Chapter 6 The Underestimated Underdogs
Dancing With Danger
Tam joined the line of sailors that had gathered at the starboard side of the ship as Captain Sun and his first mate shouted orders.
Not wanting to disturb the men as they navigated whatever trouble was afoot, Tam squinted at the boat that seemed to be causing a commotion.
Was it the Zinferan emperor?
Had he sent a ship to catch them?
But the longer Tam stared at the boat, the more he realized that it didn’t look like a Zinferan or a Daxarian boat at all.
It had a long bow that curved upward, even more so than Troivackian boats. It was also long and narrow, with only two large white sails.
Tam tilted his head, puzzled, until he noticed another boat on the other side of the strange one. It was Zinferan, and the flag told him that it happened to be a pirate ship.
“I really should never get on another boat. It’s a safety risk for everyone at this point with my luck…” he muttered while turning to find the captain.
Captain Sun got to him first. “Lord Tamlin, I’m afraid we have come across a Lobahlan ship in distress.”
“Lobahlan!” Tam looked back over his shoulder in surprise at the vessel.
No wonder he’d never seen the design before!
“Yes. They are being assaulted by pirates. This might be a good time to show you the weapons Lord Jiho Ryu has funded and helped design. The only issue is that we will need to get closer to the pirate ship and come up and around them. So we will most likely lose half a day of travel.”
Tam’s interested expression hardened. “Is there a more expedient way of helping the Lobahlans? It really is important that we get back to Daxaria as quickly as possible.”
Captain Sun paused. “This is the safest means of intervention. Otherwise, we could leave them to fend for themselves.”
Tam’s lips pressed together. As much as the delay would cost, he couldn’t just turn away from an entire vessel of people.
“Alright. Where is Eli?”
Captain Sun gestured with his chin toward the ratlines. “Lady Elisara insisted on climbing upward. She said if she can transform and take to the air, she can get a better idea of what is happening from above.”
Tam nodded. He moved to cross the deck and climb up after her, but he was too late.
He watched, his heart stopping for an instant, as Eli took a flying leap off the crow’s nest toward the water.
She transformed midair, flapped her wings once, and continued to plummet toward the water. Tam flushed with numbing panic. At the last moment, Kasha held her wings out and caught an air current that helped her glide right over the surface of the Alcide Sea, her front paw scraping over the waves.
She’s trying to kill me, Tam sputtered in his mind as he watched Kasha rise into the air overhead.
He stood with his hand on the ratline and waited. Kasha circled the two ships overhead, then dared to drop a little lower.
Tam’s grip on the rope tightened. “Not so close,” he whispered.
Sure enough, his heart seized as he saw an arrow streak into the sky.
His hands flying through his hair, Tam turned away momentarily, struggling to watch Kasha flirt with death.
Gods… And she might be pregnant. Holy hell…
Luckily, Kasha only made two more swoops before rounding back toward their own ship—though Tam had been a moment away from disappearing into the void and attempting to reappear on one of the ships and take care of the archers.
He had never traveled that far to somewhere he hadn’t seen before, but right then he didn’t give a damn.
By the time Kasha’s wings flared out, pulling her to a stop over the ship’s deck, Tam was almost ready to lock her in a cabin for the rest of the trip.
Then she crouched and shifted back into her human form, prompting her to drop down on a hand and knee to catch herself on the deck.
Two sailors moved forward as though to assist her, but Tam beat them to it, offering a hand and helping her stand. He was about to share the wide array of anxiety-induced speculations he’d just endured when Captain Sun approached.
“Lady Elisara, what is the situation?”
“It doesn’t look as though the Lobahlans are sailing with a full crew for the size of the ship they’re on, so they are at a severe disadvantage. The pirates haven’t boarded yet, but they will soon unless they decide to wait and see what we do.”
“A large flying cat would make a lot of people change plans,” Tam pointed out drily.
Eli shot him a quick frown before turning back to the captain.
Captain Sun nodded. “They most likely will prepare for a fight. Hopefully this provides the Lobahlans some time to escape.”
Tam moved his hands to his pockets as he fought against the blind panic he was still wading out of. “Were you able to see how many pirates were on deck?”
Eli raised an eyebrow and considered the question. “At least fifteen.”
“A smaller boat, then.” Captain Sun’s shoulders relaxed fractionally at this discovery.
“Do you think I could dispose of them myself?” Tam asked, his tone light.
Both the captain and Eli stared at him dumbfounded for a moment.
“Tam, just because there were fifteen on deck doesn’t mean there aren’t more belowdecks.”
“It’d put a dent in their plans, and they may retreat,” he argued.
“That’s dangerous,” Eli countered evenly.
“Oh, and I suppose what you just did was simply a fun stretch of the wings?” Tam stared at Eli, who crossed her arms.
Evidently sensing the tension between the couple, Captain Sun hesitated before continuing. “Lord Tamlin, it is not necessary to risk yourself. The weapons that Lord Jiho Ryu has armed us with really will not leave the pirates much choice but to flee.”
“If you are talking about the weapon called the cannon, I reviewed its design in my cabin.” Tam’s attention swung back to the Zinferan. “From what I was reading, it is entirely possible that the Lobahlan ship could receive damage from a missed shot.”
The captain gave a slight grimace. “I’m hoping the Lobahlan ship will have been able to pull far enough away by that time.”
“Then why bother attacking?” Tam persisted.
He was beginning to get the impression that the Zinferan captain was maybe just a little too excited to showcase this new cannon invention.
As they’d been talking, however, their ship had been making its way closer to the pirate and Lobahlans.
When Tam eventually realized this, he fixed the captain with a flat look, then made his way back to the railing to see if the pirates had started boarding the Lobahlan ship.
As he squinted, the captain appeared at his side and handed him a spyglass.
Taking the brass instrument without a word, Tam lifted it to his eye.
“They’re launching flaming arrows at the Lobahlan vessel. It doesn’t look like they’ve boarded, and… They are already starting to pull away… Oh.”
“What?” Eli asked from his other side.
Tam lowered the spyglass. “I think what is happening… is the pirates saw you, and decided that to avoid getting eaten, they’d cripple the other boat.”
Tam cast a sidelong glance at Eli and watched her cheeks pinken.
“They do seem to be pulling farther starboard to loop around and escape,” the captain agreed, sounding a little too glum as he took his turn peering through the spyglass.
A particularly large flare of flames drew everyone’s attention. The Lobahlan sails were swiftly swallowed in a cloud of smoke.
Sighing, but also feeling relieved that they would not be entering into combat, Tam turned his back on the Lobahlan ship and rested against the railing.
They would soon be able to rescue the Lobahlans, who were already boarding their lifeboats—of which they had many in excess due to their smaller crew size.
Eli, still facing the blazing vessel, eventually noticed that he was watching her. “What?”
Tam tilted his head. “Why didn’t you talk to me before you ran off to check over there?”
“Why would I need to? They needed help, we needed more information.”
“Because it was dangerous?”
“We’re always in danger.” Eli pushed away from the railing, her right hand still resting on the wood. The way she stared back up at Tam told him that she was damn well ready to fight him on this.
“You could’ve been shot.” Tam lowered his voice as more members of the crew passed by them and Captain Sun left—most likely to talk to the purser about room and provisions for the Lobahlan survivors.
“I was high enough in the air that they would’ve missed.”
“You dipped closer, though—and for all you know, one of them could have been a witch.”
“Tam?”
“What?”
“You’re smothering me.”
Straightening, Tam gazed down at Eli as she moved her hands to her hips. “And what if I’d just vanished on over there? What if I appeared on the pirate ship and said, Oh hello, don’t mind me, just taking a head count?”
“Again, I was higher up in the air! There was a lot less risk. I could see what they were doing—why are you not trusting my judgment?”
Tam made an aggravated noise and turned away. He took a beat to calm himself.
When he looked back at Eli, she was quite obviously gnawing on her tongue as she practically steamed with anger.
Letting out a long breath, Tam then said, “I trust your judgment, but sometimes a heads-up would be nice.”
“Oh, like you gave me a heads-up when you went to break into a nobleman’s house?
” Eli shot back. She was referencing a time months ago when Tam needed to search for evidence at Lord Guk’s residence as he was hosting Lord Yangban—the concubine Soo Hebin’s cousin and one of her most influential allies.
They’d been gathering information on the corruption in Zinfera, which Tam had been tasked with doing before leaving Daxaria.
Tam blinked in surprise but collected himself again quickly. “We weren’t a couple then.”
This managed to make Eli even more incensed. “So you’ve never valued my opinion and judgment. Perfect. It isn’t just because I’m sleeping with you.”
Tam felt a ball of prickly anger churn in his own chest. “Your opinion always has mattered to me. But back then when I was only your employer, it was well within my rights to be making decisions for everyone.”
“Like that never had bad repercussions for others! It’s not like you’d disappear for days or anything!”
“I came back and saw everything through! Eli, just what the… Do you really not think that before you went charging off toward a pirate ship, you maybe should’ve checked in with me?”
“If someone had been in a life-or-death situation, I could have saved them! Time was important, and I didn’t want to waste any!”
Tam fell silent for a moment. “You don’t see a life-or-death situation as dangerous to you? And—I’ll ask this again to be sure I’m clear—that I shouldn’t be told about it at all?”
It was Eli’s turn to go quiet. “We’re going to argue in circles.”
Just as Tam was opening his mouth to make another scathing remark, Luca and Penelope bolted up to them.
“Dad, are we fighting more pirates?” Luca asked excitedly.
After giving a final, lingering stare at Eli, Tam slowly lowered his attention to his son. “No, they are already leaving.”
“Aw!” Luca’s shoulders slouched dramatically.
Tam looked at the sky. He needed to teach Luca that violence and conflict were wrong. His plans on how to make that happen, however, were interrupted when Penelope chimed in to address Luca.
“That would have been a bad thing, dummy.” She gave a very grown-up sigh, folded her arms, and stared up at Tam. “So what’s happening now?”
Unable to help himself, Tam glanced back at Eli, then back down at the little girl watching him impatiently. “I’m starting to have a vague inkling of what my future home life might be like, and I’m not sure I’m okay with it.”
Ignoring Tam’s comment, Eli answered Penelope. “The pirates set fire to a ship belonging to some Lobahlans, so we are going to see about helping them.”
“Oh! I’ve never met any Lobahlans!” Penelope perked up.
“I’ve met one or two. They’re nice. They don’t like talking about Lobahl much. But Dad’s met and talked a lot with one! Remember? He talked about Mr. Kasim Jelani!” Luca burst out eagerly.
Unable to remain unaffected by the children’s exuberant reactions, Tam smiled. “Well, we’re going to talk to a few of them today. But they’re probably a little stressed after the pirates set fire to their boat, so I think the adults will meet them first and introduce you kids later, to be safe.”
“Aw!” This time the lament was made in unison by both children.
Reaching up to rub the back of his neck with a long sigh, Tam couldn’t help but think, I can’t seem to say the right thing at all today.