Bane is yours, Captain,” she said.
The air smelt of ash, and metal bit at my tongue.
“See that the boats are readied and begin unloading the crew into them,” I ordered.
She nodded and practically pranced across the plank. If I didn’t trust her as much as I did, I might have been worried about her bloodlust.
Maybe I’d worry about it later.
For now, I lowered my mask and crossed the threshold over blood red water and met the eyes of Phineus Grangely.
I’d known him since I was a young girl. He’d snuck me chocolates when my mother said I’d had enough.
His laugh was loud and obnoxious, just like the white mustache curled up over his mouth, but his eyes were always kind.
Except now. They were hollow–still seeing visions that would exist forever in his mind.
“You chose James Allen as your master,” I said, my voice cracking too much.
I was not Rosamund Bailey. I was Hellcat Smith. I could not afford to break.
Captain Grangely lifted his bloodshot eyes to mine, and he was no longer gracefully aging, but had one foot in the grave.
“I serve who pays. A man with a family to feed cannot be discerning,” he said, voice haggard as if he’d been screaming.
“Did Lord Bailey’s new shipping line offer you a place after years of loyalty?” I asked.
Beneath the fog, a knowing discernment gathered like a light in the night. I’d said too much. Cared too much.
“Who are you?” he asked.
I swallowed, steeling my nerves. “An enemy you chose when you decided to lack discernment over money. Your time on the Bane has come to an end, Captain Grangely. Your crew and yourself will live based on the understanding that you are to send a message for me.”
He tilted his head, gray hairs clinging to the sweat pouring down his face and neck. Its salt mixed with the salt of the sea air only to meet the metallic stench of blood made it feel like I was choking.
“I’ve heard of your message. I knew the risk when I set sail,” he said.
I crouched before him, meeting his eyes.
“The message has changed,” I said, voice made of steel.
“I am done. I will bleed the seas red just as I have today and make them inhospitable to all trade and shipping.
I will burn the Mysterious Deep if Captain Edmonds does not heed the message he will receive in three days' time. As for James Allen. He is done with the shipping industry. He can sell what little he has left, but what he took is no longer his.”
Grangely tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.
“All of London knows of Hellcat Smith’s vendetta against Lord Allen, but I wonder if there is more to this story,” he said.
I stood, sheathing my sword.
“Your curiosity is unnecessary, only your cooperation, Captain Grangely. Do I make myself clear?” I asked.
He nodded, and that was all I needed.
I stepped across the plank linking our ships over bloody waters and knew that the end was near. This was enough.
I’d bled, and now it was time to take what belonged to me.
“Corpse Cove, Val,” I said as I passed her.
“Going home then?” Val teased, her braid hanging over her shoulder.
“Going home,” I echoed, a fluttering in my heart betraying what I’d spent months tampering down.
Hope.