Let's Play Pirates: Chapter 8

Chapter 8
Bessie awoke in the later hours of the morning and breathed deep of the Thracean room’s particular rose scent before opening her eyes slowly and look up at the canopy over her bed forlornly.
‘Morning, Lulu,’ she whispered to no one in particular as she imagined the twenty-three-year-old fairy grumbling to herself in the top bunk.
She ruffled her mid-length black hair sleepily and stood, yawning in a very unladylike manner.
‘Oh, you’re awake, Lady Songstress,’ said Emira softly as she heard her mistress moving about inside.
‘Yes,’ said Bessie, yawning again.
‘I trust you slept well?’
‘Yeah, really well,’ said Bessie, eyes drooping at the thought of her comfortable new bed, ‘how about you?’
Emira smiled sadly and didn’t reply.
-
Breakfast was a horribly formal affair, at which the prince, Bessie, and a mass of fatigued courtiers, were forced to engage in meaningless pleasantries and discuss dreary affairs of state. After breakfast, Bessie was called to Prince Ashitaka’s study. Reluctantly, she followed him, praying that there were no more tax problems or other such topics left uncovered.
‘Prince Ashitaka,’ Bessie mumbled courteously as she swept a clumsy curtsey for the sedate prince.
Ashitaka stood and bowed to her before walking around his desk to one of the massive bookshelves that lined the walls and taking down a large, leather-bound book.
‘So old!’ Bessie whispered in awe as she gazed upon its majesty, ‘so beautiful!’
‘Can you read what it says, Lady Songsmith? Here- on the front?’
‘No, My Prince, nobody can,’ said Bessie, furrowing her eyebrows slightly, ‘it is written in Auld Sheyn, is it not?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ said Ashitaka, tracing the gold lettering with his index finger, ‘Auld Sheyn is the oldest Ashein language.’
‘All lost except for three words,’ Bessie murmured, eyes locked on the writing.
‘Fen, Asheia, Tarrow.’
‘Cloud, Earth, Dust.’
‘What do you know about Auld Sheyn, Lady Songsmith?’ asked Ashitaka.
‘Not much,’ said Bessie, ‘only that is was lost after the First War…’
‘In the year 308.’
‘Yes…’
‘1071 years ago.’
‘That’s true too,’ said Bessie, nodding.
‘Until now, the entire language of Auld Sheyn has been a mystery,’ said Ashitaka, ‘but now… look here- look again- Can you read this?’
Bessie blinked and found that she could.
‘The Prophetess.’
‘You can see it too!’ Ashitaka exclaimed, ‘Lady Songsmith, I don’t know how this has happened or why- but this book could very well reveal to us the truth of Asheia’s past!’
‘Have you read it?’ asked Bessie sceptically.
‘No, I wish… I wish to share it with your captain.’
Bessie’s eyes hardened, ‘Prince Ashitaka, I must object! You are as good as married!’
‘I just want to show her!’ said Ashitaka quickly, ‘I would not think to… I mean… I will obey my father in every respect but this, Lady Songsmith! She would want to join us- we are returning to Tortuga.’
‘What good will it do, My Prince?’ asked Bessie, ‘what could she do that another couldn’t?’
‘You would not understand, Bessie -Lady Songsmith- I do not need her love… I just want her nearby.’
-
Mina had never thought she’d see the day she held a dagger to her friend’s throat- Nik Hartfield had always been so kind and gentle… His father’s death has corrupted his soul… he is no more human than witch now.
Mina jumped slightly as the flat of a cool blade was pressed against her neck. Shivering slightly at the touch, she decided that one of Nik’s crew had crept up on her…
‘Put the knife down, Miss,’ came a deep voice Mina was sure she knew.
Lowering her weapon to some extent, she craned her neck a little to the side to identify her attacker. Her dagger fell to the deck with a clatter and she took a horrified step back, right into Nik’s blade. Blood spilling from a wound in her back, Mina blinked and her mouth formed a silent, ‘oh’ before she too fell.
‘Davus!’
-
‘Crew! Report!’ called Kuris, floating among the wreckage of the Kiteling two hours later as it mingled with that of Nik’s ship. ‘Crew! Report!’
‘Captain Kuris!’
‘Hero-kun!’ Kuris clasped the boy tight to her breast before helping him latch onto a piece of wood and continuing the search for her crew.
‘Damn, Morro-Chai and her bombs…’ she murmured fretfully as she splashed about in the freezing water, ‘crew report!’
‘Aye, Captain!’ came Lulu’s soft voice.
‘Here!’
‘Yes, Captain!’
The voices of her crew carried over the water and soon enough half a dozen heads poked out from the wreckage.
Kuris counted her friends nervously, ‘Lulu, Cori, Masou, Fern, Kendo, Hero, Morro-Chai…’
Her heart sank.
‘Where are Mina and Xatu?’
-
‘You want us to find and recruit a skypirate, My Prince?’ asked Chambois, not quite sure he understood his instructions.
‘You heard correctly, Chambois,’ said Ashitaka, nodding at his manservant, ‘I want Kurissyma san Tybalt found and brought back here.’
‘On what terms do I call her arrest, My Prince?’
‘None,’ said Ashitaka, ‘just tell her that I request her presence.’
Chambois looked at him strangely but nodded, ‘so shall it be done, My Prince.’
-
‘Davus?’ Mina blinked up at the young man who was rowing her away from the twin wreckages and bit her lip, ‘Davus?’
The youth did not reply.
‘Davus, you’re supposed to be dead,’ said Mina, wincing at the pain in her bandaged back as she sat up properly, ‘Davus? Davus, why don’t you answer me?’
A cold glare was turned on Mina’s soft face and she was momentarily silenced.
‘…I saw Kuris kill you- two years ago- you can’t be here.’
‘But I am, Mina.’
‘Oy vey…’
‘Aren’t you happy to see me?’
Mina shook her head, ‘Davus… something is wrong… where is the Kiteling? Where is- Oh my!’
Davus followed her gaze to the destroyed ship, quite far away by now and gave a small chuckle.
‘How can you laugh?! Davus! How can you laugh?!’ cried Mina, ‘oh no… oh no…’
‘It was the girl who blew up the ships,’ said Davus, ‘the little one with the bombs.’
‘Morro-Chai sunk the Kiteling…?’
‘I took the longboat and left, Mina,’ said Davus, ‘I saved your life.’
‘But, Davus… no, Davus… You’re dead! You’re supposed to be dead!’
Davus gave her a sad look, ‘yes,’ he said, ‘I am… but that will all change very soon. You see, my dear Mina, I made a deal with the Devil- and to fulfil my end… I need the Lady Songsmith.’
‘Then why come here?’ asked Mina, eyes blazing with a mixture fear and hatred, ‘why destroy the Kiteling?’
‘Because,’ said Davus, ‘you can take me to her. You can convince her to join me.’
‘Why in Seven Hells would I do that?’
‘Because the water is close to freezing in these parts, Mina, and pretty soon, your friends will die.’
Mina threw a horrified glance at the dim figures, thrashing about in the water.
‘And… if I help you… you will go back for them?’
‘I will.’
‘All of them?’
‘It shall be done.’
Mina pressed a hand to her heart, ‘then, yes,’ she said, ‘…forgive me, Bessie…’
-
‘Where’s Xatu?’ Mina choked out the question she had so dreaded asking as she, her friends and Davus sat later out on a warm Thracean shore.
‘He is… not here,’ said Kuris, bowing her head.
Mina chewed on her lip and tried to force down the lump in her throat, ‘so I feared…What of Nik Hartfield and his crew?’
‘Escaped in a longboat,’ said Fern, ‘we are unsure whether or not Xatu is with them.’
‘And you Davus… how did you return?’
Davus made no reply.
‘How I wish you hadn’t…’
Davus looked up sharply, ‘excuse me?!’
‘I said nothing, Davus- nothing at all,’ said Mina sadly.
‘Are you a witch, Davus?’ asked Kuris, her voice hard, ‘or have you cheated your nature as well as your death?’
‘I am neither fae nor witch,’ said Davus elusively.
‘We threw your lifeless corpse to Davy Jones,’ said Kendo, ‘and watched it sink- breathless, heavy with death.’
‘So you’re a ghost?’ whispered Morro-Chai fearfully.
‘I am no ghost,’ said Davus.
‘Then how can you be here?’ asked Lulu, ‘you can’t be human.’
‘I am not.’
Mina shivered involuntarily.
‘We were friends, all of us,’ said Davus, ‘well- there were no children before… but Kuris, Cori, Masou, Lulu, Mina, Kendo… we got along well, didn’t we? Five months I spent on this ship- we were close, right?’
‘Then you turned witch,’ said Mina, looking away.
‘Davus, you were a danger to yourself and to the Kiteling,’ said Kuris, ‘we could not risk having you on board.’
‘I did it to save you, Mina!’
‘Why? Why, when you knew what it would entail?’
Davus furrowed his eyebrows, ‘I saved your life and you treat me like a murderer!’
‘We do not fully understand the situation, Davus,’ said Lulu, shaking her head, ‘you never did tell us how you returned.’
‘It is unimportant- I’m back now! Why can’t things go back to normal?’
Mina drew blood in her lip and she stood up, knowing her own limits, ‘I have to go,’ she said, ‘I need to… think.’
I’m sorry, Bessie. So sorry… but I promised.