The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink

Author:Joseph Fink [Fink, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

5

The sea was clear of storms and ships. I was pleased with the former, dismayed by the latter. By the time we had reached Malta, I had seen almost no traffic. Samuel referenced the trade route maps he purchased in Spain, but we did not happen across any Persian ships. Nor did we see any of the familiar Labyrinth flags.

We docked in Valletta for two nights to sell stolen goods, clearing space in our hold. The crew was given two days off in preparation for a long journey with few stops.

I approached Samuel about our lack of contact with a single Persian ship.

“It’s possible an engagement with the Order of the Labyrinth has slowed their travels, Captain.” Samuel looked perplexed, possibly near panic over his failure to locate a single ship.

I accepted his explanation because impatience had tipped the scale of my judiciousness. Single-minded fervor to join the Order in combat was my sole focus. I had only the excitement of movement after these years of purgatory.

Samuel routed us to Cyprus. A fortnight of no traffic and unusual rain, culminating in a storm two nights before we arrived. Two of our sailors on the mainmast fell overboard, and I mourned the first loss of life The Wasp had experienced in my fifteen years as captain. Men are a formidable force worthy of our full attention, which is why nature must remind us that it is an immortal god, capable of ending any of us in a moment.

We limped into the Cyprian port of Lemesós, under the cool glow of a full moon against clear skies. In the port, I saw a ship bearing the flag of the Qajar lion: a golden beast holding aloft a sword, behind it a leering sun, poking up only halfway behind the lion, suggesting the sun was either dawning or hiding.

As the actual sun mounted the eastern horizon in fantastic animation of the Persian emblem, we scanned the port for potential attack points, as well as vulnerabilities. On the back of the trader ship was the lettering: نیفلد . A Cretan crew member translated this for us as “The Dolphin.” A smaller gunboat docked on The Dolphin’s starboard had no distinctive marks, outside of side-mounted cannons. But otherwise, no flags or titles. Samuel suspected it served as an armed escort for the valuable cargo.

I sent Rebekah and André on reconnaissance to the other side of the port, where they could size up the crew and potential weapons on the smaller ship. I knew The Dolphin would have tight security and arms of its own, even with the accompanying sentry vessel, but Nathan had a plan for that. We could use The Wasp to blockade the larger Dolphin while subduing the smaller ship. If we could overtake the gunboat, we would have The Dolphin completely surrounded.

The ships were docked at the far end of the port in Lemesós, which if we could keep any cannons from firing, would buy us more time before police or Cyprian military showed.

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