Bethany was dozing lightly when she heard the hatch door swing open with a slam, jolting her fully awake. Her wrists jerked, making them sting where she’d been trying to work her way out of the ropes. All that her efforts had gotten her were bloody wrists alas; the ropes were too thick and tied too well. Note to self: never get kidnapped by sailors. They really knew how to tie knots.
She was hungry and tired and thirsty, although she had tried to make her water bottle last. She hoped they were coming down to let her go. Barring that, she hoped it was time for breakfast. Or lunch. She wasn’t sure what time it was.
But any hopes she had of a semi-innocuous visit were dashed when she looked up and saw the strange bearded man. Red, the other one had called him. He was wearing a strange pirate costume, for some reason, although she had to admit it suited him.
The skinny guy who had given her the water skulked behind his so-called partner and didn’t make eye contact with her. Instead, he carried a bulging, lopsided bag that clanked like it was full of some kind of metal, which he deposited against the side of the hold with a number of other anonymous and similarly odd-shaped parcels. The smell of fish was faint, as if the hold hadn’t been used to store its usual cargo for a while.
“What ya got there?” she asked, probably unwisely. “Lost pirate treasure?”
The big man laughed, the sound booming in the restricted echo chamber of the hold. “Exactly that, my lady,” he said, strolling across the floor to stand over her. He held a large pipe in one hand, puffing on it contentedly and wreathing his head in smoke.
“I do apologize for your less than stellar accommodations,” he said. “I am not usually so bad a host. My name is Hayreddin. Welcome to my ship, Miss McKenna.”
His less impressive companion came over to join them. “I think you mean my ship, don’t you Red?” He looked at Bethany’s bloody wrists and winced, but didn’t say anything.
“Of course, of course. This fine ship actually belongs to my friend Len here. Both he and it are quite indispensable.”
Bethany saw a glint in his eye that made her think that neither boat nor man were nearly as valuable as Len might suppose. There was something about this Hayreddin that made her skin crawl, although she couldn’t have said what exactly it was. Some atavistic instinct that screamed “danger” at her, despite the fact that he wore an old-fashioned sword buckled around his broad waist, and Len had a gun tucked into the back of his pants.
“Not that I don’t enjoy the smell of old fish and tar as much as the next girl,” she said. “But I don’t suppose there is any chance of getting out of this hold.” She hadn’t been able to find anything within reach that could help her escape. She hoped that there might be more opportunities up on deck in the open.
Hayreddin shrugged. “I do not see why you should stay down here. I have merely been waiting to see if your paramour the Black Rider would be sensible and leave town as I suggested, or if I would have to drag your dead body out to show him the error of his ways, should he be foolish enough to ignore my directions.”
There was so much wrong with that sentence, Bethany didn’t even know where to start. The dead body part, of course, but also, Alexei was most definitely not her paramour, and really, who the hell talked like that anymore? As for the possibility of Alexei being sensible? She ranked that up with little green men living on Mars and the fact that the polar ice caps were melting being a fluke that had nothing to do with global warming. Alexei, sensible. Ha. And also, HA. If he hadn’t shown up yet, it was only because he hadn’t been able to find her.
But if her host hadn’t figured that out yet, she wasn’t about to enlighten him. Probably it wouldn’t be smart to tell him that she meant nothing special to Alexei, either, since her value to her captors seemed to depend on that misconception.
She liked to think that their friendship would be enough to make him come after her. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to sit around like some damsel in distress and wait to find out.
“Thank you,” she said meekly. “I’m a little claustrophobic. And I think I might have heard a rat.” She gave a fake shudder and tried not to laugh when Len glanced around a little wild-eyed.
Hayreddin reached down and hauled her to her feet with no discernible effort, although she noticed he didn’t offer to untie her hands. He left it to Len to undo the rope around her ankles and then help her up the ladder to the deck, although once up top Red offered her a mug of tea, which she gratefully accepted.
“So,” he said, drawing on his pipe hard enough to make its interior glow cherry red. “It would appear that the Rider’s reputation was exaggerated. Or possibly it is true what some said, that losing their immortality under torture made Alexei and his brothers much less than they once had been.”
Immortality? Torture? Somebody was going to have some explaining to do when she saw him again. If she saw him again. The thought that that might never happen hit her like a fist to the gut, much stronger than any fear she had of her own death at the hands of those holding her. She shook it off, needing all her focus to keep either of those possibilities from happening.
This Hayreddin obviously assumed that she knew everything about Alexei’s past. She remembered seeing Red in the bar once or twice before the incident with the aborted fight, she thought maybe with Len in tow, although the big man was a lot more memorable. He must have been spying on them, and thought he’d seen an intimacy that didn’t exist.
Unless he had seen something she’d missed… She shook that off too. No time to pine over what might have been.
“Can I ask you something?” she said, more to keep his attention on her while she looked around for something useful than out of a real desire to make conversation. She saw two other men, tough looking sailor types with tattoos and grim expressions, working at various shipboard tasks. Great. Four against one. No problem at all. Damn, she wished Alexei was here.
“Certainly,” Hayreddin said. “No doubt you are curious as to how the ghost of Blackbeard came to be sailing the seas again.”
Bethany nearly choked on her bitter black tea. “Uh, no. Not really. I was actually wondering if you had something to do with the kraken that has been attacking ships in this area.” It seemed unlikely to her that there were two completely unrelated mysteries afoot, but considering that she’d met a Baba Yaga and a man who could talk to dolphins recently, she wasn’t making any assumptions.
Hayreddin preened, smoke rising up toward the sky. It was only a little before noon, from the look of it. Less time had passed than she’d thought. It had felt like much longer, stuck down in that hold waiting for someone to come kill her, or worse. Bethany didn’t want to die at all, but if she was going to, she’d much rather it was up here, in the open air, with the sea all around her.
“Indeed, that is my doing,” he said proudly. At a cough from Len, he added, a touch reluctantly, “And that of my young friend here, without whom it would not be possible. As I said, he is indispensable.
“After all, what is a pirate without a ship?” He pointed up at the Jolly Roger flag flying proudly in the breeze. “Mind you, these modern vessels are nothing like the schooners of old. No grace to them at all, alas, although it is somewhat convenient not to be dependent on the whim of the winds.” He shook his head. “In truth, being a pirate is not what it once was.”
“I told you so,” Len said, rubbing one hand, which bore a slightly grubby bandage wrapped around it.
Hayreddin sighed, his pipe suddenly billowing even more smoke than before. “Yes,” he said in the almost patient tone of someone who has had the same conversation multiple times before. “You were quite correct when you told me that being a pirate was no longer a grand profession ruled over by men of grit and steel.” The glare he directed at Len seemed to go right over Len’s head.
“And I was right about it not being a good idea to pretend to be Blackbeard come back to haunt the high seas, wasn’t I? It didn’t scare anyone away for long. It might have rattled the local fishermen, but they’re a superstitious lot. Hell, we’ve spent most of our time dodging thrill seekers with cell phones trying to catch a video to put up on YouTube.” Len leaned over and spit on the deck, his face etched with exhaustion and discouragement.
Bethany noticed Red’s fingers tighten around the hilt of his sword and thought perhaps Len would be smart to keep his mouth shut.
“So, ah, how does the kraken figure into all this?” she asked, both to distract Red and because damn it, she really wanted to know. “I never heard of a pirate having a pet sea monster before.”
Hayreddin chuckled, his volatile mood switching back to benign amusement. “No one else was ever clever enough to harness such a creature,” he said. “Mind you, I had resources not available to most, as well as the cunning to use them. But the kraken is hardly a pet, my dear. It is a dangerous creature, unless one has the means to control it.”
He gestured in Len’s direction. “Go ahead and show her.”
Len straightened up and pulled a large amulet out from underneath the sweater he wore. It was odd and unattractive, but it drew the eyes strangely.
Len saw the face she made. “I know. It’s butt ugly, ain’t it? It’s been in my family for years, but I was the first one to be able to make it work.” He swung it to and fro a little on its brass chain. “It’s magic. Real magic. I can use it to summon the kraken, and command it to find us treasure. We’re gonna be rich.”
“Rich?” Bethany said. She didn’t see how having a kraken would make anyone rich, unless you sold people tickets to come see it. And as far as she knew, there wasn’t a lot of treasure lying around off the shores of Cape Cod. Some, probably, but not a lot. Nothing famous, anyway.
“Indeed.” Hayreddin gave a smug smile, sharp white teeth glinting in the sun. “I sailed these waters long ago, and I was returning home with one last great load of booty when my ship ran afoul of a mighty storm. When young Len activated the ancient talisman which I had given up for lost, I returned so that he might help me reclaim this treasure.”
Len nodded. “I use this thing to call the kraken, and then I send it out to look for Red’s treasure. We’re getting really close.” His sullen face lit up as he pulled a handful of old gold coins out of his pocket. “Look. It brought these back the last time. Red says they’re definitely from the ship he lost!”
“Very impressive,” Bethany said, edging closer to a tall gaff, a pole ending in a hook most often used to land large fish. “I don’t suppose this kraken of yours has anything to do with the boats that have been wrecked or disappeared recently?”
Len stared at his boots, but Hayreddin just gave a booming laugh. “What do you expect from pirates? An invitation to a tea party?”
Bethany glanced over his shoulder and felt her heart jump in her chest. “Some kind of party, anyway, although maybe not the one you were expecting,” she said. Her father’s boat was closing on them as fast as it could move, and she could see Alexei standing on the bow, a huge sword in one hand. She had never been so happy to see anyone in her life.
Red swiveled around to see what she was looking at and uttered a series of foul curses that turned the air as blue as the smoke from his pipe. “Stubborn Rider,” he said through gritted teeth. “I should have known he would show up and try to ruin everything.” He swung back around and pointed at Len.
“Call it. Call the kraken. Now!”
A pained expression crossed the younger man’s face but he didn’t argue. As Bethany watched in amazement, he quickly pulled the talisman off his neck and placed it on the deck, then unwrapped his bandaged hand, exposing a series of red and irritated-looking cuts. Wincing, he pulled out a knife and sliced through the skin again, dripping the blood onto the amulet at his feet.
For a moment, nothing happened, then the center stone blinked open and became a swirling eye, and the water around the boat began to churn.
SHIT. Bethany cast a frantic eye at the distance between her father’s ship and the one she was on. She had to do something to buy them some time. Something to distract Hayreddin and Len so they couldn’t order the kraken to attack Alexei.
Swiveling, she grabbed the gaff in both hands, still tied in front of her, and swung it as hard as she could toward Red’s face. The hook on the end caught his pipe and tossed it through the air to land in a pile of cleaning rags someone had left sitting against the hull. The rags immediately burst into flames, which in turn ignited the container of cleaning fluid, which went up with a surprisingly loud whoosh.
The blaze ran up some nearby ropes and suddenly that side of the boat was engulfed in flames.
“Son of a bitch!” Len yelled. “My boat! She set my boat on fire!” He grabbed a nearby bucket, but the rope he would have used to lower it into the ocean was currently burning merrily.
“You can do magic,” he shouted at Red. “Do something!”
The light of the flames seemed to be reflected in Hayreddin’s eyes. “I am actually much better at starting fires than at putting them out,” he said with something that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “You deal with it. I, on the other hand, will deal with our unwelcome guests.”
He turned his back on the conflagration and on Len, glaring out toward the other side of the boat where The Flora MacDonald was rapidly closing in on them. “And I’ll deal with you, my pretty little troublemaker,” Red said to Bethany as he drew his sword. “Permanently.”
* * *
As they stood in the bow, they could hear Calum yelling into the radio as he steered The Flora MacDonald toward Len’s boat. Alexei had carried him up to the captain’s chair so Calum could drive while Alexei and Beka fought; a reasonable division of labor that had the side benefit of hopefully keeping Calum out of harm’s way. Alexei didn’t want to have to explain it to Bethany if anything happened to her father.
Alexei didn’t even want to consider the possibility that he might not have the chance to explain anything to Bethany at all. Being too late was simply not an option. He’d already lost so much. He couldn’t stand it if he lost her as well.
“If he’s harmed one hair on her head…” he said through gritted teeth.
Beka patted him on the arm, trying to hide the worry she clearly shared.
“Bethany’s tiny, but she’s tough,” Beka said. “I’m sure she’s fine.”
“But Humans are so fragile,” Alexei said. He leaned forward, as if he could make the boat move faster through sheer force of will. He’d been standing in the front of the boat since a pod of helpful dolphins had pointed them in this direction; if he’d thought it would get him there any quicker, he would have jumped in the water and swum the rest of the way.
“You’re nearly Human yourself these days, barring a strange gift or two and some enhanced endurance. You need to start giving Humans a little bit more credit,” Chewie said from where he stood next to Beka. The dragon-dog was so large, his head was high enough to look over the side.
Chudo-Yudos were supposed to guard their Baba Yaga’s supply of the rare Water of Life and Death, created in the Otherworld by the queen herself. The last time Chewie had broken that rule to aid Beka, her supply of the Water had been stolen, so this time he’d brought it with them, tucked safely into a cask tied around his neck. Alexei had mixed feelings about the stuff, since it had saved his life and that of his brothers, but not his immortality. And the huge doses it took to do so might have been at least partially responsible for the strange gifts they’d all developed since.
“Ha,” Alexei said. “Not close enough to Human to be with one. Not with my history.”
“She seems to have done a pretty good job of dealing with all the weird stuff we’ve thrown at her so far,” Beka noted.
“That’s because she’s amazing,” Alexei said. “And smart. And brave. And beautiful. And amazing.” He strained his eyes as the ship in front of them grew closer.
“I think you said that one already,” Chewie said. “Maybe you should tell her, not us.”
“I hope I get the chance,” Alexei said. Alexei stared at the vessel they were rapidly approaching. “Is that boat on fire?” he asked no one in particular.
Beka laughed. “It looks like your girlfriend got tired of waiting to be rescued and decided to rescue herself.” She tested the edge of her sword on a strand of long blonde hair and grinned when it sliced through cleanly.
“I am not so sure that setting the ship you’re on ablaze is the best way to rescue yourself,” Chewie rumbled. “All things considered.”
“That’s my girl,” Alexei said proudly, ignoring the dragon-dog. He hauled himself up onto a precarious perch atop the front edge of the bow, ready to leap onto the kidnappers’ boat as soon as Calum brought them in close enough. “Let’s go kick some pirate booty.”
* * *
A wild sight awaited him and Beka as they made the almost-impossible leap from The Flora MacDonald to the deck of the other ship. Two burly men and one skinnier one battled a conflagration that threatened to take over half the port side. The odd-looking yet still imposing fellow with the gold earrings who had tried to cause a fight in the bar was waiting for them with a huge curved sword raised over his head and a fiery glint in his eyes.
Alexei swallowed hard when he saw Bethany lying in a heap on the ground near a trio of barrels, a broken gaff near one limp hand.
Damn it. Too late after all. Well, if nothing else, he’d make the bastard pay.
“You killed the woman I love,” Alexei bellowed, and raised his own sword high as he ran across the deck. “Prepare to die!”
Their swords clashed with the sound of ringing fury as they danced back and forth across the deck, dodging obstacles and each other. Alexei saw Beka race toward an object that lay on the worn boards, gleaming dully, but Blackbeard - or whoever he was - spotted her movement and changed course to intercept her.
For a moment, he fought them both, sword weaving effortlessly and darting out to land a glancing blow on Beka’s left bicep. A thin slice appeared in her shirt sleeve and blood flowed down her arm.
“Beka!” Alexei yelled.
“It’s nothing,” she yelled back. “I’ve got this!”
“Call the damned kraken, Len, you useless twit!” Blackbeard bellowed at the skinny man. “Order it to sink their boat to the bottom of the ocean. Let’s see how they like that!”
The scruffy man turned from where he was frantically trying to empty a fire extinguisher at the flames. “You call it, Red,” he suggested with a hint of hysteria. “My fucking boat is on fire, in case you hadn’t noticed. I’m a little busy here.”
“I cannot call the kraken. It breaks the one rule I dare not cross,” Red sputtered. “If I could, I would never have had to put up with your idiocy. Now focus and command it to do your will. Focus, damn you!”
Even in the blur of rage that subsumed him, Alexei thought it was probably unreasonable to demand a man focus while his livelihood was burning up around him. He redoubled his efforts to attack the pirate while his attention was distracted.
At the same time, Beka dived for the amulet and scooped it up triumphantly. She had prepared a spell ahead of time that she thought would negate the ancient talisman’s ability to control the beast. But before she could recite it, a huge bulbous head rose above the side of the ship, followed by two massive tentacles that spattered sea water on the ship below.
One of the pirate’s men shrieked as the tip of a tentacle wound around him and plucked him off the deck. The other thug took one look and fainted dead away, rolling slightly as the ship tilted from the waves caused by the kraken’s movement.
“Command it, ye swarthy bastard!” Red yelled at his remaining henchman. “Focus and command it to kill our enemies!”
Another tentacle dropped a rotting bag on deck, where it split open to spill out dozens of gold coins. Len glanced wildly from the coins to the fire and back again.
“Focus!” Red screamed, his face suffused with fury.
Beka held up the amulet and recited the spell, but nothing happened. A sucker-tipped tentacle waved through the air dangerously close to her head and she cast a wild-eyed look in Alexei’s direction.
Then he heard the sweetest sound in the world - Bethany’s voice, shaky but most definitely alive, saying, “Blood, Beka! You have to activate it with blood!”
He glanced over to where he’d seen what he thought was her dead body, and caught a glimpse of her propped up on bound hands, gazing in his direction. Then he had to duck out of the way of another flash from Red’s sword. He heard Beka reciting the spell again. This time anointing the bizarre talisman with some of the blood from the cut on her arm.
“Monster risen from the deep
Return now to your watery sleep
I free you from enslavement vile
And send you back to your exile
So mote it be!”
As soon as Beka spoke the last words, there was a shuddering vibration that could be felt across the entire boat. It almost knocked Alexei off his feet, it was so strong, and even Red staggered. The amulet dropped to the ground, inert, and the kraken sank below the waves without a sound, disappearing from sight as suddenly as it had appeared.
“You cursed witch!” Red screamed. “Now I’ll never find the rest of my treasure!” His eyes gleamed with an unearthly light and his form shimmered, expanding and growing until in his place there stood a gigantic black and yellow creature with leathery wings and smoke coming out of its nostrils.
“Holy shit!” Len said, gaping. “You’re a dragon.”
The dragon turned its head toward Beka and shot a great gout of fire in her direction. She ducked and rolled, barely getting out of the way in time, and another section of the hull went up in flames.
“MY BOAT!” Len shouted, practically crying.
“Oh, shut up,” the dragon said, and casually knocked him into the sea with one huge clawed rear foot. “Now, about the rest of you,” he said turning back toward Beka, Alexei, and Bethany. “Who wants to die first?”