My Pearl [Black Sails]

Chapter One

A/N: Images used are just found from google searches (unless otherwise stated as fan art given to me).. I don't art well

               (Charles)

Hot sun beat down overhead as The Ranger flanked her prey and came about on the starboard side for boarding. From the looks of her, it appeared to be an ordinary cargo ship, but I had a sick feeling in my gut, it was a slave ship. The crew aboard our prize, The Stag's Head, surrendered right away, laying down their arms. We began our search of the ship and kept the crew under watch on the main deck.

It wasn't long after our search began that I heard what sounded like the frantic screams of several women below deck. I made my way below deck with a handful of men. The screaming soon turned to crying and whimpering. It sounded like it was coming from behind a wall that seemingly had no door.

After feeling my way along the wall, I found a board that jutted inward just slightly further than the rest. I pressed on it and it gave way to a secret room. The metallic scent of blood mixed with the sickening smell of entrails filled my nostrils before I was hit with a thick wave of incense. I stepped into the room.

Bright lavish silks smothered the walls and hung from the ceiling creating a paradise of silk and sin. There were nearly a dozen girls all with crude collars around their necks and shackles on their wrists and ankles. Each of them a stunning beauty from various lands. I turned to see what had caused their panic and stared in awe as I spotted what I thought must have been a celestial maiden kneeling in a pool of blood next to the corpse of a rich man.

Her skin was a pale porcelain color as if she'd lived her whole life beneath the moonlight and never once gazed upon the sun. Long silken strands of hair white as snow fell around her frail delicate frame. Most startling of all was her eyes, currently staring blankly at her blood-soaked hands, eyes the color of blood.

The other girls screamed as my men and I entered the secret room of sin and silk. The precious star swathed in blood didn't stir, her gaze fixed on her kill. It didn't look like many of them would speak English.

"Does anyone speak English?" I tried to keep my voice soft and steady in an attempt to convey to those who didn't understand that we weren't a threat to them.

"I-I do." A young woman who looked to be no more than two and twenty raised her hand. She had a crown of dark curls atop her head and the brightest blue eyes I'd ever seen.

"What happened here?" I motioned to the corpse and the blood-soaked star at his side. She was in shock, she'd clearly never taken a life before.

"Our master...he was going to kill us all, he didn't want his collection sullied by pirates..." The blue-eyed beauty piped up. "F-Fiona saved us."

Collection? I looked to the blood-stained girl, Fiona. "Get her up, get them all up. We'll remove your bonds and give you safe passage to Nassau."

The girl with the dark crown of curls nodded and scrambled to the blood-soaked girl's side. She lightly gripped the pale delicate flower's shoulders. "Fiona. Please, I need you to tell the others." She lightly shook the pale girl.

Fiona blinked a few times before realization dawned on her and she jumped to get away from the corpse. Her blood colored eyes wandered in my direction and grew wide.

"Come, Fi, please tell the girls not to worry, we're going to be free." The girl with the head of dark brown curls spoke to the star in a maternal voice.