Amanda tired to look for him but she barely got a chance before another man was climbing up to where she was. He fell soon after, downed by a thrown dagger to the back. As more things were thrown her way she backed up and ducked down between a pair of wooden crates where she was less obvious.

  She hated it, hiding while they all fought. She wanted to be useful, but she couldn’t swing a sword and as long as that borrower was out there she couldn’t use her magic. If she could just find him.

  But the borrower hadn’t been a large man. She managed to find Sirius instead and from where she crouched she had a good view. He wasn’t just fighting. He was in the middle shouting and pointing and directing crew and it seemed to her that he was doing a pretty effective job of it.

  His movements were slower, calmer. It was what made him stand out, so much so that she couldn’t understand how she’d managed to miss him before. But it seemed like the effect wasn’t just limited to her.

  Sailors danced around him, fighting each other, avoiding him. Every now and again, one would seem to notice him, and he’d spend a moment parrying them. Some he killed, some were simply swallowed back up by the surrounding crowd.

  Once again, she imagined him like a rock, pounded by rolling waves but always emerging unchanged afterward. A beacon of order among chaos. As he gave orders she could why he made such a good captain. What Shiv had meant when he’d said a captain’s role was most important in battle. Sirius found and pointed out avenues of attack and the men around him obeyed him without question. In doing so they worked more efficiently together. They defended each other’s backs better because Sirius could watch and tell them where they needed to be.

  Except this wasn’t his crew. It was Morgan’s. Where was she? Why wasn’t she giving orders?

  Amanda found The Butcher instead. He had been near the edge of the deck for some reason and now he forced his way across in the direction of Sirius. He was almost there.

  Sirius had his back to him.

  He didn’t see him coming.

  She tried to yell out but the noise drowned out her voice.

  Still he seemed to hear her. He turned her way. But it wasn’t fast enough. Still he hadn’t noticed The Butcher’s sword.

  Amanda raised her hand and with the barest flick of a finger she set The Butcher ablaze.

  Then she felt it. That familiar feeling. Someone else taking control.

  The fire leapt out of her command. It encased both Sirius and The Butcher until they were nothing but dark shapes at the centre of flaming tomb.

  Amanda tired to pull it back, but just like before the destruction was inevitable. It was like trying to stop a downward slide on ice.

  Then the fire was gone, as fast as it started.

  It wasn’t Amanda who had done it though. It was a different elemental. A water elemental had pulled the sea up and brought it down on all of them.

  The Butcher’s skin was blackened and broken, crisp and scarred but still he stood. But a second man was at his side and as Amanda watched the skin started to heal. The Butcher did no scream or cry out. He simply stood.

  The only black on Sirius was his coat and his hair. It seemed he’d been right. His coat was fireproof, not just in its surface but for the one who wore it. Somehow he’d emerged from her flames completely unburnt.

  But none of it mattered, because not even in burning flame had the Butcher hesitated. He’d kept his sword going. Right into Sirius’s chest. And unfortunately his black coat did not defend against such weapons.

  For an eternity Amanda watched Sirius just standing there with a sword sticking out of himself. It was as if time itself had frozen. To her it felt like years passed but it could surely only have been a few seconds, not even that.

  He fell into a crumpled heap on the deck where she could no longer see him. The last she saw of him was that black coat disappearing beneath a mass of feet as the fight continued on without him.

  She ran toward the spot he had fallen, not caring if she might get stabbed in the process. All she cared about was getting to him and getting him out of there. Surely he wasn’t dead. Surely he was just injured. She just needed to get him out of the way and then find Riki. Riki could heal him.

  But try as she might, she could not reach him. Instinct had her dodge the obvious attacks that came her way, more by accident than intent or she was sure she would have been skewered. For every step she could get forward she was driven back just as many.

  A violent shove sent her sprawling to the deck. She tired to keep going by crawling, dodging feet as much as swords. She was sure she’d never make it but it didn’t matter. She just kept pushing forward.

  “Parley!” Stinger’s voice called about the crowd. “Parley!”

  From her spot on the floor she looked up and she was surprised that she could see him. He’d climbed up on top of something and she watched as he threw his sword aside.

  “Parley!” he cried again.

  The fighting stopped.

  And then as if by some other unheard command, the two groups separated.

  It wasn’t an invisible command though. Once they’d separated it was obvious that The Butcher had given some kind of and signal.

  Stinger climbed down from the top of the wheelhouse. He met The Butcher face to face and the two stared each other down.

  Amanda searched for Sirius and as the feet separated she found him. He was lying unmoving on the blood-soaked deck, along with many others, including Morgan.

  She started to crawl to him but someone pulled her back.

  She turned and was surprised and relieved to see it was Riki.

  His eyes were filled with fear. “Don’t. Not yet,” he warned. He tried to pull her back to join the rest of the crowd, those who were still alive.

  “You have to heal him!” she commanded.

  “I can’t. It’s against the rules.”

  “Fuck the rules,” she told him. Then she shook him off. It didn’t matter. She didn’t need him. She’d forgotten before but now she remembered. There were healing infusements in the pockets of Sirius’s coat. She could use those.

  Once she shook herself free of Riki’s grip no one stopped her.

  But when she reached Sirius she saw it was no use. Not even the best healer could heal the dead.

  At first he looked just like he were sleeping. His eyes were closed, and she was glad of that. She didn’t want to see those beautiful eyes without any life in them. His skin has lost all colour and his chest lay still but he was warm to the touch. The warmth gave her hope.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  She hadn’t noticed how silent the deck had become until she turned to look around.

  The Butcher stood not far away, watching her.

  “Do you have a necro?” she asked, ignoring how many eyes were on her.

  He cocked an amused eyebrow.

  “Please. I’ll do anything.” And she meant it.

  One edge of The Butcher’s lips curled up into a sort of half smile but she couldn’t tell whether it meant he was considering her request or not.

  “You’re not lying. Which is interesting given the she-wolf wasn’t lying when she said she was delivering you to Shiv.” He gave her a considered look.

  He didn’t seem in any rush which was a problem since necromancy needed to be done fast.

  “Please,” she begged again.

  He gave a soft laugh and shook his head. “Why would I sacrifice one of my crew for him when everything I want is already mine?”

  Her heart fell and before she could reconsider her other options, like the one that hung from her neck, she was suddenly grabbed by two of his crew.

  “Bind her,” The Butcher commanded.

  His words didn’t immediately register. By the time she understood what was happening it was too late. A cool leather bracelet was slapped onto one of her wrists and she was dragged across the deck toward the boardwalks that bridged the gap between the ships.

  She fought like a wildcat. She did not, could not, just leave Sirius there like that, just lying on the deck in his own blood.

  But it was useless. There were two of them and they were stronger than she.

  In desperation she reached for her fire magic instead. It wasn’t like there was anyone from The Wolverine in close proximity now and she no longer cared who she took out in her attempts to get back to Sirius. He couldn’t be dead, not when he’d felt so warm. Maybe she’d just imagined the pallor of his skin and the stillness of his chest. Maybe he really was just sleeping. She needed to check again, to be sure.

  But when she reached for her magic, instead of the usual heat, she felt nothing, only a faint pulse too far away to reach. And then she understood what the bracelet had done and what the captain’s words had meant. Bind her. It was a binding infusement. It trapped her magic where she could not reach it, not for as long as it was wrapped around her wrist.

  She tried for the necklace instead but either the binding worked on that too or it needed skin contact. She wasn’t sure how binding magic worked with infusements. It probably depended on the specific binding magic. If only she’d used the necklace earlier.

  They dragged her onto their own ship and they took her below, to a room with chain manacles fixed into the wall.

  Amanda was pretty sure when this cell had been first been fitted with chains that they’d had a mind a prisoner of a much taller stature. Her arms were pulled up at an angle that made her shoulders ache.

  She was joined not much later by Marianne and Pip, the latter of whom was hurling all sorts of insults at her captors. She even spat on one of them as they chained her to the wall. The man did nothing in return to her though, except to glare at her before leaving.

  They were left alone then, the three of them, their captors obviously convinced that they couldn’t escape. Both Pip and Marianne wore bracelets like the one on Amanda’s own wrist, binding infusements to keep them from using their powers.

  “Stinger gave you both up, just like that?” Amanda asked. She’d heard Stinger and The Butcher negotiating as she’d been dragged off the ship, or rather The Butcher had been telling Stinger what was going to happen. Amanda had expected Stinger to at least object though.

  “He didn’t have much choice,” replied Marianne sadly.

  “That fucking liver-bellied coward will regret that,” spat Pip with much more vigor. Then she began to sing,

  “Oh, forge me knife fore the end of my life,

  Fill it with the red moooon’s song.

  Make it strong and sharp,

  Let it cut through like teeth,

  and carve my name in his blood.

  Boil him oil, and drown him in sa-ah-ah-ah-and

  Till he sings the red moon’s song...”

  She continued to wail on. Amanda really wished she wouldn’t. It was out of tune and sounded like a cat had fallen into a pipe organ. She understood now why none of the crew had let Pip near a musical instrument. Her voice was a more effective torture than the too high manacles that currently restrained them.

  From the soft groan that came from Marianne after Pip started up, it seemed that she agreed.

  The only upside was that it did a good job of distracting Amanda from that awful image she had in her head of Sirius lying unmoving on the deck. If only she could reach the necklace. If only she could get those damn cuffs off.

  She tried reaching for her magic. She could just feel it. Maybe if she just pushed a little more she could break through the binding magic and melt the leather off. All things being equal a binder always won but infusements were weaker than natural magic and Amanda was a damn good firestarter. Maybe just maybe she could do it.

  Her first few attempts managed little more than a slither of heat, not anywhere near enough to melt through leather. And Pip’s singing, as good a job as it was doing at distracting her from what had happened on the other ship, it was also distracting her from focusing on breaking through the binding magic. She was starting to wish the pirates would just come back and put her out of her misery or at least drag her off somewhere else.

  She got her wish, sort of. Pip’s singing was put to an end when the door to the cabin was flung open and two men and a woman walked in. None of them looked particularly friendly. Amanda recognised the shortest man. He was short enough that even the dark-haired woman that had entered beside him towered over him, but to Amanda at least he was probably the most dangerous of the three. The Slicer’s borrower.

  He walked up to her first, even though she was in the middle, and he reached out and touched the side of her face. She tried to move away but there wasn’t anywhere to go. He removed his hand a moment later though and then repeated the act on Pip and Marianne.

  Stepping back he pointed at Marianne and then Amanda in turn. To his two companions he said “Take her bracelet off and put it on her.”

  The larger of his companion’s eyebrow’s rose and in a gruff voice, as he eyed Amanda, he asked, “Two bracelets, are you sure?”

  The borrower nodded.

  He had been reading them. That’s what he had been doing. Figuring out what their powers were. He’d needed to touch them to do it. That probably meant he couldn’t read them unless they were actively using their powers, or at least he couldn’t read them very well. A weak borrower then. Not that it mattered. He’d still been able to do enough damage. She’d need far more control than she currently had to be able to counter him, not that she was in a position to try.

  As the second bracelet was fitted over her wrist she felt the distance between her and her powers grow. Did two bracelets double the effectiveness? Not quite it seemed, but it was enough. With one bracelet maybe she could have broken through but two made it impossible. That borrower was smart and cautious.

  Marianne was bracelet-less now but that made sense too. What was she going to do with her enhanced sense of taste? She was no threat them. Pip, as a materiokinetic would have been useful but they’d wisely left her bracelet on. Maybe Pip could break the binding?

  Once the trio left Amanda turned to Pip. “Can you break through?” she asked.

  Pip laughed. “What are you mad? It’s binding magic. You can’t break through binding magic, not unless it wears off.”

  Amanda bit her lip. “Can you feel your magic at all though? Even a little bit?” Amanda could still feel hers, but it was far away, much too far away.

  Pip shook her head. “Don’t worry though. They probably just want us sex. If you do what they say and make yourself useful, they’re unlikely to kill us. I’ve been captured plenty of times before. And if the ship sucks, you just hang around for a few ports and eventually they get bored and stop watching you so closely and then ye can slip aboard a different one.”

  Amanda scowled. She’d rather die than ever let them have their way with her. Pip’s words and the chipper tone in which she spoke did not make her feel any better. Rather they sent a chill right through her. Incredulous she asked, “You’ve been through this before?”

  Pip nodded like it was nothing. “Oh sure. I skipped crews a few times too until I found Morgan’s crew. They’re pretty respectful for the most part, probably cause Morgan would slap em silly if they tried anything. I sailed with Sirius too for a bit. Now that’s a crew to make the rest of us look like savages. Boring as though, and his bard is a stuck up arse!”

  “Neko?” Amanda frowned. Memories of being on the Black Dog came flooding back. Sure they had kicked Sirius off but that crew had loved him. How would they feel when they found that that he… she couldn’t even bring herself to think the words. The image of Sirius lying motionless on the deck sent a pain through her so sharp that it took her her will not to crumble into a sobbing mess and give up trying right there.

  She needed to get out of these restraints. She pushed everything she had into attempting to reach her fire but it achieved nothing except for an immense feeling of exhaustion.

  She tired to focus back on her surroundings. She turned to Marianne who had otherwise been very quiet. “What about you? You ever been captured like this before?”

  Marianne just shook her head. She looked very pale.

  Amanda tried to think of other options. The necklace still hung around her neck but the ring itself was laying against fabric and Amanda couldn’t feel any of its magic. She still wasn’t sure if that was because it needed to be touching her skin or because the binding bracelets were blocking it. She hoped it was simply the former. She tried to wriggle and shake it into her shirt. After several attempts she still hadn’t made any progress.

  “What are you doing?” Pip asked her. “You’re not going to get out of your restraints like that and you’ll just tire yourself out.”

  Amanda ignored her and continued her attempts.

  A minute or so later she was interrupted again, this time by a man’s voice.

  “Good morning ladies!”

  No one had opened the cabin door though. But upon turning to her left, she saw a head sticking out of the wall.