I am no assassin, Selena thought and closed her eyes. She laid her hand to her chest, and heard herself say, “If these two Bazira have harmed innocent people…”
The High Reverent nodded solemnly but relief had suffused her dark eyes. “Then it is done.”
It is done. She laid her hand to the cold hole in her chest. “Thank you, my god,” Selena said loudly. “An end, at last.”
A commotion sounded from above. Scuffling boot steps and the heavier thud that could only be Ilior, pounded the deck above her tiny cabin. Selena drew on her overtunic and took up her sword.
She emerged onto the main deck to find Ilior surrounded by the crew, straight-bladed cutlasses trained on him from every angle. The Vai’Ensai had his arms out, asking for peace, but Selena knew he was ready to draw his immense blade from the scabbard on his back. She gripped her own sword and strode forward.
“What is happening here?”
The captain, a man of middle years named Angelo Olin who had seemed much cleaner cut two weeks ago when the Grey Gull set off from Isle Lillomet, turned. He glanced at her sword and ready stance.
“Now, my lady, let us not be hasty,” he began.
“Hasty? Why does the crew threaten Ilior?”
“No threats. Just changing our arrangement. It’s nothing personal,” Captain Olin said. “Or mayhap it is. Personal, as every one of us don’t want to lose his personal life on Isle Saliz, fighting a pair of Bazira magicians.”
Selena clenched her teeth. Celestine, you fool. “I thought this was already explained to you,” she said, watching, with failing hope, as two other crewmen lowered a skiff down the brig’s port side. “I will fight the Bazira. You need only bring me to them.”
The captain shook his head and several crewmen spat curses.
“Isle Saliz and its waters are bad enough,” Captain Olin said. “Even if we don’t step ashore with you, we risk our skins with all manner of beasts that lurk beneath the surface. Thinking on this, I been having second thoughts. I’ve decided to change the nature of the contract I had with your holy lady.”
Ilior met Selena’s eye questioningly from inside the ring of armed crewmen. She shook her head.
“You would betray the High Reverent of your god? The god who governs the seas upon which you sail?”
The captain had the good graces to look humble.
“I don’t mean to anger the Two-Faced any more than is wise, and I’m no murderer of the god’s own. Or her large friend,” he said with a nod at Ilior. “So we’ll be letting you go with your skins intact and with a lighter burden to carry.”
Selena frowned. “What burden?”
“Your pretty Reverent gave me a goodly sum of gold doubloons to take you to Isle Saliz and another tidy stash upon your return. The first payment is stowed safely in my cabin, but the second…” The captain rubbed his stubbly chin. “Seeing as I won’t be welcome back on Lillomet for a time, I’m going to need that second payment now.” He eyed the sapphire on the pommel of Selena’s sword. “And your blade would look ever so pleasant on my belt.”
“Scoundrel,” Ilior intoned. “You would take what you haven’t earned.” He looked to Selena. “Call your magic, Paladin, and put an end to this charade.”
Every man on the crew glanced at her anxiously and a shade of uncertainty fell over the captain’s face.
“I am no murderer either,” Selena said. Not yet. She held up one hand and spoke the prayer, “Luxari.” A globe of white light bloomed in her palm. The crew, to a man, took a step back from she and Ilior. “What island is that, yon?” She nodded her head to the sea before them. A small island was emerging from the morning mists. “Isle Uago, yes?”
The captain nodded. “Aye. Like I says, we’re merciful and offer you this skiff to take you there. We won’t doom you to the open sea.”
“How thoughtful.”
Ilior was shaking his head now, disgusted.
“Very well,” Selena said. “We will take our leave of your ship. This—“she laid her hand on the pommel of her blade—“is a Paladin’s sword, given upon attaining that rank and fit for none to wield but me. You cannot have it. Nor will you take the remainder of our coin.” The light in her cupped palm flared as if to emphasize her words. “You have forsaken your bond and have stolen from the Moon Temple of the Aluren. You have threatened a Paladin of the Two-Faced God and her friend, war veterans both. It is only by my mercy that I do not burn your ship to embers for your betrayal.”
The crew’s muttering and cursing grew louder against the wisdom of this mutiny and several lowered their blades against Ilior.
The captain’s face turned ruddy. “Burnt to embers here or overrun by monsters on Isle Saliz, there is little difference.” He drew himself up. “Keep your coin and your sword; you’ll need both on Isle Uago where the pirate scum won’t be so nice as me.”
Selena let the light in her palm die. “Perhaps not, but at the least the pirates do not pretend to be honorable as they twist a knife in your back.”
“Isle Uago,” Selena said, watching the small, crescent-shaped island draw close. “The last time we were here was after the war, though I hardly remember.” She shivered and hunched deeper into her cloak.
“Aye,” Ilior said, rowing. “No help for it. Then or now.”
Selena nodded and watched as a merchant packet—a three-masted barque—made its way west. It sat low on the water, ponderous with cargo and cannon, flying the gold and green of Isle of Lords.
“Can’t sail the Marauder’s Sea without passing Uago,” Ilior said, following her eye. “Unless you’re a fool enough to try the Heart Waters. The good man who sailed us after the war was no fool. But Captain Hugh had to dock on Uago and paid one pirate bastard a fee for restocking there. The collectives were growing strong then. Stronger now, most like.”
Selena watched the pirate isle draw near. The sun sank, casting Isle Uago in hues of gold and copper, and bathing it in a soft, warm light. Like a golden scabbard holding a bloody, rusted dagger.
“Between my sword and magic and your strength perhaps we can avoid the worst of the dangers. But finding a ship willing to take us back to Lillomet, to start over again, might not be so simple.”
“I still don’t understand why the Alliance didn’t send you an armada escort. If the two Bazira are so dangerous to the Western Watch…”
“If what Admiral Crane said is true,” Selena said, “there are no armada ships to be spared. Skye’s plans dictate that Alliance bolster its fleet for what is to come. Whatever that may be.”
“It surprises me that the Justarchs and admirals and Reverents all heed the word of that woman so utterly.”
“Skye has the god’s ear better than any. She brought us victory over the Zak’reth and ended the war. For that, they honor her commands from afar.” Selena looked at him. “As do I.”
Ilior grunted.
“I know you feel she’s as much responsible for my wound as the god,” Selena said, “but that’s not the way of it. She knew what needed to be done to end the war. She could not have known what would happen to me.”