On a day like this when our patchy sail was hard and pregnant with air, almost no one had work. Barrett had four men working to scour the place down so we didn’t get lazy, but they went lackadaisically about it.
Francis and Rat were sparring, this time with the trident. They both had a roughly equal amount of painful welts on their forearms. Ana was flirting with Bernard.
I sniffed. I wondered if she’d still be hanging on his meaty arm if she had seen how much vomit he got on the bar-wench last night.
Lex was stretched out on deck like a lizard, soaking up the sun and fiddling with that beetle statue.
“How’s your head?” I asked him, dropping down to the deck to be at his level.
He grimaced cheerfully. “Well enough… What about your eye?”
I shrugged. “Just means I can wink more easily. Strikes fear into the hearts of my enemies, so on.”
He got this funny wry little smile on his face. It reminded me of the smile old biddies get on their faces when young girls talk about boys. Maybe I was a virgin when it came to having enemies.
“What’s with the statue? Do you think it might be valuable?”
He shrugged. “It’s definitely mysterious. We found it inside a small ribcage. We think it’s from a little girl that died a year ago on the island.” He sighed. “I just got to see her family and tell them I found their kid’s skeleton. They… didn’t take it well.”
Huh. So not your average mercenaries, then. Any random thug would have gone searching for the little black idol, but not many would have gone to find the family.
Half baked plans of how to get him to one of the half-dozen hideaways on this ship evaporated (Well, I saved them for later, anyhow.) I rested a hand on his shoulder. “You did the right thing. At least now they know.”
I could feel his slick scales under the linen cloth of his shirt, chosen for it’s bright red color. He had little beads of bright tin at the tips of the laces. I could see bright stones in many of his earrings.
In a visible effort to move on from that rut in the conversation, Lex held up the idol. Looking at it more closely, I realized it wasn’t a beetle, but a sort of funny hump-backed turtle-thing.
With teeth.
“We also met an… Interesting… young man who was calling me ‘Fig Tree’. He called Rat ‘Willow’ and Ana ‘Laburnum’. He went insane exactly a year ago.” He moved his hand in a lazy gesture, connecting imaginary points. “The same time the girl went missing.”
He made another grimace. “If you don’t already have enough reasons, don’t sneak up behind Rat. I thought she had killed the poor boy. Only knocked him out, but we almost got in a lot of trouble.
“So… Are you going to sell it?”
“Maybe. Gonna try and find somebody who knows what it is and what it can do, because it definitely isn’t just an inert statue. There’s something special about it…”
He started digging at it, trying to squeeze his index finger under the turtle’s belly. “There’s some kind of loose piece under here, but I can’t reach it, can’t get it out, and can’t figure out what it is. Can you try?”
Maybe now was the time to tell Lex that I was a massive coward.
“Um, sure?”
The thing wasn’t really that much like a turtle, other than the shell. I really didn’t like it much. Especially after the lovely little history Lex had filled me in on. Especially-especially after he told me he was absolutely sure it wasn’t a harmless inert idol.
“If this chops off my finger, you owe me a big favor.” I grumbled. That way, if it did eat my finger, I would get laid. Nobody could ever accuse me of not planning ahead.
The turtle-beast was carved from an oily black stone, and resting on a pedestal of the same material. I gingerly tried to squeeze my finger under the turtle belly. I think that my fingers were actually bigger than Lex’s. Guy had small hands.
I did feel the loose piece he mentioned though. Just barely. When I pushed my fingertip in and out I could feel it rattling around. But when I shook the statue near my ear, I couldn’t hear anything.
I shrugged. “I can feel it, but, look at our hands.” HA! Clever excuse to hold hands.
I held my hand with the fingers outstretched and placed his hand palm-to-palm with mine. He didn’t have any scales on the palms of his hands, the skin was soft, like human skin. His fingertips only came up to the first joint of my fingers. His fingernails were all tinted deep rosy purple.
He didn’t seem to take the hint. Or even notice how feely I was trying to be. Airhead.
“Yeah, I wonder if Ana has small hands…” He idly went back to sticking his fingers under the idol.
“Ouch!”
I flinched, and whirled back around, horrified and ready to bind up a missing finger. But Lex was frowning down at his finger, which had a big red drop of blood welling at the tip.
I relaxed. “Did it bite you?” I teased, taking his hand to get a closer look. He was so innocent to my intentions… I decided to kick it up a notch.
“Your poor finger…” I cooed, and then I looked right into his eyes as I gently sucked the tip of his finger into my mouth.
“Oh… oh… OH.”
It was fun watching his cheeks turn a brighter, more robust purple. His eyes widen with shock. I felt myself smiling around his fingertip. I swirled the tip of my tongue around the tip one more time before I let go.
“You… um. You thought that I was… um.” The statue was completely forgotten, and Lex was stammering. It was pretty cute, and it made me relax a bit. Not every man was as forgiving when it came to this. He mostly just seemed confused, a little nervous, and he was straining not to be impolite.
Good signs, overall.
“Lex, Lex… listen to me.” I laughed. “I know which one you prefer. I’m not a dark highwayman who’s gonna bash you over the head and take your coins. I’m not some predator in a tavern, ready to spike your beer with hemp oil and leave you waking up drunk and alone, wondering why your asshole is the size of a dinner plate.”
His eyes went about as wide as dinner plates.
Maybe I had a little too much fun teasing him. Maybe.
“Well… What are you then?” He murmured. He looked apprehensive. But I wasn’t hearing a no.
“A friend.” I said lightly. “Just a friend.” Had to go careful, tease him in. Like a fish on a line.
I was losing him, I could feel it. He was just too flustered and nervous, he was going to say no. I put up my hands in a calming gesture. “Think about it. Just think about it.” I got up.
“You know the main hold?” I asked him off-hand, before I walked away.
He still looked a little lost, but he nodded. “Behind all the crates of furs, barrels of beer and oysters, there’s a little spot you can’t see from the hatch.” I tried to put on my most winning smile. “If you want to try the other side of the sheets for once, meet me there at ten bells. I’ll make it worth your while.”
I couldn’t help getting in one last jab. “Might do you good to finger someone else for a change.”
He looked down at the idol and flushed magenta as I strutted away.
—
By the time I was in my hiding place, I was half-sure he would come.
I tried to set it up extra-special. Thankfully, the corner was near the fur-crates, and not the undeniably ripe-smelling oysters.