by Simon Archer
My siren definitely had not been able to do this before she recovered her comb. I was impressed and a little pensive. Ligeia was a powerful creature, able to do many impressive things even with a portion of her abilities lost to her. Now that she had them back, would she remain part of my crew? Would she stay with me?
So far, I had no reason to question, but at this moment experiencing a hint of the increased range of talents the recovery of her divided soul had given her, I couldn’t help but wonder a bit. I also couldn’t help but realize that I cared for both of these women far more than I cared to admit.
Hells, I’d fallen in love with them.
36
Tiny and The Wasp blocked the entry to the cove where The Witch’s Promise rode at anchor. I made sure that the sloop was angled broadside towards the galleon, but just outside of cannon range, and just to be sure, we fired a couple of shots to get their attention.
Sure enough, it worked. A couple of return shots splashed shy of us, then silence, although the men on deck were very attentive. That was when the Dragon Turtle made his appearance, surfacing between the ships and blowing his steaming breath into the cove and over The Witch’s Promise before sinking back into the depths and out of sight.
I wanted Bill’s crew to be as worried as possible.
Right after Tiny did his thing, Mary, Ligeia, and I slipped over the rail on the far side of the ship and into the water. The early morning sun was peeking over the distant horizon to the east, painting the sky in rosy colors.
Once again, red skies in the morning.
As I expected, without trying to keep afloat, I sank like a stone straight to the bottom. My first breath of water was a bit unnerving as well. The first time I’d already been drowning, but this time, I was fully aware of what I did. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard to pull the water into my lungs, but I did it. The cold heaviness of it was hard to breathe, but it wasn’t too much to bear.
There was a moment of discomfort, then my feet hit the silty bottom about twelve fathoms down, and I took a moment to peer around through the dim, murky water. A gentle slope led upwards in the direction of the shore, and seagrass waved in the light current. Nearby, a large grouper eyed me curiously while upward in the distance, a silver-sheened barracuda hung still in the water.
Ligeia was the first to reach me, swooping down from above with the help her ankle fins and webbed fingers. She arched her body around with a quick kick and settled nearby with a smile, floating effortlessly in the gloom. Mary was next, and she was almost as graceful as the siren in the water. For a moment, I felt amazingly lucky to be in their company, but I only allowed myself that brief time. There was work to do, and little time to do it in.
“Let’s get on with this,” I told them, my voice strange and hollow in my ears. Ligeia’s magic apparently let us speak, too, though it was almost painful to do so. I steeled myself and started slogging my way along the seabed up the slope. It wasn’t fast going, but it would get us to shore undetected.
We passed by Tiny first, his immense form half-blocking the entire pass into the cove. One of his large eyes swiveled in its socket to regard us as we made our slow way along. He let out a low rumble of greeting to Ligeia, who darted swiftly over to caress his massive snout.
Mary shot me a smile, her hair rippling around her head and shoulders like a halo as she undulated through the water. We were lightly equipped for this adventure: I had my axe, Mary her knives, and Ligeia her claws and teeth. I didn’t see the need for powder as it would have gotten wet. Besides, if I wanted a gun, I’d just take it from one of Bill’s men.
The sea bottom dipped for a bit, and as I made my way down the slope, the silhouette of The Witch’s Promise loomed above us. Her anchor rested on the bottom, maybe thirty or so feet from where we passed. I kept going while Ligeia swam over to investigate it, circled the heavy iron a few times, then darted back. Eventually, the bottom began a steeper rise, and sea bottom vegetation grew heavier.
Finally, we reached the shallows, and I shifted my stance so that my head stayed below the water’s surface until the last possible moment when we had to slide up the narrow shore and into the woods. We stayed low until we reached the shore with the hope that Bill’s crew would have their full attention on The Wasp. I was certain that the cannon fire had alerted the shore crew and Bill himself, so there might be surprises waiting for us as we tracked him.
I rather hoped there were.
We crept from the edge of the water and slipped into the thick undergrowth with me in the lead. No shouts or shots followed, which meant that Tiny and The Wasp had done their jobs perfectly. I was no woodsman, but my skills in hunting and tracking were better than the nonexistent ones of most pirates. Witches, though, also had a general talent with naturalist pursuits, and Mary was probably my equal.
She walked behind me, her bare feet making no sound on the leaves and her wet clothes bound tight against her skin. I made slightly more noise, just by dint of my size and weight. Ligeia, though, was as much a ghost on land as she was in the water. She flitted from tree to tree like a silent shadow, impressing me with her talent.
The woods beyond the scrub and bramble-lined shore were old growth, consisting of oaks and evergreens, with a thick canopy that kept scrub from growing on the ground beneath. Birds and squirrels were active in the trees, but it was too cold for insects, which was something I was thankful for.
It wasn’t long before we found the trail leading from the two beached dinghies. Our prey was moving fast and had abandoned stealth in favor of speed, which made their tracks plain and easy to follow. This made me even more certain that Bill didn’t intend to do anything more than retrieve his booty.
I picked up the pace a bit but stayed alert. We didn’t want to spring any traps or ambushes that the pirate king might have left in his wake.
It was a good thing, too. I noticed a point where the group left the beaten path to sidle past a section of the path. I prodded it with my axe and watched the ground collapse into a shallow pit filled with sharpened stakes that I’d almost fallen into.
“They certainly mean business,” Mary whispered.
“More come,” Ligeia hissed, just before a musket shot cracked in the quiet of the morning, splintering the bark of a tree near Mary’s head. I pulled her down into the bushes with a curse, and we both scrambled for cover. The siren vanished into the bushes and was gone while I risked raising my head to look for our assailant.
“Do ye see them?” I asked my witch, who had done the same.
She shook her head.
“One shot,” I whispered. That meant there was only one person out there.
Mary nodded and ducked back under cover with me. I closed my eyes and sampled the air, catching the smell of sweat and powder in the air. That gave me a rough direction, too, and I crept off that way.
Unfortunately for the sniper, Ligeia got to him first. My witch and I found her crouched over a ravaged corpse beneath a spreading oak tree. She’d killed him so fast he hadn’t had a chance to cry out. Once again, I was glad the siren was on my side.
“Good job,” I told her as I quickly gathered the man’s musket, powder, and shot before we set off. This time though, we kept more out of sight and followed Bill’s crew’s trail. It wouldn’t do for us to get caught and get slowed down more.
Not much later, we managed to surprise the next set of ambushers. Four of Bill’s crew, all men and all experienced fighters from their looks and the bared cutlasses they held, waited with their eyes intent on the path. One did notice us as we closed and shouted an alarm, but it was too little, too late. Mary paralyzed a man with a flash of her evil eye while I closed with the group.
The first swing of my axe broke the guard of another and staggered him, then a kick to the stomach sent him flying back to fetch up against a tree. I dodged a wild slash, cleaved a man’s legs from beneath him, and split his skull in a spray of gore.
Meanwhile, Mary finished off the paralyzed man
with a slash across the throat, and Ligeia spun inside and under the last man’s swing before she lunged up and tore out his throat with her teeth. I pounced on the man I’d stunned, tore his blade from his hands, and pinned him up against a tree with his feet dangling.
“How many more?” I snarled.
The man’s eyes bugged out as Mary and Ligeia appeared at my shoulders.
“Four,” he choked out. “Just four. Right before ye reach the ruins.”
“Where’s Bill an’ his witch?” I shook him like a rag doll and slammed his back against the tree.
He wet himself. The sharp stink of urine rose in the forest air. Mary let out a giggle, and Ligeia hissed in disgust.
“Why do they always do that?” she complained.
“Fear, I think,” Mary answered.
I ignored the banter, my eyes burrowing into the man. He still had a knife at his belt, but with my hand around his neck, he was too busy trying to fight off a wrist that he couldn’t get both hands around.
“Caves,” he gasped. “Sea caves under the ruins is what he told us.”
“Well,” I told him, “you've been helpful.” Then I proceeded to smash his head into the tree until he went limp before tossing his still-breathing form into the bushes.
Both the women looked at me questioningly.
“He gets a chance,” I said as I shouldered my axe, “since he was so cooperative.” Likely, the unconscious pirate wouldn’t wake up until this was all over, even if he woke sooner, I was certain he’d run for the ship instead of heading to warn Bill.
“Makes sense to me,” Mary commented, then hooked arms with a confused seeming Ligeia. “Shall we move on?”
The siren nodded, and so we set off again, keeping out of sight of the trail. It wasn’t that much longer before we pulled up short and crouched, hidden in the undergrowth at the edge of a scrubby field that abutted the remains of some outbuildings for what had once been a prominent down or maybe even an ancient fortress. The trail we’d been following was all that was left of a main road that led down to the cove. Its stones, sheltered by the trees, had been long buried, while the ruins themselves topped a cliff overlooking the sea. Wind and storms had weathered the buildings and the streets to a polished gray hue.
While some of the structures stood as monuments against the passage of time and the ravages of nature, most had lost walls and roofs, and a few were little more than weathered piles of stone.
The sun was bright overhead. There would be no creeping in the shadows now, not until we crossed the field. This was where I expected the second ambush. Likely Bill’s fighting men were holed up in the rubble to take advantage of the rough terrain. We’d be hard-pressed to close the gap between a well-armed musketeer and us without taking a shot or two.
“This isn’t good,” Mary peered around. “I see no sign of anyone.”
“And I smell nothing,” Ligeia added.
“They be there,” I said quietly. This would be the perfect job for Mocker. He knew all the tricks to unsettle other shooters to get them to pop their heads up so he could find them… but I knew a way, too.
Not too far into the killing field was a small building, a carriage house maybe, where all four walls had fallen in. It still came up to my knee, and several of the pieces were big enough to give us cover under the right circumstance.
“I've got an idea,” I told the two. “Stay behind me and watch for the enemy. We’re going to stay low and move fast to that pile o’ rubble.”
They both nodded silently, then I rose a bit and took off at a low, loping run for the cover of the fallen building. No shots rang out, and we made it to cover without incident. That would have been the perfect lure for an inexperienced marksman which meant one of two things. Either Bill had well-trained sharpshooters waiting for us, or he didn’t have shooters at all.
I wasn’t about to make any assumptions. We were too close now to lose out because of a well-placed musket ball. I glanced through the rubble and quickly found what I was looking for. There was a large section of the wall that had fallen and remained whole. It was big enough to cover both women and me if they stayed close.
“Captain,” Ligeia leaned close and whispered, “I could sing for them.”
I shook my head. “Cerridwen proofed the ship’s crew against ye, did she not?”
That gave the siren pause, and she nodded. “Aye, but do they expect me this far inland?”
“They may not,” I replied. “I’d still rather not risk ye getting shot. Now, stay close, an’ if they show themselves, sing away. Mary, give them the eye if ye get the chance. Like as not, they’ll hit us before we reach the ruins proper.”
With that, I set hands on the fallen section of wall and heaved it up straight. Then, with a grunt of effort, a creak of tendons, and a deep throb from the healing wound in my left bicep, I lifted the heavy section of stone and began advancing across the field, step by step with Mary and Ligeia slipping along in my shadow.
About at the halfway point of my blind advance, the first shots rang out. Musket balls cracked against the stone to break away bits of it. I grunted from the impacts, but I held steady and kept up the slow advance.
“After the next volley,” I growled to the women behind me, “we charge. Listen for four shots.”
“Yes, my Captain,” Mary said with a grin.
Ligeia nodded and put a hand on my shoulder. I took a few more ponderous steps, more shots rang out, and more stone splintered and cracked. We were a long sprint from cover, but we had until the shooters reloaded.
“Now!” I yelled and pushed the stone forward before I took off running straight up the middle. Mary went right, and Ligeia went left as if they’d planned this already.
Perhaps they even had.
Either way, I hit the ruins where our assailants might be hiding at a dead run, skidded on the stones, and ducked around a corner out of direct line of sight. That took me right into the surprised face of some poor bastard in the middle of reloading his musket.
I reacted first and drove the butt of my axe into his face, and he fell over, blood streaming from his ruined nose. I followed that up with an overhead chop that split his head in two. The corpse kicked a couple of times and then went still as his blood soaked into the jungle floor.
From the left, there came a short scream that cut off into a fading gurgle. Ligeia had found one, too, I wagered. I grinned fiercely as I scooped up this man’s musket and a brace of pistols along with more powder and shot. Much better armed, now, I stalked off to search for the rest of the four ambushers.
Off to the right, my keen ears caught the sound of a quick scuffle and a man’s grunt. Likely Mary had found another. Where was the last? I knew where someone like Mocker would hole up, so I crept towards the center of the ruins where several tall, ruined structures sat.
Sure enough, I caught a flash of movement on the tallest roof when I peeked my head out from cover. I pulled back quickly, not wanting to catch a musket shot. This fellow was dug in well, behind a short wall that lined the flat roof of one of the more structurally complete of the remaining buildings.
It wasn’t that much later when Mary and Ligeia caught up with me where I’d settled behind cover to plan the best way to get to the last of Bill’s ambushers. This particular enterprising bastard had gotten up on one of the ruined roofs near the center of the old town and had a pretty clear shot at anything that got close.
“Want to try singing?” I asked the siren. The man was under too much cover for me to take a clear shot at him.
The man hadn’t noticed us in our hiding spot, but he was alert, having heard the earlier scuffles as we took down his friends. It wouldn’t be easy to unseat him unless this trick worked.
“Certainly, my Captain,” she said as a smile stretched across her face, “though the both of you will need to cover thy ears.”
I nodded, reached up, and plugged my ears with my fingers while Mary did the same. She had a splash of blood trailed across her
nose from the musketeer she’d slain.
Once Ligeia was convinced we couldn’t hear, she began to sing. I could still make it out very faintly, but as quieted and broken up as the song was, there was none of her magic in it. Our enemy, though, was enthralled before he could even try to defend himself. We watched him rise from his hiding place and gaze around in a daze.
The siren rose from behind cover and stepped out to look up at him as her voice gained focus, and across the distance between her and her prey, their eyes met. She held out her arms, body swaying slowly with the melody, and the man just walked right off the roof.
It wasn’t far enough to kill him outright, but the pirate was grievously injured. It was a mercy that I took care of his screaming with a pistol shot. Silence filled the ruins as the echo died off.
“That was rather frightening,” Mary commented. “It’s one thing to know what your song does, Ligeia, and entirely another to see it in action.”
The siren just shrugged and walked over to prod the corpse with one toe while I reloaded.
“Time to find Bloody Bill and put an end to this,” I said firmly before whirling to lead the way deeper into the ruins.
37
After a few minutes of searching, we found a rubble-strewn basement beneath one of the larger structures. Behind a broken wall in it, a crumbling passageway descended into darkness.
“The sea is below,” the siren said. “If you would, my Captain, I would go, seek the seaward entrance to these caves, and bring Tiny and your ship to wait there.”
That was an extremely clever idea. She could find a way into the caves from the sea and bring reinforcements if necessary. It would certainly leave Bill’s men on The Witch’s Promise confused and worried.
“Go, lass,” I told her, “but once they’re all in place, come into the caves and find us.”
“Of course,” she purred with a smile.