Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (15 page)

I reached the aft deck and looked around me. The deck was covered in debris but clear of men, alive or dead, and looking towards the bow I saw the foredeck was clear of men as well. Beyond I saw the pirate ship was now facing bow to bow with the Queen Anne’s Regret, her sails furled and her foredeck filled with men armed to the teeth. No catcalls came from the pirates now, but only an ominous silence.

An unknown female voice suddenly spoke from a spot several feet away. “Greetings to thee, young Dragon: I am thy new spirit-friend. Give thyself to my loving care and I shalt treat thee with the utmost kindness.” Her voice became an icy purr. “Resist and thou shalt find me not so merciful.”

I bolted for the pirate ship. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw a Spanish galleon coming out of the sea-fog, bearing down on the Dutch ship, but obviously a galleon taken as someone’s prize. She was weather-beaten, with most of her red and gold paint flaked off and all of her sails were tattered. But strangest of all was the long cannon on her stern. It was white as old bone and twice the length of a jolly boat, taking up much of the ship’s aft deck. Around it were men in dark, tattered clothes, pale men who bore weapons in their hands.

Mr. Bierson and the handful of sailors remaining were climbing up to the aft deck as I reached the edge. “Tomas,” he called out to me, “why are you running away? We’re saved!”

“The galleon’s a ship of the Shadowmen,” I said as an air-golem mermaid swam through the air towards me like a bolt from a crossbow. “We need to reach the pirate ship before she reaches us.”

Several cutlasses were brandished as all the sailors gained the aft deck. “He’s sold his honor to the pirate scum,” a blond haired man with a snaggle tooth snarled. “We should take him and let the Spaniard’s make him dance the hempen jig.”

The mermaid reached me as Mr. Bierson stepped in front of his men, the long axe still in his hands. “Let the lad go,” he yelled at them. “He saved our lives, or have you forgotten?”

Then the voice of the Dark Sister spoke from a spot beside the men. “My captain offers thee gold for the young Dragon brought to him alive.”

“Grab my hands,” Smoke said, and I locked arms with her as the sailors knocked Mr. Bierson down to get to me. Smoke took off across the gap between the aft and foredeck as two sailors leapt to grab me but missed, their cries abruptly cut off as they smashed into the main deck below. We quickly reached the foredeck, my hands and arms growing cold from the air-golem’s touch as we sailed across towards the grey ship waiting for us.

Suddenly we were slammed to the deck. I yelped as I banged my knee against the wood planks, Smoke letting go of me as she bounced across the deck before righting herself. I looked up to see what had hit us. A bird-like figure banked as it flew around the mast, and as I watched it return a cold chill ran up my spine. This was no golem, no Artifact of man, but a creature out of myth. She had the face and upper body of a woman but her arms were wings, and her lower torso resembled a vulture’s, her feet ending in long, wicked looking claws. The eyes of the harpy met mine and she laughed in a high pitched, insane giggle.

The mermaid came up beside me. “Run for the ship,” Smoke said urgently. “I can slow it down, but I can’t stop it.”

I leaped to my feet as Smoke took off, swimming through the air straight at the harpy, who screamed as she tried to evade the air-golem coming at her like a dolphin after a shark. I ran for the bowsprit, the crew on the pirate ship cheering me on as the enormous red-bearded man bellowed, “Hurry; the demon be right behind you!”

I put on a fresh burst of speed as I reached the bow’s deck rail and leaped over the figurehead of the queen. The harpy slammed into the wooden statue. She screeched as I was knocked off my feet and fell towards the waves below, my arms and legs flailing as I screeched myself.

Smoke swooped down, grabbing me by the waist with cold hands then threw me towards the bow. I saw the figurehead of the mermaid taking a drink and desperately scrambled to grab a handhold, my fingers clawing at her arms as the smooth wood slipped away under my hands.

But then my fingers found a purchase and I pulled myself up, looking back to see the mermaid turn and slam into the harpy once again. The harpy screamed as she fell towards the water, caught herself, and then banked as she gained speed for another try. Meanwhile, an African pirate climbed over the deck rail and, leaning around the mermaid figurehead, extended his hand. “Tomas,” he said in a strangely familiar voice, “get your skinny arse up here.”

I grasped his forearm as the face and voice suddenly registered, and I almost let go in shock. “Jeremiah?”

My oldest and best friend in St. Augustine gave me the grin I remembered. “Who else do you think would climb out on the bowsprit to rescue you?” He held onto me as I carefully stepped around the figurehead and a moment later we were both over the deck rail and among the crew. Six of them were dressed in fancy clothes, bearing Artifact muskets, and the moment we were among them the six raised their muskets and aimed them at the approaching harpy.

She screeched once more and turned away. I joined Jeremiah and the rest of the crew as they catcalled after the retreating harpy, and then I embraced my friend. He laughed as he returned it. “You look better than well,” I said to him as we stepped apart. Jeremiah had always had skin like an ebony carving, but it was blacker than before, no doubt from the sun, and he looked far stronger than he ever had back in St. Augustine. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Would you believe Master Gomez did the greatest favor he could’ve done by selling me? We were at sea three days when the Davy boarded the merchant ship, and Mr. Smith,” Jeremiah pointing at a bald headed African with broad shoulders, who towered over everyone else, “asked the slaves if any of us wanted our freedom. I said yes and here I am.” He frowned at me. “You, on the other hand, look ill-used.”

“I’m alright,” I said with a shrug.

His hand brushed aside my tattered shirt. “Tomas, I can count your ribs. Did Johanna forget to feed you?” Before I could tell him about the recent sickness in St. Augustine, his eyes narrowed. “For that matter, where is Johanna? I know she can’t be on that tub, or you would’ve never left.”

I shook my head, the relief at my narrow escape mingling with grief making my voice catch. “Belle-M’ere’s dead in St. Augustine, Gran-Pere and Alfonzo, too.”

Jeremiah’s mouth opened in shock. “But how...wait, my sister; tell me about Rebekah?” his calloused hands gripped my arms. “I know Master Gomez was going to sell her to your mother after I was gone.”

“Your sister’s well,” I said, happy I could bring him joyous news. “Do you remember Master Valencia of Campeche?”

“The Apothecary? You’re saying he bought her from Johanna?”

I shook my head. “The first time he saw ‘Bekah he wanted to, but you know how Belle-M’ere was. She told him if he wanted Rebekah he could free her and then court her like a good Christian woman, because he wasn’t having her any other way. So he did.” Jeremiah’s mouth opened in shock, and I dearly hoped Belle-M’ere was looking down from Paradise to see it, as I went on. “It was a nine-day scandal in St. Augustine, but Master Valencia didn’t care. ‘Bekah wrapped him around her fingers like he was bread dough, and they were wed this past summer in Campeche.”

“Your sister’s carrying a boy,” Smoke said from a spot beside us. “Tomas, I tried to keep the air-golem together, but it just wouldn’t hold.”

“Smoke,” Jeremiah said, “I figured you’d never leave him. Now, both of you tell me what happened to your family.”

“Later,” a deep voice said beside us. I turned to see the captain of the pirate ship standing several paces away. “We’re on the edge of trouble and I mean to steer clear of it, so I need you to give some of your strength to the dragon-ghost, Jade.”

Smoke whispered in my ear, “It’s alright, Swamp-rat. Me and Jade are working things out.”

I wasn’t sure at all what she meant by that, but I nodded as I met the captain’s gaze. “If it’s to keep the Shadowmen from attacking, I’ll do so gladly, sir.”

He raised his eyebrows as if surprised, but only said, “Then call her to you.”

“Jade,” I said, holding out my arm, “take what you need.”

Jade’s older, cultured voice spoke next to my ear. “I fear I am larger than you are used to.” A moment later her fangs pierced my back. They were the size of longswords, and although as always I felt no pain, I gasped as they slid down deep into my chest, my insides growing cold as she drew forth my strength into herself. After a few moments she withdrew them. “Much becomes clear,” she said cryptically, her tone becoming matter-of-fact. “So, Tomas, what is your will?”

Glancing at Captain Harry Hawkins, as I knew he had to be, I said, “That you obey the captain’s orders.”

He nodded, as if I’d passed some test. “Obviously you’ve done this before.”

“Yes sir. When my foster-mother healed people in St. Augustine, Smoke would go with her, but I always had to tell her to follow Belle-M’ere’s instructions each time.”

“We only listen to those we draw strength from,” Jade answered. “Your orders, captain?”

He asked her, “Have you taken stock of the galleon?”

“I have. The ‘Black Narwhale’, a captured galleon as you have seen, with close to one hundred crew, all fully awake, several Artifact swivel guns mounted on the deck rails, bronze cannons, but no Artifact weapons except for their large gun mounted on the stern, a number of prisoners and a great deal of treasure.”

The men around us made a hungry sound as the captain asked, “Having taken stock of us and them, can we storm their ship and prevail?”

“You cannot,” she answered without hesitation. “They, on the other hand, could take our ship, though at a grievous loss to themselves.”

His dark look returned. “We need more Artifact weapons,” he said as he glanced at me, which made me uneasy, “but that’s a matter for another day. Today we need to keep them off the Davy without a fight.”

One of the crew called out, “We could just sail away.”

Captain Hawkins shook his head as he looked back at the Queen Anne’s Regret. The ship’s bow was higher than ours, so we could see little, but I began to hear men cry out to us, the sailors finally realizing they were in trouble. “The Artifact cannon mounted on their stern fires shells at long range, and if we run they’ll wait until the right moment and fire upon us.”

“But cannons ain’t accurate from far away,” the bald headed pirate with the gold hoop in his ear called out.

“They don’t have to be,” the tall African Jeremiah had called Mr. Smith said in a deep rumble. He was totally bald and bare-chested, his skin covered in old scars and tattoos. “When it fires, the shell gets close to the target and breaks apart into clusters which explode over a wide area.”

Beside me, Jeremiah called out, “You’ve fought these men before?”

“Not this crew,” Mr. Smith answered, “but men like them, as has the captain and Redbeard too.”

I was taken aback. “Redbeard...as in ‘the’ Redbeard?” The name was a legend of ferocity among the sailors of St. Augustine, some saying he was a claimant to the throne of Scotland, forced to a life of piracy by those who would see the royal family dead. Others said he’d killed an heir to the throne, and had fled to the New World to escape the king of England’s displeasure. Regardless, all the tales agreed he was not so much a man but a force of nature, and you angered him at your peril.

“And who else could I be?” The red-haired man answered, the men around him giving way as the large pirate walked up beside the captain. His blue eyes locked on mine a moment before he held out a hand enormous as a bear’s paw and just as hairy. “Me real name be Dava, me clan name be Wallace, and I be owing you a debt of gratitude for saving me wee daughter’s life.”

I shook his hand, which closed over mine in a gentle grip that could’ve easily crushed my hand bones. “Tomas Rios, once of St. Augustine. So... Pepper’s your daughter?”

Redbeard got a strange gleam in his eye. “Oh, aye...for you see, Redbeard be known for spreading his seed about from here to Cartagena, so every red-haired lad or lass in the New World be calling me Da.” I glanced at Jeremiah, who was smirking, and I knew I’d been told a tale, though I wasn’t about to call him out on it as Redbeard turned towards the captain. “So Harry, be thinking to bluff our way out of this?”

“We’re about to find out,” the captain replied. Everyone turned towards the bow of the Queen Anne’s regret as three men approached the deck rail, while the harpy perched herself on the figurehead of the queen with her hands upraised. The creature looked like the harpy out of Greek mythology, but even though the Flyte had drifted away from us, I could still see that, in reality, she was something else entirely. The feathers on her legs were actually flaps of skin, her wings being elongated skin stretched over thin bones, but at the end of each wingtip I saw a very distinct woman’s hand.

The three men were equally strange. Their skin was pale, the white-yellow color of old bone, without any facial hair I could see, although they had hair on their scalps white as sea-foam. Their eyes were red as heart’s blood. All of them wore dark trousers and shirts of some supple, dark leather, and black, wide brimmed hats made of leather as well. The man in the center wore a long coat and a red sash around his waist. He looked us over and, to my surprise, gave us a broad smile. “Well, well, what have we here? Captain Harry Hawkins of the Blackjack Davy, I presume?”

The crew went deathly still as the captain walked to the very front of the bow and crossed his arms over his chest. “The same, although you have the advantage of me, sir.”

The man wearing the dark coat touched two fingers to the brim of his leather hat. “Pray forgive my lack of manners. John Thorne, captain of dear Olde Roger’s ship, the Black Narwhale.” He placed both hands on the deck rail and leaned forward. “So, now that we have dispensed with the formalities, I would know your intentions, sir.” He motioned with one hand back behind him, towards the direction of his ship. “Do you plan to take us as a prize? We are using gold as ballast, you know.”