“Don’t you be telling me what to think, Mr. Dupree. As I’ve had quite enough of that here lately, what with me brother on board, and all that rot.” She raked a furious glare over his body, which thankfully wasn’t protruding at the moment. No doubt only because ofhis guilt over having been caught. “And what I’m thinking is that the fair lot of you ought to be ashamed of yourselves, taking advantage of the wee one here, which you ought, so I’ve got every right to be thinking it, and I resent you telling me not to!”
Growling at them both, she hugged the poor woman. “Come along, dearie. I’ll get you below with the others and we’ll take good and proper care of you, and get you warm and cozy before you catch a death chill. Men! I cannot believe they’d leave you out to freeze in your birthday britches what with no cares but for their own personal lechery. For shame to them! Hope they both catch a cold for it!”
She continued to chide them as she escorted the woman as far away from them as fast as she could.
Laughing out loud, Bart clapped Kalder on the back. “Be damned, mermaid! I haven’t heard the lass go off like that since her first night in our company. Thought we’d quelled her tongue, what with our wild and woolly ways. Leave it to you to find it again, and get it working in such a comical manner.”
“Ah, shut it, Meers. I’m in no mood for you. Not now and not whilethisis going on. This is a terrible fix, truly!”
Bart glanced about the deck in confusion. “This? What this isthisyou be talking about?”
Kalder gestured after them. “That be a demon, and a general at that, she just took below with her to sleep in the women’s quarters.”
All the humor fled from Bart’s face. “Demon?” He started toward Cameron’s path with a dark intent.
Kalder cursed himself as he realized he’d only made it thatmuch worse, as the man would no doubt kill Chthamalus if he caught up to him. He took him by the arm and held him fast to his side. “Nay, Bart. Still not what you’re thinking, mate! Stand fast, would you! Avast! You’re jumpier than a virgin in a whorehouse!”
That at least caused him to stop and arch a brow. “And you are never so chatty either. What the hell has possessedyourtongue to give it such flight?”
The demon known as stupidity, apparently.
And in spades.
Honestly, he didn’t know where to begin unsorting this mess. It was gnarled beyond redemption and all common sense. Evenuncommon sense, for that matter. His head ached just trying to begin to start sorting through it all.
Which left Bart glaring after him, waiting for him to explain.
So he sighed as he released Bart, and raked his hand through his hair. He might as well just jump in and start somewhere with the explanation, though this was never going to go well for any of them. “Tally’s an old friend of mine.… From before.”
“Tells me nothing, mate. Especially givenyourreputation from your old life. If anything, that says we shouldn’t trust the beast at all.”
Like he didn’t know that. Kalder grimaced, hating Bart all the more for the truth of it, and aggravated at himself that he was having such a hard time of this. So he began again. “Aye. But he was my mentor.”
“Of what? Dumb-assery?” Bart screwed his face up. “Are you daft, man? I just saw the totality of thatwoman. Ain’t no male partshanging offthattree. Trust me. I’d have noticed any such dangling fruits in her amply visible and desirable nether regions.”
Aye, but…
Kalder held his hand up in testimony. “And I swear on me rotted-out soul that I’ve seen him as a man as sure as he was a woman just now. It’s part of who and what they are. They’re both sexes, and they’re neither.”
That didn’t help Bart’s expression any, or the need inside Kalder to want to wipe that look off his face with both fists.
“You’ve lost me completely, son.”
Pushing down the base urge to beat the bloke, Kalder ground his teeth and attempted to explain it better. “I know. It’s a peculiarity among their kind. They’re neither male nor female. They function as both and neither. At times, such as when they’re in battle, they don’t have the sex organs of either gender. They just are battle drones. And then when they’re around others, they choose what they want to be, depending on their moods and the environment. Believe me, it was the most confusing thing for me as a lad… until I got used to them, and their breed. Me father thought it hilarious to use them as his primary scouting force. It was actually ingenious, if you think about it. ’Cause they could move about freely, and shift forms at whim with none the wiser, as humans knew nothing about who and what they were. Unless you’re of the sea, like us, you’ve never heard of their species before and so you know naught of their abilities or whimsical ways.”
“And what are they?”
“Barnak demons.”
He gaped at Kalder. “That’sa Barnak?”
Now it was his turn to be stunned. “You’ve heard of them?”
“Well, of course. I am a Simeon Mage. I’ve just never actuallyseenone.”
“Wait, wait, wait. How do you know of them?”
“Simeon Mage,” Bart repeated slowly as if Kalder were as daft as Kalder had accused him of being, and that by the very mention of the term for Bart’s abilities Kalder should have instant clarity of Bart’s unheard-of knowledge about Tally’s species. “What part ofthatdo you not understand?”
