by Rob J. Hayes
“Any sign of him?” Keelin finished up and tucked himself back into his britches.
“Blood on the sand a little bit that way.” The man pointed down the beach, and Keelin thought he could just about make out some discoloured sand. “Looks like his hat too, but no one wanted ta get close enough ta check. Whatever got him might still be there. ’Neath the sand.”
“Then we best find out,” Keelin said sternly. “Get a team together and comb the sand around the blood. Kill anything under the surface and try to find Nilly.”
The pirate looked uncomfortable, and on the verge of arguing. He evidently decided against it. “Aye, Cap’n,” he said with a grimace, and set off towards the fire where his crewmates were gathered.
By the time the boats arrived, Keelin had found the cook pot and was busy eating a cold bowl of last night’s left over stew. Kebble Salt had found him, and the two were busy eating in companionable silence when Princess jumped from the front of his skiff and made his way up the short stretch of beach to the makeshift camp.
“Drake didn’t show up then?” Princess sat down opposite Keelin, brushing a few lank, wet strands of hair away from his face.
Keelin shook his head and spooned another mouthful of stew. “You don’t sound concerned.”
Princess laughed. “Hear we lost a man during the dark. One of ours or yours?”
“Yours,” Keelin replied solemnly. “He wandered off to take a piss, didn’t come back.”
“Nilly, was it? Poor bugger never could piss with an audience. The Cap’n will be sad. He always liked Nilly.”
“I want you to send the boats back and get every able man and woman down on this beach.”
“That so?” Princess didn’t sound too certain about the order.
“We’re starting again. Combing the beach over.”
“What?” Princess snorted. “Took us most of yesterday to do as much as we did, and ya want us to start over?”
“Yes.”
“Mind sharing ya thinking?”
“Your man was killed close to the camp, an area we’d already combed. That makes me think the sand monsters move around during the dark. Can’t be certain those areas we checked yesterday are still safe. So we start again.”
Princess thought about it as Kebble handed him a bowl of underwhelming stew. “Aye, sounds solid reasoning.”
“I also want any man or woman with real carpentry experience reporting directly to me by the time this pot of food is empty. And I want preparations drawn up to beach the Man of War as soon as we’re confident we’ve killed most of the sand monsters.”
“Outfitting?”
“Repurposing. That ship burned down two towns. Now its bones are going to be the foundation of a new one.”
Chapter 27 - Fortune
No sooner had light begun to creep in through the forest canopy than Drake and Beck struck out of the cave and resumed their hunt for the creature in the forest. Both of them were hungry, and that had led to a sullen couple of hours cooped up together, surrounded by rock. When the opportunity had presented itself to escape, Drake had leapt upon the chance. There was no shortage of berries, leaves, and shrooms in the forest, all of which could possibly be eaten, and all of which could potentially be fatal. Drake wasn’t about to risk death by fungi just to quell the rumbling of his stomach.
He walked like a man who knew where he was going, even though that was far from the truth. They were lost, pure and simple. The encounter with the ants and the sleeping magic had had a greater impact than the implicit peril. Thinking back, Drake couldn’t remember much of the time leading up to the moment when they both collapsed. He couldn’t remember how long they’d been walking, or in which direction. They could have got turned around any number of times and not been any the wiser. With that in mind, Drake had done the only thing that had seemed sensible; he’d turned his feet to the sun and walked east. Beck followed.
A sharp pain in Drake’s neck made him wince, and he slapped at it. His hand came away bloody, with a squashed insect the size of a large coin. Already Drake could feel his neck beginning to itch where the pain had been, and it wasn’t the only place he wanted to scratch. The sooner they got out of the damned forest and back onto the ships, the better. He may be intending to settle the island and turn it into a stronghold for his people, but that didn’t mean he wanted to spend any time here.
“Do you hear that?” Beck asked, her compulsion washing over Drake.
Drake looked at her with impatience, but stopped and strained his ears. He heard nothing. The impact of that revelation hit him only a moment before the roar ripped through the forest.
Trees shook, birds took flight and fled, and both Drake and Beck dropped to the ground, covering their ears as best they could. Considering Drake’s injured arm, that wasno’t very well. The noise was deafening as close as they were, and almost sounded like a dragon’s cry. Drake had first-hand knowledge of how loud those could be up close.
The noise rumbled to a halt, and a few moments later the near-constant call of island birds and the monotonous drone of buzzing insects started again. Drake looked over to Beck to find her crouched on the ground with two pistols drawn and a face as white as canvas despite the heat and humidity. Wild eyes peered out from beneath the rim of her hat, darting everywhere as they searched for the threat. Scared only began to cover it, and Drake had to admit he wasn’t feeling much better. Of course, unlike Arbiter Beck, Drake was determined to put on a show of bravado. His fearless reputation would let him show nothing less.
“That way, ya reckon?” Drake whispered, pointing with his good hand.
Beck’s eyes snapped to his, and she nodded.
“Good.” Drake smiled at her. “Let’s go slay this monster.”
He strode away in the direction of the roar, confident the Arbiter wouldn’t let him go alone. Beck counted herself a warrior, and a proud one; there was simply no way she’d allow Drake to appear fearless as she cowered away from the creature, even if it meant her own death.
Never having been one for flights of fantasy, Drake refused to let his imagination run wild. There were any number of beasties that could create a noise like that, and each was as dangerous as the last. If he started listing them all in his head he’d likely find himself paralysed by fear, so instead he forged on through the trees, slapping away flying insects and keeping his footfalls as quiet as possible.
Eventually the trees gave way to a large clearing walled in on the far side by an outcropping of rock with a dark cave that housed an opening as large as a ship. Not much light penetrated the mouth of the cave, and there was no way to tell how deep it went. Beck shuffled up beside Drake at the edge of the clearing, and they crouched behind a giant of a tree, peering around its trunk.
“It must be in the cave,” Beck said, staring towards it. The Arbiter started whispering something under her breath, but soon stopped and shook her head.
Drake looked more closely at the clearing. To one side of the cave was a small steaming pool no larger than a dinghy, and to the other side there appeared to be a hole in the ground much larger than the pool, only with no steam emitting from it. There were also no trees near the hole in the ground, and those that were closest almost seemed to be leaning away from it.
“Have you any idea what it might be?” Beck said in an urgent whisper.
Drake wanted to laugh at the question, but it would have given the game away and he wanted to drag Beck’s vulnerability out a little longer.
“Surely you’d know better than I, Arbiter. It was your Inquisition that hunted all the old monsters into extinction. Far as I know, only dragons, sea beasties, and trolls are left. But I reckon the Inquisition has all sorts of books and shit on all those terrors they wiped out, eh?”
“I was never one for spending much time in the Inquisition libraries,” Beck hissed. “Waste of time. The world is out here, not in a bunch of dusty old tomes.” Drake laughed and stood up. He casually wandered out of his hiding spot and
into the clearing.
“Drake! What the fuck are you doing?”
Drake turned, but continued to stroll backwards so he could see the Arbiter’s face. Much to his pleasure, she looked genuinely worried, and that was very much a victory in his book.
“There is no monster, Arbiter Beck. At least not here.”
Beck stood, clearly unsure whether Drake was right or not. Drake couldn’t help but grin at the look on her face; it was almost as if she expected something to reach up out of the hole in the ground and swallow him whole at any moment.
“What about the cave?”
“It’s just a cave.” Drake laughed. “Likely got bats in it and little else, I reckon. See the two holes in the ground?” He pointed first to the pool and then to the much larger hole.
Beck took a few steps into the clearing and nodded.
“This one…” Drake moved closer to the steaming pool and looked into it. He could see a definite bottom only about ten feet down, and warm, clear water coloured green by the rock around it. “Aye, this is a hot spring, warmed by the earth around it to” – he dipped his finger into the water – “a very pleasant temperature.”
Beck moved to stand next to Drake and looked into the pool.
“The other one,” Drake continued, “is much larger. No water, but the rock around it is wet. Well, that one is a geyser.”
“A what?”
“Boiling water from deep underground occasionally rises up and shoots out of it,” Drake clarified. “Makes a hell of a noise too, much like a roaring beastie. And the force of it, if it’s powerful enough, can shake trees. Best not get too close to that one. Those things can be pretty dangerous.”
“There is no monster,” Beck said, echoing Drake’s earlier words.
“No.”
“Did you know this before?”
Drake felt her compulsion and shrugged it off. “No. Wouldn’t very well be out here if I did. Got far better things to be doing with my time. Nice surprise though, eh? Instead of fighting a ferocious beastie we get to have a nice relaxing dip in some warm smelly water.”
Again the look of disbelief. “You can bathe in it?”
Drake nodded.
“You’re sure it’s safe?”
Beck’s compulsion wasn’t just washing over Drake now; it almost felt like a permanent fixture hanging over him. He’d never experienced an Arbiter asking him so many questions in such a short time before. As Arbiter Beck seemed to be reluctant to use her compulsion – most of the time – Drake wondered whether she was enjoying the company of a person she couldn’t dominate so easily.
“Aye, it’s safe.” Drake smiled as he knelt and dragged his good hand through the water. “Folk bathe in these things all the time. Shit, there’s a town in the Wilds that sells time in them, charges a bloody fortune for the privilege too. Folk travel from all over to take a dip in the bitter springs of Bittersprings. And look, we get our own one here for free. Best take advantage of that, I reckon.”
Beck looked at the steaming water, and Drake could see longing written plain on her face. It was likely a good long while since she’d last had a chance to bathe, and there came a point in most civilised folks’ stay in the isles where they just wanted to feel clean. Still, in Drake’s experience, sometimes people needed an extra incentive and a little push.
“I hear it does wonders to stop the itching too,” he lied expertly.
“What?” It was likely Beck hadn’t even realised how badly the insect bites were itching, and now that Drake had mentioned it, he could see her become uncomfortable as all those little irritations made themselves known.
“See how there’s none of those little bastards around the pool?” Drake said. “Seems they don’t like something in the water. Keeps them away and relieves the damned itching.” To drive his point home he scratched at his neck. There was no bite there – he was smart enough to know not to scratch at bites – but it had the desired effect on the Arbiter, and a moment later she was scratching.
“And you’re just going to stand there and watch?”
Drake grinned, his golden tooth glinting. “I was thinking of joining you.”
Beck looked as though she was considering the idea, and leaning towards telling Drake exactly where he could go.
“You first,” she said. “And if you try to touch me when I get in, I will drown you.”
Unbuttoning his shirt proved to be fairly difficult with a broken arm, but Drake guessed that asking Beck for help would result in a less than favourable response, so he laboured alone, dropping the shirt to the ground along with the sling that held his arm in place. He had to sit to remove his boots, and then pulled his belt free, letting his britches drop and stepping clear of them. Naked as his name day, save for the charm attached to his wrist and the ring on his finger, Drake stood in front of Arbiter Beck, grinning. She didn’t return the smile. He saw her eyes dart all over his body, a frown forming on her face as she took in his scars and tattoos.
“These things safe to take a dip?” He nodded towards the charm on his wrist.
“They’re waterproof,” Beck said, her eyes momentarily dropping to Drake’s crotch.
“Good.” Drake tucked his right arm close to his body, an act which brought eye-watering pain, and leapt into the pool. He plunged into the hot water, and the sudden change in temperature threatened to take his breath away. With his eyes closed he could see nothing, but he didn’t need to see. Water had always been Drake’s element, and his mother had used to say that she couldn’t believe he’d been born without gills. The Drurr had used all sorts of water-based tortures on him, and although they still hurt and ached, and had almost broken him, they’d never seemed as bad as the ones involving fire.
Drake used his left arm to propel himself to the bottom of the spring, and his feet soon touched the rock. He could feel the heat coming up from the earth, warming the water. He pushed off the bottom, swimming upwards quickly until his head broke the surface.
Kicking lethargically to keep himself at the surface, Drake used his good hand to push his hair back and wipe the water from his eyes. He found himself looking at the cave, so he turned back to find Arbiter Beck undressing next to the hot spring. Her hat was on the ground and her golden hair was spilling down around her face, lank and grimy from many days of poor treatment. Her jerkin, along with the brace of pistols, had been discarded, and she was busy undoing the last button on her blouse when she noticed Drake had resurfaced and was staring at her.
Without a word, Beck popped open the last button and dropped her blouse to the ground. Drake gawked at her breasts. He’d seen a fair few pairs in his time, and he’d happily admit that the Arbiter’s were very close to being the best. Some sagged, others were too perky, but Beck’s were right there in the middle, and large enough for a handfuls a piece. He’d already pegged Beck as a woman who enjoyed the attention of men, and he was more than happy to give her his, full and undivided.
“Are you done?” She raised an eyebrow, and Drake barely even felt her compulsion.
“Oh, I could happily stare at those all day.” He grinned, and spared a moment to quickly lock eyes with her. Unfortunately she chose that same moment to drop her britches, and Drake couldn’t help but drop his gaze again.
Treading water was becoming difficult with only the one arm, so Drake swam backwards a little and grabbed hold of the wall of the spring, spitting out some of the foul-tasting water.
“Very nice,” he said as Beck stood before him as naked as he was, putting herself very much on display.
With a snort she stepped forward and disappeared beneath the surface of the pool. Drake looked down through the clear waters and saw Beck below him. She‘d swum down to the bottom, just as he had, and now appeared to be looking up at him.
When Beck resurfaced, Drake treated her to one of his more genuine smiles. He could still just about see her breasts, distorted only a little by the rippling water, and it wouldn’t have been untruthful to say he was fin
ding it hard to calm himself. She pushed her hair back and smiled – possibly the first real smile Drake had ever seen on her face.
“You were right,” Beck said, her voice a little softer than usual. “It really does feel good. It’s been so long since I’ve felt anything close to clean. Honestly, how do you pirates live like this?”
Drake laughed. He was leaning against the wall of the hot spring, kicking slowly, with his good arm draped over the side. He watched Beck clean a month of dirt, sweat, and grime from her skin.
“This is nothing,” he said. “Few weeks, maybe a month at sea, with minimal bathing opportunities broken up with some time on land, where bathing is pretty much required. Besides, you oughta try getting yourself locked up in a dungeon deep, deep underground. Soon changes ya values on what exactly ‘clean’ means.”
Beck looked at Drake as she wrung water out of her hair; it was fairly obvious she didn’t believe him. “I can’t imagine who would want to lock you up.”
“Let’s just say your Inquisition did a piss poor job of wiping out the Drurr.”
Beck laughed. “This is where you tell me it was a Drurr matriarch who locked you up because she was in love with you.”
Drake tried to laugh but couldn’t quite force it out. “Aye. That’d make for a fine fucking story.”
Beck turned different eyes on him then; not the iciness that he was used to, but deep blues filled with endless pity. “I’m sorry, I thought…”
“Reckon you’d prefer to bathe alone.” It took more willpower than Drake would have liked to admit, even to himself, to turn away from the naked Arbiter. But he did, and then proceeded to scramble, claw, and roll free from the hot spring, earning himself a few scrapes along his good arm. His body protested at being out of the water, and all the aches and pains the soothing spring had been suppressing made themselves known again. Drake heard the Arbiter swimming across the pool towards him. He ignored her and started walking towards the cave.
