Where Loyalties Lie

Chapter 28 - Starry Dawn

Elaina had been pushing her crew for days now, and it had paid off. Not only had they successfully escaped the Five Kingdoms naval patrol vessel, but they’d outdistanced Ocean Deep and Blu to make it back home to Fango at least a day ahead of the useless blue-bearded fool. Elaina would explain things to their father long before Blu could have his say, and she’d also present him with some of the more decadent items they’d pilfered from the Acanthian fluyt.

“Should be able to taste dry land in just over an hour, Cap,” Corin said from behind Elaina. “Pollick says he spies a ship looks a lot like The Black Death, so reckon ya da’s there.”

“Good,” was Elaina’s only reply. She’d been cold and then icy on top to her friend since they’d taken the fluyt, despite Corin’s apparent sobriety, but damn if the man didn’t deserve it. He was quartermaster aboard a pirate vessel – and not just any pirate vessel, but one belonging to Tanner Black. He should know better than to attempt his duties while high on Lucy. It wasn’t something Elaina was willing to accept from any of her crew, even her best friend, and her displeasure needed to be well known.

“Ya won’t, um…” Corin let out a heavy sigh. “Ya won’t tell him, will ya?” Corin had grown up with Elaina, and he’d seen the things Tanner Black was capable of. He’d seen that family and friends were spared no leniency just because of their ties to the man. Elaina’s father believed in gaining strength through pain and hardship, and he was no stranger to doling them out either.

“All of my crew’s discipline as well as their punishments are my responsibility, Corin,” Elaina said without looking at her friend. “This has fuck all to do with my da, and even if it did, the last thing I’d do is let his men get their grubby fuckin’ hands on ya.”

“Thanks, El.”

“I told you not to call me that anymore.”

“Sorry, Cap.”

“Is it a problem, Cor?” Elaina said quietly before her quartermaster could leave.

There was a significant silence. “No. No problem.”

“When was the last time you used that shit?”

“Day we took the fluyt. Day you found out.” Elaina knew her friend too well; the quiver in his voice betrayed the lie.

“Corin, if…”

“It’s fine, Cap. As you said it. What I do on my time is my affair, long as it don’t affect ship’s business. It won’t. I swear.”

Elaina turned, but her friend was already sprinting away across the deck in search of a job to do, and that was well and truly the end of it.

“What do we do with the loot, Cap?” said Rovel as Elaina leapt out of the boat and onto the pier.

“Nothing yet. Not until my da has had a chance ta look it over.”

“What the fuck?” Ylander shouted. The pirate was known for her shrill voice. “That loot is ours, not his. Why should…”

Rovel gave Ylander a hard slap across the mouth to quiet her – and not soon enough. Bad-mouthing Tanner Black on his own island was a feat only for the brave and foolish.

“We’re on his island,” Elaina said quietly. “He gets tribute, and that means his pick. Good?”

Ylander nodded, but she didn’t look pleased.

“I’ll be back soon,” Elaina said with a grimace.

Rovel folded his beefy arms across his equally beefy chest. “Do you need an escort?”

Elaina snorted and walked away.

Most people feared the Isle of Goats. They’d crowd around the populated places and only tread in “safe” areas marked by wards Tanner claimed were magical. It was true that men and women had been known to wander off into the jungle never to return; or perhaps they’d return, but changed beyond recollection. But the Isle of Goats held no secrets for Elaina.

She’d been born on the island, and raised both there and at sea. Early on in her life folk had warned her not to go out into the jungle, that it was dangerous – but that had only spurred her on. By the age of ten she’d explored every tree, every cave, every secret, and every mystery the island had to offer. It wasn’t that what she’d found hadn’t terrified her – it had – but Elaina wasn’t the type to be terrified into inaction, so she’d kept up her exploration and the secrets of the Isle of Goats were no longer secrets. They did still terrify her though.

Her mother lived in the island interior, far beyond the protective wards and well into the territory of the spirits that called the isle their home. She lived apart and alone save for the army of monkeys that she raised and fed and called her friends. Oljanka Black wasn’t entirely sane, and that was something Elaina had long ago come to terms with. Despite her obvious instability, the woman was strong and kind, and the only person in the world who could get away with upsetting Tanner Black. She’d given the man nine children, though only five had survived birth, and had the honour of being the only thing in the world that he truly loved. Elaina envied her mother for that.

She looked up at the tree house that her mother called home, squinting against the glare of the sun that glanced through the canopy above. The house was no more than fifty feet from the forest floor, certainly not the loftiest in Fango, and there were a few ways to reach it. A series of wooden planks had been nailed into the tree to form a makeshift ladder, and two ropes hung down the full length from house to ground. Elaina smiled as she remembered racing Keelin up those ropes. Stillwater was the only person who didn’t share their blood that Tanner Black had ever allowed to visit Oljanka’s home.

Ignoring hooting calls from above, Elaina set first her hands to the rope, then her feet, and started climbing. The climb was taxing yet didn’t take overly long. Elaina was well used to scaling ropes; it was almost second nature for her. Her brothers used to tease her, saying she’d been born with a tail and was actually the daughter of a monkey, not Tanner Black. Insults like that had created more than their fair share of fights, and Elaina had won most of them despite being smaller than all three of her brothers.

As she finished her climb and set her hands to the solid wooden decking of the tree house, Elaina found herself face to face with a monkey no larger than a cat. The little beast sat on its haunches, barring her way and staring down at the intruder with a curious expression on its almost-human face. Its eyes were big and round, and the diminutive creature held its tail in its hands, nibbling on the end of it in such a way that made it seem nervous.

“Move,” Elaina said as she held herself half in the tree house and half on the rope.

The monkey opened its mouth, showing a large number of sharp little teeth, and screamed at her.

Elaina sighed. “Mother.”

Oljanka Black wandered out of one of the tree house’s side rooms, nibbling on what appeared to be nuts much in the same way the monkey was chewing on its tail. She was grey and wrinkled, plump in a matronly fashion, but she had a piercing stare that could skewer a person at an impressive distance. Despite her appearance Oljanka wasn’t actually that old; years of hard living had taken their toll, and Tanner Black was, by all accounts, hard to live with.

“Oh, Elaina, it’s you. Up you come.” Her mother’s voice was soft and caring and full of warmth.

“I’m not sure I’m allowed,” Elaina said, staring pointedly at the monkey blocking her way.

“Zsheizshei,” Oljanka said firmly. “Come away from there. That’s my daughter.”

The little monkey bolted at its name, and only a second later was up Oljanka’s leg and disappearing into the voluminous folds of her patchwork dress.

“How long has it been, Elaina?”

“Too long, Mother.” Elaina pulled herself into the tree house and stood up, rolling a kink out of her shoulder. “Long enough not to have met that one before.”

Looking around, Elaina now saw more monkeys – many more. She gave up counting at twenty. Some of them lounged around, sunning themselves in patches of light. Others cleaned themselves or their comrades, and others watched the intruder with cruel, beady eyes. Elaina felt very vulnerable with so many sets of little teeth and hands close by.

“You won’t have met Zsheizshei then. He’s a little protective of me.” Oljanka Black stopped nibbling on the nuts long enough to embrace her daughter, and was then away into the room that served as a kitchen. “Doesn’t yet have the teeth or stones to be very formidable though.”

One of the monkeys let loose a mournful wail.

“Don’t argue with me,” Oljanka reprimanded the little beast. “Come. Sit down, Elaina. Tell me how you’re doing.”

With exaggerated care Oljanka began to sweep debris from the table in the centre of the room. Much of it was monkey hair, but there were also a number of wooden carvings that made Elaina’s eyes itch just from looking at them. Each one was placed in its own spot, no matter how insignificant it looked. Elaina couldn’t help but laugh. She’d grown up here in this house; for the first few years of her life it was all she’d known. She’d missed how meticulous her mother could be about even the smallest of things.

“I’ve missed you, Mother.” Elaina pulled out a rickety stool that was likely older than she was and sat down.

“Well, of course,” Oljanka said as she moved about the room, putting trinkets and tools away or moving them into new positions. “You wouldn’t be a very dutiful daughter if you didn’t. Have you seen the kettle?”

Elaina was about to ask why she would have seen it, when one of the monkeys let out a low noise that almost sounded like a husky whistle.

“You’re right. The fireplace does seem like the most likely spot for it, and – oh, look, you’re right.” Oljanka stopped next to Elaina for a moment. “You remember Rolo, always has to be right even when he’s wrong. Tea?”

“Aye.”

“And this time he’s right.” Oljanka walked to the fireplace, a reinforced stone monstrosity common in many houses on the Isle of Goats.

Elaina felt something tug on her britches and looked down to find a tiny, grey, bent-backed monkey staring up at her through milky eyes. She didn’t need her mother’s prompting to recognise Tchewie. The old female had been ancient even when Elaina was a child, and now she looked even more frail. Carefully, Elaina reached down, picked the little beast up, and set it on her lap, where it curled into a ball and promptly fell asleep.

“How many of these little monsters do you have these days, Mother?” The woman was pottering about by the fireplace, dropping all manner of crushed leaves into two cups.

Oljanka laughed merrily. “You know I can’t count past my fingers, Elaina.”

One of the monkeys hooted a few times. “Ptiti says there’s fifty-four of them, however many that is, but I wouldn’t take her word for it. I found her eating her own dung just this morning.”

Elaina’s mother returned to the table with two mugs of steaming broth, and set them down before moving away to find some other small task. The woman was incapable of staying still, and it was something that had driven Elaina near to madness as a child. It was having a similar effect now, but she knew there was nothing she could do to stop her.

“So, how is the world?” Oljanka said. “How are you? Still at daggers with little Blu?”

Elaina grimaced. “Blu ain’t so little no more, Mother. He’s pretty big now, in fact, and the spitting image of Father. Only he dyes his stupid beard blue.”

“Oh, I don’t remember him having a beard.” Her mother sounded sad. “I suppose it’s been a while since he came to see me.”

Elaina blew on her tea before taking a sip. She grimaced at the bitter taste. “I’m good, and the world is dangerous as always. Maybe a little more so these days.”

“Tanner came by the other day,” Oljanka said happily. “He said he would be gone for a while. I wish you would all just come back to me here. It’s so much safer in the forest.”

Elaina laughed. Most folk who set foot on the Isle of Goats were of the exact opposite opinion. Oljanka turned at the sound of her daughter’s amusement and crossed the room, cupping Elaina’s chin in her puffy hand and smiling down at her.

“Oh, my daughter. The dead are only dead until they’re not, and kings and queens are made of lust before love. The heart is black now, the light forgotten, but not all fortunes are made of gold. Winter wilts even the darkest of flowers. Walls. Where did I put the walls?” Then she was off into another room, cleaning, rearranging, and talking to her monkeys as though she hadn’t just said something utterly crazy.

Elaina sipped at her tea for a while, mulling over her mother’s words. The woman had been launching into such outbursts for years now, and Elaina had always wondered whether she even knew what she was saying. She looked down at the sleeping monkey in her lap and let out a long sigh. It wouldn’t be long before her mother fell into a shaking fit; they always followed the outbursts, and Elaina hated the thought of the woman being here alone when she collapsed.

It was hours later, and quickly approaching dark, when Elaina sauntered out of the jungle and into Fango. Some folk might find it hard to navigate in the dim light, but she knew her way around the Isle of Goats better than most men knew their way around their own bodies, and definitely better than any man knew his way around a woman’s.

An elderly seaman, long past retired, was sitting on a withered old stump and smoking a pipe. He squinted at her curiously for a few moments before cracking a rotten-toothed smile and greeting her by name. There weren’t many residents of Fango who didn’t know Elaina Black, and those that didn’t had, at the very least, damned well heard of her.

Elaina had put off going to see her father for long enough. Her visit to her mother had been a calculated delay, and she would need to present herself before the day was out or earn yet more of his disapproval. That was not something she could bear. She also needed to speak to him before Ocean Deep arrived and Blu got his say, or her idiot brother would no doubt poison their father against her.

Tanner Black always kept court at the same place whenever he set foot in Fango, and his choice wasn’t random. The Nymph was the town’s only brothel – and Tanner had seen to it that it remained that way. Nearly every pirate who set foot in Fango would frequent The Nymph, or at the very least pay a fleeting visit, and Tanner had eyes and ears in every nook, cranny, and whore. It was all part of his iron-clad control over the island and its people. And it worked.

The brothel was in the centre of town, a monster of a building spreading out across three of the largest trees in Fango. There were multiple entrances, all complete with ropes, ladders, and even donkey-powered cages for those that couldn’t manage – or couldn’t be arsed with – the climb. There were, however, far more exits from The Nymph than entrances, and many a drunken sailor had stumbled to find themselves on the fast track to the ground.

Elaina, never one to shy away from a little physical exertion, set hands and feet to rope for the third time that day and started climbing.

She’d been to a few brothels in her time – sometimes the places even had boy whores to her satisfaction – and one thing she hated about all of them was the smell. Stale perfume, stale booze, and stale sex filled the air, turning it thick with the stench. The noise was almost as bad. From the common room she could hear the clatter of badly played instruments and general revelry, but there was also the noise behind that. The grunts and gasps, the squeals and screams. Some men liked their women to be noisy and would happily pay extra for the fantasy that she was enjoying their clumsy attentions. The whores, being what they were, were always accommodating.

As she finished her climb, Elaina found one of her father’s men waiting at the top of the rope. It wasn’t uncommon for him to post sentries at each of the ways up, but Elaina instantly wished she’d picked a different entrance. Tanner Black’s first mate, Mace, was leaning against the outer wall of The Nymph. He leered at her with everything he was worth, which in Elaina’s opinion was less than nothing. The bastard didn’t say anything; he didn’t need to. They both remembered what had happened the last time they’d seen each other, and the memory sent shivers of rage coursing through Elaina’s veins every time she thought about it.

She had to restrain herself from attacking the leering bastard. She was armed with a sword and he only a wooden kosh, but even if she did prevail and send the monster stabbed and bleeding over the edge to his death below, her father would find out and punish her for it. Sometimes it was better to forget and live on no matter how difficult, and now was unfortunately one of those times. Elaina strode past the man, feeling his eyes on her the entire time, and fought the urge to hurry. Fought the urge to scream. Even worse was the knowledge that she would have to suffer him again later. If she used a different exit the bastard would think she was scared of him, and she couldn’t have that.

Pushing open the door and stepping over the threshold, Elaina was struck by everything she hated about brothels all over again. The smell inside was tragic, and the noise was viscous, but the atmosphere was contagious. Pirates sang, pirates danced, pirates fucked their way through a dozen prostitutes, and pirates paid respects to the man who allowed it all to happen around him.

Tanner Black sat in a large alcove, surrounded by whores and pirates all hanging on his every word and drinking on his generosity. The rest of the world may hate him, but here in Fango he was a king, and soon the rest of the isles would see him that way too.

An effeminate young man with plucked eyebrows, oiled hair, and a shaved chest sauntered over to Elaina. He was dressed only in shallow britches, and his sun-bronzed chest was hard with muscle. Some might mistake Quell for just another male whore attempting to stake a claim on a newly arrived customer – they would be wrong, and then some. He was the host, and management of both the house and the whores was his responsibility. Those who knew Quell respected him, and those that didn’t soon learned their mistake. There was some debate as to whether Quell preferred the company of men or women, but those that shared his bed, if any, kept quiet on the matter.

“Elaina,” he said softly. “Wonderful to see you again. Would you like a drink brought over to your father’s alcove?”

“Do ya have any mulled spirits? Rum can get a little tiresome, living aboard a ship.”

“Thankfully not all of the patrons share your misgivings,” Quell said with a practised smile of his silky lips. “We have some spiced whiskey from the northlands of the Five Kingdoms.”

Elaina narrowed her eyes at him. Goods from the Five Kingdoms were becoming rarer and rarer out in the isles. “The big bastard here just a couple of weeks ago?”

Quell nodded. “Captain T’ruck Khan. Apparently he still has some contacts from his homeland.”

“Aye, bring me a mug.”

“As you wish. And…” He flashed Elaina a genuine smile, though it was laced with pity. “I heard about… well, you know. Please try not to anger him here; I have a business to run, and violence is not it.”

Elaina stepped close to Quell, close enough to smell the sharp perfume he wore and see the individual hairs on his head.

“Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little face about that, mate. I’ll try not to get myself raped in your establishment.” It was all she could do not to spit at him, a man she usually got on very well with.

“I never meant to imply…” Elaina had heard it said that it was hard to make a whore blush, so what it said about her that the host was now turning an uncomfortable shade of red, she’d rather not know. Without waiting to hear the rest of his apology, she turned and approached her father’s court.

Tanner Black, never one to miss a beat, had likely been watching Elaina since she entered the brothel. Now, his eyes followed her all the way to his alcove, where any number of his men stood ready between him and any newcomers. It was a carefully chosen position within the brothel, as defensible as a fort, with high wooden chairs either side and a table as sturdy as a bulkhead that could be tipped up to provide extra cover. Elaina thought about speaking first, before her father could greet her in his usual derogatory way, but Tanner Black always had to get in the first and the last words. To deny him either would only rouse his anger, so Elaina waited for him to acknowledge her.

“Well, boys, will ya look at that,” Tanner said, ignoring the two whores and the female pirate all crowded into his court. “Arrived this mornin’, me daughter did. Sailed right up next ta me own ship, an’ only now does she think ta come an’ see Cap’n Black.” Her father had an annoying habit of talking about himself as if he were someone else. It was something Elaina had always hated.

“Rude, is what that is, Cap’n,” said one of Tanner’s crew, a burly pirate with a mouth full of rotting teeth.

“Careful, Flow.” Tanner glanced at the pirate. “That’s me daughter ya speakin’ of, an’ she’s worth ten of all of ya.”

Elaina almost smiled, but her father would turn on her if he caught it, and she was counting on staying in his good graces this visit. “I went ta see Ma.”

“Aye?”

“Aye.”

All of Tanner’s court went silent, and the music and singing and fucking nearby seemed all the louder for it. Everyone knew that Elaina’s mother was cracked in the head and crazier than a deep blue storm, but no one dared mention that fact with Tanner around. The last man who had had found himself staked down and cut open from groin to collar, left to rot for a week until maggots erupted from the open wound and ate him from the inside. It was the first and last time anyone but family had mentioned Oljanka’s illness to Tanner’s face, and even family only spoke of it in private.

“Is she well?” Tanner’s dark eyes searched Elaina’s face for any hidden message. She gave none.

“Strong as a woman half her age,” Elaina said proudly, knowing that much was true at least.

“Aye. Well, she misses you.”

“She asked after Blu.”

Tanner growled. “Ungrateful cur hasn’t been ta see her in years. Carried an’ raised him, an’ he don’t even know he’s born.”

This time Elaina did smile; turning her father against Blu had always been one of her favourite pastimes. Unfortunately, turning Tanner right back against Elaina had always been one of Blu’s.

“I’ve a hold full of goods ya might like, Da,” she said, deciding not to push her luck. “Fancy spice wines from the desert. Some rugs look like they’re made of snake skin. And a bunch of gems right for the cutting.”

“Aye? Well, girl, ya best take a seat an’ get ta drinkin’ that shit Quell’s brought ya. Cap’n Black ain’t nothin’ if not generous ta those that are generous ta him.”

Just like that, Elaina found herself back in her seat at her father’s court and back in his good graces. She knew full well the trick would be staying there.