I never did get the hang of the cards. And I thought that would be the end of that, but it wasn’t. A few months after we stopped in the Haven, Muladah had us port in Alassah. And the night before we landed, Nossi pulled me out of the berth and led me to his cabin. “What’s going on?”
“Guess we’ll find out together.”
“You don’t know? He didn’t tell you?” Nossi shrugged and shook his head. I frowned and pulled him into a dark corner just around the side of the door. “I don’t like this.”
“Shakhar -- ”
“He shouldn’t be asking fer me, it makes me nervous.”
Nossi held up his hands. “Shakhar -- ”
“Has he got summat new up his sleeve, is that it? Who’s he…shit, he’s not taking me out is he?” Nossi laughed and reached fer my arm, but I ripped it away from him, panicked and scarcely breathing. “Holy hell, you’re in on it, aren’t you? You lying little two-faced -- ”
“Jarthen, pull yourself together,” he said, taking a firm grasp of my arms and shooting me a curious, worried sort of look. “No one’s taking anyone out unless you’ve heard something I haven’t.”
I stared at him fer a second, not quite willing to believe him. But then the second passed, and the panic and fear passed with it, and I let out a tight, nervous laugh and started towards the captain’s cabin. “Right, course. Right.”
Nossi frowned and darted ahead of me, keeping a close eye on me. “You alright?” I nodded. “What was all that about?”
“Just, you know, it’s a damn pirate ship, that’s all.”
Nossi cocked an eyebrow but didn’t say anything else. He knocked on Muladah’s door and Salir opened it. He wasn’t paying much attention to us, he was staring at a map of the pirate isles, and was away from the door as soon as it swung open. Nossi stepped into the cabin and pulled me through after a second. The nervousness had crept back up and I’d just been standing there on the other side of the threshold. “Get the door,” he whispered. I pulled the door shut behind me and kept myself close to the wall, glancing around at everything but Muladah.
“What’s wrong with him?” Muladah asked.
Nossi shrugged and took a seat across from him. “He blocks, remember? I can’t pick up anything from him you can’t pick up on your own.”
Muladah leaned back in his chair, watching me with a slight sly smile. He waved me over and I told him I was fine right where I was. He smiled a little wider. “Shakhar, come on. Don’t make me yell across the cabin. Take a seat.”
I was tempted to point out that the cabin weren’t all that big and that he seemed to have no problem being heard at the moment, but I kept my mouth shut and took a seat next to Nossi. Salir glanced up, took one look at me, and laughed. He leaned over to the captain and said I didn’t have spine enough to survive in the life. The big smug bastard still thought I didn’t know a word of Felin and was always saying things like that around me. I frowned a bit more and stared at my boots since saying summat back just seemed like more trouble than it was worth.
“Yeah, maybe. Sal, go watch the deck, would you?” Muladah said.
“Sure, Captain. My pleasure,” he said. I felt a good bit better when the door closed behind him and it was just the three of us in there. A far cry from fine, but a good bit better nonetheless. Muladah pulled a box out of a crate and dropped it on the table. It was that same box, I noticed, he kept the tattoo supplies in. “So, we’re putting into Alassah, as I’m sure both of you know.”
“Old news,” Nossi said.
Muladah nodded and opened the box, drawing out a sharp-looking needle. It was a bright silver, no ink stains on it, and thicker than the ones he’d used to mark me. I became distinctly uncomfortable. “Sure, sure. But you know who’s in Alassah, don’t you? If anyone knows it’s you.”
Nossi laughed and shook his head. “Nah. He’s laying awful low, the way I heard it. I can’t say I blame him, considering.”
The needle caught the flickering lamplight and I felt my heartbeat ratchet up. I fidgeted in my seat, wanting desperately to ask Nossi who the hell he was talking about and tell Muladah that I wanted none of what he’d called me there fer, but I just sat there. I was stuck.
Muladah ran the needle over a candle flame and dropped it into a glass of rum. “If I can get him on the ship the two of you can hook him. You know I’m right.”
My head jerked up. “The two of us?”
Muladah smiled at me and nodded. I made a number of sounds that can’t properly be called words and Nossi laid a hand on my shoulder and pushed me back in my chair, leaning across the table as he did it. “Mul, no, he’s not -- ”
“I know what he is.”
“What he is is nothing useful, not for this.”
Muladah glanced up at Nossi, his eyes cool and tricky and clever. “Either he’s useful or he’s got no place in my crew. Shakhar, Nossi doesn’t think you’re worth keeping around.”
Nossi sighed. “That’s not what I meant, you know it isn’t. He’s just a kid and he don’t know anything about anything, you can’t just throw him in with Vella. Vella will tear him to pieces.”
I forgot to breathe. I opened my mouth, but no noise came out and I closed it again. And Muladah just sat there watching, the entire time.
“He seems like a bright fella to me, he’ll pick it up quick.”
I found my voice again. “I’m not.”
Muladah grinned at me. “You are. You knew enough to get bumped to crew, didn’t you?”
I shook my head and looked away, sinking into the side of the chair closest to Nossi, like he could protect me somehow. “No, sir. No, that was just generosity on your part.”
“Well, consider this more proof of my generosity,” he said, reaching across the table and pulling me up by the arm. He dragged me around the table and pushed me into his own seat and before I quite realized what was happening, he’d stabbed that damn needle through my earlobe and was shoving summat else in the bleeding wound along with it. I let out a loud, surprised yell and sat there, frozen and wide-eyed and waiting fer him to stab me again.
Muladah laughed and looked over at Nossi. “Delicate little fella, isn’t he?”
“Well, hell, Mul, you didn’t tell him what you were doing.”
Muladah laughed again and peered down at me. “You’re alright, it’s over.”
“It is?”
“It is,” he said, grabbing my arm and hauling me upright again. “Congratulations.”
“Fer what?” I asked. I reached up to my ear and winced. There was a ring in it that hadn’t been there before and it took some effort on my part not to rip it out and throw it at him.
“For your promotion. You’re one of my mates, now. Like him,” he said, pointing at Nossi.
“What?” Nossi shrugged and shot an annoyed look at Muladah. Muladah laughed a little louder. “Oh, no. Captain, I’m not cut out fer that.”
“Are you saying you know better than me, Shakhar? Are you telling me how to run my own ship?”
“No, no!”
“Good. Sit down.” I sat. My hand drifted up towards my ear again and Nossi swatted it away, saying summat about it getting infected if I didn’t watch it under his breath. I hadn’t seen him that annoyed since the card game with Faliah, but this time, I think, the annoyance was all his. “I made you a mate for a very specific reason. So listen close.”
“I will, Captain.”
“We’re porting in Alassah. And in Alassah, I’m sending Salir out to get a man named Velladiah on board. To negotiate a fleet alliance. But Velladiah, he’s a tricky bastard, and he’s one of those that just oozes magick out of every pore. Which is where you come in. I don’t have a chance in hell of getting a decent deal out of him, I’m a sitting duck for him. But you aren’t.”
My eyes went wide. “You want me to negotiate fer you?”
Muladah grinned. “See, you’re cleverer than you give yourself credit for. Really, you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.”
“But – but I don’t…Captain, with all due respect, shouldn’t you have someone who’s been around awhile longer handle this fer you?”
“That’s why Nossi’ll be there right beside you. He knows protocol. And he knows Vella.”
Nossi crossed his arms and looked away, shaking his head a little. “This is a bad idea.”
“Only if it doesn’t work. If it does work it’s brilliant and you know it.”
“It won’t work.”
“Nossi -- ”
He shook his head again, still staring at some point on the wall just to the side of the captain. “It’s a bad idea.”
“It’s an order, is what it is.”
Nossi kept saying that Velladiah wasn’t in Alassah and that even if he was there was no way that the captain could get him onto the ship. He said that, but he was tense and nervous and snappy and I couldn’t quite bring myself to believe what he was saying since it looked to me like he didn’t quite believe what he was saying himself. So the day I ended up in Muladah’s cabin sitting in Muladah’s seat with Nossi standing just behind me I was disappointed, but not really surprised.
“How are you doing?” Nossi asked, eyeing the door like it was going to leap off its hinges and attack us.
“A’right.”
“Really?”
“No.”
He patted my shoulder. “Just remember what I told you. Make him do the talking. And if I start getting odd on you, pull rank and send me out.”
“I…I really don’t want to have to do that,” said I. I had a sudden vision of me trapped in that tiny cabin alone with some great monstrous fella – all fangs and sharp knives and strong hands.
“It’ll be fine.” But he didn’t sound so convinced of that himself.
There was a knock on the door and I froze. I cast a terrified look over at Nossi. He wrapped his arms around himself, gave another of the frustrated, bitter sounding sighs he’d been letting out since the captain had promoted me, and told whoever it was to come in. Salir opened the door, looking a wee bit nervous himself, and held it open fer someone that, frankly, didn’t strike me as someone worth worrying much about. On the surface, at least. He was about an inch or so taller than me but lanky and skinnier. Rail-thin, and not the sharp, sinewy type of thin but a frailer sort. And nearly as young as me. Actually, he looked quite friendly. He had an expressive face and broke into a wide, familiar sort of smile when Salir led him in, grinning at me like we’d grown up together. And, really, he could have had I not known better. Even with the green elvish eyes, he could have since we’ve got our fair share of half-reds running around. He turned to Salir, ducking in a little, and thanked him fer his help in the patois. Salir mumbled summat under his breath, but Velladiah caught him by the arm before he could slide by, saying summat in a quiet, rich voice that set Salir laughing nervously and grinning sheepishly.
“Vel, don’t,” Nossi said.
Velladiah kept right on looking at Salir, smiling a little wider. “Avo, I’m not -- ”
“Salir, leave us be, would you?”
Salir turned towards us but couldn’t quite pull his eyes away from the gangly brown-haired half-grown boy beside him. “What did you call him?”
Velladiah leaned in conspiratorially. “Didn’t he tell you? His name’s Avomilai. Do you know Droma?”
“Me? No, I – ”
Nossi was across the cabin in three long strides. He took hold of Salir’s arm and shoved him through the cabin door, locking it once he slammed it shut again. “Take a seat,” he said, casting a mean look at Velladiah as he passed. But then, Velladiah grinned and Nossi grinned back and whipped his face away. He shook it once, twice, and then the brightness fell away and he was the same anxious, bad-tempered fella from the moment before.
“Been awhile, Avo.”
“Maybe, but you’re not here for me.”
Velladiah took the seat across from me. He gave me a warm, approving sort of nod, still watching Nossi from the corner of his eye. I think he was, anyway. It’s hard to tell with elf eyes. He started to say summat, but Nossi glared at him, hissing summat in Droma before he got the chance. Velladiah watched him fer a second longer, that inviting smile still stretched across his face. “Well, there are rumors about you, too.”
Nossi smacked me in the shoulder and I cleared my throat. Velladiah looked over. “Muladah, is it? I have to say, I’ve never seen one of yours look like you,” he said in Felin.
“The captain’s out. I’m here in his place. I’m one of his mates.”
Velladiah leaned forward, glancing me over. “Strange, being brought to the cabin to haggle with someone who’s not here.” His Common was good. Flawless. He sounded a wee bit like some of the rebels that grew up around me and mine, like Adahna or Sellior.
“He wanted me to extend an offer of alliance to you,” said I, looking him right in the eye and keeping myself as still and composed as I could, just like Nossi told me to. Still, though, my leg kept twitching and fidgeted, and a slight nervous tapping could be heard coming up from under the desk.
Velladiah pulled a case out of his pocket, plucked out a Felin cigarette, and offered one to me. I declined with a sharp, swift shake of my head. “Now that’s something, isn’t it?” he said, lighting it and sending a pair of smoke rings drifting towards the porthole. “But, you know, ‘tis not good practice to start talks with some lad you’ve never met, is it? I’m Velladiah,” he said, holding out his hand.
I took it out of habit. The moment he started shaking it, I frowned and made a note to myself to watch myself a bit more closely. “I’ve heard.”
“Heard good things or bad?”
“Heard your name was Velladiah, that’s all.”
He laughed and leaned back in his chair. “Good answer. Say, you from Elothnin? You look it, sound it.”
“I am.”
He cocked his head to the side. “From the Fethil, are you?”
“I am.”
Velladiah looked over towards Nossi with a sly smile. He said summat I couldn’t follow about me being Fethilian, but I was fairly certain I knew what he was going on about. I frowned and shook my head. “Mr. Velladiah, if you got summat to say, you got to say it to me. And that sort of thing is off the table.”
He glanced back at me and grinned. “Why, because it’s true?”
“Because it’s not and there’s no place fer empty rumors here. And because…well, that’s all. So speak Common, a’right?” said I. My voice cracked once or twice, and I flushed bright red when it did it, feeling exposed and vulnerable.
“Well, actually, lad…what’s yer name?”
“Shakhar.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Sounds Felin.” I nodded. “Alright, if you say so. Well, Shakhar, thing is that when someone’s nice enough to come onto yer ship, they get to pick the language. Point of procedure, right?”
“Yeah, well, that decision is made for you when the man you’re talking to only speaks one language,” Nossi said quietly, staring pointedly at his boots.
Velladiah glanced over at him, quick as a flash. A predatory, sly grin broke across his face and all at once he was draped over the side of the chair, closing the gap ‘tween the two. Nossi’s mouth twitched, his face flushed. “Sure, sure, unless there’s someone else in on the talk that can translate. Like you.”
“I’m an empath, not a mirror.”
“Just ‘cause you come by the languages honestly don’t mean you can’t translate. I could demand this whole thing happen in Droma and the only way he could get around it would be to throw you out. It’s within my rights.”
I leaned over. “Is that true?”
“It is,” said Velladiah. “But, I’m a reasonable man. And my Common’s held up well enough. So, I formally request talks open in Common.”
The pair of them turned to look at me in unison. There was an awkward handful of seconds before I realized they were waiting fer me to say summat. “Oh. Right. Accepted.”
“Good. Let’s here what you lot brought me out for.”
Nossi poked my shoulder and pointed to a bottle of rum on the floor between us. I slid it across the table, jerking my hand back when Velladiah’s started towards it. “On the behalf of Muladah of the Sinn, I make a formal request fer alliance.”
Velladiah looked the bottle over, frowned slightly, and glanced up. “Is this a joke?”
“What? No! Or maybe it is, but if it is no one’s told me, I swear!” said I.
He slammed the bottle down again and shook his head. “That’s barely a step up from sea water, I’m not opening with that.”
“Then go back where you came from,” Nossi said, still staring at his feet.
Velladiah let out a sharp laugh. “Did you even see what he gave me, Avo?”
“I picked it out, Vel. And from where I’m standing it’s too generous.”
“Then maybe I ought to be standing back on the dock.”
“Maybe you -- ”
This struck me as not at all the way things were supposed to be going and in that moment having to tell the captain how badly I’d managed to muck it up before it even started struck me as a surer avenue to bodily harm than trying to smooth things over. “Whoa there. No need to go anywhere. That’s just…uh…just what we got on hand, didn’t mean nothing by it. Let’s get this show on the road.”
“Boy, don’t sit there and treat me like I’m blind,” he said, pulling himself up.
I waved at him and rooted around in the crate beside me fer the fanciest looking bottle I could find. I handed him a small bottle of fluted purple glass. Velladiah took it and watched me fer a second. “Alright, I’ll stick around a bit longer.”
Nossi leaned across and snatched the bottle out of his hand. “Not with that.”
“What? No! It was offered and accepted!”
“Don’t sit there and act like you didn’t see half of it’s gone already. It’s not a valid offer. Hell, it’s not even good rum.”
Velladiah crossed his arms and frowned. “Still not taking that shit you tried to force on me.”
“I didn’t try anything. You’re negotiating with Shakhar, not me.”
Velladiah stood up and leaned towards him, angling his reedy form across the table. “Yeah, and how strange is that?”
“Keep your distance.”
But he didn’t. He propped his chin up in his hand and tapped Nossi’s arm. “Avomilai, we both know this kid, he’s not the one in charge. Not really.”
Nossi looked away, plucking at his hair and blushing again. “Vel, back off.”
“It’s just that the way it looks to me, Avo, is that you’re the one really calling the shots here. I mean, makes sense given how fresh caught this one is. And I can’t think of -- ”
Nossi took two steps back and Velladiah took three steps forward. Nossi landed against the back wall of the cabin and Velladiah threw his arms up on either side of him. He was trapped. “Vella, I swear I’ll -- ”
“ – anyone better for it than you. Or anyone I’d rather deal with than you. Fond memories, right, Avo?”
“Vel -- ”
In one smooth motion, Velladiah took hold of Nossi’s chin and gently pushed him against the wall. He wasn’t holding him there, there was no force from what I could see, but Nossi was pinned just the same. He swallowed, the blush got brighter. “Hey, I’m just trying to speed things along, you know? Cut out the middleman and all that. What do you say, Avomilai?”
Nossi blinked at him. Then he smiled and darted forward and started speaking Droma in a low, quiet voice, his eyes flicking over towards me now and again. Velladiah angled himself between the two of us and whispered summat back.
“Nossi?”
But he weren’t listening to me anymore. He was just chattering away with Velladiah, handing him some other bottle of rum and a map along with it, like I wasn’t even there. In short, he was starting to seem a touch odd to me.
I tugged at the cuff of his sleeve. “Hey, Nossi.”
Nossi frowned at me and jerked his arm away. He pointed at me and said summat in Droma that set Velladiah laughing.
“Pulling rank, head out,” I said quietly. Nossi cocked an eyebrow at me and started leading Velladiah away. So, not sure what else to do, I took hold of his arm and dragged him towards the door, muttering an apology to Velladiah. A bit of a struggle ensued that ended with Nossi throwing a punch at me and me catching it and twisting his hand until he cried out and shoving him through the door and locking it while he was disoriented. Which meant I’d locked myself in the cabin with Velladiah. Which made my heart skip a couple of beats while I made my way back to the desk.
“No offense, but you probably shouldn’t have done that,” Velladiah said.
I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he was right. But I kept my face as plain as I could and shrugged. “Let’s just get this hammered out, a’right? The captain wants an alliance with you and a spot here on the Sinn until such a time when you get a ship of your own, at which point the alliance will be a fleet with him as runner.” I said this very quickly, repeating what Muladah had told me word fer word.
He smirked, still leaning against the back wall, looking far more comfortable there than I was comfortable with. “Bet you don’t even know what half of that means, do you?”
“I don’t have to understand it, I’m just the messenger. Only one that really has to understand it is you and I’m sure you understand it all just fine. So, sit down, would you?”
“Why, does me standing here make you nervous?”
“Aye.”
He watched me fer a second, the smirk got a little trickier. “I’ll sit down if you tell me yer real name.”
Now, I sort of had him half-made by that point. All the smiling, the touching, purring out folks’ names like that, I’d seen the red elves do that before. I knew he was charming them and I’d picked up enough from those months spent with the Rebels to know that charms work quicker and faster on most when the charmer’s touching you and calling out to you by the name you go by. And I knew that it worked a little better on me if they did that but it was still a far cry from whatever usually happened when they did it. I figured I’d just let him try it, get frustrated like they always did, and move on with the negotiations. “Jarthen, my name is Jarthen,” I said holding out my hand.
He grinned when he took it, and not in that friendly way. He grinned in triumph, like I’d stumbled into a trap. “Nice to meet you proper, Jarthen.”
I grinned back, but mostly felt annoyed. Velladiah’s eyes flicked up to mine, fixed on me like he was waiting fer summat. I grinned a bit wider and felt still more annoyed. I pulled my hand back and pointed to the chair across from me. “Same. Deal’s a deal, take a seat.”
Velladiah stared at me fer a second. “Aw, c’mon, no reason for that, Jarthen.”
“Deal’s a deal,” said I, clearing off a small spot on the desk. Then, remembering it weren’t my spot to clear off, I thought the better of it and put the maps and such back in their place again.
“Jarthen?” I looked up, and again that victorious, vindictive grin broke across his face. In the space of a second, he leaned down and took my face in his hands, so close I could feel his breath landing on my cheek. I yelped and leapt back, but he held on and got jerked back along with me. “Jarthen, lad, let’s be reasonable.”
“Look, those things they say ‘bout us Fethilians? I’m real sorry, but they’re not true. Not true in my case anyway, so, uh, would you mind sitting down over there?” said I, gently trying to push him back again.
But my attempts didn’t do much. He ignored them and leaned in a little closer anyway. I blushed and let out a nervous giggle, embarrassed and flustered and wondering if Nossi had failed to mention that the deals in the life were sealed in ways past just those tattoos. “Sure, sure,” said he, “but that don’t mean we can’t be friends, eh? You scratch my back I’ll scratch yers. Got contacts all over, I could get you anything you want.”
“I – I just want you to sit over there and get this show on the road, honest.”
His smile faltered. “What?” His voice was markedly less friendly now, making me uncomfortable in a whole new way.
I pulled his hands away from me and scrambled out of the chair. “Yeah. So, don’t take this the wrong way if it’s not the case, but you look like you might have some red in you. And if you were charming me – and again, if you weren’t, I’m real sorry fer saying it – but if you were charming me you shouldn’t bother. It just don’t stick with me. So, we’ll have to work this out proper-like, Mr. Velladiah.”
All the warmth dropped away from him. He frowned and shook his head, casting an angry look at me. “Is this Avo’s idea of a joke? Stick me in here with someone too simple to negotiate right?”
“Well, sir, it’s no joke. And I’m not simple, just mundayne.”
He laughed and started towards the door. “Fine line ‘tween the two in my experience.”
“Look, it locks from the inside and I got the key, so -- ” Velladiah whipped around and came flying at me, knocking me to the ground and rifling through my pockets. “Not on me, I don’t have it on me!”
“Well, where the hell did you put it?”
“I put it right where it’s staying ‘til we come to an agreement,” I said, hoping I was sounding a far bit braver than I felt.
Velladiah pulled me upright again and sent me sprawling towards the door. “I don’t deal with cabin boys.”
“All due respect, sir, I’m a mate.”
“In name only.”
“As I understand it, name’s enough.”
He shook his head again, tense all over like a cat about to strike. “You little fresh caught son of a whore, open the damn door!”
I felt myself blanch but stood there anyway. “Are you refusing negotiations?”
“No, I’m respectfully requesting appropriate accommodations to make them in.”
“Well, I think, sir, that this is about as appropriate as you’re going to get today.”
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