The duelist 9, p.7
The Duelist 9, page 7
“Maybe we could tow it behind us,” Horus joked.
I had to admit the image of the Manta tugging a pirate ship behind it like a kid dragging a non-helium balloon on a string was pretty funny.
However…
“It would limit our ability to travel too much,” I told the falcon-man. “The main advantage of an airship is that we can go over land instead of around it. Having the Midnight would force us to stay over water, and not to get very high up.”
Horus shrugged. “Would’ve been funny, though.”
“The Night Reaper, or Midnight now, is a fast vessel, despite her size,” Sha-Kane then told us. “If you could spare a few of your self-titled ‘Crew,’ perhaps they could follow you in the ship, since you still appear to be doing your, ah, Island Tour. How is that going, by the way?”
“Well!” I grinned. “Really well. Shay is incredible.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” the osprey-man said warmly. “I really am looking forward to having you all come to stay for Black Day.”
I was a little surprised by Sha-Kane’s willingness to give us a tour of the Midnight and engage in what was essentially small talk. He’d always seemed like the type of guy to want to get right down to business, but I supposed that after going through what he’d just gone through, I would also be eager for some low-stakes conversation, if not a week-long nap, so I couldn’t really begrudge him this.
Plus, I was still really interested to see what this ship had to offer.
Sha-Kane showed Horus and I the Vault, which was just as impressive as I’d pictured. It was about two-thirds full of gold and jewels, with most of it in coins, but also ingots and, in some cases, wrought jewelry.
“You can tell from the metalwork where the pieces are originally from,” the Councilman explained as he picked up a golden bangle. “See here, the delicate edge, fine but not sharp, is very Varthan. They know how to make excellent knives and swords, which also means they know how to keep metal blunt, if they want it to be.”
He handed me the bangle, and I examined it before slipping it into my pocket. It would make a nice ‘congratulations’ gift for Zoie. She deserved to be showered in gifts right now.
Horus then picked up what appeared like a tiara, but it definitely looked like something straight out of Lovecraft’s ‘A Shadow Over Innsmouth,’ because the style of the metal was something I could only describe as ‘fishy’.
“This is a Lakuna piece, I’m assuming?” the falcon-man asked, and he tipped the tiara back and forth before he picked up a solid silver tray-platter-thing and used it as a mirror to place the tiara on his own head.
He looked ridiculous, of course.
“Aw, you’ll be the prettiest girl at the ball,” I snickered, and he shot me a pout as he took the tiara off.
“Lakuna jewelry is quite rare,” Sha-Kane told us. “Even as notorious as Luhrmann was, I’m surprised he had any of it in his hold.”
“Hold onto that, then,” I said to Horus. “Nova might like it.”
She was already so separated from her culture, so unsure about much of the world, that I wanted to do everything in my power to make her feel safe and like she belonged.
Horus nodded and kept a firm grip on the tiara, and we continued looking around the Vault. It wasn’t very well-lit, and since it was wide rather than tall, our own lights didn’t stretch very far.
“I’m starting to feel a little cramped in here, Councilman,” I admitted after a few minutes of searching. The top of my head just barely brushed the wooden ceiling, just enough to remind me that I had absolutely no spare room, and the dimness made the Vault seem much smaller than it actually was. “Can we see the rest of the ship?”
“Oh, I’d like to see the rest, too,” Horus agreed, and Sha-Kane nodded and then gestured for us to go back the way we’d come, back into the lower decks and its normal-heighted ceilings.
The captain’s study was the next stop on our little tour, which Sha-Kane explained was not as impressive as it could have been.
“Normally, the captain’s study is filled with numerous rare books, particularly valuable pieces of loot, that sort of thing,” the osprey-man explained. “But it seems rather lacking in this instance.”
He picked up a book that had so much dust on it, the title was entirely obscured. Then he sighed and set it back down.
As useful as the few books in here probably were, I was more interested in the gold in the Vault, and the possibility of especially rare or valuable pieces being hidden somewhere in this room. As I rummaged through the captain’s desk, I pulled out a dainty gold ring set with a little emerald the exact same color as Shay’s eyes, and I slipped it into my pocket next to the bangle for Zoie. Now, I just needed something for Amaya. Maybe a ring for her, too, so then it would be even more like we were properly married.
I’d just unearthed a pendant necklace that I was sure would do the trick when Sha-Kane spoke up.
“If you don’t mind my asking, Alex,” he said, “I wanted to ask for details on how the Duels between Luhrmann and Aiken and yourselves went.”
I tucked the pendant into my pocket with the other gifts as I turned to Sha-Kane, but my eyes went to Horus. He met my gaze with a slightly uneasy expression, and I knew why.
I had helped him in his Duel against Aiken. I’d saved his life by somehow using my time-trance power to not just slow time, not just stop it, but reverse it. Horus had technically died and then come right back, and I had interfered in a Duel.
I liked Sha-Kane, and I trusted him. He was an honorable man, I was sure, but could I give him this big of a secret? I didn’t want to get my friend in trouble. I also didn’t want another Trial. Even though Sha-Kane had helped in Horus’ Trial, if it happened again, would he be so generous a second time?
Horus was the one who spoke first.
“Alex saved my life, Councilman,” he said, and as I stared at him, Sha-Kane turned to face the falcon-man with a grave face. “His Traveler gifts allowed him to save me from what would have been a fatal blow. Aiken would have killed me and won the Duel. But Alex interfered.”
“We’re not going to get locked up or something, are we?” I asked. “My wives, they wouldn’t get punished for something I did, would they?”
Sha-Kane turned back to me, and despite how indulgent he’d been earlier about showing Horus and me around the Midnight, now he really was all-business.
“I’ll die before I let Anwaar suffer for my transgressions,” Horus said fiercely. “Or Shay. If I must be punished, you have to leave them out of it!”
The osprey-man raised his hands in a slow, calm gesture.
“You’re both young and tenacious,” he said after a moment. “I admire that. But you both have nothing to worry about. There will be no Trial for Alex interfering with a Duel. He fought his own, did he not? Even if someone did want to bring a case against the pair of you, there is little point. No one wants to argue that a dead pirate captain and a Rogue mage were wrongfully killed. It will not bring them back, and they were a scourge and a plague on the Ocean of Aventoll. And even if someone did, you could very convincingly make the argument that it was a double-Duel of sorts. The pair of you against Luhrmann and Aiken, whom everyone knew were working together anyway.”
I hadn’t realized there’d been a tight knot of concern balled up in my chest until Sha-Kane said that, and the knot suddenly loosened. I was surprised by how much easier it was to breathe, all of a sudden.
“So, we’re okay?” Horus asked. “We’re not going to be stripped of our ranks, our loved ones sent to the Traders or something?”
“Mercedes, no!” Sha-Kane laughed. “Absolutely not. You two are heroes. You have stopped one of the most fearsome pirate captains in Aventoll, and a dangerously arrogant, dangerously powerful Rogue mage. You’ll be commended sooner than you’ll be punished.”
“I wouldn’t mind being commended,” I said with a shaky, relieved smile.
“You both have done Om, and Aventoll by extension, a great service by ridding them of this plague,” the osprey-man assured us. “I would know.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Sha-Kane shrugged, and his feathers ruffled slightly as he did.
“I specialize in Crossings,” he explained. “I spend a great deal of my time on the open seas, which is part of the reason I don’t like to leave Leen very much. I spend so much time away from my home, I have little interest in visiting other lands. So, I am also quite familiar with pirates, and Luhrmann was among the worst. Valuable cargo or important individuals, like Kohen the Overseer, require escorts for their own safety.”
I remembered the little lemur-man we’d found with Nemis in the hold of the Soaring Light, and I had to admit I wouldn’t imagine him to be especially good in a fight.
“Usually, I have no problem fending off pirate ships, even ones as formidable as the Night Reaper and Luhrmann’s Virus crew,” the Councilman went on. “But I hadn’t accounted for his having a Rogue mage as part of his crew. Aiken’s… mind trickery clouded my judgment and weakened my resolve. I was unable to protect my friends, my crewmen, the way I should have been.”
Something sober had overtaken his proud, austere features, and I stepped forward to lay a consoling hand on his shoulder.
“There was nothing you could have done against Aiken’s magic,” I said firmly. “He was terrifyingly strong, and you didn’t know about his power ahead of time. I’m sure your crew would just be happy that you and Kohen survived. Your mission will still be successful.”
“They’re in Mercedes’ arms now,” Horus added in a gentle tone. “She has blessed them with her favor, for dying in the name of duty.”
Sha-Kane nodded silently and then looked up at Horus and me.
“What a world it would be, if all Duelists were like you young men,” he said, and he clapped me on the shoulder once before we both dropped our hands.
Sha-Kane showed us around the ship a little more, and it was unquestionably huge and impressive, but after the glee of seeing the Vault filled with all that rare and valuable treasure, it was a little bit underwhelming. My mind was racing with how I could sell off some of the treasure for a little extra money. Not that Ithaca was doing poorly by any measure of the word, but the idea of keeping a huge pile of treasure in my house seemed, at minimum, kind of tacky.
I definitely wanted to have a good root around and pick out the best pieces to keep for myself, or give as gifts to the others, but a lot of the treasure would be most useful as money. Even a fraction of the gold inside the Vault would leave me stinking rich for the rest of my life, so I was almost grateful to Luhrmann for having stolen so much.
“What’s the situation actually like, on the open sea?” I asked Sha-Kane as the three of us emerged into the sunlight on the top deck. There was a small cabin, similar to the captain’s study, on this deck, too, tucked beneath the raised platform where the steering wheel sat and was bracketed by two little staircases that led up to said platform.
“There is little in the way of fixed law on the Ocean,” Sha-Kane said as he headed toward this cabin. “It is much harder to govern water than to govern land. Some argue the water around an Island is part of the Island’s territory. Others argue that the Ocean is itself an entirely separate territory and should be governed by separate laws-- or none at all.”
I thought about this for a moment as the Councilman rummaged around inside the little cabin. He emerged a few minutes later holding three glasses and what looked to be a very old, very expensive bottle of brandy.
I’d never had enough money back in my old life to afford anything fancy, and I grinned at all the amazing opportunities this new life presented me with.
“Aiken used this lack of regulated law enforcement to his advantage,” Sha-Kane continued as he passed one glass to me, then one to Horus, and kept the third for himself. “He sank my Gilded Dawn and slaughtered my men. The fact they were killed means Aiken could have been properly punished-- unprovoked murder, the sort that did not occur during self-defense, is illegal all over Aventoll, but Aiken is now too dead to face justice.”
“His crew isn’t, though,” I said as the osprey-man uncorked the brandy bottle with a satisfying ‘pop’ noise. “The Okoba people were practically dragging them out of the forest earlier. You could take them to face proper trial for the crimes they committed.”
“That would be a comfort to the families of my crew,” Sha-Kane sighed. “But without my ship, without the Dawn, I have no way of moving them. I also have no crew to man such a vessel.”
“Use this one,” I said with a shrug.
Sha-Kane stared at me.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I have the Manta ship,” I said and shrugged again. “I don’t need a pirate ship right now, and Horus and I were already facing problems on how to bring it with us. Just empty the Vault, shove all the gold into the Manta ship, and use this vessel to take Luhrmann’s crew where they need to go to face trial.”
“I’m sure you’ll find many volunteers who would happily help you,” Horus added. “Many people suffered at Luhrmann and Aiken’s hands, or even just heard about the perversion of magic they were using.”
“Yeah,” I agreed and pointed at Horus. “We can help you round up some volunteers. Once you shift the gold out of the Vault, this thing will probably zoom to Alem for a trial.”
“Thank you, Alex.” Sha-Kane smiled at us both. “Truly, you are an honorable young man. I’ll be sure to return the Midnight to you as quickly as possible.”
“Oh, no rush,” I said with a laugh. “As cool as this thing is, I still prefer the Manta ship. Take all the time you need.”
Sha-Kane let out a sort of rueful chuckle, somewhat fatherly, and poured brandy into our three glasses. Then he raised his glass.
“A toast!” he said. “To your new ship and riches, and to justice being served for the crew of the Gilded Dawn.”
“To the Gilded Dawn,” Horus and I agreed, and the three of us all took deep drinks from our glasses.
The brandy was warm and rich as it went down my throat. Exquisite.
“Mercedes,” Horus said appreciatively, and he knocked back the rest of his glass a moment later. “That tastes incredible. Can I have another?”
He held out his glass to Sha-Kane, but a moment later there was the tinkle of crystal shattering against the wooden deck as Horus dropped his glass and collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Chapter 6
I stared down at Horus’ unmoving form, and I was so shocked that for a second, I didn’t move. I couldn’t move.
Then I very slowly turned to look at my mostly-empty glass of brandy.
Had we been poisoned? Had Sha-Kane poisoned us? Or had the brandy been poisoned long before as some kind of sick trap set by Luhrmann, should anyone ever wrest control of the Midnight from him?
“Oh, god,” I muttered. The glass slipped from my hand, and there was another musical shattering of crystal on the floor. “Shit, fuck, shit, oh, god--”
“Alex,” Sha-Kane said carefully. “Calm down. Everything is quite alright, I--”
“Did you do this?” I demanded and took a step back from the osprey-man. My hand went to my belt automatically, but I realized I was unarmed.
No matter. I’d killed with my bare hands before. Earlier today, as a matter of fact. I’d choked the life out of Luhrmann, and I’d do the same to Sha-Kane if I needed to.
“Did you poison my friend?”
“It’s not poison,” Sha-Kane said quickly. “I swear to you, Horus is perfectly fine. The sedative is quick-acting, but not especially potent. He will wake within the hour.”
“You drugged him?” I scowled. “Why? What the hell is going on?”
Had he intended to drug and kill the both of us, then claim victory as if we’d Dueled? Had he intended to knock both of us out, but my being a Traveler, my human biology, meant a drug that worked on an Aventoll native had no effect on me?
“I simply wanted to talk to you alone,” the osprey-man explained.
This was different enough to my racing suspicions that it caught me a little off guard, and I paused to listen.
“Horus refused to leave,” Sha-Kane went on. “And this is something I could not afford to wait for. I swear, he’s merely sleeping, and he will wake unharmed.”
I narrowed my eyes at the Councilman, still not entirely convinced he meant no ill will, but his body language was open, and he didn’t appear to be armed.
“Alright…” I said slowly. “I believe you, I guess. You just drugged Horus because you want to speak in private. Fine. I still think this was a pretty extreme way to go about it.”
Because it was. I mean, seriously, why hadn’t Sha-Kane simply asked Horus to leave us alone for a few minutes? Or suggested Horus go back to the Manta while he helped me, the actual owner of the Midnight, decide how to move the gold out so Sha-Kane could use the ship to transport Luhrmann’s surviving crewmembers to Alem for a trial?
Sha-Kane let out a sheepish laugh that surprised me. I hadn’t expected the stern-faced Councilman to really be capable of sheepishness.
“Perhaps,” he admitted. “But I didn’t want to risk piquing Horus’ interest, or him accidentally overhearing what I had to say to you. Both of my children are headstrong creatures, and this is not something I would feel comfortable letting them into just yet. They’ve always been the type to hunt relentlessly for the truth, which I respect, but it would only cause them pain for now.”
“Yeah,” I said. “They’re both pretty-- wait. What?”
My head whipped up as I looked away from Horus, who was now drooling onto the deck slightly, and I stared wide-eyed at Councilman Sha-Kane. I must have misheard him, right? Or misconstrued what he said?
“Did you just call Horus-- did you just call Horus and Shay-- your children?” I asked.
Sha-Kane heaved a sigh and then nodded.
“I am their biological father, yes,” he confessed, and the words came out of his mouth like they were some great weight that threatened to crush them.
