“Not many,” Hanna answered over her shoulder. “Squatters, mostly. Lots of these places are empty.”
It was on the tip of Selena’s tongue to ask if Hanna lived here—the girl seemed to know the island like the back of her hand—but she guessed the Hanna would never tell her.
“We are getting in pretty deep,” Ilior said.
“Agreed.” Selena quickened her pace to catch up to Hanna. “That’s far enough,” she whispered. “I don’t wish to be stranded on unfamiliar territory.”
Hanna scowled. “You want Jarabax’s gift or not?”
Selena held up her hands. “How do I know? I have no idea where we are going or what I agreed to.”
The full moon had emerged from behind a cloud, bathing the three in light. Hanna gave her a peculiar look.
“You aren’t sweating.”
Selena flinched. “I don’t know what you mean. And this is hardly the time or place—”
“It’s summertime. Hot as blazes,” Hanna persisted. “Everyone on Uago sweats. But you’re not.”
Ilior pushed between them. “Where are we going? Tell us or we walk away and your boss will be angry with you, yes?”
Hanna tore her scrutinizing gaze away from Selena and set it on Ilior. She planted her hands on her hips. “He’s only my boss if I want him to be. I work for myself. But if you don’t come with me, Jarabax might be mad. And we’re almost there. Hear that?”
Selena did. The soft susurration of ocean crashing on shore. The air smelled fresher; more salty and crisp and less rancid and thick. She nodded for Hanna to lead on.
They crested a final small hill, leaving the sagging hovels behind them. Here, the land was rocky and broken, the shoreline shattered. Large tide pools burbled between jagged hunks of rock that stuck up like teeth from the frothy water. Small caverns and alcoves swallowed the tide as it came in and Selena could hear the water echoing mournfully around them.
Offshore, the sea was a graveyard of dead ships. At least a hundred or so, by Selena’s estimate: brigs, and schooners and old cogs, each one broken and black in the moonlight, their masts bent at odd angles, their hulls splintered and crushed and blasted by cannon fire. These were the corpses of merchant vessels that had been destroyed by Uago’s pirates, or pirate ships themselves—the casualties of one of the hundred battles between the pirate collectives that comprised Uago’s long and bloody history. Most were half-sunk but a few were still afloat.
Selena frowned. “Jarabax makes his base here?”
“No,” Hanna said. “He’d never take you to his actual lair. I don’t even know where it is. We always meet somewhere different when I do a job for him.”
“Which one?” Selena asked, her gaze going to the closest vessels that were above the surface. “There.” She answered her own question as she saw a dim yellow light flickering in the cabin of a nearby ship: a brigantine whose hull was scorched black in places but mostly whole.
“How do we get there?” Ilior asked.
“Follow me,” Hanna said. “It’s tricky but if you’re careful, you might not get too wet.”
They followed the girl onto the broken shore, stepping on the rocks that she stepped on, careful not to slip on the dark algae. Water crashed in, splashing their legs. The dampness on Selena’s leggings sent a chill creeping up her spine.
When the rocks gave way to water and wreckage, Hanna led them over the prow of a submerged vessel. Its bowsprit scraped against the hull of the ship that was their destination. The wood was wet and had a slimy feel to it, and Selena thought it must snap under their weight—Ilior’s especially—but it did not. They clambered from it onto the deck of Jarabax’s temporary residence.
Once aboard the brig, four dark figures appeared from behind barrels or coils of moldy rope, their hands resting on the hilts of their cutlasses. Above them, hanging from rigging or on watch in the crow’s nest, were other pirates. Selena thought there were more hidden on this ship that wasn’t nearly in as bad a shape as the rest in the graveyard. She suspected the ship might even be seaworthy and her guess was confirmed when she noticed furled sails tied to every yard.
“Let them pass,” drawled a voice from inside the captain’s quarters. “They are my guests. Well, the Paladin is a guest and the urchin is owed a penny or two. Dragonman, you can wait outside.”
Ilior shook his head. Selena hesitated.
“Oh, for the god’s sake, you’d be dead already if I wished it,” drawled the voice.
“And your ship would be burnt to ash if I wished it,” Selena said.
A chuckle. “Indeed.”
Selena nodded to Ilior and he stood with his remaining wing against the cabin, as though he were the guard and the pirates around them the interlopers. Selena followed Hanna inside.
The captains’ quarters were sumptuously decorated in red velvets and colorful silks draped down from the lantern that hung from the deckhead. A table was laden with a fine dinner, partially eaten. The centerpiece was a roasted wild boar, half gone and with exposed ribs clawing the air. Beside it, arrayed on a pewter platter, were grapes, pomegranates, and sliced mangos. Three small bowls of nuts, berries, and seeds encircled a plate of brown bread and a dish of half-melted butter. There was a roast pheasant as well, as yet untouched. The lantern’s meager light was giving way to the dawn that bloomed in the east. Jarabax sat at the head of the table, lazily spooning cranberry sauce into his mouth.
The pirate boss wore velvets and silk as fine and colorful as his quarters. Rings glinted on every finger and from both ears, and his teak-colored skin was pierced at lip and nose with more gold. His head was covered with a bandana of green silk, but Selena could see long ropes of dark hair hanging about his shoulders and down his back. He dabbed his thin mustaches with a napkin.
“Please.” Jarabax indicated that Selena should sit. “Have some dinner. Or should I say, breakfast, given the hour? I am Jarabax Ruhl.” He inclined his head. “Some call me Jarabax the Jinxed, but I can’t fathom why, given how bloody lucky I am.” He laughed, showing a wide smile of teeth, many gold. “I’ve been expecting you. After such a long and fruitless hunt, I would imagine you’re quite hungry.”
Selena ignored the words and the knowing smile that went with them. “Some bread, perhaps, thank you.”
Hanna perched on a chair and began shoveling food into her mouth.
“Not you,” Jarabax told her with mild contempt. He pelted her with a grape. “You’re here, girl, to get your coin and be gone. The grown-ups have important matters to discuss.”
Hanna flinched, a hurt look in her eyes that she quickly concealed with a scowl. She chewed what food she had managed to cram into her mouth with deliberate slowness and swallowed it with an audible gulp. She then approached Jarabax as one would a snake that might strike and held out her hand. The pirate boss dropped two coins into it. Pennies. Hardly enough to buy a heel of bread.