Melda pressed a finger against the scale, and it shimmered. “According to the Book of Seas, it magnifies an emblem’s power.” She admired it from all angles. “It’s a rare, coveted treasure.” Jaw very tight, Melda handed it Vesper. “Here.”
Engle blinked in shock. Tor didn’t dare say a word.
Melda shrugged, her nose very high in the air. “You should hold it…for now. None of our emblems can truly be amplified to make much of a difference, but yours…” She sighed. “Even Violet said it, there are other ways, beyond the obvious, that your power is useful.”
Vesper raised an eyebrow, surprised. A moment passed before she carefully took the scale. It glowed in her palm. She nodded, then shrunk it down, adding it to her bracelet for safekeeping.
Engle grinned. “I did it,” he said triumphantly. “I caught a mythical sea creature. And practically all by myself.”
Melda gave him a look.
Engle ignored her and skipped to the table of warm drinks, grabbing himself a handful of congratulatory marshmallows meant for hot chocolate. With three in his mouth he said, “Hey, Forecastle, how’d you end up in that hole, anyway?”
Captain Forecastle sat on a barrel, and it groaned beneath his weight. “That there’s a long story.”
Engle turned toward the helm, squinting. He faced the pirate again. “Nothing for miles. We have time.”
Captain Forecastle shrugged. “All right then.”
Tor, Melda, Vesper and Engle sat on blankets before him, the pirate looking quite pleased to have an audience.
“The truth please,” Melda said. “No exaggerated hogwash.”
Captain Forecastle grinned. “Not to worry, young leader. This story hardly needs embellishing.”
He cleared his throat.
“Thousands of years ago, something on Emblem Island erupted, charring the whole island. Chunks of its original enchanted core went flying like mad, and were lost in the sea—unmatched treasures…jewels coated in power. The first pirates hunted these to their watery death. Why? Because just one had enough ability to topple cities, to end the greatest of enemies.” He took a long swig of his drink. “Over time, these ores of energy were split into many more pieces, then forged to make The Twelve. Objects, they were. A necklace, a ring, a pocket watch, a sword, a fork, even! Wouldn’t know it was so powerful unless ye made the mistake of touching one. Each pirate king received one, to be passed along his line. To split power equally.
“What they didn’t know, the fools, is that some of those jewels coated in magic were also coated in curses. A third of the families were struck by these curses, strong enough to be passed along through their family line for generations. One had all of their descendants born half fish. One was cursed with insatiable greed. One was cursed with having anyone they fell in love with perish.
“We are descended from one of those original twelve pirate families. One of the four that received a cursed jewel.”
Engle swallowed. “What was your family’s curse?”
Captain Forecastle shrugged. “A frozen lifeline when we reached adulthood. Back when those things mattered out on the sea.”
Engle frowned. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
He nodded. “Certainly not the worst. We never thought of it as a curse. Got to be young almost forever.” He pressed his chapped lips together. “But then, we fell in love with a woman destined to die. Her lifeline was nearly gone when we met. The blood queen agreed to transfer our curse to her, thinking it would save her life.”
Captain Forecastle looked past them, at something far away. “Didn’t know that when the blood queen transferred the curse, she made it worse. It froze our love’s lifeline, but it cursed her entire crew and trapped her in the sea. Forced her to watch her family age and die from afar and did not let her sleep. Without any rest for years, she went mad.” He lifted his palm, and Tor saw what had terrified the gamblers back in the Crusty Barnacle. Captain Forecastle’s lifeline began as a tiny line, then stopped, leaving a large gap across his palm. On the other side, it continued in a mess of mountains.
“It was Bluebraid,” Melda said quietly. “That’s why she hates you.”
Captain Forecastle nodded solemnly. “It’s forbidden for curses to be transferred, so that’s how we ended up where ye found us.”
Melda tilted her head to the side. “What did Bluebraid mean that she had to make a deal with darkness to have her curse removed?”
Captain Forecastle looked down at the deck. “When something erupted in Emblem Island and charred it, sending power flying into the sea, something was unleashed. Something broke through, that day. She made a deal with whatever that is.”
Tor swallowed. “What else do you know of this darkness?” he asked carefully.
Captain Forecastle shook his head. “Not much. And we’d like to keep it that way.”
He stood, bones cracking loudly as he did. He wiped his hands on his pants. “Well, that’s our tale,” he said. Captain Forecastle smiled, but Tor saw it didn’t reach his eyes. Not at all. He nodded at Engle. “Want to learn how to catch firefly shrimp, boy?”
Engle nodded enthusiastically. He followed Forecastle to the helm of the ship.
Melda murmured about taking a warm bath and disappeared below.
Vesper was biting her bottom lip, lost in thought. Staring at her palms, covered in pale lifelines.
“Do you…want to talk?” Tor asked. It seemed as if she had what his mother called a worm in her thoughts; a crawling anxiety that invaded one’s mind.
Vesper looked at him, eyes wide, as if desperate to say something. But then, the light in them dimmed once more, and she looked at the deck. “No,” she said sharply, getting up. “I appreciate your concern. But I don’t need a friend.”
The Girl with the Frozen Heart
There once was the daughter of a sailor who could never tell a lie. She was born and raised on the sea and saw truths tucked between the waves.
The girl could tell a woman she was with child, a thief
