Felipesegundo gazed at her gravely. “Milady forgets that this one has also been a captive. Everything is turned upside down, and one does not always know who is friend and who is foe, what is safe and what is not. This one could never be angry at you for doing what you thought was best. This one only wonders, do you still want to leave?”
Aria shook her head. “No, my friend,” she said earnestly. “This one—I mean, I’ve decided to stay. I’m joining the captain.”
The Treb beamed once more. “This one is happy. A very good choice, this one is thinking.”
“I’m glad you think so,” said Aria, smiling.
“Yes!” Felipesegundo clapped his hands. “This is a cause for joy. Perhaps even something special to drink when it is dinnertime. What does the lady wish to do now?”
“I was going to join Jack on the command deck, see what’s going on. I think I remember how to get there.”
“This one will show you,” said the Treb firmly, taking Aria by the hand and leading her through the corridors. Aria, her heart light, was glad to follow.
The two chatted as they walked, about nothing in particular, until they were at the doors to the command deck.
“This one will leave you now, as this one’s duties are actually on the other side of the ship,” said Felipesegundo, winking conspiratorially. “Good luck, Lady Aria.”
“It think it’s just Aria now,” she replied. “Or it will be after my father disowns me,” she said ruefully.
The Treb bowed. “As you say.” He hurried off.
Aria took a deep breath, hit the panel to open the door, and strode through.
Conversation dipped as she walked onto the command deck then came back up. Aria kept her eyes focused on Jack, who smiled as he stood up and invited her onto the dais.
“Welcome, darling,” said Jack as he took her hand. “Not to worry,” he said, waving a hand to everyone, “no ‘ship self-destruct’ buttons within easy reach.”
There was a low chuckle from the crew.
“I did want to say, I’m sorry about that,” said Aria to the crew in general. “My only excuse is that, as Felipesegundo just pointed out to me, when you’re a captive, you don’t always know what the best options are, let alone what’s right and what’s wrong. But I’ve made my choice now, and I choose to be here, if you’ll have me.”
There was an approving mutter.
“And for what it’s worth, I think your captain punished me enough for all of you,” she added.
The mutter grew into smatterings of laughter.
Jack drew her over, to seat her on the armrest of his enormous command chair.
“You’ve a nice touch with the crew, Aria Gryffin,” said the pirate admiringly. “That was sweetly done.”
“For what it’s worth,” murmured Aria.
“Perhaps more than you might think.”
“So catch me up,” she urged, settling on to the wide armrest. What’s that enormous red building? It looks like a castle.”
“That,” said Jack, “is the stronghold of one Ilich Varyus Sanchez, known to the popular media as Redbeard. He is our prospective buyer for a significant cargo of mandalum, which we picked up somewhere or other. He is not giving us market rates—although he really should, given the rarity of the stuff—but he is promising us a better deal than we could get anywhere else.”
“Doesn’t that make you suspicious?” asked Aria.
Jack raised an eyebrow. “It does indeed. Very good, my darling! However, we of theMaracaibolike to do our due diligence, so we checked out our dear friend Redbeard rather carefully. Thanks to that, we know a couple of things. One”—the pirate flicked a finger into the air—“he actually does have the money to pay us. That’s an encouraging sign. Two, Ilich has been spreading some of his money around to hire a lot more guns and muscle. That isnotan encouraging sign. But because we fancy ourselves as rather clever, we’ve taken some steps to deal with that as well.”
“You seem to have thought of everything,” said Aria, half teasing, half in admiration.
The pirate sighed. “If only that were ever true. Welcome to a pirate’s life, milady. You may try to gimmick the table, hide your money, scam the toss…but sooner or later, you have to actually roll the dice.”
“After my decision today, I’m not sure you should call me ‘milady’ anymore. My father is sure to disinherit and disavow me eventually.”
