Page 80 of The Sea Witch
Alys shared a look with her second-in-command. In a sea teeming with infamous figures, Luca Pasquale was notorious.
“I have never seen this mage with my own eyes,” Stasia admitted.
Alys turned to Olachi. “Have you done what you need to?”
Olachi gazed around the burning compound. “I have.”
“Go, now,” Alys urged. “Get to safety.”
When Olachi raced through the hole in the wall, Alys hurried to the cage holding Pasquale, with Stasia close at her heels.
The mage stood in the cage. He stared at them from behind his grimy curtain of hair. Gaunt and filthy, it looked as though he hadn’t been properly cared for in a very long time. Yet he smiled, as if meeting them in a raucous tavern, surrounded by wenches and fragrant wine, instead of dead mercenaries and the smell of gunpowder.
“Hell of a party, Captain Tanner,” he said, his Italian-accented words polished.
“You know of me,” she replied, surprised.
“Rare birds, pirate witches,” he answered.
“You are wanted by no fewer than five governments,” Stasia exclaimed. “Seven pirate captains have sworn to cut off your head, if they ever cross your path.”
“I’m a lucky bastardo.” He eyed the bars surrounding him. “Safe and secure in these luxurious accommodations.” With a wink, he said something to Stasia in Greek, and she turned pink.
She snapped at him in the same language, but his response was to give her a lopsided smile. Stasia reddened even more.
Even Alys’s heart gave a small leap in response to his dangerous smile.
“The hellareyou doing here?” Alys demanded.
He rolled his eyes. “I’ve got a price but this time I couldn’t be bought.”
“Athena only knows why you refused,” Stasia said.
“I don’t use my power to secure human cargo.”
“An unfortunate attack of ethics?” Stasia barked out a laugh.
“Every now and again.” He shrugged. “My coat was white when they locked me in.”
Alys grimaced at the dull gray hue of his coat. Unlike other mages, however, he wore no black sash.
“We have togo,” Stasia urged her when the roof of a nearby building collapsed in a shower of flaming beams.
“If we leave him here,” Alys noted, “he’ll die.”
“Most probably,” Pasquale agreed jauntily. He held up a wrist encircled by a dull metal band. “I can’t take this off, and it makes magic as useless as a drunken man’s cock.”
Stasia made a face. “Your charm is just as flaccid.”
“With the right motivation, I’ll rise to the occasion.” He smirked.
“No supper for you, children,” Alys snapped at both of them.
The mage turned back to Alys. “What’s it to be, Captain? Let me roast, or set me free?”
Alys placed her hand on the bars.
“Is this wise?” Stasia asked.
