by Travis Bughi
The tricky part was slipping off the handcuffs.
For this, she still had a grand advantage. Unlike those of many of the pirates’ prisoners, her hands were smaller than her wrists. She could, with some effort, usually slip them out of the handcuffs, no matter which pair they used.
They used the hinged pair this time. It seemed they’d gotten tired of trying with the chain or the rigid bar ones. Emily flexed her hands and smiled. Once again, the cuffs had been designed for someone just slightly bigger than her. She positioned her body for leverage and began working her way free.
All of this during her birthday, she just couldn’t believe it.
Emily worked the cuffs down her wrists and then slid her hands through. Slowly but surely, she twisted and flexed her muscles till she could loosen the ropes off of her arms as well. Once those were free, she sat up and feverishly worked to cast off the rope that had been used on her legs.
Faster, she thought. She was running out of time.
She threw the rope off and was finally relieved of her restraints. She was not yet free, though. She was still locked in a cell made of vertical iron bars. It allowed her captors to see what she was doing without permitting her to escape, but it had one major flaw: she could reach the lock that held it closed.
Emily looked up to the door leading out again. She listened for the sound of footsteps but heard none so decided to continue. In the darkness, she felt for and found the lock. Then, she reached up into her hair and pulled out two pins: one was a twisted L-shaped torsion bar and the other was a pick.
She reached both up towards the lock and began working the insides of the mechanical device slowly but surely. This was a new lock to her; she hadn’t been in this cage before, which meant it was going to take a bit of time.
Despite her knowledge of this, she marveled in the darkness at what she was now capable of doing. She had scarcely seen more than a couple of locks her entire life until she was sixteen, yet now she was able to open simple ones without a key. It was shocking but also gave her confidence. A moment later she felt the last pin slide into place and turned her torsion bar.
The door opened.
“Yes,” she grinned.
Emily put her lock picking tools back into her hair before opening the door slowly. She made sure to lift up a bit on the metal bars to minimize any squeaking of metal on metal. It worked, and she crept toward the door leading out of the tiny hold.
At the door, she stopped and spent another thorough second listening. Nothing. She reached up and cracked open the entryway. As usual, it was unlocked, and also unsurprisingly, there was no one outside.
She exited out of the darkness and into the bowels of the ship. She was in the forward-most part of the hull, beneath the waterline, and thankfully close to where her gear would be stored. Time was ticking, she didn’t have much of it left, and there wouldn’t be another chance to get it right. She crept forward, crouching low and spreading out her weight to reduce any creaking of wood from her movements.
She was in the cargo area now, sneaking from crate to barrel. Some were filled with food, some with water, and some with gunpowder for the cannons. She expected the area to be empty of pirates—at this time, nearly everyone would be up top on the main deck—but she didn’t like to take chances and so stuck to stealth.
Among the cargo, she found the armory stocked with cutlasses, daggers, grappling hooks, boarding axes, bucklers, and cannonballs. There were a treantwood bow, a quiver of arrows, and an amazon hunting knife thrown carelessly into a corner. She snatched them up and breathed a sigh of relief. She always hated being apart from her weapons. She strung the bow, tested the string, and was pleased at the result.
Now properly armed, she crept toward the hatch leading to the main deck. Once underneath it, she looked through the cracks in the wood and saw the sunlight piercing through uninterrupted. That gave her a strong indication that no one was standing on it. She edged it open, making sure to be easy about it, and then shifted one eye up to peer through the crack.
The bright sunlight blinded her for a moment, especially after spending so much time in the hold, but she blinked away the disorientation. With a quick scan, she determined her target wasn’t watching. She lifted up the hatch and crawled out, easing it closed behind her.
She was now on the main deck of the ship. Around her, the wind whipped against her skin. It felt grand, and the fresh air blew away the musky scent of the hull from her nostrils. She breathed in deeply before looking out to inspect her surroundings.
The pirate ship was not unlike most other vessels. Sized to carry about two dozen people, The Greedy Barnacle had two white sails that were currently unfurled and full of wind, one rowboat called a ‘launch’ that sat in the center between the two masts, and a crew comprised of twenty men and two women. The aft end of the ship housed the Captain’s quarters, and above that was the wheel that controlled the rudder.
Armed to disable merchant ships by destroying their masts, The Greedy Barnacle was equipped with four four-pounder cannons—named so by weight of the iron cannonballs they could shoot. There were two on each side of the ship, and each took about three men to operate. They were loud and had scared Emily half to death when she’d heard them fired for the first time.
No one was manning the cannons now. The crew was just going about, running through the motions of everyday life at sea. Some were securing the rigging, others mopping the deck or pumping out the water that inevitably finds its way into all ships, but most were leaning against the railing, peering out into the distance towards the ship’s next destination.
Among those pirates, Emily recognized the plump figure of Captain Mosley. This was his ship, his crew, and it was his orders that had sent her into the hold handcuffed and tied. He was taller than most but still had a bit of belly fat that flapped out and over his belt. Unlike most of his wiry, muscled crew, the Captain didn’t spend his time climbing up and down the rigging all day, so his figure was easily discernible, even at a distance.
Besides that, his hat was a dead giveaway. Large and elaborately made, the single feather adorning its side accented well the jewels embroidered into it. These jewels were comparable in size to the ones he’d braided into his hair and goatee, which were small in comparison to the heavy rings that hung on his every finger.
Exposing such wealth was typical for pirates. They were migratory creatures, shifting wherever the winds may take them. As such, they carried their wealth on their bodies. However, that wasn’t why Mosley displayed such gems. For him, they advertised his vast success as a pirate captain.
And Emily was looking at one such item now: Mosley’s coin purse. It hung from his waist, tied to the belt, which seemed barely adequate to hold up his trousers. The purse was full and looked heavy, laden with its rich burden.
Emily licked her lips and crept forward.
Captain Mosley was leaning against the railing of the ship alongside several of his crew mates. They all had their backs to her, and she stepped toward them cautiously. She had to be careful, because, just as below, every wooden plank was a moment away from creaking. Her only advantage now was that the top deck was a storm of noise. Wind howling, voices yelling and shouting, waves crashing, rope creaking, and footsteps thumping—all collided against each other throughout the day and even at night. Emily could afford to make a false step here, but she would avoid it if possible.
Another step forward and still no noise. She was two paces from the Captain now, and the other pirates were beginning to take notice of her.
One up on the rigging had stopped what he was doing. He laid on the ropes like they were a hammock and looked on eagerly. Two moving a crate into the Captain’s cabin paused to watch what would happen. One on the end of the line next to Mosley turned his head to catch a glimpse. Three playing a game of ball and jacks hesitated at their next move to look up.
Emily frowned at them all and glared until they went back to what they were doing.
With that nuisance gone, she closed the distance between her and Mosley. She reached out a steady hand and held her breath.
Two hand’s width away. . .
Her other hand pulled out her hunting knife.
One hand’s width away. . .
She lunged, grabbed the thick coin purse, and tugged. Her other hand arrived less than a moment later to slash against the taut strings. The purse was cut free, and Emily retracted her hand and turned to run.
Just as she did so, Mosley turned on her. She pushed off the wood to fling herself forward but Mosley’s strong grip on her leather vest prevented her escape. He kicked with one foot against her heel, sliding her foot out from under her, and then thrust down with his hand. Emily’s back collided with the deck.
As she fell, she dropped the coin purse. But Mosley caught it in the air with his other hand before it could hit the ground and loose its contents upon the world.
Emily sighed as she looked up into Mosley’s sun-wrinkled face.
“That was damn good, lass,” he said, smiling. “Damn good.”
Emily smiled back as Mosley let her go and offered a hand to help her up. She declined it and stood on her own, brushing off her back and checking her bow and quiver. She was glad to find her equipment unharmed and took a knee to unstring her bow. The pirates around her fell back into their chores or returned to their gazes.
“You got out of that fast,” Mosley said. “You haven’t picked that lock before. How lucky did you get?”
“Not too lucky,” she waved the comment off. “All your locks are pretty similar actually.”
“Ha! I suppose you’re right. You told me you were eager to learn, but, by the sea, girl, you sprout new skills like a hydra gains heads!”
Emily chuckled and blushed a bit at the compliment.
“Well, I guess,” she shrugged. “It’s not like I had much of an option, though. You threw me into a cell on the first day, remember?”
“Ah, yes,” the Captain recalled. “I did do that, didn’t I? Eh, it’s the pirates’ life, love. Sink or swim is how we do it, and you float pretty damn well. Those new cuffs didn’t even give you any trouble at all, did they?”
She grinned and shook her head. Mosley patted the pirate next to him, a man named Lonzo, who turned around.
“Don’t know what you expected, Captain,” Lonzo offered, having obviously overheard. “I did as the First Mate told me; I put them on tight as I could. It’s the smallest pair we got. We don’t carry chains for children. That’s the last pair I had. I swear. I’d say she’s pretty much trained.”
“Hey,” Emily narrowed an eyebrow. “I’m not a child anymore. I’m seventeen now.”
“So you’ve told me,” Mosley said. “And that’s why I had you locked up. I had to stall you for a little bit while I prepared your birthday present.”
Emily’s eyes popped open, and her lips parted in surprise.
“You got me a present? Out here?”
“Yes, I did.” The Captain winked and then gestured out to sea to where all the pirates were staring. “Take a look.”
Chapter 2
One year ago Emily’s entire world had changed.
Up until age sixteen, Emily, a simple farmer’s daughter with a big dream and no way of accomplishing it, had desperately wanted to see the world at large but had lacked the tools and knowledge to do so. Then her grandmother, Chara, an amazon from Themiscyra, had come along, and nothing was ever the same again.
Emily left to become an amazon. She learned to shoot a bow, make arrows, fight with a knife, and survive on her own. She traded her farming pants, linen shirt, straw hat, and closed-toe shoes for the amazon studded-leather skirt, vest, and sandals that she wore today, just as she still kept her hair cut short, never growing it lower than her shoulders.
She’d traveled to the grand city of Lucifan, through the Forest of Angor, and across the entire length the Great Plains, and, in each place, she’d seen more creatures than she thought could ever exist.
She’d made a lot of new friends along the way, including one especially dear friend named Adelpha, though she’d left them all behind nearly half a year ago. Emily had also left her mother, father, and her older brother. It had been difficult saying goodbye to them. Up until she was sixteen, they were the only family and friends she’d ever had, and she loved them dearly.
Emily had a younger brother, too, named Nicholas, but after she left to become an amazon, he ran away from home to make it on his own, and no one had heard from him since. Sometimes at night, she feared that something terrible had happened to him. At any and every opportunity she got, she would bring him up, hoping that someone had seen him and that one day she’d find her lost brother in this grand, huge world.
That wasn’t why Emily was on this pirate ship now, though. She had another, darker reason for making the journey across the sea. While she’d been in Themiscyra, a traitorous amazon named Heliena had killed Emily’s grandmother and then had tried to kill Emily using basilisk poison, which was a substance so deadly it could kill immortals. Emily had been saved when an angel, Quartus, had sacrificed his life for hers. She’d sworn to him that she would track down Heliena, and now she was on the path to do just that.
Emily had bargained for a ride on this pirate ship, and the captain had agreed to take her as far as Savara, the grand desert between Juatwa and Lucifan. They were almost there—perhaps only a few weeks out—and Emily was getting more eager by the day. She loved new things, new people, and especially new places. Captain Mosley had been more than gracious to teach her, imparting his knowledge of picking pockets, escaping restraints, lock picking, and sleight of hand. He taught her about sailing and the creatures of the sea, and she listened and learned with a voracious appetite.
That was one of the reasons Mosley had such a difficult time hiding her birthday present. He needed her to disappear for a while, so he had her thrown in the hold to practice her new roguish skills. It was his only option because the intended gift was a sight that was difficult to miss.
As the Captain stepped out of the way, Emily looked past him and out to sea at something she’d only ever heard about: a kraken.
It was absolutely massive. She could only see the upper half of its head, and yet that area alone was the size of a small island, easily one hundred times bigger than the ship, big enough to fit an entire farm on it. It was bigger than the biggest creature or thing Emily had ever seen or even imagined. Her jaw dropped and her heart began to race. With eyes wide open, she strode toward the railing to marvel at the magnificence before her.
The kraken was in a deep slumber just beneath the surface of the water. Despite its massive size, the majority of its body floated below the surface. Its skin was scaly and brown but had splashes of grey and streaks of green and purple along its massive head. The skin above where the waves could touch appeared to have dried and hardened in the sunlight.
This detail was visible even though they were still a few minutes away from it. Emily leaned against the wooden railing alongside Lonzo and continued to gaze out in wonderment, picturing the creature as it had been described to her.
The top that she saw was just one part of a massive head that was also the kraken’s body—a large globe-like structure that was squishy and bendable. Krakens didn’t have bones like most creatures Emily knew of, and their skin was so thick that they didn’t need them anyway. At the bottom of the head, its mouth would open like a crater full of ship-sized teeth. It was said that if a kraken flipped over and opened its mouth, the water would be sucked in so fast that it would drag ships toward it from miles around. Somewhere on either side of that head were two eyes. They would be massive ovals, longer on their long side than a full-height minotaur. Emily pictured one in her mind—the purple colored iris with a black, hourglass shaped pupil, just like the one she’d seen on a sign outside a tavern called The Kraken’s Eye back in Lucifan.
Beneath that massive head and between the mouth and eyes would be eight long
tentacles spanning out into the distance in a star pattern. They would start as massive pillars and taper consistently till they ended in tiny tips. Emily traced the water with her eyes, trying to see one of the tentacles, when Lonzo nudged her arm. She looked at him, and he pointed straight down the side of the ship.
Emily leaned over and beneath the ship saw a massive, dark-brown tentacle, which was easily the size of the large trees she’d seen in the Forest of Angor. She gasped and jumped in fright, shocked to find that the kraken’s limbs stretched this far. Lonzo laughed and turned back to look at the kraken.
“By the angels,” Emily exclaimed. “Is it safe to be this close?”
“Ah, we’re in no more trouble than normal, believe it or not, little lady.” Lonzo smiled. “These things can lay asleep for up to a year so long as nothing disturbs them. They go on huge eating sprees, devouring entire schools of leviathans, killing even hydras if they find any, until they get their fill. Then they go back to hibernating. You can tell this one’s still got a ways to go because of its head. Only just beginning to harden, this one. I’d say it ain’t been out here more than a few months, maybe half a year at most.”
“When was it spotted?” Emily asked.
“Saw it myself this very morning at first light,” Mosley spoke up, placing his hands on his hip. “Saw it through the spyglass and had you thrown into the hold the moment you were up. What do you think, love?”
“It’s amazing,” Emily said, her voice heavy with awe.
“I knew you’d like it,” Mosley smiled.
Emily noticed that despite the wind blowing strong, the ship had stopped moving, and the crew was hard at work making sure it stayed that way. She looked out at the kraken again and then back to the Captain.
“So, why are we this close to it?” Emily asked. “You could have just shown me it through the spyglass, so what are we doing here?”