“Because I’m only an occasional privateer. I’m really a trader at heart, a merchant of information. I buy and sell things that people want to know. It’s only when I can’t that I steal it.”
He pointed a finger at Buck.
“Take him, for example. He’s a waterspinner and can thrum with the best of them, despite that clanky wooden leg. Or the faun you just tried to kill. He’s a clearseer and a thoughtspinner. He’s also a surgeon. Quite a useful skill set, really.”
He glanced around the deck, laid his expressive eyes on me.
“Or that girl there. You’ve seen it with your own eyes. She spins chimeric with her bare hands.”
I would kill him if I wasn’t dead already.
“The Impirius wishes her brought to his court,” Ilvalour said.
“Well, she’s yours, then, I’m sure,” said Smoke. “Ifyou spare some of her mates. Feather number three. It’d be a shame to lose such an advantage because you’re either reckless or a fool.”
He raised his brows and leaned forward.
“So, which is it, Captain?” he asked. “Are you reckless, or are you a fool?”
Ilvalour stared at him, tapping the sword on the side of his boot.
“What do you want, dworgh?”
Smoke looked across the main, where theMarelethanbobbedin the quiet waters.
“I’ve always wanted me own ship. Give her to me in exchange for everything I know, and I’ll sail for you in Oversea. As a pirate, as a Dreadship, as a spy. Whatever you need, I’ll provide. Take that back to the Impirius. Another feather. You’re almost a bird.”
“Traitor,” I hissed again. He smiled at me, and I hated him more than I’d ever hated anyone in my sorry life.Stay cold. Stay detached.I couldn’t believe I could have been so blind.
Ilvalour thought a long moment. He slid his sword back in its scabbard and yanked the cyr from the deck boards. Thanavar’s severed hand dropped with a thud.
“You are a privateer,” he said. “Everything is for sale.”
“Everything,” said Smoke.
“Even your loyalty.”
“Clearly.”
“Prove it.”
And he handed Smoke the cyr.
Smoke took it. It was taller than him, but he was a strong man, and he hoisted it in his hand, testing the weight, the length, the feel.
“Choose,” said Ilvalour.
The quartermaster locked eyes with Echo, and my heart stopped. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. They played Able Whacks every night. They drank each other’s rum. They were soul mates and lovers and more.
“Suns and moons preserve us,” Smoke said. “Sorry, old Buck.”
And he spun, pitching the cyr toward the bosun. The spear plunged into Buck’s chest, and the minotaur staggered backward, only to pitch over the rail without a sound.
I made up for that.
I’m not sure where it came from, the scream that tore from my throat. It started in my boots and ripped through my belly before bursting from my mouth, carrying chimeric in wavesalong with it. The masts, the shrouds, the spars, the stays all crackled with chimeric, but theRhi’Ahrcaptain swung around, his fist knocking my head to the deck boards, and the chimeric dissipated along with my consciousness.
“Bring these few to theEndorathil,” said the captain as my world faded. “Kill the rest.”
