Page 25 of Shiver Me Satyr

“Oh, of course, it would be idiotic to think anything else,” I reply with giggles.

“Almost as idiotic as allowing your meat to cool to ice. It’s much tastier warm—especially this one with the spicy chocolate sauce.”

“Oh, I don’t know—”

“Come on, the woman who sliced and diced half a dozen merchants today can’t be scared of a bite of food.”

I glare at him as I mop the brown sauce with the meat beside it and struggle to cram the big morsel between my teeth. If I hate it, I prove my point…which wouldn’t make a lick of sense to him because he doesn’t know I was a kraken until I lost my soulbeak to Richard. I’d win the argument in my head, but nothing else. Confessing my mistake to Hybris wouldn’t be worth the victory because I may lose his respect.

And I love the food…dammit.

“You’re right,” I say with an over-dramatic sigh. “Thank you for allowing me a taste of the bounty.”

“This boat has taught me what’s fair and just is more important than winning the lion’s share of the spoils…and that some things are worth more than temporary pleasures.”

“Like Elle’s companionship?” I ask the silly question because he’s speaking from the heart, and I’m not ready for that. He must know the truth of his involvement with the boat before I can commend him for learning virtues from us.

“How did you guess?” He laughs at his own joke, as I lick my fingers.

Chocolate and exotic birds, huh.

Our conversation is a far cry from the philosophical and religious discussions I had with Richard, but this is nice. Less heavy. I think the light companionship of someone who isn’t contemplating the meaning of life or what happens after death would be good for me. My life went from carefree bliss under the sea to the turmoil of human affairs without a breath of normalcy. If I hadn’t observed my sister’s world of brothels, taverns, anddancehalls, I would think the human world was nothing but misery.

Could there be an in-between world? What I wouldn’t give for the carefree life I had in the sea, but with my human legs! Maybe that’s what Chub and Catty hope to find in Mexico—a quiet, wholesome life surrounded by community, children, and love. If that’s the case, perhaps I should quit the sweet trade and try my hand at being a landlubber, too. If Mexico doesn’t have the puritanical patriarchy of the rest of the continent, I could use my saved wages to build a tiny hut. Would Chub and Catty mind? What would happen to the crew?

“Penny for your thoughts,” Hybris says, licking the grease from his lower lip.

“If you ask Chub, a captain must always think about what’s next.”

“So, what’s next for Captain Betts?”

“Delivering Chub and Catty to their happily ever after,” I say, wiping an orange sauce off the plate with a pinch of meat. “After decades of service, he deserves to retire as a family man and not in a pine box.”

“Then what?” He raises a roasted leg to his mouth and tears off a big piece. I try not to think about what bird appendages are our meal.

“We go where the wind takes us,” I reply with a shrug. “We will be heavy with supplies from working in Mexico for a few weeks, and the boat will get fresh repairs while we’re docked in friendly territory. It’s the perfect conditions to sail into the trade routes and scout for a sweet prize.”

“Then what?”

“What do you mean, then what? I can do many things, but predicting the wind’s direction isn’t in my skillset.”

“Let me ask more directly,” he says, flashing a contrite smile. “What’s the happily ever after for Captain Betts? What’s your end goal? The same as Chub’s?”

“Fathering Catty’s sons in Mexico? I’d be ill-equipped for such a dream—” I giggle at the glare he shoots me for being obtuse. “I have a list of wants a mile long. The top on my list is a family. I miss my sister, and I’ve always wanted children—a houseful of children…” My voice drifts off with a wistful quality as my dream plays in my mind. I miss playing with the orphans in the fields or on the beach more than anything in the world…except playing in the sea with the fish…when I had tentacles.

“I shouldn’t contradict the dream of a vicious pirate captain…but I never make rational decisions—just ask my father. However, it would be amiss if I didn’t point out that having children while celibate and raising them on a vessel filled with blood-thirsty pirates won’t make you the best mother ever to walk the earth.”

“Those are plot holes in my master plan,” I say with a laugh.

“But you are in luck,” he says with a wink. I cringe internally, waiting for him to offer to sire my children. “There’s a falling star. Tonight, there are loads of them. Look—there’s another.”

A white light streaks across the sky and then vanishes.

“Don’t be frightened,” he says with a chuckle. “They can’t harm us, but they can bring wishes. Think of the thing you want more than anything in the world and tell the falling star. Your wish will be granted.”

“Wish granting? What are you, five?”

“Come on, when’s the last time you wished for anything for yourself?”

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