Where Loyalties Lie (Best Laid Plans Book 1)

by Rob J. Hayes

  “What about the whores on the beach?” Drake asked. “The ones in the tents.”

  “They ain’t clean,” Stillwater said, sucking on his teeth. “Fuck with them and you’re like to find your cock dropping off. Can’t stop them trying to sell their wares, but we can try to put folk off buying them.”

  “How many sailors?” Drake mounted the stage and looked around the town square. A few shops had opened, but they were barely more than well-dressed stalls. Lots of homes and a rough-looking tavern were new. Nearby he could hear the sound of sawing as felled trees were turned into planks of wood for more buildings.

  “Three ships’ worth and a few more. Captain Poole and Captain Khan are with us. They’re out pirating right now. Most folk that know how to sail are with one of the crews, except for a few fishermen, but we’re short on those and on boats for them. Besides, I reckon anyone who knows how to fish is more useful than a pirate right now. We’re fine on water, but food is short.”

  “How many fighters?”

  “We’ve got a few acting as authority around town just to keep the peace. Most folk who can fight are already aboard a ship.”

  “Shit.” Drake shook his head.

  “What?”

  Drake waved towards the port. “I’ve got ships and more coming, but each one is sporting a skeleton crew and even fewer folk who know how to fight. We’ve only had two captains sign up so far?”

  Stillwater laughed. “About that. A few others have stopped on by. They ain’t picking sides just yet, Drake. Not while Tanner is on the other one.”

  Drake spat. He would happily have cursed Tanner Black if he’d known any that would work. The bastard had been a thorn in Drake’s side for too long, and he needed dealing with sooner rather than later. Before more captains settled on his side.

  “Elaina Black stopped by a couple of weeks back,” Stillwater said.

  Drake glanced at the man to find him staring out to sea. “That so? We all know about your history with that little snake.”

  Stillwater ignored the jibe. “She said Tanner wants to meet you. Too many of our settlements are being destroyed, and too many of our people are being killed…”

  “Tanner doesn’t give a fuck about the people,” Drake interrupted.

  “He gives a fuck about the isles. He gives a fuck about himself, his family, and his freedom. I don’t know where the captain of the Man of War got those charts, but he didn’t get them from Tanner. And the cold hard truth of it, Drake, is that if you two don’t hammer out some sort of agreement, and soon, none of this we’re doing here will matter a damn. The bastards are trying to kill us, and you two are one step from handing them the knives to do it.”

  There was an insufferable clarity in what Stillwater was saying, and Drake knew it. He and Tanner had been circling each other for years, occasionally nipping at the other’s toes, but never going in for the kill, and there was a reason for that. They needed each other if they were going to survive. Drake knew it, and he just hoped Tanner Black knew it too.

  “What about the pickings?” Drake said.

  Stillwater paused, looking around to make certain no one was within earshot. “They ain’t good. Folk are having to venture further abroad and still coming back with little to nothing. The merchants are starting to avoid the isles, carving out new trade routes, and those are being patrolled by navy.”

  “Aye.” Drake nodded. “Make us go further out to catch them while the navy ships come and slaughter our people back here. Can’t keep on like this. We need food, water, ships, weapons, and more than any of that, Stillwater, we need people.”

  Chapter 45 - Starry Dawn

  Fango never changed. For as long as Elaina had known the place it had been infested by semi-aggressive trees and run by her father, and it had used Quartermain as its legitimate front. Only the people changed, and Elaina wasn’t certain that was for the better.

  There were new ships in north port, and Elaina had already heard rumblings that there were some in south port too. The population of the town had swelled with the influx and was closing in on bursting point.

  Fair View was gone now as well, and the list of pirate settlements was growing smaller. Survivors had managed to flee the massacre at Fair View, and they were telling stories of a ship like none they’d ever seen before, flying the Five Kingdoms flag and escorted by no fewer than three galleons. It was a terrifying prospect that the Five Kingdoms were able to field such a force. The surviving Pirate Isles refugees were fleeing to the place they considered safest: Fango. If only they knew just how dangerous the island was, they might flee elsewhere, but when the choice was between the Isle of Goats and the Isle of Many Deaths, it seemed an easy one.

  It wasn’t just refugees running to the safety of Tanner Black’s island sanctuary. Pirate ships were appearing in greater numbers than ever before, claiming to need repairs and supplies. They were hiding from the Five Kingdoms ship, hoping that the bastards would either pass the island by or be scared away by the pirates’ numbers.

  Elaina stopped to listen to an argument some of the refugees were having with one of Fango’s carpenters. From the sounds of things the refugees were less than enthusiastic about having their new home built above ground. The carpenter was, quite rightly, explaining that space on the ground came at a premium and only the rich could afford it. Elaina laughed and walked on. Tanner had long ago laid claim to the land, and he charged people a lot of money to live on the forest floor. Even funnier to Elaina, though, was that the floor was a much more dangerous place than the tree houses, but most folk wouldn’t accept such a thing until they’d witnessed for themselves how a man could die from a simple shoe dropped from a great height.

  “Captain Black?” Elaina turned to see a man in a faded Five Kingdoms navy uniform flanked by two bruisers with arms as thick as her legs. “You are Captain Black, yes?”

  “One of ’em,” Elaina said cautiously. “Reckon that uniform ain’t earnin’ you any friends, hmm?”

  The man nodded. “Indeed not. Still, we must remember where we come from. Merridan Barklow, captain of Hearth Fire.” Barklow extended his hand. Elaina ignored it.

  “Good for you,” she said, and made to walk past him.

  “If you don’t mind,” the captain said, moving to block Elaina’s flight. “I would like a private meeting with your father.”

  Elaina glanced at the two bruisers behind Barklow; they were unarmed, but looked like they could deal out some punishment even without a weapon. Barklow, on the other hand, carried a sabre attached to his belt and, judging by his uniform, had some experience poking folk with it.

  “Best go see him then. He’ll likely be up in the brothel.” Elaina sidestepped the captain and started walking again.

  “Now listen here.” Barklow grabbed hold of her arm.

  Elaina was in no mood for manhandling, and especially not from some ex-navy captain who clearly thought her just another waif. She turned her arm in a quick arc, removing Barklow’s hand, and punched him as hard as she could in the nose. The captain stumbled away, collapsing onto the ground and clutching at his bleeding face. His two bruisers started forwards. Elaina drew her sword.

  “Back down, lads,” she hissed.

  “Stop. Stop,” Barklow sputtered from behind his bloody hands. He flailed about a moment longer before one of the bruisers helped him up.

  “Ya bleeding, mate,” Elaina said with a grin, still holding her sword.

  “I meant no…” Barklow started, but was interrupted by a cough that brought up flecks of red. “I would like a private meeting with your father. I hoped you could arrange it. I have news for his ears only.”

  Elaina considered the request for a moment. Her father wouldn’t be pleased if she turned the captain away only for his information to be valuable, but if it was shit then Elaina might well foot the blame. She put her sword away.

  “How about you tell it ta me, and I relay it to Tanner, hmm?”

  Merridan Barklow shook his blood
y head.

  Elaina felt like skewering the man. “Fine,” she hissed. “Come up to the brothel with me and I’ll have a word. Might want to leave your dogs behind though.”

  Barklow didn’t look like he’d be willing, or able, to make the climb up to the brothel, so Elaina consented to using the lift even though she hated the idea of putting her life in the hands of the donkey winding the gears. In her experience donkeys ranged from placid in temperament to downright murderous, and it was nothing but luck as to which you got.

  She stepped off the lift with Barklow just a pace behind, and once they were both inside, she told the captain to wait while she approached her father. Tanner was in his usual spot, presiding over his little court. Blu was there too, and Elaina wished the bastard would just pull up his anchor and actually play the pirate for once.

  “Da,” Elaina said, stopping in front of her father’s gathering and giving each member a wary glare. Tanner was hosting a large number today, and Elaina counted fifteen men including his raping bastard of a first mate, Mace.

  Tanner Black looked up at Elaina and smiled. He was a dangerous man when angry and even more dangerous when happy. “Come to weather the coming storm, daughter?”

  Elaina needed to get her father alone; she had to talk to him about Keelin and Drake, and she didn’t want to do it with Blu and the rest of the court around. Luckily for her, Captain Barklow had provided a useful opportunity.

  “Captain of Hearth Fire,” Elaina said, thumbing in Barklow’s direction. “Reckons he’s got some useful words to be said to you and you only.”

  Tanner Black leaned sideways to look past his daughter and stared towards the bleeding captain.

  “Tell him to fuck off,” Blu said with a sneer.

  “Quiet, boy,” Tanner snapped. “Never underestimate the usefulness of a pandering, rat-infested fop like Merridan Barklow.”

  “You know him?” Elaina said.

  Tanner turned his dark gaze on Elaina, and she felt like shrinking from those eyes. “No. Perhaps we should meet.”

  Tanner drained his mug and stood. Blu got up with him, just as tall and just as broad but without the imposing air. Tanner Black didn’t stop his son from following, so Elaina joined her brother, giving him a savage, three-fingered poke in his ribs. Blu swung an elbow in retaliation, but Elaina easily ducked it and hurried to catch up with their father, grinning over her little victory.

  Merridan Barklow seemed to grow smaller as Tanner and his two children approached, and it would have been hard not to notice the intense fear on the man’s face.

  Tanner walked past the man into an unoccupied alcove, and Elaina followed him. Blu stopped by Captain Barklow and shoved him along to join them. Blu pushed Barklow down onto the bench that lined the alcove’s walls and moved to join Elaina and their father, who were still not sitting. The poor captain looked ready to shit himself, and Elaina didn’t blame him. It was frightening enough to be faced down by Tanner Black, but Merridan was also staring into the snarling face of Blu, who had inherited his father’s imposing size, and Elaina, who had inherited her father’s dark stare. She wagered that was more than enough to loosen most men’s bowels.

  For a long while the tension held, with Captain Barklow looking anywhere but at the three Captain Blacks facing him. Elaina fought to control a deep laugh that threatened to erupt, and managed to keep her face straight. Blu wasn’t so composed, and a snigger escaped his lips, breaking the tension. Tanner turned a seething glare on his son, and behind his back Elaina pulled a stupid face at her brother.

  “So,” Tanner growled, putting both hands on the small table between him and Barklow and leaning forwards. “Captain Barklow. My daughter tells me ya got something to say?”

  “Well…” Barklow coughed. “I would like to start by offering my allegiance to you, Tanner.”

  “Cap’n Black,” Blu said quickly.

  “Um…” Barklow coughed again. “Of course. Captain Black.”

  Tanner smiled, all teeth and flashing eyes, and Elaina watched him closely. “You’d give me command of that little ship o’ yours, would ya?”

  Barklow paled and his eyes bulged. “I mean to say I’ll sail in your fleet,” he corrected himself. “With Hearth Fire under my command, of course.”

  “Aye?”

  “Yes,” Barklow asserted.

  “Good. I’ll take thirty percent of your takes from now on then, mate.”

  “Thirty percent?” Barklow winced, his fingernails digging into the table.

  “Of course. Standard cut for a captain in my fleet. In return ya get ta tell folk ya sail under my flag, and ya can call Fango ya home and safe harbour.” Tanner Black was no fool; he was shrewder than most folk gave him credit for, and he knew exactly why Merridan Barklow was there. And he was more than willing to extort the fool. “Good?”

  Barklow nodded, it was obvious he had no choice. With Sarth and the Five Kingdoms burning pirate towns all over, he needed to pick a side and sign his allegiance. Tanner and Fango would seem a safer bet than Drake and New Sev’relain.

  “Good,” Barklow said, tying himself to Tanner Black – and Tanner was not a man who let ties go easily.

  “So what is it ya have to tell me?” Tanner sat down opposite Captain Barklow, and both Elaina and Blu quickly followed suit.

  “There’s a ship built by the Five Kingdoms, Storm Herald, and it’s here in the isles.”

  Elaina couldn’t tell whether Barklow was terrified because of the company or the thought of the ship.

  “Was it the ship that destroyed Lillingburn?” she said.

  Tanner shot his daughter a look then, and she realised that he didn’t know about Lillingburn.

  “I believe so, yes,” Barklow said. “And Fair View. It’s no normal ship. It’s built to end our occupation of these isles. A warship with machines of war and as many soldiers as a Man of War. If that wasn’t enough, it’s also being escorted by three galleons. That’s probably close to a thousand men. An army come to kill us all.”

  Even Tanner seemed speechless. He had maybe a thousand sailors under his command if he brought all of his ships into one fleet, but many of those were sailors only, not fighters. Not soldiers. If that number of troops decided to take Fango, Elaina didn’t think even the dangers of the Isle of Goats would stop them.

  “Do they know where Fango is?” Tanner said eventually.

  Barklow shook his head. “I don’t know. A source of mine from my old navy days got the information to me. He said the Storm Herald is being captained by Peter Verit.”

  “I don’t know him,” Tanner said sourly.

  “I do, Captain Black,” Barklow said with fear plain in his eyes. “A more experienced captain I have yet to meet. He is the type of man who will break before he bends.”

  “No dealing with him then?”

  “Most certainly not. He’s a royal bastard; the blood of the Five Kingdoms runs through his veins. I have also heard the soldiers have a number of knights among them, including the Sword of the North.”

  That gave them all a healthy amount of pause. If the Five Kingdoms were sending the Sword of the North, it meant they were no longer fucking around. There weren’t many who hadn’t heard of that bastard’s deeds, and Elaina felt the sudden urge to sail as far away as she could.

  “One man dies the same as any other in the sea’s cold embrace,” Tanner growled, but he’d waited too long, and Elaina could tell that even he was worried.

  “They won’t come to Fango,” Blu said.

  “What makes ya so sure, boy?” Tanner snapped.

  “They just won’t.” Blu sounded worried as well, and he was right to be. “They can’t. Not Fango.”

  Tanner waved away his son’s foolishness. “Anything else, Captain Barklow?”

  “Um, no. I don’t think…”

  “Then ya can go, mate. Enjoy Fango. I’ll no doubt be calling on ya soon.”

  Tanner waited for Barklow to say his goodbyes and leave before he spoke again.
Elaina shuffled around the bench in the silence to face her father and brother.

  “Looks like we got ourselves a bit of a problem,” Tanner said, making what Elaina could only assume was a purposeful understatement.

  “I might have the solution,” she said.

  Both her father and brother turned unbelieving eyes on her, and Elaina felt her pride bristle.

  “If we had Drake’s ships as well as ours, we could fight these bastards off.” Elaina searched her father’s face for a reaction.

  Blu laughed.

  “I stopped off at New Sev’relain,” Elaina said quickly, hoping her father wouldn’t beat her bloody right there.

  Blu stopped laughing, but his face was all a nasty smile.

  “That why ya sail into my port without a drop of loot?” Tanner’s voice was cold. “Trading with the enemy now?”

  “Drake wasn’t there,” Elaina continued, despite the cold sensation creeping up from her guts. “Keelin was.”

  If anything, Tanner’s expression grew darker, but he said nothing.

  “They know they’re fucked as well as we do,” Elaina barrelled on. “And they know they need us. Keelin agreed to set up a meet between you and Morrass. On Ash, in thirty-two days’ time.” Elaina had been counting down the days in her head ever since their meeting on New Sev’relain.

  “Turn up under the guise of friendship and kill both the bastards and take their ships and crew for my own,” Tanner said, fingering his beard. “Certainly has a nice sound to it.”

  Elaina took a deep breath. All she had to do was keep quiet and let things run their course, and she would have revenge on Keelin for shunning her and the goodwill of her father for giving him Drake Morrass.

  “Keelin is in on it,” she said before her brain could decide it was a bad idea. Once the words were out she couldn’t deny them.

  “What’s that now?” Tanner said.

  “Keelin is Drake’s second,” Elaina continued, hoping it was true. “He’ll bring Drake to Ash; we kill Drake, Keelin will bring the ships and their crews over to us.”