Where Loyalties Lie

Chapter 13 - The Phoenix

It wasn’t a long crossing from the Fortune to The Phoenix, but it was one of the most tense trips Keelin had ever experienced. Morley and Kebble kept silent despite their knowledge of the situation, and Keelin used his monoscope to watch the approaching Man of War. As the giant ship drew near, Keelin found himself more and more certain that Drake’s plan was madness.

The crew of the Fortune scurried about, making the ship ready to sail, and as the dinghy bumped against The Phoenix, Drake’s ship began to move. A few moments later she started to turn. Meanwhile, Keelin’s crew stood at the railing, watching and wondering what was happening.

“He’s a bold man, that Drake,” Kebble Salt said just as Keelin grabbed hold of the rope ladder lowered to him.

“A captan many would follow,” Morley agreed.

“I hear many follow Tanner Black also,” Kebble said.

Keelin shot the man a dark glare. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew the old bastard.” Keelin scaled the rope ladder up to the deck of his ship. He took a deep breath as the others followed him up and his crew gathered around.

“You’ve all no doubt heard there’s a ship behind us…”

“It’s the Man of War,” Smithe said with challenge in his tone. “Has to be, a ship that big.”

“It is. Morrass means to attack them. Pay them back for what they did at Sev’relain.”

Everyone started shouting at once. Some voices yelled their support of the plan, others decreed it suicide. Keelin noticed a few faces he didn’t recognise in the crowd, those belonging to the refugees they’d saved from Sev’relain. The idea that they’d rescued them from one massacre only to throw them into another occurred to Keelin, and he remembered the woman he’d ordered placed in his cabin.

“Quiet!” Morley roared over the din. “We following the Fortune in, Captan?”

“No,” Keelin answered quickly. “We’re getting the fuck out of here, making for the nearest port, dropping off these poor sods just lost their home, and finding the nearest merchant ship to pillage.”

There was a mixed response from his assembled crew, but for once Smithe didn’t speak out against his captain.

“So that’s the plan,” Keelin said, raising his voice. “Anyone with a job, get to it. Anyone without a job, get the Hells out of the way.”

As pirates sprang to his command, one remained behind. Morley had a look of disappointment as deep as the sea on his face. “You’re condemning him and everyone on that ship to death, Captan.”

Keelin shook his head, but he couldn’t meet his first mate’s eyes. “Drake condemned them to death when he decided to attack the Man of War.”

“What about the charts?”

“Damn the charts,” Keelin said with little to no conviction. “Right now I just want to get out of here alive.”