Page 5 of Wicked Tides
One day it would lead to violence, but I seemed to be the only one who knew it.
“So?” Whitton said, slurping his wine. “Do you consent to our new deal?”
“What deal is that?” I sighed.
“You, the best hunter, son of the great Ethelwoelf, remakes his name. You bring in the women. You collect the reward.”
“Hmf. You mean you collect the reward.”
“If I get rich, you get rich. It’s time you realized the way of things. I’ll even give you an advance because I’m that confident in your skills, captain. I’ll double my offer for those rotting heads if you agree to bring back the spoils of your next hunt alive and intact. Come now. You have a crew to pay and a woman and child to support.”
Nothing about the governor’s offer sat well with me, but my thoughts wandered to my crew. Almost every one of them was plucked off the streets and they relied on me and our hunts. Some of them relied on them to feed their families. Perhaps Mullins was right. Perhaps Uther was right.
Fuck, who was I kidding? They were all goddamn fools…
~ 3 ~
Vidar
Agony makes a dead man or a dreaded man.
The dreaded man knows the devil and the devil fears him.
~Unknown
A man could not appreciate a hot bath the way a hunter fresh off the stormy sea could. I had gotten a room to myself for the night and most of my men were quick to take what they were owed so they could throw it away on good rum and women. I had plans to pamper myself in a tub with a platter of bread and grapes to keep me company.
I tossed my salt-crusted clothes over a chair, leaning my cutlass against the bedpost. Just before stepping into the tub, I unbuckled the leather vambrace on my right forearm and slid it off. The thing took two wooden fingers covered in leather with it. I’d gotten used to not having a pinky and ring finger on my right hand since they’d been bitten clean off at the second knuckle. And Gus was good enough to engineer multiple gloves to fit my hand over the years. He was a good man. Sometimes too good. He’d been trying his best to look after me since I was a boy, even if it had almost killed him more than once.
I sunk into the warm water with a relieved groan, letting the heat blanket my tired limbs. Downstairs, the tavern was bustling. My shipwasn’t the only one recently returned from the savage seas and there were plenty of men seeking the company of women and drink. I needed neither. My mind was full of conflict. The governor’s words rang in my head and it was a sour tone. Imagining myself joining the ranks of those filthy skin traders made my teeth grind.
Before I could fall too far into that sickening train of thought, there was an insistent knock on my door followed by someone barging in. I rolled my eyes toward the intruder to see a short, busty woman in a cream-colored dress sliding into the room. Her red curls were piled on her head and held up with a thin scarf. Her eyes scanned the room for a second before catching me by the fire soaking in the tub.
“Vidar,” she huffed, stomping further into the room and closing the door behind her.
She was quick to start picking up my clothes and draping each item over one arm.
“I had to hear the Burning Rose had docked from Janessa,” she complained. “You can’t even be bothered to come home?”
“It’s not my home, Agnes,” I sighed, splashing my face. “I gave it to you.”
“Itisyour home. You can’t just live in taverns and brothels.”
“It seems to be working out quite well, actually.”
She dragged a chair near my tub, letting the legs scrape obnoxiously on the floor, and dropped the bundle of my clothes in her lap with a sigh.
“David is asking about you. Says he’s anxious to be part of your crew.”
“We’ve talked about this.”
“If he doesn’t start working on the Burning Rose, he’ll enlist with one of the other crews and you know it. I’d rather he go out there with you than one of those scum crews that brings back those witches alive.”
I turned to look at her, leaning my head back against the edge of my bath.
“Suppose it’s a bad time to tell you that Whitton is demanding I start farming them rather than hunting them.”
Her already pale, freckled face went paler. “What?”
