They had to stop in the port of Aja Vana to get more supplies - it was still a city in a state of development, but there were already many merchants who swore up and down that this place, with its shining and ancient temples of white marble, would eventually rise to become the center of northern trade. Mariana was not too skeptical about that.
The weather was fair, albeit with a promise of rain. The heat was a bit easier here, in the proximity of the ocean, but this perk came with a downside: thieving gulls made eating anything outside nearly impossible. All in all, Aja was a rather pleasant place to visit, even if its messy atmosphere left one weary and confused.
As the captain was drinking coffee with the musicians outside a little shop that had somehow not died despite its highly specialized assortment of goods - horse glue and similar items - they heard a commotion from the harbor.
Mariana decided to investigate, but she didn't get too far before a man exited the temple they had passed on their way towards the shops in the inner parts of the city.
It was one of Daniel's pirates.
Then Captain Mariana Adams heard a bloodcurdling scream from the temple.
She saw the red stains on the shirt of the pirate who was apparently looking for a place to hide. He did not seem injured, and from this it was easy to deduce that the blood on him was not his own.
Mariana pulled back, behind a pillar that did not support any structure in particular. Thankfully, this place was full of beautiful ancient ruins to use as hiding places, but she realized that the pirates had the same benefit of the environment, thus nullifying her advantage.
She moved in the shadows, seeking the source of the flow of battle-hardened pirates who had suddenly filled up the streets.
She heard her own men cry her name. In anguish, she wanted to reach out, to reply to them that she was coming to help them, but revealing her location to the crew of the pirate king would have been unwise.
A hand covered her mouth and another pulled away her pistol before she could do anything at all. She couldn't even scream with the man behind her forcing a blade on her throat. The threat was clear and tangible. Sheer terror freezed her blood. This sweaty, disgusting pirate was one of Daniel's men, but it was not him. How she would have loved for him to come to personally capture her…but that was the guiltiest pleasure she could possibly indulge in at the moment. The pirate pulled her towards the temple that had been devoid of any temple-like activity for several generations.
Nothing but a couple of torches there, or so she thought until she saw the pirate king lounging next to the Wizard.
The Wizard was not moving, and Mariana wanted to scream and cry. That man had been her friend.
Another one to add to Daniel's long list of mortal sins. How many lives had he taken already? Was there a discount on souls when a man had done enough murdering, and for whom was the benefit? Was it for the killer, did he have an easier time in the afterlife than the absolute value of human lives combined would have suggested?
"Time and time again, you, naughty little captain, you disappoint me severely," Daniel sighed, but the desperation changed into something else as he spoke…into something far more potent and dangerous.
Mariana felt chills running up and down her spine. They alternated with a strange tremor that was hotter than any fire she had ever accidentally put her hand into.
"I didn't mean to," she whispered.
Tears of shame - why did they flow so easily?
"No, you merely meant to kill me and try to say that it would be done in cold blood or not at all. Haha!"
He got up from his bed of stone and kicked a pebble so that the impact echoed from every wall.
He looked so crazed somehow. She felt a real sense of fear, but that heartthrob caused a different kind of shiver in her as well.
"Where is the box?" he growled. "In these sacred libraries of Aja Vana, I have finally found the books about how they can capture a man like me…and now you have that item, with none of the responsibility and wisdom required to handle it…where is it?"
"I don't know," she said, hoping that the blatant lie would pass his test.
"Liar!"
He took three long strides and he was already next to her, and the pirate behind her was still holding her in an armlock. There was nothing she could do to defend herself as he grabbed her by the chin and squeezed her face.
But gods, how good he looked, looming over her…
She had to shake herself mentally to keep from swooning. Those thick, suntanned muscles, that movement, like a big cat prowling around its prey, and his rough, oh so rough and manly hands, manhandling her, in a way, it didn't feel bad, though.
She would have told him the location of the box, but then this wonderful little game of cat and mouse would have been over and she did not want that. Of course, she did not want her men to die, either, but her affection for them was fickle like the weather and in direct conflict with this fatal attraction.
"Do not try anything with that tongue," the pirate king growled, and she could feel his breath as a gasp of fresh air that played with her hair and set her soul ablaze.
"I still remember the way those lips felt against mine, so don't try to use them to tell me lies. It won't work, Mariana, no matter what you try, no matter how hard you try to be a good captain…for them, you may be a leader."
He paused for a moment, almost like he was smelling her hair.
"For me, you are a subordinate, if anything, and a wretched good-looking sack of filthy sins dressed as the purest little lady who ever sailed the seas…"
She moaned softly. This speech was simply too much for her.