Encante Read Free

captain nodded at the man they called Garrett, and the boxlock was lowered. Garrett bent and hauled the girl from the water, laying her out on her side. She collapsed, exhausted, as the black-haired beauty fussed around her, and Garrett set to removing the tail which was, indeed, mechanical. I was astonished to see it disengage itself from the girl and retract into a much smaller size. I’d never seen the like—and I’d seem some spectacular things in my time with Cane.
    “You seem surprised, sir.”
    I glanced up as the captain addressed me. “I confess I am; I’d not thought her to have legs beneath that tail.”
    Garrett made a sound not unlike that the girl herself had made, and another figure joined us on the platform. My eyes lingered on the man loping towards us, equally as naked as Vee, equally as strange. His hair was more seaweed than tentacles, brown and curling. The distinct aroma of fish and brine clung to his opalescent skin. He bent to the tail that had been removed from Vee’s legs and, between them, he and Garrett hauled it away. Given how heavy it obviously was, I wondered how she had managed to swim in it.
    “Is she well?” I enquired, crouching to check on my rescuer. A cane impeded me, stabbing the platform between us and blocking me crossways. I followed it up to its owner, the tidy little monocled man with the fierce red hair.
    “You’re the one who shall be answering questions, stowaway.” He lowered his cane and proceeded to fan me, patting at my dripping clothing, presumably in search of concealed weaponry.
    “I’m no stowaway, sir,” I told him. “I happened upon your ship by chance.” I glanced more closely at the riveted walls. “We are aboard a submersible, are we not?” I grinned stupidly. “Forgive me, but we’ve nothing like this at home, it’s quite splendid.”
    “Home?” the captain demanded.
    “Yes, sir, I wasn’t born of this world.”
    “Kabbalah,” the monocle man growled, and levelled a pistol of his own at me.
    “He’s not, Newt!” The woman stood, stepping between us. “He’s an explorer.”
    “He has a portal,” Newt responded. “He must, how else could he come to be so deep beneath the ocean?”
    “That does not make him Kabbalah.” She glared at him, and while I was tempted to interpret her fierce defence of me as genuine concern for my safety, I had the distinct impression that there was, in general, no love lost between this man and the captain’s niece.
    Newt’s face crinkled in derision. “Your arrogance astounds me; you think you can know a man from a single thought?” He snorted a derisive laugh. “Men have been hiding things from their women for millennia, you are no different.” He leant towards her, smiling in a rather unpleasant manner. “You are not special .”
    “Enough, Newt,” the captain snapped. “Recall to whom you speak; you may not regard her as special but I most certainly do, far more so than I do you. You’d do well to remember that.”
    Newt straightened. “Yes, sir. My apologies. I only meant to say, she is not infallible.”
    I watched the proceedings in silence, wondering if they had forgotten my presence completely. The captain fixed Newt with a stern glare that told me, quite categorically, that this man was far more formidable than his appearance might indicate. I watched him for a moment, wondering how best to deal with him when he did recall I stood beside him.
    “If that is what you meant to say, Newt, perhaps you should have said it. Keep your ugly thoughts to yourself.”
    “A great deal of good that would do me.” He glared once more at the woman. “He could be the Harlequinn for all you know, girl.”
    The captain roared with laughter at that, looking me over and dismissing me with a glance, correctly concluding there was not even the remotest possibility I could be the elusive Kabbalahn dropper. “I hardly think the Harlequin would be sent on such a lowly mission as to retrieve us.” He