It was the eighth day aboard the Prize of Prexus that Llisanya heard the warning cry from the crow’s nest of an unidentified vessel approaching hull down on the horizon. She came on deck.
First Mate Drinnen had been on watch when the lookout spotted the unknown sail. He had summoned the Skipper immediately. Coranis had come naked onto the deck, bold as a jay. She carried her clothes and cutlass in her arms. She dropped them on the deck beside her as she stood nude and frowned at the unfamiliar ship. As far as anyone was aware, she had never been naked in front of the crew before yet there she was surprisingly not caring a fig how many of her crew got a look at her tight little hoo-hah. Except for a couple poofters, every member of the crew enjoyed the sight of their Skipper’s nakedness. Each sailor wished they could have a fuck with that beautiful body. What a nice ass she had.
Her lover-for-the-trip, that young scion of the Vishra family, followed close behind. Diamander had delayed his arrival on deck long enough to cover himself decently. Notwithstanding his modesty, the obvious bulge in his pants confirmed what he and the Skipper were doing when the appearance of the unknown sail interrupted their coupling.
Coranis remained naked, peering at the still distant sail. She still did not take time to dress, having suddenly too many things to think about in too short a time to allow her the luxury of covering herself from the leers of ogling swabs. They admired her flat stomach, her taut breasts, her round ass. She saw them looking. It did not matter, she reminded herself: these men would soon forget about what they were seeing.
“We need to assume they are Pirates” she pronounced. “They’ve got the wind on us and I do not like the way they are on a heading as if to intercept us.”
Drinnen agreed. “Setting a course straight at us, they might as well raise their Jolly Roger.”
Notwithstanding the menace, Coranis inwardly smirked a self-satisfied smirk. The rest of the crew had been overconfident in the safety of the well-armed Prize of Prexus; boasting to their Skipper that no Gunthak Pirates would dare attack them. Coranis had not agreed.
She had been right. There was a ship flying no flag and bearing down on them in what could only be a belligerent manner. Even an armed merchantmen such as the Prize of Prexus was not safe in these lawless days.
Coranis was irritated, not frightened. She knew her crew would win any seabattle that came their way but it would be at a cost and it would cause a delay in her arrival in New Halas.
On the other hand, it had been a while since the last fight. Clearly the Gunthaks were forgetting the previous times she had thrashed them. Maybe this nuisance of dealing with this pirate ship would be for the best if it ensured she and her crew would be left alone from then on. Moreover, when word of this battle reached the various ports, shippers would be doubly assured their cargo will be safe on the Prize of Prexus. That meant that she would be able to charge a premium price for any and all cargo she chose to load. There was profit in every fight you win.
Coranis decided to address the crew. She did not need to call her crew’s attention to her, they were still looking at her pretty tits, keeping only half an eye to their work. She let them look. It soon would not matter. “Lads” Coranis raised her voice so that it could carry right up to the men near the bow “it looks like we gotta teach someone a lesson. I hope you all like loot!”
She was answered by a hardy cheer though she suspected the men were applauding her body more than the prospect of gold.
By this time Second Mate Armiss had joined Drinnen and the Skipper. Coranis turned to him. “Have the Quartermaster’s Mate unlock the arms locker and start distributing the cutlasses. All hands to be armed, Armiss.”
As the preparation for battle began, Coranis looked at the menacing ship. “They will be alongside us in an hour and a half unless the wind freshens” she told her officers. “They’ll likely bear off and head for the horizon when they see how well armed we are but with the desperate straits these pirates are in these days, they may be fool enough to keep coming.”
Angrily, Coranis calculated how badly this would impact the profits this voyage. Even given it may lead to an increase in reputation, it obliged her to alter course to meet them and fight them off. It would delay her arrival in New Halas by at least a day.
She glared at the approaching ship, frustrated to be delayed in her arrival in New Halas with her important dispatches and perishable food. There would also be an extra day’s wages her crew would be due. For that alone she would show these Gunthaks no mercy. No one did things that cut into her profits without earning her ire.
She bent to pick up her clothes on the deck and started getting dressed while she thought. She pulled on her leggings slowly. Her crew had a treat looking at her very lovely body being slowly covered up in a reverse striptease. Missing the whores ashore and lacking funds to hire Llisanya until they got paid at the conclusion of the voyage, each man wished the Skipper would choose them for some night’s pleasure instead of that highborn fancy-pants Lord she currently had in her bunk.
Not yet doing her leggings up, not in the least concerned to have her pubic hair still showing in front of her entire crew, each sailor looked longingly at the thighs that framed the neat bush between her legs, curly and glistening. Would that she would spread her harbour wide for them, just once!
Still partly bottomless, Coranis reached down to grab her tunic and pull it on. Her pointed breasts disappeared as the last buttons were done up. Only then did she reach down to lace up her fly and fasten her belt, ending the view of her tantalizing womanhood.
By the time the unknown ship was three cable lengths away the crew stood ready and armed. No one doubted these jeering ruffians were pirates. Coranis made a quick speech. “All right, Boys. Even the stupidest of you can see they mean us harm, all right.” Everyone laughed at Coranis’s rough joke and nodded agreement. “We’re ready for them, Lads! They’ll be no match for us!”
Another hardy cheer greeted Coranis. She pretended to suddenly remember something else. “Oh...one last thing...any man not covered in Gunthak blood by the time we run those bandits off? I’ll toss you overboard!”
The even hardier cheer from her crew at that threat confirmed to Coranis that they were ready. Her voice softened at this point “...I know you’ll all fight hard. Watch each others’ backs and trust to whatever deity protects you.” The men obligingly nodded assent. They looked serious but showed no fear.
Coranis pointed at Llisanya, standing ready with her dagger. “Last thing, you horny sons of bitches. After the fight, for any man that kills at least one pirate, I’ll open the cashbox and pay for an hour with our friendly working passenger, there...in her bunk.”
Llisanya waved a friendly wave at the crew and smiled, confirming she was open for business. There was no sense not giving the crew more incentive to fight hard, she reasoned.
Coranis looked about. Everyone seemed ready. “Armiss, take your watch forward and fight on the forecastle. Drinnen, keep yours amidships. Llisanya, get up in the rigging and jump on the back of any bastard stupid enough to run under you. Diamander, you stay beside me and the helmsman as bodyguard.”
All seemed ready but Coranis swept her eyes about looking for anything undone. She spotted Sam hiding behind a particularly huge sailor. “Sam! What do you think you are doing?”
Sam peered out from behind the bulk of the sailor. “Me, Skipper? I’m ready to fight, as ordered...”
“No, you’re not” Coranis fired back curtly. “You’ll get yourself killed! Your place is below with the Surgeon. He’ll need your help. Go report to the Sawbones!”
With Sam dismissed, the crew stood and waited until the enemy ship was close enough to trade insults. The fools should have seen the amount of qualified fighters the Prize carried. They should have run. They kept on, though, desperate for loot in desperate times.
The Pirate ship was soon close enough to see it’s name was “The Wrath of Ro”, carved on its prow. Coranis knew of this ship and its crew, her crew need not hope for any mercy should they not win the day.
As the pirates hurled insults at the Prize of Prexus, Coranis was pleased to see the spirit with which her crew hurled insults back at the taunting thugs. The Wrath of Ro came on. The two hulls collided against each other and with a grinding of oak planks the fight was on.
The first to board the Prize of Prexus were foolish young men unable to conceive of their own deaths. The young fools had likely joined in the last harbour they anchored in, lured by promises of easy riches in poor times. Armiss, up on the forecastle, suspected the older pirates had egged them on in a sacrificial role intended to keep the his men busy while the more experienced pirates swarmed behind.
His men killed the majority of youngsters quick enough, but that had allowed the next wave to get aboard the prize unhurt. There were more than Armiss would have expected. He realized they had been hidden below deck and emerged as the last of the enthusiastic youths expended their lives exhausting Armiss’s men.
The old veterans pressed Armiss’s watch in such numbers that he feared his men were about to be overwhelmed. They fell back under the onslaught.
Just as Armiss was vowing to himself to sell his life as dearly as he could, the situation was saved when a sudden blaze of searing heat appeared from seeming nowhere. It swept over the entire bow and surrounded his men in an intense heat that singed his whiskers. He knew magic when he saw it. It could only be that the pirates had a wizard casting fire spells. He looked around puzzled. Despite the warmth he felt on his face, he was astonished to see his men were unhurt.
As for those who had been so close to slaughtering his men...pirates lay dead and dying all around him. Some bodies were burnt so thoroughly that white bone gleamed under the cooked meat of what was once murderous pirates. So many had been scortched in this manner that Armiss’s men regained the upper hand, pushing the survivors back.
As his men stepped over the dead to hack at the pirates that had not been killed by the mysterious fire spell, Armiss had a short respite of time to wonder who was casting magic. How could some pirate Wizard be so incompetent in his attack that his spell of destruction fell short of Armiss’s men and fried his own shipmates? Armiss was too glad to still be alive to puzzle over why a Gunthak Captain would hire a mage so incompetent he could manage to kill his own men.
Back by the wheel, guarding the helmsmen, Diamander had seen where the fire spell had come from. Coranis had launched it with a snap of her left arm and a twist of her fingers. A bright ball of fire had flown from her hand to land on the ships’s bow and pirates burned to death.
Dimander glanced at the helmsmen who returned his look. Diamander realized the helmsman was also shocked to see what Coranis had just done. It seemed her own crew had been unaware of her magic abilities until just then.
Coranis was not pleased. She had seen the trouble Armiss was in and had been forced to cast her most devastating spell, Fire Storm. Armiss was a good man and she did not intend to lose him but the fight had hardly started, and she had already used her most powerful spell. She would not be able to cast it again for a half hour and by then the fight would be over, for good or bad.
Coranis looked down to see how Drinnen was doing amidships. Drinnen’s group were being attacked by a mob as large as the group that had attacked Armiss further forward. Drinnen, too, was in trouble.
Angrily, Coranis realized she had underestimated how many pirates had been hidden within the hull of the Wrath of Ro. Those bastards had swarmed from hatches, cheering and jeering, grinning at the success of their ambush.
One of Drinnen’s men went down, decapitated by the blow of a huge Barbarian; a brute of a man swinging an axe she could not have even lifted. He swung it with such speed she suspected he was Berserk.
That giant of a man was too strong. As a second of Drinnen’s men went down under the axe, Coranis quickly cast a Domination spell at the Berserker.
Not for the first time, Coranis thanked herself for the effort she had made to learn that Domination Spell. She had paid a heavy price to have that sexually deviant Dark Elf Coercer teach it to her. In exchange for the use and abuse of her body all night he had taught her the spell to hypnotize the huge spiders that lurked everywhere in Neriak.
She controlled the arachnids only briefly. The spell inevitably broke and they attacked. That horny old Coercer had laughed and let them bite Abella Coranis a few times before he immolated them with quick cast of a Sunstrike spell. As the spiders exploded he claimed he let the spiders bite her to teach her to pay better attention to her lessons. She suspected he took sexual pleasure from seeing her suffer. At the end of day, he would zap the last of the spiders then say “that’s enough for today, Abella, let’s go to my rooms. I’m horny watching your tits bounce.”
After three weeks, the spiders remained under her charm. She tried larger creatures. It got easier until she was finally able to entrance even larger creatures. It took only a quick twist of her hand and wave of her arm. The same twist and wave she made at the Berserker.
The Domination spell landed on the Berserker as neatly as the time she had last used it; the time she had to deal with that Qeynos Harbourmaster that had so stubbornly refused her bribe.
As simple as that, the Axe Wielder doing so much harm to Drinnen’s men was her thrall for the next sixty minutes. He stopped swinging his axe and instead turned to look at Coranis, instinctively knowing who he served, awaiting her orders. She yelled at him as he stood there “attack your shipmates, you oaf! You’re mine now!”
Obediently, with no comprehension and no hesitation, the Charmed Pirate began swinging his huge axe at his former friends. His powerful strokes were devastating to his surprised shipmates. Coranis found vindictive pleasure in seeing the bafflement as the pirates realized their own shipmate had inexplicably turned against them. They died under his blows without understanding why there had been such betrayal.
“That big bastard is under my control!” Coranis yelled at Drinnen unnecessarily “rally your men and get behind him.”
Coranis could maintain two Domination spells simultaneously. She might as well use the second one. She picked another pirate. He was not as big as her first victim but was quite tall. He was a good fighter. She cast her second Domination Spell and he too turned to fight his former friends.
That left Drinnen’s men in a better situation. She looked forward to check on Armiss. He was doing well, but it was still too a tough fight for her taste. Deciding it was time, she fired off her second-most deadly spell: Cursed Disease. It fell on those still fighting Armiss’s men. They fell, writing in pain as huge boils erupted on their flesh.
That broke the resolve of the pirates. With the two Dominated Pirates now fighting alongside the Prexus crew and with the number of casualties mounting, the pirates were being pushed back off the Prize of Prexus.
Llisanya, lurking up in the rigging, jumped down on the back of a particularly ornery looking pirate and drove her dagger into the back of his neck, down into his spine. She was sure Coranis was not going to toss a passenger over board, but she wanted credit for a kill anyway. She was not going to be seen to have not fought as hard as anyone else.
The man tilted his head up in pain to look at Llisanya. She was the last woman he saw. That excited her. She saw the life leave his eyes and a small orgasm rippled through her. She pulled the dagger out of the scoundrel. The blade made the same wet sound Daddy made every time he had pulled out of her; after he was done with her for a while. It was good to show a man how it felt.
Lusting under the sexual thrill of ending a life, Llisanya looked about for more to murder. Before she could choose another victim, she spotted Sam over on her left. The little fool had snuck back into the fight. She had to admit, he was using her knife lessons to success. His blade drove into the gut of a Pirate that had charged straight at him. The mortally wounded pirate, fat belly spilling innards, almost fell on top of Sam who had to slip out from under the gore of the collapsing ruffian.
Diamander, beside Coranis, was still coming to terms with the fact that the Skipper had just launched several spells at the throngs of bandits. She made no effort to hid her arcane castings to Diamander or any of her crew near her. He had watched as Coranis calmly launched that last spell. The one that caused hideous boils to erupt all over them. They writhed in agony and quickly died. He knew just enough about magic spells to know that Abella Coranis had just cast one of a Dark Elf origin.
He would need to tell Uncle Vishra about this. There was a lot to report but for now his attention was on the fight.
The fight had swung to the advantage of the Prize of Prexus. Pirates slowed their sword swings and fatigue overtook them. The cutlasses of the Prexus crew did cruel work. Limbs were hacked and mortal wounds were opened up.
The pirates scrambled back to their own ship.
Other merchant crews typically would have allowed them to escape, but Armiss and Drinnen smelled revenge and a valuable ship to take as a prize. They urged their men over onto the pirate ship and with a victorious cheer the crew obeyed, taking the fight onto the Wrath of Ro’s main deck. The two Bewitched Pirates fought alongside the Prexus Crew. Diamander remained beside Coranis, still filling the role of bodyguard.
The pirates huddled into a defensive circle, dwindling in numbers but still numerous. An older man stood in their midst, himself casting spells. Under his ministrations, pirate wounds healed up and men who were tiring found new energy.
“They have a Cleric casting restorative spells!” Diamander warned Coranis and pointed him out. Coranis followed Diamander’s indication. The Cleric was frantically waving his hands, making no effort to hide the fact that he was casting healing spells on his wounded crewmates. A smarter healer would not have made it so obvious what he was doing. If he had been more discreet no one would have noticed him.
“What a fool” Coranis muttered. As quick as thought, she made a hand gesture at the healer. Her pointing finger crackled as her Sunstrike spell flew through the air directly at the Priest. As he raised his hand for one more healing cast he was interrupted by the arrival of the killing bolt. His head exploded, vaporized into a bloody cloud of pink brains. The headless corpse collapsed on the deck, heal spell interrupted in mid-cast. In grim satisfaction Coranis yelled scornfully “heal that, Showoff!”
Diamander was deeply disturbed to see the power Coranis possessed. He had no sympathy for a pirate healer but was shocked to be seeing that the drunken tavern tales about Abella Coranis were true. And how surreal it all was that Coranis made no attempt to conceal her dark arts. How safe were he and Llisanya now that they knew her secret?
They were still at least two days sail from New Halas. He would need to discuss this with Llysanya as soon as he could, but he could see no way to protect themselves should Coranis choose to silence them. Trying to think, Diamander could only watch the defeated Gunthak Pirates being pushed aft as men died and their defensive circle shrank. Would he and Llisanya be soon sharing their fate ere they tell someone of what they saw?
“Don’t let those whoresons live” Coranis screamed from beside him, totally unconcerned her whole crew now knew of her magic abilties. “I want that ship!”
Coranis was pleased to see the resolve of her crew as the last of the pirates were driven up to the poop deck of their ship to crowd around their Captain.Knowing he was in his final battle, the Captain was screaming invectives at the crew of the Prize of Prexus. He rallied the last of his men around him, urging them to sell themselves dearly.
The doomed pirates had a tactical advantage up there on the poop deck as they mounted their last stand. There was only one ladder and the fearlessness of doomed men could be formidable. Nothing was more dangerous than a terrified, cornered man and Coranis could not afford to lose too many more of a good crew.
She had no intention of losing any. With her arsenal of magic spells near exhausted, Coranis cast what would be her second-last spell of the day; Terrible Awe. It fell on top of the knot of remaining pirates. It did no damage but it stunned every remaining pirate still alive. They stood, unable to move.
The Crew of the Prize did the rest. The vengeful slaughter was brief and deadly as they cut and stabbed at the mesmerized pirates. None remained alive but for the two that Coranis had enchanted. They stood there when the butchery was complete, awaiting orders.
The crew of the Prize raised a tired, ragged cheer, exhausted though they were. Coranis crossed over onto the deck of the Wrath of Ro, beaming proudly at her crew and managing to not slip in the many puddles of gore on the deck.
A few of the wiser men, finally having a chance to pause and think, were clearly ill-at-ease to realize Coranis was indeed the Seawitch of the drunken tavern tales.
Armiss was stunned by the magic Coranis had launched. This was one of a half dozen fights he had been in alongside his Skipper. He did not remember Coranis ever using black magic before, yet there was the demonstrated proof she was a Sorceress. He saw one or two of the crew studying Coranis with uncomfortable looks. Unlike them, he was smart enough to not show what he was thinking. He kept his expression neutral.
Most of the crew were too heady over their victory and the value of the loot to worry about a few spells their Captain may have cast. She hadn’t cast any on them.
Coranis had taken note of those looking unhappy about her magic arts. There were a few. These were the smart ones clearly mulling over the magic that they had witnessed that day. It was always the most quick witted of the crew; they were always the first to show they had doubts about sailing under a Witch casting spells of disease and fire.
Coranis knew that if she delayed too long with her final spell it would soon occur to even the biggest dolt that if the Captain could enchant a pirate, she could also enchant them. Even the stupidest of her crew would soon realize the ramifications of the Skipper having coercive abilities. She was not too worried, though. She would be able to deal with these concerns as she always dealt with them.
She had a few minutes before she would need to cast that last spell, though. For now she needed to deal with the aftermath of the fight. Tension was high and nerves were on edge. Her crew needed diversion.
Coranius looked around theatrically, taking stock of their captured vessel. “This is quite a ship, lads” she announced “a little messy and needing new sails and maybe a good carpenter, but she seems solid.”
A good hearted cheer went up from the crew. They had done a good days’ work and now owned a ship worth a fortune when sold in port.
Coranis spoke of the coin each man would be getting “We’ll sell her in New Halas for a price that’ll get us some gold. Your share of the sale of this vessel should be good for a few kegs of ale with some pretty lasses to help you drink it!”
The sailors raised another cheer. The coin they would spend on ale and lasses celebrating in New Halas was a fraction of what each man’s share would be. Happy at the wealth, most of them had not yet fathomed the ramifications of a Skipper that could cast evil spells on anybody.
Only the two charmed pirates stood still, not cheering, awaiting Coranis’s next order, incapable of truly understanding anything while under the spell that imprisoned their minds.
Coranis looked at the two of them as the cheers of the crew died down. The Domination Spells would not last much longer and of course she would soon need to deal with the crew seeing her cast numerous Dark Elf spells.
There was time for fun, though...and a little revenge on the last two pirates that had cost her a day’s extra voyaging. She pointed to them and demanded of her crew “what about these two fellows, men? You think they’ll make good shipmates?”
On cue, the crew to a man expressed their negative thoughts about the suggestion.
“Why not, boys?” Coranis asked in mock surprise. “I bet they really love their shipmates. Here, let’s find out.”
Coranis turned to the two pirates, still standing unemotionally, unable to do anything but await the orders of the Witch Captain. “You two” she addressed them “show my men how much you like your shipmates. Let’s see you kiss each other.”
The two did not hesitate. The ugly brutes turned and locked their lips together, bussing passionately. It was a ridiculous sight. Spontaneous laughter and a round of crude jokes greeted the sight of the two big ugly pirates kissing each other in such an ardent manner. The spectacle and resulting mirth relieved the after-fight tension, as Coranis had intended.
“Use some tongue” Coranis ordered and while the two big tough pirates started sticking their tongues in each other’s foul mouth the crew’s laughter turned to rightful expressions of disgust at the compelled homosexuality. Even the fag or two among the crew found the sight disgusting.
Coranis took note of four among the crew not enjoying the ribald show. These were the ones pondering if Captain Coranis would do the same to them sometime. These were the ones too smart to trust. These were the ones she had best leave in New Halas when they got into port.
Coranis was not worried about malcontents, though. At least not yet. She was enjoying the crude sport she was having with the two unfortunate pirates. “So you don’t think these two swabs would make good crewmembers, lads?” Captain Coranis’s question was greeted by a hoot of derision at the idea. “Alright, boys, if you don’t want a couple new mates to share your rum, I guess we’ll need to ask them to leave our new ship, eh?”
A cruel hoot of approval was unanimously raised. Coranis could not blame them; had they lost the fight there would have been no mercy from these two. She looked for a moment at the two kissers still giving each other the lips. “Stop necking” she ordered them at last “you’re making my crew sick.” The two enchanted pirates stopped and resumed staring blankly. “I think my men have had enough of you two stinking up our new vessel” she told them. “Jump off!”
Without hesitation, the two immediately turned and casually hopped over the rails down into the brine. The crew laughed vindictively as two splashes left the men in the wakes of the two ships drifting on in the light wind.
Something about the cold water broke Coranis’s Domination spells and the two pirates now realized that the ships were sailing on without them. They shouted in fear, alone on the waves.
No one bothered to feel sorry for them. Life at sea was too dangerous to give a pirate any mercy. Why take the chance of having him come back and kill you next sailing season? The crew looked aft at the dwindling figures in the water. Bets were taken over whether the pirates would drown first or be eaten by sharks. One of the swimming men appealed for forgiveness but no one took a moment to care. His pleas were answered by merciless insults. He was quickly left far astern alongside his mate.
As the crew began to pitch pirate corpse after pirate corpse into the depths, the Surgeon hopped over the gunnels onto the captured ship, looking for more injuries to treat. Seeing him, Coranis took on a serious tone, remembering she needed to get back to running the ship. “I saw two men killed, Sawbones. Were any more hurt?”
“There were a few slashes I need to stitch up and several burns from Prexus knows what. Seems one of those Pirates was shooting off fire spells of some sort.”
Coranis looked straight at him. She decided Sawbones had not seen the spells she had cast. He misunderstood the penetrating stare she gave him. “There’s nothing I can’t treat” he assured his captain. “As for deaths, we’ve got five so for.” He took a breath and seemed to be having trouble hiding his emotions before he corrected the number of fatalities. “It will be six soon enough. Sam is in a bad way.”
Coranis found Llisanya holding Sam. Llisanya’s breast brushed the top of his head but neither was conscious of it. Sam’s face was pale and he coughed up blood that looked a deep red against his sickly white skin. He had been stabbed deep in the chest.
“Sam...” Coranis sputtered in consternation and took his limp, clammy hand to stroke it. It looked to her like he had been stabbed through the lung. “Why were you up here? Why were you not down with the Surgeon?”
Sam coughed and more blood came out of his mouth. It landed on his jute shirt already soaked. He treated his Captain’s question as an order to reply. He found enough strength to answer. “You said anyone that killed a pirate could sleep with Llisanya. I wanted to sleep with Llisanya.” He went to add something else but instead suffered a fit of bloody coughing.
Llisanya turned him on his side so the blood would drip out of his mouth. She was unusually moved as she spoke. “He killed a pirate” she confirmed to Coranis, trying not to cry in front of the crew. “It was just after I jumped down out of the rigging. He was to my left and sliced open the fat son-of-a-bitch.”
Llisanya turned him back onto his back and spoke gently. “You’ll sleep with me, Sam. Don’t worry. You earned your reward.”
Sam seemed pleased to hear that but could not reply. He just coughed again. He was aware enough to realize he was in Llisanya’s arms and her soft breast was pressed against his forehead. He thought that was nice. He was proud she had seen how brave he had been. But he could only cough and it was hard to focus on those big eyes of hers.
Llisanya used her fourth-best blouse to wipe the blood from his mouth. “Hang in there, Sam. Stay awake for me” she implored.
Sam managed to smile up in the direction of Llisanya’s voice. “I will” he promised her in a weak whisper and Llisanya looked into his eyes and smiled back at him. But Sam’s eyes were not focusing on her. They weren’t focusing on anyone and Llisanya knew he was gone.
Coranis was also trying to hide her grief. “Damn, Sam” she muttered softly “why did you not stay below?”
There was a silence on deck. Coranis angrily told herself she had lost crew before and to stop being so emotional. She should be glad she had lost so few hands and she had no time to cry. There was one more thing that needed doing. It could not wait any longer. Several more of the crew were looking at her with troubled brows. “Gather round men” she ordered.
The crew obeyed. Too many did so reluctantly, thinking of what they had seen but not yet willing to disobey their Skipper and have their skulls explode.
Diamander stood with the crew. Llisanya merely looked up at Coranis from where she sat, still holding Sam’s body.
Coranis estimated half the crew was feeling ill at ease. She saw it in their uncomfortable expressions. Due to the business with Sam things were getting dangerously late. She was mad at herself for delaying the last spell so long. She needed to work quickly.
Coranis raised her left hand. Before anyone could react, she made an odd gesture. Her fingers formed a strange sign. Her crew stood momentarily dazzled. “It was a close fight” she told them. “We all fought well. No one saw anything unusual. I cast no magic spells.”
Coranis made a second odd gesture with her right hand and asked her crew “what happened today?” The entire crew muttered obediently in one voice “It was a close fight. We all fought well. No one saw anything unusual. You cast no magic spells.” Llisanya muttered the answer as obediently as everyone else.
Diamander was smart enough to mutter the answer back at Coranis in concert with the rest of the crew but he was wearing the family ring, the one Uncle Vishra said would stop him forgetting. The ring had worked. He remembered everything. He remembered the black magic Coranis had cast.
Coranis did not suspect Diamander had not forgotten. She had used the Spell of Forgetfulness a half dozen times after a half dozen sea battles. It had always worked.
There was one more small thing Coranis needed to address. She did not like the idea of her crew knowing what her tits looked like and jerking off to the memory. She made her sign again. “No one saw me naked” she told her crew.
“No one saw you naked” they agreed.
Deep in thought, Diamander almost failed to chant the response along with the rest of the crew. He had much to ponder now that he knew Captain Coranis’s secret, but at least he and Llisanya were no longer in peril for what he knew.
His ruminations were interrupted when he heard the Captain tell Llisanya “looks like my whole crew killed somebody today. They earned the reward I promised them. You might as well head below so you can get started. I’ll tell Armiss to get the crew to draw lots and make up a schedule. The crew will be coming fast and thick, no doubt. I assume you’ll charge me the usual five silver for each shag?”
Llisanya nodded, still too emotional about Sam to be thrilled to think of the coin she was about to finally be making on the voyage.
Coranis frugally added “if they want to splash a volley all over your face, they’ll need to pay the extra coin themselves. ”