“Drake?” Khan narrowed his already beady eyes. “Morrass is here?”
“Not right now, no. See, he and I built this town.”
“I hear he destroyed Sev’relain.”
Keelin shook his head and immediately regretted it, as his hangover chose that exact moment to make his brain feel too large for his skull.
“I was there, and honestly there was no man who did more to save Sev’relain than Drake Morrass. We took the survivors and brought them here. We took the damned ship that burned Sev’relain, and…”
“That ship?” Khan pointed towards the bones of the Man of War. Much of the warship had been scavenged and picked over, but it was still just about possible to see how big the beast had been.
“Aye.”
“An impressive catch.” Khan glanced back at his own ship. “I would have kept her.”
Keelin laughed. “Why? Is your own ship not big enough?”
Khan’s head snapped back around so fast his beard took a moment to catch up. His eyes were dark and angry. “Are you again mocking the size of my ship, Stillwater?”
Poole stepped between the two of them, with plenty of open, calming hand gestures. “I think what Stillwater here meant was that ya new ship is pretty fuckin’ big, eh?”
“Pretty much,” Keelin said, squinting against the light and wishing his headache and the huge captain in front of him would both sail back out to sea and never come back.
“Fight me, Stillwater,” Khan repeated.
Keelin let out a frustrated sigh. “What the fuck is it with you and challenging me to duels? Is it just me, or do you challenge everybody you meet?”
“Just you.” Khan grinned. “They say you’re the best.”
It wasn’t exactly something Keelin liked to admit, but he was secretly quite proud of his reputation as the best swordsman in the isles. “And if I accept, will you side with Drake against Sarth?”
Poole shook his head. “Hang on a fuckin’ minute…”
“Aye,” Khan said with a grin that showed teeth even through his beard.
“If that’s what it takes, then.” Keelin struggled to disentangle himself from his jacket.
“Now hang the fuck on,” Poole shouted, his glare taking in the crowd that had quickly started to gather around the scene. “An’ before either of you piss poor excuses for deck scrubbers thinks ta ignore me again, how’s about ya realise I got far more of me boys down here on the beach than either of you.”
A rare silence drifted across the beach, and all eyes turned to Captain Poole.
“Out-fucking-standin’. Now, in case either of ya haven’t noticed, Stillwater, here, is past the point o’ pickled…”
“I am not!”
“Ya can’t even get out of ya bloody coat, mate.”
Keelin thought about arguing further, but he was still struggling to remove his right arm from the damned thing.
“Now you wanna challenge the best, right?” Poole said to Captain Khan. “He ain’t really the best when he’s like this, now, is he? Fairly certain a crab could take him.”
Khan rumbled an agreement.
“Two days,” Poole said. “We’ll sober this bastard up, an’ in two days ya can have ya fight, an’ when ya lose, everyone will watch ya swear ya allegiance to Drake Morrass. Good?”
Khan smirked through his beard and nodded.
“Good.” Poole grinned, and before anybody else could say a word, he turned, grabbed Keelin by the shoulder, and pulled him away towards one of the dinghies.
“I had that under control,” Keelin protested, knowing full well the situation was anything but under control.
“You’re a disgrace, mate,” Poole spat. “Ya meant ta be in charge ’round here, an’ everyone just saw ya toasted as Admiral Tatters an’ ready ta get cut in half. Now you get back ta ya ship, ya sober up, an’ ya get ready ta fight that fuckin’ giant.”
Keelin put on an arrogant grin that he really didn’t feel. “Easy.”
“Oh, really?” Poole asked as they arrived at the skiff. “Because his arms are as big as my legs, an’ here’s the real kicker, mate. Ya can’t just win. Ya gotta survive, an’ make fuckin’ certain he does too.”
Chapter 34 - Starry Dawn
Elaina had never seen the remains of a town burned to ash and bones. It was a devastating sight, and no mistake. She’d taken ships, slaughtered crews, and seen dead bodies piled high on decks awash with blood, but this was something else. Men, women, and children all cut down in the streets, in their homes, in the taverns and brothels, on the beach, and in the surf. Lillingburn would never have claimed to be the biggest of the pirate settlements, but by the number of dead littering its carcass, it couldn’t have been far off.
“Don’t like it here, Cap,” said Pollick, and Elaina couldn’t help but agree.
“There’s nothing left to fear, Pol.” Elaina said with a sorrowful sigh. “They’re all dead.”
“Don’t mean it ain’t rightly creepy, Cap.”
For months Elaina and her crew had been sailing the seas around the isles, attempting to find some prey. When they’d finally caught a little cog, with barely enough plunder worth taking and all of it perishable, she’d taken Starry Dawn straight to the nearest port, only to find the nearest port was no longer there.
“This reminds me of me old soldiering days,” said Alfer Boharn, the ship’s new quartermaster.
Elaina poked at the lifeless body of a child with her boot. She liked Alfer, and he made for an excellent, fair quartermaster, but the loss of Corin had left a hole in Elaina’s chest. It made it worse that she knew what sort of Hell her friend was being put through day after day. After three months, Elaina wondered if there was even anything of her friend left. Lucy had a way of destroying a person’s mind, and her father had a way of destroying a person’s body.
“Why’s that?” Elaina stared at a grisly picture of a woman and two young boys still hand in hand, lying dead on a bed of red sand.
“Notice how all the bodies have been decapitated?” Alfer said.
“Creepiest fucking thing about it all,” Pollick said, taking off his eye glasses.
“Five Kingdoms folk did this,” Alfer said confidently. “Bastards always chop off the heads of the dead to make certain they don’t come back.”
“This ain’t makin’ it any less creepy, Alf.” Pollick spat into the sand and backed away from the nearest body, as though it might reach up and grab him if he didn’t.
“This?” Alfer pointed at one of the bodies and took a step towards Pollick. “This ain’t nothing, lad. You wanna see creepy, you go visiting the Land of the Dead. I been there.” He took another step. “Seen an army, must be a thousand strong, all dead and rotting. Some of ’em little more than bones, but they marched on all the same.”
Pollick was holding his ground, staring at Alfer through watery eyes. Elaina found the scene funny despite the carnage all around them. It was doing wonders to cheer up her dark mood.
“The walking bones ya think would be the worst, what with the lurching steps, chattering teeth, and the lack of any flesh holding ’em together. But no. Worst is the recently dead children, lad. Toddlers, some looking only just off their mother’s tits.” Alfer was just a few steps away from Pollick now, and his face had taken on a long, drawn, colourless aspect. “They travel in packs, only as high as ya knees, and they let out little person-like cries, as if they just want to find their parents. But they’re strong, ya see, stronger than they ought’a be. And once they got hold, they bring ya down, little mouths biting, eating at ya flesh.”
“Fuck, Alfer, stop,” Pollick wailed, turning and staggering away to empty his stomach of its most recent meal.
They were joined by the three pirates Elaina had sent deeper into the small town. “Find anything?” she said.