The Midnight Storm (A New Dawn #2)

Chapter 41 - Alex (Part 1)

Before any raid, the pirates transformed into merchants.

The metamorphosis started a day before they were due to arrive in Burnfirth and kept Captain Ilona and her crew busy until the early hours of the morning. White sheets draped the cannons, the deck and stern scrubbed until the wood reflected the moonlight. Dag lowered the flag, the white squid with puckered lips replaced by jade-green colours in a sea of blue. Ordinary. Dull. Safe.

The preparations continued below the deck. Men and women alike laid down their weapons, stashing them in every nook and cranny. They took off their belts and clothes, and waited in line for a dip in a heated saltwater bath that smelled of nuts and spices. Their wide sailing dressing or cropped trousers were exchanged for exquisite robes or ornate gowns befitting of a successful trading company. Honey based perfumes masked any leftover odour.

Alex was the last to bathe, the result of her Greenie status. She held the ugly salmon coloured dress in front of her, the silky fabric bringing back memories of her time at Sunstone Castle, of Lady Victoria telling her she would never be a real lady. While she would surely look like one, she wouldn't be a real lady. That wasn't the plan; that wasn't why she was here.

She slipped on the dress, then quickly slid Seb's dagger into her right boot.

One never knew.

The Burnfirthers welcomed the Krakens with open arms, blessing their presence unaware of what calamity would befall upon them. The harbour was bustling with activity and loud voices shouting instructions. Cases and baskets alike were hauled from the dozen or so ships that lay anchored in the bay. Fresh fish, but also chickens, fabrics, clay pottery and wood carvings.

Alex helped to unload the spices and brought them to the market square, which turned out to be a larger version of Laneby's flat grass space by the old oak instead of a smaller copy of Sundale's cobblestones. Most of the grass had been trampled, the frilly edges of her dress soon stained with mud. So much for Temperance Day. With the fat cattle and the abundance of ale and wine stalls, the market seemed rather an ode to Gluttony.

The Krakens erected two stalls, one for spices and one to sell a fraction of the jewellery they had stolen the year before. Nagi and Pan managed the spices; Dag and Kaisa the jewellery. The rest of the crew hung around, browsing the other stalls, not buying anything yet only stealing wares if they could do so inconspicuously. Their focus was on the Burnfirthers, and the riches they possessed.

"The gentleman over there," Liene whispered, gesticulating at the long-haired man with bright red robes and a thin cream-coloured shawl around his neck. "He struts around like he owns this place. Follow him."

Alex nodded.

She didn't set the chase right away, but stalked him as though he was a deer that had caught her eye. The difference was that humans were easier to ambush than game.

Gold coins rolled off his fingers, onto Dag and Kaisa's table. The man spared them no glance; he only had eyes for the silver-plated bracelet on his wrist, which he showed off to three other men and a woman he shared a few ales with.

He left the square, alone, staggering like an ordinary drunk. Instead of heading deeper into town and entering one of the many buildings still smelling of the paint applied to disguise the salt-damaged stones, he waggled to the northern part of the harbour where the first hills of the Horseshoe Mountains emerged from the deep blue water.

There, in the bay, on enormous platforms,  stood the skeletons of no less than seven ships, scaffolding around them. The beach was littered with planks and tree trunks waiting to be cut and processed. A shipyard.