just as I was.
So now I stood at the bow of the blue-sailed ship that had driven us into the reefs (thereby destroying our ship, our belongings, and very nearly ourselves); abducted us from an island (and from my horse!); and now planned various nefarious undertakings with some poor little old lady who wasn't long for the world. A world that was, to me, markedly alien, if only to look at. I suppose one harbor is very like another. But this one struck me as- creative.
Skandi itself was an island. But it wasn't shaped like a proper island, supposing there is such a thing; it was in fact very much a ruin of an island, the leavings of something once greater, rounder. This island was not like any other I'd seen on the way, because most of the island was missing.
Imagine a large round clay platter dropped on the floor. The entire center shatters into dust. Oddly, all that remains whole is the rim of the platter, but it's bitten through at one point. And yet Skandi's platter rim isn't flat. It juts straight up from the ocean as a curved collection of cliffs, layer upon layer of time– and wind-carved rock and soil, afloat, anchored by some unseen force far beneath the surface. And the platter, viewed from above, might better resemble a large cookpot, a massive iron cauldron, with the ocean its stew. We, a ship in the harbor, were one of the chunks of meat.
Del came up beside me. She gazed across the harbor that more closely resembled a cauldron, eyes moving swiftly as she took in the encroachment of island that opened its arms to us in a promised embrace. Our little chunk of meat floated now in the center of the giant cauldron, and I had the odd sensation that the invisible giant looming over our heads might spear us with his knife as a delicacy.
'It's a crown,' Del mused. 'A crown of stone, encircling a woman's head, and the water is her hair.'
That sounded a lot more picturesque than my stewpot. 'Not a very attractive crown.'
'No gold? No precious stones?' Del smiled briefly. 'But there is the City, Tiger. Is it not jewellike?'
Well, no. Unless Del's giantess with her crown of stone was clumsy, because it looked to me as if she'd dropped her box of pretty rocks and spilled them over the edge of her skull.
Skandi was stewpot, crown, broken platter. From the water the remains of land reared upward into the sky, ridged and humped and folded with all its bones showing. The interior of the island itself was broken, cruelly gouged away, so that the viscera of the body gleamed nakedly in the sun.
The jewels Del spoke of were clusters of dome-roofed buildings. A parade of them thronged the ragged edge of the island's summit, then tumbled over the side, clinging haphazardly to shelves and hummocks all the way down to the water's edge. There were doors in the rock walls themselves, wooden doors painted brilliant blue; there were blue doors, too, in lime-washed buildings growing out of the gouged cliff face. Against the rich and ruddy hues of soil and stone, the blue-and-white dwellings glowed.
'The vault of the heavens,' Prima said, coming up on my other side. 'The domes and doors are painted blue to honor the sky, where the gods live.'
'I thought I wasn't supposed to know anything about Skandi.'
She smiled, looking beyond me to the face of the island. 'A man seeking his home may ask his captain about it.'
'Ah.' I nodded sagely. 'And can this captain tell me what comes next?'
'Harbor fees,' she said crisply. 'Port fees. Inspection fees. Docking fees.'
'Lot of fees, that.'
Prima Rhannet's eyes laughed at me. 'Nothing in this life is free. Even for renegadas.'
'And after all these fees,' I said, 'what happens next?'
'Say what you mean,' the captain admonished. 'What happens to you. '
'Us,' I corrected.
Prima's brows arched. 'You and me?'
'No, not you and me …' I jabbed a thumb in Del's direction. 'Me and her. '
The captain affected amazement. 'But I thought you were having nothing to do with one another!'
'There are times,' Del put in, 'when we don't. Then there are times when we shouldn't, but we do.'
'And times when you do because you think you should.' Prima nodded, slanting a glance at me. 'I thought as much. But did you really believe it would work, that performance?'
'Stupid people fall for a variety of things,' I mentioned.
'Is that to be taken as flattery?'
I cleared my throat, aware of increasing frustration and a faintly unsettled belly. 'Returning to the point at hand…'
'Oh, yes.' She nodded, bright hair aglow in the sun. 'What happens to you.'
'Us,' Del amended.
Hazel eyes were laughing at us. 'But there will be no 'us.' '
I drew myself up in what many consider a quietly menacing posture.
This time the captain laughed aloud. 'Do you believe I would permit you both to go ashore? Together?' She paused. 'Do you believe that I do not believe you would not try to escape?'
'I don't believe I care what you believe,' I retorted. 'The simple fact of the matter is, if Del doesn't come ashore with me, I don't go ashore with me. Or, for that matter, with you.' I smiled at the petite woman. 'And I don't think you're strong enough to throw me overboard.'
As she shrugged, her blue-headed first mate appeared.
I promptly turned and latched onto the rail with both hands in the firmest grip I commanded. 'If you have him try to toss me overboard again, I'll take a piece of your ship with me!'
Prima Rhannet looked worried. 'No,' she murmured, 'we could not have that.'
Whereupon Nihko closed thick arms around Del and tossed her overboard.
I heard the blurted cry of shock, followed by the splash. I still hung onto the rail, but not because I feared to follow her. Because, shocked, I couldn't let go. This I hadn't expected any more than she had.
I saw her head break the surface, then pale arms. She slicked hair back from her face and squinted up at me. Whereupon I grinned in immense relief, then turned upon the captain my sunniest smile. 'Del, on the other hand, can swim. And now we're not all that far from the shore.'
That stripped the smirk from Prima's face. She glanced sharply at her first mate. 'Nihko, go.'
I spun in place, blocked his way, jammed a rigid elbow deeply into his abdomen just below the short ribs. As he began to bend over in helpless response, I brought the heel of my right hand up hard against the underside of his chin. Teeth clicked together, eyes glazed over, and he staggered backward.
It was beginning as much as ending. Prima was a small woman, no match for a man as big as me, but she knew it. Which is why she did not attempt to threaten me with her knife. She simply stabbed me with it, cutting into the back of my thigh.
I yelped, swore, started to swing on her-but by this time Nihko was upright again. He caught me before I could so much as see Prima's expression. I was slammed hard into the rail and bent backward over it. One broad, long-fingered hand was on my throat.
He did not squeeze. He did not crush. He did not in any way attempt to strike or overpower me. He simply put his hand on the flesh of my throat, and it began to burn.
I heard Prima say something about throwing a rope down. I heard her shout to Del, something about rejoining us if she knew what was good for me. Briefly I thought Del should just swim for it, but I doubted she would; and anyway, I had more on my mind than whether Prima would fish Del out of the water or if Del would condescend to be fished. My teeth were melting.
I thought my head might burst. Not from lack of air, because I had plenty of it. But from heat, and a pressure on the inside of my skull that made me sweat with it, gasping at the pain. It was if someone had set a red-hot metal collar around my neck.
Nihko murmured something. I didn't have the first idea what he said, because it was a language I didn't speak. Something muttered, something chanted. Something said.
Then he took his hand away, the heat died out of my head, and I fell down upon my knees.
'lo,' he said.
I put one trembling, tentative hand to my neck, expecting to feel blood, fluids, charring, and curled, crusted flesh. But all I felt were the sandtiger claws upon their leather thong, and healthy flesh beneath.
'lo,' he repeated, in satisfaction commingled with anticipation.
