Page 19 of Virelai's Hoard
“And the other children of the world departed. They left the people their prison and watched from afar.
“For they still waited.
“Waited to see if one day, the hunger-born would become something else.
“Not masters. Not rulers.
“But kin.”
Silence settled, and Sable stared, dumbfounded. That was not–
“What the fuck are you on, old man?” One of the gunners spit on the deck, standing up. “Next you’re gonna tell us the sirens don’treallywanna kill people, they just wanna play? You’re lucky you’re not in Vareth no longer. You woulda had your throat slit in the night for even suggesting the sea and its creatures are anything but evil. Fuck off outta here with that bullshit.”
She spit again, at Haddock’s feet this time, and Sable braced herself for a fight breaking out, prepared to step in. But the gunner just glared and strode away on the opposite side of the deck, as if only the sight of the old man disgusted her now.
“I thought I’d heard every version of how our curse came to be, but I’d never heard anything about leviathans or merciful punishments from the sea. However did you come upon this story?” This was Merrow, who looked intrigued rather than angry, and Sable allowed herself to relax.
Gadrielle and Ignatius were too drunk to pay Haddock any mind, Eryx wouldn’t hurt a fly if they could help it, and the younger deckhands still hadn’t lost their wide-eyed wonder. Everyone else was too far to listen in.
“I lived it,” Haddock said mildly. “In a dream.”
A thoughtful sound came from Merrow. “You might want to be careful who you recount these dreams of yours to.”
Sable stepped away, leaving the bunch to their stories. She thought of the old fisherman who’d raised her after her brother left. He, like everyone, had claimed the sea had always been cruel, and that when she saw the people flourishing, she started fearing that one day they might grow strong enough to chain her. And so she had raged. She had turned her children against the humans, and her children had persuaded the land’s childrenthat with humans out of their way, the entirety of Rivera would be theirs to rule. They’d joined forces, and they’d driven the humans out until all who remained were the people of Vareth, only kept alive as mockery. For the sea’s own amusement, so that she might relish in her own cruelty.
There were variations of this, of course, but this was how the story went, always. For Haddock to even joke otherwise… It was dangerous. It was unheard of, even amongst pirates, who laughed in the face of Vareth’s fear and hatred. Sable needed to have a word with him in the morning once she was clear-headed. But tonight she was off duty, and she would very much like to keep it that way.
“The captain?” Ignatius asked as he sidled up to Sable. He topped up her cup from his own, spilling some of the rum on her fingers.
Sable flicked the stray drops away as her lip curled in irritation, Haddock’s strange story forgotten. “I’m done asking. If she really prefers to stay locked up in her cabin rather than out here, with me–us, then she’s welcome to her solitude.”
Ignatius tsked and drummed his fingers against the wood of his cup. “She’s a good captain, mind you. Better thanI’dever had. But…”
Sable knew what he meant. At first, it had stung. Calla’s distance, her rejection. Then, she’d realized the captain was holdingeveryoneat arms’ length, which was frustrating to watch for entirely different reasons. The captain was fantastic at leading the crew and keeping them all in line, and maybe it was greedy that Sable tried to demand more than that, but being in charge wasn’t only about leading. The pirates were eager to bond with a captain who finally treated them fairly and with respect, but Calla didn’t see it. Or didn’t want to see it. And it was slowly getting to them.
“Something’s just not right about her and this new hunt of hers. I can feel it in my bones.” His voice lowered, the next words just at the edge of her hearing, “Maybe someone with a clearer head should do something about it.”
Sable pretended not to hear, but his words echoed in her mind as he sauntered away to the small group gathered around Haddock. Her fingers tightened around the cup she was holding. Should Calla know about this?
She brushed it off. The gunner was drunk and not thinking clearly, and tonight was her fucking night off.
Downing the remaining of her rum in a single gulp, Sable scanned the deck for a group she wouldn’t mind joining. Her eyes snagged on Riley’s like a coat on a barbed wire. The other woman was too quick to snatch her gaze away. She was sitting on a crate around a wide barrel acting as an improvised table, playing cards with Kit, Nyxen, and that new deckhand already skirting his duties. Maren. Sable had tried to catch him in the act, but he was apparently exceptional at hiding and smart enough to bribe others into doing his tasks for him, giving her no evidence to hang him with.Yet. But tonight wasn’t about that. So she forced herself to step out of herfirst materole and just be Sable.
A night spent gambling, the cards in her hand her only worry, sounded pretty good to Sable right now.
She dragged over an empty crate, letting it scrape noisily against the deck until she shoved it neatly between Kittredge and Maren and plopped down on it. A startled silence fell over the small group, and Sable had to suppress a smile at the look of horror flashing on Riley’s face.
“Hell yeah,” Kit broke the silence, slapping Sable on the shoulder with an enthusiastic grin. “Nowit’s a party!”
Nyxen’s eyes flicked between Sable and Riley before he welcomed her with a nod and an amused smile, while Riley and Maren exchanged a not-so-subtlelook.
“What are we playing?” asked Sable.
“Brag,” Nyxen replied. “I’ll deal.” As he gathered the cards and shuffled them, he tossed a smirk Riley’s way. “Careful with her now, or she’ll clean you out before you have the time to blink.”
Maren scoffed. “I don’t think she needs to be told after this morning.”
Kittredge bit her lip, and only allowed herself to snicker once she saw the barely suppressed amusement on Sable’s face, the incident from this morning already forgotten. Not by Riley, though. She hid it well, but she remained tense under her smile, giving Sable a twinge of twisted retribution.
