The kiss never came, and Mariana was left hanging in the noose of her own making. The ship rocked away, towards the Good Wife, and she feared that Daniel could have changed his mind about sparing her old crew.
This was torture to her. She wanted a resolution, something that would let her know how things between her and the pirate king really were. She never knew whether he was just stringing her along for fun or actually enjoying his growing commitment to her. She knew for a fact that men were fickle; as the morning dew disappeared from grass, so did most lovers, only taking what they could get with mere promises and leaving as soon as someone demanded more of them.
Mariana was no stranger to using people for money. However, she had no idea about using people for their hearts, an act where the promise itself was the dinner, the reward. She did not know whether Daniel wanted to have her in this reality, or if he was going to eat her emotions and let them run dry once again.
The Good Wife was near. Mariana knew that Wolfe had probably made himself the captain after she had been kidnapped. Wolfe would not let go of something as valuable as the dice; he had Roinar the witch taking care of the mental load and encouraging him to be responsible for all of this. There was also no way the witch would let go of the musicians and the Potion of Life. That man wanted to live. But here could lie a seed of conflict; if Roinar was keen on living and also wanted to guard the dice, it would have been most unwise to stay on the ship that was the most likely target of the pirate king.
So…it was entirely possible, even likely, that Roinar had disappeared, along with the dice, and left Wolfe with no musicians and only a ship to captain. Wolfe was not into magic, as far as Captain Mariana knew him at all, and he would be likely to have that kind of honor that forced him to die for his crew.
All these thoughts passed by Mariana, in a fraction of the time it took a ray of sunlight to bounce from the waves. She ran to Daniel. Quick, she had to be quick before any needless violence would happen!
"I don't think the dice are on the Good Wife."
She barely got out the explanation, so badly she had exhausted herself while looking for him. He had been in the hold, preparing what looked a lot like a black magic ritual.
"And you say that now," he growled. "It's almost like you don't want me to save the world."
"I do! I just had not thought about it at all," she defended herself.
Gods, he could be so offensive! The mere implication that she was a heartless cur like so many of their men stung in her chest, forcing tears of pain into her eyes.
"Don't cry, that is manipulative and I will not suffer any sly attempts to influence my judgment."
She forced herself to keep the tears from reaching that critical point. She explained her knowledge of Roinar shortly.
"I know that men like him are fond of life," Daniel said slowly. He was holding a black candle and a match.
Again, with a pace that was as steady and sluggish as an old gardener taking care of his roses, he brought the flame of the match into the wick of the candle, and suddenly a vicious burst of harsh light swept over the hold.
There was something in the pool of bilge water, something that greatly resembled a man, no, it could not have been a person, surely no one had died aboard the ship lately…
"Is that a dead body?" Mariana asked.
"No, it's a living one. What do you think?"
"All right." She pouted. If there was an interesting mystery, she would have liked to hear more about it.
"I think we are still going to inspect the Good Wife," Daniel said. "Just to be sure. Although from what I know of your former first mate, he is certainly not the kind of a man who would be dumb enough to put his crew in danger because of the dice."
"I agree. He's a good first mate. Might be a good captain, too, for all I know," Mariana said, sighing.
She did lament the loss of the loyalty of her men…well, they were not exactly her men any longer. Still, to gain a crew, one had to give up being one's own person.
Except on Daniel's vessel. He knew how to control people. It was scary to think about just how far inside a person's head he could reach with his invisible tendrils. The pirate king was not one of those weak-willed, spineless men who ruled by deception, though.
His body drew a sharp, strong outline through his flowy shirt. His attire was a bit more formal than usually, he had a nice, red vest on him and Mariana wanted so badly to reach out to stroke the velvet so that his chest would feel ticklish and he'd throw his arms around her.
She wanted to touch him, that was all.
The moment passed, though, and Mariana was left in charge of the operation. She had to be on the deck. For whatever reason, Daniel was occupied with his mystery project and she had to coach the men into not killing anyone unless it could not be avoided.
"These are men who could have been our brothers," she said, certain that her approach would work. "They could have been on your side. They are pirates."
"They hunted pirates!" someone shouted.
Mariana froze.
"What was that?" She turned around. "Who was that? Have you forgotten my own background?"
"No," a man replied.
He was the most physically imposing person she had ever seen, with gums that were dyed black - she knew, he smiled at him - and tattoos all over his bald, sunburnt head.