Chapter 38 #2
Zanta gave an exhausted sort of smile. “A third of the crew, including my first mate. Not to mention our masts are gone and most of our supplies spoiled. I’m sure glad you showed up, and not those asshole mercs.”
Rowan’s grimace matched her own. “About that…We have a lot to discuss.”
Zanta’s brown eyes swept over the small contingent of Siren Song crew that had followed him aboard, then to the Kraken behind him.
“Please tell me the Siren wasn’t lost as well.”
“She’s in a bit of a bind at the moment. But better off than you, I think,” Rowan said, as Robin hurried down the gangplank. “I brought the doctor.”
Relief washed over Zanta’s weary face, and she looked like she could have kissed Robin when he stepped onto deck with his bag of medical supplies.
She motioned to a skinny fellow with a slight hook nose. “Laurent, show Dr. Beckett below will you?”
Robin squeezed Henri’s hand in passing as he followed the man belowdecks.
“We have a lot to discuss about that Marran shit who’s been following you,” Rowan said.
“They’re more than just pirate hunters, aren’t they.” Zanta said quietly.
“Afraid so.” He glanced around at the listless ship. “Let Logan and the rest help with cleanup. We need to talk in private.”
Zanta glanced around as well, as if looking for someone, then nodded. Rowan drew her over to the gangplank, speaking quietly but not yet moving to board the Kraken.
Left to their own devices, the crews of the Siren and Monsoon stood around for a moment before Logan said, “Well, we best do as the captains say. There’s spoiled food?
Let’s dispose of it before it starts stinking.
We have enough food stores to share.” The Monsoon crew seemed to startle out of a daze at Logan’s brisk tone, but nonetheless got to work.
Logan motioned to Henri to follow him, then turned to one of the Monsoon crew members. “Show us the food.”
The man nodded and led them toward the door Robin had disappeared through moments before.
When they were a few yards away, it opened, and a woman emerged, red-gold hair gleaming in the sunlight.
Her skirt caught on a splintered board. She yanked it free, and when she looked up, her freckled face and green eyes struck Henri with the strangest sense of déjà vu.
For a moment, it overwhelmed him, and he stared at her dumbly until Logan exclaimed,
“Nia!”
Henri blinked, coming out of his stupor of memories of those long-ago winters and that little frizzle-haired girl who’d nonetheless been taller than him. It had been eighteen years between then and now. She was all grown up, and so was he.
Nia made a small sound of delight, and dashed over to hug Logan. How did they know each other? Henri forced his mouth to close as they stepped apart and Logan grasped her by the elbows.
“I’m so glad you’re alright! When I heard Roseforte got sacked, I was so worried!” Logan exclaimed.
Roseforte? That’s where she’d been? This whole time she’d been…so close?
“As you can see I’ve been whisked away by dashing pirates,” Nia giggled, too cheerful for the circumstances. “I’m quite well and…” Her eyes finally landed on Henri, standing just past Logan’s shoulder, and her smile faltered. Henri realized he’d been staring. Maybe she didn’t recognize him.
“N-Nia…” he managed.
A myriad of expressions flicked across her face in quick succession. Confusion, shock, and finally recognition. The smile spread across her face once more, wider than before. Much wider than it had ever been when they were children and there was a perpetual snow cloud hanging over her head.
She disengaged herself from Logan and took a tentative step toward Henri. When she spoke, her voice was so quiet, so hopeful. “Are you Henri? Henri Wells?”
Henri found himself unable to speak, having wasted his only words on her name.
But he nodded. Nia’s seafoam eyes instantly brimmed with tears, and she launched herself into his arms so hard he stumbled back with the force of it.
Her arms wrapped around his waist and his around her shoulders, and suddenly there were hot tears spilling down both their cheeks.
Absurdly, it struck him how much shorter she was than him now that they were both grown.
He’d almost expected her to still tower over him.
Henri was half aware of everyone staring at them, yet he still allowed himself to bury his face into the poof of hair on top of her head.
“I thought you were dead,” Henri sobbed. “He told me you were gone.”
“Oh!” Nia pulled back to look up into his face. She dashed the tears away from her cheeks, but they kept falling anyway. “I looked for you after I escaped, but I-I couldn’t remember what town you lived in.” She smiled sadly. “I’m so sorry. I should have tried harder to find you.”
Henri didn’t quite know what to say to that. In the silence someone cleared their throat. They both looked over to where Logan, and the rest of the combined crews, were staring at their unexpected display.
“How do you two know each other?” Logan asked tightly. Henri couldn’t imagine what they were all thinking. Nia stepped out of Henri’s embrace, but kept a grip on his little and ring fingers as if they were still children.
Nia smiled again through her tears.
“Henri is my little brother.”
Nia couldn’t seem to let go of Henri’s fingers.
She felt like a kid again, leading her newfound half brother around the Silverfin, with only the bleak winter sun shining through the portholes to light their way.
After she’d finally escaped their father, she’d searched and searched for him, but she’d just been a kid last time their father had let her see Henri, and she hadn’t known the name of the town he lived in, only that it was somewhere on the western coast of Talva.
And eventually, she’d found herself at the Swan Inn.
A temporary position. A room in the attic.
She told herself she’d continue the search once she earned some money.
She asked around. She listened for any word of him or Silver Stroud.
And then, news had come that Stroud had been killed, and such a weight had lifted from her that she worried she might float away.
She didn’t have to run away anymore. She could have a life for herself.
Until the sickness of being separated from her pelt claimed her, she would live.
So yes, she didn’t want to let go of her brother. The one person who had shown her kindness after her mother’s death. If she did, they might be separated again.
Henri is my little brother.
She’d said it with pride, out loud for all to hear. More than a few gasps had met her statement, and color had risen to Logan’s cheeks.
Oh. Oh no. She’d been carrying on with him and John for ages, and all this time he’d been on the same crew as her long lost brother. If she’d known they were friends, she might not have slept with them.
“You don’t look much alike,” a freckled, feminine pirate quipped, breaking the shock that seemed to hold them all in situ.
“I take more after my mother than our father,” Henri rumbled. Gods, he was tall now. She’d barely recognized him at first, but his wide sparkly eyes and the beads in his locs had given him away. She’d made one of those beads, an amateur clay thing she’d daubed with paint. He still wore it.
“Nia?”
They all turned to find Zanta and a blond man with an eyepatch walking over from where they’d witnessed the whole thing. A massive warship loomed behind them. Nia didn’t let go of Henri’s fingers.
The blond man’s head twitched back ever so slightly when his eye landed on Nia, as if startled. She didn’t know him, right? Surely she’d recognize such a striking face.
He lifted a burnished leather eyepatch from his right eye and squinted at her a moment, brow furrowing, then resettled it.
Nia’s fingers tightened around Henri’s. The fake eye beneath the patch had not been a normal glass one, painted to look natural, but a milky seafoam green.
The same color as her eyes.
The same color as her mother’s eyes.
“Where did you get that?” she blurted. Her skin suddenly turned cold, and she had to fight down the panicked feeling of being back on the Silverfin. Was she going crazy? Or was that the small stone orb that her father had taken from her mother after her death?
The blond man’s gaze flicked from Nia’s and Henri’s hands clasped together, then to Zanta, who was also staring at him in shock.
“What, my eye? It was—”
“It belonged to my father,” Nia interrupted.
The man tilted his head. “And who is your father?”
“Wells Stroud,” Henri answered.
Both Zanta and the blond man flinched.
“Come with us,” the blond said.
They crossed the gangplank onto the huge warship with its towering blue sails and intimidating tentacled flag. A shiver rattled down her spine as she realized what ship it was. The Kraken’s Fury. John’s ship, but more than that, the ship of the Deep Water Demon.
A fine man like John wouldn’t work for someone who was all bad, would he?
She tried to push down all the fear that threatened to bubble up when she stepped foot on that infamous deck.
Henri took her hand again, squeezing reassuringly.
She followed him, Zanta, Logan, and the blond man who could only be the Ghost Hawk down a hallway to a large set of doors.
The Ghost Hawk didn’t bother knocking, just opened the door and ushered them all inside.
A tall, dark-haired man sat in a wingback chair before a cold fireplace. He looked up when they entered, smooth brow furrowing at the intrusion.
“Rowan, what—” His dark gaze slid past the others straight to Nia. He tilted his head, eyes sparking with interest. Their eyes met and he nodded once in acknowledgment, as if her true nature were plain to his eyes only, and he’d dubbed them the same.
Nia jerked back, almost yanking her hand from Henri’s gasp. Her heart pounded hard against her ribs. Instinctual, animal panic overtaking rational thought.