Page 43 of Storm over the Caribbean (Storm and Silence Saga #8)

Again, the captain dashed forward, his weapons lashing out.

“Why the hell—”

Clang!

“—aren’t you—”

Clang! Clang!

“—attacking?”

In answer, Mr Ambrose simply stayed silent.

Eerily silent. He kept defending. Kept retreating.

It was all he could do, really, having only his sabre, while Briggs was armed with both cutlass and knife.

Again, why oh why did he throw his weapons away?

That was incredibly stupid, and all he got out of it was a slash on Briggs’ face! So bloody stupid, unless—

Oh.

Oh my goodness.

He didn’t. He couldn’t have.

I looked at Mr Rikkard Ambrose’s eyes. Cold. Sharp. Calculating.

Oh, Lilly, he definitely did.

Instantly, my eyes flicked to the cut on the pirate captain’s face—just an instant before the man swayed ever so slightly.

Called it!

“Coward!” Briggs hissed, circling my husband with the intent to slaughter in his eyes. “You think you can win if you don’t even dare attack? Ha! If you just want to stand there like a fool, be my guest! I’m going to hack away at you until you slowly bleed to death!”

“Attack?” Swiping aside another slash of the cutlass with his sabre, Mr Ambrose took another leisurely step back. “I don’t need to attack. I have already won.”

“Won? Ha! Are you sick in the head?” Snorting, Briggs took a step forward—and stumbled.

“Sick? Me?” My dear husband shook his head. “No. But you might be. Do you feel it already?”

“What…what the hell…?” Swaying, Briggs tried to take another step forward, and nearly fell on his face as a result.

“You do, don’t you? You already feel weak. Your legs are trembling. Have you started sweating yet?”

“What…” The word that escaped from the captain’s mouth was nothing but a croak. “What did you do?”

“Oh, nothing much.” Lowering his sabre, Mr Ambrose reached into his pocket and, a moment later, pulled up a shiny, colourful fruit. A fruit that I recognized instantly, from far-too-painful memories. “Fascinating flora and fauna on these islands, don’t you agree?”

“Y-you…!”

“After a certain incident, I made sure to study it for some time. Make some tests. Do some experiments.”

“I’ll ki…ki…kill…y—”

“I see you’re already feeling the effects, correct?”

“Ki…kill…!”

Mr Rikkard Ambrose met the pirate captain’s eyes. He didn’t even bother to properly hold his sabre anymore. For good reason, it seemed. Briggs staggered forward once more, then fell to his knees in front of my husband.

“Ah, so you know how to show respect to your new captain. Adequate.” Nodding in satisfaction, Mr Ambrose stepped forward and gently touched the former captain’s face with a single finger, just below the poisoned wound. “Now…”

He pushed his finger forward, against Briggs’ cheekbone. Without resistance, the man toppled over and landed in the sand.

Stepping forward, Mr Rikkard Ambrose placed a foot atop the fallen man and looked around in challenge.

“Anyone here who wants to challenge their new captain?”

Utter silence reigned.

***

Far, far away on the ocean, several dozen heavily armed people were kneeling on the hard deck of a merchant ship, hiding below a tarpaulin that stunk of fish-oil.

“So…” One of the men cautiously cleared his throat. “Why are we doing this again?”

“Don’t you listen to anything I say?” a growl came from where the tip of a beard protruded from beneath the tarp.

“I did, but…I don’t understand. We’ve been searching the oceans, islands and coasts for weeks with a whole fleet of ships and haven’t found a single hint of the pirates’ lair. How can we possibly do better while hidden under a tarpaulin on a single merchant ship?”

“Is it not obvious?” the owner of the beard hissed.

“As you said, we’ve been combing the seas for weeks now, and still haven’t found anything!

Those pirates are slippery kutte dián puttar .

30 It’s clear we won’t find any sign of them even if we search all over these islands for another month.

And neither will we find a hint of Ambrose Sahib if, as I suspect, he and his wife have fallen into the clutches of these degenerates.

” The ominous cracking of knuckles issued from between the tarp. “So we will do something…different.”

“Different how?”

“Simple. If we cannot find them, we will make them come to us. Those greedy pieces of filth have been hunting Mr Ambrose’s merchant ships ceaselessly.

There is no doubt that they will continue to do so.

What do you think will happen if we sail across a sea, in a temptingly unguarded merchant vessel, full to the brim of precious goods? ”

“You mean…?”

“Yes. They will be unable to resist this juicy morsel. Especially since they were most likely paid to go after Ambrose Sahib ’s ships specifically.

I’ve taken care to spread rumours about a ship loaded with luxury goods travelling along this route at every island we’ve visited during our search so far.

I am certain that word will reach the pirates’ captain, and he won’t be able to resist attacking Ambrose Sahib ’s ship.

” Once again, the cracking of knuckles came from beneath the tarpaulin.

“And then we will crush him once and for all!”