Page 61 of A Flash of Golden Fire

I was obviously pleased, but the hastened repair also confused me. I still had the scar from ten years ago, and that looked a good deal worse than my palms, which were more recently injured. I stared at my handprints, recalling the horror of standing there with rage coursing through me, watching the vagabonds’ ship burn and not knowing if Captain Martin was safe. The shame and fear were there at the edge of my emotions, threatening to drag me down.

But I remembered what the captain had said about being myself. So I made sure that the men were keeping me in their sights, and I deliberately placed my hands so they hovered over the prints on the rail. I gazed up at the sky.

“Oh, Grand Mistress of the Seas,” I said in English, loud enough for the observers to hear. “Won’t you smite the barmy blokes on this deck what think I’m the devil’s minion? They’re all a bunch of dirty devils themselves with nary a bright spot between them.”

Then I turned and looked directly at them and cracked a huge smile, taking my hands away and rubbing my palms on my thighs.

“Not actually. I ain’t gonna waste my energy on you lot.”

Alarm turned to bashful realization that I’d had them on.

“Jesus, White, you almost made me shit my pants yestiddy. What a spectacle!”

“Well, I’m fucking sorry. I had to save the captain, didn’t I? And all ofyoursorry arses.”

They laughed with some relief as if the entire previous day had been a lark.

“Well, I won’t get on the bad side of you after that,” one of them said, crossing his arms over his chest.

I rolled my eyes.

Another bloke agreed. “Nor me either. I hope the captain knows what he’s dealing with, that’s all.”

Be yourself. Be yourself.

“Oh, aye. He knows,” I said, leering and tapping my forehead with one finger. “He’s, um, very good at keeping me in line, I’d say. So, yes, you’d better be careful now to not upset either one of us.”

“Oy, White. If you can dothat, then we have the rule of the seas, don’t we? No-one can threaten us.”

I frowned. “It ain’t like that, I’m afraid. I wish I could control the magic, but I can’t. I don’t rightly know how the force rises, and when it does, the power sort of takes me over. And I ain’t myself whilst it’s got me.”

“You a bloody witch, then?”

The word echoed in my head, but I refused to run from its meaning.

I shrugged. “Maybe. Dunno. You wanna find out?”

The man shook his head and held up his hands. “No, mate. I don’t want to know.”

I wasn’t happy that my powers were so mysterious, but I’d be glad to be left alone and not bothered. I prayed their superstitions wouldn’t get the better of them. Sailors had all kinds of strange rules and beliefs, and I only hoped they liked me and liked the captain enough to disregard their fears as to any powers I may or may not have.

“Going back to the captain’s quarters, now,” I said, “So that I can ensure he is, in fact, unharmed and all of a piece.”

Some of the men laughed.

“Sure, sure. You do that, Simon White,” one said.

I wandered back downstairs and passed Boone who regarded me with slightly more respect. He nodded and gestured to the captain’s rooms.

“In you go, then. He’s been pacing the floors, waiting for you.”

“Now, Boone, you are to ignore anything you hear in there for the next few hours. There may be pleading and begging and crying, but ’tis nothing more than the way we declare our feelings for each other,” I said.

Boone rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, I ain’t comin’ in there for anything until you come out. I don’t even want to think about what’s going on between the two of you.”

“Excellent. Ta-ta, then.” I gave him a friendly wave, and then knocked on the captain’s door before shoving it open.

“Right, I’m back,” I said cheerily.