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“There is someone else you need to make amends to,” he says. “There was a member of my staff…”
“Sona,” I say. “Yes. He helped me escape. He was so nice to me even though he thought I was an intruder. And…”
“He came to me immediately upon learning that a prisoner of mine had escaped and confessed, offering his resignation. I did not accept it, obviously. Instead, I told him that you are an irredeemably untrustworthy little creature and it was not surprising you had manipulated him into letting you escape…”
“Okay, when you put it that way, it feels like I’m just a very terrible person.”
“I thought you celebrated being a very terrible person.”
“I celebrate being a pirate captain. Well, a pirate. Well, I mean, being a free person. But not terrible. It’s relative, you know? What’s terrible for a common person is practically required for a pirate. You can’t blame me for that.”
“I’m not blaming you for anything. I’m saying you broke the trust of one of my oldest, kindest, wisest servants, and he is now blaming himself for not seeing what you obviously were at the outset.”
“I know. I knew when I was doing it. He’s too nice a guy. I’ll apologize.”
“Good girl,” Thorn says.
* * *
Sona is not hard to find, because the house in its entirety is Sona’s domain. I locate him in the dining room, rearranging the silver in its many silver drawers. This place is refined. It’s wild, but it’s also clearly the result of many generations of refinement. Thorn is clearly not the first of his line or his kind.
I clear my throat, though I know that’s probably not actually necessary. Sona knows I’m here. I saw him twitch with slight irritation the moment I entered the room.
“Major-Domo Sona,” I say, attempting formality.
“Yes, human?”
“My name is Captain SullivanO’Shannassay,” I say. “I should have introduced myself properly earlier. I would have, except for the fact that I was trying to escape. So…”
“CaptainO’Shannassay,” he says, with an unmistakeable cool distance in his tone. This man is not a fan. “And what are you the captain of?”
“Well, I did have a ship.The Mare.I’ve been temporarily separated from it.”
“How?”
“A sort of… a little… well, there was the merest hint of mutiny, and I thought it might be best if I went ahead and gave my crew a little extra space for a while. I’m still legally the captain, though. It’s my name on the papers. I pay the insurance.”
“Is that what a pirate captain does? Pays insurance?”
“Sure. A captain does a lot of things. It’s not all theft and swashbucklery. There’s a lot of admin. To be honest, I’m very glad for the break.”
“To be honest? Are you capable of such a thing?”
Sassy. He’s very, very sassy. I suppose I can’t exactly take offense.
“I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble yesterday. I felt rather guilty about taking advantage of you that way.”
“You cannot help it. You are a human and a pirate, which means much of what you say will be a lie of some kind.”
“See, this sort of sounds like understanding, but it feels like judgement, you know?”
Sona gives me a look that suggests I am indeed being judged.
“I’m going to stay, anyway,” I tell him. “So I hope we can get over this little misunderstanding.”
“Wonderful, a human with a loose connection to the truth and hardly any understanding of the workings on the world will have free rein in the home of the alpha of the territory,” Sona says dryly. “I can see no way whatsoever in which this will inevitably be a terrible disaster.”
“Really? I can see quite a few ways this could be a terrible disaster.”
