Chapter One
Lina stared at her hand of battered cards and realized that they couldn’t save her.
"I'll raise ya the bench bottom," muttered a pirate.
The day was warm. Mid-afternoon sunlight reflected off the waters around them, shimmering on the chop of the ocean. Its brilliance pained Lina, the way it prickled at her sunburned skin. She hid from it as best she could by sitting low against the gunwales. But the sun still found her periodically, as the makeshift longboat crested each shallow swell with its rolling up-and-down sway. Clouds floated by up above, all puffy and rumpled with rain. Lina frowned at them. She wasn't the only one watching the sky. The others were bound to raise the stakes even higher.
"Oarlock," said Oscar Pleasant. He rubbed the week-old stubble on his chin, glancing furtively at the others playing the game.
"Gunwales," croaked Henry Smalls. Lina spared him a glance; the older pirate was tired, his features sunken and sallow. He showed worst the effects of dehydration and exposure that was slowly killing them all.
"Floorboards," said Sarah Lome, the huge piratess.
The castaways raised the stakes, bidding with the small part of the longboat that they could each lay claim to. Only half of the pirate crew played, gambling with the battered packet of cards Oscar had produced. Everyone else sat quietly, too tired to grouse, focused on their own misery. The oars lay athwart the gunwales, useless without anywhere to row to. Captain Fengel sat in the bow of the little vessel, quiet, confidently watching for any sign of their lost home port.
The pirates were watching her. Lina realized it was her turn. All right. Time to decide. Her sunburned fingers held a pair of deuces and nothing else worthwhile. Lina gazed at the cards a long moment, then shook her head. First chance at next morning's dew would be good, maybe keep her going long enough to spot land or a passing ship, but it wasn't worth risking the little fresh water she could suck up from the baseboards of her own tiny spot. Growing up poor had taught Lina to look after herself. You didn't do that by frittering away your only chances of survival on a losing hand.
"Nothing worth betting," she croaked aloud. "I'm out."
Oscar moved to stop her, his confident smile undercut by shaking hands. "Hold on. Maybe there's something else you can throw into the pot."
Lina glared at him. This again? She didn't know the pirates very well at all, but they all knew who she was, what she'd been. So far Oscar had brought it up every chance he could, even during their harried, ramshackle flight from the city of Triskelion. That part of her life was done with. Why didn't men ever seem to get it?
She glared at him. "And what would that be?"
The pirate smiled. "Those lovely golden locks of yours."
Lina blinked in confusion. The others did as well. "My hair? What? You want my hair?"
"Aye," grinned Oscar wickedly. "It's so long and soft. I've watched you each morning. It gets wonderfully damp. Throw in first lick off those, lass." He leered at her.
Lina flushed in embarrassment. This was the most disgusting thing anyone had ever asked of her, and she had heard a lot of disgusting things over the years. Her long tresses were a source of pride. They had taken years to grow and had always served her well. The gangers and sailors always paid more for a pretty head of hair.
The other pirates watched to see how she would react. Lina had done her best to keep pace with them, even chased by constables and assassins. She'd held it together and pulled her weight as they fled through the streets, then out and away from Triskelion in an old longboat attached to a weather balloon. Lina had even kept quiet after that mad, terrifying flight had ended and their makeshift airship crashed into the ocean hundreds of miles from shore. Still, through all that, the crew had yet to warm to her. They couldn't seem to understand why a prostitute wanted to be a pirate.
A hot coal of anger settled in Lina's gut. I'll prove myself, one way or the other. They wouldn't catch her backing down from a challenge. And if she happened to lose? Well, she'd put up with worse. "Fine," she said. "Winning hand can suck on my hair tomorrow morning, all they want."
Oscar chortled happily. "That's that then. Anyone else? No? I call." He threw his cards onto the bench before them. "Three knaves and a pair of knights."
Raspy groans and sighs of disgust echoed from the assembled pirates. Maxim, the crew's aetherite magician, threw down his cards and cursed in his thick, native tongue. He wasn't the only one. Not one of them had a hand to beat Oscar.
"That's all for me then," the ferrety pirate said with a smile. Oscar collected his deck and winked at Lina. "And I'll be seeing you girlie, first thing in the morning." He puckered wind-chapped lips and kissed at the air.