Arabessa held his steady gaze, seeming to assess Alōs’s words.
Niya wondered about them as well, but then Arabessa and Larkyra were putting on their masks, and the final moment was here.
“I’m sure we will see you sooner than later,” said Achak as they approached Niya. “We have been in need of a holiday for some time.”
Niya merely nodded, her heartbeat sounding outside her body as she watched the group exit as they’d entered.
Larkyra was the one to stop at the door, holding Niya’s gaze behind her gold mask, one last look of courage, before she, too, slipped out of the captain’s cabin and into the shadows.
It was truly done.
Their family’s secret was safe.
And Niya’s sentence had begun.
How is this possible?
Niya didn’t know how to feel. How to think. What now to do.
She remained still, staring at the empty doorframe, where her whole world had recently left her behind.
A cold slip of energy along her neck brought her back to the room, reminding her who else was still in it.
Alōs was now sitting at his desk. He did not look at her as he scribbled notes into a ledger. He appeared too large a form to be able to make such delicate markings, his hands too strong for his thin quill, his body too soulless to be made up of flesh and bone.
She loathed every inch of him.
“Kintra will show you to your responsibilities,” he said, not lifting his eyes. “You may leave now.”
Niya blinked, ice curling around her spine. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say after . . . everything? After you’ve gotten all you’ve wanted?”
Alōs stopped writing, his gaze slowly meeting hers. “Welcome aboard the Crying Queen, pirate.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Niya decided there was no limit to Alōs’s evil.
Under the hot sun of a new day, the endless sea a backdrop all around her, she found herself standing before the gray-haired woman she had fought earlier—one of the few Niya had so far learned held a portion of the lost gods’ gifts. Burlz was also present, the greasy oaf who had slapped and gagged her within Alōs’s quarters.
Burlz drank in the sight of her, his promise of pain still glimmering as he licked his dry lips.
“Niya, this is Saffi, our master gunner,” explained Kintra, gesturing to the muscular woman, who assessed Niya with narrowed brown eyes. She could feel the pulse of her metallic magic. “And this is her crew.” Six pirates, Burlz included, stood around Saffi. “You’ll be eighth in her artillery team.”
No one said anything as Niya studied the group just as they studied her. Distrust swam in the salty air.
“Right, then,” continued Kintra. “I’ll leave you all to it.”
“Wait,” said Niya, stopping Kintra’s retreat. “What of this bath Alōs—”
“Captain Ezra,” corrected Kintra, voice stern. “He is Captain or Captain Ezra to you, girl.”
Niya prickled at the chastening but nonetheless replied, “Yes, of course. And this bath that the captain said I could get? When can I expect it?”
Laughter filled the deck beside her.
“Yes, please let us know when all our baths will be ready,” guffawed a skinny man, his pale skin splotchy with sores, only four teeth visible with his wide grin.
“I’d like mine drawn with rose petals,” added a round woman, slapping a hand to Burlz’s back on a chuckle.
Niya pinched her brows together, annoyance flaring. “I see I have said something that amuses you all. But I take my hygiene seriously, which it is more than apparent that you do not.”
Her comment sobered a few.
Good, thought Niya.
Kintra merely shook her head. “You’ll find your bath in one of the barrels you can lower into the sea along the main deck,” she explained. “Or you can wait for the next time we are in port and find your washing in town.”
“Or ya can strip right here, and I’ll wash ya real good,” said Burlz, eyes leering at her chest.
Niya’s magic hummed hot with her growing irritation. “How kind of you, Burlz,” she said, mock sweetness dripping, “but seeing as you smell worse than a cow’s underside lying in the heat, I fear you’d only make anyone you go near reek just the same.”
The large man’s grin flattened just as the two pirates on either side of him took a step away.
“All right, you rodents,” said Saffi, gray braids swinging as she turned to her team, “enough group bonding. I’ve got it from here, Kintra. Thanks for the extra hands. I only hope she doesn’t end up being extra weight.”
“So do I,” muttered Kintra, giving one last appraising gaze to Niya before she strode away.
Niya clamped her jaw together to keep from letting loose another scathing remark. I am here for a year, she reminded herself soberly. I do not need friends among these pirates, but it would be easier if they were allies. As Niya had found out the hard way, a ship full of forty or so enemies was one too many for her to take on alone.
“All right, Niya,” said Saffi, “you’ll pair up with Therza today. She’s the most patient of us so can show a green calf such as youself how we work. But know now, I run a tight team, especially with how we protect this ship and disarm others. The Crying Queen has a reputation to uphold, and I ain’t gonna have anyone change that.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Niya, which earned her a contented nod from Saffi before she turned to shoo the rest of her men and women to continue in their duties.
Niya was left to find a round woman who must have been Therza smiling up at her. Niya herself was not tall, but Therza seemed to almost be the same shape and size of the cannonballs stacked beside them. Her black skin gleamed with sweat under the hot sun, but she wore a lopsided grin as though the heat didn’t bother her in the least, as well as a glassy gaze that perhaps spoke of too many days breathing in cannon powder.
Unlike Saffi, this woman held no gifts. In fact, Niya was the only other in their artillery group who did.
“All right, Red,” said Therza, “let me show you how to become one of us.”
“Red?” wondered Niya as she followed the woman to a nearby cannon.
“I ain’t never seen hair as pretty and bright as yours before,” explained Therza. “Like fresh blood,” she mused almost longingly.
Niya decided then that Therza would be best as an ally.
With efficiency, the woman explained how the Crying Queen was gunned by eight cannons, four on either side. Any more would slow them down. “Plus, we use these children as a last resort.” She patted the heavy black metal. “Ships sunk to the bottom of the Obasi Sea are useless to raid. Better to sail close and quick so as to crawl on board for an attack. But that don’t mean we don’t take care of our kids, now does it?” she added before explaining how they needed to swab and clean the cannons every morning and night, lest they rust in the salt air.
While Niya didn’t know the difference between a jib and a spinnaker, she knew a thing or two about defending and fighting, so it was with a fascinated eye that she found herself learning the rest of her responsibilities, which included the task of loading and aiming cannons.
Everything happened quickly after that. Therza took her around to introduce her to more crew members than names she’d be able to remember, gave fast tutorials about the rest of the ship, and divided duties.
No one yet asked of Niya’s background or why they had a new pirate among them. They seemed to know better than to question their captain’s orders and, Niya surmised, had pasts of their own they’d rather not resurface anytime soon.