by James Somers
When Daniel awoke, he heard the sounds of laughter—the hardy laughter of men—particularly men who’ve just pulled off something quite clever and are gloating about it. Daniel’s eyes opened to half slits. He still felt so tired. Daniel’s blurred vision settled upon Marissa. The Bard Princess sat tied securely to a chair with a look of pure hatred upon her face.
Daniel’s eyes snapped wide open. The Bard Princess sat directly across from him. They were both seated at an ornate, finely crafted table of considerable length. At this point, Daniel realized he too was fastened to his chair.
“What have you done with Captain Hastings?” she demanded. “He’ll see you mutinous dogs hanged—every one of you!”
The men, actually members of the Andromeda’s crew now that Daniel saw them clearly, all stood around the table, laughing at Marissa’s threats. Louie and his cherub warriors, Mickey and Bob, were seated several chairs away, fastened in the same manner. They were all awake, but held their tongues while Marissa continued to spit venomous threats at the men.
Then Mr. Skulk entered the room, which Daniel supposed may have been the captain’s dining room because of the costly decoration and lengthy dining table. Marissa looked relieved to see the burly quartermaster.
“Mr. Skulk, these men are committing mutiny against the captain!” she screamed.
Mr. Skulk leveled an eye on the princess and then at the men present in the ornate chamber. “Is that so, lass?” he said with unmistakable sarcasm in his voice. “These men are loyal to their captain, but it is not Captain Samuel Hastings who commands this vessel, my dear.”
“What are you talking about? What have you done with Captain Hastings?”
“I’ve done nothing with him, ma’am,” Mr. Skulk confessed. He stepped aside in order to reveal another man standing in the doorway. His silhouette was unmistakable, even before he entered into the light cast by the oil lamps in the room. But when he did step forth and the light revealed him completely, a horrible sinking feeling washed over Daniel.
Captain Hastings stood there, but not in his royal naval uniform. He wore the attire of a very successful pirate. “Allow me to introduce the true captain of this vessel, ma’am: Captain Nathaniel Blackborne,” Mr. Skulk said.
Daniel stammered. How could it be? His hero, who had assured King Turin and the people of Gennedy that he was out to destroy this scourge of the seas, was actually the dread pirate himself!
“My lady,” Captain Blackborne said. “I trust you are well.”
Marissa’s eyes burned like coals of fire. “I should have seen through your pomp and circumstance you villainous dog!”
“Princess, Princess, you must control your temper. This is very un-lady like. Not you at all.” Blackborne circled behind the table on Daniel’s side, patting him on the shoulder as he did so. “Well, Daniel, I seem to have riled the princess up a bit, eh?”
“How did you capture us like this?” Daniel asked. “I don’t remember a thing.”
“Of course not, Daniel. A bit of knockout gas piped into your cabins did the trick very nicely.”
“I can’t believe you,” Daniel said. “I thought you were my friend, but you’re nothing but a stinking pirate.”
“Come now, Daniel, don’t take this so hard. You weren’t a part of my plan, only the Andromeda and Captain Hastings. Your presence here is just an unfortunate coincidence.”
“Yeah right, and I sat and listened to all of your boloney about your dead son and everything.”
Blackborne slammed his fist on the table next to Daniel, silencing his protest. The gold candelabra in the middle of the table nearly spilled over. “All of this is about my son!” he said, flustered. He quickly regained his composure and continued more elegantly. “My son was killed as I told you, Daniel, but it was Hastings who was in command of that military operation.
He was the man who decided it would be best to risk the hostages in order to take down the band of pirates. There were three other men responsible and Hastings was the last. As I told you, Daniel, it was a pirate who ultimately brought those men to justice for what they did to my son and that pirate is me.”
“So why all of this with King Turin and the ship?” Louie asked.
“Very simple, cherub…this is the one sailing ship which threatens my dominion. When I was informed that King Turin had commissioned Captain Hastings to command the Andromeda, I knew this was the perfect way to get two birds with one stone.”
“You killed the man who killed your son and then took his place and commission to get the mightiest sailing ship there is?” Daniel said.
“Very good, Daniel, and?”
“And no one will be able to stop you with this ship…”
“Exactly, and—”
“But someone will stop you.”
“What?”
“Someone will eventually stop you,” Daniel said, more confidently. He felt betrayed by this Captain Blackborne, but he was no longer afraid of him. Daniel suddenly realized that Blackborne was merely a man, less than the legends, more fragile.
Blackborne had been acting out of revenge because of the loss of his son. No wonder he had said, we shouldn’t judge people without knowing their motives. Blackborne the legend held people in fear, but Blackborne the man was altogether a different creature and with such weaknesses would eventually come defeat.
“Where are the others?” Marissa asked.
Daniel had missed the fact that half of their company was not present. The elves and human men were all missing and so was Meineke.
“The men were a potential threat, so we cast them adrift with enough provisions to get them safely back to Gennedy. As I said, Princess, it was not our intention to have you as guests. However, with your men, a skirmish might have ensued and we would have had blood spilt unnecessarily. This is the best way, and your companions will be fine.”
“What about the wil?”
Blackborne looked at Skulk, then back to Marissa. “The wil has gone missing, Princess. I doubt he would be much of a threat, but it would still be in your best interest to have him return to you. After all, if he’s found loose on the ship, he might come to harm, and we wouldn’t want that now would we?”
“Why have you kept us here?” Marissa asked. “What use are we to you? You could just let us go and keep the ship.”
Blackborne mused, a sly grin on his face. “Princess, I would not be deprived of your company just yet. You may come to be very useful to me.”
“But we are on a quest for the Wielder. Without him, we will not be able to win this war against Mortis. You may be the doom of the Living Land just by preventing our progress.”
“Princess, I have little interest in the war with Mortis. Out here on the sea, we are free. Even Mortis cannot threaten us here.”
Marissa leveled her stare on Blackborne. “Not yet, pirate.”
THE KRAKEN
Meineke clung to the mizzen mast. Below him, pirates swarmed the deck and forecastle, possibly searching for him. He had already witnessed the others being taken unconscious from their rooms and carried back toward the rear of the ship. All of the human and elf men had been taken to a dinghy and set adrift. What to do? Meineke had no idea. He knew he couldn’t fight a whole band of pirates.
Meineke considered himself fortunate. Earlier he had taken a quick visit to the latrine right after being left to his room. He wasn’t sure, but something must have been present in the rooms meant to incapacitate everyone in their group—some sort of sleeping potion or something. The others had been carried out by the crew members within ten minutes of their entering into those cabins. But Meineke’s smaller size and climbing claws had afforded him the ability to hide above the lintel of the restroom door when they came looking for him.
Now, the flag of the dread pirate, Captain Nathaniel Blackborne swayed in the breeze from the main mast and a flag pole at the stern; two cutlass swords and the letters NB upon a crimson sea. The well known standard commanded fear.
&nb
sp; Meineke waited for several pirates on the poop deck to move away. Then he leaped away from the mizzen mast toward the stern. Meineke sailed through the air like a flying squirrel, gliding down with speed to the flagpole at the stern railing. The wil caught the red pirate flag as it flapped in the breeze and, with one fluid motion, he used his own momentum to swing down and around to the back of the ship.
Meineke clung to the hull just outside of the captain’s cabin—claws set into the wooden beams. Peering inside the window, Meineke saw Marissa, Daniel, Louie, Bob, and Mickey all tied to chairs at a long dining table. A man dressed in flamboyant apparel, apparently Captain Blackborne himself, stood with his back to the window. More pirates filled the room, encircling the table and their prisoners. The pirate captain argued back and forth with Marissa.
Meineke heard a bell sound on the deck. He scanned the dark sea all around them and could clearly make out two ships coming into close quarters with the Andromeda. Their lamps gave their position away, but they didn’t appear to be hiding their approach.
Meineke launched himself away from the hull and morphed into bird form. The wil caught the air with his large wings and headed for the other ships to investigate. Meineke sailed over the main mast of the first vessel and saw the same pirate standard flying over the ship. A pass over the second vessel yielded the same—Blackborne’s flag. Being this high up, Meineke also saw several more ships on approach, only farther out. No doubt, they were also part of this mass rendezvous with the stolen Andromeda.
Somehow, Blackborne had masterminded the theft of the king’s prize vessel and his passengers. Meineke wondered what lay in store for them now. Would it be a ransom demand or something far worse, like the gruesome stories Louie had told of Blackborne’s appetite for torture and destruction?
Meineke made his rounds to investigate all of the ships as they approached the Andromeda. None of them acted hostile in any way. It was just as he had suspected on every pass. They all flew the flag of Captain Nathaniel Blackborne.
Meineke soared high over the group and then headed back for the stern of the Andromeda. The huge frigate towered over the other ships. All ten smaller vessels came into a loose circle around the majestic seabird and appeared to be preparing emissaries to launch to their new flagship. Dinghies began to fill on each sister ship, then they lowered themselves into the sea. Oil lamps carried on each small craft were the only illumination for the ten or so men onboard.
As Meineke passed the window, before landing, he saw Marissa, Daniel, and the cherubs being led out of the dining room with the flamboyant Blackborne following. The wil sailed away from the ship and then high up into the air. Seeing no one in the crow’s nest, he lit upon the main mast, just under Blackborne’s crimson standard. Meineke resumed his natural form and watched as the prisoners were led out onto the deck in preparation for their visitors from the other ships.