10 All the Treasure in the Sea
All the Treasure
in the Sea
“SO, HERE’S THE THING,” Hawk said to Elizabeth, placing himself into the old familiar chair in her office. “Even with the cannons from the Hecate, it’s too risky taking on the Estrela do Norte alone.”
“What are you asking me?” Elizabeth leaned in, her hair falling in silken strands elegantly in front of her face.
“I am saying, we need a... cshmshh.”
“Beg pardon?”
“A cnsssrrr.”
“A corsaire?”
“Consort! All right? I need a consort!”
“The Dreaded Hawk, Scourge of the Seas, Captain of the Orca, still needs a partner?” Elizabeth laughed, leaning back in her chair. “Well, Captain? What do you come to me for? Rumor on the beach is - you’ve already got yourself a consort.”
“Don’t be cute, Elizabeth. I come to you as a business partner and an equal but never forget I’m both your elder and your better.”
“Ah,” Elizabeth furrowed her brow. “There’s the Samuel Hawk I know and like occasionally.” Her fingers tapped along the varnished wood of her heavy desk. “Well then? What ship and captain do you have in mind? I can attempt to broker the deal for you.”
“I’ve pissed off almost every other captain who beaches at Port Royal, one way or another,” Hawk scratched his nose sheepishly. “You know diplomacy isn’t my forte.”
“Why not the Tempest?”
It was Hawk’s turn to laugh. “Elizabeth, you were the one who just mocked me for my choice of bedmates...”
“I wasn’t mocking,” she interrupted, “merely remarking. And Henry is a good captain!”
“Henry is allergic to his shirt!”
“So, you’ve noticed then that he’s in much better fighting shape than Enrique Ruiz!”
Hawk couldn't believe this nonsense. He had always counted on Elizabeth to counter his own hot-headedness with measured reason.
But Henry Pane was young and foolhardy, as was evidenced by the fact that he thought with his dick more than with his head.
The man may have been easy on the eyes, but that didn't inspire the sort of confidence Elizabeth put in him.
“Pane can’t control his men!” Hawk pressed on. “You have said so yourself, need I remind you? ‘They’re animals!’ Yes, I believe that’s what you’d called them. And still you want his company?”
“We were going through a rough patch,” Elizabeth waved her hand dismissively.
“A rough patch? My face went through a rough patch when I had to fight twelve British soldiers who tried to hang me for sodomy!”
“See reason, Hawk, and put your personal bullshit with Henry aside. The Tempest is the most battle-worthy ship in Port Royal aside from the Orca,” Elizabeth insisted, patently ignoring Hawk’s latest outburst. “And Henry can be counted on, both as a sailor and as a warrior.”
“You stand in personal guarantee for him?”
“I have just as much to lose as you do if this were to fail,” Elizabeth pointed out.
“Fine, arrange the meeting,” Hawk surrendered, leaning back and closing his eyes against the madness of the world. Sailing with Henry Pane as consort - ha! He must have been losing his mind to even be considering it.
Silverfin didn't like the brothel, he decided.
There was something undoubtedly crass about men displaying their desires so openly, pawing at women like they were searching for the ripest fruit on the vine, too lazy to earn love the old-fashioned way and ready to buy through coin what they could never earn with innate charm.
He didn't like the thought of his dear sister subjecting herself to such treatment to earn a living.
Now, if this was some place with class and well-bred customers - the type of customers Mara deserved - it might be another story.
But there certainly wasn't a place like that in Port Royal.
It smelled like stale beer and even more stale bodies.
He was a literal fish out of water, sitting at the table on his own, nursing a cup of rum that was unsatisfyingly warm in the heat of the Port Royal afternoon.
Even with his ungainly fake leg tucked under the chair, the fact that he was not one of them had never been more apparent.
A set of doors opened on the second floor, and Silverfin looked up eagerly, hoping for Hawk. Wrong doors. His sister came out, adjusting her hair and her bodice, with a faint flush upon her cheeks and over her breasts, and sat down on the bench across from him.
“What’s the word, Silverfin? I understand you have learned what the Mami had given you a third leg for?” She smiled at him, flashing a top row of teeth as gleaming as the finest sea pearls.
“And you?” he frowned, looking from Mara to the door whence she had just exited. “I thought you said you don’t do that anymore?”
“Not for coin,” Mara smirked.
The door opened again, and a tall person with long red hair and a hat pulled firmly over their face slinked out like an errant jellyfish and crept down the stairs. Silverfin found himself grinning at his sister.
“I see I’m not the only one in the family who has developed a penchant for a certain bipedal pelt coloring.”
“Shut up, you saw nothing,” Mara murmured and leaned closer. “So, tell me, brother. You are waiting for Hawk and Pane to divvy up a hefty prize in there, are you not?”
Silverfin bit his lip and averted his eyes.
It wasn’t that he had any moral quandaries about lying, per se, but Mara had always been his favorite sibling.
And, well, if they ever did get the gold, surely he would share his portion with her regardless, if only to get her out of this reeking den of debauchery.
As luck would have it, at that precise moment, the opposite set of doors had opened and Hawk strode into the brothel, followed by a harried Ruiz.
“Come along, Mr. Silver,” Hawk’s tone hid a note of satisfaction. The negotiation must have gone well, Silverfin surmised, and attempted to rise from behind the table, refusing anyone else’s aid as he did so.
“See you when we’re back, Mara,” Silverfin smiled, hoping that the next time he saw his sister, it would be to share his good fortune and wealth with her.
Out in the street, Silverfin watched as Ruiz took his leave of the captain, having sent a wary look in his own direction.
“We are not returning to the Orca?” he asked Hawk.
“Not tonight. I had a better idea. Come.” Hawk’s hand gently steered Silverfin by his elbow. “How is your leg today?”
The question itself had been matter of fact, Hawk’s voice hiding no trace of pity in it, and yet, it made Silverfin flush to the roots of his formerly glorious hair.
“Still missing, Captain!” he snapped back in retort.
“I’m more than just the sum of my missing parts, you know!
” Little by little, what if Mami Wata took something else?
A finger here, a toe there, until nothing was left but his heart.
And that was probably the part of him the Pirate King had been least interested in to begin with.
Part of him wanted Hawk to, at least, have the decency to look hurt by his outburst. Instead, he merely sighed, lips pursing as he regarded Silverfin. At last, he hauled him up into what proved to be another bar, though this one, at least, smelled less of human rutting.
"Are you hungry? The food here is plain, but Elizabeth doesn't water the gravy."
Hawk's calm demeanor was difficult to stay angry at. Silverfin deflated, shaking his head. "Just tired, Captain. In truth... getting around on this... is more difficult than I would like it to be."
"Then we'll rest." The room he took Silverfin to was on the ground floor, simple and clean and with a very comfortable looking bed that made Silverfin very much want to sprawl out and sleep for weeks.
But as soon as the door closed behind them, Hawk had drawn him close, one arm warm and strong around his waist as his lips found Silverfin's earlobe.
"You are much, much more than the sum of your parts. Missing or no," he murmured, voice throaty in a way that never failed to send shivers down Silverfin's spine. "I'm sorry if I made you feel otherwise."
“I’m sorry, too,” Silverfin muttered, leaning into the heat that enveloped him. “For losing my temper. I’m not used to being so... dependent.”
Hawk’s lips traced over the ligaments of Silverfin's neck, with gentle insistence, and once again his mind swam, bereft of any thought that he could hold onto for a life raft.
If he could stay here, in this room, with Hawk, forever, doing nothing but this, then Mami Wata could definitely take his other leg, too.
“Finn?” Hawk’s breath tickled his earlobe.
“Y-yes?”
“We set sail tomorrow. And you still have to tell me the rest of the Estrela’s schedule.”
Silverfin's heart sank. Of course, that was why he was here, wasn't it? He pushed Hawk away, staggering back unsteadily. "I told you that you'd have it when you needed it. Isn't that good enough?"
Hawk's eyebrows knit. He took a careful step after him. "I'm just trying — "
"To what? To leave me behind? I have no other use to you, Captain. I'm a burden. You might as well leave me here with the leches and the drunkards."
“Well, I am a lech and a drunkard. I might as well take you with me!”
“It’s all a big joke to you!”
"You're nothing of the sort!" Finally, Hawk had the decency to at least sound angry.
He crossed the room to take Silverfin by his biceps, forcing him to look at him.
"Listen to me. I'm not trying to insult you, and I'm most certainly not trying to be rid of you.
I'm just trying to make things easier for you.
So, tell me or don't, I don't care. You're coming with me either way.
But I do have to instruct my navigator on what course to take. "
Hawk’s eyes were a stormy, turbulent sea from which Silverfin did not wish to be saved. If only he could read Hawk the same way that he could read the currents, Silverfin lamented.