Alōs’s heart thudded as Niya drew closer to Cebba, who sat stunned on the couch, a bit of drool slipping from her lips. Niya was a viper entrancing its master, winding its tail around and around until it gave a snap, a bite.
She rubbed her corseted chest along Cebba’s, curled her hips forward and back as her robe draped over them in a moving wave. Niya drew close to Cebba’s ear, parted the shawl covering her mouth, and licked.
Cebba collapsed into a boneless mass under her.
Niya pulled away. A pleased gleam danced in her eyes as she turned to stare exactly where Alōs was spying from.
Their eyes locked, and she winked.
Alōs snapped back from the peephole, an unwanted flutter in his chest. Glancing down, he saw his hands were balled into fists. He shook them out.
None of that, he ordered silently.
He quickly pushed whatever was wriggling for freedom in his chest back below the surface, smothering it until he no longer felt movement. He filled his mind with visions of pain and suffering, thought of all the people he had sent to the Fade, some deserving, most not. He thought of those he had left hurt and broken, disappointed, the woman in the next room included. He thought of every horrible, despicable thing to ice over his thawing veins. He refroze it all. Made his body once more into a tundra, for nothing could live in ice. Not even regret.
When he felt like himself again, in control again, Alōs pushed back his shoulders and strode from the viewing room. Those he passed in the narrow hall moved out of his way as he left the entertainment suites. He entered back into the lower lounge and headed straight for an empty booth at the back, where only dim lighting shone.
Kintra slid into the seat opposite him, passing him a glass of whiskey.
He took it back in one swallow.
Kintra raised her brows. “Something go wrong?”
“It’s all going perfectly.” He signaled a passing waiter for a refill.
“Then why do you look like you’d like to slit someone’s throat?”
“Because I’d always like to do that.”
His quartermaster eyed him skeptically but remained quiet. She was smart enough to know when to push and when to keep silent. Which Alōs was thankful for. He was in no mood for explanations.
Especially when there was nothing to explain.
His sour mood was due to how long they’d been at sea. His energy was spun too tight. And the lost gods knew he hadn’t had any sort of release in a very, very long while. Despite all he still had to plan, ensure, Alōs decided he needed to visit a pleasure house, tonight. It had been some time since he had called upon Eldana and Alcin. He hadn’t seen either of them the last time he’d docked in Barter Bay. He would fix that. They always knew how to relax him, and he enjoyed pleasuring them to the point where they felt more like the client than he did.
Yes, he thought, that will set my thoughts right.
Alōs had just finished his second whiskey when Niya plunked down beside him, dressed again in her regular clothes, daggers strapped to her hips. The only things that spoke of her time performing were the red flush of her cheeks and her mischievous grin as her gaze met his.
Alōs frowned, wishing she had sat beside Kintra instead. The warmth of her magic slid over him, and he tensed before pushing out his own gifts to sit along his skin, cool armor.
“Well?” Alōs asked.
She raised a delicate brow at his curt tone. “I’m fine, thanks,” she said. “No one murdered me or took advantage.” She poured herself a drink from the bottle that rested on their table. “But I guess you would have seen that, wouldn’t you?” Her grin grew before she took a sip from her glass.
Alōs waited, unamused.
Niya rolled her eyes before nodding questioningly toward Kintra across from them. “Shouldn’t she leave first?”
“She’s good,” explained Alōs.
“Interesting,” she mused, reassessing the quartermaster.
“What did you find out, Niya?” Alōs urged once more, his patience more than used up this night.
“What you seek is in the Valley of Giants.”
“By the Fade,” hissed Alōs as he drew his brows together. “Are you sure?”
The valley was a month at sea away, at least. And that was only the first annoyance of this destination.
“Yes, considering that was practically the only thing Cebba was able to mumble over and over by the time I was done with her.”
“Well, sticks.” Kintra folded her arms over her chest.
“Is that not good?” asked Niya.
“It’s fine,” ground out Alōs, his mind tumbling with exactly what this information meant. Mainly that his visit with Eldana and Alcin would have to be postponed. Damn the lost gods. He had too much now to figure out if they were to set sail tomorrow.
“Fine?” Kintra snorted, giving Alōs a knowing look.
“What?” Niya glanced between them. “What is it?”
“Let’s just say”—Kintra waved over a waiter for another bottle—“the crew will not be pleased.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Niya should not have had that last drink. But who was she to say no when one of her crewmates offered to buy her one, or three? Cradling her chin in her hand, Niya leaned on the table in front of her, her body warm and her head buzzing as the bar around her appeared to sway.
Of course, that could have been because the low-lit tavern she had followed the Crying Queen’s pirates to floated on the fringes of Barter Bay.
“And then she jumped onto his shoulders and snapped his neck with her legs,” said Green Pea beside Niya as he slapped her on the back, causing her to slip from her perch on her hand. She righted herself before her face hit the table. “With her legs!” he repeated.
The pirates around her laughed, spilling some of their drinks in the process.
Niya smiled along with them. These pirates are fun, she thought groggily.
It appeared Burlz had not been the most popular among them.
And while Niya still did not regret one bit of her actions that night, she’d be lying if she said she were not relieved that most of the crew seemed almost grateful that she had done what most of them had wanted to do for some time now.
“Tell the part again of when she accused him of not having a prick,” said Boman across from her. “That’s my favorite part.”
“All right, you lowlifes,” said Saffi as she leaned against a nearby wooden column. “I think we’ve stomped over Burlz’s watery grave enough. Let’s move on to different entertainment, shall we?”
“I’ve got dice,” said Felix, a reedy kid whom Niya had probably heard speak three times since coming aboard the Queen.
“Oh, then let’s play Roll, Punch, Spit!” suggested Bree, snapping up the die from Felix’s palm.
While Niya loved a good dice game, she needed some air. Pushing up from the table, she squeezed her way out of the group and onto the wraparound deck.
She took a deep breath in as she gripped the cool railing. The fresh air sobered her slightly, her magic not feeling as sluggish in her veins. An expanse of visiting ships stretched out before her in the dark waters; yellow lanterns glowed along their distant decks where they sat anchored for the night, a blanket of stars salting the sky overhead.
She liked Barter Bay.
It reminded her a lot of the Thief Kingdom. The hodgepodge of citizens, the array of vice and trade. Even while dancing tonight, though she hadn’t enjoyed the fact it had been ordered by Alōs, Niya had reveled in slipping back into a performance. Her magic had sighed, content, as Niya moved and flexed her powers, which had quite honestly felt trapped inside her the past week.
Cebba had been too easy a target in the end, for Niya had barely begun when the tradeswoman was nearly too far gone from her spell to pry information from.
Where did your biggest red stone go?
Niya’s pulse quickened as she replayed the question, just as when she’d first read it on the slip of paper Alōs had handed to her. Here was one of his secrets she was determined to learn.
I sense he needs something important, something only being able to sail more freely with his bounty dropped could get him.