On Discord Isle by Jonathon Burgess Read Free Book Online

have caught me too by mistake.”
    Lina shook her head. “Sorry, Captain. You’ve got to go too.”
    From where she lay, Natasha could just see her husband’s face. She enjoyed a moment of small, vicious glee as his monocle fell away in shock to dangle from its chain between them.
    A rustling came from overhead, then daylight flooded the hold. Natasha twisted to see the great hatch to the main deck being levered aside. Lucian, the Wiley twins and both helmsmen were preparing to winch up the rope to the net she hung within.
    “Enough of this,” she yelled at the crew above and below her. “Let me down this instant, or I’ll gut the lot of you, and then shoot you to boot!”
    She was ignored. Natasha tried cursing them, their fathers, forefathers, and any children they may have had. Fengel repeatedly tried to speak reasonably, but her traitorous crew paid no attention. They were pulled up and dumped unceremoniously on the upper deck, surrounded by the pirates already here.
    Natasha used the moment to try and get her balance. The fresh sea air blew her hair about the inside of the net, disorienting her further. Hands and knees and space enough to draw my sword. I can cut the mesh and get free . Fengel tried to do the same though and she toppled. Hands reached through the net to grab at her blade. Natasha fought, but others held her down while it was removed, and Fengel’s saber as well. She punched and kicked and bit, but to no avail.
    The two of them were dragged to the bow, the crew standing in a semicircle around them. Above, the sun hung just enough past the curve of the gas bag to illuminate them both. A sense of deja vu passed over Natasha. Oh Goddess. Not again. She was in the exact same spot she’d been in six months ago, when Mordecai Wright had led a mutiny on her. First the rum, and now this . This day just keeps on getting better. What her father would have said didn’t bear thinking on.
    Lucian stepped up out of the crowd. “Captains,” he said. “This looks bad, and believe us, we wouldn’t be doing it if you two weren’t so horribly screwed up with each other. You spend all your damned time fighting, and having us wage war as well. We’ve had four failed raids now in preparation for this counting house heist, and it’s all your fault . So, a Crewman’s Vote has been taken.” He gestured off the bow. “This is Almhazlik Isle. Should be perfectly deserted, and perfectly safe. We’re going to drop you off here while we all head north and raid Breachtown. You two are going to work out your disastrous relationship issues before they’re the doom of us all. Afterward, we’ll swing by and pick you up. Now, do you have anything to say before we continue?”
    “I’m going to chew out your throat and piss down the hole,” snarled Natasha.
    Lucian sighed. “I mean, do you have anything constructive to say?”
    “I said , I’m going to chew out—”
    Konrad, her aetherite, stepped forward. “I try to warn you!” he complained, accent thick with emotion. “I try to tell you limits of my magic, how it works. But you never listen! You waste it!”
    Natasha stared at him in confusion. Why would she ever want to know that ?
    “Even you, Henry?” asked Fengel. Natasha glanced over at her husband. His face was pale with shock and betrayal. “Haven’t I been a good captain?”
    Henry Smalls looked out sadly from the crowd. “Sorry, sir,” he said heavily, holding up his bandaged hands. “Not lately, no. But you’ll get better, sir. This is for everyone’s benefit. And we’ll have you back, right as rain.”
    Lucian clapped his hands. “That’s that, then. All right, let’s send them over. Watch out for Natasha, she bites.”
    “You’ll be sorry,” Natasha growled as the crew grabbed up the net, her and Fengel in it. “You’ll come crawling back, and when you do, you’ll—”
    The crew pitched the two of them overboard.
     

Chapter Four
     
    But how did I stumble?
    Fengel stared