Daughter of Treason Ch. 02

They had been at sea for two months, and Kei was starting to get restless. It wasn't that she was unhappy. Far from it, she was the most well-off she could remember; she had food, shelter, employment, safety, and even friends. The crew had become, while not precisely close, familiar. In the back of her mind, she still assessed them as threats, but she had spent so much time with them, become so familiar with their ways and tells that she was confident that they were well-intentioned or, a part of her whispered, that she could handle them if that changed.

Shino, meanwhile, was also living quite well, and had become like one of the crew; he would joke with them, play the ridiculous games they invented to pass the time, and though he often looked puzzled at some of their more creative curses, he was quickly becoming accustomed to the vulgar. This was something that would likely serve him well, for though she was generally quiet, when struggling to furl a sail in a storm, Kei was learning to cuss the paint off walls.

Yet all this comfort was part of the problem; when she had faced an evil man in mortal combat, she had had felt like she was doing something she was supposed to, like she was serving justice, like she was making progress in the world. She had felt alive. But in the relative safety and comfort of the ship, she grew restless. Colors were less vivid, the air less sweet, walls more confining, and the creeping doubt and guilt was beginning to return. Little thoughts like, 'you don't deserve this good fortune' and 'you should be making the world better' are easily suppressed once, but as time goes on, they start to grind the ego down. So when, less than a month away from Beacon City, they found a another ship change its course to follow them, Kei was ready for a fight.

Unlike the last, this ship was in much better shape; Kei identified it on sight as a longship, thanks to the impromptu tutoring she had been receiving as a functional member of the crew, but unlike the previous run-down excuse for a ship, this one had complete bulwarks, a fine, whole mast, a great smooth sail and, most notably, raised mangonel platforms at the bow and stern. Those catapults could, with a well-aimed shot, easily sink the Maiden of the Salt. They tried running but, unfortunately, even with the winds in their favor, the longship had the advantage on them.

"At least they're honest pirates," commented Kei dryly, eying the Jolly Roger which had been flying from the rapidly gaining galley since it had given chase.

Rourke only grunted in response and continued to stare at the longship. "Shino," he said for the third time, "I don't suppose y' have any o' that fire magic we can use, do you?"

Shino gave an exasperated sigh. "Not from this range. Like I said, I have to be within fifteen feet."

Rourke shook his head sadly. It wasn't much longer until they were in catapult range, and everyone knew it. Minutes passed before finally Salty spoke for the first time in an hour. "Well," he said, determination in his voice, "I suppose we've got no choice then." The crew tensed; surely he had some crazy plan. He always did, from the stories the crew told about him. "Run up th' white flag; we're surrendin'."

Kei sat there, stunned. "Surrendering, captain? But-"

He held up his hand. "One good hit from them mangonels and we're done for, an' we obviously can't outrun them; from th' looks of things, they have twenty armored boarders ready, so they'd just pull alongside an' take us by force."

"But we could use false colors-"

"We can't outrun them," stressed Salty, "so false colors do us no good."

Something clicked. Heavily armored, he says. "How heavily armored?" Kei asked, trying and failing to keep a neutral facial expression.

Salty narrowed his eyes. "Chainmail on most, breastplates an' splint mail on a few. Why, what're you thinkin'?"

"Sir, if you can get Shino within fifteen feet, he can take care of the catapults. Using that as a distraction, I'll swing across the gap and into their rigging; if they're armored, I'll had the advantage there, and cut up as much of their sail as I can. That could buy us enough speed to escape, or at least enough of a lead to make pursuit impractical."

Salty stared at her for a good long while before laughing and clapping her on the shoulder. "I'm thinkin' that I'm statin' t' like you, lass! You heard the lady!" he bellowed, "raise th' white flag, we're doin' as she says."

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

Kei was perched in the crow's nest when the longship pulled alongside, the Maiden on the left and Pirates on the right. The only real reason she was up there was because she needed a high point to swing from that wouldn't arouse suspicion; an armed woman clinging to a rope in the rigging would raise a few eye brows to say the least, but just an average lookout holding a safety line? Well that was normal.

Kei still didn't much care for the crow's nest. Though she was more than comfortable climbing or swinging or jumping, all those involved motion, some sort of task she could focus on. The crow's nest was not for doing, it was for waiting, and when she was waiting, it was difficult ignoring just how far of a fall it was to the deck below. Perhaps this is why she was clutching the rope in one hand and glaring down at the longship when the two ships drew near.

Several of the pirates had noticed her, and were leering up at her with lechery clear on their faces, but her eyes passed over them. Instead, her gaze locked on the one man who did not seem to be thinking impure thoughts; the captain, standing on the quarterdeck just forward of the mangonel, was looking at her much the same way as she was looking at him. Each was assessing the other as a threat and, what's more, the pirate was better at it.

Though Kei was good at reading tells, she was very poor at concealing her own; her right hand clutched the rope, her left was pressed against the floor of the nest to conceal the rapier, and nearly every muscle in her body was tensed. Everything about her screamed that she was ready for a fight, and while the captain may not have been quite so good at reading people, his relaxed posture made only the subtler tells visible, and even those were hard to see at a distance. The only slip he had made was in not concealing his gaze.

"Helm to starboard!" he barked, much to the surprise of the crew, "prepare for boarders! Mangonels, stand by!"

In an instant, Kei realized she had been found out; their captain was steering them away from the Maiden, and what's more, was preparing for a fight. She might have mistaken these actions for simple caution, if it wasn't for the pirate captain's intent stare. But the bloodlust had already taken her, and she wasn't about to let a fight get away. "Shino, now!"

Her sudden signal caught both pirates and crew off guard, but Shino cast his spell anyway; a fifteen foot cone of fire wasn't that damaging when the other ship was ten feet away, particularly when it had been wet down for just such a reason, but the hot sun overhead had dried the ship somewhat, so while the hull did not catch on fire as Kei had hoped, the fore mangonel platform did catch, and Kei wasn't about to give them the opportunity to put it out unmolested.

Thrusting her foot through the loop at the end, she pushed off of the crow's nest with the free foot and fell, flew. For just a moment, Kei relished the feeling of the air rushing past her face, the momentary feeling of weightlessness as she began the decent, the strain of the centrifugal force, and the exhilaration that came with the moment of truth when she removed her foot and let go of the rope.

Time stood still while the trod air as the deck of the longship rushed up to meet her. The span of a heartbeat passed like a few seconds, and she wrenched her arm to get the rapier off to one side; it would not do to literally impale herself on her own sword. Time returned when her boots hit deck and she pitched forward, using a roll to convert her downward momentum into forward momentum. Continuing the run, she sprinted right past a pair of stunned pirates, ducked the panicked, wide swing of a third, and launched herself into the starboard ratlines.

Scrambling up the first few rungs before any other pirates had the good sense to cut her down, she could only grin as the shouts of alarm started. She could feel through the rope that one or two were climbing up after her, so she turned and slashed a couple of times with her light rapier to force them to keep their distance before she resumed her climb. She most certainly had the advantage here; their heavy armor slowed them down, but Kei's light leather provided no such encumbrance, so when she reached the yard where the mainsail still lay furled, she disposed of the lookout with one well-placed thrust and still had a fair amount of time to hack away at it with her rapier. While designed for stabbing, its cutting edge nonetheless worked well enough to thoroughly shred the sail. When the two marines who had indeed perused her drew near, she clambered on to the crow's nest, flashed them a wicked grin, and cut away the shroud lines. With no anchor at the top, the shroud, ratlines and all, fell away, and the two marines with it.

That shroud was one of two supporting the longship's only mast, and Kei felt it give a lurch as it suddenly had ropes securing it on only one side. For an instant, Kei entertained the notion of riding the mast's fall to the sea and diving at the end, but dismissed it quickly; if she didn't hit anything solid, she would be tangled in the rigging and drown. Besides, by now the longship had fully pulled away, and Shino had been able to torch only one mangonel; unless she disabled the other, any escape would be pointless. Instead she sheathed her rapier, grabbed on to the line from the mast to the stern, and slid.

Had she not been wearing leather gloves, the friction would have likely caused so much heat as to make her let go prematurely. As it was, the thick leather absorbed the brunt of it, but when her lateral swinging brought one of her wrists into contact with the rope, it caused a nasty burn. She hit the deck close to the aft mangonel and landed wrong; she managed to go a sloppy roll, but jarred her ankle in the process. Had she still carried a blade in one hand, the damage likely would have been much more severe.

But there is no rest for the wicked; the pirates wasted no time in turning their attention from the torn sails and unstable mast to the culprit prone on the aft of the ship. One of the mangonel operators drew a dagger and tried to stab her, but Kei rolled out of the way, drew one of her own and slashed with it. Both strikes were far too sloppy to hit, but each put the other on guard and, more importantly, bought time. They exchanged another few thrusts and parries, Kei ending up with her back to the railing between the quarter and main decks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a trio of marines ascending to the quarterdeck on the starboard side ladder. Making a snap decision, she threw her weight over the rail, landed on her bad leg, and collapsed on the main deck.

Though in pain and in battle, everything was still clear; it was all a dance, just one which she had the misfortune of making a few missteps in. In front of her were nearly all the marines not trying to secure the mast or put out the fire in the bow, the closest of which was a scant ten feet away, and behind her was a mangonel operator and the three marines who had come to help and, more importantly, the door the captain's cabin.

Throwing her weight back, she rolled into the captain's cabin, kicked the door shut with her good foot, scrambled to a knee, and slid the bar into place. She breathed a sigh of relief as it slid home; that, at least, would buy her some time. She scanned the room for anything else of use, and quickly found something of interest.

It was simple but perhaps the most immediately useful of anything else in that room; there was a table and a pair of chairs. She wasn't in much of a condition to move the table which was likely nailed down anyhow, but chairs were good for both sitting on and barricading doors. Limping over to one, she quickly dragged it back and propped it against the door which was already being pounded on by the angry pirates on the other side.

Feeling that she had a bit more time, she conducted a more thorough appraisal of the room; the quarters were quite fine, with the table, chairs, and bed frame all elaborately carved and apparently a part of the same set. There were windows in the aft letting in a luxurious amount of light, one of which was open and allowing some airflow to boot. And, most notably, there was a chest in one corner.

Kei limped over to it to find that it wasn't latched properly; it could be and was simply pulled open. Inside were, among other things, a good many papers, a leather bound journal, a large sack of coins, and a strange, glowing blue liquid in a clear, iron-banded bottle. Figuring it must be a healing potion, Kei tore the sheets off the bed, quickly cut them into a small knapsack, and put the bottle and, with a wicked grin, the coins into it before tying it off and securing it to her back. Ill-gotten gains won't stay put for long, will they? mused Kei before she turned her attention back to the pounding on the door. There was shouting outside, and the pounding increased; they were definitely going to break it down, but she would probably have one minute, maybe two before they got a ram to destroy it completely. Glancing around the room, she found nothing else that was likely to be of use. Outside the open window, however, a frayed rope end caught her attention.

It wasn't until she was outside, clinging to the rope and trying to climb back up to the quarterdeck from the outside of the ship that she realized that she still had no way to destroy the mangonel. Cursing herself silently for neglecting to take a lantern while she was there, she continued to climb as quietly as she could. The shouting gave good cover noise to allow her to proceed at a decent pace, but when she was a few feet from the top, she heard the door splinter and crack, then the thunder of boots rushing into the recently vacated captain's quarters.

Using a final surge of strength, Kei hauled herself over the side and allowed herself to fall prone behind the mangonel, praying that the siege operators were helping to storm the cabin. When no shouts or sudden bouts of movement came, she allowed herself to peek out from behind the mess of wood which was the mangonel; there was indeed a siege operator on the quarterdeck, but he was peering over the railing down to the main deck. Reveling in her luck, she quietly moved forward; she had to take down that mangonel.

Mangonels are powered by a rope which is tightly wound around the main axle in the center of the base, and having no fire, it was this rope that Kei would have to deal with. It was facing forward and just a bit to port, almost right at the Maiden, so to get at the rope, Kei had to climb over the arm. She tried cutting it, but her arms were weak and in her desire to not be heard, she ended up only scoring the thick rope. Cursing quietly, she was about to try again when the siege operator turned, saw Kei, and gave a cry of alarm.

Surprised, Kei fell backwards into the cup of the mangonel. In a moment of panic, all Kei could think was This is not a good place to be. Furthermore, as she felt a foot against something solid and kicked against it to propel herself out of the cup, she discovered that she was right. The solid object against which her foot had been resting was the firing lever. And she was still in the cup.

Had Kei been standing, or crouched, or virtually anything other than reclining with her weight evenly distributed, the forces involved would likely have snapped her neck. As it was, being flung through the air by catapult was only immensely painful, to say nothing of the landing.

One again, Kei was very fortunate in that this one was only loosely wound, and used a low missile trajectory; the end result is that, rather than going up a hundred feet and being killed on impact with the water, she was only sent five feet up and fifty feet out. A stone would have likely gone much farther, but a stone does not fly the same way as a human. A stone would have gone much higher and likely broken through the water when it came down. Kei merely bounced off once then splashed down after she had lost her vertical speed.

For just an instant, her whole world was pain. Imagine, if you will, skidding and bouncing off of stone at thirty miles per hour. Then imagine, as your brain fails to process the sheer volume of information your nerve endings are sending you, you are then plunged into cold water and, when you gasp to try to get back the air which was forced from your lungs by the impact, you feel only water flow into your lungs. That feeling is a rough approximation to what Kei experienced.

She surfaced, coughing and gasping, eight seconds later when her brain finally realized what was going on. For a few moments it was all she could do to tread water and cough up salt water, but before too long shouting drew her attention. Glancing towards its origin, she was shocked to find that she was more than halfway to the Maiden of the Salt! She took another minute to get more air than water in her lungs before she started swimming. She had never liked swimming, but her parents had insisted on it, and Kei was suddenly very grateful for that. Twice exhaustion threatened to overcome her and drag her back under, but twice the excited, shouted encouragements of Shino broke through the thoughts, and twice she resurfaced and pressed on. When she finally touched the hull of the Maiden, several strong hands grasped her wrist, shirt, hair, anything they could reach and pulled her up to safety.

She lay there on the deck, her gasps punctuated only by coughs until, after minutes of concerned silence from the crew, the rush of what she had just done sunk in. Soaked to the bone, exhausted, bruised and battered but utterly euphoric, Kei laughed.

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

Kei was bedridden for the entire day but was making a speedy recovery. Most of the injuries from bouncing along land at high speeds are from the stone ripping off pieces of flesh or small particles being lodged in the skin, but in the water there was no such particulate matter, and as such the worst of the injuries from her brief flight were bruises. Ironically enough, it was the ten foot drop to the deck of the pirate ship which had caused the most lasting damage; her ankle was badly sprained.

Yet despite this, she still fared better than the pirate longship; its fore mangonel had been burning merrily by the time Kei had reached the Maiden, and the only sail was ripped enough to need repairs before the ship went anywhere. The aft mangonel was the only uncertain factor, but by the account of the crew, the pirates had tried to crank it back down into cocked position only to find that the score Kei had made in the rope was enough to make it snap under stress. No pirates were wounded, making Kei's attempt at sabotage a failure, but only a slight one; the Maiden gotten away clean, its only casualties mere bruises and sprains, and even those were healing quickly.

The crew was, in general, in high spirits. Rather than treating her with any sort of new found respect or fear, they simply went on as they always had, joking and laughing. The only difference was that now they could joke, 'What do you call a human in a catapult? A sailor!' or 'This must be Islandport's secret weapon; Kei by catapult.' While their words held no respect in the traditional sense, in a way it was more comforting. Had they approached her with a sense of reverence, it may have been satisfying to her ego, but their casual acceptance and gratitude went a step further: it said not only that they appreciated the abilities she had just demonstrated, but also that such a demonstration merely confirmed what they already suspected. They did not discover Kei's abilities, they merely saw a demonstration of what they already knew. Somehow, the fact that they had faith in her abilities even before she proved them made it all the sweeter.