The DeCadia Code (The DeCadia Series Book 1) Read online

  His first blow caught her off guard. A hook to her cheek broke the skin just under her right eye. Val ignored the pain and the familiar wetness of blood spilling down her face. The next punch the man threw Val caught with both her hands. A quick step around her opponent and she twisted his arm behind his back. The human body was only meant to extend so far. Val had this man’s arm inches away from popping it from its shoulder socket.

  He growled in pain but was smart enough not to struggle. “That’s right,” Val whispered in his ear. “Take it easy and you get to keep your arm. Struggle and I won’t hesitate to tear this thing right off.”

  The man stilled, his breath coming out between clenched teeth. The sound whistled in the air between Val, her captive and the group of figures still standing in the darkness on the other side of the brig.

  No one made a move. “Listen,” Val said in a steady voice, “I am not your enemy. Whatever lesson you were trying to teach the newcomer, whatever laws or rules you abide by, consider them met and understood. I have no quarrel with you.”

  Silence.

  A far away sound of water dripping from the wooden ceiling filled the void, the absence noise had left. The men were waiting for their leader to respond, of that Val had no doubt.

  After about a full minute, which felt like an hour, a figure separated himself from the darkness. All she could tell at the onset was the he was average height and walked with a slight limp. As the man got closer, she could see him more clearly.

  The slave was older than she’d at first thought. A slight stoop rounded his wide shoulders. A canvas of tattoos covered his chest and shoulders with black and red ink. His heavy, white beard and bald head fueled the idea growing deep inside Val’s mind.

  “Break his arm or not, I don’t care,” his voice came out clear and strong despite his age.

  Val could feel the man in her grip tense at the words. It was obvious he feared the worst from the situation. Val leaned in toward her captive’s ear. “You owe me one for this. If I let you go, you’re not going to do something stupid like turn around and take a swing at me, are you?”

  Urgent shaking of his head confirmed what Val already knew. In once quick motion, she released her grip. The man stumbled away from her, a look of gratitude across his bearded face. He approached the old man like a dog with his tail in between his legs.

  The leader didn’t give him a response. A dismissive wave of his hand was the only thing the defeated man received. Instead, the leader directed is attention to Val, “Who are you?”

  Val thought about lying for a moment, not knowing whether her reputation would help or hinder her cause. She decided on the latter. “I’m a slave, just like you.”

  “Just like me?” the man played with the words as if he’d never heard them previously. “I doubt that very much. So, slave, tell me why I shouldn’t send the rest of my men at you right now and have them tear you apart?”

  The thing that caught Val off guard wasn’t the menace in the man’s voice; it was the lack of any threat. He genuinely wanted to know why Val deserved a free pass. The two of them might as well have been old sailors, one asking the other about the weather. “The last thing you need is a gang of men bloodied and broken. Send them at me if you insist; they’ll do nothing more than break on me like waves on a rock cliff.”

  “You’re sure of that? With enough time, even the most solid rock surface will crumble under power of the ocean.”

  “I don’t think you have that many men or that much time,” Val said with a smile. Despite their situation, she was already sensing a kindred spirit in the man with whom she spoke. She was right.

  He walked toward her with an extended hand, “Well said. I’m Tobias Blood. Welcome to the best slave unit the sky has to offer.”

  Val gripped the man’s hand with a firm shake of her own. More adrenaline shot through her body as she realized her search was over. This was the man for whom she’d searched the whole of DeCadia, the man who would give her the answers she so desperately needed.

  Finally, the infamous Tobias Blood stood before her.

  Chapter 3

  Tobias led her deeper into the slave hold to where he’d set up shop. Several crates bound together created a makeshift desk and old powder keg barrels stood for seats. Tobias motioned her to sit. Val declined to take the offered seat and moved instead to the one at his right, the one where her back was against the wall. A kerosene lantern helped illuminate the area. The lamps along the wall hardly gave off enough light to cast shadows. The fact that Tobias had a kerosene lamp was quite telling. He had to have an arrangement with either the Captain or his first mate.

  Two battered tin cups were set in front of them with a substance that smelled like ale wafting up. Val hated the stuff, though she’d drink it if it meant keeping herself out of danger. Val pushed her tin to Tobias. “You first.”

  He attempted to stare her down; it didn’t work. Better men than he had tried and failed in the past. A slow grin broke across his face and he picked up Val’s cup and threw out the contents. He then took a drink of his and passed it to her. Val nodded and took a swallow of the swill. “I like you, girl. How’d you end up here?”

  “Stupid mistake I plan on rectifying as soon as we dock again.” Val debated on what to tell him. She’d gone over this conversation many times over the last three years as she searched for Tobias. Telling him the truth upfront wouldn’t serve her purposes. This secret had long been kept and she needed to earn Tobias’s trust in order for him to open up to her, to share his secrets. She’d worked too hard to ruin her chances now.

  “Tell me about this mistake.” Another cup landed in front of Tobias. He grunted his thanks before taking a long drink.

  Val decided to stick with the story she had told the Captain, only she added a few additional details. “My ship had docked and I found my way to Cravet’s Inn. I just wanted to relax, but there were several who decided I should be their entertainment for the night. Didn’t turn out too well for them. In the meantime, I didn’t know that the barkeep had drugged my drink while I fought. I finished my drink and left. I don’t think he’d counted on that. He looked upset when I left. Took about twenty minutes for the drugs to kick in. I stumbled into an alley. That much I remember. When I woke up, I was sitting bound up with the other slaves at auction this morning.”

  Tobias looked at her thoughtfully and Val fought the urge to squirm. She couldn’t tell whether he believed her or not. She was betting not. “Did the Captain say why he wanted you?” Tobias asked instead of pressing her reasons for being caught.

  Val made a disgusted face and Tobias chuckled. “Thought as much,” he laughed. “You’re too beautiful for your own good, girl. You need to ugly yourself up a bit.”

  Laughter burst out around them. “She could be pockmarked and it wouldn’t matter with ‘er body. Man don’t need a face.”

  “You’ll be sleeping with me, girl,” Tobias declared after a moment.

  “Don’t make me regret not killing you, old man,” Val told him softly. And she would kill him. No one would make her a whore, not even someone she needed.

  Tobias laughed outright. “Girl, if you want to show me some appreciation, fine. If not, that’s fine, too. I’m more concerned about your safety at night. Can’t watch you if you’re out there in the dark. Safer with me.”

  Val cocked her head and stared back at him thoughtfully. “Why should you care?”

  “Don’t know,” Tobias shrugged. “Something about you. Not sure what yet and I want to keep you close till I figure it out.”

  Val wanted to deny and tell him he was wrong, but she wouldn’t lie to him. He’d catch her in a lie faster than Madame ever had. It was just something she knew to be true and she never ignored her gut instincts. “I think I need to worry about the Captain before I do this lot,” she muttered instead. Wouldn’t do to kill the Captain, still he wasn’t going to touch her.

  “Leave the Captain to me,” Tobias said, another grunt es
caping as he shifted on his barrel stool. “Now, what’s your name, girl?”

  “Does it matter?” Val asked. “Girl works just as well.”

  Tobias waved the others away, leaving only him and Val. “If you want my protection, girl, you’ll be telling me your name and no lies.”

  Val heaved a sigh inwardly, keeping her blank face. She did not want to give him her name for many reasons. Lying to him was going to be tricky. Val could already tell they shared a common knack for sniffing out the truth. Her middle name then. That wouldn’t be a lie. “Aurora or Rory as everyone calls me.”

  His eyes narrowed and Val cursed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Her middle name was the name of a highborn citizen. “That’s an unusual name,” Tobias said softly, his hand on his knife.

  “I was born to the daughter of a Duke,” she said. “My grandfather allowed my mother to keep me until I was three, when her marriage contract came due. The old man sold me to a woman who raised me in a brothel. I learned from the security they employed how to protect myself.”

  Tobias nodded slowly. “That why you’re so opposed to sharing yourself? Had to do it all your life?”

  Val laughed. “No one touched me in that place. They learned right quick that they got a knife in the ribs if they dared. I watched women become whores, demean themselves and all for nothing. They died with naught but the legacy of a whore. I won’t do that. I turned my eyes to other things.”

  “What other things did you do, girl?”

  “I learned ships,” Val told him. “There’s not a job on a ship I can’t do.”

  “What else, girl?”

  “I have certain skills that are sometimes employed by a select clientele in order to procure items of value.”

  “Fancy way of saying you’re a high priced thief,” Tobias laughed. “Why are you working ships if you’re thieving?”

  “I do only select jobs of procuring goods for my clients, but being on a ship – feeling the wind in my hair, the rumble of the steam engines under my feet – there is nothing like it.”

  “You sound more like a captain than a crew hand.” Tobias gave her another of his deep looks that made her squirm on the inside. Going into this, Val knew it would be tricky. She knew there would be times, even when she guarded against it, the truth would slip out unknowingly. She loved her ship, loved captaining her and she thought of her crew as family. It was hard to lie about that.

  Instead of trying to find something to say that wouldn’t get her into hot water, she changed the subject. “What time do we get fed? I haven’t had anything to eat since early yesterday morning.”

  Tobias’s gaze was measuring, though he let any further questions slide for now. “Come on, let’s feed you, girl.”

  Val had no doubts they’d come back to this conversation, however was grateful Tobias let it go. She was starved and had an incredibly foul, bitter taste in her mouth, she’d sell her own soul to get rid of right now. She got up and followed Tobias deeper into the hold, her stomach growling.

  What passed for dinner in the slave hold was hardtack, dried meat, water, and of course, the prisoner’s own deck-made rum. After her meal, Val was content to be led to her sleeping quarters. It had been a long day and she did need a little rest.

  It was clear the other slaves in the ship’s hold respected Tobias. When he spoke, his word was final. She saw an admiration in their eyes as the old man gave instruction – something beyond respect or fear; they genuinely liked him.

  As Tobias led Val deeper into the slave’s quarters she was surprised to see decorations placed on the wooden walls. The pictures were torn, artifacts mounted on the walls were worn and, in most cases, broken; still, what kind of slave ship allowed their slaves to set up décor along their living spaces?

  “Whose your interior decorator?” Val asked. “You don’t strike me as the type.”

  Tobias threw her a glance over his shoulder with a toothy smile. “Well, when you’ve been a slave for as long as I have with the reputation to bring a crew together to get work done, you’re offered a few privileges.”

  Val’s eyes shot skyward. “So, you have a deal with the Captain?”

  Tobias shrugged taunt shoulders making his canopy of tattoos contract and retract with his movement in the faint light. “I keep the slaves in line and the ship operating as it should. In return, we’re treated better. Simple as that.”

  Val did a double-take, repeating Tobias’ words in her mind to make sure she was understanding him right. “Wait, you’re not saying you actually want to be a slave, are you?”

  Tobias paused in front of a large door with a brass handle. In the light of the lantern he held in his right hand, with his left he reached down for the thick ring of keys hanging off his belt. There was twinge in his eyes that made Val wonder if she’d asked the wrong question.

  Tobias’ normal alpha-like personality was clouded for the briefest of moments. A shadow crossed the man’s face. In a fraction of a second, it was gone. “There are worse things in this world than becoming a slave to a ship, Aurora. Much darker things lurking where you’d least expect them.”

  Though Val knew it was all in her mind, she could swear the diamond-shaped birthmark on her back, just below her right shoulder blade, began to itch. Was this it? Was this the time to confront Tobias about my real reason for finding him?

  Since she had arrived it had been too dark to inspect all of Tobias’ tattoos. Still, she knew she had found the right man. It was a gut instinct she couldn’t explain. A feeling indicating her journey was coming to an end. Before she could make up her mind on whether or not to confront him there, Tobias found the correct key to open the door.

  Val mentally kicked herself. She had to be sure before she broached the subject. If this was the man that had answers, he would share a replica of her birthmark in the form of a tattoo. Until she knew for sure, she would continue as planned.

  “Well, come in; I’m not going to bite. If I wanted to kill you, girl, I would have a hundred times over by now.”

  Val took a deep breath and entered the room. It was far from extravagant though large for a slave’s quarters. The old coot must have worked out an arrangement with the ship’s Captain in exchange for his room.

  The walls were thin, draped with massive maps. A small bed stood in one corner with the rest of the room piled high with old, musty books. “You like to read?”

  Tobias finished lighting the array of candles strategically interspersed throughout his room. Their glow sent shadows dancing across the walls in a series of flickering leaps and bounds. “What gave you that idea?”

  Val was about to respond as she tore her eyes away from yet another mountain of books standing in the corner. Her mouth was halfway open as she caught Tobias’ twinkling eyes. “Yeah, I’ll just take that as a ‘yes’.”

  Tobias busied himself gathering sheets and blankets, arranging a makeshift bed on the floor. Val walked around the room with her arms folded across her chest admiring his maps. No two maps were the same. Lines were drawn across them all in a pattern Val had never seen.

  “There we go, all set,” Tobias said as he took a step back from the pile of blankets on the floor. He stood admiring his work as if he were a child who had just drawn a picture.

  Val had to bite back a laugh. Here he was, the infamous Tobias Blood, looking at a pile of blankets and pillows with pride. To Val, the mess on the floor didn’t look like a masterpiece to cause pride. The blankets were crumpled, the pillows dirty and even torn in a few spots.

  “It looks great, but you don’t have to sleep on the floor,” Val said.

  Tobias looked at Val as if she had gone mad. “I said I liked you, girl, I’m not going out of my way to do you any favors. You’re sleeping on the ground.”

  That night Val lay on the cold floor of the ship. All the lights were out, however her eyes had already grown accustomed to the darkness. She had finally found him. She was in the same room as he, sleeping within ten feet o
f his bed.

  Val formed a plan to find his tattoo. She would need to get up and tiptoe to his sleeping form. With any luck, he would be sleeping in such a way, his mark would be exposed. All she would need was a quick peek to confirm if what she felt deep inside were true.

  Tobias’ soft snore traveled through the quiet in a series of snorts and whistles. Val took a long, deep breath and slowly rose from her makeshift bed.

  “Can’t sleep?”

  Val almost jumped as Tobias’s eyes stared at her with question. The light was so poor, she couldn’t tell whether his eyes had been open the whole time or if he just recently made the transition.

  “You should really get some sleep, girl. Tomorrow, we’re casting off and you’ll need your strength for the boiler room.”

  “Oh, right,” Val said as she fell into an impromptu stretching session. “I had a kink in my shoulder. You know, the area right below your right shoulder blade?”

  If Tobias had any idea what she was talking about, he ignored her. Instead, he took a deep breath and addressed what he imagined her situation to be. “Listen, just trust me. The ship’s a lot better having you sleep in here for now instead of out there.”

  Val let her arms fall by her sides disappointed her ploy had failed. “What’s that supposed to mean? I can take care of myself.”

  “I think you’re misunderstanding my meaning, girl. You’re sleeping here to save the men from you, not the other way around. I need men that can work tomorrow, not slave hands nursing broken noses and dislocated joints.”

  “Oh,” Val let herself fall back into bed resigning herself to the fact that the mystery of the tattoo would not be solved that night.

  Chapter 4

  Heat. Debilitating, blinding, burning hotness choked the souls who ran the boiler room of the massive airship. The entire room shimmered with warmth. The place stank of burned flesh, sweat, and urine. Slaves were not given a rest even to relieve themselves. Most didn’t care anymore. They were used to the smell. It was all they knew.