Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (30 page)

“We have heard ze evidence against him,” Master Le’Vass said, “and now I and ze captain shall pass judgment.”

Everyone was assembled in the crew’s hold in the open space near the galley, including Mr. Smith and Jeremiah, who had returned from the village as soon as Star told Mr. Smith what had happened. The only ones not present were Selene and Sally, who’d remained in the captain’s cabin. While Jade had told everything from the time she’d noticed Terence to the point where the captain hailed us, with Thomas Tew adding his two farthings worth in support, I had wolfed down another bowl of porridge then shared a cup of Bright-eye tea with Pepper. The cup we were drinking from had come from China, with images of women serving tea painted on the sides in blue, but was now chipped and badly stained. Yet for some reason Pepper seemed very fond of it.

I carefully gave the cup back to Pepper, as it had no handle and the tea was hot, while the captain raised his hands for quiet. “As you know,” he said as the men settled down, “among the crew the quartermaster dictates punishment, while I decide a prisoner’s fate.” He glanced at Terence, who stood by himself with his arms securely bound behind his back, his face the picture of defeat as he stared down at the deck. “Since the guilty one stands in both camps, I thought it best if we decided his fate between us.”

Master Le’Vass made the captain an elegant half-bow. “Indeed, this is most fair, although,” the Frenchman turning towards me, “I have a question of your apprentice. Jade gave him ze chance to fight Terence man to man... yet, he refused.”

Captain Hawkins motioned for me to answer the question, and I shrugged uncomfortably. “I was trying to be civilized.” Master Le’Vass gave me a skeptical look so I added, “In St. Augustine if I’d killed someone for trying to kill me I would’ve been hung...well, if they’d caught me, that is. But it would’ve been bad for my foster mother, so I learned to handle things in a more civilized way.”

From his spot among the other Buccan, including Andre now, Lucky Luc sneered, “Civilized? In ze ‘civilized’ world, a rule breaker is lashed a hundred times and his wounds rubbed with salt, or is tortured with hot irons then burned alive, or...”

“Or is tied hand and foot with long ropes and then run under ze ship from bow to stern,” Master Le’Vass said. “That is one reason all of us, myself included, have left ze civilized world to be free men, have we not?” Lucky Luc made a conciliatory gesture with his hand and Master Le’Vass turned back towards me. “But I understand what ze captain’s apprentice means. Tell me this, though: are you afraid to fight him?”

“No,” I answered at once, immediately feeling the uncomfortable twinge I knew would get worse if I didn’t amend my words. “I mean, I’d feel fear if I had to fight him, but I’d do it, especially since he hurt Pepper and wants to hurt her again.” Glancing at her, words came unbidden from deep inside me. “No one’s going to hurt Pepper ever again, not if I can help it.”

From the crowd Redbeard roared, “Aye, that be the spirit, lad!”

The expression on Pepper’s face warmed my heart as she smiled at me, but then she looked at Terence and the smile vanished like storm clouds over the sun. “Captain Hawkins, permission to address the prisoner.” The captain waved his hand towards Terence and Pepper placed her hand on my arm. “I would do this alone.” I gave her a grave nod and she stalked forward until she stood before him, Terence in turn raising his head as she stopped, the fragile cup still in her left hand. “You say you love me, yet you tried to show me by what, a rough wooing like the Sabine wives of ancient Rome?”

Terence was shaking his head. “Pepper, I was wrong; I know that now. Let me make it up to you by being the best lover...”

Pepper slapped him hard across the face. “Lord Tiberius once said you can’t shed light into a dark place if you don’t make a crack in the wall first. I don’t love you, Terence, nor will I...ever!” She stabbed a finger at me. “Tomas is the only one I would ever forgive a rough wooing, do you understand that? He is my last love, not you.” Her voice went flat. “Never you.”

I moved a few steps towards them as Terence began struggling wildly against his bonds. “You don’t mean that! He doesn’t love you but I do, I...”

Pepper threw the remnants of the Bright-eye tea in his face. Terence yelped as the acrid tea stung his eyes, Pepper raising her hand as if to strike him with the cup but then realizing what she was doing as she abruptly stopped. The cup flew backwards out of her hand.

I was already moving. Fate was smiling, for I only had to take a few steps and hold out my hands, and the cup flew into them without mishap. I took a step backwards...and fate gave a mocking laugh as I stumbled over a coil of rope.

Redbeard caught me. “Steady as she goes, lad,” he said as he got me to my feet, Pepper racing over with a look of fear on her face. Redbeard looked down at the intact cup in my hand and smiled. “Be putting your mind at ease: your mam’s cup be fine.” Pepper took it from my hands with exaggerated care as Redbeard said, “You did a good thing, for the cup be one of the few things of Meg’s I be saving.” I nodded in understanding as a gleam entered his eyes. “No hard feelings over the whole cutting your throat misunderstanding, I be hoping.”

“I’m trying to put it out of my mind,” I answered him earnestly.

Redbeard grinned as Captain Hawkins spoke from behind him. “Dava, take Pepper back to Sally’s cabin and let the Bo attend to her. Inform Selene she is welcome to join them, if she wants.”

Pepper turned towards the captain, saying, “Captain Hawkins...” He raised his eyebrows and she sighed, “Yes, sir.”

Redbeard gently took her by the arm and they left for the stairs as Master Le’Vass stepped out in front of Terence once more. “So, how shall we punish ze man who feels...such amour... for our petite Pepper?”

Several voices suggested flogging him then rubbing salt into the wounds, or keelhauling him from bow to stern, or torturing him with hot irons. But everyone quieted as the Mulatto spoke in his English accent. “When I was captain and someone broke my rules, we made the prisoner run the gauntlet.” Terence was still blinking from the acrid tea, but seemed able to see again as he looked at the Mulatto with fear on his face. The Mulatto, in turn, gave him a hungry smile. “All of the crew were armed with cudgels or long, sharp knives, and as the prisoner ran between them the crew got to beat or cut on the man as they saw fit. Prisoners only had to run the gauntlet once, and well-liked men remained alive at the end. Those not so well-liked...” The Mulatto let his words hang as he folded his arms while a speculative murmur swept the crew.

“An excellent suggestion,” Captain Hawkins remarked. “And while it’s very much in keeping with the spirit of the Articles, I have one perhaps more profitable to the crew.” At the word profit all murmuring ceased and the captain smiled. “Every man Tomas kills makes him a stronger Dragon, and thus makes us better able to take prizes bigger than the ones we’ve been going after...up until now. So this is what I propose: that the prisoner, armed only with a grey-wood cutlass, fights Tomas, who will be armed with my sword, the sword of the White Lady.” I stared at the captain in surprise and he smiled again. “You acted as I wished by not engaging the prisoner in a fight without my permission, and this is how I will reward you.”

Part of me was horrified at the thought of taking another man’s life, and yet...the thought of defending Pepper, which was the way I’d begun to justify fighting Terence, using my true mother’s sword, was making the gentler part of me grow quiet. I earnestly thanked the captain and he gave me a satisfied look as the brown robed monk addressed him. “Captain Hawkins, I have no right to speak here to be sure, but if you are truly interested in profit then I have a proposal concerning your prisoner’s fate.”

Captain Hawkins turned on him. “You’re right, monk: you have no right to either speak or remain on my ship.”

“Mon captain,” Master Le’Vass said with a smile of his own, “Pray let ze monk speak, so we may judge the profit of his words. Brother Triton, is it not?”

“Brother Tristan, to be sure.” The monk scratched his armpit with a fat hand. “You know that the villagers of Haven and the other villages are escaped slaves, who drove the natives of the island onto the small mountain of Big Bluff itself?”

“Common knowledge,” Master Le’Vass replied.

“To be sure...but what is not common knowledge is that these natives have been secretly meeting with Shadowmen.”

Dark muttering swept the crew as Captain Hawkins said, “This is a serious charge. What proof do you have?”

“The word of the headman himself,” Brother Tristan answered. “Unnatural creatures of the air have been seen by him and by others whose word I trust. They have flown from a weather beaten galleon anchored far off shore, whose crew have never been seen on the island, in shape a woman with claws for feet like the harpy from Greek mythology.” At once I thought of the merged Dragon Victoria as the monk went on. “Since then the natives have grown confident, and a fortnight ago demanded each of the villages along the shore provide a male slave no older than thirty for the headman of Big Bluff, a native Dragon who is not only their shaman but their leader as well. So far the other villages have refused, but...”

“I see where this leads,” Captain Hawkins said, interrupting. He folded his arms across his chest. “But why should we give up our prisoner for their sake? Out of the kindness of our hearts?”

“Because they’ve got wooden cannons,” Mr. Smith replied from his spot next to the other Africans, “all ready to be transmuted. Several months ago a merchant ship was attacked by an undermanned sloop of Shadowmen and successfully fought them off, leaving only a few survivors...including a journeyman wood-worker with his tools.”

“Have you spoken to this wood-worker?”

“I have,” Mr. Smith replied. “He’s deathly afraid of Shadowmen now, and will build us whatever weapons we want in exchange for passage. I asked him about joining the ship’s company, and he said while he’d never willingly join a pirate crew, if we pressed him into service he would do as we asked.”

Captain Hawkins gave him a sardonic smile. “So if the Davy’s ever captured he won’t hang with the rest of us. I take it Isaac wants to play both sides: treat with the natives while preparing for war.” Mr. Smith nodded and the captain said, “How many cannon and what condition?”

“Ten total, each solidly built from a hollowed out tree trunk instead of being several pieces needing to be fused together during the transmutation.”

“They must be short,” Master Le’Vass remarked.

“Short but accurate,” Mr. Smith replied. “They’ve been made with better care than any piece I’ve seen in a while. I asked him why he hadn’t been made master yet, and he replied ‘guild politics’, which seemed to me an honest answer.”

From across the other side the tall Frenchman Claude spoke up. “Politics have been ze bane of many of us, oui? But if I may, I would like to see these cannon for myself.”

“I was going to ask you,” Mr. Smith replied. “The deal Isaac proposed is this: we transmute the cannon and keep whatever five we want, while Haven keeps the rest.” He glanced at the captain. “I don’t know what he’ll offer for the prisoner, but I’m guessing I can wring a lot more provisions out of him than he’s provided thus far.”

“Bide a moment,” Captain Hawkins said. “I agree this is tempting, but transmuting ten cannons will leave Jade drained, so if we are attacked all we will have to rely on are the young ones.”

“Not completely drained,” Jade’s voice said from beside me. “I know how to transmute in a way that conserves my strength, and I believe I will still have enough of Tomas’s strength left to create an air-golem, should one be required. However, the young ones will have to be the ones to transmute any additional weapons, as well as the frozen quickfire needed.”

“Then, gentlemen,” Mr. Smith said as he looked between the captain and the quartermaster, “are we agreed to give Terence to the headman in exchange for additional provisions?”

Before anyone could respond, Terence threw himself to his knees in front of Mr. Smith. “Please, sir, this is all a great misunderstanding. Don’t send me to die among the heathens, I beg you, sir.”

Mr. Smith looked down on Terence in contempt. “All this time aboard and you’ve yet to learn how to address me?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Smith, I didn’t think...”

Mr. Smith kicked him hard in the belly. Terence gasped and doubled over as Mr. Smith folded his massive arms over his tattooed chest. “No, thinking doesn’t seem to be something you’re very good at. But if you want to survive, you’d better start.”

Mr. Smith looked at Master Le’Vass, who nodded, and then at the captain, who said, “I don’t want his blood defiling my sword. Let the headman give him to the natives of Big Bluff.”

Terence broke down and began to sob as Ezekiel said, “My shoulder telling me de rain getting ready to stop, if you want to take him now.” I realized I wasn’t hearing the rain pounding down over our heads as it had been as Mr. Smith grabbed him by one arm while Claude stepped out to grab him by the other, and they marched him unresisting towards the stairs. I watched them go with mixed feelings, wondering if the captain and Master Le’Vass had made the right decision as I decided I was grateful it hadn’t been mine to make.