The Pirate's Legacy: New Beginnings

Chapter 31: Tidal Treasures

The Jolly Roger was merely a speck on the gloomy horizon when Em was tied to the Reaper's main mast with thick coils of hand-made hemp rope. Dirty and cragged faces—some were new but others she remembered vaguely during her time as a slave—leered at her while she stood rigidly as the center of their contemptible mirth. The sky above this damnable crew conveyed her terror and hatred for these scum of their kind; bolts of lightning streaked through the heavy clouds but not a drop of rain fell. The wind blew a haunting and chilling song, but the excitement of the pirates swelled to a crescendo that finally reached its peak when the devil incarnate made his way down from the helm. His crew fell silence and parted as he limped up to the girl, whose fear climbed with each deliberately slow footstep.

He was still the same, and yet his physical appearance wasn't. His last encounter with the Pirate King had cost him greatly. Pontius's face was an appalling sight to conceive, much less see in the flesh. Em couldn't recall how the right side became horridly disfigured. Chunks of meat in his cheek were missing, leaving an effect of having been blown off. Despite his heightened hideousness, her stomach contorted painfully in a way that had nothing to do with it. This man was he who had continued to haunt her dreams even when she believed he was dead.

"H-How?" she managed to choke out when he halted in front of her. She wanted to retch from the putrid odor of death that pervaded from him.

Pontius's lips curled to reveal his rotting teeth as a murmur passed over the members of his old crew. "Funny thing 'bout Fate. She be as capricious as the sea goddess Herself," he said in a low growl. " 'Twas not easy to find where Dread Robin took ye. Me and me crew let the Faethm's currents drift us to Politicka. 'Twas on'y by accident me men saw ye walkin' down the empty pier wit Dread Robin I learned ye were in Donbrakes."

Em recalled the night of the first time she'd kissed Roger, how on the way back to the inn she had felt nervous about the long shadows which the buildings had cast, as if someone had been hidden in them, watching her. There was also the second black spot she'd received, tacked on the back of the door by a dagger with a black hilt. She'd thought both instances were Cicero's doing.

From inside his grimy coat, Pontius took out a scroll. He unrolled it and thrust it under Em's nose. Her eyes widened as an inked likeness of herself stared back at her from the parchment. It was a bounty poster, written in the Universal Language that spelled out the title Princessca followed by her name, how old she was, what color her eyes were, and any other feature that identified her for anyone willing to capture and return her to Tarym for a hefty sum of gold that would have made it hard for anyone to resist. At the bottom of the poster was one elegant signature: Annalyna Regina, Tarymaia.

Bitter bile rushed up Em's throat. She pressed her lips together and forced it back down. Water filled her eyes but she blinked it away. Who knows how many more wanted posters were out there? Who knew what other pirate or bounty hunter was at sea or slinking through every street of every town looking for her? Then a more pressing worry came to her: What if Roger happened upon one such poster?

"Doesn't say if yer wanted alive or dead, Princess." His smirk alone sent ominous chills down her spine. The poster disappeared inside his coat. "Not on'y do I get the satisfaction o' killin' ye wit me bare hands and gettin' a luvly reward for yer corpse, but I also get the pleasure of stealin' from Dread Robin too." Pontius held out his only gloved hand palm up. A dirt-smudged hand from the circle of men nearest her appeared and dropped the Mermaid's Tear in the captain's waiting hand.

Em gaped at the jewel, shocked and aghast.

Pontius raised the Mermaid's Tear higher so that all eyes could look upon the images that flashed across its clear surface. He looked directly into Em's face, deeply satisfied by her outrage. "Thought I'd need a bargainin' chip should Dread Robin come after me."