CHAPTER SIX
A DIRTY JOB
SHAE STRODE ABOARD TALION barking orders even before Hawk could open her mouth to welcome him back. “Riflemen aloft with eyes on the wharves, Hawk.”
She shouted for Grogspar to send sea dogs aloft and turned to Shae. “Trouble?”
“Ghostmaker’s here.” He surveyed his ship as a dozen sea dogs with rifles clambered up the ratlines to the crow’s nests. “We need to get underway, but I need to talk to Doc first.”
“Son-of-a—If she’s here, the League can’t be far behind.” Hawk barked more orders for Walls and Scoriani to ready the ship for action and for Grogspar to prepare to cast off lines. Then she turned back and looked Shae up and down. “Doc’s not back yet. Are you shot?”
“No, I wasn’t shot.” Hawk knew him too well, including his habit of hiding injuries from his crew, especially the ship’s surgeon. “She wasn’t gunning for me. Or at least I don’t think she was, which is damned strange.”
“Who was she gunning for, then?”
“She murdered the man I spoke to about Seacutter.” Shae scanned the docks and piers, searching to no avail for Ghostmaker’s distinctive shock of white hair. “I need to talk to Doc about provisions. We’re sailing south.”
“How far south?” Hawk asked.
“The Southern Ocean.”
“During storm season?” Hawk arched an eyebrow.
“No choice. We don’t do the job, we don’t get paid.” Shae hesitated before deciding to bring Hawk in on his other concern. She had a mind a sharp as her cutlasses, after all. “I’m trying to figure out why Ghostmaker would murder the man I spoke with after I’d already gotten the information from him. I could understand her killing him before I could talk to him, if the League didn’t want me learning about Seacutter, but not after.”
“Or just killing you beforehand, then getting the information from this fellow herself.”
“Exactly.” Shae chewed his lip and paced the quarterdeck. “Maybe she got there after I left, but if so, she missed me by only a minute. The League has got to be just as interested in Seacutter’s cargo as Elan is. Why kill the only man who knows anything about it?”
“To keep anyone else from learning where the wreck is, maybe?”
Shae thought about the woman who had been speaking to Grayfenn when the old captain had been killed. At the time, she’d seemed a little odd but hardly what he’d expect from a treasure hunter. “Maybe, but if the League doesn’t already know where Seacutter is, why kill Grayfenn, and if they do, why not go get the treasure themselves?”
“Well, if this codger wouldn’t talk to Elan’s people, maybe he told the Mercarians to shove off as well.”
“Could be.” Shae considered Grayfenn and tried to imagine him responding to the intimidating tactics the Mercarian League would probably employ. He very well might have told them to shove off. “He really was a hard case, but murdering him seems drastic.”
“And why not kill you, too?” Hawk gave him one of her scowls. “Maybe it would have been wise to take along a detail of sea dogs to watch your back.”
“Probably, but I was right about this fellow. He would have balked like a bad-tempered mule at a show of force. I almost didn’t get what I needed from him as it was.”
“But you did, right? You know where the Seacutter is.”
“Not exactly, but I know where to find someone who does.” He grimaced, remembering his promise to the dead man that he would double-cross these pirates after he found the Seacutter. He decided to keep that bit of information close to the vest for now. “But we’ll burn that bridge as we cross it. Right now, we have to lay in enough fresh provisions to stay healthy to the Southern Ocean and back.”
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem, sir.” Hawk pointed to the pier. “Doc’s back.”
Shae looked where she pointed and gaped at the train of heavily laden wagons rumbling down the rickety pier. “Morrow’s eye teeth, he’s bought enough to put our waterline down a foot.”
“We’ll probably run aground on our way downriver.” Hawk bellowed for Walls to assign sea dogs to bring all the provisions aboard. “We’ll stow it later. We’re on a falling tide and wasting daylight.”
“Aye, Hawk.” Walls barked orders.
As the sea dogs hopped to, Rockbottom’s gravelly bellow rang out an octave higher than normal as he ranted and raved about the expense, but both Walls and Doc ignored the dwarf’s curses.
“How do you suppose Doc knew we’d need three months’ supplies?” Shae wondered aloud.
“No idea. Knowing Doc, he got a deal on some swamp meat he couldn’t pass up.” Hawk made a face.
“I hope he bought something besides gator and cabbage,” Shae said, eyeing the barrels and bags as they came aboard. “If the League is planning on following us to Seacutter, they’re going to be able to track us down by the smell alone.”
“I’m beginning to think this job stinks just as bad, sir.” Hawk wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “We’re sent to find a Mercarian League ship, and Ghostmaker turns up out of nowhere? Feels like we’re being set up.”
“It could be coincidence, but I get that feeling, too.” Shae scanned the pier again for any sign of Ghostmaker but saw nothing. “I guess we’ll just have to watch our backs.”
“Good idea, sir.” Hawk sneered at him. “Promise me you’ll practice what you’re preaching from now on.”
“I always watch my back, Hawk.” He grinned at her. “I’m not making any promises, but I’ll do my best not to get shot again.”
“Good.” She flicked a nail against the stack of his warcaster armor with a resounding clang. “The last time Ghostmaker shot you in the back, it cost a hundred crowns for a new boiler.”
* * *
GHOSTMAKER CLIMBED THE BOARDING LADDER to Raucous’ deck and met Captain Hully’s questioning, “Well?” with a scowl.
“Shae met with the man, but before I could get down there, someone else came along to talk to him.” She strode past the captain, forcing down the dull aches in her shoulder and knee, the former from Shae’s shot, the latter from being blasted into the air by his magic. She’d managed to protect Baby from the fall, at least.
“Who?”
“A woman. Young. With dark hair. Her coat didn’t match her clothes, so I figured she was some kind of spy.” She glanced back at the captain. “Someone else knows about Seacutter or at least that this old man knew about it.”
“Knew?” Hully caught her past-tense reference.
“I killed him. I don’t think she had time to get anything from him. I tried for the woman, too, but missed. That bastard Shae showed up and damn-near blasted me right off my roof.”
“He spotted you?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t kill him, too, did you?” There was acid in the captain’s tone, but he knew how she felt about Shae.
“No, and I had the chance. I had to make it look convincing, so I put a round past his shoulder.” That had been harder than she wanted to admit. She’d never had such a clear shot at Shae, and it had taken all her fortitude to intentionally miss. In retrospect, she regretted not putting a bullet through his knee just for payback. “He’ll think I’m hunting him, so we’ll have to be careful following Talion. They should be coming downriver soon. When I hopped a down-bound barge, they were just starting to take on cargo.”
“Cargo?” Hully’s eyebrows rose. “Why would Shae take on cargo?”
“I have no idea. I’m not a sailor, I’m a sharpshooter.” She headed for her cabin but called back to him. “I’ll go up the mast to watch for them in a minute.” The captain knew that Baby’s scope far out-classed the lookout’s best spyglass.
“Good.” Hully started barking orders to his crew as she stepped into Raucous’ lofty sterncastle.
Ghostmaker heard the ship’s three big paddle wheels start to turn as she entered her cabin and sat down on the narrow bunk. Her gunsmithing kit was already laid out, so she ran an oilcloth over Baby and cleaned her breech and bore. She checked the arcantrik scope for damage and found a thin scratch, but it had shot true when she missed Shae. She settled for cleaning the lenses and finished up by reloading her bandolier. The dent in her shoulder armor would need pounding out, but she’d get Hully’s engineer to do that. She wasn’t an armorer.
She took off the heavy breast and shoulder plates and set them aside before taking off her shirt. Her shoulder ached, but there was no blood on the shirt itself. Her cabin had a tiny mirror over the washbasin, so she looked over her wound. The point of impact was already turning dark, but the thick scar tissue of her back wasn’t split. It would bruise, but she could move her shoulder with only minimal pain, so she doubted anything was broken. Six inches higher and to the left, the bullet would have taken her head off. She wrapped a long strip of cloth from her pack around her shoulder to ease the ache when she moved it, and then she put her clothes back on. Her knee was simply wrenched; if it hadn’t folded when she was leaping from rooftop to rooftop, it would be fine. She left the armor where it lay—at sea, high aloft, it would be more dangerous than protective. One missed handhold and the heavy plate would drag her to the bottom of the ocean. She donned her slicker against the rain, picked up Baby, and chambered a round. She’d lost her hat but could get another from the raingear locker.
As she stepped back onto the deck, the capstan began rumbling to raise the anchor. She climbed to the top of the foremast and took up a comfortable perch. As the ship steamed out into the offing, Ghostmaker scanned the mouth of the bayou for Talion’s distinctive masts. Rain still fell, but she ignored the seeping damp down her collar. Baby’s scope pierced the curtains of rain and gathering gloom with no trouble.
Finally, Talion steamed free of the vast swamp and turned south. Ghostmaker shouted down and pointed. Hully waved up from the quarterdeck in acknowledgement. They had no idea where Talion was going, but they had no choice but to follow.
* * *
LIANE FROMISH LEAPED DOWN FROM Intrepid’s deck to Maelstrom’s and barked for her crew to secure the lashings that held the sub in its chocks and then to secure the concealing canvas over the top. Blakely was already ordering his crew to haul anchor, and the boilers were belching smoke. She hurried to the quarterdeck to give him the bad news.
“Captain, we have a problem,” she began, saluting perfunctorily as she approached. “The Mercarian League sent an assassin. The informant was murdered before I could get anything from him.”
“What?” Blakely’s face darkened, his incredulity transforming quickly to anger. “Were you identified as a naval officer?”
“No, but the assassin tried for me as well.” She laughed briefly, trying to diffuse the tension. “She damn near got me, too, but for the intervention of a certain pirate captain.”
“Shae?” Blakely’s incredulity was back. “Phinneus Shae saved you from an assassin?”
“Well, not intentionally, but yes. There was quite a lot of shooting, and he’d just left the man’s flat. He couldn’t have been more than a couple of buildings away and must have heard. He thought I was his informant, a man named Grayfenn. He knew who the assassin was, too. A woman named Ghostmaker.”
“Ghostmaker?” He smirked. “How very melodramatic.”
“Yes, but she’s good at what she does, let me tell you. She damn-near made a ghost of me.” Liane rubbed her shoulder. “Shae didn’t make me as Navy, either. He was too concerned about evading the city guards’ questions to stick around and interrogate me.”
“Well, that’s good, anyway.” Blakely scowled, considering their options. “So, Shae knows where Seautter is for certain. Do you think the League knows?”
“I don’t think so, but it’ll be easy to tell.” Liane shrugged, wincing at her shoulder pain. “If Raucous follows Shae, they don’t know and intend to stalk him to the wreck. If both ships crack on at full steam and full sail, they both know and they’re racing to Seacutter.”
“And if they get in a battle. . .” Blakely left the rest unsaid, for Admiral Huxworthy’s orders were still very fresh in their memories. He frowned hard and nodded. “We trail Raucous at a distance, and make whatever changes we can underway to make Maelstrom look like a merchantman. If we get identified by either ship as a Navy frigate, neither will come anywhere near the wreck of Seacutter until they’re sure they’ve lost us.”
“Or sunk us,” Liane added, “but I agree.”
“Good.” He nodded once. “Once your vessel’s secure, assuming all is in order, please assign your crews to help my maintenance crew with the modifications to Maelstrom. We’ll be underway within the hour, I’m sure.”
“Of course, Captain.” She nodded and started to turn, but Blakely stopped her with one more question.
“I forgot to ask how Intrepid performed, Captain. Well enough, I assume?”
“Perfectly.” She flashed him a grin. “We crept right up under the Ramarck pier without anyone even noticing.”
“Excellent.” Blakely smiled, and she could see the wheels turning in his mind.
Liane smiled back and answered his unasked question. “And yes, we could have sunk any ship in the harbor, including Talion, without them ever knowing what hit them.”
“Very interesting indeed, Captain.” He nodded again. “I’ll keep her capabilities in mind as this situation develops.”
“Very good.” She turned on her heel and hurried back to her vessel, wondering if her next mission would be reconnaissance, salvage, or something more lethal.