I sighed and resumed my work. Lecturing Kaelias about how reckless he was when it came to Lorian was like talking to a brick wall. He would die for the Captain without so much as a second thought. I’d gathered that they’d known each other prior to the whole pirating business. Everything else was a mystery, because neither of them were inclined to talk about their history, and the only other person who might have a clue was Makatza, but I didn’t feel comfortable going behind their backs to ask. We all have our secrets, after all.
“You’re done,” I said, tying off the stitch. I handed him a small jar of ointment I kept on hand. “Put this on the wound twice a day. Scratch at your stitches and I will give you a wound far worse than that one.”
He gave a sarcastic nod, but I knew he’d listen. If not to me, to Lorian.
Whatever had happened out there—it had been bad. I’d had far more crew members in and out of the infirmary throughout the day than was normal for a standard raid. Most had minor cuts or bruises, but there were a few, like Kaelias, who’d needed stitched up. It had taken a toll on my already dwindling supplies. I’d been mentioning the need to restock for weeks—now it was no longer a suggestion.
By the time I’d finished up for the night, my muscles were screaming from being hunched over for so long. My hands were red and raw from working with the needle, grinding down poultices, and pulling bandages tight. There was more to do, supplies to restock, tools to disinfect, but it would have to wait until the morning. I needed to speak with Lorian immediately.
The Captain’s cabin was every bit as chaotic as he is. He’d collected tiny treasures from every place we’d ever sailed, and decided to store them all inside. Every inch of the walls were covered with paintings, maps, and trinkets. Every time the waves were rough, more of his collection would tumble to the ground—shattering or tearing apart—and Makatza and I would scold him over how he needed to cut back. He always agreed. He never cut back.
I knocked and heard several things clatter to the ground as he shifted his legs—no doubt kicked up on the desk—back down to the floor.
“Come in.”
Lorian looked surprisingly worn down. For as busy as he kept us, he never let it show on his face—until now. A permanent grimace etched into his mouth, and his dull, listless eyes fixed on the map before him. He’d tied his hair into a mess of a bun behind his head, which would have been fine, except he is the type to always have his mane perfectly combed and braided. He was as vain as they came. One look at Lorian had confirmed my earlier suspicions—whatever had happened was not good. At all.
“So… the raid.” I was dipping my toe in the water of his patience, testing if bringing up a medical supply restock at the present moment was going to send him over the edge.
He looked up at me, and guilt flooded his face. “I fucked up.”
So, I was speaking with friend Lorian, not Captain Lorian. Supplies would have to wait a bit. “Lorian. It happens.”
He sucked in a deep breath and shook his head, shifting to stare out of his small window. “No. We went after a shipment of gemstones that was supposed to be going to an Elven noble family. Pieces of shit, truly. They deserved it.”
I sat down in the chair across from him. “Kaelias said there were more guards than you anticipated.”
Lorian flinched and looked back at me, the guilt melting into concern. “Is he… alright?”
“He’ll be fine. He needs to mind his stitches, but it’s nothing dire.”
That seemed to settle him. “More guards is an understatement, and not half of the problem. The report I’d received was false. The shipment was actually headed for the capital city Val’Naeris.” He buried his head in his hands. “To the goddamn castle.”
Oh. Oh, Lorian had indeed fucked up.“That is not ideal.”
He scoffed. “No. Not ideal.”
“You didn’t kill royal guards, right?”
“No. The shipment was small enough that it was being handled externally. I don’t think the King will care much about a few crates of gems, but he’ll set a bounty on us to protect his image. And no fence is going to touch them knowing where they came from, so this whole thing was pointless.”
I knew that bothered him more than our inevitable death at the hands of either bounty hunters or the royal guard. The gold from the shipment was to help a port town we’d recently visited, a town that had suffered fires and crop losses. Lorian had heardtheir stories and given them what we could spare, promising to be back with more. The Lord of their territory had done nothing to help. Without the gold, there was little we could do.
A knock sounded at the door, and Kaelias and Makatza waltzed in.
“Family meeting?” Makatza laughed, plopping down in a chair.
Lorian rested a hand on her shoulder. “Just wondering if I should drown myself in the ocean or take my chances at the end of someone else’s blade.”
“Blade, always.”
Kaelias signed something to Lorian that I only caught the end of and couldn’t make sense of.
“No.” Lorian’s voice was ice cold.
“What is it?” I asked, twisting around to Kaelias.
Lorian shot up from his seat, eyes boring into Kaelias. “You will not repeat what you said to me.” An uncomfortable pause followed, the two of them staring at each other unflinching, before Lorian finally waved his hand in front of him. “Everyone out. I’m tired. We will deal with this in the morning.”
