A Dangerous Example

The choking feeling got worse and everything became a blur. Serenica was not sure if she was falling, surely she wasn't standing upright anymore, but regardless of her position her vision was full of the exact color of the dusky sky over Aja Vana.

Her panic faded away into the oblivion that began on the edges of her consciousness until she did not think, feel or even try to breathe.

Then it all came back to her again.

A shower of water splashed on her face, cold and cruel, waking her up.

She drew a raspy breath, wordlessly overjoyed by being able to gasp for air again.

She saw the worn boots of the first mate. His bearded face appeared next to her, followed by the bookkeeper's head and a pair of soft hands in her hair.

"You will not die on me! Damned wretch!" Myorka screamed.

"I am not dying," Serenica said and coughed. There was a peculiar taste on her tongue, no doubt from some herbal concoction that had stimulated her lungs and her throat enough to bring her back into the world of the living.

The bookkeeper slapped her on her left cheek.

The pain made her snap back to reality in an instant. She got up, now wet from the bucket of water dumped on her.

Myorka was furious. Where there had been gentle kindness on her lips and in her eyes, there was pure entitled rage as her mouth drew a sharp line on her face, revealing her fashionably triangular canines in a hateful snarl. She looked considerably older and more powerful.

Clearly she considered Serenica to be in debt to her. The healer had a mission to complete. If Serenica died before a convenient moment appeared, the bookkeeper could bury her dreams of having a child.

Serenica understood that now, and though she could never have guessed the toxic reaction, she felt ashamed.

Even Myorka couldn't be sweet all the time. She had her fangs, too.

"Look, I am sorry," Serenica said. "The man tested the potion himself."

"Aye," the Admiral said. He was keeping an eye on the bookkeeper, as if preparing to take control of the situation.

"Aye, in itself the potion might be harmless, but I recognized it immediately. If you smoke with it, it's very much bad news. Thankfully, you had the antidote with you without knowing it." The first mate shook an empty vial of dragontree sap in front of Serenica.

This was a lot of information for someone who had just risen from the grave. Serenica shook her head. She didn't like to be outdone in her own field.

"Take it as an example to learn from," the Admiral said. It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order.

Serenica's throat was still raw from all the coughing and the sickly sweet dragontree sap was thick on her tongue. She felt annoyed. She didn't want to be a stubborn, fragile weakling, though. She straightened her posture, sitting upright and enjoying the reintroduction of fresh air in her lungs.

"This information is useful to us, even if I didn't like the way it was revealed to me," she said, trying to find a semblance of humor in the situation. "I will be more careful in the future. Mother of worms...I would have felt so bad if I had died without the chance of a last pipeful. Any idea when I can smoke again?"

The bookkeeper calmed herself, pinching her temples and forcing a laugh. "You've almost died and you're worried about tobacco? The logic of pirates..."

"You should be safe to do so around midnight, but honestly, I'd wait until sunrise," the first mate said. "The crucial ingredient of the potion, the one with the beautifying effect, only lasts for three hours or so. I'd say it was a bad deal."

"Not necessarily," Serenica protested. Knowledge of poisons was highly sought after. A drop or two in the goblet of a king or a queen could change the fates of nations.

Myorka's eyes got really stormy again. She revealed her teeth, licking them slowly and stripping the meat off Serenica's bones with her gaze. "You talk like that again and you'll scrub gull excrement off the deck for the entire voyage from here to Neul. There is nothing positive about the possibility of you dying. I want a family, you understand?"

Serenica had no willpower left to fight her friend. She nodded sheepishly and asked the first mate to guide her back to the party.

She received her pipe back. It was, fortunately, unharmed. The rest of the pirates had not heard of the incident. They were sharing wine and passing a basket of bread rolls around.

"Was the tobacco any good?" Spade asked, fondling a sapphire pendant and some pearls, apparently trying to estimate their value.

"A bit too good," Serenica replied. "Can I have a drink? I am tired."

"Why, of course," the captain said and poured her some wine. "You bought something for protection?"

"Obsidian."

"Excellent choice."

Serenica told him what had happened.

Spade shook his head. He apparently had trouble concentrating his gaze on things. It was a miracle he hadn't dropped any of the pearls. "How careless of you. We can't afford to lose you, too."

"Neither can we afford to lose you," Serenica said, pointing at the bottle of rum in front of them. "How much have you been drinking?"

"Enough."

"Do you even want to be a father? Myorka got very angry at me for almost dying. You don't seem to mind if you leave her without a family."

"She's an optimist." The captain turned away for a moment and then looked back at Serenica. "Men in my profession, we don't live long lives."

"That isn't a damned explanation," Serenica said sharply. "What do you think she will think if you die?"

"Could you be quiet?" Gadfly yelled at them from the seat next to Serenica. "You're making me lose a game of pull the rye."

"A game of what?" Serenica asked.

"Come, join us, Surmica. Cap'n won't die if you stop nagging."