Vain little thing. I mused. I wondered if that was a sign or not.
—
I slept after eighth bell because I found out that I had to do a first-bell shift. Roughly midnight to sunrise. We wouldn’t get to Genofrey for another two days if the wind held. I felt like I was running out of time.
And I was certainly running out of luck.
I barely had time to appreciate the sunrise when we saw an interceptor. Barrett had a spyglass and I saw him go white when he looked through it.
“It isn’t the Acid Rain pirates, is it?” I heard Bernard asking. Barrett shook his head. But he still yelled at everybody to get ready. We were a small ship, loaded up with pearls, live oysters, and furs. We were an easy target.
I looked into the barrel of weapons. All of them were cheap cast-offs. Weapons were expensive. And Barrett’s cheapness didn’t do him any good here. I picked up a chipped bastard sword, grimaced, and dropped it back in. I picked up an ugly-looking mace instead. Nothing complicated about bashing somebody in the head. Also that sword looked like one good swing would crack it.
I picked up a home-made shield. It was two wide boards cut into a rough square and nailed together by two cross-hatches. I stuck my fingers through a worn leather strap. It was better than anything. It looked like it could persuade an arrow to at least slow down. Maybe. If I was lucky.
I rushed back on deck, and a blast of light streaked the distance between the two ships. It knocked one of the would-be pirates flat to the deck, twitching feebly.
It was the purple elf who did it. He was already gathering another. His hands were glowing softly. His brow furrowed. With his shiny scales, he looked like a picture in my home-town’s shrine. Some avenging sea-god. For festivals, we dressed up as him by putting fish scales on our cheeks.
I yelped as an arrow flew by my cheek, and I ducked behind my shield. My guts felt like they would liquify at any moment, and I was fucking terrified.
The pirate ship was small like ours. It had a much bigger sail. I could count ten in their raiding party. (The one Lex knocked over was shakily getting up, blood spurting from his nose and mouth.)
“Come and get some.”
I looked to my left and then yelped again.
Rat had taken off her scarf. The lower half of her face was twisted with scar tissue. She must have mouthed off to the wrong person, because they had carved a smile onto her thin face.
She twirled the pick in her right hand. She had a big knife in the other.
It was hard not to feel a little bit safer with a handful of freaks on our side.
Ana and two of the sailors were trying to pick them off with arrows. The sailors were abysmal shots, but the half-elf and Lex together managed to drop three.
But by then it was too late. We managed to wheel our ship, The Antelope, so the other vessel didn’t break us with the sharp ram at the bow, but the ships crashed sides and the raiding party leapt on board, armed to the teeth.
Rat let out a sound something like a roar and waded right into them. Bulling two of them into the crevice between the ships with sheer strength.
I will never forget what a pick wielded by an angry bitch can do to a man’s skull. Yeesh.
The remaining pirates on the other ship quickly wheeled away. The two pirates in the drink tried to swim for the boat, but went under without a trace. The Antelope’s crew in the meantime, was sort of just able to back up. The remaining three pirates were fighting for their lives.
The biggest one, a huge bald motherfucker, leapt for Lex, leaving the purple elf to try and leap out of the way. His hands were glowing, and he even hit the giant, but he was still coming, holding a short ax high over his head. Lex on his back on the deck
Ana’s crossbow was useless in close quarters. Rat looked busy trying to paint the deck red. So I darted in from behind and swung my mace at the back of his knee, darting away just as quick as I could.
The bald motherfucker roared and forced his axe down. Lex rolled, but the axe still came down.
“Fucking pipsqueak.” Oh gods and demons now he was coming for me.
I tried stepping backwards without turning my back, but I stumbled over the handle of that fucking pick, still stuck in the skull of a pirate. I held up my wooden shield, ready to greet my ancestors. Or my maker. Accounts vary.
Instead of an axe, the whole beast fell on top of me.
I grunted once. He was huge. I just took a moment to gasp for air and squeeze my eyes shut and wiggle my toes and fingers, just to make sure they were all there.
I pushed at my shield, but my arms were weak with fear, and seriously, this pirate was the size of a whale. Blood was oozing from his nose and mouth, and soon it would leak through my shield.
The weight came off. Lex was pushing him off me. He was breathing like a carthorse, and I could see blood trickling down his face. He smiled crookedly and helped me up.
He had big yellow eyes, like a lizard, but his hand was warm. He had a shallow cut on his scalp. His dark hair was matted with blood, but otherwise he looked unhurt. “Thanks, James… was it?” He almost definitely wasn’t trying to be charming, it just sort of came off that way.
Then he looked past me and grimaced. “Really, Rat? Are we scalping them now?”
I looked back and kinda wished I hadn’t.
“Very useful to keep around. Not easy on the eyes… Or a very good conversationalist for that matter. And try to keep her away from locked doors.”
“Fuck you, Lex.” She grunted.
Lex grinned, winced. I saw that his head-scarf, a maroon silk wrap with no charms, had been sliced and bloodied and was still on the deck. I picked it up, put a clean corner in my mouth and used it to start dabbing at the blood on Lex’s face. It was a chance to see him up close.
He sat down on a rain barrel and let me tend to it. It looked like Barrett had gotten hit with a club and Ana was healing his broken arm. Rat was waiting in line. Not all of the blood on her came from others.
“Just most of it.” I muttered, as I carefully moved Lex’s hair out of the wound. “This will scar. Unless you get the half-elf to look at it.”
Lex chuckled. “I don’t bother her unless it’s serious. Rat is half-way decent with a needle and thread. And ladies like a man with a scar.” He frowned a little. “Maybe not Rat, but if she’s a lady, we need to change the description.”
“I think the blood loss is making you delirious. She’d probably give you up as a lost cause and get another scalp for her collection. Want me to sew it?” Blood didn’t bother me, not when it wasn’t mine, anyway.
He shrugged. “You already saved my ass once, can’t hurt to do it again. You have any whiskey?”
“You stay up here in the light, I have it, but you are not getting any.” I chuckled. “Not unless you say please.”
—
I set up on the quarterdeck. He sat on a barrel, clenched his teeth on a wooden peg wrapped with leather, and I sewed his scalp closed with a curved needle and silk thread I had boiled in wine.
“I thoh oo seh oo ha whi-ky.” He grunted through the peg.
“Shut up. I have five more stitches. Drunk men have thin blood, so no whiskey ’til this is dry.”