Chapter 44 - Red Serpent

  Aaron entered the damaged tavern where the captain rested with her head down. Three of a dozen tables stood upright. The rest mingled with the debris of shingles, chair legs and glass shards. Wine stains and dried blood were splattered here and there. Yet amidst these ruins, the vast majority of drinks at the back counter were somehow preserved. Amazing what lengths raiders went to when keeping safe what they wanted whilst trashing an entire place. There was a wide hole in the roof also. A noonday ray of light shone through and baked Eksa's back.

  Aaron kicked aside a broken plank of wood. He pulled on Eksa's chair and took her away from the light. Her neck had grown red from overexposure. He sat down next to her in one of the only standing chairs in the place and set before her a green coconut with its top cut off and a wooden straw inside. Eksa sniffled and raised her head. Her eyes were red and her sleeves damp. “Did you drink?” Aaron asked.

  She shook her head. “I really want to.”

  He gestured to the coconut. She took a hesitant sip, brightening in an instant. Many a green orb fallen from palm trees lay scattered around the outskirts of Kovar. The pirates paid no mind to them despite their high prices. Two days had already passed since the raid and the rowdy atmosphere hadn't subsided. A large number of townsfolk had been captured and caged, either being used for work or beaten for sport. Some mercenaries still went around breaking things and hoarding ale.

  A few dozen of Eksa's crew entered the damaged doorway of the tavern and began setting the place right after glancing at their captain. “What are they doing?” she mumbled.

  “I told them you've laid claim to the place and want it cleaned,” Aaron said. “Those of your ship respect you enough since that, er, display of discipline. You know, with Jack and carving a number…” He rose from the table to help with the cleanup.

  “Dhorjun's never going to let us keep this place. Especially since it’s a bar. We didn't contribute to the conquest efforts.”

  Aaron shrugged. “We'll see. You built more than half the fleet and kept the men entertained with parties.”

  Eksa snorted. “Parties. It wasn't their respect I was appealing to, but their sense of greed.”

  Severum, one of the deckhands, approached her with broom in hand. “Er, Captain, where do you want the debris moved to?”

  She waved her hand. “Take it outside and pile it at the nearest building carcass.”

  “Building carcass?” the man asked, head tilted.

  “Burnt building,” Eksa barked. “One that's been reduced to rubble. And find new tables and chairs from other places to put here.” She slurped the last of the coconut water through the straw and frowned.

  Aaron flipped over a still intact table and brushed away sawdust with his hands. “The mercs respect you enough for your capturing of ships,” he said. “But you misjudged their nature. They're the worst kind with loyalty only to money and victory. Prove to them that you can win, and keep them paid with all your winnings, and they will follow you.”

  “I'm never throwing another party! Do you have another coconut by the way?”

  Aaron raised a brow at her change of tone between the two sentences. He stepped outside and found another coconut. He touched the hilt of his blade, feeling a flash of anger soon replaced with tingles of power, but reconsidered drawing it and opted for a knife on his belt to cut open the green fruit. He returned to the bar and took Eksa's straw, using it to sip from the new coconut before placing it before her again. The blush in her cheeks made the endeavor worthwhile.

  Angry, but still just as innocent.

  “I'm not telling you to throw another party,” he told her. “Just pay them wages and maintain a sense of order and hierarchy. Dhorjun will allow them to run rampant now, satiating their intense greed. But most of the men spent a year in a formal navy setting where they were underpaid. Maintain that sense of formality. Let them indulge in their greed once in a while with any victory earned at sea, but not too much. Make the victory the important part, and pay them wages. How they spend those wages is not our concern.”

  “You want me to embrace being a pirate?” Eksa said. She kicked debris from under the table and he picked it up.

  “I don't see another path out for us. If you want the Basin, if you want to set this place right as it was, become this… this navy's admiral.”

  Eksa closed her fists and stared at her lap, as if mulling over the notion of ruling a band of murderers and thieves. She went back to sipping the coconut with her head down, red hair spilled about her sides.

  “Chin up,” Aaron said. “Crying as you did on the ship is not something you can afford to do again. Command us like you mean it, or you'll prove Crow right. Are you just a girl?”

  “No! I am Eksa, Captain of The Scarlet Reaver! Officer of Eurale!” She looked around the room at every crewmate. She then stood, took a deep breath, then slammed the table with her palms. “Salute!” she yelled.

  An awkward silence followed, everyone's attention fixed on their captain. Aaron smiled. He stood tall and pressed a fist to his chest. The rest followed his example. Perhaps they'd done it for fear of discipline. But they'd done it all the same. And that was all that mattered.

  Aaron dumped an armload of broken wood by the door for others to take away and turned back to Eksa. If she wanted to build her way to a proper army, she would need the proper resources. And there was no better time than to acquire that now while not everything had been distributed. “Now lay claim to the inn across from this tavern and the smithy next to it as well.” Both were large establishments whose workers were mostly gone or dead, but their belongings remained there still, abandoned and unclaimed. “Let Jack and I handle any blowback from Dhorjun and Crow.”

  ***

  Jahck enjoyed the shade of a leaning palm. He tinkered with a cracked lute he'd found. Only thirteen strings remained on it. He thrummed a few, finding the sound more inquisitive than that of a harp. But the damages added an —very slight— irritable tone that he couldn't get out of his ear. It just wouldn't do.

  He played with it anyway.

  “There will be blood here soon,” Viper whispered. He was hiding somewhere in the dark of a palm leaf. Jahck could faintly hear the Shadow Walker's heartbeat a few hands before him.

  “There's a fair bit already,” Jahck said, speaking without whisper. “In the houses. On the ground. Staining clothes. All dried, but I smell it.”

  “Would it kill you to whisper?” Viper said.

  Jahck smiled beneath his mask. He cleared his throat and spoke loudly. “Why? Everyone already thinks I'm mad.” Ten of Eksa's crew were lounging near him with their backs to a blackened house. They glanced his way now and then, curious as a cat feigning disinterest. They also rubbed sweaty palms against their shirts. The joys of being the center of attention!

  Before Jahck was a stretch of open land. Kovar's town square —or what was left of it. Large cages occupied a tenth of the space. Cages once used to hold large catches at sea. They now held unfortunate townsfolk like a herd awaiting slaughter. An especially foul stench of sweat and piss flowed from there. They were squished in the cages with little room to maneuver. Poor fools had been trapped in there for two days. Just two though. Nothing drastic like a few years.

  In the center of the square was a gathering of mercenaries and rogues alike, bickering over who kept what treasure and which swaths of land. Most were Dhorjun's men, slowly arriving from whatever crevice they'd been holed up whoring and drinking in. Every passing minute saw their numbers bolstered by two or three. But there was a sizeable opposition too, led by a tall fellow with a tan. He had nasty scars all over his face and carried two sword length filleting knives at his waist. The leader of the Tarmian faction of rogues who'd helped Dhorjun take the island, many of them wearing slave collars, for the Empire's vessels were primarily galleys of speed pushed by both oar and sail.

  “More than three hundred from Dhorjun's side now,” Viper said, still whispering. “The rogue faction only has a hundred and eighty-nine. But their men are bigger. Ours have been underpaid and under fed for a while.”

  “Bah! Don't sweat the details,” Jahck said. He tugged on a lute string.

  “There's only twelve of us!”

  “Twelve including me and you,” Jahck sung. “Aaron will join soon. And they'll be busy killing each other, those goons!” He frowned. Those rhymes were poor.

  “Unlikely. Our crew still numbers near a thousand. Dhorjun will hang us out to dry with Eksa's behaviour yesterday. There's no way we don’t fight a large group.”

  Jahck cackled. “The more the merrier!” He tugged more strings and improvised a catchy tune.

  Flee flee flee for your lives!

  Flee through the sand beach with long strides

  Try try try not to die!

  To the Red Serpent of the devouring tide

  Red Serpent! Red Serpent!

  Kneel and swear and beg and repent

  Red Serpent! Red Serpent!

  Her wrath upon you she will vent

  Fight fight fight as you might

  You're but a candle in the night

  Stilled stilled stilled by the cry

  Of roaring waves of the devouring tide

  Red Serpent! Red Serpent!

  Kneel and swear and beg and repent

  Red Serpent! Red Serpent!

  Her wrath upon you she will vent

  Red Serpent! Red Serpent!

  Know you will of her great name

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Red Serpent! Red Serpent!

  The one with a scarlet head of flame

  “…That will catch on quick,” Viper commented.

  “Of course it will,” Jahck said. “I made it. Maybe I should sing it while I kill.”

  “She's going to hate you for it.”

  “She'll thank me for it,” Jahck said, whispering now. “Crow's made sure the whole town knows about how she cried yesterday. This will earn back some of her reputation like Aaron wants.” He continued playing the tune and found some of Eksa's crew already tapping their feet to it.

  Aaron was approaching the town square from a southern street, followed by a few more of the Reaver's deckhands. He still had on that black coat despite the wretched heat. Its sleeve ends were dusty from either sand or sawdust. The hilt of his Artifact weapon poked out from his unbuttoned coat. Butter Knife, it was apparently called. Jahck smirked.

  From the opposite end of town approached the ogre admiral and the bald carrion bird backed by a legion of mercenaries on their payroll. The verbal scuffle between both sides quieted down as Dhorjun entered the square. Scarface with the filleting knives stepped up. His men backed away to create an open space in the very center where a cracked pedestal lay —and next to it were the broken remains of a stone statue that had once stood there. Dhorjun and Crow entered the opening. The mercenaries formed tight lines behind them. Scarface's own forces shuffled at the tense atmosphere and kept their hands close to their cutlasses and bludgeons.

  “Put the lute down,” Aaron muttered as he stopped beside Jahck. His arrival had bolstered Eksa's numbers by an extra ten men.

  The near four hundred men with the Admiral and the near two hundred with Scarface were ignoring the extremely small sum of Eksa's crew lounging right beneath their noses. Jahck set the lute aside and stood to stretch, letting loose a loud yawn. “They're ignoring us,” he complained. “It isn't fair. The odds I mean. They should team up against us.”

  Aaron crossed his arms and cast a sidelong glance.

  “Why am I hearing rumors of discontent, Vemo?” Dhorjun asked Scarface. “And why are all of your men gathered here?”

  Vemo crossed his arms well below his chest and eerily close to the handles of his knives. He was nearly as tall as Dhorjun, though the admiral seemed more imposing with a few added inches of black hair. “I am unpleased with spoil divides.”

  “They were given as per contributions,” said Crow. “You've contributed a near equal amount to the raid, and we've given you your due share. You have much land and those prisoners over there.”

  “Equal,” Vemo spat. “You give us the middle of the town while keeping access to both the northern and southern ports! And most of the houses of our land have been burnt to cinders. And most of those prisoners are men!”

  Crow rolled his eyes. “Quit your barking. We haven't yet monopolized the southern ports. There's a few taverns there with intact barrels of ale. We'll move our ships from there to the north side and send you a few of our women when we're done with them.”

  “Mm,” Dhorjun agreed. He leaned forward, his shadow engulfing Vemo. “I'll look over your insubordination this time, but make no mistake, this island belongs to me, Dhorjun Rossa. And so does this crew.” Vemo's arms slowly slid further down to his waist.

  Jahck closed his fists and giggled with glee beneath his mask. Do it! Kill him!

  But Vemo was too much a coward, despite what his scars might suggest. “Do it,” Dhorjun encouraged. “I'll snap you before you've drawn them.” Scarface backed away after that.

  “You! Boy!” Crow cried, pointing at Aaron. “Go tell your crying captain to move her dinghy to the northern side.”

  “I'm afraid that won't be possible,” Aaron declared as he stepped forward. The rest of Eksa's crew stepped up behind him. Jahck near cackled. They were ready to jump into battle outnumbered ten two one because they feared discipline from the Red Serpent.

  “Why's that? Has she given up on sailing?” Crow mocked. The mercenaries behind him sniggered.

  “Eksa has lain claim to the southern side of Kovar,” Aaron said. “I'm afraid Vemo and his men will have to be content with what they've already been given.”

  Scarface stepped away from the town centre and turned his attention on Aaron. Dhorjun and Crow made no move to stop him. “Boy, your captain's the round cheeked red head isn't she?” Vemo questioned. “Her chest seems just large enough to be my scabbard. Go tell that wench I'll overlook this incident if she gets on her knees and sucks me dry before the sun sets today.”

  “Red Serpent! Red Serpent,” Jahck quietly sang. “Kneel and swear and beg and repent.”

  “Won't happen,” Aaron said. “The captain answers to Admiral Dhorjun and him only.”

  Vemo glanced back and smirked. “Well. I don't see the Admiral making a move to stop me. Do you?” He snapped his fingers and all of the Tarmians drew their weapons. Vemo sighed as if he'd already won. “Don't make me skin you boy. Flames know I've done enough of that. The screams almost make me go deaf.” He leaned forward. Jahck pitied Aaron for suffering the full breadth of that malodorous breath. “It’s a very slow death after being skinned, you know. I'll leave you out to hang and let the birds pick your flesh apart as you howl at the sea and die in a few days.”

  Aaron faked a yawn. “Do you know why Admiral Dhorjun hasn't spoken against us yet?”

  “Pray tell, pup.”

  “Because the superior force among us has yet to be decided.”

  Vemo glared. “Boy, you're not actually stupid enough to—”

  But Aaron was already walking past him and towards the one hundred and eighty-eight others. “Don't kill that one,” he said, pointing with a thumb over the shoulder before drawing Butter Knife from his waist.

  Jahck cackled. Vemo began drawing his knives but Jahck reached him first. He swung his fist with blinding speed and reveled in the sensation of his every knuckles smashing into the scarred man's face. Vemo was sent sprawling a few feet and knocked out cold. “Red Serpent! Red Serpent!” Jahck howled. It became a war cry that Eksa's crew echoed as they charged into Vemo's men.

  Aaron in the meantime was slaughtering the enemy vanguard. He let himself get surrounded before moving at the same flashing speeds that Jahck himself could reach once the sun had set. That Artifact was one of a kind in terms of providing power. Men hardly had the chance to cry as several were beheaded with a single stroke.

  Jahck clicked his tongue. A slaughter was fun. But killing too quickly took away half the joy. He ran at the nearest enemy and drove his knee into the man's chest. There was a sharp crack upon impact and the man flew back a few feet. Jahck drew a knife and threw it at the next nearest body. He reached the man before he fell, pulled his knife out of the eye socket wherein it was embedded, and proceeded to cut down two others close by.

  Vemo's crew were backing away in fear. Eksa's crewmates hacked at them without worry for their own lives. They sung Jahck's song with every swing of their blades and he laughed in a high pitch for it. He took out his twisted dagger and began stabbing at the closest enemies before their inferior human limbs could mount any rebellion. Jahck didn't let the dagger drink for too long lest he create dehydrated corpses.

  By this point, Vemo's crew fled in full. Aaron roared and hacked at them from behind. Jahck thought he might lose control but the young prince restrained himself once the fleeing men had reached Dhorjun and his mercenaries.

  “Impressive,” Viper muttered from beneath Jahck's feet. “More than forty dead and none of them ours.”

  “And you didn't help,” Jahck said, breathing heavily. Eksa's crew were still singing, though with less vigor now.

  “It's a tad too sunny out for me to help. Someone was bound to have seen me.”

  Jahck shrugged. “All the more art for me to make.” He removed his mask and licked clean his dagger. From down one end of the street, Eksa was quickly approaching with Severum and the Foura twins flanking her like loyal guard hounds.

  “What is…? Aaron told me to come,” she said. Her mouth hung open as she looked about in every direction. “Flames. So many… bodies. My crew! Is everyone alright? Why is everyone chanting red serpent?”

  Jack swung his arm around his captain's shoulder and waved around his dagger like a bottle of wine. “Now now, Captain. We're just following your orders.” He crinkled his nose. The woman never let up on her perfume. Oh how the overflowing scent of blood was fouled by her presence.

  “Wha—”

  Jack put a finger to his lip. “Shh. Here comes the good part.”

  Aaron wiped his blade and sheathed it. His heart was a riot, competing with every other sound entering Jack's ear. The rapid thumping did not stop until Aaron's hand was off the hilt. He walked back to where an unconscious Vemo lay and dragged the man by his collar toward the empty pedestal at the center of town. Vemo's cowering rogues could only watch with wide eyes. Dhorjun stood with his arms crossed, an amused look on his face, while Crow sneered. “Admiral Dhorjun,” Aaron said with a loud and clear voice. “Is Eksa not an officer of your crew?”

  The giant man tilted his head. “That she is.”

  “Of higher rank than this mutilated face, yes?” Aaron asked, gesturing to Vemo's scarred face.

  “Indeed,” said Dhorjun.

  “And Vemo here decided not only to challenge Eksa's claims but fight as well.”

  “Claims?” Crow near shrieked. He took a deep breath and gathered some of his poise, but Jack could hear the storm in his chest. “You have no claim over Kovar. You were not a part of the raid.”

  “I didn't know you were so eager to turn half the fleet over to Eksa, Hawthorne,” Aaron countered. “For you have no claim over the ships we've captured, yet you use them all the same.”

  Dhorjun raised his hand to quell the squabbling. “Speak your mind, boy.”

  “It's simple. Vemo was insubordinate twice. Eksa demands half of his ships and crew, and some of those slaves caged over there. Particularly any carpenters, physics, blacksmiths, bartenders and innkeepers. Oh, and for Vemo himself… Strip him down. Tie him to a pole and let the sun roast him alive while crows feed off his stinking, rotting flesh.”

  Jack near burst out laughing. Now that is something I wouldn't mind watching all day.

  Crow seemed on the verge of popping a blood vessel. He muttered something to Dhorjun which was met with dejection.

  “I don't want rogues serving me!” Eksa hissed to Jack.

  “They'll be loyal,” Jack assured her. “After this little massac— ah, I mean, performance, they won't dare to voice an objection to you.”

  “But… Aaron's going too far. There's no need to tie him up and… and…”

  “Far!? That's the best part!”

  Eksa offered him a flat look. She pushed his arm off her shoulder and chewed on her lower lip while watching Aaron.

  “Your captain will have all she needs, boy,” Dhorjun said. “Hah! Seventy crowns was an understatement. Someone hammer a post into this pedestal and tie Vemo to the top. Let it be known to all what the price of betraying I, Dhorjun the Black Fanged Reaver and Admiral of the Silver Serpent Pirates, is.” Dhorjun spared an elongated look at Aaron after having said that and then briefly glanced at Eksa.

  Jack frowned at the odd names Dhorjun just seemed to have come up with. Titles were earned with masterful performances. Nobody worth their salt named themselves. He shrugged. Now wasn't about Dhorjun. “Glory to the Red Serpent!” Jack cried, lifting his captain's arm into the air. Her crew cheered and chanted. Poor woman seemed bewildered, shouldering the blame for all that had transpired. Silver Serpent does have a nice ring to it though.

  “You can pick who you want from among them,” Aaron told Eksa. He was pointing at the caged slaves. “I know you want to help everyone, but choose who will be most useful, Eksa. And as for those rogues, set them to work straight away while the shock of loss is still hampering their thoughts.”

  “All of this…” Eksa muttered.

  “Just laying the foundation for your dream,” Aaron smiled. She slowly nodded and walked to the slave cages. She hurried past the mercenaries binding a groaning and now naked Vemo.

  “You're making all of the hard decisions for her,” Viper whispered from the shadows.

  Jack voiced his agreement. “She won't learn anything like this.”

  “She will,” Aaron assured. “She's talented enough run things when she believes they're in order. She just needs to get used to the rugged nature of men without manners and be exposed to the cruelty of their everyday activities. Once she accepts that as the norm here, she'll be more than capable of handling everyone without my guidance. All I've done is give her a faction of her own. It isn't in direct conflict with the main power on Kovar right now, so Eksa is free to gather power to herself as long as it isn't too obvious and doesn't directly challenge Dhorjun. She'll have plenty of learning opportunities.”

  “While you correct the errors,” said Viper.

  “Yes,” said Aaron.

  Jack grinned. And I get to do all the fun artwork!

  ***

  Crow slammed shut the door to an inn room and shoved Aki against a wall. He pressed a dagger to her throat. “I thought you said she had them wrapped around her finger.”

  “She does,” Aki said. She lifted her chin up and pressed her head against the wall. “I swear it!”

  “Bah!” Crow retreated back and sheathed his dagger. “It seemed like the boy was the one pulling the strings all along. He's ruined my plans. All of them! The bitch should have been finished by now! Gah!”

  Aki felt her throat with her hand. “She isn't stupid, you know. Perhaps she did come up with the plans.”

  “I know she isn't stupid! But she should have been too emotionally immature to stage a massive power grab like this. Flames! Those two are monsters. They're hardly past their child years and they slaughtered those grown men like cutting a cake. I've never seen anyone but Dhorjun fight with such ferocity.” Crow sat down heavily. He ran a hand over the sweat on his smooth head. He itched his neck. A drink would relieve it but the day still had much work to be done.

  Aki rounded the chair and settled her hands on his shoulders. She pressed his bones with her finger tips and leaned in. “All your plans ruined by an anomaly,” she whispered.

  “Shuari's Burning Rends. That kind of insanity should never have worked. Wasn't even two dozen of them facing down two hundred.” He threw up his hands. “Two hundred! And they won! They Flaming won! Without losing a single man.”

  “Mm,” Aki said, pressing harder. “Just create new plans.”

  Crow shrugged her off. “Why don't you try it then? New plans. Tch. Lord Coraine will learn of this within a few days and we'll have the entire Xenarian fleet bearing down on us. I have to craft plans for them.”

  Aki sat on Crow's lap and put her arms around him. She was being more eager than normal, her eyes holding dark emotions. “Not like you to be so agitated.”

  He scowled and opened his mouth to rebut, but she put a finger on his lips.

  “Perhaps some stress relief.” She tugged on the ends of her folding robes and they slowly unravelled, revealing the length of one of her legs.

  Crow ran his hand over her smooth and toned thigh. He squeezed hard as Aki continued tugging her robes. She stood up, revealing her other leg. Crow pushed her against the wall again and lifted her leg with one hand. He pressed his mouth on her neck and breathed in her scent. “She has her own small fleet now. I'll send her to match the Xenarian galleons. Dhorjun will agree. He has this Island as we've always wanted. Eksa isn't of great further use to him.”

  “Mm,” Aki said.

  Crow grabbed her braids and tugged hard as he thrust against her. “They'll sink her for certain.”

  “For certain,” she said in an echoing whisper. “And if they don't?”

  “Part of Xenaria's fleet is guaranteed to land on Kovar. Their numbers should be even to slightly greater than ours.”

  “Yes,” Aki moaned.

  Crow pulled out the golden beads in her hair. They clattered to the floor. “We'll retreat to sea after a brief skirmish. If the girl doesn't sink, she'll return and find Xenarians waiting for her.”

  “If she still survives? If Jack and Aaron fight them off?”

  “Then Tidestrider will be the first ship back on Kovar. You can then kill her yourself.”

  Aki's eye twitched. “Kill her myself,” she murmured, as if contemplating whether she really wanted to do that. She pushed him back and Crow frowned. But Aki then smirked and leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and putting her arms around his neck. “Hawthorne with a Hundred Plans.”

  “Crow,” he corrected. She rolled her eyes.