The Storyteller: Return of the Pirate Lord

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Twentieth Birthday

They agreed to meet in a year, mostly so Captain Gandas could send messages across the world and move all his pieces into place in time. They first hunted down the closest of Tu’s remaining allies, according to the tax office’s list, then made off for the meeting.

The Cocoa Black was to meet with a Raykinian ship’s captain in the coastal Raykinian city of Ni-Badra, right down at the mouth of their major river. In turn, Tu and the Orana would meet a Kazinian ship and its captain somewhere on the Kazinian coast. Only the two foreign captains, both of whom traded only within their own kingdom and had never met before now, knew the location of the meeting. They had met only once to choose the location themselves. Their respective ships would then carry the participants of the meeting to the secret location, leaving Orana, Cocoa Black and their crews behind.

Sen and Kaiji travelled alone on the Raykinian river trader, the adorably named Duck. It was the only condition Kalas wouldn’t waver on; by extension, only Tu and Kes would board the Kazinian ship.

The Duck bobbed like a cork in the ocean. It wasn’t made for ocean travel, much more accustomed to the sedate waters of the Ra-Lin, but the captain assured them in very broken, lisping Tsaythi that it would make the journey. In both directions, even. The captain sounded very proud.

Sen watched the coast out to their port bough and stars overhead to gauge their position. This was the desolate, red Raykinian coast where the locals didn’t bother to establish civilisation. They didn’t need to, with the river giving them all the water and life they needed.

After two months of travel that the Cocoa Black could have covered in one, the Duck came upon a chain of islands off the coast, some large enough to hide the horizon, others so small they would have been covered by a high tide, all as desolate as the distant mainland. Sen’s heart jumped when she saw a Kazinian ship already anchored near one of the larger ones. A dinghy had been pulled up onto a narrow slip of beach amongst rounded red boulders and scrubby, twiggy-looking bushes.

As the Duck dropped anchor, far enough from the Kazinian ship that they wouldn’t have been able to shout to one another, Sen scanned the island’s coast for the two figures she knew would be there. One stood on one of the huge, wind-carved boulders, hand up to shade her eyes from the sun. The other stood on the beach, arms folded and resting back against the same boulder.

‘Nervous?’ Kaiji asked as the Duck’s dinghy was lowered into the ocean.

‘Ready,’ Sen replied. Tu would try to make it her meeting. Sen had to make sure that didn’t happen.

They climbed over the side and into the dinghy. Sen took Kaiji’s face in one hand and brought her close for a kiss. She couldn’t imagine this meeting without Kaiji by her side. With her there, she truly felt ready.

They each took an oar and rowed to the little island. As they dinghy came up against the sandy bottom they both jumped out and slid it up the beach.

‘Well, look at you two!’ Tu gushed. There wasn’t a trace of wariness or discomfort in her voice, only joy and a deep sense of pride.

‘Don’t.’ Sen cut through anything Tu might have said next, spinning on her, brow deep in a glower. She was taller than Tu, she noticed. The captain looked just as Sen remembered her, still with that same cheeky grin that meant she was up to something, though her face was a little more leathery, more sea-worn than it had been thirteen years ago. ‘I only agreed to meet you because I have questions only you can answer. You’re not part of my life anymore.’

Tu frowned in thought and set her hands on her hips.

‘Told you,’ Kes said with a shrug.

Tu sighed. ‘I told you not to listen to rumours,’ she said, her joyful voice now somewhat strained. ‘Kalas told me you had been, but I thought I knew you better than that.’

Sen folded her arms. ‘I’m not five,’ she answered. ‘I can think for myself. I don’t care about you anymore; I want to know about me. Tell me about Bracegirdles.’

Tu shook her head with a bitter laugh. ‘Kalas warned me that would come up. Made a hash of that one, didn’t he? Well.’ She spread her hands and sat down on the sand, indicating the others should do the same. Kes lay down with her head in Tu’s lap.

Sen folded her arms, then she and Kaiji took up their traditional positions with Sen sitting up against a boulder, legs outstretched for Kaiji to fill the gap. Tu grinned with genuine happiness, though she didn’t mention their marriage. She had to know about it, though.

‘Well,’ she said again, resting back on her hands. ‘What Kalas told you is the most of it, I suppose, but you want to know how I knew Bracegirdles was a pirate ship. I first heard about them from the Kazinians. They were never reported to Tsayth, because they only went after Kazinian and Llayan ships. But—well, you know how Kazinian authorities work now. Their society wouldn’t function without bribery. Turning the ship over would net us a profit, but they’d be let go again within the month. We needed Ryas to learn about them, so we caught them, robbed them, and said we’d keep doing the same unless they went legit. They didn’t, so we made sure to rob them every time they were en route back to pay taxes. They were declared a black spot, but not yet pirates. That’s when Kalas joined up and why he didn’t know the full history. That one time harassing them, just after you were born, was one time too many for them. They fought back, a few of them died, a few of my crew died and I felt it was somewhat my fault.’

Kaiji drummed her fingers against Sen’s knee as Sen rolled her eyes. ‘And you felt sorry for the poor little baby who you’d never set eyes on before? Please. The crew of Bracegirdles could have done exactly the same thing. Why claim me and my parents for the Horizons?’

Tu spread her hands, her expression hurt. ‘Of course I did! You know how I care for you, don’t you? I love you, Sen. I felt responsible for you.’

Sen gritted her teeth. There was more to it than that, but Tu was going to remain tight-lipped if she kept asking directly. She had debated with Kaiji in asking about the Tranquilo, but knew she would ultimately be unsatisfied with whatever answer Tu gave. She already knew what Tu would say, that the Tranquilo turned up in the harbour, its crew slaughtered, well after she had left. Sen didn’t need to hear that lie.

‘If you weren’t a pirate then,’ Sen asked instead, ‘when did you become one?’

Tu nodded, perhaps somewhat relieved. ‘You’re right; I wasn’t a pirate. The Horizons was never, ever a pirate ship.’ She bent forward with her cheeky, predatory grin, inviting Sen to be a part of it. ‘But I was preparing for something even bigger. With every ship we took, I asked about the Pirate Isles. The greatest port in the world, but hidden, only open to those on the wrong side of the law. But what if it could be opened?’ Tu’s voice was hushed, her eyes bright with her vision. ‘I wanted to make the Pirate Isles legitimate, a real destination, independent of Tsayth, of Kazin, of Raykin. Just imagine, imagine that port opening up to the world as a legitimate training destination! But first, we had to find it. All our bounties, we saved.’

‘The nugget,’ Sen remembered. The gold that had bought Jita’s jetty so many years ago.

Tu nodded. ‘That was just one nugget we dug up from the cave on Tisadez. We went for only the biggest bounties, from Tsayth and the rest of the world. We robbed the pirate ships we caught and blackmailed those that didn’t yet have a reputation with the authorities. Almost everything we made, we buried on various islands and deserted coastlines, just in case anything happened to Horizons. Pretty soon, pirates started trying to hunt us.’ Her grin once again turned predatory. ‘One of the ships that caught up to us was a Kazinian ship. We bribed them with one of our caches and they led us to the Pirate Isles. Kalas told you about the dragon storm?’ She shook her head, slumped her shoulders and grimaced. ‘That wasn’t planned.’

Sen was dancing her fingers over the hairs on Kaiji’s forearm. She had been trying to pick apart Tu’s story, trying to hear not just the lies, but where she glossed over the uglier truths. Instead, she found herself caught up once more in Tu’s story. She felt like a kid again, spellbound by the adventuring captain’s words.

Kaiji stepped in for her. ‘So instead you killed the pirate lord and the envoys who came to treat with you.’

Tu cringed. ‘Yeah, that was an accident. Pirate Lord Retenzha—a Kazinian—was nothing but a big, lazy ego. He was corruptible, and when the news came to him that we’d washed ashore, he jumped at the opportunity to win favour with the locals and imprisoned us. I was imprisoned indefinitely, the rest of the crew were let out when they proved themselves, whatever that meant. I knew they were all still loyal to me, though.’ She bent over as Kes craned her neck up to peck her on the lips.

‘We’d never give you up,’ Kes said, brushing her hand against Tu’s cheek. ‘We all sailed off our separate ways to retrieve our various treasure caches and bring them all together to the Pirate Isles. Jaji went to Ryas to tell the king and queen the location of the Pirate Isles and start spreading their location and Kalas went looking for you.’

Tu kissed her wife again. ‘All while my beautiful woman started convincing the pirates that I was the better choice for their leader. It was the pirates who broke me out in the end. They were the ones to kill Retenzha—’

‘On your orders,’ Kaiji broke in. ‘You were controlling everything from your prison cell.’

Tu spread her hands in a modest shrug, then soiled it with her cheeky, predatory grin. ‘What can I say? I had my dream. They didn’t get the right idea of it, thought. Instead of welcoming the world and opening the Pirate Isles up to legitimate trade, they spread my bloodthirsty reputation and made me infamous.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘When the envoy ship came—which Kes and I had organised—I had planned to send back the rest of my cache. I wanted to buy the Pirate Isles, make them independent and legitimate. Still the tax haven that made it so sought after, but for all sailors, not just the pirates. Pirates just didn’t understand that, though. The locals swamped the envoy ship, killed the crew and one of the envoys and brought the other to me, beaten and tied at the ankles. I took her in to protect her. And then came the news of the new king and queen declaring war on me.’

It fitted. The terrible, horrible thing was that it all fitted. The impossible dream was so like Tu, who brought down a leviathan, who tackled only the worst of pirate ships, who lived and breathed for adventure. The story even matched with what Sen already knew, the gold nugget, the dragon storm, the Kazinian susceptibility to bribery. Worst still, she found, she wanted to believe it. She still wanted to believe in Captain Tu.

She patted Kaiji on the arm, her signal to stand up. ‘Come with me,’ she told Tu, dusting the sand from her pants, then she began walking up the steep hill of the island. ‘You’re not wrong about Kazinian bribery,’ she said as they neared the top. ‘We even managed to bribe your ferry captain, not to mention our Raykinian in the Duck. It’s amazing how people want to help out when you’re hunting a notorious pirate lord.’

As they crested the island, Sen looked down into the bay and saw the Cocoa Black waiting to take Tu in, just as planned.

But there was a second ship floating alongside it. Sen had never seen this one before, but she instantly recognised Tu’s beautiful Orana.

Tu clapped her on the shoulder. ‘Why bribe the captains when you can just send one of your crew to the opposition?’

Sen went cold. Her mind raced through her crewmates, dismissing most, suspecting a few others, settling on one. ‘Bajo.’

Tu patted her again. ‘He had more experience with Horizons than Gendas ever knew. We chased down Mayflower, sure enough, but we caught them in the harbour, not on the open ocean, and we only decimated their crew because we hired two of their best. Mayflower was a very rich merchant trader, and I wanted their crew. Come on board. It wouldn’t be a true visit without presents.’

Sen narrowed her eyes, suddenly more comfortable after what Tu had told her. Captain Gendas knew everything about everyone. He knew which crew Bajo belonged to.

Gendas had a plan.

STUFF

o Long chapter is long, and I didn't even say everything I wanted to. That'll have to come up next chapter.

o Speaking of, that transition is going to be HARD. Hoo boy.

o The Duck Inn is a pub in Coromandel Valley that I've driven past many a time but never actually been to. Because of COURSE the Raykinian ship had to be named after a pub, and no self-respecting Tsaythi is going to call their ship the Duck.

o Tu's present was a Llayan dildo. Beautifully carved, sanded and varnished smooth.

Comments

[drazzi.livejournal.com]

They agreed to meet in a year, mostly so Narti could do her plan of a yearly chapter :3 (I love it though)

Of all the names of ships, Duck is my favourite. GOOD JOB RAYKIN.

The captain sounded very proud.
I fucking love you, nameless captain.

Not as much as I love those GIRLS thouh gbdufibgd God. I love their pure love.

I am tense for this meeting, even if Tu seems herself. I WANT ANSWERS NARTI. WILL YOU GIVE THEM TO ME???

Tu is as big a shipper as me.

I still believe Tu, I must be a naive fucking reader XD

YES IT DOES FIT. Tu is like the evil Tybalt lol SHE JUST WANTS TO DO THE BIGGEST BEST THINGS and be a hero for it.

Gendas translates to Secret Keeper.

A Llayan dildo???!! SUCH THINGS EXIST???! I wanna know more about this probbaly very secret trade XD

[annarti.livejournal.com]

I'm GLAD you still believe in Tu cos I'm trying to make her believable! I love her so bad.

Llayad has a whooooole back-door sexy-things trade especially for the gays. Scented lubricating oils, ornately carved wooden shafts... other things I don't know about cos I'm too vanilla...