Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (23 page)

The crew thought this better than a mummer’s farce, judging from the catcalls and laughter, while Redbeard’s stone-like gaze got a gleam in it. “Just her hand?”

I blurted out, “I want the rest of her too.”

Pepper gave a nervous giggle as most of the crew laughed. But the gleam left Redbeard’s eyes as he stared at me for a long moment, the crew shushing themselves so they could hear what came next as he continued to stare. Finally, he gave me a slow nod. “Long ago there be a lad named Dava of the clan Wallace, impulsive and wild, mind you, but a good lad nae the less. I be seeing something of that lad in front of me, more than you yourself might be believing. Pepper, come here lass.” Pepper was up on the table and kneeling beside me before I could even turn my head. “Tell me true: do you want to be betrothed to this lad?”

“I want to marry him,” which made my eyes widen in shock, “but I’ll settle for this until I’m wearing his ring.”

Redbeard shook his head. “You’re daft as a March hare...but if you be wanting this lad, I can see you’ll do nae better than him.” Suddenly, he grabbed me by the front of my shirt and pulled me forward until his hairy face was only inches from mine. “But if I ever be hearing that you be treating me Pepper badly,” his breath smelling of fish, “I’ll be thrashing you within an inch of your life...and don’t be thinking I won’t.”

Exasperation dripping from her voice, Pepper said, “He’s going to treat me exactly the way I want to be treated.”

My face still a finger’s length from Redbeard’s, I glanced at her. “And how is that?”

Pepper smiled at me. “You’ll figure it out.”

Redbeard laughed and let go of my shirt, clapping me on the shoulder with enough force to almost knock me off my knees. “Your life with her will nae ever be dull, I be promising you that.”

An African, older than most of the crew with short, kinky hair gone to grey, and dressed in a gentleman’s coat and trousers, with a ruffled shirt, stepped out from the crew. A pair of square-rimmed spectacles was perched on his nose as he glared at us. “If you’re all quite finished, get off my operating table!” He stabbed a finger at the long dagger still stuck in the wood. “And take that pig-sticker with you!”

Pepper and I immediately hopped off the table while Redbeard pulled the knife out of the table and put it back in its sheath. He looked down at the gash he’d made in the wood. “It not be that bad.”

The African gave him a disgusted look. “I’m going to have to seal it up or else it’ll become a haven for foul humors. Why I tolerate...”

“Samuel,” Pepper said, interrupting him, “this is Tomas.”

“Well met,” he said curtly. Then he gave me a second look. “Jeremiah said you’re good at apothecary. If Pepper is going to go through with this madness then we need to have Sally find these herbs Jade knows of, and have you compound them at once, so we can begin the treatment.”

“I need to know more about them,” I replied. “If they’re not mixed in the right proportions and in the proper way, I could do Pepper more harm than good.”

Samuel stopped and seemed to really look at me. “When Khan’s got a dragon-ghost lodged in his skull, he understands more about the natural world than any man I’ve ever known. Come with me and we’ll hunt him up...”

“Pray, forgive him, doctor,” Captain Hawkins said, “but Tomas needs to attend me on the quarter-deck. However, you are welcome to join us there.”

“Let me get my Journal, so I may take notes, and my spectacles, and I will join you.” Captain Hawkins tapped the tip of his own nose; Samuel gave the captain a quizzical look, peered down his nose, and gave a start. “Ah, of course. I shall join you presently.” He hurried off and the captain motioned for me to follow him towards the stairs.

But before I could take a step, the Buccan called Lucky Luc stepped out from the knot of Buccan standing in a group and called out, “Stand fast. If ze Bo is right and you’re not a child of man then you must be a daemon...and we will not allow such creatures to live.”

Muttering began coming from the crew while the Buccan remained ominously silent, all of them staring at me like I was a fiend from hell. Jeremiah was beside me in an instant. “I’ve known Tomas all my life, and he’s a man like any other.” We traded a look and Jeremiah said, “Perhaps not like any other, but he’s no more a daemon than I am.” He placed his hand on the knife hilt hanging at his belt. “I’ll gut the first one of you who tries to take his life.”

The Africans and some of the crew called out encouragement to Jeremiah and catcalls to the Buccan, who erupted in a torrent of insults in French I was glad my friend didn’t understand, as Redbeard roared, “Draw a weapon and I be spilling your guts all over the deck.” Hands went to knife hilts as the insults turned ugly, and I clenched my fists as I took my position beside Jeremiah, ready to fight alongside him as we had in St. Augustine.

Then Sally put her fingers to her mouth and gave the most piercing whistle I’d ever heard, forcing everyone to cover their ears. When she stopped, Pepper stepped out in the open area away from everyone. “Am I a daemon as well, Luc?”

“None of us think that,” Lucky Luc answered, several of the Buccan translating for the rest as they remained where they were for the moment. “We know what you suffered both under ze Papists and ze Shadowmen was against your will, and for your sake we will not see you suffer it again.”

“His actions will tell us ze truth of his nature,” Master Le’Vass said. “If he is a daemon then his depravity will soon show us what he truly is.” He began speaking in French.
“Bide your time; the Olde World will pay us well for a Dragon as strong as he will become.”

Lucky Luc gave the Quartermaster a calculating look as Captain Hawkins said, “English if you please, Jean.”

Master Le’Vass gave the captain a slight bow. “Pray forgive my oversight, mon captain. I was merely counseling patience to the Buccan.”

The captain’s eyes narrowed as Mr. Smith said in his deep rumble, “Jeremiah, why don’t you tell the crew of the times you and Tomas spent together in St. Augustine. All know you as a brother of the crew, and your word’s been trusted for months now.”

“I can tell stories about him too,” Pepper piped up, tapping the side of her head. “Smoke’s up here now until we merge for good, and we’re speaking mind to mind.” I saw much of the crew trade looks as she went on. “Everyone knows a Dragon always tells the truth, and I’ve been trusted longer than Jeremiah.” She looked at me and grinned. “I promise I won’t reveal anything too shameful.” I winced, and most of the crew laughed.

But the Buccan continued watching me with dark eyes as a large, bare chested African stepped out from the crew. Most of the Africans had congregated in a group near Mr. Smith, but he seemed to be part of a group of Europeans, all twenty or so wearing a red bandana around their necks or tied on their upper right arm. The African had very dark skin, but oddly had patches of white, like the dark skin had flaked off somehow. To my surprise, he spoke with an English accent. “What about you, girl? You’re the ship’s luck, and we’re not going to lose you to a dragon-ghost.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Pepper replied. “I met with Victoria, the harpy we fought today, briefly for a time after she’d given in to the Dark Sisters. She was still herself, albeit twisted by the dragon-ghost, and naïve about the strangest things. She told me everything was new to her again.”

“I nae want you to be anything like that harpy,” Redbeard said, giving her a sharp look.

“I won’t. Smoke’s a fighter, and when Tomas goes into battle I’m going to be flying overhead as an eagle, swooping down on our enemies...”

“Who will be shooting at you...”

“I’ll be flying fast...”

Pepper was shouted down by the Buccan, who didn’t want her to become something unnatural, and the rest of the crew, who didn’t want her anywhere near the fighting, for fear she’d perish and take their luck with her. But everyone quieted as Master Khan stepped out of the shadows near the wall separating the crew’s hold from the main one, and walked up beside Pepper. “No one wishes little Pepper to be hurt, yes? But we will no more be able to stop her from fighting than we would Jade or the little ones who came with Tomas, and are now filling our sails. But I have a solution.”

Captain Hawkins folded his arms over his chest. “We’re listening.”

“The land I was born in has been ruled by China for many years. We always had a tradition of protecting Dragons, and part of our agreement with the Ming dynasty was to provide Dragons, merged with a dragon-ghost, as part of their personal guard. The merged Dragons would use the herbs Jade spoke of to prolong his life and wore a suit of thin Artifact plates against his skin, so when a ‘son or daughter of Tengri’, as they were called, changed his shape, he would absorb those plates into his skin and thus gain their protection. Then, when the fighting was over, he would change back and would be wearing the suit of plates again.” Master Khan turned his hooded face towards Pepper. “If you are determined to become a daughter of Tengri then I will instruct you in how this is done, as well as the correct dose of the herbs you will need.”

I suddenly understood more about the wolf and jaguar shape-changers I’d run from. “Master Khan, how do you know so much about this?”

He turned towards me slightly, only his chin with the tuft of a white beard visible under the hood. “That is a long story for another night. Tonight, the stories must be about you, and I for one am curious to hear what Jeremiah has to say.”

All eyes went to Jeremiah, who looked at me as he shook his head. “When Tomas doesn’t have someone to rein him in, he tends to leap first and think about where he’s going as he’s falling.” The crew laughed as I gave him an embarrassed shrug, and Jeremiah’s look of exasperation with me turned into a smile. “But Tomas was the only free man in St. Augustine who looked at me as a friend and not as a slave.”

The tall Frenchman Claude spoke up in accented English. “What is St. Augustine like?”

“St. Augustine? It’s hard to say what it’s like now, since the Draco Dominus just sacked it, but a couple years ago...”

Captain Hawkins made a head motion towards the stairs leading out of the crew’s hold, and I followed him out.

“Is all well?” Selene looked at me with concern in her eyes. “I heard shouting.” I was standing with the captain and Mr. Smith on the quarterdeck, Ezekiel still manning the tiller, his one hand holding the grey-wood, carved mermaid by her waist while the other held her above the back fin, where the carving became smooth and rounded once more. By this time the sun had truly gone down and the stars were out, blazing across the night sky as the Blackjack Davy continued on the course Ezekiel set, like a prophet leading his people to the Promised Land.

Selene had been waiting for us there with her back to the sea, and as we stopped beside her the captain gave me a dark look. “Yes, there was a lot of shouting.”

“It wasn’t my fault, sir,” I said quickly. “Pepper had matters well in hand, but then Hob told Redbeard I was the one in Pepper’s vision, and...” The captain’s expression grew darker and I faltered.

“And that’s when the shouting started,” Mr. Smith finished for me. I nodded, and Captain Hawkins pinched the bridge of his nose as Mr. Smith gave a rumbling chuckle. “The only thing a goblin likes better than rotten fish is making mischief.”

Selene gasped. “You truly have a goblin on board?”

Captain Hawkins let go of his face and gestured with his hand towards the tiller. “Examine it, or look anywhere else on the ship and tell me if you see nail holes.”

Selene and I knelt down to examine the tiller. It connected to the ships rudder, which dropped down below deck, but as I ran my hand along it my fingers couldn’t find evidence of a single hole where a nail had been hammered in. Ezekiel glanced down at us. “Search de ship and you not gonna find one. De goblin, he fuse de wood together after he done turn it grey.” He looked forward again. “Strange shitte, you know? But this de strangest ship anyone ever sail on.”

Selene stood up and I followed suit as she faced the captain. “The stories I have heard about the Blackjack Davy echo his words.”

Captain Hawkins gave her a sardonic smile. “That the Davy is haunted? Or that if you ever sail with her you’ll never age a day, those stories?” Selene nodded, and the captain’s smile went away. “They’re true, up to a point. While you’re aboard the Davy you age but slowly, so it seems to men you’ve never aged at all.”

Selene’s eyes were as wide as I knew mine were. “But how is that possible? Pray tell me, is it some sort of sorcery from this goblin?”

“It isn’t the goblin,” Mr. Smith said in his rumbling voice. “Time lost its grip on us the moment the Chinese Dragon died aboard the Davy, close to seventeen years ago.”

“Ask Redbeard for the long version,” Captain Hawkins said, “and he’ll tell it down to the last sword stroke. In short, many years ago, Maccabee,” gesturing towards Mr. Smith, “and I sailed with Sir Francis Drake when he sailed around the world. When we made our port of call in China, Sir Francis became acquainted with a powerful Dragon of the Imperial court, who years later found a way to contact Sir Francis, no doubt through a dragon-ghost, and inform him she was pregnant and fleeing China for some unknown reason.”