CHAPTER SIX: THE PIRATE.
Mist swirls. Out of the mist a blue candle with a peacock feather on floats on the water. The mist clears further to reveal the candle gradually travelling towards a tree sparkling with golden lights. Under the tree sits a delicate childlike creature wrinkled by age with golden wings. She speaks, “The one you seek is held by a masked sorceress. But be observant on your journey, there you will find your future, not at your destination.” Mist swirls around the figure and she fades.
Violet is awakened by a banging on her door, it is light. She stumbles out of bed and goes to the door. Aliya is there with an expectant look on her face.
“So.”
“So what.”
“So, what did you dream about?”
“Can I make some breakfast first I’m starving?”
Violet turns and puts the kettle on and gets some bread out of the bread bin.
“So, you had a dream, yes, do you know who’s got him?”
“Yes, I had another creepy dream.” She spreads jam on the bread and sets two cups on the table. “I saw the sprite we saw last night again, but she was talking to the woman with the peacock hat, so was the message for her or for me?”
“It doesn’t matter. What did she say?”
Violet pours water into a teapot and sets it on the table. “She said a masked sorceress had him?”
“A masked sorceress.” Aliya repeats with a thoughtful look on her face. “Interesting.”
“Do you know who she was talking about?” Violet pours the tea into the cups.
“Yes.”
“Well, who is she, where can we find her?”
“There was a very powerful sorceress, whose power lay in enchanted masks. A bit power mad really.”
“Was.”
“Yes, was, she was vanquished a little while ago and I’d certainly not heard of her since.”
“Well perhaps she wasn’t vanquished after all. I mean if it wasn’t long ago, she could have just gone into hiding for a couple of years on a beach or something.”
“Hmm, when I say a little while ago, it was actually about one hundred and twenty years ago, so quite a while in your reckoning.”
“In my reckoning. But isn’t a hundred and twenty years quite a while in your reckoning too.”
“Just a figure of speech.”
“You said you’d never heard of her since.”
“Like I said just a figure of speech,” said Aliya more briskly. “Anyway if the Sorceress is back and has Ayden, that would explain why we couldn’t locate him with my spell. She would probably go back to her stronghold. Which is going to be interesting to get to.”
“Where is her stronghold?”
“I don’t know, and I won’t be able to find it using my skills that’s for sure, she’s too powerful to let someone find it in my way.”
“So how are we going to find it?”
“We need a guide. One with transport. Because the Sorceress’s tower is not on any map you have. It’s not like just going on a journey you need to get across to the other world hidden from humans. It is hidden with strong and old magics it is not somewhere you can get by accident or lightly.”
“You know someone?”
“I do. We need someone with transport who is not opposed to bending a few rules.” Aliya said conspiratorially. “In fact we need a pirate.”
“A pirate.” Said Violet suspiciously.
“Yes, a pirate.”
“And you know a pirate who’ll take us to the sorceress’s tower?” said Violet slightly unbelievingly. “The only pirate I know is that corny guy who does the tourist boat trips out to sea and always has some flirty comment every time I go past, with that over the top pirate accent.” Violet shakes her head.
“Oh so you know him too then.”
Violet is speechless, after a moment she gasps. “You are kidding me right.”
“No, we need a pirate and he is one.”
“But he’s just for tourists, it’s all a show, his boat is just some fishing boat he’s tarted up and put a jolly roger on. He’s a joke, he’s got no magic powers.”
“You think not do you. The last person you’d suspect of being other worldly or of possessing the way to get to another world.”
“Well yes, frankly,” she says indignantly.
“And there is no magic in that is there,” she states triumphantly. “Do you expect everyone who has magic or knowledge of another world and other creatures to advertise, to look all mysterious and superior? How long do you think they would last against the orcs, or how long do you think they would keep their secrets? Anyone who does look all mysterious and weird, you can guarantee they’re doing it just for effect to look interesting and know nothing at all. The secret to keeping hidden, what the secret has always been, why the other world has stayed hidden so long, is in disguise, in a glamour to go un-noticed. It is the art of going unnoticed that has enabled this other world to stay hidden, especially in this age of surveillance of everywhere, everything and everybody. Have you any idea how difficult it is do anything now without identification papers?”
“Okay you’ve made your point. The corny pirate it is.”
“Before you just had to worry about being burned alive,” muttered Aliya. “Now you have to worry about bits of paper.”
Violet was setting off to go and rescue a prince from a sorceress who was holding him in a tower. She was going to get to the tower with the help of a pirate on a pirate ship. She wondered what to wear. Despite the jumble of clothes in her wardrobe and strewn about her bedroom nothing seemed right. She thought about all the fantasy books and films she’d seen and read, but they didn’t offer much help as it was usually the prince rescuing the girl and she was usually clad in some sort of long floaty dress with impractical sleeves, she did have something similar in her wardrobe, but she didn’t think it would be very warm on a pirate ship. She settled on jeans – they were suitable for most occasions unless she was going somewhere posh and she didn’t think she would be somehow, plus the pirate hopefully wouldn’t find something flirty to say about them. She settled on her warm fleece to go on the top.
As she finished getting dressed she glanced up at the peacock feather mask on the wall. A sorceress who has enchanted masks, she thought, taking it off the wall. She wondered if it had any powers, she turned it over looking at it from every angle, she’d bought it from an old junk shop a while ago, it had almost jumped out at her and said buy it, she had thought it so beautiful she just couldn’t leave it behind. She’d bought it there and then, even though she didn’t really have the money that week and she’d had to dig at the back of her cupboards at mealtime for the rest of the week. When she’d gone back to the junk shop a few weeks later to look for some more treasures, she’d found it closed down, just an old dusty empty shop. But it didn’t look magical or mysterious, just a normal, if very beautiful, mask. What had Aliya said about unnoticed being the best disguise, if this was an enchanted mask, it would look normal wouldn’t it. If it did look all mysterious and weird it probably meant it was normal. She was just being fanciful. She placed it over her face and looked in the mirror, she felt herself transformed, hidden from the world, for a moment she almost had an impression of purple eyes in the mask and a laugh. But it was just her imagination, fanciful. On impulse she plucked one of the peacock feathers from her mask and placed it in her pocket, hopefully it would bring her luck.
She picked up a small backpack and again wondered what on earth to put in it. She put in a bottle of water, some food, some fresh wipes and a small towel. She felt she should have some tools, like lock picks or weapons or bottles of magic potions. But when she asked Aliya if she had any bottles of magic potion to give her to take with her she told her not to be so silly. What on earth did you take on a (I suppose it would have to be a quest of sorts) really. She chucked in a first aid kit as well just in case.
Aliya and Violet headed for the harbour, Violet with a feeling of unease, with lots of adrenalin pumpin
g around her system with nothing to do. They walked through the old twisting streets and down to the old harbour. It was a small harbour, not suited to big commercial ships or expensive yachts. It had two stone jetties sticking out into the sea creating a sheltered bay from the sea for the collection of fishing boats and some small pleasure boats that were home there. One of the jetties had a tall thin lighthouse on the end, and you could walk along them to be blown about by the salty sea breeze and see the rough grey waves pounding the sides of the immovable jetty. The edges of the harbour were lined with small tourist shops, restaurants, cafes and ice cream and fish and chip shops, all vying with each other with brightly painted signs. The smell of the sea mixed with the smell of vinegar and frying fish. The sounds of the screeching gulls mixed with the sound of arcade beeps and tourist chatter. The sun was still shining today, if weakly, and a good breeze was blowing, Violet looked out to the sea past the harbour walls and seeing the white-topped waves, took a deep breathe. She hoped she wouldn’t get sea sick, she didn’t even know how long they would be sailing for, come to that, she didn’t even know for sure if they would be sailing at all, the tower could be anywhere really. The harbour was home to a number of tourist sailing boats, all with different gimmicks, some going out to sea, some up the river. These sailing boats were always very popular with the tourists. The town was set on a beautiful piece of the coast and was also set in some beautiful countryside that the river wound lazily through. It was funny the number of years she’d lived in the town and she’d never been on any of the boat rides, despite the persistence of the boat owners banter to get passengers. She had been on a riverboat trip before but when she was on holiday in a completely different town, she’d really enjoyed it, it was so relaxing and calm, and she’d resolved to go on one when she got back home and never had. She supposed residents of a town never do the things that tourists do.
One of these boats was the one that they were heading for. This one ‘The Jolly Roger’ was an average size boat with a mast and sails, although it did also have an engine, and it was decked out with gaudily painted ornate railings and cannons on the deck as well as the obligatory Jolly Roger flag flying from the flagpole. It all looked a bit 1950’s Hollywood and a bit tacky, but it was a popular trip due to the captain of the boat. He was a tall broad man with the sort of rugged good looks which made his exact age uncertain, he could have been anywhere between his early thirties to late forties, it was very difficult to tell. But one thing he did certainly have was plenty of charm, buckets full of it infact, this was the key to his success, charming the passing punters into paying passengers. He was the picture book image of a pirate from his tri-corner hat on top of his long dark hair, to his stubble and eye patch, to his buccaneers cutlass and pistol, his baggy white shirt, right down to his buckled black leather boots. Every inch of this picture book pirate was infused with pirate swagger, every phase out of his mouth, as he recruited passengers on to his pirate voyage, straight out of ‘Treasure Island’. When Violet had read ‘Treasure Island’ all of the pirates had spoken and looked like him. She presumed when he finished his day’s work he dressed and spoke normally, but she had never seen him about the town, looking normal for want of a better world and she had never heard a single slip in his cadgoling accent. Violet dreaded to think that this was perhaps because the act was the real thing and he was actually like this all of the time. He was a genuine pirate. The thought of someone acting and speaking like a pirate twenty-four seven was quite scary. But also came the thought that she needed a pirate to rescue Ayden, and a pirate would seem a good ally. Violet kept pushing to the back of her mind the persistent little voice that kept asking the really awkward questions about what they was going to do when they got to the tower. But she was a great believer in crossing that bridge when she got to them. She had faith that something would turn up surely.
They approached the harbour side where ‘The Jolly Roger’ moored awaiting passengers, it was still early in the morning so not many tourists were about and the boat had no passengers as such. ‘The Jolly Roger’ was moored at its landing stage, bobbing quietly in the water, its skull and cross bone flag flapping in the wind above it. One of the deck hands, dressing in the obligatory striped trousers, baggy shirt, waistcoat and bandana was sweeping the deck, Violet noticed he had a wooden peg leg, she wondered if he’d really lost his leg or if it was just hidden in his baggy trousers. Another deck hand was in the rigging doing something nautical with the sails, he was dressed similarly to the one below in stripped trousers and bandana, but she noticed he had a long scar down his cheek and actually had a hook in place of his left hand, she’d noticed the hook hand with fascination the first time she’d seen it, but had presumed as she supposed most people did that it was just a fake one to go with the part. But if that was so, why was he still wearing it while at the top of the boats rigging, and using it pretty confidently too. Since her little revelations that the world was not the place she had thought it she was seeing everything in a different light, questioning everything that she saw.
Aliya called down to the deck hand on the deck, if Captain Brandon was aboard. The peg-legged pirate looked up at her but before he could speak the door to the little cabin opened and the Captain himself stood in the doorway.
“Did I hear a fair voice calling my name?” the Captain said in his best pirate-speak and swept the tri-cornered hat from his head with a flourish and bowed to them. “Which of you two beautiful ladies did call my name?”
“I believe you owe me a favour, Captain, and I have come to collect.”
“I knew you were not a lady to forget a debt and I’ll warrant you be driving a hard bargain too,” he said with a smile. “But will you not introduce me to your fair friend before we talk business?”
“This is Violet,” said Aliya briskly.
The Captain again doffed his hat and taking her hand firmly in one of his, kissed it lightly, looking up at her with a twinkle in his one remaining brown eye and a suggestive smile on his lips. “Charmed to make your acquaintance, Violet. Captain Brandon be at your service.”
“That’s good,” said Aliya impatiently. “Because it’s partly on her behalf that I need the favour.”
“Would you ladies care to come into my cabin to discuss terms?” Not letting go of Violet’s hand he helped her aboard, then put out his hand for Aliya, who looked at it in a slightly affronted manner and stepped on to the deck without its help. Captain Brandon opened his cabin door with a flourish and held it open for them both to enter before him.
The cabin was compact and low ceilinged as would be expected on a boat, but it was furnished beautifully. Violet felt like she’d stepped back in time. The walls were beautifully panelled with dark wood. There was a bed built into one wall, hung with brocade curtains. A solid wooden desk stood in the centre of the room with charts and brass instruments on it. The Captain invited them to sit down on the padded bench which stood next to it.
“Would you care for a tot of rum ladies?”
“Certainly would,” replied Aliya.
Captain Brandon poured rum into three silver cups and set them down. Aliya and the Captain knocked there’s back with relish and Violet didn’t want to seem rude so did the same, even though it was still morning and nowhere near midday yet. She felt the rum burn her throat, and could feel it all the way down to her stomach. She strongly resisted the urge to cough. This was just a bit stronger than any rum she’d had before. But it did give her a nice warm confident feeling inside which she felt in need of.
“Right,” said Aliya in a business like manner. “We are looking for the island of the Sorceress of Masks we want you to take us there.”
“Rrr, you do do you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
“What do you mean no?” replied Aliya indignantly. “You owe me a big favour, or have you forgotten, do I need to remind you.”
“That won’t be necessary,” replied the Captain with a wince.
br /> “Well?”
“I owe you a favour to be sure. It be a dark voyage that you ask me to go on, there be many perils and risks on the way.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“Why do you need to be going there?”
“That’s none of your business, will you take us.”
“I will sail to the island,” he replied cautiously. “But I be not taking you, my harpy. Only the pretty fair-haired one.” He smiled at Violet and glancing back at Aliya said. “Do that satisfy you?”
“Ohh,” Aliya shouted in frustration. “Of all the pig-headed men. Why not both of us?”
“I don’t be wanting the likes of you on my ship, not after the last time. I get the impression that this be her journey and not yours, am I right?”
“Yes, you are, she is the one seeking someone. Very well, if that is the only way.”
“It be.”
“I’m sorry Violet,” she said trying to look apologetic despite being really annoyed. “It looks like you’re on your own from here.”
“That’s okay, I appreciate all that you’re done.” She looks at the Captain, who’s smiling at her with too much of a glint in his eye for comfort. The Captain opens the cabin door for them and they pass out in front of him.
“Can I trust him?” Violet whispers to Aliya.
“Oh yes,” she whispers back. “He will see that you get to the island.
“I mean can I trust him alone on this boat?” she whispers more suggestively.
“I’m afraid so,” she replies with a sigh. “He’s a gentleman despite being a pirate.”
The Captain watches Violet accompany Aliya to the gangplank. He says under his breathe, “Thank goodness the Sorceress be banished, or I not go to that island for a trunk of treasure.”
Aliya steps off the pirate boat reluctantly. “It looks like this is your adventure now.”
“Thank you for all your help.”
“No problem. I haven’t forgotten about my favourite crystal. Go get your prince.”
The Captain and his crew prepare to leave the harour, they untie the ropes and with the Captain at the wheel, push off from the dock. Aliya and Violet wave to each other. Before she is out of earshot Aliya says to Violet.
“The Prince chose you for a reason, remember that, and pay attention to those dreams you have, they are more than you think, they’re not just dreams.”
Violet, feeling puzzled which was starting to become a common feeling at the moment, watched Aliya get smaller; she could tell she was still fuming, even from this distance. The boat passed through the harbour walls and hit the sea, it started to pitch slightly, and Violet found she had to hold on to the side until she adjusted to the roll, which she quickly did. She felt sure if she didn’t even for a moment think about feeling sick she would be fine, it was just a case of mind over matter. She watched the harbour getting smaller as they went further out to sea, the light house on the end of the harbour like a tall thin tower, barely noticeable when on land but now completely dominating the harbour now at sea. The town looked like a toy village nestled around the harbour and the mouth of the river. She had never felt so sorry to leave it before, it suddenly felt very much like home and she really wanted to be snuggled up with a good book in her cosy flat. But then she thought about Ayden and the warm feeling returned to her, followed by despair at what had happened to him and what could be happening as she journeyed towards him.
She turned away from the increasingly smaller harbour and looked out to sea in the direction they were travelling. She did not know where they were going, how long it would take, or what she would find when they got there, and certainly no idea what she would do.
Something suddenly struck her, she had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts and so busy concentrating on the last sight of home, that something had happened around her without her even noticing it. The tacky pirate boat she had set sail in, was subtly changed from what she had first seen moored at the harbour side. She looked around her. The boat she was now on was a lot bigger than the one she remembered climbing into, she was sure it had only had one mast, that mast was now towering above her and had been joined by two more. The cannons also seemed to have increased in size and number and these one’s looked real, rather than the wooden replicas she was sure they had been. She was sure they were going a lot faster too since when they’d first left the harbour. The sails above her were all filled with the wind and were driving the (she couldn’t really call it a boat now) ship through the waves swiftly, the wind blowing in her hair. As she leant over the side to look at their progress through the water, spray splashed into her face and the wind whipped back her hair, she laughed for the sheer thrill of racing through the water so swiftly on what she had to admit now was the most magnificent ship she’d ever seen. She’d not seen its like except in old models and books of sailing ships from long ago before the invention of steam. She looked up at the Captain, standing proudly at the wheel of his ship; he winked at her with his one eye and smiled a smile as if he’d played a really good joke on her.
“Welcome aboard the Jolly Roger, my lady,” he boomed down to her and threw his head back in a full laugh. “What do you think of her now then?”
“She’s magnificent,” Violet replied eyes shining. “I had no idea.”
“Of course not,” he laughed again.
They had been sailing for most of the day, Violet not feeling at all sick, at least this is what she told herself, and she knew she could be really enjoying this trip, if she didn’t have the destination to worry about, and also wanting to get to the destination as quickly as possible too. It was getting towards the end of the afternoon, when suddenly the sun went behind a cloud and the sky became dark. The light no longer glinted off the waves and the sea turned into the same dark grey colour as the sky. The wind suddenly dropped too and the sails and flag sagged and hung limply from the masts, looking like lines of washing. The ship started to slow. Gradually Violet noticed a mist which seemed to rise up from the sea and enwrap the ship. She glanced towards the Captain, his devilish smile had vanished from his face and he was looking around him. He shouted an order for one of the men to watch at the front so that they didn’t run into anything, another to check the depth and to another to light the lamps. Violet didn’t like the feel of the mist around her; it had a cloying dampness about it. She moved into the centre of the ship, her foot falls muffled by the fog. The yellow lamps, cast very little light as the mist seemed to get thicker, they looked like small yellow glowing balls in the mist. The Captain shouted his orders, but his voice seemed far away in the mist, she couldn’t even see the top of the mast now. She could hear the footsteps of the crew carrying out the captains orders, but they sounded muffled, sometimes close when no one was there, sometimes far away, when someone was close. She could hear the crew muttering, they were obviously seasoned sailors, and they didn’t seem too happy about this mist either. She knew you got sudden mists at sea, but she got the impression that as the mist was giving her the creeps, they didn’t like it either. She could see some of the crew loosening their cutlasses in their belts, and looking around them suspiciously, she became worried and started to look around her as well. She tried to look into the mist around the ship, but eyes couldn’t pierce anything beyond it. The ship had come to a stop now and Violet couldn’t hear the water lapping against the sides anymore. The Captain and his crew were spread about the ship, all watchful and tense. The ship was alone in this misty bubble, no sound was heard, no breathe of wind felt. The mist continued to swirl around them in the silence. Violet peered into the gloom at one side of the ship, she thought she’d seen a dark blue outline away in the mist, it became clearer and she could see a lady in a dark blue Victorian dress.
“Look,” she shouted and pointed towards where the figure had momentarily been before the mist swirled again and she disappeared. At her shout all the crew quickly turned in that direction, just in time to see a number of strange figures jump ove
r the railing aboard the ship. They were bluey-green in colour and humanoid in shape, but covered with shining scales and with webbed feet and hands. They had huge necks with protruding gills and fins protruding from their heads, they sprayed water over the deck as they landed on it, sharp spears held in their webbed hands. Their bulging grey eyes registered surprise to find all the crew facing them with now drawn cutlasses; they were obviously expecting to be the one’s giving the surprise.
Violet realised with a sickening feeling in her stomach, that she was the one closest to the sea creatures, and also the one who didn’t have a weapon of any sort. The creatures also seemed to have noticed this too. In the evening classes she held, she taught her students to be ready for any situation and to be ready at a moments notice whatever they were confronted with. She took a deep breathe and centred herself, she felt her weight shift between her feet and balanced herself, she felt her mind calm. She raised her hands in front of her, she felt the blood rushing to her muscles, she could feel all the elements of her mind and body becoming one, she was ready for what ever those slimy creatures could bring. The nearest one seeing a small woman stood there unmoving, without a weapon, half-heartedly advanced towards her, with a grimace on his face, waving his spear at her aiming for her chest. He was somewhat surprised to find the spear being kicked up and out of his hands and even more surprised to find the pretty blonde girl taking a step towards him and bringing up her hand under his chin so forcefully that he found himself flung backwards and everything going black as his head hit the deck behind him. The two creatures on either side of him were also taken by surprise and rounded their spears towards the girl who spun past the point of the first elbowing him in the back of the neck, so he also hit the deck. She then gracefully back flipped over the oncoming spear of the other creature and dropped kicked him in the head, so he also hit the deck in starry blackness. She then ran towards the next creature who was now pointing his spear determinedly at this slight advancing figure, he had her in his sights and was just about to thrust at her until she ran up the edge of the ship’s balustrade and sprang over the spear for both feet to land on his head.
The Captain and crew having got over their slight astonishment at having strange watery creatures jump on to their ship and their huge astonishment at their pretty little blonde passenger calmly and systematically kicking their butts, ran to take care of the rest of the creatures with their cutlasses and much shouting and unnecessary brandishing and waving of said cutlasses. They were tough pirates after all and it wasn’t done for a slip of a girl to save them. They could now honourably say that she had assisted them in slaying the creatures. After all the creatures had been dispatched and enthusiastically chucked overboard where they had come from, there was much cheering and slapping on the back. Violet was heartedly slapped on the back, and congratulated, but she got the impression it was more for her sharp eyes in having alerted them to the creatures than for having taken care of half of them single handedly. She could tell they seemed to feel uncomfortable about this, they obviously didn’t feel happy about a woman on board who could look after herself, it wasn’t a pirate thing. The Captain after instructing the men to break out the rum, came up to her and kissed her hand again.
“It would seem, contrary to pirate tradition, that it be lucky for me to have a lady on board. You be a lass of strange Chinese talents, it would seem.”
Because Violet felt pleased and slightly embarrassed by his glimmering eye looking at her with obvious admiration, she gave a girlish giggle and blushed red, and instantly hated herself for doing it. Her annoyance at herself set her off into a fresh round of giggles. Luckily her mortification was saved as a number of long greyish besuckered tentacles came out of the water and flung themselves on the deck, grabbing everyone aboard with a speed and precision that allowed for no action. They were all within moments caught and held around the waist or by a limb by a squishy tentacle of great strength and then as suddenly the tentacles retreated over board pulling their victims into the icy cold water and down into the dark depths of the ocean.