To be a pirate or a king's man?

Chapter 13 - The Captive Captain

Chapter 13

"Rough little scrap, that." A familiar voice told Sam as he woke, swaying in the same hammock he had been confined to after his keelhauling. James, Sam realised, What happened after I dropped over the side?"

"Oh, after you had dived underwater, some thought that the Bo' sun had given up and surrendered. Jack's crew slaughtered them and the rest of us saw that it was kill or be killed. The kraken suddenly left, and both crews took that for a good sign, and fought harder. Jeremiah got killed by Jack himself, trying to help Morgan. That cabin boy, Jenkins, got cut down and mutilated by five men before we could stop them, and Old Tom lost his left arm to a madman with the biggest sword I've ever seen."

Sam groaned, surely this news couldn't get any worse? If Morgan were dead, then we would be too, so we must have won eventually.   "It's not all bad, though," James said, "We took a fair amount of them with us, and the captain gave more than he got against Jack, but wasn't able to kill him. You know that the men are calling you the Krakenbane now? Sam Krakenbane. Even Morgan's impressed."

"What about Jack? You said that Morgan couldn't kill him, so where is he?" Sam was happy with his new name, but the news about Jack was more important.

"He's on the ship. Yielded to Morgan eventually, but the captain couldn't kill him, seeing as they used to be brothers in arms and oath. So Morgan threw Jack in the brig and we're sailing for the Bermuda Triangle, for Jones himself to stand as judge against Jack. What's his name? Clutterbuck, is captaining the Sea Beauty now, following us. That makes you first officer of the Stormprow!"

"Yay, remind me to celebrate when I get up again." Sam said, half sarcastically.

"Well that's the thing. One of our men found you pretty quick after the battle, floating on one of the big splinters from the fight. The ship's new surgeon has nearly cleared you for duty again. It was only a half drowning and you've had two days of recovery time. Plenty enough, he says, and he's a man o' science." James said, with conviction that Sam would soon be able to be the first officer again.

"Ok, if he says I can get back to sailing, the sooner the better, I say!" Sam sat up slowly and got out of the hammock. As soon as he was on his two feet, he threw up sea water and bile, where it must have sat in his stomach since he had been rescued by the Stormprow's crew. He hunched down on all fours, panting as James backed away from the stinking liquid pooling on the floor.

"God! Surgeon, Sam's just thrown up!" James yelled. Shortly, the surgeon appeared in the doorway of the small room.

"What are you standing around for then, Mr Crick? Get a mop and clean up. To think an old man like myself should be on his hands and knees when there's young twenty-somethings standing around is just silly. Off you pop, now." The ship's surgeon said to James, who was standing still, jaw moving up and down in confusion. "Well go on then, he's your friend and I need to care for Mr Wheelwright!" The surgeon said, again trying to get James moving. James was confused that this old man who could be ordering him around, but eventually something in his brain clicked and he dashed off. "Now, then. What's happened here?" asked the old man.

"I stood up and threw up, doctor. After two days, I'd have though it may have gone out of my body by now." Sam replied, now able to stand up.

"Nonsense! You've hardly even pissed in two days, how could it have gone out of your system? And I'm no doctor, just a man who knows a thing or two about healing and how to take a man's arm off in practise without him dying a day later." The man who was not a doctor replied.

"I suppose that makes sense. What happened to the old surgeon?" Sam asked. This man was not the surgeon that Sam had spent the last few weeks in the same cabin as.

"Died in the battle. Taken overboard by that kraken you slew when he was trying to help one of your crewmates. I used to be the ship's carpenter, so the captain put me in his place, seeing as I know my way around a saw and my mother taught me how to treat wounds when I was an apprentice. You get back on the bed now. The captain wants you up and ready for when we get to Bermuda in a few days' time." The ex-carpenter gently but firmly pushed Sam back onto the hammock whilst James scrubbed the wooden floor below. "Sleep, sir. That's the best cure for most ailments, so my mother told me, so sleep."

Sam slept. The next day the new surgeon checked on him and cleared him for duty. "Be careful though. Your lungs won't be fully functional for another day or two yet, so don't do anything strenuous," he helped Sam off the hammock, "Come on, off you get, there we are! The captain says to send you down to the 'special' brig when you're ready, which is now, so get dressed and go on." Sam pulled his coat and breeches over the clothes he was already wearing, put his belt around his waist, sheathed his sword, donned his tricorn came out of the cabin. Men addressed him as he made his way to the brig, "First Officer," said one, "Krakenbane! Make way for Sam Krakenbane, First Officer to Morgan Half-Face!" shouted another, and the men cleared a path for him. Sam clapped the announcer on the shoulder, smiled, nodded and walked on quickly to the brig.

The 'special' brig was close to the ship's keel, and was reserved for the men that Morgan deemed too valuable to kill. Jack was one of these men, as the rest of his crew had been put in the main brig, except for his officers, who were imprisoned with Jack, each in a separate cage, with hardly enough room to lie down, and only a small pile of rotten straw to do so on. Morgan was standing at the end of the row, holding on to one of the cage bars. He smiled when he saw Sam, "Sam Krakenbane!" he shouted, and when Sam joined him, he embraced him like a brother Sam noticed that Morgan now wore a blue and golden ring in addition to his original red. "Now, look here," and Morgan pointed towards a man who was sitting hunched on a pile of straw that smelled like piss. The figure looked up, and one eye noticed Sam whilst the other glared, icy blue in the light of the lamps. "Jack!" Sam muttered. This did not seem like the man who had done battle with Morgan on the deck of the Sea Beauty. He had been stripped of his deep green sea coat, his rich boots, his big hat, and his swordbelt. Sitting in the cage, he was just a man with one normal eye in one eye socket and one very expensive diamond in the other.

Jack still appeared to hold himself with dignity and power though; his short imprisonment had not worn his strong, lean frame down, and he replied with a bearing that was undeserving of one at the mercy of one's captors, "That would be Captain Jack, if you please, Krakenbane,"  he spat the last word, in contempt of Sam. Then he grinned, a brown toothed grin full of malice and hate for all men that opposed him.

"Don't listen to Captive Jack. Sam, the men fully believe that the day belonged to you. A kraken doesn't give up unless its wounds are mortal, and you dove underwater just minutes before it gave up. Jack here is just jealous that you beat him to it, aren't you, Jacky Boo?" Morgan laughed whilst Jack just stared, malice burning in his eyes unveiled whilst his officers shouted obscenities at Morgan. One of them had the stupidity to challenge Morgan to a duel to challenge his honour, "You only defeated the captain 'cause of an accident, you bastard. Even I could beat you to the ground, you half-faced, burn-faced, mollycoddled craven!"

Morgan turned to him, "Really? Sam, let our friend out of his cell and give him a sword." Sam took the keys from Morgan's left hand and one of his swords from his right. He released the cage door and stepped back, just in time to get out of the way of the man's charge to freedom. Sam threw the sword at his feet and backed away, drawing his own sword and standing in the doorway; blocking escape. The officer took the sword up and charged Morgan, yelling like a madman. Morgan stepped out of the way. The man charged away, and swung sideways to stop Morgan from escaping again in the narrow space. Morgan blocked, kicked the man in the knees, then between the legs, and then threw him onto the ground. As soon as the man was on the ground, Morgan split his head open, and brain fluid and blood spurted out of the fissure. "They call me the last Ocean Wolf for a reason, you arsebrain! I think we'll leave him down here, Sam; a nice stink should teach the rest of these men that they can not stand against the Stormprow, ship or crew!" Morgan stormed out of the brig, retrieving his sabre on the way out. Sam followed, but when he looked back, he saw that Jack was smiling as if amused by the fight and Morgan's words. Jones'll deal with that soon enough, he thought as he made his way back up to the clean air on deck.