They were all staring at Talya when she came aboard the Bloody Galia , a group of the roughest men she had ever seen in her life. It was a little like that day that she had walked in on Sanya's knife throwing competition at the Hold when they were eleven but multiplied several thousand times.
She leaned toward the man who had rowed her here. He had identified himself as Markos Flint. "My sister is the captain, aye?" she asked softly.
"Aye and every man on this crew is loyal to her," Markos assured her.
"And woman!" a female voice spoke up from somewhere.
There were a few guffaws but Talya couldn't tell where the voice had come from. She cleared her throat and then asked, "Are you her First Mate then, Mr Flint?"
Markos shook his head. "No mates on this ship, m'lady. We sail by a different code."
That wasn't exactly reassuring. "But she does have some sort of second in command?"
Her host frowned a bit uncomfortably. "That would be Quartermaster Jak... Frasier."
Talya pushed back her shoulders in an effort to appear braver than she felt. "I would like to speak to him. As soon as possible."
"Alright, m'lady." Markos shrugged. "You just make yourself comfortable in the Captain's cabin, like she said, and I'll see if I can find him for ye. We gotta get underway, follow the captain's orders."
Talya entered the cabin and as she did she remembered that she had been here once before when she took a tour of the vessel while it was still being rigged out. She remembered that on the beach just now her sister had said something about tossing some of the quartermaster's things out if needs be. The evidence of her own eyes proved that her sister did share this cabin with someone, a male someone by the looks of it. That Markos Flint had said someone called Jak would be upset if he allowed her to rush into danger.
There was a knock at the door. Talia spun around to see a slightly more professional looking gentleman standing there. He was a sort of portly man with sandy-colored hair, not at all the sort Talya imagined her sister to fall for but she asked, "Are you Jak Frasier?"
"No, my Lady." He gave her a polite nod. "I'm Jon, the ship's nurse. I came to see if you needed anything. I had heard that conditions weren't very... amenable at the Hall recently. I could check you over if you'd allow me."
"No," she said a little too quickly and then tried to calm herself. He was only trying to make her welcome. "I'm fine. I appreciate your concern. Did my sister hear about our conditions also? Is that why she came to get me?"
"I don't believe so." Jon shook his head. "I'm new here as well and I haven't really been able to speak to her. I think her main purpose in coming was to... take out her vengeance on the young lord Bralykburn."
"Oh but she mustn't! He hasn't done anything wrong!"
At that moment another sailor walked in. He was tall and thin and completely unmistakable. "Someone was looking for me?"
Talya gasped, "Jamos!"
He froze in the doorway, one hand going to his face as if a little bit of facial hair might disguise him. "You know who I am?"
"Of course I remember you." She couldn't quite look him in the eye. He was Quartermaster Jak Frasier who shared this cabin with her sister. "I was supposed to marry you."
"Aye, but... I mean, that was years ago." He couldn't exactly look at her either. She was so like Sanya, but not Sanya.
Jon didn't notice their awkwardness. He asked, "what do you mean, Bralykburn hasn't done anything wrong?"
As succinctly as possible, Talya explained about contacting Yutton and asking him to come and setting up the signal so he would know where to find her.
The two men looked at each other worriedly and said almost in unison, "Oh, kriff!"
Talya, resembling her sister even more, ordered, "Get me to the comm table!"
"We have a comm table?" Jak asked and Jon must have been wondering the same thing.
"It's in the First Mate's quarters!" She remembered from the plans her father and sister had poured over for so long. "I suppose that would be the Quartermaster's cabin?"
"So that's what that thing was…" Jak brightened.
The three of them marched purposefully towards the cabin that no longer belonged to a first mate or quartermaster.
Its current occupant noticed them and raced to catch up. "Can I help you with something?" Freddie asked.
"We need something in here." Jak threw open the door and nearly walked into a makeshift clothesline hung with ladies' underthings. Freddie's underthings, to be exact, hung out to dry from when she did her laundry. She might have worn trousers and shirt and vest when she was on duty but her tenure at the brothel had given her a taste for fine fabrics and lace.
She hurried into the room to pick them up from where they'd fallen on the floor when she looked back at Jak. "See anything you'd like me to let the captain borrow?"
"If she ever forgives me." He smirked and turned around to get Jon in on the joke when he remembered who else was there and froze.
Talya nodded. "You and my sister. I always guessed that you would be more suited to her than me."
"Look... I'm sorry."
"I'm not angry. I'm glad you found each other."
The conversation was interrupted by a little eep! Jon was helping to pick up the items since his job made it automatic to clean up clutter. It wasn't until he had something particularly scandalous in his hand that he realized he wasn't picking up his patient's room, but rifling through Freddie's underwear.
"Uh...here." He handed the tiny garment over with an embarrassed smile and Freddie took it with a wink.
Talya ignored the exchange and walked to the now clear holotable. She managed to locate the button to turn it on and then froze. She'd seen Dalla work the Hall's holotable but never done it herself. She looked to Jak for help but he just returned her confused stare.
Jon stepped forward. "Allow me. I had to learn to send emergency messages for my training. Do you have an ID?"
"I don't know Yutton's. But I know someone who can patch us through to him." Jon entered the number and Talya wasted no time when her quarry appeared. "Miara, you have to patch me through to Yutton!"
" What? Why? "
"Miara just do it!"
Jak and Freddie rushed out of the room as the comm connected, presumably to turn the Galia around. Talya heard the click of connection. "Yutton, it's Talya. The person you brought on board isn't me! Sanya has the wrong idea and she -."
Yutton sounded pretty strained. "Aye, I think I figured that out."
"How did -?" She realized in an instant how he must have figured it out. "Oh gods. Sanya, don't hurt him!"
It was no use, the comm gone dead. Talya split for the deck and intercepted Jamos.
"We're on our way," he said. "Go to your sister's cabin and we'll take care of everything."
"No, he'll listen to me! You just get me on board."
...
The men who brought Sanya aboard the Bralykburn ship were remarkably gentle. It seemed Bralykburn didn't want his bride's fair skin marred by bruises, and the very thought filled Sanya with rage. It only got worse when they were winched up to the deck and Yutton himself offered his hand to help her aboard.
When Sanya remained silent he spoke first: "It's good to see you."
She wanted to rip him limb from limb with her bare hands but Sanya contained the rage. What would Talya do? Play along in hope he wouldn't hurt her. "You...you too."
Yutton beamed. Kriff him. "Let's get out of the cold."
She let him lead her to his cabin and shut the door behind them. It wasn't easy to see what kind of weapons he and his crew carried, but she didn't worry about it. Whatever it was the Galia had faced worse odds.
"Here," Yutton produced a dress seemingly from nowhere and held it out in front of her. It didn't look like a wedding dress - not a fine material of Harkon pink or Bralykburn red, but a dark green fleece. "Do you like it?"
Sanya nodded and gave him her best duplicate of Talya's shy expression. "It's very nice."
"I got it on my last trading voyage. Knew you needed a warm one like it, with what's going on at the Hall."
What a terrible lie. The Harkon twins had all the dresses they could ever need. Still Sanya whispered "I did. Thank you."
"I can step out if you like." He made for the door.
"Actually…" She reached behind her head and fumbled for the laces to her dress. "Could you help me?"
Yutton stared at her with a mixture of shock and suspicion.
"Of course," he returned to her side and undid the laces. His fingers rested on her bare back a little longer than necessary. Good.
Sanya sat on the edge of his bunk and made a good show of pushing up her skirt and slowly taking off her shoes, making sure to give him a good, distracting view.
"Here these are wet." He knelt in front of her and slowly rolled down her stockings. "Don't want you to catch cold."
Once his hands were on her legs all the work was done. Yutton massaged her calves to warm them up and traveled upward to her knees, and then with a little gesture from Sanya higher still. He moved from kneeling to sitting on the bunk beside her.
Surely this was where Talya would break. "Yutton -."
"Don't worry, Lya. I know it's your first time. I'll be gentle."
"Aye," Sanya growled in her normal voice. "But I won't."
She whipped a knife from a hidden sheath on her inner thigh, which Yutton had been only millimeters from finding himself, and held it to his throat.
Yutton smiled at her and swallowed. He started to nod but she pressed the knife closer.
He decided to speak instead: "That explains the sunburn and the calluses."
"Did you really think my sister would let you take her like a dockside whore?"
"You don't have the whole -." He was cut off by a comm device ringing. "I should get that."
"Be my guest."
Very carefully Yutton picked up the unit and put it on speaker. "This better be good."
"Yutton, it's Talya. The person you brought on board isn't me! Sanya has the wrong idea and she -."
"Aye, I think I figured that out."
"How did - oh gods. Sanya, don't -!" The comm shut off.
It had to be a trick. Her own sister couldn't possibly be comming to warn him.
Yutton used her momentary indecision to knock the knife out of her grasp.
If she wasn't in this stupid dress she'd have half a dozen more blades concealed on her person but she probably wouldn't have taken the time to draw another even so. She drew back her fist and punched him as hard as she could in the face. They stared at each other for a moment in disbelief and then he reached up, touched his nose, and his fingers came away smeared with his own blood. "Why you little…"
Yutton threw a hook and she saw stars when it collided with her head.
She was strong and quick but he was much bigger than her. If only she had boots or heels so she could kick harder and make a lunge for her knife. When she tried to do so Yutton just grabbed her around the waist and brought her back for more punishment.
His defenses dropped for a second and Sanya seized the change, only for Yutton to land another punch to her face.
"I'm gonna make sure no one will be able to mistake you for your pretty sister."
Sanya reached behind her for something, anything she could use as a weapon but she only knocked into a table and heard the resulting crash of some sort of bottle smashing to the wooden floor. Perfume or wine perhaps, something to bribe or drug her sister into submission? Well now it was something else.
She felt around without taking her eyes off her adversary and wrapped her hand around a jagged shard that might reek the same damage as one of her blades.
Neither of them were paying attention to the commotion outside the cabin but when the door burst open and Talya stood there like an avenging angel they both looked up.
Sanya's face was a bloody mess, one of her eyes already nearly swollen shut. She was seeing double and when she caught sight of the twin image of her sister she giggled. "There's two of them."
"What did you do to her?" Talya moaned.
Jak ran in behind her and they both went to Sanya while Yutton stepped back with half formed excuses.
Sanya tried to grin up at them but she was now fighting dizziness and nausea and pain, "Hey Lya. I…"
"Why'd you do it, Nya?" Talya shook her head. "This was my choice. I want to marry him."
Sanya tried to shake her own head but it hurt too much and she nearly blacked out.
Jak scooped her up in his arms. "Shh it's alright. I'm here."
"Jak… she's crazy…"
"Don't try to talk," he soothed as he carried her towards the door.
"That's my hat." Sanya tried to crane her neck to look over his shoulder at her sister. "Is that really what I look like?"
"Not at the moment, my dear."
Talya and Yutton stood staring at each other. Her expression was one of fury while his managed to appear contrite. But before either could speak she reached up and touched his bleeding lip tenderly.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Sanya leaned away from Jak to let her vomit spray over the Bralykburn deck. "Don't let that nurse treat me, Jak. I'm fine."
"A bit of a concussion perhaps," Jak excused her as the captain slumped back onto his shoulder in a very real swoon. "I'll take her back to the Galia." He stepped gingerly over the mess and carried her to the rail where the two craft were lashed together.
"I should go and make sure she's alright," Talya announced but she didn't yet make a move to go.
Yutton tentatively took her hand. "Are… we still alright?"
"I… don't know. You came when I called but…"
He let go of her hand but made a motion for her to stay a moment longer. Then he stumbled to the place where he had laid her gift. He held up the dress in humble submission to her approval. "It was for you."
Talya couldn't help but reach out her fingers to touch the soft fabric. "It's beautiful."
He gestured for her to take it and she bundled it up in her arms. "It will keep you warm, on the way to the Keep?"
She nodded. "Thank you."