The Long Road Back: A Jarthen-centric Interquel (pt. 11)

Velladiah did end up joining with us. He came out of the cabin bad-tempered and surly but he came out allied with the Sinn. And it took him no more than a week of getting stuck close to me and getting nowhere with anyone on board before he got his fill of it and found himself his own ship and the alliance turned into the start of the Tarnib fleet. I doubt you’ve heard of that one. The only ones anyone knows outside of the life are the grand old ones. But the ones in the life sure as hell know about the Tarnib. And I’m a big reason why.

I spent a year straight being Muladah’s front line. By two months into his campaign to brand every heartless half-elf delinquent in the pirate isles with his name, he’d bumped me up to first mate. Salir weren’t that pleased to be demoted but he never got much of a chance to do anything about it since I was always either with the captain or doing the captain’s job fer him. Every couple of weeks some new upstart was getting dragged on board and locked in the cabin with me and Nossi. And by the end, they were begging fer spots in our fleet. I mean, I had to watch them like a hawk since they’re not above begging in one breath and fleecing you in the next, but still. A year out and folks in the Haven knew who I was and I started feeling like I’d never get out of the life again.

Then came the day that Velladiah ran the red flag up his mast. That itself weren’t all that unusual, a red flag just means the other captain wants to meet but not that they’re in danger or anything. So, we let them pull up alongside us, threw the lines to draw them over and a plank from his deck to ours, and Velladiah came on board. He glanced around fer anyone but me, but everyone else had tucked themselves out of sight. “Jarthen, a pleasure as always.”

“Same. Everything a’right?”

He nodded, still scoping out the deck. “Sure, sure. Like to speak with yer captain if he’s got a minute, though. Got a proposal for him.”

I headed down below deck, gesturing fer him to follow me. “What sort of proposal?” I asked, knocking on the captain’s door.

“Didn’t say it was a proposal for you, did I?”

“No, but we both know I’m going to hear it.”

“Then you’ll hear it when you hear it.”

Muladah called us in, and I took my place behind him and Velladiah sat down across from him. “Everything alright, Vella?”

Velladiah smiled and Muladah smiled back and quickly looked away again. “You start with that and I’ll let Shakhar take over.”

“Oh, I’m not starting with anything. Just genuinely happy to see you, that’s all. Been too long.”
“So this is just a friendly chat between captains, is it? No formal requests or anything?”

Velladiah shrugged and smiled a little wider, watching Muladah stare at the top of the desk instead of looking anywhere near him. “Well, maybe just the one request.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“I’ve got lots of contacts, you know that.” Muladah nodded. “Yeah, and some of those contacts, some of the better ones, they’re out there in the archipelago.”

The captain shook his head. “No, Vella, no reason to go where we’re not wanted. Not when we’ve got such a lock hold on things here.”

Velladiah leaned forward and Muladah leaned back and away. “C’mon, let me break off alone. Just for a year, tops. I can get us into the black market all the way up through the City of Mages.”

“Wait,” said I when I caught Muladah glancing over at him, “way I heard it the only friends you really got anymore are us.”

His eyebrows shot up. “I’d call you a great many things, Shakhar, but I’m not sure friend is one of them.”

“Hell, you know what I mean. Way I heard it we were the only crew that would touch you with a ten foot pole.”

Velladiah frowned at me and turned back to Muladah. “Look, I’ll go under a different name if that’s what you’re worried about. Though I’ve always been on better terms with the T’Langans than anyone else, ask around.”

“T’Langans?” I asked. For the first time in months a bright flare of hope flashed in me.
“Yeah, T’Langans. Which is just another reason not to send him that way. No, Vella, stick with the fleet.”

“Whoa, let’s not be hasty,” said I. “We’ll have to go west sometime, right? Why not now? Why not let him hook us up with his contacts and what have you?”

“We don’t have to go west at all,” he said. “Show him back to his ship.”

Velladiah frowned. He sat there glaring at Muladah fer a second or so, looking like this would be the time his temper got the better of him and he lashed out, but when Muladah glanced back up again and waved at him, he forced all that bitterness back down again. He smiled and nodded and pulled himself up. And I just knew that if he walked out of the cabin, my chance to escape was walking out with him. I leaned forward and caught him by the arm. “Look – wait! – look, Captain, if you’re worried about him going rogue there’s provisions fer that, right? A man of yours on his ship, right?”

“Yes, but -- ”

“Then why not let him go and stick a man or two on his ship?”

Velladiah shot me a skeptical look and ripped his arm out of my grip, but sat back down again. “It would be an honor to sail with a mate of yours, Captain.”

“I know it would be. Too bad that honor don’t go both ways, huh? Shakhar, come with me a minute,” Muladah said, pushing me roughly towards the door.

I scrambled out the door, terrified and giddy at the same time. “Captain -- ”

Muladah took my chin in his hands and jerked it one way, then another, looking me over. “What, you worn down or something?” he said, quiet and low, half to himself.

I fought the urge to jerk back again. I’d learned pretty quick not to make any sudden moves around the pirates. “I’m not charmed.”

“Sounds like you are,” he said, pushing me away, still watching me too close fer comfort.
“I’m not. I just think it’s an idea worth listening to, that’s all. I don’t see what the harm in it is,” I said, careful as I could.

“Oh, really? An idea worth listening to? And since when are you the authority on that? You don’t know anything about anything.”

“All due respect, sir, but by now I’m sure I know summat about summat. I’m not saying that I know anything close to what you do, but I think we both know I’ve been around the block a couple of times by now. Look, I know you don’t want to go west. But I also know you’ve been turning folks down more often than you’ve been taking them into the fleet of late. Why not let Vella go after whatever he’s going after, stick one of ours on board to keep an eye on him, and let in someone a bit less of a hassle to keep in these waters here?”

Muladah watched me fer a moment, sizing me up and wearing summat between a scowl and a smirk. Then, without a word, he was back inside the cabin and I was stumbling after him, the hopeful pounding of my heart making it hard to listen to the conversation that followed. “Well, Vella,” he said, sitting back down again. “I might be persuaded if you take one of my choosing.”

“Deal, that’s fine by me. You know, Avo’s got -- ”

“Nossi stays with me. I need him and he’s putty in your hands, we all know it.”

Velladiah tapped the arm of the chair, his eyes flicking from me to Muladah and back again. “Thing is, all your mates are putty in my hands except that one next to you.”

“Captain, he’s right. He’s tricky as hell. I don’t mind going with him. To keep an eye on him. Since it’ll only be a year or so,” I said in a low, even voice, trying very hard to sound nonchalant about it.

Muladah turned to me. “You really want to go west, Shakhar?”

“Really want to? I wouldn’t say that, no. No, I told you straight I don’t get on well with T’Langans. But looks to me like we don’t really got much of a choice,” said I.

“So you don’t want to? I wouldn’t want to push you into something you didn’t want to do. I wouldn’t want to give someone as valuable as you any reason to start looking at other crews.”

I fought the urge to point out that he’d pushed me into doing any number of things I didn’t want to do and just barely managed to keep it to myself. I was getting more agitated by the second – it was so close I could taste it. “No, Captain, I don’t particularly want to and I don’t particularly don’t want to, either. Got no strong feelings, myself, it just struck me as a good idea.”

He nodded and cast a quick glance at Velladiah, who was steadily watching me. “No strong feelings at all?”

“No, sir.”

“Nossi says you and him don’t mix well. And from what I can tell there’s no love lost between the two of you. In my experience – and mind you, Shakhar, experience is all I’ve got to go on, I don’t have your brain – but in my experience sticking two fellas that can’t stand each other together in close quarters with orders to keep an eye on each other usually ends pretty quickly with one of them unable to keep an eye on anything. And as smart as you may be we both know you’re not much of a fighter. Strikes me that you ought to have strong feelings against it.”

I felt myself flush. I looked away. “You’re right, Captain. But, still, no one else fer it but me.”

“Then maybe he shouldn’t sail west.”

Velladiah banged the top of the desk and pointed at him. “You can’t – no, we had a deal! Shakhar, you heard him, didn’t you?”

“Aye.”

“No, we didn’t. You called it a deal, you jumped the gun.”

“You sneaky bastard!”

Muladah laughed and settled back in his chair. “Leave if you want. See how far you get alone before one of mine notices you don’t have an escort on my ship and cuts you down. You really think you can make it all the way to the plank?”

Velladiah crossed his arms and slunk down in his chair. “If we’re making a deal we ought to just get on with it and damn all the dancing around.”

“Yes, you’re right about that. Well, here’s how it’s going to play out: you stick with me and mine until such time as we find ourselves another like Shakhar who can keep tabs on you proper.”
“And if I find someone like that,” I asked quickly, “you’ll send me off with him?”

Muladah grinned at me and shook his head. “If we find someone like that I’ll send him off with Vella. You stay with me. Take him back to his ship.”

That’s the moment I panicked. I panicked and got sloppy and more or less dug my own grave. All the waiting, all the tension and fear, it just got the better of me. I had to get back – as much fer myself as fer all that Na-Fra laid on me right as he was dying. I went quiet after that, kept to myself and wouldn’t say two words to anyone, always keeping one eye on the rest and one eye searching fer a way out. I bided my time until we ported a couple of months later and then I made one last play fer my freedom. I ducked off the ship as soon as it was tied to the dock, I was off it so fast that I drifted off into the crowds mulling around it before Nossi had a chance to catch up to me. I tucked myself as far down into my jacket as I could, hunching a bit so I didn’t stick out quite so much. It was a small, cramped, foggy little place, not terribly well known and likely one of the worst spots I could have picked to try what I tried there since we had a strong hold on it. But, like I said, I was panicked and not thinking straight.

I made a beeline for the agents’ street. I’d been in that port before, so I knew where I was going, it’s just east of the docks, tucked on the edge of a rocky cliff side facing the sea. It was a sheer drop and stories went that more than one drunk pirate stumbled off it and disappeared and at least as many who’d been deemed troublesome had been pushed over. I remembered those stories as I walked past the windows bearing Felin or Semadran or Droma signs, knowing that if things didn’t go the way I was hoping they would that I might be deemed troublesome myself and find a similar end, but the risk seemed worth taking. I ducked into the first T’Langan place I saw. It was a small, cramped little office with a dark human woman sitting in a worn-looking chair with her feet propped up on an equally worn-looking desk. She was playing some sort of card game with herself, idly flipping the cards over and shuffling them again in some pattern I couldn’t make sense of while keeping an eye on a pair of children playing in the middle of the floor in front of her. She glanced up when I came in, frowned, and shooed the children into the back room. Then she told me to drop my weapons at the door. I told her I didn’t have any on me. Or I tried to, but I ended up mangling the patois and it took a couple of tries. It’s the same with Felin, too, I can understand a few languages, but the only one I can really speak is Common.
She frowned a little more and tried speaking Felin, but when she didn’t get any farther and I couldn’t get anywhere in Common with her I sucked it up and went with the patois. “Do you have any ships in port?”

“Why?”

“Because I need to get to the archipelago.” I heard chatter outside growing louder and the sound of approaching footsteps and darted past the window, glancing out to make sure it wasn’t anyone from the Sinn. “Please, I got to get on any ship heading out that way. I’ll do anything. Any position, even cargo.”

“Cargo?” she asked. I nodded. “Are you on the run?”

“I’m trying to be.”

“Running from what?”

I’d been hoping she wouldn’t ask that. I decided to dodge it. “Just escort me. Just get me a meeting. Come on, you and yours can’t be getting a lot of bites way out here, can you? And I’ll make it a deal worth taking and then you’ll get all the credit.”

She crossed her arms and watched me for a second. “We don’t need to get that many bites way out here when we get so many back home.”

“I will pay you to get me on a ship.”

“How much?”

I pulled out everything I had and held it out to her. Like I said, by that point the Tarnib fleet was doing well enough that Muladah was on the market fer a tether. So I, as a mate, was raking in a decent amount. And as far as I could tell, there wasn’t anything more useful to spend it on than a bribe. Her eyes went wide and she locked the door and drew the curtain. She had me drop it all on the desk and she started sorting through it, pulling out the T’Langan coins and the things that can be traded anywhere – jewelry, drugs, that sort of thing. The Felin marks she left. I took this as a good sign. “Show me your marks.”

“Rather not.”

She frowned and took the Felin marks after all, payment fer letting me keep my name and history to myself. “Alright, stranger. Follow me.” She yelled summat back to those children in what I presume was T’Langan and ushered me out of the office, locking it behind her. She led me to the docks, where the Sinn was looming down on me making my heart beat a mile a minute, to a T’Langan ship. And it struck me that she must’ve been right about not needing to pick up folks in the isles because that ship, it was a beauty. One of those big, broad galleys they got, with three masts, each taller than the last. I’m telling you, compared to the Sinn – a narrow, light clippers the tarks are so fond of, built fer outrunning enemies rather than fighting them – that thing looked like a joy to sail on. She brought me on board, waved over some brawny fella so dark that it was hard to tell the marks from his skin, who led me below deck to the captain’s quarters.
The captain was pouring over a map spread out across a table, leaning over it and making notes to himself, when we came in. His sleeves were rolled up to the elbow and his arms were coated in names down to the wrist. I remember staring at those arms fer what felt like the longest time – they were lean and strong and leathery, his hands had long spidery fingers, and half the tattooed names had these deep, vicious looking scars raked across them. He and his mate exchanged a few words and then the captain glanced up at me. “Where are you from?”

“Elothnin, sir.”

“Where?”

“The, uh, the land below the Felin empire,” said I.

He nodded and glanced at his mate. “You’re human?”

“Yes.”

“All human?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s something. Better the wrong kind of human than anything else. So you’re defecting, are you?”

“I am.”

“From what ship? What fleet?”

“I’d rather not say.”

His eyebrows shot up. He exchanged a few more words with his mate, the pair of them laughed, and then he asked me again who I belonged to.

I took a quick breath to steady myself and forced myself to look him in the eye. “I belong to myself.”

“Yourself and who else? We don’t get many like you way out here, I doubt you came all this way to get your start in the life. Someone carried you to the isles.”

“I belong to myself,” I said again.

He made a sort of soft grunt, not quite a laugh, and nodded at the mate. The mate wrapped one hand around my throat and slammed me up against the wall, and with the other he pulled my shirt loose enough to get a look at my chest. He let out a low whistle when he saw the Tarnib symbol there. The captain said summat else and then he had hold of my hair and jerked my head to the side, and I heard him say summat about the Sinn. And when he did, things got real tense.
The captain barked out in T’Langan and I got slammed to the floor and that big bastard had my hands tied behind my back in less than a minute. I didn’t struggle. The captain yelled out another order and I felt hands patting me down, searching through my pockets. “I got nothing on me, no weapons, no money, nothing,” I said. “I swear it on the Sinn, I’ve got nothing.”

“You’ll swear on the ship you’re deserting?” the mate said.

“Unless he lets me onto yours I got no other ship to swear on,” said I.

A heavy, sharp sort of silence settled on the cabin. The captain had me pulled up and deposited in a chair. “Are you Shakhar? Are you Muladah’s man?”

“My name is Jarthen.”

“He’s got to be Shakhar, Captain. He’s a mate, look at his ear.”

“Look, what does it matter who I am? I’m trying to get out! I don’t know what he did to you but I had no part in it. Just take me on your ship. Please, however you want. Crew, cargo, hell I’ll even tether to you if it’ll get me headed west. Please.”

“Why do you want to go west? There’s nothing out there for you. Did he send you here? Did he not learn his lesson?” the captain asked.

“He don’t know I’m here, I swear on my ship.”

The captain’s eyebrows flicked up. “Why T’Lango?”

“I got friends heading that way. Rebel elves, they’re going that way.”

“Who?”

“The rebels. The red elves.” He blinked at me. Apparently news of the Border Wars wasn’t really news worth hearing out that far. I tried a different tack. “Look, does the name Na-Fra ring any bells?”

“I don’t know every black-skinned pirate on the seas, boy.”

“He wasn’t a pirate. Well, he was but not fer long. He was a seer, he led a host of T’Langans to fight with the elves in the forest. Did you hear about that? He told me to get back to them, said he’d had visions about me. I --I think his brother’s still a pirate.”

“Which pirate?”

I frowned and shook my head. “Don’t know.”

“Visions?”

“Aye.”

The captain glanced over at his mate and laughed. “That’s quite a story, boy. No wonder Muladah lets you do all the talking. Next time, though, you might want to check your facts. Mundayne seers don’t have visions. Their prophecies are blind.” He laughed again and gave an order to his mate. An hour or so later, his mate came back, with Muladah in tow. He didn’t look at me when he came in, not once. He handed over a fat sack of coins, pointedly looked away while they untied me, and made small talk with the mate as he walked us back to the docks. As soon as we were off the ship, Muladah’s fist slammed into the side of my face. I yelped and fell heavily to the water-logged planks and he hit me again. And then once, maybe twice more before everything went black.

When I woke up again, I was in his cabin. He was sitting in a chair, watching me, drinking rum straight out of the bottle. I winced and gingerly tapped my swollen cheek. “Rofi’ll patch you up. Sorry for that, I just couldn’t run the risk of you running off again before we got back here. Just a matter of practicality.”

“Captain, I -- ”

“So what’s this about red elves and needing to get to T’Lango?” he asked. I swallowed and went quiet. It didn’t seem like talking to him was going to do much good. “Lo-Felai said you started going on about a seer and Ravel told me when we picked you up in Opleneer that you’d gotten duped by a pair of addicts who promised to send you west. But he said you were an Imperial deserter.”

“I am.”

“Is that all?”

I shrugged and pulled my knees to my chest. I felt empty, hollowed out. I felt like a failure, and I remember thinking that fate herself was as much a failure as I was given my situation, and that the pair of us had let Na-Fra down.

“Shakhar.” I didn’t move. Muladah sighed, I heard his chair being dragged a little closer. I was certain he was going to beat me bloody and I decided to just let him. “Jarthen, I’m a reasonable man. I owe you a lot. And I thought you and I were on good terms, the way things have gone. Imagine my surprise when I find out you’re out there throwing yourself at the mercy of someone as heartless as Felai. But I can’t sail west. I’ll get skinned alive if I do.”

I nodded and leaned against the wall. I was only half-hearing him. I was distracted and he sounded far away and insignificant.

“Look, I’m going to have to make you take lashes for that. I’m sorry about it, I am, but rules are rules and they all know I already favor you. But I’ll have Nossi do it, he’ll go a lot easier on you than Salir would.”

“Much obliged.”

“Of course. Now, if you’re really that set on heading west I think I have a way to get you there that won’t leave me in a lurch.”

My head whipped over. “What?”

He nodded. “If we find another like you I’ll send you off with some fellas traveling westbound myself. I’ll make the arrangements for you.”

“What’s the catch?”

“The catch is that we have to find another like you,” he said, leading me up to the deck, where Nossi was already waiting with lash in hand.