Pirate's Promise

by Chris A. Jackson

  "It might, but the question is, can you do it?" Torius sounded more cautious than skeptical.

  "I can do it." There was conviction in her voice that Vreva hadn't expected. "I can't guarantee it will work. After what she did—" The rum rippled in her glass, and she bit her lip until the pain steeled her nerves.

  "Hate and love are often two edges of the same sword." Celeste gave her a smile that showed her fangs. "If you can provoke a reaction from her, it might just give us an edge."

  "Unless she can blast holes in my ship, I'm more worried about their broadside, but if you think it'll help." Torius shrugged. "I'll send Snick down with her sewing kit."

  "Good." As Torius left the cabin, Celeste slithered to the drawer of scrolls. "Now, what kind of spells would you like?"

  "I don't know." Vreva pulled out a scroll, slipped off the ribbon, and unrolled it.

  "While you look through those, I'll show you some of my dresses." Celeste slithered to the hanging locker and floated out a glittering sequined gown. "How about this black one?"

  "Black before evening?" Vreva felt a ghost of the old Vreva Jhafae like the embrace of an old friend. "Please, dear, don't insult me."

  ∗ ∗ ∗

  Dawn brought only disappointment. Bloody Scourge still hounded them, gaining little by little, favored by low winds and seas. Only a few miles separated the ships now, and no one aboard Stargazer held any illusions that they would escape without a fight. It was time.

  "All hands on deck, Thillion."

  "Yes, sir." The elf glanced aloft. "Should we change over to the day sails?"

  "No." Torius squinted aloft at the black sails. "No, I think black will do nicely today."

  "Aye, sir." Thillion passed the word, and the crew assembled with an alacrity that suggested they had been awaiting his call.

  Torius stood at the forward rail of the quarterdeck and gauged his crew. They were already garbed for battle, armored in hard leather and armed to the teeth. Torius wore a shirt of fine chainmail under his cloth shirt—a gift from Celeste—and his familiar silver-hilted cutlass at his hip. Gazing out at the clear eyes and stoic miens of the men and women under his command, his heart warmed. All he had achieved, he owed to their loyalty. For that, they deserved the truth about the dangers they would face. Raising his hands to quell their muttering, he addressed them for what might be the last time.

  "My friends! Today will truly test our mettle." Torius raked the crew with his gaze. "Today, some of us will die." They met his gaze, and not a single eye looked away. "There lies our foe!" He swept his arm aft toward the huge galley. "The Bloody Scourge! They mean to put us in chains, and let me tell you, mates, there is no fate worse in this world!"

  A few shouts of affirmation rang out, weapons thrust into the air.

  "Many of you have worn the iron collar. Some of you were with me when Stargazer had a different name and a different captain. Remember the day when we threw off our shackles! That day we chose to live as we wished, not at the beck and call of a sadistic master, but as free men and women, beholden to none!"

  "Stargazer!" The cheer rang in his ears, and Torius grinned.

  "Yes, they outnumber us, but we have tricks they've never seen!" He waved his arm toward those beside him on the quarterdeck. "We have Snick and her deadly babies!"

  Snick leapt up onto the rail, pirouetted and swept her gaudy tricorne in a grandiose bow, her mischievous grin intact.

  "We have Thillion and his bow to rain death from above!"

  The elf raised his longbow in salute.

  "We have magic and venom!"

  Celeste slithered forward, her leather harness bristling with scroll cases and potion bottles.

  "And we'll show them that, no matter how brutally they beat us down, we will rise up stronger than before, and fight!"

  Vreva stepped forward, beautiful in a deep-blue gown, a crossbow propped on her hip.

  "And we have you, my friends, the best damned crew of pirates on the Inner Sea!"

  "Stargazer!"

  Torius's heart swelled at the thunderous cheer. "Yes, some of us will die today, but I promise you, all of them will die today!"

  "Stargazer!"

  Torius felt sure that breeze would carry the resounding cry over the waves to Bloody Scourge. In fact, he was counting on it. Torius drew his cutlass and thrust it skyward, feeling the power of their cries reverberating in his chest.

  After a moment, he turned to Thillion. "You and your marksmen go aloft."

  "Aye, sir!" Thillion and his archers scrambled up the rigging.

  "Kalli and Nectus, you know your mission. Anything you can do to disable their rudder will help." The gillmen siblings, each carrying a long crowbar, grinned and ran for the rail.

  "Fenric, trim for action and ready to tack the ship."

  "Aye, sir!"

  The bosun's bellowed orders reminded Torius of Grogul. I'll miss you today, my friend.

  Shaking off his spasm of melancholy, he said, "Snick, make damned sure your crews are ready and you have all your warheads at hand. But if worst comes to worst, and we have to board, get to Celeste. Once you're invisible, you know what to do."

  "Aye, sir!" The gnome twirled the skeleton-key wand and skipped down to the main deck.

  "Celeste ..." His heart caught in his throat. She, more than any of them, risked a fate worse than death if they failed. A lunar naga on the auction block would be worth a fortune to Nekhtal. "You asked me once to kill you rather than let you be taken by slavers. If we come rail to rail with that galley, I may not be able to offer you that assurance."

  "Slavers aren't the only ones who've tried to put me in chains recently." She smiled, showing him her fangs. "Astrus learned that I'd sooner fight to the death than submit to that. Today is no different."

  He gaped at her. "Astrus ...did that?"

  "Yes. I'll tell you about it after the battle."

  "All right. You'll be amidships. Pick your targets well."

  "Aye, my captain!" She smiled and kissed him hard. "For luck!"

  "For luck, my love." He watched her slither away before turning to Vreva. The courtesan looked as beautiful as ever. If Capoli still loved her, Torius didn't see how the woman could avoid being affected by the sight of her. "Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine, Torius." She regarded him for a moment, a wry smile on her lips. "That was a pretty speech. Did you mean it?"

  "Every word." He fixed her with a confident stare. "Don't you dare doubt it."

  "I'll never doubt you, Torius Vin." Vreva leaned in, faster than he could react, and kissed him soundly on the lips. "Thank you for my life. I promise not to waste it."

  He opened his mouth to respond, but she was already gone, down the steps and across the mid-deck. Celeste leveled a glare at her as she passed, then turned to Torius. He shrugged helplessly, and she shook her head.

  "Stargazers!" he bellowed, stepping to the wheel beside Windy Kate. "Prepare for battle!"

  "Stargazer!" the crew shouted back.

  "Windy Kate, straight at them!" Windy heaved the wheel, and Stargazer came around as sweetly as ever. Bristling with steel and venom, her black canvas cracking, she bore down on her foe, a dark harbinger of death. "The colors, Fenric!"

  "Aye, sir!" The bosun cupped his hands and bellowed, "The pennant!"

  High aloft, Lacy Jane let go the pennant that Snick had sewn. A silver serpent with long streaming hair seemed to slither across the black field from the topmast. Stargazer was going into battle.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Beauty and Terror

  Vreva staggered as Stargazer came about and the deck lurched under her feet. She might have fallen but for the helping hands of the sailors. As a courtesan, she was used to accepting the help of servants and clients, but this she found both strange and heartening. These weren't servants, and they weren't helping her because they wanted something from her. These were friends; something she had never had before, except for Saffron. Their simple camaraderie gave her stre
ngth.

  That strength nearly faltered when she reached the bow and saw their fate charging toward them.

  I can do this.

  Spray flew from the bow of Bloody Scourge. The galley's bronze-tipped ram broke through each wave crest, a gleaming spear to impale them. Vreva swallowed hard, tucked her crossbow behind the foredeck bulwarks, and stood straight and tall, a living figurehead to show the slavers that their abuse would not prevail.

  Closer ...

  She could see them now, bustling about the siege engines on the forecastle. She couldn't see Nekhtal or his officers, but the recollection of their sadistic cruelty ignited her wrath. She drew a scroll from the pocket of her dress and read the spell. It might keep her alive long enough to exact her revenge.

  A loud crack cut through the roar of wind and wave, snapping Vreva's attention back to Bloody Scourge. A huge granite ball arched high from the galley's bow. Stargazer slewed to port, and Vreva hung on to keep from falling. The deck beneath her feet trembled as the ball smashed the starboard railing not fifteen feet away. Two Stargazers sprawled, impaled by deadly hardwood splinters. Vreva turned away. She had a job to do.

  "Closer, you torturing bastards." Pulling to mind the spell she'd chosen from Celeste's scrolls, she gauged the distance to her target. "Just a little closer."

  The ships closed at breakneck speed. The slavers bustled about two bow-mounted ballistae, and a tall woman shouted and dropped her arm. The bolts streaked toward Stargazer too fast to see. One passed close enough to flutter Vreva's hair.

  That was the last shot Bloody Scourge would get. The next was hers.

  "Close enough."

  She whispered the incantation, and felt its heat fill her mind and course down her arms. She had never cast a spell like this before, and the power of it surprised her. A spark formed in her hand, a small yellow sphere no larger than a pea. Stretching out her arm, she pointed at the catapult and let the magic flow. The fiery mote shot forth across the water. Vreva watched anxiously, losing sight of it against the background of the slavers hurriedly reloading their machines.

  The spark struck the catapult, blossoming into an enormous flower of death. Flames engulfed the entire forecastle, siege engines and crews together, and surged up the foresail. The yard to which the sail was attached burst free from its restraining ropes and swung wildly.

  The cheer that rang out from behind her clashed with the screams of the dying slavers. Vreva recalled her torments and felt not a twinge of remorse.

  From beyond the flames rose a storm of arrows. Vreva froze for a moment before realizing that they would fly over her head. She turned to scream a warning, but every Stargazer already crouched beneath a thick wooden shield. A few cried out as lucky shots pierced arms or legs, but not one fell dead. Celeste alone held no shield, but the arrows bounced harmlessly off her as if she were made of stone. Vreva felt reassured that her own protective spell would work as well.

  "Hard port rudder!"

  At Torius's command, the ship careened to port so violently that Vreva was flung against the starboard bulwark. Looking down, she saw the galley's deadly ram surge past Stargazer's bow. She grabbed onto the forestay and hung on for her life as the two ships clashed in a glancing blow, splinters flying before they rebounded.

  Through the smoke from the immolated foredeck, Vreva glared at the faces of the slavers massed on the mid-deck. Their grim countenances transformed to shock as a bolt of lightning blasted through the bulwark of painted shields to rake the deck from bow to stern. Slavers, weapons, and armor landed in smoldering heaps. Celeste's aim had been true.

  "Kill the traitorous bitch!" screamed a slaver. Arrows flew, but they glanced off her spell, and she stood firm.

  As the ships roared past one another, Vreva heard the splintering crack as Stargazer sheared off several oars, but ahead she saw the long wooden shafts swiftly recede into the hull, replaced by the tips of ballista bolts.

  "Fire!"

  Stargazer trembled as Snick's babies fired their broadside. Alchemical fire splashed across the galley's deck, scattering burning slavers. To Vreva, however, it seemed that for every slaver killed, several more scrabbled to the fore.

  Now Bloody Scourge fired her own rippling broadside, targeting Stargazer's rigging and master. One bolt crashed into the foresail yard, fracturing the long spar and tearing the sail. Farther back, another bolt struck the binnacle, missing Torius by inches. Instead, it shattered a spoke of the wheel and ripped through Windy Kate's shoulder. The helmswoman fell in a welter of blood and shattered bone, and Torius took the broken wheel in hand.

  "Grapples!"

  Slavers heaved a dozen heavy iron grappling hooks across the narrow gap. The Stargazers responded instantly, hacking through the thick hemp lines. To the crew's horror, several of the grappling hooks scrabbled like four-legged spiders, burying their pointed prongs deep in the rail. These hooks trailed chain bolted to the galley's deck. The grapples came taut with a horrific jerk, but the opposing momentum of the two ships could not be resisted. The lengths of chain ripped through wood before they parted, recoiling with deadly force to cut down two more Stargazers and a number of slavers.

  Vreva stared, horrified at the wreckage and mayhem, the men and women she'd spoken to moments before reduced to tattered meat, the blood sluicing through the scuppers of both ships.

  "Vreva! The catapult!"

  Celeste's call snapped the courtesan out of her thrall. Stargazer's bow neared the galley's stern, where a second catapult stood ready to fire. She began her spell, but her lapse had cost too much time. The arm of the catapult hurled a tangle of chain that ripped through Stargazer's rigging. Severed lines and shattered blocks rained down, along with a few of Fenric's topmen.

  Vreva loosed her magic again, placing a ball of searing fire right on top of the siege engine. The flames did their work, silencing the machine for good and obliterating its crew, but in her hurry, Vreva hadn't placed the spell exactly as she should have. The bottom of the lateen sail was only singed. Her task had been to catch both the sail and the catapult in the conflagration.

  As Stargazer roared past the galley's stern, sunlight glinting off metal caught Vreva's eye. There at the ship's taffrail stood Zarina, her chainmail glowing like a nimbus. The inquisitor stared at Vreva, seemingly oblivious to the destruction behind her, her crossbow held loosely at her side.

  Kill her!

  Vreva grabbed her crossbow and raised the weapon. Looking into her lover's eyes—golden ...so like Saffron's—Vreva squeezed the trigger.

  Deafening thunder shivered the air as lightning ripped through the slavers on the galley's quarterdeck and struck the mizzenmast. Splinters flew, but the thick spar held.

  "Damn it!" The distraction had broken Vreva's concentration, and her shot missed Zarina. The inquisitor stood as still as a statue.

  "Helm's alee!" shouted Torius.

  Stargazer wheeled into the wind, rounding the huge galley's high stern.

  "Fire drogues!" Snick cried, and the six ballistae fired. The bolts struck low on the galley's transom, trailing long lines of cup-shaped drogues to slow the ship.

  Immediately, Torius called out again. "Hard to starboard. Tack the ship. Tend your sheets!"

  Stargazer continued her turn through the wind, bringing her portside to bear on the galley's vulnerable stern.

  And still, Zarina Capoli just stared at Vreva.

  Vreva met that gaze, vaguely aware of another lightning bolt blasting through the Scourge's big stern windows, and a broadside from Stargazer that set Nekhtal's cabin ablaze. Vreva ignored the flames, the shouted orders, and the screams of the dying. She readied her spell, and took aim.

  Only now did Zarina move, raising and aiming her crossbow, her eyes still focused on Vreva.

  Vreva's spell left her hand just as the inquisitor's weapon fired. The fiery mote streaked past Zarina to detonate on her real target, the mizzen boom. Fire billowed forth, setting the lateen sail ablaze. Vreva stood unflinching as t
he bolt from Zarina's crossbow sped toward her heart ...and rebounded off the magic of her protective spell.

  As the distance between the two women grew, their eyes bore into one another, love and hate burning like the fires that consumed the galley's yellow sails.

  ∗ ∗ ∗

  Torius smiled grimly as Bloody Scourge blazed. A few more exchanges like that, and the galley would burn to the waterline. He tried not to think of the hundreds of slaves changed to their oars. Can't help that. We'll jibe, and round her stern again, then—

  A groan from behind him wiped the smile from the captain's face.

  "Windy!"

  The helmswoman lay in a widening crimson pool. Bright red blood jetted between the fingers of the hand she clenched to her torn left shoulder. She'd bleed out in moments if he didn't do something.

  Without a second thought, Torius whipped a line around the wheel to hold their course, and knelt beside her. Drawing a potion from his pocket, he popped the cork and tilted it into her mouth. Some spilled as she convulsed, but she swallowed the rest. The wound stopped bleeding, though her arm remained twisted at an impossible angle. Windy's shaking eased, and she blinked. Her eyes focused on Torius, then behind him.

  "Captain. The wheel."

  "It'll keep. Here!" He pressed another potion into her bloody hand, then grasped her arm and placed his boot into her armpit. "I've got to straighten the break. Hold fast, and down that potion when I'm done."

  "But, sir!"

  "Do as I say, damn it!" She nodded and held the vial to her lips. Swallowing hard, Torius pulled her arm straight. Bones grated, and her shoulder popped back into the socket. Windy's scream tore across the deck before she gulped the potion. Then her eyes went wide as she stared beyond him.

  "The Scourge, Captain!"

  Torius surged to his feet, and his heart leapt into his throat.

  Bloody Scourge was turning. The galley's rudder was jammed, and she was slowed by the drogues, but she still had her sweeps. The starboard bank of oars churned the water in reverse, while her port oars thrashed forward. Bloody Scourge's broadside would come to bear in moments.