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V IVACIA RODE HEAVY in the water. Her holds were filled with Kennit’s collections.

It was, the ship thought drowsily, like the feeling a man got after a large, satisfying meal.

She felt satiated and pleased with herself, even though her cargo had little to do with her own efforts.

Kennit’s wits had earned this trove. No.

His wisdom, she corrected herself. Any minor pirate might make his living by his wits.

Kennit was beyond that. He was a man of both destiny and vision. She was proud to be his ship.

This last stint of sailing had not been so different from her days as a trader with Ephron Vestrit.

Their first stop had been Divvytown, where the slaves had disembarked.

Then there had been a meeting, mysteriously arranged, at which Kennit met a northbound ship and arranged for a ransom note to be taken to the owners of the Crosspatch and to Captain Avery’s family.

After that, Kennit had begun a systematic tour of his ‘share-ships’ and their homeports.

The Marietta kept them company. At every port of call, Kennit and Sorcor had gone ashore.

Sometimes Etta and Wintrow had gone with them.

Vivacia liked it when Wintrow accompanied Kennit.

When he came back to her and told her of his experiences, it was almost as if she had been there herself.

It was very different from the days when she had dreaded being parted from Wintrow for even a few hours.

She supposed her sense of self had become more solid, now that she had been quickened longer.

Or perhaps her need to know every detail of Kennit’s life had become more pressing than her need for Wintrow’s company.

She had besought Kennit to conduct his business on board her, so that she might be more aware of it, but he had refused her.

‘You are mine,’ he had told her jealously.

‘All your mystery and beauty I reserve to myself, my sea-lady. It pleases me that they look at you with awe and wonder. Let us keep that mystique intact. I would rather they envied and admired you from afar than that they came aboard and vainly tried to win you from me by charm or bloodshed. You are my castle and my stronghold, Vivacia. I will allow no strangers aboard you.’

She could recall not just his words, but his every inflection.

They had soaked into her like honey into bread.

She smiled to herself, recognizing her symptoms. He had courted her and won her.

She no longer even attempted to sift his words for inaccuracies or tried to probe his heart for truth.

It no longer mattered. He did not seek out and number her faults; why should she inventory his?

She was anchored now in a pathetic excuse for a harbour.

Why anyone would have chosen to settle there, she could not imagine.

At the far end of it, the skeletal remnants of a ship were subsiding into the mud.

She tried to think of the name of the place.

Askew. That was it. Well, it suited the look of the town.

The sagging dock, the windswept huts all looked slightly out of joint.

There were recent signs of prosperity. The boardwalks that fronted the street were of new yellow lumber.

Good intentions and paint covered some of the rickety houses.

Someone had planted several rows of trees as a windbreak.

Young fruit trees stood in a row beyond them.

A herdboy kept a flock of goats well away from the trees’ tender bark.

Tied to the dock, amidst a clutter of smaller vessels was a larger ship.

The Fortune, her nameplate proudly proclaimed.

The Raven flag flew boldly at her mast. Even at a distance, her brass-work gleamed in the sun.

The whole town, she decided, had the look of a place on the verge of becoming Somewhere.

Her attention perked as a party of men left the largest building in the village and moved towards the dock.

Kennit would be amongst them. She spotted him soon, in the lead, his well-wishers flanking him or trailing behind him as their local status dictated.

Sorcor walked beside him. Etta, tall and thin, shadowed him with Wintrow at her side.

For a time the gathering clustered on the dock.

Then, with many flourishes and bows, they bid her captain farewell.

As he and his party clambered down the ladder and into her gig that was moored there, the townsfolk on the dock called farewells.

So it had been in every town they had visited on this circuit. Everyone loved her captain.

She watched the ship’s boat approach her across the glittering water of the placid harbour.

Kennit had dressed well for this visit. The black plumes on his hat nodded in the breeze.

He saw her watching his approach and lifted a hand in greeting to her.

The sun flashed off the silver buttons on the cuff of his jacket.

He looked every bit the prosperous pirate.

More, he sat in the bow of the boat as regally as any king.

‘They treat him as such already,’ Wintrow had confided to her the last time he had told her of such a visit.

‘They present his share of their takings without a murmur of discontent. But it is not just that they acknowledge his right to claim a portion of their piratical profits. They bring him their internal grievances. He has passed judgement on everything from chicken thieves to unfaithful spouses. He has drawn plans for the defence of the towns, and dictates what they must build and what must be torn down.’

‘He is a judicious man. I am not surprised they have waited for his decisions.’

Wintrow snorted. ‘Judicious? Only in how it furthers his own popularity. I have stood behind him and listened to their grievances as they presented them. He listens, frowns, and asks questions. But in each case, he decides with the popular sentiment, even when it is clearly not just. He does not judge, Vivacia. He merely validates their opinions and makes them feel justified in them. When he has dispensed that justice, he strolls through the town, looking at this and that. “You need a well, for better water,” he will tell them. Or “Tear down that building before it burns down and takes the rest of the town with it. Repair your dock. That widow needs a new roof on her cottage. See that she gets it.” In addition, he scatters coin to pay for what he suggests, as if it were largesse rather than returning what they gave him. He enraptures them. They adore him.’

‘Why shouldn’t they? It sounds as if he does great good for them.’

‘He does,’ Wintrow had admitted uncomfortably.

‘He does. He gives them money to be kind to the poor and the old amongst them. He makes them lift up their heads and see what could be. In the last town, he commanded that they create a place for their children to gather and learn. There was one man in the town who could read and cipher well. Kennit left enough money to pay him handsomely to teach the children.’

‘I still do not grasp why you find that so reprehensible.’

‘It is not what he does. What he does is fine, even noble. It is his motives for doing it that I suspect. Vivacia, he wants to be king. So he makes them feel good. With the money they parcel out to him, he buys what they should have bought for themselves. Not because it is the right thing to do, but because it makes them think well of him and feel good about themselves. They will connect that feeling of pride with his coming.’

She had shaken her head. ‘I still see no harm in it. In fact, I see much good. Wintrow, why are you so suspicious of him? Did you ever consider that perhaps he wants to be King of the Pirate Isles just so he can do such things?’

‘Does he?’ Wintrow had demanded.

To him, she owed the truth. Still. ‘I don’t know,’ she replied honestly. ‘But I hope that he does. The results are the same, in any case.’

‘For now, they are,’ he admitted. ‘But I do not know what the results will be over the long run,’ he’d added darkly.

She mulled his words as she watched the boat approaching.

The youth was too suspicious. Some small-spirited part of him could not accept Kennit as a force for good.

That was all. The boat came alongside and the rope-ladder was flung down to them.

She always hated this part. Kennit stubbornly insisted of late that he would get himself up the ladder and back aboard his ship.

It seemed to take him forever to manage the climb.

At every step she feared he would slip and fall down, to smash his bones against the boat below him.

Or worse, he might fall into the water, to either vanish beneath the waves, or be snapped up by serpents.

There was a veritable plague of serpents this year.

Never could she recall a time when they had been so thick nor so bold. It was unnerving.

In a short time, his peg-legged step sounded on her decks.

She breathed a sigh of relief and awaited him impatiently.

He always came to see her first, whenever he rejoined the ship.

Sometimes Wintrow dogged his steps. Etta had used to, but of late, she had avoided the foredeck.

Vivacia thought that was a wise decision on her part.

This time, as she twisted her body about to greet him, she saw he was alone.

Her smile deepened and became warmer. These were the best times, when they were alone and could speak unfettered by Wintrow’s questions and sceptical looks.

He returned her smile with a smug grin. ‘Well, my lady. Are you ready to take on more cargo? I’ve arranged for them to ferry it out this afternoon. ’

‘What sort?’ she asked, knowing well that he delighted in enumerating his treasures.