Princess at Sea (45 page)

Bewildered, I stood by the wagon with my horses and watched him row back downstream with the outgoing tide. The wind tugged at me, rising and falling as I struggled to regain control of it and my chaotic thoughts both. The snickering lies in my head echoed and laughed. Not believing what had happened, I pulled my hair from where it was sticking to my face, only now realizing tears streaked it.

He just left. I didn't understand. He asked me to go with him, and when I asked him to wait, he just rowed away.

The horse pulling the wagon nickered nervously when I
wrapped her reins about the rotting railing. I rubbed a cold hand down her bony face to try to soothe her, but she was picking up on my nervousness and would have nothing to do with it. Giving her a final pat, I stepped away, every part of me listening, tense for any noise that might come from the dilapidated shack.

The abandoned building's porch ran the length of the house, hanging over the tidal river in what might have once been pleasant but now only looked dangerous. On the other side, the chimney had fallen outward to leave a gaping hole. Bushes were growing in the opening, reaching past the rotting edges of the walls for the sun.

I straightened my raggedy dress and headed to the three steps, skipping the first as it was entirely gone. Duncan's behavior had me bewildered. I would have been angry with him if I understood. It was with an odd mix of confused hope that I edged cautiously from the steps to the porch, not knowing if I should call for Contessa or not.

A board threatened to give way, and I jumped to another. There was an obvious creak and thump, and with a horse nickering at my flailing arms, a masculine laugh came from inside. Fear burned through me. Duncan had taken the ransom to the boat, and only honor would keep them holding to their end of the arrangement now. And there was little honor among thieves.

“Duncan, my lad!” came Captain Rylan's chuckle from inside. “You've outdone yourself. What did you do? Steal her horse as well as her heart?”

Skirts gripped tightly in one hand, I felt for the hilts of my three knives tucked in my waistband and loosened my bullwhip around my waist. Not knowing what I'd find, I stepped before the open doorway and looked into the rotting house.

The light coming in the broken ceiling was green with new leaves and dim. Lumps of the roof were scattered about, spindly saplings reaching for the sky around them. Squinting, I realized the humps weren't chunks of fallen roof but unconscious men. The sharp acidic smell of venom was everywhere. My lips parted when I realized the men on the floor were the crew.

For an instant I thought Jeck had discovered my trickery and gotten here before me, but then a jingling movement caught my attention and Captain Rylan rose to his feet from where he had been bent over the last pirate, fastening a knot tight. He turned, his wide grin vanishing when he saw me standing in the doorway to block the light.

“Where's Contessa?” I said, not understanding.

“You!” he barked, the bells on his boots chiming as he drew himself to his entire height. “What are you doing here?”

“Where's my sister?” I repeated, voice shaking as my fingertips touched my knife hilts.

“Where's my money?”

He took a step closer, and I fought to remain unmoving. My eyes had adjusted, and I shot a glance at the men slumped before me. Were they dead? I wondered, but then decided no one would tie up dead men.

“I said, where's my money?” he said, standing in his faded finery with the bells on his boots gently ringing.

Confusion trickled through me, tightening my fear.
He doesn't know?
“Duncan has it.” Frightened, I stepped inside and out of the doorway, fighting the urge to retreat onto the rotting porch. My knees went weak, and my throat closed up. Captain Rylan's eyes narrowed, and I added, “I gave it to Duncan. He's in the dinghy, taking it back to the ship. Where's my sister?”

“The ship?” he exclaimed, and a dove flew away from the rotting beams. “What the hell is he taking it there for?” Then he went deathly still in sudden thought, and I watched in alarm as emotions cascaded over him in a rapid fluidity. Question, followed by ugly realization, anger, and then fury. “The chull!” he said, and my breath came in a jerk. “The son of a chull!”

Legs trembling and wanting to run, I pulled a knife and showed it to him. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. “I did what you wanted,” I said, and his attention jerked to me. “Where's my sister?”

Captain Rylan ran his eyes up and down me. In an instant, I saw his decision. He was bigger than I, stronger. I had three knives and a whip that was of questionable use in such a small space. Breath coming in a quick heave, I spun to the doorway to flee. I could only pray he wouldn't use toxin to down me.

“No, you don't,” he said murderously softly, and a shriek slipped from me when the bells on his boots tinkled and his hand fell heavily on my shoulder. He spun me around, and I flowed with it, swinging my knife. He cried out in shock as my swing thumped to a halt. Swearing, he shoved me away. I stumbled back, cold when I caught my balance. My knife had a sheen of red.

I've cut him. Oh God, he'll kill me for that.
Frightened, I gathered myself to run when a panicked voice shrilled from a second room, “Tess!”

Contessa.
I froze, then leapt past Captain Rylan fingering his white shirt where my knife had struck. He looked up as I passed him, his lightly wrinkled face twisting. I burst into a dark room, my bloodied knife still in my hand.

On the floor by the wall were the dusky shadows of Contessa and Alex. They were both staring at me, bound about the ankles and wrists. Contessa had worked her gag free, and Alex's eyes were hard with a frustrated anger. Stiffening, Contessa's fearful gaze darted over my shoulder. “Behind you!” she cried, but I knew Captain Rylan was coming.

A hundred ideas fell through my mind. I couldn't free them and escape both. It was them or me. The decision was easy.

Palming my last remaining knives, I leapt to my sister. Contessa screamed another warning, her gaze fixed behind me. My legs were pulled out from under me. I grunted in pain as I hit the moldy floor. My breath was knocked from me, and gasping for air, I pushed my knives at Alex. Pain pulled my eyes shut when he moved his black boots to cover them.

“You little dock whore,” came Captain Rylan's voice, hot and heavy on my neck. His weight lifted, and I gasped for air as he yanked me up, and I hung from his grip like a rag doll. “Duncan and I are going to settle this right now,” he said.

He encircled my wrist, squeezing until my fingers went numb, and he plucked the knife I bloodied him with from my grip. The other two were safe with Alex, the darkness of the room having hidden my actions. I met the prince's eyes for a fleeting second. “Don't come back for me,” I mouthed, and my heart clenched when his face paled in understanding.

“Let her go!” Contessa shouted, ignored as Captain Rylan jerked me back into the green-shadowed outer room. “Tess!” she cried, voice going fainter.

I fought him, and the flat of his hand came out and struck a ringing blow across my head.

Gasping, I staggered, feeling myself yanked forward. I stumbled, almost going down when my foot found a hole in the floor. Pain lanced through my ankle, and he jerked me up. A cry of hurt came from me as my ankle flamed into agony, twisted.

“You'll be yelping more than that before I'm done with you,” the captain threatened. “You best hope he's in earshot, or you're going to die for nothing.”

“I gave you what you wanted,” I panted, hunched and trying to see past my hair. “I did what you said. Let me go!”

“Stupid, stupid little rich woman,” he said with a sneer, pulling me out onto the rotting porch. “Still don't understand, do you? I knew this was too good to be true. I broke my own rule and see what happened? I'll skin him alive for this. You aren't the only fool here. The difference is I'll be getting my money, and you'll be dead.”

He spun me around, pinning me to him with a thick arm. His chest pushed against my back as he took a huge breath. The stink of green-slimed boards assailed me, mixing with the scent of salt and sweat. “Duncan!” he bellowed, making the horses at the railing start and shy. “Duncan! I have your palace whore! Give me the money, and I'll let her go!”

“I don't understand,” I breathed, feeling unreal and dazed.

“No surprise there,” he muttered, his eyes scanning the thick brush surrounding the slack river. The sun was lost behind new clouds, and the wind brushed the tops of the trees. “You've been duped by the best, missy. I taught that pup everything he knows, and this is what I get? Maybe I taught him a little—too—well!”

He jerked his arm with the last words, pinching my bitten shoulder. Pain pounded from my shoulder, and I moaned as a shimmer of black flitted before my vision, then cleared. My knees buckled, but he held me up, the arm of his faded dress coat chokingly under my chin.

“Yes,” he breathed harshly into my ear. “Make some noise. Make sure he hears you. Call for him.”

I won't,
I vowed, then gasped when he dug his fingers into the newly healed wound. The dry rasp of my intake of breath was almost a scream in itself. “Duncan!” I shrieked, releasing the pain with my voice so it wouldn't drive me insane. “Oh, God,
Duncan
!”

“That's a good girl,” he soothed, his raspy voice tight in anticipation. “Call him again.”

“Duncan!” I raged, my throat hoarse and raw. I didn't understand, and I feared if I killed him with my hands I never would. Captain Rylan's fingers dug into me as if trying to meet his thumb on the other side of my shoulder, and I panted through the pain, almost passing out. A tickling trace of thought was forcing its way through the confusion and agony.

Duncan and Captain Rylan knew each other?
The cold shock raced through me, making my legs all but give way. The wind whistled down from the trees, striking the ground and billowing up into my face with bits of earth and bark.
They already knew each other.

“Duncan!” Captain Rylan shouted, jerking my hair to make me face the sky. “Hear her screaming? Don't do this to me, boy,” he threatened. “There's enough money for both of us. I'll hunt you down. I know your hiding spots. I bloody well showed them to you!”

“You know Duncan?” I panted, feeling the venom spill into me from where his fingers pressed my healing wound. My shoulder was damp and I could smell the metallic scent of blood. I think he had broken the new skin.

“Know him?” he snarled. “I all but raised him.”

My eyes warmed as the truth hit me, heavy and crippling. “You're Lan,” I whispered. “You're the one he took the thief mark for. You let them brand him for your crime and drag him through the street.”

“He found me last summer,” he muttered, his eyes searching the brush. “Told me he had the scheme of all schemes. A kingdom's ransom. All he needed was a little help from the master. Fifty-fifty,” Captain Rylan said bitterly, pinching my shoulder again. His fingers came away red with blood, and my vision started to blur.

Captain Rylan filled his lungs. “This isn't fifty-fifty, Duncan!” he shouted, deafening my ear. “Talk to me, or her next scream will be her last!”

“He's gone,” I said, dead inside.

“Then you'll be there to judge him at death's door when I catch up to him.” Captain Rylan jerked me to the end of the porch so he could look down the river. “Duncan!”

“He never loved me,” I said softly, the pain in my shoulder and ankle lost in a haze of heartache.

“No, you silly woman. He used you, just like he used me.” Bells on his boots ringing, he turned to look behind him. “Duncan!”

Muttering under his breath, Captain Rylan hauled me to the other end of the porch. The horses pulled back to the limit of their leads, frightened. “I'll skin him alive and make a purse out of it,” he said. “I'll cut off his hands and feed them to the dogs.”

He lied to me,
I thought numbly. The wind in my head gibbered at the wind in the trees, inciting it to swirl down to find me.
It was a scheme, a play. He never loved me at all.

Captain Rylan stopped his pacing and looked at the sky. The zephyr in my head howled joyously, and a blast of air beat down on the shack, sending the man to drag me to the back of the porch. I staggered in his grip, lost of will and empty of thought.

It had all been a lie. Maybe not from the start, but it had turned into one.

The wind chortled in glee, knowing it would win this time. It grew in me, calling the storm pushing on me to come and free it. “It was a lie,” I said, betrayal soaking into me like acid to leave an empty hole. It grew slowly, insidiously, then, like a dam breaking, it flooded my soul. “A lie!” I shouted.