Chapter Thirteen
The sloop was only their temporary transport to a much larger ship.
Once again, Emmaline had to climb over a rope contraption to transfer to the larger ship, but her mind was so occupied with other thoughts, she barely remembered grasping the rope before someone hoisted her over the rail and onto the deck.
“Welcome to The Queen’s Garden,” Echo announced, gesturing expansively to encompass the whole ship. Their fingers waggled for an extra dose of flair. “Where all the most beautiful flowers sail the endless seas.”
Emmaline mustered a smile for the silly introduction. “You’re quite the actor, Echo,” she said. “I never would have guessed you and Rafe were the same person.”
Echo winked—a much more effective gesture with their current appearance. “I can still be that dashing scoundrel if you—”
A loud smack to the back of the head cut them off. “I don’t care what your relationship with her was before,” Moira declared. “Don’t flirt with our captive.”
“She’s not our captive, Captain,” Echo protested, rubbing their head and trailing after their captain like a determined puppy. “She’s our guest, and our secret bargaining chip with Bellacosta.”
“We have plenty of bargaining chips with the coastal kingdom, you didn’t need to steal another one,” Moira argued.
Emmaline cleared her throat delicately, waiting for both pirates to look at her.
“I understand your position, Captain,” she began, face solemn.
“And I don’t have any way to pay you, but if you take me to Litus …
” she trailed off. Although Echo had said the captain wanted to build a better relationship with Bellacosta, she couldn’t in good conscience negotiate on Silas’ behalf.
Moira scanned Emmaline from head to toe, her eyes narrowing in consideration. “What does Everett Shaw’s daughter want in Litus?”
“She’s—”
Emmaline shook her head, trying to cut Echo off.
“—the king’s sweetheart.”
“I am not!” Emmaline insisted, plunking her hands on her hips. “I told you already, we’re just friends.”
“Kings don’t have friends,” Moira replied, face impassive. “They have citizens and subordinates, but never friends.”
Completely forgetting her previous hesitation, Emmaline raised her chin high and announced, “Well I’m Silas’ friend. And I need to speak with him as soon as possible, which is why I need to go to Litus. My—Captain Everett promised to take me there after his meeting.”
“Speaking of,” Echo said, raising their voice to catch their captain’s attention. “I’m sure you will be very interested in what we overheard.”
Moira arched a red eyebrow. “Indeed?”
“However.” Echo stuck a finger in their ear and wiggled it around aggressively. “The old ears sometimes have trouble remembering what they heard from glamour to glamour.”
The captain’s lips pursed, her expression going flat.
“But Em here, I bet she heard quite a lot, didn’t you, princess?”
“I’m not—” She stopped as Echo made a face at her, eyes bulging, chin jutted in silent message. “I mean …” She took her time forming her words, hoping she was interpreting the message correctly. “I will trade the information for safe, fast passage to Litus.”
“Is that so?” Moira asked dryly. She shook her head at Echo and said, “You and your pretty faces.”
“I can’t tell if you’re complimenting or insulting me.”
“A bit of both.” Locking eyes with Emmaline, Moira said, “Information first, then we’ll discuss your stay on our ship. Now, come along, you two. We should have this conversation away from prying ears.”
As soon as the captain spoke, movement flashed in the corner of Emmaline’s eye. She whipped around to face it, but whoever had been there had already disappeared to some other part of the ship.
“Now wait a damn minute!” Echo declared. “Who’s the new little sneak? Trying to take my place?”
“I wish,” Moira muttered. “I’d keep him on this ship in a heartbeat. Clever little thing with nimble fingers and a tongue sharp enough to slit a man’s throat. Alas, he’s bound for the shores, not the sea.”
She led them across the deck and down to the captain’s cabin. The ship’s layout was similar to the Eyolf. Emmaline wasn’t familiar enough with ships to know if that was typical, or if they were made by the same craftsman.
When they entered the captain’s cabin, they found a man already inside.
He sat in an armchair off to the side, one ankle resting on his other knee, a book in his lap.
Graying brown hair curled around his ears and a pair of half-moon glasses perched on the end of his nose.
He glanced up as they entered, green eyes alight with interest. “Captain Moira,” he greeted, his low voice smooth and soothing.
He stood up, clasping the book in one hand.
“I apologize for stealing your quarters once again.”
“Most comfortable place on the ship,” Moira said. “That’s the point of being captain.”
A soft smile quirked his lips and crinkled around his eyes. Familiarity tugged on Emmaline’s heart, but she wasn’t sure why. This is the type of man I wanted my father to be, she realized with a hint of embarrassment.
“Well, now that you’ve returned, I’ll get out of your hair.” He stepped past Emmaline and Echo but paused when Moira called out to him.
“Actually, could you fetch Cal for me? You both should hear whatever our lovely hostage-guest has to say.”
“Hostage-guest?” the man said, arching an eyebrow. “Moira, you agreed—”
Moira waved his complaints away. “She hopped onto my ship of her own free will, I’m just deciding what to do about it.”
His lips pursed in a displeasure. Turning to Emmaline, he said, “Young lady, if you don’t wish to be here—”
“For now, I do,” she assured him, afraid that he would convince the captain to boot her off the ship.
He watched her for a long moment before nodding. Then he left the room, closing the door behind him.
“Who’s the fancy-britches?” Echo demanded as they settled into the man’s vacated seat.
“Passenger,” Moira grunted.
“Passenger? We don’t take passengers!”
The captain looked pointedly at Emmaline.
Echo waved a hand through the air. “Special circumstances.”
“I could say the same,” Moira replied dryly.
The door opened again before their argument could continue, and the man from before entered with a newcomer. The newcomer had neatly trimmed gray hair and tan skin darkened further by the sun. When his eyes landed on Emmaline, he froze in place. “You’re King Archer’s girl, aren’t you?”
“I thought she was King Silas’ girl,” Moira replied, both eyebrows raised in surprise.
Emmaline sighed in exasperation. “I am no one’s ‘girl’!”
The man cleared his throat awkwardly. “Forgive me, I couldn’t remember your name, but I did remember you were part of King Archer’s party for the diplomatic meeting.”
“My name is Emmaline,” she replied tartly.
“Cal Rhodes,” he said, bowing at the waist.
Moira settled in the chair behind her desk, eyes skating between Emmaline and Cal. “Quite the valuable guest indeed.”
“Why did you think she was Silas’s—King Silas’ sweetheart?” the other man asked.
“My fault,” Echo said, raising a hand in the air.
“Ah, then obviously it isn’t true.”
Echo narrowed hazel eyes on him. “And who are you again? Captain never said.”
“Another valuable guest,” he replied with a straight face.
“Sit down, all of you,” Moira ordered. “I hate nothing more than people hovering over me.”
The captain’s quarters had several soft chairs to sit in. No wonder the ‘valuable guest’ hid himself away in here, Emmaline thought as she tucked a pillow into her lap, squeezing it tightly for emotional support.
Cal and the other man sat down as well, forming a small, intimate circle around the captain’s desk.
“Go on then,” Moira said, gesturing to Emmaline. “Pay your fare.”
Emmaline took a deep breath and launched into the story, right from the beginning.
This time, she held nothing back—not even her tears as she told them about her mother sending her away or being falsely imprisoned in Sparrow Hill.
Captain Moira showed no emotion during the whole story, not even reacting to Echo’s role in Emmaline’s kidnapping.
When she finally reached the meeting between her father and Varro, the captain’s eyes sharpened, and she sat up a little straighter in her chair.
“That’s all you heard?” she demanded.
“Is it … is it not enough?” Emmaline asked, her voice rough from tears and speaking for too long. She desperately needed passage to Litus, but if the captain didn’t accept her information as payment, she had nothing else to offer.
Moira’s noise wrinkled in distaste. “Oh gods, she’s leaking again. Echo, could you?”
Echo passed Emmaline an embroidered handkerchief. She accepted it gladly and clutched it to her face as she tried to get her own tears under control. “It’s all right, Em,” they whispered, rubbing her shoulder. “I’ll take it from here.”
Echo stood up, hands behind their back, eyes locked somewhere above the captain’s head. When they spoke next, Everett Shaw’s voice escaped their lips. “Where is my wife?”
“You know as well as I do how difficult it is to contain a mage.” This time, they’d exactly copied Varro’s deep, irritated voice. “Alistair is taking care of her. Once you fulfill your part of the bargain, she’s all yours.”
The conversation progressed like that, with Echo taking on both roles simultaneously. “Fine. What are your terms?”
“We’re happy to trade the witch and guarantee legitimate trade routes between Bellacosta and our allied kingdoms. In exchange, you will take your ships—all seven of them, Everett, don’t think we’ll be satisfied with half-assed efforts—to Bellacosta’s shores, carrying me and my men.
We’ll attack together, take out that idiotic boy-king, and establish proper order in the kingdom again. I trust we have your support?”
Before Echo could finish, the other man jumped to his feet. “They’re planning to kill Silas? Moira, we have to—”
“Sit down, Braden,” Moira ordered.
He hesitated, then slowly lowered himself back into his seat.
“Of course I won’t take this new alliance lightly,” Moira continued. “Though I was under the impression Alistair was out of the picture.” Her harsh eyes cut accusingly to Cal.
He raised his hands to defend himself. “You know as much as I do. I left Bellacosta at the beginning of the war. Last any of us heard, Alistair and Varro were both imprisoned after their coup failed. Since no one even knows where I am, of course I’m not going to hear anything more about their escape. ”
“One mage is no small matter,” Moira continued, “but three? My crew isn’t prepared for that kind of firepower.”
“It’s not going to be three mages,” Echo said. “Not in Bellacosta, at least. Varro was clear on that: it’s his men and Everett’s who will attack Litus. Everyone else is off doing something else.”
Moira crossed her arms as she looked between Echo and Emmaline. “Are you trying to be a knight in shining armor for your princess?”
Echo grinned. “I’m a lot of things, Captain, but I’ve never been motivated by anything as altruistic as love.
Picture this: we can eliminate one of our biggest rivals and a traitor with one decisive canon blast. King Silas is so satisfied with our performance that he offers us exclusive contracts for the Bellacostan sea trade routes. ”
“And Arnsveldian,” Cal added quietly. “If all the rumors are true, new trade routes will be opening between the two kingdoms.”
“Arnsveld doesn’t have port cities,” Moira grunted.
“No, but they’ll want supplies delivered before winter, and right now, your ships are the fastest route.”
Moira tapped her fingers thoughtfully on the desk.
Emmaline watched all of this without saying anything.
Finally, she took a deep breath and focused on the captain.
“I understand if you don’t want to risk your people, but someone needs to warn them of the impending attack.
If you simply deliver me safely to Litus, I will speak to both King Archer and King Silas on your behalf. ”
Temptation flashed in the captain’s eyes. “So I’ll gain the trade routes without risking any of my people?”
“If that’s what you choose,” Emmaline said solemnly.
Braden opened his mouth as if to argue, but Moira held up a hand, cutting him off. “A fine deal, Miss Emmaline, but I have to decline.”
Emmaline’s shoulders slumped in despair and new tears pricked her eyes.
“See, we’re already on course to Litus, so it wouldn’t be a fair trade. And if I’m going to make a good impression on these kings, I can’t be taking advantage of their friend now, can I?”
New hope swelled in Emmaline’s chest. “You mean you’ll help them?”
“As Echo said, I’d be a fool to miss this opportunity to blow a hole in Everett’s plans. Now, it’s late, and all your pleading is hurtin’ my ears. Get out.”
With that perfunctory dismissal, the captain looked down at some papers on her desk and ignored them all as if they’d already left.
“C’mon, Em, I’ll find you a cot,” Echo offered, leading the way out of the office.
Just outside the door, Braden carefully touched Emmaline’s arm, signaling for her to wait. “Thank you,” he murmured.
“For what?” she asked.
“It takes a lot of courage to stand between two opposing forces. Silas is lucky to have a friend willing to risk her own safety to try to ensure his.” His eyes misted over as he spoke and sorrow roughened his voice.
He cleared his throat and bowed his head to her.
“Goodnight, Emmaline. I hope we have the opportunity to get to know each other better in the morning.”