by David Talon
“Both of you keep your trousers on and all will be well,” Jade said primly.
“Keep our...Jade, according to the laws of the church, carnal knowledge means...”
“I set the limits of what you are permitted. Exceed them once and you will get a warning, exceed them twice and I will pick you both up and dump you into the sea to cool your passion. As Captain Hawkins likes to say, are we clear?”
I put my finger to Pepper’s lips before she could continue. “Best of a bad deal, remember?”
Pepper smiled back...but then put my finger in her mouth, her tongue running over it sending chills up my spine as I took a deep breath. She grinned, playfully making as if she’d bite it off as I snatched my finger out of her mouth. “Still want to keep the same deal?” But before I could respond her face became serious. “Tomas, Smoke says I need to tell you something important first.” The humor left my face as I nodded and Jade’s voice led us led us to an alcove where a set of stairs led to the floor up above. On the far side the ceiling had collapsed, letting in the sun, but the rest of the room was intact, with raised platforms of white stone, like beds, set in rows a half dozen yards apart from each other. On the walls were more fragments of frescos, but these were so badly faded nothing could be seen. We took one of the platforms near the open sky, shaded but with a breeze blowing over our faces, and Pepper sat with her hands folded in her lap. “Smoke wants me to make a decision. Up until now I’ve had the power to back out of the deal she and I made, but Smoke wants to make it permanent.”
“Smoke wants you to merge? Pepper, you can’t do that yet.”
“No, no, not merging,” Pepper said quickly. “But I spoke to Master Khan about the process and he says it’s actually two separate steps, the dragon-ghost first becoming bonded with the Dragon before the actual merging takes place. Normally they’re done one right after the other, but Master Khan says in his former homeland they’re separated by a week or longer as part of the ritual. Smoke would be able to feel everything I feel, taste what I taste, and so on, but her personality wouldn’t become part of mine and I won’t be able to change shape until we actually merge.”
“What about the hourglass of your life?”
Jade’s voice answered me from behind us. “The sands would begin to run out. Slowly, and slower still because of your potion, but the ending of Pepper’s life would begin. However, should she decide to do this, neither Eldest nor any other sister of mine, light or dark, will ever be able to claim her. Pepper, my sister named Smoke will become a part of you for the rest of your life and nothing will be able to displace her until your death.”
“I realize that...but with Eldest and the other Dark Sisters so close I’ve got to do it now.”
I grasped Pepper’s hands, giving them a squeeze. “But this is what you want, right?”
Pepper’s gaze met mine. “Is it what you want? Once Smoke is a part of me it will only be a short time before she convinces me to merge with her, regardless of what the captain or any of the crew want. And once that happens, she’ll never let you go...which means I won’t either, no matter what.” Her gaze went down to her lap. “I’m not exactly the kind of woman most men want as their wife, and I’ll be less so once Smoke and I are one person. Most men want a woman less spirited, more...docile.”
I couldn’t help but snort. “You haven’t been docile since the first time I laid eyes on you, when you jumped up on the ratlines.” Pepper looked up with an indignant expression and I said, “Well, you haven’t.”
She gave me a rueful smile. “I suppose I haven’t at that. But...do you ever think you could learn to love me? Not just Smoke but me as well?”
“I’ve never been in love with anyone before,” I admitted, staring into eyes as blue and wide as the sky above us, “but I think I am now.”
We both waited for me to have the feeling a Dragon gets when he hasn’t told the truth, waited for me to have to tell her I was wrong. When the feeling didn’t come Pepper let out the breath I hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “I guess you are. So, Smoke and I won’t permanently merge yet, but at least she will finally be able to feel what it’s like to be human.” She closed her eyes. “Smoke, Primus.”
The air around Pepper began to shimmer. Then it became Smoke’s shape, a dragon the size of a wolfhound with her wings outstretched, framing Pepper’s frail body as they curled around it. Then the shimmering air collapsed as the dragon form seemed to dissolve into Pepper, who gasped as her eyes went wide. I hadn’t let go of her hands as the transmutation had happened, and now I squeezed them anxiously. “Pepper, are you well?”
Opening her eyes, Pepper kissed me in reply. We remained locked together a while then laid down together on the smooth stone platform, neither saying a word as we let our tongues speak for us. In time I removed my shirt and Pepper sat up so I could unbutton hers. I eased the fabric off her slender shoulders, kissing the freckles I saw there. Suddenly a thought struck me and I grinned. “Red pepper flakes,” I said...then pretended to sneeze. Pepper gave me an amused look that also called me daft as I gently pulled her shirt off, noticing more freckles as I began to kiss the area between her shoulder blades...and pretended to sneeze again. She turned to face me, lying back on the white stone, and I saw freckles on the skin between her small breasts. I kissed the freckles then raised my head, and...
She put her finger under my nose. I grinned and instead began to explore, Pepper lying back again with a sigh as I lightly stroked her. She gasped the first time I tried using my tongue on her nipple, and I navigated Pepper like a sailor listening to the wind and reading the waves as he travelled, but staying out of forbidden waters as he sailed, Pepper running her fingers through my hair like a breeze’s caress.
Finally my explorations took me north again and I stopped to kiss her, and when we finally pulled apart she stood up. “This may get us into trouble, but Smoke’s absolutely drunk on sensation.” Pepper stabbed her finger at my trousers. “Those stay on no matter what, or we both may be taking a bath in the sea.” I grinned again but sat on the edge of the stone platform as Pepper walked over to the spot where the sun shone into the room...and began to unbutton her trousers.
She undid them slowly, sliding them off her slender, white thighs then kicking them over to me with a smile. I caught them and absently tossed them with her discarded shirt as she began to sway to whatever music played in her head, the sunlight framing her like one of the dancers from the mural below us as my breathing quickened. She outstretched her arms and I needed no more invitation, moving towards her as Pepper opened her arms to embrace me. I held onto her as tight as I could as our tongues lashed together like two loose ropes in a gale, staying that way for a long moment. Then she gasped as I moved my hand to explore the red forested country in Pepper’s southern seas.
A throat was cleared above us and my hand stopped as we both looked up. The enormous mermaid was hovering over our heads, holding one of the basins the size of a large sea-chest from the fountain below us, and as water sloshed over the side I realized Jade had filled it with cold water from the stone fish’s mouth. The mermaid gave us a mad grin.
Then she upended the basin.
“I think your hair’s still damp,” Jeremiah said as he sat down beside me on the beach.
I gave my friend a sour look. “Oh, be quiet.” He only grinned. When Jade had brought us back to the ship with our clothes and hair soaking wet, she’d told the captain, Redbeard, and Mr. Smith exactly what we’d done to warrant a cold bath, and now as the sun was sinking in the west, all of the crew had heard a version of it as well. I’d thought Redbeard would be furious but instead he’d laughed uproariously, telling me my penance would be to help him dig a fire pit for the evening’s festival of welcome the captain wished to have. Jade had also quietly told the captain that Pepper had more to tell him, about what we’d found and also what she’d done. She’d looked none too happy as I’d left with Redbeard.
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br /> Stripped to the waist, we’d dug a pit in the sand up the beach at an angle from where the Davy rested, and lined it with white stones from a tumbled down building not far away, and as members of the crew had wandered over to watch us work, Redbeard told them what had happened, the tale growing more outlandish with each telling. I was to be the Fool of the Festival, it seemed, judging from the jests and catcalls I received as Redbeard finished, but I endured it with as much good grace as I could muster as we gathered wood. Star set it alight, her and Tiger chattering like children when it was just me and Redbeard, but growing silent when others approached.
The Buccan had brought over a pair of wild goats they’d shot and skinned while several village men were setting up a wooden rack to go over the pit, and we’d hung the goats on skewers over the flames while I’d told them about how the Timucua hunted deer and other animals, after Andre had inquired, Lucky Luc handing me my shirt so I could put it back on. Now the scent of roasting goat was bringing people, crew and villager alike, over to our area of the beach, and more fires were springing up as the Mulatto and his men brought a small cask of rum from the ship and broached it.
Jeremiah had filled two cups and now handed me one. “I don’t know why you’re being so grumpy, since this has the makings of a festival fit for royalty. Isn’t that right, Redbeard?”
“Aye, it does,” Redbeard said, a gleam entering his eye as he turned the spit, juices from the goat making the fire hiss and give off sparks, “as it should, considering I be the true king of Scotland and not that lout James who be sitting on the throne now.”
“You’re telling a tale,” I said in an accusing tone.
“I tell nae but the truth,” Redbeard retorted. “Why, the Stone of Scone itself cried out when I sat me arse upon it; the real stone, not the rock King Edward brought back with him to England. Now, how did I be finding the real stone, you might be asking?”
“No,” Jeremiah said, “but you’re going to tell us anyway.”
I snorted in laughter as Redbeard grinned. “Well, since you be asking, the stone be kept secret for many years...”
Redbeard began telling the tale of his attempt to claim the Scottish throne on the basis of being the descendant of someone named William Wallace, but he broke off as Pepper sat down on the sand beside me. “Pay me no mind.”
Redbeard gave her a concerned look. “Girl, be you well? You look pale.”
Pepper wrapped her arm around mine as she laid her head on my shoulder. “I’m very well...in fact, this has been one of the best days of my life.” Jeremiah gave me a questioning look and I shrugged with my other shoulder as Pepper said, “Pray continue. Have you reached the part where the ghost of William Wallace helped you escape?”
“Girl, you be knocking the gilt off the gingerbread! Now, the English riders were closing in as a cold wind rose, bringing with it the sound of fell voices...”
We listened to Redbeard tell stories as the ocean gently lapped away at the shore, violin music rising from one of the larger fires as Twelve-fingered Harry played, Olde Will and Young Will following his lead on their pipes while African drummers from the village began joining in. Some of the village women began to dance with a few members of the crew joining them, dancing with more enthusiasm than grace, I noticed. We ate roasted goat spiced with clove and the sweet smoke from the allspice wood Isaac had added to our fire, and pieces of breadfruit, while evening crept in on silent feet. Mr. Smith, Ezekiel, and several other African members of the crew joined us, as did Curly and others, the tales growing wilder as the rum flowed. Several times men offered Pepper her own cup but she declined, content to take sips off of mine as evening deepened into night.
Redbeard had just accepted a challenge from Curly to see who could throw a knife into the eye of the goat carcass when Selene, wearing a new blue dress with Spanish ruffles, stepped out of the darkness to touch my shoulder. “Captain Hawkins would like a word.”
I nodded, rising to my feet and giving Pepper a hand up when she rose too. We followed Selene away from the fires towards the sea, Pepper gazing at her with a critical eye. “I see the captain decided to reward you as well.”
The look Selene gave her would’ve cooled a fevered brow. “Captain Hawkins felt chagrin at the sorry state of my wardrobe and gallantly decided to make amends.” Pepper merely shook her head, and we walked the rest of the short distance in silence.
Captain Hawkins was sitting by himself on an overturned dugout canoe resting on the hard packed sand, the salt smell of the sea mixing with the scent of burning tobacco from the white clay pipe he was smoking, his back to us as he watched the moon rising over the water. Without turning his head he said, “Pepper tells me you visited the House of Memory.”
I stopped a short distance away, glancing at Pepper, who shrugged as she shook her head. “Sir,” I began hesitantly, “we went into a building with pictures on the walls and a pair of statues standing at the entrance, if that’s what you mean.”
He pointed at the packed sand at his feet and I immediately went there and sat down, Pepper sitting beside me as Selene sat at the captain’s right hand. The captain picked up the open bottle of claret leaning against the canoe and held it out; I knocked back the remnants of the rum in my cup and let him pour, unsure at the courtesy but not questioning it either. When he finished he motioned it at Pepper, who shook her head as she took the cup from my hand, sipped, and gave it back to me, so he poured into the Venetian goblet Selene held out and set the bottle back down. “Sir Francis Drake called it the ‘House of Memory’,” he continued, “a way for the Atlantians to remember who they were, once.”
He took a swallow of claret then handed the goblet to Selene, who took a delicate sip as he went on. “I wasn’t much older than you are now when we came here. Sir Francis had picked me up on Three-Day Island, the sole survivor of a Shadowmen attack on a merchant ship. Sweet William was the one who found me, washed up on shore, and Sir Francis’s dragon-ghost Storm healed the head wound I’d suffered.” He stared at the claret-dark sea for a moment. “I was fortunate, for I only lost my memories of whom I’d been before and not my skills or my intellect, as others healed in such a way have had happen.
“I had no sailor skills to speak of but I knew how to swing a sword and accurately fire a pistol, so Sir Francis made me his bodyguard. We were using the spot where Haven is now as a base against the Spanish, and since Sir Francis didn’t want to be caught unaware, he’d sent out scouts. Sweet William did as you did, Tomas, climbing up on the aqueduct and spotting the ruins from above, but since he didn’t have a dragon-ghost of his own he went back and climbed down the ladder built into the stone. Then he told Sir Francis what he’d found. The crew was making the buildings of Haven habitable again, so Sir Francis left them and took me alone with him to visit the ruins.”
Captain Hawkins tapped the smoldering tobacco out of his clay pipe and placed it in a pocket of his coat before staring out to sea again. “We’d brought dragon-globes, and Storm and Sir Francis’s other dragon-ghosts held them up so we could see the entire wall. I remember I spent a good deal of time looking at the battle, but Sir Francis only gave it a cursory glance, examining the painting until he’d reached the point on the far left where Long-Mu was escaping by ship. He remained there the rest of the time we spent inside there, tracing her image with his finger. When I finally tore myself away and found him, I asked who she was. ‘A survivor’, he answered, and then tore himself away to look me dead in the eye. ‘This was a House of Memory for the survivors, so they would remember what they had lost. Etch this moment onto your own memory and never, ever tell another soul what you saw this day...or I will have you put out of the ship’s company the moment I hear of it’. Sir Francis was the focus of my entire life at that point so I did as he commanded, and have never mentioned it to another person...until now.”
Captain Hawkins went silent as he continued staring out to sea, and after a moment Pepper sai
d quietly, “You’re in a strange mood tonight, sir.”
“My ghosts are restless,” he answered, motioning towards the ship as he added, “And speaking of ghosts, there are will-o-the-wisps playing around the masts...which mean the White Lady is about.”
Turning my gaze on the Blackjack Davy, I saw bobbing spheres of white light floating around the spars of the upper masts and the mainmast itself, slowly following each other as they wove their way in and out of the rigging. Suddenly, Pepper gasped, “The White Lady’s standing on the bow!”
I looked at once...but the bow was empty. Selene gave me a puzzled look matching my own, but the captain said, “What’s she doing?”
“Looking towards Big Bluff hill with a stern expression.” Pepper shivered, and I put my arms around her, the girl leaning into me with her gaze fixed on the ship. “She’s in a warrior mood tonight.”
“How can you tell?” I asked, believing she saw something I couldn’t since the captain was taking her seriously.
“Normally she wears a white dress Master Khan calls a kimono, but tonight she’s wearing white armor of lacquered plates and the ghost twin of the white sword the captain...” Pepper gasped. “She’s heard me speaking and she’s turning her head towards us.” Pepper took my hand and gripped it hard. “Tomas, she’s looking right at you!”
“In China,” Selene said with a wary eye on Pepper, “it is customary for children to bow to their parents as a gesture of respect.”
“Here, hold this,” I said as I handed Pepper my wine cup. She let go of my hand to take it and I got to my feet, giving the empty bow of the ship the courtliest bow I could, my hand sweeping in front of me before I rose again.