The Devil's Tide

by Tomerlin, Matt

  She stuck her sword in the deck and leaned on it in order to stand. A bald pirate lunged at her, screaming. He hesitated for a split second when he saw she was a woman, and she thrust her blade into his belly and pulled it free just as quickly. He dropped to his knees, clutching himself as blood streamed between his fingers. He gave her a final look of disbelief, unable to fathom that he had been killed by a woman, and fell on his face.

  She spotted Calloway's lifeless body near the bottom of the stairs that led up to the quarterdeck. Dillahunt was already making his way up, slashing through two pirates that tried to block his path. Blackbeard lowered his hand, revealing a black, smoking hole where his right eye had been. He raised his cutlass and charged at Dillahunt, steam pouring out of his beard and missing eye. Dillahunt saw him coming and charged as well, the loose strands of his many bandages tapering behind him. The deck seemed to tremble when their blades met.

  Kate dropped to Calloway's side. She lightly slapped the girl's cheeks. "Jaq?"

  Calloway's eyelids slowly parted. "Is it over? Did we win?"

  Kate looked around. "Not quite."

  "Your face is red," she said, reaching up to touch Kate's cheek.

  At least she can move her arms.

  "We can't stay here," Kate said.

  Calloway groggily shook her head, one eye closing while the other was barely a slit. "Let's just go to sleep right here. I'm tired. The wood is nice and wet."

  "That's not water," Kate reminded her.

  "Oh, what is it?"

  "Get up!" Kate seized her by the wrists and peeled her off the deck with all her strength. Calloway came up . . . and then dipped into Kate, nearly knocking her over. Kate wrapped her arms around the girl's waist, balancing her.

  "Tired," she said.

  "You hit your head," Kate replied.

  "It doesn't hurt," Calloway assured her. Her brow formed a line when she saw Kate's bodice. "Are those roses? How dainty."

  Crusader's bow finally slipped off the starboard rail, crashing into the water. Freed of the weight, Revenge pitched toward its port, and pirates living and dead were catapulted in that direction. On the quarterdeck, Blackbeard and Dillahunt stumbled out of view with their blades locked in a crisscross.

  Kate and Calloway fell together. Kate got up and struggled to get the girl back on her feet. "We can't stay here, Jaq!" she shouted in her face. The girl opened her eyes a little more.

  Half of Dillahunt's men had taken the fighting to the quarterdeck, but several were still fighting on the cutdown forecastle. If Kate and Calloway stayed here much longer, they would be ripped to shreds.

  Kate finally got Calloway back on her feet. Two fighting pirates nearly collided with them, and Kate veered out of the way. She looked to Crusader, but it had pulled too far from Revenge now and was tilting parallel, with the remaining crew firing rifles and swivel guns.

  Kate spotted an open hatchway set in the deck before the capstan. She made for it at once, dragging Calloway along. The girl was taller, but Kate weighed a bit more, with stronger arms and legs. Still, it was no easy task. She zigzagged through two pairs of dueling pirates, brandishing her cutlass with her free hand. One of them was Andrew Harrow, who barreled into his combatant in order to make room for the women. "Go on!" he barked over his shoulder, knowing where they were headed.

  Fear gradually enlarged Calloway's eyes as she regained her senses and realized where she was. Kate bent down long enough to pick up a dead pirate's pistol, shoving it in the front of her pants. A granado rolled across the deck as the ship swayed. "Grab that!" she told Calloway. Calloway fell to her knees and picked up the granado before it could roll past. Kate lifted her back up and continued for the hatch.

  When they finally reached their destination, a hulk of a pirate popped out of the hatch, raising his sword. Kate thrust her blade through his neck, and the tip stuck in the base of the capstan behind him. His eyes rolled up in their sockets, and his mouth dropped open, chin resting on the flat of the blade. She wrenched the sword free, and he collapsed back into the hatch, rolling down the stairs. "Go!" Kate said, urging Calloway inside.

  She looked over her shoulder and saw a dozen more of Blackbeard's men emerging from the dark hollow beneath the quarterdeck. Only five of Dillahunt's men remained on the cutdown forecastle, and they were about to be overwhelmed. The rest were dead or raiding the higher levels. Kate gave Harrow a final look. He hacked away at his opponent's blade until the man's knees buckled, and he kept on hacking until his blade split the man's skull. And then Blackbeard's men surrounded him, cutting him off from Kate's view.

  She ducked into the hatch and followed after Calloway, who was stumbling over the corpse of the hulk, which had collected at the foot of the upper stairway. They hurried through the slim door to the crew's quarters. The room was packed with hammocks and bunks. Both walls slanted to a point at the far end of the room, forming the bow. Fortunately, no one was inside, save for a corpse with a red bandana. He was still gripping a pistol. Kate ushered Calloway to the back of the room, shoving her into a dark hollow between two bunks. She pried the pistol from the dead man's fingers and handed it to Calloway. "Stay here," she said.

  The girl set the gun and granado in her lap and rubbed the back of her head, squeezing her eyes shut. "That smarts. What happened?"

  "You fell," Kate reminded her. "I'll be back. And if you have to shoot anyone, make sure he isn't one of Dillahunt's."

  "Where are you going?"

  Kate snatched the granado from Calloway's lap. "To find a powder keg."

  She sheathed her cutlass in her belt and drew her pistol. She left the crew's quarters with pistol in one hand and granado in the other. She took the stair down into the cargo hold, which was dimly lit by a couple of lanterns swaying from the ceiling. She made her way around the stacked water casks in the middle of the room, stepping over the ballast stones that covered the floor. The starboard side was brighter, with beams of light shining through where Crusader's bow had pulverized the hull.

  She approached a slim passage to what she guessed was the powder room. A figure emerged from the dark, stopping her in her tracks. Underneath a black cap adorned with a red ribbon he had short grey hair, and a deep scar ran down his forehead. He wore a white shirt and maroon breeches. And he was aiming a gun.

  "Who might you be, girly?" His voice was barely above a whisper, difficult to hear over the screaming and thumping of feet and cracks of gunfire above.

  "I might be Kate Lindsay," she answered, aiming her pistol.

  He scowled at the name. "I don't believe you."

  "I don't care," she replied.

  "Well," he said, straightening his back, "whoever you be, my name's Jethro, and I'll wager from the granado in your hand that you're here to get at the powder kegs, yes?"

  "You wager correctly," she said.

  Jethro nodded indicatively, and Kate glanced over her shoulder. Another hulk of a man had crept up behind her, cutlass in hand. He looked a lot like the hulk she had killed on the stairs. Maybe they were brothers.

  Jethro smiled, keeping his gun level. "Odds aren't in your favor."

  "I'm used to that," Kate said with a smile.

  "Best to just lower that gun, missy," Jethro urged.

  Her eyes trailed downward. "Those are very pretty breeches, Jethro. What color is that?"

  He frowned, glancing down. "Thank you. I believe that's called—"

  Kate pulled the trigger. The hold flashed white, capturing Jethro's hapless expression for an instant. The bullet had penetrated his upper lip. Kate sidestepped as he toppled forward, dropping her gun and snatching his out of his hand as he fell, all in a single motion. She spun around and aimed as the second hulk charged with his sword held high. His face ran right into the barrel as she pulled the trigger, and his brains scattered into the darkness. He landed on top of Jethro, sword clanging harmlessly on the ballast stones.

  Kate stepped into the slim passage. Three kegs were stacked horizontally against t
he wall. She gripped the plug of one of the kegs, wrenching it loose. Black powder spilled out in a steady stream. She smiled. "Beautiful."

  She moved back into the cargo hold. She cocked the hammer of Jethro's pistol and set the fuse of her granado against the frizzen. She pulled the trigger. The flint struck the frizzen, and the spark ignited the fuse. She tossed the sizzling granado into the powder room, dropped the gun, and ran. She nearly stumbled over the ballast stones but grabbed hold of a water cask to steady herself. She ran back up the stairs and into the crew's quarters. Before she got to Calloway, a tremendous boom sounded, and something slapped her from behind and lifted her off her feet, hurtling her toward the end of the room. She didn't stop until she hit the crease where each side of the ship's hull met the bow. Her forehead split on a beam, pain lancing into her skull. She crumpled to the floor, clutching her face. Her hands came away slick with blood.

  DILLAHUNT

  Dillahunt's back was flat against the port rail when the starboard side of the cutdown forecastle erupted in a blinding yellow fireball, showering Crusader in flaming splinters. Blackbeard halted mid attack, sword suspended in the air, and swiveled his huge head.

  The men Dillahunt had brought over to Revenge were all but spent. As far as he could tell, seven remained. Five of them were fighting on the quarterdeck. The other two were somewhere below, last he looked, although the explosion had probably claimed them.

  "What in God's name?" Blackbeard muttered in disbelief.

  "Not God," Dillahunt replied, swinging his blade. "Last I looked, he doesn't deal in fire."

  Blackbeard parried without even looking at Dillahunt. "My ship," he said, dazed. "What's happening to my ship?"

  Dillahunt almost felt sorry for the man. He knew better than anyone that a captain's bond with his ship was nothing to make light of, and Queen Anne's Revenge was one of the most impressive ships he had ever seen.

  "You knew this couldn't last forever," Dillahunt told him.

  Blackbeard looked at him. From the creases in his cheeks, he might have been smiling sadly beneath that nigh impenetrable beard. "Aye," he said. "The end always comes too soon."

  The ship began to list toward its starboard side. The fire quickly reached the mainmast, slithering up to the sails. The heavy winds urged the fire across the sails in successive beats. Before long, blackened hemp was flaking away like dried leaves that had been dead too long. Dillahunt would have marveled at the sight, if he hadn't been fighting for his life. An explosion of that size could only have originated from a powder keg, which meant Revenge's lower hull had likely ruptured, and water was already filling in.

  Blackbeard hacked at Dillahunt's blade and gradually inched toward the six pistols he had discarded during his attempt to make a hostage of Calloway. Before he reached them, the harness of pistols slid down the slanted deck, right through two rail posts, and landed somewhere on the quarterdeck.

  Dillahunt grinned. "Now you'll just have to kill me fair."

  Blackbeard returned the grin. "I seek merely to curtail the inevitable. That's all I've ever done. The only certainty in life be death."

  "Even for you, Teach."

  "I've never claimed otherwise."

  The men on the quarterdeck made a mad dash for the stairs. Five were on fire, shrieking and thrashing. Several of Revenge's crew ran right past Dillahunt and Blackbeard, darting up the ladder to the poop deck. Dillahunt's men joined them, their quarrel momentarily discarded.

  "Cowards!" Blackbeard spat at them. "Do not flee the cleansing fires nipping at your back, for you'll be immersed eternally soon enough!"

  Dillahunt thrust at an opening, but Blackbeard parried. "And where are you bound, Teach?"

  His remaining eye rolled back to Dillahunt. "That's for God to determine. I have only ever served by his design."

  Dillahunt laughed. "You have no idea how insane that sounds, do you?"

  "Mayhap," Blackbeard admitted. His voice lacked the fury Dillahunt would have expected, but his resolve was unhindered. "One thing be a certainty. If my beloved ship be destined for the depths, you shall follow."

  The muscles in Dillahunt's arms ached as Blackbeard's cutlass beat down upon his repeatedly. With his back to the rail, he could retreat no further unless he leapt into the sea, and he wasn't about to run away like a coward. He would see the monster dead before he left this ship, or he would never leave at all.

  As he blocked every blow, waiting for an opening, his mind inevitably wandered to Calloway. Last he saw, Lindsay was dragging her toward the capstan. When he looked again, they were both gone. If they were in the hold when the powder ignited, they were both surely dead.

  Blackbeard lowered his blade and jabbed at Dillahunt's waist. The tip pierced his belly, and he jerked sideways before it could enter further. Pain pinched the muscles in his stomach, and he clenched his jaw. He brought his blade down on top of Blackbeard's, pinning it to the rail.

  "Your thoughts meander," Blackbeard said, pulling his blade free. "You make this easy for me. Your mind be easily fogged. I see that much in your eyes. You are assailed by questions, too many at once, yes?"

  Dillahunt winced, a red spot blooming in his bandages from the fresh wound. "What would you know of it?"

  "All too much," Blackbeard sighed. "We be of like minds, I think. We do not settle on simple answers to thorny queries, and thus we find hidden truths others do not see. That be equal halves boon and burden. If I were to pose a troublesome riddle, your mind would not readily relinquish it, no matter how badly you wished it gone. Should you leave here alive, with me dead, that riddle would gnaw at your mind long after the fish have gnawed at mine."

  "Speak plain English," Dillahunt spat.

  "Oh, I think you understand me."

  Dillahunt slid around a cannon, making for the ladder to the poop deck. Blackbeard advanced fast. "Seek refuge with cowards and I'll split you down the spine."

  Dillahunt glanced up at the poop deck, where men were scrambling for purchase as the rear of the ship lifted out of the water.

  "We can't stay here," Dillahunt said. His feet were starting to slide. The deck slanted as the starboard bow inclined toward the water. The fire had made its way up the stairs, touching the quarterdeck. Beyond that, the ship was engulfed. A sail fell away from the main mast, disintegrating in the wind. If they lingered much longer, both men would be pitched into the fire.

  "You've somewhere better to be?" Blackbeard taunted, spreading his arms. The wind swept over him, whipping at his coat and nurturing the fuses in his beard. Smoke swirled before his face.

  Dillahunt swiped at Blackbeard's blade. "I would spend my last moments in fairer company."

  Blackbeard cackled a laugh. "And what company be that? Your dainty lover is likely dead by now. If it's any consolation, I didn't intend to harm her. She forced my hand." He jabbed a thumb at the black hollow where his right eye had been. "Quick thinking, it was. Impressed though I be, I'd gladly return the kindness. Eye for an eye."

  "Ha!" said Dillahunt. "You would've murdered her either way."

  "Nay," Blackbeard protested. "She be much more interesting alive."

  Dillahunt delivered a jarring blow, leaning into his cutlass, and Blackbeard stumbled back a few feet. "For once we're in agreement."

  Blackbeard's teeth emerged, tightly clenched, as his lips split in a macabre grin. "You simple fool. Have you not yet realized who shares your bed?"

  Dillahunt halted his blade mid-swing. He frowned. "What?"

  Blackbeard opened his mouth to give answer . . . but so too opened the deck. The planking split apart beneath his legs like rows of gnarled teeth along a yawning mouth. Fire burst from the fissure in a bubbling cloud, enveloping him. Blackbeard's final expression was strangely impassive as he looked down to consider his fate. He didn't scream. His lone eye reflected the blaze as he plunged below, and his beard took flame along the way. And then he was gone, supplanted by fire. His tricorn hat landed on one side of the disjointed deck, smoldering. />
  Dillahunt stared into the blaze until his eyes could no longer endure the heat and light and most of all the swirling, endless patterns. He cast aside his sword, crawled over the port rail, and dove toward the water below. And all the while, Blackbeard's final riddle gnawed at his thoughts.

  KATE

  A dense black cloud that reeked of sawdust and gunpowder rolled into the crew's quarters. The deck jolted violently beneath Kate's hands and knees. The roar of fire was reciprocated by a thunderous current of water splashing into the hold.

  Kate shook her head, fighting off fatigue. The gash in her forehead had swiftly manifested a throbbing headache. Thick drops of blood pattered the floor, dripping from the matted strands of her hair. Her head felt light and vacant, but her muscles were tight and cramping all over. She was all but spent, but this wasn't over yet.

  She crawled over to Calloway, who had remained safely tucked in the space between the two bunks. "What happened?" the girl asked, hugging her knees and trembling.

  "I found the powder kegs," Kate replied.

  Smoke wafted into the room, trailing after the dust, and they both started coughing. "We have to get out of here before we suffocate," Kate choked.

  "Your forehead," Calloway gasped.

  Kate blinked as blood spilled over her eyes. "Is it bad?"

  Calloway was staring up, mouth hanging open in fascination. "I think I see your skull," she answered. She raised a hand. "Can I touch it?"

  Kate snatched Calloway's wrist. She suppressed the nausea rising in her stomach. "I've had worse."

  Kate looked around, blinking dust and blood out of her eyes. She took the red bandana from the corpse and fastened it tight around her head. She crushed a palm against her forehead, and already she felt the cloth soaking with blood. She hoped the pressure would be enough to stop the bleeding.

  She tried to stand and nearly toppled. She grasped one of the bunks and looked at the floor. "We're sinking."