Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1)(60)

A shadow in the waters moved, sending ripples. Knot and Vine growled.

“Lucky Girl?” Nailer called softly. “Nita?”

The shadow resolved into a thickly muscled form, slumped against a rotting wall, water up around its waist as it sat, breathing heavily in the darkness. One hard yellow eye opened, flaring like a lantern in the darkness.

“Your father has her now,” the shadow rumbled.

“Tool!” Nailer rushed forward.

Blood smeared the half-man’s muzzle and more black blood ran sticky down his chest, slashes from machete cuts. His cheek was laid open with claw marks and one eye was completely closed with a swelling bruise, but it was Tool nonetheless.

“And you didn’t fight for her?” Captain Candless stared at Tool, incredulous. “Even when your patron wished her protected?” They were all on the Dauntless, a huddle of demoralized sailors standing around Nailer and Tool, as Tool explained what had happened.

“The boy is not my patron,” Tool rumbled. He daubed at the blood still oozing from the cut above his half-closed eye.

The captain scowled and stalked over to Dauntless’s rail. Dawn was just breaking the sky into pale gray, illuminating the floating docks and the distant mist-shrouded structures of drowned Orleans. “They said they were taking her to a ship? You’re sure?”

“I am.” Tool turned his gaze to Nailer. “Your father was disappointed that you weren’t with Lucky Girl. He wanted to keep the ship waiting while he hunted for you longer. The man has plans for you, Nailer.”

“And you just sat and listened while all this went on?” Midshipman Reynolds demanded.

Tool blinked once, slowly. “Richard Lopez had many half-men, well armed. I do not lunge into battles that cannot be won.”

Knot and Vine curled their lips at Tool’s answer and growled guttural contempt. Tool didn’t flinch, just looked at the pair. “The girl is your patron, not mine. If you enjoy dying for the sake of your owners, that is your business.”

Nailer felt a thrill of dread at the half-man’s words. There was a challenge there, and these other half-men, Knot and Vine, sensed it. Their growling rose. They started forward.

The captain waved them off. “Knot! Vine! Go below. I’ll handle this.”

Their growls cut short. Their stares were still hard, but they turned away and went down through one of the clipper’s gangways, disappearing belowdecks. The captain turned back to Tool. “Did they say the name of their ship?”

Tool shook his huge head.

Midshipman Reynolds pinched her lip, thoughtful. “There’s a couple ships that might be down here. We’ve got Seven Sisters on the north-south passenger run. The Ray running charter. Mother Ganga carrying iron scrap down to Cancun.” She shrugged. “No one else scheduled down here until harvest season when the grain comes down the Mississippi.”

“The Ray, then,” the captain said. “It will be the Ray. Mr. Marn was quick enough to declare confidence in Pyce when Nita’s father was forced aside. It must be the Ray.”

Nailer frowned. The list of ships bothered him. “Are there any other ships on your list?”

“None that would be carrying half-men as crew.”

Nailer chewed his lip, trying to remember. “There was a ship, another one, or a different name at least, that chased Lucky Girl into the storm. It was a big ship. Built for the north… North Run, maybe?”

Reynolds and the captain looked at him, puzzled.

Nailer scowled, frustrated. He couldn’t quite remember the name. North Run? North Pole Run? “Northern Run?” he tried. “North Pole?”

“Pole Star?” the captain prompted, suddenly interested.

Nailer nodded uncertainly. “Maybe.”

Reynolds and the captain exchanged glances. “An ugly name,” Reynolds muttered.

The captain looked hard at Nailer. “Are you sure? Pole Star?”

Nailer shook his head. “I just remember that it was a ship for crossing the pole.”

The captain grimaced. “Let’s hope you’re not right.”

“Does it change anything?”

He shook his head. “Nothing that concerns you.” He glanced at Reynolds. “Even if it is Pole Star, they shouldn’t know that we’re their enemy yet. None of you did anything to identify yourselves onshore.”

“Except you,” Reynolds observed dryly.

“Our late lieutenant is hardly going to complain.” The captain paused, thinking again. “We can take them. With a bit of trickery and their trust, it can be done. A bit of trickery, a touch from the Fates—”

“—and a blood offering,” someone muttered.

The captain grinned. “Anyone on the Ray or Pole Star we can trust?”

The others shook their heads. “They’ve been shuffling crews,” Reynolds said. “I think Leo and Fritz might have ended up on the Ray.”

“And you trust them?”

Reynolds smiled, showing black teeth from chewing betel nut. “Almost as much as I trust you.”

“Anyone else?”

“Li Yan?”

Cat shook his head. “No. If she’s there, she’s gone over.”

Nailer watched, not comprehending. The captain glanced at him. “Ah, boy, you’re in an ugly fight, you are. A bit of a contested leadership right now in the shipping clan.”