Dragon-Ridden (12 page)

“Sure you are.”

She flopped back on the bed. It was
like talking to a wall. He just ignored whatever she said.

“I don’t need money either. Jost
gave me all my wages.”

“Not enough.”

“I think he was more than
generous.”

“Did you never stop to think why he
gave you your full wages?” Ryu asked in a silky voice. “Jost isn’t usually
considered a generous man.”

She chose not to comment. People
were rarely who they seemed. No surprise there. It was no secret Jost had
deeper motivations for some of the things he did for her. The man was a genius
at the art of subtle manipulation. She’d spent enough time on his ship and
working with his crew to know that. It didn’t even matter anymore. She was off
the ship. The motivation of its captain was no longer her concern.

“Why would you care whether I had
enough money to live or not anyway?” she challenged him stubbornly.

Her slight form bristled with anger
as he chose his words carefully.

“You’ve changed since Jost and his
crew left,” Ryu observed. He reached out and wrapped a stray strand of copper
hair around his finger, tugging slightly. “You never used to be this combative.
At least not outright.”

Tate yanked her hair out of his
hand and glared up at him, her green eyes flinty. “Of course I never acted like
this on the ship. You and Jost were practically bosom buddies, and I was the
stray Jost picked up on a whim. It would have been foolish to challenge you
where I could have been thrown overboard miles from shore.” She bared her teeth
at him. “But there’s no captain to enforce good behavior anymore. I can act
however I feel.”

“I see. Well, you’re much more
interesting now that you aren’t so tongue tied and reserved.” Ryu was amused as
he sat on his bed, leaning back on one forearm. “I would remind you that you’re
now at my mercy instead of Jost’s.”

Tate rolled her eyes. For now.

“You’ll want to put any plans you
have on hold for now, because after we’re done discussing the job, I’ll need
you to meet your employers.”

“I already said I wasn’t interested
in a job right now,” Tate said with forced patience.

“Even if I said it involved the
Kairi you were so fascinated by yesterday?”

Tate hadn’t realized Ryu had been
paying enough attention to her yesterday to notice her fascination. Bastard. He
was even more observant than she had given him credit for.

The chance to learn more about them
was tempting, but it went against the grain to fall in line with his plans. She
needed to proceed with caution, or she’d find herself doing exactly what Ryu
wanted.

“What makes you think I care
anything about them?”

Ryu shot her a pointed look. Tate
crossed her arms and gave him her ‘get down to business or else’ glare. His
responding smirk said he wasn’t intimidated by her ‘or else.’

“I think the fact that you couldn’t
take your eyes off them was a dead giveaway. What really clinched it was when
you returned the woman’s hairpiece given how much it could fetch if you fenced
it.”

For a beat, Tate blinked at him
nonplussed. “How did you know I returned that? You weren’t there.”

He waved a hand imperiously as if
to say ‘it wasn’t important.’ Had to be from Trent. He had a tendency of
blabbering on and on to any who listened.

“That is highly unusual behavior
for a pirate,” he said.

“So?” Tate shrugged. “I returned
it. Big deal. Doesn’t mean I care to get to know them any better.” She made a
face. “And I’m not a pirate anymore.”

He shook his head at her objection.
“You’re curious. You wouldn’t have intervened if you weren’t. This job gives
you the opportunity to indulge that curiosity.”

“What’s the job?” she asked. Just
because she asked about the job, that didn’t mean she’d take it, she told
herself, she just wanted to know what she was giving up.

Ryu slid off the bed and strolled
to where she sat.

“They’re looking for a stolen
object.” He stared intensely down at Tate sifting through the best words to
manipulate her with no doubt.

“Stolen?” she asked. “What am I? A
hunting dog? What can I possibly do to help them? I’m not some investigator.”

“Your job wouldn’t be to find it,”
he replied. “You’d simply act as a guide while they looked.”

“A guide?” Great, now she sounded
like a parrot. Surely she could think of something more intelligent to say.

“Yes. You have a lot more
experience with people who frequent the black market than they do. All you have
to do is get them there and make sure they don’t stand out too much.”

He wasn’t telling her the entire
truth. She was sure of it.

He could have picked someone who
was much more familiar with the city and its criminal elements. They’d have
probably been a lot more helpful than a newcomer to the city.

“You’d report everything you saw
back to me afterwards.”

She snorted. There it was. The real
reason he wanted her to take this ‘job.’

She opened her mouth to refuse. A
knock interrupted, and she was instantly on her feet with a knife in her hand.

Ryu gave her a considering look and
said, “That would be them. I don’t think a knife would send the right first
impression to a potential employer.”

“Wait. I haven’t said I’d do it,”
she said dashing to block the door.

He grinned and took her by the
shoulders and bodily moved her out of the way.

Tate watched in disbelief as he
greeted his guests with a genial smile. “Umi, Kadien so glad you could make it.
Come in.”

Umi’s bodyguards flanked her as she
greeted Ryu in a low murmur. They nodded sharply at Ryu and moved into the
room, checking for threats as they entered. They all came to a dead stop upon
seeing Tate standing in the middle of the floor with her arms crossed and a
surly expression on her face.

The older guard dropped back a step
and moved to put Umi behind him while Tempest dropped into a defensive crouch.

“You?” he spat. “What do you want?
Haven’t you done enough damage?”

Finally, someone she could relieve
all this pent up frustration on while not having to worry about death and
torture later. “I want to be here even less than you want me here.”

He kept his eyes trained on Tate,
watching for threats. Confusion radiated off him in waves. She sighed inwardly.
She’d kind of been hoping he’d attack first. Ryu would see that this was
impossible, and she could go back to making her escape.

Instead, Ryu grabbed Tempest by his
shirt, tossing him against a wall. Tempest hit with a thud and landed on his
feet. To Tate’s surprise he didn’t attack, instead bowing his head and falling
to one knee in a supplicant’s position.

“I bring you someone who can help
and you threaten her.” Ryu’s voice roiled with a dark power. Umi and her other
guard fell to their knees and cowered from his words. “I will remind you that I
do not have to help you. It rests on the Kairi to get back what was lost before
it is too late. It is you who will bear the brunt of  the consequences.
You should be grateful for any help you can enlist.”

By the end of his speech, the two guards
had placed their hands flat on the ground and bowed to touch their foreheads to
those hands. Umi stayed on her knees with her silken skirts pooled around her
but bowed her head in supplication.

Tate blinked. This was surprising.
She was beginning to get the feeling that Ryu had hidden depths. There was no
way he was just a pirate. Lords and ladies didn’t show this level of groveling
for an ordinary sea rat no matter how scary he could be.

Ryu dismissed them and faced Tate.
A slight shiver raced down her back as the rage drained from his face. She
hoped he never had cause to turn that look on her.

It made better sense now, why Umi
and her guards had chosen to fold rather than challenge him. His expression was
fierce enough to steal the strength from a man and leave him quivering in his
wake.

The last of his anger fled. He
tilted his head with a thoughtful expression as if she’d given him something to
think about.

“Get up,” he said without taking
his eyes off Tate. His voice left no room for argument.

Umi rose gracefully to her feet,
her clothes falling around her in clean lines as if she hadn’t just been
kneeling. Tate felt a brief spurt of envy at the ease with which she moved. If
Tate had tried that, her clothes would have been wrinkled and dusty and probably
ripped by the time she gained her feet.

Tempest bounced lithely up. If he
had any pain or injuries from his contact with the wall, he didn’t show it. The
last guard hovered near Umi, eyeing Ryu and Tate as suspiciously as his neutral
expression would allow.

Umi’s face was composed and only
her hands clasped tightly at her waist gave away her nerves. “My-“ Umi changed
what she was going to say at a sharp glance from Ryu. “Sir, we are grateful for
whatever help you choose to offer. I am sorry for my guard’s earlier
thoughtlessness. We had encountered the lady earlier and were not expecting her
to be here.”

Tate shot him a sidelong glance.
What had Umi been about to say? My lord, perhaps? But what would a lord be
doing on a pirate’s crew?

“Yes, I had heard you had met. It
is one of the reasons I thought her best suited to this task. Is there more to
the story than what I had heard?” Though the question was directed at Umi, it
was clear he expected Tate to provide the answers.

She met his eyes with what she
hoped was an innocent expression. He was the one who had been spying on her. If
he didn’t know the full story, who was she to inform him?

His face tightened further while
his eyes almost seemed to take on a glow. It might be best not to push.

“I returned a hair ornament to Umi
after some pick pockets had taken it.”

Ryu lowered his eyebrows; he
already knew that. Tate let the silence stretch, plucking a stray hair from the
bottom of her tunic. Her hands fluttered as she smoothed them down the arms of
the tunic and gave it a sharp tug.

Ryu didn’t move a muscle, making it
clear he could wait all day. His eyes settled with a grim patience on Tate’s
bent head. She shifted under his steady gaze, feeling like a child trying to
keep a secret.

Umi and her guards watched the two
raptly. She would have preferred not to have an audience.

Knowing from prior experience he’d
wait all day until he got an answer, Tate told him, “I may have relieved some
pickpockets of the trinket after watching them take it. The guards may have
then incorrectly assumed I’d been responsible for it being stolen. We cleared
up any misunderstandings with no blood shed,” she finished.

Ryu had once again pinned the three
under his sharp gaze before the end of Tate’s explanation. They wilted,
beginning to sink back to their knees. Tate rolled her eyes, fed up with all
the tap dancing. They’d be here all day at this rate.

She slapped his arm and snapped,
“Quit it. I’d like them to explain what they need from me at some point, so I
can refuse and get on with my day. They can’t do that with you glaring at them
every five seconds.”

Umi’s faint gasp distracted Tate
from Ryu. Tempest regarded Tate with wide eyes, acting like she’d just hit the
Dragon Emperor himself. Their deferential treatment of Ryu was beginning to
irritate Tate. It highlighted all the questions she had about Ryu and his past.

Tate folded her arms and waited
crossly for any explanations that might be forthcoming. She’d give them another
30 seconds.

Umi’s gaze darted to Ryu and then
back to Tate as she straightened. Her hands fluttered nervously up to check to
make sure her hair was still in its complicated twist at the back of her head.

Licking dry lips, she said, “An
object of great significance to my family was stolen about two weeks ago. We
were able to trace the people who took it to this city but lost the trail
before we could locate it.”

She would have continued when Tate
interrupted her. “Wait. Why me?” Tate turned to Ryu. “What in our history makes
you think that I am qualified to go hunting lost objects? I’m sorry Umi, but I
think your best bet would be to go to someone a little more experienced in
these matters.

“She can’t.” Ryu looked grim as he
spoke. “The object’s value would make it dangerous for outsiders to know it was
missing. No one can know it is gone, or there will be grave consequences for
Umi and her family.”

“Oh, that explains everything,
doesn’t it?” Tate said sarcastically. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m
an outsider.”

“Never mind that,” Ryu said. “Umi,
and in large part her guards, have led very sheltered lives with little to no
interaction with anything outside of Kairi society,” Ryu explained. “They are
having some difficulty navigating the cultural diffrences in Aurelia.”

Huh? Tate studied the three across
from her. Umi’s cheeks flushed a slight red under Tate’s observation while
Tempest met her eyes with a stubborn defiance that dared her to make a smart
remark.

Tate found it hard to believe that
they wouldn’t know how to interact with the people of the city.

She arched an eyebrow at Ryu.

“Their society is very different
from ours,” he said with a grim smile. “It is much more rigid and follows a
strict code that holds honor in high esteem. As a result, they’ve had
difficulty making any progress in their goals. That’s where you would come in.
You would act as a sort of guide in their quest. Plus you know how to navigate
amongst the less savory elements of the city because of your past. You’ll be
able to find out more than them.”

That and he wanted her to report
back on their movement, she finished grimly. Instinct told her there were
things he hadn’t shared, pieces of the puzzle that they had left out. The
hesitation every time they referred to the ‘object,’ as well as their
reluctance to say what precisely was missing was evidence of that fact.