But as he neared the man who was struggling in the water, he drew up short at the unique sight of silvery skin and dark hair that marked him as something other than human.
Not a fellow Deadman at all.
This was a Myrcian.
And not just any Myrcian…
“Muerig?”
His brother coughed and wheezed as if trying to get his bearings. “Kal!”
Shocked, amazed, and not quite sure if he could believe what he was seeing, Kalder grabbed him in the water, and pulled him closer to his chest. “What are you doing here?”
“I don’t know. Where am I?”
Dumbfounded, Kalder tried to make sense of this. “You’re back in the world of the living.”
Surrendering his weight to Kalder, his brother scowled as he looked around in disbelief. “I don’t understand.”
Neither did he. But right now, that didn’t matter. Only getting them both back to the ship did. “Come on.” Thrilled and confused, he wrapped one arm beneath his brother’s armpits, and swam with him toward theSea Witch.
Kalder climbed up the side and lifted his brother over the edge first, then made his own way to the deck.
Bane seized him in one angry, malevolent fist and lifted him with a disturbing amount of ease given Kalder’s immense size and amount of muscle weight and saturation.No man should be this strong.“What were you thinking, you wee daft fish?”
Kalder blinked at the new insult Bane had found for him. “That you needed someone in the water.”
“You defied my orders!”
So what was new? Bane acted as if he’d never done such before, and Kalder would have said that out loud, but wasn’t quite so suicidal given the rage on his captain’s face. Nor could he fathom it. As noted, he wasn’t exactly known for following anyone’s dictates.Not even Bane’s. So why the captain was surprised by his insubordination, he had no idea.
For once, he stilled his tongue and merely arched a brow at Bane’s distemper.
Rather, he gestured at Muerig. “Have you met me brother, Captain?”
That at least succeeded in causing Bane to loosen his death grip enough that Kalder could breathe again.
“Pardon?”
Kalder cleared his throat as he extracted the last of his shirt with an exaggerated grimace from Bane’s grip. “Me brother Muerig.” He moved to kneel by his brother’s side so that he could check on him.
While Kalder tended him, Thorn and Belle came to help. Though the expression on Thorn’s face said he was suspicious enough that he might be considering tossing them both overboard again and summoning another lusca to have them.
Thorn narrowed his gaze on Muerig. “How did you get free?” Aye, there was pure venom in that tone.
Muerig wiped a shaking hand over his chin. “They let me go.”
Thorn laughed bitterly before he met Bane’s equally suspicious glare. “Gadreyal never lets anyone go.”
“Truth to that.” Bane stepped forward. “Unless she has mischief intended. Or they’re in league with her.”
Well aware of where this was headed, Kalder rose to his feet to defend his brother, and even though he knew it for the folly it was, he stood his ground on this matter. They weren’t about to harm his kin. Not while he was there to stop it. “He’s me baby brother, Captain.”
Thorn and Bane passed a look between them that shriveled hisstones a bit, as he had no doubt they were questioning his sanity, and debating whether or not to geld him, and cast his brother,andhis stones to the sharks.
But after a long pause the captain let out a deep sigh of resignation. “Keep a weather eye, Mr. Dupree. People, even beloved brothers, change. Seldom for the better. Usually toward the worst.” Bane glanced over to his younger sister, who’d come back to him after her own death at the hands of Bane’s enemies. “But I know the pain of losing what you hold dearest, and I won’t be depriving you of your family. Just remember the first rule of betrayal.”
That it never comes from the hand of a stranger or enemy.
