“Captain of the ship that attacked our vessel.” Adela motioned to the bound and gagged man. “What would you have us do with him?”
What was the game that Adela was playing? Was she trying to make a wedge between Eira and the other pirates? No…that couldn’t be it. If Adela had wanted the crew to dislike her, she would’ve never allowed Eira to hold any esteem in the first place.
“Kill him,” Varren said coldly. Eira glanced over her shoulder. The man’s eyes were haunted and as cold as his words. He stared at the man from Carsovia as though he wasn’t even human.
Thelutenz—which Eira assumed to be a term for some kind of knight or leader of Carsovia, given that Adela said he was a captain—for his part seemed completely unfazed by Varren’s harsh reaction to the mere sight of him. In fact, a smile stretched over the top edges of his gag, curling around it as he bared the fabric in his teeth, spittle dripping off his chin. There was a sinister and cruel glint to his eyes.
He had to know he was going to die. How else could he be calm enough to smile, rather than beg, before Adela and all her crew? A dead man had nothing to lose—no reason to tell them any pertinent information. The look in his eyes reminded her of the Pillars. They, too, shared that same crazed and wild aura.
The likeness gave her the strength to stand a little taller. She was even more grateful that she hadn’t accepted Cullen’s offer to carry her. Men like this, even dead ones, were the last people she would show weakness to.
“Well?” Adela asked again, mildly impatient.
“We cannot use him in any way?” Eira doubted they could, but had to ask anyway.
“Wishful thinking, girl.” Adela tapped her cane. “He is about as useful to us as a torn sail.”
“The Empress of Carsovia doesn’t make deals,” Varren added. Eira glanced back at him. Lavette was holding his hand now. His face was still twisted with hatred. The closest she’d ever seen to it was when he had first told them about the mines.
She returned her attention to the bound man. If her assessment was right, and he was as loyal to his empire as the Pillars were to Ulvarth, the man would no doubt do everything in his power to kill himself before he could be used against his nation in any way. What made someone view their life worth so little and another’s worth so much? And what type of place was Carsovia that it demanded this loyalty?
There would be no way he would join the crew, which meant he couldn’t earn his place. All the resources on theStormfrostwere carefully allotted, and had to be dwindling given how long they’d been at sea. He wouldn’t give them information…
“He dies.” Two words summed up her conclusion.
“Yes, yes.” Adela hummed, ever impatient. “We knew this.Howdoes he die?”
Eira’s curiosity toward Adela’s motivations piqued further. What did the pirate queen presume to gain by deferring to her in this manner? Surely not the love of her crew, judging by their agitated and confused faces.
It dawned on her.This must be a test.
Adela was nothing if not overcautious. She calculated everything and it was clear she was at odds with Carsovia, given her demand for Eira to kill the man in charge of their flash bead mines. Adela must be wanting to ensure Eira didn’t have any love for the other empire. It didn’t matter to Adela that Eira claimed she’d never heard of Carsovia until arriving on Meru, when she had also proven herself during their many discussions to be well-read on matters of the world. Perhaps she’d been so successful that Adela wasn’t truly certain if Eira knew nothing.
“If you wanted so badly to meet the Queen of the Seas, then you should die by her domain,” Eira declared. The words were void of any emotion. Any guilt or remorse Eira might have felt had vanished, smothered. Her eyes met the man’s. “Tell me, Lutenz, how good of a swimmer are you? How long can your magic hold up?”
His only response was a low chuckle, barely audible through his gag. Eyes aflame.
“Give him to the sea!” Adela declared.
Cullen gripped her tighter. “Eira, if he is meant to die then give him a quick death.”
“A quick death is more than they deserve.” Varren’s tone grew more hateful by the second, his scowl deepening. “They do not offer clean deaths to the poor, the weak, the infirm. It is a luxury they don’t deserve.”
“I didn’t say to do it out of kindness,” he countered. Surprise brought her eyes toward him. Cullen’s tone was shifting, a distortion of what she thought she knew. It had all the cunning of his careful plotting as a lord, but an ease with doing what must be done. As if he had finally been untethered. “What if he does survive? You see the runes on his body.”
“Forbidden magic,” Varren muttered. Though the sentiment made Eira even more curious.So the strange tattoos weren’t just for show…
“The last thing we want is to risk information of us getting back.” Cullen locked eyes with her. “If it pleases you, let me do it.”
She glanced back to Varren. He continued to glare at the lutenz, but he didn’t make any movement or raise an objection to the notion of the lutenz being somehow able to survive.If Cullen truly wanted to… A dark and wicked streak in her wanted to see if he would—if hecould.
“Do it,” she said, mildly curious what he had in mind.
“If I may?” Cullen said to Adela.
“I left the choice to her.”
Cullen reached out a hand and his magic swelled. His grip tightened around her protectively as the man began to sputter. The muscles in his throat bulged along with his eyes as his face turned purple. Eira could almost see a bubble forming around his face in the hazy currents of frost radiating from the deck.
