“Well done, Smithe.” Keelin smiled. “You’ve just volunteered to sit first watch. You two will sit it with him.” He pointed at the bare-chested pirate and another of Drake’s crew.
“Anything I can do to help?” Drake’s first mate said from his position by the cook fire.
“I want twenty men here on the beach, a mixture from both crews, and the rest sent back for the night. No rum for anyone staying and weapons close to hand all night. A line of torches leading up to the edge of the jungle wouldn’t go amiss either, placed in a line that’s already been combed. If Drake does make it back tonight I want him to be walking a safe path.”
“Done,” the man said as he stood up, the firelight gleaming off his milky white eye. “You’ll be staying yourself, I imagine.”
“Aye.”
“Good. I’ll be heading back to the Fortune. You be sure to signal if Drake does turn up during the night.”
“You don’t seem too worried about your missing captain,” Keelin said as the man made to walk away.
Drake’s first mate laughed. “Don’t reckon there’s enough deaths even here on Cinto Cena to keep Drake Morrass in the grave.”
Chapter 25 - Fortune
Drake’s eyes snapped open to reveal the concerned face of Arbiter Beck staring down at him. It was dark, the sort of dark one gets in a cage locked deep underground. The memory was more than a little disturbing, so Drake shook it away and focused on the woman watching him. There was rock behind her and the rhythmic sound of dripping water; it didn’t take long for Drake to realise they were in a cave.
Opening his mouth to speak, Drake found his throat as dry as sun-baked sand and ended up coughing instead. A water skin appeared in front of him, and he reached for it instinctively. Beck moved away, leaving Drake staring at dark rock.
As he sipped at the water, Drake scoured his memory for how they could have ended up in a cave. The last thing he remembered was… ants. Ants and the thought of Beck naked. It seemed a strange combination of memories.
“Thank you,” Beck said from somewhere in the darkness.
“Eh?” Drake barely managed to mumble between swallows of water.
“You saved us both.”
Drake struggled into a sitting position and took note of all the aches and pains the movement caused; it seemed there wasn’t much of his body not currently bruised or battered. He could just about see a small figure sitting alone in the darkness, and he guessed it was Beck.
“Don’t remember saving anyone,” he protested, though a part of him disagreed and claimed that it must be true despite how unlikely it seemed. Drake Morrass never passed up credit for any feat.
“You managed to bring me out of my slumber long enough to realise it was magic causing us to sleep.” She sounded subdued. “Luckily the Inquisition teaches us counters to all sorts of things.” She waved her wrist in the darkness, and Drake thought he saw a bandage wrapped around it. He looked down at his own wrist and saw a similar strip of cloth. He held it up for closer inspection.
“As long as you’re wearing that you won’t be able to sleep,” Beck said. “I would not advise taking it off; I don’t have any others right now, and I’ve no way to fashion any more until we get back to the boat.”
Beck fell silent for a while. “I should have noticed it sooner. Too damned distracted. I…” She trailed off.
“What’s your name?” Drake asked the woman sitting in the darkness.
There was a significant silence before the answer came. “Beck.”
“Oh, I got that. Arbiter Beck, to use your full title, I’m sure. But that’s only one name. Strikes me I should know the other one.”
“I don’t have another name,” Beck said quickly. “I used to, I think, but I don’t remember it. Did you know the potential is passed down family lines, from parent to child? Though not all children are guaranteed to inherit it.”
“Aye,” Drake said, remembering his own mother. “I happen to know a little about that myself.” There was a moment of silence before Beck spoke again. Drake thanked Rin his little slip hadn’t piqued her curiosity.
“Well, it appears the potential can also show up in families who have no history of it. I started showing signs at maybe five years old. I don’t remember much from back then, but I know my parents were happy about it.”
“Happy about sending off one of their children to be a witch hunter? Feared and despised the world over? Seems unlikely.”
Beck let out a bitter laugh and leaned forwards. Drake could just about see the outline of her face in the darkness of the cave. Her eyes looked like dark voids.
“Careful, pirate,” she spat. “What we do in the service of Vol… our god is righteous. He knows the best course for this world, and we carry out his will. We are his eyes, ears, and left hand, and…”
“Spare me the zeal, Arbiter. I’d rather not get into another bout of ‘my god’s better than your god’. I ain’t saying I don’t believe in him, just that I don’t trust him.”
“Well, anyway. You might not believe it, but it’s a great honour for a noble family of Sarth to provide children to be trained as Arbiters. The Beck family is one of the oldest and noblest. Before me they had never had the chance to give a child to the Inquisition. When I was given, the instructors called me Beck, and the name stuck. I honestly cannot remember what my full name was before.
“What about you – is your real name Drake Morrass?”
Drake felt her compulsion wash over him; it was almost becoming comforting now. “Aye.”
“Really?”
“Aye. My ma named me. Said a special man needed a special name.”
Beck snorted in the darkness. “She called you a special man?”
“Of course she did. She had a gift, my ma. She could…” Drake stopped. It was common knowledge in the Inquisition that Hironous Vance’s mother had been a witch possessed of the sight. It was not, however, common knowledge that Drake’s mother was the very same witch, and it was something both he and Hironous wanted no one else to know.
“What type of gift?”
Drake had long ago learned that the best way to hide a lie was within the truth. Actually, his first lesson had been that the best way to hide a lie was with silence, but he had a feeling that if he fell silent, so would Beck, and he was enjoying listening to her.
“She could talk to Rin,” Drake said. “Actually, she was the one taught me to do it. Don’t know where she learned it from, but then there’s plenty most folk don’t know about their parents. When I popped out between her legs she used her own fluids to contact Rin, and asked her what my name should be.”
Beck laughed. “You’re really trying to sell me the story that you were named by a sea goddess?”
“Certainly seems that way, doesn’t it.” Drake laughed along with her, deciding some truths were too hard to swallow. He wondered if the woman would believe him if he told her that he and Hironous were brothers.
“I never realised you pirates were so religious.”
“Most pirates ain’t. There’s a big difference between religious and superstitious, Arbiter. Most pirates wouldn’t know a protective sign” – Drake held his right hand in the hook of Rin and crossed it from the left side of his chest to the right – “from a useless waving of the hand.”
“I thought you weren’t supposed to make those signs on land,” Beck said, her voice a challenge.
“Well…” Drake shrugged. “I can get away with all sorts. Besides, we’re surrounded by rock on all sides here. She can’t see us. Can’t help us.”