Chapter Eleven
Anchors Aweigh
Bern was not wrong about Wu being a disreputable captain. What good-old Bern had failed to mention was that Wu was in fact, a woman.
"So, you need to go to Yi Kai, huh?" The crass woman was near as tall as Cana, but that was including the heeled boots and her flamboyant hat. She was indeed Yikani, but half at best. Her eyes had a familiar shape to them and most of her facial features as well. It was the deep olive of her skin that had thrown him off initially, then she spoke and her accent, though subtle, revealed the truth.
"We do. You see, my father is-"
"Spare me." The captain was sitting on a crate and using her dagger to clean under her nails. Bacchus frowned at her and crossed his arms over his chest.
"What's your price?" Cana asked. He was dreading the answer.
"One hundred thousand jewel," Wu looked up at either of them before adding, "Each."
"Each?" He stared at her incredulously.
"Each." The woman said unflinching and so matter-of-factly and continued to admire her hands.
"You can't be serious." Cana shifted her weight onto one hip and joined him in frowning.
"I am." She sipped from her bottle of brandy, returning to her previous task. "Yi Kai has become dangerous for merchants like myself. Trade of all kinds there is dwindling rapidly. If I am to sail there instead of another more prosperous port, I need proper compensation." She finished with her right hand and went to start on her left. "Besides, I'm also chancing my own safety and my crew's."
"Your safety?"
"Most of these men have not seen their families in almost a year. I'd think that they would be less than pleased to know we are making an extra trip for less and little profit." Her eyes met his and burned into him. "I would not risk mutiny or my men's lives unnecessarily."
"Understood." He started to feel a spark of admiration for her. "But that price is more than enough to sail one of us back and forth at least ten times over."
"It would. But you are more than one person. And on top of that one of you is a fugitive if I recall correctly."
Bacchus' jaw slackened and his breath caught in his throat. The pound of his pulse shook his body, but he stilled himself and leaned back, feigning relaxation.
"What? You think I wouldn't know?" Wu looked up after taking another sip of her brandy and smirked at him. "There aren't many Yikani men of your… stature." She nodded at him, blatantly looking him up and down. "Nor many who wear make-up to cover up those tattoos on your face. You aren't the first marked one wishing to board my ship. Though usually they seek passage coming North. Which makes you either dull or suicidal." Cana snorted and leaned against a stack of crates next to her.
Bacchus was not half as amused and held his tongue. There was a sharpness to this woman that he did not like nor trust. Something about the way her eyes burned did little and less to settle his unease.
"So what'll it be?" The captain casually itched at her scalp and tossed her matted and tangles mess of black locks over her shoulder.
"How long do we have to decide?" He asked her, glancing at the ship behind her.
"I leave on the evening tide within the hour. See that you're here with the jewel or no deal." Wu stood, tipping her hat to them and turning to leave.
"So what's the plan?" Cana asked him. Bacchus continued to watch the other woman leave and then returned his attention to the ship. He opened the purse at his waist and pulled out enough jewel. Then, without hesitation he faced his companion, approaching her.
"This ought to be enough to get back to Magnolia." He gave her the fare and closed her hand around it. "The trains haven't stopped running yet. You can probably still catch one back home." She did not look at all pleased by that.
"I'm not going to Magnolia." She pressed the wad of jewel to his chest, letting it fall when she removed her hand.
"Then go elsewhere. I don't care where you go so long as it's not Yi Kai." He wanted to keep some of the edge from his tone but knew he failed when she flinched. "Cana, you heard for yourself, Yi Kai is at war and there aren't many ships that will sail in its direction."
"If this is about the fare, I can pay my own." Her expression remained unamused and stubborn.
"This isn't about the fare."
"Oh?" Cana straightened her posture. "Pray tell then what this is about then."
"It is as I've said before. There is hardly a captain out there willing to ship me back to Yi Kai. And as of right now, I have a chance that I don't know if I'll get again. I cannot risk someone else's safety for something they have no part in."
"You mean you can't risk getting caught because of me."
"That's not what I said." He hardened his look at her but she brushed it off.
"But it's what you meant."
"I mean what I say and I say what I mean." Bacchus couldn't help the annoyance in him from turning into irritation. "And I meant that I will not allow other's to put themselves in danger needlessly. Going to Yi Kai will put you in danger and I can't have that on my shoulders."
"You don't need to babysit me. I'm perfectly capable of keeping up."
"Cana." He was frustrated now. "Go home."
But she remained unmoving, her arms crossed and weight shifted onto one hip. It was clear that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. His head pounded as he rubbed his temples and groaned.
"Let me guess, you have a plan."
"If you're finished being stubborn, I'll tell you."
"I'm being stubborn?" She smirked at that.
"Bern said that she's a drinker. You saw the brandy yourself."
"You can't possibly be thinking-"
"I am." Her face turned mischievous. "Bacchus you know one of us can take her easily."
He shook his head at her, turning around and pacing. "And what if we can't? What then?" The look she gave him made his brows furrow.
"I won't loose."
"You'd better not." Bacchus finally relented, realizing she was going to go on with this plan whether he wanted to or not.
When they found Captain Wu, she was sitting at a plain desk next to the gangplank of her ship, documenting all of the cargo being brought on by her crew, who looked more like pirates than sailors and was as various in nationalities as the colors of their garb and the dye in their beards.
"Do you have the jewel already?" She didn't even look up from her papers.
"Something better. We have a deal to make." Cana spoke up, getting the captain's attention.
"A deal you say?" Her honey colored eyes flashed in the setting sunlight. "What kind of deal, exactly?"
"May I?" She sat in the chair across from Wu before she could answer. The other woman smiled at the brazen attitude Cana was displaying. "Here's the thing." She pulled out the two bottles of alcohol and glass cups they'd bought on their way over from her pouch and put them on the table. "We want passage to Yi Kai." The cork came out with ease and Cana poured into both of the cups, setting one in front of Wu.
"I'm sensing a 'but' coming." They each raised a glass to the other and drank.
"But." Cana poured again. "We cannot afford your price."
"That's too bad." They drank again.
"So I have a counteroffer for you." Cana poured a third round, but refrained from drinking.
"Go on." Wu also kept the glass on the table, watching her carefully.
"We'll give you 20,000 jewel as fare for both of us." Wu clicked her tongue, "tsk-ing". Cana only put up a finger. "Just to be nice, we will pay for our own provisions and we'll sleep wherever you have space. You only need to do one thing."
"Me?" The captain barked a laughed at her and drank, Cana followed suit. He could feel the anxiety building in him as he waited for the rest of the terms.
"Out drink me." Cana's smile was devious and unwavering despite the howls and laughter that erupted from crew and captain.
"You're serious?" Wu was breathless with chuckles. Cana nodded. "There is more in your favor. What do I get if I win?"
"Him." She said as easily as a breath and tilted her head in his direction. He felt his jaw drop and the flush in his face when the crew erupted again.
"What is this man worth to me?" The captain leaned on the table, her honey eyes gleaming.
"Double the fare you initially charged us both."
"Four-hundred thousand jewel?" That seemed to take her by surprise as much as it did him.
"Or more. He is a fugitive of Yi Kai after all, so a bounty on his head is only a given. The reward may be more, too."
"So tell me why I ought not just kill you here and take him myself?"
"You could." She poured another round. "But I know you're smarter than that." Their glasses clanked. "Besides, if you win, you can take him and him alone. He can even sleep in your quarters."
That seemed to interest the captain as much as the bounty. Bacchus grabbed Cana's shoulders and leaned down to whisper in her ear.
"Can we talk for a moment?" He pulled her up from the chair and faced her towards him. "What do you think you are doing?"
"What? Do you not like her?"
"That's not my point. You can't just auction people off like animals."
"How is this bad for you? If I win, we get a cheaper passage. If she wins, you get to go by yourself for free. You might even get to… make port, before you get to shore." The vulgarity of her words and the tone she took with him made it difficult to refrain from striking her.
"Next time, tell someone before you use them as a bargaining chip." He grit his teeth and let her return to her seat.
"So do we have a deal?" Cana extended her hand to Captain Wu.
"I have one more term to add." The other woman said as she grabbed Cana's extended hand.
"Sure. Why not?"
"I pick the drink."
"Fair enough." She agreed and they shook.
They sat down and Wu snapped at one of her men.
"I must admit I'm not a fan of brandy. Goes down like water." Cana was leaning back in her chair arrogantly, but he watched carefully as the man that had left came back with a black glass bottle sealed with bright green wax.
"Good thing we aren't drinking brandy then." The only way to describe Wu's face was feral as she pulled out the dagger tied to the necklace she had hidden in her loose blouse. He knew before she named it, what the drink was and recalled where he had heard her name before.
"Shit!" He swore, ready to kick Cana's chair and drag her away from the table.
"It would seem your boyfriend there had already figured it out." The half-Yikani woman poured out the heavily fragrant and green liquid into the cups made of horn her man had brought with the bottle.
"What is this?" Cana picked it up and examined the embellished black horn.
"Fermented basilisk blood." Wu tossed her head back and drank. He felt his hands ball into fists as she wiped a thin line of liquid from the corner of her mouth. "Or as it's known by many, Black Salamander."
"You're Captain Yanti Wu of Gong Island. The serpent hunter." Bacchus felt his entire body tense and tremble.
"I am." She glanced at him, then back to Cana who still had yet to drink. "So do we still have a deal?"
Before he could urge her otherwise, Cana drank. He watched as she hunched into herself and shook for a few seconds.
"Cana!" He grabbed her shoulders, releasing them when he heard her gasp out. To his surprise, she trembled and then reared her head back to laugh up at the sky.
"Say, Yan-Yan, this is a pretty good drink." She slammed the horn onto the table and waited for more to be poured. "You have a deal."
Though she didn't show it outright, Bacchus could tell Yanti was shocked by Cana's enthusiasm. He may have even dared to say she was almost intimidated for that brief moment before she smiled wickedly and poured the next round.
"Very well then. Let's begin." Their glasses clanked together and both women began, to the horror of the crew, a battle of tolerance they have never known possible.
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the three chapter upload for this week. I'll be back next week with another new chapter (or two!?) for you. Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for their favorites, views and follows. This story has reached it's first milestone of 1k views and it wouldn't be possible without you all! Thanks again and see you next week.
With love and booze, Betty B.