Passion's Tide (32 page)

The competition hovered ominously over everyone’s heads for the next several days, so Amber was not the least bit surprised that when she woke up on the anticipated morning, dark clouds hung low in the sky;
nature’s
manifestations of their own
anxiety
.
She forced herself to eat, though her stomach was twisted in knots
.
Logan
gave her
a reassuring smile across the table and patted her hand
.
“You’re going to do fine.”

She swallowed
, the bread a hard lump that inched down her dry
throat to settle in her gut
.
She pushed the plate away
.
“I’m not worried.” He cocked a dark eyebrow
.
“All right, fine, I’m scared as hell
.
I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Of course you have, just last night I watched an intense sparring session with William.”

“But that’s different.”

“How so?”

“That was just a game, and it was fun.”

“There isn’t a single reason why this shouldn’t also be fun
.
Well, apart from the potential for injury or death.”  He saw her flinch
.
“I’m joking of course
.
Everything will turn out, you’ll see
.
But for now, just relax, take deep breaths, and start stretching
.
Run around the ship once or twice, it will
energize you.” She headed towards the door
.
“B
ut b
efore you go,
would you mind filling me in on the format for the fights today? I hope it simplifies things, because last year was a catastrophe.”

“I haven’t come up with anything.”

His face fell
.
“Amber, you asked me if you could plan it, and I haven’t got any last minute ideas.”

“Don’t worry, I delegated the responsibility to someone much more capable.”

“Who would that be?”

“Johnny.”

He laughed
.
“Now I know you’re pulling my leg.”

“I’m not.”

“Let me see if I understand this
.
You put an organizational task in the hands of an easily distracted, impulsive child?”

“He’s hardly a child, Logan
.
H
ave a little faith in him
—h
e’s smarter than you think!”

An hour later she had
joined the
crowd of restless men, discussing strategy with Deacon and eager to begin
.
She fell silent as she saw Johnny drag a crate over to the mast and climb on top of it.

“I’m only going to say this once, so you lot better shut up and listen!” The crew, who up until then had been double
-
checking their weapons and trading last minute advice, were stunned into silence by his loud voice
.
Seeing that he had everybody’s attention, including a startled looking Logan, he held up a hat. “In here there are enough slips of parchment for each of you to draw one without looking
.
Written on the paper is a letter, and you will find the man who has the same letter as you
.
This is who you’re
sparring
first
.
If you win, you find the man who has the next letter: A with B, C with D, and so on.”

“What if we can’t read?”
came a shout from the rear.

“Then I‘ll show you where to go,” Johnny said
, smiling at
Amber. She winked back and snuck a glance at Logan, who was leaning against the mizzenmast looking dumbfounded
.
He caught her eye and she ducked her head
, pretending to listen to Johnny
.
In fact, she had gone over the plan with him the previous evening
.

“If you lose a round, you have to stick around and act as a ju
dge should there be a call,” Johnny was finishing up. He turned to Logan. “Anything you wanna add, Cap’n?”

Taken aback, Logan stuttered before he regained his composure
.
“Though I’d prefer you didn’t kill each other, I want you to bring everything you have to these
matches
. I don’t
want to hear you whining about “fair,” this is fighting. There is no fair. I say this not to inspire animosity between you, but to prepare you for the real world. Mendoza’s men won’t hold back, and neither should you.

“Bu
t if you lose, I want to see you recover quickly and move on to watching the other fights. Use them as a chance to learn, maybe figure out where you went wrong in your own match. Now, good luck, and may the best
swordsman
win.”

When it came turn to draw a letter she reached her hand into the tricorne hat and felt around, extracting a crumpled ball of paper
.
She unfolded it and read the G, written in Johnny’s shaky handwriting.
Lifting her head she listened
as her lette
r was called,
her eyes
following the voice to Henry. His face paled when he saw her
.
“Just promise me you won’t kill me,”
h
e pleaded.

She laughed
.
“I wouldn’t worry, you’ve been doing this longer than I have.”

Logan’s voice rang out through the crowd, instruct
ing them to draw their weapons
.
Henry’s hands
shook
visibly
as he unsheathed his sword and held it up, more as protection against Amber’s blade than as a means of attack
.
At the sound of Logan’s pistol Amber lunged towards her younger opponent
.
Seconds later she pushed through his defensive stance and ran the tip of her sword across his shoulder, leaving a clean streak of blood
.
Henry stepped back to survey the damage, breathing a sigh of relief as he saw the minimal cut
.
“Thank you,” he whispered as he tucked his cutlass away and hurried over to the station Piers had set up to clean and stitch wounds.

She chuckled as she examined the edge of her sword, seeing not a drop on it.

“Easy win?” Logan asked from behind her.

“Considering that we are the only ones finished, I would say, yes, it was an easy victory.”

He slid his arms around her waist
.
“Couldn’t it be because you’re so skilled that no one stands a chance against you?”

“You
’d
best cut that out, or your men will think you’re playing favorites.”

He nuzzled her earlobe. “Oh, but I am.”

“Stop that
.
”
She
nudged him away.

“You can’t still be worried, can you? Your first
victory
was easy enough.”

“Too easy,” she
ex
plained
.
“Henry was too frightened to fight back.”

“Ever since he saw what happened to Pax he’s been terrified of you, Miss Amber,” Johnny said
, approaching
them with the air of someone older and more mature
.
He lowered his voice
.
“He told me his uncle got conked on the head one too many times during bar fights and died, so I figure that’s why he’s so scared.”

“It was an accident,” she stammered, her face reddening
.
“Pax knows I didn’t mean any harm or ill will.”

“Of course I do, love,” Pax exclaimed, sheathing his sword with a
smile
.
Buck, looking irate, shadowed Pax as he walked towards them
.
“And besides, no harm done, see?” He rapped his knuckles against his skull
.
“Like a rock
.
It’ll take more than a little bump to addle my brains.”

“That’s assuming you have any to start with.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a sore loser, Buck?  You had plenty of time to block that vertical strike, but you were too slow.”

“You just watch yourself tonight while you sleep, pal.”

Logan stepped between them
.
“Buck, go do something productive and have Piers examine your ear
.
I’m not positive, but I’m fairly certain it should have stopped bleeding by now.”

“And show some sportsmanship!” Pax called at his retreating ba
ck.

“Yes, because taunting the loser after you nearly sever their ear is a mature response
.
Why don’t you go see if you can find your next opponent?”  Pax shuffled off and Logan turned to Amber again
.
“You might want to join him; there are a few pirates out there who still have their dignity
.
Between you and Pax, you should remedy that in an hour or two.” He winked at her
.
“Good luck.”

Three hours later Amber had bested Creed, Daniel, David, and several other disgruntled men
.
After eating a brief lunch, she stretched the tight muscles in her neck and met Deacon in the middle of the deck
.
The m
en were torn between watching them
and watching the fight between Pax and Anton on the opposite end of the ship
.
Both matches paired a smaller fighter with a much larger one, and everyone was eager to see the outcomes
.

Unaware
of the other
skirmish
going on, and even of the crowd circling and cheering them,
Amber
focused on the man across from her
.
As they were instructed to withdraw their swords he
smiled at her
, retracting it the moment Logan fired his pistol
.
He lunged forward with his blade raised, forcing her to jump to the side to avoid his blow
.
She struck at the exposed portion of
his
midsection but he quickly
parried her strike and regained a defensive position, leaving her few openings
.

They fought for thirty minutes, and still neither had made any ground. Amber was growing tired, and judging by the sweat dripping down Deacon’s face, she guessed
he was too. They were matched in style and skill, as he had taught her much of what she knew about the sport
.
The
only discernable difference
s
between them as fighters
were
their height and
their
sex
.
Having no desire to disrobe mid-fight,
Amber
rushed
at
him with her sword raised for a vertical strike, Deacon raising his in kind for the parry
.
With his blade above his center body line she twisted out of his reach and swung hers down to nick the back of his unprotected legs, drawing a curse from his mouth
.
But when she stood to shake hands he was smiling
.

“The student becomes the teacher,” he chuckled.

“Nonsense, you always said to exploit your opponent’s weakness, and in your case it’s your height
.
You can’t help the fact you have a lot of body to protect.”

“Very true, which is why I wear my tall boots when I go into town or know I’ll be fighting
.
Gives my enemies one less target to aim for.”

“Why didn’t you wear them today?”

He smiled
.
“Because I underestimated you
.
You don’t think like an inexperienced fighter, which is impressive considering the short time you’ve been
practicing
.” She thanked him, and ignoring her insistence that he see Piers, he led her into
the
crowd surrounding the other men
. They inched their way forward in order to see.

A few seconds of observation and Amber could see that Pax had the upper hand
.
Like her, he was quick and athletic, and able to dart around people
.
Anton was using his size and strength to try
to
overpower Pax, but the smaller man was able to avoid the crushing blows that
c
ould easily take his arm off
.

“You’re still bleeding down the back of your heel,” Amber whispered to Deacon.