Page 4 of Virelai's Hoard
Old friends?Riley’s eyebrows quirked. No one called the sea afriendin these parts. Or anywhere at all.
Before Nyxen could say anything, Kittredge burst out with, “Tomorrow, first light, at the docks! Ship’s the one with the silver sails. You can’t miss it!”
Riley returned her attention to the last of the slop in her bowl, thinking of the half-blooded giant at the docks, with his gold rings and a coin purse so fat it bulged beneath his coat. Of Kittredge, and the defying glint in her eyes in responseto a tavern full of people telling her she was a fool. Of theMoonshadow, a name she’d heard before, a ship famed for always making it back when the others always sank. A slow realization crept up on her the more she thought. Her instinct was as likely to get her in trouble as it was to save her skin, and this time it told her an opportunity like this one wouldn’t come knocking twice.
A long-term con. Food in her belly, a bunk to sleep in, and, at the end of it, more coin than she’d know what to do with. A way out of this rotting town. And all she had to do was play a few clueless pirates, survive one trip. A gamble. A tricky one, even for her, but her skin buzzed with anticipation at the prospect.
“You got sharp eyes and sharper ears, lass. Careful not to cut someone with them.”
Riley's eyes snapped to the old man’s, who gripped her shoulder with more force than she’d have given him credit for. Unease curled in her stomach at the familiar tone he took with her, but a moment later he chuckled faintly, adjusted the spyglass on his neck and walked away, soon disappearing into the crowd.
2. A Little Challenge
Riley
Kittredge had been right. The ship was hard to miss, if only for the crowd gathered in front of it. Riley’s steps slowed as she approached, bemused at the sight, and she had to do a double-take at the emptiness of the rest of the surrounding docks to reassure herself she wasn’t making shit up. Her eyes flicked from one person to another, counting, trying to assess whether they were already crew.
“Nineteen,” someone said, and Riley tracked the voice to a guy sitting on the ground, a few steps from the bulk of the crowd. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world–a knife out to lazily clean under his fingernails, not enough fucks given even to find himself a proper seat. Confusion must’ve rolled off Riley in waves, because his lips twitched in amusement. “Including you. I counted.”
Riley shook her head in denial, even as her quick scan confirmed his number.
The only reason she came over this morning, after sleeping on it and deciding she wasn’t actually fool enough to throw her life away just yet, was because she wanted to see the look on the captain’s face when that old man demanded a place on their crew. She hadn’t expected to bump into acrowd.
Awake and lively too, despite it being Nivros’ first light.
“Guess even certain death is better than living in this dump, eh?” the guy asked, like it was all the same to him. “If you ended up in Saltmere, you’ve already hit rock bottom, so might as well go out with a bang. At least that’s whyI’msigning up. What about you?”
Riley recoiled from the man, and the question, and the implication that she’d hit rock bottom. She’d picked a port town onpurpose, not because she didn’t have anywhere else to go. Easy pickings from pirates on port leave, barely any competition–even street-rats fled the waters–andlax patrols, as no one was wasting many guards on a dying town. It was easy,safecoin, if meager. And she was at the docks this morning merely out of curiosity.
As she walked through the crowd, her gaze was drawn to a bald woman who was gazing up at the only ship that didn’t look like it had been abandoned centuries ago. Riley sidled up to her and had her second startling moment of the day. From up high, dozens of pirates peered down at them from the railings.Dozens. The Moonshadow’s crew were discussing animatedly and pointing at them, as if they were animals about to go on show. The murmurs didn’t quite make it to Riley’s ears, but she saw coin exchanging hands, the glint in the sun unmistakable to her trained eye. Were they betting on something?
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” the woman beside her asked.
Riley side-eyed her, catching her astonished smile, and looked at the ship proper. She didn’t know ships. But she’d seen enough around to realize this one was indeed different from the rest.
First of all, it wasbig, rivaling some of the oldest ships she’d found way at the end of the harbor once. But those ships were relics of the past, half-preserved through time by courtesy of the Quiet Sea in a show of twisted irony–they would never crumble,but they would also never sail again. This one, though, was sailing. The crew gawking at them from above must’ve counted in the high sixties—more, if some of them were below deck or not returned from land yet. It had three masts and too many sails to count, patched in places butwhole, catching Nivros’ cold light like silver thread. The wood of the hull was a deep midnight blue, almost black, and it had no barnacles, no rot. It looked sturdy. Like something you could trust to see you through in a storm. A carved raven at the bow had its wings stretched as if it was about to take off. Black, sleek, shining from a fresh coat of paint.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Riley agreed, voice hushed despite herself.
The woman nodded. “It’s a modified frigate, by my count. See those closed gun holes along the hull? Bet ya there’s actual cannons in her bowels. Unless the captain took them out for more holding space. Must’ve spent a fuckload of gold to bring this beauty up to shape.” She whistled and shook her head, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Really is something.”
“Heard it’s been sailing for close to ten years now,” someone else butted in, a guy a head taller than Riley. His muscles bulged as he crossed his arms. “Seeing it in the flesh makes it hard not to believe the stories.”
“Stories?” Riley asked mildly, though she knew some of them already.
The littlest push, but it was enough to rouse more of the people around them in conversation.
“They say the ship always comes back undamaged, no matter how far it sails, which seas it braves. They say it just heals itself overnight.”
A scoff. “The sea doesn’t want it. That’s why it’s survived so long. I heard it sunk once, and the ocean just spit it back out. Makes sense, if you ask me. Whatever keeps it sailing, it ain’t natural.”
“Some people say the captain made a bargain with something damned to become ruler of the seas, and can’t ever set foot on land again.”
And on it went, a different story for every teller. It was enough to make Riley’s head spin.
Then the chatter faded, voices trailing into silence as one, and then a few, and then the entire crowd trained their eyes on the plank leading down from the Moonshadow’s deck. Riley slipped to the front of the crowd just in time to see the two descending figures.
Her stomach lurched. The tallest figure moved with a predator’s ease, eyes scanning the crowd like he was picking out a target.
