King Ethelred IV

He’d made a mistake. King Ethelred IV admitted that now. His court had told him as much the week before when the discovery had been made. The whole mountain had gone missing. How was that even possible? The merchants with whom he had traded mining rights hadn’t seemed so numerous as to need to take the whole thing. But then the deal had been pretty good: magic transfer of supplies from the plains below to the mountain fastness, in exchange for one unremarkable peak within the boundaries of the kingdom. Now, of course, Mt Ethelred II was very remarkable, in that it was a rather large hole. He’d lost a great deal of honor in the past few days, enough that he might even have to concede to a parliament. He decided to remind them of how awful restocking the keep had been. Yes, tomorrow, the court would lead a train of wagons up to the keep. And no one would be allowed to use the magic artifact.

He sighed, and said to the hall full of nobles, “I agree, the artifact was certainly not a good exchange. As such, we will not be using it for this summer’s journey to the Summer Keep. Therefore, we must depart at the earliest date, in order to arrive on time for the summer festival.”

From the various knights, lords and ladies, and courtiers there was stunned silence. At last, after several tense moments of silence, the Chancellor, Sir Lenard asked, “And when is it that we shall depart?”

“Tomorrow, shortly after breaking our fast, and we shall all travel together.”

“Surely, m’Lord, the ladies should precede the royal party via magic to prepare the keep for your arrival?” the Chancellor continued.

“Nay, Chancellor, for if we are to no longer use this contrivance then why pray tell should we continue to use it?”

A Ship Cursed Part 7

‘Bon,’ he glanced around once more, ‘I must be careful, because what happened to the rest of the crew, c’est horrible.’ He took a draught from his fresh bottle. Then he continued, ‘after the first week of fishing, there was a week or two where we did not catch anything. At the end of this time, the cabin boy, he died.’ He leaned close to me, and whispered, ‘the captain, he was going to bury him at sea, but someone, I think it was the cook, he said “oi, lets eat the bugger.” He was from England. At this, the captain, with some others, argued with the cook and his group.’ He downed half the bottle, and barely able to stay in his chair he pressed on, ‘there was a terrible fight, many on both sides died, but the cook did not. When it was all done, there were more survivors on the cook’s side. The captain was dead. So, the cook won. When we had eaten our fill of the dead, we elected the cook as captain. He selected who would be the next meal. But, I worked in the galley, so I was never picked. At the end, I kill the cook, and the next day, the wind, it started again. But I remember no more.’ Pierre stumbled off, muttering something about le pissoir. I waited patiently, there was only one thing left to ask.

When Pierre returned, I asked, ‘what happened to Sam, the young deckhand?’

‘Ah oui, La Puse, I liked him very much.’ Pierre licked his lips.

A Ship Cursed Part 6

I knew he was reticent for a reason. Tortuga has no law, so what had happened must be something which would cause him to be cast out; a mean feat among those who lived, debauched, and killed on this island. ‘La Joya Del Sol, it was a beautiful ship wasn’t it?’

He gave me a sideways glance and said, ‘Oui. Beautiful, seductive, vite… euuh, she was very fast, but all this hid a coeur noir.’

I leaned closer, ‘a… black heart?’ I guessed, ‘How so?’

‘This ship, she was cursed. We were two weeks into our journey from Tortuga, to raid Barranquilla, when the wind ran out. The food was enough for the trip there. Then after the raid, we would take what food we needed. But we never made it.’ As he said this, he waved the barkeep over and demanded another bottle of wine. ‘After two weeks, the food, it ran out.’

‘But your ship, you said it was becalmed for four months.’

At this, he glanced around nervously, ‘oui, for a week we fished. We caught a few, and ate them, but it was not enough. We were always still hungry.’ He glanced over his shoulders, clearly uncomfortable. Finally I was going to find out what had happened on the ship, and why he had refused to talk to anyone.

‘Personne. You can tell no one. Not a soul.’ he said. He looked at me intently. He had death in his eyes—his own—he was living only because his body demanded him to.

I nodded.

A Ship Cursed Part 5

‘My name is Pierre,’ he said with the slur of a man who’d been down on his luck and at the bottom of bottles for weeks. He was in his mid-twenties, but it was difficult to tell—the stubble, and dark bags under his eyes, and the skin of a seaman made him look old. This man had aged fast in the last few months, faster than a eggs left in the sun.

‘I have a… story, but you’ll not hear it.’ He struggled with the words, and his breath reeking of stale red wine, his teeth dark with it. Slowly, he grinned. His grin was that of one troubled by his past deeds and conflicts.

‘Good,’ I said, ‘I’d really rather not hear a frog speak.’ I motioned to the barkeep for another beer.

He mumbled something, then, ‘I am not a grenouille; because, if I was, I would not have stayed on that maudite ship for four months of hell. I would have swum home, jusqu’à la France.’

I leaned forward, so as to hear him speak. My French is very limited, but I have learned to understand a bit, if I catch it right. I took a long pull on my beer before I said, ‘go on,’ trying to sound encouraging.

‘There was no wind: it stopped, for a whole four months,’

‘Four months?’ I could hardly believe it, it took a conscious effort to stop gawking, ‘but how did you survive?’

‘Non, I will not tell you,’ he said. His hands ran over the rough grain of the bar, until they found his bottle. It was half empty as it went to his lips. When he put it down, there was none left.