The Storyteller: The Ransom

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Twenty-Fifth Birthday

Sen and Kaiji used the full three months Tu had given them to find a crew for Red Cacao. The problem with crewing her ship with bastards, Sen found, was that none of them had any experience at sea. None had so much as rowed a fishing boat before. Even Kaiji suggested that they might bring experienced sailors on board, just until they were able to train some of their own, but Sen refused to compromise. They were experienced enough now to train new crew. What they did ask of their new crew, though, was fighting experience. That much they could learn on land.

Within those three months, they managed to bring on board enough of a crew to sail the ship. Sen and Kaiji had trained them all while they floated beside the dock, to the jeers and catcalls of the legitimate sailors, but that only made her new recruits even more determined to learn fast. Sen could use her savings to pay them enough to live a basic life in Ryas, but they knew they would only begin earning real money when they could get out on the ocean.

Their first outings were short day trips out to the sheltering islands off the coast, just long enough to test them and make sure they were learning. After six months, they were ready for their first real voyage.

Sen took them after the ship on the list with the very lowest bounty, one that operated locally and only ever preyed on small, weak ships itself. The bounty would barely cover their wages for a month, and Sen knew it would take longer than that to hunt the ship down and bring the crew back to Ryas, but it was a start. All Sen needed was a start.

In the end, their clumsiness and overexcitement got the better of them. The target ship fled before they could catch up to it, even that small ship better organised than Sen’s inexperienced crew.

‘We had them!’ she let rip on her crew. ‘You know this ship now. You know its ropes, its sails, its beams and yards. You know the wind, you know the sea. You know each other. Work together. Listen to each other. Listen to the ship. We’re going hard tomorrow. They’re away from us now, but we’re going hard to the next one.’

Sen did as promised and pushed her crew hard, day and night, until the shout came from the crow’s nest to say there were sails on the horizon. That was when she told them they were only going at half speed and pushed them even harder.

They missed that ship, and the next, but with every new attempt, with every month at sea, Sen could see them improving. With every ship they chased, she hoped that maybe, maybe this would be the one they caught, but each time they got away. Sen wouldn’t give up. Neither, she was proud to see, would her crew. Bastards all, they knew they would never get another chance like this to sail the ocean. If any grew despondent, others would boost them back up again.

Finally, a year after Sen had been given the captaincy of Red Cacao, she could feel they were catching up to the ship they chased. Even when the pirates recognised they were being hunted, the distance between them was slowly but surely closing. She let her crew know it, cheering them on as much as she berated their faults. This was the one.

After ten days of solid chasing, they pulled up alongside the Fumo Blu. The crew hurled their hooks over the side to latch onto the pirate ship. Red Cacao slammed hard into the smaller ship, splintering its railing and tangling its sails.

Sen and Kaiji led their crew roaring onto the pirate ship. Sen tried her best to look out for her crew, but in the mayhem of the fight it was impossible. All she could do was to keep Kaiji at her back, safe in the knowledge that her wife would watch it, and do her very best to protect Kaiji’s in return.

It was over in an instant. The pirates who were left threw down their swords and set their hands on their heads in surrender. Sen wiped her sword on a cloth, panting heavily and grinning at Kaiji’s blood-splattered face.

‘Stop grinning,’ Kaiji hissed at her, though she could barely keep her own grin from her face. ‘We’re supposed to be fierce.’

Sen bounced her eyebrows once and sheathed her sword, then turned towards her captured crew. ‘Where’s Captain Hin?’ she asked, almost conversational.

The captain stepped forward, a small woman not much older than Sen. She and the Fumo Blu hadn’t been long on the list, and had only been put on it at all because they had made no effort to pay their taxes in five years.

‘You’ll come cleanly, now?’ Sen asked of the captain.

Hin nodded begrudgingly. ‘I don’t want to lose any more of my crew.’

Sen nodded respectfully. She understood that responsibility now. ‘Look, I understand, right? You miss one payment, you know you’ll be fined, you keep putting it off and suddenly it starts getting away from you. But I promise you’ll only get fined when we bring you in. No prison time, and then you can go back to being legit sailors, yeah?’

Hin rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t lecture me. Why not let us go? Whatever our bounty is, we’ll double it.’

Sen shook her head. ‘Not how Red Cacao operates. Come on. In the hold.’

The pirate captain froze. ‘Red Cacao?’ she repeated. ‘Shit, you’re Captain Sen, aren’t you?’ She folded her arms with a laugh and a shake of her head. ‘Captain Tu’s got a bigger bounty on your head than Ryas has ever released.’

Sen turned to her crew. ‘Take them below,’ she ordered. ‘Tie their hands and feet, don’t let any of them start talking to you. Leave them with water and bandages but they can tend themselves.’ She caught Kaiji’s eye and glared at Captain Hin, waiting until her crew had left them alone on the pirate’s deck.

‘Why?’ she demanded of the pirate, her voice a quiet growl.

Hin shrugged. ‘Not for me to know, but she was none too happy when she came back from that diplomatic voyage to Ryas last year.’

‘What happened?’

Another unhelpful shrug. ‘Pirate Isles—sorry, Chain of Pearls—have been in turmoil ever since. She promised the world and the world’s coming, but not in the way she promised. Chain of Pearls aren’t safe anymore, now everyone knows where they are. The only legit ships she’s brought have been bounty hunters. It’s been nothing but fighting and battles ever since. She warned there’d be teething problems, while the hunters figure out that the Chain of Pearls isn’t just fish in a barrel for them, but this is a year of teething problems now. Might be your proposition of going legit isn’t such a bad one. Profits in piracy aren’t what they were.’

‘But what’s this all got to do with me?’ She knew exactly what it was, but needed to find out if the pirate knew that. ‘Why am I the one with the bounty?’

‘No idea.’ Hin bared her teeth in a predatory grin and turned it on Kaiji. ‘So you’ll be First Mate Kaiji, then? There’s a message for you, too: we’ve got your parents.’

Kaiji punched her before Sen could react. She decided not to, though she wanted to punch the smug little captain herself.

‘Where?’ she asked instead, keeping her voice steady.

Hin wheezed, voice muffled where her hands cupped her nose. ‘You broke my fucking nose.’

‘She’ll break your jaw if you don’t answer,’ Sen warned her. ‘And your windpipe. Where?’

‘Where do you think?’ Hin answered, gingerly touching her nose. ‘Freetown.’

This was a trap, Sen knew. As soon as they went looking for Kaiji’s parents, Sen would be caught. But none of this made sense. Tu’s last words to her had been that she would try and make Sen proud. She promised Sen would never need to fear her.

But then the very next day her dream had shattered. The Chain of Pearls wouldn’t be made legitimate, not by Tsayth’s monarchs, and they had kept Tu’s hard-fought treasure. She had sailed home, embarrassed and demoralised, hoping to regroup, only to have bounty hunter after bounty hunter sail to her shores. On top of that, she had probably learned from all Red Cacao’s failed hunts that her darling, her brave strong girl, was hunting her pirates.

‘Prove it,’ she said. Maybe Sen’s new career had been enough to turn Tu against her, but would she really kidnap Sula and Nak just out of spite?

Hin looked warily at Kaiji, ready now to dodge the first mate’s next jab. ‘They turned up about three months ago. Sula and Nak, right? They’re our hostages now. To have them freed, Captain Sen alone rejoins the Orana’s crew. That’s it. No money, just join the crew.’

Sen glared at her a moment longer, then whistled to whoever was doubtless watching from the Red Cacao. ‘Take her below,’ she ordered, turning her back on the pirate captain.

‘I’ll kill her,’ Kaiji snarled. ‘How is this going to make you proud? Lying bitch!’ She emphasised her words by slashing her sword against the mast of the Fumo Blu.

Sen let her, folding her arms uncomfortably. She couldn’t help but feel this was partly her fault. She had doubted the truth in Captain Hin’s words right up until she mentioned the ransom. No money, just join the crew of Orana and Sula and Nak would be set free. That much, at the least, sounded like Tu. If it was the pirates once again acting on her behalf without her knowledge, as when they had attacked the envoy ship, they would doubtless try to make a profit off of the situation, too, but this demand felt uncomfortably like Tu.

She waited for Kaiji to tire herself out, then took her in her arms. ‘We’ll take the pirates in, collect our bounty and check on Jita. I want to know everything before we go in. I want to know if it was the Orana that took them, if she sent someone else to do it, or if it’s the pirates taking matters into their own hands again. If she had anything at all to do with it, I’ll kill her myself.’

She felt hollow as she instructed her crew in fastening the captured ship to Red Cacao. She hoped, perhaps naïvely, that Tu hadn’t known what was happening until Sula and Nak had been delivered to her door. But even then, she had taken advantage of the situation. She couldn’t let Sen be on her own for a year before she tried to start controlling Sen’s life.

Maybe they could turn the tide on Tu. If she and Kaiji planned it carefully, they could set her own trap. They could take down the pirate lord.

STUFF

o This is tomorrow's chapter, as per traditional Monday night at Mum and Dad's, then it's one a night to Friday. No more weekends for catchup now!

o Fumo Blu is a nightclub in the city. Back in the day when such things were allowed, it was known for its cigar room, which you could then smoke in the nightclub, hence Fumo Blu (Blue Smoke). Now it's just a nightclub, but it was still a favourite. They had a tropical fish tank!

o We just lost the cricket again. Bah.

Comments

[drazzi.livejournal.com]

The problem with these bastards is that they are bastards.

Sen is a good and kind captain and I love her training her crew and believing in them.
I wish she would bring her in-laws on the ship though. That would make my fucking day.

All she could do was to keep Kaiji at her back, safe in the knowledge that her wife would watch it, and do her very best to protect Kaiji’s in return.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFfff these damn girls subgdubfgdfbgfg I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Purelove should be their ship's name.

Tu couldn't have a bounty on you Sen, it must be more rumours! Don't believe it!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO! The in-laws are captured!

Kaiji is such a nippy little badass, kicking all the noses.

God this story twists and turns like a twisty turny thing.

[annarti.livejournal.com]

In-laws on the ship was always in her plan! She was going to get her crew all trained up so she could provide for Nak and Sula right off the bat. Until they got kidnapped. Boo. Bloody pirates.