How the Axe Falls

Chapter 8

Talon threw his hands up to his face and made a sudden intake of breath at the flash of white that almost blinded him.

Once certain his eyes had adjusted from the darkness of the hold, Talon slowly lowered his arms and took in his new surroundings.

Some of the ship's crew danced about the length of the deck securing ropes and scrambling up the masts like spiders.

The three lateen sails whipping gently overhead in the breeze could only just be heard over the clamour and foot stamping of the crowd gathered under the quarterdeck.

The craggy-faced Captain leant over the quarterdeck, picking at his teeth with a dagger. His black trench coat hung over the railing, red lapels jiggling. A musty, yellowing vest, which may have been white at one time, exposed the curled silvery hair of his chest. His other hand held onto the thick leather belt at his waist housing the mean curve of the cutlass that had been held to Talon's throat not long ago.

'What's going on?' Talon asked the girl.

'A bit of sea sport,' she replied.

Some of the crew turned angrily when they pushed through but quickly recoiled when they saw the green-eyed girl accompanying Talon.

'Just in time, Cleo,' a stocky lad with hoops through his earlobes greeted her. 'Razor's 'bout to take on Kurt.'

Talon froze. Cleo? Was that even a dream he'd had?

'Is he now? Good for him.'

In the middle of the baying crowd, a rather burly man paced around the blood-stained deck, flexing his monstrous arms back and forth.

His opposing number, a boy only a few years older than Talon, sat on his haunches chewing his lower lip. It hardly looked like a fair fight.

Cleo laughed softly when she caught Talon's frown. 'Size isn't always everything, farmboy.'

In a bare-knuckle fight, it is, Talon disagreed.

'Are you ready yet, you great lump of lard?' the boy called. 'I'm getting bored!'

'It's Razor!' the big man roared.

'I thought razors were meant to be dead thin, pork chop,' the boy thumbed his lips thoughtfully.

'RAZORRRRRR!' the burly man screamed his name as he charged at the boy. Talon swore he could feel the whole ship tremble.

What happened next surprised everyone.

The boy, Kurt he assumed, stamped his foot forward on the deck, dislodging a plank, which the burly man then proceeded to take a nasty tumble over.

The moment Razor's shoulder hit the floor, Kurt launched his foot against the man's jaw with a resounding CRACK! Razor stayed down after that.

The crowd went awfully quiet.

'You've got a loose floorboard there Cap'n,' Kurt pointed down at the deck.

A slick cackle, like bones rattling in a glass jar, speared through the silence. The Captain slapped the wooden railing of the quarterdeck approvingly, the crowd following his lead with hesitant, at first, applause before quickly finding their feet.

'You owe me a damn floorboard, boy!' the Captain shook his fist at Kurt.

'Sorry cap'n,' the boy a splayed hand to his head and grinned mischeviously, 'I'll get it done cap'n.'

The Captain waved him off with a chuckle then his eyes found Cleo and Talon beside her.

'Back among the living then, little fish?' the Captain said.