Page 21 of Unrivaled
Awareness jolted through me.The hairs on my body rose and my belly pitched as if it was me on that ship.
The watcher vanished from view behind a wave, and when they returned, I saw their looking glass in their hand, their face pointed toward me.In the split second I had to take in the sight of them, I couldn’t see beyond the smirk tucked up in the corner of their lips.They vanished again as other details seeped into my mind.Their long hair, braided to sit atop their head, the inked images on their skin, the way their hand had gripped the helm lazily, the width of their shoulders and the challenge in the tilt of their chin.
“If they were a merchant ship, they’d have their trading company on at least one of their sails,” Brian said, jolting me from my reverie.
I dropped the looking glass from my eye and passed it back, recognizing the coil of anticipation low in my belly.
“Pirates are criminals,” I said, trying to refocus.
He shrugged.“Well, yes.They don’t have papers required to trade.They aren’t any more or less violent than any other ship, so I wouldn’t refuse them port, were I you.Who knows, mayhap they have cargo we’d find useful.”
I tried to remember the angle of their approach.“They’ve come from the north.”
“If the plague didn’t reach north, that seems like a wise place to linger,” he mused, leaning against the stone.My eyes went back toward the ship, and I wondered if that pirate was staring at me again over the waves.I wondered what I’d look like from their angle.
The thought wasn’t a comfortable one, so I turned to Brian.“If they were merchants, we’d know what they’d want.”
“Precisely.”He turned and we started down the stairs.“One thingeveryship needs, though, is a port to weather a storm.”I glanced at the sparse clouds in the sky, and he smiled at me.“’Tis a metaphor, my lady.One of the challenges of piracy is limited places to sell.They often don’t have money to buy papers because they can’t sell their cargo legally.They’re forced to trade in small villages, or to lower their prices and pay exorbitant bribes.”
I froze, struck by the impact of that sort of cycle.Always scraping to make a living, never able to claw their way to honest work, never able to undercut the trading companies, branded as criminals for attempting to do business…
“I want to meet them,” I said.
Brian’s smile vanished.He glanced at Chay and Thomas behind me, then back to me.“Should we talk to Kaelson?”
The gentle attempt to steer me toward a sensible path irritated me, and the sight of said steel-haired Captain approaching at a brisk walk didn’t mollify me at all.“Absolutely,” I said, my voice strained.“And Bernie, and Ettie.”
“Of course, my lady, I meant no disrespect,” Brian said, surprise in his words.“Only, the Captain understands security better than any of us.”
Does he?I bit down against the reflex to soothe Brian this time, picking up my skirts to make better time down the steps, aiming to meet Kaelson at the bottom, my head full of that pirate’s arrogance.Could I sign docking papers?
Would I be allowed near them to offer?
“We’ve guests,” I told Kaelson, and didn’t care that my irritation came through in those words.
“So I hear, my lady.”Kaelson bowed crisply and fell in beside me, too polite to chide me for my tone.“They could do a lot of damage if they slip into the city overnight.”He held up his hand.“You don’t know who this belongs to, do you?”
I glanced at it, but Kaelson wasn’t askingme,he was asking Chay.
The arrow was plain, simple, and exactly like the ones in my quiver.I kept my expression neutral.
Silence came in the wake of his words, until Chay said, “Was that question for me, Kaelson?I’m sorry, I thought you were addressing the lady.”
Kaelson shrugged.“Consider me addressing the group at large.”
“Should I recognize it?”I asked him, grateful for the wind that whipped my hair into my face and gave me something to do with my hands as we veered into the keep.“It’s an arrow, yes?No colors on the fletching?”Because Matri’sion don’t bother.Corpses don’t need to know who you’re loyal to.“Where did it come from?”
Two nights ago, Isolde had told me she’d scout and left Chay and I to fall asleep in each other’s arms.I’d had so many things on my mind since that I hadn’t asked how it had gone.Then my father announced his intended arrival date, and nothing else mattered.
“Three Leaves storehouse,” Kaelson said, briskly.“The Yyles are pleased to know their belongings have been returned, though they’re arguing our inventory was inaccurate.”
Behind me, Isolde stayed quiet as a predator.
“You recovered it?”I asked, letting the shock creep into my voice.“All of it?”She’d taken the storehouse.What had he said it was, an old treasury?Laughter bubbled behind my ribs.“What of the looters?”But I knew.There was blood on the head of that arrow.
“They’re dead, m’lady,” Kaelson said.
I looked over, lifting my brows.“What, all of them?Did your archer help you get in?”
