The Pirate's Legacy: New Horizons

Chapter 38: Failure to Remember

The orange afternoon sun washed its light over the beach and the funeral taking place beside the sea. About fifty bare-headed mourners stared at the eleven longboats lined up at the water's edge. Some men had tears in their eyes. Some gazes were as dry as bone. Yet everyone listened to the High Priestess of Calypso, who had fled with everyone to the jungle when Pirata fell, pray for the souls of the recently departed. After Port Harbor was retaken, the pirates sent parties of twenty men into the jungle to retrieve tree trunks that would be turned into a coffin for the next person who died in Daryl's makeshift hospital. Every day, there were at least five more bodies to set adrift to sea. The carpenters, the hospital workers, and the High Priestess were kept busy almost night and day.

Matt Colosi lay in one of the longboats. He wore new and clean clothes. Heavy gold doubloons kept Matt's eyes closed. A strip of cloth tied around his head prevented his jaw from opening. The gash he'd received on the left side of his temple poked out from underneath his flattened ginger hair. It was encrusted with dried blood. His tan skin was the palest it had ever been in his life, so pale that the freckles on his face shone in stark contrast. He died last night, a day before Oh Henry and Dread Robin were supposed to leave Port Harbor for Tarym. Except for his hands crossed over his chest, the cloth on his head, and the coins, Matt appeared peacefully asleep. He was one of the few lucky souls among the row of longboats. Bed sheets covered the entire bodies of the dead who'd lost limbs or whose injuries proved difficult to hide from the mourners.

Kim stood on Em's right side among the mourners. Louise occupied the left side. Her grey eyes were glassy. Between them, Em leaned on her walking stick. Tears leaked from her eyes.

The company of mourners belonged largely to Oh Henry Golomorth and Dread Pirate Robin. The rotund pirate captain stood with his first mate closest to the High Priestess of Calypso, where she spoke her sermon near the far left end. He held his necklace of amulets and other blessed trinkets in his gloved hands. The Pirate King was located on the other end, not far from Kim and her female companions. He was wedged between Michael and Blika, standing tall and stiff in undamaged but grungy clothes that didn't quite fit his long and thin stature. Roger dwarfed Blika. Since his fever broke, the young Afrikaansian boy had been assuming the role of cabin boy.

The High Priestess of Calypso stopped speaking. Every pair of eyes followed the long-haired, shabbily-robed clergywoman as she bent down and grab a fistful of sand. Slowly she went up the row of longboats. For each corpse, she used her other hand and dirtied the tip of her index finger in the sand. Then, she drew a curving line vertically on the cold forehead.

When the High Priestess reached Matt Colosi, Em pressed a hand over her mouth and smothered the sob attempting to escape. On her left, Louise's shoulders shook. Kim glanced at the two women and returned her gaze in time to watch the clergywoman place the same symbol on Matt.

After the High Priestess finished anointing the last body, she lifted her gritty hand into the air. "From the brine and foam, I am born," she declared.

Piously, the pirates repeated, "From the brine and foam, I am born."

" 'The lands will crumble and return to My body, and all will be water again.' "

"Calypso forever," the pirates murmured.

The High Priestess dropped her sandy hands back to her side. She stepped away from the longboats at the same time eleven men parted from the mourners.

Once the longboats had been set adrift, Oh Henry tucked his necklace underneath his shirt. He nodded to Polides, who shouted to the company, "Gents, head on to the dockyard!"

Kim waited for Em and Louise to wipe away their tears before the three women headed up the beach with the men. Kim and Louise walked close to Em, ready to catch her if she stumbled on the uneven surface of the sand. The latter woman walked in a slow and stiff gait, dragging her right leg, from which Kim made sure to keep a certain distance. Em had forgone the wheelchair. Daryl's contraption would have been more burden than help on a rocking ship. They were leaving that day because two days ago, Tipping Point Harbor finally fell to Bonny Jane and the back-up forces Oh Henry had sent. The next day, yesterday, the Pirate King ordered every captured Draconian executed in the town squares of all major ports.