Marek's Tale

 I would love to say that from that point we made it to the reef safely, but that would be a lie. My luck had never been that good before. And it wasn't now. My danger sense was screaming long before the crewman in the Dragon's nest made the cry. "Banner 'orizion." I called for my dragon-scale glass. It was better than any crystal or glass that the Empire could make. Ten times more powerful than the best Empire craftsman could make and half the size. I took a moment to admire its beauty before I held it to my eye. Even the smallest speck on the horizon was as big as day and I could see the ship clearly. And now I understood the danger sense, it was a large ship, two spans at least bigger than the Wynd, and Empire by her lines and sails. I did the math silently, there was a good chance I was outnumbered, even if she was alone. But the Empire was rarely stupid enough to face a Pirate with only one ship. I scanned the ship again trying to read her flags and pennants, but the wind had died enough that I could not see the emblem she flew. I doubted she hung anything but Dragon though with the way she moved and the type of rigging she bore. I cursed bitterly realizing that I could not overhaul her, as much as I might want to. A freehold was only safe as long as she raised no arms against Empire. I wasn't yet flying bones so taking her was not an option. I ordered my men to the rigging and set shields in a posture of war. All thoughts of debt were gone now, because I realized there had to be a second ship laying in wait. The fact that it was only one ship, and that she was not at banner-and-traces, told me she was not the leader of the assault, she was backup. I saw her course change. They sighted us. They began signaling for us to come to and prepare to be boarded, but we made no reply. I was still hoping that I could make it to the reef before we were forced to come to. But now I wasn't only racing Empire boards, but the sun as well. We had almost made it, but now the sun was setting. That meant we would either have to heave to and await the other ship, or run the reef by night, a dangerous proposition on either side. Either one likely to vex the Spira who guarded these shallows. I was so preoccupied with the empire ship that I was startled by another cry from the Dragon's nest High above. "Banner 'orizion!" I scanned the seas again and was surprised to find another ship on an intercept course from the reef. She was beamier than most empire ships, smaller too, and looked much like the wrecks that were afire at Kashek. I didn't know her. And was surprised when, without signal, she tacked and came to on an intercept course that would quickly bring her abreast of me. As she moved, her colors flew in the sudden wind and we could see the Green dragon rampant on the white field. But something was amiss. "Captain, she hangs dragon in distress." I scanned her pennants and sure enough the green dragon banner was hung inverted, and below it the red and black banners of unrest. I swept my glass across the deck and ordered my crew to alter course, we would go to meet her. The smaller Empire Ship was silent, one person at the helm. The figure stood, braced against the wheel, one hand against it as if he were going to drown if he let go, the other hung limply at his side. His head was down, his hair ragged, and in his eyes so that I could not identify him. The whole scene sat ill with me and for a moment I contemplated passing him up, but I knew then I would be a man of no code. For not even a pirate could pass up an inverted banner. An inverted banner was forbidden to be hung for convenience, neither Empire nor Freehold, nor even Pirates would dare disobey that unwritten law. The type of distress that would make a man hang an inverted banner could not be passed up lightly. It required blood or dishonor of the highest type to make a captain hang that sort of distress. Inverting the banner told everyone that something in the very fabric of your little world was seriously amiss. Something that threatened your crew's life, and maybe even their place in the Far Remembered lands. The most common reason was mutiny. As we drew closer my crew fell silent. The other ship was in ill repair. Shorter draft and faster, it was true. But now, as she raced toward me her deck and sails told the story I didn't want to see. Ropes hung loose from the forward mast, a sign of a court of boards, and the deck was still awash in blood. A piece of sail had been lashed to the deck in a hasty provision for the bodies. It needed no explanation. "Jangir grant mercy to those who laid blood upon the boards, for they have unsworn their word, may they not wander and haunt the boards that cast them off for their treason." It was Jemek who started the Prayer of cleansing, and soon the rest of the crew was with him in the repetition of it. The signs were clear, the captain of the boards who now drove the ship, had survived a mutiny, and by the way he moved, just barely. As we got closer, I made provision to board the ship. I could not pass her up and call myself a captain of the boards, it was against every part of the code. But it still set ill with my blood. It was as if I could feel the dishonor trying to drag the ship down. Whatever had sparked this mutiny there was some worse debt behind it. Even in the state it was in, I was surprised that there were no archers in the rigging. That was a ships only defense. My eyes scanned the decks as we came abreast. The ship was silent, and other than the boy at the tiller, no one was on deck save the Captain. I had to wonder how many bodies lay under that tarp. As we neared I heard a call from the other ship. "Captain aboard?" My heart jumped, I knew that voice. I stomped on the emotions before I could respond to Marek's cry as openly as I wished I could. His blood is forgotten. I reminded myself. "What business that you come so silently?" I wasn't about to grant him passage on my ship if he meant me any ill will. "I ask no consideration, just a short talk. We have matters of blood and honor between us." I had to trust him. He was once my friend. I owed him at least the chance to set things right. After all, hadn't this been what I had wanted? For him to face me? No, I had wanted him to come back to me and serve under me as he always had. I sighed and then spoke again. "Aye aboard. Will ye tie up?" I heard a shrill whistle, and a young boy came from below decks to take the wheel from Marek. "Wouldn't want to taint your boards Captain." The boy spoke. He will aboard and then we will make our own provision." Marek himself set a boarding plank, which he kicked into the water as soon as he was aboard. He did not want his ship tied to mine. A sign that more than blood stained her boards. One of my younger crewmen broke away from where he was and ran toward Marek who had fallen to his knees on the deck. I took stock of Marek's situation, and noted, with dismay that he did not wear his red sash visible. He knew he was dead. Worse yet, he was unremembered. His left arm was broken, the hand and wrist were black and blue and a fresh scratch marred his arm from elbow to wrist. I had seen Empire blood marks enough times to know what it looked like. They had blooded him to other boards. His wrists still bore the imprint of chains, and his hair had grown back raggedly. It was braided and was beyond his shoulders, but two great chunks of it were missing. I heard one of my archers draw his bow and held up my hand to stop the arrow meant for the young crewman who still approached. It was Jemek who shouted finally. "Rashid, The boards have forgotten him!" Rashid drew himself up short, but didn't return to his post. If he went to Marek, I had to count Marek's treason against him, and the archer would kill him. But I had to let the boy make his own choice. "Do not make yourself a part of my treasons boy." The voice that spoke was broken and not at all the strong voice of the Pirate I had always known. "I hear an arrow on the string boy, do not cast aside your life for me. I am unremembered." The boy finally turned his back. He would not side with Marek, the move said. "Your pardon captain, at this he turned back to me and bowed, "and crew." He bowed to Coram. "I forgot myself for a moment. I saw the shade of a pirate I once knew." I nodded. Like me, for a moment he had forgotten Marek's betrayal. I couldn't blame him. "It is forgiven and forgotten." I replied, before approaching Marek. "Why do you come back to me?" I tried to keep the anger and betrayal out of my voice. "To face my treasons." "What treasons?" It wasn't that I didn't know but I had to hear them spoken. I had to know that I wasn't judging things amiss. I had to know before I damned him to this fate, that he deserved it. "Lord Captain," He addressed me as a commoner. "I was once a man-of-bones, sworn to these boards, and sworn to keep the secret of the Captain's wife. I went out to sea with my charge and did not return when called, and for this I know my blood is forfeit to these boards." He sighed. "I know that I am a shade of the man you once knew, but I would take back his name, and clear the disgrace against it." "Will you back your words with steel?" "I will pay." I gestured for him to stay where he was, I wasn't satisfied with the answer. I had to know what I had done to drive him away from my boards. I had to know why he would go so far beyond laying blood against the boards that he chanced his very soul. "What happened?" "My blood found me out at last." Marek looked up at me and I saw a truth in his eyes I had never known. I had always known he had a secret, we all did here on the sea, but I didn't know what sort of secret it was, and what it would mean to all of us. "Lord Captain, when I was but a boy, I ran to the boards to be away from the Shores. For my kin were shore-folk, sworn never to go to sea. Before I was born I was sworn to Empire, pledged in service of the one who calls himself Emperor. For I was to pay the debt owed by another." "Empire bound?" "Aye. But there is more. " He smiled that grim battle-weary smile I had always known and resumed his tale. "When I was older I ran to the sea, and aboard a ship that flew the Dragon you found me." He paused a moment, as if to contemplate how to say the next part. But in the end he merely took a deep breath and continued in the same broken tone. "When you laid low the crew, you also laid low the captain as is custom, for a man cannot command two crews, and he cannot avenge against his own blooded crew." Marek smiled. "And you found me, cowering in the corner. I saw one of your men raise his blade and I screamed for quarter." "Aye, that is true. You were the cabin-boy." He shook his head. "And here is the great lie, I was sworn to boards." "Blood sworn to Empire boards?" "Aye, Jalen, but there is more." He hung his head and was silent for a long moment. "My regret is that I unknowingly made you a traitor to the Code. I was shore-born, I didn't know the Deep Water Laws; I knew only the Empire's law. And I didn't understand what it meant for us to swear ourselves. I didn't understand the bond between captain and crew, and so I lied." "I don't understand. How did you make me traitor?" "The crewman's garb was a lie. The young man you killed with the Captain's saber at his hip, he was my cabin-boy sworn not to give me up but to take my place if we should be taken. I was captain of the Justice of the Sea." There was silence for a moment. To spare the captain of a blooded vessel was the worst punishment available. With his blood-bound crew brought to shallows, the ship still remembered the crime, and there was only one left to pay it. "It was here, wasn't it?" Marek nodded. "About. Somewhere about here my ship lies, scuttled and brought to blades, without her captain. And I pray my honored crew can forgive me, and will walk with me to the Far-remembered lands." He forced down a sob. "Too late I learned why the captain is killed with the boards, for I was now sworn to serve those who had killed my blood-sworn crew." "What about the Empire?" "When they hauled me in, they knew my blood. I tried to keep my secrets, but the magika and arcana they used boiled my blood within me and stole the very thought from my mind before I knew how to stop it." He bit back a cry of pain and continued. "They threatened--" His voice caught as he no doubt, remembered the day. "They threatened to dredge the Justice. To disturb my honored crew, worse yet, they threatened to make me do it. You know what that means for an honored captain." I could hear the terror in his voice. I have no doubt that the horror showed on my face as the words came to me. "Damned to captain it forever. A ship of shades." No wonder he had not spoken. What could you do against that? "What did you do?" "I prayed, I begged, I pleaded, I told them I would die before I gave you up, in hopes they would lay me low. But they know the words that can make you obey, and they blooded me to other boards though they knew it made me thrice-bought. I was blooded to these boards with those culled from the condemned, we were not to come back until we had seen you and brought you low, hopefully in the shallows." "And what did they promise you?" "Nothing I could take. They promised us freedom, but we know it is the noose. And that would damn me just as surely as dredging. So, I knew I had only one option. I had to find you and make my peace." "How did you get away?" "I laid blood against my boards during the attack at Kashek. I had to be sure my ship sailed, I could not risk being brought low before I met you. But no matter which one I paid, it would only add to the others." "So you added to the score?" "And risked them laying blood against my boards. A few souls understood what I was doing, and sided with me. They took pity on me, and kept my hands free of the blood from the mutiny. They left me chained below with my keeper as they laid blood against the boards, and as the highest ranking crewman left, I was hailed as captain, but none were sworn or blooded to me." "What happened to your keeper?" "He died in the attempt on my life. I hung pardon for him and he rests with the crew that tried to go against me. I can't even say they laid blood against their boards, for I am the one who betrayed the sworn word." Jalen nodded, now he understood. His friend hoped to face him, praying to whoever would listen to a disgraced pirate that he could wash away one of the treasons against his blood, and save his crew the fate that awaited them now. The Empire no doubt had engineered this by keeping him ignorant of the law of the sea. They knew that with the treason against my boards, I had to dismiss him. But I had unknowingly thrown them a bone by killing his first crew. By Deep law that made him twice-traitor, and now, with his second crew dead, that made him unredeemable. At least until or unless one of those debts was paid. "What of your own crew?" "They have chosen and blooded another captain. They will make their own provision." "And if I turn away?" "I would try to strike you in hopes that your archers lay me low. I am already damned, I will pay. I will balance the scale." "Marek, you were my friend." He was also the only man on the ship who could match me in combat. "Aye, but you know the code never forgets. If you do not lay me low it is not just against my blood, but because of my lie, against yours as well. I will gamble with my own soul, but not with yours." He smiled. "Not with yours captain." "You know that means you have to face me, steel to steel." I couldn't force him. "I know." I nodded. "Prepare yourself then." I watched as he pulled himself up with his good hand and used the sash, which he had hidden under his sea coat, to bind his badly broken arm to his side. He pulled the long, curved blade that he had carried for as long as I had known him, a kind of blade favored by Empire Captains. I watched him a moment, steeling myself for what I had to do. "Coram, my blade." Coram already had my sword. It was a long, straight-bladed sword with a golden hilt. The quillions curved gently back to protect the hand, and trap the blade. On the hilt were two small gems, Dragon shell actually, the most precious thing of all on this world. It was believed that it could dispel bad luck, and keep the shades from attacking the bearer if he brought them low. Marek stood facing me as the crew began to marshal, and in the noise I think I alone heard what he said. "Captain, grant me only one thing. If you find that I command a phantom ship, please, lay me low, and the ship with me, unclaim against us that we might sail to the Far-remembered lands." "Aye." I said. I would bury him with scale and shell, out in the deeps, and I would send out a ship for him, in hopes he and his crew would follow it to the far-remembered lands. "Captain stands at boards!" I readied myself and once again faced my oldest friend. I had to remind myself that he was a traitor. That this was the only mercy I could offer, a quick death in single combat, to wash away the debts that bound us. It still amazed me that he had served me so faithfully for so long knowing that I had caused him that much agony. He would have felt the deaths of each man of his crew, and his ship. I still wondered how he had done it. The restless shades would have plagued his dreams every night. I had thought it would be a quick fight, a few slashes, seeing his condition, but from the first moment our blades met we both knew it was a fight to the death. He was always at home with a blade in his hands. For the first few moments I wondered how things would go, how long he would hold out, but then it was as if some mysterious energy reserve of his opened, and for a moment he seemed hale and hearty. The blades flew hammer-and-tongs, and more than once crew had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit as he pushed the advantage. Marek was always over-aggressive when it came to fighting. I knew I just had to wait for him to make a mistake. I tried to reign in my anger, defending myself more than really trying to kill him, and he must have seen this because he tipped me a jaunty salute after grazing my arm with the edge of his blade. My temper blazed and the fight was joined. We fought the length of the deck twice before I landed a blow that brought my once-crewman to his knees. His sword skittered to a stop near the mast, and I presented my sword to lay him low. He reached up and wrapped his good hand in his braid, a sign I knew from Marek meant he was afraid. I hesitated. I could not spare him, the fight was joined, the treason was spoken, I had to lay him low. "Captain, he was a pirate once." I heard Coram speak softly from his place. "He must die, 'tis true, and there is no debt in that, but if it pains you, then give him what mercy the bones may offer." I smiled, Coram was right. The law only said he had to die. It did not say I had to cut his braid, which would happen if I continued the stroke I had planned. It didn't say he had to die like this, a dog in his pen. I held my sword out for Coram to take. He stepped forward to retrieve it, and brought me, without asking, my black dagger. It was the one every crewman knew, and feared. It was the one with which I had blooded every one of them to the ship. The long, wickedly sharp blade was jet black, made of black Dragon Scale it was a blooding knife. I took the blade and raised Marek to his feet. "Have you anything to say?" "Thank you captain. You grant me more mercy than this shade deserves, I only ask that when you remember me, you do so under my given name. Marek Elan." I stepped back a moment and turned my back, giving him a chance to say his goodbyes to his brother. I didn't seen Coram go to him, and if any of my crew saw it, they made no claim, but I kept my back to him until I heard Marek speak again. "I am ready Captain." I turned back to him and saw that he had untied his arm, his sash knotted around his waist as was custom and his braid tightened, his brother had done all that he could, giving him in death what I had been forbidden to give him in life. "If this shade may speak." He paused until I nodded. "It has been an honor. And I want you to know, I do not hold against you your crime. I did not betray these boards willingly, and I ask that you remember me for the Pirate I was, not the shade I have become." I nodded and stepped closer. I clasped his arm to bring him into a hug as I did to greet any of my crew after a long absence. He didn't see the blow that felled him. As I pulled him to me I aimed for the wings over his heart. I heard the soft grunt as the blade went in almost to the hilt. His body stiffened against the pain. And then, to be sure that it did its work cleanly, I twisted the knife and withdrew it, bathing myself and the boards in Marek's blood. I gently guided him to the deck. "You bound yourself to these boards, and now, I take back the blood you promised me, go to your rest Marek Elan, I do not hold anything against your blood. It is paid." There was silence a moment and then Coram slipped forward to see to his brother's body. I tried to stop him, but he shook his head. "I gave up the name Elan long ago Captain. I am Marentesh." "Man of the sea." He nodded. And now I understood his choice for a name. His family was shore-bound. He had run away before he was old enough to be blooded. "I saw to his shade, I will see to his body." Coram said. "It is only fitting." I stood there for a moment, fighting with the sorrow that threatened to overwhelm me. But then, in the bottom of my heart I found the fury of the betrayal, and I fanned the flames. I watched the blood drip to the boards and realized I was angry, not at him but for him. I found my voice at last. "Bury him with scale and shell, light the lanterns, hang the streamers, a Pirate died tonight." I cleaned my blade and put it back before jumping into the bow rigging where I usually stood. "Do not remember him for these treasons, but remember him for the courage he had to face me. For the pain that he took on himself because he would not damn me. And when next we cross blades with Empire men. Remember Marek. " I turned to see the other boards. Marek's crew had seen the fight, and now the dragon banner was slowly descending. A few minutes later a new banner ascended. It was solid black without device. They were, no doubt, sworn from hanging bones, and so this was their solution. They would fly black, but not bones. In the rules of the sea, it was as good as begging for us to kill them. The flames waivered a moment as the gravity of the task sank in, but then they sprang to life again, I could feel the anger that I so often quenched boiling within me. The Empire had toyed with me enough. And I added to their score the lives of two crews. "We will run the reef, as soon as we have open water under our keel we board Marek's ship." "Captain?" "They deserve what mercy we can give. They cannot fly bones, but they make their choice." I gestured to the black flag. "They ask for night, and we will give it to them. Remember that they are Pirates all, and do not be cruel." "Black as night." Coram said. "I might not have thought of that." "Aye. Me either." I took my glass and looked for the Empire ship. It was much closer now. And so was sunset. "Make for the reef." Now we had to deal with the reef. There was a marked path, but it would be impossible to find it in the dark. So that left me with one choice. I took my normal place, balanced against the bow rigging, a knife in one hand, a length of rope and reed in the other, and with them I wove a Sendaru. I would Send Marek as a Pirate. "Drop colors to half, hang pardon, Archers to the deck. Prepare to run the reef!"