Eternal Gambit

by St Clare, Kelly

  “The numbers,” Caspian said.

  Plank cut in. “Went down to three, Cannon was sayin’.”

  Caspian nodded. “That is what my father heard, too.”

  “See,” Stubby blustered. “What was the point of us sittin’ behind a rock for hours when he found out the exact same thing? Waste o’ bloody time.”

  Plank rolled his eyes. “Please go on, Caspian.”

  “First the number was two. Then the number was four. And then three.”

  Locks sighed with gusto.

  “I shared some of our theories with my father. And it was he who made the connection. If Cannon wants to break the abyss open in order to release the damned on the realm, what is the one thing he’d test?”

  “How many be gettin’ out,” Ebba answered.

  The others stared at her.

  “I don’t know why ye’re so supr’sed,” she said, folding her arms. “Who do ye think has collected most o’ the information so far?”

  Barrels hummed. “That’s true, my dear. We don’t give you enough credit.”

  No. They didn’t. She was much smarter these days.

  Jagger squatted beside her, and for an intense stuttering heartbeat, all she could think of was their recent conversation. She slid a glance his way.

  He winked at her.

  “One problem with that, matey,” he said to Caspian after. “Thirty tainted people arrived yesterday. One hundred the day afore that. The number that can get out should’ve gone up if yer theory be correct, not down.”

  “Unless.” Caspian held his finger aloft. “Something occurred to affect the balance between tests.”

  Barrels’ eyes flew to Caspian. “Jagger wrote the note. Jagger was tainted again.”

  “I believe so,” Caspian replied excitedly. “Before he penned the note, he wasn’t tainted. Afterward, he was.”

  At least someone was excited about that news. Ebba let her eyes rest on Jagger with the weight of a thousand accusations. He slid a look sideways and cast her a drawling smile.

  Soon, she would take kissing matters into her own hands.

  “So we can keep taintin’ Jagger over and over again to screw with Cannon,” Peg-leg said, grinning.

  “No,” Ebba said, leaping to her feet.

  Everyone stared at her, Jagger with a wide grin.

  She slowly sat. “I mean, nay. That be mean. We can’t be abusin’ his immune power. We don’t know enough about how long it takes him to battle the dark back. It ain’t right-like.”

  “Are ye sure that be what ye’re really worried about, Viva?” Jagger murmured.

  Six pairs of eyes snapped to him. If Jagger was hoping to win her fathers over, he wasn’t going about it the healthy way.

  “I ain’t sure it’ll come to that,” the pirate added, seemingly unbothered by the blistering tension. “If a little taint in me could lessen the number able to get out, even with thirty bad comin’ in, the fact that five o’ us are tainted should be enough to control the sit’ation until we figure out how to get the parts and escape. If it ain’t, I can taint myself here and there.”

  Taint himself here and there?

  Did he even hear himself? He might be the immune, but the taint wasn’t something to toy with. Each time he caught it, he carried the scars from battling it back. Jagger would always recall the horrors of what he said and did during those times.

  “If I was those three or four pirates testin’ the entrance, I’d bolt away from Davy’s and never come back,” Stubby said.

  Peg-leg pursed his lips. “Aye, but ye ain’t controlled by the pillars. All o’ them, barrin’ Pockmark and Cannon, are gone to the taint.”

  Caspian shook his head. “Yes to all of that, but you’re not seeing my point. When we arrived, no one could get out. With more arrivals, two could. Then four. And now three, but tomorrow, maybe five will be able to get out.”

  “If we keep comin’ back to those same numbers, I’m leavin,” Locks said.

  “There are five of us who are tainted,” Caspian said. “If Jagger is rid of the taint soon, we won’t even need all five spots. We could escape the Locker. We could take those spots.”

  That shut everyone up well and good.

  Stubby scratched at his stubble. “Barrels, Caspian be much smarter than ye.”

  “I don’t see how that’s relevant,” Barrels spluttered.

  The prince’s cheeks reddened.

  “Just pointin’ it out,” Stubby replied. “If all this supposin’ be right—and I’m guessin’ that be a big if—then we’ve got the makin’s o’ a good plan. All that be left is to get the parts back.”

  Right.

  Ebba deflated. The parts. Her mind had already leaped to running through the entrance, sprinting down the rocky path, killing the Satyr, saving the female Capricorn, and freeing the realm.

  “If we leave and Davy Jones’ doesn’t burst open,” Plank said, arms folded, “then the parts would be trapped in here.”

  Peg-leg tutted. “We still need ‘em to be rid o’ the pillars out in the realm.”

  “True. And I guess this place will burst in time anyway.”

  Jagger shifted. “I’m thinkin’ Cannon holds the weapon parts below deck. It’d make sense. It ain’t a place we can easily venture. And close to him.”

  If he was about to say what she thought, he could go to Davy Jones’. Or stay here. Whatever.

  “Nay,” she said again.

  “It ain’t abusin’ my immunity if it be the only way,” he countered.

  He would go into Cannon’s hell ship over her dead body.

  Stubby said, “But what are ye talkin o’?”

  Ebba flung an arm wide, gesturing to Jagger. “He wants to go and get the root parts himself.”

  Stubby appeared to mull this over. “I’m okay with that.”

  Everyone but Plank and Caspian added their hearty agreement.

  “Uh.” Caspian drew out. “Only Ebba can pick up multiple parts. Well, if I’ve assumed correctly from what happened to Grubby. Regardless, we haven’t tested that theory, and this isn’t the time. Jagger would have to make six trips.”

  Jagger stood. “Then I best get started. Especially if we can be leavin’ in the next couple o’ days.”

  She blocked his way. “Nay, ye ain’t doin’ that. We need to think on it more.”

  He twirled one of her white dreads around his fingers, and she slapped his hand away.

  “Watch me, Viva. We’re gettin’ out of here.”

  As she bent her knees to leap at Jagger and physically stop him, someone began to clap—a slow, steady sound that stole all other noise from the ledge. A sarcastic applause that seized the very breath in her throat.

  Ebba whirled, one of Jagger’s arms drawing her back against him.

  Mutinous Cannon walked up the steps, joining them on their cave ledge. He didn’t stop his clapping until he was immediately before her.

  “My, my,” he said, smiling down at her. “What a lucky day for me.” Reaching into his sash, he drew out a piece of pale, folded seaweed.

  Ebba’s heart hammered as she took in the ink stains covering it. Matey had sent another note; the message just never reached them.

  “Ye’ve been keepin’ a fair share o’ secrets, it seems,” Cannon said, his tone gleeful. “Ye should know the pillars always find out. Esp’cially ye, Jagger.”

  Jagger’s grip tightened around her waist.

  How much had he heard? She didn’t dare utter a single word until he’d shown more of his hand.

  “Five o’ ye are tainted, did ye say?” he said, dispelling her small hope that he’d only heard the part about Jagger sneaking onto the ship.

  “Ye’ve put everythin’ together by yerself. Color me surprised,” he continued, head tipping to the stream in the distance. “Though ye had some inside help. Did I hear that Forge was over there? What an honor. I’ll be sure to visit him. Well, now the fish is out o’ the net, I’ll be tellin’ ye a few things more. I can’t
deny I’ve waited a good long time to do so.”

  Gone was Cannon’s restraint. He’d made a decision, and by the dread filling her boots, she knew the decision didn’t bode well for her crew.

  Fear now froze her to the spot.

  “More’n forty years ago,” he said, stalking through their midst, “I lay half-dead at the bottom o’ a cliff, an attempt to steal plunder gone awry. It was there that the pillars came to me after ten years o’ searchin’ the realm for a body. They said that if I accepted their help and lent my help in return, not only would they save me, but I would have unparalleled riches and power.”

  He was telling them how it all began? Ebba couldn’t deny her curiosity. She’d wondered too often about how the pillars managed to secure a foothold after being defeated once.

  “I accepted them into my body, and they saved me as promised. With their power and guidance, I rose through the pirate ranks and soon ruled the seas. I thought I’d reached the top after killin’ the king at the time, but his son declared war against all piratekind in revenge. And over the years, my power swelled until I was the last pirate left standin’ against that son, King Forge, in the Battle for the Seas. The pillars had offered me ultimate power, but danger was closin’ in on all sides. They needed time for their power to grow. To kill Montcroix for good, to kill the entire royal line, they needed an object. My masters showed this object to me at every wakin’ moment. A silver tube with a pearly sheen o’ the like I’d never seen.”

  Cannon placed his hands behind his back, eyes trailing over her fathers. “It took two years to track down where the tube was while battlin’ off and evadin’ the navy. And when I did find it, unable to risk leavin’ the ship in the midst of war, I sent six o’ my crew to collect it.”

  Ebba stilled. Six of his crew? He was talking about her fathers.

  “The six pirates betrayed me, taking the op’ortunity to flee with the treasure—as my masters then thought. Only in later years did they discover that wasn’t so. Instead o’ takin’ the purgium, the traitors took the child I’d ordered them to kidnap for bargainin’ power.”

  That was her. Ebba glanced at Stubby, and he answered with a grim look.

  Everything could’ve been so different if her fathers hadn’t run with her.

  “My masters were d’spleased with me,” Cannon said, face contorting. “I’d failed them. But they were willin’ to show mercy. One more chance. There was another object. One I succeeded in attainin’, though I lost half my remainin’ crew in the battle for it. But now I’d earned the pillars’ trust, and they told me more.”

  Sounded more like the pillars had strung him along from the start.

  “Regainin’ their power would take far longer than the battle would wage. And if they died within me, our efforts would be lost. The object I’d found would help them destroy all o’ my foes, but objects of immense power could be tracked by those of similar power. And those powers wanted the pillars destroyed. The power o’ the tube would give away their location and make them vulnerable, us vulnerable.”

  Ebba had always believed the pillars could drain the weapon parts, like how they drained Locks’ girlfriend, Verity, of her power; like they had to drain all immortals and mortal-immortal mixes. But now that she thought of it, that was an assumption. It sounded like the pillars could only collect the root parts when they became strong enough to defend themselves against the powers of oblivion. Giving up their location prior had posed too much risk.

  “There were six such parts, my masters told me. Six parts that formed a weapon o’ vast power. A weapon only one o’ immortal flesh could yield. The weapon belonged to them, stolen away long ago by three thieves.” Cannon’s eyes trailed over her, then to Jagger. Ebba followed his bloodshot gaze to Caspian.

  He knew who they were, not just Jagger. Fear trickled down her spine.

  “They’d already located other parts. One o’ the objects was with their ally, Medusa, in her lair. Another resided with Forge, a sword ripe for the takin’ whenever they gained enough power to take his throne. I had one part. The six o’ my trait’rous crew were thought to have another. And the other two objects were lost as o’ yet. Findin’ them was imperative, but the three watchers who defeated the pillars hundreds o’ years ago had taught my masters caution. They were not content to rely on just one plan. They knew if their enemies were to find three parts, they’d be led to the remainin’ parts already hidden by my masters.

  “I was given the honor of ensurin’ they could never be destroyed. I was to take the object in my pos’ession to a place where none o’ black heart could leave, and none o’ power and goodness would dare enter for fear of unleashin’ the damned on the realm. But I needed to die to enter such an abyss.”

  He’d definitely been swindled.

  Cannon’s mouth twisted as he spoke faster. “The pillars emptied the wisps o’ their beings from me to my son, leavin’ me only with the taint and not the insight o’ their minds. My son and his crew hid away on the pillars’ orders to wait out the wrath o’ King Forge against our kind. Playin’ my part, I lost the Battle for the Seas and ended up here, in the Locker with one o’ the six parts under my guard.”

  He had the sixth part. Ebba’s eyes widened.

  So thick was the tension that Jagger’s voice from behind nearly made her scream.

  “How do ye know what came to pass between then and now?” he asked. “How did ye know o’ our presence in the Dynami Sea? Some o’ what ye say could be from Pockmark, but not all.”

  Cannon studied him, and his eyes glinted. Ebba got the feeling that he really had waited decades to gloat. Or even just to say he’d lost the final battle on purpose. For a man who’d never lost, purposeful failure must’ve stung.

  Cannon answered, “Ye’re right. The pillars sent messages with the tainted who ended up here over the decades. The tainted arrivin’ spoke of Medusa bein’ thwarted; they spoke o’ a crew I was familiar with who’d collected most of the pieces.” He smiled. “Pockmark arrived and divulged their names, and I grew eager enough to meet ye that I made my own plans, usin’ the Satyr that had long been my servants on Medusa’s orders for a new purpose—to bring me the crew o’ Felicity. I would have my revenge on the pirates whose mutiny put me in here. I’d take the ultimate prize to my masters and receive all that I desired at long last.”

  “What do ye desire?” Jagger asked, voice low.

  “Have ye learned then, too, Jagger? That the key to controllin’ a man be through knowin’ his wants?” Cannon asked. “Ye seek to bring me down as I would ye if our sit’ations were reversed. Yet I own less of my will each day and so care less about petty ‘desires.’ Soon I’ll only know my masters’ wants. Either way, my desire is realized. I will finally be free o’ the Locker. There is no way I can lose.”

  “Ye and Pockmark be di’ferent from the others,” Plank said from her right.

  Cannon sneered. “Ye’ve paid att’ntion, Plank.” He didn’t offer any further answer.

  To her, Cannon and Pockmark both seemed more resistant to the taint. Where the other crewmates’ eyes were black, their eyes were yellowed and bloodshot. And yet Cannon had been in hell amongst tainted pirates for nearly twenty years.

  Did Cannon and his grandson have a natural resistance?

  Jagger was the only immune, but Ebba knew from her time on Malice that everyone succumbed to the taint in varying time. Some two days, some a week, some a month—like Verity.

  “What happened to yer son?” she asked, swallowing.

  Cannon fixed his attention on her, and she immediately regretted making a sound.

  “The pillars were weaker when with me, and I withstood them better. My son was theirs when my masters were still growin’ strong enough to leave a human body. He was lost to the taint and became useless within a matter o’ years. My masters ordered Pockmark to be rid o’ him and he ended up here with me,” he said.

  Was that part of why Cannon seemed to detest Pockmark more than any of the ot
hers? Because Pockmark killed his son?

  “Pockmark had the fortune o’ bein’ the pillars’ body when they were able to flood the ship as well as him. There wasn’t so much to take. My son be restrained below deck on the shipwreck. He often dissolves into the berserk rage o’ the taint—as ye saw Pockmark sink into not long ago. I can’t have the pirates here goin’ berserk, and I grew rather tired of wastin’ bullets on my son.”

  If it were anyone else, Ebba might feel sorry for Cannon. Preyed upon while dying and offered his life back. Swindled by a cohort of greater minds and powers. Fed upon and convinced to give up his life and reside in hell indefinitely, sacrificing his son’s soul in the doing. Made to believe he was in control at every turn.

  Ebba shoved away the pity. The state of the realm was past the point of pity. Cannon wouldn’t hesitate to end her life once her use ran dry. She couldn’t relax her hatred of him. A victim he might have been, but there was no going back to that day, over forty years ago, when he’d lain half-dead and made the wrong choice.

  Cannon’s yellowed eyes trailed over each of them in turn. “And now ye know all. Ye know yer lives have always been part o’ my masters’ plans, o’ my plans.”

  Is that how he saw it? What about her fathers’ choice to snatch her and run?

  “Pockmark,” Cannon bellowed, making her jerk.

  “Aye,” came the faint call from below.

  Cannon drew his pistol, and Ebba stopped breathing as he pointed the weapon directly between her eyes. “Fetch the purgium. I will get out o’ this hole. And we be havin’ some tainted guests I didn’t know about afore. I think a trip to the entrance will do them nicely.”

  Twenty

  If Ebba was honest, she’d hoped to walk back through the narrow crevice to the entrance under different circumstances. Not shuffling in a line led by Pockmark, Swindles, and Riot and backed by Mutinous Cannon. And with much more of an escape feel to the return journey rather than the creeping sensation she and her crew were squeezing between two cliff faces to their doom.