The Devil's Fire (33 page)

"Then the boy will hang," said Hornigold.

She looked to the bay. Her gaze was impossibly distant, as though her vision stretched beyond the horizon and sailed the curve all the way to the end of the world. A single strand of hair trailed in front of her face, swaying gently, and she made no attempt to remove it. Hornigold followed her gaze to the horizon and found a gray patch of clouds that he hadn’t noticed only moments ago. The clouds appeared small from this great distance, but were densely packed and ominously dark. He couldn’t be sure if they were approaching or diminishing.

The red-haired woman’s raspy voice cut into his thoughts. "I’m ready to leave when you are," she said.

This is a work of fiction set during the final years of the golden age of piracy. The majority of the characters are a product of the author’s imagination. However, a select few are actual historical figures. While a degree of accuracy has been attempted for authenticity, some events and facts have been changed in order to serve the story.

Woodes Rogers was indeed governor of the Bahamas and greatly contributed to the downfall of piracy. Benjamin Hornigold was a privateer turned pirate who recruited Edward Teach, who became the notorious Blackbeard. Hornigold eventually accepted Rogers’ pardon and turned pirate hunter. Despite the implication of the concluding chapter, Hornigold remained loyal to Rogers. Because little is known about Hornigold as an individual, much of the character’s portrayal is entirely speculative and should not be accepted as an accurate representation.

Katherine Lindsay, Jack Cunningham, Jonathon Griffith, and
Harbinger
’s crew are entirely fictitious.

The water gently lapped at
Ranger
's hull as her sharp bow slid through the calm night sea, like a knife silently cutting glass. The waxing moon shimmered luminously in the delicate ripples that spread from the ship's wake. The sails fluttered softly, plump with the mild yet persistent wind that urged
Ranger
forward. A pirate snorted in his sleep, his hammock swaying as he rolled onto his side.

"This won't last," Bastion said in his thick Jamaican accent, aiming a finger at the brilliant starry sky. A storm had been chasing them since departing Nassau, a dense cloud growing heavy and black on the aft horizon. No matter how fast they pushed
Ranger
, the cloud's mass slowly increased, like a great monster that had all the time in the world. The wind was constant and
Ranger
was a fast sloop, but the storm could overtake them in a few easy steps if it so desired.

"Nothing ever does," Bart replied, plucking the last sliver of meat off of a chicken bone. His belly was full to bursting, but he knew better than to waste good meat in the early stages of a journey. The crew would be living off hardtack and rum before long, and chickens would plague their dreams. Bart savored the final juicy bite and tossed the bone to the sea, watching as it tumbled downward and made a little splash in the dark water. Not much of a meal for the sharks.

He rested his arms on the bulwark beside Bastion, letting the cool breeze sweep over his face. Tomorrow would be warm and bright, storm permitting.

"How long you think before Governor Rogers come for us?" Bastion said, throwing a nervous glance over his shoulder, the whites of his eyes showing brightly around his pupils. His dark skin would have rendered his features indiscernible in the night, if not for the moonlight.

Bart had specifically chosen a best friend who would enhance his mental and physical appearance in every way he could possibly conceive. Bastion was a foot shorter than Bart, and though he was lithely muscled, Bart was far more powerfully built. Bastion was five years older than Bart, who was twenty-five, but Bart thought him no wiser than a teenager. In fact, there were very few aboard
Ranger
that Bart considered his intellectual equal.

"I don't know," Bart said with a lengthy sigh. He didn't care to think about what was behind them, only what was ahead. He had run away from his overly strict parents in New York when he was eight and had never looked back. He spent much of his youth moving from family to family, conning each with various fictions that detailed a tragic heritage, though in truth he had suffered no tragedy. He spent a year or two with each family before growing tired of them, gathering up whatever valuables he could conceal and moving onto the next. Eventually he ended up working on a merchant ship, where he displayed considerable aptitude mending sails. He remembered little about his mother, but he was certain she had been a gifted seamstress. The gift must have trickled down.

Eventually Bart was recruited into piracy when the trade ship he served aboard was set upon by Benjamin Hornigold and his protégé, Edward Teach.  

"Rogers isn't after us," Bart continued. "He's after our dear captain. You and me, we're ghosts. Once we've got that treasure, we'll disappear."

"What if there be no treasure?"

Bart shrugged. "Then we'll disappear as poor men, same as always, and move to the next venture, until we can disappear as rich men." Bastion was always dwelling on what might go wrong. As far as Bart was concerned, there was an easy way out of any situation, if one only bothered to look for the escape route.   

"Captain Benjamin no disappear so easily?"

"He's a fool," Bart growled. Benjamin Hornigold, a former pirate turned pirate hunter, had been Governor Woodes Rogers' right-hand man, and he'd thrown it all away thanks to a mysterious woman's promise of a buried fortune. Under cover of night, Hornigold held a covert meeting with his crew in Nassau harbor, informing them that he planned to abandon his duties and seek out this treasure. Hornigold would bring the woman with them as a guide; a kind of human treasure map. She was a pretty thing who called herself Kate, with untamed hair that might have been colored in blood.

Bart and the majority of the crew, most of whom had been former pirates, were more than happy to oblige. They weren't making near enough under the employ of Woodes Rogers. If Rogers apprehended them, they could always feign ignorance and say they were simply following Hornigold's orders, and didn't realize that he had acted without Rogers' permission.

"Once pirate, always pirate," Bastion said. Probably something he had heard one of the men say. Like a parrot, Bastion often latched onto phrases he had overheard, even when he didn't fully understand their meaning. Bart often found himself explaining to Bastion the meaning of the quotes whenever Bastion used them inappropriately.

"Problems arise when a pirate makes a name for himself," Bart replied, digging a strand of meat out of his teeth with a fingernail. "A man can't disappear when everyone knows his face." He nudged Bastion with an elbow. "You and me, we're nobodies. You know why history doesn't tell of successful pirates?"

Bastion thought about that for a moment, frowning. When he came to a conclusion, he looked like he might throw up. "Because they do not exist?"

"No, you fool," Bart spat. "Because the successful pirates were nobodies, like you and me. They were smart enough
not
to make names for themselves. They kept to the shadows, kept their mouths shut. Men like Hornigold want the fame
and
the fortune. You can't have both, my friend. The smart ones, we'll never know their names, and that's the way they like it."

"Maybe them not smart," Bastion suggested with a shrug. "Maybe them just lucky."

Bart ground his teeth. "Luck's got nothing to do with it. A real man makes his own luck."

"No," Bastion said, shaking his head ardently. "You cannot make luck. My father told me this."

Bart pushed himself angrily off the bulwark. "Well then your father was a bloody idiot! You really don't know anything, do you?"

When Bastion regarded him with a raised eyebrow, Bart flung his hand contemptuously through the air. "You've gone and sullied my jovial mood," he said. "I must recover it from the bottom of a bottle."

Bart left Bastion standing there staring dumbly after him. His anger slowly waned as he zigzagged through several sleeping crewmen sprawled about the deck and made his way below. He found a dozen men in a corner of the hold, huddled around a few candles, passing around a large jug of rum. He squeezed between Andrew Harrow and Fat Farley, seated on a long crate. Harrow, the ship's boatswain, slapped Bart on the back and handed him the jug, which had a third of rum left in it. Bart eagerly tipped the jug and took a huge swig.

"Slow down, Barty," Farley chuckled. 

Bart righted the jug and handed it back, wiping his lips. A bubble of air climbed his throat and a massive belch popped from his lips. "I needed that," he said.

"Have another," Francois Laurent, one of
Ranger
's gunners, grinned. "We're fully stocked."

"For now," Bart said. "A few more nights like this will make short work of it." But that didn't stop him from taking another swig, and another, and another. Soon the bottle was empty, and Francois stumbled across the hold to fetch another. As Bart groggily watched him disappear into the dark, he saw something. Just before the candlelight's reach faded into the pitch darkness of the hold, a bare foot was dangling from a crate. He scaled the leg to a vague, slender figure sitting in the dark. Even in the shadows, her hair shone red. Her hand rested on a bottle of her own, which was half drained. Black linen breeches hugged her hips, fastened tightly around her thin waist by a black belt. She wore a man's white shirt with ruffled sleeves. The shirt was loosely laced at the neck, revealing her cleavage. Her eyes were shadowed by her hair, but her mouth seemed to be smirking.

"She's been there all night," Farley whispered in Bart's ear. "She just watches us. Gives me the creeps, she does."

"Why isn't she snuggled up with Hornigold?" Bart said. The sentence seemed to take minutes to escape his mouth, and he heard himself slur the words. The rum was doing its job.

"I reckon the captain is asking hisself that very same question," Harrow replied. The rest of the men chuckled, but not too loudly. They glanced nervously at her, as though they didn't want to offend. Bart winced in revulsion. What kind of pirate was intimidated by a woman?

Francois returned with a new bottle, filled to the brim. He sat down, popped the cork, and stole the first gulp. He offered the bottle to Farley, but Bart snatched it first. He took a swig and then dropped it in Farley's lap. He felt their eyes on him, but he didn't care.

He aimed a finger at the woman in the dark. "Has anyone had a go at her yet?" He said it loud enough for her to hear.

Everyone suddenly shifted in their seats, glancing anxiously at each other. The woman didn't react. Her fingers lightly drummed her bottle of rum in dawdling succession.

"Don't think so," Farley answered under his breath.

"Reed said the captain said he wants her unspoiled," Harrow whispered.

"Unspoiled?" Bart said, curling his lip. "That's a downright aggravating choice of words!"

"Not so loud," Farley said, holding a hand out flat and lowering it in a hushing motion.

"And why not?" Bart snapped, gawking at Fat Farley.

Farley's mouth fell open, but he had no answer.

"That's what I thought."

Harrow's hand fell on Bart's shoulder. "Bart, that's enough."

"That's enough?" Bart shouted, standing at once. The crewmen pulled away as he stumbled between them, knocking over one of the candles with his heel. It rolled against a crate, flame sizzling out as the wax spilled over the wick. "Have you forgotten who we are? We're pirates! There is no 'enough' for the likes of us!"

Farley and Harrow exchanged a glance. Francois sniffed and looked down at the floor.

"She's the reason we're here," a young blonde crewman whom Bart did not know said timidly.

"And that affords her the right to strut about our ship un . . . unspoiled?" He sneered the last word.  

"Bastion!" Francois suddenly cried, extending a hand. "I think it's time your friend went to bed."

Bart turned. Bastion had entered quietly behind him, standing between two crates. "I come only for rum," Bastion protested with his palms up. "I do not solve disputes."

"Damn straight," Bart said. "That's Reed's trade, and he's not here." Quartermaster Reed generally put an end to quarrels before they had a chance to begin.

Bart faced the woman. The room swirled as he turned, and he thrust out a foot before he fell. "The very least she can do," he said, pointing at her, "is let a few of us betwixt her thighs."

At that, the woman gathered her rum and slid off the crate. She didn't bother to look over her shoulder as she left the room, her hips languidly swaying. Her hair glimmered in the diminished candlelight after her figure had faded.

Bart turned to the group, spreading his arms. His right hand raked against a crate, grinding splinters into his knuckles. He clenched his teeth, but refused to openly acknowledge the pain. "She departs before I can finish," he said, blinking rapidly.

"You had more to say?" Francois quipped with a little smile.  

Bastion sat down between Farley and Harrow, where Bart had been seated. He took a sip of rum, stared at the bottle for a moment, then fixed Bart with a very serious look. "This not a good idea. Captain Benjamin no suffer dis . . . dis . . . what's the word?"

"Disobedience," Francois answered.

"Yes, that one."

"We're pirates again," Bart hissed. "What's a little disobedience among scoundrels?"

"Bart," Farley said, finger raised. "Your hand is bleeding."

"Shuttup," said Bart.

Bastion shook his head sternly, his large eyes unblinking. "Captain Benjamin work with Blackbeard. Him learn a thing or two about dealing with disobedience."

Bart gave an exaggerated shiver. "See how I tremble! You know what they call Hornigold in Nassau? The Gentleman Pirate! Not a fiercely name by any notion."

"Bart," Farley went on, "your hand looks ill."

"Captain Benjamin won't be happy if you kill the only person know where the treasure be hidden."