Adversaries Together (16 page)

“
Funny seeing you again.”
Kira said in a steady but slightly accusatory tone. Roth started
when he heard her voice.

Roth tilted his head looking around the hold
for the girl, his neck screamed sharp pain into his already
grieving head, “Kira?” he said tentatively.

“
Yes.”

“
What…what the hell
happened? Where is Jena?” he righted himself into a sitting
position, he began to take a mental inventory. He spat on the cloth
that bound him and sucked on it a little, when it was damp enough
he began to wipe the crusted blood from his eye and face. Intact,
no holes, he thought.

Kira scoffed, “Jena? I have no idea. I never
met the woman.”

“
Wait. What?
She…”

“
Never showed up. Or maybe
she did and that’s why I’m here.”

Roth’s eyes had adjusted, and he now saw
where Kira was. He tried to stand but nearly fell. Though the room
was still nearly all shadow, he saw nothing but stars and red
blotches. Roth felt his head and quickly found what felt like a
large gash just above his ear. He gave himself a moment, and then
stood again taking a few steps toward Kira. As he did, she pushed
herself back.

“
What are you doing?” He
asked puzzled.

“
Getting away from you.”
Kira lifted her legs a bit like she was about to kick out at
him.

“
What the hell for? We’re
both in the same boat, literally.” Roth laughed to
himself.

“
Hardly. Obviously you’re
some sort of privateer in cahoots with these other
ruffians.”

“
Privateer? Cahoots?
Ruffians? Who talks like that? What would you know anyway?” Roth
tried to stand but was too wobbly still. He took a moment and on
his knees, he edged closer to Kira.

“
Enough to know a traitor
when I see one.” Kira kicked out at him shaking the crates she was
sitting on and setting her off balance. As the crates wobbled, Kira
over-corrected tipping herself and them over onto the floor. Roth
leaned back watching she fell, not attempting to hide the humor he
found in this.

“
How can you laugh? Do you
have no appreciation for the situation we’re in?” She
whined.

Roth grimaced; his laughter aggravated his
head wound sending sharp shooting pains all through his body. He
held his head still and steadied himself against one of the crates.
With his eye cleaned up slightly, he was better able to take in the
room of the ship's hold that was now his jail. Instead of just
black, he now saw everything in a soft brown. The hold was not as
small as he suspected, maybe twenty steps by twenty, which meant
the ship was good sized given that the crates in the room looked
sparse and aged. Roth felt the boat sway and he tried to gauge the
speed, the feel of it.

“
No, I can completely
appreciate the situation.” He muttered between clenched
teeth.

“
I don’t find being
ambushed, betrayed, and kidnapped very funny.”

“
And who betrayed you?”
Roth sincerely asked.

“
You, you dolt.” Kira said
incredulous.

“
You think this is my
doing? Are you daft?”

“
Then who is
responsible?”

“
You tell me. I’m the one
bleeding from the head. Because I saw you not going where you were
told to go. I need to know where Jena is. Why you aren’t with her?
I need to know what exactly happened.” Roth kept his voice low but
there was a firm fury in his words.

Kira grew quiet, “I have no idea.”

"You don't remember or you don’t know?” He
snapped.

“
I was set upon. Came from
behind me and smothered me with some cloth.”

“
No one saw them?” He shook
his head, “What about Jena?”

Kira grit her teeth in impatience, “I told
you I never met Jena. I haven’t seen Goshen either.”

“
Well, then who did you
meet? Last I saw, Goshen was being carried on a stretcher toward
the docks where Jena’s ship was waiting to take him and you to
Bandra.” Roth raised his voice sharply, exasperated. He regretted
it immediately, squeezing his eyes closed and feeling as though his
head was about to explode. He staggered forward a bit then crashed
hard against the hull wall.

Kira looked at him and spoke softly as if to
herself, “You left. I was going to the barber’s to find out more
about Goshen. He is going to be all right, should you care. They
told me they had given him a sedative and that he’d be unconscious
for at least half a day. Before I could thank them, new men came
into the room. They escorted the barber out.”

Roth let out a long sigh and blinked several
times. He slid along the wall to where Kira was and then squatted
down, “Go on.”

He gestured for her to lean forward. He
reached behind her working to unbind her as she spoke, “One stayed
behind, the masked one from the wetlands. I knew it was him. He
didn’t speak. Just stared at me. I was too frightened to do
anything.”

“
And that’s when they got
you from behind.” Roth said and Kira nodded. He had freed her hands
and now held up his own for her to loose.

“
They dragged me out the
back, pulled me behind some crates.” She stuttered as she spoke
untying Roth’s binders.

“
Did they?”

“
They stripped me, just
striped me, threw these clothes at me to change into so I would
look like one of them, I guess. When they led me out, the one in
the mask punched me in the face, told me to stay still. They lead
me to this ship and threw me in here, then you showed up.” Kira’s
voice wavered as she finished untying Roth. He rubbed his wrists,
wiped his face, then took her hands and gently began to wrap the
cloth rags around her raw wrists.

“
They just stole you away,
which means Goshen’s on the right ship,” Roth nodded taking in what
she had said, “Jena’s ship. She was waiting for you two to
arrive.”

“
So she’ll know something
is amiss.” Kira said hopeful as she set his hands free.

Roth shook his head, “I doubt it. I would
have seen her before I saw you. I think they pinched you, subbed in
a fake so Jena wouldn’t suspect.”

“
But Goshen would
know.”

“
You said yourself that the
barber put him under. Plus, he was all fever. No position to talk
to anyone.” Roth paused; he felt another wave of nausea go through
him, the pulse of blood through his system and the dull ache that
was sweeping through his body.

Kira was crestfallen. She gazed at her feet.
She then seemed to realize something, “We’re untied now. Can’t we
overpower them?”

“
I’m in no state to do so,”
Roth said. “You?”

“
I suppose not.”

“
And then there’s the fact
there’s not just the guards but the rest of the crew.” He reminded
her.

“
We’re at sea too.” Kira
sighed. “They just have to keep the door locked and a sword in
their hand, huh?”

“
Essentially.”

“
And no one will know I’m
gone until Goshen and Jena reach Bandra?”

“
If they reach Bandra.”
Roth said in a whisper.

“
You think
that…?”

“
I think Goshen and Jena
are in danger.” Roth was tired, he was having a difficult time
keeping himself awake but he tried to keep talking, "When you're
delivering a bounty and it needs to be alive but if it's too
dangerous to keep conscious you drug it—unconscious but not dead.
You get your bounty but usually begrudgingly, because there is some
dam..."

Kira blinked and stared at Roth with a look
of slight incomprehension, "I...guess so... You know a bit about
this sort of thing?"

“
I know enough." Roth
rolled his head side-to-side, "The question is why don't they just
kill me?" "They'd do that to us?"

"No, not us. You’re the bounty. They don’t
want me. They don’t want Goshen. I put Jena in their path.” Roth’s
voice was airy, distant sounding, “They want you. And my question
now is…why you?" Roth lolled his head toward Kira, his eyes
glassy.

“
I’m sorry I thought you
were with them.”

“
No worries.” Roth closed
his eyes, the throbbing was intense and he just wanted to
sleep.

Kira’s tone was one of shame, “You didn’t
need to come after me. You shouldn’t have. Hey, hey are you still
with me?”

Roth snapped his head up, “Yeah. I guess.”
The darkness of the hold had become a soft brown. Roth felt the
ship moving at a good clip but he could barely focus.

“
Kira…”

“
Yes?”

“
You’ve got to tell me
more about you and Goshen. Your…thing…crusade, no…your mission…I
guess.”

“
Are you alright,
Roth?”

His head hung down again, “No. No, I’m more
than a bit out of sorts. You gotta keep me from falling asleep,
Kira.”

“
Are you going to even
remember this?”

Roth nodded ever so slightly, “I’ll
remember. Just make sure I don’t doze off.”

“
I don’t know if I can
make it interesting.”

“
Not the point. Just don’t
let me doze off.”

Kira nodded, “We left Sulecin about a week
after Lammas Day. It was going to be my first mission and I was
going with my oldest friend…”

The bow of the Kopis rose
and crashed with certainty as the frigate made its way from Anhra
as it had done a hundred times before. The sea was rough, the sky a
steely grey as the churn of the whitecaps was all that signaled
where the sky met the sea. The
Kopis
had left Anhra harbor nearly
three days ago. Its only trade, two units of soldiers meant to
reinforce The Blockade. The crew was thin, whittled down to only
the most necessary in order to make room for the marines. As far as
anyone knew, it was a standard contract. But Asa knew he had
precious cargo for this run, cargo that would leave him flush and
able to dictate his next move.

Asa loathed being a ferry. The pay was low
and the cargo was always brutish and easily seasick. Troops were
routinely a cacophony of egotistical bravado and retching. Most
were barely men, boys who had just finished their initial training.
His men took a particular delight in watching the green soldiers
actually turn green as they experienced the motion of the sea for
the first time. Asa took little joy in it; it was all he could do
to endure. Until the Spires lifted The Blockade and Rikonen was
open again to legal trade, this was his life, ferrying troops and
supplies for the Spires. Some black trade but not nearly enough to
make a difference. He was being drawn into an ordinary existence,
slaving like some sad dues payer in the Merchant Fleet.

In addition, by such a sad
looking navy. What the Silvincians had pieced together, ships
bought from Adrenia filled with queasy Spire troops all crewed by
mercenaries like himself, it mystified him how The Blockade had
lasted this long and been this successful. Then again, Asa knew
that a stifled Rikonen meant the Spires could to as it pleased. The
only seafarers able to break this blockade would have been the
Adrenine shipbuilders in Dystos, since the other Essian cities only
had whalers at their disposal. All of those merchants were now
occupied trying to bring in enough trade to offset the loss of
Rikonen. Perhaps the Merchant Fleet could have broken it but they
were too little impacted. The free traders like Asa, like the men
of the
Kopis
were
left in the lurch. Either smuggle, whale, or get contracts with the
Spires. He smirked, proud of himself for his solution.

Asa gazed through his
monocular eying the horizon; the
Kopis
sliced though the rough waves
carving a clean path. He knew it wasn’t just the ship; it was the
work of his first mate and navigator Riv. However, he couldn't help
but feel a love and pride for the ship itself. Asa turned up the
aperture of his scope and followed the gray sky that beat down on
the churning sea as he made out a thin black line—the dark wood of
Adrenine triremes locked side-by-side in a continuous line seaming
the horizon. The Blockade, a simple tactic, had cut the greatest
city of Essia off from the rest of the world. Five hundred Adrenine
ships in one long chain choking off the Rikonen bay.

These marines would relieve
soldiers that had been on the chain since Mabon. The
Kopis
would drop off new
faces and take on the tired taking them back to Anhra. Maybe an
aureus for each marine, just enough to keep the crew satisfied with
this mindless merchant work. There was the promise of more out
there, more out in The Deep, and Asa wanted it. The girl below
would get it for him; she’d be his way out of this
monotony.

Kira had kept Roth from falling asleep, but
she could now barely keep her own eyes open. The guards had opened
the door only once since they had been thrown into the hold. When
the door opened, the flood of light blinded both of them. Then,
abruptly the door was closed. All of a moment, leaving Kira
confused.

“
So, what was that about?”
Kira whispered.

Roth leaned forward crawling to the door, his
equilibrium still askew. Kira heard the distinct clang of a metal
plate skittering across the floor. Roth slowly stood and shuffled
over to her, knelt, and put a tray on her lap.