“Blake wants to recapture the Mistress,” Montague told the assembled crewmen, “so he won’t fire cannons unless we do. If we do, they do, and then we’re sunk. Possibly literally. So stay away from the cannons and prepare to repel boarders.” They jumped to follow her commands. “As I said, Mr. Blackwing, Blake won’t come over here hisself. He’ll try to command the battle comfortable from his own ship, so we’ll take the fight to him, you and I.” She gave him an appraising look, her expression dubious. "You’re magic. Can you teleport short range?”

  “No.”

  “Increase your own ability to jump?”

  “No.”

  “Fly?”

  “No.”

  “And how d’ya feel about swinging from a rope?”

  “Terrible.”

  “How do you plan to cross to the Ruby King?”

  “I didn’t plan to. That’s your plan. How do you plan to do it?”

  “Swinging on a rope.” She considered. “We do have a catapult.”

  “I shall attempt the rope,” Ian said with distaste.

  “Good man! Let’s get to the bow. I’ll have ropes readied, and you just do what I do.”

  He followed her up a ladder, then looked down over the main deck of the ship. “You have a catapult?”

  Montague grinned mischievously. “As long as I need to get you to agree to somethin’, I always have a worse option available.”

  Ian scowled. “I shall remember that.”

  “See that you do!”

  The Ruby King approached closer and closer. Ian saw that most of her crew stood ready with ropes of their own, with many more on deck with long wooden planks to bridge the gap. Blake’s voice bellowed across the sea. “Montague! I would have words with you!”

  “There’s no way he can shout that load,” said Ian, “He must have a wizard on his ship, too.”

  “That’s Captain Montague!” Montague bellowed back, ignoring him.

  She was just as loud. Ian noticed she had drawn from out of her shirt a pendant in the shape of a seashell, which she held tightly in her hand. “Oh. Magic item.”

  “Aye. Don’t suppose you c’n blast ’im from here.”

  “Nay. I mean, no.”

  “Then hold. Hold… Hold…”

  They were close enough now that Ian could see members of the Ruby King’s crew twirling ropes with grappling hooks on the end. They launched them and several gripped the Mistress’s railing. He fell back as one nearly struck him, snapping on to the railing right in front of him. Montague sliced through the rope without looking up. “Hold,” she said.

  They were close enough now that pirates on the enemy ship were starting to get ready to swing over. And then the ship shook as the planks were lowered. A few were shoved off and fell into the water. A couple of pirates fell with them. “Now!” said Montague, “Follow and do as I do, Mr. Blackwing!” She ran perpendicular to the side of the ship, then leaped up onto the railing and then off of it, swinging in a wide arc that took her very close to the Ruby King. And then she let go, inertia carrying her the rest of the way. She flew through the air, then landed with catlike grace on the other ship’s deck. Several pirates came at her. She stood and shot one of them with her pistol. The others slowed their approach.

  Ian was impressed. Being impressed was problematic, given that he was supposed to imitate her. “She wants me to do that?” he said aloud to nobody. “I can’t do that. I’m not doing that!”

  He hadn’t noticed that another grappling hook had snared the railing in front of him until an enemy pirate vaulted it, her blade held in her teeth—what few of them she had, anyway. She took the blade in hand and said something threatening, but he didn’t hear it as he’d already launched himself after Montague. He released the rope, soared the last ten feet through the air, and smacked into the side of the Ruby King. He grabbed at the railing as he fell past. It was, honestly, pitiful. He plummeted into the sea below.

  It was less wet and cold than he expected. He opened his eyes again to see Montague leaning over the railing, grabbing him by the sleeve. “Can’t take you anywhere, Mr. Blackwing.” She hauled him up over the railing. He flopped onto the deck as she drew her pistol again, shooting two more pirates approaching her. “None of them have pistols!” she said, “Ridiculous. Blake doesn’t trust them not to mutiny, I bet. Easy enough for us, then. Come along.”

  Ian stood, and they approached Blake. He did have a pistol, and he did fire on them. Montague grabbed Ian and pulled him onto the stairs to the lower deck, ducking behind the low wall there. “Got anything to deal with that, Mr. Blackwing?”

  “No.”

  “You’re not so much good to me so far.”

  “I’ve done a lot of good for you!”

  “Not on the Ruby King.”

  “I didn’t ask to come here. What do you have to deal with that?”

  “Guile.” Poking her head up, Montague held her pistol up and out, pointing at no one and with her hand away from the trigger. “Captain Blake,” she called, “I’ve no desire to approach you while you’ve a pistol out.”

  “That’s what it’s for, Montague.”

  “Aye, I s’pose. But I’m a better shot than you, and I’ve already killed five of your crew with mine. Fair trade, then. I’ll toss mine if y’do the same, and we can have those words y’mentioned.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Is the word ‘sword’?” asked Ian. Montague kicked him.

  “I don’t trust you to honor that if I do it first,” called Blake.

  “On me honor! Of the two of us, who’s the only one who’s been honest and forthright in all her dealings?”

  “You stole my ship!”

  “Honestly! And forthrightly! Well… just honestly, p’rhaps. But honest in all her dealings, anyway. Throw it down, sir, and I’ll do the same.”

  Ian peeked over the wall. Blake was considering it. He tossed his pistol overboard. “That’s dramatic. To the lower deck would’ve been fine.”

  “Yours then,” Blake said pointedly, “Captain ‘Honest and Forthright.’”

  “And why shouldn’t I?” Montague tossed her pistol over the wall. Ian watched as Ruby pirates scrabbled for it. “I was out of bullets anyway.”

  “That’s—”

  “Yes, yes. I already admitted that. Honest, mayhaps not so forthright. Anyway!” Montague switched her blade to her right hand and ran across the upper deck, charging straight at Blake. Was he supposed to follow?

  For the moment, he stayed under cover and watched. Captain Blake was accompanied by two bodyguards, so the fight was three against one. Montague was… impressive. She parried strikes from all three with precision, agility, and grace. Perhaps she would be a worthwhile sidekick after all. Ian should probably keep her alive.

  She turned on her heel and performed an attack he’d seen before, a spin with a little twist. Her blade sliced through both bodyguards and cut into the captain.

  “…not a fan of that one,” Ian muttered. But then he saw that she didn’t even do it right! Blake was still on his feet, and that technique, performed properly, should fell any villain. Unless Blake was tougher than he was, which was obviously absurd.

  Ian watched as the two captains dueled. Montague was faster but she was tiring. Blake was stronger, and while he clearly preferred to fight from behind his bodyguards now that they were out of his way his style became more aggressive. Montague’s blade slipped out of her hand and tumbled away, sticking into the deck out of her reach. “Ah,” she said. Blake kicked her in the chest and sent her sprawling to the deck in the other direction. He towered over her, smiling ruthlessly, and raised his sword over his head to strike.

  Ian grabbed him from behind. One hand on the man’s shoulder, he clapped the other over his chest. “Eh?” Ian spoke a word, a word that is impossible to write, to speak, even to hear and understand properly if one has not spent long hours studying the Speech. Blake couldn’t understand what he said, but that was fine. The word was not for Blake’s ears. It was spoken to the universe, and the universe answered. Power flowed into him, through him, into the pirate—and out again. “Oh!” Ian’s spell was, in essence, exactly what Jasper’s specter had done to Sammy. Clutching at his heart, Blake dropped his sword and dropped to the deck.

  “Are we done with this now?” Ian asked Montague.

  “Did… did’ya kill him?”

  “Doubtful. Let’s see… no. He’s still alive. If you want to kill him, his sword’s right there, though. He won’t put up any fight.”

  “Oh goodness no, Mr. Blacwing!” Montague hopped to her feet, retrieving both weapons, “If we killed Blake in battle, it’d be no great loss to me or t’the world, but killing him on purpose would be such a terrible injustice, a terrible waste.”

  “Oh?”

  “Aye. Y’only get half the bounty if you turn ’em in dead.”

  “Ah.”

  “It seems you were useful to me after all, Mr. Blackwing.”

  “I daresay.”

  Montague stood by the railing overlooking the Ruby King’s lower deck as she drew out her seashell pendant again. “Attention, all crew of the Ruby King! Your captain has been defeated. I, Captain Priscilla Montague of the Pearl’s Mistress, claim this ship as my own. Surrender and live!”

  Many of the Ruby pirates did not seem to take this well. Ian fell back and began to work another spell. Then he saw that the other Ruby pirates quickly turned on their crewmates, and the matter was decided at once. “Yikes. Pirates.”

  Before long, Montague had named herself admiral and named the Ruby King’s first mate the new captain under her command. “He’s going to turn on you immediately,” Ian told her.

  “Oh, aye,” Montague agreed, “Just as soon as he’s out of my sight. It’s what I did, after all. I’ll not be so foolish as to hunt him down, though. He can have her.”

  “Working with pirates sounds—”

  “Exciting!”

  “—exhausting.”

  “Oh, aye,” Montague agreed, “That too.”

  “To Creepy Keep, then?”

  “That was our arrangement. And you are honorable and honest, if not always forthright.”

  “Aye!” Montague winked at him, “I see you pay attention well, sir.”

  It was not long after that that the ship was anchored, and Ian and Montague sat aboard a boat rowed by two of her grunts as they reached the docks below Blackwing Manor. They trudged up the steps (Ian needed to stop for a breather twice) and eventually reached the manor itself, with its massive oak front doors with nine recesses in separate colors.

  “Elaborate.”

  “Enchanted.”

  “What’s the purpose?”

  “My evil plan required an elven hero to come to my door under his own power. But I needed to fully prepare my rituals first, so it’s a quest designed to slow him down. He needed to collect the nine Mystical Cyrstals that act as keys. Moot now.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “You’re going to laugh at me.”

  “All the better. Let’s hear it, then.”

  “I… didn’t close the door all the way.”

  “You’re never serious?”

  “It wasn’t closed,” Ian said through gritted teeth, feeling his face turn red, “so it wasn’t latched, so it wasn’t locked, so he waltzed right in without a single Mystical Crystal. And then he freed the darling Damsel, and they threw me out of my own house. I worked on that plan for so long. All that research, created this lock, hid those Crystals… and I didn’t close the door.”

  Montague covered her mouth, as though she could hide her laughter. She signaled to her pirates, and the three of them drew their weapons. Ian put his hand on the door handle.

  “Go ahead, Mr. Blackwing.”

  “…it’s locked.”

  “So unlock it.”

  “I… only have one of the Crystals. She closed it. She completed the lock. I…was concerned this might happen.”

  They were all silent for a moment.

  “It’s your own spell, can you break it?”

  “Well, it’s… essentially a curse. Any curse can be broken, with the right power and the right technique.”

  “So you can break it?”

  “…no. I’m better at cursing than breaking curses.” Silence again.

  “Well, sorry to hear all that, Mr. Blackwing,” said Montague cheerfully, “I s’pose we’ll be on our way—”

  “Captain,” said Ian icily, “I believe you’ll find the terms of our agreement were that you would ‘personally accompany and do all in your power to ensure my return goes to my liking.’” He looked up from the door and turned to look directly into her eyes, “I do not believe your power to be exhausted, as yet. And as you are so honorable and honest, if not entirely forthright, I will expect you to keep your word. I have one Crystal. The next closest is in Port Sapphire. I requested all haste to get back here in hopes that we would make it before the Damsel learned to seal the door. In retrospect, that was a poor choice. We should have stopped at Port Sapphire first instead of sailing past it. We’ll go there next.”

  Montague stared at him, then smiled. “Really now, Mr. Blackwing. You told me you expected no difficulty, and we’ve seen to your return. Our business is concluded, since I did base my promise on your reassurance. Now you say you anticipated this—”

  “No. I said I didn’t expect any difficulty, and I did not. I anticipated this possibility, and I hoped to forestall it. I did not expect this. It was not the most probable outcome.”

  “Y’didn’t tell me—”

  “True Captain, I did not. I feel you’ll find I was entirely, well…”

  “…honest and honorable, though not entirely forthright.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, her mouth open in quiet surprise. He stared back. Her pirates fell back a little, looking nervously one to the other. She stared at him, and then her face twisted, contorted into an expression of pure… jubilation.

  Letting out a whoop of laughter, Montague sheathed her sword and clasped Ian’s hand in both of hers. “Oh well played, Mr. Blackwing, well played! You are a delight, sir. Well, you heard the man! To the Mistress, for our business is yet to be concluded. Your Captain has some shore leave coming, it seems. Sammy will be acting captain for a time. Come the morrow, we sail for Port Sapphire!”