Volume X – Part III – Two Bottles and a Secret for a Song

“Careful, Doctor, or you’ll be stung again.”

            There was general laughter but Lichi didn’t look up.  The ship’s deck was littered with flopping fish, all trying toss themselves back into the sea.  The wood was slick with water and slime, but Lichi was being more attentive to where he put his hands than his feet, for the nets dragged up all manner of ocean-dwellers – some that bit, some that pinched, some that strangled or stung or poisoned.  He had already learned once the hard way, and the small crew had found it highly amusing that their doctor had needed medical advice.  Lichi hadn’t known the first thing about jellyfish.

            “Just remember that I’m fetching your dinner, Raul,” Lichi said, and the large man laughed.  He was tall and bronze, as strong as an ox and about as big as one.  Chakra often joked that he would sink the ship, one day.

            “Anything from your hands is bad luck, Doctor...  I think maybe I will not eat tonight.”

            “I haven’t made mistakes with you yet,” Lichi said.  “Maybe I’ll pay my scalpel less attention, next time...”

            The Brick was as hard a place as Lichi had ever worked.  To begin, he had quickly discovered that the craft had got its name for a reason: the hull leaked like mad, and there was always someone working the bilge pumps to get rid of the water.  If no one did, the ship could sink deep enough that they could reach the water from the main deck.  The crew hadn’t brought much food with them, and they mostly relied on the sea to feed them.  Every few days, giant nets were tossed over the side to collect meals for everyone aboard, and it was a chore dragging them out again.  More than once, Lichi had nearly gone overboard, for the ship could tip almost vertical under the weight of the nets.  The ship’s captain was another thing Lichi had found surprising: Captain Frederica insisted that everyone call her only Fred, and despite her petite stature, she commanded authority like no one Lichi had ever known.  Small and blond, she had a voice like cannon-fire, and enough spirit to rival most of her men.

            “But isn’t it bad luck to have a woman on a ship?” Lichi had one day asked Chakra.  Fred had immediately grabbed the centre of his shirt – about as high as she could reach.

            “Got string in that bag, Doctor?” she’d asked, staring up at him with her one green eye.  The other socket was filled with a sea- and blood-soaked cloth.  “Ever sewn a man’s lips closed before?”

            Afterwards Lichi had never asked the question again.  Most of the crew claimed that Fred was world-famous, and Lichi had heard so many stories that he could no longer separate truth from legend.  She’d either lost her eye in a battle with a pirate, a sea monster or her evil twin brother.  Still more stories claimed that she’d torn it out herself, in order to aim the cannons better.  They said she’d seen so much treasure that her long, matted hair had turned gold – it had been black before.  Her ring finger was missing because she’d given it to the sea – or lost it in a duel – or eaten it when she was starving in prison.  Lichi wondered how so many different stories had even come to exist.

            “Lichi – don’t touch that one!”

            The half-elf stopped, his slime-covered fingers only inches from a small, black fish that was flopping feebly on the deck.  Chakra laughed, flaunting his crooked, gapped teeth as he walked over.

            “I think you are going to die before the rest of us need your help,” he said.  He pulled a small knife from his pocket, speared the fish, then flung it, writhing, over the gunwales, back into the water.