The sailor who ordered this callous toss of our weapons into sacks had a face peppered with acne and scabs; and his body was as worn as this ship.
"I ordered these people be treated with respect!" cried Hallet, the spray lashing his face. "They are no threat to us Williams! Now fetch some blankets and see them all to berths below!"
"Clamp ‘em in irons!" returned Williams, to agreeing grunts from his fellows.
"You'll carry out my orders!" roared Hallet. "Never again will I repeat myself to a wretched, black-hearted curr like you Williams! Long have you undermined me man, and no longer will I stand for it!"
Surprised, Williams mocked Hallet's exuberance, his youth and class before rallying the men to his own cause. "And what would the captain say, Mr. Hallet, sir? Pickin' up strays on these seas? Aye it may have been your notion to collect these floaters but it is mine to keep 'em where eyes can see 'em! What do we say lads?"
"We don't need more strangers!" concurred one, with a gaping hole where his eye should be. "Not this sort anyhow! That scarred bugger there has seen many a battle, and the woman has wings!"
"They're cursed!" declared another. "A curse from the Devil! Toss em back to the locker I say!"
"Aye!" the dishevelled lot agreed.
"But after," added Williams; "after we get our share of the woman!"
His words inspired a salivating groan from these men, and their greedy hands began to molest Harmony, pulling the sling from her arm and groping her curves. Eddinray found the fight to beat them off, but Williams quickly slashed a warning cutlass across his chest. "Take nay action against us, ye olé knight! Or my next score will cross yer bloody throat!"
Their calloused palms snuffed Harmony's moans, but before the clothes could be torn from her body, Hallet again pushed the men back and bawled over a storm.
"Williams you're a bloody disgrace! A bloody disgrace, you hear? You others curse your damned filthy hands to the devil! The captain will see to the matter! The captain alone! For now you follow out orders Williams, my orders, or tonight I'll see you keeping an eye on all of us — from the masthead!"
Williams set his withered eye to that high and hellish spot through torn canvas and rigging, then resentfully nodded at his younger superior. It was then, whilst examining the ship that I noticed — despite having enough seamen here — there was no hand at the helm of this ship. At the quarterdeck, thick rope held the wheel in place and on course, whatever diabolical course that may be.
Without warning, two heavyset men handled Kat by the armpits, and he immediately shoved the pair aside.
"He doesn't need assistance!" I yelled. "Leave him alone!"
Kat's ungrateful attitude did not please the ugly Williams, who wasted no time smashing his boot heel into the samurai's face.
"We've done nothing!" Harmony sobbed, watching Kat collapse. "Let us be!"
The rest advanced. Harmony was thrown over one man's shoulder; two dragged my limp body over the deck whilst the last of them tugged Eddinray along by the wrist. "I can walk!" he complained. "My legs are functioning perfectly!"
On his back, blood oozed from Kat's nose, and when it touched his tongue, his old self returned with a vengeance. His head butt staved one's cheek in and his punch blew the teeth out another's mouth. Quickly set on, all six crew dropped us to swing their fists and boots into our bullish friend.
"Leave him!" I moaned. "Kat!"
My sound could never penetrate the storm, and although Kat was typically tough in defending himself, he took brutal hits enough to kill a lesser man. "Don't fight Kat!" I cried. "They won't stop if you keep fighting!"
Through walloping arms and legs, I noticed Williams brandish a blunt shank. Kat saw it too, and without mercy, he grabbed the Seaman's wrist, broke it with a downward snap then forced the shank through William's ribcage. The pit faced sailor spat red over the samurai, before thumping dead to the ever-washing deck.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed the bulging sack containing our weapons and the flasks to save this soul — but there they would remain. Expectantly, the subsequent dispersion of William's body only encouraged his fellow sailors to finish Kat off.
"Look out!" yelled Harmony suddenly, as Kat was knocked out cold.
"Get us all murdered!" exhaled Eddinray, the culprit holding the club. "Bloody madman!"
Hallet snatched the wood from Eddinray's hand then ordered his remaining men to escort us below, as the soul of seaman Williams became a shrimp in his own bloodied pool.
***
We idled in a shell of old wood and creepy crawlies. A burning oil lantern smearing yellows and oranges hung near five steps ascending to a locked door. That door was the only way in or out of this hold, and we weren't going anywhere near it. On our asses side by side, all our hands where uncomfortably held above our heads by bronze cuffs at the wrists; similar locks also snared our heels. We shared our cell with dozens of barrels, many feet of rolled up hemp and a grainy black powder draining out of fat sacks. The curved walls of this ship cracked like knuckles from the pressure outside; accompanied by clunking footsteps on decks above.
"Should we wake him?" asked Harmony, chained next to the dozing Kat.
"Let him sleep,” I said, frustrated. "The man never sleeps."
Her gloomy expression agreed.
"Killed one of their crew," I muttered. "They won't allow us to leave this ship."
Eddinray was unusually quiet between me and Harmony, the knight daydreaming the time away with nothing clever to say.
"Anything the matter?" Harmony asked him. "You don't seem yourself Godwin?"
"Dandy,” he replied, after a dry swallow. Just I…suffer from the most appalling seasickness, my dear. I'm afraid I feel a spell coming on."
A lingering groan left his stomach, and Harmony and I slid as far as possible from any oral projectiles.
"That was very clever of you to knock out the samurai,” said Harmony to Eddinray. "The sailors would've killed him otherwise. Yes, the correct decision Godwin. Well done. Still, let's not inform Kat of your actions. His temper will only cloud his better judgement."
It was now my turn to give a lazy nod of agreement. "Perhaps I should have drunk from the canteens after all?" she added, examining the discoloured skin at her elbow.
Suddenly, a rattling of keys sprang us from our stupor. The narrow door at the steps screeched open and the young seaman, John Hallet, now entered the hold. He was obvious in his discretion, and grimaced at every creak his descending footsteps made.
"Rainwater,” he whispered, stooping to place a heavy looking bucket by our feet. Hallet left our hands in irons and took it upon himself to wash us, splashing handfuls of chilly water over our flesh to scrub the salt from our skin. "Salt eats at you like nothing else," he said. "It'll have you raisins before you knew it."
"Your men don't have much respect for authority,” I said, he rubbing my hair with trembling fingers.
"They do respect authority, just not that of their midshipman. They are men after all, and no man takes orders from a boy."
"But you are one of them," queried Harmony; "are you not?"
John Hallet cupped a watery handful from the bucket and smeared away a pain in his neck. Understandably, centuries of riding the devil's back had taken its toll on the lad's body, and his sanity.
"Am I one of them?" he asked himself. "Together on this ship we have watched senior officers drop like flies and the chain of command reduced to just two: Captain Christian…and the youth before you now. Some may not agree with the situation, but it is the situation, and here I will always be one of them."