Vengeance Comes like the Tide… with Time
A hush fell over the crew standing nearby where Captain Serpentis, Finn, Toni, and myself spoke, like I’d uttered the single worst curse there was. But I didn’t care. It didn’t matter who heard me. I told the truth. I would get justice for Maester Bobbins and the thirty-two other small-folk of Hill Hollow who died because of Hellbringer and his raiders.
The scent of iron stung my nostrils. Had I gotten so angry I’d started a nosebleed? I wiped my upper lip with a single finger and there wasn’t a trace of blood. But the smell of coin and metal still persisted. Hot rage seeped through my body as I finally spotted another ship sailing toward the Onyx Glory. My focus narrowed in on the all-black boat, from its sails to its hull. It was like I couldn’t see anything else around me. I didn’t even hear Finnan saying my name until he shook my shoulder.
“Kit, you’re not serious, are you?”
I blinked, almost unwilling to rip my gaze away from the approaching vessel, but Finn shook me again and I finally looked him in the eyes. He was frowning, eyebrows bunched together with concern. “I’m completely serious,” I said. Why would he even doubt that I was serious in the first place? “That man either killed or terrorized everyone I care about. I’m not just going to hide and let him get away with that. That would be a dishonor to what everyone lost.”
Finn looked ready to argue with me, but the captain intercepted our disagreement. “I know what you and the small-folk of Hill Hollow went through, Kithri, but taking on Hellbringer means taking on his entire crew. My sailors didn’t sign up for that fight, and I can’t condone anything that would put them in harm’s way.”
I scowled at the captain, chewing on the logic of his words, but I didn’t want to be logical. “All I’m hearing is that you’re refusing to do the right thing, you coward,” I said, pulling away from my friend’s hand on my shoulder and crossing my arms in defiance of their logic and decisions. I looked around for Toni, hoping he’d back me up, but he’d disappeared, apparently willing to follow orders and go below deck to make medicine to help the villains coming toward us.
I’d experienced small acts of betrayal before. Liora tattling to Ma and Da after catching me practicing magic. Finnan saying he was sick but was actually hanging out with another friend, Gillia, the youngest child of a dryad family who lived in the forest behind his home. Uncle Simeon not returning to Hill Hollow after promising — after his trip to Galsteadon, the capital city in Pytenna — that he’d take me with him on his next grand adventure.
Those were just disappointments compared to this new, awful treachery. I tried to steel myself, harden my exterior so they wouldn’t know how much they’d hurt me, but tears bubbled to my eyes and slid down my cheeks in another unfaithful act. I dug my fingernails into my palms. Maybe physical pain would alleviate the pain from how my heart was tearing in two.
The captain took a knee in front of me, reminding me of how I would kneel before my youngest siblings to talk to them. I looked away from him, refusing to meet his gaze. He could clearly see the tears, but I wasn’t going to let him see how deep the hurt ran.
He spoke anyhow. “Kit, sometimes the only right thing we can do is wait for the right time to take action.” His voice was soft, gentler than I’d ever imagined he could speak. He’d always been the loudest one on the ship for the past three days — no matter the circumstance. Now, it was like he thought he could break me with his breath.
“Well, when is the right time going to happen if not now? When else am I going to be right here when he isn’t expecting me?” I asked, wiping away a treacherous tear trailing down my cheek with a quick swipe of my hand. Finn’s arm wrapped around my shoulder and squeezed me to his side. I took a deep breath and it was like the last whiff of the Hollow mustered itself to greet me from his sun-warmed skin and clothes.
It was a sign.
Hill Hollow was still there. Hill Hollow was still good, despite all the evil that he’d wrought on the people… my people. The reason I ever left on this journey was to learn how to protect them, not to take revenge on the person who hurt us. I couldn’t forget that.
I raised my gaze from the ground to meet Captain Serpentis’s gaze. His gray eyes were warm and so full of sympathy that I started feeling a little guilty about calling him a coward.
“Look, Hellbringer is a skilled warrior and sailor. To take him on, you’d have to grow your combat skills. Simply based on knowing your true age and not your skill level, I know he is a better fighter than you,” the Captain said. I told myself I wouldn’t take that comment personally, but a sour taste rose in the back of my throat that told me otherwise. Captain Serpentis spoke the truth, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting.
Finn rubbed my shoulder with his whole palm in an excited and frantic spasm. “Well, we’re on our way so I can learn to fight, so there’s that!”
“What’s the use of training if I can never get to him? He’s in the middle of the Golden Sea,” I said, gesturing to the endless sea behind us and then over to Stormreach. “I may never have this chance again.”
Captain Serpentis stood tall and scanned the crew around us, listening to our conversation. They all began moving, acting like they’d heard nothing we just said. Jeremey, a blue-skinned sea elf with light blue tattoos covering his skin, stood nearby, whistling under his breath and pretending to clean the deck with a dry mop. The crew liked to call him Jeremey the Daft for good reason.
“How about a proposal?” Captain Serpentis said, not loud enough for the entire ship to hear, but with enough volume that I knew he intended on keeping whatever proposal he was about to make. “If you go, train with this mysterious Dragon’s Helm, and come find me again, I’ll allow you to challenge me to a duel, however many times you wish. Once you defeat me, I will help gather enough willing fighters and crew to man the ship that will help you take down Hellbringer and his raiders.”
Beat the captain in a duel? There was no way… especially not now. I’d only practiced on trees, not moving targets, or targets that can hit back.
But I had to hope — I had to believe in myself. My future self, at least.
“You’ve got a deal,” I said, shaking his extended hand with a firm resolve. I would become good enough. I had to.
“Great. We have a plan. Now, can we hide before anybody on his crew spots that we’re on the ship?” Finn asked. He was still clutching my shoulder. I felt a nervous shiver run through his body.
I wanted to call him a big baby but bit my tongue. Finn had never been, and likely never would be, a fighter. He had joined me on this journey due to of a sense of loyalty. He was here to help because that was who he was. But I couldn’t tell him to enter a fight if he didn’t want to.
I couldn’t put another person I cared about in harm’s way to settle a score with someone. That went against everything I wanted to fight for — those peaceful small-folk who had done nothing to deserve Hellbringer’s wrath. Just because I was walking down the path of a warrior didn’t mean that Finnan had to do the same. I loved him for his carefree spirit and gentle heart, and also for his courage to leave the safety of home and walk into the unknown with me. When the time came for the fight with Hellbringer, I’d leave him behind, where he was safe.
“Yeah, let’s go hide away now,” I said, wrapping a grateful arm around my friend, walking into the captain’s quarters, and locking the door behind us.
An hour passed before movement really started onboard the Onyx Glory. I peered out onto the main deck through a sliver of open curtains in Captain Serpentis’ quarters. I couldn’t risk more than that in case Hellbringer decided to look too closely around the ship. Several sailors I didn’t recognize stalked through my tiny point of view, snarling. My blood ran cold at the sight of them.
I took a deep breath, and the now familiar mix of leather and cardamom warmed my rising nerves. He was so close now. If I could just sneak out… I could finish the fight before it started. At least, I hoped I could do that. My fingers tightened around the hilt of my rusty scimitar. Maybe not. More unrecognizable sailors stalked the deck of the ship now. There wasn’t a space on board that wasn’t in their view now.
“They’re here. They’re everywhere,” I whispered to Finn. He was lounging in a pillowed alcove next to a port window in Captain Serpentis’s room, reading a novel he found on the Captain’s bookshelf called Tides of Fervor.
“We have to be extra quiet then,” Finn whispered back.
I didn’t have to look at him to know that he hadn’t looked up from the book. He’d gasped in excitement just a few moments ago. A good book could distract him from the end of the world.
A formidable figure appeared in the middle of the ship, standing nearly as tall as Captain Serpentis next to him. He faced away from me, but it was clear that he was speaking with the captain.
Half of a dark tattoo peeked up over the long, tattered black coat with silver embroidery that he wore. It had to be heavily embroidered, since I could see it from across the deck. Around his waist, a broad belt held more weapons than one person could ever need — a silver, curved cutlass, several dark daggers, and a flintlock pistol.
“I wish I could hear what they were saying,” I said.
“Huh?” Finnan finally stirred behind me. He’d really been lost in whatever world existed in that silly book he was reading. He tiptoed over to where I was at the window and peeked out above my head. “Hellbringer is asking Captain Serpentis for a toll to cross his waters,” he said like he was sure of the conversation.
We were behind a thick wooden wall, there was no way he could hear them.
“What? How would you know that?” I asked, whirling around to inspect my friend and his strange behavior.
“I’m reading Jeremey’s mind, and he’s just saying what they’re saying in his head. And wondering about lunch,” Finn said, shrugging like this was normal. “The captain just talked Hellbringer down from fifty gold pieces by offering him some of the wares we have on board.”
My best friend was doing magic. He was doing magic better than I could do magic. I’d been unable to conjure up my little glowing hand for over a year.
“Finnan Anadromus Windwick, how in the seventh heaven did you start doing magic?” I asked.
Finn’s brown skin tinged with a nervous flush. “Gilly has been helping me,” he said, likely breaking his concentration on whatever Jeremey was thinking.
I glanced back out of the window. Jeremey was standing idly by the captain’s quarters, staring intently at his twiddling thumbs. An anxious tick of his. Back to Finnan’s goings-ons.Of course, Gillia had been helping him with magic.
I restrained myself from rolling my eyes, even though Finn wasn’t even looking at me. He was looking at the ground, probably reveling in what a shameful fraud he was. “You didn’t think to mention it, or, I dunno, ask me for help?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.
“I can’t do what you do,” Finn replied, his voice cracking. “It’s not about learning motions and words from a book. I had to figure out how to unlock these abilities in a different way. I’m still learning how to do that, for the most part. My mums have been teaching me some of the smaller things they know.”
He got to share his magic with his family. I couldn’t do that. “Lucky you,” I muttered, feeling a rise of jealousy like a tidal wave about to crash over me.
Finnan’s head snapped up, and he narrowed his eyes at me. “Kit, you are capable of plenty of things that I’d never fathom achieving. This is something good for both of us. I can be helpful this way.”
Oh. He thought I wasn’t happy he could do magic. That was incorrect of him to assume. I sighed, the tide washing back out to sea before it could fully reach me. “I know. I’m excited for you, Finn. There’s just other things underneath the excitement. Were your parents excited for you when you found your magic? Did they encourage you to learn as much as possible? It seems like it. Look how good you already are. My parents practically forbade me of anything to do with magic and all I can do is make tiny illusions. I’ve been working on this for years and that’s all I’ve got to show for it.”
Finn hugged me tight as I stood limp, letting him squeeze me against his chest. “Isn’t that what this journey is all about? Finding out how to control your magic? Learning to wield a sword from a great warrior? It will happen. I know it will.”
A crate thudded on the deck outside the cabin and made us both jump. I slunk over to the window and peeked out again. Colten Hellbringer was facing in my direction now, mid-deck, hat pulled from his head.
His face was rugged and handsome — with a square jawline covered in a neatly trimmed black beard with silver streaks. His eyes were piercing, ice blue, and calculating, like he was sizing everyone up for a fight. His hair, dark as a raven’s wing, fell to his shoulders in loose waves. It must have been tied up and tucked under his hat, when he first got on the ship.
“Do you want me to read Jeremey’s mind again?” Finn whispered. But I could read Hellbringer’s lips now.
“When this war starts, my crew is heading back to Dellegan to make some money off of small-folk pelts.”
Captain Serpentis’s posture went rigid, and he clenched his fist into a tight knot. My fingers clawed into the wooden sill of the window and smoke curled up into my nostrils and over my face. I ripped my hand away to see burnt wood under where my fingers had just been.
I’d nearly set the ship aflame.
I didn’t know what Captain Serpentis said back, but whatever it was, it made Hellbringer laugh. He clapped a hand on the Captain’s shoulder and said, “Serpentis, I didn’t take you for a fool. Don’t make an enemy where you could have a powerful benefactor.”
Hellbringer whistled loudly and motioned his hand toward the side of the Onyx Glory where his ship had docked. His crew stalked out of sight and presumably off the ship, snatching bottles from Toni’s arms as he appeared from below deck. Toni lowered his gaze, visibly trembling though I was across the ship from him.
“How long did you say we had until a war starts in Roahdhan?” I asked Finnan, thinking of all the news clippings he had in his office at the library. They went back for years. The most recent one, where Pytenna’s king, who was the leader of the nearest kingdom to Roahdhan, called his military to the capital city was alarming however. If he was preparing for the fall out, that meant things were escalating beyond rumors and rumblings.
“There’s a while yet,” Finn said, his voice hinting at a million thoughts he wanted to say. “Why?” he asked, managing to sum up whatever was on his mind in a single question.
“Because I have to get strong enough to defeat Hellbringer before the war starts, or he’ll start killing small-folk in Dellegan while the rest of the world is distracted.”
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