Chapter 9
Copyright J.B. Norman
One month later, Salvage Thursday has come by again. Once again, Myra is accompanying the Porthaven Raiders in her capacity as Dunstana’s mentor. She’s still not crazy about the arrangement, but she’s been enticed to continue in the role after receiving one of Dorian Darkstone’s old hats.
So, with a new hat on her head that she is quite quick to tell people once belonged to Dorian Darkstone – with the notarised certificate of authenticity to prove it – Myra takes her place aboard Dunstana’s ship.
“So, what have we found so far, guys?” Dunstana asks the Porthaven Raiders.
“A bag containing exactly fifty-seven Valico bezants,” Williams says, counting out the coins in question. “And a clothespin and an old button.”
“A snow globe from Aurora,” Beasley says, rummaging through a salvaged crate. “Three volumes of an encylopedia published by the University of Oxfjord, a painted snuff box, and a man’s hat.”
“Mine’s better,” Myra notes.
“Yeah, all that, and the painting Jimena won’t even let me look at,” Dunstana says, giving her first mate a sceptical, sideways look.
“I stand by my decision, Captain,” Jimena answers. “As your first mate, it is my duty to protect your innocent eyes from anything that might scandalise your impressionable psyche.
“While it may be a masterpiece, I hardly think it’s appropriate for you to be viewing Gelateria’s unapologetic portrayal of the shapely female form.”
Dunstana blinks up at Jimena in confusion.
“You’ll understand when you’re older, Captain,” Jimena answers.
“Come on, Jimena,” Dunstana urges. “Don’t Mom me like that!”
“Captain, would you feel better if I told you that the Art Gallery will likely reward us handsomely for its safe return?” Jimena offers.
“Yeah!” Dunstana exclaims. “Pfft. Who cares about Art as long we get paid, right? I won’t look at however many paintings you want if I we get paid! And— ”
Her attention caught by the sudden appearance of a familiar ship coming into view, Dunstana runs to the gunwale.
“I know that ship! It’s t-the… ” Her brow furrows as she tries to remember. “It starts with an F… Flapjack! It’s Goblinface!”
“Falchion, Captain,” Jimena says. “Remember? It’s a kind of sword.”
“Oh yeah. Cool.” She looks up to Jimena. “Quick, quick! Get a message ready to send!” She grins up at Myra. “I have a plan. Watch this!”
“I must be sayin’,” Captain Goblinbeard muses as he and his crew survey their salvaged plunder. “I weren’t expectin’ to find such a haul o’ yet more faience chickens. Certainly not on two Salvage Tharrs-days in a row.”
“Really, Captain?” one of the crew asks. “They’re all the rage in Gallicantu right now. Can I have the one with the top hat and monocle, Captain?”
“Aye, Mr. Sprengt. Ye have may the one with the top hat and monocle.”
“Captain!” one of the other pirates calls. “Ship approaching to port!”
“Yarr,” Goblinbeard mutters as he sees the sparkly kitty-cat flag hoisted by the ship. “I be knowin’ that ship.”
Billie and Captain Goblinbeard watch as the other ship hoists a series of signal flags to relay a message to Goblinbeard and his crew.
“Goblin…”
The first set of flags are lowered and the next part of the message is raised.
“ …face…”
Billie has a bad feeling about this.
“…smells.”
Then, the End of Message flag.
“Oh my,” Billie mutters. “That’s not very nice.”
Captain Goblinbeard storms to the gunwale.
“Yarr!” he calls across the space between the two ships. “It be Goblinbeard! Beard! All hands on deck! Prepare to board! Wind-time an’ wolf-time! Blood an’ thunder! Darn the torpedoes and let slip the dogs o’ war! And… well, I be running out o’ things to yell, but ye all get the picture.”
Dunstana’s ship pulls up alongside Goblinbeard’s.
“Hey, Goblinface!” Dunstana calls, shouting into her hands. “Listen up!”
She fixes her rival with a stern, resolute gaze.
“As per the, um, thing that, um, means I can do this—” She falters and glances up at Myra. “Um, line?”
“In accordance with the rules of Salvage Thursday, you’re laying claim to any salvage Goblinbeard has found and you challenge him for ownership,” Myra explains.
“I’m coming onto your ship and I’m taking your stuff!” Dunstana declares.
“Close enough,” Myra says, allowing herself to feel just a touch of mentorial pride.
“Yeah,” Dunstana says. “That’s how it feels. The boot’s on the other glove now, Mr. Goblinface!”
“It be beard! Gob. Lin. Beard!” he cries, drawing his sword and charging forward.
“Pfft,” Dunstana scoffs. “You may have that fancy sword. But I have a mentor.”
And, with that, Dunstana heroically hides behind Myra.
“You’ve got this, Millie,” Dunstana says.
Myra reaches for her own sword. “After I’m done beating him up, will you promise to stop getting my name wrong?”
“Yeah, okay,” Dunstana says.
“You’d better,” Myra mutters, lunging at Goblinbeard.
“Captain!” Billie cries, running to join the fray.
Seeing this, Jimena steps forward and flourishes her sword with a traditional Pelayan fencing salute and moves to intercept.
“Jimena’s about to do the thing!” Dunstana exclaims, bouncing eagerly on her heels.
Jimena takes a piece of flint from her pocket, gives a traditional Pelayan war cry dating back centuries, and strikes the flint to the blade of her sword.
“Desperta Ferro!”
Sparks leap as Jimena strikes the flint to her sword, making Billie flinch. Dunstana wishes her sword could do that.
Billie has never seen anything like it before. She stands rooted to the deck and unsure how to react as her sword arm trembles.
Pressing the advantage as Billie hesitates, Jimena leaps just as furiously as the sparks did from her sword.
“Step lively, Miss Hawkins!” Billie hears Captain Goblinbeard call.
At the sound of her captain’s voice, her brain lurches back into motion. She manages to get her sword up to intercept Jimena’s first blow. Slowly but surely, instinct begins to take over. Captain Goblinbeard has put her through enough drills that she can handle a sword, and all that training starts to guide her. The shock of Jimena’s sparks has worn off and Billie can feel her confidence returning.
“Oh, I love your boots!” Billie exclaims, briefly glancing down as she dodges Jimena’s sword.
“Thank you,” Jimena says, deflecting Billie’s next blow. “I know a guy at the Leatherworks.”
“After this is all over, would you mind giving me his name?” Billie asks as she lunges at Jimena.
Kat and Lena decide to meet up at in the dockside ice cream parlour. Work has been slow for Kat lately and Lena’s seemed pretty glum, so Kat thinks she could probably use a friend. And, of course, the free ice cream probably helps.
Like everything else in Porthaven’s Dock District, it smells like Fish and Ocean and Wet. Luckily, the ice cream tastes much, much better than it smells.
“I don’t think I really hate my Dad,” Lena says abruptly. “Mostly, I think I miss him. I hate what he’s done to the family. I hate that Mom has to pretend that she’s okay that he’s never around. I hate that she has to look after my sisters all by herself. But, really, I think I just want Dad back.”
“Have you tried telling him that?” Kat asks.
“It’s not my fault he’s never around!” Lena says.
“I didn’t say it was,” Kat replies. “But, like, you can’t just sit there being grumpy about a bad situation, not doing anything, and expect things to change by themselves. It’s like, if a shark’s coming at you, you don’t just float there hoping it doesn’t eat you, you punch that fish right in the face!”
“Are you saying I should punch my Dad now?” Lena asks. “Wow, Kat. First you say I should bite him, now that I should punch him. I think you have some issues you need to deal with.”
“That is not what I’m saying,” Kat says. “It’s, like, a metaphor. Look, the point is that you have to try. Maybe your Dad won’t listen, but that’s not on you, right? All you can do is all you can do.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Lena mutters. “Oh man. That sounds hard. Maybe I’ll just stay grumpy. That seems such much easier.”
Kat looks gravely at her. “Lena.”
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
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