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  “No,” the Embyr said fiercely. “They didn’t live. They only survived.” Her fiery eyes locked onto Wick’s. “Why do you think that they did that?”

  Heart near bursting with fear and the unexpected pain of the loss that had happened all those years ago, Wick held her gaze, aware that she had the power to turn him into a cinder with an eyeblink. He couldn’t turn away from her, couldn’t turn away from the honesty and misery that she showed him. “Some say that hope still dwelt in the princesses,” he stated softly.

  “It can’t be,” the Embyr argued. “Not after everything they had lost.”

  “The king and queen,” the little librarian said, “gave each of their children the greatest gift of all when they were born.”

  “It is a curse.”

  “Each of their children,” Wick stated, “was given a longing for what might be. As each child in turn was born, except for the twins—and they were gifted at the same time—King Amalryn and Queen N’riya blessed their sons and daughters with a magic spell from the Old Ones. Legend has it that each child would someday have a great destiny to fulfill, a moment in time that would mark history with their passage for ever and ever.

  The Embyr lifted her head, revealing her flame-stained cheeks and her otherworldly eyes. “You are not evil.”

  Wick shook his head slowly. “No.”

  “And you don’t deserve my anger,” the Embyr said.

  “I truly don’t believe so,” Wick replied, feeling only slightly relieved. In the next moment, the Embyr could forget she’d ever come to that decision.

  The Embyr unfurled her wings slightly. The wind caught them, spreading the fiery membrane out a little more. “What became of Lord Kharrion?”

  “He was destroyed,” Wick said.

  “If Lord Kharrion is dead, shouldn’t I be freed from his curse?” the Embyr asked.

  “I don’t know,” Wick answered. “The spells the Goblin Lord used were very old and powerful. You and your sisters were ensorcelled to be his heralds. He’d hoped that you would rain down destruction upon those who opposed him.”

  “And did we?”

  Wick swallowed hard; he really didn’t want to answer the question because it would only burden her. “Yes.”

  “We must have done terrible things.”

  Hundreds, Wick remembered from his reading, but he didn’t have the heart to mention any details.

  She gazed down at the deck. “Those men fear me.” Her fiery gaze rested on him. “And you fear me.”

  The little librarian nodded wordlessly, knowing there was nothing he could say to soften the truth.

  “It is an awful thing to be feared.” The Embyr let out a long breath, and flames charged out with it. “If we meet again, I won’t know you, will I?”

  “No.”

  Her chin came up defiantly. She locked eyes with Hallekk for a moment, then returned her attention to Wick. “I could have destroyed this entire ship.”

  “Yes,” Wick said. “You could have.”

  “I could have slain you before you told your tale.”

  A shiver passed through the little librarian. “I’m very glad you didn’t.”

  The Embyr spread her wings. The wind hammered through the thin membrane between the bony ridges and threw doughy heat over the little dweller. “I have to go, before I forget everything. And I want to remember long enough to get far enough away that I won’t come back. Along with everything else that I forget, I need to forget that you and this ship are here.”

  “That,” Wick agreed, “would probably be for the best.”

  The Embyr turned and walked without apparent effort to the end of the yardarm away from the little librarian. There she stopped, and when she turned back to Wick, her fiery gaze was troubled. “You spoke of nine princesses.”

  Wick nodded, dreading what he was certain would be asked.

  “Do you know,” the Embyr asked softly, “which one of the nine princesses I am?”

  “No, Princess, I don’t. I’m sorry.” Wick looked at her sorrowfully. How much pain can one so young endure?

  “No one remembers?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The Embyr looked away. “What is your name? I forget if you told me, and if you did, I apologize.”

  “I am Edgewick Lamplighter, Third Level Librarian at the Vault of All Known Knowledge. My friends call me Wick.”

  “May I call you Wick? I mean, for the time that I remember you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Would you do me a favor, Wick?”

  “If I can.”

  The Embyr recrossed the yardarm toward him. Fiery tears streamed down her face. “Remember me, Wick. Remember that despite the evil things that the enchantment on me makes me do that I wasn’t always evil.”

  “I will,” Wick promised. Tears filled his own eyes as he looked upon her fierce, bright beauty and saw the pain and confusion in her.

  She reached for him with her hands, the flames dying away from them.

  Hesitantly, Wick took the Embyr’s hands in his. Her hands were surprisingly cool and small within his.

  The Embyr withdrew her hands from his and the flames rushed back down over them. “Goodbye, Wick.” She turned and ran back along the yardarm. Without breaking stride, she launched herself from the end of the yardarm. Her fiery wings ignited in a sudden inferno and swept out. She hurtled through the darkness from One-Eyed Peggie like a flaming load from a catapult.

  “Goodbye, Princess,” Wick called around the thick lump that had filled his throat. He stood in the crow’s-nest, no longer bothered by the heights or the pitching sea. He watched as her light grew dimmer and dimmer. And he felt suddenly guilty for his own homesick pangs. The Embyrs had no homes; they did not even have each other or themselves.

  Hallekk dropped a heavy hand onto the little librarian’s shoulder. “C’mon, little man, there’s naught ye can do here.”

  “I hurt her,” Wick whispered. “I told her what she was. I reminded her of her lost family.”

  “She will forget, little man. Give her five minutes an’ she won’t even remember yer name. We get really lucky, she won’t remember we was here.”

  “When I last saw my father,” Wick said, “before I unwillingly began this voyage, we argued. I was working on a set of lanterns that I always helped him with. We never knew where they came from, nor did their owner. But I got the idea that I could check resource books and figure out where the lanterns came from.” The little librarian halted, unable to go on.

  “An’ why would yer da have trouble with that?”

  Wick watched the flickering light disappearing over the distant horizon and felt suddenly cold and lonely and uncertain. “He told me not everything had to be known in this life, that not even Librarians could know everything—or even should.” He glanced at Hallekk. “I think my father was right. She didn’t need to know everything that I told her.”

  Hallekk scratched under his chin and thought for a moment. “Little man, if’n ye hadn’t have known what she was—bein’ an Embyr an’ all, I mean—an’ if ye hadn’t a-told her about, I’m thinkin’ everybody what’s aboard One-Eyed Peggie would be dead now. It was the Goblin Lord what made the greatest wrong. Ye was just a-tryin’ to make the best of what we done got handed tonight.”

  Wick stared at the horizon and was barely able to make it out through the thick swaths of fog that swirled in around the pirate ship.

  “Now let’s ye and me climb on back down this riggin’ an’ see if’n there’s anything the cap’n might need done.”

  Hurting and confused, afraid that his trembling arms and legs wouldn’t support his weight, Wick threw a leg over the crow’s-nest and followed the dwarven quartermaster down the rigging.

  A creaking door woke Wick the next morning. The little librarian hung heavily in a hammock and stared up at the wooden deck above him. The sunlight threading through the porthole was almost blinding.

  Sunlight? Panic filled him. He flailed at the
bedding, trying desperately to heave it out of his way. The hammock tilted crazily before he could stop it, and he hit the deck with a mighty thump.

  “Little man!” Hallekk growled in consternation. “Are ye all right, or have ye managed to knock yerself daft?” He came from the doorway and helped Wick to his feet.

  “I overslept,” Wick explained hurriedly. He glanced at the sunshine splashing on the wall beside the twin hammocks. After Captain Farok had calmed the men last night and it became apparent that the Embyr would not be returning, Hallekk had offered the use of his room to Wick, saying the men on watch would be too excited and talk too much for the little librarian to sleep. Slops is going to kill me! He pulled frantically at his clothing. “Slops will slap knots on my head for being late to the galley.”

  “Slops ain’t a-gonna be slapping no knots on yer knob.” Hallekk laughed and leaned against the wall, folding his thick arms across his chest.

  Wick blinked at the big dwarf in confusion. “Slops has enjoyed bullying me.”

  “Maybe so,” Hallekk agreed. “But them days are over.”

  “Why are they over?”

  “Them’s cap’n’s orders. When I told Cap’n Farok how ye saved the neck of every man jack aboard One-Eyed Peggie last night, why he thought ye needed rewardin’.”

  “No more galley work?” Wick asked, hardly daring to believe it.

  Hallekk held up a hand. “I swear, little man, ye will never peel another potato nor scrub another pot for Slops aboard this ship.” He shrugged. “Well, that is, unless ye do something stupid an’ make the cap’n mad at ye. Now get yerself together an’ let’s shake a leg. Cap’n wants to see ye in his quarters.”

  Doubt mingled with Wick’s joy. “He wants to see me?”

  “Aye. An’ he was bein’ generous about it, too. Told me to let ye sleep in, he did. But I knowed he’d get tired of waitin’ too, so I thought I’d come on in here an’ see if ye’d awakened yet.”

  “Why would the captain want to see me?” Wick asked.

  “To give ye a proper thanks for a-savin’ ol’ One-Eyed Peggie, of course. An’ to let ye sign yer articles.”

  “My articles?”

  Hallekk nodded happily. “After a bit of persuadin’ on me part, Cap’n saw fit to make ye a part of this ship’s crew. Ye get yer oath given ye an’ ye’ll be a proper pirate!”

  8

  A Proper Pirate

  Aproper pirate! The words spun in Wick’s mind as he stumbled out of Hallekk’s quarters and onto One-Eyed Peggie’s deck. Every promotion I achieved in the Vault of All Known Knowledge took years of hard work. But I’m promoted from potato-peeler to proper pirate in eight days?

  The other pirates working the deck paused in their chores to stare at the little librarian.

  “Ye bilge-rats quit yer starin’ an’ get back to them chores,” Hallekk roared at the pirates. “If’n what ye got ahead of ye today ain’t enough to keep ye occupied, why I’ll just be around in a minute an’ oblige ye with another list.”

  The pirates turned back to their chores with increased alacrity, and Wick followed Hallekk’s lead to the captain’s quarters. The quartermaster rapped his knuckles against the door.

  “Come in,” Farok ordered.

  Hallekk led the way inside and Wick followed.

  The captain sat at his desk and gazed at Wick without humor. “Ye had yerself quite a night last night, halfer.”

  “Yes, sir,” Wick responded.

  “Aye, sir,” Hallekk whispered quickly.

  “Aye, sir,” Wick said.

  Farok harumphed perhaps a tad unhappily. “Were ye scared when ye climbed up there to talk to that foul creature?”

  For a moment, Wick wanted to object that the Embyr wasn’t a foul creature at all, but he knew there was no use arguing with the captain’s point of perspective. “Aye, sir. I was very much afraid.”

  Farok nodded but he looked far from pleased. “’Twas an uncommon brave thing ye did, halfer.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  The captain leaned forward. “Personally, I likes me pirates what has a little modesty when they’re a-talkin’ to their cap’n. Otherwise, I get to thinkin’ maybe they ain’t scared of me enough.”

  “Oh, Captain Farok,” Wick said, “I don’t think there’s a man in this crew that’s more afraid of you than I am.”

  The captain harumphed again and reached down under the edge of his bed and pulled out a large glass jar. Something red and purple swirled slowly inside the clear liquid filling the jar. A large cork covered in melted yellow wax sealed the neck of the jar. The jar thumped heavily when the captain placed it on the desk. “Quartermaster Hallekk has recommended ye for a full pirate’s wages aboard this ship.”

  Hypnotized, Wick watched the red and purple object stop swirling inside the jar. Abruptly, the object turned toward him, and the little librarian found himself looking into a large, dark green eye over a foot wide. Without warning, the eye blinked and Wick backed up into the closed door behind him with his arms raised defensively. His voice was so tight he only squeaked when he tried to yell.

  Captain Farok laughed loudly and slapped the desk, causing the sea monster’s eye in the jar to blink again. “There’s yer hero what ye’re asking a pirate’s wages for, Hallekk. Scared of a little eyeball in a bottle what can’t do him no harm.”

  “I didn’t tell him about the sea monster’s eye, Cap’n,” Hallekk said. “I think we caught him unawares.”

  “Well, we’re pirates,” Captain Farok roared, slamming a fist against the desk. “An’ we’re the roughest, toughest pirates in the Blood-Soaked Sea, by thunder. A pirate’s gotta have something to swear his loyalty to, and aboard One-Eyed Peggie, it’s the sea monster’s eye she took all them years ago.” He switched his attention to Wick. “Do ye understand that, halfer?”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Now give me yer hand, halfer, and let’s be done with this afore I change me mind.” Captain Farok stuck a withered claw of a hand out, capturing the little librarian’s hand and dragging it to the wax-covered cord that sealed the jar with the sea monster’s eye. “I’m gonna have ye give yer solemn oath now, at least, as solemn as any halfer can be trusted to give it.”

  Wick nodded, staring deeply into the sea monster’s eye.

  “From this moment forward,” the captain said, “ye shall be treated as one of the crew aboard One-Eyed Peggie. Ye’ll follow the orders of yer commanding officers though the Blood-Soaked Sea may be a-boilin’ around ye. So says ye?”

  Wick glanced at Hallekk, who nodded. A similar scene from Taurak Bleiyz and the Forty Pirates, when the mighty dweller warrior had gone sailing to recover a vast treasure, played through the little librarian’s mind. He recalled how Taurak had responded. “So says I.” However, Taurak’s voice probably hadn’t cracked when he’d answered.

  “Nor shall ye steal from another pirate aboard One-Eyed Peggie on penalty of being marooned, or having yer gullet slit,” Captain Farok said. “Other ships is fair game. So says ye?”

  “So says I,” Wick replied, and he felt like he was sinking deeper and deeper. Thoughts of returning to Greydawn Moors dimmed.

  “Nor shall ye try to run away from yer responsibilities to this ship. Otherwise, ye will be marooned on an island with only a bottle of drinking water and a knife. So says ye?”

  Wick hesitated a little over that one, but the fierce gaze in Captain Farok’s eyes and the deep stare from the sea monster’s eye prompted him to answer quickly enough. “So says I.”

  “An’ if ye should carry an unprotected flame down into the ship’s hold, ye know that ye will be flogged. So says ye?”

  “So says I.” Wick continued the pirate’s promises, swearing never to strike another pirate or to fail to care for his weapons. He also promised to be brave in battle against chosen prizes or engagements with other pirates if it came to that. He didn’t know how he was going to do the latter, but he couldn’t not promise the old captain.

  Capt
ain Farok released Wick’s hand. “I welcomes ye as a new pirate aboard One-Eyed Peggie, halfer. Hallekk will see to yer trainin’ an’ such.”

  “Aye, sir,” Wick replied. “Thank you, captain.” And what would Grandmagister Ludaan think about me becoming a pirate? Grandmagister Ludaan had first appointed Wick as Librarian. To say nothing of my father and mother and siblings! Will they look upon having a son and brother who is a pirate as something greater than a Librarian?

  Captain Farok slapped his hand against the top of the jar. Inside, the sea monster’s eye blinked in response. “Something ye might not have heard about this here eye, halfer.”

  “Sir?”

  “When ol’ Peggie gouged it from that there sea monster what took off her leg, she had a hex put on this eye by a sorceress. Legend has it that the sea monster can see whatever this eye sees, an’ he knows what passes inside this ship. If a man—even a halfer—makes a promise on this here eye then breaks it, why the sea monster will come after that man as long as he remains within the Blood-Soaked Sea. In all the years that I’ve captained One-Eyed Peggie, ain’t no pirate ever run away from this ship. Although, I’ve heard tell a few years back before that two men did try to escape this ship. Ain’t no one ever heard of them since.”

  Wick blinked at the sea monster’s eye, which blinked back at him. Maybe the two men never came back to the Blood-Soaked Sea. Hallekk says he doesn’t know if that sea monster is actually still alive after all these years. But as he gazed into the jar, the little librarian found he didn’t like the idea of testing the theory. And if he couldn’t abandon One-Eyed Peggie when the chance presented itself, how was he ever going to go back home?

  “Ye’re dismissed, halfer,” Captain Farok replied. “I got work to do.” He turned his attention to the map charts in front of him. “Whatever ye do, don’t make me regret givin’ ye this appointment.”

  “No, sir,” Wick said.

  “Hallekk tells me he told ye of how it’s our sacred and bounden duty to keep the Blood-Soaked Sea clear of any that would harm yer precious Vault.”