Where Loyalties Lie

Chapter 57 - Fortune

Drake sat in the mess of his ship, gnawing on a stale biscuit. He’d known from the very beginning that his plan, his rise, wouldn’t come without sacrifice. Not even Hironous had been able to tell him what those sacrifices might be. They’d plotted and schemed for years. Hironous might have the sight, but Drake had something just as useful. He understood people. He could see how folk worked, and he knew how to manipulate them.

The first sacrifice had been Black Sands, and Drake had known it would happen. He’d planned it. He’d given its location to the Five Kingdoms. Black Sands was to be the catalyst to bring all the other pirates together under his rule. Sev’relain hadn’t been part of the plan. Drake didn’t know whether Hironous had seen Sev’relain’s downfall, and that was part of the problem.

Lillingburn had fallen soon after. Then Drake had lost his fortune. Then Fair View had burned; and none of those losses had been part of the plan either. They’d all helped to bring the pirates together, but each sacrifice was a heavy burden for Drake to bear. Now he’d lost Poole, one of the very first captains to follow him, and he wondered if Hironous had seen that too.

For years Drake had lived with the certain knowledge of immortality. His brother had seen his death, and it wouldn’t be for many, many years. And when it did happen, he’d be a king. Drake had been living his life accordingly, taking risks and knowing they wouldn’t lead to his death. Now he wasn’t so sure. Tanner had had Drake at his mercy. And for a while Drake had known fear again.

From the moment Tanner had taken hold of Drake’s tongue and threatened to cut it out, he'd had been scared, and now he found he couldn’t turn it off. What if Hironous was wrong? What if his death could happen at any moment? Had he been surviving on luck alone for all this time? It wouldn’t be the first time his brother had failed to predict a death.

Drake wiped cold sweat from his forehead and tried to direct his thoughts elsewhere. He failed. He couldn’t get rid of the image of Tanner standing there, holding Drake’s life in his hands.

Rag uncoiled from a shadowed corner of the mess and began weaving its way across the deck towards Drake. The creature was near two feet long now, and Drake could already see it would be more than capable of killing a man. It was dangerous, and for the first time he found himself scared of the monster. He wished he’d relented and let Princess find a cat to hunt the ship’s rats.

Rag reached Drake’s foot and slowly began climbing up his leg, winding its way around and around, and Drake forced himself to sit still. He might be terrified, and he was certain the beast could sense that, but he’d be damned before he let anyone else see his fear. The giant centipede reached his waist and curled around it like a belt, and Drake let out a ragged sigh.

Silently he cursed his own weakness. He was Drake Morrass. He’d faced down dragons and demons. He’d made a pact with a goddess and escaped the Drurr slave pits. He sat at the table with some of the most powerful folk in the known world, and they considered him a peer. He fucked empresses, murdered kings, and drank toasts with death himself. He’d set plans in motion that changed the course of history. Ambition had always ruled his actions, not fear.

“Cap’n,” said one of his crew as he sat down in the mess with a mug of rum.

Drake swept his gaze over the man, barely acknowledging him, and prayed to Rin that the pirate wouldn’t notice how unmanned Drake felt. He needed to do something. Sitting still was serving no purpose but worsening his mood. He needed action and he needed to be in control, of himself and of others. Drake stood and tapped Rag on the head, hoping the beasty would respond as it always did and not simply attack. “Down. Go hunt,” he said, and the centipede uncoiled itself, latched onto the bench, and scuttled away. With a shudder, Drake smoothed down his royal blue jacket and left the mess with a purposeful stride.

Drake hadn’t known where he was going until he got there but, standing outside Beck’s cabin, he knew why he was there. He wanted to fuck. He wanted to prove to himself he was still a man, and he wanted to do to Beck exactly what he’d wanted to do since the moment they’d met. Drake reached into a pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He had his own key to every lock on the ship, barring the crew’s own chests. He paused. For a moment he wasn’t sure if it was fear or common sense that stopped him from unlocking the door. In the end he decided he didn’t care. He put the key back in his pocket and knocked. And waited.

Drake waited so long he almost thought Beck was elsewhere, or that perhaps she hadn’t heard. Eventually he heard the key in the lock, and a moment later the door opened. Beck stood on the other side, her blue eyes cold and hard and her golden hair loose around her shoulders.

“What do you want, Drake?” she said, then looked up into his eyes. “Oh. I see.”

Drake wasn’t sure which of them made the first move. One moment they were standing either side of the doorway, and the next he was inside, lifting Beck up and pushing her against the wall as she grabbed hold of his hair and pulled his mouth down onto hers.

Beck tore open Drake’s shirt while he fumbled at the leather jerkin that held her brace of pistols. The damned thing wouldn’t budge, it was laced so tight. He pulled away from Beck, turned her around, and pushed her down face first onto the table.

“Hurry up,” she hissed, grinding her arse against his groin. It did nothing to improve his concentration, and he fumbled at the laces.

“Fuck it,” Drake growled as he pulled the knife from his boot and slit the laces, pulling Beck upright so her jerkin simply fell away. He spun her around and ripped open her shirt, sending buttons flying. She was staring at him with a feral hunger. Then she was pressed up against him, and Drake picked the Arbiter up and dumped her on the cot, sparing only a moment to whip his belt away.

Beck pulled off her own belt and dropped her britches, climbing onto her hands and knees. Drake took the hint and climbed onto the cot behind her. They made a night of it and no mistake, and Drake was as sore as all the Hells time they’d finished with each other. It turned out the Arbiter wasn’t exactly the type to cuddle afterwards, and no sooner had they finished than she threw his clothes at him and locked the door behind him. Drake didn’t care; he’d got what he’d come for. After months of watching and waiting, he finally knew how Beck felt and how she tasted, and it was just as good as he’d imagined.

Drake pulled on his trousers and buttoned them up, but his shirt was torn so he left it open. Climbing onto the deck of the Fortune, he welcomed the cool breeze on his skin and felt his spirits starting to lift again. He was Drake Morrass, and his accolades spoke for themselves. Now he could add seducing an Arbiter to the list.

He’d survived Tanner Black and even turned the old bastard to his side. He’d escaped Ash and the trap the Five Kingdoms had set, and with only one ship lost. It was no small loss, he knew that, but it could have been much worse. Still, someone had told the Five Kingdoms where and when Drake and Tanner were to meet, and that meant they had a traitor in their ranks.

Drake paced the deck of his ship and looked out at the lights floating nearby. The Phoenix, Hearth Fire, Ocean Deep, and The Black Death. Aboard one of those ships was a turncoat working against him and the isles, and he would need to find them sooner rather than later.

“Cap’n,” Princess said, and Drake realised his first mate had dragged a stool onto the deck and was busy whittling away at a block of wood.

“What are you carving, Princess?”

“Not a clue,” Princess said with a smile. “Just sort of work at it and see what comes out. Usually just tends to look like driftwood, but it calms me all the same. Were you worried, Cap’n? When Tanner had you. Couldn’t see it all, but it looked a bit rough for a moment there.”

Drake forced out a laugh. “Not at all, Princess,” he said, the lie coming more easily. “Oracle told me when I’d die, and it’s a fair way off yet. It was all part of the plan.”

“Figured as much,” Princess said happily, and went back to his whittling.

Drake had been helpless on Ash, completely at the mercy of Tanner, and so, even as he’d convinced the bastard to follow him, he’d had to concede to his demands. Drake spat over the side of his ship.

In order to keep Tanner’s support, as soon as Drake crowned himself king he would marry Elaina Black.