Fairy Opera Chapter 8: Pirates

 

Pirates

We gathered around the ladder. Ruby flew out from my coat. “I’ll scout the area. They know we’re here after the explosion. They’ll be waiting, they aren’t stupid.” She headed for the opening at the top of the ladder. “But they also know better than to climb down stairs when there are enemies below.” She flew through the opening.

After a tense five minutes, Ruby flew back down. “They’re everywhere. Waiting. The moment you climb up there, they’re going to attack.”

Tae held up another stick of dynamite. “How about we blow them to pieces?”

Orion held Tae’s hand back. “I have a better idea.” He pointed to the bulkhead on the starboard side. “That wall leads directly out into open air. There’s probably rigging suited for climbing attached. Why don’t we go around the problem?”

“Great idea.” Tae took her stick of dynamite and placed it against the wall. We retreated back to the other side of the room.

The wall exploded. Splinters of wood flew everywhere, but none of them hit us. Tae gave a thumbs-up to me.

Ruby flew through the hole and then returned. “Orion was right! There’s rigging on the side!”

Orion went first. He felt around the wall for a moment and then climbed out. Tae and Jak went next. I followed last. Once outside, the wind ripped past me, ruffling my clothes. The drop down to the skyfloor was terrifying. Clouds floated nearby—the sun had risen a while ago.

We made our way across the hull of the ship, following Ruby’s guidance. She found a space where we could climb up without being assaulted.

We gathered there. I was the last one to climb over. When I got there, it was clear the pirates had not expected us. We were behind a nook in the forecastle, with a view of the deck. At least a dozen pirates were gathered around the hatch where we would have come through had we decided to just climb the ladder.

Orion pulled his crossbow from his back and looked at Jak, who held the other crossbow. They both loaded bolts. Taking aim, they targeted the most important-looking pirates.

The two bolts flitted through the air and struck their marks. Two pirates went down. The rest looked around in fear—they didn’t see where the bolts had come from.

“Come on, come on!”

Jak and Orion were able to fire off one more round before the pirates found us. About eight pirates rushed towards us. In their haste to charge, several of them stumbled.

Tae leaped out from behind the stairs and slashed her way through the crowd. Her dance of death swirled through the pirates, her sword slicing and cutting flesh. Blood sprayed everywhere.

Orion and Jak continued to fire crossbow bolts into the pirates. I ran towards the confrontation.

One pirate, wearing a red bandanna, squared off with me. I paused to take in his stance. My sword was not very well balanced. It felt heavy in my hand, but too light in the tip. Even so, I engaged.

The pirate struck at me from the right. I blocked the blade and stepped past the pirate’s side. Using the flat of my blade I slapped him in the back. The pirate staggered, then tried to turn around. I sliced open his right forearm. The pirate backed off while holding his arm.

Two more pirates surrounded me. I looked between them, trying to gauge when they would attack. The one on the right steppe towards me.

“Not today!” Tae slipped in between us and kicked the pirate in the groin. The pirate collapsed to the ground. The pirate on my left appeared to gauge the situation, then backed away.

A shout came from the forecastle. “What in god’s name is going on here?”

Captain Morgan strode down the steps to the deck. “Why do I see a battle going on here? Did I not tell you to secure the slaves?”

“Ruby, where are you. I need your help!” I panicked, not seeing or feeling Ruby anywhere nearby.

Captain Morgan walked across the deck towards the injured pirates on the ground. He tapped one of them with his cane. “Norm! I told you to keep watch. Now look at you.” He sniffed in disdain. “In any case, I need to know why four slaves—” Captain Morgan waved at us, “Are out of their cages. When I find out who let them out, I’ll keel haul them.”

“None of us let them out, sir.” The pirate whose arm I had injured spoke.

“Rogers. You know that I trusted you. Why did you betray my trust in this way?”

“I didn’t, sir. I didn’t mean to do any of this.”

“Pah.” Captain Morgan looked straight at me. “Well, it’s time to take out the trash.” He tapped his cane and five well-armed pirates came from below.

We faced off. Orion, myself, Tae, and Jak. We were surrounded by at least a dozen pirates. There was no way we were making it out of this in one piece.

A stick of dynamite landed right at Captain Morgan’s feet. He looked at it for a moment, stunned, before it exploded. He flew backwards.

A dozen freed slaves rushed the pirates from behind. Even though most of them were unsteady on their feet, they were enough of a force to challenge the pirates. We engaged again.

Ruby flew up to me. “I freed the slaves! I think I made it just in time!”

At least two dozen more slaves climbed up onto the deck and swarmed over the pirates. The pirates tried fighting back, but were unable to do so beneath the weight of bodies.

Captain Morgan got up. Seeing the losing battle, he backed towards a small life boat, climbing in with two of his officers. They threw the ropes and floated away. As they left, Captain Morgan yelled.

“I’ll get you back for this, you scallywags!”

The slaves cheered. We tied up the remaining pirates and took their weapons.

Tae looked around the ship. “If I’m not mistaken, we own this ship now.”

“It’s a relic to boot.” Orion looked at the door to the officer’s quarters. “It should have a control console, where I can program its function.” He turned to me. “If you don’t mind handling the freed slaves, I’ll go see what this relic ship is all about.”

Jak clapped his hands together. “It’s nice to finally have some luck.”

We handled the slaves. They were still intoxicated from the drugs they had been fed, but they were able to take on most of the duties of the ship. Some of the former slaves had been sailors.

We put the remaining living pirates in the brig where the slaves had been kept. With the Grand Mahogany under our control, we set course for Amberpol.

Orion peeked out from the officer’s quarters and ushered me towards him. I followed him into the room. There were a number of mechanical devices on the walls and ceiling. A console of some sort stood in the room’s center.

Orion pointed at the console. “I need your knowledge of scode. This whole thing speaks in it.”

I walked up to the console. There was a window through which a number of words in scode were arrayed. I touched the word “enter.”

“Hello. I am A-P Walker version two-oh-nine. How can I assist you?”

“Hi. We just want to know how to turn off the anti-magic barrier.” I knew I was speaking in Scode, though it sounded just like regular Common to me.

“Anti-magic barrier settings accessed. How would you like to adjust it?”

“Turn it off.”

“I would not recommend that. The anti-magic barrier is required to disable tracking radar from unwanted ships.”

“Tracking radar? What’s that?”

“Accessing database. A tracking radar is a device that allows ships to identify objects within a long range.”

“Well, we don’t really have those kinds of things anymore.”

“Very well. I am shutting down the anti-magic field.”

I felt a tingle in my skin.

Orion grinned. “I only got about half that, but I can use magic now.” He flicked his finger and a scroll appeared. “Nice.”

I turned back to the console. “What can you tell me about who built you?”

“Builder specifications have been locked. Please enter the correct credentials to access that data.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t have any credentials.”

“Do you have any other requests?”

“Yes. Do you have any weapons on board?”

“We have two type L cannons on either broadside, as well as a Sumpter dual barrel turret. They can be accessed through the ballistics console at the bridge.”

“Cool.”

Orion looked intrigued. “So this ship has weapons.”

Ruby flew up to me. “I’ve consolidated the pirates. We should turn them into the authorities when we arrived at Amberpol.”

“We should be careful with that.” Orion looked between myself and Ruby. “The Empire is after us. If they find that we’re aboard this ship, then they’ll seize it. We’ll have to find another way to offload the pirates.”

“And we can’t execute them. That would just be wrong.”

“How about we maroon them?” Orion tilted his head. “There are a number of uninhabited islands around this region. We could offload them there and forget about them. It’s improbable that they would ever find us again.”

“We’ll think about that. I want Uncle Jak’s opinion on this.”

Tae stepped into the room. “I’ve just finished taking stock of our supplies. Beyond the hole in the hull we blasted open, the ship is in good condition. We’ve got enough food for months, even if we have to feed the captive pirates. We’re more than good to make it to Amberpol.”

“Great.” I looked at Orion. “What we need to figure out is how to dock this ship without drawing the attention of the Empire. If we just go to Amberpol’s dock, we’ll be asked too many questions.”

Orion grinned. “I have the perfect thing for that. Amberpol is a big island, and there are some places that are lesser-known. Havens for pirates and people like us. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew this ship.”

“Right. They’re going to ask questions just like the Empire, but they’re probably not going to try and kill us outright.”

The ship listed to the side as our course was corrected. I stepped out of the control room and went up to the forecastle. The whole of the sky spread out before me. This was so much better than that tiny dinghy we were forced to use. I hated to admit it, but being caught by those pirates was actually a blessing in disguise.

Tae came up next to me. “You fought well. Like back then. You’ve always been good at holding you own against multiple people.”

“Yeah. But street brawls are a little different from fighting armed pirates aboard a ship. We could have been hurt or killed.”

“But we weren’t.”

“And I think we were extremely lucky for that. Those pirates really meant to kill us.”

Tae shrugged. “No reason to think about what could have happened.” She looked off into the distance. “You’ve grown, Rock. You’re not the sniveling little kid you used to be.”

“Partially because you beat some sense into me.”

Tae chuckled. “Yeah. The future actually looks bright for once. We’ll escape the empire, save Ami, and kill that inquisitor who kidnapped her. And hopefully we’ll be able to retire with a grand amount of money and never have to work a day in our lives again.”

“Where does a fortune of money for the taking factor into our equation here?” I tapped Tae on the shoulder.

Tae laughed. “I don’t know. At the rate we’re going, we’ll probably find some buried treasure or something.” She turned away. “It’s good to hope, after all.”