“Now generally, mate, when ya pay a whore, and she accepts that payment, there ain’t really no need ta go beatin’ on her. Well, actually, I don’t reckon there’s ever really a need for that sort of behaviour.”
“I did pay her.” The pirate was attempting to wriggle out of Hert’s grip, and only making the big man hold him tighter. “Three bits, going rate.”
The whore attempted to spit at the pirate, but with her lips so swollen only managed to dribble the spittle down her chin. Daimen wiped it away. “That true, luv?”
The woman was staring at the pirate with burning eyes. “Shoved three bits down my top and said I was paid,” she slurred. “I tried to give ’em back, an’ he hit me. Next thing I knew, I was tied and gagged.”
Daimen sighed. “Were the rules not explained ta you all when ya docked here, mate? ’Cos the penalty for rape is fairly…”
“Captain’s law,” the pirate blurted.
“Ah, fuck.” Daimen shook his head, wishing he’d never left the tavern. He looked up into the clouds and weighed his options. He could kill the pirate here and now, and Khan would want an explanation, or he could take the stupid bastard to his captain as he’d asked and see how the man dealt with him. Not much of a choice as far as Daimen was concerned; either way he had an angry piratical giant to deal with.
“Captain’s law says…” the pirate started.
“I fuckin’ well know what it says, mate. I am a captain. Got me own ship an’ everything. I’m tryin’ ta decide whether ta just kill you an’ tell your big bastard of a captain you fell onto me sword.”
The pirate’s eyes widened. “I’ll scream.”
“How manly you are. Real fuckin’ hero. First you rape a poor lass, then you go an’ scream like one.”
“He’s invoked cap’n’s law, Cap’n Poole,” said the boy. “Only right to give him to his…”
“Well, aren’t you a sweet little conscience. I can see why you picked this one, Hert. Arsehole as tight as a miser’s purse strings, I’ll wager.” Daimen barked out a laugh and carried on before anyone could further argue the pirate’s case. “Come on then, let’s go give him ta his captain an’ see what the big bastard says.”
They marched the pirate to the North Gale, where the ship’s first mate informed them in no uncertain terms that Captain Khan was sleeping and didn’t like to be disturbed. After a few choice insults, along with the threat of drowning the rapist right there in front of his own ship, the first mate went to rouse his captain. Khan eventually appeared on deck, wearing nothing but his black bandana to keep his hair in check and rubbing sleepily at his eyes. He put one giant foot upon the railing of his ship and looked down at Daimen and his captured pirate.
“Fuck’s sake, T’ruck,” Daimen said. “You mind puttin’ some britches on?”
“Why?” the giant pirate responded sleepily. “Does my cock intimidate you.”
“Fuck yes, mate. That thing would intimidate a horse, an’ a well endowed one at that. Tell me, have you ever tried stranglin’ someone with it?”
T’ruck Khan let out a deep belly laugh and squinted down at the men standing at the gangplank to his ship. “Why are you holding Oppen?”
“You can let him go now, Hert,” Daimen said, and his crewman obeyed instantly. The pirate didn’t waste a moment in charging up the gangplank onto the safety of his ship and getting behind his captain.
“Found the dumb bastard up the beach, rapin’ this here poor girl. Seems your man didn’t like ‘no’ as an answer.”
Captain Khan looked slowly from Daimen to the whore to his crewman. “Is this true, Oppen?”
“I paid her!”
Captain Khan took in a deep breath and sighed it out. “You were aware of the rules of this town, Oppen.”
“Captain…”
“They were explained to you all.”
“Captain…”
“Either you wilfully disobeyed or you were too stupid to listen to me when we arrived here.”
“Captain…”
“Did you rape that woman?” Khan roared.
Oppen staggered back a few steps, and even in the dim light Daimen could see tears in the man’s eyes. He nodded. “Aye.”
Khan turned to another member of his crew, several of whom had gathered nearby. “Rope.”
“Please, Captain,” Oppen said. “I didn’t mean to. I…”
Khan levelled a punch at the pirate’s face, flooring the man and, judging by the silence, knocked him out cold. Another crewman arrived carrying some rope and scurried up the rigging to hang it over the mast. The captain knelt down, out of Daimen’s sight, and after a few moments stood again, one end of the rope now in his hands. The giant nodded once to Daimen and began pulling on the rope.
All by himself, T’ruck Khan hanged his unconscious crewman, pulling on the rope until Oppen’s feet were dangling high above the deck. He held him there while staring down at Daimen and the whore. It was impossible to tell when the pirate finally expired – he never woke from his captain’s punch – but after a while his skin turned pale and lax. Still Khan held the rope.
“Good riddance,” the whore spat, and wandered away.
Daimen was vaguely aware of Hert and Stillwater’s boy quietly slinking off, but he felt compelled to stand there and watch until Khan considered the matter complete.
Chapter 38 - Fortune
Fortune’s Rest was Drake’s creation. He’d built the floating pleasure house from the ground up, taking captured or derelict ships wherever he could and outfitting them not for long voyage sailing or combat, but for housing and entertainment.
Drake had made use of any and every ship he could find, from whalers to sloops, galleons to carracks. He’d even found a couple of gargants all but wrecked along a stretch of the Sarth coast; the vessels were slow at sail, dangerous in a storm, and even more dangerous around shallows, so they’d fallen out of favour. He’d hired a small army of shipwrights to restore them, and now they formed the centre of the Rest, easily twice as large as any of the other ships.
The Rest was the beginning of Drake’s empire, and, far more than piracy or his trading contracts, it was the source of his substantial income. Many folk wondered just how a pirate could become richer than a king, and the answer was floating around right under everyone’s noses.
It was said a man could purchase any pleasure he could think of at Fortune’s Rest, and any that didn’t already exist there could be found for a price. Aristocrats, merchants, warlords, and even the good folk flocked from all around the known world to the Rest, and many wasted their fortunes there, lining Drake’s pockets even as they emptied their own.
It was widely accepted that the Rest was out of bounds for those authorities within the empires of man who knew it existed. Why would the noble folk of Sarth, or the Five Kingdoms or Acanthia, agree to sinking a place they all enjoyed visiting? For many of those in positions of power, the Rest was the only place they could find the pleasures they wanted and the secrecy to enjoy them.
Drake heard of all the requests, of course, and over the years since he’d commissioned the flotilla he’d discovered some insane fetishes. Sable, of the merchant family Fre’tre of Acanthia, requested baths filled with the blood of still-born infants, claiming they gave him eternal youth. Drake had to admit the man looked young for his sixties.
General Tchar from the southern wilds had a penchant for eating the most dangerous creatures known to man. That had been one of the harder requests to accommodate, as the general had once asked for the thigh meat of a troll, and only the Drurr were crazy and skilled enough to breed those monsters.
Everson Breen, captain of the Malevolent, had once requested a duet sung to him by female conjoined twins. Drake had never even heard of two people stuck in one body until that one had been put in.