by David Talon
We reached the first class cabins, two in all, the one on the right given to the three women who’d given Maria and Panther their gifts of gold. They were laying together on several blankets stretched out on the floor, the scent of rum strong as they snored and the wooden cups at their sides rolling back and forth with the motion of the ship. “We find feeding them bumbo mixed with opium makes them more compliant,” Tommy remarked as he motioned towards the cabin on the left. “That one’s yours.”
I opened the door. The cabin had been designed for the ship’s most important passenger, with a real bed and not a fold away against the forward wall, a small writing desk, and a privy against the port side of the ship. There was also an open porthole letting in clean sea air. Tommy motioned towards the desk, where two bottles sat, one leather and coated with wax, the other an unopened wine bottle. “The first is water to wet your whistle, and the second claret to drown it. Are you hungry?” I shook my head and his voice grew sharp. “If you think to starve yourself, we can shove porridge down your gullet.”
I shook my head again. “I don’t think I’d keep anything down if I tried.”
Tommy smiled. “Understandable, considering you thought you’d be back safe and sound on the Davy by now. I tell you what: I’ll see the crew leaves you alone for a while, so you can begin to accept what’s happened. There’s a safe harbor just up ahead, away from the habitations of men, where we’re going to put in. There’s to be a ship’s meeting, to plan out just how we’re going to make it back to the Olde World, and since you don’t get a say-so where we go, there’s no reason for you to attend.” He motioned towards the cabin door. “Once you’ve accepted your fate this door will remain open, but for now it will remain locked.” He started towards the door then stopped with his hand on the knob. “Oh, one more thing. When Pepper and I were part of Scab’s crew, this cabin was hers.” He nodded at my surprised look and shut the door behind him. A moment later I heard a rattle, like a bar was being placed across the door, and then the Shadowman’s footsteps walking away.
For a moment fear rose up inside me worse than it ever had, tightening my chest until I found it hard to breathe, like dreaming a nightmare you couldn’t wake from, no matter how you tried. But then it was like Alfonzo was speaking in my ear again, saying, ‘Courage, Tomas. The times are never as dark as they seem’.
“They’re not as dark as they seem,” I said aloud in agreement. “I’m going to find a way off this ship, and the monk as well...if I can,” I added, feeling the twinge. He may have been a spy but he was human as well, and not a pig for the Shadowmen to gorge themselves on.
“There is a way off the Black Rose,” a familiar voice said in my ear, “and we are going to find it.”
“Jade!”
“Did you think I would abandon you so easily?”
“But what about the others? Pepper and Jeremiah, and...”
“They are fine,” she said, clearly amused. “It was wise of you to give control to the captain, else I would have abandoned them to their fate. As it was, I killed or frightened off the villagers, allowing the rest of your party to escape...excepting the man known as Whistling John, of course. Once they were free of the village, Captain Hawkins had me leave the golem at the entrance to discourage any pursuit, and find you. I will bring the dragon-golem back to the Blackjack Davy, but not until I know I can leave you for a time.”
“Leave me...we should leave right now. Take what you need for strength, form an air-golem and get us out of here.”
“I cannot until you are stronger.”
I blinked. “But I feel fine.”
“But I am not. Tomas, all of the older sisters always keep a small reserve of strength we never use, in part to show we have no wish to fight, but also so we can control our hunger. Right now I am empty inside, and if I draw from you I may draw far too deep for you to survive.”
I exhaled sharply. “Alright, if we can’t get off one way, perhaps the little ones can get me off another.”
“If I might make a suggestion, Arabella must have a plan to get you off this ship and return you to the captain. I would counsel we wait for her to make her move.”
“Can we trust her?”
“I believe we can...to a point. Arabella was once a Dragon, and certain attributes have not changed, the inability to lie being one of them.”
“What do you mean, she was once a Dragon?” I scratched my head. “I thought being a Dragon was like being born a boy or a girl: either you’re one or the other.”
“Normally you would be correct,” Jade said, her voice sounding amused again before it became serious, “but Arabella has been altered somehow. She will hold to her word but I know not what her true motives are, so I would counsel trust...with our eyes wide open. Now, if you would, move to the window, for I wish to show you something.”
I stepped over to the open porthole and looked out. The Black Rose was turning towards a small cove, and as I saw the outline of the approaching forest I also noticed the black outline of the small mountain off in the distance. Fires were burning on the very top of Big Bluff, a lot of fires, like the village itself was aflame. “Jade, what’s going on up there?”
“I know not...but whatever the villagers are doing, it is something they have never done before. But for now it is of no concern, so get some sleep and while the little ones keep watch, I will return the dragon-golem to the Blackjack Davy and come back to you as fast as I can.”
I didn’t feel sleepy, but drank some water and, at Jade’s insistence, opened the bottle of claret and had a few sips. I listened to the ship anchoring in the cove as I reclined on the bed, the little ones chattering to me about the events of the day and what they’d seen, and the normality of it all comforted me so much I began to relax. But as Star began speaking about the Dark Sister who’d taken strength from me, I frowned. “Jade, why did she react as she did?”
“Think of it this way: the Dark Sister is like a woman who will eat only bitter food biting into a piece of sugar cane. She choked on the sweetness... but now, she remembers the taste. I spoke to her after she had expelled the strength she drew from you, and told her she can come back to the light if she will be willing to serve again. Even though she is larger than all the little ones combined, she must make herself the servant of all, even Little Raven, so she might return to her true nature.
I asked, “What if she decides not to?”
“Then I will kill her. The Dark Sister remained behind, but she will return to the Black Rose when I have re-entered the dragon golem, for you will draw her on like a moth to the flame of a candle.” Jade’s sigh was like the voice of the wind on a lonely night. “For her sake I hope she gives up the bitter for the sweet, yet I fear she will not. Eldest is what Pepper named her, and she has been a Dark Sister for a very long time.”
Her words made me imagine Pepper crying herself to sleep on the very bed I was laying on now. “I don’t want to bring back any bad memories, but did Pepper leave anything behind she might want?”
“She kept a rosary under her pillow, which helped her get through the times when the prisoners were screaming and there was nothing she could do to save them. From time to time she has expressed regret at being carried off before she could retrieve it.” I had already begun groping under the pillow, my hand at once finding beads under my fingers, and I brought it out. The rosary was a cross and beads made out of brown wood, the beads strung so each was an exact distance from the ones on either side, while the cross was plain and smooth, without any adornment at all.
I had no idea what its purpose was, Belle M’ere only using hers when she was alone in her room, but knowing Pepper had once held it made it seem like she was near. It also made me think of what it must’ve been like for her, listening to people scream night after night, and not being able to do a thing to help them. “It’s not right, what they did to her. Jade, there’s got to be a way to keep them from ever hurting her
again.”
Jade was silent for so long I thought she had left, my eyes drifting shut then opening wide again as she spoke in a soft voice. “The way will come for you but once. As you spoke just now I had a vision, of you holding a red flag in your hand, a flag dripping blood onto the deck of the Blackjack Davy.”
“Whose blood?”
“Your blood, Pepper’s blood, the blood of your friends...and the blood of your enemies if you choose this path. Blood will follow in your wake, blood and death, but if you truly wish to see Pepper safe then you must choose this path.”
I took a deep breath. “Will it lead to our deaths?”
“The vision suggests it will, if not of all then at least of some, but if you let the chance slip from your fingers I see the cities of man becoming the kingdoms of rats and shadows...rats and shadows, with a long night of darkness that never ends. The way will come for you but once.”
I asked Jade what she meant but she remained silent, either gone or electing not to speak. Gripping the rosary in my hand I tried to wrap my thoughts around what she’d just said, but instead closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
QUINTUS
In the quiet of the early morning I opened my eyes. Setting the rosary on the writing desk for safekeeping, I found the privy then looked out the porthole, wondering if aught was amiss or if I’d only woken from a fragment of my troubled dreams. The clouds in the eastern sky were turning reddish-pink in preparation of the sun’s arrival, though night still clung to the shadowed forest across the dark water. Tucking my shirt into my trousers, I drank warm water with the slight taste of waxy leather as my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten in over half a day. I called aloud, “Jade?”
Star’s voice spoke from beside me. “She’s not here, but the Dark Sister who drank from you is with the other Shadowmen, arguing over where they’re going to sail.”
In that moment I understood why every ship had to have a captain as Tiger chimed in, “Jade attached a piece of herself to you like Smoke used to. Tomas, why does Smoke want to merge with Pepper? I miss her.”
“I miss her as well,” I said, unsure whether or not Tiger would understand my explanation. “You see, Smoke...”
Several loud booms came from the direction of the bow. A moment later I was thrown to the floor as the ship wildly rocked while whistling sounds became splintering wood and snapping rope sounds from above deck. The women in the next cabin began screaming. “Bloody bones,” I said as I got back up, the sound of pounding feet and Shadowmen calling out to each other coming from the deck above my head. “Are we under attack?”
“Verily so,” an older woman’s voice said, “and thou shalt help us repel it.”
“Who are you?” I asked as I backed a step away from the voice.
“Thy mistress, the one thou didst try poisoning with thy strength. I shalt see thou pay for thy crime but for now, thou shalt call thy younger sisters, tell them to take yon air-golem mermaids thou didst have them create, and throw grenadoes down upon thy enemies...”
She shrieked, and a moment later screamed in pain, the voice travelling away from the ship as if the Dark Sister was trying to flee, and I ran to the porthole and stuck my head outside. Captain Cholula’s warship ‘Sea Witch’ was some distance away with her gun ports open and her bronze cannons smoking, voices barking out orders to reload drifting out over the water. I immediately pulled my head back in. “Star, what’s going on?”
“Big sister’s killing the bad sister,” she replied, excitement in her voice.
“You should see it,” Tiger chimed in. “I wish I was bigger: I’d help rip the bad sister apart.”
“Stay with me,” I said as pounding feet came towards my door.
A moment later I heard a rattle and the door opened. “We’re in a lot of trouble,” Tommy said in way of a greeting, his leather clothes askew and his hat missing.
My wits were running with me for once. “I know: the Dark Sister told me to have the dragon-ghosts take over the air-golems and rain grenadoes down on the enemy.”
A look of relief swept over his dead white face. “We may get out of this yet. Come on,” and he motioned for me to follow him. I did, running down the corridor to the makeshift stairs leading up to the main hatch then past it towards the stern. There were crates and boxes strewn about as we ran towards a pair of doors ahead of us, the one on the left shut, but the one on the right open wide. He pointed towards it. “That one’s the weapons locker: the grenadoes are in there.” There was another roar as the Black Rose shivered while an evil whistling and more sounds of splintering wood came from overhead. “Bastards are raking us with chain shot to take out the rigging and clear the decks before they board us. Get yourself above deck as soon as you can.” He turned and ran towards the stairs.
I hastened into the cabin. It was a jumble of weapons: steel cutlasses, broken gunpowder muskets, pikes, a pair of artifact cutlasses sticking out from underneath a rusty chainmail shirt...and an open wooden crate filled with shiny black globes with blunted spikes sticking out in all directions. I picked one of them up to examine it. Even though I’d never seen one, Alfonzo had told me how grenadoes worked, the spikes being Artifact strikers designed to set off the frozen quickfire inside the globe, spraying anyone close by with small scraps of metal when it exploded. “Girls, I doubt the air-golems above survived, so form new mermaids but use the nets to hold these,” and I held up the grenadoe. “When I give the word, throw them one at a time at the deck near to several enemies, and the grenadoe will explode.”
Five voices told me they were ready, Star adding, “Tomas, who exactly are we going to throw them at?”
Fear was being replaced by a growing excitement. “That’s a very good question, but we’ve got to do this correctly or I’ll be in a lot of trouble.” I told the dragon-ghosts exactly what I wanted, and a moment later the air swirled around me, raising up enough dust that I began to sneeze. When I’d finished, five mermaids were hovering in the air before me, the nets in their hands now formed in a pocket large enough to hold their share. They began collecting grenadoes as I grabbed the rusty chainmail shirt and tossed it aside, grabbing the cutlasses by their bound leather hilts and shaking off the orange flakes.
“Tomas,” Star suddenly called out, “Tiger’s playing with hers.”
I looked up. One of the mermaids was throwing a grenadoe into the air and catching it, and I exhaled sharply. “Tiger, stop throwing it into the air. Grenadoes aren’t toys!”
“I’m sorry, Tomas,” Tiger said in a contrite voice as the mermaid caught the grenadoe and hung onto it. “I’m just having fun.”
“Once I give the word, you can have all the fun you want throwing them down and watching them explode.” I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. “Alright, let’s go.” I led the way out of the weapons locker, the five mermaid air-golems following me in a line as I strode through the hold to the stairs and climbed up, the stairs creaking as I reached the main deck and looked around.
The main deck was a shambles of shattered wood and shredded rope, the mast splintered but still holding though its spars that held the sails in place were in pieces, on the deck or dangling in what remained of the rigging. A Shadowman was leaning against the mast with both his legs gone at the knee, a rusty steel cutlass in his hand as he methodically hacked away at the splintered ends of green-yellow bone sticking out. Several others were dead, one with his head gone while the others had been torn to pieces, their blood, black as pools of ink, soaking into the greasy planks or dripping down into the hold below.
Tommy was standing beside the main hatch. “Several of the lads were knocked overboard, so they’re out of the fight even if they aren’t dead,” he said as he motioned towards the Sea Witch, who’d turned towards us with her decks full of men. “Get your dragon-ghosts out there or we’re all dead.”
At least a dozen Shadowmen remained on deck as I looked down at five faces lookin
g up at me from the hold, taking another deep breath before I said, “Girls...primus.” They told me ‘aye’ in unison and then one by one shot out of the hatch and formed a line on Star, who was to lead them. They were small as children, each mermaid holding a grenadoe in one hand with a net full of them bulging at her side as Star led them forward in a line towards the Sea Witch, which was rapidly closing the distance between us. The Shadowmen’s faces turned to a hungry joy as across the water I heard Captain Cholula shouting orders, the sharpshooters at the rail and on the firing platforms making ready as the air-golems moved far enough away. I shouted, “Secundus!”
They flipped in unison and sped back towards the Black Rose, the Shadowmen shouting in alarm as the mermaids began throwing grenadoes at them. I leaped down into the hold as explosions rocked the deck above, the planks being torn apart along with the Shadowmen as I heard Brother Tristan bellow, “Hoy Tomas...get me out of here!”
My bare feet slipped on the greasy deck as I took off towards the corridor, stopping in front of the stall holding the monk. He was out as far as his chain would let him as I asked, “Where’s the key?”
“I’ve no idea,” he said as he eyed my cutlasses, “but lend me one of those and I’ll free myself, to be sure.”
I gave him the one in my right hand. “I need it back when you’re loose,” I said as the sound of a body hitting the lower deck came from somewhere behind me.
He took it and began hacking away at the wood post holding his chain in place as I spun around and ran back the way I’d come. At the foot of the stairs was the mangled body of a Shadowman, face down with his legs now ragged stumps and one arm gone, the rest of him shredded by jagged pieces of metal. I slid to a stop beside him and looked up. Explosions rocked the deck as the mermaids flitted back and forth, hurtling grenadoes with glee. Around me pieces of the deck were crashing down, leaving gaping holes large enough to put a foot through as I waited at the foot of the stairs for any of them coming after me in search of revenge.
