Return to Inheritance

Chapter II

"Thinkin' ye can 'scape?" said one.

"Y'er captn's property now," said another. The girl remained silent and simply looked at them all in turn, frowning. There were at least five of them gathered. And each one was uglier than the first. They probably lost many teeth during fights too. Her crew was much cleaner and cared for than those ragged creatures.

All of a sudden, one from her left side kicked her in the stomach, and she tried to fight back with one of her legs, since they were unbound.

"Maybe we should tie up yer calves too," suggested someone from behind and everyone seemed to like the idea.

Before she knew it, another one kicked her in the ribs, where she had her wound. It had just stopped bleeding and her clothes were soaked in dry blood on that side. Now, the wound was open again and it hurt even worse with the impact. It made her grimace in agony, trying desperately to find a crouching position. All her muscles were tense and she refused to shout, sob or cry before them. Instead, she kept her teeth firmly clenched.

As soon as the whole lot of them started laughing, a door opened and they shut up suddenly. It was the door from the captain's cabin, but it wasn't the captain who came over, it was the hooded man again, and the captain only waited, uninterested, at the door.

"Leave my prisoner alone! Scram," he commanded and they immediately spread out as if they hadn't been involved at all, but kept muttering to one another. Jade heard one of them say: "I can't wait to reach the port so he'd leave!"

He's going to leave? the girl asked herself. Who was going to keep these pirates away from her if not him? The captain didn't seem very interested in her, but surely wanted her for something. She couldn't figure out what, though.

In her mind, she then calculated the time it would take to reach shore. She had been sailing with her crew for almost three days when Willy Buns brought their journey to a halt. Surely he sailed back towards the shore, so she had roughly two days of being stuck there. Then, she couldn't tell what would happen to her.

As she was lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice she was still very tense and that the breath was knocked out of her. Also, the man was right in front of her. She stared once more at his hidden face, only seeing those gleaming eyes, even as the sun was long since shining brightly. He was closer than ever, and he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Relax your muscles or those wounds won't heal," he whispered reassuringly. As much as she hated taking orders, she obeyed without even thinking. Besides, it was for her own good. "They won't hurt you again, I promise," he added. She didn't even move, only stared at him in silence.

Something about his voice felt soothing, although it was normally a harsh voice surely. She wished he would keep talking to her, but the man quickly went back to the captain and she didn't see him until the next evening, when they reached the docks. Nothing interesting happened in the meanwhile. The pirates did leave her alone and didn't even look at her, except once when they fed her some dry bread crumbs. It seemed as if the man with the dagger really did have a positive effect on them, from her point of view.

Her hands were now free. The hooded man was right in front of her, untying the rope binding her to the main mast with agile hands. She could finally move around now. As the sun was slowly setting, the man had her follow him. They were leaving the ship and everyone else aboard. Jade didn't even have the time or the words to question why or where he was taking her. She was too busy looking around.

She recognised that port, more or less. It was one of her shipping destinations and also her hometown, the place it all started: Tomis. In that exact port she had run away, boarding one random ship and hiding in one of its empty barrels when nobody was looking. Before that, she remembered running wildly in order not to be caught by family, as if they could have seen her. Back then it was just as dark as it was now, and because of it, she used to keep tripping on unseen obstacles. This time, however, she was walking calmly alongside the hooded man who was casually holding one of her arms.