Jarabax the Jinxed
Selena peered into the dimness around them. Her hand clutched the hilt of her sword and the sacred word for calling light was ready on her lips. In the daylight, hundreds of ramshackle homes built of old driftwood, the wreckage of ships, and other various flotsam were visible climbing up the hillside, one built against the next. The homes looked like they were holding one another up and the whole lot of them would slide down the hill in a light wind. In the dark, those same buildings didn’t seem fragile, but menacing. Selena felt as though they were walking through an insect hive and at any moment, their presence would be detected and the swarm would come boiling out of the black windows. She could feel Ilior’s tenseness beside her. Ahead, Hanna moved in silence and with ease along the twists and turns. Once, Selena thought she saw the glow of light in Hanna’s hand, a candle perhaps, but then gone again. Mostly, they moved in the dark.
At the start of their trek, that darkness was alive with sounds. Muffled shouts and curses from behind closed doors, the wail of a baby, a harsh barking laughter. Twice, vagrants stumbled out of the dark to accost them. The first man. Ilior frightened away by drawing himself up and stretching his lone wing. The second man, brandishing a rusted knife, wanted blood before coin. Selena blinded him with a light globe and the man fell away, cursing and stumbling across empty bottles that clattered in the alley.
Hanna had given Selena and Ilior a disapproving glare. “Try to be quieter.”
Soon enough, the streets grew silent, and now Selena felt an emptiness in the hovels around them.
“People live here?” Ilior wondered.
“Not many,” Hanna answered over her shoulder. “Squatters, mostly. Lots of these places are empty.”
It was on the tip of Selena’s tongue to ask if Hanna lived here—the girl seemed to know the island like the back of her hand—but she guessed the Hanna would never tell her.
“We are getting in pretty deep,” Ilior said.
“Agreed.” Selena quickened her pace to catch up to Hanna. “That’s far enough,” she whispered. “I don’t wish to be stranded on unfamiliar territory.”
Hanna scowled. “You want Jarabax’s gift or not?”
Selena held up her hands. “How do I know? I have no idea where we are going or what I agreed to.”
The full moon had emerged from behind a cloud, bathing the three in light. Hanna gave her a peculiar look.
“You aren’t sweating.”
Selena flinched. “I don’t know what you mean. And this is hardly the time or place—”
“It’s summertime. Hot as blazes,” Hanna persisted. “Everyone on Uago sweats. But you’re not.”
Ilior pushed between them. “Where are we going? Tell us or we walk away and your boss will be angry with you, yes?”
Hanna tore her scrutinizing gaze away from Selena and set it on Ilior. She planted her hands on her hips. “He’s only my boss if I want him to be. I work for myself. But if you don’t come with me, Jarabax might be mad. And we’re almost there. Hear that?”
Selena did. The soft susurration of ocean crashing on shore. The air smelled fresher; more salty and crisp and less rancid and thick. She nodded for Hanna to lead on.
They crested a final small hill, leaving the sagging hovels behind them. Here, the land was rocky and broken, the shoreline shattered. Large tide pools burbled between jagged hunks of rock that stuck up like teeth from the frothy water. Small caverns and alcoves swallowed the tide as it came in and Selena could hear the water echoing mournfully around them.
Offshore, the sea was a graveyard of dead ships. At least a hundred or so, by Selena’s estimate: brigs, and schooners and old cogs, each one broken and black in the moonlight, their masts bent at odd angles, their hulls splintered and crushed and blasted by cannon fire. These were the corpses of merchant vessels that had been destroyed by Uago’s pirates, or pirate ships themselves—the casualties of one of the hundred battles between the pirate collectives that comprised Uago’s long and bloody history. Most were half-sunk but a few were still afloat.
Selena frowned. “Jarabax makes his base here?”
“No,” Hanna said. “He’d never take you to his actual lair. I don’t even know where it is. We always meet somewhere different when I do a job for him.”
“Which one?” Selena asked, her gaze going to the closest vessels that were above the surface. “There.” She answered her own question as she saw a dim yellow light flickering in the cabin of a nearby ship: a brigantine whose hull was scorched black in places but mostly whole.
“How do we get there?” Ilior asked.
“Follow me,” Hanna said. “It’s tricky but if you’re careful, you might not get too wet.”
They followed the girl onto the broken shore, stepping on the rocks that she stepped on, careful not to slip on the dark algae. Water crashed in, splashing their legs. The dampness on Selena’s leggings sent a chill creeping up her spine.
When the rocks gave way to water and wreckage, Hanna led them over the prow of a submerged vessel. Its bowsprit scraped against the hull of the ship that was their destination. The wood was wet and had a slimy feel to it, and Selena thought it must snap under their weight—Ilior’s especially—but it did not. They clambered from it onto the deck of Jarabax’s temporary residence.
Once aboard the brig, four dark figures appeared from behind barrels or coils of moldy rope, their hands resting on the hilts of their cutlasses. Above them, hanging from rigging or on watch in the crow’s nest, were other pirates. Selena thought there were more hidden on this ship that wasn’t nearly in as bad a shape as the rest in the graveyard. She suspected the ship might even be seaworthy and her guess was confirmed when she noticed furled sails tied to every yard.
“Let them pass,” drawled a voice from inside the captain’s quarters. “They are my guests. Well, the Paladin is a guest and the urchin is owed a penny or two. Dragonman, you can wait outside.”
Ilior shook his head. Selena hesitated.
“Oh, for the god’s sake, you’d be dead already if I wished it,” drawled the voice.
“And your ship would be burnt to ash if I wished it,” Selena said.
A chuckle. “Indeed.”
Selena nodded to Ilior and he stood with his remaining wing against the cabin, as though he were the guard and the pirates around them the interlopers. Selena followed Hanna inside.
The captains’ quarters were sumptuously decorated in red velvets and colorful silks draped down from the lantern that hung from the deckhead. A table was laden with a fine dinner, partially eaten. The centerpiece was a roasted wild boar, half gone and with exposed ribs clawing the air. Beside it, arrayed on a pewter platter, were grapes, pomegranates, and sliced mangos. Three small bowls of nuts, berries, and seeds encircled a plate of brown bread and a dish of half-melted butter. There was a roast pheasant as well, as yet untouched. The lantern’s meager light was giving way to the dawn that bloomed in the east. Jarabax sat at the head of the table, lazily spooning cranberry sauce into his mouth.
The pirate boss wore velvets and silk as fine and colorful as his quarters. Rings glinted on every finger and from both ears, and his teak-colored skin was pierced at lip and nose with more gold. His head was covered with a bandana of green silk, but Selena could see long ropes of dark hair hanging about his shoulders and down his back. He dabbed his thin mustaches with a napkin.
“Please.” Jarabax indicated that Selena should sit. “Have some dinner. Or should I say, breakfast, given the hour? I am Jarabax Ruhl.” He inclined his head. “Some call me Jarabax the Jinxed, but I can’t fathom why, given how bloody lucky I am.” He laughed, showing a wide smile of teeth, many gold. “I’ve been expecting you. After such a long and fruitless hunt, I would imagine you’re quite hungry.”
Selena ignored the words and the knowing smile that went with them. “Some bread, perhaps, thank you.”
Hanna perched on a chair and began shoveling food into her mouth.
“Not you,” Jarabax told her with mild contempt. He pelted her with a grape. “You’re here, girl, to get your coin and be gone. The grown-ups have important matters to discuss.”
Hanna flinched, a hurt look in her eyes that she quickly concealed with a scowl. She chewed what food she had managed to cram into her mouth with deliberate slowness and swallowed it with an audible gulp. She then approached Jarabax as one would a snake that might strike and held out her hand. The pirate boss dropped two coins into it. Pennies. Hardly enough to buy a heel of bread.
“Now, shoo.” Jarabax waved her away.
Hanna stomped across the boards but Selena stopped her. She filled a cloth napkin with bread, fruit, and had her wait while she cut a generous slice of pheasant. Hanna glanced at the bounty, hesitating. Then she tore it from Selena’s hands, and shot Jarabax a parting sneer.
“That napkin was silk,” the pirate lamented.
Selena glared. “You have enough on this table to feed that girl for a month.”
“That’s not the point. I don’t run a charitable organization. If it gets out that I’m getting soft, well…” He speared a piece of mango with a dagger, ate it. “I’ve got enough competition as it is.”
Selena tore off a small hunk of bread. “You’ll forgive my lack of sympathy.”
The pirate snickered. “Yes, I’d be shocked if you sympathized with the plight of a lowly pirate such as me.” Then his laughter died and he turned his blade to her with narrow eyes. “Then again, I’ve heard things about you. Maybe you’re not as pure as you look. Tainted, even.”
Selena set down her bread. “What do you want?”
“Now, now,” Jarabax said. “Let us not be rude. After all, I brought you here because I want to help.”
“You have a ship for me and a crew to man it?” Selena sipped from a mug of water. She knew the answer before the pirate laughed at her again. Anger colored her cheeks as she waited for Jarabax’s mirth to subside.
“I haven’t a ship to spare,” he said. “And I’ve heard you’ve had no luck with some of the other captains. I’m not surprised. Uago is entirely peopled with scoundrels and lowlifes.”
“And what does that make you?”
“Their king,” Jarabax said brightly and then pouted. “Or one of them. As I said, I have competition.”
He poured two glasses of wine as the sun broke through the eastern window. Selena shook her head at the proffered glass. The pirate shrugged. “More for me.” He sipped delicately and then dabbed his mustaches again. “But they are fools to deny you. They don’t know who you are. But I do.”
Selena fought the urge to cover her wound, as if it were visible. “Do you?”
Jarabax held his wine glass up to the new morning light, appreciating the crimson hues. “You are the reason the war ended. You are the Aluren who can rouse the very oceans. If the ignorant scum around here knew what you were capable of, well…this island is filthy and debased but, to us poor lowlifes, it’s all we’ve got. It has not escaped me that you might use your ability to wipe this ugly slate clean, so to speak. Hence my generous hospitality.” He gestured at the feast between them.
Selena pushed her small plate of food away, her appetite swallowed by the memory of a crashing wave and the screams of the dying. She took a steadying breath. “Get to the point of this meeting, if you have one.”
Jarabax’s lazy smile widened. “My point is, I know what happened on Isle Calinda. And what happened after, despite your Temple’s best attempts to keep that little bit of history a secret.” He sat back in his chair. “I wager they consider it a black mark on their shiny reputation, eh?”
Selena’s chair scraped as she rose. “Thank you for the bread.”
“Leaving already?” Jarabax made a tsk tsk sound. “You are unworldly to become so offended by the likes of me: a liar and a scoundrel. I know about your wound,” Jarabax added quickly when she continued to the door, “because Skye told me.”
Selena turned. “Skye…?”
Jarabax took up the second wine glass, his lazy smile returned. “Forgive me for toying with you, but I can’t resist. You, who appear so pristine and good, and yet who could burn my ship to ashes with a word.” He smiled slyly. “Or drown it to the Deeps.” He set the glass down with a clink. “The truth is, I admire you, Selena Koren. Power such as yours is worthy of admiration, so when Skye appeared to me two years ago and charged me with a task on your behalf, I agreed with relish.”
Selena stepped slowly back toward the table. “Skye was here?”
“Aye, she was. Moreover, she knew you would be passing through here and that you would need help. How she knew…well, that’s just Skye for you.” He stabbed another slice of bright orange fruit, sucked it off his dagger’s blade.
Selena sank back into her chair. “What did she say?”
Jarabax shrugged. “This and that. That and this. We spoke of many things. I enjoyed her company immensely and was ever so sad to see her go.” He heaved a sigh. “Anyway, the purpose of her visit was to leave you a gift and instructions that when you passed through Uago, I should seek you out and give it to you.”
“Skye left me a gift? Hanna said it was from you.”
“Do I look like a man who shares secrets with street urchins? Hanna knows nothing but what I tell her.”
“What is it?”
Jarabax glanced out the window. The morning had broken fully; the sky in the window outside was pure blue without a cloud to mar it. “Another dawn, another day. He grows restless waiting for you.”
“He?”
Jarabax looked her up and down, at her pure blue Aluren overtunic and the delicate silver stitching. His laugh was loud and hearty. “Oh, sweet Paladin, you’re going to love this.”