The Princess and the Pirate, Ch 13: The Pirate's Revenge

Captain Matthew took full advantage of the distraction Fioretta had created as the others all gaped at his chest. He swung his legs up and around Christopher's neck. He skillfully pulled the young man back and down, fully reversing who won the fight. Sweat poured down Christopher's face as he realized he just might be one to die by the sword.

Fioretta screamed for Captain Matthew to show mercy as she tore away from the others who still stood dumbfounded in and around the little boat. She fell to her knees and begged Captain Matthew with tear-filled eyes, "Oh Captain, please, please, for the love of all that is good in the world and for the love of our Father in Heaven, please show mercy on Christopher who is very, very dear to my heart."

The others, from the little boat chorused her sentiments, "Mercy, mercy!" they cried tearfully.

The blood lust began to dissipate from the captain's face as that virtue of mercy - of which he was so famous - began to resurface in his mind. He said, "You will all be my prisoners - agreed?"

Christopher croaked, "You have my word," as the sword blade pressed against his throat.

As Captain Matthew stood up over Christopher, Christopher suddenly seemed very young and small. He was, after all, very new to the guard, but he had done his best. Now his age seemed to emanate defeat. Fioretta stepped aside as Captain Matthew pulled him to his feet and Christopher staggered back from his exertion.

Suddenly, a new voice laughed sarcastically and resonantly across the sand, "Ho, ho!" it cried, "And to whom has my cowardly son bestowed his pitiful mercy upon this time?" The voice came from a giant of a man who walked as if he were made of steel. He had long, black, greasy hair that hung down from his red bandanna like oily snakes feigning death, but ready to strike. Scars marked his face as if it were a craggy rock rather than something alive. His limbs stretched and tore at his clothes with his every movement.

As Joel Harkworthy drew to speak with Captain Matthew, Fioretta turned her face into Christopher's chest as he held her protectively.

"Hello, Father," Captain Matthew restrainedly answered. He glanced warily at his father's own entourage: a host of about fifty very rough-looking pirates. "I see you decided to come ashore after all."

The older man laughed, replying, "Well, of course I did. I wanted to get a handle on the ladies you were holding prisoner. And look what I've found instead: a treasure trove of prisoners, all trying to escape! Some pirate you are, lad. Haven't you learned anything at all from your old man? No mercy, I say. Kill them all." Fioretta turned with wide eyes to face the man who had just pronounced their sentence of execution - and maybe worse.

The other pirates looked only too happy to carry out their Captain's command. They all looked as if they had not bathed in a year or more. Dirt clung to them like a second skin. Their eyes spoke of long months at sea with no women for company, and their postures told Fioretta they were eager for blood like giant spiders ready to eviscerate their prey. She shuddered inwardly and began to pray silently.

As Harkworthy turned to leave his blood-thirsty men to their slaughter, taking Captain Matthew by the shoulder, Captain Matthew cried, "HOLD!" The men halted, if only temporarily. The older man nodded to his men almost imperceptibly, and they stood down, waiting and watching the two men warily.

Captain Matthew spoke in low tones to his father. As Fioretta watched anxiously, she could not help comparing the two. They looked absolutely nothing alike. Captain Matthew appeared to fit her every imagining of her own image of her long lost brother - and it was not just the birthmark that took her mind in that direction. His hair, his eyes, and his physique all spoke loudly of his being her very own blood relative. He was about eight years older than her, and he carried himself as if he were bred for the throne.

The man he called "father" had features much more dark, sharp, and sinister. He wore a cold, calculating look, and his eyes held no warmth. Obviously, his heart held no mercy either.

The conversation seemed to be turning sour. As Captain Matthew grew more emphatic; Harkworthy seemed more set in stone. Finally, Captain Matthew declared in a voice loud enough for all to hear: "But she is the one you have been waiting for." The words fell out, dead weights, from his mouth and came tumbling down to the sand like so many marbles. Fioretta could tell Matthew said them as a last resort, against his will, only to save her life.

The older pirate turned suddenly with extreme glee painted across his craggy face. He said nothing but walked over to Fioretta.

He pushed Christopher out of the way and growled in a low voice, "Show me the birthmark." He stood so no one else could see what he was doing or saying. Fioretta wanted to run away, flee for her life, her virtue, her soul, her kingdom. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw men grab Christopher as he tried to come to her aid. Having no other choice, she gently pulled the top of her dress carefully to the side, showing the dog that growled menacingly between her left arm and collar bone.

The man threw back his head and laughed maniacally. As Fioretta hastily adjusted her dress, the pirate looked at her directly in the eyes. She felt cold-blooded, calculating appraisal in his stare. He turned to his men, crouched down and let out a war hoop. He ran to where the waves danced merrily upon the beach, took off his bandanna, and threw it as far as it would go into the water, laughing and laughing with unbearable, cold, mirth. The laugh reminded Fioretta of a Dark Evil lurking within a soul that, in most people, was always kept in check, but in this man, came pouring out like a festering, black ooze.

Everyone stared, transfixed and waiting.

The moon hung bright, cold, and lifeless in the star-bejeweled sky. The wind began to pick up, playing with Fioretta's wisps of hair as the whole world seemed to wait for the pirate to finish his fit of hysteria.

Finally, Pirate Admiral Joel Harkworthy gathered himself together, and turned to face the entire group. "Tonight," he punctuated like a big-time show announcer, "is the culmination and turning point of generations of injustice. Tonight begins the Pirates' Revenge. We will begin to gather together our men to regain the lost throne of Christeland with this prize as our bargaining chip." He pointed to Fioretta. "Generations of my bloodline have waited in the darkness of the seas, for I am a son of Saul who also rid the land of the dogs and was forever denied his blood right to the throne. Send out the pigeons and call all of our comrades." Some men began to run back toward the settlements as soon as he said this. Then he turned to Captain Matthew. "They're all yours, son. Throw them all in real cells. Guard them well, or I might just have your head on a platter." He left them on the beach, heading back for the pirate settlement.