Page 3 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)

Riley

Kittredge had been right. The ship was hard to miss, if only for the crowd gathered in front of it.

Riley’s steps slowed as she approached, bemused at the sight, and she had to do a double-take at the emptiness of the rest of the surrounding docks to reassure herself she wasn’t making shit up.

Her eyes flicked from one person to another, counting, trying to assess whether they were already crew.

“Nineteen,” someone said, and Riley tracked the voice to a guy sitting on the ground, a few steps from the bulk of the crowd.

He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world–a knife out to lazily clean under his fingernails, not enough fucks given even to find himself a proper seat.

Confusion must’ve rolled off Riley in waves, because his lips twitched in amusement. “Including you. I counted.”

Riley shook her head in denial, even as her quick scan confirmed his number.

The only reason she came over this morning, after sleeping on it and deciding she wasn’t actually fool enough to throw her life away just yet, was because she wanted to see the look on the captain’s face when that old man demanded a place on their crew. She hadn’t expected to bump into a crowd .

Awake and lively too, despite it being Nivros’ first light.

“Guess even certain death is better than living in this dump, eh?” the guy asked, like it was all the same to him. “If you ended up in Saltmere, you’ve already hit rock bottom, so might as well go out with a bang. At least that’s why I’m signing up. What about you?”

Riley recoiled from the man, and the question, and the implication that she’d hit rock bottom.

She’d picked a port town on purpose , not because she didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Easy pickings from pirates on port leave, barely any competition–even street-rats fled the waters– and lax patrols, as no one was wasting many guards on a dying town.

It was easy, safe coin, if meager. And she was at the docks this morning merely out of curiosity.

As she walked through the crowd, her gaze was drawn to a bald woman who was gazing up at the only ship that didn’t look like it had been abandoned centuries ago.

Riley sidled up to her and had her second startling moment of the day.

From up high, dozens of pirates peered down at them from the railings.

Dozens . The Moonshadow’s crew were discussing animatedly and pointing at them, as if they were animals about to go on show.

The murmurs didn’t quite make it to Riley’s ears, but she saw coin exchanging hands, the glint in the sun unmistakable to her trained eye. Were they betting on something?

“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” the woman beside her asked.

Riley side-eyed her, catching her astonished smile, and looked at the ship proper. She didn’t know ships. But she’d seen enough around to realize this one was indeed different from the rest.

First of all, it was big , rivaling some of the oldest ships she’d found way at the end of the harbor once.

But those ships were relics of the past, half-preserved through time by courtesy of the Quiet Sea in a show of twisted irony–they would never crumble, but they would also never sail again.

This one, though, was sailing. The crew gawking at them from above must’ve counted in the high sixties—more, if some of them were below deck or not returned from land yet.

It had three masts and too many sails to count, patched in places but whole , catching Nivros’ cold light like silver thread.

The wood of the hull was a deep midnight blue, almost black, and it had no barnacles, no rot.

It looked sturdy. Like something you could trust to see you through in a storm.

A carved raven at the bow had its wings stretched as if it was about to take off.

Black, sleek, shining from a fresh coat of paint.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Riley agreed, voice hushed despite herself.

The woman nodded. “It’s a modified frigate, by my count.

See those closed gun holes along the hull?

Bet ya there’s actual cannons in her bowels.

Unless the captain took them out for more holding space.

Must’ve spent a fuckload of gold to bring this beauty up to shape.

” She whistled and shook her head, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Really is something.”

“Heard it’s been sailing for close to ten years now,” someone else butted in, a guy a head taller than Riley. His muscles bulged as he crossed his arms. “Seeing it in the flesh makes it hard not to believe the stories.”

“Stories?” Riley asked mildly, though she knew some of them already.

The littlest push, but it was enough to rouse more of the people around them in conversation.

“They say the ship always comes back undamaged, no matter how far it sails, which seas it braves. They say it just heals itself overnight.”

A scoff. “The sea doesn’t want it. That’s why it’s survived so long. I heard it sunk once, and the ocean just spit it back out. Makes sense, if you ask me. Whatever keeps it sailing, it ain’t natural.”

“Some people say the captain made a bargain with something damned to become ruler of the seas, and can’t ever set foot on land again.”

And on it went, a different story for every teller. It was enough to make Riley’s head spin.

Then the chatter faded, voices trailing into silence as one, and then a few, and then the entire crowd trained their eyes on the plank leading down from the Moonshadow’s deck. Riley slipped to the front of the crowd just in time to see the two descending figures.

Her stomach lurched. The tallest figure moved with a predator’s ease, eyes scanning the crowd like he was picking out a target.

Then her brain caught up. Thorian.

Riley tried not to stare in shock as the man crossed his arms and glared at each of them in turn.

He was the captain?

Too late to run, Riley froze as his gaze washed over her, paused for a heart-stopping moment, then moved on.

She breathed. He knew her as the young hustler named Ryan, with the missing tooth and freckled cheeks, not as Riley, the curious onlooker.

If she did nothing to rouse suspicions, he had no reason to link the two of them.

“How nice to see so many of you.”

The quiet authority in that voice cut through the morning air like a blade and silenced the last of the shuffling.

The woman who spoke those words graced the mismatched group with an indulgent smile, gone after merely a moment.

Her head barely reached Thorian’s shoulder, but that didn’t stop her from exuding confidence strong enough to dwarf his.

It was in her posture, proud and tall, the arms linked at her back inviting the crowd to inspect all they wanted.

It was in her gaze, her icy blue eyes inspecting them right back–and finding them all lacking.

Riley didn’t even intend to sign into her crew and still felt inadequate, somehow. Maybe she was . She’d been so startled at seeing Thorian she’d failed to take proper notice of the actual captain, after all.

Said captain strode towards them, and the group instinctively split at either side of her.

Polished leather boots thudded against the dock planks in a rhythmic sound until she stopped to stand in their midst. The woman wore a fitted, dark navy coat with silver buttons, cinched at the waist. Beneath, a loose white shirt tucked into well-worn trousers.

Her hair was thick, long and dark as wet ink, loose strands catching in the morning breeze.

It contrasted with her startlingly pale skin, smooth and sprayed with light freckles.

“I am Calla Nymeris, captain of the Moonshadow. I assume you’re all here because you’re hoping to board my ship and become part of my crew.

Your numbers suggest someone ,” a pointed look in Thorian’s direction accompanied the word, “failed to drive home the responsibilities and dangers of the job. So I will rectify this.”

Riley smothered an amused smile. No wonder Nyxen was dismayed at Kit’s lack of discernment yesterday.

The captain waited for the murmurs to quiet down before she continued. “I propose a challenge to put your skills to the test. Should all of you pass, I will gladly stand corrected and welcome you aboard.”

“What’s this challenge gonna be?” asked one of the guys from before. The bulky one. When Calla’s icy gaze settled on him, he added a hasty, “Capt’n,” head bowing in a show of respect.

These people didn’t even know her, and they were falling at her feet already. Though, Riley supposed, they knew her fame, and her ship.

A faint smile anticipated the captain’s next words. “In teams of two, you will try to throw that man over there into the water.” Calla indicated Thorian.

From the corner of her eye, Riley saw a few people around her flinch away. She had to fight harder to keep herself from smiling, her fingers itching with an excited tingle that would surely get her in trouble.

“Whoever succeeds is welcome into my crew.”

Thorian, his face impassive, hadn’t moved from his initial spot. Close enough to the dock’s edge that a well-timed shove could push him into the water. If he were a regular man.

Riley realized the Moonshadow’s crew had indeed been betting, and now she couldn’t stop herself from smirking at the challenge.

Couldn’t stop herself from wanting to impress this self-assured captain, who hadn’t even spared her a glance yet.

It wasn’t like she’d have to actually board the ship.

She’d just have a little fun before taking her leave, that was all.

“You’re Riley, right?” a vaguely familiar voice asked.

“Yeah.” She turned to him.

It was the sitting man from before, with his rock bottom nonsense. When had he even heard her introduce herself while picking at his fingernails? He offered his hand in greeting, his warm brown eyes settling on her. “Maren. You seem confident about this. Wanna team up?”