“Saffi said you wished to see me?” Niya’s voice sounded from behind him, and he and Kintra stepped apart, turning to watch her approach from the main deck. Her hair was pulled back into its usual braid, tinged rust colored in the open air, and she was back in her weathered outfit, her blades strapped to the holster at her hip. She was again a soldier of the sea.
He and Niya had interacted little since their time in the Thief Kingdom, and what words were shared did not touch on what had happened there.
Still . . . Alōs knew neither of them had forgotten. He caught the flame of the memory in her gaze whenever it met his across the deck, the way she lingered on him and he on her. Their opposing energies also no longer pushed against one another but circled, a heated glide of two apprehensive beasts finding the other now familiar. But were they now friend or still foe?
Alōs knew his answer, but he was patiently waiting for Niya to reveal hers.
“Yes.” Alōs looked behind Niya, to the furtive glances from Therza and Boman as they walked by. A few have grown suspicious regarding our random choice of destinations. Kintra’s words played through his mind. “But let us go to my quarters,” he said. “I have no patience for eavesdroppers today.”
Once below deck, Alōs leaned into his chair, letting his muscles dissolve into the hardy wood.
By the lost gods, he was tired.
Kintra and Niya stood waiting while Alōs ran his gaze over the map spread out on his table.
Niya had returned to the Crying Queen with it, along with a litany of information regarding the island. The best shore to row into, the quickest path to the giants’ dwellings. He knew she had been called to see the Thief King but had been less than pleased to learn she had told him what they sought. And more so that he had helped.
“You had no right to tell him,” growled Alōs as she presented him with a map of Hallowed Island.
“We need all the help we can get,” argued Niya.
“Not from him. By the lost gods, Niya, what keeps him from retrieving this piece of the Prism Stone for himself to hold at a higher ransom?”
“He will not do that.” She shook her head.
“How do you know?”
“Because I do.”
“Reassuring.”
“He is my king, Alōs.” Her hands fisted at her sides. “If he asks me a question, I cannot lie.”
“And I am your captain; you swore your loyalty—”
“To regain all of the pieces of the Prism Stone at whatever cost. This helps us, so it is worth whatever we must pay.” She slammed down the map she had been holding on to his desk, unfurling it. “It’s not much, but it’s better than that sad old map you’ve got. You should be grateful.”
Alōs ran his gaze over the detailed markings of her map, details that had most certainly been lacking on the one he had acquired in town when in the Thief Kingdom. His mood plummeted further. “That’s my point.” He looked up at her. “Now we are indebted to him.”
“You are a fool to think you ever were not.” She stepped back, regarding him through narrowed eyes. “He did you a favor by removing the bounty on your head for my identity. Those who blackmail the Thief King only ever end up screaming in his dungeons before begging for the Fade. I know. I’ve put many there. We both are in his debt. But if you do not want to use this stupid piece of parchment—”
“Leave it,” he said, stopping her from rolling it back up.
Niya gave him a long look then, one that ended with her lips curling into a satisfied smile as she said, “Aye, Captain,” before stomping out of his quarters.
Now this same map lay between them, their only real lifeline. Niya had been right.
It had helped them plan which side of the island to anchor near, which plants his pirates could busy themselves pruning while he and Niya sneaked off to travel the straightest path to the giants’ dwellings.
Whatever the Thief King might want in return for this, Alōs decided he would worry about later. For as it was, the lost gods knew he had enough on his plate at the moment.
Steepling his fingers, Alōs took in Niya and Kintra before him. “You each know the task ahead,” he began. “And the threats. But I’d like us to go over everything one last time. Niya, if you want to start?”
“As long as you don’t interrupt me like you did last time,” she said, smiling a bit too sweetly.
“I won’t need to if you get the details right.”
Her grin flattened before she stepped forward to point at the map on his desk. “After nightfall you and I, along with Kintra and another small boat of the crew, will bridge the beach on the western shore. There are watchtowers rumored to be on the four corners of the island, so we must be sure our boats remain out of their glow. While Kintra and the crew pick along the foliage growing here”—Niya slid her finger to a dense area circled with various markings and names of plants—“you and I will slip off to enter the path said to lead through the forest here.” She indicated a thin line that twisted and turned toward the center of the island. “Once we get to the giants’ homes, we’ll start our search first where the chief resides”—she tapped a finger on one of the larger buildings drawn—“and then pray to the lost gods we find the Prism Stone right as we walk in so we all can sail away to live happily ever after.” She stood back, plunking a hand on her hip, pleased grin present.
“Cute,” said Alōs dryly.
“She does have a point,” said Kintra. “The next part of the plan is all rather . . . vague.”
“I think the word you are looking for is ‘nonexistent,’” suggested Niya.
“The next part of the plan,” said Alōs pointedly, “is to be adaptable. If we don’t find what we’re after with the chief, we’ll reassess.”
“Reassess to what, though?” asked Niya. “To search every giant’s dwelling on the island? Track back to where we think the old queen was when the necklace fell from her?”
Alōs let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know yet. I just—”
“Um, we’re about to have more company,” interrupted Niya as she glanced to his closed door. “A lot more from the feel of it.”
A knock sounded.
What now? thought Alōs in annoyance.
“Enter,” he commanded.
“Captain,” greeted Boman as he stepped in, before Saffi and Bree and Emanté and Green Pea and Therza and—by the Fade, who was still on deck sailing his ship? “We don’t mean to disturb,” continued his helmsman as the group filled up his quarters.
“But it appears that you do,” said Alōs coolly. “What is this about?”
“Well, sir, you see . . . the crew . . . we’ve, uh . . .”
Alōs stared Boman down. He had never known the man to mince words, which showed his nerves. But nerves regarding what?
“Spit it out, old man,” said Alōs in irritation. “Or have one of your companions do it, for surely they are here for similar reasons as you.”
“We know we ain’t here for no plants,” said Therza beside Boman, before quickly adding, “Cap’n, sir,” as she took in his piercing glare.
Alōs leaned back in his chair, invoking the forced composure he often displayed for his crew. “And?” he asked.
Therza shared a quick look with Boman. An encouraging nod was given. “And,” she said, “we feels we’ve gots the rights to know the real reason we’ve sailed like the possessed to this island. We’ve all heard the rumors of the giants who live here, using human rib bones to pick their teeth.”
“I hear they like to eat us raw,” added Green Pea from where he stood crammed between two other crew members. “Pluck us straight from the ground, like ripe tomatoes, they do, and toss us in their mouths. Crushing bone and skull and guts, slurping us down.”
Murmurs of anxious agreement flowed through the group of pirates.
“So we’s wondered,” continued Therza. “Why would our cap’n sail to such a place? And like a storm be chasing us? We knows something went down in the valley. Not all of us were in our cups the entire visit. And we’s pirates, of the Crying Queen; we can smell scheming riper than when Mika passes wind. Normally we leave you right be with this business, Cap’n, you know that. But then we’s come to thinkin’, why is Red in on it but not the rest of us?” The stout woman pointed a finger at Niya, who stood off to the side with Kintra. “Especially when she’s the guppy on board?”