Chronicles of the Dragon Pirate (51 page)

“What if I accept your gift yet still turn against you? What will you do then?”

Olde Roger only shook his head. “Dear captain, in your new state you will still mostly look like a man and reason the same, but you will lust after blood, rivers of red running down the deck of your new ship, and I fear my gentlemen monsters will not inspire you the way mortal men and women will. I am not trying to trick you: I will give you the freedom to rape and reave your way up and down the coasts of every land and every nation, without any means of controlling you, and the golem will let you add to your crew as you will until there are no more cities to sack and mankind is cringing in their huts, afraid to rebuild lest the reavers return.”

Master Khan asked, “What will you do when the game is over, and you have won?”

“Die,” Olde Roger replied, “as will all my gentlemen monsters with me.” He smiled at our surprised looks. “I designed them to expire the very moment I feel death’s welcoming embrace. I am over the age when my people usually choose to end their lives rather than suffer the indignities of old age, but I will endure the ravages of time until I see the end of my task, content in the knowledge that mankind will go on as it should have done all along.”

“And when man has become too fearful to rebuild,” Master Khan said quietly, “you will have no more use for reaving pirates dependent upon an Artifact golem to make them potions, yes? So the golem will make no more potions.”

“The golem will shut down,” Olde Roger replied. “By that time the Shadowmen will only be a legend and the pirates only a shadow of the band they once were, and I imagine they will welcome death.” He gave Master Khan an appreciative look. “Elder, I would enjoy spending time speaking with you. When your captain makes the right choice, I will spare you at least long enough so we may talk...”

Master Khan took the edges of his cowl and drew it back, Olde Roger pausing as he beheld Master Khan’s face. I gasped. From the back I saw the old man’s head was a mass of scarred flesh without a single strand of hair. He turned in my direction and I gasped again, for his face was the same, only his mouth and chin untouched. But strangest of all were the gaping holes where his eyes had been. He turned back towards Olde Roger. “If the captain and crew accept your offer then the Blackjack Davy will be destroyed or abandoned, yet it has been my home for many years. I will remain with her.”

“As you will,” Olde Roger said, turning towards Captain Hawkins. “What is your decision, dear captain?”

“Every man of the crew will make his own,” Captain Hawkins replied, “just as we have always done. Those who accept your offer will return here, those who don’t will remain aboard ship. If...I am not one of them then they may choose a new captain and do as they will,” his face troubled a moment before becoming its stern mask again as he folded his arms across his chest. “Am I clear?”

Olde Roger chuckled. “As always,” he said before turning towards Victoria. “Return to dear Captain Thorne and relay all that has transpired.” Victoria gave him a deep curtsey, remaining down as Olde Roger raised his hand in an imperial wave as he moved in a circle one last time. “Make your decision a wise one. Good luck and good hunting!” He stopped in front of me, his face growing sad a moment before he spoke a few words in his guttural language and his image vanished.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the metallic cube in Arabella’s hands went dark, the Shadowhunter tossing it back to the shape-changer. Victoria caught it and rose to her feet. “Captain Cholula, Captain Thorne and the rest of his brother captains send their regards, and swear they will not fire their great cannons at the Sea Witch for any reason. They do invite you to attempt boarding their ships any time you would care to do so, however. I believe they have a gentlemen’s bet over who will be the first to tame you once you are captured.”

Captain Cholula barked out a laugh. “They’re welcome to try. Go fly to your master and tell him I’ll make him regret his offer the first chance I get.”

Victoria inclined her head. “If it pleases you, I shall save my strength and walk. Come, Terence.” She turned and began to walk away as the beast-man rose to his feet and went to follow. But then he turned back, his gaze on Pepper as Victoria looked over her shoulder. “Terence!” He cringed at the sharpness in her voice, turned, and bounded after her, his gait more like an upright wolf’s than a man.

The crew had begun talking amongst themselves in angry tones, but they quieted as Captain Hawkins raised his voice. “Save it for the ship’s meeting. Jean, lead them back to the Davy and I’ll be along in a minute.” Master Le’Vass gave him a look promising painful revenge, and I felt a stab of fear for the captain as the quartermaster motioned for the crew to follow him. But Captain Hawkins seemed oblivious to the danger as he turned towards Captain Cholula. “I’m not releasing Tomas until we’re back aboard ship. He’s going to decide his own fate, not you.”

Captain Cholula snapped, “I won’t see him sent to his death.”

“It’s his choice,” Captain Hawkins’s hand on the hilt of his white sword. “If you wish to contest the matter we can settle it right now, captain to captain.”

For a moment she looked as if she’d accept his challenge and Karl stepped in front of her, crossing his arms over his chest. Captain Cholula gave him a sour look. “I’m not about to sacrifice everything I’ve fought for. Hawkins, we will return to the Sea Witch and sail her back to Haven at once, where I’ll expect to find Tomas.” She looked at Arabella. “Will there be time enough before Olde Roger releases his savages?”

“They will head for the other side of the island before they return to devour Haven, or so Olde Roger informed me.”

Captain Cholula gave her a narrow-eyed look. “Sometimes I wonder which side you’re actually on.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Red-dog, stay with Tomas and help keep him alive.” The largest of the wolf-golems nodded and walked over to where I was standing, its Artifact paws making tapping sounds on the rock floor as she turned towards Captain Hawkins again. “She’s torn between loyalty to me and to Draco Dominus, so this should help ease her mind, since both sides want him. Too-Tall, get the men back to the ship. Quick march.”

“Aye, captain,” the tall African getting her men in ragged formation and marching back the way they’d come.

Captain Cholula fell in with him as Karl looked back at Arabella. “Coming?”

“I will catch up to you,” she replied.

“Don’t be long,” he growled, and followed them, his fast strides quickly catching up to Captain Cholula as they marched away down the grey-stone road.

Arabella turned back to Captain Hawkins, who was giving her a look cold as a stone statue, and she made an exasperated sound. “Harry, I would see you live. Do you know who I am, or must I spell it out?”

“I knew who you were the moment I laid eyes upon you.” Arabella stared at him in shock and he gave her a bitter smile. “I may have no memories but I do dream, and yours is the face I see in them...at least, when they’re not my usual nightmares.” His face softened as he reached out to stroke her cheek with a gentle touch of his thumb. “After the dragon-ghost named Storm healed my head wound I was brought before Sir Francis. He already knew my name, telling me the ship’s company had too many Henrys, so would I mind being called Harry instead? Not knowing who I was I agreed, but,” he added with a frown, “I’ve always wondered how he knew who I was when I didn’t.”

“Bill knew,” Arabella replied, her face full of a dark hunger as she looked to where Black Pox Bill was still standing next to Mr. Smith, who seemed to be keeping the Shadowman under guard. “I told him all about you when I was begging for my life, so many years ago. Mr. Smith, pray bring him here so I may finally have my revenge upon him.”

“I ain’t going anywhere near ye,” Bill snarled at her. A moment later Mr. Smith seized him by the arm and dragged him towards Arabella and the captain, the Shadowman unable to break his grip as Bill’s cracked and crumbling boots scuffed the stone floor. Mr. Smith reached them and threw Black Pox Bill at Arabella’s feet. Mr. Smith stared down at the Shadowman in silent contempt as he spewed insults up at the large African for a few moments before turning his gaze on Arabella. “What’re ye going to do?”

“Cure you of the black pox then return you to being human again.” Bill gave her a look of disbelief and she added, “I am a Dragon, which means I am unable to lie. I will do both.”

“Yer up to something; Olde Bill knows rotten fish when he smells it.”

“There are enough strong men here to hold you down while I cure you,” Arabella motioning towards Mr. Smith and Redbeard, who’d lingered to watch. “So it is your choice: agree to be cured or be held down while it is done.”

Bill looked around at the unfriendly faces surrounding him and his face turned sullen. “Aye, Olde Bill sees who his true friends are after all he tried to do for ye. Well, go ahead.”

Reaching into the pouch at her belt, Arabella pulled out a metallic looking Artifact that resembled a grey goose quill, feathers and all, but its shaft was glowing an ominous green. “I need to stab each of your pox nodules with this, so they may be transmuted into something else. They will not bleed or cause bad humors to enter your body.” She held it up. “Are you ready?” Bill gave her a way nod and she stabbed the large one on his face with the pointed tip of the Artifact. She withdrew the quill and moved on to a nodule at his neck as the black pox nodule she’d stabbed began to glow.

She had Bill remove his shirt and trousers, and I winced when I saw how the nodules had clustered around his the area between his legs, turning it into black, misshapen flesh. Arabella didn’t hesitate or be offended but stabbed them all, until every black area on Bill’s body glowed with a greenish tinge. Suddenly the one on his face began to quiver. Everyone took a few steps away as the pox nodule seemed to come to life on his face, the mass of flesh slithering out of the depression it had formed in Bill’s face and dropping to the stone floor with a wet smack. Bill froze in horror as the rest of his pox nodules did the same, until he was surrounded by quivering mounds of black flesh. Then he got a strange expression as his hand went to his face. Where the pox nodule had been there was now a depression in his cheek, as there was where all the others had been, the member between his legs now almost non-existent. “What have ye done to Olde Bill?”

Arabella smiled. “Pray forgive my omission to tell you that when the nodules leave, your normal flesh does not return. At least this way you do not bleed to death, as you would had I returned you to being human again first. Now, let us accomplish the second part.” Arabella took the quill by its feathered end and ran one finger along it in a deliberate way. The shaft of the quill glowed red for a moment, as if she’d put a piece of steel in a hot fire and left it there, before it returned to its normal metallic color. Arabella gave me a sardonic smile. “A cleansing procedure to make sure I do not give myself the black pox by accident.” She held the quill over a blood vessel in her arm then stabbed it, keeping the shaft in place a few moments before pulling it back out. Her arm bled freely for a moment before it began to slow, but she ignored it as she held it up in front of Bill, who’d taken the time to put his dark leather trousers back on. She smiled again. “This is going to hurt.”

Arabella stabbed Bill hard in the chest where his heart lay. Bill gasped and dropped to his knees as Arabella pulled it out again, making the quill go red for a moment before putting it away. “As my master’s blood transformed me so I now transform you. It will take time, but by the time the beast-men are ravaging the island you should be fully human again.”

Captain Hawkins folded his arms over his chest. “Is that how you mean to have your revenge, by letting Olde Roger’s creatures have him?”

The hungry smile returned to Arabella’s face. “Oh no, my revenge goes much deeper than that.” She turned towards the darkness where the gate I’d passed through was and raised her voice. “Madonna, it is time.” She turned back towards us. “Pray stay your anger until you see how my revenge plays out. I think you will find there is nothing you can do to her worse than what she will do to herself.”

From the darkness I heard the soft patter of footsteps, and a moment later a young woman stepped into the light, quailing as Redbeard roared, “That be the little traitor of Bill’s!”

Arabella strode over to where the girl, comely but for her long broken nose and still wearing a ragged dress, looked on the verge of fleeing. Arabella whispered in her ear as Pepper got in front of Redbeard and did the same, Captain Hawkins motioning for me and Jeremiah to hold our positions as Master Khan moved to stand beside us as well. Redbeard and Pepper moved back to where we stood as did Mr. Smith, while Arabella and the traitor girl walked towards the place where Bill still knelt in pain. Arabella faced us. “My friend has taken the name Thomas Tew gave her, Madonna of the Isles...but she is to become a dark one.”

To our horror, the girl knelt down beside the still quivering nodules and, without a moment’s hesitation, picked one of them up and held it to her mouth. She closed her eyes as it slid down her throat, and Pepper spoke for all of us as she said in a horrified voice, “Kyrie eleyson, what’s she doing?”

Arabella had walked up beside the girl and now put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Only the first one is hard; after it takes hold, you will be eager to consume the rest.” The girl nodded with her hand to her mouth as if willfully keeping it down, as Arabella turned back towards us. “She was Bill’s pet back in Freehold, and when I arrived and eventually opened my heart to her, she begged me to become the agent of my revenge not only upon Bill, but the Shadowmen as well.” The girl took her hands away from her mouth, smiling as she reached for the next quivering nodule and swallowed it, eager as a child gobbling sweets as Arabella continued. “The transmuted nodules will transform the Dark Madonna into something that looks human on the outside but in truth is not even close. As the black pox consumes humans so will she, but because the nodules came from a Shadowman she will crave their flesh as well.”