#mandsy

“Really now, Kearan,” I say. He’s facedown on the ground. Likely passed out in his own vomit, yet again. This can’t continue. I’ll have to think of some fitting punishment for him. I couldn’t care less what he does in his free time, but when he’s on duty, he’d better be ready to perform at his best.

Suddenly his whole body jerks upward, and I take a step back in case he’s having some sort of sleeping fit.

“Three,” he says on a raspy breath before leaning down to the ground again.

Is he sleep talking? He’s been known to do that even with his eyes open. No, wait—“Are you doing push-ups?” I ask.

“F-f-four,” he says as he rises again.

“Sweet stars, you are. What’s gotten into you?”

After five, he lies on the ground and rolls onto his back, breathing heavily. “Just passing the time, is all. We’ve a long journey ahead of us.”

Yes, but he usually passes the time with drink.

He reaches into one of his pockets. Ah, there he is.

But what he pulls out isn’t a flask. It’s a canteen. The kind we use on the ship for storing water. He sits up and takes a few sips.

“What’s in that?”

He holds the canteen out to me, and I take a sniff. It’s water.

“She dumped all of my flasks into the sea while I slept,” Kearan says. “Didn’t realize she cared so much.” He searches across the ship for Sorinda, but she must be belowdecks because he focuses on me once more. “Any more questions, Captain?” His tone sounds bored.

“Are we headed in the right direction?”

“Course, I’m keeping her steady.”

“Good,” I say before moving on quickly.

Lest Kearan break into song or sprout wings.

. . .

Kearan isn’t at the helm when I reach it the next day. Niridia has taken his place.

“Where is he now?” I groan.

She points just below us. I peer over the aftercastle and find Sorinda leaning against the door to the infirmary, her head turned so her ear is pressed into the wood.

“What are you doing?” I ask her.

“Nothing,” she says immediately. She disappears belowdecks before I can get anything else out of her.

“Kearan’s in the infirmary,” Niridia explains. “He can’t stop shaking and sweating. Mandsy opens the door every once in a while to toss a bucket of his stomach’s contents over the side of the ship.”

“He’s still set on staying off the drinking, then.”

She only giggles. “Why in such a foul mood, Captain? He hasn’t gone anywhere.”

“Excuse me?”

“Riden. He’s over there chatting with Roslyn.”

I lean over the railing, looking in the direction of the shore. Draxen is glaring at the ship from his rowboat, specifically at a spot near the bow of the Ava-lee.…

Where his brother is in fact still on board, chatting with Roslyn.

“What is going on?” I ask.

“I think he’s coming with us,” Mandsy says.

I narrow my eyes at her. “Where does he get off thinking he can do things without consulting the captain first? And my mood is not altered by the comings and goings of that man. Don’t you dare insinuate as much again.”

She curtsies elegantly before skipping off, probably to weave flowers into crowns or to hug a barnacle or something.

“I’m no passenger,” I hear Roslyn say as I approach. “I’m part of the crew.” I find her little figure in time to see her pull her dagger from behind her back and press it to Riden’s navel. “And I don’t care for being talked down to.”

Riden’s lips twitch as he tries not to smile. “My mistake,” he says and takes a step back. “I meant no insult, little lass. Please spare me.”

Roslyn considers his plea carefully, as though she’s actually debating whether or not to kill him. In reality, I know she’s enjoying watching him beg, having someone play along.

“What is your job on the ship?” Riden asks. Though he must have noticed her moving about the Ava-lee in all the time he’s spent with us, perhaps he never realized Roslyn is part of the hired crew. She gets her cut of the spoils just like everyone else.

Roslyn lowers the knife. “I’m the captain’s lookout. I call out danger from up top and navigate us to safety when we’re in tricky waters.”

“That’s a very important job.” He’s not faking how impressed he is.

My temper fades as I stare at Riden a bit longer. Something in my chest moves as I see him talking with little Roslyn. It’s endearing.

I blink twice. No, not endearing. He’s as bloody annoying as ever. And he does not dictate who stays and goes on my ship.

“Allemos,” I snap in my captain’s voice.

The two turn my way. Riden raises a brow at the use of his surname, which I’ve only ever used once before. When he was in trouble.

“Aye, Captain?” he asks.

“Captain? Who made you part of the crew?”

“You did.”

At my confused look, he says, “In exchange for my brother’s life.”

Well, yes, but that was when his brother needed to stay locked in the keep for appearance’s sake. They’re both free now. He can’t expect me to hold him to that. Does he think me so cold?

“Your debt to me is paid,” I say. “You’re free to leave.”

“Paid how?”

“Through your help freeing the siren.”

He pauses for only the space of a breath. “But she got away. Until we find her again, I don’t see how I can leave. Just wouldn’t be honorable.”

I’m about to open my mouth to comment on just how honorable I think he is, when he speaks again.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to stay.”

He wants to be here,I realize. And I can’t think of any nefarious reasons for him to wish to stay. His brother is safe. Isn’t that what he’s always wanted? To stay by his brother’s side and make sure spoiled Draxen gets his way?

So then why would he stay? For the treasure?

Warmth blooms in my chest at the next possibility: Could it be for me?

And, the bigger question: Do I want it to be for me?

I can’t even begin to figure out the answer to that question.

So I lie. “It hardly matters to me one way or the other. But if you choose to stay, you’d better carry your own weight. I’ll have no laziness on this ship.”

“Of course not, Captain. Where would you like me?”

“Since you enjoy spending so much time with Roslyn, you can join the riggers. Hop to it.”

“That’s the most dangerous job on the ship,” he says. It’s less an argument than a statement.

“You start at the bottom and work your way up on my crew.”

“Enwen and Kearan didn’t.”

Roslyn has her dagger back out. “The captain gave you an order, sailor.”

“Yes, thank you, Roslyn,” I say. “Let’s put that dagger away for now. Do I need to have another talk with your father?”

“No, Captain,” she says before scurrying up the netting.

Riden looks after her. “She’s awfully young to be on a pirate ship.”

🤠 BadBad e Robson são as gays rurais mais comentadas de Poclândia — vivem num eterno clima Brokeback Mountain, e ninguém nunca viu dois viados tão bons de cavalgada (em todos os sentidos) por aquelas bandas. Trabalham na hípica da cidade e costumam sumir em longas cavalgadas ao entardecer, voltando sempre com aquele ar suspeito. Aliás, todo mundo já reparou que o BadBad costuma regressar estirado de barriga pra baixo no cavalo, alegando “dores no cu” — e o povo só comenta: o que será que rola nesses passeios a sós?

A fama deles só cresceu quando, com a ajudinha científica do maluco Polaris e um toque de magia de Rafão e Kaique, BadBad acabou grávido! Isso mesmo: grávido, barrigão e tudo, até pariu uma linda menina num parto normal, quase espirrada pra fora do cu, sem um arranhão sequer — verdadeiro milagre do agronegócio.

A pequena se chama Mandsy, uma menininha cheia de tendências sapatônicas, viciada em quadrinhos da Marvel e melhor amiga de Vincenta, a ruivinha mais encrenqueira da vizinhança. Juntos, BadBad, Robson e Mandsy formam uma família tradicional brasileira (só que do jeitinho deles), ajudando o agronegócio a prosperar.

Agora, o burburinho em Poclândia é outro: será que BadBad e Robson vão se aventurar numa nova gravidez gay pra dar um irmãozinhe pra Mandsy? Ou será que vão continuar gastando toda a energia nas cavalgadas suspeitas pelas trilhas do campo?

First I take out the gag.

She coughs twice and swallows deeply. “You’ve saved me again.”

“It’s my fault he found you again. I’m the one who tracked down the map pieces for him.” I use a borrowed cutlass to work at sawing through the thick ropes at her wrists.

“Is he dead?” she asks. It’s the fiercest tone I’ve heard her voice take.

“Not yet. He’s hiding from the fight.”

*   *   *

The battle is over only minutes after it began. The sirens made quick work of the pirates. They’ve already taken back to the water by the time I get my mother out in the open air. I’m surprised she doesn’t join them immediately. Instead, she stares purposefully at the mainmast, where Kalligan stands on the beam below the highest sail.

“You’ve lost,” I shout up to him.

“I haven’t lost until a sword plunges into my heart,” he calls back.

“Mandsy, find me a saw,” I say. “If our beloved king won’t come down of his own free will, we’ll have to hack down his throne.”

A loud clang sounds. It’s my father’s sword hitting the deck.

The purest sign of defeat.

He’s no fool. He knows he’s lost. He has no power over me. My crew and I are finally safe.

His feet follow, and everyone on the ship quiets, watching him. “Now what?” he asks as he rises to his full height. “Am I to face a firing squad? Be imprisoned till the day I die? You don’t have—”

His words are stopped by a fiery-red blur crashing into him. They crack through the wooden railing and topple off the side of the ship, a tangle of limbs and hair and my father’s shouts.

As soon as they hit the water, I know I will not see my father alive again.

The water churns violently as Kalligan tries to claw his way to the surface. There’s a muffled, watery scream, a sound I’ve never heard him make before. My mother pulls him deeper. The water folds into place as their dark shadows fall away.

One,

two,

three bubbles.

And all is still.