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Chapter 66 – Something Borrowed

  Sirius awoke with a start, in the middle of the night and unsure of what it was that had roused him. For once he’d found a peaceful sleep, but something had pulled him from it. A sound. Not sirens. He was sure of that. It was something else. They were close to where that wreck was supposed to have gone down. Close to where a kraken might lurk. Could it have been one of those he had heard? He listened carefully but all was silent except for the gentle lapping of waves against the ship.

  Beside him Amanda shifted, waking from her own slumber. He watched as her eyes blinked open and slowly fixed on him.

  She studied his face. “What’s up?” she asked. In their distraction last night she had forgotten all about putting the earplugs in before bed.

  “I’m not sure. Probably nothing.” He didn’t want to worry her. Something definitely didn’t feel right though.

  From the look in her eyes he knew he hadn’t allayed her fears at all. She pulled herself upright, seemingly trying to hear what he couldn’t.

  Then he heard it again, the same sound that had woken him, and this time he knew what it was.

  A gunshot echoed throughout the ship.

  Leaping over him, Amanda was out of bed faster than he was. She shoved the chair away from the door and headed off down the corridor toward the sound.

  Sirius frowned. Of course she was going toward the sound rather than away from it. Sirius followed right after her. He must be as crazy as that man on the tiny boat. All of them were crazy. But he would be damned if he was letting her go alone.

  He didn’t bother trying to stop her. He just kept right on her heels, always watching for any danger that he might need to pull her back from.

  They reached the main deck where a small crowd had gathered. Near the door, Riki, the healer was kneeling down next to one crewman who bore a pained expression and had blood all down the front of his shirt.

  Stinger knelt on his other side while another crewman was using some tweezers in what looked like an attempt to extract a bullet from the man’s chest so it could be better healed.

  Amanda paused a moment to look at them but quickly continued toward a circle of men nearer the edge of one of the longboats. It looked to be half hoisted as if someone had attempted to try to sail away in the middle of the night.

  Sirius reached at the group the same time as Amanda did and had much better luck at getting the other men to step aside so he could get through. Thus, Amanda was required to follow on his heels this time.

  Several members of the crowd were chanting a single word over and over.

  “Thief! Thief! Thief!” Their tones were low and haunting and Sirius could hear blood-lust in their voices.

  In the centre of the circle two men were holding between them a third who had been brought to his knees. It was one of the men they had captured from the The Piper yesterday. One of the three whose life Amanda had defended.

  Morgan stood not far away facing the prisoner. She drew her sword from her scabbard as Sirius stepped into the circle. At first she did not appear to notice Sirius or Amanda and she spoke only to the prisoner before her.

  “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  A hush fell over the crowd as Morgan spoke. As she lifted her sword, the circle widened.

  The prisoner did not reply. He simply spat toward Morgan. An action that signed his death warrant for sure, if it had not already been done.

  “What’s going on here?” Sirius asked before things could escalate further. He might have just left things be, it was Morgan’s ship after all, if not for the fact that Amanda had saved this man’s life once already and he didn’t think she would just walk away from this scene. It was better he found out what was going on and at least made sure there was a justification for it. He was sure there was one. Morgan wasn’t so reckless as to harm an innocent man without a reason.

  The soft chanting started up again in reply, this time with a little more detail. Instead of just the one word, Sirius caught a sentence or two.

  “He’s a thief. He’s a thief.”

  Morgan blessed him with further information. She had enough respect for him to do that at least, even though Sirius knew she had no obligation to inform him of any business taking place on her ship and already he had been straining their relationship.

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  Calmly, she said, “This man stole cargo from the hold. He then attempted to steal a longboat and escape. When he was discovered he shot a man. Not dead, not yet, but regardless, I can not allow a thief, twice now, to live aboard my ship.”

  Sirius nodded and took a step back.

  Appeased, Morgan faced her prey.

  Sirius turned quickly toward Amanda then and caught her eye. Gave her a warning look.

  He could see the frustration in her face.

  He gave his head a light shake. From the corner of his eye he could see Morgan rise her sword.

  He tried to pull Amanda away so she didn’t have to watch. “Come on,” he whispered.

  But she resisted, not her whole body, just her head. She craned her neck so she could see past him, even though he tried to put his body in the way. It was as if her eyes were glued to the scene. But she at least let him physically nudge her away from the site, until…

  They’d gone a few steps. Sirius didn’t see Morgan’s strike but he knew when it occurred based on the crowd’s reaction, cheers and jeers, and Amanda’s wince. For a moment she shut her eyes. He hoped she’d keep them that way, but she didn’t and a moment later she dug her toes in and resisted his nudging.

  “He’s suffering,” she bemoaned.

  Sirius paused. He didn’t like the sounds that were coming from behind him, a gurgling, spluttering sound and cries of a man not quite yet dead. He turned with the unsettling feeling that he knew what he was going to find.

  Indeed, Morgan had not been as kind as she had promised yesterday. Instead of going about it quickly and chopping off the man’s head, slitting his throat, or running her sword through his heart, she had instead disemboweled him, and granted him a slow death.

  Sirius’s gaze darted to Amanda, her hand slightly raised, her fingers twitching, the uncertain, not yet decided look on her face, and he knew he’d have to act faster than whatever it was she was considering doing. They did not need literal fire added into the mix.

  From his coat he drew a dagger. He was not as skilled as Shiv but he had picked up a few tricks from the man and he had a moment or two to aim, for right now no one was paying him any attention. All of their eyes were on the dying man.

  Sirius threw the dagger with enough strength to split a skull. It went sailing past several men and Morgan, and lodged itself deep within the thief’s face. The man fell to the deck a moment later, properly dead.

  Several heads turned sharply in Sirius’s direction. A mix of shock and surprise. Only two people’s expression’s mattered to Sirius though. Amanda who looked as surprised as the rest of the crew. He’d been worried she might hate him for killing the man. There would be time to deal with that possibility later though so for now he focused on Morgan and the slowly increasing look of rage in her eyes.

  He spoke before she could. “You’ve made your point and I don’t need his cries keeping me awake.” Sirius knew that statement might only upset Amanda but it would likely appease Morgan more to think he’d cut the man’s suffering off for a reason she could relate to.

  For a second or two it seemed like she accepted his argument but his hopes were dashed when a moment later she called out to a nearby sailor, “Bring me the other two men.”

  Sirius turned on her. If there was any hope for them at all then he needed to make his stand now. Placing his hand on his sword he growled, “I won their right to life fair and square. You had a just right to his,” Sirius nodded at the dead man, “But you have no right to theirs.”

  “Oh, and who’s going to watch them then? Or do I need to wait until another of my crew is shot, and perhaps killed?” Morgan sneered at him.

  “I will,” Sirius replied, not giving her time to ramble on too long, knowing that was the penalty he had to pay for crossing the line and meddling with her punishment. “I will watch them. At night anyway.”

  Morgan gave but the barest of nods. It was acceptable to her. It let her win something.

  “Send a man to show me to their cabins,” Sirius said as he turned to walk away.

  A moment later a crewman joined them. “Follow me,” he said.

  Amanda went along with them. She spoke not a word and and her silence made Sirius worry. He spared a glance at her face and her furrowed brow but he couldn’t be sure what she was thinking.

  Finally they reached their location.

  “This is it,” remarked the crewman. The door to the shared room was already guarded it seemed by a man resting lazily against the door. He straightened up as they approached. To the guard the crewman said, “Sirius is taking over the watch until morning. You’re relieved of your position.”

  Then both the guard and the crewman left.

  Once they were gone, Sirius turned to Amanda. “She had to,” he told her, readying himself for a long argument defending Morgan’s actions.

  But all she said, with the drop of her eyes and sad expression was, “I know.”

  Sirius studied her, unsure what to say next to make anything better.

  Amanda looked at the door they were to guard. “Doesn’t she realise that us getting less sleep will make the dive tomorrow more dangerous.”

  Sirius frowned. “Us?”

  “Well, I’m not leaving you to guard the door on your own. I know this is supposed to be punishment and I’m the one who saved that guys life in the first place.”

  Sirius frowned. There was that familiar stubborn look on her face, the one that said she wasn’t being talked out of it. But he had to try. “There’s no point in us both being tired.”

  She considered that. “Well, alright, you go get some sleep while I guard and I’ll wake you up in a couple hours for your shift.”

  He narrowed his eyes. He didn’t believe her. “Or you can go get some sleep and I’ll wake you up in a couple hours.” Truth was, he had no intention of waking her up either. He could survive on less sleep if he needed.

  But she wasn’t letting him get away with that either. She shook her head. “I’ll take first shift and if I don’t wake you then you can have the pegasus.”

  “The pegasus is already mine,” Sirius replied but the way she said it, this time he trusted her. He nodded. “Alright.” He fixed her with a look. “You’ll wake me in two hours.”

  Amanda held up a hand like she was swearing. “Promise, or the pegasus is yours.”

  Satisfied, Sirius turned toward the direction of their room. Pausing he glanced back at her. “Amanda?”

  “Mmm?”

  “He never would have made in back to shore in that boat you know. Not from all the way out here. He made his choice. Nothing you could do about that.”

  She nodded and gave a small smile, one that didn’t even remotely reach her eyes.

  Sirius turned and walked toward his room. The sea was an unforgiving place. Far too rough, he thought, for one so kind-hearted, and far too dangerous for one so stubborn.

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