Never Shall We Die

[Captain Ciera Ancora]

And then there were four. Well, three and half, considering the leveret.

They rowed more or less in silence, trying to find a happy middle ground between speed and stealth.

?Vera,? Ciera said, refusing to meet the cook?s eyes. ?I?m sorry about Mister Iz- Vasily.?

Vera continued rowing. ?We weren?t close.?

Ciera didn?t know what she?d been expecting, but it hadn?t been sullen indifference. ?I?m still sorry.? She?d have added that he was a good beast, and a good quartermaster, but he hadn?t actually been either of those things.

Vera merely shrugged in response.

Having run out of ways to bolster crew morale ? as well as crew to bolster the morale of ? Ciera turned her attention to the hares. They didn?t seem liable to make a move while she was watching them, so she resumed rowing and monitored her peripheral vision closely. The bound one was glancing furtively at the young one. Not a surprise. The hare was a trained fighter, with the enemy captain in easy reach. He?d have been insane not to want to capitalize on the opportunity. Curiously, the younger one didn?t seem interested in freeing his companion.

Is he simply obtuse? Or does he simply realize how unlikely it is that he?d get away with it?

She hazarded a glance backwards, trying to discern whether the leveret was strategic and calculating, or merely rather dense. The young hare was completely inscrutable. If anything, he looked curious. Most woodlanders, and Waverunners in particular, tended to look at vermin with derision, even hatred ? which made the leveret?s curiousity? curious.

Little git probably was raised to think pirates are the scum of the earth, he?s probably only ever seen us in battle. It?s probably the first time he?s seen a vermin who wasn?t trying to cut his face off. I wonder what he thinks of us...

Ciera turned back around, opting to ignore the leveret for the time being.

It would have been sensible to run both of them through. The most efficient way to deal an enemy was to turn him into a dead enemy, and all that. And, for that matter, newly-ventilated hares would prove marvellously handy in the event of another shark attack, and lighten the boat for more expedient escaping. It was at least a win-win, possibly even a win-win-win.

But it would be a typical pirate?s victory ? short-sighted and ultimately doing more harm than good. She and Blade had often groused about pirates? inability to take the long view of things. They?d even run an experiment once, just to prove their suspicions. They would place a gold coin in front of a pirate, and tell him that he could either take this gold coin now, or give it back to them and get two gold coins tomorrow. Most of them had nicked the coin before they?d even got to the second bit. One enterprising fellow had drawn a sword and demanded the other coin immediately. Not one bloody pirate had ever been capable of trading a shiny, gold, immediately real coin for an imaginary future one. They were too greedy, too suspicious to take the chance, so they took the cheaper certainty.

Ciera preferred to look at the future through the spyglass of reasoning. The Waverunners had outnumbered her crew very heavily. The explosion would have killed many below decks, and she?d seen a disheartening number of corpses in the waters surrounding the Maiden. Factor in that variants of Vasily?s unfortunate demise were probably being enacted all over the immediate area, and it was probably safe to assume that the vast majority of the beasts who reached the shore would be Waverunners.

This was both a blessing and a curse. Waverunners had an armada at their back, which meant that Salamandastron ships would be coming to the island for rescue and a cut of the treasure. However, Waverunners wouldn?t hesitate to kill them, especially if they were still under Stormstripe?s command. Having been tossed overboard in the explosion, she had no idea if the Badger Lord had survived the Phantom?s onslaught. With any luck, the mad giant was careening face-first into a shark?s gullet, or taking repose on the seabed. But, if the Waverunners saw that they?d been merciful, they might be willing to consider reciprocating. It was a slim hope, but it was marginally better than nothing.

After an eternity of monotonous oarstrokes, the boat finally nosed into the sand with a muted crunch. The bound hare, unable to brace for impact, smacked his head on the side of the boat.

Ciera dropped her oar, stretched, and rubbed at her paws. They ached, and smarted with the merest deviation from the crabbed oar-gripping position they?d been locked into. The ferret vowed then and there that if she ever captained a vessel again, her oarslaves would be treated like royalty.

The shoreline was festooned with detritus. Large clumps of seaweed and bladderwrack were tangled up with debris from the battle. There was one lump, though, too rigid to be plant matter and too soft to be wood? Ciera hesitantly picked up her paddle, and prodded the shape. It shifted slightly, revealing an all-too-familiar bandaged paw.

?It?s that cat from the Deadwake,? Vera observed.

?Figgins.? The poor little fool. She?d plucked him from Greyjaw?s crew, done her best to care for the lad. She?d given him a second chance at life, shown him what it was like to be a crew member instead of a mere minion. But he still ended up as nothing but a meaningless casualty in a battle that had nothing to do with him.

Isn?t that always the sodding way? You try to save the pirates, to show them a better path, and it ultimately doesn?t matter. Blade couldn?t save his precious empire, and I couldn?t save a single child.

She saw it now. Piracy was like the tide. No matter how hard a beast pushed against it, the flow continued on its way. It couldn?t be slowed, it couldn?t be stopped. The tide always won out, no matter what. It was foolish to even try resisting it.

?I don?t suppose you?d care to untie me now,? groused the hare.

Wonder of all wonders, the leveret actually looked to Ciera for approval. She nodded curtly. ?Very well, Mister??

?Fildering Dillwithers,? the hare sniffed.

?Mister Dilwithers. I?d like to bring to your attention the fact that we could have left you for dead at any point, and we chose not to.?

?I?m fresh out of bloomin? ?Thank you? notes, ferret.? The hare pronounced her species with a disdain usually reserved for things found living in long-forgotten trash heaps.

?You?ll note that we?re continuing on our present course of not killing you.?

?Yeah??

??and we can change that course at any moment.?

?I?m listening,? said Dillwithers prudently. He hadn?t been fully untied yet, and clearly didn?t fancy his chances.

?I propose that we work together to get off this island. We can create some sort of signal, get help. There must be other Waverunners out there following Atlas.?

?And then what, eh??

?And then you can take us to the mainland, drop us off somewhere and let us go. We?ll never trouble anybeast again.?

?You expect us to believe that, ferret??

?Pirates can change,? she said as convincingly as she could. The phrase she?d once believed in so firmly now lacked almost any vestige of genuine conviction.

Dillwithers' response was curtailed by the appearance of several bodies amongst the trees. Any lingering hope Ciera might have had was quashed when the first figure revealed itself to be a rangy-looking hare. They were Waverunners.

Vera looked hesitant. ?What?s our plan now, Captain??

Ciera blinked. ?Plan??

The vixen?s head swiveled about conspiratorially. ?You know? for the woodlanders??

?Well, I?ve got the last plan they?d ever expect,? Ciera replied.

Her empty scabbard hit the sand. A little trickle of sandy seawater oozed from it. Seconds later, it was joined by two concealed daggers.

Ciera raised her paws. ?We unconditionally surrender.?

Vera gave her a blank look. Ciera glared back meaningfully, and the vixen fished out a shiny kitchen knife, slick with the sheen of seawater. A crab mallet followed, which prompted curious looks from everybeast.

?Now what?? Convention would dictate that Ciera would have cleverly squirrelled away a third dagger, kept in an extra-special hiding spot just in case the other two had to be relinquished in a grandiose gesture of surrender. Said dagger would be retrieved at precisely the most opportune moment, and used to carve a bloody path to freedom. Convention was going to be sorely disappointed.

The ferret shrugged. ?Now they do what they like with us. If we?re unfathomably lucky, they?ll let us live long enough to be executed.?

?What??

?Look around you, Vera. We have no leverage. We have no ship. We have no allies. They?ve got both.?

?Yes,? said Vera carefully, ?but they want to kill us.? None of the Waverunners appeared keen to disprove this statement.

?So??

?So?? Vera parroted incredulously.

?Look around you, Vera. I?ve got you, and you?ve got me. That?s it. The tides are against us, and we might as well go where they take us.

"We've thrown away our weapons," Ciera proclaimed. "If any of you doubts me, feel free to search and take anything you want."

A burly hedgehog stepped forward, closely flanked by their former captive. Ciera stared at him impassively. She'd spared his life, and she just dared him to do her the discourtesy of killing her. The hedgehog's prodding paws revealed that Ciera's inventory contained exactly one ferret (gray, female), one jerkin (torn, wet), and one pair of boots (grossly impractical for swimming, would've been kicked off if she'd been any good at untying knots underwater). Another hare demanded that she remove the boots. As she tugged the sodden laces, she noticed a large bruise on the hare's footpaw, as though somebeast had stamped on it quite hard, and deduced that the request was probably personal rather than practical.

That done, the hedgehog moved on to Vera. Ciera noted that the fox looked distinctly uneasy.

The woodlander?s paws patted Vera down roughly. The vixen?s composure wavered a tad more with each thump, and positively oscillated when an errant poke encountered something hard in the folds of her apron. 

?What?ve you got there?? the hedgehog demanded. Behind him, Dillwithers clutched one of Ciera?s daggers, doubtlessly anticipating a last-ditch attack from the cornered vixen.

?It?s nothing,? Vera tried.

?Take off your apron.?

?But, sir, I-?

?Now.?

?Vera!? Ciera snapped harshly. ?Let them have it.?

Resistance was written across the vixen?s features, but she acquiesced, and slipped the garment over her head. The hedgehog snatched it, and began feeling around the fabric. He squeezed one of the folds, and something solid moved beneath the cloth. After a bit of fiddling, he prised loose the object Vera had been trying to hide.

?Cor,? said the hedgehog, revealing a silver amulet. A blood-red ruby set into the silver twinkled as the hedgehog turned the bauble about, examining it.

?Wonderful craftsmanship, that,? observed one of the hares. ?You think it?s from Blade?s hoard??

?Give it back! It?s mine!? Vera leapt forward and tried to snatch the amulet. The hedgehog held it fast.
Blades began to bristle amongst the woodlanders.

?Let it go, Vera,? Ciera growled. ?You?re going to get us killed.?

?No! I need it!? Vera was pleading now, looking to Ciera for assistance.

?Vera, please.? A note of desperation crept into Ciera?s voice, unbidden. ?We?ve lost everyone else. I don?t want to lose you too.? She was shocked to hear herself saying the words. More shocked, to find that they were true. It was the first time she?d ever allowed herself to admit to a crewbeast that they had actual tangible meaning to her, beyond their day-to-day function.

?Please, Vera, just let them have it. It?s? just a thing.?

Vera?s ears flattened. ?But it?s not just a thing. It?s important.?

?Important?? The embers of a smouldering fire were suddenly fanned back into flame, and it burned with a vengeance. ?You pirates and your sodding treasure!? Ciera spat venomously. ?Blade and I were right, you lot are worse than magpies! We wasted seasons of our lives trying to help you, and what do you do? You throw your own lives away! You drag yourselves and the rest of the crew down to the bottom of the ocean, weighed down by all of the shiny rocks in your pockets! What good will it do when you?re dead? Useless bloody halfwits!?

At this point, it would have been conventional for Ciera and Vera to exchange a knowing glance, escalate the conflict even further, make as if to strike one another and then conveniently miss and hit their enthralled captors. This element of surprise would have been the catalyst which allowed them to prevail against the nonsensical odds, interspersing their attacks with witty banter all the while. But Vera merely glared, and convention batted zero for two.

The vixen refused to wilt under Ciera?s blistering tirade. Instead, she met the ferret?s gaze and slowly released the amulet. The sheer simplicity of the act made Ciera regret her outburst. At the same time, she couldn?t help but respect the vixen for refusing to be cowed. On some level, she even admired Vera. She made a mental note to commend vixen for having such backbone, in the event that they survived the next five minutes. Of course, backbone didn't matter much if the skull it supported was hollow. Vera?s refusal to cooperate had effectively undermined their surrender, and jeopardized the only reason to keep them alive.

There was a polite cough.

?Excuse me,? said the leveret earnestly. ?Did you really know Captain Blade??

Ciera realized then that Vera wasn?t the only one with a hollow skull. Thoughts flashed through her mind like rapid-fire lightning. The key was right there. It was right there, and she'd missed it on the first go around. The hares had thought that Vera?s amulet was part of Blade?s hoard. That meant that they believed the treasure was real. All this time, she?d assumed it was a trap. But Stormstripe?s ship had been blown to bits too, hadn?t it? Then again, perhaps Atlas simply hadn?t told his minions about the ruse. Either way, it was all academic. The important thing, the truly important thing, was that the hares thought the treasure was real.   

She knelt to the young hare, smiling. ?Yes, I knew Blade. He and I were very good friends.? She paused, just long enough to add the desired emphasis to her next words, well aware that it could mean the difference between life and death. ?In fact, I dare say I knew him better than anyone.?