The sun broke startling bright after the news of the Al’Ri ship had settled over Haven. Everyone wore their blacks as the ships came parallel. Haven strained at her anchor eager to engage. Cousin stood by Kraken waiting for the Al’Ri to begin. A thin figure waved an arm, and called a greeting.
“I’ll be sunk,” Gabb said. “Look who it is.”
Cousin didn’t relax. She held her perception tight to the other ship.
“Parley!” the one armed boy called.
“Parley,” Kraken said.
“We should go there,” Cousin said.
“Aye,” Kraken said. “Gabb! Make us tight!”
“Aye, Captain.”
“If you will, my love.”
“Aye.” Cousin pulled Kraken to her, and they floated over to the other ship. Those on deck scattered as Cousin disabled traps, turning them against those who set them.
Kraken grasped hands with the boy. “You’ve grown almost as tall as me,” he said. “Another couple of years and you’ll make a fine man.”
“A man who brings enemies to his friends,” Cousin said.
The boy shrugged. “Knew they wouldn’t be a problem, and I couldn’t sail a ship by myself.”
Cousin frowned. She looked him over with a predatory appraisal. Crystalline orange eyes that sparkled in the bright sun were framed by jet dark hair. His thin adolescent form showed the first signs of maturation. His right shoulder bore a discolored, jagged scar where an arm use to be.
“My name is . . . well the name they gave me is Ba’Rthew.” He glanced at Kraken. His eyes were wide open. “My name really is Ash’Km.”
Kraken looked around the ship, and at the others on the decks. No flag and drooping sails were the most distinguishable features. “What brings you here Ash?”
“Ash,” he said. “I like it.”
Kraken waited.
“I came to find Haven,” Ash said. “To see if I was old enough to join her crew. You said I wasn’t ready before. I think I’m ready now.”
“Join up, you say. Haven doesn’t work that way. I pick. I decide. I invite. No one on Haven came aboard by asking to.”
“Oh.” Ash’s eyes lost some of their shine.
Kraken shifted and looked into the faces pulling closer. Some were fearful. Some eager. Some were open. Some were cruel beneath feigned innocence. Ash was none of that. “Granted no one has hunted me down in the middle of the ocean before.”
Ash looked up, surprise the only thing on his face.
“My love,” Kraken said, “ideas?”
Cousin looked over the ship. “All here are Al’Ri. Most from the island we freed. Ash is not the only one here you can trust to be honest to his intentions. It is his intentions you need to ascertain.”
Kraken nodded as if her words were the basis of his thoughts. He glowered down at his boots, and pretended to think.
Cousin played along. “I can ascertain his intentions if you wish, Captain.”
“Yes,” Kraken said. “Continue.”
Cousin moved with preternatural speed, and seized Ash’s arm. She jerked him around and locked eyes with him.
Ash screamed long and loud. He screamed with the same pain as when his arm had been taken. Most of the other Al’Ri backed away, many crying mercy. When Cousin released Ash’s arm he fell in a heap gulping great breaths.
Kraken pointed to three others. “What about you? You want your intentions ascertained?” He looked sideways at Cousin with an expression that said: Ascertained? Really?
Two women stepped forward.
“Cousin?”
“No,” she said. “Have Ash do it. I’m feeling lazy.”
Kraken laughed long and loud. He held a hand out to Ash. “Well, what do you say? Want to be a Kraken Pirate? It will be dangerous. You could die.”
Ash grasped Kraken’s hand and stood at if nothing had happened. “Yes. I want to be free.”
“And them?”
Ash turned. He saw who Kraken spoke of. “Yes. I trust them. We are all wielders. We have all been conditioned to fight. We have all been stunted.”
Cousin kept her flare of anger from her face, the spike of power out of the air.
Kraken ran a hand down her arm as if in show. “I don’t need wielders. Your duties will be assigned by the Quarter Master. No one shirks on Haven.”
“Aye, Captain,” Ash said.
The women walked forward when Kraken motioned them forward.
“I am Leach,” said a woman with short, jagged, mouse brown hair, and hazel eyes. “I am ready.”
“I am Sar,” said the other. “I am ready.” She stared at Cousin with wide burgundy eyes. Her long powder pink hair moved around her.
Kraken looked at them a long time. He listened to the ships on the water. Haven beckoned in the back of his mind talking of empty spaces. “Leach? Sar? You want to be Kraken Pirates? It will be dangerous. You could die.”
“Yes, Captain,” they said together.
Kraken looked to Cousin. “The ship is yours – to your best judgment.” He gathered Ash, Leach and Sar with his power and went back to Haven.
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