She smiled and before Dexter knew it, she slid off the edge of the bed and was on her knees and moving seductively towards him. She sucked on her finger and then pulled it out and dragged it down her chin and neck, then across her chest until she slid it beneath her dress to tease both herself and Dexter. Dexter’s breathing came faster. Her hands were on Dexter’s knees then, gently parting them so she could move between them undisturbed. Dexter looked down at her, eyes wide and his nostrils flaring with excited breath.
Someone knocked at his door, the harsh sound intruding upon the atmosphere of the room. Dexter looked up sharply, snapping out of the lust induced spell she had weaved. When he looked back at her he saw she was missing. Looking up he saw her back on the bed, her bodice once again tightly laced and everything perfectly in place about her. He gaped at her, not understanding.
“Is a thousand gold enough for the journey, Captain?” she asked loudly enough for whoever was outside his cabin to hear him.
Dexter shook his head and cleared his throat. Grasping for straws he said, “Twelve hundred and it’s a deal.”
She nodded, smiling and winking at him. “A deal is struck, I shall have it loaded and you can be on your way. The cargo must be delivered to the governor of Grafton, Sir Drayful the Wise.”
She rose up and opened the door, revealing Bekka, Jenna, and Rosh standing outside in the hallway. Dexter followed her out into the hallway and watched as she walked a few paces to the circular staircase.
Jarnella stopped, her foot on the first step, and said, “Oh, Captain, please give Sir Drayful this when he gives you payment for the cargo.” She slid her hand in the slit in her skirts, making it disappear somewhere on her upper thigh. Her hand reappeared a moment later holding an ornate key with a ribbon tied around it. She tossed it through the air to him, which he caught with no difficulties. By the time he had it in hand her skirts were vanishing from their view at the top of the stairs.
“Where did she keep that?” Rosh asked, eyes wide and excited.
Dexter looked at him, opened his mouth to respond, then thought better of it and closed it. It was warm to the touch but he knew damn well from what he had glimpsed earlier that it had not been hidden next to either of her thighs. Dexter just smiled and winked at him, then followed Jarnella up onto the main deck.
Jenna gave him a funny look as he left, while Bekka gazed thoughtfully at Jarnella. Rosh stood still for a moment, trying to decide whether he should be upset or not at Dexter’s response.
“Captain, something’s been bothering me,” Bekka confided in him several days after they had left Port Freedom. They were swapping out on the helm, something that Dexter was discovering he might not want to be a regular part of much longer.
He loved flying a ship, that much was true, and he was a good pilot. However, he often felt that his time could be better spent not glued to the helm as he often was. He wanted to make Bekka the primary helmsman — er, helmswoman, but she would need a backup or two, and thus far he did not have enough crew to support such a thing. They still ran extremely lean, something he hoped to fix.
But first he had more immediately things to deal with. “What’s bothering you?” he asked her, rising up from the seat and letting her take over. He stretched out his stiff muscles while he waited for her to find the words.
“It was Jarnella,” she began. Immediately Dexter’s heart beat a little faster at the memory of the intoxicating and seductive woman. “Well, not just her. All of Ormitor’s servants were a bit strange.”
“A bit strange?” Dexter asked. If only she knew the half of it!
“Yes Sir, I can tell things about people, it’s part of my talent, like if they’re special or not,” she explained.
“Special?” Dexter asked, raising an eyebrow.
Bekka frowned. “Not special, really… but different. Magical, I guess.”
It was Dexter’s turn to frown. “Magical?”
“Yes, there is something about them that is unnatural and magical,” Bekka said.
Dexter nodded. It made sense and explained both Jarnella’s otherworldly seduction and the trick with the laces of her bodice. He almost grinned as he remembered how he had particularly liked that trick.
“Are they his apprentices?” Dexter wondered aloud.
Bekka frowned and shook her head. “I don’t think so. I can’t explain why, but they don’t seem to be practitioners, rather magic is a part of them.”
Dexter took a deep breath and let it go. He smiled his understanding, or lack thereof, and thanked her, then let her take over the helm while he made his way up to the main deck.
The stars moved slowly at first, then faster and faster as the Voidhawk reached cruising speeds under Bekka’s skilled guidance at the helm. Dexter paid little attention to them, however, instead he stood off the bow and stared into their future, pondering the nature of his current employer almost as much as he pondered the nature of his servants. Mixed here and there in his thoughts were questions about his cargo as well.
“Captain,” Jenna said, coming up beside him. It was a greeting more than a question or a prelude to something else.
Dexter sighed and let his unanswered thoughts slide. He turned and offered Jenna a smile. “How’re things running?” he asked her.
Jenna shrugged. “Kragor’s done a fine job with the ship… for a dwarf,” she said. “Rosh handles the rigging well, and everyone else chips in as needed. We’re running lean at tactical speeds, but doing well out here.”
Dexter nodded, her observations mirrored his thoughts as well. “I want to add a few more hands, I think,” he said rhetorically. “A couple more helmsmen would be nice, giving us spare hands on deck and let me get off the helm and be a proper captain.”
Jenna smiled. “I don’t know if there’s anything proper about you,” she said with a smile. Then she added, “Sir.”
Dexter chuckled and took note that she was wearing her studded leather cuirass, greaves, bracers, gloves, and boots that he had seen her oiling. She noted his interest in her body, or at least her attire, and smiled appreciatively, but did not comment.
“Figure out what our cargo is yet?” Dexter asked her, knowing her curiosity would have her poking around it.
She shrugged. “Something in a box. Bekka insists there’s magic about it, so I’ve been staying away.”
“I thought elves had a sense of magic about them?”
Jenna snorted at his question. “And I thought humans bred like rabbits and had no wits about them.”
He chuckled. “Alright, sorry, you’ve a point there.”
He looked at Jenna a little more closely, suddenly realizing something. “You’ve been talking to Bekka?”
Jenna shrugged. “Here and there. It’s a small ship, not much for conversation. Besides, Kragor’s and Jodyne are dwarves; you’re always turning me down, which is bad for a girl’s self-esteem; and Rosh is…well… Rosh.”
Dexter chuckled, Rosh was indeed Rosh. He could not help but like the big guy, however. His simple ways were not proof of a simple mind, as he had first thought. Instead it was just the man’s way of dealing with life to keep matters from becoming complicated.
Dexter smirked at his armsmistress’ response, but kept his thoughts to himself, lest he provoke her unnecessarily.
“What about that wizard’s whores?” Jenna asked, surprising him.
“His whores?” Dexter asked, the word somewhat uncomfortable in his mouth. “They are his servants, not whores.”
Jenna gave him a disdainful look. “The man kept all four of them in his cabin with him. You really think he wasn’t enjoying more than conversation.”
Dexter chuckled in spite of himself. He certainly could not blame the man if he was. In fact, that many beautiful women…
Jenna’s gaze narrowed slightly as she saw the grin on his face. She spat over the railing and walked away. Dexter watched her go, wondering what had bothered her so much. He found his gaze drawn to the way her hips swayed. He noted that they seemed to sway even more when she was angry, although why she was angry he did not know.
Dexter also noted that he desperately needed to bed a woman. Much longer without and he might even start finding Rosh and Kragor appealing!
