Chasing the Lantern (35 page)

Mordecai quieted, panting. Natasha glowered, now outraged. "You forget your place, first mate," she hissed.

"No," he replied. "
I
know my duty. One of us has to think with something other than their loins."

Natasha glared daggers, then she smiled sweetly. "No worries there for you, eh Mordecai? Tell me, when was the last time you were able to hook up with someone you didn't pay?" She tapped a finger to her chin and glanced away, looking puzzled. "I truly can't remember."

Mordecai opened his mouth to reply. He shut it and turned to stalk up the deck. "You aren't a worthy captain," he snarled at her over his shoulder.

Konrad at the helm was staring resolutely ahead. The navigator wisely said nothing as he stalked past. Others in the crew close enough to overhear were abruptly busy elsewhere. Mordecai noted this distantly, and approved. They feared him, which was good. That they were wise enough to avoid him meant they'd grown some sense, against all odds. Which was also good. Mordecai wanted very badly to kill someone right now.

He stalked up to the bow, thoughts blacker than jet. Mordecai tried to think back to the first time he'd met Natasha. It was a number of years ago, just after old Euron had stepped down and given her a ship. Mordecai had served with the old pirate shortly before, and apparently the man had been impressed with his ruthlessness. Natasha asked for him by name, and after a short interview, he'd been given his posting.

At first he had been reticent. She'd seemed wild, chaotic, truly her father's daughter. Quickly enough he realized she had a hard edge to her, and was capable of surprising shrewdness. He'd thought that over time maybe he could channel or curb her worst excesses, which often threatened her, her crew, and everyone else around. Mordecai suspected that he had been wrong.

But what could he do? She was his captain, and he didn't dare quit his post. Once word got out, he'd be lucky to find another berth in Haventown at all, much less one on a skyship. Euron still had quite a bit of sway, and Natasha wasn't one to
ever
forgive a slight. Mordecai thought dark thoughts and watched the jungle horizon.

Boot steps brought him back to the present. Guye Farrel was approaching him rapidly. Mordecai felt a small moment of glee at the prospect; the greenhorn pirate was the perfect outlet for his frustrations. He turned to snarl at the man, and paused.

Farrel was a wreck. Bandages covered his neck and lower jaw. He moved with a limp. Hair was missing in rough patches and wherever skin showed, he was covered in bruises.

"What in the Realms Below happened to you?" asked Mordecai.

The other pirate paused to take a labored breath. "The white ape. We killed one, but there was another hiding inside the frame."

"And it got you before it died?"

Farrel shook his head. "No, it drove us away. It's moved in up there now. The lookout has some sort of truce with it. I think it's eating the seabirds that land atop the frame."

Mordecai growled in exasperation. "Well then, what are you doing down here? Get back up there with some men and kill the thing!"

Guye Farrel winced. "Sir, lookout sent me to ask you to the bow. Fengel and his Men are being hauled into that temple."

Mordecai blinked.
And what in the Realms Below do I care?
But no. He glanced back to the helm. Natasha had already received the message, and she was striding up to the bow. He had to check her, keep her from doing something ruinous.

"Fine, then," he growled. He stalked off, hoping to make his way to the vantage point first.

Natasha beat him to it. Cursing silently to himself, Mordecai moved up beside her and the lookout, Farrel limping behind.

The lizard-creatures still gathered in the plaza below to point and jabber at the
Dawnhawk
. Above them, on top of the temple stair, a few others were still gathered, though the procession was making its way inside. Mordecai caught a glance of only one of the prisoners, a huge woman that could only be Sarah Lome.

They watched the last of Fengel's Men disappear inside, along with their captors. A single lizard-pygmy ran after them, having gathered up a shining golden object from one of the temple terraces.

"Well," Mordecai said. "That's that, then." He felt a little relief. Out of sight, out of mind.

Natasha drummed her fingers on the rail. "We should do something."

Mordecai turned to stare at her. His captain looked pensive. She stared down at the entrance to the temple and the lizard-creatures there. A small frown twisted her lips. He knew the look; she felt guilty.

"We could drop a lit keg into the temple. Or some other distraction. That should be more than enough an opportunity for him and his crew to use. I don't want to have to mount a rescue. That would be going a little far."

"What?" said Mordecai, aghast. "What are you...why are you even
considering
such actions?"

Natasha looked at him, almost surprised to find him there. Her face hardened, but the feelings underneath were visible. "Fengel knows where the Lantern is. If we leave him to his fate, we will never find the thing."

"To the Realms Below with the Governor's Lantern!" Mordecai almost yelled. "No. No! This is enough and more than enough! He's dead, or as good enough to us to be. Move on. Let's just go! Bury whatever wretched sensitivities you have for that fool and his stupid monocle, and just move on! We're pirates, after all!"

Natasha glared at him. "Mordecai. I have heard all that I care to hear from you. Go audit our food stores for the return trip."

"What? Don't be daft, woman—"

"
I
," she hissed, "am captain on this ship.
I
decide what ultimately needs to be done. Make yourself scarce, and that's an order. By the Goddess above, I'd be better served making that white ape first mate, I'm beginning to think."

Mordecai flushed. He stared at Natasha for a long moment. She met his gaze, daring him to defy her. "Very well, then," he said. Mordecai turned away woodenly, and strode down the deck.

She's well and truly gone
. More than that, he could read the writing on the wall; he had no place at her side anymore.

The thought filled him with inchoate rage. Years,
years
he'd spent propping her up, slaying her foes, and maintaining her ship. The
Dawnhawk
, and the
Cloud King
before it. And just like that, it was at an end.

Or was it? Mordecai stopped halfway down the deck. A thought occurred to him. He had been willingly subversive for days now, always for the good of ship and crew. But
why
did they let Natasha lead them? Pirate crews were a mix of democracy and brute thuggery. Nominally, captains only held their position by confidence of the crew. In reality the most vicious, ruthless, capable people got voted up, and stayed up through both threats and persuasion. Natasha was capable enough, and the crew loyal, but her father's name put the most weight behind her. That was why she was always so desperate to be out from under the old man's shadow.

Mordecai looked around the deck of the ship. He looked to the crew at the bow, the stern, and those moving around on the gasbag frame above. The faces he saw were tired, and on edge. None of them wanted to be here.

More than that, he saw the ship. The
Dawnhawk.
He had spent countless hours cleaning it, navigating it, and making sure the crew wouldn't be an embarrassment to it.
It's my ship, far more than hers
.

He was surprised to realize that his decision was already made. It had been for days.  
Very well, then
. If he was going to stage a coup, he had to do it the right way. First he needed to sound out the crew, find who would back him. There were optimum choices here. Once a specific few were convinced, the others would fall in line. Though it had never been done before on this ship, calling a Crewman's Vote was a time honored tradition.

Mordecai thought for a moment, then stalked back to the ship's helm. Konrad stood there, alone as usual, glowering at the city beyond the railings. The aetherite nodded to Mordecai but said nothing. Unusually, he seemed sensitive to Mordecai's mood. The argument with Natasha hadn't happened long ago.

"How is our course?" he asked the navigator, voice curt.

"Steady as she goes," replied Konrad. "We're still partway down in the valley, even up here. No crosswinds to toss us all around. We can hold here awhile, if you want."

Softly, softly
. "What I want is unimportant," said Mordecai. "Natasha wants us here, to keep tabs on her husband and his poxy crew." He let a little of his bitterness seep into his voice, and watched the aetherite from out of the corner of his eye. He was gratified to see the other man scowl.

"It's madness," said Konrad bluntly. "We shouldn't be here. This place isn't ... isn't meant for us." He turned to growl into his shoulder at the daemon riding there. "No, I don't care how comfortable it feels to you." Konrad looked back at Mordecai. "We can't stay here."

Excellent
, thought Mordecai. Konrad had been his first choice for two reasons. As an aetherite, the rest of the crew walked softly around him. Also, because of that, the man wasn't usually afraid to speak his mind.

Mordecai shrugged, looking pained. He let a bit of worry seep into his voice. "I don't have any say in that. As long as Natasha is captain, what she says, goes." He gazed up the deck, where she was giving orders at the bow. "If we keep to this course, though, I don't think we're all going to make it out alive."

Konrad scowled. "We should call a Vote. That'll make her look around."

Better than I could have asked for
. The aetherite was more on edge than he had believed. Still, he had to go carefully.

Mordecai turned a disbelieving stare at the man. Konrad, for his part, looked embarrassed, and suddenly a little worried. Mordecai looked frankly at him for a long moment, then cast his gaze back up the deck. "I think you might be right," he said, at last.

The other man visibly relaxed. "Others are unhappy," said Konrad, as if Mordecai was unaware. "Reaver Jane, the Wiley Brothers, and that Farrel kid, among others. And it's not as if we'd be displacing her. Just...airing our grievances, right? That'll make her turn us around, leave this place."

Actually, it'll make her more obstinate, and there'd be blood all over the decks to boot.
Mordecai nodded, keeping his thoughts hidden. "Say nothing. I will take care of it."

He moved down belowdecks. Fortunately, almost everyone was up above. He found Reaver Jane in the cargo with another hand, not counting the loot, but hauling up a powder keg they'd kept from the
Queen
.

She frowned at Mordecai's approach. "No need to chap my arse," she said. "Just found the thing. I'll be getting it up to her queenship shortly."

Mordecai kept his face impassive. The other pirate was Hans Droicker, a simple man with brutish tastes, but no real connections amongst the rest of the crew. Reaver Jane had been there since the beginning, though, and everyone knew she was steadfast and loyal. For a pirate, at least.

"Something on your mind, Jane?" he asked her.

The piratess frowned. She bent back to the keg to pick it up. Her short red ponytail fell over her shoulder, hiding her face. "S'nothing, sir," she said.

Mordecai put his boot on the small keg. "It doesn't look like 'nothing,' Jane. Out with it."

She looked up at Mordecai with a glower. Taking his tone for a challenge, she stood up straight and faced him. "Fine then. I don't like this. And you can take that straight to her ladyship. She wants to drop a lit keg on those lizard-devils outside...what's next? Assaulting them outright? And for what?" She gestured at the rest of the hold. "We've already got the treasure! We've already got our ship back!" Reaver Jane shook her head. "I'll do as ordered. I'm no scrub. But I think this is madness. Someone needs to make her sit up and notice, but all she can see is Fengel down in the city below. And I don't care if you tell her that, sir."

Mordecai smiled wryly. "You know very well that I recently did just that." He pulled back his boot and turned for the stair up from the hold. "You should know that Konrad intends to call a Crewman's Vote. He doesn't really mean it, but he thinks that's what it'll take to make Natasha see the light." He glanced back to see Jane and Hans staring at him in surprise. "And I have no intention of stopping him," he said. Then he turned and climbed back up the stair.

And so he moved down his list. He sought out the Wiley twins, Berringer, Lazy Tom, and others with pull among the crew. All had grievances of some sort; pirates always did. But, perhaps surprisingly, all were still mostly loyal. They pounced on the idea of a Crewman's Vote when he brought it up. Some meant it, most just wanted their captain to take notice. Mordecai kept himself strictly impassive, seemingly impartial. He let them know that he was irritated as well, and would let the Vote happen, but not what he thought of it. Lastly, he sought out Guye Farrel.

The beleaguered crewman was amidships, coiling rope. He mumbled and muttered in irritation to himself, staying as much under the shadow of the gas-bag as he could. Mordecai moved quietly up, and then waited to be noticed.

Farrel paused when he caught a glimpse of the first mate, then, slowly, he stood, ready and at attention. Mordecai noted the barely concealed hate that the man had for him. He would have been irritated not to see it; he'd worked hard to put it there, after all.

"Sir?" asked Farrel.

Mordecai let a bit of unaccustomed warmth into his voice. "This voyage hasn't been what you'd thought it would be, has it Farrel?"

The other man looked at him warily. Farrel seemed uncertain how to answer. "No," he said after a moment.

Mordecai turned aside. He paced slowly around the pirate. "No, it hasn't, has it?
I
know better. But I can imagine what you thought when you approached Natasha. Let me see." He held up his hands theatrically. "A gorgeous and ruthless pirate captain, heir to Pirate King himself. And she was no mere ocean-going scallywag at that, but a sky-pirate, mistress of one of the wondrous Brotherhood airships. You, being a young and dashing man, capable with both pistol and blade, would make an excellent addition to her crew. From there you would carve yourself glory and renown, win the heart of the gorgeous pirate princess, and even take up the role of captain once all saw your able skill and expertise. Yes?"