Page 2 of Wicked Tides
We arrived in Treson Harbor with empty stomachs and soggy boots. Mullins was quick to help me unload the barrel of salt. We pulled two heads out of what was now more like a brine and stuffed them in a potato sack.
The public wasn’t fond of people carrying heads through town right in the open.
“How much do you think we’ll get for two?” Mullins asked.
Sunlight reflected off his dark skin, the glint on his bald head nearly blinding me as I tied off the sack.
“For the young one? Enough. The matron, though.” I let out a small chuckle and shrugged. “More than enough.”
“If you just sell ‘em to the damn establishments,” Uther, one of my other crewmen, started, “We could make more than—”
“We are selling them,” I grinned, raising a brow sarcastically and kicking the barrel. “Well, a bit of them.”
“Forty years of this shit,” Gus mumbled, unloading more cargo with the others, despite the state of his creaky back.
“Get what you can for the other loot,” I told him, handing the sack to Mullins. “I’ll be back tonight with our bounty.”
He tossed the sack over his shoulder and we started walking through the bustling streets inland toward the governor’s house. It was a long trek, but it would do me good after being on a ship for weeks.
The rain made the streets a muddy mess, but a bath was waiting somewhere in a sweaty brothel. Business needed to be taken care of, though. The coin came first, then the luxuries.
“I heard Paxton Smith is doubling the price he pays for tongues these days,” Mullin’s said as we hauled our loot across town. “And Madam Letty is doubling the price she pays for the ones without. She comes through once a month now, you know.”
I scoffed. “I don’t trade tongues and I don’t trade sirens with their heads attached. That dirty business is for pirates and scum.”
“Some of the men might disagree. I been listening to the chatter.” He leaned closer as if part of my crew was in earshot. “Not many hunters are coming in with anything to show for it. ‘Cept us. Word is, they think you’re picking the market clean. Leaving none for the rest of ‘em.”
“It’s not a market, Mullins. They’re wicked beasts and a hunter’s job is to kill them. Not sell their tongues and sell their bodies into slavery. The only good siren is one without her head.”
“Right. Right.”
His shutting up didn’t make me think he’d dropped the subject. I groaned and rolled my eyes.
“Out with it.”
“Well, it’s just that we’re the best hunting ship on the waters. Why not capitalize a bit more, you know? More coin means happier crewmen.”
“You think my crew’s unhappy?” I said jokingly.
“Nah, captain. Not at all. You treat us right and all. But there’s a whole ocean of wealth out there we’re not tapping into. We bring the governor heads and we collect the bounties. But we could do more, don’t you think?”
“I think wealth looks different to you and me.” I stopped, turning to Mullins and poking him in the chest with my finger. “See, you want to kill for the coin and you’re perfectly fine risking your life for that. For a piece of silver or two.” I backed up a step, raising my palms up and grinning. “I kill because I like killing, mate.”
I continued walking down the muddy street. He watched me with narrowed eyes and then a smile tugged at his full lips and he shook his head.
“You are a crazy man, Vidar. Maybe too crazy for me.”
“Ahh, you say that every time we get back into town,” I laughed. “But we both know you’d be bored with any other captain.”
~ 2 ~
Vidar
He swept his blade across her knee
And down she fell, a slayer was he
~A Sea Shanty
