by R. J. Blain
That was the Ricardo I knew, confident to the bitter end. I sighed and settled in to watch my plans blow up in my face, leaving me with zero idea of how to proceed.
Ricardo had, like he had hundreds of years ago, changed everything at his whim.
“Captain?” Abrahan asked.
Well, I did have one idea of what I would do. I freed my hand from Ricardo’s clutches so I could point at him. “This one comes with us, Abrahan.”
“Understood.”
“Kidnapping me again, my little princess?”
I could either break down into an emotional mess or wear the old shoes I’d walked in when we’d had a life together. “And you will enjoy it, Ricardo.”
“Of course.”
Of course. I straightened my shoulders, focused on Lucretta O’Malley, and lifted my chin. “I’ve changed my mind. The only thing I want is this man, and I will take him. In exchange for safe passage from my island, you will owe me a single favor. I expect it will involve something like unburying a lost treasure, and as I’m a generous captain, I’ll even permit you to have your fair cut of the booty. I’ll even give you a gift to make such an alliance worth your while. I’ll tell you what you want to know about your ancestor.”
“I can accept those terms. Tell me about the Black Scourge.”
I frowned, lowered my foot from the chair cushion, and turned so I could stare across the table, tucking one knee up while I let my other foot dangle. It made ignoring Ricardo’s presence easier, when every instinct demanded I haul him away and hold him safe aboard the Wanderer. “What do you want to know? I’ll be honest with you, Lucretta. I hated her then, and I hate her now. She viewed men as a plague, one she enjoyed wiping from the Earth. I sometimes think she cursed me so she would have an easy way to get rid of the bodies she didn’t want found. When someone annoyed her, she would have my captain, her lover, bring her ship closer and have me dispose of the unwanted cargo. She rarely killed them before forcing them to walk the plank. Then, I had no control over the curse, and humans made easy, filling prey.”
Everyone at the table, even Abrahan, blanched. After thinking about what I’d said, I grimaced at my ineloquent and accidental confession of having eaten pirates while a shark. I shrugged, since it was the truth.
“You ate people.”
“I’m a shark, O’Malley. What were you expecting? A picnic? To a shark, a human is nothing more than an unusually shaped meal. It took many years to learn to be a human in a shark’s skin. It’s called a curse for a reason.” I waved my hand to dismiss the subject. “I haven’t eaten anyone in decades.”
“You sound proud of that,” the rival captain muttered.
I wondered if I would go a day in my long life without someone judging me for who and what I’d been. Probably not. People struggled to accept what they couldn’t understand, and then they sought to change what they couldn’t understand so it would be easier for them to bear. “Well, you would be, too, if you went into a frenzy whenever there was blood in the water. And no, I didn’t eat anyone from my crew when the British sank our ship and took our lives. I drowned a few Brits, though, for which I’m not sorry. I may have taken a few bites. Deserved, if you ask me.”
Ricardo sighed at that. “I, too, am guilty of taking a few bites, and I definitely ate a few Brits after they sank the Terrier. I went out of my way to find Brits to eat. Revenge, for your death and for the death of my crew. I should have known you had been likewise cursed.”
We’d proven to be our worst enemies. “What did she curse you with?”
“That I would remain cursed until she released me from her service.”
He, too, had earned an eternity.
For the first time in hundreds of years, eternity didn’t loom in front of me, a torture to be endured. Did I even want the curse to be broken? I regarded Ricardo with a furrowed brow.
“Knowing how to break the curse, if it can be broken, isn’t a bad thing.”
I shrugged. “We can look into it while we look for treasures.”
“More treasures?” Abrahan complained. “Don’t you already have enough?”
I regarded the brat with a raised brow. “A pirate never has enough treasure. This is a sacred rule.”
“And if I find a way to break your curse?” Lucretta asked.
“I’ve hundreds of years of treasure stored here and there. Should you discover a way to break the curse and we find eternity distasteful, we won’t have much use for that treasure, now will we? But make no mistake. I will not willingly share the location of my treasure with you. But, with your cooperation, I can share a treasure with you now.”
“What treasure?” Lucretta demanded.
I could appease the woman’s greed—and buy her favor at the same time I kept her busy for years to come. “The Calico’s final resting place, of course. Is that not part of what you desire? To reclaim your ancestral legacy? Your Black Scourge was nothing without my captain, and the Terrier is no prize without the Calico. But I warn you, she rests in deep, treacherous waters, and I wish you the best of luck raising her from her watery grave. Some things are best left undisturbed. As for the rest, there is only one person who knew your ancestor better than I, and it is her navigator.”
Ricardo grunted his displeasure. “You have said all that there needs to be said about Captain Maritza. She was named the Black Scourge for a reason, and you would be happier not knowing the truth. It is far darker a reality than you would like.”
Thirty-Four
Somehow, my nightmare had become a dream.
Hindsight was ever perfect. Had I thought ahead, I would have come prepared with a list of ways Lucretta O’Malley and her crew could help me break my curse—or help me find some lost treasure. She’d given me a lost treasure, one I valued above all others.
I struggled to believe Ricardo was real, but the bastard kept capturing my hand when I least expected it and kissing my palm. If I ignored him, he scraped his teeth against my skin.
The Wanderer was not nearly large enough for him, me, my libido, and the brat, who would discover I had a wild side when the right man came into the room. Or into my bed. In fact, I needed a bigger ship, one that allowed for proper, separate cabins.
I almost regretted sinking the Serendipity. Almost.
Lucretta had no idea where to start, her crew left as soon as a chance appeared, and when the dust had settled, Abrahan, Ricardo, and I remained in the dining hall with Lucretta, Benny, and Bensen.
The pair I’d worked with for so long kept quiet, and I recognized their blend of shock, doubt, and guilt. Of the two, Benny seemed the most disturbed, which made sense. Bensen was older, and age made a difference when coping with the unexpected oddities of life.
Answers wouldn’t be found at the long table once meant to unify two crews, especially not after having successfully stolen Lucretta’s navigator. All I could do was make a proposal I hoped I wouldn’t regret. Abrahan would like it.
If Lucretta O’Malley accepted my proposal without modification, I expected it would take most of her lifetime to come anywhere close to discovering a way to break my curse. She would be old, and death wouldn’t be the enemy it was for her now. With Ricardo, I could wait another three hundred years before earning my rest.
I’d be happy to settle with even one full lifetime with him.
Somehow, my nightmare had become a dream, a blessing in careful disguise for the right moment.
I had a future with Ricardo in it.
“As I don’t expect you to have a method to break my curse, and my circumstances have changed, I would like to propose a period of one year for you to research your family line in more detail, looking through your historic records for any interesting information. Once a month, you’ll contact me with any updates. You’ll also provide me with all the information you have on the Black Scourge, a genealogy of the family line, and any stories passed down over the years—especially those that seem more farfetched than the others.”
L
ucretta grimaced. “There are a few of those. And understanding your situation, I’m inclined to believe they’re more fact than fiction now. While I’m willing to share this information with you, there’s something I want from you as well.”
“What do you want?”
“A complete accounting of my ancestor’s career as a pirate.”
Ricardo cackled, and I shushed him with an elbow to the ribs. “Easily done. I’m not responsible if you don’t like what we tell you, and I don’t know everything, as I wasn’t part of her crew, but I’ll tell you what I remember. Ricardo can tell you what he knows, as he was part of her crew. What I know isn’t as much as you want, however. I’ve forgotten a great deal.”
“Would you be willing to subject yourself to hypnotism?”
“I’ll entertain most methods of gaining knowledge, but I won’t allow any hypnosis without Ricardo supervising. I can even tell you what I know doesn’t work. That list is rather extensive.”
“Well, shooting you in the head and tossing you off a cliff should be on the list of unsuccessful methods,” my rival captain replied, her tone wry.
“Or trying to drown me.”
“Have you tried burning at the stake yet?”
“Lucretta, that’s taking it too far,” Benny burst out, slapping the table with his palm.
I laughed, and Ricardo jabbed me with his elbow. “Hardly, Benny. Really, relax. It’s a valid question. I haven’t tried a stake, but I’ve been in several fires. I’ve been in a ship fire over water, so that would technically count as a witch burning, especially since it was a rather effective attempt to get rid of me for a while.” I hummed, wondering how many times I’d been killed over the years—too many to easily remember. Later, I’d make a list. “Car accidents don’t work either. All the severity of the injury does is change how long it takes for me to get back up. If I’m in water, I might be down for a few years, so it’s an effective way to get rid of me temporarily, but I always come back.”
“I’ve been burned at the stake. It doesn’t work. It did take a rather long time to come back from that, however. The more extensive the injury, the longer it takes to recover from it,” Ricardo announced.
“Plane crash?” Lucretta asked.
“That’s one I haven’t tried, but mainly because I haven’t felt like throwing a few million at trashing a bird and polluting the environment. I doubt it’ll work—planes didn’t exist when the Black Scourge cursed me. If there’s a way to break it, I suspect it’ll be something that was viable back then.” I hesitated, shrugged, and added, “If the curse can be broken at all.”
“So, you’re open to experimenting.”
“I think it’ll be mandatory, although I find I’ll limit my experimentations somewhat, considering the changed circumstances.”
“Damned straight you’ll be limiting your experimentations,” Ricardo muttered.
I’d missed his possessiveness, second only to mine.
“I can work with that. And while my ancestor may be the one responsible for your cursed state, I don’t work for free.”
I smiled. If money was what Lucretta wanted, I had it. “I think we can come up with an agreement. I can scavenge small items from any shipwreck you can find from almost any depth. Ricardo can help with that. I probably know a few wrecks no one has found. The Calico remains where she is, untouched. But if you want the Calico, you’ll have to earn her—and you will be respectful of my dead.”
My dead had crumbled away with nothing, but their spirits remained with the ship, and that counted.
“I accept that condition. I solemnly swear to treat her dead well and raise her to sit with her sister ship on display.”
I shook my head. “Even if you find her, she’s likely beyond restoring. Should you touch her, I believe she’ll crumble, and no amount of resin will save her.”
“That’s a fair claim. The Terrier was in remarkably good condition when we found her, which was a big factor in her restoration.”
If she wanted a Calico, I could buy her loyalty to my cause simply enough. I slid off the table. “Wait here. I’ll return shortly.”
My cave included more than just monetary treasure, and I had one thing she didn’t: the plans for both ships, right down to their figureheads. My captain had kept copies of both. The Black Scourge probably had as well.
I’d taken care of them over the years, preserved in the darkness in sealed tubes to ensure they survived the ages—and they had. Strolling out of the House Lost at Sea, I paused by my captain’s portrait long enough to trail my fingers along her cheek. No matter how many centuries went by, goodbyes remained hard, the pain didn’t fade, and I wondered what could have been if fate hadn’t dealt us such a cruel hand.
Ricardo followed me, and he stood at my side while I regarded my captain’s portrait. My stubborn streak was several hundred years wide; for the first time since my captain’s death, I’d let go of one of her treasures without regret, the one promising and binding her to the Black Scourge.
If Lucretta’s ambition was great enough, maybe the sister ships would set sail one last time, though I didn’t know who—if anyone—would captain them.
It wouldn’t be me. I’d chart a new course with a new ship.
The storm was building outside, and I halted on the steps to watch the dark clouds roll in and listen to the wind wail as it hit shore. The first drops of cold rain fell, and I smiled. I’d done the cliffside steps more times than I could remember when the seas churned and the gale screamed its fury over my repeated escapes.
“I will be very displeased if you fall and lose us more days,” Ricardo announced.
I’d be pretty displeased, too. “You’re my booty from this venture, so don’t you go falling and costing us more days, either.”
“I find your terms acceptable.”
While the surf slammed the shore, I ignored the ocean’s temper and slipped into the water, shifting and swimming for the comforts of the old cave hidden from human eyes. Like me, Ricardo transformed into a tiger shark, and he nipped at my fins whenever I ignored him for too long.
Somehow, we made it to my cave without attacking each other—or indulging in more base instincts. The cave remained as I’d left it, as always, and I gathered the pair of scrolls, and to prove I could do as I claimed, I gathered gold, silver, and the odd weapon or two from the Black Scourge’s day to entice Lucretta into forging an uneasy alliance with me.
Ricardo waited until I’d made a pile of loot before he pinned me to the wall, using his body to hold mine hostage. “We need to talk.”
We needed to do anything other than talk, and I scowled at his declaration. “Is it talking about how the bunks on the Wanderer are not big enough for two to sleep comfortably? If so, yes. We need to talk, and we will need to acquire a better ship. The brat is mine, I claimed him, and you won’t evict him from my crew. He’s good at cooking, and I’m spoiled now, Ricardo.”
I needed time to think before we could talk about the ruin of our lives—and where we could go moving forward.
“I find this is a very important discussion point, so yes. We definitely need to talk about that.”
“I can afford a bigger vessel than the Wanderer. I bought her on a whim, although she’s a good ship. I’ll give her to the brat when he’s earned it, and we’ll use her for when we’re near the coast.”
“After interior renovations to allow for a larger bunk.”
“Ricardo.”
“I had spent the rest of my life believing my captain had been the reason for your death, regretting everything I hadn’t done to keep you mine and keep you safe. I will not allow a too small bunk to come between us.”
“Well, you’ll have little choice in that. It’ll be cramped quarters if I lug anyone off this island, and I’ll need to. I will do so somewhat resentfully.”
“Who do you plan to take off the island?”
“Benny and Bensen, as they will be missed more than that Lucretta bitch.”
; “Now that she knows we’re cursed, she’ll try to break it just to get rid of us.”
I snorted at that. “I’ll just provide her with treasure greater than the joy of ending our lives.”
“I doubt you have such a thing.”
“I’ve the original blueprints of the Calico and the Terrier.”
“I stand corrected. You do have something worth that much to her. Very well. And this treasure hunt?”
“I’m a greedy pirate who likes treasure.”
He laughed. “You also did like your treasures, that is true. So, you’ve picked up a brat, have you?”
“He tried to badly stab me in Brazil, so I decided he could be the cabin boy. But he’s got a smart mouth and likes to cook, so I let him cook. He might make a good first mate.”
“I will protest, loudly, if you try to prevent me from working as a navigator.”
He would, too. “I suppose.”
“You suppose?” He pressed closer, until our noses touched. “I see I’m going to have to persuade you.”
“And how do you plan on persuading me?”
“As the ship isn’t suitable for my conquest, I will pose for you, reminding you of what you’re missing, all the way until we reach shore, after which I will use my charms on you until I get my way.”
I didn’t need any additional persuasion. “Okay, you can attempt such a persuasion. I will not be easy to convince.”
He laughed, released me, and picked up half of the bounty I’d selected from my hoard. “Of course not. You like being difficult, and I enjoy when you’re difficult.”
That he did—or had, three hundred years ago. Amazed at the thought of having a future, I gathered my share of the hoard and jumped into the water, careful to transform before submerging. Ricardo followed me, and he nipped my fins, annoying me until I chased him.
He goaded me into pursuing him around the islands until I tired, which encouraged him to nuzzle and nip at his leisure.
