Steel by Carrie Vaughn Read Free Book Online Page B

down, she kept a grip on the side.
    While she still didn’t know her way around the ship, she figured it couldn’t be that hard to find someone. The ship wasn’t that large. But she suddenly couldn’t remember which way was aft. After looking back and forth for a moment, into the creaking shadows, she gave up and called out, “Is there a prisoner down here?” She walked along the center of the hold, calling, feeling ridiculous.
    “Here.” A muffled voice came from farther back. Jill quickened her pace, moving among hammocks, crates, bundles of ropes, and barrels of who knew what.
    In the very rear of the ship was a small room, no bigger than a closet, with an iron latch on the outside. This must be it. She slid the latch back and opened the wooden door.
    Some lantern light came through a row of holes in the roof that must have led up to the deck; Jill could make out a few details. A man was sitting on a plain bench. He wore a grungy shirt that might have been white once, open at the collar; tan-colored trousers; and worn boots. His sandy hair was tied in a short ponytail. He was older, middle aged maybe, with a cynical glare in his eyes. He leaned back against the wall and regarded her.
    “New recruit?” he asked, a wry quirk to his lips.
    She stared fishlike for a moment before handing him the plate. “Here.”
    “Ah. I’m overjoyed,” he said flatly, but he took the platter and dug in, scooping the potatoes with his fingers.
    “So what do you have to do to get locked up on a pirate ship?” she asked.
    “I didn’t sign the articles. Not like you did, I wager.”
    She felt herself blush; but she was also relieved that she had signed and wasn’t locked up here with him.
    “If I may make an observation, you don’t seem much like the pirating type. What was it, you thought you didn’t have a choice?” he said. “So where’d they find you? They’re so desperate now they’re taking girls? You should be in a kitchen somewhere, wearing a skirt and apron and baking bread. Instead you’ve found yourself among true heathens.”
    He was right, she didn’t belong here. But he wasn’t any more likely to understand what had happened to her, so she kept her mouth shut.
    He leaned forward, dropping his voice to a whisper; she tried not to flinch away. “Here’s some advice—keep your wits about you. This ship won’t sail free forever. When you decide you don’t want to hang with the rest of the dogs, I can help you.”
    “Why would you help me?”
    “Well—it might be that we can help each other, when the time is right. Think on it, why don’t you.”
    She slipped out of the cell, shut and locked the door. She didn’t know what to make of the guy—and she could already tell him she didn’t want to hang with anybody.
    She was adrift on an alien world. The clothes they wore, the ship, the work, the smells, the words they used—all of it was wrong, and she was exhausted from trying to figure it out.
    Back on deck, the cook had a plate of food waiting for her—and the food didn’t even smell right. She’d have to eat, sooner or later—and what kind of dream would make her eat food like this? Next, she watched the cook fill a tin cup from a tap in a small barrel.
    He gave it to her, and she raised it to her face to see what it was. The liquid had an amber tinge to it, and it stung her eyes and made her wrinkle her nose. Not water, then.
    “What is it?” she asked Abe.
    “What is it?” echoed Henry, who was nearby, laughing, unbelieving. “It’s got rum in it.”
    Oh, her mother would be horrified at this. Well, she’d wanted to try it. Carefully, Jill brought the mug to her lips.
    This didn’t smell sugary and fruity like those endless rounds of rum punch or her mother’s pretty drinks with slices of pineapple in them. This was acrid and seemed more like rubbing alcohol than something you’d drink. She took a bare sip; fumes filled her sinuses and the liquid burned her tongue. Surprised, she