Chapter Sixteen

I nearly wept when I saw the hull of the Lu-Ken rising before me. It was right where Vax said it would be, docked at the port of Rasc, a coastal town in the Kingdom of Vix. Her sails were down and her crew looked grim, those on duty staring vacantly off toward the sea. It hurt to see their pain, but that was minor compared to the joy I felt. And the relief.

I had made it. I escaped slavery again. This time, I'd done it on my own. No. That's not true. Vax had let me go. Why? Why had he done it? Why had he cried? Why send me away? And how the fuck had he known where the Lu-Ken was?

After setting me on the dock, dried by his Water Magic, the sea dragon left without a word. I had already thanked him for the ride, so I didn't look back as I strolled down to the dock where the Lu-Ken was moored. Up the gangplank I went, the sound of my footsteps instantly drawing the attention of the day crew. At first, they started to reach for their weapons, but then they just gaped at me.

"Zix?" Grei called out. Then he shouted, "Zixin! Holy fishballs, it's Zix!"

That jerked them all out of their trances and sent them running for me. I grinned as we hugged, then swiped at my tears as secretly as they did.

"What's going on out here?" the Captain's voice interrupted us.

The men parted, and I stared up at the man who was like a second father to me.

"Zixin?" Teng whispered. Then he leapt over the railing, down to the main deck. He was before me in three seconds. "Fuck! Zixin!" He embraced me, clutching me tightly. "He found you. He fucking found you and saved you. Holy shit!"

Wait. What?

I hugged Tengven, but when he stepped back, I asked, "Who found me?"

Teng frowned. "King Vaxarion. He's the one who found you, isn't he? He saved you from the Hulfrin?"

"Yes, but how did you know that?"

"The morning after that failed take, King Vaxarion came swimming up. He had his knights with him, though they were a bit behind."

"He was after you," Ry, the First Mate, said. "And a in bad state too."

"Yeah, you must have given him the fucking of his life," one of the others joked, but then went quiet under Teng's glare.

"He demanded to see you," Teng went on. "And I wasn't eager to tell him you'd been taken. But then I realized that he might be your only hope. So, I confessed the truth. I told him we're pirates, and you got left behind—" his voice cracked. "Zix, I'm so sorry we left you."

"No. I know what the horn means. I just couldn't get back. They had me surrounded. And you had to go or everyone would have died. I—I saw what they did to Herru. That bastard tore him apart."

The men went grim and muttered as Teng nodded and said, "I thought they might have done the same to you. But I had to try. A fucking Sea Dragon wanted you. If anyone could save you, it was him. So, I told him the name of the ship."

"I don't think he needed the name," Ry said. "He had tracked you across the fucking sea. He could have tracked you to the Tiger's Claw."

"I think he did," Teng said. "He certainly didn't waste any time on us. As soon as I told him you'd been taken, King Vaxarion snarled and jumped overboard, shifting back into his sea dragon form midair. It was the most amazing sight I've ever beheld. But honestly, I thought you were already dead. I shouted after him that we were headed here, just in case you survived." He yanked me back into a hug. "Thank the Gods you did. You are one lucky kid."

"Not so lucky. They tortured me," I whispered.

"What?" Teng growled and stood back, his hand still on my shoulder.

"They wanted me to give you up. Their captain is a tenacious fucker. He wants whatever you took back. Said it's really valuable."

Ry snorted. "It's just a few crates of Zaruian brandy."

"What?" I scowled. "No, that can't be right. He was anxious to get it back. The motherfucker sliced me to ribbons twice and left me to wither."

"What?!" Teng roared.

"Fuck, Zix," Grei whispered. "And you held out?"

"I would never betray any of you," I said proudly. "You're my family."

Teng swallowed visibly and pulled me into another hug. "I love you, kid. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, Teng. I love you too."

"You're a fucking badass!" Ry smacked my back. "Well done, Zixin!"

"Yeah, thanks for not giving us up, buddy," Wei said.

Something still bothered me about the take. I stepped back from Teng and asked, "Where are those crates?"

Teng grinned and jerked his head. "This way."

I followed Teng through the doorway under the poop deck and into the corridor that led to his quarters. But instead of going straight, we took the stairs down toward my cabin. Just before my room, there was a storage room. That's where Teng went.

"There they are." He waved a hand at three crates stacked to one side. "All we got for that fucked up debacle."

I went to the first one and opened it. There were indeed bottles of liquor inside. And in the next and the next. No false bottoms on the crates, and nothing unusual about the bottles.

Ry, who was leaning against the doorframe, said, "See? Nothing worth torturing you over. That fucker is either insane or mistaken."

"Maybe one of his crew took this special thing and blamed it on us," Teng said.

"Maybe," I murmured and looked at the bottles again. "But there was definitely something more than brandy in the crates. He said it belonged to King Lyrandir and implied that the King would kill him if he didn't retrieve his property." I took every bottle out of the crates and inspected them. It wasn't until I reached the eleventh bottle that I found it. "Ah, there you are," I said.

"What?" Ry lurched forward and peered at the bottle.

Teng just chuckled and shook his head. "Of course, you would find something we missed. What is it, kid?"

I handed the bottle to Teng. "Look in the brandy."

Teng peered at the bottom of the bottle, then his eyes went wide.

"What is it?" Ry demanded.

"Get a mug, Ry," Teng said as he went to the table in the center of the room. "Three of them." He looked at me. "I have a feeling we're going to want to celebrate."

"But what is—"

"Ry!" Teng growled.

"Fine, fine," Ry muttered and left the room.

"How did they even get it in there?" Teng mused as we continued to stare at something that did not belong in a bottle of brandy.

"They must have blown the glass around it," I said. "That's a lot of effort to go through to hide a single jewel."

"It's a jewel?" Ry asked excitedly as he returned with three mugs. "Holy fuck. How big is it?"

"Big," Teng said as he drew his dagger and used the flat of the blade to pop the cork off the bottle. "Too big to get through the neck." He poured the brandy out into the mugs until the bottle was empty. "But there's no sense in making a mess and wasting good brandy." He grinned and bashed the bottle against the table.

The glass shattered, shards scattering across the tabletop. In their midst was a gem the size of my thumb. Almond-shaped, it was faceted and shone a deep, blood red. We went silent as Teng picked it up and held it to the light sphere in the ceiling. Glittering and glowing, the jewel cast bloody rainbows everywhere.

"Holy fishsticks," Ry declared. "A ruby?"

"No," Teng whispered. "This is no ruby. I can feel it vibrating. This stone holds magic."

A shiver ran through me and I said, "Now that's something to torture a man for."

Teng lowered the stone and looked at me. "It's something to kill for. We've got to unload this thing fast."

"We don't even know what it is," Ry said.

Teng nodded. "I think I know someone who will. And he just so happens to live in Vix." He slipped the stone into his vest. Then he lifted his mug. "To our fortunes."

"Fortune!" Ry and I repeated.

But as I sipped the finest brandy on Serai, my thoughts turned away from the jewel. It was beautiful and probably worth more than the Lu-Ken, maybe even more than ten ships. But the only treasure I could think of, the only jewels that could hold my attention, were King Vaxarion's eyes. And one thought kept circulating through my brain.

He had come for me.