Mistress of the Damned

“Excuse me?” He looked completely baffled. He leaned back in his high-back chair, that looked more like it belonged to royalty.

“I saw the Hirpy. What did you guys do to him? He looks half dead.”

Disbelief crossed Azil’s face. “You must be joking? We captured him for bloody sake. Do you think creatures typically come easily? No, he put up a fight, that’s the only reason he got a beating from the crew members.”

“Oh, of course, you actually expect him to not try to save himself.”

“I don’t care either way.”

“Why do you have him down there? Why don’t you let him go?”

He laughed and it only infuriated me more.

“Flipp, just because I chose to help you, and for a payment might I add, doesn’t mean that I’ve decided to make it my life’s mission to save all creatures. You do know what Sirens do, right?”

I glared at him.

“That’s right. That’s how we deal with monsters from your island. We are a slave ship, and we take creatures from one place to another and sell them. That’s what we do.”

I continued to stare at him. I knew that he was a slaver, but that didn’t mean that I was okay with Jesye being down there. I was appalled at the idea that he would be down there suffering and nobody, including me, was going to do anything about it. I wasn't going to stand for it.

“No, that's not okay.”

“Excuse me?”

Azil didn't seem to care at all about the broken creature that he had in the cargo hold. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

“What is wrong with you? Why don't you do something about this?”

“I'm sorry, Flipp, but didn’t you used to kill people? That's the rumor on the boat.”

“What? NO—wait. That's different.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I didn't have a choice. I was hired to do a job and I had to do it. That's how I survived.”

“Interesting. I guess we're exactly the same.”

I stared at him for a good ten seconds, speechless.

“Look, Flipp, if you don't like the way that I run the ship, you are welcome to go,” he said, as he gestured towards the open sea. It felt like I had a piece of lead in the bottom of my stomach.

“Go suck on a seahorse,” I said, flipping him off as I walked out of his cabin.