The pirates’ celebratory mood continued long into the night. The fire burned brightly, and they danced on the sand in the light of the flames as they roasted fish freshly caught from the ocean for their supper. Rémy sat on the sand beside the pirate captain — her brother, and not only her brother, her true twin. Together they looked out at the shenanigans before them.
Upala had left them to talk and was now dancing with one of the largest men Rémy had ever seen, even accounting for all her years of traveling with the circus. Rémy glanced at Kai and saw that her brother’s gaze was fixed on the fierce female pirate. Upala had removed her boots and was dancing barefoot with such carefree abandon that it was easy to forget just how fearsome she could look with a sword in her hand and a scowl on her face. Kai watched her with an expression that softened the hardest lines of his face, too, and seeing this Rémy looked away, a slight pang piercing her heart. Kai’s regard for Upala was obvious, and it made her think of Thaddeus. She wondered how he and the others were, and wished she were with them. The sooner she could follow their trail, the better. Which meant she shouldn’t merely be sitting here, watching this celebration.
“You did not seem surprised to see me,” she began, leaning closer to Kai so that her voice carried over the noise of the party.
Kai offered a slight smile, but his gaze remained fixed on the festivities. “Oh, I was surprised — to see you here, anyway.”
“I never even knew I had a brother,” Rémy told him. “Not until a few months ago. But you knew you had a sister, all along?”
The pirate turned to look at her at last, a dark light in his eyes. “I knew about the curse that hangs over our family. I knew what part the raja and that rat Gustave had in it and I knew, yes, I knew, that I was a twin. But life is difficult enough, Rémy, without dwelling on those things you cannot change. If you are waiting for me to apologize for not searching for you, you will wait a long time. I have had hard enough work just keeping myself alive.”
Rémy looked away, pained. “That’s not what I meant,” she said, blinking hard as she stared at the flames. “I just do not understand why you knew when I did not.”
Kai leaned forward to pick up a piece of driftwood at his feet and turned it in his hands. “When our parents separated, they each took one of us. Our mother took you. Our father took me.”
“And brought you back here? To India?”
Her twin shrugged. “He died before I was old enough to think to ask him why. Maybe he thought he could find a way to lift the curse himself. He always talked of you — you and our mother. He loved you both. They just … could not be together, all the time that the curse was in place. And he never found a way to break it.”
“It is broken now,” Rémy told him. “You know that, don’t you?”
Kai stopped twirling the stick, but he didn’t look up. His face took on a frown. “What do you mean?”
“I have a friend. His name is Desai. He is from here, but he has spent many years living in London. The diamond that our parents stole from the raja all those years ago — I found it, Kai. Desai brought it back here, to lift the curse. We are both free.”
Kai slowly lifted his head and looked out at the dancers again. The tune had changed, but the music was still just as fast. Upala weaved in and out of the other dancers, laughing as she twisted and turned, her bare feet scattering flurries of sand into the air. Kai’s eyes found her in the crowd, as Rémy suspected they always would. “The curse … is broken?” he repeated slowly.
“Yes, thanks to Desai.”
“He must be a great friend, indeed.”
Rémy saw her chance and seized it. “He is. He is a great friend and a great man. At this moment he is trying to save this place from a terrible danger.”
Her brother turned to look at her. “A danger? What danger?”
Rémy took a deep breath. “It is called the Sapphire Cutlass. Have you heard of it?”
Kai stared at her for a moment, then gave a bitter laugh. “Your friend has been telling you fairy stories, little sister. There are far worse dangers here than a fable like the Sapphire Cutlass. Monsters that you, in your soft little circus life, could not possibly imagine.”
Rémy prickled at that. “Dangers such as running into a band of marauding pirates, for example?”
Kai shook his head. “We are not the people to fear here — not for good, ordinary folk, in any case. We do what we do to help the people of this country, not to hurt them. The British take everything from these people and give nothing back. They take their land, their crops, their jewels, their sons. What can be more monstrous than that? So the people turn to the person they think can help them — the raja, who is even worse. He forces them to fight against all his enemies in an army that has no firepower, no training — no hope of winning at all.”
Rémy thought of the villages that the airship had stopped in before the jeweled man had attacked them — how in many of them there had only been the very young and the very old and the very sick. Suddenly it seemed obvious where the able-bodied had gone, and why the crops had gone untended.
“We take from both sides, and we do what we can to help with what we steal,” Kai went on. “So you see, little sister, we have plenty of monsters already without borrowing them from children’s stories.”
“What if it isn’t a children’s story?” she pressed.
Kai laughed scornfully. “A woman made of sapphire with the power to tear whole armies asunder with her bare hands? How could it be anything but?”
Rémy shrugged. “Some people believe, yes? There is a cult, so Desai told me.”
Kai threw the chunk of driftwood away. “So there is, he is right. A cult made of superstitious old men and women with nothing else to do with their time and nothing better to put their faith in.”
“Desai says it is more than that. The cult has been growing, becoming more and more powerful,” she said, thinking it better to leave out, at least for the moment, her friend’s belief in the supernatural powers of the mountain and its sapphires. “He thinks someone is using the myth of the Sapphire Cutlass as a way to recruit more people.”
Her brother looked at her thoughtfully. “Does he now? And what would be the good of that?”
Rémy shrugged. “People will do anything for something they believe in, isn’t that right? Terrible things. Bad things. Desai thinks they are preparing for war.”
“A war? Who with?”
“He doesn’t know, but he thinks it is the raja’s mystic, Sahoj, behind it. And if that’s the case and the British find out, there will be a war for sure.”
Kai raised his hands. “Well then, I say let them fight. If they wipe each other out, so much the better, eh?”
Rémy put her hand on his arm, leaning closer. “Really? You would want that? You would let those people you care so much for be caught in the middle of such a war?”
Her brother set his jaw and did not answer, staring at the fire with dark eyes.
“I have seen things, Kai. The airship I brought here — it is nothing compared to the machines of war that I know are out there. Metal soldiers with no feeling and no heart that can march for days without food and will fight without mercy; ships that can sail beneath the water so that no one will see them coming — powered by the earth itself and by gem stones like the one that our parents stole, all those years ago. You don’t have to believe me — I can show you the ruby that makes my ship fly. I have seen things you wouldn’t believe, brother, and they have all lead us here, to this place — to the Sapphire Cutlass. Perhaps the story is just a story, but whatever is happening in the name of that story should terrify us all.”
“And say I were to believe your words, little sister? Say I were to feel as afraid as you — what would you have me do about it?”
“Help us. The people I traveled here with — good people, four of them — they are journeying into the valley of the Sapphire Cutlass as we speak. Come with me. You and your pirates. Come with me to find them — to help them, with whatever they find.”
Kai turned to look at her. “Four people?” he said incredulously. “This man Desai believes you must fight an army — and he brought only three people with him?”
Rémy looked down at her feet. “He didn’t bring us. He was imprisoned by the raja. We came looking for him and freed him.”
“So … these people you brought with you,” Kai said. “They are soldiers? Fighters of the first order? Fearsome warriors, able to fell armies as easily as the girl in the story. Yes?”
Rémy shifted uncomfortably. “Not exactly.”
“Oh?” She could feel Kai watching her with sharp eyes. “Tell me, then. Who are they, these people who will defeat a supernatural army?”
Rémy shut her eyes. “One is a policeman. His name is Thaddeus Rec, from London. He is a brave and honorable man who will stop at nothing to do the right thing.”
“A policeman,” Kai repeated, his voice flat. “Well, I hope you are starting at the bottom and working your way up, Rémy Brunel.”
“Then there is J,” Rémy went on, her heart sinking at her brother’s unimpressed tone, but carrying on regardless. “He is swift and brave — I met him in London, too. He was a pickpocket then, but —”
“A pickpocket?” Kai interrupted her, his disbelief growing further. “This man Desai must be a fool. Who else but a fool would bring other fools with him to a battle?”
“J built the airship,” Rémy said. “He built it from nothing but a book of words and scraps he found around Limehouse.”
That shut her brother up. His eyebrows rose in surprise, and he looked over her head toward the craft sitting silently on the shore.
“Appearances can be deceptive,” Rémy told him, “and I would have thought that a pirate, of all people, would know that.”
Kai looked at her and grinned, his teeth straight and white apart from a single, black gap where he had lost one. The absence made him look fierce and reckless, and she longed to hear of the life her brother had led. Maybe they would have time, someday, to swap stories — of her life on the road, of his on the ocean. But not now. She could tell that despite his interest, Kai was far from convinced by her story. She decided not to let on that two of Desai’s party were children. Let him find out for himself if he agreed to help. And if he didn’t — well, there would be no need for him to know in any case.
“And the final member of your little fighting force?” Kai prompted, as if he could read her thoughts. She wondered briefly if he could, but his question seemed genuine enough.
“Dita,” Rémy said, scuffing her toes in the sand. “Small, wiry, and quick. She speaks many languages, has a head for heights, and is as brave as they come.”
Kai looked out at the dancing pirates, once again finding Upala in the crowd. “Could she have a hope of bettering Upala in a fight?”
Rémy smiled privately at the thought of little Dita, who would barely reach Upala’s waist, clashing blades with the female pirate. And yet … “She would do her best,” Rémy told him truthfully, “and she would fight with her whole heart.”
Kai nodded. “As Upala does,” he said. “As it should be.” Her brother sighed. “I admire you and your friends, little sister. It takes courage and spirit to go up against something with so few hands, especially with so little knowledge of what you may encounter.”
“Then help us,” Rémy urged. “If you truly live your life to help others, help us — and in doing so, help all of India. All of the world, perhaps. Help us before it is too late.”
Kai shook his head. “Even if I thought it would make a difference — my people are fighters on water, not on land. On the ocean I can keep them safe, but on land they will be easy prey before we even reach the valley you speak of. Every one of them has a bounty on his head, put there by the British, who will kill them if they are caught. I will not lead them to certain death on the basis of a story,” he said, holding up a hand before she could interrupt, “and a story is all you have, Rémy. Can’t you see that?”
Rémy was silent for a few minutes. Then she said, “What if I gave you the airship?”
Kai looked surprised. “What?”
“Help us, and afterward, I will give you the airship. That would give you an advantage over the British, would it not?”
The pirate threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, little sister — look around you. If I wanted your ship, I could take it from you in a flat second.”
“But you wouldn’t know how to fly it,” Rémy countered. “Help us, Kai, and when it’s over I’ll give you the airship — and I will teach you how to use it, too. You have my word.”
Kai looked at her as if he were sizing up the truth of her statement. “And what about this J, who built it? Won’t he be rather upset that you’ve given away his contraption?”
“Desai sent me to find you, Kai. I see that now. He knows we need your help. J will understand if it is the only way to secure it.”
Kai looked over to the airship, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He stood up, and Rémy followed as he crossed to where it waited patiently in the sand. Her brother ran his hands over the wood of the hull, and she could tell he was interested. What pirate wouldn’t be? To be able to attack from the air — it would make Kai the undisputed king of the ocean.
Rémy heard a noise behind her and turned to see Upala approaching, her dark cheeks flushed pink from dancing. She stopped beside Rémy and put her hands on her hips, watching Kai as she caught her breath.
“What are you thinking?” she asked him over the noise of the party continuing behind them.
“That this would give us the advantage we so desperately need,” Kai said as he continued to contemplate the airship.
Upala nodded, crossing her arms. “Then it’s fortunate we have the anukarana to teach us how to use it.”
“I’ll teach you, if you help me,” Rémy said firmly.
“Help you do what?” Upala asked, looking between the twins suspiciously.
Kai turned and walked back toward them. “Upala. You and the rest of the crew take the ship back to our safe harbor. I’ll join you there — with the airship — when I can.”
“Why?” Upala asked. “Where are you going?”
“To see whether what my sister has told me about the Sapphire Cutlass is true.”
“I believe it is,” said Rémy, “and if it is we need more help than just you, Kai.”
“Well, I am all you’re getting, little sister. I’ll not drag anyone else along for what could be a one-way trip.”
“You’re going with her?” Upala looked appalled. “It could be a trap!”
“Yes,” agreed Kai, watching Rémy steadily, “it could be. But somehow I don’t think so. Or if it is, it’s not one set by her. So I will go with her and find out.”
Rémy held her brother’s gaze, feeling her heart flood with relief. It wasn’t what Desai had been hoping for, she was sure of that — one extra pair of hands against whatever they would have to face. But it was better than nothing — and if they could be on their way immediately, then so much the better.
By now the rest of the pirates had realized that something was afoot. The music and dancing had stopped, and Kai’s crew had formed a semi-circle around them, quietly watching what was going on.
“I’m coming with you,” Upala declared. “I will not let you go alone.”
“It’ll be safer if you —”
“Safer!” Upala scoffed, cutting him off. “What do I care about staying safe?”
“I care,” Kai told her, the quiet, clipped words seeming to kill all other noise around them save for the crackle of the fire. The two pirates stared at each other, and Rémy realized that something significant had happened in that one, small moment. She had assumed they were a couple, but perhaps she was wrong. She remembered, then, her brother’s reaction when he’d learned they were no longer cursed. Had he been holding back? Had he kept his distance from Upala because he knew about the curse?
“I am coming with you, Kai,” Upala said into the quiet. “If you don’t let me travel with you I will follow on foot. Do you understand?”
“If we are going to go at all,” Rémy said into another silence, “then we should go now.”