"What does it say?"
"I don't know. Do I look like Lucius?"
"Maybe a little. Around the eyes."
"Don't you read a bit, Jim?"
Jim snorted. "I read a little Spanish. Does this look like Spanish?"
"Maybe a little around the i's."
"Hilarious."
"Shut it. We have to figure this out."
Frenchie, Fang and Ivan were hovering outside the supply cage turned brig where Jim was locked up. They were all examining a slip of paper with writing on it that had been delivered by a friendly seagull.
"I swear to god, the bird landed right on the end of my lute while I was sitting on deck," said Frenchie. "Which means Buttons has to be alive," he shot a look to Jim. "Which means Olu is probably, too. And this...this was definitely written by Stede."
"How can you tell if you can't read it?" asked Ivan.
"When I filled in for Lucius, I had the leger. Stede had written in the first few bits of the book before he hired Lucius. His writing is all frilly, like this. With all the extra bits." Frenchie pointed to a spot where a letter did an impressive flourish.
"Should we tell Ed?" asked Fang.
"Don't be an idiot," muttered Jim. "We don't want him to know Stede is coming. He might get angry again. Best thing to do is let him surprise him. Might knock him properly out of this mopey violent asshole thing he's got going on."
"Are you sure? It seems kind of a mean thing to surprise him with," said Fang.
"Yes, I'm sure," said Jim. "Trust me. The first thing we want him to feel when he sees Stede is relief. Then he can get pissed off at him after we get rid of these fucking wolves Izzy has us surrounded with."
"Yeah, they're real mean. One of them already cut his mate's finger off. And it wasn't infected or nothing," murmured Ivan.
"Right. So. We need to find the book..." Jim was playing with the little wooden shiv in place of their dagger.
"Right, right!" said Frenchie. "There's a list of crew in the front of it. We can see if any of this is a name."
"But...we threw all the books overboard," said Fang.
"Not that one. After the English left with Stede and Ed, I hid it." Frenchie snapped and looked around. "Oh! Brilliant." He scrambled across the room, shouldered a barrel aside and tugged a board free. Out came bits of hard tack, a deck of cards, a bottle of rum...and the book.
"Frenchie you saucy little hoarder," murmured Jim, clearly impressed.
"Look, don't judge me. I didn't know any of you when I got on board. And my last ship wasn't exactly feeding us proper or paying our fair share." The Revenge was the best berth he'd had, by far. But old habits die hard. Squirreling things away in case things went south had saved his life more than once over the years.
Jim put their hands up and stepped back, a ghost of a grin still dancing across their lips.
Frenchie flipped through the book, scanning the first page that had a list of all the crewmembers, their daily wage and the port they joined the Revenge . Towards the bottom, in darker ink were four new names. "Ivan, Fang, do you know what your names look like when they're written?"
The two legacy Blackbeard crewmembers looked at each other. "Maybe?" said Ivan.
"Here, look." Frenchie flipped the book around.
"I think...that's my name," said Ivan as he pointed a finger at the last name on the book.
"I think that's mine," said Fang. "Look, he drew a little fang next to it. Aw. That's nice."
"Right. This ...well, I think it said Blackbeard. But he crossed it out and wrote...Ed."
Jim craned their neck to have a look. "So the other name, that must be Izzy. Show me the paper again..."
Sure enough, the name on the scrap of paper matched the name written at the bottom of the leger.
"All right. So this says Izzy. What about Izzy?" said Frenchie.
Jim reached their hands out between the bar and grabbed for the paper. They twisted it around. "I think this word is sh...i...p. Ship!"
"And I think that's off..." said Ivan.
"All right. Something, Izzy off ship. And that word?"
"I think it says...Fuckery..ahoy?"
—-
From the combined literacy the four pirates had cobbled together, they had figured out that their mission was to get Izzy Hands off the ship somehow. Given the range of a seagull, the Revenge couldn't be that far away.
Which meant they didn't have a lot of time.
"All hands on deck!" bellowed Izzy.
Frenchie's survival tactic up until that point was to make himself as unobtrusive as possible, and he was continuing with that strategy. He hovered near the back, out of Izzy's direct line of sight.
Ed was there too, standing near the cabin door, brooding like a dark shadow.
It didn't look...very convincing. It was more of a pantomime of ferociousness than the real thing, despite Ed's demonstration with a knife earlier. And these men were the kind who could smell weakness.
The only reason that Frenchie hadn't been challenged is that he made it a point to keep completely out of the way. The new crew were currently distracted with sorting out their own pecking order and deciding whether to follow Izzy and Ed. An unassuming bard was very clearly on the bottom of the pecking order, and he'd made no attempt to climb the ranks.
"We're approaching the shipping lane with two fat merchant ships laden with rich passengers, fabrics and gold. This will be the test to see if you're worthy to sail with Blackbeard," said Izzy as he tried to pace the deck, but ended up with more of a hobble. He still hadn't explained what had happened to his foot.
Ed watched them from the background, arms folded over his chest. The glower was intimidating, but there wasn't the same edge there had been when the Kraken had first reappeared.
"We'll come up along them broadside and then we'll board the ship. Take no prisoners. Loot and kill at your pleasure."
There was a murmur of approval through the crowd of bloodthirsty pirates.
"Make ready. We should be upon them before the sun reaches full."
With the announcement done, the gang of murderous pirates set to work trimming sails, sharpening blades and loading blunderbusses. A few even painted their faces or spiked their hair. They really didn't need the extra help to look scary.
Frenchie suddenly had an idea - a very stupid, reckless idea.
An idea worthy of Stede Bonnet.
So he took a deep breath and went over to Izzy.
"What is it?" the first mate sneered.
Frenchie bowed his head and shuffled. "Sir, before we go into battle, you might want to have a look at something I found on the hull when I was scraping it."
Izzy got up in Frenchie's face and spoke with eerie control. "Why didn't you report this before?"
"Well..." Frenchie thought fast, "...I...I didn't know we were going into battle. So I didn't think it would be an issue. But if something hit that spot, we might be in trouble."
Izzy sighed and pinched his nose. "Where?"
"Well, you'll have to get into a dinghy to see it. It's pretty close to the water line."
"Fine. Show me. Get in the bloody dinghy, find it, and explain the damage to me in detail. Reaper, drop the sail and bring us about."
Ed watched all of this from his spot in the doorway. He met Frenchie's eyes, and a moment of understanding passed between the two men.
"Do it yourself," said Ed, who hadn't spoken since he emerged.
"Sir?" asked Izzy.
"He doesn't know shit about the hull. Get in the dinghy yourself and examine it. I don't want my ship full of holes because you were afraid of getting your hands dirty."
Izzy looked like he wanted to bite back a comment, but all the pirates were now listening to the exchange.
Frenchie hoped amongst hope that Izzy wouldn't risk Ed looking weak in front of the crew.
After a moment, Izzy mumbled, "Yes, sir."
—
Izzy stared at Frenchie with an expression that told him that his days of keeping a low profile were now over. If the first mate got back on the ship, he was sure the man would make his life miserable. Well. More miserable.
"Yeah, that's it, right to the stern. See that cluster of barnacles? Right, down there."
Fang and Ivan got themselves on winch duty, and they were the only ones at the stern of the ship. The rest of the crew were towards the bow, preparing for the raid.
"Pull up the winch a bit, you idiots. I can't see anything from back here."
The tow line was trailing behind the Revenge.
"How long do we keep him down there?" murmured Fang to Frenchie.
"Don't know. We just have to hope our timing is..."
"SHIP OFF THE PORT BOW!" bellowed a voice from far ahead.
The three men looked up and towards the horizon where another ship was clearly approaching them at high speed.
"That's the signal," said Frenchie,
"That's the signal," the other two echoed.
"What's going on? Haul me up!" called Izzy.
Frenchie then moved towards the bell and started to clang it loudly and shout, "SHIP AHOY! Prepare to engage!"
Suddenly the deck of the Revenge was a flurry of activity.
Meanwhile, Izzy was trying to pull himself back in, but they had raised the sails again and the ship caught the wind. It yanked the rope out of his hands.
"Fang! Ivan!" growled Izzy. "Pull me back in, you twats!"
Fang stuck his head over the side and said, "Sorry, boss. We like the new Ed better." And then he struck the rope with a hatchet.
Frenchie would savour the look on Izzy's face as the rope fell into the water for the rest of his life.