by David Talon
“She chose him,” I said in wonder as the truth swept over me like a crashing wave. “Long-Mu was the first...she was the mother of the Dragons!”
“She was mother to an abomination,” Olde Roger almost shouted, shaking his fist at me. I took an involuntary step back as he continued. “When she informed me she was pregnant I told her to get rid of the thing but she refused, giving birth to a pair of twin males three years later. Three years! A normal pregnancy lasts forty, sometimes fifty years, but obviously this was anything but normal.”
I heard Selene mutter, “Fifty years? The good Lord save us.”
Muffled laughter from both sides turned to silence at Olde Roger’s glare took in all of us. Then he turned that glare on me. “That was the beginning of the rift between the two of us. Our race makes no distinction between male or female in positions of leadership, and your mother was my second in command. She had always been a clever speaker, and she used her talent to turn the rest of the expedition against me.” He stabbed a finger at his own chest. “Against me! Against the one who had convinced all of them, including Long-Mu, to come to this strange land in the first place. When they rebelled, I tried to reason with them...but in the end I had no choice.” The fire left his dark eyes as he stared at me. “I went back to our people in the homeland and convinced them of the danger the rebels posed, how they would someday assemble a massive army of humans and invade. After much deliberation I was granted the right to assemble an invasion force, and when the threat was over I remained behind to end what I had begun.”
Captain Hawkins remarked, “Why wait so long? I’ve seen the murals in the House of Memory, and your victory that day was complete.”
“My reasons for waiting are no concern of yours,” Olde Roger replied with a dismissive wave of his elongated hand. “What matters are my plans for the future, which leads us to the business of the day.” He began pacing again. “I need to bring mankind back to the pristine state of noble savagery he once occupied, and make sure he remains there. The gentlemen monsters I created, the ones you call Shadowmen, shall help me destroy man’s civilization.” He stopped pacing. “You and your crew, dear captain, shall help me insure it remains that way. Let me show you.” He turned around. “Victoria, ask your new pet to join us.”
Victoria gave Olde Roger a deep curtsey then turned towards the darkness behind her. “Terence, come.”
From the shadowed darkness I heard the sound of claws scraping stone. They got closer as Pepper, who’d turned in their direction, began to back away as a man-like figure entered the torchlight. The face still resembled the man known as Terence, but blond hair had turned to fur, his skull remolded with a jutting jaw and fangs pointing up and down, his body hunched over with elongated, misshapen hands and feet. But he still wore trousers and a sailor’s striped shirt, the creature being careful not to snag Victoria’s dress with his claws as he knelt down beside her and rested his head against her thigh. Victoria smiled as she scratched the top of his head as if he were a dog. Pepper continued backing up, passing through Olde Roger’s image, making it waver like a reflection in the water before it steadied. Looking down at Pepper he gave her a sardonic smile and she turned and bolted towards me, shivering as she reached me and we hugged each other tight. From the crew I heard Master Walters bellow, “What manner of deviltry is this?”
“No magic, if that is what you mean,” Olde Roger replied. “I merely gave instructions for the blending of man with beast, retaining the intellect but gaining ferocity.”
“Is that what you want,” Captain Hawkins snarled at him, “to turn me and my crew into beasts?”
“Dear captain, you are already beasts, all of you. What I seek to do is give you certain advantages, and a means to guide you.” Olde Roger waved his arms in an expansive gesture. “The name of Harry Hawkins is feared and reviled in both the New World and the Olde, so all I do is help your nature become what it is truly meant to be.” He motioned with one hand towards Terence. “This man was an experiment, so I could be sure I had the proportions properly balanced, but they will be different for you and your men. I will leave you more of your humanity and intellect but with the reflexes and ferocity of the beast.”
“I won’t fight for you and neither will my men.”
Much of the crew shouted agreement as Olde Roger raised his hands for quiet. When he had it, he said, “Nor will I ask you to. Your task will be to continue doing exactly what you are doing now. When my gentlemen monsters have finished smashing a city, London for example, and have moved on, you and your crew will prey upon those who try to rebuild. Not because you want to help me, mind you, but because that will be your nature. For example, the natives of Big Bluff have decided to take back the island from the escaped slaves and other scum who pushed them onto the abandoned fortress you are currently inside of, and are doing so by way of a potion their shaman gave them last night. Within a few hours the change will be complete and they will hunt down and kill all the ones who oppose them, enslaving the rest. They will have no desire to change from their natural state and will keep the rest in the same state of simple living, not from any desire to serve me, but because that will be their nature. I, in turn, will gain a first line of defense against intruders who want to attack me here, when I take the fortress over as my base in the upcoming war.”
Master Khan had been standing in the front line of the crew, and now he walked up beside the captain. “They will not be a very good defense if they get into their canoes and leave, as they may desire to do, yes?”
Olde Roger gave Master Khan a thin smile. “You must be the clever one I have heard about. Yes, if they decide to leave I cannot stop them, but they will not, because the potion that created them also sustains them, and they will crave it the same way you crave food when you are ravenous. Their shaman is the only one who knows the secret of making it, and he has merged with one of the Dark Sisters, so his loyalty to me is assured...as is their loyalty to him.”
Captain Hawkins had me and Pepper step back with him to where Jeremiah stood as Master Khan put himself in front of Olde Roger. “I have not lived as long as you have and do not have your knowledge, yes? But I fail to see how destroying everything man has built will benefit us.” He raised a wrinkled, age-spotted hand to keep Olde Roger from speaking. “You say the ancient Dragons have corrupted man...yet, how do you know mankind would not have accomplished all he has done even without their influence?”
“I admit some of what you say may be true,” Olde Roger replied, “which is the reason I let your civilization last as long as it has. Dragons have been feared and reviled through much of man’s history, and as long as mankind did their best to hunt down and kill all the Dragons they could find, I was content to let man go on as he has. But in the last hundred years my fears have come to pass: Dragons are increasing in number, with the active help of man, and the time is coming when they shall become the masters over mankind, as my race was long ago.”
‘I fail to see this as a bad thing, yes? Tomas,” Master Khan’s hooded face glancing back at me then forward again, “is the son of an ancient Dragon, yet instead of being a corrupting influence he has made some of us remember the good men we once were.”
Olde Roger was shaking his head. “You use the same arguments Long-Mu once did, but my answer remains the same: Captain Hawkins and his men must either take the choice I offer or take up arms against me.”
As the crew began muttering darkly among themselves, Captain Cholula’s voice echoed as it rang out. “Don’t expect me or any of my crew to take your filthy poison.” She drew her cutlass and pointed the tip at Olde Roger’s face. “I’ve fought against you and your Shadowmen for as long as I’ve been able to swing a sword, and I’ll continue doing so until breath quits my body for good.”
“Captain Cholula, I wish you a long life doing just that.” Everyone gaped at him in astonishment, and Olde Roger chuckled. “I move my gentlemen monsters like pieces on a g
ame board, anticipating the moves of my opponents, and I have to say your boldness adds spice to the game.” He sighed as if in honest regret. “In the end it shall not matter: eventually you will over extend yourself, or suffer a mishap, and you will be cut down. But until that time comes I will relish matching my wits against you.”
He looked at Arabella. “The same goes for you and your master. When Captain Cholula returns to her ship I strongly advise you to accompany her, so your master will know what I intend and so he does not lose the loveliest of his Shadowhunters.”
Arabella asked, “What of Tomas?”
“What of Tomas, indeed.” Olde Roger’s gaze locked with mine. “Were you pureblood, I would have Captain Thorne collect you and bring you to me so I could educate you and show you the true path of our people...but you are not a pureblood. However, you will make me a fine opponent once you come of age. Captain Cholula will teach you what you need to know, and instill in you the proper hatred an opponent of mine must have to play the game. I dearly hope you survive until the bitter end, when man is down to his last cities and we can make a fitting climax to our struggle, so learn your lessons well.”
“Tomas is Dragon-sworn to me,” Captain Hawkins snarled at him. “Where I go, so does he.”
“Dear captain, be reasonable. If you do not release him then it means you have become my enemy, and there is no way off this island...except my way. Either you flee Captain Thorne and get blown up, or you attack him and are killed in battle, or you try escaping overland and become fodder for the beast men of Big Bluff. Oh, and I truly hope you do not seek to escape by canoe, for that would be a very undignified manner of death when my gentlemen monsters capture you.” He sighed. “Dear captain, if I did not respect you as much as I do I would never have had Captain Thorne declare a truce with you in the first place.”
Master Khan pointed an age-spotted finger at Olde Roger. “You set this up as part of your game, yes? You knew we would return to Haven someday.”
“Indeed,” Olde Roger said, sounding pleased. “I anticipated this move on the dear captain’s part and maneuvered him into deciding to do as I desire. You see, almost seventeen years ago he took my ear in an honest fight, something no one of my race ever succeeded in doing, let alone one of yours, and thus I want to give him what he truly desires.”
Captain Hawkins said, “And that is?”
Olde Roger smiled. “Freedom, dear captain. Freedom without restraint, freedom without fear, freedom to do as your dark nature desires, to whomever you want whenever you wish. If you accept my gift then I will give you one of my most prized possessions: an Artifact golem of my world that does not require a dragon-ghost to operate it. The golem reasons like a man and it will not only make the potion that sustains you, the potion that heals wounds you would otherwise die from and keeps you from suffering the ravages of old age, but it also can read the wind and the weather. It will give you good counsel and in time you will come to rely upon it as your truest friend.”
“What if I accept your gift yet still turn against you? What will you do then?”
Olde Roger only shook his head. “Dear captain, in your new state you will still mostly look like a man and reason the same, but you will lust after blood, rivers of red running down the deck of your new ship, and I fear my gentlemen monsters will not inspire you the way mortal men and women will. I am not trying to trick you: I will give you the freedom to rape and reave your way up and down the coasts of every land and every nation, without any means of controlling you, and the golem will let you add to your crew as you will until there are no more cities to sack and mankind is cringing in their huts, afraid to rebuild lest the reavers return.”
Master Khan asked, “What will you do when the game is over, and you have won?”
“Die,” Olde Roger replied, “as will all my gentlemen monsters with me.” He smiled at our surprised looks. “I designed them to expire the very moment I feel death’s welcoming embrace. I am over the age when my people usually choose to end their lives rather than suffer the indignities of old age, but I will endure the ravages of time until I see the end of my task, content in the knowledge that mankind will go on as it should have done all along.”
“And when man has become too fearful to rebuild,” Master Khan said quietly, “you will have no more use for reaving pirates dependent upon an Artifact golem to make them potions, yes? So the golem will make no more potions.”
“The golem will shut down,” Olde Roger replied. “By that time the Shadowmen will only be a legend and the pirates only a shadow of the band they once were, and I imagine they will welcome death.” He gave Master Khan an appreciative look. “Elder, I would enjoy spending time speaking with you. When your captain makes the right choice, I will spare you at least long enough so we may talk...”
Master Khan took the edges of his cowl and drew it back, Olde Roger pausing as he beheld Master Khan’s face. I gasped. From the back I saw the old man’s head was a mass of scarred flesh without a single strand of hair. He turned in my direction and I gasped again, for his face was the same, only his mouth and chin untouched. But strangest of all were the gaping holes where his eyes had been. He turned back towards Olde Roger. “If the captain and crew accept your offer then the Blackjack Davy will be destroyed or abandoned, yet it has been my home for many years. I will remain with her.”
“As you will,” Olde Roger said, turning towards Captain Hawkins. “What is your decision, dear captain?”
“Every man of the crew will make his own,” Captain Hawkins replied, “just as we have always done. Those who accept your offer will return here, those who don’t will remain aboard ship. If...I am not one of them then they may choose a new captain and do as they will,” his face troubled a moment before becoming its stern mask again as he folded his arms across his chest. “Am I clear?”
Olde Roger chuckled. “As always,” he said before turning towards Victoria. “Return to dear Captain Thorne and relay all that has transpired.” Victoria gave him a deep curtsey, remaining down as Olde Roger raised his hand in an imperial wave as he moved in a circle one last time. “Make your decision a wise one. Good luck and good hunting!” He stopped in front of me, his face growing sad a moment before he spoke a few words in his guttural language and his image vanished.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the metallic cube in Arabella’s hands went dark, the Shadowhunter tossing it back to the shape-changer. Victoria caught it and rose to her feet. “Captain Cholula, Captain Thorne and the rest of his brother captains send their regards, and swear they will not fire their great cannons at the Sea Witch for any reason. They do invite you to attempt boarding their ships any time you would care to do so, however. I believe they have a gentlemen’s bet over who will be the first to tame you once you are captured.”
Captain Cholula barked out a laugh. “They’re welcome to try. Go fly to your master and tell him I’ll make him regret his offer the first chance I get.”
Victoria inclined her head. “If it pleases you, I shall save my strength and walk. Come, Terence.” She turned and began to walk away as the beast-man rose to his feet and went to follow. But then he turned back, his gaze on Pepper as Victoria looked over her shoulder. “Terence!” He cringed at the sharpness in her voice, turned, and bounded after her, his gait more like an upright wolf’s than a man.
The crew had begun talking amongst themselves in angry tones, but they quieted as Captain Hawkins raised his voice. “Save it for the ship’s meeting. Jean, lead them back to the Davy and I’ll be along in a minute.” Master Le’Vass gave him a look promising painful revenge, and I felt a stab of fear for the captain as the quartermaster motioned for the crew to follow him. But Captain Hawkins seemed oblivious to the danger as he turned towards Captain Cholula. “I’m not releasing Tomas until we’re back aboard ship. He’s going to decide his own fate, not you.”
Captain Cholula snapped, “I won’t see him sent to his death.”
>
“It’s his choice,” Captain Hawkins’s hand on the hilt of his white sword. “If you wish to contest the matter we can settle it right now, captain to captain.”
For a moment she looked as if she’d accept his challenge and Karl stepped in front of her, crossing his arms over his chest. Captain Cholula gave him a sour look. “I’m not about to sacrifice everything I’ve fought for. Hawkins, we will return to the Sea Witch and sail her back to Haven at once, where I’ll expect to find Tomas.” She looked at Arabella. “Will there be time enough before Olde Roger releases his savages?”
“They will head for the other side of the island before they return to devour Haven, or so Olde Roger informed me.”
Captain Cholula gave her a narrow-eyed look. “Sometimes I wonder which side you’re actually on.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Red-dog, stay with Tomas and help keep him alive.” The largest of the wolf-golems nodded and walked over to where I was standing, its Artifact paws making tapping sounds on the rock floor as she turned towards Captain Hawkins again. “She’s torn between loyalty to me and to Draco Dominus, so this should help ease her mind, since both sides want him. Too-Tall, get the men back to the ship. Quick march.”
“Aye, captain,” the tall African getting her men in ragged formation and marching back the way they’d come.
Captain Cholula fell in with him as Karl looked back at Arabella. “Coming?”
“I will catch up to you,” she replied.
“Don’t be long,” he growled, and followed them, his fast strides quickly catching up to Captain Cholula as they marched away down the grey-stone road.
Arabella turned back to Captain Hawkins, who was giving her a look cold as a stone statue, and she made an exasperated sound. “Harry, I would see you live. Do you know who I am, or must I spell it out?”
“I knew who you were the moment I laid eyes upon you.” Arabella stared at him in shock and he gave her a bitter smile. “I may have no memories but I do dream, and yours is the face I see in them...at least, when they’re not my usual nightmares.” His face softened as he reached out to stroke her cheek with a gentle touch of his thumb. “After the dragon-ghost named Storm healed my head wound I was brought before Sir Francis. He already knew my name, telling me the ship’s company had too many Henrys, so would I mind being called Harry instead? Not knowing who I was I agreed, but,” he added with a frown, “I’ve always wondered how he knew who I was when I didn’t.”
