Chapter 30, Roberts

  The sky is dark, only a few stars peeking through the fog, as The Serpents Cradle drifts nearer. Of all the horrors I’ve lived through, the ones I carried out on that ship haunted me the most. Seeing it again, I feel nothing.

  All I can think about now is Sarah, her face buried in my neck. I can still feel her on my skin. The way my heart thundered in my chest and the air around us shifted, like a storm about to break.

  I would have held her forever. I wish she was beside me now, where I could at least keep an eye on her. But I left her in the hold with the others pretending to be dead, drenched in calf’s blood and excrement.

  It’s safer that way. She says she killed the ones who came for her the day she jumped, and that she doesn’t know who sent them. How many were there, did they have armor, were there any sigils or signs of who might have sent them? There’s so much I would have liked to ask, had there been time. If Sarah is wanted and her bounty is posted in any of the ports I can’t risk Tobias seeing her.

  I’ve heard talk about the king’s initiative to wipe out pirates once and for all, paying us to turn against our own. Tobias showing up now could be coincidence, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that shameless scumbag sold his dignity for a bag of gold. My jaw tightens. I didn’t think I could want him dead more than I already did.

  Grappling hooks fly towards us and one hits the deck a few feet in front of me. It skates across the planks until its iron claw catches at the rail, biting into the wood.

  “Heave!” a voice carries across the water followed by unified grunts and snarls as Tobias’ crew haul us in.

  I pinch my shoulder blades together a few times, trying to release the giant ball of tension that’s building in my upper back when I catch a whiff of something sour. Then a gust shifts the wind toward us. Oh fuck. The air rolling off Tobias’ ship is so foul it stings my eyes. I blink away the tears that form.

  “Oh fuck.” Joanne mutters, echoing my thoughts. “I don’t know how you lived like that.”

  “Wasn’t living,” Harken says.

  Wood snaps and I wince as part of Hellcat’s rail tears free under one of the grapples, the hook clanging against the hull of Tobias’ ship. We’re close enough now that I can recognize some familiar faces.

  Cassius stands out first. When Tobias found us on that rotship, I bargained for the lives of the other slaves. Tobias wouldn’t spare them, and Cassius seemed to enjoy ending their lives one by one. He even saved a collection of fingers and toes. I found them in my food for weeks. My stomach roils uneasy and I shudder at the memory.

  He’s still so fucking greasy, hair plastered to his forehead like he’s been slathered with oil. The whites of his eyes are a stark contrast to the black shine as he lets out a sharp, jeering shriek.

  “Captainnnn Robertssss!” he cries, cutting through the fog.

  Then I see Tobias, leaning out over the side. He looks the same from this distance, ridiculous, except for a few more greys in his beard. His deformed arm, folded and held close to his chest. The decade old grimey black coat he wears has an extra sleeve tailored for it. As if it’s another useful limb. But it’s not, it’s just there, clinging to him like a leech. Ironic that he turned out to be one himself.

  We’re in the same business, him and I. Steal from the rich, pay ourselves and our crews enough to live free, and live well. That’s what piracy is supposed to be. But Tobias’ idea of living curdled somewhere along the way. He started straddling the line between captain and slaver, taking people for himself and spending his shares on what he called entertainment. I call it sickness.

  I can see the pathetic pout on his face, even from here, and it makes my blood boil. He thinks he’s being smug, but he’s obviously sulking. People see that arm and think that makes him a joke, but really it’s the self-pity that oozes from his every stinking orifice.

  There’s always someone who laughs when they get a first glimpse of him. This time it’s Gery.

  Joanne pins her with a glare. “You think it’s funny, but he’ll take your eyes and make sure that arm is the last thing you see.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Gery scoffs.

  “There’s an island east of Thelos entirely populated by sailors who’ve lost their eyes to Tobias. Got a web of ropes to lead themselves around,” Joanne says.

  “Please,” Gery says, rolling her eyes. “You believe–”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Gery’s face hardens, her gaze darting to Tobias’ crew. They’ve stopped heaving and gathered at the rail, wooden plank at the ready.

  For a heartbeat, everything is still. I picture Sarah lying in the dark, staring up through the boards. I glance down at my boots.

  A shudder ripples underfoot followed by a scraping groan that crawls up my spine as the two ships collide.

  My pulse kicks up. This is it. Soon swords will clash, blood will spill, people will die. I’ve stood on this edge before, but knowing Sarah’s here makes the fall steeper.

  Cassius is the first one to scurry across the plank when it falls, his beady eyes wide and shifting left to right, nose wrinkled like a rat sniffing out a new burrow to infest.

  “Captain Roberts!” he squeals, leaping onto the deck. He remains crouched as he sidles towards me, taunting. “Captain Roberts!”

  Behind him, two more vermin slink over the plank. One with matted ropes of hair, the other swollen with pus-filled boils, both barefoot, axes in hand.

  My stomach twists as more and more of them climb over the rails, and crawl up the shrouds, Hellcats bones creak under the weight of the horde. I fight the urge to close my eyes as filthy hands defile her, leaving stains I’ll never be able to scrub out.

  Tobias is the last to set foot on Hellcat’s deck, followed by… I blink. Is that Adler? For a second I didn’t recognize her. Not a strand of that jet-black hair dares move out of place as she walks, head high, looking down on the world through those sharp blue eyes. Her clothing looks clean and well cared for, unlike the rest of her crew’s rotten garments.

  Why, Adler? What are you doing back with Tobias? You’re so much better than this.

  The deck’s crawling with Tobias’ crew, all swagger and smug grins, pleased to outnumber us three to one. Let them gloat…for now.

  One of them shoulders past Gery, a tall skeleton of a person, snarling through cracked lips.

  “Back the fu—” Gery starts, but a dog the size of a wild boar barrels toward her, gnashing its teeth.

  “Alright, alright.” She throws up her hands and takes a step back. “Call off your beast.”

  The boney one whistles and the dog turns to follow at their heels.

  “Tobias. Adler. To what do I owe the pleasure?” I say, tipping my hat as they make their way towards me through the crowd.

  Tobias gaze drifts over the bloodstained planks, and what's remaining of our crew. “We missed you.” He grins, then turns to Adler. “Didn’t we?”

  Adler nods, but it's more like a lift of her chin than a bow.

  “I can’t say I feel the same,” I say.

  Tobias sighs with mock dismay. “I have to admit, seeing you wave the white flag was a bit of a disappointment. But—” He pauses, eyes narrowing as his gloating grin spreads. “I wouldn’t risk taking any gunfire if I was half-sunk either.”

  “What do you want, Toby?” I say, as patiently as I can muster.

  Tobias doesn’t answer, instead he looks at Adler, his grin dissolving into his usual sullen scowl. “Go ahead.”

  “Cassius,” she says, looking past me. “Take your charges and search the cabins. Mord, the guns.”

  Then she heads through the door below the quarter deck. My chest tightens. The crew hiding in the hold will kill whoever finds them first. I’d rather it not be Adler.

  But letting it get to me will only put more of us at risk. I need to be ready, and listen. One sound from below and the fight starts.

  I sharpen my focus and tell myself not to think about Adler, she chose her side. Still, she doesn’t deserve what’s waiting for her down there. No one does, really.

  Harken looks at me, a crease in his brow. He knows what Adler and I used to mean to each other.

  Tobias fumbles in his jacket pocket and pulls out a piece of folded parchment. “Do you even know the price you’re going for these days?” he says, waving the document.

  Truth is, I don’t. It’s not like knowing would change anything. I’m careful, and I’m surrounded by a crew that will do anything to preserve my freedom.

  “Whatever it is, we can come to an arrangement.” I keep my voice calm, because the less heat I give Tobias the better.

  Tobias doesn’t answer, just stands there, one of his useful hands cradling the elbow of his deformity like he’s holding it in a sling. I avert my gaze as soon as I catch myself looking, before he can accuse me of staring.

  "What is stopping me from taking you for everything you have and still collecting your bounty?" he finally asks.

  "Nothing, except maybe saving face," I say. "And not getting caught threatening me in my own waters."

  Tobias sneers. "That’s right. You’ve got all of Sanctum wrapped around your cunt-fucking-finger, haven’t you?” he says, his eyes narrowing. “The one place I used to feel welcome and you’ve even ruined that."

  "Who’s made you feel unwelcome there? Name them and I’ll see to it they’re dealt with." I say, opening my palms, and lifting my chin.

  The deck creaks behind me. Adler appears, walking up the companionway with her cutlass tipped down and wiping the blade with a red stained cloth.

  "This ship is a floating graveyard," she says, flicking the cloth onto planks and sheathing her weapon. "Nothing in the storage holds but bodies.”

  My stomach pulls tight. There’s no way Adler moved through the crew below without tripping the alarm, so where did that blood come from?

  Tobias narrows his eyes. "You sure?" he asks.

  Adler pins Tobias with a glare. "I made sure,” she says, then turns to me, her lip curling. “Disgusting Hells, what do you have against a sailor's burial?"

  "Nothing," I say, trying to hold her stare. But my gaze ticks to the main stairwell, then to the hatch at my feet, expecting the crew to swarm the deck.

  And in that second that I let my focus slip, Tobias moves. My shoulder jerks, my hand dives for the draw, but his pistol is at my temple first.

  "Ah, ah, ah," he says, smug. I freeze, breath stuttering. His gaze sweeps the deck. “No one moves.”