“That’s all certainly true, Ghassan, but you’re the one who’s always going on about duty and what’s right. Do you think for a minute that we’d be doing the right thing sending her back to Pelasia so she can plot the downfall of King Ashar?”
Ghassan frowned as his brother went on.
“Pelasia’s been nothing but trouble for the last two decades and now, at last, there’s a good, reasonable, educated man on their throne; a man who wants to tighten ties with the empire. He’s the man who exiled Asima and, I gather, dislikes her intensely. Given that Asima knifed one of her oldest friends just because you were in her way, what do you think she has planned for the King of Pelasia?”
“But she couldn’t…”
“She could, Ghassan. And she will if someone doesn’t stop her. I asked her why she was going back and she told me flat that it was ambition and revenge.”
Ghassan continued to shake his head.
“She’s a wild animal, Ghassan” Samir said, shaking his head sadly “and while I won’t put her down, she needs to be tamed.”
“I’m a what?”
They both looked round to see Asima’s face at the carriage window.
Samir beamed at her.
“Ah, the wildcat is awake. Good morning, Asima.”
The door burst open and their captive dropped heavily from of the vehicle, striding across the ground angrily to the brothers.
“What is the meaning of this, Samir?”
The pirate captain treated her to a warm smile.
“I’ve been selfish, Asima… very selfish. Now it’s time to think of others for a change… people other than you. Time to give the world a breather and remove you from the game for a while.”
Ghassan shook his head.
“So that’s the plan? We take her on board and flee? I presume there’s more to your scheme than this?”
Samir nodded.
“Oh, far more, Ghassan. And, Asima? Bear in mind that despite everything you see, what I am doing is as much for your own good as everyone else’s; possibly more so.”
Asima folded her arms defiantly.
“Is that so? Kidnapping me for my own good?”
Samir nodded.
“At some time since we were children, you came to a fork in the road and went down the wrong one and it’s turned you into this. But the nice thing about roads is that you can walk down them both ways, even back to that fork so that you can go the right way this time.”
Asima blinked. Twice in a day she’d been told much the same thing, by both her oldest friend and that witch in the rags. Why was everyone so damn perceptive these days? Casting the blackest look she could muster at the brothers, she turned to the small, wiry man in black.
“On the assumption you are for hire, little man, I will pay you handsomely to protect me from these two and to escort me on the rest of my journey.”
Grim, a long-time resident of M’Dahz’s most dangerous streets and a regular employee of Samir, grinned a largely toothless grin at Asima.
“You see, if it weren’t for our ‘arrangement’ with Samir, here, I’d be tempted to take you up on that offer, but be grateful I’m not about to cross him. Woman like you? You’d never get there. We’d have taken your money and then sold you to the desert traders for a lot more. Or maybe, we’d just have stopped for a while and had some fun on our own and left you in the desert. It can be a lonely life.”
Asima sneered at him and spat at his feet.
“Pig!”
He laughed.
“As I said, woman: be grateful.”
Samir stepped forward.
“You’re coming with us, Asima. I would rather you came aboard quietly and willingly, but I will settle for any other way if necessary.”
He sighed as he saw the colour rise in Asima’s face, her jaw clenching ready to launch into yet another tirade.
“Oh, for Gods’ sake!”
Stepping past Samir, Ghassan swung a powerful punch, fast and unexpected, connecting with Asima’s jaw and cheek so hard that it spun her on her feet and threw her to the ground. Samir blinked.
“You never cease to amaze me, brother.”
Ghassan shrugged and then bent to collect the unconscious woman from the floor and throw her gracelessly over his shoulder, staggering momentarily as his leg wobbled beneath him.
“Well, she was starting to get on my nerves.”
As Samir laughed, the pair of them nodded their goodbyes to the ‘port dogs’ as they gathered their gear and prepared for the long journey back to M’Dahz. Ghassan passed the silent form of Asima, a welt already beginning to show on her cheek, to Ursa, who took her, grinning as the three turned toward the boat that would take them back to the Empress.
“Two mad bastard captains, now. This is going to be an interesting voyage.”
Part Five: The kindness of strangers, the cruelty of friends
In which captains collude
Ghassan shook his head once again and tapped the table with his index finger.
“Nothing good can come of this, Samir.”
“I think that’s blatantly untrue, Ghassan.”
Again, the shaking of the head. The taller brother sat in a heavy wooden chair opposite his sibling in the captain’s cabin of the Dark Empress, swaying slightly with the motion of the ship through every dip and swell.
“I don’t mean your plan in general. It’s a good plan. I have nothing against your plan. In fact it’s the sort of thing I’d have liked to have come up with myself and I can’t argue that I’m pleased you finally decided to take me into your confidence…”
“So what’s the problem?” Samir grinned.
Ghassan ran his fingers through his wild, curly hair, getting them caught in the salty locks. Irritably, he raked his hand free and sighed.
“Actually, I can see a few gaping holes in your logic, though I can assume you’ve already spotted them and have some clever-arsed way around them. No. The big problem is Asima.”
“I think that just being near her befuddles your mind, brother” Samir answered with a shrug. “You’re all over the place when it comes to Asima.”
Ghassan gave his brother a hard look.
“It’s true” Samir laughed. “You don’t trust her, but you still feel sorry for her. You agree that we can’t just leave her to go merrily cutting a swathe through the innocent population of Pelasia, but you also don’t want to confine or inconvenience her. You don’t want her free, but you don’t want her anywhere near us. You see what I mean?”
Ghassan shook his head again.
“You make it sound worse than it is.”
“Enlighten me, then.”
“What Asima has become is the product of what has been done to her. We remember her as a girl and she was one of us back then.”
