Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (14 page)

I turned towards Smoke. “Take Pepper...”

“No,” Pepper said, grimacing again as she sucked in a deep breath. “Fire-rose is still healing me. Take the noble lady first.”

I glanced back at Selene, who’d remained behind me the entire time. “Are you alright going alone?”

She gave a shudder as one of the living sailors screamed in pain. “I’ll face the entire crew flat on my back than one dead man on my feet.” Pepper grimaced again, and I knelt down next to her, Selene in turn kneeling next to me. “Tomas, I beg a boon of you. Find my aunt and rescue her if you can, though if you wish not to, I truly understand. These dead things have unnerved me.”

“I’ll do what I can,” I answered her.

“I know you will.” Selene smiled and, to my great surprise, kissed my forehead. Then she gracefully rose to her feet, letting herself be wrapped in the mermaid’s arms, and the two rose into the air. Selene kept her eyes shut tight as Smoke carried her over to the pirate’s ship.

Pepper watched them go as I watched the sailors smash another dead man’s skull, sending him back down to his comrades. She looked up at me. “Is she your lover?”

I gave a start. “What? No, she’s not; I’ve never had one,” I added without thinking.

“You’ve never had a lover?”

My face grew hot as I watched for Smoke’s return. “It’s not that I didn’t want one, it’s just...I was expected to wait until I was married.” I didn’t want to get into the real reasons with her, ranging from being too lower class for some, to being too strange for others, who would accept Smoke’s healing them when they were sick, but then spit on my shadow to ward off evil when they were better. Then there was Smoke herself, which I really didn’t want to have to explain to anyone, least of all this girl.

Pepper merely shook her head. “We certainly grew up differently. When do you go into heat for the first time?”

I couldn’t believe she was asking me that, my eyes meeting hers as I replied, “A year and three months. Are you always this forward?”

She giggled but then grimaced in pain. “Kyrie eleyson, it hurts to laugh. I’ve lived much of the past year on a pirate ship; their good luck charm, so to speak, and trust me, social graces aren’t very high on their list. Well, Master Le’Vass is an exception, but not many others. I spent my eighteenth birthday on the ship, the ‘Black Rose’, which means nothing to you...except it does,” she said to the look of horror that swept my face a moment. Pepper raised a hand and touched my cheek with her fingertips. “When the memories are bad, and I’m not needed, I keep Fire-rose in my head to keep them at bay.”

“That way leads to madness, or so I’ve heard.”

Pepper gave me a sad smile as she traced the line of my jaw with her forefinger. “Madness is just another way of looking at the world. The Dark Sisters are mad, all of them.”

“I thought they were just evil.”

Pepper grimaced again as she shook her head. “They went down paths they never should’ve taken, and now they’ll never come back, even if they wanted to. Eldest knew you’d find me.” She smiled at my baffled look. “Once a dragon-ghost starts down the path of the Dark Sisters she loses her name, but the one I always called Eldest could see strands in the web of time’s loom, strands of possibilities before they were set down in the fabric of the here and now, which makes them unchangeable. Eldest said I would not permanently merge with any dragon-ghost until I fell in love for the last time. ‘You will be his first, and he your last’, she told me, adding that even if I found a way off the Black Rose, she’d still learn when it happened, and hunt me down so she could merge with me. That was the last thing Eldest said to me before Cholula’s ship showed up.”

Fire-rose spoke from a spot beside Pepper, which meant she’d finished. “I’ve stopped the bleeding inside, but Samuel still needs to remove the pistol ball, so it doesn’t fester. Good Tomas,” she said before I could ask who Samuel was, “pray excuse Pepper. She’s endured more than mortals should, I fear.”

Smoke came to rest beside us. “Captain Cholula said something similar to Tomas.”

Pepper’s eyes widened. “You’ve met her?”

“Escaped from her is more accurate,” I said, wishing Smoke hadn’t mentioned Captain Cholula at all.

“Tomas Rios,” a voice said from close by us, “well met. I am Jade.” Her voice was older and more refined than any dragon-ghost’s I’d ever heard, like the difference between the royal governor’s wife and the children of a tavern wench. “Captain Hawkins will not let me take strength from the Dragons aboard his ship, but I did scout for you. If you wish to help the elderly matron you must go now, for her life fades fast. The decks below are free of dead men.”

“For the moment,” I muttered, looking at Star’s ill-used and ragged mermaid. “Have you enough strength to get me down below and back?”

“More than enough,” Star answered. “But a few more blows and the air-golem will fly apart.”

“I’ll take that chance,” I said, looking across the aft deck. It was covered in debris, but except for Captain Voorhees on the stern, empty of dead men. “Smoke, get Pepper across then help Mr. Bierson.”

I lifted Pepper in my arms, her body frailer than it should’ve been as Smoke said, “I’ll do it, but I’m keeping a small part of me with you. If you get into trouble, I need to know so I can come rescue you, Swamp-rat.”

“I don’t need rescuing,” I grumbled under my breath.

Pepper must’ve heard, for she giggled then grimaced again. “Will you two stop making me laugh? Oh, that’s cold,” she added as I settled her in Smoke’s arms. “I’ll convince the captain to let Master Khan give Jade strength, and she’ll make a mermaid the size of a jolly boat, you’ll see.” Smoke lifted up off the deck and began swimming through the air with Pepper in her arms. Pepper looked back and called out, “It’s love for you too...Swamp-rat. You’ll see.”

I shook my head at the girl’s strangeness then called out to Mr. Bierson. “I need to find Selene’s aunt. Smoke’s coming back to help you, and as soon as I get back, we’ll take the captain up on his offer.”

Mr. Bierson wiped sweat off his brow, letting a man take his place as a dead man with a half severed head tried to climb up. “We may not have any choice but take his mercy. I tell you true, though, I won’t turn pirate.”

“Nor I,” I answered him, climbing up on Star’s cold back, the long pike still in her hands. “But we’ll have to trust Pepper’s telling the truth.”

“She is,” Jade’s voice answered. “I must return to the ship, in case the captain relents.”

Mr. Bierson gave me a thoughtful look as I put my arms around the mermaid’s neck. “I regret we almost came to blows just now. Watch your back while you’re below.” Star floated upward and took off as Mr. Bierson called out, “You’re a brave lad.”

“I’m a daft one,” I muttered to myself as the air-golem sailed over the main deck, over the heads of the dead men, and towards the hatch on the aft deck. I shivered as we flew, but I knew from experience an air-golem’s hard to hold onto. Looking beyond the Dutch ship, I noticed a bank of sea-fog was moving towards us, with the outline of a ghostly sail seemingly just inside the mist, but I decided my mind was playing tricks and forgot about it as we swooped down.

We reached the hatch quickly, Star using the end of the pike to push away a piece of wood half-covering the opening as I slid off, absently looking back the way we’d come. Dead men were climbing up the stairs to the aft deck, the leading one with his neck twisted at an unnatural angle and a steel spike in his hand as he lurched towards me.

Suddenly the ship itself lurched, and I grabbed the wooden middle of Star’s pike to keep from falling head-first down into the hold below. Looking towards the stern, I saw the body of Captain Voorhees leaning against what remained of the ship’s tiller, making the Queen Anne’s bow slowly spin towards the pirate’s. Star moved her mermaid between me and the now half-dozen slowly approaching dead men. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

“Let me know when your air-golem’s gone,” I replied, grabbing the edge of the hatch and swinging myself down until my bare feet touched the last stair. Most of the lights had been put out below, I realized as I let go, stepping down onto the deck of the passenger hold as I turned around.

I reared back as a gunpowder pistol was shoved into my face. The merchant with a beard shouted, “What in the name of Providence are you doing here? You’ll bring the dead men down on our heads!”

Several other passengers were standing nearby, all of them looking a little wild-eyed as I cautiously pushed the muzzle away from my face. “The dead would’ve come down here eventually, anyway. I’m here to rescue Selene’s aunt then I’ll be on my way.” Suddenly a thought struck me. “Has anyone seen Master Gomez?”

The merchant waved it towards a large humped shape off in the corner. “The man’s servant struck him down and robbed him, and then ran off to hide somewhere.”

“Which is what we should be doing,” another man wearing the clothes of a gentleman hissed. “The merchant lives for now, but none of us will if the dead start coming down here.”

“Then stand together and fight,” I urged them. “That’s what Mr. Bierson and the sailors have done, and we’re making a go of keeping them at bay.”

Above us, I heard the sound of the mermaid’s pike smack against flesh and the sound of a body falling. The others heard it too. “Bugger that,” the merchant said, backing away from me as the others, looking upward with frightened eyes, did the same. He turned and ran, the others doing the same, and I ran for Selene’s aunt’s cabin.

Reaching the warped, wooden door, the light making it almost too dim to see, I rapped hard with my knuckles. “Mistress, are you there? It’s Tomas.” I heard a weak sound come from inside and I pulled the door open. In the light of a dragon-globe swinging from its rope basket, I saw the old woman sprawled on the floor, a trickle of blood coming from her mouth. I knelt down beside her. “Mistress, I’m here to rescue you.”

Her eyes fluttered open. “You come too late,” she whispered, her age-spotted, wrinkled hand motioning towards the corner. “My attendants are waiting.” I looked over to where three tongues of blue ghostfire were standing in a row, like snakes ready to strike. Her hand then moved towards the open desk. “My rosary...locket.”

I got to my feet. The desk was of simple design, a thick piece of wood that could be folded into a space built into the wall, nestled beside the thin bed taking up the whole back wall, with its grate letting in fresh air from the outside built in above it. A wooden chair lay on its side, with papers scattered all about, but as I stepped over her to the desk I saw the rosary and gold locket still rested on its scarred surface. The rosary was a bone white cross with silver beads, and the locket was open, revealing the face of a young, dark haired girl, both of which I scooped up in my hand and knelt back down beside the old woman. I placed both of them in her hands. “Mistress, I can carry you out of here, and then Smoke...”

“I will die as I lived,” she whispered, “on my own terms.” Selene’s aunt wrapped the rosary around her hand, but to my surprise, placed the locket back into mine. “Find news of my daughter, whether she lives or dies, and if she lives, tell her how disappointed...” The old woman stopped as her eyes opened wide. “No, say naught of my regret. Tell her I thought of her every day, tell her I love...I love...” The old woman’s eyes remained open wide as her words faded in a mumble before ceasing altogether. The tongues of ghostfire dropped to the deck and began to slither towards her.

I reached out to close her eyes. Then I snapped the locket shut, placed it around my neck and sprang to my feet as the cabin door swung shut on its own and latched. “I fought as long as I could,” Star said in my ear as the blue flames entered the old woman’s mouth, one by one, “but it wasn’t enough to hold them off. The dead are right behind me.”

An axe blade bit deep into the door. It splintered part of the wood, gleaming with a wicked sheen as a dead man pulled it out and peered into the crack. He grinned like a fiend from hell and swung again as the old lady at my feet began to stir.

“Smoke,” I said to the empty air as I backed away from the door and grabbed the chair off the floor, “remember what I said about not needing rescue? I’ll let you hold it over my head for as long as you want if you’ll come get me right now.” The axe bit another chunk out of the door as the old woman slowly got to her feet. She turned to glare at me with dead eyes, my heart hammering in my chest as the axe smashed the door into pieces and dead hands pulled it away. The old woman stretched out her hands, the rosary wildly swinging in her grip as she took a step forward.

Suddenly, from outside of the cabin I heard a surprised shriek filled with pain, and the look of hatred left the eyes of Selene’s aunt. She walked past me to the bed and sat down hard, cracking her head against the back wall but not seeming to care as her fingers began going through the rosary beads as, just outside the door, the man with the axe continued smashing it to pieces. But then, to my astonishment, he dropped the axe to gather up the pieces and carried them off as if they were firewood, while beyond him in the hold the dead shuffled off with meaningless purpose. I lowered the chair to the floor. “Star, what just happened?”

I heard excitement in her voice as she said, “The sister of the ghost-shell’s in a fight for her life!”

“Who’s attacking her?” I asked as I cautiously left the cabin and stepped into the hold, the stench of dead flesh almost gagging me as I slid between dead men now shambling around without the least interest in me.

“I don’t know,” Star answered. “But if it’s Jade, she doesn’t stand a chance.” I held my breath as a dead man bumped into me, his dead eyes turning to look into mine. But he took no interest in me and I moved past him towards the stair leading up.

Then a different voice spoke in my ear. “Tomas,” Tiger said urgently, “you’ve got to get off this ship now!”

I reached the stairs and started up. “What’s wrong?”

“One of the Dark Sisters is attacking the sister of the ghost-shell.” Fear rose up to choke me and I pelted up the stairs as she went on. “They don’t have any bit of a Dragon’s strength so they can’t attack us, but their ship’s coming up fast.”