The Pirate's Legacy: New Horizons

Chapter 22: A Black Death (Part 2)

The queen of Tarym woke up with her hands bound together on her lap. A thicker coil of rope tied her upper body to a high-backed armchair. Her chest hurt—the result of falling face-down on the yardarm. Every breath she took brought on stabbing pain. Her legs burned as if they were on fire, but the throbbing in her ankle, which would send waves of electricity up the rest of the limb, drew her attention through the fog of agony pounding in her head. Em remembered how she had landed on the main deck after jumping off the lower yardarm. Her ankle must have sprained, but the adrenaline of the moment had suppressed the pain up until now. A wave of nausea washed over Em as she inhaled again. The smell of incense was heavy in the air. She couldn't stand it in her wretched state. Em raised her head and immediately noticed Black Death Mewbaran standing before her, poring over a large map on the other side of his writing desk. An incense lamp burned on the upper corner of his desk. Its pale light played with the shadows on the oiled skin and brightened his yellow eyes into an almost unnatural glow. Black Death and Em were in his captain's quarters. Beyond him, where the windows lay, the sky was a pearly grey sheen of coming dawn.

Em shut her eyes tightly. No, it had not been a dream. She really had been taken captive. That meant...she swallowed hard, ignoring the discomfort in her throat by turning her head to the side. That meant Roger had gone down after being shot by Black Death. Em had seen him try to dodge the bullet, but even if it had missed his heart, a blasted jugular in the neck or a punctured lung was enough to—

No, she hissed mentally. Roger must have survived.

Em opened her bloodshot eyes. It took her a long moment and several blinks to realize that what she stared at was Calypso's trident. It was propped up against the side of the desk. The shock detonated like a bomb in her stomach. A gasp of horror escaped Em's cracked lips.

"You've woken after all."

Tearing her eyes away from the trident, Em watched as Black Death Mewbaran straightened up. He circumvented the desk with careful movements, trying not to wince. Em saw now the thick bandages wrapped around his chest. A bright red spot stained one side near where his heart should be. He must have taken a bullet to the chest. Once Black Death stood in front of his prisoner, he leaned against his desk and crossed his bulging muscular arms over his chest. Though he appeared cool and collected, Black Death's chest rose and fell heavily. His nostrils flared, and the breath passed laboriously through his thick lips. The sheen of his black skin was not just from oil. Sweat had broken out all over his body just from the mere effort of walking around the writing desk.

Em narrowed her dark brown eyes as she locked them onto the yellowed pair. "Why have you taken me?"

In his slow voice, Black Death said, "It is financially advantageous to have the queen of Tarym in my possession."

So he meant to ransom her. The council would be delighted to hear that, Em couldn't help thinking wryly. "How did you know I was abroad?"

"Your announcement during the autumn equinox was very public, Your Highness. It was child's play to capture one of your higher ranking naval ships and make the general tell me the time you should arrive in Politicka to speak to those disgusting roaches."

Child's play. That had been the name of Captain Kidd's ship. The reminder of the fallen pirate captain sent Em's teeth grinding. Anger uncoiled slowly in her chest. "That doesn't explain how you knew I was on—"

Black Death dismissed the rest of her question with a small toss of his head. "I heard with the winds that Dread Robin had gone to Tarym weeks before the autumn equinox," he said. Contempt and boredom colored his tone. "He left at the same time you were supposed to have left for the peninsula."