Where Loyalties Lie

Chapter 23 - Fortune

“What the fuck is he doing?” Drake didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t get one.

Keelin Stillwater was charging across the beach, his arms waving in the air, towards a pirate who looked to be heading over to a palm tree; no doubt the man was searching for a cool place to rest in the afternoon heat. The fact that the pirate was wandering across an uncombed area of the beach was alarming enough, but Stillwater running blindly towards him seemed far more dangerous.

“You spent a lot of time courting his alliance to let him risk his life like that,” Beck said. She was smirking, which only served to make her more beautiful.

Drake snorted. “You sound a little jealous, Arbiter. Besides, what should I do? Go running after him and put my own life on the line? Reckon I’d rather him die than me no matter how much work went into getting him on my side.”

A bang echoed through the still air of the beach. The pirate walking towards the palm tree paused, looked around, and stopped when he saw Stillwater running towards him. A few moments later the two men met. Keelin pointed towards the palm tree, and both of them started backing away quickly.

“What was that noise?” Drake said.

“Gunshot. That rifleman of Stillwater’s fired a shot into the sand in front of the pirate. No idea why though.”

“Reckon there’s one of them sand devils over by the tree. Bastard must have figured out how to spot them.” Drake silently cursed that he wasn’t there to take credit for the discovery, but he had a more important task to deal with.

The jungle loomed up large and close in front of them. The trees were tall, green, and buzzing with all manner of insects. Occasionally a hooting call from some animal or other sounded, usually followed closely by more, similar cries, but they always fell silent after a while. Then there was the roaring. Whatever beast called the jungle its home must be large and then some to make a noise like that, not to mention the shaking of the trees.

Drake glanced sideways at Arbiter Beck and prayed to Rin that she was as capable as Hironous gave her credit for. With Drake’s right arm in a sling he would be less than useless in any real fight, and he didn’t want to leave the world as a nameless meal in some great monster’s belly. That being said, wandering into the trees to slay the beast that threatened them all was exactly the sort of heroic deed he needed folk to think he was capable of.

“Ya ready?” Drake said with a grin he didn’t really feel.

“Me?” Beck shook her head. “You’re the one who volunteered to slay the beast. I’m just coming along to watch.”

Drake ignored the creeping feeling of doom. “Well, at least I’ll have an audience to recount the tale. Saves me having to embellish it my own self. Remember, if you happen to mention my cock at all, it’s at least two feet long.”

Beck let out a disbelieving sigh, but she also glanced down at Drake’s crotch. He smiled at the little victory. Without another word he set foot into the forest and started walking as if he had an idea of where he was going.

It wasn’t long before both Drake and Beck were coated in a layer of sweat, swatting away biting insects every couple of seconds and spending every bit of willpower they had hating the jungle. It was far from Drake’s first foray into a dense island jungle, but that made it no less irritating. He felt sticky, dirty, itchy, in pain, and pissed off. Even the company of a beautiful woman, usually enough to lift his spirits no matter the situation, was doing nothing to alleviate his stress.

As he stumbled over yet another overgrown root looping out of the dirt and hidden by a handful of leaves, Drake glanced sideways at Beck. The woman was labouring as hard as he was, and it didn’t appear that any of her magical Arbiter powers were helping her through the ordeal. Her skin bore the unmistakeable sheen of sweat, the few strands of hair that escaped her wide hat looked wet and lank, and, judging by the way she kept pulling at her jerkin, she was dangerously overheated. Drake, wearing nothing but a thin cotton shirt over his chest, felt just as hot.

“Need a rest?” Drake said, attempting to sound smug and failing utterly as he stumbled over yet another hidden root. The tree it belonged to mocked him by looming up high to his left and disappearing into the dense canopy above.

“No.” Drake could hear the strain in Beck’s voice. “Do you?”

Drake attempted to laugh, but it came out as a cough. “I can go all day, Arbiter.”

“Wonderful. I can go for two.”

The jungle seemed to close in on Drake, moving both further away and closer all at once. He closed his eyes to avoid the wave of vertigo, but it was no use, and he felt his balance go. Remembering something his old captain had once said, long before Drake became master of his own ship, he let his knees buckle rather than take the full fall on his face. He didn’t even feel the impact.

When Drake opened his eyes the forest was dimmer and the air felt cooler. He didn’t remember lying down, but he was definitely on his side now, staring ahead into the darkening jungle. It seemed to stretch on forever. With a groan that sounded loud in the silence, Drake pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around for Beck. He found her splayed out on the forest floor, not moving.

It took a monumental feat of effort for Drake to attain his feet, yet he managed it. There was a strange sense of stillness in the air, and breaking that stillness by moving felt wrong, almost as if the only correct action would be to lie back down and sleep forever. He stumbled over to where Beck had fallen. It took only a moment to confirm she was still alive; he could see her lips were just slightly apart, and her chest rose and fell with each shallow breath.

A line of ants, the only things still moving as far as Drake could see, had made a path over her right hand and were busy collecting leaf debris. Beck’s hat had fallen away, and her hair spilled out around her head, creating a golden halo – even if it was playing host to all manner of dirt and dead leaves. She looked so peaceful and serene that Drake didn’t want to disturb her; in fact, all he really wanted was to lie down next to her and join her in oblivion. Before he knew what he was doing, he was down on his knees and getting ready to do just that.

A thought occurred to Drake then. If he was going to lie down and drift away into nothing with this woman, he at least wanted to taste her first. With a gentleness the pirate captain had never known he possessed, he bent down over Beck’s face and placed his own lips to hers. A moment later she kissed him back.

Slowly Beck’s eyes fluttered open, and her icy blues locked gazes with Drake’s emerald greens. It was at that moment that he realised he was poking her in the leg, just as something equally as hard, but ultimately more dangerous, poked him in the stomach.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Beck murmured drowsily as she detached her lips from his. He felt her compulsion wash over him, and even though his will escaped hers as it always did, the fact that she was holding him at gunpoint compelled him to answer truthfully.

“Kissing you.” He smiled.

“Why am I on the ground?” Beck said, as if she’d only just noticed that she was horizontal. She shoved Drake away and sat up quickly; a moment later her eyes went vacant and she collapsed backwards.

“What did you do to me?” Her voice sounded far away, dreamy.

“Ain’t me. There’s something in the forest. Magic, I reckon.” Drake was finding it hard to concentrate. The only reason he wasn’t lying right next to Beck was that he wanted to be lying on top of her, and even with his head feeling as fuzzy as it did, he didn’t think she’d let him without her pistol going off.

“Mhm.” The soft noise escaped Beck’s lips even as her eyes closed again and her hand dropped, the pistol spilling from her grasp. “Magic.” Even though his head felt as if it were full of sea foam, Drake saw his chance and seized it. He swung one leg over Beck’s body and pulled his other one close, straddling her.

There were more ants now; the forest floor almost seemed alive with them. They were running over Beck’s arms and hands and leaving little red footprints there. As Drake bent in closer to look, he realised it was blood. Her blood. The little ants were slowly eating her alive as she lay in a stupor. It should have been horrifying, Drake knew, but he just couldn’t seem to bring himself to care. All he really wanted to do was lie down, and it all just seemed as if it were happening to someone else.

With the last remnants of consciousness, Drake raised his one good arm and brought it swinging down, slapping Beck hard across the face just before his eyes closed again and he embraced the darkness.