“Yeah, thanks for not giving us up, buddy,” Wei said.
Something still bothered me about the take. I stepped back from Teng and asked, “Where are those crates?”
Teng grinned and jerked his head. “This way.”
I followed Teng through the doorway under the poop deck and into the corridor that led to his quarters. But instead of going straight, we took the stairs down toward my cabin. Just before my room, there was a storage room. That's where Teng went.
“There they are.” He waved a hand at three crates stacked to one side. “All we got for that fucked up debacle.”
I went to the first one and opened it. There were indeed bottles of liquor inside. And in the next and the next. No false bottoms on the crates, and nothing unusual about the bottles.
Ry, who was leaning against the doorframe, said, “See? Nothing worth torturing you over. That fucker is either insane or mistaken.”
“Maybe one of his crew took this special thing and blamed it on us,” Teng said.
“Maybe,” I murmured and looked at the bottles again. “But there was definitely something more than brandy in the crates. He said it belonged to King Lyrandir and implied that the King would kill him if he didn't retrieve his property.” I took every bottle out of the crates and inspected them. It wasn't until I reached the eleventh bottle that I found it. “Ah, there you are,” I said.
“What?” Ry lurched forward and peered at the bottle.
Teng just chuckled and shook his head. “Of course, you would find something we missed. What is it, kid?”
I handed the bottle to Teng. “Look in the brandy.”
Teng peered at the bottom of the bottle, then his eyes went wide.
“What is it?” Ry demanded.
“Get a mug, Ry,” Teng said as he went to the table in the center of the room. “Three of them.” He looked at me. “I have a feeling we're going to want to celebrate.”
“But what is—”
“Ry!” Teng growled.
“Fine, fine,” Ry muttered and left the room.
“How did they even get it in there?” Teng mused as we continued to stare at something that did not belong in a bottle of brandy.
“They must have blown the glass around it,” I said. “That's a lot of effort to go through to hide a single jewel.”
“It's a jewel?” Ry asked excitedly as he returned with three mugs. “Holy fuck. How big is it?”
“Big,” Teng said as he drew his dagger and used the flat of the blade to pop the cork off the bottle. “Too big to get through the neck.” He poured the brandy out into the mugs until the bottle was empty. “But there's no sense in making a messandwasting good brandy.” He grinned and bashed the bottle against the table.
The glass shattered, shards scattering across the tabletop. In their midst was a gem the size of my thumb. Almond-shaped, it was faceted and shone a deep, blood red. We went silent as Teng picked it up and held it to the light sphere in the ceiling. Glittering and glowing, the jewel cast bloody rainbows everywhere.
“Holy fishsticks,” Ry declared. “A ruby?”
“No,” Teng whispered. “This is no ruby. I can feel it vibrating. This stone holds magic.”
A shiver ran through me and I said, “Now that's something to torture a man for.”
Teng lowered the stone and looked at me. “It's something to kill for. We've got to unload this thing fast.”
“We don't even know what it is,” Ry said.
Teng nodded. “I think I know someone who will. And he just so happens to live in Vix.” He slipped the stone into his vest. Then he lifted his mug. “To our fortunes.”
“Fortune!” Ry and I repeated.
