The pirate captain cut her gaze to Cali, her eyes wide. “Thanks.”
The pantheri didn’t waste a moment before notching another bow while watching blood flow between Marina’s fingers as the hellkin clutched her wounded hand. “My pleasure.”
“She’s a crack shot, our Cal is,” said Thrain, puffing out his own chest.
“So I’ve heard.” Bonnie gave her a wry smile. “Nice to see you in action.”
Cali’s fur tingled all over. The strike itself had always been reward enough, but she found this particular compliment made her feel all fizzy inside.
Despite being wounded, Marina turned and attempted to run from the pirates, but her feet sank in the sand and within moments her arms were being yanked behind her back and her wrists tied. Then her gaze landed on the hellkin who’d led them here. Cali had almost forgotten him. Marina evidently had not, because she lunged at him and almost fell face-first into the sand.
“You,” she spluttered as the pirates yanked her upright. “You led them to me.”
He looked back at her without flinching. “You let one of your own crew get taken by the sirens. You’re getting what you deserve.”
Marina’s lips thinned to a blood-red line, but there was nothing she could say to that.
The halfling pirate who’d been checking the inside of Jolli for damage grabbed the oars. “We’ll take her back to Tris, Cap.”
“Easy as you go,” Bonnie said, as a gnome hopped into the back of Jolli with the halfling and took up an oar.
The little boat began pulling away from the shore, effortlessly cutting through the shore break and heading for the harbor. Marina spat into the sand, and for a moment, Cali thought she might lunge after the boat.
Gert marched up from the water and took hold of Marina’s arm, while the other hellkin was steered to walk beside her. Marina did lunge at him, but the orc jerked her back so hard that her head hit the Quartermaster’s shoulder. Thrain grunted his approval from his position behind Gert, while Marina shuffled along in silence.
Cali fell in step with Bonnie at the back of the processional. “I assume the pirate ship who’ll take charge of them is in port.”
Bonnie glanced at the hellkin who’d led them to Marina, then to where the docked ships twinkled through the dark. “For him, yes.”
Cali flicked her gaze to Marina. “And for her?”
The captain released a slow breath. “I have something else in mind.”
Thirty-Four
Bonnie and Caliwere the last ones to reach the dock leading to the ship, and their steps slowed as the pirates walked the hellkin prisoners down the splintered wooden planks lit by intermittent hanging lanterns. Before the two reached the gangway of The Cruel Mistress, Cali stopped short.
A woman stood at the end of the dock, half-turned toward the water as if she’d been watching the tide come in. Chestnut hair fell in loose waves over her shoulders, and even from a distance, Cali knew the particular tilt of the head and the shape of the profile.
Time hadn’t touched her. She looked exactly the way she had the last morning Cali had seen her all those years ago.
“Adelaide,” Cali breathed, and the name cracked something open in her chest that she hadn’t realized was still sealed shut.
The woman turned fully now, and her face broke into a smile that was equal parts joy and old sorrow. “I heard a pantheri of your description was crewing with The Cruel Mistress. I had to see for myself if it was you.”
Cali couldn’t move. She was distantly aware of Bonnie beside her, going still.
“You heard?” Cali managed, her voice ragged in a way she barely recognized. “From who?”
“The mermaids,” Adelaide said, with a small, easy shrug, as though this were the most natural thing in the world. “And the sirens.”
Cali’s mind stumbled over the words. “Why would they talk to you?”
“Because she’s a selkie,” Bonnie said quietly before Adelaide could answer.
Cali shook her head, certain the captain was mistaken. Adelaide had crewed with her on dry land for the better part of a year, had slept under the same stars, and walked the same dusty roads. The woman had never once shown any sign of being anything other than an ordinary human. But Adelaide stepped closer, nodding slowly, and something in her green eyes shifted.
“She’s right,” Adelaide said.
