Page 32 of Empire of Death
“How long is the journey?” I asked when I stood beside Jack at the wheel.
“Depends on where we find ’em.” He spoke with a lit pipe in his mouth, directing the galleon away from the island with the fleet of a dozen ships behind him. “Hardest part of the journey.”
Hawk addressed me. “We could have Zehemoth and Movack scout ahead.”
“True,” I said.
“So you did bring your pets?” he asked as he gripped a spoke on the wheel and kept the rudder steady.
I turned back to Jack, my eyes narrowed at the offense he provoked. “Call them that again, and I’ll be the captain of this ship and you’ll be the one overboard.”
He smirked with his pipe in his lips like he wasn’t the least bit intimidated by me, but there was a hardness in his eyes that suggested he took my message seriously. “My apologies, Your Majesty.”
“Question my abilities and mock my stature all you want, but never insult my dragons,” I said. “I asked them to stay behind, but they refused. So they’re keeping their distance, ready to come to our aid if the battle proves to be a greater challenge than we expect.”
“Sounds like they’re as loyal to you as you are to them,” Jack said.
“Truer words have never been spoken,” Hawk said before he approached the bow of the ship to watch the island fade behind us.
I stood at Jack’s side and felt the sea breeze in my hair, smelled the familiar twinge of salt on the nose. Reminded me of the last time I sailed, when I was surrounded by a crew that felt like family. I hoped Jack and the others didn’t end up at the bottom of the ocean too. “What reason did they have for attacking Skull Island?”
“Coin, women, greed. Just to be assholes,” he said. “They’re a different kind of pirate. Don’t live by a code. Will promise not to cross you as they slip a blade between your ribs. We conduct ourselves with a certain…morality. They possess no such thing.And when they came to Skull Island, they killed a lot of good people…good pirates. We know they’ll come back at some point.”
I continued to stare at the sea ahead.
“They take young women from their homes and sell them at the next port. And then they take women from that port and sell them at the next stop. Made a fortune off the business. A bunch of sleazebags.”
The Brigandine Empire had outlawed the practice long ago, when my father reclaimed the Southern Isles in his name. His laws had lasted decades, and even though it would be hard for my father to discover foul play, people feared him enough not to cross him.
“If you needed fuel for a personal vendetta. They conduct their business outside your territory, but it’s still a shitty practice.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of man to care about such a thing.”
He turned the spoke slightly and grabbed on to the next, his hat remaining on his head despite the gust of sea air that filled the sails above. His eyes eventually came back to me. “And you don’t strike me as the kind of woman to make assumptions about strangers. Prostitution is no different from any other line of business, but I want the service to be provided willingly, not under duress. More fun that way, at least in my opinion.”
I knew most men paid for sex. Hawk never mentioned it to me, but I was certain he’d done it many times. The only man I knew who didn’t was my father, because his commitment to my mother was obvious in everything he did. It made me wonderif Wrath had ever done something like that. Not that it would matter.
“Bring back old memories?”
I turned back to him, eyes narrowing in confusion.
“Of your crew.”
“Oh, yes. But they’re on my mind often anyway.”
“Have you visited the Abyss?”
I continued to stare at him, unsure what he meant. “No.”
“It’s an island permanently shrouded in mist. When you draw close, you can hear voices. And once you pierce the veil, old galleons are littered everywhere. We believe it’s where pirates go when they die at sea.”
“Sounds like an old wives’ tale.”
“Something can be an old wives’ tale and still be true.”
“Have you been there in the flesh?”
“I have.”
