Beneath Ceaseless Skies #45
Page 4
“She had the jewels all along. When she had us go back to the ballroom it wasn’t to get them. It was so that I would dispatch LaRoche, who would have gone after her when he realized he had been betrayed.”
As the lady’s boat drew farther away, a shape rounded from the shoulder of Montforte. It was a ship, trim and pretty, a three-masted twenty-four gun, sailing up and east, soon to cross the gaze of Sussurus.
“She did say she had a ship,” Absinthe murmured. “It was probably waiting in the north, hidden by the glare of the moon.” Now he fully felt the wind spill from his sails. “Well then, Patches, what should I do? Go after her and get the jewels? Destroy her ship? Or should I just let her go?”
“Oh, no, sar, don’t let her go!”
“Why not?”
Patches’ eyes grew wide. “Well, sar, a woman like that, bootiful and purdy besides, and clever enough to hand you your arse, you don’t let a woman like that go, no, sar!”
“Hand me my what?”
Patches doffed his hat. “Pardons, Cap’n, sar. What I meanter say is—if ‘twere me, sar—why, I’d marry her.”
“Marry her?”
Patches fairly danced a jig. “Oh, aye, sar—I’d marry her in a pinch!”
They could not see the jolly boat anymore. It had presumably tied up to the ship, which was now cutting across Sussurus, the taut crescent shapes of her sails reflecting the blue.
Patches clutched his hat. “She cut a right caper, didn’t she, Cap’n? And nuthin’ for yer trouble, no, sar.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that.” Absinthe drew from his pocket a square-cut green gem more than half as big as his palm.
Patches gazed at it in wonder, his eyes wider than ever. “By the Thirteen, Cap’n, what that be?”
“I believe it’s called the Searock—or Seawrack.” He held it up to the light of Sussurus. A cloudy form of a darker green lay within it, toward the bottom. He turned the gem upside-down. The darker portion, now at the top, slid slowly down one inner side, collecting at the bottom and rolling along it to splash against the other. It curled over itself like an ocean wave, collapsing and gently coming to rest.
“How did you nip that, sar?”
“I just groped around under her dress until I found something big to clap on to.”
Patches’ shoulders climbed up to his missing ears while his face turned bright red. “Oh that’s larks, Cap’n! That’s larks! Your hand up her dress? Oh! Ooooh!”
Absinthe did not bother to tell him it was while the lady was not wearing it, while they were being drawn up the rope to the Moon. He had suspected the dress when she was reluctant to let it go, and when he threw it to her on her escape he had already been convinced by her belief that such things were soon to become worthless. Besides, the best place to spend such treasure would be the Archipelago, where the value would be honored, but its people knew all about him now. Best to give her what she was after; there was always tomorrow.
Of course, he was not above taking a souvenir. The legend said that the Seawrack had power over Ocean. A thought now struck him. Power over Ocean. It commanded powers above it. The storm. She had controlled the storm with the gem, summoned it even. She had controlled the situation the entire time, every bit of it, with the storm delaying all so that her plan could fully unfold.
He shook his head. Well, now he had the best of the jewels of Montforte; but as he gazed out toward the lady’s ship and thought about her eyes, which seemed now to swim before him, and remembered the feeling of holding her in his arms, he wondered if he had let go the better treasure.
“Aye, Patches,” Absinthe said. “She is a beauty. A fine lady indeed.”
“Pfffft!” guffawed the boatswain. “Oh, no, sar, no—she weren’t no lady.” He leaned back and threw his hat into the air. “She were a pyrate!”
Copyright © 2010 Adam Corbin Fusco
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Adam Corbin Fusco’s fiction has appeared in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, Science Fiction Age, The Best of Cemetery Dance, and other publications. His web site can be found at http://adamcorbinfusco.com.
http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/
COVER ART
“The Canyon,” by Christophe Vacher
Christophe Vacher has provided artwork for the movie and animation industries since 1989, including the Disney films “Hercules,” “Tarzan,” and “Treasure Planet.” He served as Art Director for animated movies including the feature film “9,” for which he received an Annie Awards nomination for Best Production Design. Visit his galleries at www.vacher.com.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
ISSN: 1946-1046
Published by Firkin Press,
a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Literary Organization
Copyright © 2010 Firkin Press
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