“Lies, Cap’n,” he said, eyes wide as he pointed toward her. “She’s a shifty creature, she is.”
“Interesting,” said Alōs. “Yet there are other witnesses to Niya’s story, saying you and Burlz were seen approaching her cot as she slept. So either they lie to me or you do.”
“No, I’d never, Cap’n,” he pleaded, shaking his head. “Sure, Burlz might have meant her harm, but I was just walkin’ through. Off for a bit of winks.”
“I see.” Alōs studied the man as he played with his pinkie ring. Niya had begun to notice he did that a lot. She also thought it odd he was wearing jewelry at all when he never had in the past, at least none she had accounted for before. “And the Pixie Tail?” The pirate gestured to the wire whip on his desk.
Prik’s energy fluttered nervously beside Niya. “We all have some protection on us, Cap’n,” he explained. “And a good thing too. She was coming at me with a knife!”
“After you tried to wrap that Pixie Tail around my neck,” Niya accused. “Not that you managed. How’s that tooth of yours, Prik?”
The scrawny pirate turned red. “You bitch!”
“That is enough,” commanded Alōs. “I have heard all I need to in regards to tonight’s events. What I’d really like to discuss, Prik, is how you came into owning this device.” Alōs slid a finger along the sleek silver wire.
“Yes, well, that . . .” Prik gripped the tooth in his palm tighter. “That I can explain.”
“Please do, for I remember it being a part of the bounty of the Cax Island raid. But how odd, since that bounty has yet to be divided.”
The room became very still as Alōs’s blue gaze pierced Prik’s.
“Is this your way of saying you’re of a rank to pick your prize first?” asked Alōs.
“No, Cap’n. Never! I just—”
“Have you decided we are all now allowed into the treasury to pocket whatever we wish, whenever we wish it?”
“No, no! I—”
Without standing from his chair, Alōs flung out the whip so fast Niya hardly felt the energy Alōs gave off picking it up.
She watched as the wire encircled Prik’s neck with razor sharpness before the pirate lord tugged hard, sending ribbons of blood to gush from the thin man’s throat as he was decapitated. Warmth splattered along Niya’s cheek. Prik’s head hit the wooden floor with a sickening thunk and rolled, eyes bulging, before the sight was covered up by his body falling on top.
In the next breath, Kintra threw down a large blanket that had been resting by her feet, Prik’s pooling blood from his severed neck turning it a deeper shade as it became soaked through. The quartermaster quickly and dutifully gathered up all the parts of the thin pirate into the cloth and, with a grunt, swung the sack over one shoulder.
“Captain hates a mess,” Kintra explained to Niya, then shuffled past and through the door, but not before calling back, “I’ll grab Burlz next, Captain.”
With a buzz in her ears, Niya returned her attention to Alōs, who had remained seated behind his desk this entire time.
She did not need to look down to know Burlz’s body, which remained in the center of the floor, would be covered in the blood of his friend.
Niya had experienced Alōs’s cruelty firsthand, but not his lethalness—until this moment. Rumors abounded, of course, but such things were hardly reliable sources. And if it weren’t for Niya’s own years of experience with torture within the Thief Kingdom, what she had just witnessed would have reduced her to a blubbering mess.
As it was, she stood firmer in the face of such a threat.
“I may employ thieves,” said Alōs, his voice even as he cleaned off the Pixie Tail with a handkerchief, “but I shall not tolerate stealing aboard the Crying Queen.”
“Noted,” said Niya.
Alōs looked up from his task, penetrating gaze meeting hers. “Do you understand why?” he asked, placing the whip down.
Niya shook her head, eyeing his every move, every breath. The way his angular features shone predatory in the candlelight.
He is just as feral as me, she thought. Unpredictable.
“It is not that it would be stealing from me,” he explained, “but stealing from the crew. From the men and women that have done equally hard work aboard this ship. If I allowed thieves to roam here, there would be no order, no common goal. Just chaos. A ship cannot sail long in chaos.”
How odd that these words echoed her father’s. Though the reason the Thief Kingdom existed was to keep chaos in.
“But you are pirates,” said Niya. “Are you not meant to create and thrive in chaos?”
Alōs folded his arms over his broad chest as he leaned back in his chair, eyes assessing her. “Perhaps in time you’ll come to learn we are more than that.”
She gave him a dry look. “Says the man who just decapitated someone beside me.”
“To the woman who just killed a man below deck.”
“He started it.” Niya crossed her arms.
“Someone always does.”
They held each other’s stare, a beast and a monster.
And for the first time in many years, Niya was reminded of how similar they were.
It left a bad taste in her mouth.
“You’ll be taking over Burlz’s duties until his role is replaced.”
Alōs’s words gave her a jolt. “What? That’s not fair. He’s the one—”
“It is not up for discussion.” He cut her off. “This is the law aboard the Crying Queen, and as one of her pirates, you must abide by it.”
Niya pressed her lips shut, her nostrils flaring. She was not used to taking orders from any but her king, her father, and perhaps, begrudgingly at times, Arabessa. It took all her strength not to try out that Pixie Tail for herself.
Alōs seemed to understand her struggle, for a dark grin edged his full lips. “You’ve got a bit of blood here.” He pointed to his own cheek. “And here.”
“It’s not the first time,” she quipped, not moving to remove it.
Alōs’s gaze sparked, amused. “No, I don’t suppose it is.” Bending toward one of the drawers behind his desk, he pulled something free. “Seeing as you managed to kill without them, I see no reason why you shouldn’t have them back.”
Niya snatched her holstered blades from the air as he threw them her way.
She felt over the worn leather sheaths, running fingers along the detailed carved handles of her knives, before looking back up at the pirate, pulse quickening.
More tricks?
“You have always known I do not need a blade to be lethal,” she said.
“Do you wish for me to remain their master, then?”
Niya gripped her blades tight. “No.”
“Then I believe a thank-you is usually the proper response to such a gift.”
“It is not a gift when they were always mine.” She narrowed her eyes, distrust still clawing in her chest.
What is he up to, giving these back to me?
“You and I both know that in thievery, ownership is fleeting.”
She held back her reply, not wanting to give Alōs any more ammunition to test that theory. Her blades were back in her possession, and that was all that mattered. As she strapped them around her hips, a calmness settled over Niya at feeling their familiar weight. Hello, old friends.
“Get what rest you can,” said Alōs, the moonlight behind him outlining his large form in his chair. “In addition to acquiring Burlz’s responsibilities, I will need you when we dock at our next port tomorrow.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. “Need me for what?”
“It’ll be explained tomorrow.”
“When we dock where again?”
“A place we all can have a bit of fun,” he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Now go; these antics tonight have set me back in my work.”
Despite being shooed away like a bothersome child, Niya did not argue. She was all too happy to leave the pirate lord’s suffocating confines. Wherever they were going tomorrow, she’d find out then. Tonight, she had done quite enough, learned quite enough. She desperately wanted to get back to her hammock and sleep.
Though there was one stop she desired to make first.