My arrow wound was near healed, but that was about the only silver lining I had left.
My farcical trial was to be held in the northern shipyards of Kark. Reed and his crew paraded me through the streets to the elf they answered to. It was all so overembellished. Tempest liked to pretend himself a proper landlubber in business like this. A proper fool, more like, I thought.
"Do you tremble te know ye'll die today, lass?" Reed taunted me.
I spat in his face. "Death is after us all," I said. "But I doubt 'e's got me today."
"Then yer a fool. Ye need only look around to know ye've come 'ere to die."
I took a glance around. Sights like this one were not so uncommon in Kark, but people still gave a second glance. There were too many I recognized, like Nancy the wench, or Deon the brothel owner, or two whores of opposite sex I'd bedded many a time. They were all watching me, but there was no waiver or cowardice they could've caught. Whenever death came for me, I would surely greet him with a smiling face.
"And 'ere I thought Tempest wouldn't want such a crowd. Yer right, I was surely a fool te think so."
"The world must know how much safer the seas will become."
"Ye found me because ye were stealing from poor fishermen. Strange thing to call safe."
"Ye'll shut yer mouth, wench."
I laughed, and flinched away as he slapped me. The blow only made it funnier. I might've fought back but for my tied hands. "I thought Tempest wanted me te look good fer the execution."
"Speak in silence."
The crowd following us continued to grow as we traversed the streets of Kark. I saw even more familiar faces, some I hardly cared for, and others who brought back forgotten memories. It was strange how many people seemed to care, and how few of them were sailors. Sailors were the ones who should care the most, yet there were more whores here than anything else.
"Where are ye taking her?" someone yelled.
"Is she te die? Let me have her again before ye kill her!"
"And me!"
"And I!"
"Me too!"
"How flattering," Reed glared at me.
I smirked. "Envious?"
"No man envies the whore," he said. "And ye bed women as well..."
"Aye, what of it? Gives me twice more options than you."
"Gives ye twice my sins be what it does," Reed said. "The world will be better rid o' ye."
"I been told so before, yet here I march."
"Ye've not much longer te march."
"I'd be less sure 'f I were you. Many a ship be survived by the cap'n that is me."
"This ain't no shipwreck."
"And yet..." I shrugged. "I think I've a fair chance."
"Ye can spend yer final moments in that fantasy if ye wish, it's naught to me."
I laughed and let his words hang in the air as we approached the northern shipyards. This was to be my grave until I dug my way out. I've had many graves, privateer, I thought. None seem able to keep me buried long.
The place of my execution should've been drab and dirty, but Tempest had fixed that. His colors and sigils were hung on lines strung between the half-constructed ships. I saw torn Jolly Rogers too, and even a few flags bearing my personal design, all ripped almost beyond recognition, and well displayed. At the end of the dock, where they were marching me, I saw my murder: two massive rocks and a pile of thick rope. I nearly laughed, for it was a foolish and fruitless notion to drown me. My lips only stayed shut to be sure the fools stayed fools.
Tempest himself stood by those rocks, a woman at both his sides. All three were better dressed than I'd ever been. The rest of Tempest's crew wore similar attire, greatly contrasting the beggar's garb, worn jackets, and whore's half-dress of most of the gathering crowd. I myself wore little more than a prisoner's shift and mine own scars, but the presence of Tempest's worst enemy was well felt.
"Captain Ahryn," Tempest announced formally when I reached him. He made a show of his proper speech, as if it lifted him above me. "Welcome to the day of your death."
"I thank ye for it," I said. "There'd be no occasion 'f it weren't fer you."
"You jest," Tempest noted. "Die laughing."
"Gladly." The elf was near half a head taller than me, but that hardly made him any more intimidating. He had an elf's pointed ears, perfectly fair skin, and long brown hair. He was better dressed than I too. My own hair was patchy and orange, as was my skin, and I only had a prisoner's shift to cover it. By all rights, he looked to be the better man, but we both knew which of us had drawn the crowd.
"Before us stands Captain Ahryn. The title is only a courtesy, though, as her ship was sunk months ago by my own. Now she stands accused of the grievous crime of piracy, and every criminal act associated with it," Tempest began.
"By whose laws do ye sentence me?" I interrupted. "Piracy ain't a crime on Kark by Lord Buck's rulings."
"I sentence you by the laws of the sea, and for the longevity of those who sail it," Tempest said. "No ship's captain should be left roaming free to rob and kill whoever he likes. This is the natural law of things."
"So it be yer own made up laws then," I shot back. "Ye cannot put order upon nature, it thrives on chaos. The world be built of chaos."
"And yet, order is what keeps the sun from rising in the west and setting in the east," Tempest said. "Perhaps you'd know that if you tried it sometime. I've no care for debating law with a pirate now. I trust you know your crimes?"
"Better than I'd know yer own wife if ye left us alone together long enough. She does look in desperate need of a partner who knows how te satisfy a woman."
"Speak any longer and you'll die tongueless," Tempest bristled. "My wife is not so deviant as to care for a woman's company. Especially not one of your ilk."
"I should test that myself," I glanced at the two women standing with Tempest. Both were elves, and both were pretty enough for me. "Which is she?"
One woman started to speak softly. "I-"
"Enough!" Tempest shouted. "She wants naught of you. Now come meet the manner of your death." He beckoned me towards the rocks. "Poetic, isn't it?"
"How so?"
"Announce your guilt and you shall learn."
"Gladly," I turned towards the audience. "Aye, I be a pirate. Aye, I've killed people, lots who didn't deserve it. Aye, I've robbed entire galleons blind fer the fun o' it. Aye, I slew Tempest's sister. 'Twere a fair fight, but she died all the same. I feel no more guilt fer her than fer all the rest. These be no secrets, though. Ye needed no confession like ye needed no crime. May I speak plainly, Cap'n Tempest?"
"Only for a short time."
"I think ye've only got me here because of how ye despise me. All these other reasons be nothing more than reasons. I think the idea of a woman with 'er own power and no magical blood irks ye so. Ye've only got me here because I ain't what ye imagine yer perfect world te look like. There be no room fer ugly pirate-whores on yer oceans. Tell it true."
"Ahryn, I name you a liar. Order of law is-"
"It be yer little excuse te kill who ye want. Don't pretend yer any better than me. We're the same, jus' one's free. Now kill me plainly or leave me be. There's no more need for show."
Silence hung in the air for a moment afore Tempest broke it. "Are you done inventing truths?"
"I invented nothing, but aye. I'm done."
"Then let me show you how you'll die."
"Gladly."
"Guilty as you are, I sentence you to death by drowning. These stones will keep you beneath the waves until all the breath is drained from you. Now I know what you are, make no mistake, but that won't save you."
"What, ye got a witch er somethin'?" I asked. "And 'ere I was thinkin' ye-"
"Magic is as much a sin as anything you've done," Tempest said. "I'm no evil man to use it."
I only had to glance at the two women who stood with us to know he was lying. One of them was his wife, but the other... She held herself like a woman with magic. Perhaps I would die today.
I turned my gaze towards the audience, for surely I couldn't be the only one who saw it. Most of the faces were none the wiser. Some looked suspicious, but most hardly blinked at the lies Tempest had given voice to. The fools had gathered for my execution, and they expected little less.
There were a few faces who knew me better than that, though. Nancy the innkeep; the old retired pirate Clayton, who I'd sailed under once; Maegan, Lord Buck's paramour with whom I'd slept more than once; and... It couldn't be him. There was a face I hadn't seen in many a month, and it did not speak well for the fate of his niece that he was here. Elsewise it was good to see him.
Tempest followed my gaze. "They are all here to watch you die," he told me. "It's a pity you've lost the privilege of a cleaner death. Drowning seems so cruel."
"I imagine it is," I agreed.
Tempest then summoned up four of his men to tie me up. I held my arms as far from me as I could, but that only made it more uncomfortable. The rope was strong and rough, and it dug into my skin as they pulled it tight. I bled in more than one place, but no pain showed on my face, only defiance.
"Have you any final remarks, Captain Ahryn?" Tempest asked as they pulled the last knots tight. "Last words from the dead?"
"Aye. Just three fer you."
"Pray tell."
I leaned close to him and spat the words. "Do. Yer. Worst."
"At your behest, I shall." Tempest wiped the spit from his face. "Step to the sea."
His men pushed the two weighty rocks as I stepped as close to the water as I dared. The next step would be a plunge, and I dreaded it. Must this be the end of Captain Ahryn? I asked myself. I was out of plans and improvisations that might save me. If I could kill the witch, I might live, but these ropes kept me dead. I took a last look over my shoulder...
"As piracy is a sin, and all sinners must face judgment..." Tempest began his address to my execution. He was grossly proper. I, meanwhile, met the eyes of an old friend and lover in the audience. He saw me see him, and I could only hope he saw me mouth kill and gesture towards the witch as much as I could.
"...and as a just man who desires to keep his oceans safe for all those who may sail it," Tempest was saying, "it falls upon me to do this. Captain Ahryn, most recently of the Woman Scorned, has been tried and found guilty of piracy and many other sins, and her sentence is death by drowning."
There was a sudden yell behind me as I felt Tempest's sword pushing against my back. "Ye'll want te guard yer witch," I told him. "Unless she still don't exist."
Tempest growled and the point of his blade left my back. I glanced back to see three dead pirates, and Prince Ouran of Merian fighting a forth with a bloody cutlass. It was a wonder what highborn training could do for a man's fighting skill. He was making his way towards the witch, all while men pushed the rocks I was tied to towards the water, and Tempest shouted frantic orders.
"Kill him! He's just one man!"
I knew Ouran well enough to know that it was not in his nature to die. I watched over my shoulder as he killed two more men and faced another. He was so close to the witch, it was almost thrilling to watch.
Then my world suddenly flipped, and I was pulled away into the ocean, tied to two heavy rocks. "Dammit!" was all I had time to yell, and then my world was engulfed into darkness. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't shift, and I could hardly even tell which way was up. Drowning was as cruel as Tempest had promised.
The world was fading already when I saw a body crash into the ocean above me, and somebody else's blood mixed with the saltwater that buried me.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm writing fast again, wow. Short chapter, but filled with Captain Ahryn, one of my favorite characters to write. She's very fun for me. Great news, she'll be in the next chapter too, which should be out somewhat shortly if I keep at this rate. Don't forget to vote, comment, and share if you all liked the story. Thanks everyone for reading!