Pirates of The Sea

Pirates Of The Sea

This is the third story in the "on the sea" series and is the sequel to Revenge On The Sea

Note: There is racial language in this story. If such offends you, dear reader, you have been forewarned.

Chapter 1: Everything The Boy Wanted

"Fire!"

The starboard broadside cannons of the Death's Hand unleashed their fury on the merchant vessel. The merchant crew, unused to such fire, was unable to answer. The merchant ship's port side cannons returned fire but in far fewer shots, which told me that our guns had done their damage.

Then the Defiance, which was on the merchant vessel's other side, also fired a broadside.

"Ship's ours now!" came several calls.

I grinned. Another take was ours. Captain Cold Eyes of the Defiance and me, Captain Leonardo Sanfino of the Death's Hand. We were quite the pairing. Sure enough, the merchant ship struck it's colors. We wouldn't even have to fight sword-to-sword in a boarding party. My boarding party leader, a typically angry Irishmen named Thomas McGaragle, looked disappointed at not getting to fight but I was relieved. Every time we had to board, chances were good that my men may die. I wasn't a heartless wretch of a pirate that didn't care for my men. Not caring for one's crew quickly got a captain removed from command. Usually in a permanent fashion. I was never going to be that kind of captain.

Life was good for me, good for old Leo Sanfino. I had my ship, my crew's respect, my reputation that continued to grow with each success. I had an alliance with the Defiance that I trusted absolutely, which was rare in piracy. It's crew, my former crew, respected me as much as if I was still with them.

Not to mentioned their captain, Captain Cold Eyes, was the woman I loved.

And she loved me back.

I feel like I need to repeat that to myself from time-to-time, to make sure it's not some fervor dream. But it was fact. Despite a whole world's worth of barriers in my way, I had won the heart of Captain Cold Eyes. I even knew her real first name, Brianna. I'd won her heart. And all her other treasures, which were worth more to me than every single piece of gold I'd earned or stolen in my entire life.

The Defiance was moving alongside the merchant ship now, mirroring our movements. I could just make out the red hair of Captain Cold Eyes at the helm of her ship. I didn't need my spyglass to imagine her, she had burned herself into my memory long before I had any hopes of her returning my interest. Silk-like red hair that shined no matter the weather. Full firm breasts, a matching backside, and a face that no painter could possibly equal. And that was her clothed.

No, no, don't start daydreaming about her body, you daft idiot! We're still at sea and, despite one encounter on our way back from Boston's cold waters, she would not bed me at sea. It caused jealousy, she said. All the other men on both ships had nothing but their right hands for pleasure when at sea. No matter how much money their captains made them, there were still some things that caused resentment. So Cold Eyes and I had agreed that there'd be no displays of affection nor any rowing over to each other's cabin to carouse while we were at sea. It was fair to the crews but unfair to us. It made the voyages very long. She confided in me that, after a particularly long trip back from a raid around Spanish waters off of Vera Cruz, she had succumbed to masturbation a few times during the voyage, saying she had been thinking of me the entire time. I told her I had the same problem. But enough of that Sanfino! You still have work to do!

"Keep the helm steady Arthur," I said to the oldest man on my ship, a seadog named Arthur Morris. This was new to me, leaving the helming to someone else. Lately he did all my helming and sailed the ship, leaving me free to attend all other matters in sailing life and in battle. At first I had resented not helming my own ship. I'd helmed the Death's Hand when we'd stolen it out of Boston, helmed it during our first battles and on our trips up and down the coast of the Americas! Why did I have to surrender my helm? Cold Eyes helmed her own ship at all times after all! But Arthur had told me that the best captains had helmsmen who tended the sailing of the ship and let the captain himself be free to direct the rest of the ship.

Arthur had praised my skill at having learned so quickly but told me a captain had many duties, especially in battle. Tommy Haydenson, nicknamed Tomwise, my quartermaster and first mate had agreed with Arthur and told me this was how great ships stayed afloat, both legitimate and pirate alike. And I enjoyed the freedom of not having to helm the Death's Hand at every second. These days I only took the helm for extended periods to give Arthur a break, who again was the oldest member of the crew. Or if I needed to do something that bordered on crazy. The times for the latter were thankfully few. Cold Eyes doesn't think much of my not helming the ship at all times. But I reason that's because, as a woman, she has even less control over her life than I do. She's fought so hard for so long to get where she was, she wouldn't surrender a measure of control without a fight.

It also taught me something I quickly learned to hide from her. I'm a better sailor and captain than her in almost every way. We've done several raids since our first and each time the Death's Hand out sailed, out shot, out fought, suffered less casualties, and took less damage than the Defiance. It wasn't just that the Death's Hand was a newer and better ship, though Arthur confirmed it was. The crew wasn't as good as the Defiance's crew, not yet at least. Only time would close the experience gap. The biggest reason the Death's Hand outdid the Defiance was me, Arthur said. Doesn't that sound egotistical? Arthur tells me I have a natural gift for the life as a captain. While Cold Eyes was very good, he quickly added as he remembered she was also my love, sailing wasn't a natural gift for her. She had learned as much as possible. She had learned well. But there's a difference, he said, in learning to perform the role expertly and being made for performing the role. Tomwise had said it separated the masters from everyone else.

I keep that knowledge to myself. And told the old codger to do the same. I swear Lawrence knows it though. Lawrence, her first mate, seemed to know everything. Everyone on both crews turned to him for answers when they had none, even Arthur and Tomwise. The boarding planks were established and I crossed with McGaragle's boarders.

Captain Cold Eyes and her boarders were crossing from the other side at the same time.

The sight of her made my heart swell and my groin stir. I mentally checked both of them and spoke loudly. "Hail Cap'n Cold Eyes!"

"Hail Cap'n Sanfino!" she replied.

"The ship's ours!" I said.

"Aye. And with minimal effort."

"M'lady my former Cap'n should know by now that my plans always work," I said, slipping in my courtly manners.

I swear she almost laughs. "Careful Cap'n Sanfino! That rapidly inflating head of yours will sink the prize before we unload it!"

"M'lady the Cap'n Cold Eyes, if my head inflates that much, I'll simply dive overboard and prop the prize up!"

This time she did laugh. As did both crews. "All right you louts," she finally said. "Let's get to unloading!"

"Fifty-Fifty!" I added. We always split even, despite Tomwise quietly urging me to make it more in the Death's Hand favor. I was the better Captain after all. But I would not compromise my relationship with her for anything or anyone. As I had told her while we were hunting my father, none of this meant a dammed thing to me without her. I enjoyed being Captain Sanfino, with my fearsome looking ship and growing reputation of winning with minimal losses. I enjoyed all of it. But I had only become Captain Sanfino so as to ensure my hopes of being with Cold Eyes wouldn't destroy the unity of her crew. No crew could bed the captain and not have it assumed the captain played favorites with her lover. Leaving the Defiance had been the hardest thing I had ever had to do.

But it had paid off in the end.

The captain of the merchant ship was a groveling little worm, blubbering like a terrified child as the boarding parties from both ships herded the survivors into a group. The cargo was hauled up. Lots of great goods, lavish ornamental nothings that clearly were headed for some rich nobody's mansion or manor. Much of it reminded me of how lavish the captain's cabin had been when the Death's Hand had been about to join the Royal Navy. The perfect kind of garbage to sell for coin and be rid of. I turned to Cold Eyes. "A fine haul."

"Decent," she replied. "Nothing like what we got when we sold off your father's life."

"True," I nodded. That hoard had fetched so much gold even the drunken and lustful reveling of both our crews couldn't blow it quickly. "And how are Renee and Rachel faring?" I asked naming my two half-sisters that Cold Eyes had decided to take on her ship.

"They do well," said Cold Eyes. "I have them on water duty, to put out any fires that come up. And my crew has been............educated.......about what would happen should they get any ideas."

I nodded. While I had ordered the gang-rape of my late stepmother Angelica, I didn't want to see my half-sisters suffer the same fate. There were barely teenagers. Not that that mattered to horny pirates at sea for months on end with nothing but their imaginations and right hands for self pleasure. All my hate for my family had been spent months ago. I'd ruined my father by taking his life's work, killed his wife in front of him, then tied him up to the top of my main mast and let him freeze to death in the winter winds of North America. Once back in the tropics, I'd had his rapidly unthawing and foul smelling remains brought down and thrown overboard. Then, with a massive profit from stealing his life's work, I'd closed that chapter of my life forever. All that was left were my sisters, now under Captain Cold Eyes careful watch and learning more about the world than the fine society they'd grown up in.

And there was Donnie.

With my revenge spent at my father and stepmother, I'd decided to keep Donnie on as Death's Hand ship's boy. Exactly the position I'd taken to escape London and my father. One final bit of revenge on my unlamented late father, Giovanni Sanfino. I'd also felt some remorse for having the boy brutally flogged when I'd first captured him, which I'd done not out of any hate for him but out of a desire to make Angelica scream. Tomwise reported Donnie took his duties seriously, said very little, and did what was told of him. Some of McGaragle's rougher crewmen had decided to pick on Donnie, thinking I hated him and wanted him to suffer too. But when I found out about that incident, I'd had the two men flogged and told everyone that Donnie was crew now, not to be picked on like he was a prisoner.

McGaragle hadn't liked that but I told him in no uncertain terms that I wouldn't tolerate abuse of crew by anyone, even other crew. Pirates were all equal, according to the rights of freedom. While I might be captain, I did not put myself ahead of my men in any regard save that of battle. Donnie was to be treated the same. During a quiet moment alone Cold Eyes had told me she thought that was wonderful. Not harming the child for the sins of the father. Donnie didn't like me at all, for obvious reasons. We talked little, and that was mostly me giving him orders, which he always responded with resentment. I didn't expect him to warm up to me. I had ordered him flogged, his mother raped, eventually having her murdered in front of his very eyes, condemned his father to a cold death, put his older sisters on another ship, and ruined everything he had ever known as a child. I expected him to hate me. As long as he obeyed his orders, I didn't care.

I told Tomwise to keep watch, make sure the little bastard wasn't planning anything. He was my brother after all. We had the same genes. And on the rare moments where he met my eyes, I saw the same look of hate I'd once harbored for our father. Tomwise had said one of two things would happen. One, he would grow into his role and accept his fate. Two, he'd plot and eventually have to be killed.

I was hoping for the former.

"Leo?" asked Cold Eyes. I jerked back to reality. From her tone, she had been trying to get my attention for a few moments. She didn't usually use my first name at sea, we always called each other 'Cap'n' to keep our pledge to not raise the resentment of the crew.

"I'm sorry, Cap'n Cold Eyes. I was lost in thought."

"The take is almost completely unloaded. What about them?" she gestured to the captured crew of the merchant ship.

"Let's split them between our brigs and drop them off in Tortuga. And we'll tow the ship."

That surprised her. "Why?"

"Think of how much a ship that's sea worthy will sell for? This ship is largely intact. Whatever damage it has could be fixed out of this take. We could sell this to a black market merchant who will sell it back to any merchant alliance. Or we could keep it, fill it with crew, and make ourselves a fleet."

"We don't want to manage more ships Cap'n Sanfino. It causes more problems, more shares to hand out, more names to worry about betraying us."

"Or it could lead to more successes, chances at bigger hauls."

"More successes could also mean more targets placed on our backs by the world powers."

"Which makes sense to increase our numbers to make ourselves more dangerous, therefore more risky to attack."

We have this argument frequently. It's the only thing Cold Eyes and I are at odds about. I shake my head. "M'lady my former Cap'n, let's not fight. We'll tow the ship back to Tortuga with us and decide what to with it then," I said.

She took a breath. "All right. If only to get some time on land." She winked, then turned to the crews. "All right boys, we're towing the ship!"

"We'll do it together!" I added. I give Cold Eyes a look that tells her exactly what I want from her, then I return the wink and then make my way back to my ship. Within a few hours we're at sail, towing the captured ship, bound for Tortuga.

I had everything I had ever wanted out of my life.

Life was good.

Chapter 2: A Tale Of Sugar Chains

The tavern we frequent in Tortuga was as loud as ever, full of drunks, whores, and people reveling in the freedom of the port. We were fresh off of selling the useless goods from the merchant ship and were taking some well earned drinks. At the table sat me, Cold Eyes, Lawrence, McGaragle, Tomwise, my chief gunner Patrick Furgeson, and Cold Eyes doctor Roderick 'Roddy' Banes.

"To our good fortune!" said McGaragle raising his pint.

We all did the same.

"Our fortunes continue to be gold," said Lawrence.

"Thank our genius," said Cold Eyes gesturing to me.

"Why M'lady the Cap'n Cold Eyes, thank you for such glowing praise! I've lived my whole life without ever believing such was possible-"

She promptly elbowed me. "Don't ruin it Sanfino."

I laughed with the rest of them and downed my rum in one.

"How long are we in port?" asked Tomwise.

"Probably a good week," I said.

"Closer to two weeks. It will do them some good," added Cold Eyes. "We've done some long sea voyages lately. Lets give the louts a rest."

McGaragle laughed. "And our time ashore has nothing to do with the Cap'n's and their desire for some beach banging-"

Cold Eyes leveled him with the glare that had earned her the name she went by. McGaragle wisely shut his mouth. I knew both crews made jokes like that. So did Cold Eyes. I'd let some jokes I'd heard while at sea pass. Cold Eyes had done the same. But not when ashore. And not when they were made right in front of both of us.

"You should really learn better," said Tomwise.

"Someday, that mouth is going to get you killed," said Lawrence.

"Oh grow up, the lot of you! If you can't take jokes, what's the point of living?" McGaragle protested.

"Jokes are plenty funny," said Patrick.

"But making jokes about the two Cap'n's in front of the two Cap'n's is not joking, it's asking to get yourself keelhauled," said Tomwise.

"And I'll be stuck repairing whatever's left," said Roddy.

"All right now," I jumped in. "We'll write that off as a result of strong drink and let it go."

"This time," Cold Eyes added coldly. Her tone could have frozen a hurricane.

Talk subsided for a while. I was just about to consider we retire for the evening as I was finding it harder to keep my hands off of Cold Eyes when she suddenly took my hand. I thought she was telling me she wanted to go upstairs but when I met her eyes, she pointed to the bar.

Solomon Kane was here.

The sight of Solomon Kane abruptly erased all the amorous desire I was trying to keep under control. Solomon Kane, a tall handsome bastard that captained the Silk Road ship, which that had spent years in the Orient pirating until the East India Company had made life too hard for him and he had struck out for the Caribbean. The last time I'd seen him wasn't anything I cared to remember. I had gotten very jealous of his easy relationship with Cold Eyes, gotten angry when he'd called me 'boy' and thrown my rum in his face. This had lead to him beating me to a pulp and leaving me on the beach of Nassau to walk off to fuck Cold Eyes. This had helped me make the choice to leave the Defiance and strike out on my own to put myself on equal ground with Cold Eyes. It had all worked out in the end but I was not excited to see Solomon Kane again. He was gone from Nassau when Cold Eyes and I had returned to sell my father's goods for coin. I had asked Tomwise to quietly check to see if/when Solomon Kane would be back in Nassau. Nobody could give a straight answer. I was hoping he had sailed into a hurricane. Or wound up captured and hung by the British or the Spanish. But here he was.

"Behave," Cold Eyes said to me.

I grit my teeth. I hotly resented the fact that she was cautioning me against Solomon Kane. But I kept it to myself.

Solomon Kane noticed us. Cold Eyes was hard to miss, even in a tavern full of whores who were basically coming out of their dresses. The tall captain walked over. "Well look at this! All I've been hearing about for weeks is the successes of the Death's Hand and the Defiance," he said as he sat down without being invited. "Now the Defiance's success I can understand. But who was the Death's Hand? Then I ask some more. The stories they tell! A fearsome grey ship with sails bearing the grip of death. A ship that's never lost a fight. A ship that's taken other ships without taking a shot or losing a man! A ship that's grown in legend from Nassau to Tortuga! From Port Royal to Havana to New Orleans! Imagine my shock when I ask who captains such a ship and it's none other than Cap'n Cold Eyes ship's boy!"

"Do not call-" I began angrily.

"Oh ease up Cap'n Sanfino!" said Solomon laughing. "Learn to take a jest."

"That's what I said," muttered McGaragle.

"Solomon," said Cold Eyes. "I would appreciate it if you didn't call my man a boy. I assure you, he's not."

Solomon gaped. He was without a quick response for the first time since I had met him. So I gave him the same self-sure smile he always gave everyone else and I openly took Cold Eyes hand. She did not pull it away. Lawrence rolled his eyes. Tomwise and Patrick both snickered.

"Well look at that," said Solomon recovering his wits. "Your reputation must indeed be true if you've claimed the ultimate treasure. I salute you Cap'n Sanfino."

I wanted to rub his nose in it but I knew that would make me look petty. "What can we do for you, Captain Kane?" I asked, not using the informal 'Cap'n'.

Solomon drank from his tankard, then looked pointedly at everyone else at the table. I could guess what he wanted. To dismiss everyone else and talk to me and her alone. I shook my head. "Our crews are trustworthy. They stay."