Storm Raven

by K Hanson

  “As amusing as that all was, I’m afraid that I can’t let that go unpunished,” he said.

  “Sure, take it out on me. Let’s get it over with.”

  “Take it out on you? I don’t know about that. You wouldn’t have run away if you were worried about possibly being killed. No, I think I need to punish you some other way.”

  He looked up and down the group of prisoners, then stopped and pointed at one of them. It was Jovan. “Bring him to me,” Erhan commanded.

  Nereyda started forward, but her escorts held her back. Despite her attempts to struggle free, their grasp remained firm.

  Erhan looked at her and smiled. “It looks like I made a good choice.”

  Two guards grabbed Jovan, who did not struggle, and guided him over to where Erhan and Nereyda stood.

  Erhan stepped up to look him in the face. “What’s your name boy?”

  “Jovan.”

  Jovan? Jovan what?”

  “Just Jovan.”

  “Well, Mr. Just Jovan, I have some bad news for you. You see, your captain here just sentenced you to death when she tried to run.”

  Jovan’s face turned pale, but he didn’t respond.

  Nereyda’s eyes widened in shock. She couldn’t believe what was happening. She cared about her whole crew, but the prospect of losing one of her best friends was more than she could take. “What? No. Why him? He didn’t do anything.”

  “I know. His only mistake was serving in your crew. You may be ready to die trying to escape, but I imagine that you aren’t so willing to let the members of your crew die on your behalf. At least, not if you’re any sort of captain at all.”

  “Come on. Kill me instead,” she insisted. “You know seeing their captain die would make the rest think twice about trying to escape.”

  “You may be right. But, I’ve made up my mind, and I know that this will have the same effect.” He turned toward Jovan and drew his sword.

  Nereyda, despite the chains at her ankles, stomped on the foot of one her guards, spun out of their grasp, and leapt between them. “No! You can’t kill him unless you kill me first.”

  Erhan chuckled. “Someday, maybe.” He grabbed her shoulders and shoved her to the side, sending her to the ground. “If you try to intervene again, I’ll find another one of your crew to punish.”

  Nereyda could only watch helplessly as Erhan approached Jovan and sank his blade into her friend’s stomach. He let out a gut-wrenching scream, blood pouring from his belly. When the commander drew his blade back out, Jovan collapsed to the ground, moaning in agony.

  “Finish it, you bastard,” said the captain.

  “No, I’d rather he bleed out like an animal in the streets. Then, as they walk by, your whole crew can see what you made me do. Now, fall back in line.”

  Nereyda remained frozen on the ground, helpless as her friend lay dying on the stone roadway.

  “I said, fall in line,” Erhan commanded.

  Her eyes shot daggers at the man as he stood over her. She shoved herself to her feet and shuffled back into the column. She didn’t have anything to say. She’d have to wait to get her revenge on this man who had murdered Jovan for no good reason. Nereyda slipped into the parade of prisoners and the march to the palace complex, and the dungeons beneath, resumed.

  Nereyda shuffled along the road in a daze, mindlessly following the crew member in front of her. Seeing Jovan cut down so swiftly and cruelly had made her situation all the more real. Before Erhan had killed him, Nereyda had seen her crew’s capture as just another challenge. Something she would inevitably figure out how to fix, then they’d ride off on the Storm Raven to open seas. With Jovan’s death, one of her closest friends was gone. Fixing the situation was no longer possible. Nereyda choked back the wave of emotion that wanted to flood her mind. She couldn’t break. Not yet. Not in front of Erhan and his minions. Not in front of her crew.

  Nereyda emerged from her mental haze as the procession reached a wall that rose four or five stories. A bronze gate with a carving of an eagle blocked the street. They stopped as Erhan walked up to the guards manning the gate. After he spoke a few words to them, one of them disappeared into the guardhouse. A moment later, the massive double doored gate squeaked open.

  Nereyda expected that this gate might lead them into the palace grounds, but she soon discovered that she was wrong. A hill rose from the wall to the palace grounds at the crest. The pirates and their escorts were now entering another part of the city, but they might as well have walked through the entrance to another world. Instead of a cramped sprawl of apartment and factory buildings, this district contained wide streets lined with large mansions. The shops reflected the change, as well, with tailors, jewelers, and restaurants that promised the finest delicacies from across the Empire and beyond. Like the slums outside the wall, the upper class also had brothels. They featured only discrete red doors at the entrance, but Nereyda could tell what they were by the furtive looks of the men walking into them.

  As the marines herded the column of prisoners down the center of the street, men in pressed suits and women in wide silk dresses walked along the edges of the road, and the occasional carriage rumbled past. Nobody gave the marines and pirates much more than a passing glance. The biggest reaction that Nereyda saw came from one woman who wrinkled up her nose as she glared at them.

  Nearing the palace grounds, full estates surrounded by lush green hedges and orchards sat just below the top of the hill. Each featured a golden gate, topped with a family crest. The Empire certainly took their social hierarchy literally.

  The palace wall stood at least sixty feet tall, and guard towers jutted upward at regular intervals. The main gate featured a gold eagle against a blue shield, all on a black background. The marines herded the prisoners to a small guard entrance in the wall. It did not surprise Nereyda that a bunch of pirates didn’t warrant a royal welcome. It took several minutes for all of the soldiers and prisoners to walk through the wall to the courtyard beyond.

  Once inside, Nereyda saw that the palace itself made even the largest estates they had passed seem like cottages. The red clay walls stretched hundreds of yards in each direction and stood one hundred feet tall. A gigantic dome topped the whole structure.

  The marines led them into a simple brick building, then down a long spiral staircase lined with torches. The bottom of the stairway opened into a corridor lined with cells and holding cages. Marines opened the holding cells and shoved the pirates into them. The cells were packed so full that the prisoners could only stand.

  Erhan himself grabbed Nereyda and dragged her to a small cell of her own.

  She dug her feet into the floor as he tried to shove her into the cell. “Put me with the rest of my crew,” she said.

  “No,” he said. “Get used to being separated from your crew. We’re not stupid enough to keep a captain with her people.”

  He tried to push her through the door, but she shook free of his grasp and held her ground.

  “Do I have to set another example for you?” He looked down the hallway. “Bring the first mate to me.”

  “Wait,” Nereyda held up her hands. “Wait. Fine, I’ll go in.” She shuffled into the cramped space.

  Erhan reached in and shoved her to the ground, then slammed the gate behind him. After locking it, he strode out of the cell block without looking back.

  The guards then tossed Brynja into the cell across from hers. Most of the marines soon left, and one of the guards that remained slammed shut an iron door that separated the hallway from the cells to the staircase.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Cold brick walls surrounded Nereyda’s cell on three sides. The bars that formed the wall with the door let her see into Brynja’s cell. Or, at least the part not shrouded in shadow. The only light came from a torch at the far end of the cell block, casting a low red glow down the length of the corridor. As she remained on the floor of the cell, Nereyda sat on the ground in silence, stewing over everything that had happ
ened.

  Failure sat in Nereyda’s gut as if she had swallowed an anchor. It was a strange feeling for her. Sure, there had been times when it had taken her a few tries to learn something or get something right. But total, abject failure like this? Never.

  She was the captain who always found a way out, who could navigate through any storm that the world threw her way. Not this time, though. As the captain, it was her fault that they were in this mess. First, she had taken an unnecessary risk attacking that merchant ship that was so valuable to the Empire. Then, her foolish escape attempt had gotten Jovan, her friend and a member of her crew, her family, killed.

  This wasn’t the first time she had lost someone in her time as captain. It came with the territory of being a pirate and fighting for everything that they took. In those instances, though, her crew chose to put themselves in danger. They were under no obligation to stay aboard the Storm Raven and could retire from the ship whenever they were stopped at a port. This time, though, it had been Jovan, her friend. He had only come along because Captain Flint burned his warehouse down to retaliate for something that Nereyda had done. Now, he was dead because of something else she had done.

  The guilt of causing his death and getting her crew into this mess hung heavy on her shoulders. She had gotten them into trouble, and it would be up to her to get them out. No matter what, she would take care of her family. For starters, that meant not wallowing in guilt and shame at what had happened. She needed to pick herself back up so that she could do the same for her crew, even if she had to fake it. Now wasn’t the time to let her emotions crush her.

  Nereyda sat across from Brynja at the bars of her cell. Somehow, their captors hadn’t thought to separate the captain from her first mate. It worked out for them, though. She waved to her friend to beckon her closer, and whispered, “I’m not sure what we’re going to do, Bryn. How are we going to get out of this?”

  Despite the outward appearance of confidence that Nereyda projected to her crew, doubts about what would happen next filled her. Part of the reason that she had chosen Bryn as her first mate was that Nereyda always felt she could confide in her. Brynja had been like an older sister to her. She also knew that Brynja felt a little bit jealous of her younger sister surpassing her to become captain, even though she never showed it or let it affect how she carried out her duties.

  “Hey, don’t blame yourself for this,” said Brynja. “It’s the risk we run for doing this, for being pirates.”

  “You’re right, I know. I just hate sitting here, not being able to do anything. I’m always used to taking the wheel and getting us through any storm.”

  “Some storms don’t let you take control. Sometimes, you just have to ride them out and hope for the best.”

  “You know I hate waiting. If I want something, I make it happen.”

  “And that makes you a great captain for us, but it won’t do us any good now to try something before we’re ready and have a good chance.”

  “We just have to hope an opportunity comes along.”

  “It will. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?”

  “I can think of one time,” Nereyda smiled.

  “Oh?” asked Brynja with a confused look.

  “What about that time when you told me to look for barrel extenders?” She hoped that talking about a happier time would take them away from the dungeon, at least for a moment. “I asked half the crew, each of them sending me to somewhere or someone else, before I figured out that you were tricking me.”

  “Oh yeah, that.” Brynja laughed, but the sound died in her throat.

  Nereyda’s smile fell, and her mind returned to the dungeon. She pushed herself to her feet to speak to her crew. Even though she couldn’t see them through the brick walls that surrounded her, she knew they were there and that they’d hear her. She didn’t care if the guards got upset.

  “Crew, I know that everything that happened looks bad. And I have no idea what will happen at our trial tomorrow. But, what I do know, is that we’ll get out of this together. After all, that’s what we do. We always find a way to bullshit our way out of trouble. I alone am responsible for us being here, and as your captain, I promise to find a way out.”

  She heard someone else groan and walk to the bars of one of the holding cells. “No, it isn’t your fault, Nereyda,” said Elvar’s voice.

  “Yes. Yes, it is. I knew the risks when attacking that merchant ship and ignored them. And I got Jovan killed when I tried to run.”

  “We all knew what we were doing when we left Freyport. Anyone who didn’t want to take the risk of attacking that ship could have stayed behind. We always know what can happen. And that commander killed Jovan, not you.”

  No matter what Brynja or Elvar said, she would still blame herself, but it was a waste of time to argue with the others about it. “And for that, I will kill that Erhan, someday. It might get me killed to try, but it’d be worth it.”

  “So, captain, what do we do?”

  “For now, we wait. We need to see what happens at the trial and where they decide to send us. If we’re together, we can figure out a way to escape.”

  “I’ve heard that they send pirates to the mines,” said one of the younger crew members. “Nobody escapes the mines. That’s where all of the prisoners went after the war with Stalsta.”

  “I know what they say about the mines. But they haven’t tried to keep us locked inside. We’ll get out, I promise you that.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because we’re pirates, and we do what we want.”

  “All right,” said one of the guards from down the hall. He let out a low chuckle. “That’s enough chatter.”

  “You’re welcome to step into this cell and see if you can make me quiet.”

  The guard walked through the cell block and stopped in front of Nereyda’s cell. “With a mouth like that, you’ll spend most of your time at the mines in the deep cells.”

  “Deep cells? What are those?”

  He leaned closer. “They’re cells in the deepest part of the mine, smaller than the cell you’re in now and pitch black. Alone in the darkness, anyone who doesn’t die goes mad.”

  “What’s the point of that? Doesn’t it take people away from your important work of mining them to death?”

  “The point is to keep all of the miners in line. There needs to be some sort of punishment. Now, stop your jabbering and settle down. Your trial will be soon enough.”

  ---

  Once again, marines clapped Nereyda and her crew in iron cuffs before escorting the pirates from their cells. Nereyda heard the echoes of footsteps and clanging chains ringing off of the stone walls as they trudged out of the dungeon. The guards led them up a tall spiral staircase until they emerged in a large hall.

  As the pirate captain looked around the room, light streaming in from tall windows lit the space. It appeared that they were entering in a rear corner of the room. Rows of finely sculpted wooden benches occupied most of the length of the chamber. At the front of the room, on the other end, a high platform featured three ornate judge’s benches. Each bench was occupied by a man in regal blue robes.

  The marines led the pirates across the length of the chamber, stopping before the judge’s benches. Nereyda stood right in front of the center judge, her crew beside and behind her. The large center double doors at the rear of the chamber groaned open. Nereyda turned to see who joined them. As she expected, she watched Commander Erhan stride into the chamber. He walked around the group of assembled pirates and took a position on the left side of the room.

  As she approached the benches, she recognized the judge in the center as the father of the noble boy she had amused herself with on the cruise ship. High Judge Aydin, apparently in charge of the trial, spoke up, his voice projecting throughout the room, “Captain Nereyda, I do believe we’ve had the pleasure of meeting before.” His mouth had a hint of a smile for a second before his expression turned stony. “Now that both the accus
ed and the arresting officer have arrived, we can begin. All present will now kneel before the might of the Cambisian Empire.”

  Erhan dropped to one knee and bowed his head toward the judges. The marines followed suit. Nereyda remained standing, and her crew followed her lead.

  “The accused will kneel or face additional charges,” said the judge.

  Nereyda just shrugged her shoulders and spat on the ground.

  “Very well. Nereyda and the crew of the Storm Raven, you have been accused of conducting piracy in the territorial waters of the Cambisian Empire, terrorizing citizens of the Cambisian Empire, attacking a vessel conducting business for the Cambisian Empire, and possession of a vessel without the proper registration. The full crew of the Storm Raven is also now accused of failing to show proper respect to the Empire. Captain Nereyda, you are additionally accused of showing blatant disrespect to the Cambisian Empire. The arresting officer, Commander Erhan, is present and will also serve as the Empire’s key witness of these crimes. Commander, please present your testimony to the court. Also, as a personal note, I greatly appreciate that you made it a priority to apprehend this particular pirate.”

  Erhan stepped forward from his position in the corner. “Thank you, your honor. After hearing about your encounter with Nereyda, I made it my primary mission to capture her. Not long after that, I captured one Captain Flint, apparently a rival to the accused here. It took little to persuade him to leak information to her regarding a shipment of double forged steel. Then, —”

  “Wait,” said Nereyda, “Flint dropped that map because you gave it to him?”

  Erhan gave her a smug smile. “Of course.” He returned his attention to the judges. “As I was saying, I placed myself and my men aboard the merchant ship that was set to carry that cargo. It just so happened that Nereyda and the Storm Raven took the bait. After they boarded and seized the ship, my men and I emerged from our stations in the hold. We were able to successfully capture both the boarding party and the crew that had remained on the pirates’ vessel. We then brought them directly here for trial and subsequent punishment.”