by Travis Bughi
“Damn it, boy” Mosley said. “Didn’t I tell you sparring ain’t to be done down here? And with a real bloody sword after a drink! You’re just looking to find that watery grave early, aren’t you? And what in the world was all that yelling for? We could hear you all the way up on the deck! We thought someone was murdering ya’ down here. Damn it, Emily! Let him go!”
Emily finally released Damian and watched his head droop in shame. Part of her felt bad for him, but it was a small part. Emily had grown weary of feeling sorry for Damian’s lack of forethought. He reminded her of her younger brother when they were back on the farm, always getting in trouble and hardly ever learning a lesson from any of it.
She sighed and walked away, leaving Mosley to continue berating Damian for managing to find yet another way to break the lax rules of piracy. She was really getting tired of being stuck on this ship. Her patience had grown thin with six months’ worth of wearing. She wanted off, now.
And if Emily had known what was soon to come, she probably would have stolen the launch and rowed to shore on her own, right then.
Chapter 9
Two days later, Emily awoke to her last day aboard The Greedy Barnacle in a wonderful mood. Not only was her long journey across the sea about to end, but the last bit of it hadn’t been too terribly painful. Beyond that little trouble with Damian, Emily had become blissfully aware that Carlito had at last left her alone.
After her talk with Mosely, and his supposed talk with Carlito, the ugly immortal had spent this last week solely with the crew. He hadn’t bothered Emily once, not even to look her way, and she began to wish she had spoken to Mosley sooner. She certainly would have if she’d known his powers of persuasion were so effective. Actually, most of the crew had seemed rather withdrawn as of late—even Priscila, who wasn’t much of a talker to begin with. Emily had assumed that the pirates would be more jovial with their destination close at hand, but they were proving her wrong.
Perhaps it was the heat, she thought. Savara was so close now that actual, physical land could be seen as a thin, yellow line on the horizon. With that, the weather had become increasingly harsh.
Being born on the Great Plains, she was used to constant sun and a lack of shade, but the sun of Savara seemed a different animal altogether. It was not only bright, but also intense. Her skin warmed to uncomfortable levels far faster than she was used to, and she became aware that, rather than strip off clothing to accommodate this, most of the pirates began to don more garments. They put scarfs around their necks, wore shirts with longer sleeves, and a few even wrapped their entire heads in a single piece of cloth. Emily decided that the first thing she’d find when she got to shore would be a shawl of some kind.
So maybe the weather was to blame. Such heat could bring out the worst in anyone, but even if that were so, Mosley seemed entirely unaffected. Rather than sink, his mood had actually begun to soar. This last day to Savara, he seemed to be just shy of ecstasy. Emily wondered at his attitude and tried to discern from a distance why it was so at odds with that of the crew. She thought to ask him herself, but there was no need. At midday, when Savara was close enough to look like an actual border to the sea, he gathered the entire crew around him on the main deck to speak with them.
“Gentlemen and ladies,” he began, standing above them on the upper deck with Carlito at his side, “we have finally arrived! As you probably well know, Savara has long been a necessary stopping and starting point of many a merchant’s long trip to Lucifan, often loaded with jewels from Khaz Mal or rubies plundered from the ruins of Savara’s temples. This is a great place to be a pirate!
“So now, you might be wondering why I called you all up here. It ain’t like you didn’t know we were going to Savara, but as you also might have noticed, we didn’t do any plundering on the way here, nor did we sail toward any of Savara’s ports.”
At this, Emily immediately looked out to the land. They were still too far away for her to make out anything distinct, but she did realize that there was a lack of buildings and other ships. She snapped her head back to Mosley with a look of anger. No port? Emily’s mind screamed. Had she been so blind as to not realize they weren’t heading for a port? What in the world was this about? How in the world was she going to be able to find her way across Savara if Mosley dropped her off in the middle of nowhere!? Immediately, her memory rang with the clear image of Carlito speaking privately to Priscila’s lovers. Damn it! She cursed herself. Why hadn’t she remembered to ask Priscila about it? And why hadn’t Priscila said anything either?
“Not the best place for your standard ‘find and loot a sorry merchant’ piracy, right?” the Captain continued. “Well, lads, I’m here to tell you that that’s because I have a plan to make us all rich. Oy! You heard me, RICH! Go on, get excited about it, ya’ scallywags! No? Alright, alright, I get it. I know you probably done heard that from every captain you’ve ever sailed with, so just give me a moment to explain.
“But first off, did you all enjoy that leviathan meat? Heh! Of course you did! And our hull is full of that tasty stuff, and because of it there’ll be no need to take to port soon! It isn’t every pirate that makes a catch like that. The big old one that followed us? That was skill, mates. If you recall, I was at the helm, and if I recall, you all in that launch downed the beast in two volleys! And only one injured? Oy, and the lad is already back on his feet! Aye, I see you there Juan. Good to see the water didn’t ruin your ugly face! Ha! But anyway, think on that, lads. Think on it. By my very soul, that is something to brag about! You lads did well, and because of that, I knew I could trust you with a plan I’ve had for a long time. A plan to make us all rich enough to make our own damned fleet if we wanted!
“Now, I’m going to explain to you why you’re here, why we’re all here, and why being here will make us all into fat, old men sitting on piles of treasure. I’m talking stacks of coins, chests of diamonds, rubies the size of your fists, men! That’s it, hold up your fist! That big! Now, look out to the desert!
“I know what you’re thinking, but just ignore those little mountains for a second. Ain’t no roc going to come bother us this far out. We’ll see the beast coming long before that, aye? Now, you can’t quite see it from here, but beyond those sand dunes are some of the decaying temples built in the olden days. This once was a decent trading hub for some wealthy lord of some such, though none of the old docks remain. Still, you can picture it, can’t ye’, lads? Imagine old ships, filled in every corner with the riches this land once had, sailing out and in like the Lucifan of today. Wouldn’t it be something to capture some of that old treasure? It sure would, wouldn’t it? Well, I’m here to tell you exactly what you’ve wanted to hear all your scummy life: there’s treasure out there, mountains of it, sitting on old sunken ships, just waiting for the next brave soul to take it! We all know where it is. We’ve all heard the stories, and you all know what I’m about to say. So say it with me: a sirens’ isle.”
And they did. Every pirate aboard muttered under their breath the exact words. Their expressions had lost their curiosity, and almost all were now etched with quiet contempt.
“Now look,” Mosley put his hands up in defense. “Hear me out, alright lads? I’m no fool, trifling with these sea wenches. I’ve got experience. I’m prepared—”
“They know,” Carlito interrupted him.
Mosley paused and stuttered, like he had just been about to divulge another ponderous amount of information. The Captain turned to his First Mate in confusion.
“What?” was all he could muster.
“I said they already know,” Carlito smiled. “I told them.”
Mosley blinked a few times, looked to the stone-faced crew, and then back to Carlito.
“Well,” Mosley shook his head, “what did they say?”
“They said ‘no,’ and,” Carlito paused to smile wider, revealing rotten teeth, “they also said mutiny.”
Mosley put one hand on the railing and another on his chest at
Carlito’s words. He stepped back as if struck and stared out at the crew, mouth agape. He wasn’t alone, either. Emily was also completely taken by surprise. Nothing had been said to her, and she looked around at the other pirates in the hopes of finding similar confusion. They all appeared cool and calm, though, and they watched Carlito as he turned to them.
“What did I tell you, lads?” he called out in triumph. “Did I not tell you he was insane? It’s like he’s entirely forgotten why you’re all here. Now, I know there’s at least one of you I didn’t get to on this ship, but I think everyone could use a little reminder so let me do ye’ all a favor and retell the story of Captain Mosley’s last expedition.
“Ya’ see, Mosley had himself a full crew before you lot came along. He was an average captain, taking from merchants when he could and avoiding the damn vikings when he saw them. He made decent coin and never lost more than a man or two in any fight. But apparently, that wasn’t enough for this greedy scum.”
Carlito walked down the stairs and strolled among the crowd as he spoke. He began to reach out to individual pirates, placing a hand on a shoulder as if talking to one specifically before breaking away to reach out to another.
“Now, ain’t a man among us that doesn’t have the gold fever running deep in him. I’m guilty as charged, too! However, even being immortal, I don’t have the sheer disregard of death as does this man! Our Captain! Never, in all my years, would I sacrifice my entire crew like I witnessed him do!
“I wasn’t the First Mate back then. Mosley hired me on just as plain Jim as the rest of you. I went with him, because I saw his crew eating some fresh behemoth meat that he’d bought at the market. What I thought I saw was a Captain who cared about his men, but I was wrong. What I saw was an executioner giving prisoners their last meal! I joined up, and that saucy murderer didn’t even give me a bloody warning!
“So out to sea we go, and Mosley gives that last crew the same speech he just gave you. I don’t interrupt, though, ‘cause I didn’t know any better, and he convinces them to go after a different sirens’ isle, this one closer to Lucifan, just a short three month travel south from the city. They all get that shimmer of gold in their eyes, that itch for treasure, and their fate is sealed.
“Now, just in case some of you already got that same shimmer in your eye, I’m going to do you a favor and tell you how that voyage played out. We get there, and Mosley says he’s got a plan, see? You’ve all heard the stories: sirens singing a song that drives men mad and makes them dive into the water and drown. Their ships, laden with goods, crash onto the rocks and make a literal graveyard of forbidden treasure.
“We didn’t have no women onboard then, so Mosley tells us all to shove clothing in our ears. A few lads and me, we have our doubts, but most of the others can’t see past the pile of rotting ships washed up ashore. So we go along, and we get sailing, and we get right up to this island, and that’s when the dying started.”
At this point, not a single eye was focused on anything other than Carlito. He stood in the center of the crowd and seemed none put off by the attention. His eyes watered, and a single tear rolled down his cheek. Emily realized that she’d never seen a pirate cry before, and she still doubted she had. However, she could not take her eyes from Carlito’s act.
“I’ll tell you honestly, lads, there is nothing more beautiful in existence than the song of a siren. The cloths in our ears didn’t matter at all. The wondrous sound they made, I could feel it in me very heart and soul! It was like an angel had touched me, made me feel like there was nothing else in this world worth living for. If I could not have these sea-women for myself, I would rather die. And so, like everyone else aboard, I abandoned my post and leapt into the ocean. All the way down, their voices filled me to the brim, made me weep tears of joy, and I smiled so wide that my lips hurt. But then I hit the water, and the spell was broken.
“The moment I was in the water that beautiful song turned into a guttural shrieking! Like steal scraping on rock, it twisted my bloody heart! I put my hands over my ears and cried out in the water. I looked around and saw other men doing the same, other fools jerking violently in pain. I saw red blood seeping out of their ears and mixing with the ocean blue! As I twisted, I saw the water around me begin to mist red, too! But the misery wasn’t over, yet. Nah, lads! It had only begun. Not a moment later, I saw them.
“The sirens came out from the island, and I tell you that no story ever told will ever justify the beauty and horror I saw that day. They appeared to be young, gorgeous, human women—all of them naked. Although their spell was broken in the water, and their voices were nothing but pain and agony, a few of the lads were stupid enough to reach out to them. The sirens responded, took the hands of those men, and dragged them down to the bottom of the ocean! The rest of the lads tried to fight, but it was bloody hopeless. They couldn’t hold their breath long enough, and these she-demons can breathe water like the merfolk!
“I tell you this, lads, I would have died as well if I could drown. As painful as my lungs felt filled with water, I kicked and pushed and fought my way to the surface with everything I had. I slashed back with my dagger, striking any of them that dared get close to me. All the while, my ears burned like fire as my blood poured out. When I finally made it back to the ship, it took everything I had to climb back aboard. My only saving grace was that the sirens had stopped their song; their mouths were full as they started feasting on Mosley’s old crew. When I reached the deck, I looked over to see bloody clothes rising to the surface. Not a single morsel of flesh escaped their bellies.
“I thought I was the only survivor, but wouldn’t you know it? Fate is a cruel master, and the only one of us that should have died that day didn’t! The Captain, in his hurry to fling himself overboard, had stumbled over his portly belly when climbing down the stairs and knocked himself out cold on the bottom deck. I should have thrown him overboard, but there had been enough bloodshed that day, so I could not bring myself to do it. I commandeered the ship and steered us away, thinking that would be the last of it.
“But I was wrong. Mosley, it seems, has learned nothing! He went straight back to Lucifan and recruited all of you, making sure to bring not one, but two women this time! He thinks that just because women are immune to the sirens’ song that the rest of us will be fine. We’ll all stay down in the hold while Priscila and Emily go to shore and make us all rich men!
“But I’m here to tell you now that that won’t happen, lads. The moment you hear that song, you’ll forget all other things in life. You’ll chew through any rope used to tie you and hack a hole in the ship with your cutlasses just to get to them! And there, you will die. You’ll all die.
“So, what say you, lads? Will you continue to follow this man who would cast you away so easily? More than a few of you didn’t believe me, but now you’ve heard it for yourself. Mutiny ain’t an easy task, even for a pirate, but if you pledge your salt to me, I promise to never put my pocket ahead of your lives!”
Carlito made his statement sound like an honest question, but it seemed most of the crew had long since given him the answer he wanted. They nodded and grumbled their agreement, though they did not cheer in excitement. They would follow Carlito, but they only did so after Mosley had betrayed their faith.
But Emily? She just wanted off the damn ship.
“What about me?” she shouted out. “What happens to Mosley and me?”
The crowd between Emily and Carlito parted like a wave, and Emily felt exposed quite suddenly. She was never one to draw attention, but this situation could not be avoided. She tried to stand with confidence and poise, knowing that such would be needed.
“Mosley may join me if he likes,” Carlito replied with a wicked smile, “and you may also stay at my side . . . as my wife.”
Carlito’s voice echoed with the pleasure he took in saying those last words. The fact that Emily physically recoiled didn’t even seem to faze him.
She would have gasped in dis
gust, but shock had rendered her lungs temporarily frozen. The mere thought of what Carlito suggested made her insides convulse and her mind turn black with rage. Her mouth went from hanging open, aghast, to clammed shut with gritted teeth. Her hands shifted from open palms on her chest to balled fists at her sides. Her eyes changed from blinking in disbelief to narrowing with purpose.
There was no way that ugly, horrid man was going to lay a finger on her.
She looked to the other pirates for support, expecting to see among them a similar expression of horror and astonishment. However, she found nothing but quiet complacency on every face. She scanned through the crowd, noticing Damian wasn’t even watching anymore. He’d taken to looking at the sky as if that was somehow more important. Emily turned to Priscila and saw her looking down and away. Emily looked to Lonzo next, hoping that perhaps she had at least one ally who realized that never in the world could she be expected to acknowledge such a despicable man as Carlito Hacke.
Lonzo met her gaze. Emily felt heartened. Then he mouthed two words to her.
Adapt. Survive.
Emily felt like her back had just hit a wall. Damn you all, she thought.
“I’d rather die,” she spit at Carlito.
Carlito’s pleasure-laced smile curled into one of cruelty.
“That can be arranged,” he said, “and Mosley will join you, too, if he wants. What say you?”
Carlito turned to look back up toward the stern of the ship. Emily and the rest of the crew looked as well, but all were surprised when they saw no one there. Eyes went wild in search of him, and finally one of the pirates shouted and pointed.
“Oy!”
All eyes fell to Mosley who had at some point in Carlito’s speech walked down to the main deck. He was on the side of the ship that faced out to sea, leaning up against the railing with his spyglass pulled out and held to his right eye. He adjusted it carefully, taking his time and appearing as calm as the morning breeze.
