The short man stared at the towering blonde. “Threatening the captain?”
“Sure,” she said, cocking back the hammer.
His face underwent a variety of expressions, then Jones burst into laughter. “You’re kin of Stone,” Jones said. “You’ll do fine. Should have taken ya on as crew years ago.”
Easing down the hammer, Abagail tucked away the blaster and openly regarded the burly officer. Then without a word, she turned and started toward the hatch after the women. For some reason, Abagail caught herself putting a bit more hip movement into her walk than usual.
“Aye, mighty fine,” Jones added very softly.
Just then, an anguished cry sounded from the nearby sick bay, and a pale sweaty man stumbled into view, holding a wet cloth to his shoulder.
“Let’s see it!” another sailor demanded.
Gulping air, the first exposed the fresh wound.
“Nuke me,” the other gushed. “Looks like a bullet wound! Nobody could ever tell ya got branded there. It’s all lopsided, and four times too big.”
“That was the idea,” Mildred stated from the open doorway, a leather apron covering her from neck to knees. “Come on,” she demanded, waving the red-hot poker in her hand. “You’re the last. Doesn’t hurt as bad as it looks.”
“Oh`, yes, it does,” the second man muttered out of the side of his mouth. “But better than steel around your ankles.”
“Aye, that’s a fact,” the last sailor agreed. Removing his shirt, the burly man swallowed hard and walked into the sick bay as if heading for the gallows.
Jones flinched in memory of the healer covering his bleeding scar with finely ground black powder and setting it afire. The pain drove him to his knees, but the blistered scar now perfectly resembled an old war wound. The brand of a slave was gone forever.
ON THE WINDBLOWN CREST of a sandy atoll, two men stayed low in the middle of a clump of dying bushes. Once a week they dragged more shrubbery to the top of the atoll, and even watered it from canteens, but the shrubs wouldn’t take root in the bare sand and grow. This was the best spot in a hundred miles, but they needed the coverage to do their job.
“Hey, looky there,” the older man muttered, adjusting the focus on his broken half of a binoc.
“Where?” the other asked, squinting at the calm sea.
“East by nor’east, boy. Here, look!” he said excitedly, offering the broken optical to the other.
The young man scanned for a while, then beamed a wide smile. “Well, fuck me twice,” he cackled in astonishment. “It’s the Constellation!. Been missing for a month. What do you think?”
“She’s damaged,” the older man agreed. “And that’s green wood on the starboard side.”
“She’s been damaged and repaired.”
“Aye.”
He swept the decks of the distant vessel. For an unnerving moment, a woman with red hair seemed to stare right back at him, but then she turned and continued to talk with some big stud with only one eyeball. “Not many crew showing. Must have been a bad fight.”
“Riding low, too. Hold is full of something.”
“Ain’t listing from water in the bilge,” he stated knowingly. “Heading south for home port.”
Softly, sheet lighting flashed and rumbled in the stormy sky overhead.
“Then she’s coming back from visiting the lord baron.”
The older man stood, not caring if the crew of the damaged ship saw him now. “Aye, coming back from Maturo ville with a full load of black powder. What else can you trade for there?”
The young man licked dry lips. “Enough ammo for a fleet of ships! Let’s take her.”
“Aye, lad, we will. Let’s go.” Kicking the dying bushes aside, the older man started down the sloped side of the mushroom-shaped atoll, sliding down the sand on the seat of his patched pants, until dropping off the edge into the sea. The other man splashed into the water right behind, and the two began their short swim to the tropical island only a hundred feet away.
Hidden in the cool shadows of the pines and palm trees, big men armed with flintlock blasters stood abruptly at the sight of the two swimmers and rushed to meet the sentries on the smooth sands of the golden beach. Helping the swimmers onto land, the guards escorted them through the woods and into a large clearing.