Winds of Fate [Books IV-VI]

Chapter 182.1: Changing Course

A long, pregnant silence ensues.

Until Aggy snorts aloud. "Ha! Tell me you're joking Nellie. Come on." She slaps the table and looks at Jim to her left, and Anton at her right, but both men are confused and silent. Even Ben has just gaped, jaw dropped, at their captain, and Douglas' eyes widen despite clearly being drunk. Aggy stops laughing and turns to Eleanore. "Nellie? You okay? We're pirates, right? What do pirates do?"

Eleanore clasps her hands together on the table. "Aggy—"

"Ack! Steallll!" Torkin answers for her, proud and oblivious.

"And! And," Aggy nearly stands up, finger raised in the air. "If I am remembering correctly, you said Lord Neville enlisted you —and us!—because we know how to steal! Just!" Her young friend reddens and sputters, "Just! What! What's gotten into you?! You can't just change the ship! You... you... wait a minute."

James takes a deep breath. "She can."

Eleanore closes her eyes and opens her hands. "Please hear me. I told you all that I now know from the spirits and what we're facing. I..." She glances aside at her husband, but Anton is in deep thought, a hand over Poco's sleepy head as he weighs all the options. "Aggy. We cannot live this double life."

Aggy squirms. "Because of Jones? I'm gonna stop being a pirate because of that ancient ass—"

"No, no! You're missing the point, Aggy." Eleanore leans closer and continues, despite Aggy's sour face, "Our lives here, on earth, are being fought for. Get it? Life and death. Light or darkness. Aggy. Being a pirate is not a loving thing to do."

Aggy pouts, while James rubs his neck, clearly pained by all this. Benjamin, somber, downs all his rum in the mug, and Douglas, elbows on the table, thoroughly awake now, closes his eyes and raises a hand. "If I may be allowed."

Eleanore nods. "Please do."

"I told ye, I know I told everyone already..." Douglas sighs and straightens up, ramrod, every bit awake and serious. "I was, supposed to be, a parson. And... I was already three-fourths into the process before I changed my mind and drafted. Anyway... in Scotland, we folks are no strangers to myths and legends. Our forests and mountains be haunted, claimed... and they are not all helpful." He shakes his head. "When Nellie began doing magic, I trusted she knew what she was borrowing from. She said they're her ancestral 'gods', so I never talked you out of it, Captain." Douglas pats her shoulder and smiles sadly. "But I studied and knew of the danger out in the world, as well as more importantly, I knew of the Lord, but me shaky faith is a different story for a different time. Yea, lass—" Douglas turns to Aggy, his voice dropping as he warns clearly. "The Lord of the Jews, who came here to save our ungrateful mortal arses, clearly decreed there shall be no other gods before Him for the precise reason that doing so puts your immortal soul in jeopardy. Those gods aim for "balance," but there can never be any allegiance to darkness. Not one shade of it! Ye know why?"

Aggy balks. "Why?"

Douglas slams a fist on the table. "Because when you give darkness an inch it will take a mile out of ye!"

"Ackk!" Torkin squawks, already terrified by all these talks of darkness, dives under the folds of Eleanore's grand skirts, shivering. She pats him gently and sighs.

Aggy swallows hard, and against their best judgment, she, James, Ben cannot help but glance at Anton, who quietly lifts his eyes to them and then looks at Douglas. "I am not going to terrify you more after our master gunner's explanation," he says, "but do know... that ever since I was cursed, I had never had one, single day of quiet, and my rage... my..."