Free Hope and Red by Jon Skovron Page B

spots like necks, bellies, and groins. Bull Mackey hacked off hands and the tops of heads with his ax. Spinner ran them through with his pike. And in the center of it all, Sadie swung her cutlass again and again. No matter how hardened those merchant sailors might be, they were still no match for a bunch of wags from Paradise Circle, Hammer Point, and Silverback.
    “You’ll hang for this!” screamed the captain, a short man with a red face and a wispy beard. Bull Mackey and Spinner had found him hiding in the cargo hold and dragged him before Sadie.
    “That so?” asked Sadie.
    “These spices are bound for Stonepeak! For the emperor himself!”
    “The emperor, you say?” Sadie looked impressed. “Well, then, do me a favor and give your emperor a message from Sadie the Pirate Queen.” She looked at Bull Mackey and Spinner. “Hold him down.”
    The two grinned at each other as they stretched him out on the deck. He thrashed desperately, but couldn’t get loose.
    Sadie straddled him and began to hike up her skirts.
    “What in hells are you doing?” demanded the captain.
    “Here’s my message to the emperor.” Sadie squatted and pissed all over the captain, while he cursed, and her crew howled with laughter.
    *  *  *
    The celebration that night was particularly rowdy. Red was used to seeing the crew of the Savage Wind drunk, including Sadie. But that night it was so loud and chaotic, it made him nervous, so he retreated to the stern, where Missing Finn sat and stared up at the starry sky.
    “Why aren’t you celebrating with the rest of the crew?” asked Red.
    “A sailor learns that out here in open water, anything is liable to happen at any time. Always best to have someone keep a sober watch.”
    Several of the crew hollered something incoherent. Both Finn and Red turned to see Sadie punch Avery Birdhouse so hard that his nose began to gush blood. Then she grabbed him by the shirt collar and kissed him hard, his blood smearing all over her face.
    “Do you wish you didn’t have to keep watch?” asked Red.
    Missing Finn shrugged and turned back to look at the stars.
    “You in love with Sadie?” asked Red.
    Missing Finn smiled faintly. “What do you know of love, boy?”
    “My dad loved my mom.”
    “That so?”
    “It is. Everything he did was for her.”
    “He tell you that?”
    “Nah. It was easy to see.”
    “It’s a good thing to grow up seeing that.”
    “Why?”
    “It means you know there’s something more than…” He nodded to the celebration. “That.”
    Red didn’t know much about Missing Finn, other than that he had sailed more than anyone else on the ship. “What happened to your eye?”
    “Ain’t a pleasant story.”
    “I didn’t think it would be,” said Red.
    Finn grinned and ruffled Red’s hair. “You got a sharp tongue on you. Hope that doesn’t get you into more trouble than you can handle.”
    “So you’re really not going to tell me?”
    “What’ll you give me in return?”
    Red thought about it. “A secret for a secret?”
    “How do you know my story’s a secret?”
    “Because you ain’t told anyone on this ship about it. Not even Sadie.”
    “It’s not a secret, exactly. Just real personal.”
    “All secrets are personal. That’s why they’re secret.”
    Finn smiled again. “I’m starting to see why Sadie keeps you around. Clever as claws, you are.”
    “So it’s a deal?” pressed Red.
    “I suppose. But you first.”
    Red had already thought of his secret, so he jumped in eagerly. “After my mom died, it was just me and my dad. He used to leave a lot to go work. He was a whore. That meant people paid him to have sex with them.”
    “I know what a whore is, boy.”
    “You ever pay someone to have sex with you?”
    “Of course. I reckon most people in Paradise Circle have.”
    “I never will,” said Red. Despite Sadie’s assurance that not all sex was like the kind he’d witnessed, the whole idea still seemed unappealing.
    “That