After roaming around the ship for a bit, I find the door to the brig. I walk down the musty stairs. There are cobwebs and rat droppings along the edges. There is only one torch lamp that is meant to light up the whole room. I take a whiff of the room and it smells absolutely foul. I gag a little bit after smelling it. I am met with a man standing guard at the bottom of the stairs. He is sitting on a stool, smoking on a pipe. He is wearing an eyepatch over his left eye and is wearing a red bandana on his head. He almost immediately gives me a look of recognition.
"You must be the captain's newest concubine. I heard that you would be coming. Something about a desire to sing to the prisoners. That is a weird request to make the captain if I do say so myself. But, to each his own." He gets out of his stool and does a couple of stretches.
"Well, I am told that you want some privacy. Since, you a little shy. So, I will just be waiting right outside the door. Don't worry, I shouldn't be able to hear any singing from up there. But, if you do need me just shout nice and loud and I will be able to hear you. To be safe though, just make sure you stay out of arms reach of the prisoner." With that he makes his way up the stairs and I am left alone with the prisoners.
The room consists of three jail cells lined up along the edge of the right wall. The wall on the left is filled with barrels and boxes. The cells are decent sized. It looks as though six people could fit in each cell if they squeezed. There seems to be a toilet and a bench in each cell . There is also a bench in the middle of the room between all of the cells. I decide to head over there to make myself comfortable.
I peep inside of the first cell while passing by and there is only one prisoner in there. It is a female prisoner with honey brown hair. It seems to be dry and knotted as if it has not been washed in months. Her hair contrasts against the the bright red shirt that she is wearing. She is facing away from me holding a plate with some sort of bluish purple paint. She is using her finger as a paintbrush and is doodling through the bars onto the wall behind her. I turn away from her and get back to what I was doing.
I sit on the bench and take a couple deep and calming breaths. I look into the second cell and there are two strong men in tattered clothing. One is laying in the bench looking up at the ceiling and the other one is staring right at me. It is fine though. Who cares if he is staring at me. I will just ignore him.
I decide to sing the lullaby that Tilly used to sing to me when I had trouble sleeping. I don't know if I remember all of the words though.
"When the wind blows in the darkest of nights
I know it can cause the greatest of frights"
I hum the next line because I forgot it. Then I continue.
"So settle down and sleep my dear."
I really focus on the prisoners with the next line.
"Sleep sleep sleep"
That's all that I can recall. I was always too groggy and I would barely listen to the second verse. I look around to see if the command worked. The prisoner who was watching me now has his eyes wide in a look of horror and the man on the bench is now on his side with his hands over his ears.
I guess that did not work. Maybe because that was a lullaby written by humans that it did not do what I intended it to. I guess I will have to come up with an original. I really focus on getting the message across.
"Time to sleep
Time to sleep
Everyone should be sleeping
Close you eyes
Go to bed
Time to rest all your heads."
I look around and it still did not work. Everyone is still awake and moving. So, I decided to give it another go. Then another. And another. Then it has been five songs and no one has even yawned yet. I take a deep breath to begin my sixth song. But, I am interrupted by shouting.
"What sort of torture is this!" This cocky but sophisticated voice is coming from the third cell. "Why do you keep singing of sleep over and over again! Tiernan was just standing guard. That means it is in the middle of the day!"
I walk over to see who is making a commotion. I freeze when I catch sight of him. He is absolutely gorgeous. It is like a paintings come to life before me. He is sitting on the bench, with one leg planted on top of it and the other leg dangling. He has wavy auburn hair the color of a majestic fox. His sharp facial features are dusted with freckles. He has eyes that remind me of the lush forest. I hear my heart rate increase just from the sight of him.
"I'm sorry about that." I say shyly playing with a strand of my hair. "Captains orders you know. I was told I need to come down here to practice my lullabies." The man stands up and walks over to the bars. He leans one hand against it and stares at me. He looks me up and down then smiles at me. I feel my breath catch.
"You must be the Captain's newest concubine. I see why he would choose an angelic creature like yourself." He says. I feel the blood rush to my face at his comment.
"Thank you." I reply.
"Does this beautiful angel have a name?" He gestures at me.
"It's Lucia."
"Lucia." He says my name. I never knew that my name could sound so lovely until it came out of his mouth. "What brings you aboard this ship, Lucia? Surely a gem such as you does not dream of becoming a pirate bride."
"I was taken as a payment. My fiancé worked with these pirates and it seems he was behind on his cut of the pay."
"Fiancé?" He questions with a hint of sadness struck across his face.
"It was an arranged marriage. I never plan on seeing him again, so I suppose he is my ex-fiancé now."
"I like the sound of that much better." He smiles like he just won a big competition.
"How about you? What's your name? Why are you here?" I question. All of these questions have been about me and I want to get to know more about him. Where did such statuesque person come from?
"My name is Finlay Galbraith. I think I am currently being kept here for ransom. Or it is possible that he is delivering me to someone who hates me. It is impossible to know for sure. I am hoping for the former." That name sounds familiar. I remember my old tutor discussing that name but for what reason.
I got it! Finlay Galbraith. As in Prince Finlay, the second son of the the Aximor Kingdom.
"You are the Prince?"
"The one and only. Not that it matters much here. Are you a member of my kingdom?"
"No. I am from a small town in the Prylian Kingdom. How was the Captain able to capture you? Surely you must have guards protecting you all of the time."
"Well that's a funny story actually." He scratches the back of his head. "You see I snuck out. I was supposed to meet some friends at our spot behind the waterfall. I did not want to guards watching us, so I made sure to ditch them. When I got there, my friends were nowhere to be found. Instead, I was meet with pirates dressed completely in black. I was surrounded. They knocked me out. Then, I woke up I was in this cell." he says the story with such nonchalance you would think it happened to someone else
"How long have you been here, if you don't mind me asking?"
"A month."
"What? A month! What good is it to keep you here?"
"Hell if I know." He sounds agitated for a second then his facial features become smoother. "Let's move on to lighter topics. What sort of things do you like to do?"
"I guess I've always enjoyed looking for beautiful things."
"Such as jewelry?"
"Not just jewelry. I like to go to stores and find delicate handcrafted items. Things that look like they were made with care. I also enjoy going out for nature to find the beautiful things. Flowers, seashells. Things of that sort."
"That sounds wonderful. I also went out in nature a lot as a child."
"Really?"
Finlay goes on to tell me stories of the adventures him and his brothers used to have in the forest. We continue swapping stories about our childhood. I love listening about all of the trouble that him and his brothers used to make in the castle.
After about an hour of talking I tell him that I better return to the lullabies. Don't want to make the captain mad. He nodded in understanding and we each went back to our perspective benches. I then continue to sing lullaby after lullaby.