The Runaway King (The Ascendance Series, Book 2)

Sometime late that afternoon, I wandered to the upper part of Tarblade Bay, hoping to find Imogen and try again to make her leave. But my attention was diverted by a ship entering the harbor below. It was unlike the pirate-marked schooners already in the harbor, and yet by the comments of others near me, they recognized several of the men on board. Obviously, this ship had been captured.

I made my way to the top of the hillside where I had a better view. Yet from my distance and without a scope, it was difficult to discern crew from pirates. It was true that pirates had an annoying habit of wearing black and that their general grooming was ragged at best, but these were hardly unique traits amongst many Avenians.

Agor walked up beside me and sighed with pleasure. “That ship looks profitable, don’t you think?”

“Where’s the crew?” I asked.

“Probably dead,” Agor said casually. “If not now, they soon will be, right?”

He laughed, then looked frustrated that I didn’t share in his joke. His tone turned nasty as he said, “Devlin only made you a pirate because of his greed. If it was up to me, you’d never have left that jail alive. Despite the stories Erick told us, I doubt you have the courage for this life.”

“It doesn’t take much courage to attack what’s clearly a peaceful ship,” I said, nodding at the ship in the harbor.

A cheer rose up amongst the pirates on land as the men on the boat dumped a body onto the beach. He was moving, but he appeared to be the only crewman they’d left alive.

“What’ll happen to him?” I asked Agor.

Agor looked at me as if I had moss for brains. “No one leaves Tarblade.”

Devlin had seen the ship too and stationed himself near Agor and me while the crewman was dragged up the steep hillside trail. Once he was dropped at Devlin’s feet, I finally got a good look at him.

He was probably in his fifties with a shock of gray hair sticking out from a wide-brimmed hat that identified him as one of the ship’s officers. He had the remnants of a bloody nose and a swollen black eye. And despite his attempts to look defiant, he was clearly terrified.

“Who’s this?” Devlin asked.

“My name is Swifty Tilagon,” the man said. “Ship’s navigator.”

Devlin swatted him across the cheek. “When I want to hear from you, I’ll speak to you!”

Agor stepped forward with papers given to him by one of the men who’d helped capture the ship. “It’s only rocks for cargo.”

“Not rocks,” Tilagon corrected. “I transport metals for a mine in the south. Copper and lead and whatever else we find.”

“Transport it where?”

“To Isel, to sell it. Please release me. That cargo represents several months of labor. Hundreds of men are waiting for their pay.”

Inwardly, I groaned. Did he have to tell them its value?

Devlin gestured to the pirates. “My men have been waiting for their pay too. I believe we need these metals more than anyone in Isel.” Then he nodded at Agor. “Kill this man, then unload his ship.”

The man yelped but by then I had pushed my way to the front of the crowd. “You should think bolder, Devlin.”

His glare turned on me, daring me to have a suggestion worth challenging him.

I could only hope that I did. “You have the opportunity to steal from this man twice. Send some pirates to Isel with him tomorrow disguised as his crew. They can sell the rocks, take his payment, and then kill him. If you send enough pirates, you’ll have fighting power to keep the cargo too.”

With his greedy appetite whetted, Devlin grinned. He pointed to a blond, curly-haired pirate who couldn’t have been much older than me. “Tie this man up. We’ll fetch him again in the morning.”

“Why not put him in the jail?”

“I’ve already got a couple of men in there cooling off for the night. Just tie him to a tree. There’s enough of us around he won’t be able to do anything.”

There was nothing more I could do now. Tilagon spat on my boots when I walked past him to leave. I stopped and he said, “It wasn’t enough to kill my men. Now you’ll steal from our investors too. Of all these miserable vultures, you are the worst.”

“I saved your life,” I said.

“Only for another day.”

“Then use it well. Even a day is valuable around here.”

“I’ll use it to beg the devils to curse you.”

“Get in line,” I said coolly. “Do you think you’re the first?”

Then I wandered to the dinner tables with the other pirates. Erick caught up to me on the way. “It was a good idea back there. At least, Devlin was pleased with you.”

“I don’t care a devil’s inch about what Devlin thinks of me.”

Erick glanced around to see if anyone had overheard. “You should. Because whether you like him or not, he’s king here.” I snorted my contempt, but Erick grabbed my arm to turn me back to him. “Who are you to look down on him? You’re no one, Sage. And you won’t get anywhere with that attitude.”

“Good advice,” I said, fully agreeing that my attitude wasn’t going to endear me to Devlin.

Dinner wasn’t much different than lunch had been. It was loud, boisterous, and obnoxious. I watched for Imogen but only caught a glimpse of her carrying dishes back to the kitchen from where the other serving girls left them as they busied themselves with different tasks.

Several hours passed before everyone settled in for the night. The sleeping quarters for pirates began at sea level as a large hut butted up against the cliff. The steep wall provided some protection but the other three sides were left open to the air. There was a second hut stacked above the one where I slept. It was slightly less exposed to the breeze rolling off the sea, and so was used by the pirates of higher authority. A single room was stacked above that, but I didn’t know what it was for. Devlin and Agor and other senior pirates had their own private quarters at the top of the cliff.

Sneaking out of the hut was fairly simple. Apparently, pirates slept in much the same manner as they lived during the day, loud and hard. The bigger trick after I left was to get off the beach and back up to the top of the hill. Directly behind us, the earthen cliff was too steep for a safe nighttime climb. Stairs were carved into the more gradual hill a little farther down, but they seemed well guarded, so instead I moved up the shore and did some scrambling across an old rockslide to get up top.

I was surprised that Tarblade wasn’t better guarded than what I saw up there. A few vigils were making rounds, but it was as if they knew nobody would be foolish enough to attack them so they expected little danger. Still, I moved cautiously as I made my way toward the captured navigator.

Tilagon was asleep beside the tree, his head tilted so far forward it was nearly touching his chest. I wondered how he could sleep like that, when even in the most comfortable of beds I often had trouble sleeping at all. At least they’d given him a blanket. Devlin would’ve wanted him to be healthy enough to travel in the morning, before they killed him.

The knot binding Tilagon’s hands was nearly halfway undone before he awoke. I whispered that if he made a sound we were both dead and he quickly closed his mouth. When the ropes were untied, I helped him move his arms back from around the tree. He gasped with the stiffness in them but relaxed again once they rested on his legs.

“You?” he hissed when he recognized me. “You’ve come to kill me?”

“Don’t be absurd. Now hush.”

“In that case, I’m sorry for what I said before.”

“Listen to me very carefully,” I said. “Your ship and its contents are lost to the pirates. You must leave on foot.”

Tilagon nodded. He was already massaging his legs with his hands, preparing to run.

I glanced around to be sure we were still alone, then said, “After you leave here you must not be found. Stay off the trails and go anywhere they won’t think to look for you. If they catch you, there won’t be anything I can do to help.”

He put a hand on my arm. “Tell me your name so I can thank you properly.”

“Thank me by staying alive. Give me your hat.” Tilagon obeyed, then I said, “It’s time to leave. Now.”

He nodded again, took my hand and gave it a firm squeeze, then leapt to his feet and ran, never looking back.

I used the stiff wool blanket to prop up a piece of wood to look like a body against the tree and put the man’s hat on top. Up close it was obviously a trick, but from a distance I hoped a vigil would think the man was still tied up here. Less than ten minutes later I passed Erick’s bed as I entered the sleeping quarters. Harlowe’s watch was stored under the bed, and I was tempted to take it and hide it.

But I couldn’t. Not yet. However, I silently vowed to get it back before this was all over.

The following morning, I was one of the first at breakfast, though it was interrupted by another group of pirates who had gathered nearby and were jeering at whatever was happening in the center of them all. I hurried forward, concerned that Tilagon had been captured again. Fink stood near the outside of the group, though he was too short to have a chance at seeing anything.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

“They just grabbed the boy who tied up that sailor last night. Devlin said he must not have tied him good enough because the man got away while we slept.”

I pushed my way forward. Devlin had fashioned a switch out of a tree branch and was beating the curly-haired boy with it. The boy had crouched into a ball to protect himself but still yelped whenever Devlin hit him.

“Stop it!” I darted forward and grabbed Devlin’s arm. “You don’t know he did anything wrong. Maybe Tilagon was just good at knots.”

“If he’d done it right, nobody could escape.”

“Lots of people can escape knots.”

Devlin shook my hand off him. “Like who?”

It was smarter to back off, but by the glare in Devlin’s eyes I figured it was already too late. “I can.”

Devlin forgot about the boy still on the ground. A wicked grin crossed his face when he looked at me. “I want to see that. Tie him up.”

“What?” I scowled. A couple of pirates grabbed me but I squirmed free. “I haven’t done anything wrong.” At least, not for a few hours.

“No one’s accusing you,” Devlin said as the pirates got hold of me again. “You made a claim and I’m testing it.”

Despite my struggles, they bound my hands behind me and made several knots before I was pronounced finished. It wasn’t a big problem. I’d held my hands wide while they tied me and had already found one end of the rope.

I’d learned how to untie knots soon after entering Mrs. Turbeldy’s orphanage, thanks to the pranks of several older boys who liked to tie us younger ones up in an attic and claim we weren’t hungry for supper. One evening, I figured out I could undo the knots with some nimble fingers and a lot of patience. Then it was time for some revenge. They awoke the next morning tied to their beds while the rest of us went to breakfast. The pranks stopped, and my skills with knots had only improved since then.

Except that with a tilt of his head, Devlin now had me dragged toward the stables. I dug my boots into the dirt path to slow the men on either side of me, but two others joined them and picked up my legs. They carried me into the corral and dropped me directly in front of the water trough. I shook my head at Devlin. “Don’t you dare. I never said —”

“Raise a hand when you want air. If you can.”

And he dunked me face-first into the trough. His foot landed on my back, pressing me down. I didn’t bother with fighting. It wouldn’t do any good and would cost me air. So I arched my back to keep the rope as dry as possible. Every bit of water it absorbed would make the rope thicker and knots tighter.

My fingers worked as fast as they could, deciphering each knot’s shape and worming their way between the loops. I was making progress, but far too slowly and it was hard to concentrate. I hadn’t gotten a complete breath before Devlin pushed me in, and my lungs already ached.

I found the next knot, but it was higher on my wrists, and I couldn’t maneuver my arms at this angle. I couldn’t untie this one while I was submerged.

It was beyond my wanting to breathe now. I needed to breathe. The end of my life could be measured in seconds if I didn’t get free.

Against my will, my lungs finally exploded and I sucked in a mouthful of water. My body jerked up, instinctively moving toward air. Then the foot was removed and Devlin yanked me out of the water and dropped me against a tree. I continued coughing on water as it choked its way out.

Devlin crouched down to face me. “You’d better learn fast that if you interfere with someone else’s punishment, it’s going to become yours. Especially when you make such wild claims.”

Wordlessly, I reached for his meaty hand. Into his open palm I dropped the rope that had tied me. “Thanks for the warning,” I said, still breathless. “But I never make wild claims.”

He cursed at me and threw the rope back into my lap, then left me in the corral as the other men followed him out. I pocketed the rope, just in case I needed it in the future. When I felt better, I stood and started toward the beach.

On the way I passed Fink. He started to say something, but with a growl at him I said, “No, I won’t show you how I did that. You’ve got to get away from here.”

Fink only nodded. “Yeah, I know.”