Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (46 page)

The ship was too far away for me to yell so I waved, and Redbeard took his great double-bladed axe and waved back, Jeremiah brandishing his cutlass at the retreating ship in frustration. Tommy came to the deck rail where I stood and said in an oddly sympathetic voice, “All of you are still clinging to the old myth.”

My gaze was on the pier, where Pepper had gone to the edge and stopped. “It’s the only hope I have left.”

“A false hope, as you’ll soon see...”

Suddenly I heard a sharp cracking sound coming from the direction of the building, and a moment later screams and the sound of gunfire. The men whirled, and I saw Captain Hawkins lead the others back towards the doorway, Maria speaking in Pepper’s ear before trying to pull her away from the pier. But Pepper shook Maria off, who seemed to call to Panther, the two women grabbing hold of Pepper’s arms. “Go,” I said aloud as she tried to remain where she was. “Go with the others and be safe. I’ll come back to you...if I can,” I added as I felt the familiar twinge. From the direction of the building drifted the sound of more screams and gunfire and Pepper finally let the other two women drag her away. A moment later the shore was empty.

The Shadowman at the tiller turned the ship away from part of the island jutting out into the ocean ahead of us, and as the sloop sailed around it, a strong breeze sprang up in the direction the Black Rose was going. Tommy had me pull back the air-golems but kept them holding onto ropes, their tails fluttering like flags in the wind as the Shadowmen tightened the sails. Tommy put a cold hand on my shoulder. “Let’s get you settled into your new quarters down below,” he said, steering me towards the main hatch, where a makeshift set of stairs led down.

The hold stunk like a charnel house. I gagged as we reached the lower deck, Tommy glancing at me with a smile as I looked around. The hold reminded me of the Dutch Flyte’s, a large open area with dragon-globes hanging from the ceiling in their rope baskets, providing light. But that’s where the resemblance ended, for instead of holding cargo, the hold aft of the stairs seemed set up for the Shadowmen’s leisure. A round wooden table held hand painted playing cards, set face down as if a game had been just interrupted, while a square table held a carved ivory chess set and a larger, rectangular table had a finely drawn map of the Olde World with delicate toy soldiers set up as if representing armies. There was also a man-sized wooden rack set upright in the shape of an X, with gore encrusted manacles and dark stains soaked into the wood.

Strewn about the hold were discarded items, like a green dress, torn and blood stained, and a child’s wooden sword. Staring at it I felt a different kind of fear. “Bloody bones...do you have children aboard?”

“Not anymore,” Tommy turning towards the forward part of the hold. “The holding pens are this way, but we’re only passing through them. I’ve got a much nicer cabin reserved for you.”

The light was less in the forward part, illuminated by an occasional flickering dragon-globe in their rope baskets, just giving out enough light to see by. On either side of a makeshift passage running up the center of the ship were stalls like the kind horses were kept in, with a manacle and an iron chain attached to one of the support posts. All of the pens were empty except for one, but as we reached it I saw it held a large man in brown robes and I immediately stopped. “Brother Tristan?”

I hadn’t given the monk a moment’s thought since I’d pulled the Black Strangler vine out of Andre, but the monk had obviously been thinking of me as he moved forward as much as his chain would allow. “Blessed be the Lord who answers the prayers of the unworthy,” he said with eyes wide and pleading. His sour smell was worse and his face was bruised, with one eye swollen shut, and I lost my fear to pity as he clung to my hand “I was travelling up the grey-stone road, hoping to minister to the poor souls of Freehold when the Shadowmen caught me, to be sure.”

“He was spying on us...to be sure,” Tommy added with a mocking laugh. “Draco Dominus likes to know what the Shadowmen are up to and whether there’s something worth attacking...or worth having,” he added as Brother Tristan let go of my hand and cowered, moving farther back into his pen. “When we caught him, the poor brother released all of his bird golems, used to relay news back to their fortress on the island of Jamaica.”

“He could’ve been giving news to the head of his order,” I protested, “or perhaps Draco Magistris.”

“He could have...but he wasn’t, were you?” Brother Tristan lowered his head as if he didn’t wish to meet my gaze as Tommy went on. “A Dark Sister can sense the truth when she’s got her claws into a human as well as any dragon-ghost, and it didn’t take long before Brother Tristan told us everything he knows.” His next words chilled me. “Draco Dominus knows... well, knew, you’re on Big Bluff, and that you’re a lot more unusual than they’d thought. Sebastian would’ve sent a warship after you, but it seems he’s having problems with the succession.”

“Montejo was well liked,” Brother Tristan said quietly.

The Shadowman made a casual gesture with his hands as if it didn’t matter. “In any event, Sebastian wanted to know if the renegades of Freehold posed any threat to the base the Draco Dominus wishes to someday build here, so he sent the poor brother off to spy on us.” He stepped into the pen and patted Brother Tristan on his pudgy cheek. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to torture you for sport. Instead, when we reach the Carolina coast we’ll have a ‘fare thee well New World’ feast, with you as our meat and mead, so to speak.” Brother Tristan shrank back from him, the Shadowman chuckling as he pulled me back into the corridor and we continued onward.

We reached the first class cabins, two in all, the one on the right given to the three women who’d given Maria and Panther their gifts of gold. They were laying together on several blankets stretched out on the floor, the scent of rum strong as they snored and the wooden cups at their sides rolling back and forth with the motion of the ship. “We find feeding them bumbo mixed with opium makes them more compliant,” Tommy remarked as he motioned towards the cabin on the left. “That one’s yours.”

I opened the door. The cabin had been designed for the ship’s most important passenger, with a real bed and not a fold away against the forward wall, a small writing desk, and a privy against the port side of the ship. There was also an open porthole letting in clean sea air. Tommy motioned towards the desk, where two bottles sat, one leather and coated with wax, the other an unopened wine bottle. “The first is water to wet your whistle, and the second claret to drown it. Are you hungry?” I shook my head and his voice grew sharp. “If you think to starve yourself, we can shove porridge down your gullet.”

I shook my head again. “I don’t think I’d keep anything down if I tried.”

Tommy smiled. “Understandable, considering you thought you’d be back safe and sound on the Davy by now. I tell you what: I’ll see the crew leaves you alone for a while, so you can begin to accept what’s happened. There’s a safe harbor just up ahead, away from the habitations of men, where we’re going to put in. There’s to be a ship’s meeting, to plan out just how we’re going to make it back to the Olde World, and since you don’t get a say-so where we go, there’s no reason for you to attend.” He motioned towards the cabin door. “Once you’ve accepted your fate this door will remain open, but for now it will remain locked.” He started towards the door then stopped with his hand on the knob. “Oh, one more thing. When Pepper and I were part of Scab’s crew, this cabin was hers.” He nodded at my surprised look and shut the door behind him. A moment later I heard a rattle, like a bar was being placed across the door, and then the Shadowman’s footsteps walking away.

For a moment fear rose up inside me worse than it ever had, tightening my chest until I found it hard to breathe, like dreaming a nightmare you couldn’t wake from, no matter how you tried. But then it was like Alfonzo was speaking in my ear again, saying, ‘Courage, Tomas. The times are never as dark as they seem’.

“They’re not as dark as they seem,” I said aloud in agreement. “I’m going to find a way off this ship, and the monk as well...if I can,” I added, feeling the twinge. He may have been a spy but he was human as well, and not a pig for the Shadowmen to gorge themselves on.

“There is a way off the Black Rose,” a familiar voice said in my ear, “and we are going to find it.”

“Jade!”

“Did you think I would abandon you so easily?”

“But what about the others? Pepper and Jeremiah, and...”

“They are fine,” she said, clearly amused. “It was wise of you to give control to the captain, else I would have abandoned them to their fate. As it was, I killed or frightened off the villagers, allowing the rest of your party to escape...excepting the man known as Whistling John, of course. Once they were free of the village, Captain Hawkins had me leave the golem at the entrance to discourage any pursuit, and find you. I will bring the dragon-golem back to the Blackjack Davy, but not until I know I can leave you for a time.”

“Leave me...we should leave right now. Take what you need for strength, form an air-golem and get us out of here.”

“I cannot until you are stronger.”

I blinked. “But I feel fine.”

“But I am not. Tomas, all of the older sisters always keep a small reserve of strength we never use, in part to show we have no wish to fight, but also so we can control our hunger. Right now I am empty inside, and if I draw from you I may draw far too deep for you to survive.”

I exhaled sharply. “Alright, if we can’t get off one way, perhaps the little ones can get me off another.”

“If I might make a suggestion, Arabella must have a plan to get you off this ship and return you to the captain. I would counsel we wait for her to make her move.”

“Can we trust her?”

“I believe we can...to a point. Arabella was once a Dragon, and certain attributes have not changed, the inability to lie being one of them.”

“What do you mean, she was once a Dragon?” I scratched my head. “I thought being a Dragon was like being born a boy or a girl: either you’re one or the other.”

“Normally you would be correct,” Jade said, her voice sounding amused again before it became serious, “but Arabella has been altered somehow. She will hold to her word but I know not what her true motives are, so I would counsel trust...with our eyes wide open. Now, if you would, move to the window, for I wish to show you something.”

I stepped over to the open porthole and looked out. The Black Rose was turning towards a small cove, and as I saw the outline of the approaching forest I also noticed the black outline of the small mountain off in the distance. Fires were burning on the very top of Big Bluff, a lot of fires, like the village itself was aflame. “Jade, what’s going on up there?”

“I know not...but whatever the villagers are doing, it is something they have never done before. But for now it is of no concern, so get some sleep and while the little ones keep watch, I will return the dragon-golem to the Blackjack Davy and come back to you as fast as I can.”

I didn’t feel sleepy, but drank some water and, at Jade’s insistence, opened the bottle of claret and had a few sips. I listened to the ship anchoring in the cove as I reclined on the bed, the little ones chattering to me about the events of the day and what they’d seen, and the normality of it all comforted me so much I began to relax. But as Star began speaking about the Dark Sister who’d taken strength from me, I frowned. “Jade, why did she react as she did?”

“Think of it this way: the Dark Sister is like a woman who will eat only bitter food biting into a piece of sugar cane. She choked on the sweetness... but now, she remembers the taste. I spoke to her after she had expelled the strength she drew from you, and told her she can come back to the light if she will be willing to serve again. Even though she is larger than all the little ones combined, she must make herself the servant of all, even Little Raven, so she might return to her true nature.

I asked, “What if she decides not to?”

“Then I will kill her. The Dark Sister remained behind, but she will return to the Black Rose when I have re-entered the dragon golem, for you will draw her on like a moth to the flame of a candle.” Jade’s sigh was like the voice of the wind on a lonely night. “For her sake I hope she gives up the bitter for the sweet, yet I fear she will not. Eldest is what Pepper named her, and she has been a Dark Sister for a very long time.”

Her words made me imagine Pepper crying herself to sleep on the very bed I was laying on now. “I don’t want to bring back any bad memories, but did Pepper leave anything behind she might want?”

“She kept a rosary under her pillow, which helped her get through the times when the prisoners were screaming and there was nothing she could do to save them. From time to time she has expressed regret at being carried off before she could retrieve it.” I had already begun groping under the pillow, my hand at once finding beads under my fingers, and I brought it out. The rosary was a cross and beads made out of brown wood, the beads strung so each was an exact distance from the ones on either side, while the cross was plain and smooth, without any adornment at all.

I had no idea what its purpose was, Belle M’ere only using hers when she was alone in her room, but knowing Pepper had once held it made it seem like she was near. It also made me think of what it must’ve been like for her, listening to people scream night after night, and not being able to do a thing to help them. “It’s not right, what they did to her. Jade, there’s got to be a way to keep them from ever hurting her again.”

Jade was silent for so long I thought she had left, my eyes drifting shut then opening wide again as she spoke in a soft voice. “The way will come for you but once. As you spoke just now I had a vision, of you holding a red flag in your hand, a flag dripping blood onto the deck of the Blackjack Davy.”

“Whose blood?”

“Your blood, Pepper’s blood, the blood of your friends...and the blood of your enemies if you choose this path. Blood will follow in your wake, blood and death, but if you truly wish to see Pepper safe then you must choose this path.”