Fathomless Fortunes [slash]

Chapter 14 - The Attack

Sorry for the long wait!

"You don't have to explain anything," Lucky said when Nicolas told him that they needed to nail the windows shut when he got back aboard. They started in Alastair's cabin while Dao was cleaning up, and then moved to the war room and even the bathroom. Nicolas lent a hand and pulled at the window fastenings as hard as he could to test the sturdiness of the nails. But Lucky was an expert. He had driven the nails deep into the wood and in such an impossible angle that no layman could pull them out, even with the right tools. Breaking the glass was of no use since all the windows had extremely thick crosses that would allow only a grown man's arm to pass through the framework. Alastair had no chance of falling out of one of those windows again.

Lucky kept quiet as he worked, but his furrowed brows and worried gaze said everything. Nicolas had noticed the looks the crew was giving their captain whenever he was on deck. Did Alastair know how much he meant to all of them?

As they worked on the final window, right above one of the bathtubs, Lucky broke his unusual silence. "I never told you how I joined this crew, right? I thought about it a lot during these past days."

"How come?" Nicolas passed Lucky another nail.

"You know how we all feel about our captain. By the Sea Goddess, I know how you feel about him." Lucky turned around and laughed as he saw Nicolas attempting to keep a straight face at this unexpected statement. "And Mistress Evangielle told me that you move in with him to protect him. I guess she didn't have to order you at all."

"You know all about me now," Nicolas conceded. "How about that story of yours?"

Lucky's grin faded as he turned back to his work. "I grew up as an orphan on the streets of Porshal, the capital of Shaldré."

Nicolas had never been there, but he knew it as the southernmost duchy of Jeraine, famous for its quarries and masonry work, but also very poor.

"One day, I decided to try my luck elsewhere and got aboard one of the trade ships in the harbor as a stowaway. I kept hidden for about a week before they found me. The captain gave me the charming choice of either walking the plank or signing a contract without payment. I should work off the food I had stolen during the week as a stowaway. I worked it off - for five years. But I got the chance to become the carpenter's apprentice."

Nicolas kept quiet. He knew that the Albian Navy wasn't much better in pressing people into service. 

"But all of it changed one day when my ship was captured by the Siren, as this ship was called back then, under Captain Heron. His crew ordered everyone on deck. We were given the choice of joining the pirates, like you had. I attempted to step forward, but two sailors grabbed me and beat me down. The pirates pushed them back, and a hand reached out to help me up. I was surprised to see this pretty boy with red hair, a few years younger than me. He was wearing an eye patch and was armed to the teeth like the other pirates." Lucky smiled at the memory. "This was how I met our future captain. Captain Heron grumbled that I looked too scrawny and wouldn't be much of an addition, but Alastair Blake insisted. I got the chance to tell them I was a carpenter, which changed Captain Heron's mind. That was my lucky day." He paused. "As I told you when you came aboard, most of us have similar stories. So when the captain told us of his plans for finding the unknown continent, none of us protested. We all know that this journey is without the Atoll Council's permission, but none of us cares. I follow Captain Blake, not Admiral Heron, because I know who gave me a chance back then."

There it was again, that undeniable devotion. Nicolas had seen fear and force as the main ruling powers all his life and had taken them for granted. But he had never liked it, so he had always tried a different approach in his own role as a superior officer. Every day in his life with the pirates now showed him that there was indeed another way.