“He killed my boy!”
Immediately, Worley froze, red-faced, mouth agape, shocked that his tongue had slipped. But now that it was out, his lips tightened, and his eyes turned to stone.
“He killed my son.Claudian was a carpenter in the Emperial Navy! He was on theWind Lass, and he died six years ago when you left her to founder in the sea!”
“TheWind Lasswas trying to sink us, Worley. We had every right to return shot!”
“He’s a foggin’Rhi’Ahr, Mr. Fahr. He killed my son all because of a foggin’ tree!”
There was only the sound of the wind and the waves, the creak of timbers and the rumble of sail.
“This ship is an abomination.Heis an abomination, and anyone who serves with him deserves their fate, especially the coward son of a king.”
My heart sank to my boots as he leaned in.
“He loved you. The king lovedyou, Devhanus Bonavanczek,Coward Prince of Oversea. You betray your blood every day you breathe. You should have thrown yourself over the side when you was a boy. Foggin’ traitor, you are. Foggin’ traitor.”
I turned to see Smoke and Buck. The bosun had irons with him.
“It’s claps for you,” Smoke said and held up several small slips of paper. “We found parchments from Bracey in your kit.”
“Foggin’Rhi’AhrPriestlord calling the shots in the Emperial Navy!” Worley said, and he stepped back. “Well, the time of the Priestlords is over! Oversea will defeat this abomination that sails the seas under two flags and a false Marque!”
“You’ll have the rest of the night to spill your guts,” said Smoke, “or you’ll see what wedo to traitors in the morning.”
“You won’t break me,” Worley said. “I’m a bird. I’m a swift. I’llfly away, and you’ll never know when I’ll strike.”
And he flung himself over the side.
But a rope caught his ankle, and theTouchstonedragged him back over the rail.
“Take him down, Buck,” said Fahr.
On the pup, sea-dark hair waving in the winds, Thanavar stood, watching it all.
28. Keelhaul and Ketch
I confess I had never seen it, as theTouchstone’s hands drew ropes and weights around the hull, from starboard to port by way of the keel. Keelhauling was a horrific punishment, and the very thought of it made even the hardest of hearts faint. I’d never heard of a captain who’d ordered it, nor a crew who’d followed through.
All that was about to change.
They brought Worley to the main, hands bound and a second line ’round his ankles. He was pale, his thinning hair slicked along his skull. He was also stripped to the waist, and I could see red welts on his back from the cat. My heart broke at the thought that this old graymage, this lover of birds, would not live to see another sunsset. I couldn’t believe that he was the soul, and I had wept all night in my berth, for him, for us, for all those he had cost us.
Whatdidit mean to serve the Ship of Spells?
The entire crew was assembled to watch. Buck’s men drew Worley up by the rope at his wrists, and he cried out at the first haul. I could see his shoulders twist and pop their sockets as they slowly, relentlessly, drew him up. In the rigging, Kit and Neale grabbed him and set him on the starboard side of the mainsail’s yard. Even so high up, he looked half dead, and a part of me wanted to look away, to beg for mercy or head back down to Echo’s pit until the deed was done. But I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, and I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat.
The captain and the mate stood on the main, along with the rest of us. They wore uniforms as fine as any in the Navy, and Thanavar’s face was set like stone.
“This is not the first man I have ordered to his death,” he said over the creak of the ship. “But it is the most cutting. Worleyhas held a position of trust among us, and there’s no single thing worse in the life of a seamage than betrayal. Our lives depend on one another. We do not buy our faith; we do not sell our trust. We serve our king, we serve our helm, and we serve the magik that flows through our very blood.”
He looked around at those gathered there.
“And because of that, we serve theTouchstone. She is our hearth and home, our shining light, and our safe harbor. Mr. Worley’s treason cost us many lives, and more than that, it nearly cost us our ship. And that is something that we cannot afford to lose.”
He looked up.
“I condemn you, Mr. Worley, but our Mother the Sea is your judge. If you survive the keel once, you may not survive her twice. But if you do…”