The night wind was chilly, but Harry hardly noticed it even though it struck his face with the force of a whip. The Lost Revenge sped away from the islet, blown by the wind. Away from Bonny and Jonas, away from Harriet and CJ.
Away from Clay Clayton.
Harry was going to kill him.
He wouldn't doubt it. This time there would be no mercy. The idiot should have taken care of his captain. It was what all of them would have done. Receive any wound for her. Give all for her.
"Harry, I need you to find the rum and bandages," Gil told him quietly. He was trying to keep calm, just like him, but his hands were shaking when he pulled the blouse away from Uma, who had been laid out on the kitchen table, to see her wound: a line, wide and red, across her left side from his hip, up toward his shoulder blade. Flushing, as if a red sea had been contained within. Uma was losing a lot of blood, and Harry knew it. "Harry!"
Gil's voice, though a bit cracked, brought him back to reality.
The bandages and the rum. To stop Uma's blood. The blood that stained Harry's hands and clothes, warm and wrathful.
He didn't know when his feet moved, but he was grateful his body wasn't as numb as his mind. He suddenly found himself looking for the sewing items that Uma used to sew them when they suffered lacerations.
It wasn't that Uma had never been hurt before. In recent months it was frequent, when they began to seize power and territory on the Isle. But she always smiled wickedly, gave a mad laugh, and shook her turquoise braids back, not a little scared by blood, not a little scared of death.
When Harry returned, it was one of the moments when she was aware, and she moaned quietly, biting her lip, which was already swollen and full of blood and marks, to keep from screaming.
"Scream all you want, Captain. It's just us here," Desiree, who had just come into the kitchen, told her, pulling Harry out of the way, and grabbing the rags to clean Uma's wound. "Harry, Gonzo could use some help with the rudder."
But he didn't want to go, he didn't want to leave her…; he wanted to be able to share her pain, take it and erase it forever.
"Help me turn her on her side like this," Desiree asked Gil.
Desiree cleaned Uma's skin, soaking the first of the rags in seconds. Then she asked Gil to press the other hard against the wound while she sterilized the needle with fire.
"You won't be able to hold out too long, Captain. It's going to hurt quite a bit, and I'm starting to fear you'll smash your lip. It's just Gil, Gonzo, Harry and me." Harry had never seen Desiree be tender, but she stroked Uma's braids lovingly and gently, as if she were trying to reassure a child. "We are in the middle of the sea. There is no one to listen."
And Harry reminded himself on the docks telling Uma that she could be as soft as she wanted, because there was only him. Because he respected her no matter what, he adored her.
Her crew also adored her. They loved her. They weren't following her for power, not because of fear or for protection like Clayton. They saw Uma for what she was, something higher than a mere leader of the Isle of the Lost.
She seemed to fight herself for a moment, unable to allow herself to show weakness, but finally the pain and shock was too much as Desiree began to push the needle through the mess of her skin, after cleaning the best she could.
Uma started screaming.
Her screams crossed the mist, the abyss, wrapping themselves in the terrible chinks of the sea foam. They broke Harry's heart. Without possibility of being fixed... But he should have known that she would know pain, because the Isle of the Lost was full of hidden tears. The only dreams they knew were nightmares. And the vague, ghostly screams piled up one on top of the other, unable to finish.
Uma searched desperately for his hook, her brown eyes staring at him, and Harry caressed her knuckles lovingly as Desiree closed each point, drawing her skin together.
"It's done," Harry whispered against the skin on the back of her hand. "No more pain, I promise."
"Take her to her cabin," Gil suggested. "We will take care of the ship."
Desiree nodded in agreement and Harry remembered that Gonzo was alone at the rudder.
Uma wandered into unconsciousness once more, but that was good, because Harry knew that her wound would have hurt when he carried her. Even so, lying on the bed, Harry was not able to notice how small she was because all he could see, what he always saw, was her imposing presence, above all, on the world, with her strong voice and her concern the size of the sea. Even injured, Uma was a queen. Harry snuggled into her bed, careful not to hurt her, longing for the soothing scent of her braids.
Everything fell on Harry suddenly. The surprise of the fight, the shock, the anger, so much love for Uma. He couldn't… he couldn't.
He wanted to cry. But they weren't designed to show weakness, and Harry wanted, more than ever, to be worthy of Uma. They were alone, he was sure that she would run her relentless hands through his hair, as she had done when his mother died…
But Harry didn't cry. He inhaled deeply her salty scent until he fell asleep next to her.
Harriet swore as she climbed the Red Tempest, whose figurehead stared at her impassively, as if the dawn had not been filled with angry and hurt screams, as if the soft sand had not been filled with red, always red...
Both crews, hers, and Uma's, were already working to set sail, even after receiving blows and injuries, although they had to leave two of their own behind. A pirate's life, yes.
The air smelled of tar turned to fire and stale damp, and all she wanted was to get away from the place, waiting for her stomach to stop hurting, waiting for her muscles to relax. And she wondered, not for the first time on that trip, if she was really cut out for all of this, if she was strong enough because she was Harriet or if she was just doing it because she was a Hook, after all.
Bonny had accompanied Jonas, who had been taken to the lower deck to have honey and bandages put on the burn on his leg, which hurt him but was not bad enough to have to be amputated.
They were both worried about Uma. Thanks to the fact that they had been busy tending to Jonas's wound, neither had realized that their captain had been injured until the fight was over and they approached Harriet, asking for her, wanting to know where Harry was as well. Intrigued by not seeing their home, the Lost Revenge. And the tone of their voices sounded like Harriet thought someone concerned about their family would sound.
Damn it, Harriet didn't even think Sammy would sound like that if something happened to her. It wasn't that she cared about it, anyway. But this only re-emphasized the differences between her and Uma; Harriet was feared, Uma was feared and adored. She almost would dare to say that she was loved. Almost…
She remembered her brother's incredulous and tormented expression as he held Uma, as if he were the one being hurt, and she wondered if that was love. Harriet was sure she had never felt it. It looked painful. So why was everyone in Auradon so obsessed with it, if it was the place of dreams and goodness? Wasn't it an evil thing to make someone feel pain for you?
"It's all set to sail," Sammy announced. Harriet nodded, coming back to reality.
"We have a ship to reach," she said, "is still visible on the horizon. Go."
Sammy left and CJ flopped down next to her sister, her caramel hair tousled and her face full of sand.
"I will never travel with you again, it's not fun," she growled, picking a piece of glass from between her locks.
Harriet gave a bitter laugh.
"Don't worry, little sister. If Uma dies before we get to the treasure, neither of us will ever travel again. The Isle will sink and we will all die".
CJ suppressed a shudder.
"That is hopeful."
Harriet gave a sharp, bitter laugh. Sighing, she looked through the spyglass to the horizon, where the Lost Revenge was traveling at speed. Had there ever been a real possibility for them? Something other than lies, empty promises? They were children of the Isle. They were all cursed. They were children who had been born in the night of broken ships, between shipwrecks that would never, never be remembered...
"You've never known hope, anyway," she told CJ.
Her sister seemed about to answer something sharp when a commotion was heard from the lower deck. Harriet frowned and strode down the stairs, with CJ following her, almost stumbling, to keep up.
"What's going on here?" She demanded.
Sammy was trying to stop Bonny, who looked furious and was trying to go to the upper deck. Jonas looked like he was just holding back because of the wound on his leg.
"I'm going to kill that jerk!" The girl growled. Harriet always found it the right decision on Uma's part to accept her into her crew, because she was fierce and unpredictable.
"Sammy," Harriet asked, wanting someone to clear things up for her.
Bonny growled at Sammy, but she did no more, acknowledging Harriet's power as captain of the Red Tempest.
"He found out Uma was hurt because of Clayton," Sammy said. "Threatens to kill him."
CJ raised an eyebrow, impressed.
"You better not make vain threats on my ship," Harriet said firmly. "We are people of word. If you've sworn to, you better kill the boy. Let her go, Sammy."
Her first mate released Bonny and she walked onto the deck, looking for Clay, with Jonas limping behind her. Harriet, CJ and Sammy followed, the first in a calculating attitude, impatient and curious to know how far the girl would go, CJ rather hungry for entertainment and Sammy on the verge of vomiting.
"Clayton!" Bonny yelled in a powerful voice, searching around. "Where are you hiding, you piece of shit?"
Rick Ratcliffe and the rest of the prisoners Uma had taken as her own crew did not intervene, although no one expected them to. They stared as Clay tried to strike a scary pose. Suddenly, all eyes on the Red Tempest were on them.
"Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?" Asked the boy, his mouth twisting in a contemptuous gesture.
Bonny pushed him with both hands, nearly knocking him off balance, and then punched him in the face. CJ gasped with excitement and Harriet almost smiled at Clayton's shocked expression.
"Who do you think you are?" She roared. "Because of you my captain is injured, and if you believed that her crew had no loyalty to her and that we would let this pass, you are very wrong".
She must have had a truly crazed expression on her face, Harriet couldn't tell because her back was to her, but she imagined it from the fear she saw on Clayton's face as his cheeks flushed, embarrassed at such a public display of weakness. He knew that after this, no one would respect him.
"Oh please!" He laughed, trying to look like what had just happened didn't matter. "Now she has power, yes. But it won't last. Someone bigger on the isle is going to take it, it always happens. Besides, it's just shrimpy… "
Ouch, Harriet thought as she heard the long scream and then the sound of the water receiving the boy. Bonny had pushed him overboard, only to later send him out to sea. Clay Clayton didn't even have time to react, to try to hold onto the string, the wood, something...
Bonny had offered a sacrifice to the sea in honor of her queen, her captain, to Uma. And the sacrifice had been received.