Snake Heart (17 page)

He was a half second from trying when something smashed into the ship so hard that it hurled both of them against the wall.

“Pie-Face, Jorgan,” Pey Lu yelled. “Get down here and plug up this hole.”

As Yanko staggered to his feet, several pirates poured into the passageway. A few carried hammers and nails and buckets of pitch or some other adhesive. Pey Lu had released Yanko when they had been rammed, and he stepped toward the stairs, still thinking of escape.

Pey Lu frowned at him and waved two fingers. He felt the attack coming but couldn’t defend himself in time. He wasn’t sure he had the strength left to do so, anyway. He was flattened against the wall and could do nothing but watch as the pirates ran down into the hold. Pey Lu stood at the top of the stairs and went back to draining the water.

Shouts and gunshots came from the deck above, once again. The pirates attacking a boarding party? Yanko had been focusing on his problems and had no idea how the overall battle had been going.

As the last of the water drained, the pirates covered the hole and sealed it. With each bang, Yanko knew his chances of escaping were diminishing. Maybe they had already ceased to exist, disappearing as soon as his mother had shown up.

She grabbed his arm again and pushed him toward the sunlight pouring down from the steps leading to the upper decks. Yanko sent a long look over his shoulder as they walked, but he had to accept the inevitable. He had been taken prisoner, and he had no idea if his captors were winning or losing the battle.

Chapter 12

Y
anko did not make trouble for Pey Lu as she led him onto the main deck. For one thing, she still had him by the arm, like a mother dragging a wayward toddler around at the weekly market. For another, with Dak, Arayevo, and Lakeo gone with the journal, there seemed little point. If they had made it back to the underwater boat, they would have pulled away by now. They would be hiding beneath the waves somewhere out there. If they hadn’t made it because the boat hadn’t been attached anymore when they swam out... Yanko did not want to think about that.

Once he had a view of the ocean, he located the island. They were much farther out than he expected. He shouldn’t be shocked that the ships had moved during their combat maneuvering, but he winced at the idea of his friends having to swim that far to reach the shore. The island had to be two or three miles away now. He prayed to the ferret god that they were safely in the Kyattese vessel.

The commotion he had expected in the wake of the ramming incident was non-existent. Pey Lu’s other two ships were visible, forming a triangle with this one, and they appeared to be in decent shape. If anything, this vessel had taken the most damage. Sun Dragon must have known it was most likely to hold the lodestone. Except that it
hadn’t
held it.

The Turgonian ironclad floated off to the port side, attached by a couple of ropes. The other two Kyattese ships... at first, Yanko did not see them at all, but then he spotted their remains. One was sinking, the broken mast tipped over on its side. The other was in little better shape. Their crews had lowered their boats and were rowing away.

Yanko watched Pey Lu out of the corner of his eye as an older man came up, wringing his hands as he reported to her. He did not seem as competent as the gray-haired Turgonian at the pool had. Maybe that had been another ship commander rather than her first mate, as he had guessed.

Her face was flinty but unemotional. She listened to a damage report of her other two ships, followed by something that surprised Yanko.

“The ironclad is empty, Captain. We’ve got a boarding party going over it again, but they didn’t find anyone.”

“Get our people out of there now and cut those ropes,” Pey Lu said.

“But, if someone’s hiding—”

“
Now
. Those weren’t Turgonians attacking us, but that’s a Turgonian ship. It may have the means to blow itself up. Why else would they ram us with an empty vessel?”

The man’s eyes grew round. He cursed and sprinted away, yelling orders over the railing.

Yanko couldn’t see the exterior of Pey Lu’s craft from the deck, but wondered how much damage had been done when the ironclad struck. They weren’t sitting low in the water, not after Pey Lu had drained the hold, and nobody appeared too worried. The ironclad did not appear overly damaged, either, not like the wrecks floating in the distance. Why would Sun Dragon have abandoned it? It was the only vessel that could have taken him and his crew back to Kyatt—or wherever he intended to go next. Was he even still alive? How long had it been since he’d spoken into Yanko’s head? Ten minutes?

As the lines were being cut and the ship turned away from the ironclad, Pey Lu turned toward Yanko for the first time.

“I have questions for you,” she said.

Yes, he had been afraid of that. What would happen if he didn’t answer them willingly?

“Are you going to be reasonable or difficult?” she added. Her voice was calm. She did not appear pleased about anything that was going on, but she also did not appear daunted. It was almost as if attacks, thefts, and sabotage were normal parts of her life, a life she enjoyed.

“That probably depends on the questions,” Yanko said. “If you’re wondering how Father is doing, I don’t know. He was missing when I left, as were many of my friends and kin in the village. Our family has been on the wrong side of... just about everything since I was born. There are rebels trying to take the Great Chief off the dais, even now.”

He thought mentioning Father and home might cause a reaction, if only a masking of her features or a wistful look in her eyes, but she merely listened blandly, as if he were talking about people she had never met.

“I’m mostly wondering who those people are who just attacked us,” she said dryly.

“They didn’t tell you before they started shooting? That was inconsiderate.” Stoat’s teats, he sounded like Lakeo. He wasn’t ever sarcastic with his elders. Why was he treating her so? Because she was the enemy? Because he resented her?

“I thought so,” she said in the same bland tone.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, looking away. Even if he did resent her, he should treat her as he would wish to be treated. Honor was for enemies as well as allies. It was even for people who were... disappointing.

Her eyebrows shifted, but she did not ask what he was apologizing for. Maybe she already knew. Maybe she just didn’t care.

“I will give you all the information I know about them,” Yanko said, “if you’ll tell me who’s offering to pay you for the lodestone.”

An explosion came from the port side of the ship, a horrible rending of metal that made Yanko cover his ears with his hands. The ironclad.

A great ball of fire reached up from the bowels of the ship, its steel deck peeled back like flower petals, allowing the flames to surge out. Dark gray smoke billowed into the air in thick clouds. It took a few seconds for the pieces of wreckage to start pelting down, but when they did, they hit the deck of Pey Lu’s ship, as well as the water all around the ironclad. Pirates scurried, taking cover. Pey Lu twitched her fingers and an umbrella of pure energy formed above her and Yanko. The few pieces that struck it bounced off.

After lamenting that he couldn’t craft barriers so quickly or easily, Yanko decided it wasn’t manly to be jealous of one’s mother.

“Good thing we got away before it blew,” someone muttered behind them.

“Turgonians worship some crazy dead ancestors,” another pirate said.

A familiar presence brushed Yanko’s mind. He looked toward the island, hardly believing the parrot had found him all the way out here, but there was the familiar blue and red form, flapping its way over the sea. Kei skirted the smoking ironclad—the smoking
wreck
—and circled the pirate ship before spotting Yanko and soaring down toward him. He braced himself, or rather his shoulder, for the sharp talons.

Pey Lu frowned and lifted a hand.

Sensing that she meant to attack, or at least deter Kei from landing, Yanko risked her ire by grabbing her arm. “He’s not a threat.”

Pey Lu looked down at her arm where he gripped her, then regarded him.

Yanko let her go, but he remained on the alert, in case she threw an attack at Kei. There was nothing magical about the bird. He couldn’t defend himself against a wizard. “He’s not even mine. I might be in a lot of trouble with important people back on Kyatt if I let him die.”

True, he wasn’t certain how much of an honored pet the Komitopis family considered the mouthy parrot, but he doubted they wanted Kei to die, especially when they had fed and housed the bird for years after the grandfather died.

Kei landed on Yanko’s shoulder, talons sinking in, wings stirring his hair. “Puntak, puntak!”

Kei sounded delighted to have found him, but Pey Lu’s eyebrows rose at the racial slur, as did the eyebrows of several Nurian pirates within earshot. A big Turgonian pirate snickered to himself.

“Important people, you say?” Pey Lu asked.

Yanko had never figured out the exact status of his hosts the night Dak had taken him to the Komitopis homestead, but he was positive they were relatives of the Turgonian president’s Kyattese wife. No need to mention that to Pey Lu.

“Very,” was all he said, hoping she wasn’t thinking of killing and stuffing the impolite parrot. She probably wouldn’t be worried about threats from the Kyattese, but what if she thought he was some familiar or spy for Yanko? As if Yanko knew how to do anything but dispense food to the bird.

“Seeds?” Kei bobbed his head and looked at him.

Didn’t you gorge yourself on seeds and nuts before leaving the island?
Yanko asked silently.

Kei made a contented noise and plucked at Yanko’s hair with his beak. He wasn’t sure if it was a sign of affection or if the bird thought he had seeds behind his ear.

Two barefoot pirates jogged up to their captain. They looked to be even younger than Yanko. What made people turn to this life so early?

“Pirate bastards,” Kei announced, “pirate bastards.”

The pirates’ eyebrows flew upward. Eyebrows had a tendency to do that in Kei’s presence. One boy fingered a cudgel hooked to his belt.

“Are you telling him to say these things?” Pey Lu asked.

“No. Apparently, his previous owner taught him some epithets. This is how he greets people. The first one was for me.”

“Cap’n, do you want us to secure your, ah—” the one speaking frowned at Yanko, a confused tilt to his head, “—prisoner?”

Yanko wondered if the resemblance was noticeable. Pey Lu’s face was weathered and worn, her beauty lingering but faded. Yanko had no idea if he could claim any beauty—or handsomeness, as he would prefer—but they shared the same black hair and dark brown eyes. He wasn’t sure if he could match other elements of his face to hers, but he had been told by many relatives that he did not look like his father, not the way Falcon did. His features were finer, not unlike hers.

Pey Lu gazed thoughtfully at him. She had released his arm, but she still gripped a sword.

“There’s a hole in the roof of the brig,” Yanko said.

She snorted. “Yes, I understand my cabin shares that feature.”

She was dry in a way that reminded Yanko of Dak. He was amazed she wasn’t furious, especially when the older man who had reported to her earlier returned to give her a tally of the dead.

“Seventeen so far, Captain,” he said. “Mostly at the hand of the big Turgonian that was with him.”

He cast an accusing look at Yanko, one that made him want to look away. He hadn’t wanted to kill anyone. He’d just wanted the lodestone. Not for the first time, he wondered if all these deaths and all this destruction would be justified in the end. Assuming he escaped here and found the stone—and he wasn’t sure if he should assume either of those things would happen now—would it truly lead his people to a fertile land that could be used to feed the millions back home?

“Thanks to your magic, and that of Oskan and Tonsils, we delivered far more damage than we received,” the gray-haired man continued. “Wish we still had Inky though. A healer would be real useful, and he had that ability to shield people too.”

“We’ll find another healer,” Pey Lu said. “Assuming you all don’t want to retire once we get paid for this one.”

The pirate looked wistful. “Retirement sounds nice right now.”

Pey Lu said nothing to agree.

“Uh, the prisoner, Cap’n?” one of the youths asked.

“I’ll question him myself.” Pey Lu pointed toward the stairs. “Let’s chat, Yanko.”

A surly part of him wanted to tell her not to use his name, or at least to call him White Fox or Honored Enemy. He didn’t want to be her friend. Not that she had indicated she wished that. He didn’t see how she could after he had been responsible for the deaths of so many of her people. Even if human lives meant nothing to her, he had also broken into her cabin and stolen that journal, something she must believe valuable since she had hand-carried it back to her ship. Maybe she was pretending to be reasonable with him in the hope that he would put up less of a fight when it came to answering her questions.

A touch of magic on his shoulder propelled him toward the stairs. It didn’t hurt—it was just a nudge—but it reminded him that, whether she sounded reasonable or not, he was her prisoner.

Chapter 13

Y
anko twiddled his thumbs while sitting on a bunk in the cabin next to the one his team had come up through during their earlier incursion. Kei perched on the back of a chair that had been on the floor when Yanko entered. It wasn’t a guest cabin, if pirate ships even had such a thing, and clearly belonged to someone—a weapons holster hung on a hook and clothing stuck out of a drawer. A tray on the desk held a collection of gaudy rings. Yanko had the uneasy feeling that the cabin might belong to someone who had died. Why else would he be placed here, if not because nobody else needed it now? It was located adjacent to the captain’s cabin, but Yanko doubted Pey Lu worried he would escape. She hadn’t bothered to tie him up, and he sensed that there wasn’t a guard outside the door. They had sailed away from the island a while ago, so where would he go, even if he did escape?