He kept grunting. Ana was praying near the front of the deck. Rat was up in the crow’s nest for some reason. Probably counting her scalps.
I washed the wound again with the boiled wine.
“There we go… Keep cleaning that. Try to clean it with wine or stronger liquor. Or boil the water at least. That’ll keep it clean and dry. Make it easier to take the silk out.”
He gingerly reached up but I slapped his hand. He didn’t have scales on the palms of his hands. Or his lips. “No touching for a while.” I tugged a jangly green scarf off of his waist and wrapped it around his head in a clumsy scarf like before.
He grinned up at me. “I’m pretty grateful. I usually only trust magicians with healing. The physical healers, they like to tell you to go bleed yourself, or make a poultice of dung and holy water.”
His canines came to slightly sharper points than mine did. I ran my tongue over my teeth. “Thanks for getting that fucker for me, I thought I was about to die.”
“You were about to die. And don’t mention it, James.”
He stood up and stretched. Shit. I was losing him.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking… But…”
“Spellscale.”
“Wha–?” I wondered if I had misheard him. I had no idea what that was.
“I’m pretty far from home, but what I am, it’s called a spellscale. I’m a descendent of dragons and elves and men.” He grinned when he saw the look on my face. “The dragon was a while back.”
“James!” Barrett barked. “Get over here!”
“Thanks again.” He started walking away.
I wanted to keep talking, but I was mesmerized watching his buns ticking back and forth in those too-tight leather breeches.
Hated him to leave, but it was so fun to watch him go.
—
Those three were off the ship as soon as we landed on Roova. We weren’t going to stop, but Barrett had wanted to check the ship for damage.
“I hope they come back.” Francis grunted as we walked down the gangplank. “They can do some damage. I don’t even think we have to worry about any of the lads disbanding this time.”
He offered me a salute and went off to the smaller and dingier of the town’s two taverns. Barrett was making small deals with local merchants. I was free to go.
After checking both bars and the brothel, asking around a little, I found out that they set off inland. I eyed the dark edge of the jungle.
Then I could hear the shivery yowl of a very large something, and turned right back around.
—
The bars and brothels only had women. I kept an eye out for the various signs and signals, but it was hard to stay invested after the initial disappointment.
The island was volcanic, so most of the villagers were farmers, using the fertile soil. A handful of boaters and fishers near the docks. It was a small village, and their clothes were mostly uniform shades of brown and black, bar a souvenir from Genofrey, the largest city for leagues in any direction.
The one exception was a splash of indigo. Lots of the villagers and locals I saw were wearing splashes of the unusual deep blue dye. A hat, a pair of gloves, a shirt, a skirt.
After a little hunting, a little following my nose, I found a small dyer’s hut. An old woman with milky eyes was stirring a pot of foul-smelling liquid with a big wooden paddle. The wooden paddle was dull ugly green where it was touching the liquid, but when the woman lifted a skein of cotton fibers, they were this deep gorgeous indigo.
“I can hear you breathing, sonny. You here to buy?”
“Depends.” I mused. “Do you have anything already dyed?”
—
Other than the bundle under my vest, I only bothered to buy a small keg of famous Roova beer and a bar of soap. I ended up getting back to the ship before anybody else.
Barrett was exasperated (as he generally was) because his sailors had scattered to the brothel. Now that I was back, he had somebody to boss around.
I looked at the stack of barrels he had bought from the brewer. I sighed. The plan had been to wait until the sailors came back in the morning with wet dicks and hangovers, but Barrett was offering a few extra coins if I started loading the barrels myself.
So that’s what I did. Rolling barrels the size of fat children up the gangplank as the sun slowly tracked from the east to the west.
It wasn’t until I had already started roping the barrels down that I realized the faster we loaded the cargo, the quicker we would leave. That’s why Barrett offered the extra coin. Old cheapskate was probably afraid they would charge him.
I went slower than I needed to.
—
Funnily enough, the three of them came back before the rest of the sailors did. They all had grim faces so I kept my distance. Lex looked like he had found a new trinket. I could just tell that Rat was grim under the face scarf. Call it a hunch.
Ana ignored me, stomping past to open up her pavestone-book in the dying light of the sun. Rat and Lex disappeared under the deck. I wanted to try and follow when Barrett put a hand on my shoulder.
“Go to the town and get my crew back here, we can save some time.”
I raised my eyebrow. He still told me to go.
Now I had to go find nine half-drunk sailors and tell them that they had to finish pumping their sluts and guzzling cheap grog to come back.
Goodie.
—
One black eye and a faceful of grog later, I started an eight-bells shift. From sunset to sunrise.
I was rubbing my eyes and swearing sleepily at a black-bruised thumbnail when the lucky trio dragged their well-rested asses up on board.
“What happened to you?” Lex asked, his brow furrowed a little. It looked like he had been scratching his stitches, I could see a little blood on the very small scales near his hairline. He had an ugly little statue in his hands. It looked like a beetle or an armadillo, not that I was looking at the statue.
He had ridges of slightly larger scales on the bony part of his cheekbones, on the tip of his chin and the corners of his jaw. Around his eyes and mouth, the scales were finer and more neutral colored. Except for those iridescent scales, scattered like a mix between war paint and freckles.
I sighed sleepily. “Captain had me go get the sailors from the girls and the drinks. Bernard was so drunk he thought I was trying to fight him for the wench.”
Lex laughed out loud. “I wouldn’t have minded if we had stayed a night… They had some lovely girls, I noticed. I couldn’t stop while the others were with me. But maybe I would’ve been left behind.”
That was discouraging.
But I wouldn’t give up. I just wanted to see what he looked like naked. I’d seen humans, elves, half-elves, and even an old half-orc named Nils. (Gigantic, now that you ask. Nice fella, though.)
Never seen a spellscale naked before.
I could barely keep my eyes open. Much as I wanted to. I went below deck to take a few hours in my hammock before I made my move.
—
Bright-eyed and horny, I got on deck.
The wind was going fiercely, and in the right direction for once. We were going in a quick straight line, and I couldn’t see anything on the horizon except a line of uninhabited islands and coral, like beads on a string. The sun was slowly lowering down to that string of islands, like a gigantic blood-orange.