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You're Invited

I’d been skeptical when I’d received Izzy’s dinner invitation, delivered via some lackey she’d overpaid. He’d stood, sweating and nervous, as Marco and I read her semi-calligraphic script.


Dear Anne, (Marco’s was addressed to him)

You are cordially invited for dinner this evening:

7 sharp, my kitchen

Dress code: Clean! (semi-formal)

Please RSVP as promptly as possible

- Lady Isabelle

Yes_ : )

No_  : (


After explaining to Marco what RSVP meant, “répondez s'il vous plaît,” he’d written her back a dissertation in perfect French. It was the first time I’d laughed since the lightning struck. The lackey had run away ever so fast when we’d given him the responses.


“The invitation said seven sharp. When do you suppose that is? Is she working with a certain time piece? How near sundown might it mean?” Marco straightened the cushions he’d been lying on and then started tackling my own blankets.


“No idea. Let’s just keep an eye on her table. Once the cups are filled we can head over.” I wasn’t ready to attempt standing yet so he straightened around me.


“Perhaps she’ll send for us when it’s time.” He folded a blanket and put it behind my back for support. It was nice. He was nice. Last time I saw you, you were in my bed, under my sheets… I shivered. I still remembered that kiss in the upstairs hallway of that manor. Perhaps once I Fountained and was feeling better we could make that one little prophecy come true. It would be nice to share a bed with him for a little while.


“That or she’ll yell across the compound that I show myself or else.” I eased back in bed, giving myself a moment to mentally prepare to stand and start moving. I was hardly healed enough to handle getting up and today would be difficult, but there was nothing for it, I had to be on my feet and I had to be moving.


I had bad news to deliver to my sister. Nothing like a harpoon through the chest to serve as a giant reminder that this era was dangerous. Izzy couldn’t stay here. It was a miracle she hadn’t been sold into slavery or worse. There was no doubt she’d put up a fight about leaving her young lieutenant but once she was back where toilets flushed and cheeseburgers arrived on your doorstep and you could book a single flight and make it safely to the other side of the world in a matter of hours, she’d get over her loss. She’d gotten over Maui, she could get over this boy too. I wasn’t looking forward to breaking the news to her. She’d see it as yet another of my broken promises, not my attempt to remedy my errors and ensure that she’d live a long and happy life.


So, with a deep breath, I wrenched myself upright. Slowly. I’d go slowly with myself and I’d go slowly with her. I couldn’t Fountain till I was steadier on my feet. Until then, all would be slow. Marco caught me before I took two steps.


“Where are you off to?” He held me tight, and, just like yesterday, I loved it and hated it.


“Elizabeth and I need to go over repairs. We –”


“Would you have done it?” He held me tight. He looked at me with an oddly serious expression, far different than the one he’d read Izzy’s invitation with earlier.


“Done what?” Being with him was easy. It never felt like work to have his arm around me.


“Elizabeth told me about the storm.” He didn’t look away. I did. First she messes up a simple count and now she tattled on me to Marco. She was dead.


“It was a bad moment. One bad moment that happened years ago.” I tried to step away but one, he wouldn’t let me, and two, my leg was throbbing. I couldn’t believe Elizabeth would betray me like this. If even Izzy had been able to keep her mouth shut, so could my first mate. “She shouldn’t have told you.”


Marco’s expression darkened, all levity gone. It was no use equivocating with him. He and I shared too much history, he knew me too well. Elizabeth’s admission was annoying but it would not be the first time he would have heard similar concerns. He knew me far too well. He turned my chin back to face him…face him and the music.


“If it had been me in that storm –” he started.


“Please let me go.” I didn’t want to face this right now.


“If it had been me,” he continued, “would you have let go?”


“It was a long time ago,” I tried again.


“If it had been me?” Marco’s body was pressed close. Too close. I didn’t want to confess this to him. Aside from being my once-husband, he’d been my friend-always and for longer than I’d known anyone. In my mind I saw Marco on the deck of my ship, staring down at the waves below and wishing he could fling himself over the rail and out of this world. I gripped him tight and felt the heat in his hands and saw the small movements over his face that I knew by heart and, should they be stilled, would rip me apart. Marco was this world and here he would stay.


“I would have gone to Hades and dragged you back here,” I answered.


“Right,” Marco said simply, as if he would do the same for me. I wondered if he would. Marco rubbed my shoulders, waiting for me to believe him. I did. We’d kept each other safe at the temple too. No one was allowed to harm him, least of all himself.


“Right,” I repeated. Last time I saw you, you were in my bed, under my sheets…Where was that kiss in his timeline? Had this Marco already had that moment? I couldn’t be sure but I doubted it. The rest of my family didn’t jump around as much as I did. They couldn’t. They didn’t know the portal like I did.


“Let’s go down to the shore. Watch the waves. Have some of Zheng’s people bring us breakfast,” he offered his shoulder along with the change of topic.


I wanted to work but breakfast was important. I nodded. We could go eat.


He helped me the short distance down to the shoreline and ordered the various servants to bring us chaises and rice. The people hustled to fulfill his demands.


We sat and watched Izzy bustle around the place and order people to and fro. Zheng came and sat with us till we were called for the dinner party to start. I saw that Catherine and Elizabeth were invited, along with Zheng, and two of Izzy’s servants who looked nervous and jumpy. There were now three of us here who bore the Nekydalleon and because of that, nervous energy poured off these servants as well as the crews in the compound. We’d watched them all skitter about an invisible boundary around us today and now these hapless two sat at the table with us looking like they’d prefer to be anywhere else. Izzy continued to reassure them they were welcome at this table as Zheng scared the crap out of them each time she opened her mouth.


The party broke up soon after the gift giving. I hadn’t expected any gifts, that was a surprise. I wasn’t much for gifts as I usually bought whatever I wanted but Izzy had given me a crutch and I saw it as freedom on a stick. I put that beautiful new crutch under my arm and decided to take it for a test drive.


There was enough daylight left for a decent walk down to the docks. I didn’t like what Elizabeth had said about the water rising. I also didn’t like how much pain I was in. It was time to Fountain and deal with the repercussions. It took a few steps to coordinate the crutch/broken arm/busted knee/sucking chest wound combination I sported. Zheng dismissed her entourage and followed behind me, Marco close behind her.


“Where are you off to this fine evening?” Zheng came running up and kicked the crutch out from under me. Luckily, Marco grabbed me before I hit the ground. They both laughed at their little practical joke. Zheng spun the crutch like a baton as Marco held me up and helped me move along. I wasn’t all mad about it. Marco was strong and familiar at my side.


“I’m getting Fountain. The secondary measures will be on me in a day or two if I don’t.” I tried to keep moving forward but Marco stayed put and Zheng stopped twirling my crutch.


“We’re out,” he stated.


“What are you talking about?” I had Fountain on my ship, hence the midnight stroll out to my dock.


“You weren’t waking. We emptied all our Fountains into a pan and dunked you,” Zheng put the crutch under her own arm and tested it out. Marco held onto me as I attempted to push him away and tackle her.


“What?!?” I couldn’t believe this! I was walking around with a giant wound in my chest and broken everythings, and there was no Fountain?!? The few times I’d run out of the stuff had been awful. Now the morons had gone and used it all on me because they were, what, impatient? “But I’m – what am I supposed to do?”


“Rest.” Marco grinned.


“Chill,” Zheng spat out right after him.


“Sleep,” Marco kept the bit going. Had they rehearsed this little number?


“Eat,” Zheng rattled off. That crutch would look good up her ass.


“I can’t do that,” I growled.


“Tell us something we don’t know,” she laughed and went back to twirling my crutch.


“I have to fix the ship. I have to sail.” The horizon tilted on me and clammy sweat broke out across my skin. Marco shifted his grip on me. I thought I’d be able to Fountain and be better in a few hours. Now days stretched ahead where I’d be miserable and dependent. I didn’t have that kind of time. More to the point, Izzy didn’t have that kind of time.


“I said tell us something we don’t know,” Zheng scoffed.


“I need to get in good enough shape to sail and get Izzy out of here. She needs to get back home.” I looked over to where my sister still sat with her guards and Catherine. Elizabeth had gone off to swindle a crew of new arrivals instead of tend the ship I was paying her to tend and which she’d allowed to get rammed like a scene out of Ben Hur.


Zheng looked over at Izzy as my sister put another few bites on Catherine’s plate and demanded a taste test. Zheng shook her head, “She seems to be having a good time. Married that dude she can’t stop talking about. Spent lots of your money.” We all paused and listened to Izzy laugh and continue her party. “She said you all are here to visit and then going to England to see her soldier. Why the damn hurry to leave?”


“It’s too dangerous for her here. I’ve been foolish and,” I looked at Marco, “sentimental.” This was too much. It was too much to have them all here in one place. No one was safe and I was broken. I felt like shit. “I need to sit down.”


This is something Zheng was good for. She snapped her fingers and chaises and lamps were brought over. Marco eased me down and held onto me until I was breathing normally again. Knowing I’d be attempting to manage these injuries sans Fountain made it harder to check the pain.


“She’s going to kill me. And we are out of Fountain,” I groaned and leaned back against the thin upholstery.


“You and your ship are too broken to do anything. So sit tight. Heal up. Get laid.” Zheng smacked my foot and left. She had spied Izzy beginning to assemble what might be a deconstructed taco. That or the two of them would trot off to the nearest hookah.


“What do you need? Anything?” Marco sat down beside me and smiled.


“Fountain.” I frowned. I didn’t want to spend the night here. If I was going to get to bed I needed to head over there now. I tried to sit up only to have my whole body protest. I collapsed against Marco, who put his arms around me and rubbed my shoulders till I could take a deep breath.


“I’ll help you rest,” he crooned. “We can keep the secondary measures away.” Marco was too easy to lean against.


As I calmed, I considered just how much I owed him. I’m sure he would have gladly followed Elizabeth to the nearest batch of rubes and conned them out of the contents of their pockets but instead he was here with me, holding me together. Not that I could do anything much about it now, but I wanted him to know I appreciated his efforts. I brought my fingers down his arm and intertwined his hand in mine. Our marriage was ancient history but the few flings we’d had in between then and now had been wonderful.


“Thank you, Marco, for being here. Helping me. I appreciate it.” I reached up to kiss him. That kiss we’d shared in that hallway had been wonderful and I’d dreamed of it often. I wanted another and I’m sure he would accept it as a nice thank you. I owed him a kiss at the very least for everything he was doing for me. Marco intercepted my attempt to capture another of his kisses, placing our interlocked hands between our lips. He kissed my fingers instead. I was…confused.


“Annie,” he sighed, speaking the words against my fingers, “let’s just get you better. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not asking for anything. Let’s just take it easy,” he leaned me back against the chaise, “Okay?” He kissed my fingers one more time before giving me my hand back.


Relief washed through me. He was not asking anything of me. My life was mostly me, at the wheel of my ship, giving other people what they needed and getting them where they wanted to go. I paid for their livelihoods in gold, or cotton, or kisses. I paid what I needed to pay to remain at their sides; I paid with my talents and my gold and with my body. When I refused people what they wanted from me, they left me. Marco was offering me his side and refusing payment, as if my presence alone was enough for him. It was a nice thought even if it was temporary; the bills always came due. I’d pay for this moment as I paid for all my moments. He’d already told me I would. Last time I saw you, you were in my bed, under my sheets…


“Thank you,” I repeated and rested back.


He gently placed my legs over his lap and we stayed like that, watching the stars. He wasn’t asking for anything from me right now. I could just rest. My body could just rest. He started singing an old Hurrian song and I joined in. I watched the smile regrow on his face as he heard me sing in his language. Neither of us had been able to speak Hurrian, let alone sing, in too long a time. My smile grew too.

Reader's General Warning

Please proceed with caution. Contains strong themes of: suicide, violence, abuse, feminism, irreverence, trafficking, sex trafficking, sex, women having sex, drugs and alcohol, historical inaccuracies, and strong language.

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