She kept walking ahead of him.
“Zaria,” he called again, “I need to know if the otherpirates are going to search for you.”
She looked up at the sky.Sand fluttered from her mohawk.“Aye, they will.That’s why we need the distance.All we can do is hope thewind covers our tracks.”
“Oh,” Isaac said.“That is terrific.Truly.Not only haveyou kidnapped me for coin, but you’ve also sicced a band of cutthroats afterme.Is there anything else you care to hamper my mission with?Perhaps anassassin?A court jester, to complete the farce?”
“Tell you what, squire,” she replied.“If you continue toslow us down, I’ll be sure to tell them who blew up one of their prized magicships.”She glanced over her shoulder.“Don’t you start thinking you’ll get offbetter than me.”
“Hey,” Isaac said.“What did you do?”
She shifted her white shawl, scratching the fur of her neck.
“At this point, I have a right to know.”
Her ears fell.
“Week or so back,” the hyena said, staring off into themiddle distance, “we got a contract for moving cargo from one of the Dietkingdoms, some royal shipping company or other that wanted their goodsdelivered to an outpost deep in the shrubland.I forget the name.Should’vepaid attention.”
“A king hired pirates to move his supplies?”
“Sure.Best insurance one can buy.Who’s going to steal froma pirate ship?”
“The pirates themselves, I imagine.”
She gave a small snort.“I believe the ledger keepers callit loss reduction.Skimming from the top is better than stealing wholesale.”She waved a hand.“Anyway, we get the merchandise, we set sail, everything’s toorder.We pass up more than one caravan since the contractor made such a fussabout fast delivery.
“Night three or four, I’m posting watch, and I hear a cryfrom the cargo deck.I check it out, as you do, but there’s no one below.Stillhear the crying.Sounds real pitiful like.Finally tracked it down to one ofthe crates.”Her fist balled at her side.“Crack itopen and there’s three tiger kittens staring up at me.Starved and covered intheir own filth.Next crate I check has two young horses, and one’s clearlybeen dead a while.Third has humans.Fourth was boars.You get the idea.”
Isaac almost spoke.He decided to wait.
“By then,” Zaria said, “my shipmates come down as well,because I’m making a ruckus, and the kits are cryin’ loud.First one braveenough to approach asks what the hell I’m doing.I ask him if he knew we weretransporting slaves.Children, at that.He tells me no, but why should he care?Job paid too well to ask questions.Hopefully, they hire us again.Then hekicks the crate and screams at the kittens to stop crying so much.
“Before I know it, I’ve split his head open.Next twoshipmates liked me some so they try calming me.I tell them clear as I can thatthe next person who gets near these kits is dead.By then, more are comingdown.”She gazed off towards the horizon.“I’m so beside myself that I killnine others before a different plan strikes me.Managed to push them out andbarricade the stairs long enough to rig a satchel of black powder next to thehull.Blew a hole in the ship, resealed the crates, and started dumping themout the side.”
She shrugged.
“We were close enough to a border town for the garrison tohear the noise.I dumped a third of the cargo before the crew broke through andpinned me down.From there, the skimmer broke hard to avoid pursuit, so I knowthey never picked what I tossed.That’s something.”
She spent the next few moments walking in silence.
“They tortured me a couple days.Tied right to the mast, nofood or water.Everyone who lost a mate got a turn.”
She fingered one of the bleeding wounds on her back.
“Captain kept them in line, for the most part.Traitors likeme get reserved for special treatment.She wanted to haul me back to Crookspur,way deep in the canyonlands, and spill my guts for the other crews to see.”Zaria gave a rough, humorless snort.“See, though, that’s the thing.She hadlive cargo.If she makes the journey to Crookspur, it’ll spoil on her.And shehas a reputation of keeping her word.”
Isaac kept walking behind her.
“So,” Zaria continued, “she’s forced to hail down anothership, and she tosses me on board, and she promises to chew my guts like straw, andthen she fucks off to sell children like cattle, as she promised.I was on thatsecond skimmer for a couple hours.Then, of course, you came along, and youburned it down.And now we’re here.”
The hyena glanced at him.
“Just so we’re clear,” she said.“I ain’t goin’ back.Notfor you, and neither for fear of what’s in that tomb up ahead.Not fornothin’.”
“I understand,” Isaac replied.
“Do you?”
