“We killed all but one. He’s in the brig for questioning. The captain has asked…”
Fahr’s voice trailed off, and I risked a glance. Seemed he couldn’t look at me, either.
He cleared his throat.
“The captain has asked if you’d like to come aboard.”
I nodded again.
“Just a parley, mind,” he added. “He’s not offering you a berth.”
“Yet,” said Buck.
“Hooks and crooks,” muttered Smoke in his crisp accent. “Don’t lie to the girl. He aims to. We all know that, so can we please spin this dory and get back to the ship without all the fussymuss?”
I tried to smile at him, but my face hurt. He rolled his eyes.
Either way, it seemed my tides were changing.
A bell rang across the water, the lapping of waves against a hull. TheTouchstonerocked quietly on the surface of this gray stretch of sea.
I was allowed to keep my berth in the galley, and that night, I slept like a stone.
It was noon when I was summoned to the captain’s cabin.
10. Letter of Marque
Ta-da-dat, ta-da-dat, ta-da-dat.
I watched his long fingers drum the polished wood of his desk.
Ta-da-dat, ta-da-dat, ta-da-dat.
He said nothing for a very long time, merely stared at me with his gold-shot eyes.
Ta-da-dat, ta-da-dat, ta-da-dat.
It was his left hand drumming, for his right was bound up in a sling. His face was still bruised from the cannister shot, and a ring of red circled one pupil. Every feature of his face was cut and defined, and I wondered if it was aRhi’Ahrtrait or simply his. If I ever dared sketch him, I knew it would be a series of straight lines with a sharp, feathered quill. Nose, jaw, chin, cheek. Lines and hollows, shadows and peaks. The ears were the same, tapering to points beneath his sweep of sea-black hair.
Yes, I realized, I’d very much like to sketch him. But I’d never let him see.
“What were their words again, Ensign?” he asked finally.
“Something about enemies and the Ship of Spells,” I said. “And that the harpiar had a soul ab—”
“No, about the boy. Tell me what they said about the boy.”
“Oh, that they should try to spare him,” I said. “That they could fetch a sum from an old sot.”
Ta-da-dat, ta-da-dat, ta-da-dat.
“That it was still worth it after ten years,” I added. “That there was a new wife but no son, and that they would pull halves in that as well.”
I stood with my hands behind my back as I delivered my story, the ship rocking gently under my boots.
“It is curious that theTemplemorewas there at the very time you were.” His eyes slid to me. “Does Bracebridge know of yourchimeric?”
“Mychimeric?” I frowned. “He saw me cast aPraesidiumspell on the dock…”
