Chapter 8 – Night at the river
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The bosun brained with a marlinspike
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
And cookey's throat was marked belike
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
It had been gripped by fingers ten;
And there they lay, all good dead men
Like break o'day in a boozing ken. (*)
Fifteen rodent pirates clashed their wooden mugs of rum and sung to the tune of this song. Their captain, none other than Desiree D'allure, led them through the lyrics with energy and a vicious delight. The drunken voices echoed all over the secret rodent compartment in the bowels of the human merchant ship.
Fifteen men of the whole ship's list
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
And the scullion he was stabbed times four
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped all day long in up-staring eyes
In murk sunset and foul sunrise. (*)
Their living cargo witnessed the pirate show chained to the floor with a myriad of different feelings. While Tammy and Foxglove cringed at the dreadful words, Dale hummed the chorus swaying his body from left to right. In fact, as the song went in crescendo, more than one 'Yo ho ho' escaped from the captured minstrel's mouth.
For Gadget, tied and gagged as she was, none of what transpired around her was as disheartening as to watch Desiree geared with the magical silk cloak Geegaw Hackwrench had left her as heirloom. Even worse, the cephalopodic guardian hidden in the folds of the cloak was now following the thief's orders blindly, thus proving that its allegiance was bound to the user of the garment more so than the Hackwrench family inherently.
The ship they were hidden in was a river hulk, one twenty meters long and loaded with goods coming all the way from Le Havre. Its human captain was a favorite of Desiree, as he shared the same fascination with trinkets and mementos from faraway lands, as well as the urging desire of venturing onto the immeasurable ocean and leave France and its twisting rivers behind.
Two entire days had passed since Desiree and her band boarded in at one of the many stops the river hulk made on its way through the Seine and the riverside towns. Since they were familiar with the captain and his immutable schedule, the rodent pirates were certain there were left three more days of travel until the gates of Paris appeared for them on the horizon.
The female thief came to the hostage's side, quite drunk and barely capable of keeping balance against the motion of the wooden floor. "Bonjour again, my bounties! She greeted them as she sat next to Tammy with a relaxed and unladylike position. A mug of rum on one paw, a knife on the other one. "So, having a pleasant trip? We are halfway there, you know?"
Well aware of how fickle is the temper a drunken armed criminal, Tammy opted for indulge her captor with a slight nod and an easy smile. "Uhm sure, it's been more pleasant than I thought, all things considered"
"Certainly ma cherie!" Desiree threw her arm around Tammy – the one with the knife- and pulled the squirrel girl closer. "All the best for our bounties, which are on the last travel of their lives!"
Her brazen comment destroyed whatever hope the four companions had left. Their gazes – as well as their spirits - fell to the floor.
"Hey hey! What's with these long faces?" She took another big gulp of rum and patted the squirrel's back with enthusiasm. "Be relieved, that even if your bodies die in a gruesome, slow, typical inquisitorial way, your spirit will live on, on the stuff we stole from you, hahaha!"
Here all rodent pirates at ear's distance broke to laugh.
The ominous mouse then sprang up and walked towards the blonde witch. "Oh, I simply love this magical cloak. I'd read about it in old tomes of witchcraft but to actually have it on me… and to command it, simply delightful!" As if on cue, a pair of tentacles came forth from the dark folds of the silk garment and took hold of their master's wooden mug. "Look, it is so eager to serve! Many could follow its example"
Desiree then glanced at the bound chipmunk of red nose and couldn't help but sigh annoyed. "In your case, dear minstrel, I regret the moment my assistant Pietro put his eyes on that old lute of yours" She rubbed her temples as she said so. "He really should stick to his only talent: stab people in the back"
"And in the guts, and in the heart!" The mouse known as Pietro raised the stolen lute proudly.
"Anyway… its dinner time! Hey old geezer, is supper ready yet?"
"Certainly boss!" Sugar Ray Lizard, the only member of the expedition not affiliated to Desiree's scavengers walked in with a big pot of soup. He then proceeded to release Gadget from the torn piece of her own skirt that these bandits had fastened over her mouth. "Come on young one, you need to eat"
"I told you yesterday and I'll tell you again, careful with that one" Desiree warned. As the blonde witch drank eagerly, she peeked over the pot. "And pry tell me, self-appointed cook for this expedition, what's on the menu for tonight?"
"The same as before, boss. Fish soup"
"Ugh! What's your problem? Don't you know another dish?"
The old lizard shrugged smugly. "I'm afraid I'm a lizard of the sea more than a creature of the forest like yourself, cap'n"
"Sacre bleu!" The female mouse, quite upset, turned away and took a big gulp directly from the bottle of rum. "I'm surrounded by…"
"There is a cooking book inside the cloak"
All eyes around, friends and foes, turned to Gadget. "I, huh, put Tammy's cooking book in my magical cloak for safekeeping"
"Is that true?" Desiree slid her paw into the pocket dimension of the cloak. A mere second later, she retrieved none other than Bethany Lombardi's grimoire, disguised as an innocuous cooking book. "Oh, this one?" The leader of the expedition flipped through of the book, hunger overcoming her by each passing recipe. She then addressed the squirrel teenager. "You really know how to prepare these dishes?"
Tammy, quite perplexed, stammered a bit. "Of course! I know many of these recipes by heart!"
"By heart, huh?" Asked her captor incredulously, while keeping her arm wrapped around the old book of culinary delicacies.
The squirrel hostess quickly corrected herself. "I mean, I still have look at it from time to time lest I end up mixing ingredients, like mustard! Did you know there exist yellow mustard and black mustard? What's up with that?"
"True enough!" Desiree conceded and handed out the grimoire to Tammy. "Now, As captain of this expedition, I hereby appoint you as cook assistant, be proud!"
"Such an important job!" Old Sugar Ray noted.
"Verily! You will help this lizard keep us well fed for the reminder of our trip. So study hard your book tonight, cherie. Tomorrow morning you two will go and find better ingredients for breakfast, better than a smelly fish, anyway. I'm looking forward to it, so do not disappoint me!"
Tammy made her best effort to salute with the paws chained. "At… at your orders captain"
"Aye, captain" Sugar Ray also gave a crisp salute. "I just pray you remember all of this conversation tomorrow morning, the moment I unlock her shackles"
"Oh, I will, I will" The tall, slender female mouse waved that concern away as she turned around to leave. "And about that…" She suddenly stopped, drew her knife out again and showed it back at Tammy. "It would be a shame if you run away tomorrow. I'm afraid I'm not myself when I'm hungry. You see, I could end up cutting your friends down bit by bit, finger by finger just to keep myself entertained as the time passes by, understood?"
"Understood!" A suddenly pale cook assistant quickly nodded.
"Très Bien!" Desiree D'allure walked away to rejoin her shipmates in a not so friendly game of poker, which over time grew in intensity to the point of force the participants to draw knives and issue death threats all around. Oh, the foul language this female mouse spew on her supposed friends made Tammy drop her jaw both in shock and amazement.
Hours went by, and peace and quiet finally returned to that rodent compartment hidden in the ship's hold. At the end, and despite many promises, blood wasn't draw that night. And now, every scavenger was soundly and deeply asleep - no doubt the result of indulging too much into alcohol and games-. Even the guard in charge was dozing off on that late hour, leaving the hostages alone with their thoughts.
Dale, for example, was resting his face on Foxglove's shoulder, suffering a personal tragedy very few could understand. "This is it, Foxy… I'm dead! Dead, I tell you!"
"Oh darling!" The pink bat quickly kissed his boyfriend's forehead. "Please don't lose hope! I'm sure Chip and Monterey Jack will save us sooner than later!"
"I don't care to live anymore!" He covered his face in shame. "My reputation as artist is tarnished! Covered in mud! fallen in disgrace! It… it doesn't matter if they come and save me from Tammy's inquisitors, or Gadget's sister (And here the invoked girls gave the minstrel sideway glances) if I won't be able to perform in front of a crowd anymore!"
Dale then shoot daggers at the reward notices that Desiree was carrying on her backpack. "These horrible pieces of paper, is all their fault! Now people will look at me and say: Oh, there goes that devilish bard with a bounty on his head! Might as well capture him and get me some easy gold!"
"Don't be dramatic!"
"Gotta be" The bard let himself fall on the lap of his partner. "it's on the job's description" A big yawn came out from him. "But I'll fix it, you'll see… As soon as we can get out of here"
The love-struck bat contemplated as her betrothed slowly succumbed to slumber and, once she detected the heartbeats to be slow and steady, leaned forward to whisper on his ear with a soothing voice. "Of course you will, my love. Now rest and let me take care of you"
Next to Dale and Foxy was Gadget, coping with this situation the best way she could: by immersing herself in her own little world of mathematical laws and theorems. Right then her mind was working on finding a way to measure the speed of the boat only with the tools available at the moment, which were close to none. Perhaps she could use her tail or whiskers as points of reference... "No, scratch that" She muttered against the piece of cloth pressed on her muzzle. "A passenger always travels at the same speed of the vehicle he is in, so a second observer must help..."
The blonde mouse's heart dropped as soon as she pictured Chip as the observer who would come to her aid. If the words of that horrible vole priest from were true – there was no reason to think otherwise – then her rescuer had been captured by the inquisition days ago, mere hours after the group was spotted and scattered to the four winds.
If only she had been awake on that terrible moment, but her gift… her cursed gift wouldn't leave her face the morning sun ever again. Oh, that side effect was indeed on the small letters of the contract, and at the time she just shrugged it off as a minor nuisance – she always considered herself a night owl student anyway, with no friends at all other than Lawhinie–. What a joke, that only after becoming a being shrouded in darkness, managed to find friends as precious as Chip, Dale and company.
A few nights ago, on Saint Pierre's graveyard, Chip had sworn to always protect her. In response, and perhaps due to the chipmunk's infectious optimism, she made an oath to protect him as well. Always. It ended up as a promise she couldn't keep even for two days. A lie.
"Now Chip is imprisoned, probably dead! And me? On my way to the torture chamber, unable to speak or move my paws!" The blonde mouse thought and panicked, then gazed over at Tammy, who was immersed reading the grimoire. "Tammy, I've put my hope on you! Please, help me get out of here. Help me save Chip before it's too late!"
The blonde mouse leaned wearily against the wooden wall, then closed her big blue eyes and prayed to fall asleep again. Her situation was too grim and too hopeless to endure it awake. She wanted nothing to do with pirates or inquisitors or even fish soup. What Gadget wanted was to see her friend again, her beloved stubborn ranger, safe and happy.
Mercy came in form of a vision not long after she finally forced herself to sleep. There was Chip Maplewood again in the depths of a dark forest, dressed in rags this time, clashing a pair of purple swords with wild fury against the trunk of what seemed to be a pine tree. Over and over the chipmunk attacked its stoic victim, causing a rain of splinters to fall on him as result. Strangely enough, in this vision the blades had voices of their own, squeaky bird-like voices that screamed in pain at their wielder. But Chip didn't falter, didn't relent and didn't stop punishing these blades. Instead, his own screams drowned the curses sent to him, screams that kept demanding the voices to yield to his will.
The vision faded as Gadget struggled to grasp the meaning of it all. Still, a smile was drawn on her dreamy face. A heavy burden had been lifted from her heart. Chip was still alive! She could still uphold her promise!
The kind pink bat raised her eyes from Dale as the toothy smile of the witch caught her attention. "Look, she must be having a good dream" She whispered at Tammy with a hint of envy. "What do witches dream of, I wonder?"
The squirrel just uttered back something akin to a grumble. Whatever the witch was dreaming about was of no importance to her on that moment. Right then she only had eyes for the cooking book, her mother's grimoire, which was back in her hands after so many days.
At the turn of each page she transported herself to her childhood, when she would sneak out of the bed in the middle of the night and surprise her mother on the act of writing new recipes into the book. "Inoffensive cooking recipes, right mom?" She whispered to herself as her palm hovered over the instructions to prepare mushroom soup, a local favorite back in Saint Pierre.
What happened next drained the color off her fur. The ink in the page twirled and blurred as if responding to the girl's magical touch, and the whole paragraph re-emerged again with a different set of instructions: chants and finger movements required to cast a spell called "Solar bolt".
Once the initial shock faded, Tammy felt like screaming in outrage, and barely contained herself from doing so. it was true; what Gadget and Lawhinie claimed was all true. Her mother was indeed a witch in hiding. "No, what was the word they used? Archmage?" In any case, Bethany Lombardi had been living a double life all these years as Elizabeth Squirrel, innkeeper in the boring village of Saint Pierre. She even kept the secret from her favorite daughter. "Mom, how could you!?" She muttered amid clenched teeth. "Why didn't you tell me anything!?"
And if the rest of the witches's confession was also true, then her mother had died in Paris not long ago, in a battle against a demon disguised as a cat. Just like that, any resentment the girl had nurtured against her mother slowly transformed into grief. "Then, my mom is dead?"
"No!" She shook her head so violently it startled Foxglove next to her. "I refuse to believe the tales of a pair of black witches! My mother is still alive! Must be! My father must be too… Oh Chip, if only you were here!"
In an effort to avoid succumbing to desperation, the girl forced herself again into study. "Chip! There should be something in here to escape and save Chip! I won't leave him to rot in Rouen!" Soon she found a plethora of clerical spells to memorize: 'Bliss', 'Protection from negative plane', 'Lesser restoration'. None of them looked offensive enough for her taste. However, and to her increasing disappointment, by the time she reached the end of the book Tammy had found that all the spells were defensive. All these were 'white magic' spells. None could be used to hurt another person. Another quick read to the prologue and some annotations confirmed it: Bethany Lombardi was a white witch, who would pray to God – the christian god – in order to fuel her repertoire of spells. That conclusion brought mixed feelings to the girl's troubled soul. On one side, none of these spells would help her overcome the band of pirates by herself alone. Even some annotations warned the reader to focus on support the fighters and offensive wizards of the party. On the other side, the required chants to activate the spells – together with the prologue written by Bethany herself - convinced the girl that her beloved mother was indeed a champion of goodness, one pure, generous being of light. Pretty much the opposite of the witch Tammy was now sharing the boat with and who had enslaved the mind and heart of her Chipper.
It was settled then, and the squirrel teenager sent a silent prayer to the heavens. "Father in heaven! I beg you, give me strength like you gave it to my mother! Allow me to save Chip, my friends and parents from the inquisition! Allow me to become your champion!"
To Tammy's amazement, her paws ignited with a bluish divine glow. Quite alarmed, the girl hid them behind her back, and even called her fluffy tail for help. Once she made sure nobody around had noticed – that is, nobody besides Foxglove who kept looking at her in disbelief – a smirk full of hope grew on her.
That next morning, mere minutes before dawn, Desiree herself unshackled the cook's new assistant and sent her off along with the old lizard in search of ingredients for a proper breakfast. The leader of the expedition was all smiles at that early hour, even gave Tammy a push on the back as the girl stepped out the of the compartment. Her behavior was frightening, really.
"Why is that pirate in such high spirits?" Tammy asked dubiously at her guardian the moment they reached the main hold of the hulk.
"I bet you my good eye that Cap'n is in 'high spirits' because she is certain you will come back to your chains and shackles without a second thought, once we have made breakfast for her"
"Tch! She is a cruel, sadistic mouse!"
"A fine piece of work, isn't she?" The old lizard smirked smugly. "Even so, did you know she is about to get married?"
"You must be kidding!"
"I swear on my mother, girl! Lil' Desiree's been bragging about it for two full weeks! Poor gullible mouse from Scotland, faster than you can say "Louis XIV" he fell victim of our captain's good looks and sexy accent"
"Ugh" The girl cringed with revulsion. Then, a strange idea came to her. "A mouse from Scotland? Who…wait no, must be someone else"
"Anyway…" Sugar Ray shrugged. "I've never understood what's the appeal of marrying foreigners. People from faraway lands, with different language, different customs, different religions! That's just looking for trouble! We french rodents have so little in common with Scots, Brits, Irish..."
"Germans…" Tammy added sourly as she climbed up a basket.
"Ay, germans too" Sugar Ray Lizard then fell into a deep contemplation, watching his assistant running from one basket of fruits to another, inspecting the products carefully from every angle before picking up the perfect sample. This girl, the old lizard realized, was as devoted to her trade as cook as Bethany Lombardi was to the trade of sorcery. With a wistful sigh, the old sailor decided it was time to open the wound again.
"Cap'n Olivier also married a foreigner" he started as casually as he could. Tammy just nodded, focused as she was in finding the right grape for her salad dish. "He married your mother"
The shock of this revelation froze Tammy in her place. "W-what?" She mumbled turning back to the old lizard, anger boiling up inside of her. "What are you talking about?"
"Aye, is true!" He trembled as he gathered strength to continue. "Captain Olivier was your father… I'm sorry it took me so long to recognize his elder daughter!"
"You lie!" The squirrel jumped down the basket and lashed out at his companion. "Stop talking! My father is Gerald Squirrel, and he is a doctor, not a damned criminal!"
"A doctor, yes" Old Sugar Ray held the girl by the shoulders. "Bethany came up with that idea once she got pregnant with you and decided it was time to settle down. I was there, on the throne room of the keep when she told us the good news"
"No, you are mistaking it all…"
"My girl, Bethany was our ship's surgeon, not Olivier. Be honest, did you ever saw your dad performing a surgery?"
"Yes! Plenty of times! Well, he and my mother…"
"Yes?"
Here Tammy's voice dropped down as well as her heart. "He would watch and let my mother do all the work"
"Of course he did! Olivier the slasher had a talent to cut open people, but to patch them up… not in one hundred years"
Tammy, lost at words, let herself slid down the nearby wooden wall. With each passing second, she came to realize this old lizard was telling her the truth. Indeed, Gerald Squirrel was more of a fencer and swashbuckling fighter than a professional surgeon. He even had taught her some moves and stances. The image of the mounted blades and shield displayed proudly at her family's inn flashed into her mind. But if the lizard was telling the truth, then… "Where… where are mom and dad?"
"Dead. That cat from hell devoured both. A scene that will haunt me the rest of my life"
"No!" Tammy shook her head vigorously, as tears began to overflow her large grey eyes. "I don't believe you! Others have told me the same, but I know better! My mother is a powerful witch, she wouldn't die that way! And my father, he is the best with the sword! Even better than Chip!"
A serious scowl crept up over his face. "Your father died first, buying time for Bethany's spell to charge. That demon tore my dear cap'n to shreds! Perhaps that's why… that's why at the end, your mother stood still in shock while the demon pounced on her"
"Enough! Don't say no more! Mom, dad! Oh God, have mercy!" The image of her parents dying a gruesome death made Tammy wrap her arms around herself in an effort to stop shaking.
Her sorrow overwhelmed his old companion. Yes, he had spoken bluntly, but some truths must be delivered without a sugarcoat. "Aye girl, grieve for them. I'm glad you can join us at last. Just don't forget about the living who are counting on you back at our quarters. We must go back soon, Desiree D'Allure is not one to be trifled with"
As he turned around to leave, he gave the girl a last glance. "if it helps make things seem any better, your mother died like a true hero, vanishing the demon back to the depths of hell with her last breath. May God never allow that monster to walk again these lands!"
These words weren't enough to comfort Tammy. She knew, deep down she knew, that the witches had spoken the truth when they affirmed their master was still roaming the Earth. Now the cat could be as far away as in Cologne, or as closer to them as Paris…"
Sorrow slowly transformed into rage. Indeed, the demon that killed his parents was still alive! Her eyes flared with sparks of resolve, resolve born out of a sense of revenge and duty. She was a cleric now; she had seen spells that described how to defeat demons in the book; she would finish what her parents started; With God by her side, she would avenge them!
And she would let Chipper join in her revenge, of course.
Disclaimer:
(*) "Fifteen men and a bottle of rum" lyrics belong to Troy Banarzi - De Wolfe music
