Children of Zero by Andrew Calhoun

Author:Andrew Calhoun [Calhoun, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Andrew Calhoun
Publisher: Andrew Calhoun
Published: 2018-01-23T22:00:00+00:00

2.9 SAELIKO

The rain had picked up. Saeliko didn’t care, her attention directed elsewhere. She stood on the bow of her ship looking through a spyglass. My ship. Not Janx’s ship. My ship. It was an immensely satisfying thought. Here she was sliding the Epoch through the waves toward an illustrious future while Janx had been reduced to living an animal existence on Butterfly Island with a stump for a hand. Saeliko let herself smile. Sometimes life was luridly delicious.

“Like what you see, harker?”

Saeliko lowered the spyglass and saw Brenna standing beside her. The qarlden had mistaken the harker’s thoughts. Saeliko decided to ignore the question.

“What happened to your face?” she asked instead.

“Lucky shot,” Brenna grumbled.

“Which one was it?”

“Kettle.”

“Really?”

“I was about to make him shit his pants before Lakkari called out the sail.”

“Well, you might see it happen before too long. He’s going to get the fright of his life if we go up against this one.” Saeliko gestured toward the barely visible ship in the distance.

“May I?”

“Yes, but keep your reaction to a minimum.” Saeliko handed over the spyglass, which Brenna then used to take a better look at their potential prey. As soon as the qarlden was able to pick out the ship from the waves, she sucked in a breath.

“Oh.”

“Exactly.”

“It’s Maelian,” Brenna said. She was looking at the long, semi-unfurled flag fluttering in the rain atop the distant ship’s mainmast. It revealed the Snow Bear of Laeden bracketed by halberds, the royal crest used by the Empress of Mael. “Any idea which one?”

“Triumph, I think. Probably making the run from Buckettown down to New Dagos.”

“Triumph? Didn’t even know she was in the Sollian.”

“Janx knew,” Saeliko admitted. “Before we went to Meshaltown, Janx told me there were rumors of a big pile of quickspice up in Buckettown. Plus Potter’s Deep has been uncovering new veins of silver in their mines. Apparently the Triumph was diverted from her usual routes to make a run out to the Twins.”

“How come she never told us about it?” Brenna wondered out loud.

“Because she was a coward. She was skilled at acquiring valuable information, but she lacked the guts to take advantage.”

“And we’re going to take advantage?”

“We put it to a vote,” Saeliko said. “Just like I said we would.”

The Triumph was a fifty-cannon frigate, which meant she outgunned the Epoch. And it was probably fully crewed up with a complement of near a hundred and thirty or forty sailors. Hard pickings.

It was also very tempting. The fact that it was traveling southwest was telling. It meant that it had picked up its cargo in the Twins and was heading toward New Dagos before gearing up for the journey out of the Sollian and back to Mael.

“Shall we call the vote right now?”

Saeliko nodded. “Get everyone on deck, including Haley and the rest of ‘em.”

Brenna walked away and started giving orders, leaving Saeliko alone at the bow with her thoughts. She raised the glass again and gazed at the Triumph. Catching up to the distended frigate wouldn’t be a problem.

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