He glanced up at her again and saw she was smiling even more broadly.
"I need to find them," he told her.
Beyond the waitress, other men in the tavern were starting to look at him, evidently noticing his distress at handling her and her attentions. One old sailor with a peg leg slapped his leg with glee, watching intently.
"I'll give you a hand," the waitress replied. She reached forward, dragging her fingers across his stomach.
He felt the heat of her touch through his shirt. Taking another step back, he broke the contact.
"I thought you wanted my help," she challenged. Above her smile, he noticed her eyes had taken on cold, calculating lights.
"Aye," Jherek answered nervously. "Could you point me in the right direction?"
"Yes. I can get you pointed in the right direction."
Her hand dropped to the front of his breeches, seizing his belt and pulling him forward till their bodies met. Before Jherek could decide how he could easily break out of her grip without hurting her or appearing too rude, she leaned in and kissed him, biting gently at his lips.
"Enough!" he said with iron in his voice.
He took her wrist in his hand and broke her grip, lifting her arm between them to use as a lever to keep her away.
"Are you sure?" she taunted. Her smile seemed brighter and colder than ever.
Blood pounded in Jherek's temples. He was embarrassed and angry, not understanding what he'd done to deserve such treatment at the serving girl's hands. Over the roar of anger that filled his ears, he also heard the rollicking laughter of the sailors.
"Unhand the woman," the bartender growled.
Jherek glanced at the big man and saw the oaken club he rested easily across the bar top. Reluctantly, the young sailor complied, stepping back again out of the woman's easy reach.
She closed on him at once and a fresh wave of braying laughter filled the bar.
Nimbly, Jherek pulled out a nearby chair and placed it between them, creating a momentary barrier against the woman's unwelcome attention.
Without hesitation, she stepped up into the chair. The tavern patrons hooted and shouted their support. She flung her arms wide, preparing to throw herself at Jherek, sensing that the young sailor wouldn't let her hit the floor.
"Essme!" the bartender called in his thunderous voice.
The waitress hesitated.
"It's enough," the bartender told her. "You've had your fun. Get back to work."
Reluctantly, the serving girl stepped down, away from Jherek. "Another time," she promised throatily, and blew Jherek a kiss.
Face flaming with humiliation, Jherek almost turned and fled the tavern. Only a recognized voice stilled him.
"What's wrong with you, boy?" a man gruffly demanded.
Jherek turned toward the man stepping out of the shadows behind him. He recognized Aysel from Breezerunner's crew, and the three men that stood behind him as the sailor's cronies.
"You too good for women a regular sailor has to bed down with if he's to know something warm and willing?"
The small daggers hanging from Aysel's ears glinted in the dim light. His thick mane of black hair was held back in a rawhide thong, but his beard was unkempt, frosted with ale foam. His open shirt revealed the pelt of dark hair that coiled on his massive chest and covered his big belly.
Jherek guessed at once that Aysel and his companions had put the waitress up to her performance. He felt shamed that he'd reacted as he had, letting the deceit get to him. He should have thought more clearly and found a way to stop the serving girl without obviously rebuffing her. Malorrie, he knew, wouldn't have reacted in the same fashion, but the woman's advances had been too bold, too blatant, and somehow Aysel had sensed what effect they would have on him.
"You stand in a tavern filled with seafaring men who know how to appreciate a real woman's charms," Aysel stated. "Every manjack here probably feels insulted at the way you disrespected that woman." He glanced around and got the support, halfhearted as it was, of the rest of the sailors in the tavern.
"No disrespect was meant," Jherek replied. His voice sounded tighter and higher than he'd intended. He glanced at the serving wench, watching her move easily through the tables, back to business as usual. "Nor do I think any was taken."
Aysel raised his voice. "How about that, Essme? Do you wish to let bygones be bygones? I stand ready to take up arms in your defense."
He shifted, revealing the battle-axe at his side. The haft was four feet long, and the double-bitted head rested on the spur jutting from the top on the sawdust strewn floor, in a position to be easily swept up into action.
Jherek altered his stance, taking in air as Malorrie had instructed. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew that Aysel had borne him enmity since their first meeting on Breezerunner at the water barrel when Tynnel had called the man down for his behavior.
"I'm here on business," the young sailor stated easily.
"What business is that?" Aysel demanded.
"I need to speak with the captain."
"Cap'n's not here," Aysel said. His eyes remained flinty hard with challenge and anger. He raised his voice even louder. "Essme!"
The serving girl looked back at the broad sailor, and every head in the tavern snapped around to watch what was going on.
"What?" she asked.
"I asked if you wanted me to stand up for you in this matter of ill charity. A man should not be so cavalier as to spurn a woman's offered charms."
The serving girl appeared hesitant, then finally waved the offer away. Jherek got the impression she wasn't sure how much of the action was still play.
"It's no bother," she replied. "I claim no foul. After all, he's just a boy, not like one of the real men that fill this room."
The tavern goers shouted in glee, banging their empty and not-so-empty tankards down on their tables. A number of jests and curses filled the air at Jherek's expense.
Clamping his jaw tight, Jherek struggled to rein in his anger. Since being driven from Velen, having his identity and home stripped from him by circumstance, he'd been aware of the dark anger that had filled him, but it had been mixed in equal parts with the sense that he'd somehow deserved every bad thing that had happened to him. Evil clung to blood. That was believed by most people, and even Jherek admitted there was some truth to it.
Maybe he didn't deserve a home as other people did, and maybe one of the most feared and hated pirates of Faerun was all the family he'd ever had, but he didn't deserve Aysel's treatment. The man was more on his level. Jherek rested his hand on the worn hilt of his cutlass.
"Is Captain Tynnel here?" Jherek asked, pushing himself above the anger that swirled within him.
"Why?" Aysel demanded.
"I was sent to get a message to him."
"By who?" the big man asked. "Sabyna? She seems to be the only one you talk to these days. Always running after her with your nose up her skirts."
A tremor filled Jherek's arm and he barely stilled himself from drawing steel against the man. "Have a care," he said softly. "I'll not have her honor trampled while I'm standing nearby."
"Her honor?" Aysel guffawed, seeming genuinely amused. "She's a damned ship's mage, boy. She's used to men of the sea, and their ways. You jump on deck with your manners and your baby face and think she's just as virginal as you?"
Thunder crackled ominously in the back of Jherek's mind. He felt the precious control Malorrie had trained into him coming unhinged. His fingers felt like wire meshed around the cutlass's hilt. He tried to ignore Aysel's coarse words.
"If you see the captain, let him know I was looking for him."