Myrin came up second, followed by Rhett, huffing under the weight of the armor Kalen had recommended he not wear. When the half-elf got to the deck, his face red as a ripe beet, he gave Kalen an apologetic grimace.
“Fascinating,” Myrin said, looking around.
“You sense something?” Kalen said.
“Oh no,” she said. “It’s just that I don’t remember ever having been on a ship. There’s a certain rocking motion that I find soothing. What do you say, Rhett?”
The half-elf was leaning over the side, making gurgling sounds.
Wood creaked as the ship rocked, but Kalen heard something else. “Wait.”
A knife in either hand, he stalked toward the aftcastle, where he’d heard the noise. The angle blocked his sight of possible ambushs, so he crept up the stairs, pausing to distribute his weight on each step and avoid the telltale creak of weathered wood.
When he reached the top, he saw a figure at the wheel. He stepped forward to investigate and a black shape parted from the night. He ducked and leaped back, causing the axe to sweep over his head. He slashed forward, but his steel hit only darkness. He leaped back again.
They moved into the moonlight and Kalen saw Sithe, her axe whirling. By the genasi’s indifferent face, she was neither surprised to see him nor had she meant to stay her strike. She swayed aside as a streak of blue light-Myrin’s spell-flashed past her harmlessly. She swept her axe wide and crouched low, ready to spring.
“Be that you, Little Dren?” called a familiar voice.
“Toy?” Kalen called back.
“Why, fancy that,” said the voice. “Two slayers meet in the night, on the corpse of a ship half a mile from the shore no less. What be the odds?”
Toytere stepped out from behind the wheel stand, the moonlight gleaming in the silver brooch on his black tallhat. Kalen had barely noticed the brooch before: a crescent moon set into what looked like a harp. He knew the symbol, of course, and wondered if Toytere truly belonged to that organization, or if he wore it as a trophy. Knowing the halfling, it was probably the latter.
Rhett charged up the stairs, Vindicator in hand. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “This is our abandoned ship.”
“Funny,” Toytere said, his deadly eyes on Rhett. “The side of the ship say Genasi’s Pyre. Of us all, Sithe be the closest.”
Kalen made no move to lower his steel and neither did Sithe. The genasi stared at him, ready. For them, the battle had not ended, merely paused.
Then Myrin arrived, and Toytere’s dangerous smirk rose instantly into a brilliant smile. “Me lady!” He swept off his hat and bowed. “How fortunate it be that you’ve come, else”-he cast Kalen a meaningful look-“well, how fortunate it be.”
“Isn’t it? How fortunate I can be here to remind everyone to play nice.”
She cleared her throat in Kalen’s direction. With a grimace, he sheathed his blades. Sithe lowered her axe. It seemed the betrayal would come a bit later.
“I know why we’ve come,” Kalen said. “But why are you here, Toytere?”
“Oh, the likely-I’m sure some swag be left over,” Toytere said. “We can work together, no? Lady Darkdance?”
“Oh,” Myrin said, her expression flustered. She’d been staring at Kalen and the question took her by surprise. “I suppose-yes?”
“Me lady be wise,” Toytere said. “Lady Darkdance and Sithe accompany me below, while the two fine gentles from Waterdeep stay above to keep watch.”
Kalen and Myrin both opened their mouths to speak, but Rhett beat them to the objection. “Nay!” he said. “Where Myrin goes, I go also. I’m her warder.”
“You heard the boy.” Kalen purposefully avoided Myrin’s eye. “He’s going.”
“Very well, my good guardsman,” Toytere said. “That be, if you’ve no problem with rats and cramped spaces.”
“Oh.” Rhett leaned toward Kalen. “I do have a … slight issue with rats. Their beady little eyes and scrabbling little claws. I just-”
“I know the feeling.” Kalen glanced at Toytere, then at Myrin, considering. He felt his spellscar draw toward her, not wanting to be parted. “I’ll go.”
The halfling did not look pleased at this pronouncement, though Myrin’s face brightened. “Perfect,” she said before Toytere could object.
“Well then,” the halfling said. “Beauty before the beast?”
He gallantly gestured to the stairs. With a smug look at Kalen, Myrin descended to the main deck. Toytere gave Sithe a meaningful look, and she drifted to his side.
Kalen gave Rhett a similar sharp look and the lad came closer. “Watch Sithe,” Kalen said. “Toytere might mean to betray us, and if he does, Vindicator is our last line of defense.”
“Not Myrin?” Rhett asked. “You should trust her more.”
Kalen stared at him seriously. “You’ve seen her tendency to get into trouble.”
“Like getting kidnapped and becoming a crimelord of Luskan?”
“Exactly like that.”
“She isn’t naive as you think,” Rhett said. “She told me she had a plan.”
“And she told you no details of this plan, I expect.”
Rhett shrugged. “Only that I should trust her. Perhaps you should too.”
“Ay!” Toytere called from below. “Are we going or no?”
Kalen was glad of the interruption. He hadn’t been sure how to answer that. He clapped Rhett on the shoulder. “Don’t take your eyes from Sithe.”
“Good luck, master.”
Kalen hesitated, considering whether to correct him, then shook his head. He joined the halfling, who was giving his enforcer instructions of her own. Kalen could get no hint as to their nature from watching her blank face. She nodded and the halfling chuckled.
As Kalen approached, Sithe walked past him, sparing him not a single glance.
“Bidding your squire a fond farewell, no?” Toytere asked.
“He’s not my squire,” Kalen said. “And I thought our business between us alone.”
The halfling smiled and his sharpened teeth gleamed in the moonlight. “Where’s the trust in an old friend, Little Dren?”
“You were never my friend, Toytere-Cellica was.”
“And she was my sister,” Toytere said. “But, let us be agreed. There be no point in dragging the innocent betwixt our blades.”
“Not Myrin either,” Kalen said.
“What of me?” Myrin appeared between them, her arms crossed. “Are we to compare our blades all night, or are you coming?”
“I do so love me queen.” Toytere’s smile widened. “Away, then.”
Rhett turned to Sithe, his companion on watch atop the aftcastle. “Hail, Dark Lady!”
The genasi glanced in his direction, as though at a gnat, then away.
“Gods, this will go well,” Rhett murmured.
Myrin’s insides leaped when Kalen said he would be coming below, but he didn’t even look at her. Instead, he focused on Toytere, as though he expected the halfling to turn on him at any moment.
She couldn’t really blame Kalen for being upset. After all, she had stolen aboard the skiff without his knowledge or approval. But he’d tried to leave her behind in the first place, so it seemed fair. What was he so afraid of, that he wouldn’t trust her to come along?
It made her angry.
The first obstacle proved to be the door to the aftcastle, which was stuck. Toytere indicated it with a sweep of his hand. “If you will, Little Dren,” he said. “Mother Chauntea did not see fit to bless her littlest children with strength.”
“I should turn my back so you can stab it?” Kalen said.
“Oh! I’ll do it.” Myrin stalked over to them, raised her wand, and blasted the door open with a crack of thunder. It always made her feel better to destroy things when Kalen upset her, which was basically every time she saw him.