Pirate Queen

by H. N. Klett

  Right now that hand was damaged, at least on this vessel. The captain had barely enough crew remaining to man the rigging; no one would be able to even aim the guns should trouble arise. The automatic systems were able to do things like rearm the cannons and raise and lower the sails but humans were needed to make adjustments. There were too many places where a human hand was needed, and they simply didn’t have enough crew members left from the fight.

  After they were underway, the captain pleaded with the Queen and Graver to meet up with one of the other ships patrolling the waters of Eolan to recrew and resupply but the Queen refused to hear his pleas. She demanded they get underway at once; she was confident they wouldn’t face any more trouble.

  Her captain did not agree. He did as he was told, but he didn’t have to like it.

  They were sailing into the most dangerous sea in the world, a place covered in mists where no instruments worked and there was barely a whisper of a breeze. He knew the ghost pirates weren’t real. He’d seen them. He’d beaten them and sunk their ship. But the other myths and stories still lingered in his mind and those of the remaining crew. The childhood saying played over and over in his mind;

  Eyes of red

  of the pirate dead

  Are on the hunt for you.

  Beware the mists,

  And take no risks,

  Lest you become a ghost pirate, too.

  The Queen didn’t care about stories or feelings; she cared about getting what she wanted regardless of the cost. Her ruthlessness was made clear when she ordered the captain to fire on the pirate ship loaded with her own people, a few hours before. She commanded it as casually as someone ordering a cup of tea.

  Now the captain had only fifty crewmen when he should have at least two hundred running the huge ship. Not enough to go as quickly as they should, not enough to keep watch, and certainly not enough to defend themselves properly if someone should engage them. His thoughts turned treasonous.

  Jacob Graver stepped to him again, which pulled the captain out of his contemplation.

  “Adjust course seven degrees to port. We should be there soon.”

  “I’ll do the best I can, but with no instruments and barely any visibility, it’s hard to be sure,” the captain grumbled.

  “You won’t do your best, you will do as you are told,” Graver said, and with a turn, he stepped back to the Queen, who stared transfixed into the air just above the book she was holding.

  Ahead of the Virtuous, the mists parted. Before the ship stood a mountain rising out of the sea. It was thick at the base and tapered off quickly to a curving spire, like a shiny thorn piercing out of the water.

  “My Queen!” Jacob Graver stepped forward with a face full of awe and wonder. “You have done it!” He turned back to her, but instead of wonder on her veiled face, there was horror.

  Graver spun around to see a grenade exploding just above the main deck of their ship, and the concussion threw them to the ground. The Arrow sent out a cheer as their ship turned away and moved back into the shroud of mists.

  “How are they firing on us?” Graver bellowed at the captain as he struggled to get up. “They’re just a merchant vessel!”

  “That was a grenade, probably lobbed from a slingshot or catapult,” shouted Captain Jamal, his ears still ringing from the concussion of the blast.

  Captain Jamal searched off of the port side with a spyglass, but it was useless. The mists were too thick.

  “Well, find them and destroy of them! This is a ship of war! One measly merchant vessel shouldn’t be that much trouble!”

  Captain Jamal turned in anger to Bishop Graver and snapped, “If we had a crew—”

  He was stopped short by the approach of the Queen, who addressed him directly, her voice calm and even. “Get us as close as you can to that island, Captain Jamal. We will worry about the merchants later. Our first priority is securing the treasure.” Then she turned to Graver and rested a hand on his shoulder.

  “You and I will take one of the longboats and go to the sealed cave at the top of the spire. There I will claim my prize. Only the book can open the cave.” She stepped toward him and brushed his cheek. “Don’t worry, we’ve come too far to let those peasants stop us now.”

  Another grenade exploded above the decks on the starboard side, killing a group of men. The light from it was dazzling and left everyone blinking.

  Another cheer from the Arrow went up as they turned back into the mists.

  “Shoot at them!” Graver shouted in anger at Jamal.

  Captain Jamal didn’t seem to hear him. Instead he was focused on the figure standing on his main deck. It wasn’t one of his crew—the clothes were all wrong. He knew there were no such things as ghosts, but there, staring up at him from the deck, was a giant man with glowing red eyes and a skull where a head should be, pointing a long, curved hook at him. On the rails on both sides, more glowing red eyes began to appear out of the mists. Captain Jamal stood there, horrified as if a childhood nightmare just came to life.

  “Aren’t you listening to me?” Graver shouted at him and stepped over to the still frozen captain. Graver then followed the captain’s gaze to see not just the lone figure, but several sets of glowing eyes racing up the decks.

  “Time to go!” Graver turned and ran to the back of the ship, shouting, “To arms! To arms!” to the almost nonexistent crew. Only a few of marines were left on the ship, three of them broke off and boarded the longboat with the Queen to man the oars as the others frantically sprinted down the decks to engage the boarders. Graver raced to join the Queen as the pirates began to come up the stairs to the bridge.

  “Stop them!” Hailey shouted as she and her allies ran onto the bridge. Hadyn and Kyra took the lead and began to engage the few marines that had had taken up positions to bottleneck their progress.

  Captain Jamal drew his sword and soon found himself face to face with the giant figure he had seen on the deck before. Jamal felt the terror in his blood and his muscles ached with fear as he stared into the towering figure’s glowing red eyes. It had just raised its axe so strike when Captain Jamal blurted out, “I yield!”

  The creature stopped its advance but kept the axe raised. Captain Jamal dropped his cutlass to the deck with a clatter and raised his hands as he ducked his head.

  The massive figure of Olau closed the gap and placed his hook under Captain Jamal’s chin, then leaned in close enough to smell the panic on the captain’s breath.

  In a low growling voice Olau said, “Smart man.”

  Hailey’s plan to take advantage of the mists had worked. The lights about the Virtuous acted like a beacon broadcasting its location through the gloom. The crew of the Arrow could follow and close in, undetected. With the help of the pirate skull masks to cut through the mists and the bright lights that the ship was bathed in, the Queen’s ship was an easy target.

  Hailey and the other pirates approached the ship in rowboats and waited for the opportunity to attack. While the Queen and her crew were distracted by the Arrow and the homemade grenades made by Malik, the pirates threw lines over the sides of her ship and quickly shimmied up the sides of the vessel, ready to fight.

  As Hailey raced to the bridge, she watched the wall of masked men and women clash into the line of guards like a great wave. They were no longer merchants, or members of a class, or even men and women anymore, the masks and the mists took that away. They were a people that wanted to save a town. Avenge a friend. Wanted to be free from the rule of the Crown and to be in charge of their own destiny. If that made them pirates, then they were all pirates now.

  Graver had made it on board the longboat and shouted to the marine who stood on the other side. “Cut the lines!”

  Graver frantically unsheathed his rapier and joined the guard in hacking away at the lines.

  The marines on the bridge were too busy trying to repel the mob of pirates to turn the cranks and lower the boat to safety.

  Just as the pirates overpo
wered the last of the marines and broke through, the lines gave way and the longboat dropped to the water below with a heavy splash.

  “No!” Hailey screamed. She raced to the banister and saw that the Queen and Graver were getting away. Graver smiled up at her and a waved.

  Before anyone could stop her, Hailey mounted the rail and dove into the sea after them.

  Chapter 19

  The water was much cooler than the air above it that far north, but the fire in Hailey’s heart burned so hot she barely noticed. Surfacing, she tossed off her mask and saw the longboat a few lengths in front of her, quickly making its way to the shore. She began to swim madly towards them. She didn’t know what she would do when she caught up with them or how she would stop them, she just knew she had to get to them.

  She had to stop the Queen from killing her people. To get the man that killed her father. She had to get that book back.

  Though in her head she didn’t feel it, her muscles ached from both the change in temperature and exertion. With every stroke it seemed that the longboat was pulling farther and farther away. It had been a while since she had to swim, a skill her father was sure to teach her while living on the ship. She had forgotten how tiring an activity it was. Her energy began to leave her and she realized that she had not thought this through and realized immediately that she had made a terrible mistake. She struggled to keep her head above water and began to sink.

  Hands plunged into the water and quickly pulled the semiconscious Hailey out of the water and onto a boat. Standing over her were Hadyn and Kyra.

  “That’s twice I’ve had to pull you out of the water today. Anyone ever tell you that there is a much easier way to get across water?” Hadyn smirked down at her. “Maybe next time you and your gal pal won’t be so quick to ditch me.”

  “Come on, lover boy, they’re getting away!” Kyra elbowed him and plopped down on the bench and grabbed an oar.

  Hailey looked up at Hadyn smugly looking at her and allowed herself to smile at him. He tossed her a blanket and a small bag filled with dried fruit to help her regain her strength, then sat back down to his oar. Hadyn and Kyra began to row with all of their strength.

  The blanket was warm and helped her regain her lost heat, and the dried fruit would help replace all the energy she had expended in the water. As she warmed up, her muscles they ached. She ignored it. She had to push through and do her best to recover quickly. They were beginning to gain on the Queen’s boat.

  There was a loud crack and the hiss of a musket ball flying over their heads. One of the marines on the Queen’s boat stood and fired.

  “They’re shooting at us!” Hailey said incredulously, ducking low in the boat behind Hadyn and Kyra who had their backs to the danger.

  “Well, shoot back!” retorted Hadyn, bowing his head as he rowed.

  Hailey panicked. “I’ve never fired a gun before.”

  “First time for everything. I don’t have one, though,” Kyra grunted as she rowed.

  Hadyn growled and rowed with all his might. “Reach around me and take mine. Just point it at them and pull the trigger.”

  She felt awkward as she reached around him. He felt warm from all the exertion. The sensation felt good on her cold skin. She had never been this close to a young man before. He smelled of sweat and the sea. She realized she liked it.

  Hey! No time for that right now! Hailey admonished herself for getting distracted and grabbed the pistol from Hadyn’s belt.

  She hoped Hadyn wouldn’t notice how her face flushed when she sat back.

  She looked the pistol over as they closed the distance. She had held the other one so readily under her chin before, prepared to pull the trigger and end her life to save others. Now she needed to take someone else’s life to save others, and she wasn’t sure it sat the same way in her conscience.

  There was another crack and the hiss of a shot, this time much closer, causing Hadyn to jerk his head down reflexively. Their boat was almost on top of the Queen’s. The standing marine was handed another musket to fire at them. Hailey steeled her resolve. Doing this was the only way to prevent them from being killed.

  Hailey stood up quickly and pointed the pistol at the marine. She hesitated for a moment as she looked down the top octagonal barrel and pulled the trigger. There was a plume of smoke, a small spark of fire, and the loud crash of the shot.

  Hailey peered through the acrid smoke billowing out of the pistol to see the marine falter, clutching his chest, and then he fell backwards over the side of the longboat with a splash.

  Hadyn stopped his rowing and turned to watch as the marine dropped into the water. Hailey stood there and stared at the place where the marine had gone under, her arm still outstretched, smoking pistol still in hand.

  Hadyn looked up at her and said, “Nice shot.”

  The marine who had been reloading the musket popped up and got a shot off at Hailey. He missed wide to her left, but it was enough to snap Hailey out of her daze. She tried to pull the trigger again, but there was nothing loaded.

  “Get down!” Kyra shouted. “You need to reload it.”

  “How?”

  Hadyn sighed. Hailey knew that explaining it would take precious minutes. Precious minutes they didn’t have. They had to keep rowing in pursuit.

  “Switch with me,” Hadyn told Hailey, and he abandoned the bench for the floor of the boat. Hailey took her place on the bench and handed him the pistol.

  Hailey grabbed Hadyn’s oar and began to row in time with Kyra, pulling with all her might. Her muscles still protested, but she could row.

  Hadyn sat low in the boat and quickly pulled a pre-rolled charge and ball from the pouch on his belt. He reloaded the pistol with expert timing, rammed down the shot and looked back up at Hailey.

  “Okay, switch back.”

  Hailey released the oar and dove back to the floor. Hadyn handed her the pistol. Taking the pistol from him, an odd question crossed her mind.

  “Hadyn, why don’t you take the shot?”

  He sat back on the bench and grabbed the oar. His muscles flexed tightly under the strain of the row and his eyes would not meet hers. “Because I row faster and you shoot better.”

  Hailey knew that there was something else, something not being said. These two knew they needed the Navigator alive if they were going to get the treasure. It was better to arm and shield her behind a pair of bodies than make her a target.

  They had almost caught the Queen’s longboat. The Queen and Graver were out of sight, likely cowering in the boat, behind the two remaining marines. There was a shot, and a musket ball splintered a rail on the front of the boat, just missing Hadyn, making him shout in surprise.

  Hailey peeked up and saw she didn’t have a shot at anyone except the marine rowing. She thought twice about standing up and taking it when she realized the other marine was peeking out from behind him with a rifle ready.

  The bow of their boat slammed into the back of the Queen’s boat, knocking the shot of the marine just wide of Hadyn’s head, the musket ball hissed by Hadyn’s ear. He cried out in surprise and cringed as he dropped his oar.

  Kyra dropped her oar, sprung up to the front of the boat, and drew her long knives.

  “Stay behind me, pretty boy.” Kyra flashed a wicked grin at him and crouched at the ready. Hadyn knew better than to argue with her, especially when she could smell a good fight. She may have been a woman, but she was as fierce as her flaming hair. He got up from the bench and crouched behind Kyra in the front of the boat.

  Hadyn turned and shouted to Hailey, “Row! Now!”

  Hailey tucked the loaded pistol into the front of her belt, next to where she kept her deck knife, and leapt onto the bench. Grabbing both oars quickly, she leaned back and heaved with all her strength.

  Their boats bashed together again with such violence that one marine careened into the other, sending them both tumbling to the deck of the longboat. Kyra, quick and agile, took the opportunity to leap over and adva
nce on them.

  Graver popped up from the front well and grabbed the closest marine.

  “Row, damn you!” he yelled and jerked one of the marines off the other and onto the bench.

  With every stroke they closed on the shores of the golden spire. No wind disturbed the waters, no waves rocked the boats., The flat, glassy plane of the water was sliced only by the cresting wakes of the two boats frantically rowing.

  Kyra and the standing marine clashed awkwardly at the back of the Queen’s boat, sending it rocking perilously as the other marine watched helplessly and rowed.

  Finally the Queen’s boat slammed into the soft silt of the spire with a jolt. Kyra fell forward, knocking down the marine she was battling with as she went. The momentum of Hailey’s boat carried them crashing into the stopped boat and rocked the passengers violently. Hadyn leapt over to the other ship and quickly engaged the last marine, who rose up, oar in hand. Graver and the Queen were at the front of their boat. They fumbled unsteadily over the side and onto the soft mucky silt of the spire’s shore.

  Hailey watched the two of them as they drudged their way up the beach, their feet pulled down by the muck with every step.

  She couldn’t let that happen, she couldn’t let them win. Hailey leapt up and jumped onto the other boat. Ignoring the others, she raced past the struggling combatants, leapt over the side, and quickly sunk into the muck up to her shins.

  She cursed as she fought to free her legs and slogged her way out of the water. Once on shore, she could see that the two ahead of her were having more difficulties. The patch ahead of them was soft and slick. From the amount of gray muck on them, Hailey judged they had fallen several times and finally resorted to crawling their way up.

  Hailey made her way cautiously up the slippery slope to join them. She was close enough to stand over the out-of-breath Graver, who rolled on his back to greet her, his long rapier in hand, pointed at her.