Jaded Tides (The Razor's Adventures Pirate Tales) (8 page)

Nine

ORDERS ARE ORDERS

During the time spent repairing the
Demon Sea
, her flag was burned. Fortunately, one of the new crew had proven to be an extraordinary artist. One of Rasmus’s many gifts was utilizing the God-given talents of every man aboard, if they had any to use. Most of our crew was under thirty, and in this business that was a God-given gift as well. I’d gone over the crew manifest and come up with an average age of these young men to be twenty-two, but there was a handful still hanging on from the
Augustus
who were even younger than me. One of them was Renaldo.

I couldn’t make out the lad’s last name on the manifest, and to be honest, aboard ship most of the men went by some sort of moniker rather than their given names. Renaldo, being the fabulous artist he was, went by Michelangelo, after the famous artist. Of course in our world, even Michelangelo wasn’t short enough, so we just called him Mick. He seemed to like it and was flattered for the compliment. Being a Spaniard, he was Catholic, and being called the name of the artist who’d painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was a pretty high honor.

So, Mick was charged with designing and creating our new flag. Today would be her first unveiling. I’d only caught a glimpse when she was folded and placed securely in a box. The anticipation of her maiden flight, high atop the main mast, was a sight I longed to behold. I was told she bore the arm of a man, painted in white, with a broken shackle on the wrist and a broadsword in his hand. To the right of the sword was a bleeding heart, but the blood dripped in pale green stones.

“Psst…hey Doc, ye gots me stomach juice?” I startled from my daydream when I heard the familiar gritty voice of the black-footed gunner at my open door.

“Oh, aye, I have it here,” I answered, racing to my apothecary cabinet and retrieving the mixture, which I poured into a small glass bottle and plugged with a cork stopper. “Drink half of this now, before we start to come about. The sea’s fairly calm, but once we make the turn, we’ll be in the
Belle’s
wake before long.”

He took the bottle from my hand, pulled the stopper, and immediately swallowed the entire contents. He made a sour face and wiped the excess from his lips with the back of his free hand. “Not bad,” he purred as he shoved the empty container back at me. “I’ll be back later, God willin’, if I need it.”

“We’re not going to engage her, sir. I wouldn’t worry,” I said over my shoulder, dipping the bottle in a bowl of clean water on the table several times and rinsing it out.

“Ye feel that, laddie?” he asked in a slow and monotonous voice. His eyes shifted to the right in his skull, looking towards the porthole.

“Ye mean the turn? Aye, she’s smooth as glass,” I answered, nodding.

“Ye green as the grass, boy. I’m speakin’ a’ the wind. Can’t ye feel her fillin’ the canvas and givin’ us a yank? There’s a storm comin’. Ye won’t smell it fer a bit, but that ain’t no usual tug. That’s a grab ye by the arse and spank ye gust. That there
Belle
ain’t got a prayer against this here beauty. Whatever plan the Cap’n has, I’ll have them guns ready, just in case time runs out an ‘e ain’t no choice but ta do a little spankin’ ‘imself.” He let out a squeaky rasp of a laugh and was gone.

He was right. I closed my eyes and let go of everything but my feet from the floor, and my body began to pull forward toward the bow. I waited until the sensation filled me completely before I had to at last reach out and hold onto something to balance myself. I thought for a moment I was flying. My insides were being pulled towards the sea, and my breathing sped up until I had to balance that, too. I ran to my porthole and watched as we crept into a watery arc and continued until left was now right and right was left.

It seemed like forever before we’d reached the far end of that arc, but once we did, the
Virginia Belle
was now no more than a mile away and now parallel to our position. I could hear the men scrambling about, and the hard push of the wind that moved me so had alleviated somewhat. I no longer felt myself being shoved towards the bow, but merely nudged. We were slowing down and we’d gotten ahead of the storm, if there really was one, for now.

There I sat, alone in my cabin. I heard the stomping of boots and the slapping of bare feet all around me. The sounds increased from moment to moment, along with the shouts and echoes of orders from man to man. It had become unbearable. I tapped my fingertips on the desk and stared down at the cover of my medical log. “How long must I suffer the indignity of this masquerade, with my hands and feet shackled by my true self?” I mumbled and then flipped open the log.

“One seasick gunner…pffth,” I again mumbled. All I wanted now was to hear those four words called from bow to stern;
all hands on deck
. I was still a hand, and definitely handy when necessary. I decided I’d had my fill of this idle nonsense and thought at least in the galley I’d have access to some of the crew, and Hawk would certainly keep both my hands and ears engaged.

I slammed the log closed and washed my hands before bolting from the sick berth. When I reached the galley, Hawk was the only man in sight, and I was surprised to see him seated on a stool and not chopping away on something.

“Razor, shouldn’t ye…be on deck…doin’ some useful…thing?” he asked. His voice was broken by short gasps for breath and his skin was pale and ashen.

“Are ye ill, Hawk?” I approached him slowly.

“Aye, nothin’ I haven’t felt before, lad.”

“Good God, don’t tell me you’re seasick, too?”

“Don’t ye be makin’ a fuss, Razor. I’m not seasick. Too much a’ the damn cheap drink over the years…among other cheap things I’d not mention at the moment. No cookin’ tonight anyway.” He sighed, and as the air escaped him, he coughed so long and hard he shook from his shoulders to his feet.

“Let me help ye to your bunk,” I said, scooping him under one arm and helping him to his feet. In that moment, I felt the shudder of the keel as she crossed over a swell. We’d either come upon some rough water, or as I’d told the gunner earlier, we’d finally crossed into the
Belle’s
wake. “Come on, lie down.  And for God’s sake, no more drinking tonight. You’ll need your wits about you until this is all over.” He nodded, and I led him to his bunk in the far corner of the kitchen and laid him down.

“Razor, yer a decent lad,” he said as I filled a cup of water and placed it in his hand.

“My arse.  I just don’t want your damn job, ye old bilge rat.”

As soon as I placed a damp cloth on his forehead, I hurried back to my cabin, armed myself, and crept warily up the gangway to the main deck. The sun was setting, and I wondered how Rasmus intended to execute his plan in the dark. I pressed my hat down hard on my head and lowered my face before carrying on towards the bow.

Directly ahead of us, she was. I made my way along the starboard side unnoticed, as all eyes were focused on the stern of
Belle
, now less than a mile ahead. The
Jade
had swung into motion, and the air of hunger and hot blood was so thick I moved on as if I were treading through a muddy marsh. The deck was quiet and eerie. The boots and bare feet were now silent, and their throats seemed choked of air, but for a few routine orders to hold this line or that one.

The
Jade
rose and fell in
Belle’s
watery tail. As she began a gentle turn southwest, the setting sun hit her broadside, setting her sails aglow with a flaming red and orange radiance, as if they’d caught fire in the wind. I looked up for a moment as we, in turn, came about to hold our position as the hunter, and I found the
Jade’s
sails on fire as well. They were arched forward, full of the warm evening wind, like the pregnant belly of a woman on the day of giving birth. There was still no smell of a storm, but the electricity that snapped in the atmosphere was as tangible as the line in my hand, and stung as much in my palm when the line pulled through my hand sharply as it came loose from its hook.

I held tightly onto it, and pulled as hard as I could, until I noticed another pair of hands above mine, and I tugged even harder. They were the large hands of Master Green, and together, we tied her off securely before he took my arm and pulled me aside near the gunnel.

“What do you think you are doing up here?” he growled at me in a whisper. His light green eyes burned into me, and I yanked free of him, to which he promptly snatched me again. This time, I was certain the amount of pressure he was applying would leave a nasty bruise.

“There isn’t anything for me to do down there. I’d be much more useful up here. Besides, I wanted to see her. Is that a crime?” I stood on my toes and barked at him, writhing beneath his vice-like grasp.

“You have your orders. They were to remain in the sick berth. Pardon my candor, but you are quite possibly the worst sailor I’ve ever known.” At last, he released me with a shove.

“Rasmus wouldn’t appreciate you treating me so, you know,” I said, rubbing at my sore arm. “Leave me alone, why don’t you? Just carry on with whatever you were doing. Pretend you didn’t even see me. Jesus Christ, I’m beginning to feel no better off than I was the last time I sailed on this ship. You’re all nothing but brutish beasts, and I’ll not be treated like a helpless child anymore. Do you understand me, sir?” At the conclusion of my rant, I found myself no more than a few inches from the chiseled chin of the large quartermaster, with the index finger of my right hand poking into his rock hard chest.

“You would be correct, Mister Razor. Your Captain does not appreciate seeing you so roughly handled.” My eyes flew open, and my head spun around so fast it took the rest of me a moment to catch it. “Your Captain also does not agree with your insubordinate behavior with one of his officers. Master Green, please excuse Mister Razor and I, and find Mister Robertson, please, and update me on our position. We’ll be losing the light soon. The full moon is waning. Thank goodness we’re keeping ahead of that storm.”

“Aye, Captain.” Master Green’s heavy breaths and furrowed brow conveyed his attitude towards me in this moment, but I didn’t care if he burst into flames. If he ever put his hands on me again, I’d slit his throat, even if I had to do it while he slept.

     “Ivan,” Rasmus said as he motioned to me to step aside with him, away from any possible eyes and ears on deck. “Are ye planning to fight everyone you disagree with for the rest of yer bloody life? Orders are orders, and any complaints you might have over them are irrelevant.” He planted his knuckles into his hips and leaned in and over me as he spoke, like the leviathan he was.

“Well, I’ll not be yanked around like an unruly child by anyone. I’m shocked that you’d allow anyone to treat me so,” I folded my arms across my chest and glared into those blue eyes that didn’t even blink at my retort.

“Ye see that ship? She’s bigger and most likely has at least twenty more hands than we do. Granted, she’s only ten gun ports and a few swivels on the gunnels, but I’m guessing more than a few rolling guns on her main deck. Once I raise that black, what’s to stop her captain from exerting a bit of cocky pride and opening fire on us before we can take her down?”

My mouth moved, and my eyes wandered around in their sockets, but nothing of any substance escaped me.

“Nothing, that’s what. This shipping lane is full of pirates. Granted, he probably knows them all and does a good business for those acquaintances, but he hasn’t any idea who we are.”

“Well, isn’t our objective to make them surrender?”

“What we want them to do and what they’re planning to do are two different things. We can only prepare for the worst and hope for the best. They’ve been watching us for as long as we’ve been watching them. We’ve had plenty of time to put this plan together—the same amount of time that she’s had.”

“We’re gaining on her, and we’ve not even reached seven knots yet.”

“Little Razor, we’ll be upon her within the hour. She’s outgunned and ignorant as to why a ship is following her.”

“Do you believe she suspects us as pirates?”

“I can speculate until tomorrow, but I can only control what
we
do now. As the hunter, it’s our job to chase her. As the hunted, it’s her job to evade us and escape or throw up her hands and give up. Her burdens are many at the moment, but none of them are ours.”

“I’m through begging for what is rightfully mine. I never intended to come aboard and cause trouble, but unless you treat me with the respect and trust I’ve earned, I’ll have no other choice than to disobey your orders. Do I realize this can, and most likely will, place a heavy strain on our marriage? In this moment, Rasmus Bergman, so close to the first of what I pray to be many prizes to come, the only answer I have for you is that…I don’t care.”

“Now you just hold on a minute there, lass…” he said while reaching out for me as I spun around and began to run, catching me by my aching arm and causing me to wince in pain. I caught myself and took a deep breath as I looked up at him, and that safe and familiar numbness came back. In an instant, my body went rigid and my face was flat. Beneath it all, the fury of every rotten and vile deed that had ever been set upon me caught fire, and as Rasmus released me, I believed he’d soon discover his hand covered in the blisters of my burning soul.