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I knew we were close to land, despite everyone’s misleading. The smugglers who left their shipmates aboard their broken ship would have had to take the time to find a new ship and then find where their old one had drifted off to. It’s no wonder they haven’t come back to it yet. And rather fortunate for Draxen and his crew that they happened to stumble across it.
“What are we to do with the princess?”
“Nothing at all. That’s why I brought Sheck down here. He’ll be guarding her until we reach land.”
“Is that really such a good—”
“I think she’s been having too good a time of it, Riden. It’s time we remind her who we are. Don’t know why you chose Kearan and Enwen, of all the crew, to primarily oversee her. If they didn’t have their particular talents, I would have tossed them overboard long ago. Almost bloody useless.”
Riden looks like he wants to argue. Very badly. But he doesn’t. “Let’s see to the gold, then,” he says instead.
For the first time I turn my attention to Sheck. And nearly jump away.
He’s pressed up to the bars, staring hungrily at me. I feel as though rats crawl across my skin. Actually, I think I would prefer it if rats were crawling against my skin.
When I was little and faced with a new challenge each day, I would look to my father for help. He would instruct me and then send me into the fire pit—figuratively speaking. I always got burned. And I learned quickly that turning to him for help was useless. He never assisted. I either succeeded or suffered the consequences of failing. There was no relief. Long afterward, I might be given some advice and encouragement. Sometimes even comfort. But in the moment, there was no aid. It wasn’t long before I learned to stop turning to others for help. It’s never an option, so I don’t even think about it.
Which is why when I am faced with the hot-blooded pirate, my first response is not to look to Riden. Or to ask Draxen to have someone else guard me. No, I handle my problems alone because that is the way things are.
“There isn’t a problem, is there, Alosa?” Draxen asks. His sneer is full of poison.
I say, “I’ve never had a problem I couldn’t handle myself.”
Chapter 6
THOUGHMYTIMESPENTwith Sheck and Ulgin was only a few hours, it felt like much, much longer.
It started with Sheck walking back and forth in front of my cell, never taking his eyes off me. Occasionally he would reach through the bars, as if he could grab me. He was trying to get a response from me. To see me afraid. I never gave him the satisfaction. I stayed to the far end of the cell the whole time. Though I was tired and could have used a rest before I sneak out of my cell tonight, I didn’t nap. I couldn’t risk rolling over in my sleep, coming within reach of Sheck’s searching hands.
But that was not all that prevented me from sleeping. There was also the screaming. Ulgin, like Sheck, is not a complicated pirate to figure out. Each pirate has their vice. For some it is drinking, for others it’s gambling, for those like Sheck, it is deriving forced pleasure from a struggling woman.
But Ulgin—his is seeing pain in others. So I sat, facing away, while Ulgin tortured those smugglers to death.
Draxen keeps vile men in his company, but I am neither surprised nor terribly bothered by it. My father has much worse men at his disposal. Some of them I know enjoy the taste of human flesh, right off a living body.
I have no such creatures within my own crew. I value other traits above an affinity for torture and power over those weaker than oneself. I value brilliant minds, honest souls, and those with long endurance. I forge relationships based on trust and mutual respect, not fear and control.
Empathy for human life is something my father tried to beat out of me. He thinks he succeeded. Most people do. And while I can kill evil men without guilt, the suffering of others pains me as well as it does them. It hurts, but I can handle it. Bad things happen to people who may not be deserving of such punishment. The world continues on. I continue on. Because if nothing else, I’m a survivor.
So it is with relief that I look upon the dead smugglers. Their pain is gone at last.
Shortly after, Riden comes below with two pirates I haven’t met.
“You’re relieved, Sheck. Go ashore with everyone else. You may, too, Ulgin, once you’ve cleaned this up.” Riden’s posture is stiff, and he looks at Sheck with such disgust, I’m surprised his tone doesn’t reflect his feelings.
Sheck hasn’t said a word during the whole time he’s been down here. I wonder if he can talk at all. He looks me up and down one last time, as if memorizing every part of me. Then he races out of sight.
Riden turns to me next, his face blank now. “This is Azek and Jolek. They will be watching over you while I go ashore as well.” Riden steps right up to the bars, trying to get out of earshot of everyone else. “I know to expect some sort of attempt at fleeing from you, what with us being so close to shore and all. So let me save you the trouble. There are five men guarding the ship above deck. They know to watch out for you.”
There’s a slithering sound; Riden and I turn to see Ulgin dragging a sheet topped with the bodies of the smugglers out of the brig.
Riden looks at me then, and it might be the poor lighting, but I swear his eyes are wetter than usual. He is not anywhere close to tears, but he might be feeling… something.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers.
And then he’s gone.
He’s apologizing as though Sheck and Ulgin are somehow his fault. Or maybe he’s apologetic for some other reason. I never know with Riden. Sometimes it feels like he’s trying to help me. Other times, he’s obviously doing the complete opposite. He subjected me to Sheck and Ulgin, yet he never ordered me to give him my dagger. I know he saw me take it off the dead smuggler back on the ship. Did it slip his mind? Or did he want me to have it while I was belowdecks with those two?
