Hercule couldn't bear to think. Every time he did the texture of smoke, choking and irrepressible would resurface. The pain kept his mind focused however, and with his broad back burnt, bits of wood splintering up and out of his back like the pins of a porcupine, blistered skin rising up amidst each blackened spike.
He maintained a singular pose, prostrating himself in front of the cage bars, praying to a god all his own.
Balsam's comatose head was bandaged, and Yvette cradled him in her lap. Her left foot was unrecognisable, the flesh under her calf distended and pulled apart, wrapped in a meagre attempt at a bandage. Her eyes were glazed over as she barely took in the scene around her.
Eyelids cracked open as Balsam looked up at their captors, the light was dim, filtering down through the interior corridors of the ship's guts. The warm glow of lanterns cutting a silhouette out of the figures before them.
"so, what are these folks to you?" a voice spoke…
Two men were on the other side of the bars, one sat on a small stool, while another paced, between the galley they sat in and the corridor above, constantly stepping up and down onto the stairs as his motions pronated, his whole body flickering between positions like it was caught in a strobe.
Balsam blinked, 'head trauma, brain damage, I'm seeing things'
"His name is Balsam Hossain. He tried to charge us a toll for passing through the pass behind Khisset, then tried to kill us." The sitting man stood, coming further forward until his brown face appeared under the filtering sunlight. "Guess I did remember your name after all," Jerico said.
Balsam grinned, "guess we're at your mercy ay Jerico, how's that hand doing by the bye" he said, pushing his way out of Yvette's lap, Hercule stayed silent, his back quivering slightly as he muttered unintelligibly.
the jittering man, turning and disappearing into the depths of the ship, spoke as he left, "talk to us when you're able" he said. Balsam watched as he walked off, his gait appearing normal now, his shadow lengthened as it played on the ship's corridor, the movements of a slow decrepit old man.
"My hand is fine good as new, actually" Jerico shot back, waving his healed hand in front of the cage bars while Balsam shrugged
"Guess I wasn't as good a shot as I thought I was" he muttered turning back.
The sight that greeted him, dark as it was. took him a moment to register and with his grin cracking he swallowed dryly, Hercule's spiked back and Yvette's bruised and battered features though it was Yvette's lower leg that was the worst of all, and he found tears leaking down his face as he looked at it, like someone had taken a still soft clay representation and squeezed. The skin wasn't right, purple and split like an overripe fruit.
"What did you do to them?, Yvette? Yvette!" Balsam demanded, he looked at Yvette, her gaze still far away. Hercule groaned weakly.
"You attacked us," Jerico said, his voice tight with emotion.
Yvette blinked slowly, only now noticing that Balsam had gotten up. She turned to look at him, one eye bloodshot he noticed as she steadfastly avoided looking at their captors.
From a side room, another figure came to stand in front of the galley with them, wiping blood off her hands with a damp washcloth. She noted the prisoners coldly, glancing at Yvette's leg with a worried look but fixing her glare on Balsam.
Coming to stand next to Jerico, Curie pushed the washcloth halfway through the bars. "Clean yourself up if you like," she said, backing away as Balsam approached.
"means you're not going to kill us, gonna try and strike a bargain again?" Balsam said, motioning for Yvette to keep looking at him while he cleaned her face.
Curie watched Balsam's ministrations for a while, crossing her arms as she leaned into Jerico's shoulder, his arm wrapped around her legs.
"Bargain… so you want to bargain now that you're no-longer surrounded by your lackeys" Jerico said.
"Course I do, because I've actually something to offer unlike you, Nam, a whole Chest's worth" Balsam replied, waving the washcloth at him sardonically.
"Well It's too late now we're well out of port, nothing you could offer would be worth us going back to Khisset" Jerico shot back, thumping his fist against the galley bars.
They sat in the semi silence for a while, the light from behind glowing dim as every now and again the washcloth was handed back and forth between the bars.
"What happened to Yvette?" Balsam said finally, motioning to her leg.
Curie glanced down at Jerico, both of them shaking their heads. "We don't know, perhaps a beam fell on it when you shot at us " Curie said.
"One of the witches grabbed it," Yvette whispered in reply, her voice strained and thin as if she'd been screaming. Speaking so suddenly seemed to break her out of her daze, and she sucked in a breath sharply as her ruined leg shifted.
"How could someone do this?" Balsam whispered back, pain etching his voice. He looked up at the backlit figures with a newfound terror. Curie felt Jerico's grip on her leg tensed for the moment, a shocked shudder going through his body at his expression, she caressed his head gently drawing her fingers through his dark curls.
"You attacked us," Jerico's voice quivered as he repeated himself, not really believing in his own words. "They just defended themselves."
Yvette's head thumped against the wall of the galley as he spoke. Passing out from the pain, her face pale and drenched in sweat.
Balsam grabbed her, stopping her from falling as she drooped over the edge of the wall-anchored seat. "Just defended emselves" he scoffed through gritted teeth, pulling her steady. "Will she survive?" he asked, daring to ask now that she was unconscious.
"I'm sorry," Curie replied, her voice now gentle. "The chances aren't good."
"Damn you," Balsam spat, cradling Yvette to him.
"Fuck you." Hercule intoned, bits of charcoal, and pain wracked tears snapping off as he tried to get a look at her.