“There,” he said, as if it was all settled. “Now all we need is the right opportunity.”
Silence stretched, and Avery could hear the creak of wood and metal and laughter trickle down the halls. The ship rocked as it began to get under way again, and the thought haunted him that they might be leaving the Verignun behind, Ani and the Starfish tissue with it. It was unlikely, he told himself. The pirates would want to add it to their fleet. It would have been given a new crew, a pirate crew, and would be sailing along with the rest of the ships, its original crew either murdered or locked up. Since they hadn’t been killed immediately, Avery had to assume most still lived and had been taken prisoner. Perhaps Segrul meant to infect them, convert them and press-gang them. Either way, somewhere on the Verignun, Ani was hiding. He imagined her peeking out from a rusty, overgrown vent grill, hearing the boots of pirates storm past and shrinking into the shadows, out of sight, her heart thumping and tears running down her cheeks. Something in Avery’s chest twisted. Ani, be safe. For the love of your mother, be safe.
He wasn’t a religious man, but he prayed for her to stay hidden. He also prayed for forgiveness for causing all this. All those people being raped and killed, at that very moment—it was all on his head.
Perhaps an hour later, a shape moved toward them down the hall and stopped at the bars, no more than a silhouette. A silhouette Avery knew quite well.
“Sheridan.”
The others tensed around him. Hildra lifted her hook.
“What do you want?” Avery said.
Sheridan’s voice didn’t come at once, and when it did it wasn’t gloating, as he had expected, but, strangely, sad. “I told you to keep your head down, Doctor. You should not have revealed yourself to Segrul.”
“Is that what you would have done? Leave a friend of yours to the mercies of a band of pirates by herself?”
“I would have done what was necessary. If you had kept your head down, I could have bought you from them, but that possibility is gone now.”
“Bitch,” said Hildra.
“Can’t believe I ever served under you,” Janx said. “Gods damn.” He kicked something, and it rattled against the wall.
“Where do they take us?” The question came from Layanna.
But Sheridan hadn’t come to visit her. Her eyes, what Avery could see of them, stayed on him.
“I am sorry, Doctor.”
He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. She seemed sincere, and there was no point in antagonizing her. He hadn’t the energy for it, anyway. He remained silent, gazing at her, hoping she might offer some sliver of hope but knowing it unlikely.
"How did you know how to contact the pirates?" he asked.
She paused. "The port before Ethali. I made contact with some of their people. I had the right codes. It wasn’t hard." She cleared her throat, and he could sense pain in her voice. “This may be the last time we see each other, Doctor." Then, making herself: “Francis. I just ... wanted to say ...”
“Yes?”
She shook her head, as if not quite
able to give voice to whatever it was, broke off and moved away without another
word. Hildra called her names as she went, but she did not look back.
Chapter 6
Avery started awake as someone unlocked the cell with a squeal and a bang, and he blinked up to see a large mutant flanked by two of the whip-wielders. Avery’s group had been left in the cell for over a week, by his reckoning—it was hard to be sure down here, unable to see the passage of sunlight—and he was numbed by inactivity and weak with hunger; they’d been fed, but sparingly, and not well.
“Come on, you wretches,” the mutant said. “Get up. We've somewhere to be.”
Avery complied, slowly, joints creaking, and helped Layanna to her feet, as well. They’d suspected they would be called for since the ship stopped moving hours ago. It must have reached a port of some kind. Here whatever it is the pirates intended to do with the group would surely be done.
The jailers opened the cell and bound the prisoners’ hands behind their backs, then shoved them out into the hall and up several ladders until they reached the main deck. The sun shone brightly overhead, lancing at Avery’s eyes and overwhelming him with its sheer brightness. After so long in the dark, the light, intense and painful, nearly made him pass out. He closed his eyes and would have put his hands over them had his hands been available. Janx cursed and Hildra made gasping sounds.
Stomping noises approached, and Avery knew it was Segrul with his shored-up clam-leg. “Well well,” came the pirate admiral's gargling voice, “what have we here? Four fine-lookin’ moles, ain’t they, lads?”
Chuckling. Avery heard sounds—clanging, talking, waves breaking, gulls calling, ships creaking, the stirring and activity of a great number of people. All he could see was flashing brightness so intense he doubled over and dry-heaved onto the deck.
“Whattaya want us for?” came Janx’s voice.
“Oh, it ain’t me that wants you, Janx-m'-boy. Come, let’s get this farce over with. The Great One ain’t to be kept waiting.”
Rough hands propelled Avery forward, and he was aware by the sounds of the others being handled similarly. Nearby came the hiss and briny stench of venom whips. The pirates—it was hard to say how many, but perhaps ten—ushered the group down a boarding ramp and onto what must be a dock, whose loose boards rattled and drummed under Avery’s feet. The sounds of activity grew louder, some passing near and around him.
“Where are we?” he said as they were forced along. “What port?”
“Why, you have the distinct honor of steppin’ foot on Colu, heart of the Mago Islands," Segrul said.
“Mago,” Janx said. “Great.”
“What?” Avery said. “What is it?” He’d only dimly heard of the chain.
“Some pre-human race has been livin’ here forever. No one here but them for hundreds of years, worshippers of the deep ones. Dangerous bastards. They’ve been left alone a long time.”
“Things change,” Segrul said. “They’re our allies now. More than allies. We all serve the same Masters, but the Magons’ve been at it for a lot longer than we have. They’re higher in Their service and counsels.”
Avery stumbled on a loose board, nearly went spilling off, but someone grabbed him and shoved him along. The burning pain in his eyes was starting to ebb, at least a bit. Around him water lapped against hulls and posts, and he wondered if the air was filtered by purifiers; for Hildra’s and Janx’s sake, he hoped so. The two hadn’t been given environment suits. None of them had.
“Where's Sheridan?"
