Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (29 page)

Passing them I came to the area Master Le’Vass’s Frenchmen occupied, with the quartermaster sitting on a wooden chair among them. My resolution faltered when I realized I’d have to pass among them, and I turned to move back towards the open passage. But Master Le’Vass beckoned for me forward. “You have naught to fear, Tomas. Pass through.” I touched my forehead with two fingers in a gesture of respect, which he acknowledged with an elegant nod, but I noted, from the corner of my eye, the intense look he gave me as I went by, as did most of the other Frenchmen.

But the tall Frenchman Claude gave me a smile and a respectful nod, both of which I returned as I passed through them into the area the Africans held, near the stairs leading up. They were friendly to a man, bidding me welcome as several catcalled me good-naturedly about Pepper bringing my vine back to life on our betrothal night. Not knowing how to respond I gave them a sheepish grin and they laughed as Ezekiel gestured to a wooden crate next to the one he sat upon. “Can you sit, or does de captain got you running?”

“It’s Master Khan,” I answered, wishing I could sit. “I need to get this vine sap off my hand then help him help Pepper.”

That sobered their mood, Ezekiel giving me a shrewd look. “I tell you true, I not be grabbing dat thing for a fistful of Reales.” The others added their agreement as he said, “You keep de weather eye out when you alone, hey?”

Jade’s voice made most of them jump. “He is rarely alone, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

I gave them a wry smile and a shrug. “I’d sit for a time if I could,” I said, Ezekiel making me promise I’d do just that sometime soon before letting me move on. I reached the stairs and started up.

I lifted the hatch easily and closed it behind me as I stepped out onto the deck, the warm rain still coming down in great sheets. I walked at an angle towards the starboard side, where two crewmen were helping a pregnant African woman onto the deck while another African woman and a native one waited. Several African men stood beside them. They wore woven clothes of some native fiber, dyed in bright blues and reds, the men in loose fitting trousers while the women wore shirts and skirts. They also wore wide brimmed woven hats, which looked silly to my eyes but seemed to help keep off the rain. The women remained silent but the men bantered back and forth with the two crewmen in a friendly way...but I noticed each of the men wore a long knife at his side.

Once the pregnant woman was standing on the deck another African man came up behind her, and the entire group walked together towards the crew’s hold. I gave them a wide berth and sloshed over to where the two men stood. Both were dressed in trousers and no shirt, though both carried a cutlass and a long knife at their hip. “Hoy, Tomas,” the shorter one, a stocky man with a beard like a thicket and black hair, called out. “Have you come to relieve us?” I shook my head and explained what had happened, ending with needing to wash my hand in the sea. When I finished he shook his head. “If that don’t beat all. The bloody sodomites put on a mummer’s show in the hold and we’re walking the deck like a pair of drowned rats. Life bloody well ain’t fair!”

The tall one, only a few years older than I was and clean shaven with a lean frame, only snorted. “The life of a free sailor is one long fair, filled with mummer shows now that yon Tomas is safely among us. You’ll see more than your fair share, I promise you.”

The shorter one looked up at him with a sour expression. “Just so I ain’t dancing the hempen jig at the end o’ the day.”

“Ah, go on with you, worrying about being hung.” The tall man grinned. “We’re far more likely to be hacked to death or blown apart into tiny pieces.”

“Oh, you’re a bloody comfort.” The shorter man hooked a thumb towards the side of the ship. “Go soak your hand in the sea, lad; it’s only waist deep.”

“That shallow?” I said.

The taller man answered. “The captain beached the Davy so the natives would have an easier time getting aboard, since he knows Jade will push us off when we need to leave, thanks to you.” Suddenly, he stuck out a wet hand. “Thomas Tew, at your service.”

I shook it with a firm grip as the shorter man said, “And I’m Black-leg Bart.”

“He’s been called that ever since the quartermaster on our old ship told him to ‘show a leg’, since we were in port and had women aboard sharing our hammocks, and he exposed the nastiest limb the man had ever seen. He yelled, ‘Bart, get those black legs of yours moving’, and he’s been called that ever since.”

“They ain’t black no more after this downpour,” Bart grumbled. “I swear Master Walters saw the rain coming and stuck me out here deliberately, the blind drunk pisspot.”

“It has improved your smell,” Thomas said cheerfully. “Come, let’s walk the ship. The watch will go faster, I promise you.”

“With my luck the bloody Draco Dominus is taking advantage of the weather to sneak up on us and cut our throats.”

“Why then the watch will go faster still.” Black-leg Bart gave him a sour look and stomped off along the side towards the bow, Thomas giving me a grin before joining him.

I climbed over the side one-handed and down the rope net, as it turned out to be, until I reached the ocean. The waves were choppy as the rain continued to fall, and I kept one bare foot wrapped around the rope as I washed my left hand in the salt water. To my surprise the sap turn brittle, crumbling away quickly as I rubbed my hands together until it was clean again.

Once I had every speck off, I took a good look at the island. A strip of white sand was only a short distance away, with vegetation beyond it, but it might as well have been an ocean away for all the good it did me. I wanted nothing more than to wade ashore, find a friendly village where I could hail a passing merchant ship, and work my passage to some distant port where I could take up a normal life again. I understood how the Blackjack Davy had meant freedom for Jeremiah and the other Africans, as well as other sailors, who were badly mistreated from the stories I’d heard, but their freedom had become my slavery. For a wild moment I wanted nothing more than to swim ashore and regain the freedom I’d felt for a few, heady days aboard the Dutch Flyte.

But all I did was stand in the rain and sigh. Unlike the oaths of men, a Dragon’s oath cannot be set aside until the conditions ending it are met... which was, of course, why the captain had insisted I swear one. Besides, Jeremiah was here, and having found my truest friend I was loathe abandoning him again...and then there was Pepper. She’d been thrust upon me, in a sense, but instead of disliking her I realized in that moment I’d be remaining on the Davy even if I hadn’t been Dragon-sworn.

Next to my ear, Jade’s voice said, “You do realize you would only be free for a day at most, do you not?”

“Probably less,” I admitted. “But I’m not looking forward to what’s ahead of me as the captain’s apprentice.”

“It will not last forever,” Jade said in a voice gentle as a warm breeze. “One way or another, your time of servitude will come to an end and you will become your own man.”

“But I won’t be the same person I am now.”

“No,” Jade admitted, “you will not. But the boy you are now cannot survive what I fear is coming.”

Unease crept back into my belly. “What’re you talking about?”

Jade spoke in the tone of voice Belle-M’ere had used when I wasn’t getting whatever she was trying to teach me. “Tomas, the Shadowmen are recruiting. They have never done so, not in all the time I remember...and my memories go back to the time I and all of my sisters died.”

I realized how far back she was talking about. “You mean you’ve never lost a fight since the times of the ancient Dragons, what, a couple thousand years ago?”

“Far longer than that, I fear.” A feeling of awe came upon me as I listened to her continue speaking in a matter-of-fact tone. “Shadowmen have come and gone over the centuries, created at the whim of Olde Roger for his amusement and naught for any other purpose...but now something has changed. Shadowmen never turn down a fight; the very idea is completely against their nature, which is to give battle until they or their enemy is dead. Nor do they press-gang men into joining their ranks. They will take unwilling fighters who impress them by their skills, like your friend Mr. Bierson did aboard the Dutch Flyte, but not men who cower down below.”

“Like Seth, the one who killed my foster-mother.”

“Exactly,” Jade answered. “I have no idea what Olde Roger intends, but it will not bode well for anyone mortal and least of all for you, the son of his enemy.”

“Why did Olde Roger hate her?”

Jade was silent for a moment. “I cannot tell you the exact nature of their relationship,” she finally said, “except Olde Roger loved your true mother as deeply as he hated her. Long Mu, in turn, always spoke of Olde Roger with regret.” I pressed her for details and Jade’s voice grew sharp. “You do not need me to tell you of times past but to help you survive what is to come. Should the past be relevant to the task at hand,” her voice returning to normal, “I will tell you; I do promise you that.”

I nodded, and suddenly shivered in the rain. “If I’m going to remain on the Davy I might as well make myself useful.” I started up the rope net as my stomach rumbled. “I wonder if the Admiral will stand me another bowl of porridge with...”

Jade suddenly hissed in my ear, “Tomas, the man with bronze manacles on his ankles is crouched beside the deck rail with a boarding axe in his hand.”

My pulse quickened, although with Jade close to hand I wasn’t really worried...much. I asked her in a whisper, “Can you tell his intent?”

“He does not mean for you to have a long life,” she whispered back in a voice tart as a green lemon. “I will fetch you a cutlass, and distract him when he tries to attack you, so you can kill him.”

I was horrified. “Jade’, I whispered, “You can’t be serious.”

“I am deadly serious. If you do not kill him now I foresee the chance of him making trouble for you in the future, and I would prevent that occurrence if I could.”

I shook my head. “That means there’s a chance he won’t, either.” Jade admitted that was true as an idea struck me. “I’ve got a better way to distract him.” I whispered what I wanted, and Jade agreed, sounding both resigned and amused at the same time. I silently climbed up the rope net until I was a few feet from the deck rail and stopped, listening to the beating of the rain on the deck as I shivered again, hoping Terence wouldn’t get impatient and lean over the side to see where I was.

But then I heard the sound I’d been waiting for: the click-click-click of Artifact paws as they ran across the deck, with either Tiger or Star animating the little golem. I moved a couple feet from the rail as I heard Terence hiss, “Go away, dog! I don’t want to play with you.”

Putting my foot on the lip of the deck where it met the rail, I leaped over the deck rail...and landed in a heap as my foot slipped and I went down. But I recovered at once, rising to my feet as Terence, who’d been shooing away the small black Artifact dog-golem, whirled around with the boarding axe in his hand. I went into a defensive stance but he only gaped at me, so I pointed at his weapon. “If you stand out here much longer your axe will get rusty.”

Terence cringed, and I relaxed a hair as his voice became defensive. “I was just collecting gear that had been left out in the rain, that’s all.” I nodded as I kept a wary eye on him as I moved towards the crew’s hatch. But I stopped as he spoke again. “You’ve got enemies on this ship, you know that?”

I turned towards Terence, who had the axe tightly gripped in his hand. “Why would I have enemies? I’ve not been aboard the Davy long enough to offend anyone.”

He glared at me. “You’re taking Pepper away from us, no matter how the captain tells the tale.” His voice became indignant. “And you don’t even love her; you admitted it to the Buccan.”

“I said I like her a lot,” I shot back, my temper flaring as I added, “And I suppose you do?” Forlorn hope flared across his face and I gave him an incredulous look. “You can’t be serious. Bloody bones, you tried to rape her!”

“It wasn’t rape,” he snarled, oblivious to the two shapes moving through the rain towards him as he took a step closer to me. “All I intended was a rough wooing, so Pepper would know she belongs to me.”

“She’s my betrothed,” I almost yelled, my temper getting the better of my wits as I took a step towards him in turn. “Pepper belongs to me if she belongs to anyone.”

Terence’s voice became eerily calm. “Not if you’re dead. It’s nothing personal, but today I realized Pepper won’t ever come to her senses while you’re alive, so I have to kill you. I’ll throw your body over the side for the sharks to eat, and no one will suspect me. Then I’ll take Pepper away, a village maybe, where she can be safe and we can live together in wedded bliss.” He hefted the axe. “I’m sorry, Tomas, I really am. But Pepper belongs to me.”

Suddenly a stubby hand yanked his head back as the other shoved a dagger against his throat. “You were right,” Black-leg Bart said as Terence went still as only the truly terrified can do. “We will get to see mummer shows while the lad’s around.”

“More like a mummer’s farce,” Thomas Tew answered, taking the boarding axe out of Terence’s unresisting hand. “You truly didn’t think you could get away with this, did you?”

“I wasn’t going to hurt him,” Terence babbled, his eyes wide as tidal pools. “I just wanted to scare him a bit, that’s all.”

Jade’s voice came from beside me. “And you expected I would just sit idly by while my Dragon was killed? Human love is madness.”

“Sweet madness, thy name is love,” Thomas said, “although I think love has naught to do with this morning’s activities. Jade, my thanks for letting us know what was amiss.”

“What will happen to him?” I asked as I began shivering in earnest.

“That’s for the quartermaster and me to decide,” Captain Hawkins said from the direction of the crew’s hatch, Pepper beside him wearing one of Master Khan’s grey robes, and I realized Jade must’ve told them as well. “Bring him down below.” He opened the hatch, letting Pepper precede him then moving down the stairs into the hold as Thomas Tew and Black-leg Bart each took hold of Terence and marched him towards the hold.