The House Lost at Sea

by R. J. Blain

  In many ways, my captain had chosen poorly, but I kept my opinion to myself. Unless Lucretta aimed another jab in my direction, I’d keep feelings about the Black Scourge and my personal experiences sheathed.

  “Parley is sacred.”

  “Who fed you that load of dung? The good captains would honor it, but there were as many bad as there were good, and a wise pirate never expects the rules of parley to hold. That’s a good way to get a crew killed. Pirates broke laws more often than they kept them, and parley was just another rule to be broken. I’ve never understood the modern desire to romanticize an era of violence and treachery. And make no mistake, O’Malley, it was very violent and very treacherous. I’m proof of that.”

  “I confess I doubt you are that Catalina. A twin, perhaps?”

  I laughed again. “You watched me transform from shark to woman and back again, yet still you doubt?”

  “Hallucinations happen.”

  “There are no hallucinogens on this island unless you were diving for puffers and sampled the wares. But had you, I’d expect you’d be dying soon enough. I suppose you could have caught some tainted seafood. I thought the tuna would have been sufficient evidence. A shark doesn’t give up a tuna like that. But, if you need more evidence, come here.” Turning to Abrahan, I gave him my flintlock. “If she tries anything questionable, shoot her. I recommend aiming for the head. That tends to be lethal.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied, taking my weapon and holding it with the care of someone who’d handled a gun before. “Cock the hammer, pull the trigger?”

  “Exactly so.” Facing Lucretta, I removed my hat, tucked it under my arm, and swept my hair up to present the back of my head. “Touch.”

  “What, exactly, am I looking for?”

  I chuckled. “You’ll know when you feel it.”

  Time had helped, but bone took longer to regenerate, and a depression remained where the bullet had torn through my skull. At first, her touch was uncertain, but she patted my head, located the spot, and rubbed several times before sucking in a breath. “There’s a hole.”

  “Not quite a hole; the bone is thinner there right now. It’ll grow back in time.” She’d learn soon enough that was the entire problem. Releasing my hair and shoving my hat back onto my head, I spun and looked down my nose at her. “I’ll make this clear, Lucretta O’Malley. Your ancestor cursed me, and I hold you responsible. Undo what your blood has done. This is why I’m here to parley with you. I am as I was hundreds of years ago, when the Black Scourge sailed the seas and robbed me of the death I had earned and deserved at my captain’s side. I hold you responsible, and only when the curse is broken or the blood of your line has vanished from the Earth, will I let it go.”

  “You were quick to start with the threats.”

  “And you were quick to open fire.”

  “Point,” she conceded. “His actions were against my wishes.”

  “And your wishes were to have me conveniently removed by setting me adrift off the shores of the Cape of Good Hope for what reason?”

  “At the time, I viewed you as a potentially valuable acquisition. There are those who think highly of you, claiming you’re a woman of rare intellect, insight, and skill.”

  “Several hundred years of experience does tend to give me an advantage.”

  “We didn’t know that. We’d assumed you were like me, a descendant with a rich heritage.”

  “My line ended with me.”

  “You’re alive.”

  “I’m also barren, and there are no others. I was an only child.” The way her eyes narrowed led me to believe she understood the repercussions of an only child during an era where most families lost many children to illness, disease, and war. “Curse or nature, I’ll never know, but I suspect a bit of both. So, knowing that, Lucretta O’Malley, will you parley?”

  “I’ll parley, on one condition.”

  “Ask it.”

  “Your true name, the one of your birth.”

  “It is as I told you from the beginning. I am as I was, Catalina de la Corona, the Pirate Princess of the Seven Seas, and the reason Captain Louisa carried the name of Shark Tamer. I’ve other names, but I’ve forgotten them. That is the only one that matters.”

  “And your family’s name?”

  I shrugged. “If I had one beyond that, I don’t know it anymore and haven’t for over a hundred years. Some things are better left forgotten and undisturbed within their graves.”

  Per Abrahan’s conditions, Lucretta and I were the only ones armed, and the sole member of my crew made a show of returning my flintlock and digging his knife from his boot. After his knife came several other weapons, including a pair of kitchen knives, wire cutters that’d make a mess if he tried to snip an artery, and a box cutter.

  I needed to have a talk with him about excessive yet ineffective weaponry, especially since he pulled a multi-tool card from his wallet, one with a rather sharp edge. If he got creative, he’d be able to do some damage, but I’d have to teach him the wonders of concealed carry. A knife could be dangerous even in a gun fight, if the shooter wasn’t fast on the draw. I’d seen plenty of swords kill gunmen before a single shot was fired, but times had changed.

  Most of Abrahan’s weapons went into my pockets or boots, and the rest I lined up on the table within easy reach. Modern-day pirates wouldn’t recognize the lethal force I put on display, as the items I kept in the open seemed safe compared to the ones I hid away. Should one of them try something, I’d enjoy showing them what the sharpened edge of a metal credit-card sized tool could do. It’d be bloody, painful, and potentially lethal—if I went all out.

  I wouldn’t, not without just cause, but I enjoyed thinking about it.

  I tried to ignore Lucretta’s crew in the room, especially Benny and Bensen, who stared without bothering to disguise their curiosity and interest. The man with a striking resemblance to my Ricardo annoyed me, and I was tempted to have him sent away so I wouldn’t have to remember my past. Instead, I scowled, made a point of refusing to look at him at all, and focused on the rival captain. Her crew annoyed me, their gazes prickling the back of my neck, but I endured without acknowledging them.

  Soon enough, I would discover if this ending led to new beginnings or closed another chapter in my life. I wanted the whole damned book shut with a definitive clap, but I’d try to balance my desire for rest with Abrahan’s sensitivity on the subject of my death. I wasn’t certain how to factor in Benny or Bensen—or that damned man who dared to look like my Ricardo and insisted on staring at me.

  I hoped Benny and Bensen had enough years behind them to understand death should come to all things in time, and I was long overdue.

  But I could have a little fun first, couldn’t I? Perhaps at their expense, but I was a pirate.

  We did things like that.

  Lucretta took her place on the opposite end of the long table; as the victor, it was my right to sit first. I nodded to the seat at my right, and Abrahan sank onto the tall-backed chair. I never sat during parley, not even during my captain’s days, so I perched on the table’s edge and used the chair as a boot rest. Grace O’Malley’s distant descendant could handle cleaning the upholstery, and I preferred leaning back, one arm behind me keeping me somewhat upright while I kept a hand free to reach for one of my many weapons.

  I sacrificed comfort for mobility, and if I needed to act, I would long before anyone else could rise from their chairs.

  Lucretta sat, rested her forearms against the table’s edge, and pressed her palms together. Some might view it as a gesture of prayer, contemplation, or humility, but I saw it as a declaration of wary peace.

  She could still act, but she left herself open to attack, trusting me to adhere to the rules of parley and refrain from violence. I supposed my position sent a similar message, seeming relaxed for those who weren’t perched on a hard table without the benefit of a cushion. Ah, style, the inflictor of agony for hundreds of years and counting.

&
nbsp; “All right, Corona. You extended the offer to parley. Let’s parley.”

  I smiled, leaning my head back and lifting my free hand to adjust my hat so it wouldn’t fall to the floor. “You have something I want, and I mean to have it in any way possible. I prefer using honey, but I will use force if needed.”

  “How pleasant, beginning a parley with threats.”

  “It’s a parley, not a cocktail party. You should be pleased I didn’t begin the parley by offering you a wicker basket containing the decapitated head of one of your crew. That was one of your ancestor’s tricks, did you know that? If she knew a parley was coming, she’d send one of her scourge out late at night, snatch a member of the rival crew, relieve him of his head, and open negotiations with a gift—a very bloody gift. Personally, I found the Black Scourge’s methods a bit repulsive. Captain Louisa preferred to open her negotiations with live hostages. It built better goodwill than an open slaughter.”

  Lucretta scowled. “I don’t appreciate you insulting my family.”

  “It’s not an insult if it’s the truth. She wasn’t a nice lady. By definition, she wasn’t a lady at all. She was a pirate. She was a pirate who, after her treachery sank my captain, our crew, and ship, went on to join the O’Malley bloodline through one of Grace O’Malley’s descendants. That’s the problem with history; I’m not going to pretty up the reality so you can cling to the romanticized bullshit of the Golden Age of Piracy. And it’s just that nowadays, romanticized. The sea is a cruel, harsh mistress, and pirates were as cruel as the ones they served. There were good pirates, yes, but they were few and far between. The Black Scourge wasn’t one of them. She was aptly named. Parley was broken as often as not, and wise captains came prepared to face treachery and were grateful if things remained calm.”

  “I have no intention of breaking parley.”

  “It doesn’t serve me to break the rules of parley with you.”

  “That’s something, I suppose. Very well. What do you want?”

  “I want the agreement that you and your crew will work to break the curse your ancestor, the Black Scourge, inflicted on me on behalf of her lover and my former captain. This existence was not my choice, and I hold you and your line responsible.”

  Someone from her crew grunted, a displeased sound I opted to ignore.

  “I see no reason to accept punishment for another’s crime.”

  “I see several reasons. First, you wrongly believed yourself the sole inheritor of my property. Second, you attempted to have me kidnapped, murdered, and otherwise inconvenienced. Third, I’m the one running this show, and you’re stuck on this island until I decide to help you leave. I’m quite happy to turn my home into your prison—and don’t think for an instant this place belongs to you. It’s not your captain who built it, it’s not your crew who decorated these halls, and it’s not your hands that helped carve the steps and turn this island into a habitable space. Who do you think brought the plants, cultivated the fruit trees, and turned a stagnant pool into a potable spring? Not you.”

  To drive home my point, I held up my hand and waggled my fingers at her. “For days, weeks, and months, my hands carved the steps and shaped this island. For years, my ships came to these uncharted shores to see if the House Lost at Sea withstood the sands of time the same as I. For centuries, we’ve waited. You wouldn’t be within these walls at all, had I not gone to my captain’s final resting place to retrieve the key that is mine as the sole survivor. That was the deal, Lucretta O’Malley. First came crew, and only when the last of us died, would this home pass down to the descendants.”

  Lucretta’s gaze locked on my hand, and her eyes narrowed. “What proof do you have?”

  “You are not owed any proof at all. If anything, you should be proving yourself to me. You’re the one lacking proof. I was old long before your grandmother was born, girl. I want the rest I’ve been denied. I’ve lived far beyond my time, and I have witnessed the world change. You can defy me, but should you, it’ll be the rest of your family line I’ll haunt until I get what I desire, and until I do, I have an immortal life to plan, to wait, and to act. If your shoulders don’t carry the burden, another’s will. Perhaps a child of yours, or a cousin, an aunt, or anyone else with even a trace of the Black Scourge’s blood left in their veins. You will find me a patient hunter, and time is on my side.”

  “She’s the real deal,” a sickeningly familiar voice stated, his tone a mix of amused and resigned, something Ricardo had mastered after long years of dealing with Captain Maritza and her lover, my captain.

  A bone-deep chill crept through me. If I turned my head, I’d identify the source of the voice, and he wore my lost lover’s face.

  Lucretta O’Malley shot a glare at the speaker. “And how would you know?”

  “I told you, O’Malley. I have my secrets. I showed you the Terrier’s location. I knew that location for the same reason Catalina knew the final resting place of her captain’s beloved ship. Those were, and still are, my waters, and I led you to that ship for my own purposes. Then, it had been freedom in death. But such freedoms have lost some of their appeal now.”

  “Ricardo,” Lucretta warned.

  “Won’t you look at me, Catalina?” Ricardo asked, and his tone turned inquisitive—with a side-dish of seductive. “It’s been a while.”

  “Some three hundred years now, I suppose,” I replied, the bitter bite of betrayal digging even deeper. “Did you enjoy destroying everything I own?”

  “I played no part in that, and I advised her against toying with you. She didn’t believe me. I encouraged her to wear your stolen goods to that gala so you would know who had crossed your path. I had not expected your attachments to them to be so strong you’d choose to leave immediately. I’d intended to pull you aside and resolve the matter there, but you had other plans, and I knew better to interfere when your temper ran so hot.”

  I would need a lot more time than I had to process what he told me—and consider the one thing I hadn’t considered before.

  His captain hadn’t cursed just me. The bitch had cursed us both.

  Hundreds of years broke around me, shattering under the weight of reality and having carried so much grief, alone when the one person I’d missed the most had wandered the world without me. I clacked my teeth together, inhaling to control my turbulent emotions. “They were all I had left.”

  “Well, I was certainly surprised when I realized I’d crossed paths with you after all this time, so that is perfectly reasonable. I’d had suspicions, but I knew for certain when I saw she’d taken your items.”

  I wanted to leave, set sail, and leave him to sort his own crew out. “I see.”

  “Are you two finished?” Lucretta demanded.

  “Oh, no,” Ricardo announced, and I tensed at the sound of footsteps drawing closer. “I’ve only begun. You can’t ignore me forever, Catalina.”

  “I most certainly can. You always picked the shitty crew. I have matters to discuss with your captain.”

  He chuckled at my jab. “O’Malley has served her purpose, and unlike Captain Maritza, she is not holding the threat of your death over my head. We’re beyond that worry, aren’t we? Of course, I had not known that, not then. Not until the day the Terrier sank beneath the waves, and I’d died for the first time.”

  I understood that; I’d been pretty shocked the first time I’d died and come back from the dead. If Ricardo hadn’t known he’d been cursed, he wouldn’t have had any reason to believe I still lived. As I hadn’t realized his captain had cursed him, as well, I hadn’t had any reason to believe he still lived.

  My captain had done her best to erase him from my life and my heart. She had failed.

  I wondered if she’d known of his curse, and bitch she could be, had hidden it from me to prevent me from having hope of a future.

  Ricardo joined me on the table, perching nearby so I’d either have to acknowledge him, close my eyes, or turn around to avoid him. I considered taking the coward’s
route, but I lifted my chin and glared at the man.

  He hadn’t changed much since he’d been my lover, although he carried a few new scars on his cheek. My hand moved of its own accord, and I traced one of the marks with the tips of my fingers.

  He turned his head and kissed my palm, one of those little displays of his affection he’d enjoyed showering me with in the days I’d stolen with him between voyages. I should have done something other than freeze, unable to think of anything other than his living warmth.

  “Ricardo,” Lucretta warned again.

  Ricardo gave my palm another kiss. “Catalina isn’t the only one cursed by your ancestor, although I find the circumstances of my curse a great deal more tolerable considering the changed circumstances. You no longer have anything I want, and Catalina told you nothing but the truth. Pirates were not valiant figures, the rules of parley were rarely followed, and your ancestor enjoyed severing heads and using them as gifts to start negotiations. Her negotiations usually ended with someone’s death. You’re not stupid. You saw my portrait, and you recognized my likeness. You read my name. You suspected me, although you said nothing. You now understand why I insisted you don’t hurt her boy. She has always taken matters of crew seriously, and had you done more than bruise him in the first scuffle, you would have signed our death warrants. Well, yours. I’m rather difficult to kill.”

  So he was. As was I. What had been a curse for so long had become a blessing—assuming the curse wouldn’t break now that I had discovered there could be a world with both Ricardo and I still in it.

  But then again, I remembered the curse and the words Captain Maritza had used.

  I was so cursed to serve my captain for an eternity if I must.

  My curse wasn’t tied to the man I had believed forever lost to me.

  Lucretta’s mouth dropped open, and she spluttered.

  “Well, this explains a lot,” Bensen muttered. “Little Cathy, spending hundreds of years love sick for Ricardo, of all people.”

  I bristled at that, but Ricardo laughed. “You’re just upset because you see her value. I saw her first, and we both know she never had eyes for either one of you.”