Harbinger: Fate's Forsaken: Book One (30 page)

“Aye, and
especially on taxes.” Lysander leaned back against his desk, smirking. “You
gave up your petty lives for something more exciting. You’ve heard the siren’s
call, and you’ve followed it here — to the High Seas. It’s the birthplace
of the cutthroat, the threshold of adventure. And from here there can be no
return. For that, my fellow seadogs, I commend you.”

Aerilyn jabbed a
finger at the center of his toothy grin. “I’m not a cutthroat, and I’m not a
seadog! I’m an honest, decent merchant from a long line of honest, decent
merchants. Last I checked, we didn’t ask to be shipwrecked by pirates —
we were kidnapped! And I refuse to stand here and listen to this — these
—
accusations
any longer.”

“I didn’t know
there was such a thing as an honest merchant,” Thelred said from where he
lurked in a corner of the room. “Maybe we ought send this one back to her
father. That’s where the dress-wearing sort of women belong, isn’t it?”

The room hushed
for half a second, the ominous silence before the storm. And then Aerilyn burst
into tears. She fell into Kyleigh, who caught her and at the same moment said:
“She’s just lost her father, you idiot!” to Thelred.

Lysander’s smile
vanished. “I’m so sorry.”

“I d —
don’t want your
ap — apologies
anymore than — than your accusations!” she wailed angrily into the front
of Kyleigh’s jerkin.

“No, you
misunderstand me. I wasn’t apologizing: I was sympathizing.” Lysander took a
cautious step forward. “I’ve lost my father, too. His name was Matteo, and he
was killed fighting in the Whispering War when I was only a child. Sickness
took my mother before I even had a chance to know her, so my father and I were
very close. The man raised me — taught me everything he knew about living
and fighting … and I still miss him.” He placed a hand on Aerilyn’s shoulder.
“So I think I might understand, at least a little, how you feel.”

He couldn’t have
known how similar his story was to Aerilyn’s, so he wasn’t lying. But Kael
still didn’t trust him.

His confession
silenced Aerilyn for a moment. She wiped her tears away and blinked. “Your
father fought in the Whispering War?”

“He did, yes.”

“So he wasn’t a
pirate?”

“Ah, he was, actually,”
Lysander admitted. “But in those days, King Banagher needed all the ships he
could get. He couldn’t exactly afford to be picky. What was your father’s name,
by the way? Perhaps my father robbed — ah, knew him.”

She took a deep
breath. “Garron,” she said quietly.

He raised his
eyebrows. “That wouldn’t be Garron the Shrewd, would it?” When she nodded, he
let out a bark of laughter. “Well then your papa was the one man on the High
Seas that old Matteo never robbed.”

She pulled away
from Kyleigh, clearly intrigued. “Really? Why not?”

Lysander
snorted. “Oh he made his excuses, but I knew it was because he was afraid of
him. I don’t know if you’ve heard this or not, but during the Whispering War,
Garron captained the good ship
Avarice
—
a vessel famed for her strength. He took everything but prisoners and would
have made a blasted good pirate, if only we could have persuaded him.” He
grinned, shaking his head. “But Garron was a merchant, through and through. And
he fought so well that the King gave him
Avarice
as a gift when the war was over.”

She frowned.
“But he never mentioned a ship. What did he do with it?”

“He gave it to
an old friend,” Lysander said simply. “But since you’re the daughter of Garron
the Shrewd, I’ll make you a deal.” He crossed his arms and leaned forward. “You
don’t have to be a seadog until you want to be one, all right? Until you change
your mind, you’ll just be an honest, decent merchant. But when you
do
change your mind — and you will
— you have to give me a kiss before I’ll turn you into a pirate.”

Aerilyn glared
through her blush as she shook his hand. “Fine, but that’s never happening,”
she snapped, which only made him grin all the wider.

“Now, I’m afraid
I can’t offer the rest of you scabs the same out. Which means that you’ve got
two choices: join my crew, or leave. You can leap right over the railings, and
I promise no one is going to stop you.” When a long moment passed and no one
moved, Lysander grinned. “Well then, your worth has just increased threefold.
That’s right, lads — you’re pirates now! Wanted across the six regions
and with a mountain of gold on your heads.”

Jonathan punched
his fist in the air and whooped. Kael wasn’t sure how he felt about being a
pirate, but he supposed there was no turning back. They were trapped on this
floating pile of wood until Lysander was good and ready to take them ashore. So
if swinging a cutlass and drinking too much ale would get him back to land,
he’d do it.

They stood
around while Lysander passed out their uniforms: a white shirt with tan
breeches and a pair of knee-high boots. There was a red, upside down V painted
on the front of every shirt.

“It’s the symbol
of our clan,” Lysander explained. He mimicked the shape with his arms. “Our
crossed swords are strengthened by the blood of our enemies and raised always
in triumph.”

“That’s all well
and good,” Aerilyn cut in. “But I don’t think I should have to wear one, seeing
as how you’ve promised not to make me a pirate.”

“Tie a man to an
anchor, and he might wiggle free. Tie a man in a dress to an anchor, and you
won’t see him again till he rolls in with the tide,” Lysander said. “I’d be
sentencing you to death if I let you walk around in a dress. Everyone aboard my
ship is required to wear this uniform. It’s a rule.”

She held the
clothes away from her. “But I’m going to look awful in these! They’ve got
absolutely no shape.”

“Kyleigh has to
wear them, too,” Thelred muttered. “And she isn’t complaining.”

“Well
Kyleigh
would still look magnificent in
a rucksack! Haven’t you got anything more … feminine? Something like,” she
pulled at the hem of Kyleigh’s mail skirt, “this — something flattering,
but dangerous.”

Lysander
snorted. “Flattering but dangerous, eh? And let me give you a man’s
perspective: if I allowed women to walk around deck dressed like
that
,” he nodded to Kyleigh, who rolled
her eyes, “I don’t think we’d ever get any work done.”

“But what about
lady pirate clothes?” she pressed. “Surely you have something that isn’t so
manly.”

Lysander seemed
to finally reach his wit’s end. He threw up his hands and said: “Well it may
come as a surprise to you, but in all my time as Captain I’ve never had the
pleasure of having a woman aboard
Anchorgloam
.
So I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I was ill-prepared.”

Kael wasn’t sure
he believed that, but it made Aerilyn smile. “Never?”

“Never,”
Lysander assured her with a scowl. “Now, will you wear the uniform?”

She tossed her
hair over her shoulder. “I suppose.”

“Excellent.”
Lysander clapped his hands together. “
Anchorgloam
isn’t a ferry, dogs — every man is expected to pull his weight.
You’ll rise at six bells, you’ll have training, chores, and I’ll be a merman’s
beard if I don’t make decent sailors out of every one of you. Understood?”

They muttered a
collective “Yes.”

He raised his
eyebrows. “When I ask you a question, you say
aye, Captain
! Understood?”

“Aye, Captain!”
Jonathan’s ear-bursting yell more than made up for Kael’s half-hearted mumble.

Lysander cut his
fist across his chest. “Well done. Now help the men finish loading up that
treasure, seadogs!”

Aerilyn looked
rather offended about being called a seadog, but she followed Jonathan out the
door anyways. Kael made to leave when Kyleigh grabbed him by the arm. “You and
I have things to discuss,” she said quietly.

He didn’t want
to stay in Lysander’s cabin a moment longer. He was hungry, exhausted, and had
the beginning of what promised to be a nasty headache building at the base of
his skull. “Can’t it wait till morning?” he pleaded.

She shook her
head. “The sooner we get this out, the better.” Then she turned to Lysander
— who was leaning over the desk, his nose inches from a map. “Might we
have a word, Captain?”

“Yes, of
course,” he said, waving her to his side. “I was just thinking about our best
route of attack. If we hit the south end — just there — do you
think the cliffs might give us an advantage? Or would it be better to move west
to east, through the woods?”

“I don’t think
we should be talking about this without Morris,” Kyleigh said.

Thelred inhaled
sharply, but Lysander didn’t seem to hear him. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.
The helmsman ought to know, after all …” He stood up straight and thrust an
accusing finger at her. “You tricked me! I can’t believe it, after all these
years — and I thought we were friends.”

“Oh please,” she
said with a roll of her eyes. “You already know my secret, it’s only fair that
I know yours.”

Lysander pulled
a dagger out of his boot and waved the blade in Kyleigh’s face. “All I know is
that
this
isn’t an impetus, and
that
,” he jerked his head at Kael,
“isn’t a mage.”

That’s when Kael
realized that his hunting dagger wasn’t in his belt — it was in
Lysander’s hand. “Hey —!”

“Oh, don’t look
so surprised,” Lysander said over the top of him. “When you keep a dagger in
your belt, you have to expect it to get nicked.”

And Kyleigh
inclined her head in agreement.

Kael caught the
blade by its hilt. “I don’t understand when you could have possibly had time to
steal it.”

“A thief doesn’t
need time — only opportunity,” Lysander retorted. “And mine came while
you were trying to crush my hand.”

So he
had
noticed. Good. “Keep your hands away
from my weapons, thief, and they won’t get crushed,” he said, with what he
hoped was a convincing growl.

“A snappy little
mountain mutt, aren’t you?” Thelred sneered.

“You know, you
might look good with an arrow between your eyes. And I’d be glad to make that
happen —”

“Anyways,”
Kyleigh stepped between them, “I’m afraid we do need to see Morris. That’s why
we’ve come.”

Lysander
snorted. “Why do you need Morris? You’re the Dragongirl! Lead us into battle,
and I know we’ll emerge victorious —”

“We need Morris
because I’m not your answer, not this time.”

He made a
frustrated noise and sat heavily on top of the desk. “If you’re not our answer
then pray, who is?”

She nodded in
Kael’s direction and said, with all the confidence in the Kingdom: “Him.”

Kyleigh should have known how the
pirates would react. She should have known that when she leaned back and said
that the skinny, redheaded boy before them was the answer to all of their
problems, that they would laugh. That Lysander would double over and Thelred
would guffaw loudly from his corner.

She should have
known better than to embarrass him like that.

“Oh Kyleigh,
you’ve always been a merciless prankster,” Lysander said as he wiped the tears
from his eyes, still chuckling.

She didn’t say
anything: she just stared him down, a small smile on her face. Under the weight
of her look, his grin faded away, slowly, until it was replaced by a frown.

“You’re
serious?” He glanced at Kael. “And why do you think he’s
the answer?”

“Because he’s a
whisperer.”

And that dried
up every stray giggle in the room. Lysander’s mouth fell open and Thelred
muttered: “Impossible.”

“Is it?” she
sauntered over to him. Her head barely came to Thelred’s shoulder, yet he
stepped to the side rather than allow her to pin him in the corner. “How else
do you think he undid your little magic trick, hmm? If he isn’t a mage, then
he’s got to be —”

“A whisperer,”
Lysander breathed. There was calm understanding on his face. “Red? Get Morris.”

Thelred hurried
out the door, no doubt eager to put as much distance between himself and
Kyleigh as possible.

“What magic
trick? And how did I undo it, exactly?” Kael asked as soon as he was gone.

“Whisperers are
the natural enemies of the mages,” Lysander explained. “Magic has no effect on
a whisperer: he can tear spells apart with his bare hands. And it wasn’t so
much a trick as it was an … unfortunate side effect.” He smiled grimly. “I’m
afraid that I’m a cursed man.”

Annoying as
Lysander was, Kael didn’t doubt that someone had cursed him.

“Yes, I’ve heard
about that,” Kyleigh said. She’d kicked off her boots and was now sitting
behind the desk, her bare feet propped on a thick tome entitled
Nautical Abnormalities
.
“And what sort of mischief did you get
yourself into, exactly?”

“Wendelgrimm,”
he sighed.

She grinned
widely. “Oh you silly, silly pirate. You ought to have known better.”

“What’s in
Wendelgrimm?” Kael said, intrigued.

Lysander
groaned. “The
Witch
of Wendelgrimm.
The old hag’s been alive for at least a thousand years. She has her fortress
perched on top of a cliff, overlooking the village of Copperdock.” He tugged a
wrinkled map of the Kingdom out from under Kyleigh’s heel and pointed to a
small peninsula. Tiny docks fanned out around it, and in the forest above
lurked a dark, spindly castle. He tapped the castle and said: “That’s
Wendelgrimm. There used to be a family of whisperers who lived in Copperdock,
and they kept her at bay for generations. But after the War …”

They’d been sent to Midlan,
Kael
thought,
where they were never heard from
again.
“So with the family gone, the Witch attacked the village?” he
guessed.