Blu opened his mouth to reply, but there was fear in his eyes. He’d witnessed the marriage. He knew what it meant. Elaina had all but been declared queen, and he knew his sister would happily take away his toys. Blu turned to look at their father. Tanner shrugged, his eyes now glinting with amusement.
“Better obey the girl, lad,” Tanner rumbled. “She’s royalty these days.”
“You got my ship over there, Da.” Elaina had decided to forgo formalities and jump right in.
“Seem to remember we’ve had this conversation before,” Tanner said. “It’s my ship. They’re all my ships.”
Elaina drew in a sharp breath. “No. They’re all my ships.”
“Ah, I see the way of it now.” Tanner stood, towering over his daughter. “I send ya away ta find me some allies, and ya go and recruit them all for yaself instead, aye? What a grand daughter you turned out ta be.”
“You sent me away to be out of the way,” Elaina growled. “Ya never expected me to find any help, and when I get back, I find ya working for the very bastard you were supposed to kill. Thanks to you, Da, I’m now married to Drake fucking Morrass.”
For a moment Tanner looked as though he might strike her, and Elaina was ready for it, but he just growled and walked back to his seat. “It was the right thing ta do, lass. Ya mate, Stillwater, convinced me of that.”
Blu looked set to burst with whatever it was he wanted to say. Elaina shook her head at him, and he kept silent.
“I want my ship back, Da,” she pressed.
“Aye. Take it then. Ya crew are all still there. Well, all but that treacherous weird of a first mate. Bastard tried telling me ya had run afoul of a bad take. Said ya got stuck and thrown overboard.”
“You didn’t believe him?”
Tanner laughed. “Ya might be ungrateful, but ya still my daughter. Didn’t take much for ya crew ta turn on the fool. Had him strung up in front of all of the town. Dumb bastard didn’t think he’d run into me here, eh?”
“You let the rest of the crew live?”
“Aye. Can’t go wasting the bodies, no matter how serious the crime. Killed the ring leader and be done with it. The rest can fight and die for your throne, Ya Majesty.”
Elaina stood there for a few moments longer, unsure of what to say. “Well, uh. Thanks then, Da.”
Tanner laughed. “A thank ya from a queen. Treasure that one forever, eh?”
Elaina nodded and turned away, thoroughly confused as to whether she’d just earned her father’s respect or lost it.
Walking up the gangplank to Starry Dawn, Elaina felt a fluttering in her stomach. Despite Alfer, Pollick, and Pavel being right behind her, she was nervous. This was the crew she’d hired, built up, helped train, and led to riches a hundred times over. It was also the crew who had mutinied and sailed her ship away from port, leaving her stranded in a strange city with nothing but the clothes on her back. Elaina wondered what had happened to the rest of her clothes, and her other possessions. Had Rovel thrown them overboard, sold them on, or just left them where they were? It didn’t matter, really – they were only things, and she could always get more. What did matter was that the ship was hers again, and this time she’d never let Starry Dawn go. She stepped up onto the main deck and felt the weight of many eyes turn her way. It was possible the crew hadn’t yet heard of her return, let alone her marriage to Morrass. A few of them started to slink away while others just stared in shock. Surge was on deck, wearing a stupid grin, and he was standing next to a man Elaina recognised all too well – her father’s raping son-of-a-shit first mate, Mace.
“Get the fuck off my ship,” Elaina hissed. Her cheeks felt as though they were on fire, but she didn’t care.
Mace looked her up and down, cautiously. Elaina felt her skin crawl.
“Ain’t your ship,” he said slowly. “It’s ya da’s.”
Elaina stalked over to him, fighting to retain control of herself. Just being close to the rapist made her want to both vomit and claw his beady eyes from his skull. Her skin itched, and the shame and anger she’d been suppressing for so long raged inside her.
“Off!” she screamed.
Mace didn’t move, or at least he didn’t move fast enough for Elaina’s liking, and she saw all manner of red. Lashing out with a wild fury, Elaina punched the bastard square in the face. Mace stumbled and grunted. Elaina wasn’t finished. She followed up with another punch, and another, and another, and another. Each time she swung at him, Mace tried to get his hands up to block, but he was off balance and reeling, and Elaina knew full well how to throw a punch.
By the time Mace finally went down, collapsing onto the deck in a heap, Elaina was shaking and her fist was dripping blood. Judging by the stinging, she guessed not all of the blood was his, but she blocked out the pain.
“Rope,” Elaina ordered, her voice breaking a little with her fury. A moment later Ed the Navigator appeared with a short length. It wasn’t fit for rigging, but it was long enough and sturdy enough for the job at hand.
“Tie it off,” Elaina said as she quickly knotted a noose in one end.
Mace was starting to come around, trying to get his hands beneath him to stand, so Elaina hit him again, a solid punch followed by an even more solid boot that left him spitting teeth and blood on the deck of her ship. Elaina knelt down and forced the noose over his head.
With a grunt that was all raw power, she pulled Mace over to the railing and lifted him up against it, then pushed him over the side and jumped backwards out of the way of the rope as it pulled taught.
Elaina breathed heavily, still shaking, her emotions a whirl that she was struggling to decipher. Mace was kicking against the hull of Starry Dawn, the rope choking the life from his filthy body.
“I’m back,” she announced to the crew. “Ship is mine again.”
Nobody argued.
“Good.” Elaina looked over the railing. Mace was still struggling to stay alive. “Make sure this fucker is good and dead, then cut him free. I’ll be in my cabin.” The crew stayed silent, so Elaina nodded, more to herself than to anyone else, and made quickly for the captain’s cabin. She hoped she’d get there before the tears hit.
Chapter 54 - The Phoenix
“We’re not having this conversation,” Keelin said.
“Why not?” Aimi said. “Seems we haven’t had a conversation in months. Might as well start up again with this one.”
“We’re not having it because you are getting off my boat, now.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Damnit, woman.” Keelin threw his hands up in the air and stalked over to the window. “Why won’t you just listen to me for once?”
“Why won’t you stop trying to protect me? I don’t need protecting. I managed just fine on my own before I met you, and I’d manage just fine on my own now.”
Keelin opened his mouth to argue and quickly shut it again, taking a moment to calm down a little. “But you’re not on your own, Aimi. You’re pregnant. I’m moving you off the ship because I… we are about to sail into a battle, and I don’t want you involved in it.”
“Stop trying to protect me.”
“No.”
Aimi let out a growl that was all frustration and collapsed onto the bed with a sigh. “This isn’t working, Keelin.”
“It hasn’t been for a while,” he admitted.
“That why you fucked Captain Bitch back in HwoyonDo?”
Keelin sighed. Months at sea and months of the same arguments over and over again. Since HwoyonDo, Aimi had gone from cold to downright abrasive and nothing Keelin did seemed to make a damned difference. He couldn’t blame her for being angry. Keelin had fucked Elaina, and they all knew it. Aimi had every right to be angry, but she also refused to listen to reason. Keelin only wanted what was best for her, and for their child, and what was best was not being on the ship in the middle of a war.