Malta quieted abruptly. Then she thrust Althea savagely away and staggered clear of her aunt before turning to accuse her. "You're happy this happened. You are! You don't care anything about my father, you never did. All you want is that ship. You hope he is dead, I know you do! You hate me. Don't pretend to be my friend." She clenched her teeth and glared at Althea. A moment of stark silence filled the room.
Althea's voice was stone. "No. I'm not your friend." She pushed her mussed hair back from her face. "Most of the time, I don't like you at all. But I am your aunt. Fate has made us family, and now it has made us allies as well. Malta. Put aside your airs and flouncing and sulking. Set your mind to this problem. It is what we all must do. We need to get our family ship back and rescue any of her crew who may still be alive. That is the only problem we can put our energies to right now."
Malta looked her up and down suspiciously. "You're trying to trick me. You still want the ship for yourself."
"I still want to command the family ship," Althea agreed easily. "That's true. But that quarrel will have to wait until Vivacia is safely back in Bingtown. Right now, that is what all of us want. It is rare when the women of this family agree on anything. So, while we do, you need to stop behaving like a hysterical girl with the brains of a chicken."
Althea's gaze swept to include her mother and sister. "None of us can afford to give way to our emotions right now. We have only one course that I can see. We need to raise money for a ransom. A substantial one. That is, frankly, our best chance of getting both ship and crew back uninjured." She shook her head. "It sticks in my craw to have to buy back what is ours, but that is our most practical way to regain it. If we are fortunate, he will take our money and return what is ours. Brashen is right, however. I have heard of this Captain Kennit. If he pursued the Vivacia, it is because he means to keep her. If that is so, we can only pray to Sa that he has been wise enough to keep her family members and familiar crew alive to keep her sane. So, you see, Malta, I have reasons of my own for hoping your father and brother are alive and well." Althea delivered this wry aside with a pained clench of a smile.
In a lower voice she went on, "The Bingtown Trader Council meets tomorrow night. They are supposed to give the Tenira family a hearing on the Satrap's tariff, the presence of the so-called Chalcedean 'patrol ships' and slaves in Bingtown. I've promised Grag I'll be there to support his father's views. Mother, Keffria, you should come as well. Rally any others that you can. It is time the Bingtown Traders were awakened to all that is going on. The worsening piracy and their increasing boldness is yet another part of the Satrap's mess. When the time is right, we need to bring up the Vivacia's situation and ask for support from at least the other liveship families, if we cannot sway all the Traders to help us. This is something that affects us all. At the risk of setting off Malta again, I will add that it directly relates to the slavery issue. If Kyle hadn't been using Vivacia as a slaver, this would not have befallen her. It is well known that Kennit targets slaveships. It is also known," she added in a slightly louder voice as Malta took a breath to interrupt, "that the pirate activities are why we have these Chalcedean privateers tied up in our harbor. If Bingtown itself takes a stand against the pirates, perhaps we can show the Satrap we don't need his patrol boats and we don't intend to pay for them." She turned and looked out the window at the waning afternoon. "And if we succeed in all that, perhaps we can waken all Bingtown to the fact that we don't need Jamaillia or the Satrap at all. That we can take care of ourselves now." Those words were very softly spoken but they sounded clear in the quiet room.
Althea gave a sudden deep sigh and her shoulders drooped. "I'm hungry. Isn't that stupid? Brashen brings me the worst possible news that I can imagine, and somehow I still get hungry at dinner time."
"No matter what befalls you, your body tries to go on living." Ronica spoke the heavy words with the experience of a survivor. She moved stiffly as she crossed the room to her granddaughter. She held out her hand to her. "Malta. Althea is right. We must stand as a family now, putting aside all quarrels with each other." She lifted her eyes and smiled grimly around at them all. "Sa's breath. Look what it takes to make us remember we are family. I feel ashamed." She returned her gaze to her granddaughter. Her empty hand waited, hovering. Slowly Malta extended her own. Ronica took it. She looked deep into the girl's angry gaze. Suddenly she gave her a brittle hug. Malta cautiously returned it.
"Malta and Papa aren't bad anymore?" a young voice wondered aloud. All heads turned to the boy in the doorway.
"Oh, Selden!" Keffria cried in weary dismay. She pulled herself up from her chair and went to her young son. She tried to hug him but he pulled stiffly free. "Mama, I'm not a baby!" he cried in annoyance. His eyes went past his mother to Brashen. He considered him gravely. He cocked his head. "You look like a pirate," he decided.
"I do, don't I?" Brashen said. He squatted down to be on a level with the small boy. He smiled and held out a hand. "But I'm not. I'm just an honest Bingtown sailor, a bit down on my luck." For a moment, he believed it was true. He could almost forget the stub end of a cindin stick his wayward fingers had found in the corner of his jacket pocket.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Taking Charge
ALTHEA WATCHED HIM LEAVE. SHE HAD NOT JOINED HER MOTHER TO WALK him to the door. Instead, she had fled to a maid's chamber in the upper story of the house. She had left the dusty room dark, and did not even lean too close to the window lest Brashen look back and chance to see her. The moonlight washed the gaudy color from his clothes. He walked slowly, not looking back, his gait as rolling as if he strode a deck instead of a carriage drive.
Althea had been lucky she had been struggling with Malta when she first entered the study that evening. No one had remarked on her red cheeks or lost breath. She did not think that even Brashen had realized her moment of panic at seeing him. The stricken expressions that Keffria and Mother had worn had near stilled her heart. For one ghastly instant, she had imagined that he had come to her mother to confess all and offer to redeem Althea's shame by marrying her. Even while she reeled from the severity of Brashen's real tidings, she had felt a secret relief that she did not have to admit publicly what she had done.
What she had done. She accepted that now. Amber's words had made her confront herself on that issue weeks ago. She was almost ashamed now that she had tried to hide behind excuses. What they had done, they had done together. If she wanted to respect herself as a woman and an adult, she could not claim otherwise. She had only spoken otherwise, she decided truthfully, because she had not wanted to be blamed for such an irresponsible act. If he had really tricked or coerced her into bed with him, then she could justify the pain she had felt since then. She could have been the wronged woman, the seduced innocent, abandoned by a heartless sailor. But such roles insulted both of them.
She had not been able to meet his eyes tonight, nor yet look away from him. She had missed him. The years of shipboard camaraderie, she told herself, outweighed the harsh way they had parted. Time and again, she had stolen glances at him, storing his image in her mind as if she were satisfying some sort of hunger. The devastating news he had brought still tore at her heart, but her traitor eyes had studied only the bright darkness of his eyes, and how his muscled shoulders moved under his silk shirt. She had noticed a cindin sore at the edge of his mouth; he was still using the drug. His freebooter's garb had appalled her. It hurt and disappointed her that he had turned pirate. Yet, such clothes suited him far better than the sober dress of a Bingtown Trader's son ever had. She disapproved of everything about him, yet the sight of him had set her heart racing.