Circle Sea 1: The Pirate Maze

Chapter Three: The Pirate with Two-Swords

The public bar of the Queen’s Head was filled with customers. Most of them had been there a while and a great deal of beer had been drunk. The barmaids were milling around collecting plates and glasses while the innkeeper, Geoffrey Burbridge, stood by the door looking on.

He was a tall man with a huge handlebar moustache and dark curly hair. He had a reputation for being firm but fair and was one of the more respected men in the village.

Most of his patrons this evening were sailors from the harbour. Many of them were only passing through because their ships were in port, but there were also a number of locals who tended to be there every night.

A few farmers had come down into the village for the evening. They were easy to spot given their country clothes. One group had been sitting quietly at the back listening as the locals told their stories.

There was a clear divide between inland folk and the people of the coast, but they were held together by trade and the occasional romance. The inn was where a lot of this happened.

Most of the villagers were descendants of people who had arrived many years ago from Britain or Ireland, but there were also a number of Viking families who were very easy to spot. They tended to wear a few items of traditional jewellery and had distinctive hairstyles or clothes. They were fiercely proud of their heritage and worked hard to keep old customs and language alive. They had arrived on the island first and liked to remind the British of this fact whenever they could.

The inn was a place where different groups came together to eat and drink. It was where stories were told and news was shared.

High up in the heavy beams of the roof Jim and Polly looked down on the goings-on in the bar. This was a place that they were not allowed to visit, so they had been desperate to see what it was like. They had plotted and planned and now they were here. It was all very exciting and felt quite dangerous.

The group of older men who sat at the same table each evening were looking pleased with themselves. One of them had put a visitor in his place with a scary pirate story and they were now feeling a little smug.

A second visitor stepped forward however and came to stand by them. He placed his tankard on the table and looked around at the gathering.

‘I once met someone you might remember round here,’ he said with a challenging tone. ‘A certain Jonny Two-Swords.’

There were a few muttering noises from across the bar and the old men looked down into their drinks.

Jim and Polly glanced at each other with raised eyebrows. What was this? They had never heard the name before...

‘I guess you don’t like to talk about your very own local boy. Came from this village didn’t he?’

Some of the old men nodded.

‘Now I heard that he went away to sea to seek his fortune and got as far as Rainbow Bay before a group of pirates picked him up.’

The newcomer turned from the old men and addressed the bar.

‘Now, Jonny was taken by a group of pirates who looted his ship and were going to force him to walk the plank - but Jonny had learned a thing or two about pirates, so he challenged their captain to a duel.’

Under the pirate code, any prisoner could challenge a captain to a fight to the death. It didn’t happen very often and usually ended badly. Pirates tended to cheat so the odds weren’t good.

‘They asked Jonny what weapon he wanted to use and he said, “I’ll take two swords. One to fight the captain and one for the rest of you.”’