Shurq said to Pithy, ‘You and your friend here are welcome to inspect the cargo-but if we’re not offloading that’s as far as it goes, and whether we offload or not depends on the kinds of prices your buyers are prepared to offer.’
‘I’ll prove it to you,’ Brevity said, advancing on Skorgen Kaban. ‘It’s a match all right-I can tell from here.’
‘Can’t be a match,’ the first mate replied. ‘The eye I lost was a different colour from this one.’
You had different-coloured eyes?’
‘That’s right.’
‘That’s a curse among sailors.’
‘Maybe that’s why it ain’t there no more.’ Skorgen nodded towards the nearby dromon. ‘Where’s that hailing from? I never seen lines like those before-looks like it’s seen a scrap or two, asides.’
Brevity shrugged. ‘Foreigners. We get a few-’
‘No more of that,’ Pithy cut in. ‘Check the cargo, dearie. Time’s a-wasting.’
Shurq Elalle turned and examined the foreign ship with more intensity after that peculiar exchange. The dromon looked damned weather-beaten, she decided, but her first mate’s lone eye had been sharp-the ship had been in a battle, one involving sorcery. Black, charred streaks latticed the hull like a painted web. A whole lot of sorcery. That ship should be kindling.
‘Listen,’ Pithy said, facing inland. ‘They beat it back, like they said they would.’
The cataclysm in the making seemed to be dying a rapid death, there on the other side of the island where clouds of ice crystals billowed skyward. Shurq Elalle twisted round to look out to the sea to the south, past the promontory. Ice, looking like a massive frozen lake, was piling up in the wake of the violent vanguard that had come so close to wrecking the Undying Gratitude. But its energy was fast dissipating. A gust of warm wind backed across the deck.
Skorgen Kaban grunted. ‘And how many sacrifices did they fling off the cliff to earn this appeasement?’ He laughed. ‘Then again, you probably got no shortage of prisoners!’
‘There are no prisoners on this island,’ Pithy said, assuming a lofty expression as she crossed her arms. ‘In any case, you ignorant oaf, blood sacrifices wouldn’t have helped-it’s just ice, after all. The vast sheets up north went and broke to pieces-why, just a week past and we was sweating uncommon here, and that’s not something we ever get on Second Maiden. I should know, I was born here.’
‘Born to prisoners?’
‘You didn’t hear me, Skorgen Kaban? No prisoners on this island-’
‘Not since you ousted your jailers, you mean.’
‘Enough of that,’ Shurq Elalle said, seeing the woman’s umbrage ratchet up a few more notches on the old hoist pole-and it was plenty high enough already. ‘Second Maiden is now independent, and for that I have boundless admiration. Tell me, how many Edur ships assailed your island in the invasion?’
Pithy snorted. ‘They took one look at the fortifications, and one sniff at the mages we’d let loose on the walls, and went right round us.’
The captain’s brows rose a fraction. ‘I had heard there was a fight.’
‘There was, when our glorious liberation was declared. Following the terrible accidents befalling the warden and her cronies.’
‘Accidents, hah! That’s a good one.’
Shurq Elalle glared across at her first mate, but like most men he was impervious to such non-verbal warnings.
‘I will take that fifteen docks now,’ Pithy said, her tone cold. ‘Plus the five docks disembarking fee, assuming you intend to come ashore to take on supplies or sell your cargo, or both.’
‘You ain’t never mentioned five-’
‘Pretty,’ Shurq Elalle interrupted, ‘head below and check on Brevity-she may have questions regarding our goods.’
‘Aye, Captain.’ With a final glower at Pithy he stumped off for the hatch.
Pithy squinted at Shurq Elalle for a moment, then scanned the various sailors in sight. ‘You’re pirates.’
‘Don’t be absurd. We’re independent traders. You have no prisoners on your island, I have no pirates on my ship.’
‘What are you suggesting by that statement?’
‘Clearly, if I had been suggesting anything, it was lost on you. I take it you are not the harbour master, just a toll-taker.’ She turned as first Skorgen then Brevity emerged onto the deck. The short woman’s eyes were bright.
‘Pithy, they got stuff!’
