Gabb shut the door behind him without a sound.  He stood just inside the room.  A few months ago he wouldn’t have been able to sneak up on Kraken.  Now his Captain was sitting, leaned back, with an arm over his eyes.  Gabb knew Kraken didn’t know he was there because the Captain was muttering.  Kraken never muttered.

Gabb watched the most powerful person he knew crumble inward.  “Is it really that bad?  People come after us all the time.”

Kraken jumped to his feet, blade in hand.  It took a second to recognize who spoke.  “Gabb,” he said, “how long?”

“Not long.”

“Cousin eating?”  Kraken sat.

“As fast as Jak can cook.”

“Good.  I hope she gains some weight.  She still looks malnourished.”

Gabb walked over, grabbed a chair and pulled it around the desk.  He pulled Kraken’s chair with him in it, to be face to face.  “Talk to me,” Gabb said.

Kraken leaned forward and lowered his voice.  “She is damaged.  She is too young.  She doesn’t understand basic social interaction.  How many times do you think she was raped? beaten? chased away?  One minute I think she is afraid and unhappy here.  Then she is jumping . . .”  Kraken inhaled sharply and closed his eyes.

“Jumping?”

“Never mind.  It isn’t important.”

“Yes.  It.  Is.”

Kraken’s power coiled ready to strike.  he blinked, shook his head, and sagged back.  Now he was having irrational anger responses?  He pinched the bridge of his nose.  “I don’t want to talk about it.”  Kraken tried to move his chair back.

Gabb grabbed the arms and held it still.  “You’re losing it, Krak.  I need to know what’s happening with you.  You’re not that kid I found living in the wild anymore.”  Gabb leaned back.  “It can’t be all Cousin.”

“It is.”

Gabb stood and put his chair back.  He stood leaning on the hard wood back, his eyes closed.  “I’ll take her and go if you need me to.”

“No!”  Kraken’s voice echoed through the cabin, and shivered the glass behind him.

They stood facing each other.

“No,” Kraken said, his shoulders sagging.  “I offered to leave her at the next port.  She doesn’t want to leave.  I don’t want her to leave.”

Gabb watched Kraken sit and turn to the windows.   “Aye, Captain.”

Cousin stood on Haven’s rolling deck.  Her dark green hair was bound in one long braid down her back.  She held a bloody dirk in one hand, and a cutlass in the other.  She stared out over the ocean.

“Wake up!  You zone out in a real fight and you die!” the grizzled quartermaster, Kor, yelled, and swung his sword in a cross body slash.  The blade missed by inches.

“That why you’re bleeding, Kor, and she isn’t,” Gabb said coming on deck.

Kor’s lip curled up over sharp white teeth.  His grey eyes were hard stone.  Blood ran from a shallow cut in his shoulder.

Gabb snarled back, then turned to Cousin.  “Kraken want’s you, Cousin.”

“Aye, Sir.”  With a final look over the ocean Cousin walked away.  At the Captain’s cabin, she raised a hand to knock.

“Come.”

She opened the door, and stood at attention in the door way.

“Come.  Sit.”  Kraken looked over charts and ledgers.  Rolls of parchment littered the floor, and rolled with the sway of the ship.  His desk was covered layers deep.

Cousin sat across from the desk and waited.  She stared out the widows behind him.  Time passed.

“Kor’s been complaining about that, “ Kraken said.  “The staring.  Gabb says it’s nothing to worry about.  Which is it?”

“Sir?”  Cousin met Kraken’s eyes.

“Is the staring a problem?  You’ve been with us for six months, and you’re still not really here.”  Kraken watched for the Serpent Shadows to cross the bottomless pools of Cousin’s eyes.  He still couldn’t say what color they were.

“Captain?”  Cousin focused on the scars over his left eye.

Kraken sighed.  “Do you want to stay with us?  We are two days out of port at Cape Simling.  If you want, you can stay there.  I won’t force you to stay on Haven.”

Cousin thought about the scars.  She believed Kraken liked them.  The skull on his flag had three scars.  A motion drew her attention out the window, a distance shimmer, there, then gone.  “Something is there.  Beyond the horizon.  It’s been there a few days.  Trailing.  Waiting.  Too far away to see.”

Cousin walked to the windows.

Kraken turned.  He saw nothing.  But he had felt something in his joints for awhile.  Since the last battle a week ago.  He looked back at Cousin.  Saw again her hands covered in blood, nails like razors.  In battle she was a primal force.

“How far?” he asked, standing and placing his hand on the glass.

“Far.  Too far.  There none the less.”  Cousin turned and looked up at Kraken.  His jaw was shadowed by a sparse beard.  It made him look hard, unyielding.  “I’ll stay.  I don’t want to go.  I’m better.  Here.”

Kraken looked down and fell into her eyes.  “Good.  Go get Gabb.  Have him double the watch, then you both come back here.”

“Aye, Captain.”  Cousin snapped to and saluted.  She spun to leave, then spun again, and flung herself into Kraken’s arms.

He caught her with ease, and held her to him.  He reminded himself that she was damaged, stunted, and not able to understand adult relationships.  He told himself she was too young, even if she were healthy.  “A sister.  Nothing but a sister,” he thought over and over.  He set her down.  “Hop to,” he said in a sand paper voice.

Kraken sunk into his chair when Cousin shut the door, and turned to look at the water.  He was a feared pirate.  Men all over the world gasped, and trembled at the mention of his name.  He trained hard to be powerful.  He could sink a ship with the force of his will, bring men to their knees, withstand bullets and blades.  One damaged girl, and he was powerless.  Worse, vulnerable.  Damned if he wouldn’t leave it all behind, and become a farmer if she asked him.

“I’m lost,” he said to the ocean.

A knock brought him out of his thoughts.  “Come.”

Gabb and Cousin walked in, and shut the door.  Kraken waved them over.  He tried to focus on the chart of the area they were in.  A few small islands were close.  All uninhabited, most with coral reef and sandbars.  Ships as large as Haven rarely visited them.

“Cousin says we have a shadow.  My joints agree.  Ideas?”

Gabb crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair.  “Last time Cousin said someone was out there, we were attacked a few hours later.  She was staring over the ocean then too.”  Gabb smiled an open mouth smile.  He looked like a predator enjoying a challenge.

Cousin looked at her hands.

Kraken nodded.  “This one here,” he pointed to an island on the chart.  “Do you remember it?”

Gabb leaned over the chart, his brows drawn.  “Our ship was smaller then.  Less crew.  But yeah, it could work.”  He turned to Cousin, and poked her knee.  “What do you say, Cousin?  Can you help us draw less water?”

“Yes.”  Cousin looked at Gabb.  She liked his Death Smile.  It made her feel protected.

Kraken stared at the cart.  “Fine.  Cousin can get us over the reefs and into the cave.  From there we can find a way to spy on our shadow when they pass the island.  Once we know what we’re up against, I’ll choose our heading.”  Kraken took a deep breath, and looked at Cousin.  “What do you need to prepare?”

“Meat.  I need meat.”

The shrill cries of sea birds sounded over the docks on the small island of Y’Ahno.  Two ships were in port.  Merchants and thieves plied their trade while the ships sought to restock their stores.  The stench of rotting fish, oil, and salt blended into a sea side stench.  The ship flags danced and snapped in the ocean wind.  Both flags bore a Jolly Roger.

A girl walked along the beach toward the docks.  She was drawn to the flags.  A vague memory of a man sailing away on a ship with such a flag drove her.  For nearly eighteen years she had come to the flags.  She walked onto the wooden pier, and searched the faces of the men there.

A pirate grabbed her shoulder.  “Hey, beautiful.  Are you looking for a man?” Taking in her filthy, battered state, he smiled a rotten tooth smile.

“Yes,” she said with a distant voice.  “Do you know Curtis Lee?”  Her eyes slid over the people around her seeing nothing.

“I’m Curtis,” the pirate said.  “Aren’t you in luck.  Found me first off.”

She looked into the face of the man, and shook her head.  “No.  No.  You’re not my father.”

He laughed and gripped her tighter.  “Don’t matter.  You’re coming with me.”

A face caught her attention.  The grip on her shoulder was distant to her mind.  Black hair and dark eyes in an oval face pulled her forward.  She made small sounds.  “Pa.  Pa.  Pa.”

The familiar face turned, and their eyes met.  Her wide eyes closed, and her head dropped.  The face was too young.  It was the face she remembered, but still not the man she looked for.  “No.  Not him.  Not him,” she said to no one.

The hold on her shoulder became a pulling, bruising force.  “I saw you first.  You’re mine until I’m through with you.”

The familiar face walked forward.  “It’s good to see you again, Cousin.  I’m glad you came to see us.”

“Bug off.  This one is mine.”

“No.  She is the Captain’s cousin.  She belongs to no one.”

“What?”  The rough hand fell away.

The familiar face smiled death, and the first pirate stumbled back.  “This way, Cousin.  I’ll take you to see Kraken.”

The girl looked at the extended hand, and flat eyes.

“Kraken?  Cousin?”

“This way.”

The girl placed a rough hand into the rougher one of the familiar face, and he tucked it into his elbow.  She let him lead her through the chaos of the docks.  His form dwarfed her.  She could feel a Depth of Strength like deep ocean currents, and wondered if he was a Mer in human skin.  His voice was pleasant as he talked about an adventure the crew had before coming to the island.  He laughed like rolling waves, and she felt her fear and loneliness slide away.  They walked in the pub before she knew where they were.

“Get out.  That freak isn’t welcome here.”  The bar keep threw salt at them.

The girl cringed and began to back up.  She whimpered, flinched and fell.

“That’s okay,” a voice from farther in said.  “We’ll just take our business elsewhere.  Gabb help the young lady up.”

“Aye, Captain.”  Strong hands picked the girl up, and set her on the feet.  “Sorry, about that, Cousin.  The blame is all mine.”

The girl shook her head, and tried to stop shivering.

“This way, Gabb,” said the Captain.

Gabb tucked her hand back at his elbow and followed.  He continued the story, and said nothing when she leaned into him.

The group tried three pubs.  None would allow the girl.  They walked to a little beach outside of town, and sat on the sand.

“Gabb, go back and get the tent and the tub.  Send Matty out right away.  Pass the word: no one does business with those pubs.”

“Aye, Captain.”  Gabb smiled with molten eyes at the girl.  “You’re safe here, Cousin.”

Captain Kraken looked the girl over.  Gabb never took an interest in locals.  What was it about this damaged girl, who stared at the ships, that drew him?  Why call her cousin?
“I’m Kraken,” he said.  “Gabb is my First Mate.”  He smiled what he hoped was a friendly, open smile.

The girl looked at him.  Her eyes were empty, bottomless.

“And you are?”

The girl withered, her shoulder bowed in.  “Don’t know,” she whispered.

Kraken knew then why Gabb had helped her.

“Well, I can’t just call you Girl, so, I guess Cousin will do until something better comes along.  Why were you at the dock, Cousin, and what’s up with the town?  Why are they picking on you?”

The girl looked at Kraken.  Three straight scars, like claw marks, ran from his hair line over his left eye to his ear.  The scars were faded.  They just missed the eye.  Rust colored hair hung down over ocean green eyes.  “Do you know Curtis Lee?  He left when I was two.  He looked like Gabb then.”

Kraken saw something move in her eyes.  A shadow like a Deep Serpent.  His soul smiled.  The Serpent Shadows reminded him of his crewman, Ghost, and how he shifted like black silk on the breeze. “No, I’ve never met a Curtis Lee.  You sure he became a pirate?”

Cousin nodded, and looked over the bay.  “Left with pirates.  Flag like . . .” Cousin pointed to the flag on his ship.

“Who takes care of you, Cousin?”

“No one.”

“You don’t have family?”

Cousin shook her head.

Kraken leaned back on his elbows, and stretched his legs out in front of himself.  He watched Cousin out of the corner of his eye.  She had survived from age two on her own?  Was she lying?  Or just not able to know the difference?  She was a ragged, matted mess.  She looked malnourished.  Her skin was thin and sallow, and Kraken couldn’t tell what color her hair was for all the dirt.  Colorless eyes were too large for her face.  Rags hung loose on her body held on by a series of knots.

“Beach, ahoy,” Matty called out as he walked up.

Cousin looked at a man in a flowing black shirt at odds with his sand white hair.  He gave a flamboyant salute.

Kraken waved him forward.  “This is Cousin.  She needs a bath, clean clothes, and food.  Also, a hair cut.  I doubt you can get all the tangles out.  Go to town and get six changes of clothes, three pairs of boots, and a set of good leathers.  What colors do you like, Cousin?”

“Colors?”

Kraken stared, his mouth open.  He snapped his jaw shut, and inhaled through his nose.  “Pick what you think will be nice.  Something functional, Matty.  And don’t forget the blacks.”

“Blacks, Captain?”  Matty looked at the waif with more than a little doubt in crystal clear eyes.

“You want to set sail with us, Cousin?  Have adventures?  Look for Curtis Lee?  Get away from this place?  Be a Kraken Pirate?  It will be dangerous.  You could die.  But no one will hurt you on my ship.  You will be free on Haven.”  Kraken pointed to the smaller ship at anchor.

Cousin looked at the small ship.  The figure head was a writhing black dragon with wings spread down either side of the bow.  “Yes,” came the soft answer.

“Hop to,” Kraken said, and Matty ran.  “So, why don’t you tell me about what is happening between you and the town?”

Cousin looked up and met Kraken’s eyes.  “I am a wielder.  They are afraid.”