Snake Heart (Chains of Honor #2) -Lindsay Buroker Page 0,54
us,” she said dryly.
“They didn’t tell you before they started shooting? That was inconsiderate.” Stoat’s teats, he sounded like Lakeo. He wasn’t ever sarcastic with his elders. Why was he treating her so? Because she was the enemy? Because he resented her?
“I thought so,” she said in the same bland tone.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, looking away. Even if he did resent her, he should treat her as he would wish to be treated. Honor was for enemies as well as allies. It was even for people who were... disappointing.
Her eyebrows shifted, but she did not ask what he was apologizing for. Maybe she already knew. Maybe she just didn’t care.
“I will give you all the information I know about them,” Yanko said, “if you’ll tell me who’s offering to pay you for the lodestone.”
An explosion came from the port side of the ship, a horrible rending of metal that made Yanko cover his ears with his hands. The ironclad.
A great ball of fire reached up from the bowels of the ship, its steel deck peeled back like flower petals, allowing the flames to surge out. Dark gray smoke billowed into the air in thick clouds. It took a few seconds for the pieces of wreckage to start pelting down, but when they did, they hit the deck of Pey Lu’s ship, as well as the water all around the ironclad. Pirates scurried, taking cover. Pey Lu twitched her fingers and an umbrella of pure energy formed above her and Yanko. The few pieces that struck it bounced off.
After lamenting that he couldn’t craft barriers so quickly or easily, Yanko decided it wasn’t manly to be jealous of one’s mother.
“Good thing we got away before it blew,” someone muttered behind them.
“Turgonians worship some crazy dead ancestors,” another pirate said.
A familiar presence brushed Yanko’s mind. He looked toward the island, hardly believing the parrot had found him all the way out here, but there was the familiar blue and red form, flapping its way over the sea. Kei skirted the smoking ironclad—the smoking wreck—and circled the pirate ship before spotting Yanko and soaring down toward him. He braced himself, or rather his shoulder, for the sharp talons.
Pey Lu frowned and lifted a hand.
Sensing that she meant to attack, or at least deter Kei from landing, Yanko risked her ire by grabbing her arm. “He’s not a threat.”
Pey Lu looked down at her arm where he gripped her, then regarded him.
Yanko let her go, but he remained on the alert, in case she threw an attack at Kei. There was nothing magical about the bird. He couldn’t defend himself against a wizard. “He’s not even mine. I might be in a lot of trouble with important people back on Kyatt if I let him die.”
True, he wasn’t certain how much of an honored pet the Komitopis family considered the mouthy parrot, but he doubted they wanted Kei to die, especially when they had fed and housed the bird for years after the grandfather died.
Kei landed on Yanko’s shoulder, talons sinking in, wings stirring his hair. “Puntak, puntak!”
Kei sounded delighted to have found him, but Pey Lu’s eyebrows rose at the racial slur, as did the eyebrows of several Nurian pirates within earshot. A big Turgonian pirate snickered to himself.
“Important people, you say?” Pey Lu asked.
Yanko had never figured out the exact status of his hosts the night Dak had taken him to the Komitopis homestead, but he was positive they were relatives of the Turgonian president’s Kyattese wife. No need to mention that to Pey Lu.
“Very,” was all he said, hoping she wasn’t thinking of killing and stuffing the impolite parrot. She probably wouldn’t be worried about threats from the Kyattese, but what if she thought he was some familiar or spy for Yanko? As if Yanko knew how to do anything but dispense food to the bird.
“Seeds?” Kei bobbed his head and looked at him.
Didn’t you gorge yourself on seeds and nuts before leaving the island? Yanko asked silently.
Kei made a contented noise and plucked at Yanko’s hair with his beak. He wasn’t sure if it was a sign of affection or if the bird thought he had seeds behind his ear.
Two barefoot pirates jogged up to their captain. They looked to be even younger than Yanko. What made people turn to this life so early?