“No,” I agreed.
“So I became a sword jockey. I make my own rules, decide who and how to help, and choose what lines to cross and why. No ship’s crew to satisfy, no Anti-Freebootery Guild to boss me around.”
I took her hand. It was as big as mine, and callused around the many rings.
She looked up at me. “Don’t you get mushy on me, LaCrosse.”
I didn’t pull my hand away. “Stop telling sob stories, then.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Must be the blood loss talking. Gets me all light-headed.”
I squeezed her hand. “I think you’ll be all right.”
She yawned and stretched. “Mind if I go to sleep?”
“Would it matter if I did?”
“Not a damn bit,” she slurred, and in moments she was out.
She slept until Clift relieved me at midnight. I passed Dorsal on my way to the deck, lurking in the shadows by the ladder, and he nodded sagely. I wondered if he’d overheard Jane’s story.
A very light breeze blew across the deck, and the moon illuminated the monster’s ship. I got a drink of rum, found a spot to sit, and sipped it gratefully. My involuntary nap that afternoon had thrown me off, and now I was wide awake.
I spotted Duncan Tew trying to concentrate on unwinding and de-kinking the grapple line again, but he wasn’t paying much attention to the job. Instead he kept glancing at the other ship, watching for any change.
I sat down beside him. “Weird to think what’s out there, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he said without looking at me.
“You know, you did a great job. We wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it without you.”
“I pissed my pants,” he said, eyes downcast. “When it tried to grab me out of the boat.”
“I don’t think anyone noticed. And you still did the job. Hell, I was scared to death, too.”
“Then why didn’t you piss your pants?” he demanded bitterly.
“Because I have more experience being scared like that.”
“Is that all it takes? Experience?”
He said it sarcastically, but I answered him with the truth. “Yeah.”
He snorted as if he didn’t believe me.
I asked, “Did you ever hear the story of the colo nel’s red shirt?”
He shook his head.
“There was this colo nel in the army of his kingdom, it doesn’t matter who or where. Whenever he’d be about to go into battle, he’d say, ‘Fetch my red shirt.’ No one knew why, until one day a lowly private worked up the nerve to ask. Do you know what the colo nel said?”
He shook his head again.
“He said, ‘If I’m hurt, the bloodstains won’t show on a red shirt. My men will think I’m invincible, and follow me into hell if I want them to.’ ”
Duncan smiled. “Clever.”
“Yeah, until the day his army had to fight one five times larger. You know what he said then? ‘Fetch me my brown pants.’ ”
Duncan laughed for a long time. At last he settled down, worked silently for a while, then said, “You think my father is behind that ship and the monster?”
“I hope not, for your sake.”
“I mean, being a pirate is one thing. But this is… so fucking cowardly. Letting a monster do all the dirty work.”
“Can’t argue with your take on it.”
He didn’t look at me. “Part of me hopes he is behind it. That way I can hate him with a clear conscience.”
I put a hand on his arm. “Just wait until you know for sure.”
He shrug-nodded the way some kids do. He was still half kid, despite being a father. He was struggling toward maturity all on his own, with no template to go by.
Seaton came on deck and blew his whistle. “Captain wants everyone here, now,” he bellowed. “All hands on deck!”
The crew quickly gathered below the quarterdeck. Clift stood up there with his hands on his hips, looking over at the nameless ship outlined by moonlight. When there was reasonable quiet, he said, “Men, we narrowly avoided the same fate that befell those ghost ships we encountered. But whoever set that trap doesn’t yet know that. So we’re going to disguise ourselves as a ghost ship and wait to see who comes to salvage us.
“We don’t know how long it’ll take. There’s no way for the villain to know his monster has snagged a victim, so he probably comes around on a regular schedule. We have to lie low and play dead, possibly for days. Maybe weeks. That means no one on deck during the day, no lights at night. We shift the weight so that the ship lists a little. I want some cut lines and spare canvas draped over the side, like they’ve fallen from disrepair. And here’s the hard part.”
He paused for effect. “We have to be ready to fight as soon as they appear. No matter how much time it takes. I’m asking a lot of your patience, and your courage, and your strength of character. But I promise you, the fight will be worth it. The Guild will reward us handsomely for capturing the bastards behind this. And we get the satisfaction of doing what no other pirate hunter has been able to do. Songs about the Red Cow will be sung in every tavern along every coast. What say you?”
A roar that might’ve disturbed the exhausted sea monster rose, along with fists and brandished weapons.
Clift smiled. “Aye, lads, that’s the spirit. Now let’s get the Cow ready for her date, eh?”
Another cheer rose from the men. Clift came down and walked among them, thanking and encouraging them individually. He knew how to command, that’s for sure. At last he reached me, put a hand on my shoulder, and said, “I’d like to speak to you a moment.”
“Sure.”
He pulled me aside but stayed within view, if not earshot, of the men. “I left Skurnick with Jane. Her fever’s gone, and she’s sleeping normally. It looks good for her.”
“And Suhonen?”
“We don’t know yet.” He paused. “When the moment comes, when the carrion crabs come around to see what they’ve caught, I’d like you to lead the attack.”
“Me? I’m just a passenger.”
“False modesty is still a falsehood, Mr. LaCrosse. You’re also the man who got away from that sea monster with barely a scratch, as well as rescuing both our best fighter and my former captain. I know how good they are. You seem to be better.”
“Just luckier.”
He leaned close. “I’m serious. The men know what you did. If you don’t lead them, they’ll assume it’s because you think we can’t win, and then I’ve lost them. I need you.”
I glanced past him at the crew. All of them watched with varying degrees of discretion. I’d fought on ships before, so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it, but at the same time, I barely knew these men and, except for Suhonen, I’d seen little to impress me. If we spent our days cowering belowdecks, we’d have no chance to practice and drill so I could get to know them better, either. We were all on this ship together, though, and that meant I had a vested interest in how the battle came out. “Okay,” I said. “But I want a third of my money back.”
He nodded. “A man deserves a fair pay for a job. But only if we win.”
I grinned, the kind of sideways grimace that has nothing to do with humor. “If we don’t, Captain Clift, poverty will be the least of my problems.”
Chapter Twenty-one
