Amanda and Sirius were shown to their quarters. Morgan had bluntly asked them if they would be sharing a room, Sirius had glanced questioningly to Amanda and she had quickly said yes. Her answer seemed to have made Morgan happy for some reason.

  At lunch they ate with Morgan and a small group of crew in a room dimly lit by torches. Evidently Morgan and her crew didn’t have the same concerns about fire as many others who sailed the sea.

  “You don’t worry about the open flame?” Amanda asked nodding toward one of the torches.

  Morgan, who sat across from her and Sirius, turned to look at the dimly lit wall behind her as she chewed on a drumstick. A clean-shaven man with hair so blonde it was almost white, answered for her. He was seated to the right of Sirius and had previously been introduced as Larska.

  “The humans of old once chased werewolves across the country with torches to drive them out of their homes and their villages because they thought us killers. We keep the fire close as a reminder that it is ours and not to be feared.” He returned to his chicken then. Rather than holding it between his hands and biting off large chunks of it like Morgan did, he would carefully picked small strips off with his fingers, study them, and then put them in his mouth. After chewing each piece for some time he’d repeat the process with the next.

  “We are all killers,” Morgan said as if it were a statement of fact.

  “Only when necessary,” Larska told her before delicately putting another small strip of chicken in his mouth.

  On Morgan’s right, sat the dark-haired man who had been wearing sunglasses up on deck. He was still wearing them too. Amanda kept shooting him curious looks as they ate. Morgan must have picked up on it for she eventually said, “Randy likes to think he’s a vampire.”

  Randy paused and looked at Morgan. In an indignant voice he replied, “I am simply protecting my eyes.”

  Amanda frowned and couldn’t help herself from asking, “From all the sun in here?”

  It earned her a few sniggers from the other end of the table. Randy looked in their direction but Amanda couldn’t read his expression behind the sunglasses. With the shake of his head he remarked, “I don’t need to see to eat. In fact, the dulling of one sense can often sharpen the others. The captain knows what I mean.” He leaned in close to Morgan and from the shift in his body posture it almost looked like he’d placed his hand on her thigh.

  Without barely a pause in her eating or a glance at Randy, Morgan replied, “Not at the lunch table, Randy.”

  Randy appeared unaffected by her reply and simply returned to his meal.

  Amanda frowned. So, were they lovers then? Perhaps she had been imagining anything between Leo and Morgan. There was that comment that someone had made back on the boat, something about Randy and Ferret being familiar with Morgan’s bite. And Ferret was the man sitting on Morgan’s left, a tawny-haired man also wearing glasses, only his were reading glasses instead of sunglasses. Was she dating them both? If dating was what you’d call it. Amanda decided to change the subject.

  “So, Sirius says you’re not pirates. I was wondering though, about the flag?”

  Morgan met her gaze and paused eating. She smiled. Then she looked to Sirius.

  “They’re pirate’s pirates,” Sirius explained.

  “We hunt pirates,” added Morgan with a grin. “We are the societal rebels of the sea. We like to upset the “natural order” of things and give a big ol fuck you to the governments that sponsor those plundering yellow-bellied cockroaches.”

  Amanda frowned. “The… wait… what?”

  “Something I didn’t mention before,” Sirius explained, “When we were talking about pirates. Plunder’s not the only reason they board a ship. Some of them work as spies, not necessarily for the government. Sometimes it’s for individuals, oftentimes it’s the dockmasters. They like to know who’s carrying what so they can tax accordingly. Even better, if they catch you with something you shouldn’t have then they can charge you more for it. If you don’t pay up they’ve got the law behind them so most people pay up. How do they get that information though? Well, dock wenches like I mentioned, and pirates.”

  “The rats,” Morgan added. “And we, are the rat-catchers.” She grinned devilishly. “Screw those fat cats who sit in their idle towers and make rules for other men! And screw every lowlife who sells out to enable them. Screw the rules of man or pack. Out here we make the rules! And the only rule”—She got to her feet and stood on her seat with one boot placed up on the table as she drew her sword and in a loud voice bellowed—“Is the rule of the sword.” She stabbed the end into the table as men cheered all around.

  “A blunt sword,” Sirius remarked as she withdrew it and retook her seat.

  “I can sharpen it,” she retorted. Then she pointed her fork in Sirius’s direction and said to Amanda, “You know, Sirius has a pirate flag of his own stashed away on that ship somewhere.”

  “You do?” Amanda gave him a surprised look.

  Sirius shrugged. “It comes in useful sometimes.”

  “Don’t you get backlash from the pirates?” Amanda asked turning back to Morgan.

  She shook her head. “They’re more afraid of us than we are of them and we’re not without friends. Sometimes we return stolen goods to their rightful owners. It builds up good favor among other sailors. We watch their backs and they watch ours.”

  “Really? You give people back their stolen goods.” She gave Sirius a sideways glance. She could see his eyes narrowing in response. Amanda decided not to push it too much. She turned back to Morgan and asked, “The governments or dockmasters don’t hunt you down?”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “We don’t’ dock at certain ports,” Morgan replied.

  “Like Scarlett?”

  Morgan gave a nod. “We won’t dock there.”

  “Then how-”

  “We’ll arrive under the cover of darkness. I have a method to signal Shiv. He will send a longboat out, and we’ll be gone before morning.”

  “You’re not meeting on open ocean?” Sirius asked.

  Morgan shrugged. “I don’t get to ask any questions. It’s one way comms remember, apart from the signaling part. I’m just following his instructions. Perhaps it didn’t work with his timing.”

  “No.” Sirius shook his head. “He needs me for some of the transfers at Scarlett but he doesn’t want me for the pegasus one.”

  “He needs you?” Morgan asked.

  “Well, I don’t tell him everything. And he knows it. It was his own damned advice.”

  Morgan smirked. “I bet that’s biting him in the butt now. Well, we’re days away from Scarlett yet, and before we get there, we have a ship to scavenge, a little over a day’s sailing from here.”

  “Why do you need me?” Sirius asked. “You have divers don’t you? You’re used to scavenging.”

  Morgan just smiled. “I’ll show you after lunch.”

  After lunch they followed Morgan back to her quarters to discuss more about the wreck they were sailing toward. She shifted some maps around on the table.

  She pointed. “There’s Scarlett. This is where we are currently. And this is the location of the wreck.”

  Amanda glanced at Sirius wondering if that meant anything to him.

  “It can’t be that deep then. I’m guessing they hit one of the underwater islands?”

  “Actually, a kraken got them.” Morgan waited until they were both looking at her before she added, “It’s still there.” With a slowly widening smile she added, “I hear you fought one once.”

  Amanda and Sirius shared a look. She could see him trying hard to keep a serious expression.

  Sirius glanced back to Morgan with a sigh. “So it’s danger pay. None of your men want to dive for it?”

  “Oh some of them will but it would also be useful to have another strongarm. It’s a metal ship.”

  Sirius looked surprised. “What? Metal? As in the hull is metal?”

  Morgan nodded. “Very heavy doors I’m told. Hard to lift to get inside.”

  “Who’s your informant? You sure they’re not telling tales?”

  “I’ve had confirmation from two separate sources, both paid well to keep their mouths shut but I’m sure you know that won’t last. Anyway, metal’s not that unlikely. There’s some places on the other side the globe that make them. Apparently they travel quite fast and can carry much larger loads with less time needed out of the water for maintenance.”

  “It’s madness,” Sirius mumbled.

  “Not if they primarily stick to the open ocean and stay away from dragon territories.”

  Sirius shook his head. “Ain’t no territory far enough from the land for something that big and made of pure metal to be safe.”

  Morgan smiled. “Apparently not.”

  “So what’s the haul?”

  “I don’t know.” Morgan didn’t lose her smile.

  “You don’t know?” Sirius frowned.

  “So how do you know it’s valuable?” Amanda asked.

  “Because of how desperately the owners are trying to find where it went down. The man who originally gave us the information on the wreck is trying to hide from them. He promised us a good haul to get him out of the Shadow Valley.”

  Sirius’s frown deepened. “I thought you didn’t sail there.”

  She shrugged. “I got a message from an old friend. He got him as far as Oakridge and we picked him up not far from there.”

  “Where’d you take him?”

  “I’m not supposed to tell you that. Keeping that a secret was part of the arrangement.”

  “How’d he know where it went down?”

  “Because he was on it, as a prisoner. His cell was broken when the ship sank and he managed to swim free. He was the only survivor and lucky enough to be picked up by passing fishing boat.”

  “He tell you what he was imprisoned for?” Sirius asked.

  Morgan shrugged. “Didn’t ask. Don’t care.” She took a seat on one of the fancy mismatched velvet-seated chairs. “So are you in? I’ll even give you a cut.”

  “Do I have a choice?” Sirius asked.

  Morgan smiled.

  “How deep is it?” Amanda asked.

  “40, maybe 50 metres down.”

  Amanda nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll help.”

  Both Sirius and Morgan gave her surprised looks.

  “Well, if there’s a kraken down there, you might need me.” She looked directly at Sirius as she spoke. He knew what she was capable of, and there was no way she was letting him dive that ship without her.

  For a moment Sirius hesitated but then he nodded and turned to Morgan. “She’s fought almost as many krakens as me. She can keep it away if needed.”

  “Do you know how to dive?” Morgan asked her.

  Amanda turned to face her and nodded. “I’m fully certified. I’ve even dived with heliox and through caves.”

  Morgan cocked one eyebrow. “I don’t know what that is but if Pinto’s fine with it then I don’t see why not. He’s our onboard diving expert. We’ll keep the ship a fair distance away just in case. Pinto’s a quickfoot so he can get a small boat out of there fast if necessary. You’ll dive in pairs. I guess you two make one pair.” She smirked.

  She sent them their separate ways after that. Amanda was sent to work in the kitchen and Sirius to work somewhere else on the ship. Sirius showed her were the galley was and then left her on her own. Amanda hesitantly poked her head inside, wondering if she was about to meet another old crusty chef who didn’t want anyone in their kitchen. She knocked on the door.

  “Hello?”

  Right at that moment a very short blonde pixie-haired woman walked around the corner carrying a stack of empty cooking trays. At the sound of Amanda’s voice she suddenly screamed and threw all the trays to the floor with a clatter.

  She looked at Amanda in surprise and clutched her chest. “Oh, bless the gods! You scared me.”

  “Sorry,” Amanda replied as she bent down to help pick up the dropped trays.

  “Oh, it’s fine,” the woman waved her off. “I’m just a little jumpy today. I had my head lost in the clouds. I was thinking about what to make Pinto for his birthday tomorrow.” She held out a hand. “I’m Marianne but most of the crew call me Maid Marian behind my back.”

  “Oh.”

  “They mean it fondly of course.”

  Amanda stretched out her hand. “As in the story of Robin Hood? Because you guys steal from the thieves and...”

  “That’s right.”

  They both stood up.

  “I’m Amanda. The captain sent me down to help. Where should I put these?” she asked of the trays she was now holding.

  “Just over here is fine.” Marianne nodded toward a wooden bench that was affixed to the wall of the ship. Up above them, dangling electric lights, which hung from cables added long after the ship had been built, shifted the shadows about in time with the gentle rocking of the ship. “Excellent, we’ll be having soup tonight. You can start with chopping some vegetables. I’ll show you were they are.”

  Amanda followed Marianne’s lead. She was pleased to have finally met someone who was even shorter than she was. Marianne was quite a bit older than Amanda but she was lively and moved about the kitchen with an agility that would rival most sailors. Her short hair was spiked up with some sort of gel which apparently also served the purpose of keeping her hair from falling out into the food. Marianne’s power was hyper sense, specifically taste. She quickly showed Amanda her way around the kitchen and instructed her on some sorely needed cooking skills, including how to get just the right level of salt and spices and what the perfect temperatures for soup was at different stages. she was so used to being considerably better at cooking than others she didn’t seem to mind teaching and had long since fallen into the natural habit of explaining what she was doing and why, even when no one else was around.

  Amanda was soon contributing to what was quickly shaping up to be quite a nice soup while Marianne talked her through the ins and outs of proper bread making.

  They weren’t far off from done when there came a knock at the galley door. A man Amanda didn’t recognise stuck his head in and searched about the room until he spotted her.

  To Amanda he said, “The captain wants to see you.”

  Marianne waved her off happily. “It’s fine, you go. We’re almost done here anyway.”

  Amanda followed the man into the hall. “Does she want to see Sirius too?”

  He glanced back and in an uninterested tone he replied, “No, just you.”