Something hot and wet touched his throat.He realized, allat once, that Zaria was dragging her tongue across his neck.Like manypredators, she had meat-stripping barbs on her tongue, which were now roughlyscarping over his skin.The feeling was painful, wet, and oddly tingling.Hekicked his legs through the sand, trying to strike her away, but he was pressedinto the section of hull by the bulk of her body, which gave him no leverage tospare.
Slowly, she pulled away, taking her time of things.A clawedhand gripped his shoulder.A pair of brown, slitted eyes met his own.He couldsee now, more than ever, that the scar on her nose was deep, old, and wicked.
“Am I hittin’ the mark, Isaac?”
Isaac tried to catch his breath, feeling that the heat onhis face was not solely due to burns.
“I’ll ask you again,” she said, holding up his uncle’sletter.“And I promise, this is the last time I’ll use my words.Do weunderstand each other?”
Isaac nodded, gathering himself.
“What does this say?”
Isaac looked at the letter, back at her, and said: “Fuckoff.”
She didn’t react.For a long moment, she kept looking intohis eyes, searching for any hint of weakness.Isaac gathered the last of hisstrength and defiantly met her gaze, knowing that the slightest falter would behis last.All at once, she began to snigger.The laughter continued building instrength until she was bent over, leaning a hand on his thigh, cackling withher entire body.It was loud and whooping and completely like an animal.
Isaac took a deep breath, his throat still noticeably wet.He tried to think of his father.
“Can I tell you something, Isaac?”Zaria asked, pulling herselfstraight.Her snout quirked with a repressed grin.“I think we’ll make a fineteam, you and I.”
“Excuse me?”
She stood up, pacing over to his upturned pack.“Well, I maynot have had the good fortune of education, but Idoknow agood fortune when I see one.”She picked up a parchment lying on the ground,shaking the sand off.
A chill went down Isaac’s spine when he recognized his ownmap, complete with all his markings and notes and gathered thoughts.Zariaparsed over the symbols like she was perfectly capable of taking their measure.It occurred to him that a pirate would have a very good cause for learning howto navigate by chart.
It was already over.She knew where he was going.
Zaria strolled back to him, squatting down till she was onlyslightly above him.“What’s this, Isaac?”
“I do believe that’s a piece of paper.”
“Funny.I think it’s a treasure map.See?”She pointed atthe large X that denoted his destination.“X marks the spot.Classiccartography.Even mages with silver spoons up their arse like that one,apparently.”She paused.“No offense.”
“Much taken,” Isaac said.
“Well, it just so happens I know this place.Most piratesdo.”She adopted a creeping, gravelly voice.“The lair of an ancient sorceress,carved into the earth from the buried corpse of a giant, the smell of death sopungent it touches the fabric of your soul.They say that anyone who venturesinto the mouth of this tomb has their essence consumed by demons, their spirittwisted into madness by eternal torture.”She glanced down at the map, thenback at him.When she spoke again, her voice was at a regular alto pitch.“Youbelieve in them old myths, Isaac?”
Isaac grimaced.“Not all of them are wives’ tales.”
“Ah,” she answered.“Well, they also say that old sorceressleft behind treasures not seen by any species for thousands of years.Gems andgoblets of gold, all glitterin’ in the dark, morethan ten skimmers could carry.You believe that old myth, too?”
He swallowed.
Zaria pressed a claw into the X.“Let me spin another yarn.See, I think you were sent out by some mage academy or what have you to claimthat treasure, and maybe discover a few evil magics along the way, or whatevernasty business the lords of the land are brewin’ upfor their schemes.A group of bandits may stand no chance against the horrorsthat lurk in them halls, but a mage like you?Someone who’s quite obviouslyread his weight in ancient books?”She looked him up and down.“I bet you couldtake me right down to that horde of gold.”
“No,” Isaac said, quietly.
“No, you can’t?Or, no, you won’t?”
“No.I—” He sighed.“I’m trying to rescue my father.”
She tilted her head.“Is he some aspiring weapon ofdestruction, like yourself?”
“He was part of the Diet of Nine.One of the strongesttransmutation experts on the continent.He went out to the tomb before I wasborn to make contact with that very same sorceress,who, I assure you, is very real.The Diet had reason to believe she was stillalive, sustaining herself by the power of necromancy.”
“Ain’t that death magic illegal?”
