yrae | The Storyteller: The Hunt (Reply)

Twenty-Sixth Birthday

Sen and Kaiji tried to celebrate their first bounty as best they could. It wasn’t large, only enough to cover a month and a half of wages for a voyage that had taken a year to accomplish, but Sen knew they would improve. For more dangerous crews, those whose ships were confiscated when the crew was imprisoned, Sen would have been offered the captured ship, too, but these were minor pirates, not much worse than tax evaders. Captain Hin and her crew would be fined and sent on their way once they had paid it. In any case, Sen knew she wouldn’t be able to crew a second ship. Her first was barely trained yet.

To emphasise the celebration, she treated her crew to the heartiest breakfast any of them had ever eaten when she and Kaiji returned from the tax office: fried eggs and crispy seaweed, fresh mango and a whole side of smoked deep-sea salmon. It was decadence like none of them had ever experienced, and they thanked her with tears in their eyes. She felt bad for dragging them away from their new career, just as they were tasting success, but none of them begrudged their captain for searching for her first mate’s parents. Most of them only had one parent themselves.

While in Ryas, Sen asked around for any news of Jita and of the Orana, but came up short. Nobody she asked had even heard of Jita, not even the authorities at the castle, and she found she knew more about the Orana than rumour and the authorities combined. The location of the Chain of Pearls still wasn’t widely known; it appeared Tu had held onto that little bargaining chip when she had left the previous year. Sen knew where they were, though. Tu had left her with a copy of the detailed map as part of her final gift.

They sailed then to Jita, where everything started to get confusing.

‘Kidnapped?’ Hashi said with a laugh. ‘No! They went of their own accord. Ship came in, Captain Tu got off and said with that cheeky look—you know the one—that she was taking them for a surprise trip.’

Pin jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow. ‘We’d all heard about you two and Red Cacao, though, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise where she was taking them.’

‘Except she didn’t,’ Kaiji snapped. ‘She’s kidnapped them and is holding them to ransom.’

‘Unless I join the Orana’s crew.’ Sen folded her arms with a frown. ‘What else did she say? Anything about the Chain of Pearls?’

Pin grinned broadly, clearly not convinced by the kidnapping story. ‘Oh, yeah, plenty,’ she said, taking on an expression of whimsy. ‘I’d want to go for the food, honestly. Nothing wrong with raw fish and seaweed every day, of course, but just imagine all of what they get up there! The variety, the smells! It’d be amazing. Have you been?’

Sen chewed her bottom lip, not wanting to answer.

‘I don’t care,’ Kaiji snipped back. ‘She’s got my parents and I want them back. She’s doing this as revenge against us. She went to Ryas last year to try and buy the Chain of Pearls herself, but she fucked it up.’ She huffed out angrily through her nose. ‘She’s blaming us. We left her crew, said we wanted to go legit, and she lost it. Started threatening the king and queen if she didn’t get what she wanted, but of course they didn’t cave, so now she’s blaming us. She’s kidnapped my parents as revenge.’

Hashi’s face had dropped. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘Get them back,’ Kaiji growled. ‘Raise a fleet, if we have to, I don’t care.’

‘Is there anything more you can tell us about when the Orana was here?’ Sen tried again. ‘Anything that might tell us what we’re heading into.’

Pin shrugged helplessly. ‘I’m telling you, she seemed just as excited as she always has been. She was going on and on about you two and Red Cacao, what they’d find when they got to the Chain of Pearls.’

‘The crew seemed a bit on edge, though,’ Hashi said slowly, thoughtfully. ‘Kind of quiet, bit anxious to leave by first light, that sort of thing.’

‘Oh, yeah, that’s true,’ Pin agreed, frowning herself in thought. ‘And when we asked what we should tell you if you came back before she found you, she said to just wait for her here. Otherwise, she’d just find you, wherever you got to.’

Sen’s skin prickled. ‘Not if we find her first,’ she muttered. ‘Thanks, guys.’

While they were there, Sen recruited a handful of the younger townsfolk to her crew, not enough to deplete the town but enough to bolster her crew. The task of towing a ship behind them back to Ryas had needed more hands split between the two craft.

‘We can’t do this alone,’ she said to Kaiji when they were back on deck. ‘As soon as we’re within sight of the Chain of Pearls, we’re going to have an escort into port. Tu won’t even be there. She won’t give up the ocean, not even to rule the islands.’

‘I hate this,’ Kaiji growled. ‘I won’t let her find us. That can’t be the only way to get her.’

Sen sighed, drumming her fingers on the railing. ‘We know her better than anyone for whom her name carries weight. She keeps telling us that. What are we missing?’

‘We know she used to always come back to Jita for your birthday,’ Kaiji answered, rolling her eyes. ‘Lot of good that’ll do now. I’m not waiting that long to find them. She likes presents and stories. Um. Spent a lot of time around Kazin and Tisadez.’

Sen shook her head. ‘She wants the Chain of Pearls to be a free nation. She’ll have to keep coming back to Ryas to make that happen. Maybe we missed something there. I’d like to know what happened in that meeting.’

‘I don’t,’ Kaiji growled. ‘I just want Mama and Papa back.’

‘I know,’ Sen replied, taking her wife in a hug. ‘So do I.’

Ryas confirmed that Tu had met with the king and queen once more since her first failed endeavour. This one, the officials said, had gone more smoothly, but still neither side was willing to give anything up. Since then, though, nothing had been seen of the Orana. Zest and Smallfry were both last seen away up north and had significant bounties on their hulls, and Cocoa Black had been in Ryas to collect their taxes three monthsago.

‘They’re still legit?’ Sen asked, cocking her eyebrows in surprise.

The tax agent wavered a hand in the air. ‘On a technicality,’ he said, in a voice that suggested he disagreed with the technicality. ‘They haven’t had any complaints raised against them, and they bring us intelligence about the Chain of Pearls, but they haven’t captured a pirate ship in years now. Cocoa Black is playing both sides.’

Even if her old ship had enough compassion for her to share some intelligence on the Orana, it still wouldn’t be back in Ryas for nine months.

Legitimate channels exhausted, Sen took her Red Cacao hunting. They needed to start succeeding on a more regular basis, now more than ever. Pirates knew things about the Orana that the authorities didn’t. Through the year, they still lost more than they caught, but Sen was pleased to almost break even on their bounties now.

Sen’s twenty-sixth birthday came and went, marking a full year since Sula and Nak had been captured. None of their captured ships would say a word on Tu and the Orana, only taunted Kaiji about her missing parents, until they finally hunted down and captured a small ship that preyed on Llayan pleasure cruisers. This would be the last one before they headed back to Ryas to hopefully meet Captain Gendas and the Cocoa Black.

‘Tell me about Captain Tu,’ Sen demanded, coolly, of her captured captain.

The old man grinned through bloodied teeth. ‘Let us go and I’ll tell you all you need.’

Kaiji grabbed the old captain by the wrist, wrenched his arm behind his back and held tight to his thumb. ‘Tell us all we know and I won’t break your thumb.’

He only chuckled. ‘She’s got it in for you, now, lassies. Got your parents locked up in the hold and all—argh! Ow! All right, all right. She makes port back in Freetown once a year, always the same time. Just missed ‘er, I’d say. She would’ve been there a month or two ago. Head up there now and you’ll probably get there just in time to catch ‘er for next year’s visit.’

Kaiji exchanged glances over the captain’s shoulder. Sen’s birthday, right on schedule. Sen nodded and turned her back, silently signalling to her crew to take the captain below with his crew, but she stopped short of ordering them to tie down the ship.

‘What do you want to do?’ Sen asked. She was the captain, but it was Kaiji’s parents in danger. If they left for the Chain of Pearls now, they would turn up alone, and it was only the word of a captured pirate bargaining for release that even suggested Tu would be there when they arrived. If he was telling the truth, though, and they went back to Ryas to confirm it with Cocoa Black, they would probably miss her. Sula and Nak would be held for another year.

Kaiji rested back against the railing, grasping it with both hands and looking over her shoulder in the direction of Ryas. ‘What are our chances?’ she asked.

Sen chewed on her bottom lip. ‘Cocoa Black could probably make it, if they turn up in Ryas on time.’

Kaiji drummed her fingers against the railing, then gave a small nod. ‘I’d rather have Captain Gendas with us. Even if he is playing both sides.’

‘Done.’ Sen came forward to grab Kaiji’s waist and plant a deep kiss on her mouth, then she turned to her crew. ‘We’re leaving this junk here,’ she yelled over the wind. ‘We’re on a timer now, guys. Beat sails to Ryas! Go to it, now!’

‘Aye, Skip!’ the crew shouted back, and they were on their way.

Cocoa Black was in port when they returned to Ryas, and Sen knew Captain Gendas would be there for a good week or two while he gathered his own intelligence. She turned in her captured pirate crew, apologised to the tax office for the loss of the ship, collected her bounty and went in search of her old captain.

They found him, as Sen had expected, at one of the seedier food-domes in the city. Among others, it was rumoured to be frequented by those who had dealings with pirates, though of course the patrons would never admit to that. Sen didn’t recognise any of the men Gendas sat with, but his hulking figure was unmistakeable.

Sen tapped him on the shoulder. ‘Got a minute, Skip?’ she asked in a low voice.

‘Sen!’ Gendas turned, eyes wide with surprise Sen had never seen on his face. ‘And Kaiji, of course!’ Sen grinned to see this rare treat. Gendas was impossible to surprise. Absolutely. I heard you’d only left two months ago. I have something for you. Come outside where we can talk.’

He excused himself from the blanket on the sandy floor and followed Sen and Kaiji outside.

‘We need help,’ Sen opened. No point trying to hide anything.

Gendas nodded, cutting her off. ‘It’s all over Freetown. I had hoped you’d be here when we docked. I’m so sorry, Kaiji. I tried to talk her out of it, truly, but…’ He sighed and shook his head. ‘She’s been dark, this past year. Losing the Chain of Pearls hit her hard. Story goes she’s actually taken to alcohol, drinks like a Raykinian now.’

Sen hugged her middle. Kaiji hung an arm around her lower back and rested her head on Sen’s shoulder.

‘I started this,’ Sen mumbled.

Kaiji’s hand moved to thwack her in the back of the head. ‘You didn’t,’ she snapped, angry. ‘She did. Mama and Papa let us go when we wanted to strike out on our own. They didn’t go threatening and kidnapping people we love. Tu could have done the same. This is not on you. Never think that. Gendas, we need your help. We can’t go in alone.’

‘That’s what I wanted to give you,’ Gendas agreed. ‘Cast off tomorrow. Take half of Cocoa Black and we’ll cut the water ahead of you. We’ll get you there before Tu docks.’

STUFF

o The timing in this chapter is so off I can't even. It starts, like, a month after the last one, Sen's birthday happens uneventfully somewhere in the ether, then they catch the pirate ship three months later and finally rock up back in Ryas to see Gendas probably another month or two after that. I have no idea. By all accounts it makes no goddamn sense. I kinda screwed myself over with the yearly chapter thing on this one, but eh, close enough? Nobody will notice, right? The birthday's mentioned at least?