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“I know, and it will only get worse, but you mustn’t scratch.”
“And I suppose you’ve had to wear manacles before?”
“Everyone on the ship has.”
“At the same time?” I clarify. His response is a little unusual, full of bitterness and regret.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Riden’s hand is still on my arm. He’s taken to stroking my skin with his fingertips. I don’t stop him because it makes the itching subside.
“I’ll tell you what, Alosa. I’ll offer you a story in exchange for a story.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about your scars.”
“That’s many stories.”
“But I’m sure you can give me something.”
“I suppose I could, but you first.”
Riden thinks for a moment. He props his head up with his free hand, the other still tracing my skin. “All right. I trust you. I’ll go first.”
He trusts me? What exactly is that supposed to mean? Is he a fool? I’ve given himnoreason to trust me. It’s more likely he feels obligated to go first, what with yesterday’s events and all.
There are many kinds of pirates, but Riden is the first I’ve met who feels remorse for his pirating. Perhaps that’s why I find him so interesting. He treats me better than any other pirate would a prisoner, I’m sure.
“About a year prior,” Riden starts, “my father, Lord Jeskor, was still in command of this ship. Draxen and I had been living on theNight Farerpractically our whole lives. I’m sure you can relate. Pirate lords need sons to pass their legacy on to. Or, in your case, a daughter. Peculiar, that one. You’ll have to explain to me someday how that all started out.”
“No, I don’t,” I say.
He smiles. “I suppose you don’t, but I’d be curious to know.”
“Your story?”
“Right. Well, many of us on the ship are the sons of the original crewmen. Others are young thieves and murderers who we picked up along the way. We put together a crew after the ship was ours.”
“And how did the ship become yours? Where do the irons come in?”
He puts a finger to my lips. “Shh. I’m getting to that part. You can be downright impatient sometimes.”
I frown under the pressure of his finger. He removes it and sets it on the bed.
“My father had become careless. He and his men spent far too much time on land and less time on the sea, pirating. They were lazy, drunk, loud—all the time. We, their sons and fellow crew members, were all but forgotten. So we decided to try to take the ship from them.”
I raise a brow in disbelief. “You expect me to believe your father, a pirate lord, became lazy, and that motivated you all to take the ship?”
“You know what it’s like to be raised by pirates—I’ve seen your scars. Ours are less visible. They barely fed us. They gave us the more dangerous jobs during our robbing and plundering. We were beaten whenever they got bored, which was quite regularly. Finally, we’d had enough. And we tried to take the ship.”
“And you failed.”
“Yes, we failed. They put us in chains, locked us in the brig, then decided to kill us all one by one for mutiny.”
“They obviously didn’t succeed.”
