The Pirates of Moonlit Bay

by Samaire Provost

  I went back to the door we’d come in, the door to the outside and freedom. It was locked. Turning to my companions, I asked in a whisper, “Do either of you have a pin or a thin hair-stick?”

  “No, but,” Caroline fumbled under her tunic for a few minutes, her hand finally emerging with a piece of whale-bone from her corset. “Will this do?”

  “Yes,” I smiled. Turning to the locked door, I stuck the thin, white bone into the keyhole and began to move it about.

  After a number of minutes, Christianne spoke up, “Let me try. My brother showed me how to pick locks when I was eight.”

  My eyebrows rose as I handed her the bone. Something told me this was just one of the many talents that our party could claim.

  Christianne had the lock picked and the door opened in less than a minute. I was impressed.

  The three of us slipped through the door just as they came for the second prisoner to be auctioned off. The attention was on the door to the auction stage, not this suddenly unlocked back door. And yet … some others saw us leave and raced after us.

  We all ran down the stairs as fast as we could, and were less than ten steps from the ground when …

  “HEY!” A guard had just come around the corner, fumbling with the flap on his breeches.

  Half of us were nearly to the ground, half still far up the stairs. The guard drew his dagger, brandishing it.

  We raced down the last steps and jumped to the ground. Several prisoners followed, brushing aside the guard’s knife. They’d had enough.

  “Come on!” I said, grabbing Caroline’s arm. Christianne raced with us, and we dashed between two buildings. Running at full speed, all of us scattered, with Caroline, Christianne and I sticking together out of habit.

  We didn’t stop running until we’d gone the length of the city. Crouching in a dark alleyway, we stopped to catch our breaths.

  “Here they are!” someone cried at the other end of the alley, and we sprinted down the street away from it.

  “This way!” The voices belonged to several guards pursuing us.

  “Cut them off!”

  “Halt!”

  We didn’t know the city, and they did. Caroline sobbed in frustration as we turned down another side alley, only to be met by a wall fifty feet in.

  The sound of hoofbeats sounded in the distance. We whipped around, desperate to hide.

  “In here!” Christianne was already halfway under some dustbins, and Caroline and I followed her. We pulled rags over the bins and were hidden.

  The voices of the guards receded, but we waited a few minutes to be sure.

  “Do you think we lost them?” I whispered.

  Caroline shook her head sharply and held a finger to her lips.

  Christianne held her breath.

  After another ten minutes, I decided to take a look.

  “No!” whispered Caroline.

  I listened intently and did not hear anything close by. Farther away, the sounds of the city reached my ears, and a horse nicker, but our alley sounded deserted. I decided to peek.

  Slowly, I lifted the edge of the bin a few inches. I saw nothing. I lowered it again and looked at Caroline, who looked stricken. Christianne just shrugged. I lifted the edge again and lowered my face and took a look.

  “Got you!” He had been standing ten feet away, a nasty-looking scimitar with a chipped blade in his hand. I could see dried blood on the length of it. My heart sank.

  Several more guards grabbed the bins and pulled us out and stood us there. Across the street, five other escapees were being march at the points of swords.

  An hour after we escaped, we found ourselves back in the same room, which was now considerably less crowded.

  “Do you think anyone got away?” I asked the others.

  “I hope so,” said Caroline. She shuddered. “Miss, I don’t know what is going to happen, but if we are separated …” her voice trailed off.

  I hugged my arms and shivered.

  The front door opened, letting in the noise of the crowd.

  “Next up,” the guard called. No one moved. “Next!”

  “Miss, let’s all go, maybe they’ll keep us together.” Caroline looked at me with raised eyebrows.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” chimed Christianne.

  We approached the doorway. The guard looked at us.

  “We’re together,” I said, trying to sound confident.

  Caroline nodded beside me.

  The guard grinned lasciviously. “A harem, eh?”

  Uh oh, I thought.

  “Well, come on, then.” He brandished his dagger and led us through a short hallway to a balcony overlooking an inner courtyard. Below, I could see a crowd in the background. In the foreground stood maybe a dozen serious-looking men.

  “Next up we have a ready-made harem!”

  The men began hooting and cheering.

  A rough hand jerked Christianne onto a rickety wooden platform and grabbed the cloth at her shoulder. He jerked downward, ripping the fabric to her waist, and she cried out, in tears. The bidding started in a flurry.

  I turned to Caroline and whispered, “Oh, no.” Tears sprang to my eyes.

  A large man walked up to the front and called out to the auctioneer. “Stop. Let me see them all together.

  We were lined up shoulder to shoulder, and soon Caroline and I were similarly disrobed. Tears ran down my face. Caroline hung her head and shuddered.

  Standing there, completely at the mercy of these horrid people, my jaw clenched, I began to feel anger. And anger quickly turned to fury.

  The large man, dressed in the white robes of a sheikh, spoke in rapid-fire Arabic to the auctioneer, offering a lump sum, which the auctioneer seemed all too happy to accept.

  I lost it.

  “How dare you! HOW DARE YOU!!!” Spit flew from my mouth as I yelled, venting my rage at these people. “We are human beings! And you treat us like garbage!”

  A guard stuck his scimitar against my neck, silently threatening to cut if I didn’t quiet down. I didn’t.

  “Do you people have ANY idea how awful you are?! Buying and selling us like cattle! HOW DARE YOU!!!” I sputtered, furious.

  The crowd began yelling back and forth, and the sheikh who had apparently bought us rushed forward with several large men. The auctioneer grabbed the pouch of money the man threw at him, and ran into the building behind us.

  In my rage, I bellowed an incomprehensible roar at the crowd. My face was red, spittle ran down my chin, anger coursing through my entire body and echoed in my ears.

  The first person to reach me was a huge, glowering bull of a man, the sheikh’s foreman, I later learned. He grabbed my neck in a hand the size of a bear’s paw, and squeezed. My voice cut off, I swung at him with my fists, hitting his chest and shoulders. I clawed at his face and made several thin lines of red down his cheek.

  He’d had enough, and cuffed me hard across the head. My vision, previously filled with red, turned to black, and I passed out. The last sound I heard was Caroline shrieking.

  Chapter Five

  And With That Admonishment

  The first thing I was aware of was pain. Pain everywhere. I groaned and opened my eyes to complete darkness. No, not darkness: My eyes were both swollen shut and filled with blood. I could not see.

  “Is this the one?” said a voice.

  “Yeah,” said another.

  A light, very faint.

  Then, the first voice, very gently. “Can you sit up?”

  I groaned and stirred. “Ahh!” A piercing pain shot through my left arm, and I clutched it to my side with the other. I tried to turn my head, but that sent another massive burst of pain shooting from my neck up to my forehead.

  “Lie still. You’ve been badly beaten. Let me examine you.”

  I stopped moving.

  I was lying on rough wood; I could feel splinters scrape my back. Slowly feeling around with my good hand, I found I was naked save for a bit of rough burlap cov
ering my legs.

  I tried again to open my eyes. “I can’t see,” I mumbled, and discovered my lips and cheek were swollen. Exploring with my tongue, I discovered several loose teeth. My jaw was wrong, too. It no longer lined up with my upper teeth.

  I groaned in pain.

  “Here. I’m going to give you a tincture for the pain. It will help.”

  Whoever it was, they lifted my shoulders so I could sip from a cup of bitter liquid they held for me.

  I felt at the mercy of this stranger who was helping me and who, for some reason, I trusted. I drank every drop.

  “Wh … who are you? Where’s Carrie?” I slurred my words. “Why is …” Pain shot through my face and I cried out.

  “My name is not important. I’m the second assistant to the sultan’s physician. Rest. I will return later.”

  I think I passed out then, because when I came to …

  “Miss! Miss!” Caroline was crying and leaning over me, hugging me hard.

  “Oh, Carrie,” I mumbled weakly. “It’s really good to see you.” I tried to smile, but the bandages on my face made it seem more like a grimace. Bandages. Huh. I reached up and touched my face.

  “That tincture must have knocked me out really soundly,” I moved my arms and legs experimentally. I was sore, but not in nearly as much pain as I had been earlier. Earlier. I wondered how long …

  “Carrie.” Her muffled tears lessened. “Carrie?” She looked up at me finally. “How long has it been since that stupid auction?”

  “Miss, it’s been nearly a fortnight,” she answered softly, wiping her tears and sitting up.

  I blinked. “A fortnight?”

  She nodded.

  I started to sit up, then fell back. “Why am I so weak, Carrie?”

  “Miss, after the auction, they took you into the back room again and beat you.” Unshed tears glistened in her eyes as she spoke. “Then we were put into a wagon and spent two days crossing the desert.”

  I waited.

  “By the time we arrived here,” she looked around the room as if to encompass the entire area, “you’d fallen ill from your injuries. You didn’t regain consciousness until the sheikh’s physician came and looked at you and then sent over his assistant.”

  “Yes, that I remember.” I licked my lips, thirsty. Caroline rose and returned with a waterskin. She made to tip it into my mouth, but I waved her away and took the skin myself. Swinging my legs over the side of the cot, I sat up.

  I took a deep breath. “Whew.” I still felt a little dizzy, but very well rested. As I drank from the skin, I studied the room we were in.

  There was another cot by the wall, and a table with some rags and a bowl. I looked back at Carrie.

  “The assistant, was that the woman who gave me the tincture? I asked.

  “Yes. It knocked you out for nearly three weeks. Every time you started to regain consciousness, she gave you another dose. You had broken ribs and several dislocated joints. She felt it best you slept while you healed.”

  I rubbed my jaw gingerly, feeling the bandages encircling my head from my chin to the back of my head. I was still very sore, but the bones were back in place.

  Fingering my teeth, I found they were also healing well.

  I flexed my left arm, which was in a sling.

  Finally, I looked up at Caroline. “I am healing well, I think.”

  She smiled. “Oh, the healer also gave both of us a medicine to stop the worms.” She grimaced. “I had them, too. I think probably everyone on the ship voyage caught them. That food they gave us …” She wrinkled her nose. “The food they are giving us now is much cleaner, I think. Thank goodness.”

  I took a deep breath and stood up, swaying. I felt my ribs; they were still tender, but I felt it was good to be on my feet. Anything could happen.

  “Where’s Christianne?” I glanced up at Caroline when she didn’t answer right away. “Carrie, where is Christianne?” Fear gathered in my gut.

  “I don’t know. Since you were injured, we’ve stayed here, and the others continued on to the sheikh’s homestead, I was told.” She hung her head.

  I pressed my lips together, breathing hard. I felt worried but also angry.

  “Come on,” I said. I got up and slipped on a cloak I found hanging near the door. It smelled of goats. Wrinkling my nose as I walked, I lifted the flap of canvas hanging over the doorway and stuck my head outside. The sunlight hit me full in the face, blinding me for a moment, but I didn’t care.

  “Miss,” Caroline hurried after me. “Miss, this way,” she turned me toward a large hut several dozen feet away. “An overseer is in charge here, be careful, he’s …”

  She never got the chance to finish.

  “And where do you think you’re going, slave? Oh, it’s you.” A tall, glowering man strode quickly toward us. He was dressed in a dusty white thawb, a black checkered keffiyeh, and sandals. My eyes rose to meet him as he approached, he must have been well over six and a half feet tall. I straightened to my full height of five foot ten.

  Gathering my wits in front of this imposing figure, placing my hands on my hips – or as well as I could with my arm in a sling – I took a deep breath and said in my best Arabic, “I demand you release me and my maid.” I looked around us, then back to the man’s face. “Now.”

  Three things happened simultaneously.

  First of all, I heard Caroline say behind me, “Ohh, Miss, I …”

  Second, I heard a rumble coming from the man as he growled at me.

  Third, I actually heard the whistle of his fist as he swung at me.

  I’ve never had my mind work this fast, but this time, it did. DUCK, I thought.

  I tilted my head to the side and back, as Caroline pulled at my good arm, and we both tripped and went sprawling in the dust of the street.

  The Bedouin healer who’d helped me earlier rushed up, speaking quickly to the man, and pulled Caroline and I farther to the side. The foreman stomped away, glowering and then turn his head and yelled, “We leave at dawn! Since you’re all better now, be ready,” before clomping away.

  Wow, I thought. Well, maybe we can catch up to Christianne.

  We crept back into the hut I’d been recuperating in. Turning to the healer when we were safely inside, I opened my mouth to speak.

  She cut me off and started speaking in clipped tones, a finger in my face.

  “The first thing that saved you was that the sheikh values you as a commodity. You and your friends cost him a pretty penny, more than he planned to spend. But he liked the look of you, and gave strict orders you were not to be further harmed.”

  “But …,” I started.

  “Ah ah ah.” She cut me off. “The guard who beat you was executed by the sheikh himself for the mistake of harming his property.”

  She pursed her lips and huffed.

  “The second thing that saved you is that I am not only the assistant healer, I am also niece to the sheikh. The foreman had to obey me. I was put in charge of your health and well-being, at least until we reach the stronghold. Then that happy task will be turned over to the compound’s physician.” She looked at me unblinkingly. “He is not as gentle as I am, so you’d better learn to hold your tongue.”

  I stared at her, absorbing all of this new information. Blinking, I thought about the term ‘property.’ I did not like that one bit.

  She spoke again. “My name is Khepri, and you will come to me for anything you need.” She looked me up and down. “You’re healing well. That is good. The sheikh was most displeased when he found the guard beating you.”

  I sat back on the cot, staring into space. Caroline sat down next to me and put her arm around me gingerly.

  “Now,” Khepri continued, “I am going to go get you some food.”

  We both looked up.

  “I will bring enough for both of you. But please,” she looked at me sternly, “do not leave this tent again.”

  And with that admonishment, she was gone.

/>   I turned to Caroline, “I thought it was a hut.” She just looked at me.

  Chapter Six

  Lost

  We were well on our way before dawn the next day. Caroline and I no longer rode in a wagon, nor were we tied up.

  They had given us a camel to ride.

  The camel was huge: It had a massive hump with a large basket tied to its back. Cushions at the bottom and cloth covered the woven sides, making it seem almost luxurious. A fabric canopy flapped in the wind above us.

  Our small caravan consisted of the camel Caroline and I rode on, as well as several other camels, all carrying supplies in boxes and baskets. The overseer rode on a large white stallion, and was surrounded by a dozen guards on horseback, all armed with gleaming scimitars. Khepri rode alongside us on a horse and kept a close eye on us as we traveled.

  The healer had ordered us to wash and had supplied us with soft thawbs and colorful keffiyehs to guard against the wind and sand that whipped up all around us.

  I looked down at the white robes and smiled. Being sold was a nightmare, but I loved these robes. I felt the material with my fingers, it was so soft. My keffiyeh was a brilliant pink and orange pattern. A corner of it flapped across my face, and the material brushing against my cheek was even softer than the thawb.

  I decided then and there I would be escaping, soon, with Caroline and Christianne, if we ever found her. I looked down at my clothes. And I would steal these clothes, too, I thought with a smile.

  “Miss,” Caroline handed me a waterskin. The day was getting hotter, and I looked out on the landscape as I swallowed the cool liquid.

  “You two,” Khepri rode up alongside us. “I’ve just been talking with a guard. There’ve been rogue manticores sited up ahead. Just be aware.”

  I turned to Caroline. “And what are we supposed to do if one attacks?” We both turned to Khepri.

  She shrugged. “Just be aware,” she said again.

  “Aware?” I said disbelievingly. “And if we are aware and sight one, just what are supposed to do? We have no weapons.”

  Khepri looked at me witheringly. “Sound the alarm. Staying out of the battle, if there is one. Hide in your basket,” she snorted, steering her horse away.