Chapter 21: Scorched Black Sails on the Horizon

And as quickly as it had begun it was over. The battle was fierce but the de la Vega hacienda was no match for the pirates and the shear destruction that they reaped. They had not come for valuable but had come to bring revenge on the family that had ridiculed their captain and to take back what she believed was hers to take. Angela was never seen as a person by this woman or the pirates she employed but as a commodity and a means to an end and a great fortune that waited for them all back in Europe. By the time Alejandra arrived home the damage had been done and the scorched sails of the pirate ship were visible on the horizon; mockingly escaping free of the terror they had instilled in the people and redeemed from the theft of their precious cargo that Joaquin had set free. Freedom for all had come with a great price and as the flames licked the sky the destruction was complete.

The men had forced there way in through the massive grand entrance bringing the solid wooden front doors down and crashing through the glass of the windows, of every window in the hacienda, but the entrance hall was bare. They then disbursed around the house and the shouts of the old woman could be heard echoing off the stone and mortar.

She shouted directions and on with wind came the call to set everything ablaze, "burn it to the ground," she yelled out, "bring me the girl and have no mercy on anyone that you come across. Destroy everything!" she laughed and chanted as glass broke, drapery ripped and wooden matter crackled and popped along with her sinister laughter.

She was the first to lay eyes on the scene in the sitting room. The door was forced in and the smell of smoke and sweat preceded her into the room. Joaquin stood with the women behind him, his sword drawn and ready to fight to the death. The women showed no fear although their hearts beet face and they could hear the sound of it in their ears. They were strong and brave and ready to fight for their own freedom and prove that the terror that the pirates portrayed was unwanted and not affecting them as terrible as it was.

The old woman laughed at the sight as a hand full of her pirates followed her into the room.

"It was you who underestimated me," The old woman said as a thick silence fell in the room as the shouts and screams could be heard coming from all around the hacienda, "you thought that you could take from me what is rightfully mine; I who have been a pirate and feared the world over all my life. You will never underestimate me again," she laughed and motioned more pirates into the room, "take the girl, kill the rest," she added to the men that stood around her emerged on the scene and attacked with the speed and fierceness of a pack of wolves.

The pirates surged on the de la Vega's, torches blazing and pistols held before them, but they were caught off guard by the fierceness of the woman and Joaquin. There wasn't a fear in their eyes but anger for the attack and the disruption of the peace and tranquility of this well established home. The longer they started the more the pirates began to feel the energy that filled the air.

Shots rang out from the pistols that the women carried and the sudden shock of the women being armed was enough to give Joaquin the advantage. He rushed forward, slaying two men before the echo of the shots had died down and he stood face to face with the old woman herself. She was shocked to see him so close and she stepped backward in panic. He reached out as steel on steel was heard behind him and the women began to fight the pirates that had regained their composure but not the upper hand.

Angela fought with the strength of a million men and disposed of every pirate that stepped before her. Her hand was sure and true and from the corner of her eye she could see the strength and the proficiency of Elena who worked beside her. She too was untouched and working with the proficiency of a skilled fighter.

The pirates that surged forward; baring witness to the scene of the two women killing their colleagues, was just as surprising as the idea of a man standing up to their captain. They had felt the need for a great revenge for the attack on their captain and her propriety. They had never imagined the idea of someone more fierce or as cunning as the woman that led them and though they has spent much time with the young woman before them they had no idea of her technique or her talent. She had been well taught and not even they could believe themselves unaffected by her expertise. She was fast and fierce and brought up as a fighter to protect herself and those she loved from the terrible people of the world. They knew that she had a fire burning in her heart that was unbelievable vibrant and vivid in her fighting and the people that fought along with her were a force to be reckoned with. There was no winning this battle between men and women but the destruction of their attack was complete. The flames blazed thought the house and they now fought, not to take the woman back into captivity, but for their own lives. A cry of fear rang out among the pirates and they began to retreat.

"No, you have underestimated us," Joaquin said as he reached out and grabbed the sword from the woman's hand and knocked the pistol from her other hand with a movement from his left leg that she was not expecting, "you should never have underestimated the power of your granddaughter, your flesh and blood, how could you believe that she would not have the warrior spirit that you have and that her father have. Your unlucky truth is that the man who fathered that young woman was a man of good quality and thought you may have a villainous streak he was a man who taught his daughter to protect people from the likes of you and you have to know now that people like us always find each other. You Madame are defeated!"

Fire flashed in her eyes as Joaquin placed his own blade at her neck and turned to the women who had been most capable of defeating the small number of pirates that had followed the woman into the room.

"You see," Joaquin hissed into her ear, "you will pay, greatly, for descending on this house."

Suddenly there was a great cashing sound from out in the hall and smoke billowed into the drawing room. The roof had started to come down with the fire that was set by the pirates and Joaquin jumped away from the door releasing the old woman as the flames licked at the door and the only exit from the drawing room. The old woman laughed at the fear in the young man's eyes and back toward the flames that were coming through the door.

"You've not heard the last of me," The old woman laughed pointing a threatening finger at Angela as she disappeared into the fire and smoke.

"I am not afraid of you!" Angela yelled after the old woman, "I will defeat you!"

Elena gasped as the woman fled. The room was filling with smoke and panic had begun to set in. She rushed for the windows and with the blunt end of her pistol she smashed the glass and began to climb out.

Once outside the damage from the battle was evident. The hacienda had been set ablaze from the grand entrance to the rear and the servant's quarters. The roof had collapsed in the great hall but the rest of the house burned slowly but steadily. The grounds were on fire, the stables and the fences, the ground and the crops that encircled the house and gardens were a wasteland of tumbled branches and destroyed flowers.

The terrible pirates could be seen rushing across the fields to the edge of the cliffs, the horses and other live stock frantically runny around to escape the blaze. The servant class that worked for the de la Vega family was also frantically trying to put out the fire and rescue the animals from the stables that had also been set ablaze. There was no one left to stop them and though the fire rushed through the dry fields it did not hinder the pirates escape. The sails of the ship were black and scotched themselves as they fled land and headed out to sea. There was no stopping them now.