Chapter 2

“What? Why ... monkey?” Will stammered.

“Very eloquent.” she laughed.

“Monkey!?” he repeated.

“It’s a witch thing.” Bella grinned. “He’s my familiar.”

“You have a familiar now?” Will said, impressed. “Isn’t that pretty high up on the witch achievement scale?”

“Middle-range, really.” Bella gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I had him watching from outside in case Jack came back.”

“He told you all that with one terrible noise?” Will asked, finally buttoning up his breeches.

“Yes. It isn’t my fault you don’t speak shrieking monkey,” Bella snarked, dropping her white blouse over her head and shimmying to get it to sit the way she wanted, just off her shoulders.

“Well, you spent more time around Jack than I did...” Will deadpanned. “They’re on their way?”

“Any minute,” she laughed. The monkey moved toward the bedpost and started reaching for Will’s belt.

“Stop that,” Will said pulling on his shirt. The monkey did not listen. It untied his coin purse from his belt and started pulling it open.

“Hey!” Will said reaching for the purse. The monkey squawked in protest, jumped from the window sill, to the bed, to a tall bookshelf and was halfway up in an eyeblink. Will stared, looking to Bella for assistance. She was calmly pulling on her multicolored skirts, using the edge of an underskirt to clean off the marks on her breast. “Better hurry,” she smiled.

“Your thieving little monster stole my purse,” he said looking up at the monkey while buttoning his white shirt.

“He does that. Supplements my income nicely,” she smirked.

“You taught him to do that?” Will looked pained. “Who am I kidding, of course you did,” he sighed. “You aren’t even trying to dissuade the stereotypes, are you?”

“Stop complaining. I wasn’t going to let him steal your money. Besides, there’s only a few coppers in that purse anyway,” she shrugged, lacing up the front of her bright red vest.

“How could you possibly know that?” Will flopped down on the bed and started pulling his boots on.

“I took your belt off, remember? Copper sounds different than silver,” she buckled her sandals and stood up.

Will put his belt around his waist and adjusted his sword. “Copper. Sounds different. Than silver,” he shook his head, trying not to smile at her brazenness. “You are terrifying.”

“My name is Belladonna. Did you really think I was going to be made of sugar and spice?” she said archly.

“Touché,” he chuckled, straightening his dark hair in a mirror. He was due for a haircut. “Shall we?” he said, turning around. His hat hit him in the chest. He grabbed it before it fell and look up at Bella with an accusatory expression on his face. Bella’s eyes were wide with exaggerated innocence.

“He did it,” she said, pointing to the monkey. Will tried not to smile, but mostly failed. Bella tied a lacy red head scarf over her hair so her black curls were held back. “After you, good sir.” The monkey jumped down onto the bed and climbed up her arm to her shoulder.

Roads Less Traveled was an old lighthouse that sat on a cliffside at the edge of the merchant district, overlooking the docks below. It had become obsolete when the new lighthouse was built on an islet in the harbor that was only accessible during low tide. The old lighthouse had sat unused for years before it had been turned into a records office. Prince’s Cove didn’t really keep very good records and the Notary who had run the place, Caspian Blake, was notoriously corrupt. In fact, it was Blake who was rumored to be the primary orchestrator of all the smuggling and piracy that gave Prince’s Cove its less dignified nickname, Bastard’s Bay.

When Fort Deliverance had been completed after years of delays, the Magistrate finally managed to gain a foothold in the lawless region Bastard’s Bay had become. Blake had left town the day the first boat full of Magistrate soldiers and priests had arrived, leaving the lighthouse and its contents behind. The Magistrate seized Blake’s records, but left the rest behind. Again, the lighthouse sat unused for years.

Will had bought it for more than it was probably worth after a particularly lucrative venture. He liked it because there was only one way in and out, it had a fantastic view, and the spiral staircase leading to the living area was old, rickety, and loud. Anyone trying to steal from him wouldn’t have an easy time of it. It was sheer luck that among the boxes and crates left behind by the Magistrate was a huge collection of maps and charts all very carefully maintained and stored. Will guessed that they’d been used to help plan smuggling operations, but he didn’t question it too much. For an explorer, it was a treasure trove. He cleared out the ground floor and used the many shelves on the rounded walls to create his own makeshift library of maps, sea routes, almanacs, and records written by other explorers. The expeditions he planned began to double as map-making ventures.

That was how he had met Jack. For a time they had been excellent partners. Both professional and skilled, complementing each other nicely. Then Jack had betrayed Will and left him with nothing but a curse and a grudge.

The curse effectively put a stop to Will’s adventuring days. It seemed like a blessing at first. Curses were sometimes like that. But like the stories of the Monkey’s Paw or tales of malicious Djinn, there was nothing fortunate about his apparent good fortune. He found he could visualize his destinations like a savant. He found he could draw a map to nearly anywhere, even places he only barely knew of. He could fill in coastlines and currents just by looking at a route. He would always find what he was after. Then after he found the treasure he sought, everything would fall apart. He tried to work around it, tried to have the curse lifted many different ways, but he eventually gave up. He was tired of watching people killed or maimed, tired of being betrayed by people he’d hired, tired of losing priceless artifacts, tired of having his pocket picked, tired of having everything slip through his grasp as soon as he had it in his hands.

He retired. At first, he thought he would starve, but then he realized that he could still make maps for other people. His side job became his only job, and it turned out to be incredibly lucrative. He became the first stop for professional explorers from all over the five seas. They would come to him with their own maps and what they hoped to find, and he would fill in the gaps for a tidy profit, often expanding his own map collection in the process. Adventurers and explorers tended to be wealthy, or work for wealthy patrons. They would come on well stocked ships full of rowdy men looking to blow off steam before a long voyage. They spent money. Bastard’s Bay boomed. Within a few years the small port had doubled in size and was bursting at the seams with all manner of folk looking to make some coin.

That was the scene that Will and Bella looked out on as they rounded the staircase down from the living quarters of the old lighthouse. Through the windows they could see the docks below teaming with people trying to finish their work before nightfall. The sun was setting over the bay making the water glitter and ripple with multi-hued reflections of the sky. Will stopped to enjoy the view for a moment, Bella leaning down on him from the stair above to look out the window. “I can see why you like this place,” she said. He nodded.

Their reverie was broken by the sound of the front door hitting the small bell hanging from the frame. A muffled, masculine voice asked for Will. A female voice replied sternly that Will was still not available. Bella gave him a small push. He sighed and continued down to the landing and pulled open the trap door in the floor.

“I’ll wait here. I don’t want to make things more complicated,” Bella said quietly. Will gave her a kiss on the cheek and headed down.

The staircase let out next to his office door in the front room, behind a large bookcase. The walls of the semi-circular room were covered floor to ceiling with shelves full of books, scrolls, loose papers, framed maps, and strange odds and ends from all corners of the world. In the center was a table covered in more books and papers. Will’s assistant Janie sat at the table, her blond hair pulled back in a neat bun. She was facing down a quartet of visitors who were standing just inside the front door.

“I informed you of Mister Sterling’s availability earlier this afternoon, Lord Morant,” Janie said briskly. “Nothing has changed in the last few hours.”

One of the visitors was clearly a sea captain, or trying desperately to look like one. She wore a tricorn hat and a blue frock coat, with high boots over close fitting breeches and a cutlass at her side. Opposite the sword were the grips of two pistols. She looked like she had stepped out of a penny dreadful about adventuring seafarers. Her wavy, golden blond hair was pulled back in a thick tail, two small braids hanging down from her left temple, tipped in golden beads. Her ears were dotted with many delicate gold rings. She was looking around the messy collection with interest.

Next to her was a burly man with sea-green skin. Around his waist was an embroidered blue sarong held in place by a thick belt with a broad belly-plate that armored his lower torso. Heavy bracers made of ringed metal and leather covered his forearms. Heavy boots matched the bracers, the armor rising up to his knees. Cuffs of silver clasped on his upswept ears, and silver rings pierced his nipples as well. His chest was bare, powerfully muscled and covered with intricate filigree-like marks in swirling wave-like patterns. Attached to the great armored belt was a shoulder strap slung over his right shoulder, anchoring a single leather pauldron and the two curved swords that were sheathed against his back. His hair was pulled up into a braided green topknot that was a few shades darker than his skin.

The man in front, who had been addressed as Lord Morant, was clearly wealthy. His clothes were impeccable. He wore all the accoutrement of a gentleman from the top of his tall hat to the polished tip of his cane. He wore black, his hair was white, and his eyes were sharp and blue. He tucked a monocle into his breast pocket while he listened to Janie with a hard expression on his face.

Slightly off to the side, leaning against a shelf, was the woman that made Will’s blood pound in his ears. Anger, heartbreak, confusion, anxiety, and attraction all welled within him, fighting for dominance. He swept his gaze up her form, trying to take in every detail. She still wore the same beat up brown boots. Will had given her those as a gift years ago. Her dark grey pants had wide pockets on the thighs. A thick, sturdy belt was threaded through the loops. On it were a number of small pouches and tools. A button up beige shirt fit her snugly. If not for the curve of her hips and chest, she might have been mistaken for a rather ruggedly dressed man. Her long dark hair was braided and pulled over one shoulder. A strange, bulky firearm with three barrels hung at her right hip from a shoulder sling. It was too large to be considered a pistol but too short to be a proper rifle or scattergun. On her head she wore a dark grey, wide-brimmed hat with curved-up sides and a small silver skull on the band. Its brim obscured her face while she looked down at a book she’d pulled off the shelf, but it didn’t matter. Will knew that face nearly as well as he knew his own. He saw it in his dreams, often.

“Hello, Jack.”

All eyes swung to him as he walked out from behind the bookcase. He walked to the table behind his assistant and put his hands on the back of her chair. Staring into Jaqueline Hunter’s gorgeous, aristocratic, surprised face. For a moment the room was silent, then Will spoke. “Thank you, Janie. I’ll see them.”

“Excellent,” Lord Morant said. His voice was crisp with the precision and diction of an educated man from the mainland.

Janie didn’t turn when Will spoke. She kept her gaze focused on the quartet in front of her. “Yes, Mister Sterling,” she said, her own posh speech mirroring Lord Morant’s. Until recently, that accent was a rare thing in Bastard’s Bay, but with Fort Deliverance now full of Magistrate officials it didn’t stand out as much.

Will watched Jack carefully, barely paying attention to the others. She had the same beautiful, aloof arrogance he remembered. It was a mask she wore. He’d spent more nights wasting hours playing cards with her than he could count. He knew her tells. The tightness at the corners of her mouth and eyes and the overly nonchalant posture told him she was uncomfortable. He hoped it was because of him. She deserved it. She watched him staring and raised an eyebrow. He gave her a small nod.

“Have a seat,” he said. Janie stood, taking a book and a stack of papers with her. He slid into the chair she’d been in.

Bella sat on the edge of the stairs behind the bookshelf, out of sight, listening and scratching her monkey on the head. Janie walked past on her way to Will’s office. She glanced to the staircase where Bella was hiding and her eyes widened. Bella held her finger to her lips. Janie gave a gave a tight-lipped conspiratorial smile and small nod before disappearing through the office door.

Lord Morant moved to take a seat in the chair opposite Will, but Will held up a hand. “I was talking to her,” he said, gesturing to Jack.

Lord Morant looked peeved. “This is irregular. It was I who requested the meeting.”

Will nodded. “And normally you’d be waiting for your appointment. I agreed to see you now because Jack’s with you. That gets you to the front of the line. She and I have unfinished business.”

Lord Morant looked over at Jack. “I thought you said Mister Sterling was a friend of yours?”

Jack scoffed slightly. “You misremember, m’Lord,” she spoke with the same educated mainland accent as Morant and Janie. “I said he and I had worked together many times. I did not say he liked me.”

Will gestured to the chair. Jack hesitated a moment and sat down. Lord Morant scowled and put both hands in front of him, resting on his cane.

“How have you been?” Will asked. Jack eyed him quizzically.

“Well,” she answered. “I have heard a bit of fortune has come your way as well.”

“Fortune. Yes, that’s a good way of putting it. I suppose I can’t complain. Things have ended up quite nicely. In spite of everything,” Will said flatly.

Jack looked a bit surprised. “I thought you had been doing very well for yourself? Did I hear wrong?” she asked, sounding more concerned than he expected. It threw him off a bit.

His brows flattened. “It took me awhile to get back on my feet after everything. I made it home eventually. Had a very rough couple years. I managed to turn the curse into a blessing in the end.”

Jack’s eyes tightened a bit and her lips pursed again. “Curse? That isn’t ... Yes, well, you did always have a knack for twisting things to your favor.”

“As touching as this reunion is,” Lord Morant interrupted, “It is getting late and there is business to discuss.”

Will eyed the nobleman for a moment. “Alright. Go ahead.”

“Introductions, first,” the nobleman said. “I am Sir Hallister Morant, Viscount of Armondet. I am here to commision your skills as a navigator.”

“I know Armondet. That’s a rich stretch of coastline,” Will’s impressed look was genuine. “I’ve stopped there a few times for resupply on my way east. Fantastic wines. Glad to meet you, Lord Morant.”

“Charmed,” Morant said, a bit impressed that Will knew his home. “This is Captain Belita Vex,” he said indicating the woman in the long blue coat.

She tipped her tricorn his direction but said nothing. Will gave her a respectful nod.

“Of course you already know Miss Hunter, who will be leading our expedition,” Morant said, gesturing to Jack.

Will gave a short chuckle, “I thought I did.” Jack’s expression tightened.

Morant ignored the tension between them and moved on. “And this is Jacqueline’s companion, Mister Quinn,” Morant finished, gesturing toward the stony faced green man. Quinn gave a small bow.

“Jack’s companion?” Will said, glancing at her. He wanted to know the nature of their relationship, and the fact that he cared enough to want to know irritated him.

“I serve Mistress Jacqueline.” Quinn said with quiet firmness. The corner of Jack’s mouth twitched up, happy to have caught Will off guard.

“Be careful, Quinn. I served Mistress Jacqueline once too. Didn’t turn out so well for me.” Will said wryly. Jack scowled.

Quinn grunted. “You should have served better.”

Captain Vex burst out with surprised laughter, then cleared her throat, hiding her amused smile behind her fist as she coughed. Jack gave Will a victorious smile. Will chuckled a bit as well. “I like you, Quinn,” he said trying to be gracious in defeat. He set his hat down on the table and ran his hand through his hair. “So, you’re all here. What do you need?”

“A navigator.” Morant answered.

“Well, if you tell me where you’re going I can make you a map. Follow it right and you’ll get where you’re going,” Will shrugged.

“No, no,” Morant shook his head. “We have mapped as much as can be mapped. For the rest, we need an expert navigator.”

“We have to go through the Drifts,” Jack said.

It was Will’s turn to be surprised. “Yeah, there’s no map for that.” Jack nodded. Will smiled slowly, suddenly more interested. His mind was already racing.