The King and his Men

[Captain Ciera Ancora]

The rat, Plink or Plunk or something of that ilk, clutched her stricken tail like one might a dying pet. The fur at the tip of the appendage was stained a brownish red. The wound looked rather painful, especially with all of that harsh sand that?d just been rubbed into it.

?I shouldn?t worry about it, it?s only a tail,? said Ciera, who held that empathy was the emotional equivalent of voluntarily raising another beast?s bratty young. ?If you?ve got to have something hacked off, tail?s the best thing to lose. Not nearly as useful as a paw or a leg, and far less valuable than a head.? Ciera cast a look over at Vera, then added, ?Most heads, anyway.?

Possibly-Plunk looked up at her in pained astonishment.

?If you bandage it properly it should heal up quite well.?

The rat nodded dumbly. ?...ought ta wash it, first...?

A few seconds passed.

?I should do that now, if I were you,? Ciera goaded.

Plink-Perhaps scuttled down to the shoreline, her gait hampered slightly by the fact that she was still holding her tail. She dipped the bloody nub into the surf, wincing as the salt made its presence known. As Ciera approached, the rat maid numbly tore off a strip of her oversized shirt and began winding it round the shorn tail.

?So tell me, ?daughter of Scarcrab,?? Ciera began, ?how did you come to be here? You?re not a part of my crew, and you?re certainly not from the Scumcutter...?

?I was aboard the Zephyr.?

The name didn?t ring any bells, not as a ship of Blade?s empire. Couple that with the rat?s brief altercation with shipmate Craws, and that meant? ?You were with Atlas.?

The ratmaid sensed the sudden chill in the mood as Murdin looked her way. She dropped her bandaged tail and straightened up. ?I ain't with that crazy stripedog or his Waverunner scum! I stowed away on the Zephyr cuz I knew it'd take me ta pirates.?

Ciera glanced at Craws, who briefly emerged from the depths of a good sulk to noncommittally shrug an indication that this story was probably true. That done, he stomped moodily off into the underbrush.

?So, Miss??

?Plink.?

?So, Miss Plink. You?re a stowaway, a coward, and a raging idiot to boot. The apple certainly does not fall far from the tree, does it??

?I- I-!? protested Plink, doing a very bad job of disproving Ciera?s point.

?Tailing Atlas Stormstripe in order to find pirates is like latching onto an adder?s back to find newts.?

?But it worked,? Plink mumbled testily.

Ciera started to explain that stupid methodologies weren?t cancelled out by dumb luck, but one look at the rat?s reproachful countenance suggested that it wouldn?t help.

?Was anybeast else washed ashore with you??

?Aye. There were seven of us - me an' this weasel Tooley, two Waverunners, an' Chak the Cruel an' his slaves. Well, an' Daggle... but Chak killed him.?

Ciera mentally put a pin in the last sentence, for further musing. The more pressing concern was the rat's mention of other crew from the Zephyr. Crew who might be thrilled to see Plink and Scully returned safely, perhaps even grateful enough to be willing to grant her and the Maiden?s remnants safe passage back to the mainland.

This information was both a blessing and a curse. The renewed opportunity for escape came with the corollary that time was now a very critical factor. Tooley was with the Zephyr?s crew, and apparently still alive. Knowing that oaf, it wouldn?t be long before he somehow managed to ruin everything.

Well, at least Mister Ku?rill survived. With any luck he can rein in Tooley for a while, until we?ve finished with this fire god nonsense. Assuming he's still sane, that is.

?Whereabouts are your crewmates??

Plink looked uneasily back at the jungle. ?I ain't sure. I got lost after me an' Tooley split up.?

Ciera grimaced. No point in wasting our time seeking them out, then. We?re better off getting this business sorted out and coming back for them afterwards.

?Sounds suspicious t?me,? Murdin cut in.

?How so, Mister Murdin??

?There?s two of ?em,? Murdin said, pointing. ?They?re both Waverunners.?

"I ain't-!" Plink protested, but Murdin cut her off. ?I don?t buy this act, them comin? over here and actin? like pirates. Scully got wet feet when it came time to kill one of his old messmates. Warned ?er about the hemlock on the arrows and everything. That?s twice now he?s gone soft, countin? the other hare.?

?And what would you recommend we do??

?I reckon we just kill ?em and be done with it,? Murdin said darkly. ?We can find Chak an? Tooley an? some of the others, get ourselves good an? armed in case the woodlanders try anythin???

Panic filled Plink?s eyes. Ciera ignored her. ?And then what, Mister Murdin??

Murdin?s brow furrowed. ?What??

?And then what happens next? We successfully get our motley crew back together, get all nicely armed up, slaughter the woodlanders. And then what??

?An' then we?re good.?

?Are we? Seems to me we?d be stuck on this island with no supplies, no ship, and no lifeboat, thank you very much, Vera, directly positioned in the crossfire between warring factions.?

?Er, well??

?Plus a rampaging Badger Lord, a cannibal macaw, and goodness knows what else. Even if we somehow managed to slaughter everyone with the five-pirate crew you?re proposing here, we?d still be stuck here on this island. And then what? We?ll grow steadily weaker while we wait to be slaughtered by whichever crew of vermin-hating Waverunners or greedy treasure hunters lands first. I wouldn?t call that ?good,? Mister Murdin.?

The stoat seized Plink by the collar of her dirty, over-large shirt. ?You?re the one who?s allus saying we oughta do the smart thing, Cap?n. I reckon we just kill ?em an? be done with it. Get back to our old crew, how it use to be.?

Plink let out a strangled squeak and tried to tear herself free, earning herself a hefty smack from Murdin. Ciera's eye twinged at the sound, but she kept her tone measured. ??How it use to be? is what got us here in the first place, Mister Murdin. If you kill shipmate Craws, you might as well slit all of our throats in the process. He?s the appointed messenger, and I rather doubt the snakes would take kindly to us slaughtering him. I?m surprised they didn?t attack us back when you lost him in the jungle. The same goes for his little shipmate over here. For all we know, she?s also a messenger. It?s doubtful, but I can?t see much use in taking the risk. Killing her creates more problems than it solves. You?ve probably frightened the poor thing half to death as it is.?

Something seemed to occur to Murdin. ?But if I let ?er go now, she?ll run off.?

Plink looked at Ciera imploringly. ?I won't! I won't, Cap'n Ancora! I ain't goin' in that jungle alone again, I swear!?

?Oh, I know you won't.? The ferret leaned down to make eye contact with the struggling ratmaid. Ciera gestured towards a patch of rustling greenery. ?In case you weren?t aware of the situation, we?re presently surrounded by snakes who are expecting us to march straight over to the fire god?s legions and end their crusade. If you tried to run off you'd regret it for quite a long ways.?

?Long ways?? sputtered a confused Plink.

?Yes, all the way from a snake?s mouth to its stomach ? and parts beyond.?

Plink grimaced at the idea. So did Murdin, a full second later.

Ciera stood, brushing the sand from her jerkin. ?Welcome to the crew, Miss Plink. Congratulations, you?ve found the piracy you were looking for. Well done.?

Plink angrily tore her shirt out of Murdin?s grasp. It was hard to say which of them looked more put out by the current state of affairs. 

?If you plan on fussing about with your injury any further, I?d suggest you do it now,? Ciera informed the new recruit. ?We?ll be setting off for the fire god?s mountain fairly soon.?

Once the ratmaid had stomped off, Ciera pulled Murdin aside. ?Wipe that glower off your face, stoat.?

Murdin glared reproachfully at her. ?Sorry, Cap?n.?

?I don?t trust the Waverunners any more than you, but we?ve got to have somebeast as prisoner.?

Murdin?s brows knotted. ?Pris?ner??

Ciera glanced over at shipmate Craws, a mere shadow in the greenery. ?You didn?t really think it?d be as simple as just talking to the mongooses, did you? We?re going to need leverage, and keeping a few expendable beasts on hand will ensure that I?ll still have you and Vera by my side if everything goes south.?

She turned, and fixed the stoat with a glare. ?I do have you by side, don?t I, Mister Murdin??

Murdin grinned, revealing a mouth like a badly-constructed picket fence. ?Aye, Cap?n. I?ll be right behind ye all the way.?

Ciera allowed herself a rare smile. ?That?s what I?m counting on.?

~=~=~=~=~=~=~

There was a fly buzzing round Ciera?s ear. She swatted at it, muttering a curse at Vera?s back. If they?d still had the lifeboat they could have circled the island in a fraction of the time, but now they were forced to slog through a trap-filled, snake-infested tangle of greenery.

Ciera didn?t fancy walking as a means of transport. She was well accustomed to being up and about on her paws, attending to the hundreds of little problems that seemed to crop up all over the Maiden, but all of that walking never actually took her any great distance from where she started. At the same time, the Maiden moved much faster than a beast could on foot. Paradoxically enough, that meant that she was currently travelling both faster and slower than she was used to. It was unnerving.

She?d purposely put Murdin at the front of the group. He was adept at spotting the natives? traps, plus it minimized the risk that he?d ? accidentally, as the incident would undoubtedly prove to be ? trip forward and fall onto Plink or Scully blade-first.  Besides, walking at the rear gave her a chance to let her mind wander and process the events of the past few days.

She wondered idly about the Phantom. She knew well enough that the ship hadn?t been scuttled at the battle of Terramort; she?d seen it sail away with her own eyes. At the time she?d assumed that it?d been hijacked by fleeing pirates. Everybeast upped anchor and fled after Atlas struck the death blow, it wasn?t unreasonable to assume that somebeast hopped aboard the Phantom to make their escape. In the following weeks, everybeast on the high seas had wondered about it. After leaving Terramort, the Phantom vanished over the horizon and wasn?t seen again. Some said that Vytas Longtail had taken it, but others swore they?d seen him cut down in the first assault; others had suspected that some nameless, faceless crewbeast had seized the opportunity to earn an impromptu captaincy and, more than likely, sailed it straight to the sea bed. Most pirates eventually concluded that the Waverunners had commandeered it, and sunk it themselves.

Well, wherever the Phantom was, it?s certainly here now. Perhaps somebeast had taken it and sailed here, hiding out for ten seasons and impersonating Blade to intimidate any intruders while they sought his fabled treasure. It?d certainly be an unnecessarily greedy thing to do, very pirate-y. But now we know it couldn?t have been Waverunners, they?d have been suicidal to open fire on their Lord. Then again, for all I know, perhaps the thing is a ghost ship after all. The sea holds more than its fair share of mysteries beyond the ken of any of us?

On the subject of ships and mysteries? what in Hellgates happened to the Scumcutter? Maurick said it was sunk, but? how? The same ghostly attack that took down the Maiden and the Zephyr? How long ago could that have been? Truth be told, Ciera couldn?t remember. In the weeks following the aftermath of Terramort, several of the empire?s vessels had vanished without a trace, the Scumcutter among them. The ship could?ve come here and been wrecked at any point in the intervening seasons. And he?d said the rest of his crew were? ?about where you?d expect,? but what did that mean? I?d expect the crew of a sunken ship to be sunken. But the rat said Maurick ate them, so where else might one expect them to be? Unless, he meant me specifically, in which case? where would I expect them to be that some other beast wouldn?t?

At that point the mental trail faded away. She hadn?t the faintest clue what Maurick could have been implying. If he?d been implying much of anything important ? Maurick had always been something of a cracked egg. Now he was practically scrambled. Still, if he ever showed his face again she?d be sure to ask some pointed questions. Literally, if it came to that.

After a while, Ciera called a halt so that the wounded members of the crew could tend to their injuries. Between Vera?s leg, Plink?s tail, and everyone else?s assorted scrapes, blisters, and bruises, there was quite a lot to tend to.

Ciera planted herself at the base of a tree. She closed her eyes, and savored the feeling of a light breeze on her face. The peace of the moment was somewhat spoiled by the sibilant whisper of scales in the nearby underbrush.

?Er, Cap?n,? said Scully.

Ciera opened one eye. ?What is it, shipmate Craws??

Scully smiled nervously. ?I was wondering if you could tell me more about Blade now?? A second later he added, ?You promised.?

Ciera laughed mirthlessly. Ah, the impatience of the young. ?I suppose I did.?

Scully held out the dagger, and Ciera took it. The weapon looked old. The handle was faded and worn, and the blade bore the particular dullness of aged metal. When had she seen it last? Had to have been? oh, at least fifteen seasons. It was frightening that it could make her feel so old while deep inside she was sure she was still young...

Plink, apparently having tired of picking at the dressing on her tail, took a seat nearby ? though not too near to Scully. 

?This was his,? Ciera said, addressing the ratmaid. ?Blade?s.?

?How?d he lose it?? asked Plink.

Ciera shrugged. ?He probably threw it away. It?s a small weapon, not much good in an actual fight. He didn?t have much use for it back in the glory days. We were spoilt for choice, really. The empire had a lot of weapons, we could outfit ourselves with whatever we needed.?

She toyed with the dagger. It really was a nice little dagger, in its own way. But it hadn?t fit into the vision, like so many other things. ?See, pirates? well, pirates like to have things. They spend their whole lives chasing treasure, letting the money pile up, but they never seem to have enough, and they?d never dream of actually spending it. But Blade, he was different. He wasn?t selfish for selfishness? sake. He didn?t keep things he couldn?t use.?

He hadn?t even kept his old name.

Cyril slammed his dagger point-first into the desk, sending a sheaf of papers cascading to the floor.

?Cyril? what sort of name is that? Can you imagine it, asking pirates to pledge their allegiance to the empire of Cyril? It sounds preposterous. Nobeast respects Cyril.?

Nobeast except Ciera.

?I don?t think the name really matters,? she put in. ?I don?t think it?s the name they respect, so much as the beast.?

Cyril stared at the dagger. Orange light from the candle glimmered on its edge.

?No,? he mused. ?They respect the beast? but not as much as they respect his blade.?

?Is that what made him such a good pirate?? queried Scully.

?Oh, it made him an excellent pirate.? It was the truth, more or less. Blade?s habit of casting off anything ? or, for that matter, anyone he had no use for had made him an excellent pirate. But it hadn?t made him an excellent friend?

?Was my da a good pirate?? Plink asked abruptly.

?Very good,? Ciera replied, as Murdin let out a snort. Technically, though, Scarcrab was a very good pirate. To be a pirate one had to be amoral, gutless, greedy, or stupid; Scarcrab had been a shining example of all four. Plink seemed satisfied, so Ciera opted not to embellish.

Scully wrinkled his nose disgustedly at Plink. ?What else does it take to be a good pirate, Captain??

?Well, being a good pirate is all about doing whatever your Captain tells you to do. And as long as you?ve got a good captain, they?ll steer you right.?

Murdin smirked, obviously still put out from the altercation on the beach.

?Are you a good captain?? Plink asked, with an undertone of defiance.

Ciera raised an eyebrow. ?Am I?? She found herself oddly curious on this point. Being appointed to the captaincy was a relatively new concept. Before Blade, pirate captains got the title by usurping their predecessor, and kept it by being inconveniently difficult to kill. Back then, every captain was a good captain by process of elimination.

?Chak said yer a marm.?

?Would you like to know the most important thing about being a good pirate?? Ciera asked, brushing the comment aside.

Scully?s ears perked up, and he nodded eagerly.

?A good pirate always knows when they?re about to be betrayed. Watch, I?ll show you.?

Ciera rose, and drew the cutlass she?d scrounged from the beach. It was heavier than her old one, and not nearly as sharp, but it?d suffice for the purposes of this object lesson.

?Vera!? she barked.

Vera?s head snapped upwards. Her eyes widened as she saw Ciera advancing with the blade. She looked about for an escape route, and saw none. Not with her leg in that condition.

?Over the past few days, you have behaved disgracefully. You destroyed our boat. You were insubordinate to your Captain in front of the crew. You disobeyed direct orders. I have offered you chance after chance to redeem your deplorable behavior, and every time I extend my paw, you spit on it.?

?Captain, I-?

?What was the phrase you used to describe us? ?Traitorous pirate scum,? I believe. Seems to me that choosing Waverunners over your own crew is awfully traitorous, Vera. Wouldn?t you agree??

The vixen was trembling now. ?P-Please, Captain??

?And what is the cause of your treachery? Greed. All of it stems from this,? Ciera snapped, drawing Vera?s amulet from beneath her jerkin. The vixen?s eyes immediately snapped onto it.

?Just another treasure-hungry pirate, aren?t you, Vera? You were willing to sell me, Murdin, the entire lot of us into Atlas? clutches just so you could get your paws on it. You risked your own life for it, and for what? An object. A thing.?

Ciera held the amulet up by its silver chain, aloft for all to see. The ornament spun lazily, alternately revealing a large glittering ruby set into the front and the flat gleaming silver of the amulet?s base.

?What can this bauble actually do for you in this situation, Vera? Why could it possibly be worth all of our lives??

The amulet spun.

?Can it help you cook a meal? Can it help you start a fire??

Silver glinted.

?Can it be fashioned into a weapon to use against the many, many beasts out there who want to kill us??

The ruby flashed in the sunlight.

?Can it protect you from what I?m about to do to you??

Silver gleamed like frost in the dead of winter.

?Treasure can?t do anything, Vera!?

The ruby glowed like fresh embers from the depths of Hellgates.

?It can?t do a single thing that?s even remotely useful!?

Reflections danced in the silver.

??except this.?

Ciera turned and struck out with the cutlass at the face she?d seen reflected in the amulet. The blade was heavier than she was used to, and slower, but it still managed to neatly slice through Murdin?s neck.

The stoat clutched his severed throat, gasping feebly.

?Typical pirate,? she said. ?Too distracted by treasure to notice the approach of danger.?

Murdin hit the ground.

Ciera knelt. ?I told you, Murdin. The woodlander?s lives are worth more to me than yours. You were a good crewmate, but you refused to see the bigger picture. You wanted to rule this island. I want to leave it.?

?Captain, I-? Vera began.

?Vera, your actions would have gotten you thrown off the Maiden several times over. But we aren?t aboard the Maiden anymore. You understand that, even if you?ve gone about it in a profoundly stupid fashion. You?re trying to move with the current, but Murdin insisted on standing against it. He refused to acknowledge the facts of our present situation. He would have taken matters into his own paws, eventually. Probably kill me first, for failing to live up to his vision of piracy, then Scully and Plink for being woodlanders. Then soon enough it would?ve been you, Vera, because your injury would only slow him down.?

?That,? Ciera snapped, flicking the dripping cutlass at Murdin?s corpse, ?Is what being a pirate is. It?s always having to look over your shoulder in case somebeast is about to put a knife in it. It?s stealing everything because nobeast cares enough to help you for free. It?s never being able to trust anybeast. It?s letting gold dictate your life. I knew pirates who?d rather starve to death rather than spend their gold to buy bread, because then the gold would be gone, and then soon enough so would the bread, and they didn?t want to die having nothing. You don?t choose to be a pirate, not really. It?s something you?re stuck with, because there?s nothing else for you to be. If the two of you have got any sense in your heads, you?ll forget about piracy and focus about getting off this island.?

?And then what??

Ciera sighed. ?And then you?ll get back to Mossflower, and you can forget about all of this piracy nonsense. Stop being a pirate.?

?And then what??

It was amazing how repeating those three little words could unravel any plan.

Ciera shook her head sadly.

?I have no bloody idea.?

If I knew that? I?d have done it a long time ago.