Hidden Island Chapter 18, part 2 of 3

Hidden Island
Chapter 18, part 2 of 3

"Do you know what happened with that ship? She told me she would go with Mister Sterling from the lighthouse on some adventure, and the Kidd gang got involved. She left early," Tonya mainly sounded curious, but there were undercurrents of worry and bitterness that Janie picked out.

"There was a fight here," Janie said.

"Yeah, I missed that. I was down here. I saw the aftermath, though. Lots of blood," Tonya said, still working her fingers into Janie's scalp.

"The Kidd gang came for us. We managed to elude them and almost got away, but they found us on the docks. They took me hostage and traded me for the brother of the man who was stabbed here," Janie said. "Everyone else made it to the ship, but I had to stay."

"That's awful," Tonya said.

"It was," Janie nodded.

"Close your eyes." Tonya began pouring water over her head, rinsing the special soap.

"They're alright though? Bella is alright?"

"So far as I know, yes," Janie said. "How do you know Bella?"

"I'm her apprentice," Tonya said proudly.

"Oh, so you're a witch also," Janie said, more commenting than questioning.

"I suppose so. I don't know how to do much yet, but I'm learning," Tonya shrugged. "Here, this next," she said, handing Janie another bottle and a cloth. "It's the regular soap."
It smelled strongly of honey. Janie poured a generous amount onto the cloth and began to lather herself up. "Oh, this is wonderful," Janie sighed. "I missed good soap."

"Other than the smell, isn't this just regular soap?" Tonya asked.

"I've been using Will's soap. He uses something that is like a coarse powder. It's like washing yourself with sand," Janie said, wrinkling her nose again.

"Well, that sounds unpleasant," Tonya chuckled. "You starting to feel a bit better?"

"Much. It's amazing how good simply feeling clean can be," Janie nodded. She was still tired, but her mood had lifted considerably.

"Don't I know it? The first time I was brought down here, I'd lived on the streets for half a year.

This was the best bath of my life," Tonya nodded earnestly.

"Oh, you poor thing!" Janie said, shocked at how casually Tonya had mentioned such a terrible ordeal.

The small girl shrugged. "It was just the way life was then. It's over now. There's a lot of us here with stories like that."

Janie was quiet, thoughtful, and thoughtful. She continued to wash herself and then dipped into the water to rinse. The silence became a bit awkward after a while.

"Did I say something wrong?" Tonya asked.

"No, not at all," Janie assured her. "This place isn't anything like I thought it would be."

"Just wait until it gets dark," Tonya smirked. "It might match your expectations a bit better then."

"I admit, I am curious," Janie smiled. Her stomach rumbled loudly. Tonya looked down at it through the water.

"You ready to get out? I bet Sasha has something to eat for you by now," Tonya said, standing up.

Janie nodded and followed, leaving the soothing heat behind. Her body was so warm now that the cool air felt soothing rather than chilled. She dried herself with one of the towels from the bench and reached for her clothes.

“Just take them with you. We'll find you something else until we get them washed. You just got clean. There's no sense in putting dirty clothes back on, Tonya suggested.

"Well, I can't walk out like this very well," Jaine said, looking down at herself.

Tonya laughed. "Sure you can. If you're feeling modest, wrap the towel around yourself.

Around here, that's more than most people do."

Jaine furrowed her brows briefly, then wrapped herself in the towel and picked up her clothes.

"This all feels like a strange dream," she said with a slight shake.

"I felt that way for the first few months of being here, too," Tonya grinned.

They left the baths behind and headed back upstairs.

Belita's gold rings caught the faint light of the wall lamps as Bella flicked them gently with her fingertips. "These are so much fun," she said between kisses. "Where did you come up with the idea?"

"It's a Nivalese tradition," Belita said.

"You are not Nivalese," Bella giggled. Nival was a continent populated largely by very dark-skinned people, and no one would ever mistake the blond captain for one of them.

"No, but at my eleventh trip around the Horn, I had a Nivalese first mate. He had his pierced with ivory crescents. When I joked about running out of ear space, he reminded me that I had a lot of other options. She said he did this right as we passed the tip of the horn, tapping her left breast and the other one on the way back, right out on the stern castle."

"Isn't that the most dangerous part of that trip? I hear that's a very narrow strait, full of ice and monsters," Bella said, her dark eyebrows as high as they could go.

"The sirens aren't monsters. Their mating calls have a strange effect on men," Belita shrugged, enjoying the sensations as Bella continued to play with her nipple rings.

"Driving them mad enough to try to swim through freezing waters is a little worse than strange," Bella snorted. "How do you deal with that?"

"There are a few tricks. Stopping up the ears is a good one. Having a musician play to interrupt the power of their song is another. Crewing a ship only with women and deaf men is the most reliable way. There are a few ships that make their living that way. The Kestrel was one of them until the Blood Tide closed off the passage, and Belita smiled.”

"What if a woman is attracted to women too? Does the song still draw them?" Bella asked.

"A bit, but not to the same extent. I've never seen a woman ever want to jump overboard.

They get horny," Belita snickered.

"That sounds kind of fun," the N' Madi witch grinned, touching her lips to nip at the Captain's rings.

"It is. That's why my crew is so comfortable with each other," Belita twitched her shoulders inward at the little spike of pleasure, squeezing her breasts together for a moment. "After the first orgy breaks out on the deck, there aren't many taboos left."

Bella's eyes widened. "That doesn't sound so bad at all. I've only heard that the Devil's Horn was the most dangerous place on the seas and that Sirens were like Succubae, luring men to their deaths."

"I bet ye heard that from men," Belita snorted. "I can think of a dozen places more dangerous than the horn. We're headed to one of them now."

"What are the Drifts like?" Bella asked, continuing her nibbling and teasing.

The Captain put her hands behind her head and relaxed into the pillows, smiling and stretching with a throaty purr. "They are Unpredictable. They are constantly changing. I've only ever seen them from the outside. It's a daunting sight. Awesome and humbling."

"You think we can make it through?"

"No idea. That's what Will and ye are here for," Belita shrugged.

Bella realized how much trust the Captain had in Will's abilities. "Why would you take that risk? You barely know us."

"Will looked me in the eye and said he could do it. I know boasts when I see them. He's either delusional or completely confident. He seems wary and sensible enough not to hang around with a delusional person. Will believes he can do it. I've been waiting for someone like that to come around for years," Belita idly stroked Bella's hair, staring at the ceiling while she talked.

"I was afraid it might never happen or that if it did, it wouldn't be me to recruit them."

"You aren't worried that we might all die?" Bella asked.

"I've run the Horn twenty times. I'm not afraid of dying at sea. If I'm going to die somewhere, I want it to be doing something no one has ever done before," Belita smiled.

There was a knock at the door. Belita sighed and rolled herself off the bed, shrugging into her coat and holding it tight around her naked body. She opened the door and squinted. "What is it?"

"Ship sighted. Looks like a Magistrate frigate. They're headed our way," Danica said.

"I'll be out in five minutes," the Captain said, shutting the door.

"I guess that means I don't get to return the favor for helping me with my ritual," Bella said.

"Nae, not right now. I think we caught the attention of a Magistrate patrol ship. They're going to stop us, and they want to snoop around," Beita said. She started picking up her clothing from the mixed-up trail on the floor.

"Does that happen a lot?" Bella asked.

"In areas where the Magistrate is trying to establish more control, yes," Belita said. We don't have anything to worry about. We aren't pirates or smugglers. We'll let Lord Morant handle it."

Bella sat up in the bed and looked around. "Can we not mention the whole 'witch' thing to them?"

"Of course. I'll make sure the crew knows to keep that under wraps," Belita said, tugging herself into her breeches with a few eye-catching bounces.

"Oh, and can I... uh, well, do you have a mirror I can have?" Bella asked.


"You can use the one on the wall right there," the Captain said, pointing toward a large oval mirror with a wooden frame carved into the shape of waves.

"No, it's for another ritual. The mirror has to be mine. It can't be borrowed," Bella said, shaking her head.

"Is it going to be broken?" Belita asked.

"No," Bella shook her head.

"Can it stay there on the wall?" Belita asked.

"Well, I could put it back after I'm done. I couldn't give it back to you. Ownership is important to the spell," Bella said.

"It's yours then. You can have it. I'll borrow it when I need it," Belita said, finishing the buttons on her shirt.

"I feel a bit like you just found a loophole in how this is supposed to work," Bella snickered.

"I have a knack for that," the Captain shrugged. She pulled on one of her boots and set her foot on the edge of the bed. "Oh, cabin girl," she smirked.

Bella laughed and started pulling the laces tight and fastening the polished buckles.

"Whatever you have planned with the mirror, you should wait until we're clear of this patrol ship. They're going to want to look everywhere," Belita said.

"Of course. I don't want the Magistrate anywhere near me while I'm doing witch stuff," Bella agreed.

The Captain put her other boot on the bed for Bella to work on. "What kind of spell will you cast on the mirror?"

"Do you remember my apprentice, Tonya?" Bella asked.

"Dinnae think I met her." Belita shrugged back into her coat and picked up her hat.

"Well, not officially. She was the one who was with Will and I at Mary's," Bella said.

"Oh, aye! The wee lass that came so hard she fell out of her chair," Belita giggled.

"That would be her. I'm going to see if I can communicate with her," Bella smiled.

"Interesting. Having a way to talk with folks in port could be useful," Belita said, heading for the door.

"I'll let you know how it goes," Bella shrugged.

The Captain stepped out into the sun and shut the door behind her. Bella flopped down onto the bed again and looked over at the mirror. She didn't like having to wait.

"Permission to come aboard!" The crisp, authoritarian voice called out from above the other ship.

The Magistrate Frigate rode nearly fifteen feet higher out of the water than the Kestrel and was over twice her length. Will was looking right at an open cannon port. The guns weren't deployed, but he could see them sitting securely inside the giant ship's middle hold. He raised his hand and gave a slight wave to the Magistrate cannoneer, who was looking at the Kestrel from the porthole. The cannoneer did not wave back.

"Granted!" Danica North called back. "Do you have a ramp that can reach our deck?"

"Aye, lowering it now!" came the voice from above.

It took a few minutes. Because of the difference in deck height, the boarding ramp had to be lowered down and secured on the Kestrel, and then the two ships had to be pushed away from each other until the ramp was at a safe slope.

Four Magistrate Legionnaires trotted down the plank in fully armed regalia. They carried concave, rectangular shields that covered them from shin to shoulder, each with a notch cut out of the upper right corner. Rifles rested on their shoulders, each sporting a long bayonet.

Their crimson surcoats and intimidating crested helms projected a well-earned reputation of professional menace. They formed on the deck, scanning the crew and assessing for danger.

"Clear!" one of them barked.

Down the plank came a Magistrate naval officer and his scribe. He scanned the Kestrel's deck, noting the ropes strewn across it, the too-large rigging ladders running to the many smaller boats, and the ragtag-looking crew, and immediately took a disapproving caste to his face.

"I am Lieutenant Vanderby of the Order of the Anchor; who is the captain of this vessel?" the Magistrate officer asked. He wore a red Bicorn hat and a matching frock coat. On the lapel of his jacket, a line of pins denoting his rank and achievements in the Magistrate military—there were a few of them.

"I am," Captain Vex said, stepping forward. I am Captain Belita Vex of the Kestrel. What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"

We spotted your ship and saw that she'd loaded down and configured oddly. Seemed worth looking into," the Lieutenant said with cordial formality.

"Oh, aye. My rigging master is experimenting with a new configuration to accommodate all the rescue vessels we're carrying," the Captain said, gesturing to the many smaller hips hanging off the deck.

"That seemed strange to us as well," the lieutenant said. It was clear he was curious but maintained a professional aloofness.

"We're an expedition ship. The Kestrel can't fit where we're headed," Captain Vex explained.

"I would like to see your charter and crew manifest," Lieutenant Vanderby stated.

"Of course. Lord Morant, if you don't mind," the Captain said over her shoulder.

Morant and Mister Lynch stepped forward from the crowd on the deck. Lynch opened a scroll case and handed the contents to his master.

"Lieutenant Vanderby, this is Lord Halister Morant, Viscount of Armondet, the Kestrel's patron,"

Captain Vex said, stepping aside to allow Morant to take a position directly before the Magistrate officer. Morant inclined his head slightly.



To be continued