Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (49 page)

Pepper shrieked my name and ran towards me. I bolted away as Karl tried to grab me and we met on the crossroad like a storm wave meeting a red sailed ship. I spun her around and kissed her soundly, Pepper pulling away a moment later. “I cried myself to sleep last night for fear of what they’d do to you,” she whispered.

“I’m fine,” I said, giving her hands a gentle squeeze. “They gave me your old cabin to sleep in...” Suddenly I realized what I’d left behind. “I found your old rosary, and I meant to bring it back with me, but in all the confusion when the grenadoes were exploding...”

Pepper put her hand to my lips. “Tell me later, when I’ve calmed down.”

Suddenly a pair of hands pulled us apart. “Well I’ve got something to tell him,” Jeremiah growled with a dark look on his face as he got in close. “If you ever do that to me again, I’m going to take a practice cutlass and beat you with it until you’re black and blue!”

“It’s good to see you too,” I said, giving my friend a fierce hug which he returned. He punched my shoulder lightly as we let go and Pepper put her arms around me, pulling me slightly away from Jeremiah as I lowered my voice. “Arabella told us what happened.”

Jeremiah’s face grew grim. “We’re in a tight spot and everyone knows it.”

“Except for Arabella,” Captain Hawkins said as he strode up, his hand one the hilt of his white sword. “According to the Dark Sister, no matter what happens this day, you,” he snarled as she strode up beside me with Captain Cholula and Karl, the rest of her men in formation close by, “will walk away from this ‘parley’ unscathed.”

Arabella looked at him in obvious exasperation. “Harry, I want all of us to get what we want. You want to be free of the Blackjack Davy, your crew wants to rape and plunder, Cholula wants Tomas, who clearly wants to be with Pepper and Jeremiah, and I want vengeance on Black Pox Bill.”

“And I wish to see my cousin again.” Selene had been standing near the back of the crowd, but moved her way through the men with gentle hands until she reached the front, and then glided up to the Shadowhunter. Her voice trembled as she said, “Arabella, is it truly you?”

Arabella smiled and touched Selene’s face with her fingertips. “Dear cousin, how you have grown since the last time I saw you in Venice. I always knew you would be a beauty, and that at least still holds true.”

“But...you look no different than you did when I saw you last. What happened to you?”

Arabella sighed. “Did you ever know I was born a Dragon?” Selene’s eyes went wide and Arabella said, “I will take that as a no. I am not surprised: mother conceived me in a moment of weakness, when one of father’s Dragons unexpectedly went into heat, and after I was born it was always a point of contention between them. They hid what I was from most of Venice, scheming to sell me to the Draco Magistris when I reached sixteen years of age and pretend I was instead betrothed to a merchant from another land to avoid any scandal. But I made plans of my own.”

She reached inside her shirt and removed a gold locket, opened it up briefly to look inside then closed it with a snap. “One of father’s guards was a bold young Englishman named Henry, after one of the English kings of times past. He was as much in love with me as I was with him, so when I heard what my parents planned Henry sought out a Dutch captain he knew and got us passage aboard his ship. We knew we could make a new life for ourselves in the New World.” Arabella grimaced. “All went well until a ship filled with Shadowmen found us just off Three-day Island.”

Selene reached out and touched her cousin’s hand for a moment. “Was it bad?”

“It was, but my Henry was braver than any man I’ve ever known, leading the sailor’s in the ship’s defense even though all knew it was hopeless. When all was lost, we clasped hands and leaped into the sea as a gunpowder musket went off, striking Henry in the head.” Selene gasped but Arabella touched her fingertips to her cousin’s lips for a brief moment. “It was a glancing blow that cracked his skull but did not kill him, though it would have in time. But as far as I knew my Henry was dead, so I laid him face up on some flotsam drifting by, and with the help of my dragon-spirit swam to shore...where William was waiting.”

Black Pox Bill was standing with Mr. Smith holding the ropes binding the Shadowman’s wrists behind him. Arabella turned upon the deathly pale man a look of inhuman hatred. “I was exhausted from my struggles and my grief, along with the strength I had given to my girl, so when William seized me I had no chance of resisting him. He bound my hands and feet with rope then...Sweet William...used me as savagely as a man can before leaving me for dead.” Arabella moved away and stabbed an accusing finger at Black Pox Bill’s face. “I would have forgiven all you did to me had you only told your shipmates where I was.” She turned back towards Selene. “William had gone to wash himself in the ocean when he found my Henry, washed up on shore. He pulled a knife, no doubt to cut my truelove’s throat, when the rest of the scouting party hailed him. I was hidden by brush, but I watched as one of them knelt next to Henry and said he was still alive. So Bill cut him loose from the flotsam and they carried him away.” She glared at Black Pox Bill. “The one who realized my Henry was alive asked you if there were any other survivors...and you said no.”

Pepper spoke up beside me. “Where was your dragon-ghost?”

Arabella sighed. “She was young and feared the ones with Bill would hurt me the way he had. It was only when I began to die that she panicked and searched for a Dragon to help me. Who she found was to become my master.” She looked around at all of us. “I have never told anyone this before, but I feel it is important you understand me. There are still a handful of ancient Dragons alive in the world and the master of the guild of Shadowhunters is one of them. He was on Three-Day Island for business of his own, but when my dragon-spirit...I no longer remember her name, is that not strange? When she found him and told him the tale, he was moved to search me out. He released my bonds and bathed my wounds, telling me who he was and a curious bit of lore about true Dragons: their seed in a woman who is a Dragon herself returns life to her flesh like rain to a thirsty land. Though like rain, the land does eventually dry out again if not regularly watered.”

There were catcalls from the Davy’s crew, Redbeard calling out, “Aye, and I be thinking I’d tell you that if it be getting you out of your clothes.”

“No more than I thought,” Arabella shot back. “But the moment the deed was done I felt life returning, and within the hour I was back on my feet, as I was after being shot the day before this one.”

Jade’s voice spoke in the space behind me. “Her flesh did heal itself in a way I have never seen before, though I cannot tell you the cause.”

“I am still a Dragon and therefore can only speak the truth,” Arabella said over the muttering coming from the crew.

“Your paleness,” Selene said, “did carnal knowledge of your master cause that as well?”

Arabella shook her head. “When he told me of his war against the Shadowmen, I begged him to let me become part of it, so I might someday prevent another innocent, like I once was, from falling prey to them. He agreed and placed a small measure of his blood in an ancient Artifact of Olde Atlantis, a hollow needle, which he pushed into a vessel of my arm so our blood would mingle. I became pale as he is, and to human eyes...stopped aging.” Selene gasped and Arabella gave her a crooked smile. “I know it sounds wonderful, like the fountain of youth the Spanish Conquistadors have searched for, but in truth I am a matron trapped in the body of a girl. There are times I dearly wish it were not so.”

“I often feel as you do,” Captain Hawkins said.

To my surprise, Arabella gave him a soft look. “I imagine you do. But unlike you, my master has promised me the gift of death when life becomes too much a burden. His touch can stop my heart or give me such pleasure he could kill me with it if he wished. My master is honorable, though, and made sure I understood what he was offering before I accepted.”

“Did you understand?” Selene asked. “Did you truly?”

Arabella gave her a sad smile before her manner and face became brisk. “His blood had the effect of inverting my being a Dragon. I cannot give a dragon-spirit strength as my master can nor can I ever merge with a dragon-spirit, as I understand Pepper shall do soon.” She gave Selene a crooked smile. “My master cannot merge with a dragon-spirit either, so I suppose that is a spoonful of solace. But for all I lost I gained something wonderful: I can use my strength to power the small, ancient artifacts of Olde Atlantis scattered about the earth.”

“But...were they not destroyed when Atlantis was?”

“The large ones, yes,” Arabella answered, “except for the few still here. But many of the little ones, like my bird for instance, were taken with those who fled the destruction, becoming little more than curios as those who could make them work were either killed or died off.”

She reached into the pouch at her belt and pulled out a small Artifact golem the size and shape of a sparrow, and held it out in her palm. It was like the dragon-golems, made of resin with every feather individually crafted, and as Arabella held it out the golem began to flap its wings. “‘Bella,” a young girl’s voice said, “may I go apologize to Tomas?” Arabella held out her hand towards me and the bird-golem took off, circling around my head until I held out my arm for it to land upon. The bird came to rest on my forearm, its claws holding on without breaking skin as its empty eyes looked into mine. “I’m sorry I never came back,” and I recognized the voice as belonging to Grey-mouse, “but ‘Bella needs me more than you do.”

“I was just worried about you,” I answered. “Do you like helping her?”

“I sure do! She puts lots of strength into the golem so I can fly all over, and I don’t have to worry about anyone fighting me ‘cause they’d have to destroy the golem first and it flies really fast.”

“Arabella puts her own strength into the golem and not you?”

“She sure does. I’m hungry, but I don’t mind, ‘cause I feel light and free.” Her voice became pleading. “Can I stay with her, Tomas? Please?”

I wasn’t sure why a dragon-ghost needed my permission, but she sounded so happy I didn’t want to ruin her pleasure. I also decided it might be best to stay on Arabella’s good side. “If you truly want to stay then you stay and help her.”

Grey-Mouse took the bird-golem and flew around me several times before flying back to Arabella and landing on her shoulder. She took the golem, whispered in its ear then placed it back into her pouch as Captain Hawkins folded his arms over his chest. “This is all very interesting, but I wish to get this parley over with so I’ll know if we have a ship to return to or not.”

A woman’s voice echoed out of the darkness from the direction of the right hand road. “As does my master. Do I have the word of both captains that I may come forward without fear of molestation?”

“You’ve mine,” Captain Hawkins growled.

“Mine as well,” Captain Cholula said, “though I refuse to deal with Shadowmen, if you’ve any with you.”

“Captain Thorne’s aware of this,” the woman’s voice answered, “which is why he sent me and my...bodyguard.” A moment later she stepped into the light from our bright-fire torches. Instead of the harpy I’d expected, a tall, raven haired woman walked forward in bare feet, wearing a frayed, green dress leaving her shoulders bare, exposing their painful thinness. Her face was sharp angles and hollow shadows as she joyfully called out, “Pepper! You look well, oh so very well indeed.”

Pepper walked away from us towards the thin, wraith-like figure, and I took a step to follow. Jeremiah clamped his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t even consider it.”

I grumbled a bit but subsided, Captain Cholula giving my friend a grin as Pepper stopped a few feet away from the woman. “Would that I could say the same,” Pepper’s voice becoming sad as she said, “Victoria, I wish things could’ve been different.”

The woman had an over bright smile on her face. “Whist, little sister; when you have made the final merging then you will understand how worthwhile it truly is. Now, Shadowhunter,” her voice becoming brisk, “I believe you know how to use this.” Victoria pulled out a square, metallic looking cube from the pocket of her dress and tossed it to Arabella before raising her voice so all could hear. “The Artifact the Shadowhunter now holds is called a ‘hollow-gram’, and the moment she gives strength to it an image of Olde Roger shall appear.” She spoke louder as the muttering began. “He cannot hurt you nor can you hurt him. But he can see and hear everything done or said...so if you wish to survive, I advise all of you to pay strict attention to what my master has to say.”

I noticed there were strange markings on the cube as Arabella held it in both hands and closed her eyes. A moment later the cube flared with a green light. From the crew came cries of alarm then catcalls about frightened old women as the green light swept out in a wave, highlighting all of us as it passed by and vanished. But the writing on the cube remained a glowing green as a man-sized figure appeared in front of Arabella. He was the image of the pale figures on the mural in the House of Memory, his skin dead white with a long, thin face making him look almost ethereal, and spindly hands with elongated fingers coming out of the sleeves of his long, white robes. But unlike the painted images he was old, his hair white as sea foam and his body stooped, his face wrinkled about the eyes. He made a slow circle, taking in everyone before facing Captain Hawkins. “Well met, all of you.” His voice was thin and wheezy as an old man at death’s door. “It has been a few years, dear captain.”

Captain Hawkins stepped forward until he was only a few paces away from the pale figure, his hand on the hilt of his white sword. “I see you grew your ear back.”

The image of Olde Roger gave the captain a thin smile as he touched the side of his head. “A gift of our race is the regeneration...the growing back, if you will, of whatever pieces of ourselves we lose. Provided their loss did not kill us, of course. Tell me, what did you do with it?”

“I keep it with the other mementos I’ve accumulated over the years. I’ve always hoped I could add your head to my collection as well.”