Page 36 of Bloody Black

“ S even hells. It’s one of the king’s fleet. Blue hull, white and gold sails. The emblem is an eagle, looks like.” Teach peers through the spyglass.

“That’s The Ambassador .” Tremaine squints at the approaching vessel.

“So?” Prudence flicks the ash from a clove cigarette, not looking up.

Tremaine shuffles the cards, deals them to himself and Domino. “Lieutenant Jonas Larew. His ship has a crew of nearly four hundred men.”

Four hundred. It’s more than we’ve ever taken on.

Robb, seated with them, doesn’t look at me. “Larew is entirely too fond of promotions. Bringing in Blackbeard? He’d gut his own mother for a chance at you.”

Teach paces the deck as my thoughts race.

What are the odds that yet another of the king’s ships would happen upon us?

In this vast, infinite, terrible sea? I don’t believe it.

William must know where I am. He has spies in every port, the same as I do, and they’re reporting to him.

But wouldn’t that mean he had some idea I’d taken The Concorde?

I spent too long at Sinner’s Rest; I gave them time to trail me.

Shouldn’t have taken so much time with Baldric.

Now that they’ve seen us, it’s not as if we could, or should, run from them. And if he wants to board, we’d have no reason to deny him. There’s a long silence among my crew, I hold course, white-knuckled on the ship wheel.

We all wait to see what The Ambassador will do.

Holly wrenches the spyglass and peers through the lens. “Dammit… they’re hailing us. They’re altering course.”

Despairing, we watch as The Ambassador runs up a blue flag. The universal signal for wanting to communicate.

“I say we set a trap for them.” Prudence’s smile is grim. She’s ready for bloodshed, meanwhile, I’m sure her twin is trembling up in the crow’s nest.

Xandretta strokes her chin. “They’re going to catch us soon, so think quickly.”

“No good way to say ‘no’. We can’t refuse boarding… that would only raise suspicion.” Teach looks grave.

“Your call, Captain. We follow you.” Holly, like everyone else, is worried. But she puts on a brave face, smiling brightly.

Every eye is on me, waiting for orders. Uncertainty plagues me.

Should we fight? Or should we flee? I’m not confident we would win a skirmish, not sure if we can outrun them.

If we run, they’d realize something is amiss.

If they board, they’ll very likely realize we’re pirates. We’re doomed either way.

Moreover, they might have heard about The Concord . One of my spies might have let information slip. If that were the case, we’d be walking into certain death.

“What if we fool them?” Robb says loudly. “And convince them that you sail under me?”

“And what makes you think we’d trust you?” Prudence scoffs.

“You’d be my crew,” he further explains. “Only for an hour or two. There are extra uniforms in the hold. They won’t question it, won’t doubt you.”

Xandretta’s pupils blink, a strange sideways movement, more like a snake than a human.

On second thought, maybe they would doubt her. In fact, to have so many magical beasts is an oddity, and I don’t want to call further attention to us.

“Stay out of sight,” I tell her. “Below decks. Hide if you must.”

Samson leans in, whispering. “Only a fool would put faith in an enemy. Don’t trust him, Captain. We can’t. To invite the king’s men to board this ship is certain folly. There are too few of us, and too many of them.”

Would they? I don’t know. But now they’ve hailed us.

“They will believe me,” Robb insists, looking over her shoulder at me. “Let me do this for you.”

Let me do this for you.

Why? What specifically is it about me? Perhaps he’s finally realized that King William isn’t who he thinks. Or maybe he’s fickle and saying what he believes I want to hear .

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I thought the rumors were true. About you. About your crew. Now I know they were wrong. You set slaves free. You save women and children. You hurt bad men. And you won’t admit it, but that’s the reason you haven’t hurt me.” Robb’s gaze is open, his voice rings with sincerity.

“Let me help you, Blackbeard.”

“We’ve been misled before. By men exactly like you,” Prudence hisses. “Luring us to our doom.”

The Ambassador is fast. Within minutes, it will be here.

Should I ready us for a fight, or should I put my faith in Lieutenant Maynard, my enemy?

It surprises me how much I want to believe him.

Ultimately, that is what decides me. Not his pretty eyes, not his honeyed voice, but my own intuition.

That, and the fact that if he betrays us, we will just kill everyone within reach. Fight our way out of it.

I acquiesce with a rueful shake of my head, already regretting having to tell the crew. We’ve been pillaging, plundering, and killing King William’s soldiers for more than two years. Now, I’ll be asking them to wear the uniform of their enemies.

Robb strides swiftly across the deck. “Come on. Step to. All of you need to be wearing blue.”

“Get cracking!” Holly yells. “Every last one of you!”

At her command, the crew scatters. Not just my inner circle, but every pirate on the mid deck. They flee for the hatches below, sudden pandemonium. Somehow, in the next ten minutes, they must find new outfits, swords, boots—

“For gods’ sake man, brush your teeth,” Tremaine says sternly to one of the sailors. Xandretta makes a huff that sounds suspiciously like a laugh.

I grab Robb by the front of his shirt. “You’re on thin ice with me, Lieutenant. If you betray us—if this goes wrong…”

“You’ll gut me. Yes. I know.” Robb’s hand brushes the pommel of his sword, but he doesn’t draw it.

“Why are you helping us?” I demand. “When you could easily turn us in, when I’ve held you captive?”

His jaw works, silently, and he won’t meet my eyes. “I have a debt to repay.”

A debt? Against William? What does that have to do with anything? Who could it possibly be to? No one in my crew knows him; if they did, they have yet to acknowledge it.

Robb can see that I look confused. “You can question my choices later, Captain. Right now, your entire crew needs to be ready, just in case this all goes wrong.”

When the ship draws closer, where we can begin to count its men, Domino waves. “Ahoy!” She yells it with a cheerful grin. “Imagine meeting you here!”

The Ambassador is a sleek, imposing warship, every plank lacquered to a dark blue sheen that catches the sun like oil on water.

Her sails are bleached white and embroidered with gold thread, the king’s eagle blazing at their center.

Twenty gunports line each side, their brass rims gleaming.

The decks are scrubbed to perfection, manned by uniformed sailors in royal blue coats, each movement well-practiced.

Docking ropes snake through the air, tossed with the easy confidence of men who believe we’re friends.

Holly offers a smile, though her hands are tight upon the rail.

Our sailors have been stuffed into buttoned blue coats. They hastily brushed their hair, trimmed their beards and eyebrows, cleaned the grease from around their eyes.

“Nothing but wolves in borrowed wool,” Domino mutters.

Prudence leans over toward me. “That one there only has one shoe.”

I grimace when I see she’s right. The sailor in question is standing at attention, his coat ill-fitting. Peeking from beneath his wrinkled pants is a black, polished boot… paired with a dingy old sock.

“Hopefully our enemies won’t inspect the group too closely,” I whisper back.

More than a little horrified, I watch as sailors lay down a gangplank, then cross the chasm between our two ships. I shift uncomfortably as Robb steps forward to greet them.

He’s in full regalia: crisp white pants that taper around his waist, a royal blue coat that shows off his broad shoulders, clinging around his biceps. He’s shaved his face, and he looks younger, more orderly… a naval officer instead of a curr.

“You stick with him,” I mutter to Teach. “Don’t let him out of your sight, no matter what you do.”

“Aye, sir.” He leans in. “If this goes south, I’ll handle Robb. You take Larew.”

Our eyes meet. Teach is doing me a favor… maybe. He doesn’t think I’ll kill our captive, and he’s wrong about that. If this goes po orly, and Robb stabs us in the back, he’ll get the same thing in return… a sharp stick between the shoulder blades. Courtesy of yours truly.

Their leader is the first to step onto our deck. Tall and tanned. Similarly clean-shaven, his hair is the color of burnished coins. This must be the infamous Jonas Larew, Lieutenant of the Eastern Seas. Unmistakable.

Behind him, the planks creak under the weight of their boots. Too many boots. I count by tens, but stop when I hit eighty. There are likely double that in the hold, more on the upper deck, in the forward, some hidden by the mainsail. All are armed as if they expect an attack.

Thankfully, they’ll all remain on The Ambassador ; if we have to fight them, it’ll be easier if there aren’t a hundred men flooding our ship.

“What do you say, friend?” Lieutenant Larew grins and clasps Robb’s hand. “It’s been far, far too long. How fares your hunt for Blackbeard?”

Robb gives me a look. “Better than I expected. And how fares your crew?” Robb is easy, relaxed. Much more adept at deception than I would have guessed him capable.

“Ah, you know. The king has us out here again, twelve weeks on end. They are missing home and hearth.”

Prudence’s eyes drift upward, and then dart over toward me. All of us had forgotten Roger, Roger, the corpse swaying gently in the wind. Pray to the gods that Larew doesn’t notice him.

Sweat gathers at my temples .

“You’re off course, Robb. I thought you were assigned to the seas around Venedria.”

Robb shrugs nonchalantly. “We received a tip— The Flying Rose was seen near Isla Lorah.”