Justified Treason (Endless Horizon Pirate Stories, Book 1) (25 page)

I quickly learned that he hated buccaneers.

Two years ago, he was kidnapped by a crew of buccaneers and was forced to serve their wounds on the deck of a filthy ship. Having hardly survived a battle that ended in a complete shipwreck, he barely rowed to the shores of Tortuga with only his life; making his meager living working as the assistant of Doctor William Harvey. Doctor Harvey was obsessed with treasure and was greedy for wealth, so he gladly mended the wounds of battered buccaneers since they paid without reserve. Doctor Reedy, on the other hand, would assume to let them all die in the doom they wished upon themselves.

Being my usual quiet self, I took the time to eavesdrop on the many conversations that sounded around the deck, and I believe Doctor Reedy told his story five times before we even cleared the harbor. Growing tired of his nasally complaints, I found much greater value in listening to Oliver Langston tell Paul Redding about his trip to shore.

“We sat down in the tavern and scouted the scene for a reliable source of information. As expected, the surrounding men were vile as could be, and the women were risking their very souls with their promiscuous services. When the bar wench delivered us a round of ale, Captain Smith pulled her down on his lap and whispered in her ear. Of course that hypocritical dog got up to follow her to her room, and when I attempted to remind him of our pressing deadline, he huffed as if I were a senseless child.
I am searching for answers. To find a pirate, one must play his games. I believe she has a lead for me.
”

Though Captain Smith treated Oliver as a fool, I was already well aware he was the farthest thing from foolish. Tall, but lean, with his jaw tucked in an underbite, Oliver wore his thin brown hair braided over his boney shoulder. There wasn’t an inkling of threat in his look, but the battle stories told by his crew assured me that his appearance was quite misleading. It seemed his greatest strength loomed in his sharp-minded wit, and his strategic planning led him fearless in the face of danger. He was also a master of archery. His crewmen claimed that he had once taken down a band of pirates with his handmade arrows before they even came close enough to board his ship. The men esteemed him as an honorable leader, and everyone but the captain himself seemed to respect Oliver Langston and his balanced sense of justice.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised when Oliver told Paul that he took on the job as his own. “While the captain ran his hypocritical muck, I took the pressing matter into my own hands, starting off by pushing aside the mug of ale he had ordered me. You might think that man would know by now that I do not indulge in the heathen drink.

“Stepping out to the street front to observe the passing crowd, I watched carefully as reckless buccaneers staggered about, sassy wenches toiled in mirth, and tattooed convicts and runaway slaves all mingled in cahoots. There were also a few citizens and ragtag merchants bustling in the flow of business, but before long, I saw Doctor Reedy. The rigid little man had no mind to converse with me, but once I asked if he had heard of the
Wind of Glory,
his impatient posture loosened, and his face chimed with a hint of curiosity.

“
Though he admitted to have heard of the ship, he seemed reluctant to elaborate on the details until I rolled out a copy of the Wanted poster. He raised a wicked eyebrow and told me those mangy dogs were in his office this very afternoon and he would tell me more than what I needed to know if I agreed to get him off of the God forsaken island.

“It truly is an awful place, Mister Redding. I was quite honored to get him out of the mess he had been living in. Anyhow, I went back to the table to meet the captain and he strolled out of the brothel hall with a smirk of satisfaction. I resisted my urge to scowl at the blundering man when he laughed,
Glad to see ye right where I left ye, boy. She didn’t have anything of use. We will need to carry on.

“Just then Doctor Reedy entered the tavern and informed us of the mutiny those vile pirates had recently ran against their captain. Apparently they had entered the doctor’s office beaten and bloody from the feat. The tattooed navigator was part of the group and he allured Doctor Harvey with his key to that treasure we seek. Doctor Reedy told me Harvey had a roll of old fabric with a sketch of the very key that the navigator had in his duffle, and it was his own interest in The Lovers’ Treasure that caused him to join the pirates on their mission. 

“It was quite a fortunate encounter meeting Doctor Reedy, and now with our gathered consort, we should be able to take those pirates down without much of a fuss.”

Though thrilled to hear that
Sterling was alive and well, I spent the next two days stressing over the very power that gave Oliver his confidence. Between my nattering curiosity about the mentioned mutiny and my spiraling concerns over the upcoming attack, my joy for the sail seemed tainted, and what little sleep I found in my hammock was haunted and restless.

My fears only intensified when we came upon the burning wreckage of a sinking Spanish galleon called
Incendio
. The bowsprit was standing vertically amongst the charred and smoking remains of the once beautiful ship, and including the few floating bodies of Spanish dressed sailors, the scene appeared to be a total loss. The bustling men gawked over the scene, insisting such demolition could only have been committed by pirates.

The daunting sight was as mesmerizing as it was terrifying. I wasn’t sure if it gave me hope for the strength and power that would defend
Sterling against my captain’s attack, or if it devastated my courage for the horrifying feat I had ventured to endure.

X

There she was. I could see
Wind of Glory
in the distant night. Wanting nothing more than to enjoy the closeness of my lover’s breath, the chaos swarming around me only made absurdities of my ridiculous hopes. This was not about romance. It was about war, and I had stuck myself right in the middle of it.

Though Captain Smith had intended to have the stealth of night on his side,
Wind of Glory
turned to face us and was soaring in our direction with the wind of conquer filling her sails. Naturally, I was terrified. But I hadn’t expected the men on board to panic with the same fear that was engulfing my heart. Up until now, they had sounded so eager to take on the filthy pirates they were after, yet as
Wind of Glory
barreled towards us with her black flag flapping in the night breeze, it seemed they wished to turn and run.

Captain Smith looked just as terrified standing speechless on the quarterdeck as his men called for command. The void of silence surrounding the captain was quickly filled by the growls of civil war. Some men wanted to run, some men wanted to fight, but just as their arguments began to flare into a flame of violence, Oliver Langston took command.

“We have not come this far to fail, and we won’t! Pirates feed off of fear and they will find none on this deck. Keep her steady and ready the guns. This war is ours to take.”

Oliver continued to shout commands to his crew as they took their positions, and while empowering them to fight for their lives, he reminded them to spare the navigator. The replenished pride in the crew’s will to fight helped me to reassert my own bravery.

Over the sound of Oliver’s echoing commands and the crewmen’s thundering roars of conquer, I heard the harrowing growls of the buccaneers drawing near.
Liberty Anne
was too far behind to be of any help when
Wind of Glory
came broadside, and as my fearful instinct tempted me to hide below deck, the most fearsome sound I ever heard came ripping through the night.

Cannons. Great guns. Guns.

Whatever the hell they called them. The billowing thump of the explosion ignited my heart with a fire of fear, and it took all my will to keep from screaming like a woman as I felt the wooden hull accept the thrashing blow.

The blast continued between the two ships, firing and smoking, thumping and shattering, and amidst the chaos I saw men from both ships tumbling limp into the sea. Some of them were dead. Some of them were dying. Oh my Lord. What had I gotten myself into? I ran below deck to hide.

Sheltering myself from the fury, I noticed the ship was taking in more water than it could stay afloat with. If the shots continued to strike, I feared that we would sink. The dreadful thought of drowning drew me right back up to the deck, and on my way I hardly dodged a gun blast that shattered the bulkheads around me. The splintering shards of shrapnel that blasted against my body hurt more than anything I had ever experienced. I suddenly realized that I had never known physical pain. Awful as it was, the adrenaline blasting through my body made it easy enough to leave the agony behind me.

Rushing back up to the deck, I found everything in the world contrary to relief. Through the smoke filled air I saw bullets and grenades flying across the trembling deck. There was a fire raging near the foremast and worst of all, there were dead bodies haphazardly strung about the area. Vomit welled in my gut, and when I saw Clark Harold fall dead at my feet I leaned over a barrel and threw up. 

I might have run back to the water filled hull to drown if the gangway hadn’t been shattered to bits, but there was no escaping the hell surrounding me. While trying to gather my tumbling guts, the flaming foremast began to topple over. Hardly dodging the blow of the wooden pole striking the deck, I hurdled over the mangle of sails, rigging lines, and splintered wood. Where I was running to I had no clue.

Oliver ordered the crew to secure their grappling hooks to the side of the opposing ship. They swung the heavy hooks aboard the
Wind of Glory
, using all their strength to pull their sinking and burning ship towards her solid hull. The pathetic remains of the
Blue Tide
clamored through the burst of more gun blast, and the feeble ledge of the collapsing ship glommed on to the strength of its strong standing opponent. As the sides of the ships collided, the wooden masses clambered together with a rowdy bash, causing some of the men to fall between and face the gruesome fate of being smashed to death. Grabbing onto the stair rail to keep my own balance, I choked on the bitter smoke that filled the night air.

Flames of the raging fire illuminated the battlefield with a hellish blaze, and through the daunting glow, I saw
Sterling. Commanding his men to lay low with their muskets, he took base behind the gunnel before they fired a round. His conducted shot caused a few men aboard my ship to drop to their deaths.

Amongst all my menacing uncertainties, I heard Oliver Langston holler for his crew to invade the
Wind of Glory.
As much as I dreamed about being aboard the
Wind of Glory
, I had not imagined ending up on her deck by running head on into a firestorm of battle to escape a sinking ship. Among the charging men rushing across the deck, I saw Oliver tumble to the floor, rise to his feet, and stab a hairy shirtless man with one of his arrows. The longhaired man fell over gurgling in bloody pain before Oliver pulled his sword, stabbed him again, and disappeared into the raging battle.

I didn’t want to follow. Yet with
Blue Tide
sinking slowly into the sea and fire nearly consuming the entire deck, I had no choice but to abandon ship. Saying a silent prayer in my spiraling mind, I threw myself aboard the
Wind of Glory.

Dipping and dodging the ghoulish sounds of slashing flesh, I manipulated my way through the surrounding battle. Having last seen
Sterling on the quarterdeck, I headed in that direction. He would keep me safe. I had to get to him.

While passing the narrow hall by the captain’s quarters, I saw Faron Flynn fighting with a man I found to be eerily familiar. I recognized his bearded face to match that of the man who had been haunting my dreams since I saw him on that Wanted poster. Captain Dedrick Morley. Thinking that he was overthrown in the mutiny, I was startled to see him free, and apparently so was Faron. After Faron punched him in the face he huffed, “How the blimey hell did ye get out of yer cage, dog?” He punched him again.

Morley slammed Faron against the bulkhead and hissed a wicked laugh. “Lucky gun blast through the brig wall set me loose. Now I be free to kill ye on the deck of me ship ye tried to steal from me.”

For whatever reason, Faron was unarmed, but after evading the swing of Morley’s dagger, Faron continued to hold his own by the might of his brute force. The fight took a harsh turn when Morley tackled Faron to the ground and raised his already bloody dagger to stab him.

The dreadful sight sent a flurry of God awful visuals racing through my mind. First I saw him bashing Maureen’s beautiful face, and then I imagined the way he threatened Sterling’s life for protecting her. And Faron, good heavens he was Sterling’s only friend and Mary Daley loved him so. In fact, he was the only man she ever loved and she’d be heartbroken to hear that he was murdered right in front of me.

I heard a gunshot.

It was so close and so loud I thought someone else had fired it, but the gun in my hand was smoking and through the sulfur biting at my eyes, I saw Dedrick Morley drop to his death. Before I had a chance to register what I had done, Faron looked at me with wide-eyed shock. “Charlotte?”