Changed Redux Pt. 08

Emily, anxious to see what the pirates would do and heedless of the danger, pulled herself higher to get a better view. The pirate ship had now closed to within less than a hundred yards and it was with an irrational smugness that Emily saw the pirates were doing exactly as she had anticipated. Waiting till their prey had expanded their shots on the difficult bow on shot, they were now free to close and open fire on the exposed flank of the merchant ship. The smaller, more maneuverable pirate vessel made a quick turn to starboard bringing its own guns to bear.

It was only at this point that Emily began to realize the precarious position she was in but before she could act the six guns lining the port side of the pirate ship fired in a quick series, one right after the other.

A cacophony of splintering crashes rang out all around Emily as sections of the railing and deck disintegrated before her eyes. Men screamed in agony as shattered wood and blood covered the deck. All three gun crews were at least partly hit and the crew closest to her was completely wiped out.

Emily quickly realized that her position was untenable and she scurried back down the companionway to the imagined safety of the lower deck. She was in the process of looking for somewhere to hide when the next round of cannon shot hit the ship.

With a splintering crash, the bulkhead a few feet in front of Emily exploded in a burst of wood splinters and iron fittings. Emily screamed and dropped to the deck covering her face reflexively. Once the dust settled, Emily turned and ran aft. She had no real notion of where she was going but her mind was screaming at her to run anyway. She turned the sharp corner at the end of the companionway and lurched through the first open door she saw. As she passed into the room the ship heaved under her dropping her to the deck in an ungraceful pile. Somehow she managed to turn over and kicked the door shut with her feet. The sound of the door closing and the latch snapping home with a metallic click made her feel better for some ridiculous reason. It wasn't like the thin oak and glass door was really going to hold anyone or anything out for more than a second or two but still, it was something.

Standing, Emily took a moment to look around at her surroundings. It took her a couple of seconds to realize that she had just stumbled into the Captain's cabin. She had been here a few times already on different nights over the last few weeks. With a shudder, she turned and avoided looking at the bed in the corner of the room.

There was another boom of cannon fire from outside and the ship rolled hard to starboard. Everything not secured in the room including Emily started to slide towards the far bulkhead. Desperately, Emily lunged for the edge of the bunk to keep from falling. As her hand flailed for something solid, her fingers caught on a leather strap and she grabbed on tight. Unfortunately for her, the strap wasn't secured to anything solid but rather to a small wooden trunk that slid out from under the Captain's bunk and followed as she slid across the deck. She hit the far wall with a thud that knocked the wind from her lungs. The chest hit one of the desk legs, tumbled and opened, spilling its contents across the floor.

Books, papers, navigational tools and a whole host of other small objects clattered out as the ship continued to roll. Emily caught sight of a small dagger in an ornate leather sheath and snatched it up, stuffing it into her boot. She was just about to get to her feet when her eye caught on a small black silk bag. Thinking it might be a coin purse, on impulse, she grabbed it too and stuffed it down between her breasts.

Over her head, Emily heard the pounding of feet followed by the sharp crack of musket fire. They were being boarded. She backed into the corner and looked about for someplace to hide but there was nowhere. The cabin was small and had almost no furniture. She was considering trying to force her way under the bunk when the door crashed inward making her scream.

A short heavily muscled man with long gray hair was staring at her sharply. In one hand he held a heavy bladed cutlass, in the other a belaying pin. His eyes raked over for a few seconds, likely taking in her dirty face and ragged clothes, before saying in a voice that was surprisingly deep for such a small man, "Kinda grubby for a cap'n's woman, ain't ye?"

Feeling an unexpected surge of ire at the suggestion, Emily snapped back, "I'm not his woman. I'm being held captive you idiot."

If the sailor felt any kind of irritation at being called an idiot by a dirty woman dressed in rags he didn't show it. He shifted his attention and was glancing about the room for a moment when a younger man entered the cabin behind him. The older man turned to the younger sailor and said, "Search the cabin. Bound to be coin in 'ere somewhere. I'll take this one to the Cap'n."

The younger sailor eyes Emily hungrily and leered, "She a pretty one under all that dirt, I bet." As he spoke he took a step closer to her.

"Don't even think about it, damned fool. Cap'n 'll gut you like a fish if you get caught talking like that about a proper woman."

"Pshaw." He exclaimed. "This ain't no proper woman. Look at 'er."

"That's for the Capt'n to decide. Not you." The older sailor said, and his cutlass tilted meaningfully towards the younger man. "Now see to your duties." With that he grabbed Emily by the arm and led her up to the main deck but did so with surprising deference, only guiding her along, not pushing or shoving.

Once she emerged into the glaring sun the full aftermath of the battle became apparent. Debris, broken rigging and fittings were scattered all across a deck and the top section of the forward mast was down, the sails trailing in the ocean as the ship rolled. Looking to her right, Emily saw several bodies lying against the aft bulkhead and several more were still scattered among the debris on the main deck.

Emily heard a familiar voice cursing fluently behind her and turned to look up to the sterncastle. The captain was standing up there confronting someone. The new figure was behind the ship's wheel and had it's back to Emily so she couldn't see much beyond the fact that the person was tall and fairly slender. As she mounted the stairs and reached the sterncastle, the figure turned around and Emily felt her mouth drop open in shock. The figure before her was every bit the swashbuckling pirate captain that Emily had ever imagined and probably more so with one, make that two, exceptions...

"You really are a woman!" Emily heard herself blurt. Then she immediately felt her face flush at the ridiculous statement. Of course, the person standing before her was a woman. She had heard the sailors refer to her as the Black Bitch but at the time she wasn't sure she had really believed it.

Also, the woman standing before her actually was black. Her smooth skin was the dark brown of rich, strong coffee. She was tall for a woman, probably only an inch short of six feet. A mass of curly dark brown hair was tied back in a thick mass that spread out over her back in a giant, luxurious fan. Brilliant eyes so dark brown that they appeared black seems to sparkle with a kind of suppressed humor and one corner of her full lips quirked up in a kind of wry, half-grin that showed just a glint of gleaming white and a small gap between her upper front teeth. Three sets of large, silver hoop earrings dangled in each ear, flashing in the light with every movement of her head. She wore a white blouse with puffy sleeves that stopped just below her elbows. An impressive array of silver bracelets adorned each wrist and glittering rings graced many of her fingers. The blouse was opened at the neck and unbuttoned down the front to a point that was most decidedly immodest. A black leather corset with delicate silver filigree tooling was worn over the blouse in such a way that, in conjunction with the unbuttoned blouse, put her already impressive assets on display to a point that was almost, but not quite, indecent. Emily felt her cheeks flush when she caught herself staring at the display with her eyes wide for far longer than was polite.

With an effort, Emily managed to wrench her eyes down and took in the woman's knee-high, soft leather boots with silver tooling that perfectly matched that of the corset. Tight, brown wool breeches were tucked into the boots and disappeared under a bright purple sash that was draped around her waist and hitched up over the pommel of a sword that hung at her right hip. Emily could see as the woman shifted slightly that the sword was encased in a fine black scabbard that had a dramatic sweeping curve. Only then did she notice that an identical sword pommel poked up over the woman's left shoulder, strapped to the woman's back somehow.

"Aye lass, last time I checked, twas all woman." The merry twinkle in the woman's eye seemed to increase in intensity and she chuckled to herself. The woman stepped towards Emily, her boots making solid thunk noises on the deck as she walked. Emily couldn't help but stare at the way the woman moved, strong, assured and utterly confident. This was not a woman to be trifled with. She stopped before Emily and looked her up and down thoroughly before turning to the man that and found her. "Mister Clavin, where did you find such a lovely young woman on a wretched old scow like this?"

"She were in the captain's cabin, Capt'n." He said, coming up to stand beside Emily. "Looked to be tryin' to hide in there."

The female captain turned back to Emily, "True?"

Straightening, Emily mustered as much steel in her voice as she could manage and said, "I wasn't trying to hide. I was looking for someplace to get away from the battle. I don't have any weapon and I don't know anything about fighting so what else should I have done?"

The Captain looked over her ragged clothes again and asked a little more quietly. "Why are you on this ship?"

"I was... given... " she said, her tone sharp as a razor, "to that pig by the Governor of Saint Kitts after they stole my husband's fortune." As she eyed the merchant ship's former Captain, a sneer curling her lips. She had no idea who this woman and her crew really were but if they were indeed pirates then she supposed that her life wasn't about to get better anytime soon. She just hoped that the accursed Captain got what he deserved as well.

The female captain turned and asked, "You take a woman as payment? You treat her as your property, your slave, to do with as you please?"

The formerly pompous captain had gone pale above his graying beard. His eyes flicked between the Pirate Captain, the sword at her belt, her crew, and Emily. Finally, he said, "I was just bringing her back to London as she wanted. I don't know anything about what the crew might have been doing..."

"Nobody said nothin' about no crew." The Pirate Captain said coldly. "And you weren't headed for London. This rotten scow wouldn't even make it halfway across the open ocean as anyone with eyes can see. Now, I asked about her." The pirate said gesturing at Emily, "But I think you just answered my question well enough."

"Now you see here!" He started, "She's just some tramp! A damned whore that..."

There was a sharp, metallic ringing sound as the Pirate Captain pulled both her swords free in the blink of an eye. The long, cruel, curved blades flashed brilliantly in the sun for an instant before she lunged forward. The blades danced and there was a startled cry that was quickly cut off, followed by a wet gurgle and a thump. Emily barely had time to register that the pirate had just cut the pompous captain's head off before she saw his body topple to the deck.

The pirate walked over to the fallen captain, wiped her swords clean on his pant leg then slid them both back onto their scabbards before turning to a nearby member of her crew. "Feed him to the fish."

The pirate captain turned back to Emily, "Now that we have that unpleasantness over with, might I have the honor of your name?"

Eyes wide with shock and a growing fear, Emily now had the dawning realization that her new fate could be even worse than her previous one. Emily took a halting step backward but was brought up short by the solid body of the sailor that had captured her. Hands starting to shake with building fear, she stammered in a small voice, "E...E... Emily Mc...McAllister."

"Well, Miss Emily McAllister, I am Wilhelmina Gunne, Captain of the Lis Noir," she turned and swept her hand expansively, indicating all around her and raising her voice and smiling, "and leader of all this rabble you see about you!"

In response, her crew let out a loud cheer, raising their weapons.

Emily looked back to Captain Gunne. Fear still choking her words she said, "The crew... I heard them say that you're a... a... pirate. That you've sunk a hundred ships and killed a... a thousand men."

Captain Gunne smiled, showing off the small gap between her two front teeth, "Pirate? No, no, no my lady." She tutted. "A pirate is someone sailing under no flag. A criminal. We are privateers. We sail under a legitimate Letter of Marque, signed and sealed by the French Governor and perfectly legal." She raised her voice again, "I be a proper woman of business. We're a whole ship full of legitimate businessmen! Isn't that right lads?"

Again the surrounding crew cheered, this time laughing as well. Down on the deck below other members of the Lis Noir's crew were pulling heavy crates out from the lower decks of the Parrot, rigging them with ropes and hauling them over to the Lis Noir. The crew of the Parrot was gathered near the mainmast and standing around looking haggard and nervous. Emily noted that once the pirates, er, privateers, had defeated the sailors, as long as the latter didn't make any more threatening moves, they were largely ignored. The crew of the Lis Noir was clearly more interested in the cargo than in slaughter.

"And not a hundred ships nor a thousand men. That's just drunk sailors spinning foolish tails in taverns. Total rot. No pirate nor privateer ever took that many prizes. No one is that good or that lucky." Captain Gunne said. Crossing her arms across her heavy breasts she leaned back against the rail and asked, "So, what should I be doing with you?"

The question brought Emily's attention back to her current predicament. "I... I don't know." Emily said haltingly, her eyes flicking to the headless body of the former Captain just as it was unceremoniously dumped over the side. As miserable as her life had been for the last few weeks she admitted to herself that she wasn't ready to die quite yet. "I... I'd rather you not... kill me."

Captain Gunne laughed at that. "I can assure you that I have no intention of harming any unarmed woman." She sobered a bit and said more quietly, "No, what I mean is, do I leave you here or take you along with us?" Her eyes looked to the men below and she lowered her voice, "If you come with me I can assure your protection. If not with me..." she let the statement hang.

"Protection? You're pirates." Emily said nervously.

The Captain's full lips curled into a lopsided grin, "Privateers, love." Without breaking eye contact with Emily, she called, "Mister Jenson, what happens to men who violate any woman on my ship?"

Behind Emily, one of the sailors spoke up, "You'll split 'em from nose to nuts, Cap'n." When Emily glanced at him, he looked down and she was surprised to see a bit of color rise in his cheeks as he muttered, "Uh, begging your pardon, miss."

"And have I ever done it?" The Captain asked.

The young man paled visibly before saying in a notably more subdued voice, "Yes Cap'n. Seen you do it three times with my own eyes."

One thick eyebrow arched up over the Captain's dark eyes as she continued to look at Emily, silently making her point while also asking what her decision was.

"What happens to this crew? This ship?" Emily asked.

"We'll put a prize crew on board and she'll sail back to port. There she'll be sold along with the remaining cargo. The French Governor will get his cut and we split the rest."

"So, you don't kill the crew?"

"Not if we don't have to. If they had just heaved to and let us board, there would have been no row at all. But that damned fool captain wanted to fight so..." The Captain nodded towards the bloodstain on the deck then stood, "Now, I'm a busy woman so make your choice."

Emily turned and looked down at the haggard, beaten crew that had been her tormentors for the last few weeks and knew her answer. She turned back to Captain Wilhelmina Gunne, "I'll go with you."

Captain Gunne had escorted Emily to her cabin at the stern of the Noir and told her to make herself at home. She opened a trunk at the foot of the bunk and said Emily was welcome to anything she found in there. She also told her to feel free to use the bunk or anything else in the room. She would also have some food brought up for her shortly. As she turned for the door she said, "Please remain here until I come to get you. I'll show you around the ship later and introduce you to the officers. Then you can roam the ship at will, but not before." With that, she closed the door.

Emily looked about the small, spartan cabin with interest. She was tempted to open a few of the drawers and cabinets to see what may be in them but decided against it for the moment. Instead, she went to the chest by the bunk and looked through it, seeing if there may be something that would fit her. She found a blouse, corset and skirt she thought she could make work and making sure the door was locked, stripped off the tattered remains of her dress and undergarments.

When she pulled her old blouse off she heard a muffled clink and looked down to see the silk pouch she had earlier taken from the Parrot Captain's room. After she pulled on her clothes, she opened the bag to find only an old, worn iron ring inside. Disappointed, she studied the ring to a few seconds wondering why it had its own fancy pouch that seemed to be worth more than what was being stored in it. She also wondered what impulse had made her pick it up in the first place. It wasn't as if a small pouch of coins was really going to help her situation much. Holding up the ring in the light of the windows, she saw finely engraved geometric patterns on the ring and for an instant felt herself being drawn into them. Without thinking, she slipped the ring onto the first finger of her right hand.

The deck shivered under her feet and a wave of... something... washed over her. She became abruptly nauseous and the room spun around her. The next thing she realized was that she was on her knees, her body quickly becoming heavy and lethargic. Her thoughts also seemed to be slowing, matching the lethargy in her body. Distantly she felt the ships motion under her and she heard the creaking of the rigging but little else registered in her dulled mind. After some time she gradually became aware of a new sensation. A heat, sensual and taboo, was building inside her body.

Emily was becoming aroused.

"Please do not fear, my Mistress." A strange, female voice said, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "I assure you the Bonding will not harm you. Please try not to resist."

The fear that was slowly building alongside the arousal now surged up in a great wave. "What..." Emily mumbled as she tried to look around. Where was the voice coming from? She tried speaking again but her words felt thick in her mouth. "Where... who..." She was alone in the room. Where was the voice coming from?

"There is little time to explain. My name is Marcellene Ack-Natora, High Priestess of Ama-Arhus. I am a part of the ring you now wear. The ring is both my companion, my body and my prison. By putting the ring on, you have started the Bonding. We will be as one."