by David Talon
“With my luck the bloody Draco Dominus is taking advantage of the weather to sneak up on us and cut our throats.”
“Why then the watch will go faster still.” Black-leg Bart gave him a sour look and stomped off along the side towards the bow, Thomas giving me a grin before joining him.
I climbed over the side one-handed and down the rope net, as it turned out to be, until I reached the ocean. The waves were choppy as the rain continued to fall, and I kept one bare foot wrapped around the rope as I washed my left hand in the salt water. To my surprise the sap turn brittle, crumbling away quickly as I rubbed my hands together until it was clean again.
Once I had every speck off, I took a good look at the island. A strip of white sand was only a short distance away, with vegetation beyond it, but it might as well have been an ocean away for all the good it did me. I wanted nothing more than to wade ashore, find a friendly village where I could hail a passing merchant ship, and work my passage to some distant port where I could take up a normal life again. I understood how the Blackjack Davy had meant freedom for Jeremiah and the other Africans, as well as other sailors, who were badly mistreated from the stories I’d heard, but their freedom had become my slavery. For a wild moment I wanted nothing more than to swim ashore and regain the freedom I’d felt for a few, heady days aboard the Dutch Flyte.
But all I did was stand in the rain and sigh. Unlike the oaths of men, a Dragon’s oath cannot be set aside until the conditions ending it are met... which was, of course, why the captain had insisted I swear one. Besides, Jeremiah was here, and having found my truest friend I was loathe abandoning him again...and then there was Pepper. She’d been thrust upon me, in a sense, but instead of disliking her I realized in that moment I’d be remaining on the Davy even if I hadn’t been Dragon-sworn.
Next to my ear, Jade’s voice said, “You do realize you would only be free for a day at most, do you not?”
“Probably less,” I admitted. “But I’m not looking forward to what’s ahead of me as the captain’s apprentice.”
“It will not last forever,” Jade said in a voice gentle as a warm breeze. “One way or another, your time of servitude will come to an end and you will become your own man.”
“But I won’t be the same person I am now.”
“No,” Jade admitted, “you will not. But the boy you are now cannot survive what I fear is coming.”
Unease crept back into my belly. “What’re you talking about?”
Jade spoke in the tone of voice Belle-M’ere had used when I wasn’t getting whatever she was trying to teach me. “Tomas, the Shadowmen are recruiting. They have never done so, not in all the time I remember...and my memories go back to the time I and all of my sisters died.”
I realized how far back she was talking about. “You mean you’ve never lost a fight since the times of the ancient Dragons, what, a couple thousand years ago?”
“Far longer than that, I fear.” A feeling of awe came upon me as I listened to her continue speaking in a matter-of-fact tone. “Shadowmen have come and gone over the centuries, created at the whim of Olde Roger for his amusement and naught for any other purpose...but now something has changed. Shadowmen never turn down a fight; the very idea is completely against their nature, which is to give battle until they or their enemy is dead. Nor do they press-gang men into joining their ranks. They will take unwilling fighters who impress them by their skills, like your friend Mr. Bierson did aboard the Dutch Flyte, but not men who cower down below.”
“Like Seth, the one who killed my foster-mother.”
“Exactly,” Jade answered. “I have no idea what Olde Roger intends, but it will not bode well for anyone mortal and least of all for you, the son of his enemy.”
“Why did Olde Roger hate her?”
Jade was silent for a moment. “I cannot tell you the exact nature of their relationship,” she finally said, “except Olde Roger loved your true mother as deeply as he hated her. Long Mu, in turn, always spoke of Olde Roger with regret.” I pressed her for details and Jade’s voice grew sharp. “You do not need me to tell you of times past but to help you survive what is to come. Should the past be relevant to the task at hand,” her voice returning to normal, “I will tell you; I do promise you that.”
I nodded, and suddenly shivered in the rain. “If I’m going to remain on the Davy I might as well make myself useful.” I started up the rope net as my stomach rumbled. “I wonder if the Admiral will stand me another bowl of porridge with...”
Jade suddenly hissed in my ear, “Tomas, the man with bronze manacles on his ankles is crouched beside the deck rail with a boarding axe in his hand.”
My pulse quickened, although with Jade close to hand I wasn’t really worried...much. I asked her in a whisper, “Can you tell his intent?”
“He does not mean for you to have a long life,” she whispered back in a voice tart as a green lemon. “I will fetch you a cutlass, and distract him when he tries to attack you, so you can kill him.”
I was horrified. “Jade’, I whispered, “You can’t be serious.”
“I am deadly serious. If you do not kill him now I foresee the chance of him making trouble for you in the future, and I would prevent that occurrence if I could.”
I shook my head. “That means there’s a chance he won’t, either.” Jade admitted that was true as an idea struck me. “I’ve got a better way to distract him.” I whispered what I wanted, and Jade agreed, sounding both resigned and amused at the same time. I silently climbed up the rope net until I was a few feet from the deck rail and stopped, listening to the beating of the rain on the deck as I shivered again, hoping Terence wouldn’t get impatient and lean over the side to see where I was.
But then I heard the sound I’d been waiting for: the click-click-click of Artifact paws as they ran across the deck, with either Tiger or Star animating the little golem. I moved a couple feet from the rail as I heard Terence hiss, “Go away, dog! I don’t want to play with you.”
Putting my foot on the lip of the deck where it met the rail, I leaped over the deck rail...and landed in a heap as my foot slipped and I went down. But I recovered at once, rising to my feet as Terence, who’d been shooing away the small black Artifact dog-golem, whirled around with the boarding axe in his hand. I went into a defensive stance but he only gaped at me, so I pointed at his weapon. “If you stand out here much longer your axe will get rusty.”
Terence cringed, and I relaxed a hair as his voice became defensive. “I was just collecting gear that had been left out in the rain, that’s all.” I nodded as I kept a wary eye on him as I moved towards the crew’s hatch. But I stopped as he spoke again. “You’ve got enemies on this ship, you know that?”
I turned towards Terence, who had the axe tightly gripped in his hand. “Why would I have enemies? I’ve not been aboard the Davy long enough to offend anyone.”
He glared at me. “You’re taking Pepper away from us, no matter how the captain tells the tale.” His voice became indignant. “And you don’t even love her; you admitted it to the Buccan.”
“I said I like her a lot,” I shot back, my temper flaring as I added, “And I suppose you do?” Forlorn hope flared across his face and I gave him an incredulous look. “You can’t be serious. Bloody bones, you tried to rape her!”
“It wasn’t rape,” he snarled, oblivious to the two shapes moving through the rain towards him as he took a step closer to me. “All I intended was a rough wooing, so Pepper would know she belongs to me.”
“She’s my betrothed,” I almost yelled, my temper getting the better of my wits as I took a step towards him in turn. “Pepper belongs to me if she belongs to anyone.”
Terence’s voice became eerily calm. “Not if you’re dead. It’s nothing personal, but today I realized Pepper won’t ever come to her senses while you’re alive, so I have to kill you. I’ll throw your body over the side for the sharks to eat, and no o
ne will suspect me. Then I’ll take Pepper away, a village maybe, where she can be safe and we can live together in wedded bliss.” He hefted the axe. “I’m sorry, Tomas, I really am. But Pepper belongs to me.”
Suddenly a stubby hand yanked his head back as the other shoved a dagger against his throat. “You were right,” Black-leg Bart said as Terence went still as only the truly terrified can do. “We will get to see mummer shows while the lad’s around.”
“More like a mummer’s farce,” Thomas Tew answered, taking the boarding axe out of Terence’s unresisting hand. “You truly didn’t think you could get away with this, did you?”
“I wasn’t going to hurt him,” Terence babbled, his eyes wide as tidal pools. “I just wanted to scare him a bit, that’s all.”
Jade’s voice came from beside me. “And you expected I would just sit idly by while my Dragon was killed? Human love is madness.”
“Sweet madness, thy name is love,” Thomas said, “although I think love has naught to do with this morning’s activities. Jade, my thanks for letting us know what was amiss.”
“What will happen to him?” I asked as I began shivering in earnest.
“That’s for the quartermaster and me to decide,” Captain Hawkins said from the direction of the crew’s hatch, Pepper beside him wearing one of Master Khan’s grey robes, and I realized Jade must’ve told them as well. “Bring him down below.” He opened the hatch, letting Pepper precede him then moving down the stairs into the hold as Thomas Tew and Black-leg Bart each took hold of Terence and marched him towards the hold.
“We have heard ze evidence against him,” Master Le’Vass said, “and now I and ze captain shall pass judgment.”
Everyone was assembled in the crew’s hold in the open space near the galley, including Mr. Smith and Jeremiah, who had returned from the village as soon as Star told Mr. Smith what had happened. The only ones not present were Selene and Sally, who’d remained in the captain’s cabin. While Jade had told everything from the time she’d noticed Terence to the point where the captain hailed us, with Thomas Tew adding his two farthings worth in support, I had wolfed down another bowl of porridge then shared a cup of Bright-eye tea with Pepper. The cup we were drinking from had come from China, with images of women serving tea painted on the sides in blue, but was now chipped and badly stained. Yet for some reason Pepper seemed very fond of it.
I carefully gave the cup back to Pepper, as it had no handle and the tea was hot, while the captain raised his hands for quiet. “As you know,” he said as the men settled down, “among the crew the quartermaster dictates punishment, while I decide a prisoner’s fate.” He glanced at Terence, who stood by himself with his arms securely bound behind his back, his face the picture of defeat as he stared down at the deck. “Since the guilty one stands in both camps, I thought it best if we decided his fate between us.”
Master Le’Vass made the captain an elegant half-bow. “Indeed, this is most fair, although,” the Frenchman turning towards me, “I have a question of your apprentice. Jade gave him ze chance to fight Terence man to man... yet, he refused.”
Captain Hawkins motioned for me to answer the question, and I shrugged uncomfortably. “I was trying to be civilized.” Master Le’Vass gave me a skeptical look so I added, “In St. Augustine if I’d killed someone for trying to kill me I would’ve been hung...well, if they’d caught me, that is. But it would’ve been bad for my foster mother, so I learned to handle things in a more civilized way.”
From his spot among the other Buccan, including Andre now, Lucky Luc sneered, “Civilized? In ze ‘civilized’ world, a rule breaker is lashed a hundred times and his wounds rubbed with salt, or is tortured with hot irons then burned alive, or...”
“Or is tied hand and foot with long ropes and then run under ze ship from bow to stern,” Master Le’Vass said. “That is one reason all of us, myself included, have left ze civilized world to be free men, have we not?” Lucky Luc made a conciliatory gesture with his hand and Master Le’Vass turned back towards me. “But I understand what ze captain’s apprentice means. Tell me this, though: are you afraid to fight him?”
“No,” I answered at once, immediately feeling the uncomfortable twinge I knew would get worse if I didn’t amend my words. “I mean, I’d feel fear if I had to fight him, but I’d do it, especially since he hurt Pepper and wants to hurt her again.” Glancing at her, words came unbidden from deep inside me. “No one’s going to hurt Pepper ever again, not if I can help it.”
From the crowd Redbeard roared, “Aye, that be the spirit, lad!”
The expression on Pepper’s face warmed my heart as she smiled at me, but then she looked at Terence and the smile vanished like storm clouds over the sun. “Captain Hawkins, permission to address the prisoner.” The captain waved his hand towards Terence and Pepper placed her hand on my arm. “I would do this alone.” I gave her a grave nod and she stalked forward until she stood before him, Terence in turn raising his head as she stopped, the fragile cup still in her left hand. “You say you love me, yet you tried to show me by what, a rough wooing like the Sabine wives of ancient Rome?”
Terence was shaking his head. “Pepper, I was wrong; I know that now. Let me make it up to you by being the best lover...”
Pepper slapped him hard across the face. “Lord Tiberius once said you can’t shed light into a dark place if you don’t make a crack in the wall first. I don’t love you, Terence, nor will I...ever!” She stabbed a finger at me. “Tomas is the only one I would ever forgive a rough wooing, do you understand that? He is my last love, not you.” Her voice went flat. “Never you.”
I moved a few steps towards them as Terence began struggling wildly against his bonds. “You don’t mean that! He doesn’t love you but I do, I...”
Pepper threw the remnants of the Bright-eye tea in his face. Terence yelped as the acrid tea stung his eyes, Pepper raising her hand as if to strike him with the cup but then realizing what she was doing as she abruptly stopped. The cup flew backwards out of her hand.
I was already moving. Fate was smiling, for I only had to take a few steps and hold out my hands, and the cup flew into them without mishap. I took a step backwards...and fate gave a mocking laugh as I stumbled over a coil of rope.
Redbeard caught me. “Steady as she goes, lad,” he said as he got me to my feet, Pepper racing over with a look of fear on her face. Redbeard looked down at the intact cup in my hand and smiled. “Be putting your mind at ease: your mam’s cup be fine.” Pepper took it from my hands with exaggerated care as Redbeard said, “You did a good thing, for the cup be one of the few things of Meg’s I be saving.” I nodded in understanding as a gleam entered his eyes. “No hard feelings over the whole cutting your throat misunderstanding, I be hoping.”
“I’m trying to put it out of my mind,” I answered him earnestly.
Redbeard grinned as Captain Hawkins spoke from behind him. “Dava, take Pepper back to Sally’s cabin and let the Bo attend to her. Inform Selene she is welcome to join them, if she wants.”
Pepper turned towards the captain, saying, “Captain Hawkins...” He raised his eyebrows and she sighed, “Yes, sir.”
Redbeard gently took her by the arm and they left for the stairs as Master Le’Vass stepped out in front of Terence once more. “So, how shall we punish ze man who feels...such amour... for our petite Pepper?”
Several voices suggested flogging him then rubbing salt into the wounds, or keelhauling him from bow to stern, or torturing him with hot irons. But everyone quieted as the Mulatto spoke in his English accent. “When I was captain and someone broke my rules, we made the prisoner run the gauntlet.” Terence was still blinking from the acrid tea, but seemed able to see again as he looked at the Mulatto with fear on his face. The Mulatto, in turn, gave him a hungry smile. “All of the crew were armed with cudgels or long, sharp knives, and as the prisoner ran between them the crew got to beat or cut on the man as they saw fit
. Prisoners only had to run the gauntlet once, and well-liked men remained alive at the end. Those not so well-liked...” The Mulatto let his words hang as he folded his arms while a speculative murmur swept the crew.
“An excellent suggestion,” Captain Hawkins remarked. “And while it’s very much in keeping with the spirit of the Articles, I have one perhaps more profitable to the crew.” At the word profit all murmuring ceased and the captain smiled. “Every man Tomas kills makes him a stronger Dragon, and thus makes us better able to take prizes bigger than the ones we’ve been going after...up until now. So this is what I propose: that the prisoner, armed only with a grey-wood cutlass, fights Tomas, who will be armed with my sword, the sword of the White Lady.” I stared at the captain in surprise and he smiled again. “You acted as I wished by not engaging the prisoner in a fight without my permission, and this is how I will reward you.”
Part of me was horrified at the thought of taking another man’s life, and yet...the thought of defending Pepper, which was the way I’d begun to justify fighting Terence, using my true mother’s sword, was making the gentler part of me grow quiet. I earnestly thanked the captain and he gave me a satisfied look as the brown robed monk addressed him. “Captain Hawkins, I have no right to speak here to be sure, but if you are truly interested in profit then I have a proposal concerning your prisoner’s fate.”
Captain Hawkins turned on him. “You’re right, monk: you have no right to either speak or remain on my ship.”
“Mon captain,” Master Le’Vass said with a smile of his own, “Pray let ze monk speak, so we may judge the profit of his words. Brother Triton, is it not?”
“Brother Tristan, to be sure.” The monk scratched his armpit with a fat hand. “You know that the villagers of Haven and the other villages are escaped slaves, who drove the natives of the island onto the small mountain of Big Bluff itself?”
“Common knowledge,” Master Le’Vass replied.
