The Voyage of the Sea Wolf (12 page)

The captain scratched under the rag that bound her hand. “We will face that at a later time. For now we must take all measures we know of to make good luck for ourselves.”

“Aye. We'll do what we can. But I fear 'twill not be enough. Not with HER on board to see to it that we do not succeed.”

The captain gave Sebastian a baleful stare then strode away along the deck, calling out orders to her crew.

Sebastian sighed heavily and sat down next to me.

I looked up at the grimness of his expression and then I glanced nervously at the sea. My heart jittered in my chest. The sun was dipping down into the ocean. How much longer before it set? The brig. The rat with red eyes below decks. I had to speak, to break this silence between us.

“Could you tell me now what is taking place?” I asked. “I heard a lot of what was said and I am mystified.”

“Cap'n would not like to have you told. I attend always to her wishes. But this time, I think it right that you should know. SHE could be a danger to ye, and ye down there in the brig. We have a witch on board. SHE came, sailing
out to us on an eggshell and climbed the rope. SHE has now taken over the body of the black rat. We feared SHE might have entered one of the crew, or you, or William. But your auras were clear. I was able to reassure Cap'n on all of the crew. I read the auras, the spirit color that rises from a body. The rat's aura was black, the color of herself, the color of HER. The color of death.”

I had stopped in the act of threading my needle to stare at him. “A witch? Coming in an eggshell?” I gave a short, nervous laugh. “Sebastian! You cannot believe such a thing.”

“I do believe, Mistress, and you should too.” I could tell my words had annoyed him so I made sure to listen with full attention.

“Witches be's the enemies of sailing vessels,” he said. “They stir up storms, cause destruction, deal out death. 'Tis their pleasure and skill.”

“You saw her come in an eggshell?” I asked, making sure to speak politely. “But how did she fit in it?”

“SHE is a witch. She can make herself any size, small enough to enter a rat. I did not see HER but I saw the empty eggshell, floating by our ship, way out here in the middle of the sea.” He shuddered. “A witch that came to the
Vengeance
, a brig my cousin sailed on, blew up a fog so bad they ran aground on a shoal and near foundered.
'Twas by good fortune they did not all drown. But they lost three men, God rest them. And they found the dead finger o' one, after, in an eggshell that floated by their ship.”

I sat, incredulous. How could this be true? I shuffled a little closer to Sebastian. “But SHE, this witch, has done nothing to the
Sea Wolf
or to the crew,” I said.

Sebastian made a sign in the air with his two fingers as if to ward off evil. “Not yet,” he said.

The sun had set. The sky was crimson where it had been.

Magruder came strutting along the deck to where I sat with the sail, pretending I had not noticed that the day was ending.

“Get up, ye strumpet!” he said. “ 'Tis sundown and you and me, we has business together.” He grabbed ahold of my arm and I twisted my wrist so the sail needle stuck into his hand.

He let go of me.

“God's blood!” he yelled, “Ye pierced me, ye she-devil!” He sucked at the puncture that was already oozing. His other hand seized a handful of my hair. “On yer feet,”
he hissed, but Sebastian was scrabbling up beside me.

“Let go o' her. I needs to leave and talk to the cap'n. Do not touch Mistress Catherine again till I get back or ye'll answer to me.”

Sebastian was gone, leaving me to rub my scalp, which was shot through with pain, leaving Magruder to suck on his hand, his hate-filled eyes fixed on me.

In a few minutes Sebastian was back.

“The girl is not to be taken to the brig. Not this night, on command o' the cap'n.”

“The cap'n said? Ye're sure about that? What changed her thinkin'? And am I to believe ye?”

“Ye doubt me word?” Sebastian glared up at Magruder. “As to what the cap'n be's thinkin', 'tis not for the likes o' ye to know. Get ye back to what ye were doin'. We've seen enough o' ye.”

Magruder went, casting malicious glances back in our direction.

“He's put out,” Sebastian said. “No doubt he had other plans for you and him on the way down to the brig.”

I stumbled to my feet. “Thank ye, Sebastian. Whatever...”

He held up a key. “I'm to lock ye in the cap'n's cabin
and gi' her back the key. Ye're to have no dinner and I'm sorry ye be's missin' out on it. Pig's liver. We always eats good on the night afore a battle.”

I took a deep breath. “I care nothing about that. How did you convince her?”

“I told her the truth. I told her the witch could get to ye down there. The witch knows right well ye be's at odds wi' the cap'n. Knows ye might be willin' to aid HER. The devil hisself would never be certain what SHE'd put ye up to.”

I did not know if his speculation was true or part of his own superstition. “Thank you,” I said again.

He nodded “We'd best go.”

I was almost glad when I heard him turn the key in the lock so I was alone in the cabin, with the brig and today's anxieties shut outside. But the anxieties lay in wait to frighten my mind.

Gummer had already lighted the lantern.

I took William Shakespeare's
As You Like It
from the bookshelf, sat in the throne chair and tried to read.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Was this truth? I could find no use for the adversity in which I found myself.

I read on. Always I could lose myself in reading, but tonight was different. The words made little sense.

I closed the book and put it back in its place.

I needed my flute.

Softly I played, the sweetness of the notes rising around me, easing my heart. The song my mother had loved best. I had so many memories. The way we'd walk together on the beach, gathering the shells and pebbles as we went. Her excitement when she found a sand dollar. “Look, Catherine, a little sea creature once lived in this ivory palace.” How long ago it seemed since we'd walked together. How long since I'd played for her. How far away her resting place on Cobb Hill. Tears choked my throat.

Around me the timbers creaked. Through the porthole I could see a dark flurry of sky.

I did not know how much time passed before I roused myself.

I used the commode, unable to go tonight to the stern. I washed in the basin Gummer had left filled with fresh water for the captain and squirmed into my hammock. Sleep was far from me.

Where was William?

When I heard his voice, soft outside, I thought I was imagining it.

“Catherine? I'm here me love.”

I rushed to the locked door.” William! I cannot believe it is you! If only I hadn't acted so foolishly, going to you. I am thankful that she is not punishing you, though I know she never would.”

There was a silence. Then I asked. “Do you know what else she has in mind for me?”

“She will do nothin' till we have engaged with the
Isabella
. That is uppermost in her mind. Try to endure, me love. Think on good things. How 'twill be when this is over.”

I stood with my hand on the Celtic cross, straining to hear him, wanting with all my heart to believe.

“She is coming.” His voice was urgent. “Go from the door. Hurry.”

I did not wait a second longer but swung back into the hammock, pretending sleep.

I heard the key turn and the door swing open.

Another minute. “God's breath, wench! Ye provoke me. Ye've used me commode and sullied me washin' water.”

I did not respond. Wasn't I asleep?

I heard her perform her rituals and the screak of her bed.

We lay together in a cabin of silence. Outside the sea slid quietly past the
Sea Wolf
while the sails caught what night wind they could, and the stars circled above. We lay awake while the lookout, awake too and alert, watched for obstacles in the sea or for a first happy sighting of the
Isabella
. While down below, skulking in some dark corner if I believed Sebastian, the black rat of death waited.

The captain sighed and turned heavily in her bunk. She got up after some time, went to the door to touch the cross and spoke. “Protect me, protect me ship, protect me men.” There was a pause and then she whispered, “Protect William.” She crossed the cabin and slid again below her blanket. Sebastian's warning must be troubling her mind, I thought, though she had tried to dismiss it.

I coughed. “Captain?”

She did not acknowledge me.

“Captain, I know you are awake. I am sorry to interrupt your thinking but I beg leave to speak of something of great importance.”

“You have naught of import to say to me.”

I formed the words I would say.

“I have a jewel,” I hurried on before she could stop me. “It is called the Burmese Sunrise.”

I sensed an attentiveness, a listening. Had the captain heard of the Burmese Sunrise? Did she know its value?

“It is in my possession, hidden in a place no one knows but me.” William also knew, but that I would not reveal. “It is worth more than any one jewel you will find on the
Isabella
,” I went on, “though I know there will be other treasures awaiting on you aboard the ship. The Burmese Sunrise is a ruby, big as a lark's egg, filled with fire enough to hurt your eyes and the diamonds that border it blaze brighter than the Milky Way. I was told it once belonged to an Indian sultan before it was gifted to my father by a grateful captain whose life he spared.”

I waited anxiously for her to speak but she did not.

“I swear to you that on the soul of my dead mother and the honor of my dear, dead father I shall give it to you if you do not put me in the brig and if you return William and me, together and unharmed, to Port Teresa. I know you have promised safe voyage to me, but it would mean little to me if he were not with me.”

“Silence!” The word was loud and vicious as a pistol shot. “Ye dare to bargain wi' me, ye miserable besom? If I want to discover the whereabouts of yer precious jewel ye can lay to it I could find it. Me and me crew have ways of persuadin' prisoners to talk. Ye would be drawin' us a map to help us locate it before we're finished wi' you. Ye do not know the value of the jewels on the
Isabella
. There's no reason I cannot have your jewel and the
Isabella
's too.
Ye will lead me to it. And William? He will stay wi' me.

She said that with so much confidence that I lay with my fists clenched, fighting off the rush of hopelessness. I remembered her admiration of Queen Medb. “They would not give her what she wanted and she went to war to get it. I would.” She had spoken surely. She spoke surely now. She wanted William and she would have him, whatever the consequences.

“Captain?”

“What is it, girl?”

“I know it troubles you that you cannot read....”

“I could if I wanted to. Why should I when I have others to read to me?”

“To be skilled at reading would be useful to you. I could teach you. Tonight I read from William Shakespeare and the words were so beautiful. In return for my lessons, with your good grace, you could allow...”

“Cod's breath, girl! One more word and I'll thrash ye right now.”

I bit my lip, tasting blood.

I had played the only two cards I had and I had lost.

Perhaps I slept. My dreams woke me more than once,
dreams of the rat and the witch and islands, cold and barren. A dream of William, his smile, his voice. I dreamed of the time on the island when we had found love. I tried to recall the way my bones had softened when we held each other and all reality disappeared and I half-woke, filled with happiness and reluctant to come from the place my dreams had taken me.

Noise brought me fully awake.

Thumping on the cabin door, shouts, clamor on the deck above.

“We have the
Isabella
in our sights, Cap'n. Lookout spotted her, starboard.”

The captain moved fast, pulling on clothes, unlocking the door.

I made to follow her and stopped, unsure. Was I to stay locked up?

But she was rushing, the door open behind her and I hurried after her onto the deck.

“The ship be's careened on the sand, just as you said, Cap'n,” the quartermaster told her. He handed her the spyglass.

“Still careened? We are in time and in luck,” Captain Moriarity said with a sidelong glance at Sebastian.

“Indeed, Cap'n.” I did not detect much satisfaction in Sebastian's response.

There was much jostling and shoving at the starboard railings as the crew strained to see.

“Look at the sky, Cap'n,” Sebastian said.

I looked, too.

A small black cloud hung directly above us, a smoky blot in the blue.

“I do not like it,” Sebasian said. “ 'Tis not too late to sail on past the
Isabella
. I fear...”

“Ye know I believe in luck,” the captain said. “I believe in you. But I believe in meself too. That sky darkness be's only the remains of a storm cloud, blowed from somewhere. We will pay it no account.”

I saw the glitter in her eyes, the frenzy. There was a pirate's greed in those eyes and the anticipation of a fight. There was also a hesitation. She was unsure. But to have this treasure within her grasp and to let go of it? I saw her jaw tighten.

“There are the other portents, and the black rat to deliberate on,” Sebastian warned.

“I will hear no more.” She examined the
Isabella
as the
Sea Wolf
sailed closer and still closer.