Part 38 (1/2)
Once he'd paid, he and the boy left under the wary eye of the sheriff.
”What the h.e.l.l did you do that for, you b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.d?” the boy snarled, craning his scrawny neck to look up at Lock.
Lock raised an eyebrow. ”Why did I save your life?”
”What do you want? My other fingers as payment? I can't believe you're still breathing after all the curses I heaped on you!”
”Oh, so you're a warlock now as well as a thief? You'd think after I cut your finger off you'd have learned your lesson.”
”I said I didn't steal nothing, especially not compared to you! You slime sucking, snake-toothed, stinking donkey's a.r.s.e! If I didn't think you'd bury me, I'd chop out your gullet!”
Lock whistled. ”Nice way to talk to a man who just saved your scrawny a.r.s.e. Maybe I should have let you pay for your crime.”
”I said I didn't steal-”
Lock grasped the boy and dragged him behind the blacksmith's shop. Gripping him by the shoulders, he lifted him off the ground so they were eye to eye. ”Just like you didn't steal the cargo from the Lady Fire? You took their money, and we both know it!”
The boy kicked Lock between the legs. Cursing, Lock dropped him hard on the dirt and leaned forward, his hands braced against his knees. ”Son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h!”
The boy scrambled to his feet and ran, but Lock caught him by the back of the neck. ”Let me go!”
”Not until you shut up and listen to me!”
”What for?”
”You took the money, didn't you? Didn't you?” Lock shook the youth hard.
”I took it! So what? How else am I supposed to eat?”
”Did you ever try honest work?”
”What a joke coming from you, the worst pirate to ever sail out of the SothSeas!”
”Not anymore. There's no future in piracy.”
”What do you mean? When you had the Lady Fire, you could have anything you wanted.”
”Not anything that mattered.”
”You have no business telling me what to do!”
”I'm not telling you anything. I'm offering advice.”
”I've been on my own since I was seven. Didn't need no advice then and I don't need it now.”
”No parents?”
”Dead mother. No father. Why do you care?”
”We've got something in common. Never had a father and my mother should have been dead, but that doesn't mean I have to ruin my life because of them. Neither do you. Have you ever killed anybody?”
”No.”
Lock studied the boy. For the first time, he sensed he was telling the truth. ”Good. Then maybe you won't end up like me after all.”
”I can be better than you! If I was a captain, I wouldn't give up my s.h.i.+p!”
”That wasn't my s.h.i.+p. It belonged to anyone who killed for it.”
”Why should I stand here listening to you? You cut off me finger!” The boy held up his mutilated hand.
”And a lot of good it did either of us! You're still a lying, thieving brat, and if you don't do something about it, you'll be a killer on top of it all, because it always comes down to murder in the circle we travel in. I'm sure a missing finger hurt like h.e.l.l, but it won't kill you. Not like that hangman's noose. Want to see what can kill you?”
Lock tugged off his s.h.i.+rt and displayed what was left of his back. He glanced over his shoulder at the boy who stared silently at the ma.s.s of scars and valleys cut in and healed over on the broad bones and hard muscles.
”That only happened because you got caught,” the boy muttered.
”And so have you. Twice.”
The boy folded his arms across his chest and planted his feet wide apart. ”So why aren't you dead? That beating was meant to kill you.”
”Someone took pity on me.”
”That woman, Sparrow. If it hadn't been for her, I'd be dead, too, remember?”
”Looks like we have something else in common. She saved us both. I have a business proposition for you.”
The boy's lip curled. ”I don't want to deal with you. You cut me finger off.”
Lock continued, ”You work for me, and I'll give you a portion of the profits.”
”I'll kill you in your sleep,” the youth snarled.
”No you won't.”
”Why not?”
”Because, you skinny little s.h.i.+t, you know I'd wake up before the blow landed and gut you like a fish.” Lock bent so that he was almost nose to nose with the boy. He straightened and shrugged. ”Also because you're no killer yet. Take a good look at me, boy. Look at what I was, what I did to you. I'm giving you the chance to change, or do you want me to turn you back over to the mob now that you've admitted you stole from the men in the tavern?”
The boy paled. ”I'll stay with you...for a while.”
”First things first. We go back to the market and sell the goods I have left. I've been hunting for the past few days and just spent nearly all my profit paying for your life.”
”Don't throw that at me! I already gave you me finger.”
”You hold a h.e.l.l of a grudge.”