“Yes,” he said at last. “Tell her… ‘Someday.’ ”
“ ‘Someday.’ A threat?”
“A date.”
I nodded, and yanked the rope twice. Hawk said, “Fair wind and following seas to you,” and turned away from the window before I lowered out of sight.
Descending through the mist was like leaving some alien place where evil gods lived and returning to the normal world. I stepped out of the basket and leaned against the wall. My heart felt like it was searching for a space between my ribs big enough to jump through.
Jane said, “So did he tell us-?”
Without looking, I held up my hand. I wasn’t up to the challenge of Jane’s jocularity.
“Sorry,” she said. “When you’re ready.”
At last my brain stopped swimming, and the clammy feeling faded. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, then faced everyone. The guards who’d been on basket-lifting detail didn’t meet my eyes. The warden’s expression was unreadable, but Jane gave me a surprisingly sympathetic smile. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“No,” I said, “just a monster.”
“So did he help you?”
“Yeah. We have a name. Wendell Marteen. Hawk says he was Edward Tew’s quartermaster, and survived the sinking of the Bloody Angel, ” I said. “If he’s still around-”
“He is,” the warden said.
“Don’t tell me he’s here,” I said.
“No, but it’s funny you should mention that. He just returned to the active list about a year ago.”
“Queen Remy has a list of wanted pirates,” Jane explained. “They consider it a badge of honor to be on it. Probably not the effect Remy had in mind.”
“Probably not.” I turned to the warden. “You said he’s ‘just returned’?”
“Yes. Nobody had heard a peep out of him for over a decade, and now suddenly he’s back. Took at least three cargo ships in the Southern Ocean off Fussell.”
The watery feeling finally left my legs, and I could breathe normally. “Then I guess we’ll have to go find him, right?”
“You’re the boss, boss,” Jane said.
We thanked the warden, and I retrieved my sword and boot knife. We untied our horses outside the prison gate and remounted them. The sun and breeze had eliminated the mist, and I could see the white window bars at the top of Rody Hawk’s tower. I wondered if he was watching. Just the possibility made the hairs on my neck rise again.
As we rode I said, “I want a drink. I don’t care what kind. Just as long as there’s a lot of it.”
“Wow, I’ve never seen you like this,” Jane said. “Was it really that bad?”
I desperately wanted to ask her how she’d managed to catch him, let alone take him alive. I suspected, though, that I didn’t really want to hear the answer. The way he’d taken the lock of her hair told me a lot of vague things I didn’t want made into specifics. “Nah,” I said with forced levity. “It was mainly the height.”
“I’m a little pissed at you giving him a lock of my hair without asking me. I suppose you traded that for information?”
“It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
“Uh-huh.” She looked off into the distance. “Did he have any message for me?”
I recalled his single word for her. I imagined how, if such a word was aimed at me, it would ride in the back of my head for the rest of my life, until it either came true or I died. I said, “No.”
“That smug bastard,” Jane muttered. “After all we went through together. So what now, boss?”
“I think there’s no avoiding it this time,” I said. “It’s time to raise sail. You go over the mountains to Mosinee and round us up a ship. I’m going to Neceda to give Angelina a progress report. I’ll be back in a week.”
“You going to stop and see that redhead of yours?”
“If she’s there. She might be off working.”
Jane grinned. “And you trust her to do that?”
“She ain’t Miles,” I said as I turned my horse and rode away. I didn’t look back to see if she was smiling or not, but as I reached the road, I heard her high laugh on the wind.
Chapter Seven
I made good time back to Neceda and got there a week later, in the late afternoon.
The tavern was crowded. Both Angelina and Callie worked the floor. Occasionally Angie had hired other girls, but none of them lasted very long; she was not, as you can imagine, an easy woman to work for. She demanded almost superhuman stamina and had no patience with mistakes. Callie succeeded, I always thought, because she never took Angie seriously.
I stood in the door until my eyes adjusted and waited for Angelina to notice me. When she did, she nearly dropped the tray of empty tankards she carried. She quickly regrouped and said, “You’re back already?” as if my appearance were worth no more than a raised eyebrow.
“It’s an update, not a final report. I need to talk to you alone.”
She waved at the full tables. “I’m busy right now.” “Then take a break, ” I said through my teeth. Normally, I wouldn’t have been so brusque, but I’d had the whole ride back to stew over the fact that she neglected to mention her son, and who knew what else. I was, to put it mildly, peeved.
She saw it, too. “Okay,” she said, and stepped over to catch Callie as she headed out with a fresh round of drinks. The younger waitress listened to Angie, then glared at me.
Upstairs, I closed both doors and gestured for Angelina to have a seat. As she did, I opened the windows to let in some fresh air. I said, “Looks like you need to get Callie some more help.”
“She’s the only girl in this town who comes in to work, not to snag a new boyfriend.”
“What about Minnow Shavers?”
“Are you kidding? She’ll be out of town as soon as her father looks away long enough. She can’t stand Neceda.”
I paused, took a deep breath, and tried to remain calm. Starting off with a rant seemed counterproductive. “Just so we’re clear on definitions, Angie, leaving out something really important counts as lying. So you lied to me.”
“About what?”
“Your son.”
Her expression didn’t change, and she said nothing.
“I met him,” I added.
She had to lick her lips before speaking. “And… how is he?”
“Grown up. And a little bitter,” I added wryly.
She continued to look steadily at me. “I didn’t realize he’d still be around Watchorn, or I would’ve mentioned him. I wonder who finally took him in when I left?”
I didn’t answer. If she truly didn’t know, that tankard of parental worms could wait for another day. “I have to tell you, Angie, I’m awfully close to giving you back your gold and dropping this right now. What else have you left out that might be important?”
“He’s the only thing. I really didn’t think he’d still be there. Will you think less of me if I say he hardly ever crosses my mind?”
“I’m in no position to judge anyone. That’s between you and your conscience.”
She said nothing for a long moment. “I can’t fix what I did to him. And it was still the best choice out of a pile of bad ones. For him, and for me. I’m sorry he’s upset about it, but life’s tough for everyone.”
Her blithe answer annoyed me, so I pulled out the big sword. “He’s a better parent than you, at least.”
That took a moment to sink in. “I… what?”
“You’re a grandmother.”
She blinked a few times, then looked down at her hands in her lap. At last she said, “A boy or a girl?”
“One boy. Not sure what the other one is.”
“Two?”
“Not much else to do where he is.”
She nodded slowly, the way you do when all the implications of something haven’t quite registered. “Then I suppose I should-”
“No. Don’t do anything. He doesn’t want to see you, and his life is chaotic enough. Just file it away under ‘Things I should’ve told Eddie before I sent him off on that wild goose chase.’ ”
“So are you giving up?”