Over the next week and a half I watched my newcomers meld with the rest of the crew. Most of them had acquired mentors, and at any given time the camp rang with the clash of metal on metal from the practice ring. Their skills were skyrocketing. Obsidarian even had Cirrun working on his powers, though all he could do was vary the height at which he floated small objects.
Grim and Sparx sparred every day. Everyone showed up to watch the show, as the two fought like their lives depended on it. They varied their weapons and fighting style each day, but they remained evenly matched until one of them tired and took a hit. Narasia was always on hand. The second day of sparring, Sparx had taken an ax to the stomach, and would have died had we not found the healer in time.
On the other hand, Nyx resiliently avoided the ring, and had instead taken to showing off her knife-throwing abilities whenever it struck her fancy. In this way Flint went through four different belts and half a dozen shirts. As captain, I could have told her to leave him alone; but I knew to do so would make his weakness more blatant than it already was. Even with first year pirates on the crew, Flint was… a tag-a-long.
I tried not to dwell on it, but his lack of natural ability reflected back to me. I began to regret ever picking him up as a student. More than once I tried to pass him along to Obsidarian, but my first mate already had Cirrun as a pupil. Instead, I began to rouse Flint before the dawn, retreating from the city into the safety of the forest for our swordplay sessions, where progress was made by painful inches each day. This snail’s pace frustrated the both of us, and eventually we returned to the city. Fully ready or not, I had decided it was time for Flint to attempt a heist on his own.
I walked him through the stake-out. We entered an abandoned building close to our camp and crossed the rooftops through the city until we entered Vinyé’s territory.
The crew appeared stronger than he had last year, festooning a quarter of the city in bright green banners and flags. Vinyé had accepted many new pirates that year, and had tripled the size of his crew, choosing quantity over quality in his men. He had even gone so far as to permit five girls into the crew.
In the heart of the territory, within the winding streets of the unopened armory district, Vinyé resided with the returned core of his crew. We watched his building for three days, noting where the guards usually resided and when it looked like the crew slept. On the fourth day, during the shift change when the sun was beginning to set, we were ready. The building didn’t make for the easiest target, but if Flint succeeded it would prove his merit to the rest of my crew. If not…. they couldn’t look at him much worse.
“Pick anything” I told him. “It doesn’t have to be big, or valuable, you only need proof that it belongs to the crew.”
“I’ve got it Captain,” he said. “I’ll grab something green, a dagger maybe.”
“And rule one?”
“Don’t get caught,” he sighed. “I know. We’ve been over it a hundred times. I can come back and try again, but only if they never know I was there. Otherwise Captain Vinyé will double the guard and I’ll have to try an easier target. Can I go now?”
I nodded, biting the inside of my lip instead of wishing my apprentice luck like an anxious parent. Flint leapt from the rooftop I was laying on to the one Vinyé stayed in, and lowered himself awkwardly onto the second story balcony from the rooftop. I flinched as his feet hit the floor, silently asking the Griffon to guide him through his mission. No sooner was Flint out of sight than Sparx climbed up beside me on the rooftop.
“I hope there was an important reason for your following us.” I said.
“I thought it might look bad if your apprentice was killed while you tried to single handedly fight your way through all of Vinyé’s crew in an attempt to stop his execution. I’m your back up.”
“Vinyé wouldn’t kill Flint.”
“You haven’t been watching him this year. Your three days here showed you nothing.” Sparx said. “The guy isn’t as thick or soft-hearted as you think. You’ve handed him a way to send the rest of the pirates a message of his strength. If he catches Flint it will be the kid’s death, and then a war in the streets…. And between you and I? Neither crew would win.”
“Flint won’t get caught.”
“Sure,” she said, rolling her eyes and looking at me pointedly. “Now say it again, like you actually believe it.”
I said nothing, choosing to stare intently at the shadows of the balcony doorway Flint had vanished through. I should have scouted before I let him go, then I could have known how long it would probably take for my apprentice to find a prize and get out of the building.
“You know he can’t come,” Sparx said softly. “When we go to join the worlds… he’ll distract you, and we won’t have the numbers to assign a babysitter.”
“He’ll be ready.”
“Not if he can’t do something this simple without issues.”
“And if he can?”
One of Vinyé’s crew members chose this moment to come out onto the upper balcony. It was obvious even from our perch across the street that he was meant to be intimidating. The pirate’s scowl was theatrical, with his brows furrowed to the point where they touched. The green cloth belt that marked him as Vinyé’s was a little too tight, and strung with six different weapons. One was a mace and chain. Then of course, there was his stance. I’d also never seen a guy with a resting stance that involved pressing his fists together to the point where his muscles bulged. He scanned the street, going so far as to lean over the railing to check the edge of the roof overhead. Eventually his gaze settled on our rooftop. He couldn’t see us, lying flat against the far side of the tiles as we were. Nonetheless, he knew.
“The captain wants to speak with you!” the pirate announced. “He suggests that you reveal yourself, unless you want to witness the public execution of your pet tomorrow.”
“Told you so,” Sparx muttered.
I stood, nudging Sparx with my foot so she joined me a moment later. I chose to say nothing, but leapt across the gap toward the balcony. Unlike Flint, I chose not to land on the roof, but instead grabbed its edge to swing directly into the balcony. I landed less than a foot from Vinyé’s lackey, meeting his false scowl with a real one of my own. He glanced away first, and chose to watch Sparx’ landing before turning to lead us through the camp.
The base was dark, with flipped tables and heavy sailcloth blocking the windows. I wrestled the urge to summon a light to my hand, focusing instead on maintaining my cool despite the soft string of suggestions coming from Sparx behind me.
“You could surprise everyone,” she whispered. “You could kill Flint yourself. It’d take care of two problems at once. No one would doubt your cold heart then. Or you could kill Vinyé, but that would cause too much bloodshed in the aftermath. We could escape. I don’t doubt setting the building afire would be distraction enough, but then you’d be a coward and you can’t afford that.”
“You can keep your tongue in your head unless you have something helpful to say.” I hissed. “We’ll see what he wants.”
Vinyé’s pirate led us through a maze of useless barricades before bringing lifting a sheet of wood from the floor, letting light into the room from the stairs below. He then stood to the side to let Sparx and I pass. I took a deep breath and led the way.
I had prepared myself for a spectacle, a clever situation designed to boost crew morale at my expense. The room was perfect. I was blinded temporarily by the brightness, and had been forced to use the rail on the way down the stairs. As vision returned to normal, I had to admit; I was impressed. A long, dark wooden table dominated the room, with matching seats running down the sides of the table in a million dollar corporation kind of way. Weapons and trophies adorned the walls, with scrawled tags identifying where each piece had been taken from.
Vinyé sat at the head of the table with the sort of stillness that suggested he had spent an hour picking the perfect position. He had acquired a wide-brimmed captain’s hat, and the front of it was pulled low over his face, casting all but his smirk into the shadows. Behind him stood one of his crew members, holding a knife to Flint’s throat. But there was no one else. Besides the guard, we were alone with the captain.
Vinyé waited for a minute after our arrival before speaking. He was trying to make us squirm, but I would not oblige by breaking the silence. This was his show.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he finally said.
“I’m here,” I answered. “Though you could have showed up to my camp, there was no need to grab my apprentice.”
Vinyé laughed and shook his head, finally looking up so I could see his face in the torchlight.
“I’m not Tempest Storm. I won’t be sent away in shame, and I won’t take no as an answer to my proposition. But I am not without my mercy. I could have made a scene you know.”
“And what is it that you want?”
Vinyé smiled and leaned forward, placing his elbows on the tables and pressing his fingertips together. Another pirate stepped into the room from a doorway beside the captain. He was tall but willowy, with dirty blonde hair that fell just past his shoulders. He turned to look at me, and when I saw the almost unnatural blue of his eyes, I knew him. He had drugged me at my first Conclave, and I had later robbed him of his stash of mint.
“This is Tithe,” Vinyé said, unaware that I had met the man before. “He is going with you and yours when you go to break down the walls between the worlds. I believe he will be of use.”
“I’d rather go with my own crew.”
“Your preference isn’t a factor. When the walls fall, the worlds will be ripe for plunder. We could take them off guard, and I won’t have your crew getting the treasures of the four worlds before anyone else leaves port. I want a cut, and Tithe is my way of ensuring that.”
“He’ll slow us down.” I countered. “And I doubt the walls will fall silently. This is unnecessary. He’s not coming.”
Vinyé sighed and shrugged. “I told you, ‘no’ isn’t an option for you here. Tithe will be coming with you one way or another. Now, you can agree to this now, and I’ll let your boy go. Or you can fight me, and I’ll execute the kid in front of your camp tomorrow. We both know that if the kid dies there will be mutiny in your crew. You would be seen as weak, a captain unable to defend her own apprentice from a lesser captain. As king, you can’t afford this sort of screw up. The tag-a-long apprentice is bad enough for your image, but your pretty world will shatter unless you agree to this. It’s your only option. I’ve thought it all out.”
Sparx’ idea to kill Flint myself suddenly didn’t seem like such a bad idea. But Vinyé was right. If he died I would look weak, and I couldn’t afford that. I had to come home with the kid.
“How do I know your pirate won’t try to kill me?” I asked.
“Because no one wants you dead… not until you do your job and break down the walls. I only want to speed the process along. That’s why I’m giving you Tithe.”
“And that’s supposed to mean…?”
“Tithe,” Vinyé called. “Close your eyes.”
The man obeyed, and then began to spin, around and around until I began to get dizzy watching him.
“Stop,”
Tithe stopped and shook his head to clear it, eyes still closed. “North by northeast, 322°.”
Vinyé pulled a compass from his pocket and slid it across the table to Sparx and I. Sparx picked it up and walked to stand beside Tithe, facing the same direction he was before reading off the compass.
“He’s on the mark,” she confirmed.
“Again,” Vinyé commanded.
Tithe began to spin around again, and after a minute he stopped, facing a new direction.
“West by southwest, 247°.”
I looked to Sparx, and after a moment she nodded to me.
“He can do coordinates too,” Vinyé added. “We don’t know what they mean, because it’s not like we’re going by traditional longitude and latitude here, but he can find his way back to a place he’s been from anywhere. He can’t get lost, and you’ll need that at some point.”
I paused. I hated to concede to Vinyé, but the guy had a point. And I wouldn’t lose face because the only people that would know how this all occurred would be Sparx and Flint, and they wouldn’t talk. I didn’t like Tithe, but his power could be useful. I could have been stuck with a much worse pirate as part of my company.
“I’ll take him.” I said. “We’ll leave the day after the Conclave; early. Your man should be at the gate by then. If not, I will leave him.”
“Pleasure doing business with you Captain Flame,” Vinyé said.
He clicked his fingers, and Flint was released. I turned and stalked from the room, Sparx on my heels. Flint was left to scamper after us.
Flint began protesting as soon as the door closed behind us.
“They were waiting for me as soon as I entered Captain. There was nothing I could do! I didn’t do anything wrong I swear!”
“Right,” Sparx scoffed, cutting my apprentice off before he could grovel further. “I heard your poor excuse for a stealthy landing from three buildings away. And you know what real pirates do when they walk into a trap? They fight. You could have made a fuss at the very least. The sound of steel on steel would have sent us running to your rescue. But you couldn’t even do that. You embarrassed your captain in there. If she killed you herself she’d be in her right. It would make her life easier too. You know that. You’re probably one of the worst pirates out here, and you’ve saddled the queen of thieves with your inability. And then you don’t even apologize for your failure, blaming the ambush instead of admitting your fault… do you really think you’re worthy of going with her across the worlds? The North would eat you alive. Then again, you may fit in up there. Think that’s your real home tag-a-long? Or maybe it’s the East, where your lousy fighting skills would be excused.”
I held up my hand, and Sparx cut her rant short.
“I had high hopes,” I said coldly. “You made it through the end of last year, so I believed you could make more progress this year. I was wrong. But if you leave my crew someone like Vinyé will take you and kill you, and I’d rather not have to deal with that.”
“Captain… I’m sorry,” Flint said.
“Unless ‘sorry’ increases your abilities tenfold it does no good to me. Sparx has a point. When I leave, you will remain here. You will guard your step-sister, and you will be glad of the task, for it explains why you remain among the elite. In time, I may train you again, but not until you make up for the weakness you forced me to show back there.”
“As you wish,” he said softly. “I’ll do whatever you say Captain.”
“You’ll begin by standing guard,” I said.