by David Talon
“Not without expelling every bit of strength you gave me,” she said tartly. “I could probably kill her, but then I’d have nothing left to help you with if the pirates attack. I’m not leaving you defenseless.”
“I’m not defenseless,” I muttered, wishing there was a way I could get in the fight. Suddenly I realized there was. “Smoke, get the little ones in the fight with the mermaids. Have them throw the dead men off the deck.”
Six young girl voices answered, “Aye, Tomas!” A moment later the six mermaid air-golems swooped down from the mainmast, where they’d been floating. The catcalls of the pirates turned to shouts of encouragement as the mermaids entered the fray, one snatching a jagged piece of wood out of a dead man’s hand a moment before he would’ve dashed out Mr. Bierson’s brains, while another used her tail to smack a dead man’s face several times, who staggered back several paces and fell. The two largest air-golem mermaids, Star and Tiger, grabbed a dead man by either arm and heaved him over the side into the ocean.
To my surprise the pirates began to cheer, the red-haired girl pumping her fist in the air as two more went over the side. But then the ratlines began to shake beneath me. I looked down to see Selene climbing as fast as she could in the grey dress, while below her several dead men were looking up. I yelled, “Smoke, get us onto the foredeck.”
My hair was blown back as Smoke formed an air-golem mermaid of her own. “Swamp-rat, look up. The ratline extends over the foredeck.”
“Then I need to cut it down,” I exclaimed, getting the knife I used at meals out of my travel bag before handing the leather satchel to a surprised Selene. “Take this, and I’ll keep the dead men from dropping down on top of us.”
A look of terror swept Selene’s face as the arms of the mermaid pulled her off the ropes. “I don’t think this is a good ideee!” Smoke flew with her towards the foredeck as the word turned into a shriek, and I scampered up the ratline as fast as I could.
I found a spot near where the rope ladder had frayed and took a spot above it, wrapping my leg in the rope net as best I could as I began sawing at the ropes below me. The coarse rope began to shake as the dead men began to climb. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I kept at it, the rope hard to cut despite the fraying...and every time I looked up the dead men had gotten a little closer.
Suddenly the first rope gave way. From the foredeck I heard a ragged cheer as the dead man closest to me lost his footing and fell face first onto the deck of the main, the remaining dead men fumbling to retain their grip. As I sawed away at the second rope I glanced down. Mr. Bierson and a handful of his men had finally reached the foredeck and were taking turns pushing the dead men back onto the main deck.
Then I noticed the dead men on the ratline had regained their footing and were starting to climb again. I sawed at the rope even faster as the knot of fear wrapped itself around my throat, the reek of burnt flesh sharp in my nose as I hacked away at the ratline, parting strand by strand. One strand left, I thought, my vision now totally on the rope ladder as it parted with a snap.
A cold hand grabbed my shirt. I yelped as I snapped forward, the dead man holding on with one fire blackened hand while the other clawed for my throat. Without thinking I stabbed him in the eye, driving the knife deep into his skull with no effect as the fabric ripped away. He made a grab for me but missed, falling towards the foredeck as Smoke rose up towards me.
She used her tail to knock him aside, and he landed face first onto the main deck, where the dead were still trying to climb up the stairs. Smoke held the mermaid’s arms out to me as she resumed rising. I released my foothold on what remained of the ratline and fell forward, Smoke catching me then swooping away down towards the foredeck below as my stomach lurched. We landed gracefully on the deck, Selene grabbing me by the shoulders the moment Smoke let me go. “Are you hurt?”
“Just my good shirt,” I said ruefully, looking at the girl in the rigging as Selene let me go.
The red-haired girl made an exaggerated motion of relief before grinning at me, and I grinned back. “You do realize she’s a Dragon,” Smoke said in my ear.
I looked at air-golem mermaid wearing a young Selene’s face. “Do you jest?”
“Certainly not now,” Smoke answered. “But I believe she’s weak, for only one of my sisters is hovering nearby, and she’s not much larger than Tiger.”
“What about the large dragon-ghost you saw?”
“Jade? She told me there’s another Dragon on board, but for some reason she’s not drawing strength from him. In any case, all of my sisters say they’ll not be allowed to help us unless the captain gives permission.”
“Why am I not surprised,” I muttered, before raising my voice. “Mr. Bierson, how do we fare?”
“We’re holding the line,” Mr. Bierson answered, “but bring your girls back. They’re being beaten to death.”
I rushed to the edge of the foredeck and looked down. Only four of the mermaids remained, and the dead men were smashing their jagged pieces of wood on one whose form was ragged, almost in tatters. She lost her form and vanished in a swirl of wind. “Girls, bring your air-golems back,” I yelled as the dead men turned toward another whose mermaid was barely holding together.
The two working together were on the outside of the dead men and looked fine, both rising together the moment I called. But the last one couldn’t break free of the dead men holding her down. Those not trying to climb the ladder onto the foredeck turned towards her, the mermaid quickly mobbed by a crowd of men beating her with wooden clubs. In a matter of moments she vanished in a swirl of air.
The last two air-golems came to rest beside me. “We tried to get the others to work together,” Star said, “but they were too wild.”
“It’s alright,” I said to her, holding out my forearm. “”Take more strength if you need it, both of you.” Both mermaids went totally still while I felt two pairs of fangs pierce my arm, their tails beginning to move again the moment I felt the fangs withdraw. I looked at the other mermaid as I rubbed my forearm. “Smoke, do you need more?”
“Save your strength,” she replied.
Tiger spoke from the other side. “Can we keep fighting? This is fun!”
“We’d be in your debt if they would,” Mr. Bierson said.
I nodded. “Star, Tiger: keep the dead men from climbing up here, any way you can.”
“Aye, Tomas,” they both said in unison, and Mr. Bierson began pulling his men back. A dead man’s head appeared, level with the foredeck as he climbed up. His skull was crushed on one side, but he glared at us balefully with his good eye as he began to crawl onto the deck.
Both mermaids were already swimming through the air towards him. One slapped the dead man’s face with her tail, while the other head-butted him in the stomach when he tried to rise up, and the dead man pitched backwards onto the deck. One of the sailors handed off his oar from a jolly boat while the other handed off his long pike, and the sailors backed away as the mermaids began thumping the next dead man coming up the stairs. “Aim for his eyes,” I called out to them. “If they can’t see you, they’ll have a harder time fighting.”
Both mermaids smashed the dead man’s skull where his eyes were then knocked him off the deck, Mr. Bierson and the sailors moving even farther back from their wild swings. Mr. Bierson had a more hopeful expression on his face than he’d had before. “How long will the dead continue to fight?”
Smoke answered him. “Not too much longer, I think. My sister of the ghost-shell has already used up a lot of the ghostfire.” Looking up at the rigging, I realized a lot of the tongues of blue flame were gone, and when I went close to the edge I saw several dead men becoming lethargic...until a blue snake crawled up their legs and entered their mouths, making them become active again.
I hurried back and told the others what I’d seen, all the sailors except Mr. Bierson looking relieved. He grimaced. “Once the dead men stop movi
ng we still have the pirates to deal with.”
“Alfonzo used to say: ‘worry about the foe in front of you before worrying about the next’.”
“A wise man.”
“He was,” I replied, wishing he was the one leading this defense and not me. I watched the mermaids cave in another dead man’s skull and send him down to the main deck as I thought about what Alfonzo would be doing were he leading the defense. “Smoke, what’s your sister up to now?”
The air-golem went still for a few moments before beginning to move again. “I’m not sure. She needs to find a way to kill more of you, but for some reason she’s goading on the Dutch captain.”
I looked towards the stern. Captain Voorhees’s body was leaning against the deck rail, his Artifact pistol in his only hand still able to grasp a weapon, which was pointed directly at the pirate ship. “Ware!” I yelled at them. “There’s a dead man with a pistol!”
Captain Voorhees’s face froze into a death’s head grin as men yelled in alarm, either leaping off the ratlines or ducking down below the grey deck rail. But they weren’t the captain’s target. The pistol roared as it went off... and the red-haired girl clutched her stomach. I stared at her in horror as the red-bearded giant standing only a few paces away bellowed, “Pepper, no!” He rushed forward to grab her.
But she pitched forward, his fingers missing her by a hands-breath, and I saw red begin staining her fancy shirt as she tumbled towards the sea. “Smoke,” I screamed, “save her!”
Smoke took off like a shell out of a cannon, while a figure high up in the rigging swung something then released it. A moment later Captain Voorhees good eye erupted in a spout of gore. Smoke dove down towards the sea and only Mr. Bierson’s hand gripping my shoulder kept me from rushing to the side as a pirate, still in the ratlines of the ship, shouted, “She’s got Pepper!”
The pirates cheered as Smoke came up level with the main deck of their ship. But then their cries turned angry as Smoke brought the red-haired girl my direction, the red-bearded giant yelling, “You be going the wrong way. Bring her back!”
I moved away from Mr. Bierson and the others as Smoke brought the girl to me, kneeling down as she lowered the injured girl to the deck. “Let me heal her,” an unfamiliar girl’s voice said beside me. “My name is Fire-rose, and Pepper’s my Dragon.”
I remembered Captain Cholula mentioning a Dragon by that name, but I put the thought out of my mind as I replied, “Of course, but if you need strength take mine and not hers. She’ll need it.”
“Fire-rose already has enough of mine,” Pepper said weakly, putting a slender hand to my face. “I’ll have to tell Sally I was right: love hurts, but I never thought it would hurt so much...ah!”
I knew from experience Fire-rose had begun healing her, and that illness and injury often made people babble things they really didn’t mean. I took the hand she held to my face and held onto it as the pain of healing made her grip it tightly. “We’ll have you back on your ship in a thrice.”
A shadow loomed over us. “She’s not going anywhere,” Mr. Bierson said in a low voice, and I looked up to see him standing over us with his axe in his hands. “Providence delivered her into our hands, and if the pirates mean for us to die this day, we’re taking one of them with us.”
“No you’re not,” I yelled as I let go of Pepper’s hand, jumping to my feet to face him and the other sailors. “I give Pepper sanctuary, so if you try to hurt her I’ll have Smoke dump you onto the main deck and you can fight your way out again.”
“But she’s a pirate,” Mr. Bierson exclaimed, frustration clear in his voice. “She’d as soon cut your throat as kiss you, so why are you taking her part?”
I really wasn’t sure myself, looking down to meet the eyes staring back up into mine: the color of the sky when the air is warm and the clouds have all blown away. I looked back at Mr. Bierson. “Give me time and I’ll give you a logical reason. But I’m not letting any of you harm her.”
As Mr. Bierson opened his mouth to argue, a bellowing voice came from across the water. “’Hoy yon leaky tub!” We turned to see the red-bearded giant precariously perched on the ratline Pepper had been standing on before she was shot. “Captain Hawkins be saying if you bring Pepper back to us, he be giving you sanctuary as well.” He made a fist the size of a knight’s mace. “But if you be harming her in any way, I be coming over there to toss all of you onto yon main deck to join your pretty friends.”
“The captain always keeps his word,” Pepper said.
Mr. Bierson looked torn with indecision, and I was about to add my voice to hers when Tiger gave a loud cry. A moment later her air-golem dissolved. The boat’s oar clattered to the deck, and Star’s mermaid was looking ragged as she said, “Tomas, I’m almost spent.”
Mr. Bierson turned to where dead men were still trying to climb up the stairs. “Hold the line, men,” he said and led them back as Star floated away from the sailors rushing to keep the dead from overwhelming the living.
I turned towards Smoke. “Take Pepper...”
“No,” Pepper said, grimacing again as she sucked in a deep breath. “Fire-rose is still healing me. Take the noble lady first.”
I glanced back at Selene, who’d remained behind me the entire time. “Are you alright going alone?”
She gave a shudder as one of the living sailors screamed in pain. “I’ll face the entire crew flat on my back than one dead man on my feet.” Pepper grimaced again, and I knelt down next to her, Selene in turn kneeling next to me. “Tomas, I beg a boon of you. Find my aunt and rescue her if you can, though if you wish not to, I truly understand. These dead things have unnerved me.”
“I’ll do what I can,” I answered her.
“I know you will.” Selene smiled and, to my great surprise, kissed my forehead. Then she gracefully rose to her feet, letting herself be wrapped in the mermaid’s arms, and the two rose into the air. Selene kept her eyes shut tight as Smoke carried her over to the pirate’s ship.
Pepper watched them go as I watched the sailors smash another dead man’s skull, sending him back down to his comrades. She looked up at me. “Is she your lover?”
I gave a start. “What? No, she’s not; I’ve never had one,” I added without thinking.
“You’ve never had a lover?”
My face grew hot as I watched for Smoke’s return. “It’s not that I didn’t want one, it’s just...I was expected to wait until I was married.” I didn’t want to get into the real reasons with her, ranging from being too lower class for some, to being too strange for others, who would accept Smoke’s healing them when they were sick, but then spit on my shadow to ward off evil when they were better. Then there was Smoke herself, which I really didn’t want to have to explain to anyone, least of all this girl.
Pepper merely shook her head. “We certainly grew up differently. When do you go into heat for the first time?”
I couldn’t believe she was asking me that, my eyes meeting hers as I replied, “A year and three months. Are you always this forward?”
She giggled but then grimaced in pain. “Kyrie eleyson, it hurts to laugh. I’ve lived much of the past year on a pirate ship; their good luck charm, so to speak, and trust me, social graces aren’t very high on their list. Well, Master Le’Vass is an exception, but not many others. I spent my eighteenth birthday on the ship, the ‘Black Rose’, which means nothing to you...except it does,” she said to the look of horror that swept my face a moment. Pepper raised a hand and touched my cheek with her fingertips. “When the memories are bad, and I’m not needed, I keep Fire-rose in my head to keep them at bay.”
“That way leads to madness, or so I’ve heard.”
Pepper gave me a sad smile as she traced the line of my jaw with her forefinger. “Madness is just another way of looking at the world. The Dark Sisters are mad, all of them.”
“I thought they were just evil.”
Pepper grimaced again as she shook her head. “They went down paths they never should’ve taken, and now they’ll never come back, even if they wanted to. Eldest knew you’d find me.” She smiled at my baffled look. “Once a dragon-ghost starts down the path of the Dark Sisters she loses her name, but the one I always called Eldest could see strands in the web of time’s loom, strands of possibilities before they were set down in the fabric of the here and now, which makes them unchangeable. Eldest said I would not permanently merge with any dragon-ghost until I fell in love for the last time. ‘You will be his first, and he your last’, she told me, adding that even if I found a way off the Black Rose, she’d still learn when it happened, and hunt me down so she could merge with me. That was the last thing Eldest said to me before Cholula’s ship showed up.”
Fire-rose spoke from a spot beside Pepper, which meant she’d finished. “I’ve stopped the bleeding inside, but Samuel still needs to remove the pistol ball, so it doesn’t fester. Good Tomas,” she said before I could ask who Samuel was, “pray excuse Pepper. She’s endured more than mortals should, I fear.”
Smoke came to rest beside us. “Captain Cholula said something similar to Tomas.”
Pepper’s eyes widened. “You’ve met her?”
“Escaped from her is more accurate,” I said, wishing Smoke hadn’t mentioned Captain Cholula at all.
“Tomas Rios,” a voice said from close by us, “well met. I am Jade.” Her voice was older and more refined than any dragon-ghost’s I’d ever heard, like the difference between the royal governor’s wife and the children of a tavern wench. “Captain Hawkins will not let me take strength from the Dragons aboard his ship, but I did scout for you. If you wish to help the elderly matron you must go now, for her life fades fast. The decks below are free of dead men.”
“For the moment,” I muttered, looking at Star’s ill-used and ragged mermaid. “Have you enough strength to get me down below and back?”
“More than enough,” Star answered. “But a few more blows and the air-golem will fly apart.”
