The Pirates of Fainting Goat Island

by Teresa McCullough

  I understood Cranket’s motivation but didn’t understand his stupidity. Usually he was better at judging people and would see that Merko had no intention of letting Cranket go, no matter how much ransom he paid. Was he trying to give the people of Ship Town time? I didn’t think he knew that the earthquake was a signal to mobilize. I then heard beating on the metal tub. The pattern of beats was only done twice. What was going on in the town?

  “Kalten?” Merko asked.

  Kalten stuck his thumb down.

  Cranket realized Kalten was a truth teller and said, “I have the money. I just told you how much I could get, not how much I have.”

  Kalten’s thumb went up, while Cranket babbled about non-liquid investments.

  “What are non-liquid investments?” Merko asked.

  “Ships,” said Jerot. “Cranket owns eight ships. Land too. I think he owns some businesses and land.”

  Merko started asking details about the ships and Cranket was too confused and upset to give them. He couldn’t remember and contradicted himself several times. Kalten didn’t even bother verifying it, but just watched. I wanted a distraction but couldn’t see how to get one. I looked around and saw that the knife Milea used for fileting fish was missing. The bricks were warming nicely, but what could I do with it? I hoped Milea would find a way to use the knife.

  Merko switched away from talking to Cranket and asked me, “Where are the others? Where are Roddy, Lina, and Amapola?”

  Cranket answered, “Amapola’s in Lagudia. Roddy and Lina are here.” There was no need to answer Merko, but Cranket was trying to curry favor. Did he think Merko would let him live? I didn’t mind Cranket telling Merko about Amapola. Lagudia was too big a city for Merko to attack, and even finding her there would be difficult, even if he went stealthily. Telling about Roddy and Lina was wrong. They should be given a chance to escape.

  “What about Vlid?” Merko asked. “I don’t understand why you took him, or did he just disappear coincidentally?”

  “Vlid?” Cranket asked, puzzled. “Vlid’s here.” Cranket heard about Vlid’s transformation but didn’t realize how unrecognizable Vlid became.

  Vlid didn’t move suddenly, complying with Merko’s order, but he stooped and started muttering in the high-pitched crazy voice he used. He deliberately and slowly turned around displaying his white lock of hair. I used the distraction to heat a leg of one of the pirates. I just put a tiny bit of heat in it, hoping he wouldn’t notice it. He jerked slightly, and his left hand went to his thigh, but I didn’t hurt him enough for him to let others know something happened. If I cooked the blood in his leg, it might incapacitate him.

  The pirates were clearly startled by the realization that Vlid fooled them on Fainting Goat Island.

  The candle’s heat was suddenly gone. Seconds later, a pirate dragged Lina into the room, saying, “Look who I found. She put a candle on the windowsill.”

  He then pushed her into the room and Kalten tripped her. I used Lina’s motion to move the sword point away from the baby. I threw the heat from the bricks into the man’s hand, causing him to drop the sword with a yell. I didn’t think he would ever be able to use his hand again. The flat of the sword fell onto the baby’s chest causing loud cries. I heard Lina scream.

  “Kalten, run back to the ship!” I yelled. Not waiting to see if I Controlled him, I saw one pirate trying to kill Cranket and another attack Vlid. I put the heat from the bricks into Vlid’s assailant. I chose Vlid. I was engaged to Cranket but chose to save Vlid.

  Swords crashed but I was too busy to look. I killed the pirate who stabbed Cranket and then another one. Merko jumped on me and his hands were at my neck. His right hand was bleeding. What happened to his sword? A fight was going on around me and I tried to grab the heat to kill Merko, but his hands around my neck were too distracting. I couldn’t breathe, much less use enhancing. He jerked, slumped, and fell, pulling me down with him, but I disentangled myself from him. Milea was standing over him stabbing him, repeatedly with the knife she held, using both hands to get through the leather. Vlid dropped a bloody sword he held and grabbed one of Milea’s hands, stopping her. She dropped the knife and he cradled her in his arms. The small knife wound on Merko’s hand told me she cut him there first, causing him to drop his sword.

  Kalten was gone, and Lina was lying on the floor, clutching her belly. Cranket’s wound was to his side, but his arm was also cut. He must have deflected the thrust. I went to his side and put pressure on his wound, which didn’t look serious. Vlid came and wrapped Cranket’s arm in a cloth. Milea was tending Lina, who shakily sat up. Milea’s baby was crying, but he appeared to be fine.

  “My water broke when Kalten kicked me,” Lina said. “I’ve been having contractions all morning, but they aren’t close together yet. I’ll help Cranket and Milea can tend her baby. And me, if I need it.”

  Jerot peeked out a window. He came to me and grabbed my arm, pulling me to a standing position. “You’re needed,” he said. “We don’t have many people who can fight, and there might be sixty or more pirates moving around out there. Kalten’s sudden retreat confused them and some of them ran back to the ship with him. We should fight them now, when they are leaderless.” He replaced his sword with Merko’s, saying, “This should intimidate any pirate that recognizes it.”

  Vlid had started a fire in the fireplace and I threw the heat into the bricks. It would give me a source of heat that would last if the fire went out, and one the pirates would have difficulty eliminating. Vlid picked up the sword he dropped.

  Jerot, Vlid, and I went out the door of the Pelican. Two pirates came forward, but Jerot quickly killed one of them and Vlid managed to parry the sword of the other. I killed Vlid’s attacker before he made a second stroke. Roddy came from behind a building and picked up a sword from a dead pirate. Seeing the battle, a group of pirates who were waiting near the bridge ran toward us. I burned all of them in a single swoop of heat.

  Attracted by the sound of the melee, pirates who penetrated further into the village came toward us. With the three men in front of me, I had time to stop the assault. Several pirates turned down a side street where I couldn’t see them, but when we rounded the building, I saw they were met with a double line of men from the town. The front row held pitchforks and the back row held long, pointed stakes, and they all held firm. Two pirates tried to attack one man, but the men next to him and behind him stopped the assault. I don’t think they did much damage, but it was hard for them to attack the man in front of them when men out of reach were poking them with sticks. One of the men kept aiming for the face. A pirate managed to grab one of the sticks, but he used one hand and all he achieved was locking himself into position for the others to poke him. I burned them, one at a time, using the heat from the hot bricks in the Pelican. I had to be careful to avoid hurting our people.

  We walked the town, checking for pirates. Several village men and a few women took swords from fallen pirates and joined our group. I killed most of those we found, but the villagers mobbed others. Since I could continue to enhance, Ezant must have approved. We kept on, searching for pirates, house by house. Eventually, I realized Jerot was gone. I worried if he had been killed or injured and I didn’t notice.

  The fog kept me from seeing the dock from the town. After we finished searching the village, we walked to the dock. There were two pirate ships as well as the Mercy. One pirate ship had some partially burnt sails. There were bodies of four men with arrows in them, as well as a wounded pirate. Several men searched the ships and captured five pirates who were onboard and readily surrendered. Roddy and Vlid went onboard both ships and came back with an estimate of how many pirates there were from the stashes of personal belongings on each ship. By counting the captured and killed, we realized there was one pirate not accounted for: Kalten.

  The search continued until Jerot came back, saying Kalten was dead. Roddy didn’t stay to listen to how Kalten died but left to go to his wife.

  “Kal
ten went back to the ship,” Jerot explained. “Two of our archers made it up the hill and one started shooting fire arrows at the ship. The other shot any pirate who tried to climb toward the archers. Kalten rallied the pirates and led them up the hill. I think the archers ran out of arrows and faded into the mountains. Kalten was nearly on top of the hill when he told the others to go help Merko.”

  Merko was beyond help, but Kalten didn’t know that.

  “Kalten walked down slowly toward me. He boasted that our defenses were insufficient to stop the pirates, as he described the battle to me, while he wove around on the path that avoided the thorn bushes. I was afraid he would grab a fishing boat and escape. He could get out of the harbor and be out of sight before we could organize a chase. He might come back for revenge with a new crew. Kalten’s a better swordsman than I am, so I ran away when he reached the ground, but not fast enough to lose him, even though Kalten’s too slow to catch me. I found the trail by the river and followed it. A couple of times he turned around and started back, but I threw rocks at him. Every once in a while, I would hit him. He’d get mad and chase me some more. By the time we fought, he was too tired to fight well. He thought he could kill me in seconds, but I had enough training to defend myself. We fought. I won.”

  We all won, with Kalten dead. Jerot told us that Kalten didn’t know if any of those who had been on Fainting Goat Island were in Ship Town but was prepared if we were. Merko sent three recently recruited men into the Pelican, with orders to capture the weakest person there and use him as hostage.

  I went back to the Pelican. They moved Cranket to my old bedroom. I gave him some broth Milea brought me. Cranket didn’t say anything.

  Roddy stepped in, carrying a baby. “I have a son,” he said. “Lina seems to be all right, but if Jerot hadn’t killed Kalten, I would kill him.”

  After appropriate praise for his son, I continued my vigil. Cranket slept.

  Vlid stepped quietly in the room and said, “There are some decisions being made. I think you should be part of it.”

  Vlid led me to the side of a house, where I saw eight pirates tied up. Three were wounded. A large crowd of villagers watched them, many holding swords, probably for the first time in their lives.

  “We can’t let them loose,” Beaden said, “and we can’t keep them. They are too dangerous. We thought we could put them on one ship and have Heleen burn it.” He looked troubled at the thought, even as he suggested it.

  “No,” Vlid and Jerot both said.

  The thought horrified me. It was one thing to kill in the heat of battle, but they wanted me to become an executioner? I was too involved in the fight to protect Ship Town to worry about losing my ability to enhance. It was clearly ethical to defend myself and the town from murdering pirates. I didn’t think it was right to use enhancing to kill prisoners.

  “It’s wasteful. The ships are valuable,” said Geltor, the man I once loved. “She could burn them here.” He wanted me to be the one who killed them? I was really glad I didn’t marry him.

  “Of all the cowardly things to do,” Vlid said. “I don’t care about the ship, but Heleen almost certainly made the difference between a disastrous defeat and a victory. You aren’t going to put that on her.”

  “We can’t keep them,” Beaden said. “If they escape, they’ll kill us.”

  “You’re damn right we will,” one of the pirates said.

  “Shut up, you fool,” said another pirate.

  I could see the dilemma. Even keeping them a few days had risks, but what would be done with them if we could keep them? There was no jail in Ship Town. There was also a question of resources. Ship Town had its own dead and wounded from the battle. Every able-bodied man would be needed to plant and fish. There was no luxury of having guards.

  “I’ll do it,” said Jerot. He walked up to the pirate who spoke out. “Any last words?”

  The pirate swore at him for about a minute. Jerot thrust his sword into the man’s chest. No, I realized it was Merko’s sword.

  He repeated the process, skipping over one of them. Some of them begged and some of them swore, but Jerot didn’t vary his process. One said, “Do it quickly,” and Jerot complied.

  “What about the other one?” Beaden said.

  “I can’t do it. He isn’t as vicious as the others. He is more of a sailor than a pirate.”

  Jerot then gave the conditions he would let the last pirate live. Of course, the pirate readily agreed.

  “He’ll agree to anything,” Geltor protested.

  Jerot took the bloody sword and offered the hilt to Geltor who shrunk back from it. Jerot cleaned the sword on the clothing of one of the dead pirates and sheathed it. He then proceeded to untie the man, telling him, “You know I will kill you if you violate your word.”

  He licked his lips and his eyes swept from his fallen comrades to Merko’s sword. “Yes, I do.”

  CHAPTER 20

  The next morning, Roddy asked me to his cottage, saying Lina wanted to talk to me. Cranket was asleep, so I came.

  After I admired her sleeping son, Lina said, “I had a vivid dream last night. Usually dreams fade, but this one didn’t. Ezant came to me in my dream and told me I partially redeemed myself by my hard work helping rebuild Ship Town and bravery in bringing the candle to the Pelican. I can enhance again. But I’m only level one. I checked.”

  Checking was easy, and Roddy would know how if Lina didn’t.

  “I was level seven before and couldn’t do much with it. I had no one to teach me. Could you teach me?”

  “Of course.” I stood up and gave her a hug, with Roddy beaming at us.

  I spent the next two weeks taking care of Cranket, because everyone else was busy. I didn’t sleep in his room but was there for most of my waking hours. He developed an infection and was quite sick for a few days but recovered. He hardly spoke to me, although he had a long private conversation with Jerot.

  Finally, one day when he got up and got dressed for the first time, he told me what was on his mind. “Do you forgive me?”

  “Forgive you for what?” I asked.

  “Being a coward. Trying to save myself and abandoning you. Not helping in the fight.” He never mentioned the one thing that required forgiveness, the betrayal of Roddy and Lina’s presence in Ship Town, but I knew he was so frightened he would have done anything.

  “Of course, I forgive you,” I said in surprise. “You were frightened.”

  “I saw, you know. Given the choice between saving me and saving Vlid, you picked Vlid.”

  “I did,” I admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t keep our agreement.”

  “I tried to tell myself it was because you were angry at me for trying to bargain to save myself, but it wasn’t, was it?”

  “No, I wasn’t,” I said, although I knew that made it worse. If he really mattered to me, I would be angry at his betrayal. The absence of anger showed I didn’t really care about him.

  “I wished you were mad at me. I even wanted you to be nursing me to Control me,” he said. “But you aren’t. You live up to your bargains.”

  “You never promised me you would be heroic.”

  “I never thought I would have to be. I don’t like what I know about myself. I’m releasing you from our engagement,” Cranket said. “I was going to tell you that I thought we were incompatible, and we were lucky to find out before we got married.”

  “You were going to tell me?” I schooled my features, so I wouldn’t show my relief.

  “It would be a lie. I spent two weeks pretending to be asleep when you were here, not wanting to talk to you, not wanting to face you. I don’t think I could live comfortably with a woman who marches off into battle, knowing she will kill people. Not that I’m not grateful, you understand. I realize Merko would never let me live. He couldn’t risk someone going to Lagudia knowing he was here. I knew it when I tried to bargain with him but wanted to live just a little longer. I wouldn’t be happy married to someone who kn
ows, really knows, what a coward I am.”

  Part of me wanted to reassure him, but I didn’t want to marry him. I really didn’t think that being brave was all that important. He might never have another situation in his life where physical bravery mattered. I suspect if he ever left Lagudia again, he would travel with more than one bodyguard, and make sure to hire someone who didn’t get seasick.

  “I pressured you to tell me the truth in front of Daton,” Cranket said. “I thought that didn’t matter, but it did. That’s why I’m telling you this. Because it’s fair. Not that I needed to tell you what a coward I was.”

  “Bravery is overrated,” I said. “I was terrified.” Some reassurance seemed reasonable.

  “But you acted bravely. Besides, the real issue is that you love someone else.”

  He seemed to have forgotten about his dreams of a dynasty. I wasn’t going to remind him. “I hope you don’t get angry at Vlid or Ship Town because of this.”

  Cranket laughed. “I saw what happened to the man who wanted to hurt Ship Town. The image of Milea stabbing Merko again and again is something I don’t want to carry with me for the rest of my life, but probably will.”

  “She had good reason to hate him,” I said.

  “But I don’t have good reason to hate you or Ship Town. Besides, I think with a little bit of money to get him started, Vlid could build ships here. Big ships, like the ones Jerot should be captain of. And I could make a great deal of money from it. The town will be grateful for the business. Vlid’s cousin is antagonizing his workers and there are a few I could persuade to move up here.”

  “You are all right having Jerot work for you? After all he has done?” I wasn’t certain he knew about Jerot killing the bound pirates.

  “I’m glad to have him working for me, glad to have someone who will do what needs to be done. I couldn’t have done it and might have died because of my unwillingness to kill. Incidentally, I’m glad to invest my money in a town with you to defend it. I don’t think pirates are likely to come and capture a newly finished ship with you here to defend it.”