by R. J. Batla
“Fire!” Celeste said.
The starboard cannons roared to life, blue energy launching grappling hooks the size of wheel barrels towards the enemy. Half a dozen hooked securely around a small number of pieces of the enemy ship on the opposite side of the pirate vessel.
“Drop!”
The crew reached up with both hands as high as they could, then pulled down on an imaginary rope. The Ajax was jerked downward, into and then under the water.
“Air!” Celeste screamed just as they were about to submerge.
Ten crew members swirled their arms, Pushing against the ocean and using water pressure to keep the deck, masts, and sails of the ship dry as they dunked under the enemy vessel. In the seconds they were under, Celeste watched the water swirling around them, forming a half-dome of air while the rest of the ship was completely under water. The thick ropes attached to the back of the grappling hooks and secured to the frame of the ship snapped tight vertically, then moved towards the deck of the Ajax as they moved under the pirate vessel.
Suddenly the lines pulled extremely taut, fully catching the enemy ship and digging into its wood.
“Pop up!”
The crew punched skyward as the Ajax fully cleared under the pirate ship and shot back to the surface, the ropes and grappling hooks jerking the pirate vessel with a great groan, sending her rolling to the side so fast that the pirates went flying from her deck.
“Reel her in!” Celeste said, and the Tempus below pulled in the ropes, further tipping the pirate ship over until her keel was upright, her rudder spinning in the moonlight as the pirates surfaced all around her.
“Freeze them before they use any powers on us!” Celeste screamed.
Blue flares of energy shot out from all over the ship as her crew hit anyone surfacing with a glacial blast, each shot solidifying a ball of ocean water around their intended targets.
Soon there were dozens of bobbing icicles in the water. She waited a few moments and no more pirates surfaced.
“Mr. Mate, take ten sailors to collect our ice cubes. Let’s see what we caught.”
Celeste walked over and took the wheel from Mate as he grinned and headed for the longboat.
While Mate gathered the pirates from the water, other crew members pulled the ropes tight, flipping the pirate vessel back upright again. Poteet and ten others threw a gangplank over the side, the boarding party hurrying to find any survivors and make sure any resistance was snuffed out quickly.
Five minutes later, they emerged with ten more survivors. Once they were secured on board the Ajax, Poteet and his group went back and removed the water from the pirate vessel, streaming it out of the cargo bay doors and back into the ocean.
In ten minutes, Mate had added four dozen shivering pirates to the others on the deck of the Ajax. The ice had been melted and replaced by chains of steel, enhanced to curtail any use of powers. Once they were all acceptably subdued, Celeste paced back in front of the group, scanning quickly for any blue skin that would indicate a Tempus. They looked to be a mix of peoples from across Terraunum, all humans, with many Senturians scattered in the bunch – mostly water users. No surprise, as they were on the open ocean – air would be of some use to fill the sails, earth totally useless, and fire, while a potent weapon, only able to burn the very vessels that gave life on the water.
They were pirates, clearly. But as Celeste paced back and forth, she noticed something else to them. They were gaunt, like they hadn’t eaten properly for a while. But, most of all, it was in the eyes. Every single one of them. They held fear. These pirates were scared of something. And if they were scared of something, either these weren’t the pirates who were killing the whales, or they were being forced to do it by someone else.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve fired upon a Tempus vessel, then tried to run from us. I have little patience for foolishness, so I suggest you answer my questions quickly and truthfully. A ship sent a distress signal and we were dispatched to investigate. Since you were in the area, you must know something about her. Where is the Spirit? What did you do with her and her crew?”
“Ma’am, we ain’t got nothing to do with no ship called Spirit,” one of them said.
“Then what were you doing out here? A ship doesn’t just disappear.”
“Please, Captain, we didn’t do it! We didn’t attack anyone!” Celeste gave them a reproachful look. “Well, other than you guys.”
“Then why did you attack us? Why fly the pirate flag? And, if you didn’t attack the Spirit, who did? Surely you know.”
A lady pirate scrambled out from the group, pleading from her knees. “Please, ma’am, take us prisoner. Take us wherever you want. Do whatever you want. But, please, I’m begging you: please get us away from here as fast as possible! Far away from the other pirates! Don’t let them catch us! Please!” Tears streamed down her face.
Hmmm. Odd behavior for a pirate – they weren’t known for being overly emotional.
Celeste looked her over – like the rest, she wore simple clothes, and looked like she hadn’t bathed in a while. The other prisoners looked to her like she was their leader. They were mostly women and children, and the few men among them were older. This had to be the strangest pirate crew she’d ever seen. “What do you mean, don’t let the other pirates catch you?”
“We were prisoners. The others, they…they captured our ship then took us to some weird island. They kept us there, feeding off our life energy, using us to fuel their experiments. Just a couple weeks ago, something distracted them and we managed to escape, steal this vessel, and set sail.
“But they chased us. Five of their ships. They was after us and almost had us too, when suddenly, they turned off and stopped chasing us. We’ve been on the run with little food and water. The other pirates…they…they’re into something big, something dangerous. They have a leader. He’s –”
“Yeah, we’ve met him,” Celeste interrupted, anger burning behind her words. “What does he want? What’s he trying to do? How is he doing –”
She shook her head. “They kept us in the dark. Used us to gather the whales, or whatever he wanted to drain the life from –”
Celeste froze midstride. “He did what? What do you mean ‘drain the life from’?”
The lady’s eyes darted back and forth. “I mean, he would, you know, take the life out of them, and then put it, you know…somewhere else, to do…something…”
“Well, that’s conclusive,” Celeste said. “What’s he trying to do?”
“He never told us, Captain! That island, where we were kept – there’s something off about it. The whole place felt like death, like the very air was poisonous. It felt…wrong. Just…wrong…”
“All right then, if you don’t know what they’re up to, then surely you know where they are? Where are the pirates based out of?”
“Due east of here, where we were running from. Please, just let us go, or take us in. Either way, please, just get us away from them. Please!”
“Mate, Wylie, Poteet, Leroy, James, John – a word. Jace, grab thirty Tempus and watch these pirates. The rest of you, set about making repairs from our little maneuver and get the ship ready for another fight.”
Celeste led her small cohort to the navigation room outside her cabin and closed the door, the space tightly cramped with so many in the room. “You heard what she said. It sounds like a horror story. My gut tells me to believe them. What motive would they have for lying? And it’s obvious they’re hard up and running from something.”
“I agree,” Poteet said, leaning over the map table and squeezing it so hard it creaked. “Their words rang true, and coupled with their appearance, I believe them. Whatever is going on, it’s unnatural.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“That still leaves us with the same problem: what do we do? We don’t have the room or the supplies to take them all prisoner and still chase those other pirate vessels. We’d have to head straight back to shore. And we sti
ll have to find the Spirit.”
“Kill them. They’re pirates; they’ve said it themselves,” Leroy said.
Celeste rolled her eyes. “No, we can’t execute them without a trial, Leroy.”
He threw his hands up. “Fine. You said we couldn’t keep them prisoner – seemed like a logical solution to me. So what are we gonna do with ‘em?”
“We can’t call for backup, so that’s out of the question,” Mate said.
“Can’t we just take them back to the island, leave them there, and come get them later?” Wylie said. “Or just disable their ship?”
“And if we don’t survive? They’d be marooned. Disabling their ship is just as bad – condemning them to a death at sea.” Celeste shook her head. “No. I won’t leave them to starve should we fail. Not even pirates deserve that.”
“So we’re just letting them go?” Leroy said, slamming a knife into the table.
Celeste started to speak, then an idea hit her. “Wylie, pen and paper, please.” She provided the materials. “Mate, can we rig up something like this,” she said, drawing and writing, pen scratching as she outlined her plan, the rest looking over her shoulder as she worked.
As she finished, Mate looked over the design she’d just whipped up. “That should work,” Mate said, walking outside and grabbing a couple of the crew, speaking to them in whispers as they crossed over to the now upright pirate ship.
Celeste and the others exited behind a minute later and stood in front of the pirates. “I’m feeling a little lenient today. If you can tell us where you were held, we might be persuaded to let you off easy. Maybe only maroon you on an island instead of execution.”
“No!” the pirate leader screamed. “Please have mercy! East, due east of here, just like I said! Straight as an arrow, unwavering, that’s where the island is. Sail east and you’ll find it, please have mercy, you can’t miss it!”
“How far?”
The pirate hesitated. “I, uh, don’t know exactly.”
“Well if that’s all you have…”
“No! It’s there, right there! In the Lost Seas!”
This brought a gasp from her crew, and mentally Celeste was reeling, but she kept a steady expression on her face. The Lost Seas. Great. Just great.
“Then let’s wait for my sailors to come back across.” Turning to the gangplank between the ships, she waited. The pirates turned with her to watch and wait. Celeste offered them no explanation. Five minutes later, Mate and two Tempus sailors strolled back across the gangplank, nodding at Celeste.
She turned to her prisoners. “Pirates. Despite your crimes, many of which we don’t know much about, consider yourself lucky that we’re in somewhat of a hurry. Because of that, we’re letting you go.”
The pirates let out a held breath and looked at each other in disbelief. Celeste was at the edge of the group, but quickly pulled water from the ocean, blue light pulsing within as it swirled around her in bands that formed a twirling ball of glowing water. “My first mate just installed a tracking device on your ship. From this day forward, if you do anything wrong, it will transmit a signal to us, and we’ll know. If you try to remove it, it’ll explode. If you’re truly running like you say you are, then you have nothing to worry about. Run. Find somewhere safe, turn from your sins, and go about your lives. If it were me, I would sail south, find a human settlement along the coast between the Reka and the Aeren. And don’t fly the damn pirate flag.”
“Thank you, Capt –” the pirates started.
“But know this,” Celeste said, pulsing the light in the water, freezing some of it and sending knife-shaped icicles to embed themselves in the deck just in front of the pirates, who recoiled from the blades. “If you lied to me, if you do not turn from your ways…” She solidified the water swirling around her and it shattered into a million pieces, the pirates pulling back from the shrapnel that peppered them. When it touched their skin, it melted. Celeste moved fluidly between a couple of stances, and the pirates’ bodies moved with her, as she controlled the water on their skin, ending with a motion of a knife drawing across their necks. More than one of them gulped.
“You’ll answer to me, and you’ll wish to God you’d never met me. Now board your vessel and get out of here. I want to see the tail end of your ship.”
The pirates hesitated to move, then scurried to get back on board their ship. Celeste stood beside the wheel, pulling water from the ocean to swirl around her, pulsing the light until the other ship had turned south and was under full sail away from the Ajax. Before they were two minutes out, the pirate flag came down off the main mast.
Leroy stepped up next to Celeste. “Remind me never to piss you off, Captain.”
She grinned. “A wise choice, sailor.”
Wylie walked up to them and stood scratching her head as she looked at the drawing Celeste made earlier. “Captain, I don’t get it. No one’s ever successfully made any kind of tracking device – this seems to be mostly just flashing lights and whistles.”
“Aye,” Celeste said, with another grin. “It’s just a light show and noise maker. I wanted them to think we could do it. I bet they’d never seen anyone control their bodies like that either. Hopefully that display was enough to sway them.”
“So basically you just let them go?” Leroy asked, squeezing the handles of his dual cutlasses.
She shrugged. “Basically. But it seemed like they were ready to turn down the straight and narrow. Besides, right now, we don’t have the time or the resources to do anything about it – we’ve got bigger fish to fry. We’re altering our plans – I’d bet my captain pin the Spirit was captured by those pirates. Now get your butts in gear – we sail east. We’re still chasing a traitor, and I intend to find him.”
Chapter 11
The Ajax sliced through the water, throwing up a large wake off the back. Dolphins jumped just off the bow as they sped along. They’d been sailing for three days, making good time; the repairs made to the Ajax held up well to the stress of running at full sail. For whatever that was worth. They’d seen nothing but open ocean the entire time. No hint of pirates, no hint of…anything.
Mate and Celeste walked along the rail, searching for anything in the empty ocean. “Captain, you sure you want to continue? Everyone’s nervous about going into the Lost Seas, ever since that pirate said that’s where they were held captive.”
She shrugged, “I really hope it doesn’t come to that. I’m just as skittish about it as everyone else. I know the crew isn’t keen on it, but it’s the only way we might get some answer. Jace!” Celeste hollered up at the crow’s nest. “You see anything?”
“No, ma’am. Just water, clouds, and sky.”
“Captain…” Wylie came up, holding one of her maps on a clipboard, bags under her eyes and pencil smudges on her cheeks, hands, and arms. Mate excused himself to the other side of the ship to see what he could see. “When are we going to stop? I’m tired, you’re tired, the crew is tired.”
“We’ll stop when we find those pirates, Wylie.”
“But, look here,” she said, laying the clipboard holding the map flat on the rail. “This is where we are.” Her pencil pointed to a spot barely on the edge of the map.
“I know, Wylie, we’re a long ways from home, and we’re going to have to turn around in the next day or two and go find an island to resupply. Plus we’ll be getting close to the Lost Seas then – hopefully we’ll find something before that.”
“No, ma’am, you don’t understand. We’re almost to them now. I can’t see ahead of us, where we’re headed to, its…never been mapped before. If we don’t change our course, we’ll be going into Lost Seas tonight, if not sooner.”
Celeste gulped and continued looking out at the horizon. The Lost Seas. Her skin prickled. Despite her insistence that they press on, and the intel from the captured pirates, she’d really hoped to find the pirate headquarters before the Tempus were on the Lost Seas. Where no Tempus vessel has ever returned. Celeste took a d
eep breath – that changed things. Or did it? They could legally pursue the pirates there, since they had credible intel on a location. Could she dare the uncharted waters? Would that push her already fragile crew over the edge? Would it –
“Ma’am?” Jace called from the crow’s nest.
“Yes?” she said, torn from her thoughts.
“Check the water.”
Celeste, Wylie, and the rest of the crew ran to the rail and looked down. Wylie saw the light blue water slide right by them, turning deep blue.
Wylie stiffened. “Maybe I was off by a few hours – we’re in the Lost Seas now.”
Celeste let out an involuntary gasp. Smooth. The ocean had turned perfectly smooth. The water reflected the noon sun’s rays, the clouds, everything – just like a mirror. “Would you look at that.” She looked at her own reflection staring back at her from the surface of the water. Something that should never happen on the ocean. A farm pond, maybe, but the sea? “Mate!”
“Never seen anything like it, Captain,” he said, coming up beside her on the rail. “Forty-three years on the ocean, and I’ve never seen anything like this. No wind. No waves. Not even a ripple. And look, there, on the horizon – fog.”
Far to the east, there indeed was a fog bank rolling along the top of the water, just the height of the ship. The exact height of the ship. Celeste said, “Wylie, are there any islands around here that we know of?”
“No, ma’am, we’re over two hundred nautical miles from any known land mass, and it’s back to the southwest toward Terraunum. But my maps don’t go this far, so I don’t know…”
“OK, so we’re probably not going to run aground. So what’s the deal with this fog?”
“I don't know, ma’am. But whatever it is, it can’t be good.”
The Ajax slowly crept to a halt, the crew murmuring under their breath. Not only were they in the Lost Seas, the unnatural moving fog set everyone on edge. With no wind and no Tempus Pushing her, the ship had nothing to propel it. Soon enough, they sat there perfectly still, bobbing up and down slightly, barely causing any ripples in the mirror-smooth water. It was quiet. Eerily quiet. The whole crew sat there frozen on the deck, listening to the silence on the ocean. That never happened – there was always something making noise – waves, birds, the ship creaking.
