Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (33 page)

The wind shifted and my stomach gave a rumble as the delicious scent of smoking fish wafted over us. From behind me, Pepper said in mock-horror, “Pray tell me you aren’t hungry again?”

“I’m just regaining my strength,” I said with as much seriousness as I could muster. Pepper only giggled, while Captain Hawkins gave me a look that made me bade my stomach to settle itself down.

I began noticing sounds as we approached: the shriek of children chasing each other, weaving around the men calling to each other or to Isaac as they brought up nets full of fish from their dugout canoes, or to the circle of women laughing as they danced, Africans all, dancing to the rhythm of the men beating on wooden drums. I heard a pipe and saw one of the crew among the drummers, brown haired and lean with a gold hoop in his ear flashing in the sun, weaving out a tune on a flute-like instrument in time to the beat set by the drummers. Several of the women saw Pepper and waved, calling for her to come join them. Pepper turned to me with a torn expression. “I’ll stay with you if you wish.”

Glancing at the women, who’d all stopped their dancing to call to her, I shook my head. “We’ll meet back up later.”

Pepper pulled my head down to whisper in my ear, “We shall do our own dancing soon enough.” Then she kissed me. Our tongues touched with the taste of mint and wild orange in my mouth...and then she was gone, pelting up the beach to join the women who’d begun dancing again. She joined their circle, her pale skin and man’s fancy shirt with her blue trousers ending just below the knee in sharp contrast to their colorful dresses and dark skin like sun kissed chocolate. But she matched their moves in perfect harmony like she’d danced their way a hundred times before, their arms swinging together in time as their feet pounded the sand in a complex rhythm, white teeth laughing as Pepper’s red-haired braid bounced in time behind her. I lost the thread of something Isaac was saying as I drank in the sight of her, like parched ground in a gentle rain.

Jeremiah snapped his fingers in front of my eyes. I gave a start, looking at my friend in confusion as he shook his head. “Pray forgive Tomas, for I fear the sun’s gone and addled his wits.”

“Leave the boyo alone,” Redbeard said with a chuckle. “I be thinking it’s endearing.”

Jeremiah gave him a snort as Isaac grinned. “First time in love?” I gave him an embarrassed shrug and he slapped me on the shoulder with a meaty hand. “I remember my first girl. She had hips wide enough to hold onto and a bosom I could bury my face in.” He looked at the captain. “Who was your first, Harry?”

Captain Hawkins arched his eyebrows. “My cannons, Isaac?” The headman heaved another great sigh and led us onward.

Beyond the fire pit I saw where blocks of white stone had been set in the sand with carved, wooden cannons placed upon them, each cannon set several feet apart from the ones next to it. Edward the woodworker had gone on ahead and was now fussing over the guns while Claude and Mr. Smith watched. The two noticed us and walked over, Mr. Smith saying in his deep rumble, “All’s in readiness.”

Captain Hawkins asked, “Which are mine and which are Haven’s?”

“The five on ze left belong to us,” Claude answered, “as do two of those on ze right...if you agree to a change of plans.”

Captain Hawkins raised his eyebrows, but only said, “I’m listening.”

Mr. Smith’s deep voice rumbled, “We take the two and transmute them at our leisure while Jade takes her remaining strength and transmutes the Artifact weapons Edward has started on, and will have finished in a few days.”

Captain Hawkins growled, “The longer we sit here the easier it is for our enemies to hunt us down.”

“We need the edge those weapons will give us,” Mr. Smith argued. “Isaac wants our old weapons as a defense in case the natives attack and the French sharpshooters would give their eyeteeth for new muskets. We also need to run gun drills, since the crew’s out of practice and needs to be retrained.” He glanced at the Frenchman then back at Captain Hawkins. “This morning Claude and I had a frank discussion and he’s with us...at least as long as you remain captain.”

“I want what my cousin Jean wants,” Claude said quietly, “but not his way. There is a road back to our place in ze court of ze duke of Anjou, but I would not take it at ze expense of ze man who gave us shelter.”

“But if it comes to that,” Captain Hawkins said, “which road would you choose?”

“Blood is thicker than claret,” Claude answered. “But until that day comes I will train your men in how to fire an Artifact cannon and train your apprentice in how to use a longsword with both hands.” At my surprised look he smiled. “Jean is ze master at using a weapon in either hand, but if you truly wish to use ze captain’s white sword someday then I must teach you.” He gave the captain a slight bow. “If you will excuse me, Mon captain, I will take stock of our weapons one last time.” Claude turned and walked back over to Edward, who was running a hand down one of the gun barrels and muttering.

“Were that he was in command,” Captain Hawkins said, “and not his cousin.”

“Things could be worse,” Mr. Smith replied. “Jean could be the Mulatto, in which case we would already have a rebellion on our hands.”

The Mulatto’s name triggered a memory, and I said, “Sir, the Mulatto asked me to tell you something in private, and I’m not sure if I should wait.”

“Say on, Tomas,” Captain Hawkins replied, looking at the others. “These are all trusted men, including Isaac.”

The headman looked as if he didn’t wish to be included. “Harry, I can leave if you want. I don’t...”

“Stay,” Captain Hawkins said, interrupting him, “so I will still know you to be a...trusted friend.” Isaac unhappily nodded and the captain looked at me.

I took a deep breath. “He took me aside, out of earshot of his men, and told me to make Artifact weapons so we can start taking on ships of the Shadowmen.” Captain Hawkins gave me a sharp look and I nodded. “He said when we reach Tortuga he will find us men desperate enough to go after them and enlist those men to your ship. The Mulatto wants gold, sir, enough gold to live out the rest of his life in the better parts of London with Selene on his arm, and no one daring to tell him no.”

“A curious notion,” Captain Hawkins replied, “considering he would’ve already raped her and cut her throat had he been the captain.” Captain Hawkins looked between Mr. Smith and Redbeard before turning his gaze on me. “Still, I understand him better than I did, and I have you to thank. I shall see you’re rewarded. So, gentlemen,” the captain turning towards the others, “it appears we are going to remain here for a few days. Jade, are you with us?”

“I am always close to Tomas,” Jade’s voice said from beside me.

“Then we will conserve your strength until the day prior to our departure, whereupon you shall transmute the weapons this woodworker creates into Artifacts, excepting the cannon you transmute for us today.”

“I will do so on Tomas’s command,” Jade said.

“It’s what I want you to do,” I said quickly.

Captain Hawkins gave me a sardonic smile. “Tomas, have Jade make me some cannons.”

I nodded, walking towards the ten wooden cannons resting on stone blocks in ordered rows. “Jade,” I whispered, “I’ve never had one of your sisters transmute anything larger than a breadbox.”

“The method remains the same,” Jade whispered back. “You direct me to the piece you want transmuted, tell me to prepare myself, and then tell me to execute the order...one, two, three.” Her voice became amused. “It sounds much more impressive if you count down in Latin.”

I stepped in front of the first cannon, the surf pounding the sand to my right as I spoke to the two men arguing over it. “Claude, are we ready?”

“We most certainly are not,” Edward said. “There’s an imperfection in the wood...”

“All wood has imperfections,” Claude said in obvious exasperation. “That is why we have ze gun crews hide behind Artifact shields when ze cannon goes, off...except for ze striker, of course.”

Edward would’ve continued arguing, but Claude made him march off to where the captain and the others stood as I looked down at the gun. The cannon was carved as one smooth piece with a seashell carved into the top next to the hole where the Artifact pin would be inserted, the opening large enough for my thumb to fit into easily. The cannon was only a yard and a half long, its width wide enough for a small cannonball, but it looked solid. “There is an imperfection,” Jade acknowledged, “but it will make little difference. All Artifact cannons burst eventually.”

I put my hands on the smooth wooden barrel of the cannon. “In that case, Jade...Primus.”

“Primus acknowledged.”

“Jade...Secundus, if you please.”

Transmutation was one of the rare times a Dragon got to see how big his dragon-ghost really was. You couldn’t see a dragon-ghost directly, of course, but as Jade began to prepare herself the air around her began to shimmer. I gasped. I knew she was large, but the shimmer hovered around a lizard-like body greater in size than any animal I’d ever heard of, in height and breadth three or four times the size of a man. Then she opened her wings. I gasped again as the shimmering air extended farther and farther still to either side, and I knew that, had she still been alive, her wings could have blocked out the sun from my sight. From the shimmering head with its curled horn, Jade’s voice said, “Secundus, Tomas.”

I had to swallow twice before I could speak. “Then Tertius, Jade,” and I removed my hands from the cannon.

Jade reared back and hurtled a ball of black fire that struck the wooden cannon at its mid-section, the shimmering air around her vanishing as the wood began making a crackling sound where the black fire struck it. The wood began to transmute, blackness spreading as black flames began moving down both sides of the cannon faster than normal fire would’ve spread, the crackling becoming a grinding sound as the black fire reached both ends of the cannon...and went out.

In place of a the wooden cannon like the ones around it, an Artifact cannon now rested, shiny black with a barrel that pealed like a bell when I rapped it with my knuckles. From the empty air in front of me, Jade’s voice said, “Tertius is completed. Shall we move on?”

By the time we’d finished the seven cannons we’d attracted an audience of the entire village and all of the crew who were ashore. We’d also attracted the attention of someone else. Captain Hawkins was standing with Mr. Smith, Jeremiah, and Claude, while Pepper was speaking to one of the native children, who’d run up to her out of breath. Whatever she said to Pepper made her kiss the child’s forehead then hurry over to the captain to speak to him in a low voice. I was waiting by the eighth cannon in case the deal changed again when Captain Hawkins made an urgent gesture for me to join him, so I pelted over at once, coming to a halt next to Jeremiah as the villagers frantically got out of someone’s way as their group reached the edge of the crowd.

There were six of them, all natives, five men in their early twenty’s wearing deerskin clothes much in the same style as the Buccan, with long knives at their belts but no other weapons. The sixth was an older man wearing black goat skins sewn together that covered him down to the fingers of his hands and the top of his feet, and upon his head a goat’s head the same color, with white horns curved like wicked hooks. “Don’t call him ‘Black Goat’,” Jeremiah whispered in my ear, “he hates that name. Call him ‘Shaper’ if you have to speak with him at all.”

I nodded, saying in a low voice, “He’s dressed exactly like Olde Bone Woman’s son and his shape-changers.”

The others gave me looks from surprised to speculative except the captain, who merely glanced at me then back to the native men, whose attention had turned to Isaac, walking towards them with a concerned look on his face. “Shaper, I wasn’t expecting you until tonight.”

The Black Goat spoke in a voice rough and raw. “I wished to see this for myself. So...friend Isaac...are you and your old friend planning to conquer our island?”

Captain Hawkins spoke before Isaac could answer. “Does the island have wealth? Gold, silver, precious gems?” The Black Goat stared at him impassively and the captain said, “No? Then why should I bother? Most of these weapons are going to be loaded on the Blackjack Davy so that I may take prizes that will give me and my crew those things, and the few remaining will be left with Isaac, so Haven may defend themselves from evil men...like pirates,” he added with a smile.

“Shaper,” Isaac said carefully, “there are rumors about that you plan on conquering the island yourself. Or else why have you begun associating with Shadowmen?”

“For long years my ancestors kept faith with the ancient Dragons,” the Black Goat said after a moment, “but in time they forgot the old ways and became a simple folk. When your people and the white-skinned sailors pushed us back onto the hill, we rediscovered what our ancient ancestors once knew. Now the Shadowmen have come to help us bring back the ancient days once again.”

Isaac spoke to the Black Goat in a way one might speak to a person raving with a fever. “I’m not sure I understand you, Shaper. We’re not your enemies; indeed, we’ve gone out of our way to maintain good relations between our peoples.” He glanced over to where several African villagers were bringing a struggling Terence, who had a rag stuffed in his mouth the man was desperately trying to spit out, and back to the native shaman. “You asked us for a prisoner and we’ve provided you one.”