Chapter 37
Gaeren was about to force his way into the ship’s hull to go after Aeliana when the door leading below deck opened with a crash, slamming into a table before flinging back to catch on Velden’s boot.
Gaeren froze as Velden’s dagger came into view, followed by the water shackles around Dreyfus.
Gasps from the crowd made it clear he wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Guess it was time for a new plan.
Velden swung his dagger around wildly, ensuring a wide berth from the next set of ticket holders who had just crossed the plank.
“You all came for a show, so today you get one.” His voice rose even louder. “And I won’t even distinguish between buyers and onlookers. It’s a free show, and it will be a grand one, because it will be this man’s last.”
Behind Dreyfus, Aeliana emerged carrying a magnificent Sayhleen tail that almost looked fake with its brilliant colors.
She caught Gaeren’s eye over her hefty cargo, but he couldn’t get close enough to tell if she’d already come up with a new plan.
He could try pulling it from her memories, but it seemed more prudent to focus on Velden’s current chaos.
“This man shows off a beautiful Sayhleen tail.” Velden turned back to Aeliana, gesturing for her to hold it out as evidence.
She did as he wanted, but Gaeren could see she didn’t like it. Velden’s grief was driving him mad. How were they going to rein him in?
“But he hasn’t been honest about how he came by the tail. Tell us, Dreyfus, how did you find such a prize?”
Dreyfus licked his lips, his eyes scanning the crowd, looking for an escape. “I caught her in my nets. I tried to save her, but by the time I got to her, she was already dead from another injury.”
Velden clucked his tongue. “So, shall it be your word against mine?”
“No.” Dreyfus’ voice rose a little higher. “She was injured or something. She left a trail of blood in the water. If I hadn’t gotten to her first, the sharks would have.”
“It’s funny,” Velden said. “I’d think if you saw a woman bleeding in the water, you would attempt to help her instead of harpooning her.”
“Maybe,” the man said, narrowing his eyes at Velden. “But she bared her teeth at me, and I got the sense she wasn’t quite tame.”
Velden flinched, his dagger drawing nearer to Dreyfus’ neck. The other man leaned back, exposing his neck more as he avoided the glint of steel.
Aeliana tugged on Velden’s sleeve, and he glanced her way, his gaze softening a bit.
“I need you, Velden,” she said. “If I don’t have you, who will keep Sylmar in check?” Her smile wavered, but Velden shook his head.
“I’ve waited twenty-five years for this moment.”
Gaeren’s mind raced through their options. All Velden’s antics had done was bring on more witnesses and more obstacles. Several men and women covered their children’s eyes, backing away. It wouldn’t be long before local soldiers were sent to intervene.
He stepped forward, and for a moment, Velden’s wild eyes seemed to forget that he was a friend. The watery shackles tightened, making Dreyfus cry out, and the dagger shifted toward Gaeren. But then Velden pivoted the dagger back to Dreyfus once more.
“How shall we do it, oh mighty prince? Drown him at sea? String him up from his own mast? I still favor gutting him like he did my mother.” The last option was said on a growl.
Gaeren stepped around Velden, placing his hands on Dreyfus’ shoulders and pulling the two men apart a half step. The shackles loosened a hair but remained in place.
“I’m not sure we should do any of those things with this number of witnesses.”
Dreyfus nodded quickly. “I knew you had the most common sense out of all the royals.”
Gaeren grimaced, finding it hard to maintain objectivity when the man was proving to be as obnoxious as his reputation. “Do you have the fish?” he whispered to Aeliana.
She nodded.
Despite their impossible situation, Gaeren felt light. It didn’t matter that they were attempting to steal something from a murderer in broad daylight. They’d found the starbridge. If they could cross that hurdle, escaping this was nothing.
“Tell them what you did when you saw the wounded Sayhleen in your nets,” Velden continued, drawing more eyes. He was an even better performer than Dreyfus, since he used his free webbed hand to spray waves of water to draw attention.
“He’s like the green-eyed goddess,” one of the closest observers told his friend, distracting Gaeren with the memory of an old lead he’d chased when looking for Aeliana—a green-eyed goddess rumored to control the seas.
“She was dying.” Dreyfus interrupted Gaeren’s thoughts, his voice turning into a whine as Velden lost more control. “When animals are dying, you put them out of their misery.”
His final word ended on a screech as Velden’s shackles rose him half a foot off the deck, tugging his shoulders at an awkward angle and pulling him out from Gaeren’s grip.
Gaeren placed his hands on the man’s back, unsure if supporting him would prolong his misery or save his life.
Surely Velden knew they couldn’t kill him with this many witnesses.
“And what about the young naval student you saw swimming with her?” Velden asked.
“She was alone,” the man said. Gaeren sensed the lie through the man’s back with his underused pneumatic spoke. He frowned, but instead of testing it further, he dove into the man’s memories, feeling no remorse over the invasion of privacy.
The memory was already at the tip of Dreyfus’ mind, giving Gaeren quick and easy access. From within Dreyfus’ memory, Gaeren drew the net closer, heaving it out of the water and into his boat. The body dropped with a heavy smack, blood splashing across his thigh.
The beautiful woman’s eyes stared back at him, glassy and sorrowful.
“If you hadn’t fought back,” Dreyfus muttered, shaking his head. “I might have been able to let you live. Imagine how much people would pay to see a live Sayhleen.”
Gaeren wanted to retch, but Dreyfus kept cutting the net from around the Sayhleen.
“Except you would have talked. Maybe even escaped. This is the safest way to cash in on a prize.” Gaeren felt a grin stretch across his lips—until a man’s cries reached his ears.
Dreyfus squinted out over the water, giving Gaeren a glimpse of a much younger Velden swimming through the water unreasonably fast. Dreyfus grabbed his harpoon once more but seemed aware that the man coming his way was in fact just a man. Hardly something he could harpoon.
“Did the siren reel you in?” he called out good-naturedly.
“Don’t worry; I’ve taken care of her. She won’t bother you anymore.
” Velden’s approach didn’t slow, making Dreyfus hesitate.
Gaeren sensed the calculated decision over the risk Velden brought to Dreyfus’ prize.
Decision made, he swapped out the harpoon for a dart.
The poison wouldn’t kill the man, but he’d likely drown before he regained consciousness.
“Can’t have any witnesses,” Dreyfus muttered.
His aim was true, but at first Velden’s stride hardly slowed. As he neared the boat, his face grew slack with understanding. “I’ll kill you,” he said slowly before his head sank below the waves.
“Not if I kill you first.” Dreyfus turned back to the Sayhleen, pulling a hatchet from his belt.
Gaeren cut the memory off in a panic, horrified at what likely came next, disgusted by what he’d already seen. He pulled his hands off the man’s back as if touching him made his evil methods contractable.
“I won’t blame you if you end him in whatever way you wish,” Gaeren ground out.
“Gaeren,” Aeliana hissed. “That’s not helping.”
“I saw what he did.” Gaeren’s voice rose.
Now the eyes of the bystanders turned his way.
“He harpooned her so he could make money. Dead slaves can’t complain or escape.
Then he shot the only witness with a poison dart, assuming he would drown, not knowing the man was her son and fully able to breathe underwater. ”
The crowd gasped, but Gaeren wasn’t sure if their reaction was over Dreyfus’ depravity or the shock of Velden’s ancestry.
“He’s a murderer two times over.”
Instead of the words rallying Velden further, the older man’s arms dropped, the shackles and Dreyfus along with them. “He killed her.” His webbed hands covered his eyes. “She shouldn’t have even been out in the water that day. But I insisted she take me. I wanted her to take me home. To her home.”
Velden’s vulnerability was all Dreyfus needed to rise and backhand the broken man. Velden fell back, his dagger clattering to the deck.
Gaeren’s sword was out to block the man before he could turn, except Aeliana had the same idea. She used Velden’s mother’s poor tail to knock the conman to the deck, and Gaeren had to stay his sword before he accidentally ran her through in his haste to disarm Dreyfus.
Her face held shock and guilt at her own actions, and she picked up the Sayhleen tail, practically cradling it. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her words more for the tail than anyone else.
“If you think this man’s lies ended with his murders, you’re all fools,” Gaeren shouted, pulling Dreyfus up to face the crowd. The tail must have hit his head just right because his eyes fluttered as he fought for consciousness.
Velden recovered enough to grab his dagger and sheathe it, but his body still shook with sobs, his hands back to covering his face. He was no longer in danger of publicly murdering his enemy, but that still didn’t mean they had a way out.
“How well can you swim?” Gaeren whispered.
Aeliana’s laugh came out on a choke. “Decent, but not when I’m holding this.” She angled her head toward the Sayhleen tail in her arms.
Gaeren grimaced, guessing it weighed more than half of what she did. “We’ll have to leave it,” he said.
“No.” Velden stood, surprising Gaeren. He took the tail from Aeliana’s hands and leaned his forehead against its scales, murmuring some sort of prayer or homage.
Gaeren put his sword away and let Dreyfus slump to the side, but the bystanders were getting braver. The young girl who’d helped swindle attendees stood with her jaw hanging open as people crossed the plank without buying tickets.
“We need to get out of here.” Gaeren said the words in a singsong to hide the fear crawling up his throat. Until an idea struck. “Can we use the fish?”
“Only as a last resort,” Aeliana said.
“I think we’re on last resorts.” Gaeren held out his hand, beckoning for her to hand the starbridge over.
“If we use it now, it could be a week or more before we can return for the others, and who knows where it would drop us? We need to get back to your ship first.”
He debated pulling out the golden arrow. At least they knew where that would take them. But it would also set them back by weeks they didn’t have.
“I’ll hold them off while you leave,” Velden said, tightening his grip on his mother’s tail. “I got what I came for.”
“We’re not leaving you.” Aeliana’s tone was firm, but she backed up against the ship’s railing as the people grew closer, their cries holding demands for the imprisonment of not just Dreyfus but also Aeliana, Velden, and Gaeren. “Can you swim with her body?”
“It will slow me down, but I’m faster than you.”
“Good enough for me,” Gaeren said. He hopped up on the railing, awkwardly pulling and forcing both of them up with him before unceremoniously pushing them into the water. A hand grasped at his ankle as he jumped after them, but he slipped from the stranger’s grip and plunged beneath the sea.