Page 13 of Scourge of the Shores

“No, you won’t.” He pulled the triggers for her. He didn’t even flinch. Click. Click. Empty.

Danna’s breath hitched as she thought of the knife in her belt. She locked her jaw to mask it. He was infuriating. “Ye knew?”

Robert nodded. “You shot both and hit Cain twice in his eye.”

He ripped them out of her hands and set them on the bench.

“But why?” Danna said.

He chuckled. “Isn’t it obvious?” He spun around. “I want you to believe me.” He tilted his head.

“But why?”

He sighed with a shrug. His weight shifted as his eyes scanned the interior room in thought before locking eyes with her again. “I just need yer trust.”

Danna put her hands on her belt, within easy reach of the knife. “Don’t trust easily, especially a pirate still in the business of being a pirate.”

Robert mimicked her with his hands on his hips, near his knife, she noticed. “I suspected a Chadwick would be the most sensible one here.” He paced. “Look, Danna, I need your trust because I have a proposition for you.”

She inclined her head. “Aye, and what’s that?”

“Cain. Your problem’s an answer to my problem.”

“Mind explainin’?”

“If I kill a sea dragon, I know I could consolidate at least half of the Pirate Kings under my fleet.” Robert stopped pacing and angled his body toward her. “Half of the captains would yield to me. If you kill your sea dragon, your island’s safe.”

Danna pinched her lips and narrowed her eyes in consideration of his proposition. “Go on.”

“What if we team together, sail to the dragon’s den, kill it, return victorious . . . ” He took a step. “Win for you.” Another step. “Win for me.”

Danna lofted an eyebrow. It would solve her problems, and she would have newer, well-equipped pirate ships to help her defeat Cain; however, once they killed Cain, would Robert keep to his word, or was his whole righteous speech to Rosa for her benefit?

They could hold her hostage or sink their ships and come back and take the island.

The pain in her leg grabbed her attention and pulled a small groan through closed lips.

“No deal,” she gritted, shifting her weight to her good leg. A wave of nausea passed over her stomach. She swallowed, hoping to keep it at bay.

Robert took another step toward her. “Why?”

“‘Cause I don’t trust ye.”

He smiled and spoke as if reading her mind. “I’m not going to sink your ships or hold your ships hostage for the treasures on this island.”

The room swayed. She steadied herself, blinking rapidly to get the sway out of her eye. “Ye may not,” her tongue grew thick in her mouth, “But Rosa, or the others? Any fool with eyes could see that chance.”

“If we’re successful, as I told you, at least half would submit to me.”

“And the other half?” She shook her head, and the room shook with it. “No deal,” she forced out. “I ain’t handin’ me people to yer mercy.”

Robert’s eyes dipped to her leg. “You sure are the bleeder. Should probably tie a tourniquet.”

Sweat rolled down Danna’s neck as the humid air did not quench her lips. Her leg wobbled, and the world around her felt like it sank into a well.

His arm looped around her waist before she could fall.

“Don’t need yer help,” she snapped, stumbling.

His breath tickled her ear. “Aye, you do.”

The quiet certainty in his voice unsettled her more than the pain in her leg.

“I’m fine,” she gritted, but knew he was right. “Call Ervin.” She gestured to the door.

“Was he a friend of your father’s?” Robert asked, holding her upright against the table. “He seems a little soft on you.”

“Do it.” Her head dipped to keep it from swimming. “Prove I can trust ye.”

Robert backed up to the double door, leaving her alone. “I thought I already had.” He turned around, opened one, and yelled, “Captain Ervin, Captain Chadwick needs your assistance.”

Robert chuckled and looked inside. “Your old man is coming.”

“He’s not that old.” She grimaced. “He’s a hair over thirty.”

“My father died at not even double his age.”

Danna stood expressionless. The conversation no longer made sense to her, so she insulted Robert in an attempt to defend herself against whatever he said. “All of ye Pirate Kings are young and livin’ off yer fathers’ names.”

Robert nodded, unfazed. “That we are.” He backed up with his hands raised. “Easy there, matey,” he said before Lucas appeared in the doorway with a pistol pointed at Robert’s belly.

“What do you need, Captain Chadwick?” Lucas asked.

“Lucas, I,” Danna said as she stumbled to a nearby bench. “Cain . . . me leg.”

“Danna?” The concern in his voice made her collapse. Lying on the floor gave her clarity.

She held up her hand to stop Lucas from shooting Robert before pulling her belt off. A groan escaped her lips as she tied the belt around her leg until it hurt. “I’m gonna need needle and thread. How’s yer leg? Are ye able to go to Ma’s and get some?”

“Me leg is fine.”

“Leave Jaymes and yer gun with me, Lucas.”

Lucas shot a wary glance at Danna’s pistols.

Robert whispered, “They’re empty from the fight with Cain. And no, I haven’t touched Captain Chadwick.”

Lucas yanked the two flintlocks from Robert’s belt, put them in his own belt before handing his gun to Danna.

“Ye can get these back when ye leave,” he told Robert, and then he turned to go.

Robert sat on the bench next to Danna and gestured to her leg. “I can look at that, you know. I’ve tended to many wounds.”

Danna gritted. “Keep yer word to Ervin, and don’t touch me.”

He leaned back against the wall. “How can you live here?” he asked. “I would want to sail away. Feel the sea spray on my face, live on the sway of the waves.”

Danna pictured her time on the Northern Boulder, feeling the same. “Ma needs me.”

His head rolled, so he peered at her. “Why does she need you?”

“Cain took her arm and legs.”

He nodded. “Ah, a personal vendetta against the sea dragon.”

“Aye,” she said with a heavy breath. The pain in her leg wound around her body.

“And you still turn down my offer? How many more must the dragon kill before?—”

Danna cocked the gun and pointed it at him. The weight of the deaths from her decisions, her actions, raged in her mind, and her finger twitched.

“Ye will shut yer mouth,” she ordered.

“Did I strike a chord?” he whispered, leaning away from her with downturned eyes.

“Shut. Yer. Mouth,” she said. Her finger itched until she pulled it off the trigger and laid it aside.

Robert took off his hat and took a deep breath. “I take it you’ve lost many to Cain? My apologies.”

“We’ve lost a lot,” she shifted under the pain. “But I gotta balance losin’ more to Cain or all to the Pirate Kings.”

Robert nodded. “That’s honorable.”

The little clarity afforded her upon lying down began to recede as Robert continued.

“My father was a man of many sayings. When I was a boy, before we attacked an enchanter’s ship that had blown way off course on its path to the Eastern palace, he told me that I had a choice that dealt with unknowns.

The enchanters are known for enchanting people, bending them to their will, giving them illusions, and making their minds go mad. And this was their ship, full of them.”

Robert leaned forward, elbows on his knees, examining his hat in his hands.

“He told me, if we persuaded all the Pirate Kings to descend upon them, we may win untold enchantments, but we would lose many in the process. If we did not strike, the enchanters would probably attack us for needed resources, and if alone, we would surely fail.”

The story made Danna ache for her father. He was full of quips like Robert’s father, but she only remembered a few because she was so young when he died.

“What’d he say?” Her breath came in shallow, shaky spurts.

Robert smiled. “He said, ‘Take the first fight first. Worry about the second later.’ Stuck with me.”

Her tongue was thick in her mouth, and she wiped sweat from her brow. “What’d ye do?” The words slurred.

“We took the first fight first. Knowing the enchanters’ ways, we did not want to fail, so we persuaded the Pirate Kings to attack, and we won our battle. We lost four ships, and I lost my mother. She was not a pirate and was not familiar with any weapons.”

Robert set his hat beside him on the bench. “To this day, I wonder why her? Why had the enchanters targeted her? Of all the raiders, she was the least capable of doing any damage.”

Danna stilled. His tone wasn’t cold. It wasn’t cruel. It just hurt. “I thought ye pirates didn’t care for losses.”

His gaze turned inward, and a small sweep of pain passed over his eyes. “That’s the lie we tell.”

For the first time, Robert felt real to her—genuine. And she almost reached for him—not out of pity, but recognition, comfort.

But she didn’t. Couldn’t. She wasn’t that foolish.

Danna wiped her face and rid her forehead of sweat, pushing past the glimpse of Robert as a man. Robert Jaymes was a pirate.

But he gave good advice. She knew what she had to do. Fight Cain first; figure out the second later. Try to plan for the second fight, but go in knowing more would die.

Lucas burst through the doors and kneeled beside Danna. “Yer Ma wants ye home,” Lucas said, and held out the needle and thread. “Scotty’s gonna come and take care of Captain Jaymes while I take ye home.”

Robert leered at Danna and said to Lucas, “She shouldn’t move. She’ll pass out cold before you get her to Ma, judging by how long you’ve been gone.”

Danna hadn’t realized it, but her hand holding the pistol was limp on her belly. Robert could have taken it with ease. The conversation dipped in and out of coherence.

Lucas took another glance at Danna with wide eyes. “She’s losin’ a lot of blood.”

Robert nodded and held out his hand. “Give me the needle and thread if you can’t do it; I’ll stitch her up.”

Lucas handed it to him, but he pulled on Robert’s collar so his face came near. “If she dies from a botched stitch job, I’ll have yer head.”

“Aye, Captain,” he said. “I could’ve already killed her in this state, and much more humanely than botching a stitch job.”