Raw Winter

Chapter 28: Not a Day More

"What did you say?" The bartender said as a group from the crew sat at the bar, grinning from ear to ear as they enjoyed their drink and stretched their coin as far as it could go. As long as they were useful for keeping the local riffraff out, weren't interested in being a bother, and would not call the attention of the local guard, they could just about have their rum for free. They definitely had a reputation, but mostly they were easy to pacify.

"You heard what we said," Adders laughed, nursing his drink and wiping the blood from his lips. The man wasn't giving up drink for anything. "Captain Hades is dead, and wouldn't you know it, but the actual devil of the sea was the one who killed him? His very own protege that he made all on his own."

"He died, huh?" The bartender said, turning to get their drinks. "The man that did it must have been the most or least lucky man alive."

"It were no man who done it," Mesmar said, grinning broadly. "Our new captain be a woman called Rawintr Wlyfric, and he was the who brought her on. We all knew it. She would be the one to end him. We fished her from the sea, and she was the only beast that could match him."

"Is that what you're calling her? A captain? She was a curse Hades brought on himself, and she'll sink us as surely," said Beffers. "I know one thing for certain. I aint going back to that ship for nothing."

"Suit yourself," Adders muttered, keeping his back turned to the man. "Personally, methinks she's going to be the best any has ever known. She has a crystal eye that can see into the future as surely as anyone ever could. She'll see us sinking or sailing before anyone else." He pointed at his left eye and grinned, and Mesmar grinned back.

"Is that so?" The bartender said with his own ambitious smile. The Red Liar being headed by a new captain, Hades being dead, and the new captain being a woman was more than enough for him to pass around if anyone were to come around asking about their ship. He could probably make a coin or two out of it, and it might be worth spreading just to see what happens. He placed two tankards on the table and sent a barmaid to bring the third to Beffers.

Beffers grunted and said, "She killed our captain dead and then didn't waste no time killing another man. I don't see what you're so happy about."

"Our captain has the killer instinct a man needs in the open sea, and I for one aint for not seeing a woman that can kill as readily as anyone else," Mesmar chuckled.

"And she's a damned siren if I've ever seen one," Adders added with a toothy grin. They cheered and toasted, and Beffers snorted again, drinking down his ale as quick as he could and heading out before they really got under his skin.

On the other side of town, Rawintr walked alongside Yulsylus, and a man named Kircan. He wasn't the sort of person who talked much, so he wasn't all that noticed on the crew until now. His silence during the whole thing drew her attention, and she thought he was worth her time. He knew a lot more about the inner workings of the ship and the way their inventory worked than she ever would.

"I could probably build a ship fairly well too if you ever need it," he said, but then shrugged to discredit himself if she ever actually called on him to and he did a poor job.

"That may be needed sooner than you think," she said vaguely, a frown on her face as she considered her next steps. "For now, I need to figure out where I am and where my mother is."

"There was a huge turnover after we took you," Kircan commented. "I wasn't there myself, but I was one of the first they hired when the old crew were more dominant. We came upon many terrible storms during that time, and one by one they left. They said you were cursed, and you brought it down on them because Hades let you stay on the ship for too long. Some of them spoke of rebelling against Hades, and he killed the lot of them that did."