Where Loyalties Lie (Best Laid Plans Book 1)

by Rob J. Hayes

  “Sounds like loyalty problems,” Drake said.

  “Nothing I can’t handle.”

  “Good. Hate for a mutiny to put our alliance to dust before we even get anywhere.”

  “Morley isn’t wrong about Cinto Cena, Drake. It’s uninhabited for a reason, and folk have tried to settle there before. Between the flaming cliffs, the sand devils, and whatever the Hells makes all those noises in the forest, Many Deaths is an apt name.”

  “It’s untouched, aye.” Drake nodded. “Plenty of resources for building a new town. Getting these folk off our ships, settled and started. Between the flaming cliffs on the south side of the island and the sand devils occupying every beach front, it’s the most defensible island we got.”

  “Except maybe the Isle of Goats.”

  “Aye, well that one’s a whole different kettle, eh. Folk who wander into that forest don’t come back out normal. Besides, it belongs to Tanner, and I don’t think we’ll get far trying to take it by force. Cinto Cena is the best choice we got.”

  “It’s a shit choice,” Morley said.

  “Your pessimism is starting to piss me off, friend,” Drake growled.

  “Better you pissed off than all of us dead. Captan…”

  Bristling, Drake very nearly leapt over the desk to stick a sword in Morley’s guts. Only his better judgement and a lack of anything approaching an energetic response stayed his hand. Instead, he leaned forwards just a little and stared into the man’s shit-brown eyes.

  “My being pissed off is likely to lead quite directly to your death.”

  “It would be a dangerous place to settle,” Stillwater said quietly.

  “Captan, you can’t…”

  “Ain’t a place in the isles doesn’t have its own peculiar sorts of danger.” Drake spoke over Stillwater’s first mate. “That’s what makes the folk that live here so damned tough.”

  “The flaming cliffs regularly set fire to the forest,” Morley protested.

  “A band of deforested area, well maintained, will make certain the fire doesn’t spread,” Stillwater countered. It almost made Drake smile, watching his fellow captain argue his point for him.

  “And the sand devils?”

  “Can be killed,” Drake cut in. “I’ve seen it. Reckon I could teach folk. Just gotta lure them out and don’t let them get away. We take the north beach, wipe the beasts out on that one, and leave them on all the others. Natural protection from any and all who might want to repeat Sev’relain.”

  “What about the thing in the forest?” Princess asked.

  Drake sucked his golden tooth and grinned. “I’ll deal with that.” He forced as much bravado into his voice as possible.

  The unfortunate truth of the matter was that he had no idea what called the forest of Cinto Cena its home, and just as little an idea as to whether he could deal with it. Luckily for him, he had an Arbiter as a shadow, and he was relying on her to follow him into almost certain death.

  Morley looked sceptical. “You’ll deal with it?”

  “Aye.”

  There was a moment’s silence as everyone in the room started to wonder whether or not it was truly possible to tame the island of Cinto Cena. It was a turning point. If they believed in Drake, they would follow him – and if they followed him there, they would follow him anywhere. If they didn’t believe in him, they would try to run, sail along in someone else’s wake, and the only other option was Tanner Black. If they tried to run, Drake would have to stop them.

  “Start sending the refugees across to the Man of War, Morley,” Stillwater said eventually. “At the same time I want the supplies split three ways, one third for each ship. Pick ten men, those you trust the most, to sail her. I assume you’ll do the same, Drake?”

  “Aye. Only fair, I reckon,” Drake said with a genuine smile.

  “As soon as people and supplies are where they need to be we’ll set off.”

  “Good to have you on board, Stillwater.”

  “I really hope you know what you’re doing, Drake,” Stillwater said with a cold voice and a vicious glare at Beck, before turning and walking out of the cabin.

  Drake waited until the other captain and his irritating first mate had gone. He waited until Princess had reported on the number of dead and injured and left. He waited until only he and Beck remained in the cabin.

  “You and Stillwater,” Drake said quietly. “Are we gonna have a problem?”

  The Arbiter looked at him. There was still dried blood stuck to her face, and her hair was matted with it. She looked on the verge of exhaustion, but stood straight and proud regardless. She seemed to think about the question for a long while before shaking her head.

  “I can handle him.”

  Chapter 17 - The Black Death

  The back of Tanner’s hand connected with his daughter’s face, and she went down hard and spitting blood. Didn’t take long for the little bitch to come springing back up, standing up to her father and looking like she was spoiling for another beating. She was a good head shorter than Tanner, and despite all the fury of a seasonal storm flashing behind her eyes, she backed away when he stepped forward.

  “Ah, ya may have bigger stones than the rest o’ my gets combined, Elaina, but don’t think for a moment ta stand up to ya da.” Tanner pitched his booming voice to carry both to his own crew and to the members of Elaina’s that had accompanied her.

  “I ain’t some little girl for you ta bully, Da!” Elaina spat as she rubbed at her cheek and winced. “And if Ma were here…”

  “She’d coddle ya an’ tell ya ‘love be a harsh mistress with harsh lessons’, aye. Unlucky, then, that she ain’t here an’ I am. Ya shoulda told me the second I set foot on the island that Stillwater was here. That boat of his ain’t so fast The Black Death couldn’t o’ caught him.”

  “And done what?”

  “What you shoulda. Taken the boat back.”

  “It was my ship. Not yours.”

  Tanner gave his daughter’s other cheek a sturdy backhand that sent her crashing to the decking. “It was my ship, ya little whore. They’re all my ships. The only reason I was allowing ya ta sail it is ’cos ya got my blood in your shitty little veins, which happens ta also be the only reason I ain’t strapping ya down and lettin’ me crew teach ya this fucking lesson.”

  Like a whipped dog yet to learn its lesson, Elaina sprang back up and faced Tanner down. “Ya wouldn’t fuckin’ dare, Da.”

  Tanner lunged forwards, his head striking Elaina’s face, and he felt her nose crack. His daughter collapsed onto the deck and lay there moaning, her eyes unfocused and blood leaking down over her face to pool on the decking beneath her.

  “Mace,” Tanner said to his first mate, pointing at his prone daughter. “In the arse. Don’t want any of your gets takin’ root in her belly.”

  Tanner watched as his first mate, a small man with arms like tree trunks and a temperament like he had something to prove, grabbed hold of Elaina’s semiconscious form and turned her onto her front. Mace twisted her arms behind her back and held them there with one hand while he pulled down first her britches and then his own. Elaina struggled as she started to come around, but Mace was a strong man and he just twisted her arms tighter. Elaina gasped in pain, first as Mace twisted, and then a second time, even louder, when he thrust his cock up her arse.

  “Da, get this fucker off me,” Elaina screamed. Tanner stared on through pitiless eyes. If she wasn’t strong enough to stop the man from fucking her, then she deserved it; and it was only through suffering that people got stronger. Elaina may be the only child of Tanner’s worth the squirts he’d put in their mother, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need to be taught lessons the hard way.

  Elaina didn’t stop struggling, but Mace held her fast, and every time she tried to rid herself of her rider he only twisted her arms tighter and pushed her harder into the decking. Eventually Mace stopped thrusting and let out a long groan. Tanner heard his daughter let out an accompanying cry full
of disgust and humiliation as Mace pulled himself out of her arse and stood up, backing away from the prone woman with a wild grin on his face.

  Tanner loomed over his first mate. “Don’t remember tellin’ ya ta enjoy it.”

  “Sorry, Cap’n Black.” The smile dropped from Mace’s face, and his eyes found the deck all sorts of interesting.

  Tanner growled and turned his attention back to his daughter. She was still lying face down on the deck, not moving, not making any sound.

  “Get the fuck up,” Tanner yelled, “before I order another one inside ya.”

  Elaina moved immediately, curling up into a ball before getting shakily to her feet and pulling up her britches. She turned to face Tanner, but kept her eyes cast downwards.

  “That little shit, Stillwater, stole from me,” Tanner shouted in his daughter’s face. “Stole a ship from me. And instead of guttin’ him and takin’ it back, ya let him fuck you. An’ the first I hear of him bein’ here at all is from that dumb lubbard, Quartermain.”

  Elaina said nothing, but kept her eyes on the deck. Tanner could see his daughter shaking.

  “Get the fuck out of my sight, ya stupid little whore.” He spat on her.

  Elaina didn’t run, and Tanner was proud of her for that. Despite the humiliation of being beaten and raped in front of Tanner’s whole crew, the girl turned and walked slowly from The Black Death. She didn’t shed a single tear. Tanner was both proud of his daughter and disgusted with her at the same time.

  “We goin’ after him, Cap’n Black?” said Neril, the quartermaster.

  Tanner took in a deep breath and let it out as a sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl. His crew, renowned for being the most bloodthirsty, depraved, evil bastards to sail Rin’s waters, remained silent. They all knew the punishment for interrupting while he was thinking.

  “No point,” he said eventually. “News he was here is weeks old. Thievin’ little shit is long gone by now.” If only Elaina had been dutiful as a daughter, even now Tanner would have his hands around Stillwater’s throat. But she was a woman, and women were prone to foolish acts – especially where men were concerned.

  Some of Tanner’s crew winced at an ear-piercing shriek that erupted from up high, as Pilf flew in on his great, dark wings and landed easily on the captain’s shoulder. The bird looked around the gathered crew through his one good eye and let out another cry that set Tanner’s ear ringing. He shrugged his big shoulders and the bird took flight again, this time landing on the ship’s wheel. Pilf’s beak was dark red, a testament to the fact that the bird had found something to eat.

  “Ain’t many places near here Stillwater coulda run ta, Cap’n Black,” Neril continued. “We could…”

  “He’s gone,” Tanner said in a voice that brooked no argument. “We lost him this time, but we’ll catch up with the traitor soon enough. I feel the need to kill someone. Let’s find us some quarry, boys.”

  Chapter 18 - Starry Dawn

  Elaina ached. Every muscle in both arms hurt, and her nose was a mess of agony. She tasted blood and wiped at her mouth again. She’d limped all the way back to her ship without help, without a word, and without a tear. Elaina had been raised better than to cry in public, to be stronger than that. Now that she was alone in her cabin, the damned tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks like hot wet streaks of fire.

  Pulling out a bottle of rum from her bedside cabinet, Elaina ripped the cork away with her teeth and took three unhealthy-sized swallows of the fiery booze. Being drunk would help to dull the pain.

  Her arse hurt. It hurt like it had recently had a cock shoved up it, hard. It hurt to stand, and it hurt to sit. She’d wiped and wiped and wiped as soon as she was alone, but still she was finding evidence of the humiliation.

  The worst pain wasn’t how badly her arse hurt, nor the humiliation of the rape, of being helpless in front of all those men. The worst pain was that her father had ordered it, that he was so disappointed in her that he’d ordered one of his crew to rape her. The tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks again.

  Elaina had disappointed her father before. With a man as great as Tanner Black as a father, it was impossible not to disappoint him from time to time. Her feelings for Keelin Stillwater had always been a source of contention between the two of them, but he’d never taken things so far before. She must have hurt him this time. It was her own fault; she’d had every opportunity to kill Keelin. Instead Elaina had let him go, and even worse, she knew she’d do it again, given the chance.

  There was a knock at her cabin door, and Pavel’s soft voice drifted through the wooden barrier. “Captain. I should look at you. The crew says you’re banged up rather badly.”

  Elaina wiped the tears from her face, wincing at the pain, and took another swig from the bottle of rum before making her way to the door. Her quartermaster was on the other side with Pavel. Corin’s face was caught between horror and anger. Pavel’s was worse. Elaina hated being pitied. Even worse was that she deserved the pity.

  “Captain…” Corin started.

  “Tell the crew I’m fine,” Elaina slurred, her swollen lips sore and the taste of blood suddenly stronger. “They get a few more days’ leave and are not to go anywhere near my father’s crew.”

  Corin looked set to argue, but he nodded and turned away. Elaina stood aside to let Pavel into the room. The man swept past her, his red robe billowing as he went, and headed straight for Elaina’s desk, where he deposited a large black leather case. Elaina closed the door and limped after the doctor.

  “Your father did that to you?” Pavel said as he rooted through his case.

  “Some of it.” Elaina stopped beside the doctor and leaned against her desk, wincing.

  Pavel said nothing in reply, giving Elaina a disapproving look. Not that the doctor’s opinion mattered a damn. He stared into her face, gently took hold of her chin, and turned her head first to the left, then to the right. Even Elaina’s neck hurt, and she felt like cursing the names of all the gods to have been born with such poor judgement as to piss off her father so.

  “Your nose is broken,” Pavel said eventually.

  “I can tell,” Elaina slurred back.

  “It will need setting. It will hurt. You should sit.”

  “I prefer to stand.”

  Pavel looked at her disapprovingly again. “You should sit.”

  Elaina attempted to give the man a withering stare, but considering her black eyes and swollen cheeks and lips, she wagered she missed the mark. “Have you ever had a cock up your arse, Doc?”

  Pavel looked uncomfortable. “No.”

  “I’ll stand.”

  Pavel spent a few minutes poking painfully around her nose before placing one hand on either side and…

  “Fuck!”

  Elaina couldn’t help but shout as the doctor snapped her nose back into position, bringing with it a fresh wave of blood that careened down her face and the metallic taste of more of it at the back of her throat. She pulled away from the doctor just in time to stop him seeing her tears, and banged her fist down hard on her desk. Fat drops of blood dripped down and pooled upon the wood, and Elaina fought the urge to turn and punch Pavel in his nose so he could experience the agony.

  Wiping at her eyes, Elaina turned back to face the doctor, who had already riffled through his case and was now brandishing some sort of lotion. “I need to clean the blood away and apply this to your cuts. It will stop them from infecting and should help bring down the swelling.”

  Elaina perched on her desk, ignoring the pain, and nodded at the doctor. “Remind me never to disappoint my father again.”

  Pavel began to wipe the blood from Elaina’s mouth. “I would prefer to remind your father that Pelsing judges how we should treat our children.”

  Elaina snorted out a laugh, complete with a spray of blood and a hearty dose of pain. “I don’t think you’d survive that sermon, Doc. Your golden god don’t hold much sway out here. Our god is wet, cruel, and loves
women over all men.”

  “If that were true,” Pavel countered in a frustratingly calm voice as he applied lotion to Elaina’s face, “would she allow your father to treat you in such a way?”

  “Suffering makes you stronger,” Elaina said, repeating the words her father had drilled into all his children over and over again. “A lesson learned without pain isn’t learned at all. The pain makes you remember. Stops you from repeating.”

  “Poor girl.”

  Elaina snapped out of her reverie and gave the doctor a hard push, sending him stumbling. “Don’t ever think to pity me, Doc. Don’t you ever. Are we done?”

  “Yes,” Pavel said quietly as he packed his lotions and tools back into his case. “You should rest.”

  Elaina did feel tired, but there was no time to rest. She needed to plan where she would take the ship next. Needed to figure out how to regain her father’s favour.

  Chapter 19 - The Phoenix

  Keelin set foot on his ship for the first time in almost a full day. He’d been over on the Fortune or the Man of War for so long it was a breath of fresh air to be confronted by a clean, bloodless deck. Morley was only a few steps behind him, and Keelin could feel the man’s frustration. Morley didn’t agree with the decision to attempt to settle on Cinto Cena. Unfortunately for Morley, it wasn’t his decision to make.

  Most of The Phoenix’s crew were assembled on deck, far too many for chance. Keelin felt his spirits drop. He was somewhere beyond tired, ravenous as the sharks that prowled the waters below the ship, and sick to the stomach from the weight of death he’d witnessed – and caused – over the past two days. It dawned on Keelin then that he hadn’t actually seen the inside of his cabin since they’d left Sev’relain two days ago.

  “Captain…” Feather started, but he was pushed out of the way by Smithe.

  “Seems we still need a new quartermaster…”

  “Not now,” Keelin said as he started towards his cabin.