Page 85 of Virelai's Hoard
“We need you,” Riley said. Then, hesitating, “Captain.”
The captain didn’t reply, didn’t gloat, didn’t ask questions. She simply unfurled her legs from the bucket of sea water, stood and walked up to the open door. Her bare feet left wet marks on the wooden floor.
Riley stepped aside, clearing her throat awkwardly. She rubbed the back of her neck, looking anywherebutat Calla now that she was so close. “Do you, uh, need me to find your boots?”
It wasn’t often that she betrayed someone and then changed her mind about it. Come to think of it, that had never happened before, and Riley had no idea how she was supposed to act now.
“There’s no time,” Calla said and walked past her.
“Right, yes.” There would be time to wonder about betrayal protocol later. Maybe. “I don’t know if you heard,” Riley glanced up at the ceiling, the clangor of blades and gunshots clear even through the layers of wood, “but we got boarded.”
Despite her earlier statement, Calla’s steps weren’t rushed as Riley followed her out of the brig. It took a moment for Riley to realize the captain must’ve still been shaking off the stiffness that had settled in from not moving for so long, because her steps got more decisive the longer they walked, if not faster.
The only question Calla asked on their way up was, “The Stingers, I assume?”
“Yeah.”
Riley swallowed the rest of her rambling impulses as she followed the captain.
Above deck, the situation was just as hopeless as when Riley had left. More. Sable had given up on her efforts of commanding the crew, and apparently redirected them to beating the shit out of a pirate that looked already too dead to give a fuck.The enemies, wisely, gave her a wide berth as they picked less enraged, more exhausted-looking crew members to fight.
Even though no one was looking, Calla’s first step on deck was slow and deliberate, her gaze sweeping over the chaos as if this were none of her concern. Her open coat and long dark hair billowed in the wind, but her eyes–they were as sharp as a drawn blade.
One of the Stingers noticed her first. He came charging straight at Calla, dagger glinting in his hand in the light of the breaking dawn. Riley didn’t blame him. Calla was just standing there, bare-footed, weaponless, seemingly defenseless. But before Riley could blink, the captain faced her attacker. In a swift move, she side-stepped him and grabbed his forearm. Acrackresounded in the air as she bent his arm and drove his own knife into his throat.
His body hit the deck, and Calla stepped over it without a further glance.
That was when something on deck shifted, first with recognition, then with shock. The fighting faltered as all eyes settled on Calla, on the body at her feet, on her hands–empty and miraculously clean of blood. Time paused for a moment, as if to draw a breath.
Then Riley saw it, in the eyes of the Moonshadow’s crew. The glint that meant the pirates still had some fight left in them, despite being exhausted and outnumbered. Despite the mutiny, Calla’s mere presence on deck was enough to breathe air into their lungs, give themhope. Riley knew, without doubt this time, that she’d made the right choice.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The remark came from Sable, fist frozen mid-strike as she stared up at Calla.
But she didn’t look angry. She lookedrelieved.
The Stingers, on their part, side-eyed each other in confusion as to how this unarmed woman, at her unimpressive build and unimpressive height, sparked such a reaction in their enemies.
“Sable.” Calla raised her eyebrows at her feral-looking first mate. “If you have to punch someone, punch him.”
Riley followed Calla’s gaze to a pirate near the starboard side and frowned as there didn’t seem to be anything special about him. Perhaps Calla had simply meant someone alive, but then she saw it. The way the man hung back, letting others do the fighting for him, how he followed in the wake of fallen bodies, checking their belts and their pockets.
That man must’ve been an officer. He was looking for something–taking trophies.
Calla had been able to tell at a glance.Thiswas why the crew looked to her.
“Ignatius–” Sable’s voice broke through Riley’s thoughts. “He–”
Riley blinked at the mangled body at Sable’s back. His head was split open, specks of bloody bits scattered around him. She recognized him by his clothes and the patch on his eye.Fuck.
“I know.” Calla’s voice was quiet, soft. “Now go. Send Thorian to deal with the other one and tell him to be quick about it.”
On the opposite end of the deck, Riley spotted a second officer picking through the corpses in the same detached manner.
Once Sable was gone, Calla sighed. “Riley.” Her voice was carefully devoid of any inflection now, the cold detachment Calla apparently only reserved for her back in place. She didn’t even look at her as she said, “Grab Kittredge and any other rigger you can find. Climb the ropes. Harass them from above.”
With that, she was gone, slipping through the cracks in the fight and imparting quiet orders in eager ears until the chaos on deck morphed into something else.
Riley kept an eye on Calla as she gathered anything heavy and small enough to fit into her bag, then climbed the rigging with Kittredge and the others. Tools and rocks and cannonballs flew from overhead, distracting the Stingers or knocking them right out. Calla must’ve appointed several sailors to their defense lines, because anyone who thought of climbing the rigging after them was quickly intercepted.
