by C. G. Mosley
Now I was really confused. Hale Woodrow had been burning up with fever and near death just a few hours earlier. And now he was walking around the ship? I could smell the rum on Langley’s breath, but there was always that odor on his breath. Langley had never acted this way before and at the moment his eyes were full of terror.
“Well what is he doing on the poop deck?” I asked. I started to rise so that I could try and get a look at him, but Langley fiercely pulled me back down.
“No, Cap’n, you mustn’t let him see you…he’ll bloody kill you too!” he rasped.
Kill me too? Either Langley had gone completely mad or there was something very wrong on my ship. I stood and when Langley tried to pull me back down I pushed him away. I went back into my cabin to retrieve my sword. Andrea was still asleep, still naked and beautiful just as I’d left her. When I came back out Langley again tried to plead with me to get down.
“Stay here and calm down old friend,” I said, trying to settle him down. “I’ll check on Hale.”
I padded down the stairs from the quarterdeck and made my way across the waist of the ship. It seemed that everyone else on the ship was asleep, just as I’d commanded. I heard something rustle behind me, and I spun around, ready to attack with my sword. It was Langley on my heels.
“I told you to stay on the quarterdeck,” I whispered through clenched teeth.
“Hale is a giant, Redd. You can’t handle him alone,” he replied, a little more composed, but still terrified. I considered arguing with him, but knew it was useless.
We continued toward the poop deck and as I began to climb the stairs I began to hear a sickening sound. It sounded like a wild animal eating. If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn I heard the sound of tearing flesh as well. The sound made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Against my better judgment, I continued up the stairs. When I reached the top, what I saw would no doubt haunt me for the rest of my life. There was Hale Woodrow and he suddenly seemed much more alive than he’d been the last time I’d seen him. But at the same time, the creature I now saw was not Hale Woodrow. Hale—or what used to be him—turned to look at me, his lips were bloody and flesh dangled from his teeth. Lying in a bloody mess below him was what was left of another member of my crew, but at the moment there was no way to make out who the poor lad used to be. Hale’s eyes did not look like his own anymore, the blue had vanished and they now looked to be the color of amber. Those eyes looked strangely familiar and then it hit me. Those eyes looked exactly like the eyes of the cannibals that attacked us on the Isle of Blood. The same cannibals that had bitten and torn flesh from Hale’s arm.
“Hale, what the devil is going on?” I asked, and I felt ridiculous when I asked the question.
Hale just stared at me blankly for a moment and then returned to the sickening task he’d been at when I arrived. I looked back at Langley, and he peered back at me, his eyes wide and still full of terror, but at the same time, sympathy too.
“That’s not Hale anymore, Cap’n,” he whispered. “Whatever’s taken hold of him, it needs to be put down.”
I nodded at him, agreeing but not wanting to accept it. There had been no gentler soul on the ship than Hale Woodrow. I figured that the cannibals on the Isle of Blood must have been infected with…something. And whatever that something was, it had now infected Hale also. The poor man was suffering and even worse, he’d violently killed a member of my crew. It was pretty certain that he wouldn’t stop there. I raised my cutlass and was suddenly very glad that I’d just sharpened the blade. I dropped it with all the force I could muster and Hale Woodrow’s head fell to the deck with a thud. The rest of his body fell limp and the nightmare he’d become suddenly ended.
Langley placed a firm hand on my shoulder.
“It had to be done, Redd,” he said somberly.
The two of us rolled Hale’s body off the deck and then we did the same with the other anonymous victim. It wasn’t the burial they deserved, but it was a burial at sea nonetheless.
“We have a big day tomorrow and we need everyone on this ship focused,” I told Langley. “They cannot know what happened here tonight. We’ll tell them later, but not tomorrow.”
“So how do we handle the questions we’ll get Cap’n?”
“We’ll tell them that Hale died during the night, and we took it upon ourselves to bury him at sea. There will be some on the crew that will be angered by this decision, but they’ll understand when we’re able to explain it later.”
“What about the other poor bloke?”
“I’ll deal with that myself when it becomes known who he was, you just follow my lead.”
Langley nodded and then the two of us spent the next half hour cleaning the mess off the poop deck the best way that we could. I later returned to my bed, where Andrea still enjoyed a deep sleep. I envied her for that. For when the sun finally rose, I felt far too tired for battle.
Chapter 16 :
As expected, many members of the crew were disappointed and angry that Langley and I decided to dispose of Hale Woodrow’s body during the night. They felt it was disrespectful, and all of the men made their feelings known. Gordon Littleton led the usual charge and I did the best I could to diffuse the situation and turn the men’s attention back to the job at hand. It also quickly became known that another member of the crew was missing. A young lad by the name of William Bonner could not be found anywhere on the ship. After searching for almost an hour I finally, rather somberly, declared to the men that poor William must’ve fallen overboard at some point during the night. This was not too uncommon of a thing so getting the men to believe it was not much of a chore. The most unfortunate thing about this was the fact that it seemed to add to the dismay and discontent of the men. I needed their minds on beating Captain Trimble and his crew, but now it seemed all they could concentrate on was Hale Woodrow and William Bonner. I felt a tremendous amount of guilt for lying to everyone but at the same time I had to tell myself that it was an act that very well may save their lives. Anything I could do to ease any pain they were feeling for their lost shipmates was something I was obligated to do under the circumstances.
The first moment I saw Andrea was an awkward one. Or, it was awkward for me at least. Andrea, on the other hand, gave me a devilish smile and a pat on the derriere when she strolled past. The previous night’s activities had obviously done wonders for her and I was glad to see at least one member of the crew seemed happy.
When Neptune’s Castle finally sailed within sight of Small Hope Bay, I peered through my scope and witnessed a rather concerning site. There were two ships up ahead, both of them had damage and it appeared that they’d been enthralled in a pretty nasty sea battle. There were plumes of smoke rising from one of the ships and as I strained my eyes to get a better look, I swore that the ship looked like the Jane. Two of the ship’s three masts appeared to be broken and they were flailing about in the wind. I guessed that they must’ve gotten entwined in the rigging from the ship’s third mast. It was amazing to see that it was able to withstand the extra weight and strain. I wondered if it could truly be the Jane.
Had Ricardo beaten me here?
I turned my attention back to the other ship. It was a truly massive vessel and it was unfamiliar to me. Its sheer size and firepower rivaled that of my own. The ship had damage also but it was not nearly as significant as what had been inflicted on what I thought to be the Jane. Andrea, Gordon, and Langley stood idly by my side waiting for some word regarding what I could see.
“There are two ships ahead…they seem almost dead in the water. One of them looks considerably worse than the other. We’ve obviously just missed a battle.” I brought the scope down from my face and handed it over to Andrea. “I think that one of those ships is Ricardo’s. Take a look at the other one and tell me if it looks like the Sea Witch.”
Andrea peered through the scope and seconds later brought it back down. Her expression told me all I needed to know before her nod confirmed it.
“That’s it,” she said. “That’s my father. I can just barely make out the red jack on the main mast.”
With those words I began shouting instructions to all of the crew. Langley and Gordon helped in the effort and in less than a minute my men were at their appropriate battle stations. The time had finally arrived and I couldn’t believe my luck. It seemed that Ricardo had already done damage to Trimble’s ship, and hopefully he'd killed a portion of the crew too. I was concerned about my friend’s well-being, but now was not the time to dwell on it. We were going to take advantage of the vulnerability of the Sea Witch and hopefully put an end to Trimble’s reign of terror and any concerns about King Solomon’s signet ring, whether they were true or not.
I fully expected to see some sort of movement by Trimble’s ship as we approached, and when I didn’t I grabbed my scope again to see if there was any movement on the Sea Witch’s decks. I could see what remained of her crew, and they seemed to just be content with watching me approach.
How odd, I thought. Something didn’t feel right about any of this. It felt as if we were sailing right into a trap. I turned my scope back upon the other ship and what I saw made my heart skip a beat. I pulled the scope away and rubbed at my eyes for a long moment. I knew I was exhausted from lack of sleep and what I’d seen could’ve easily been construed as a hallucination. I sighed and then took another look through the scope. I saw the same thing again, and now I began to feel panic. What I’d thought were broken masts flailing about in the rigging wasn’t masts at all. Now it was very apparent that what I was seeing was indeed tentacles.
The kraken!
If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. The monster seemed to just be holding the ship in place. It’s long, grey tentacles rose up every side of the ship and the Jane seemed to be resting on the creature’s body. Suddenly, it all began to become clear to me. Ricardo, or someone on his crew, had evidently squealed to Trimble about our plans of attacking him. It seemed to me that he was holding the entire ship hostage until we arrived.
“We’re almost within range to fire,” Robert shouted from the waist.
“Hold your fire until I give the order!” I replied.
I wondered how long it would be before someone was able to make out the kraken, and how the ship would react to it. It didn’t take long at all.
“A sea monster is taking that ship!”
That was the first cry I heard from someone on the poop deck. From then on the men became frantic, some of them even leaving their battle stations in hopes they could get a better look near the bow of the ship.
“Back to your stations you sea dogs! You’ve got duties to attend to!” I roared the command with all the authority I could muster and it seemed to work. The men snapped out of whatever trance that had taken over their senses and began to wander back to their respective stations. Some of them I had to bark at individually and whatever scowl they directed at me I returned tenfold.
“Whatever sea monster is trying to send Ricardo’s ship to Davy Jones locker will fail to do so on our watch mates! Ready your guns and prepare to send that beast back to the hell from whence it came!”
The men roared in unison and again readied their guns and cutlasses.
“It’s not the creature you need to attack,” I heard Andrea say behind me. I turned to face her. “It’s the Sea Witch you need to hit first. It’s my father that is controlling the kraken.”
I considered what she said and soon came to the conclusion that she was right. It was Captain Trimble that I’d come for and he was in a most vulnerable position. We may never have a chance like this at him again.
“You’re right,” I said. “But I’ve got to try to do this in a way to save Ricardo.”
“That’s very sweet of you, but I don’t know that you’ll be able to find a way to do that,” she replied, that annoyed tone of hers had returned.
“Well, I’ve got to try,” I snapped, and then I directed the crew to train their guns toward the Sea Witch.
“No one fire until I give the order!” I reminded them again.
As we drifted even closer to the two ships, I grabbed my scope again and searched for Captain Trimble. I peered at the quarterdeck until I spotted an older fellow with a tattered bicorn hat upon his head, and he wore a long dark canvas coat. The majority of his face was heavily scarred and a black eye patch covered his left eye. The evil-looking man had to be him. I handed the scope to Andrea and asked her to confirm my suspicions, which she did. I then ordered Gordon to go and fetch my speaking trumpet from within my cabin. If there was any chance of saving Ricardo, I was going to have to at least try and reason with the man. When we were finally close enough, I took a moment to adjust my hat and I then gave it my best shot.
“Captain Trimble,” I shouted into the trumpet. “I see that your ship has damage. Order your beast to release that ship or I will be forced to finish it off. Don’t make me sink your vessel.”
I watched as a member of Trimble’s crew brought him his own speaking trumpet through which he made his reply.
“Captain Redd, I presume?” he shouted with a raspy, high-pitched voice. “I don’t think you fully grasp the severity of your situation, lad. I can have that ship crushed in a matter of seconds and then I can turn it on you before you are able to sink this ship.”
“You’re not going to turn that creature on me, Trimble,” I replied.
The savage pirate seemed confused, and finally asked, “And just why won’t I, captain?”
At that moment I reached behind me and pulled Andrea forward, I put my cutlass to her throat. She squealed in response, obviously taken off guard by my action, which was exactly how I’d planned it.
“What are you doing?” she muttered nervously.
“Trust me,” I whispered.
“Is that my daughter?” Trimble asked, surprise in his voice.
“Aye it is,” I answered. “She’s a pretty lass and although it’d be a shame to hurt her, I won’t hesitate in doing so unless you command the beast to release that ship!”
Trimble held the speaking trumpet by his side for a long moment and stared blankly in my direction. Our ship had now drifted close enough that the speaking trumpet wasn’t necessary anymore. He seemed confused by what I’d just said, which in turn confused me. Then, after a long pause, he began to laugh.
“Do what you must,” he shouted. “But just know that if you do not tell me you’re going to surrender by the count of five, I will order that beautiful animal to crush that ship into tiny pieces of kindling. There will be nothing left…now, ONE…”
“He doesn’t care about me, I told you that,” Andrea said, pulling away from me.
“TWO!” Trimble shouted.
“What about the bloody chest full of rum?” Gordon asked.
“THREE!”
“There’s no time, he’ll kill everyone on that ship…you need to surrender now and we’ll reveal the chest afterward,” Andrea said.
“FOUR!”
I noticed Trimble raise his right hand and the golden ring that I could only guess to be the ring that once belonged to King Solomon glistened in the morning sunlight. I could literally see the muscles within the kraken’s tentacles begin to tense up.
“Alright, I surrender!” I shouted quickly. I then ordered all of my men to drop their weapons.
Captain Trimble slowly lowered his arm and an evil grin formed on his etched and weathered face. For the first time I could see his face well and I could see the burns and eye patch on the left side of it that Andrea had told me about.
“Good decision, lad,” Trimble answered, and then he ordered his men to board our ship. They threw grappling hooks over our rails and pulled the two vessels together. I noticed that Trimble, although he moved quite well for a man his age, still suffered from a slight limp. No doubt a result from all of the injuries he’d sustained from the battle with the Dawn Breaker all those years ago. He gingerly climbed over the rail
ings of both ships and stomped his boots onto the waist of Neptune’s Castle loudly to make his presence known to all. He spat on my ship when he boarded it then marched straight up to me. He pulled a dagger from his belt as he approached and I suddenly became very concerned.
“Where did you find my daughter?” he asked, speaking as if Andrea could not even hear us.
“I helped her escape the gallows. You don’t seem very happy to see her.” I said.
“Happy to see her?” he asked in disgust. “Why would I be happy to see that little sea devil?”
I noticed him glance over at his daughter, and I did as well. Andrea stared at the deck, but when she made a quick glance at her father I could tell there was something else going on here. Something I hadn’t been told about.
“You should watch out for her, lad,” he said pointing his dagger at her. “If she’ll try and kill me, her own bloody father, just imagine what she’s capable of doing to you when your back is turned.”
“Is that why you marooned her then?” I asked.
Trimble shot an evil glare my way. “Aye, it is,” he replied. “Partly, anyway.”
“Partly?” I asked, confused.
Trimble strolled over to Andrea and grabbed the side of her head with his right hand. “Have you not told your new captain what you did to get marooned my dear?” he asked her.
Andrea clenched her teeth and said nothing. She refused to even look at her father. When she wouldn’t speak he released her and then stomped back over to me.
“She got marooned because of this,” he said, holding up one finger…the finger that the signet ring was on. “She wants this bloody thing for herself. She wants it because she’s far meaner that I could ever be.”
I looked over at Andrea, and she continued to look away.
“She’s not the sweet lass she’s probably made herself out to be, lad,” Trimble continued. “She’s my daughter, there’s too much wickedness in her blood for her to be anything but evil.”
“All I know is that she and I share a common interest, and that interest is seeing you dead.” I growled defiantly.
