Monsoon Mists (24 page)

He gave her the long nail, which he’d kept in his pocket. ‘Take this and if anyone attacks you, jab them in the face with it, preferably the eyes. Hold it between your fingers, like this, so the tip sticks out.’ He showed her and Zar nodded, her face white, but determined. ‘And come and find me as soon as you can.’

He watched her for a moment as she ran towards the other end of the gun deck, which was empty. It seemed Mansukh and his men had been taken unawares and now it was too late to retaliate with cannon shots. He climbed up the steps to join in the fray.

Emerging up behind one of Mansukh’s men, Jamie surprised him and was able to knock him down with a blow to the head. He grabbed the man’s weapons − not a moment too soon − as another crew member came hurtling towards him. While fighting this one off, Jamie scanned the deck and noted that he’d been right – the pirates were mostly Europeans, or at least not Asians of any kind. A motley crew, some very ragged, led by a man dressed in a crimson silk coat, they all had the look of desperate men who thought nothing of killing to gain what they were after. Jamie didn’t know if Mansukh had a cargo other than his captives and the jewel, but hoped so. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen should the pirates have to leave empty-handed.

Zar found to her relief that the lower decks were empty and no one was on guard outside the cabins at the other end.

‘William? Are you there?’ she called out and he answered immediately from the left hand one.

‘In here. What’s going on?’

She lifted the bar and pushed the door open as fast as she could. ‘Pirate attack. You need to come and fight.’

‘Fight? Have you gone mad? Untie me, please.’

He looked rough, his face still bruised and dirty, and his eyes were bloodshot as if he hadn’t slept much. His hands were still bound, albeit in front of him and not behind. Zar made quick work of the knots and he breathed a sigh of relief when the bonds fell off.

‘Jamie’s gone up on deck to assist the pirates,’ Zar told him. ‘He says they might be English so perhaps they’ll help us if we help them. It’s our only chance and—’

‘Not me!’ Pushing past her, William headed for the steps leading to the back of the main deck. ‘I’m leaving while they’re all busy battling each other. No one will notice me taking the ship’s boat.’

‘But Jamie said—’

‘I don’t give a fig what bloody Jamie said! And since when are you on first name terms? Had a good night, did you?’ William sneered.

‘It’s not like that, he—’

‘Spare me the details. I need to leave. Now.’

‘We can’t leave without Jamie.’ Zar stood her ground and tried to block his way.

‘We? Why would I take you with me? I’ll be glad to be rid of you. Besides, from what I’ve seen of him, Kinross can take care of himself. You should be more concerned about your own skin, being the only woman on a ship full of men!’ He shoved her roughly to one side, making her stumble.

Zar righted herself and watched in disbelief as he rushed off towards the hatch. ‘William, for heaven’s sake …’ He couldn’t mean to leave her here, surely? And Jamie as well?

‘I hope you end up as a pirate’s doxy.’ He laughed and climbed the steps without looking back.

She clenched her fists, fury surging through her. ‘Just you wait, William, just you wait!’ she shouted after him, but he’d disappeared and she didn’t think there was any point in following him. She could only hope he got caught trying to steal the boat, then maybe he’d be thrown over board.
Serve him right, the little whoreson.

It didn’t help her own predicament though. As he’d said, she was the only woman on a ship full of dangerous men. There was only one person who could help her now, but he was one against many. Jamie may be strong and good at fighting, but could he keep her safe? She had to hope his plan of helping the pirates would pay off. It was their only chance.

Zar ran to the steps at the other end and climbed up to peek out at the chaos. She flinched at the gory sights before her and had to swallow hard to keep the contents of her stomach down. There were mutilated bodies, blood everywhere and even severed body parts, but she concentrated on finding Jamie in the melee. Where was he? Finally she spotted him, but he was over on the other side of the deck, fighting off a fierce little man in a yellow turban.

‘Aha!’ One of Mansukh’s men appeared next to Zar and charged at her with a dagger. She sidestepped at the last second and turned to slash out at his arm with the nail in her hand, the way Jamie had shown her. The man dropped his weapon, bellowing with rage and – she hoped – pain. With a furious expression, he careered towards her again and managed to grab her arms so she couldn’t hurt him again. Zar tried to free herself from his grip, twisting her arms and kicking at his shins, but he was much stronger than her.

No! He’s going to kill me
 … Fighting down the rising panic, she tried to think of something to do and suddenly remembered Jamie’s lesson after Richardson’s attack. Without hesitation, she bent her head at an angle and quickly bashed her forehead into the man’s nose. It hurt, but hopefully his pain was greater as she thought she heard bone crunching, but couldn’t be sure. It had the desired effect though. Her assailant let go of her and stumbled backwards, only to fall foul of a pirate who stuck a dagger into his back.

Zar took a couple of deep breaths to quell her revulsion as the man’s blood spilled out beneath him on the planks. The pirate flashed her a grin, which showed the blackened stumps of his teeth, but thankfully another of Mansukh’s men soon distracted him and she was forgotten for the moment. Feeling very vulnerable, she picked up the dead man’s
tulwar
and scanned the deck to see where Jamie was now. When she caught sight of him, he seemed to have beaten off his opponents, at least temporarily, and was headed towards her. Along the way, he bumped shoulder first into Mansukh, who was busy with a wicked-looking curved sword. It seemed almost as if Jamie had gone out of his way to trip over the merchant, which puzzled Zar, but there was no time to think about it.

‘Are you all right? Did anyone hurt you?’ He checked her from top to toe with a frown.

‘No, not really.’

‘Then please, go back below deck and stay down for now,’ Jamie said. ‘I’ll try to make sure no one goes down there from here at least. Keep an eye out and let me know if anyone comes down the other steps.’

‘No, I’m not going anywhere without you. Stay next to me, please!’

‘Zarmina …’ he began, a warning in his voice, but there was no time for more as they were soon attacked again.

Zar had never fought with a sword of any kind before, but she soon found that the
tulwar
was extremely sharp and she was able to inflict quite a lot of damage whenever she managed to slash at someone. She had to hold it with both hands, as it was heavy, but sheer determination and terror gave her added strength. From time to time she glanced at Jamie, fighting alongside her, and tried to copy his moves. Mansukh’s men hesitated when confronted with her, as if they’d never battled against a female before, and this gave her a much-needed advantage.

It wasn’t long before she felt she couldn’t hold out much longer, however, and she began to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to do as Jamie had asked and retreat below deck. Then she heard Mansukh’s voice bellowing, ‘
Stop! Wait!
’ Strangely enough, everyone halted in their tracks, like some macabre tableau, and all eyes turned towards the merchant.

‘I have something of infinite value,’ he shouted. ‘I will give it to you if you leave our ship alone.’ Seeing that no one moved, he put a hand inside his sash. Zar assumed he was going to hand over the talisman and thanked the gods that at least it wasn’t the real one. But something was wrong. Mansukh’s hand fumbled around in the makeshift pouch while his expression turned into a massive scowl. Frustration, anger, then near panic showed in his eyes, and eventually he looked up and fixed his gaze on Jamie. ‘You!’ He pointed his sword at him and let out a cry of rage. ‘Where is it?’

Everyone turned to look at Jamie instead, but he just shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea what he’s talking about.’

The pirate captain had had enough. ‘So you’ve lost this valuable something?’ He glanced at his men. ‘Then what are we waiting for?
Charge!
’

The fighting started up again, as if it had never stopped. Zar badly needed a break and ducked below for a while. As she peered out of the hatch though, she saw Mansukh heading straight for Jamie, his face a mask of fury. She hoped Jamie could fend the man off.

What had happened to the talisman? Mansukh must have dropped it during the fighting.

The merchant never reached Jamie, as he was intercepted by someone else. Zar lost sight of him after a while and concentrated on Jamie instead. She watched and waited, while time dragged on. If her fingers had been cleaner, she would have chewed her nails, her nerves ragged with worrying about the uncertainty of their fate. Once she’d regained her breath and felt ready to join the fray again, she went back on deck, but just then it seemed it was all over. A great cheer went up and as it sounded like ‘huzzah!’ she assumed that meant the pirates had been victorious.

‘Zar! Over here.’

Jamie’s voice was exactly what she needed to hear and when he reached out a hand to her, she rushed over to him. There was still chaos on deck, with the pirates now swarming down towards the hold and cabins, so Jamie moved over to the railing and guided her to stand slightly behind him. She noticed he kept hold of her hand, while with the other he gripped a bloodied sword. Taking more deep breaths, she steeled herself to face whatever was to come next.

The stench of unwashed bodies hung over the ship and she could almost taste the blood that had been spilled as the smell of it floated through the air. She’d never witnessed such violence before and had to swallow hard many times in order not to be sick. She couldn’t believe she’d actually taken part in a fight, wounding and perhaps even maiming people. At least she hadn’t killed anyone, which was a relief.

She gripped Jamie’s hand as hard as she could. He was her only rock in a very stormy sea.

Chapter Nineteen

Jamie stood still and waited. He knew the crimson-coated pirate captain had noticed him during the fight, but the man hadn’t said anything, only thrown him a curious look. Now he came to look them over.

‘You English?’ he asked, his eyes gliding over Zar, who shrank back further behind Jamie.

‘Scottish. My wife and I were taken captive by these natives – no idea why – but when I heard you, I kicked the door down and came to help you best them.’

The pirate nodded. ‘I noticed.’ He regarded them for a moment with narrowed eyes. ‘We don’t usually attack our own kind and as you’ve done us a favour, I s’pose I owe you. Want to join us? Plenty of booty to go round in these here waters. And we’ve a comfortable hideaway in Madagascar.’

Jamie bowed to show he was grateful for the offer. ‘Thank you. If it was just me, that would be very tempting, but …’ He nodded towards Zar. ‘I’m sure you’ll understand if I’d rather not share my wife with all and sundry. Haven’t tired of her yet.’ He grinned and winked at the man. ‘Newlyweds, you know. A rather memorable honeymoon, you could say.’

The pirate guffawed, his face splitting into a somewhat toothless grin. ‘Yeah, I see what you mean. Nice little filly.’ He eyed Zar again and Jamie surreptitiously tightened his hold on his sword. He didn’t trust this man an inch, for all that he was behaving civilly at the moment.

The captain screwed up his face, as if deep in thought, then shrugged. ‘I can let you go since you helped us out, but my men’ll expect the lady to stay. Unless you have something to offer as ransom for her?’

Jamie gritted his teeth. He’d expected as much. Zar was too beautiful and could probably be sold at great profit as a slave girl or some such. The thought made his blood boil, but he tried to stay outwardly calm and shook his head.

‘Not with me, no. You’ll appreciate these brigands robbed us already. However, what about a fair fight? Me against any one of your men, fists only – winner takes the lady.’

Jamie heard Zar gasp behind him, but pretended he hadn’t noticed. He couldn’t be sure the captain would honour such a deal, but it tallied with the sort of code these men lived by so it just might work. If the worst came to the worst, however, he had an ace up his sleeve.

The captain nodded, an even bigger grin spreading over his features. ‘I like that, but we do things by vote so let me put it to my men.’

The pirate did so and after some deliberation, a unanimous decision of ‘aye, cap’n!’ seemed to be reached.

‘If you can best Jonah, the lady is free to leave with you.’

Jamie nodded and handed Zar the sword he was still holding. She took it reluctantly and stared up at him, her eyes huge green pools of worry. Quickly, he bent to kiss her hard on the mouth and whispered, ‘Have faith.’

Zar felt faint and the sword was extraordinarily heavy in her hand, even heavier than the one she’d used earlier which she’d put down now.
What in the name of all the gods is he thinking?
This would never work.

‘Have faith,’ he’d said. Did that mean he knew something she didn’t? Or was he just confident in his own abilities?

She leaned against the railing as she needed something to support her shaking legs. Things didn’t improve when she saw who Jamie was to fight – an enormous man with a neck like a bullock and arms as thick as small tree trunks.
Jonah!
As in Jonah and the whale? But this
was
the whale. It was going to be a disaster and Zar had seen the way the pirate captain had eyed her up. He’d had no intention of losing the deal, she was sure …

Jamie looked calm, but Zar could hardly bear to even peek as he and the big man began to circle each other. Everyone else had formed a ring around them and she was happy to stay on the outside, hopefully forgotten, at least for the moment. It meant she couldn’t see very well what was happening, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to in any case. Jamie beaten to a bloody pulp, screaming in agony, lying on the deck in a lifeless heap … Her mind supplied more than enough images, all of which she tried to suppress.