~Chapter 4~
Brian had hurried back to his chambers to contemplate things. Why had Elanor come? Didn't she know that all the legends said that it was bad luck to have a lady on board? But then he remembered the tale of the Black Pearl, when Jack Sparrow had said, "It'll be far worse not to." Maybe it was a good thing to have her aboard ship, but it soon wouldn't be if anyone discovered her. IShe shouldn't have come,/I he thought to himself, covering himself with the thin sheets that were on his bed. It was a hot night, and the sweat was already beading down his forehead. Soon it would be in buckets.
To distract himself from thinking about Elanor, he thought about other things, mainly Thomas. How had Captain Erif come to hire such a mean- spirited lad? There had to be better ones out there.
Brian rolled over in bed, yawned, and drifted into a deep sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Elanor struggled against the man's grip, but it was no use. His hands were clamped together like metal. "Now, lass, don' you struggle, the cap'n won' be likin' that. Woss yer name?"
"Like I'd tell you," she spat around his hand.
"Askin' were just a formality. I know yer name; it's Elanor Dayton, correct?"
Elanor nodded reluctantly.
"Aye, see, lass? Now, come this way in the other passage, and I'll take yeh to the cap'n."
"Who're you?" she asked as the man opened the door to yet another secret passageway into the room, a corridor-sized one this time. "I mean, you've got to have a name."
He looked around at her, one eye slightly bulging. "Tibbon Scagley. First mate of the Gold Flame, the ship yeh attempted to stow away on. But you can call me Scaggs while yer here. That won' be long, o' course. Ladies first." He allowed Elanor to enter the tunnel, and she thought with mild dismay that this was the second time she was willingly (well, almost willingly) going in a dusty, dirty, mud-caked secret passageway this day, and there were sure to be more spiders just waiting for her to come.
"There aren't.spiders, are there?" she asked Scaggs, who had to stoop to get into the tunnel.
"Nah, this one's been used a lot. Cap'n Erif always wants to sneak away, and that's his quiet room. No girl is going to change that. Move along, now."
The end of the tunnel, not far ahead, dropped off suddenly, and Elanor fell a few feet onto the wooden floor, looking at the shoes of the captain. "Elanor Dayton," the captain said. "So we meet again."
"Don't throw me overboard," was the first thing out of Elanor's mouth. The captain stopped for a minute and then he laughed.
"We don't want to harm you, lass, we want you to be safe. Which means putting you back in your house. Your father's sent around a notice of a reward for information concerning your whereabouts, you know. We'd be ignoring our civic duty if we let you stay on."
"You owe me. You would have been hanged for a thief had I not vouched for you, Captain John. I must go on this venture, or I'll never live with myself ever again."
"I owe you nothing more than a ride back to your manor, young missy. You won't be coming on my ship if I have anything to do with the matter."
"He thinks you a pirate."
These words stung John Erif's pride something awful. "He does, does he? Then I'll drop you off at the corner of your street and you can walk from there. Never mind the reward, I'll go without. But you can't go without the necessities of people higher on the social pyramid than rough, crude sailors such as myself and my crew."
"Aye," Scaggs said from the corner.
"I can and I will," Elanor said defiantly.
"I know what you're up to, lass. I can read your eyes like an open book, like any we have in this fine library." And indeed, they were in the room Brian and the captain had talked in earlier. "You fancy the boy, my teller of tales, as it were, don't you? Don't tell me I'm wrong, because I know I'm not."
Elanor bit the inside of her cheek, like she did when she was nervous.
"Aye, see, I'm correct. Brian himself told me that he had no special girl in mind, nor ever had, so I wouldn't be wasting my time if I were you. Let me pick an escort-"
"No. You're wrong. I want to go on an adventure, just like Brian is, and just like you are. Who hasn't heard of the Gold Flame? And in Brookvul, that's the ship and the tale. You do owe me, Captain, and you can't forget that."
Captain John Erif sighed and rubbed his temple. Girls, especially the young kind, could be so tiresome. No, he mustn't think that; that generalization included his Alexandra too. Finally, he said, "I'll tell you what, lass. You can stay. On the condition that I tell Brian you left."
Her eyes widened and her face fell. "Why?" she said.
"Why not? It's not as if you care for him. I was so mistaken; I'm sorry, Miss Dayton. So why shouldn't I tell Brian you've come to your senses and gone home? You'll still get what you're here for: an adventure and the Gold Flame. And by all means, you can't let my storyteller see you, unless under very special circumstances. Do we have an accord?"
Elanor hesitated. The whole purpose of this mad expedition was not to be away from Brian. But she wouldn't be away from him; he just wouldn't know she was there. But that wouldn't be the same. Thoughts wrestled in and out of her brain, trying to scramble themselves into some semblance of order. "All right, Captain, you tell Brian I left, and I stay on. It's a deal." And they shook hands on it, even though his were twice the size of hers. "Where shall I stay?"
"Aye, lass, you should have thought of that before," said the captain, sounding like Brian. "But seriously, you can have that chamber. I'll use the library for my quiet place. I have a spare cot you can use, and some extra food you can have. Honestly, lass, I don't know why you can't just leave. Trying to behave yourself in that house of yours, that's an adventure in and of itself."
"I'll sleep on the floor tonight, sir. Thank you." Elanor turned and stepped up back into the tunnel to her new cabin.
"Cap'n, d'yeh know what yeh just did? A girl on board, it's bad luck, it is. Couldn' we just take 'er back to 'er house and leave 'er there? I'm sure her father wouldn' mind a bit."
"No, Scaggs, I'm not completely sure what I just did. But I'm not going to separate a young lass from her object of affection." He stood there, glancing out the porthole, thinking how hard it had been to be separated from his Alexandra. Scaggs stood on, watching, until he was sure the captain had ended their conversation. Then he hastened out, leaving the captain to his own thoughts.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The first thing next morning, Brian stretched and went outside for some fresh air. He thought vaguely that he ought to go see how Elanor was doing, and he began to go back into his cabin. "No, wait, lad," said the captain, catching him by the shoulder. "You're going to look for your friend Elanor, aren't you?"
"How did you know?" Brian said in disbelief.
"How do I know? Lad, this is my ship, I know every nook and cranny of it. I use that secret chamber as my own sometimes. So last night I went in and found that lass sleeping on the floor of my cabin. Why do you look so surprised, boy? There is more than one way into that room. I had her thrown off."
"Thrown off?" Brian said. "Not-not that way?" He gestured to the open sea on one side of the ship.
"I didn't have her thrown overboard if that's what you mean. I had her escorted back to her house. They remember me, so I couldn't do it myself. Scaggs and Twigs took her, didn't you?"
A stick-thin man who was passing by said, "Aye, Cap'n, we did. It's a right lovely house, it is."
"Brian, this is Twigs, an old friend. Here's here on a favor to his father, another old friend. Twigs, this is Brian, our legend expert."
"Nice to meet yeh," said Twigs, extending a grime-encrusted hand. Brian shook it, all the while thinking that Twigs had the same build as the boy Thomas he had met earlier, but in actuality looked nothing like him. Thomas had been pale and blonde; this man was heavily tanned and dark-haired. "I hope yeh'll like the ship. Some boys don't take much to it." He jerked his head in the direction of Thomas, who had just appeared from below. He was carrying a pile of rags with the scowl that seemed to always be present on his face. "I just hope yeh'll like it more than that one."
"Twigs doesn't think too highly of my cabin boy, do you, Twigs?" Captain Erif asked the man. Twigs grumbled and shrugged. "I must admit, he's not the best you'll ever find, but he can be a hard worker when he puts his mind to it. Speaking of which, we all need to be hard workers at this time. We set sail in half an hour. Brian, go ask Scaggs what needs to be done on board and help him do it."
Brian sped off, all the while wondering where Elanor was at this exact moment, and if her father had gotten mad. Sir Dayton, the head of the Dayton household, had never held with ships of any kind, especially if they were manned by men he believed to be pirates. Elanor was probably not allowed to leave her room, let alone the house. She probably wouldn't have seen daylight at all by the time he returned. He wondered what a balcony felt like when you weren't looking down, but when you were looking up at the sky and there was a slight breeze blowing on your face, and your hair ruffles in it. Then he realized that he could feel that sensation once the Gold Flame set to sea.
"Scaggs!" he called, searching for the first mate. "Scaggs, where are you?"
"Over here, lad. I'm just workin' on this sail. She needs to be darned."
"Let me help. I want to work for my part of the Flame," Brian offered. Scaggs could offer no rebuttal against this, so Brian set to work on the sail. Within minutes, it was patched up, good as new.
"Thank'ee, lad, yer a natural at darnin'. Where'd yeh learn it?"
"Must've picked it up somewhere on the streets. I don't remember ever learning it, but I know how to do it."
"Yer one smart lad, yeh know that, Brian? Yeh'll fit in around here if yer useful. 'Cept for with those that don' do nothin' but sit around all day and play cards. Yeh know, the ones yeh asked me about before."
"Yes, I remember them."
"Well, this mornin' I told 'em that this ship better be in ship shape by this time today, and look! The floors are growin' stuff, I believe. And that good-for-nothin' boy Thomas, all he does is grumble about havin' to work. What does he think he was brought on fer? Ter have a picnic? Well, I don' think so. No one gets by on this ship without pitchin' in a bit, accordin' ter the cap'n. Yeh want ter help me darn the other sails, lad?"
"Absolutely. That's what I'm here for, isn't it?"
"Nay, lad, yer here to tell us where to find this Mirage Island place. Yeh'll make us all rich, yeh will. I, for one, was all for havin' yeh along with us, but some of the crew weren' too keen on havin' a young lad, and a rumored scamp at that, come with us, but Cap'n John said yes, we'll be needin' yeh. And here yeh are! I have a whole pile of those bloody sails that need to be mended."
After fifteen minutes at work, Brian had repaired all of the damaged sails and they were ready to hang up. "You there! You five! Get over 'ere, yeh need ter help us with these sails. Yes, you. You don' come over an' I'll notify the cap'n that all you wastrels do is play cards over there on that barrel," Scaggs threatened. Brian felt a thrill of trepidation as the five surly men that Scaggs had warned him against lumbered over to them. He gave the nearest a weak grin. The man merely growled at him, and Brian quickly looked ahead again. These weren't men to cross paths with.
"Everybody got a side or a corner?" Scaggs asked. "Good. Now, Brian, hook that side, and I'll hook this side, and Iheave!"/I He tugged on the rope, and Brian quickly went to help him. The other five let go of the sail, now that it had been hooked, and watched the two struggle on their own. "Get over 'ere!" Scaggs yelled, almost knocking Brian backwards. "You scalawags better pull yer wait on this trip, or the cap'n won' never give yeh a share of the Flame. Yeah, that's right, I'd thought yeh'd see it that way." With all seven of them pulling at it, they managed to hoist the sail up to the top of the mast. "Quick, now, boy, we set sail in ten minutes. That'll be hard to do if we don' have sails."
When they finished, Captain Erif approached. "Good work, lad, you're a good worker. You'll be valuable on this quest in more ways than one. We're pulling out!" he yelled to the rest of the crew, most of who hailed him with a chorus of "Huzzah!"
"Thank you, Captain," said Brian. "I'm just glad to be aboard, you know. I still can't believe it. I finally get to see all my dreams come true. Except-"
"Except you wish Miss Elanor Dayton was still on board with us?"
Brian cocked his head at the captain, eyebrow raised. "What makes you say that, Captain? And I say that respectfully, sir."
"No need to be respectful much, Brian. We're all comrades here. And I don't know how that came out of my mouth, lad. It works apart from my brain, see? Hoist anchor!" he yelled to some men standing idly nearby, who immediately began heaving a rope. When the anchor was sitting on the deck, two men unfurled the sails, which caught the wind and set them off on their journey, Captain Erif at the helm.
Brian had hurried back to his chambers to contemplate things. Why had Elanor come? Didn't she know that all the legends said that it was bad luck to have a lady on board? But then he remembered the tale of the Black Pearl, when Jack Sparrow had said, "It'll be far worse not to." Maybe it was a good thing to have her aboard ship, but it soon wouldn't be if anyone discovered her. IShe shouldn't have come,/I he thought to himself, covering himself with the thin sheets that were on his bed. It was a hot night, and the sweat was already beading down his forehead. Soon it would be in buckets.
To distract himself from thinking about Elanor, he thought about other things, mainly Thomas. How had Captain Erif come to hire such a mean- spirited lad? There had to be better ones out there.
Brian rolled over in bed, yawned, and drifted into a deep sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Elanor struggled against the man's grip, but it was no use. His hands were clamped together like metal. "Now, lass, don' you struggle, the cap'n won' be likin' that. Woss yer name?"
"Like I'd tell you," she spat around his hand.
"Askin' were just a formality. I know yer name; it's Elanor Dayton, correct?"
Elanor nodded reluctantly.
"Aye, see, lass? Now, come this way in the other passage, and I'll take yeh to the cap'n."
"Who're you?" she asked as the man opened the door to yet another secret passageway into the room, a corridor-sized one this time. "I mean, you've got to have a name."
He looked around at her, one eye slightly bulging. "Tibbon Scagley. First mate of the Gold Flame, the ship yeh attempted to stow away on. But you can call me Scaggs while yer here. That won' be long, o' course. Ladies first." He allowed Elanor to enter the tunnel, and she thought with mild dismay that this was the second time she was willingly (well, almost willingly) going in a dusty, dirty, mud-caked secret passageway this day, and there were sure to be more spiders just waiting for her to come.
"There aren't.spiders, are there?" she asked Scaggs, who had to stoop to get into the tunnel.
"Nah, this one's been used a lot. Cap'n Erif always wants to sneak away, and that's his quiet room. No girl is going to change that. Move along, now."
The end of the tunnel, not far ahead, dropped off suddenly, and Elanor fell a few feet onto the wooden floor, looking at the shoes of the captain. "Elanor Dayton," the captain said. "So we meet again."
"Don't throw me overboard," was the first thing out of Elanor's mouth. The captain stopped for a minute and then he laughed.
"We don't want to harm you, lass, we want you to be safe. Which means putting you back in your house. Your father's sent around a notice of a reward for information concerning your whereabouts, you know. We'd be ignoring our civic duty if we let you stay on."
"You owe me. You would have been hanged for a thief had I not vouched for you, Captain John. I must go on this venture, or I'll never live with myself ever again."
"I owe you nothing more than a ride back to your manor, young missy. You won't be coming on my ship if I have anything to do with the matter."
"He thinks you a pirate."
These words stung John Erif's pride something awful. "He does, does he? Then I'll drop you off at the corner of your street and you can walk from there. Never mind the reward, I'll go without. But you can't go without the necessities of people higher on the social pyramid than rough, crude sailors such as myself and my crew."
"Aye," Scaggs said from the corner.
"I can and I will," Elanor said defiantly.
"I know what you're up to, lass. I can read your eyes like an open book, like any we have in this fine library." And indeed, they were in the room Brian and the captain had talked in earlier. "You fancy the boy, my teller of tales, as it were, don't you? Don't tell me I'm wrong, because I know I'm not."
Elanor bit the inside of her cheek, like she did when she was nervous.
"Aye, see, I'm correct. Brian himself told me that he had no special girl in mind, nor ever had, so I wouldn't be wasting my time if I were you. Let me pick an escort-"
"No. You're wrong. I want to go on an adventure, just like Brian is, and just like you are. Who hasn't heard of the Gold Flame? And in Brookvul, that's the ship and the tale. You do owe me, Captain, and you can't forget that."
Captain John Erif sighed and rubbed his temple. Girls, especially the young kind, could be so tiresome. No, he mustn't think that; that generalization included his Alexandra too. Finally, he said, "I'll tell you what, lass. You can stay. On the condition that I tell Brian you left."
Her eyes widened and her face fell. "Why?" she said.
"Why not? It's not as if you care for him. I was so mistaken; I'm sorry, Miss Dayton. So why shouldn't I tell Brian you've come to your senses and gone home? You'll still get what you're here for: an adventure and the Gold Flame. And by all means, you can't let my storyteller see you, unless under very special circumstances. Do we have an accord?"
Elanor hesitated. The whole purpose of this mad expedition was not to be away from Brian. But she wouldn't be away from him; he just wouldn't know she was there. But that wouldn't be the same. Thoughts wrestled in and out of her brain, trying to scramble themselves into some semblance of order. "All right, Captain, you tell Brian I left, and I stay on. It's a deal." And they shook hands on it, even though his were twice the size of hers. "Where shall I stay?"
"Aye, lass, you should have thought of that before," said the captain, sounding like Brian. "But seriously, you can have that chamber. I'll use the library for my quiet place. I have a spare cot you can use, and some extra food you can have. Honestly, lass, I don't know why you can't just leave. Trying to behave yourself in that house of yours, that's an adventure in and of itself."
"I'll sleep on the floor tonight, sir. Thank you." Elanor turned and stepped up back into the tunnel to her new cabin.
"Cap'n, d'yeh know what yeh just did? A girl on board, it's bad luck, it is. Couldn' we just take 'er back to 'er house and leave 'er there? I'm sure her father wouldn' mind a bit."
"No, Scaggs, I'm not completely sure what I just did. But I'm not going to separate a young lass from her object of affection." He stood there, glancing out the porthole, thinking how hard it had been to be separated from his Alexandra. Scaggs stood on, watching, until he was sure the captain had ended their conversation. Then he hastened out, leaving the captain to his own thoughts.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The first thing next morning, Brian stretched and went outside for some fresh air. He thought vaguely that he ought to go see how Elanor was doing, and he began to go back into his cabin. "No, wait, lad," said the captain, catching him by the shoulder. "You're going to look for your friend Elanor, aren't you?"
"How did you know?" Brian said in disbelief.
"How do I know? Lad, this is my ship, I know every nook and cranny of it. I use that secret chamber as my own sometimes. So last night I went in and found that lass sleeping on the floor of my cabin. Why do you look so surprised, boy? There is more than one way into that room. I had her thrown off."
"Thrown off?" Brian said. "Not-not that way?" He gestured to the open sea on one side of the ship.
"I didn't have her thrown overboard if that's what you mean. I had her escorted back to her house. They remember me, so I couldn't do it myself. Scaggs and Twigs took her, didn't you?"
A stick-thin man who was passing by said, "Aye, Cap'n, we did. It's a right lovely house, it is."
"Brian, this is Twigs, an old friend. Here's here on a favor to his father, another old friend. Twigs, this is Brian, our legend expert."
"Nice to meet yeh," said Twigs, extending a grime-encrusted hand. Brian shook it, all the while thinking that Twigs had the same build as the boy Thomas he had met earlier, but in actuality looked nothing like him. Thomas had been pale and blonde; this man was heavily tanned and dark-haired. "I hope yeh'll like the ship. Some boys don't take much to it." He jerked his head in the direction of Thomas, who had just appeared from below. He was carrying a pile of rags with the scowl that seemed to always be present on his face. "I just hope yeh'll like it more than that one."
"Twigs doesn't think too highly of my cabin boy, do you, Twigs?" Captain Erif asked the man. Twigs grumbled and shrugged. "I must admit, he's not the best you'll ever find, but he can be a hard worker when he puts his mind to it. Speaking of which, we all need to be hard workers at this time. We set sail in half an hour. Brian, go ask Scaggs what needs to be done on board and help him do it."
Brian sped off, all the while wondering where Elanor was at this exact moment, and if her father had gotten mad. Sir Dayton, the head of the Dayton household, had never held with ships of any kind, especially if they were manned by men he believed to be pirates. Elanor was probably not allowed to leave her room, let alone the house. She probably wouldn't have seen daylight at all by the time he returned. He wondered what a balcony felt like when you weren't looking down, but when you were looking up at the sky and there was a slight breeze blowing on your face, and your hair ruffles in it. Then he realized that he could feel that sensation once the Gold Flame set to sea.
"Scaggs!" he called, searching for the first mate. "Scaggs, where are you?"
"Over here, lad. I'm just workin' on this sail. She needs to be darned."
"Let me help. I want to work for my part of the Flame," Brian offered. Scaggs could offer no rebuttal against this, so Brian set to work on the sail. Within minutes, it was patched up, good as new.
"Thank'ee, lad, yer a natural at darnin'. Where'd yeh learn it?"
"Must've picked it up somewhere on the streets. I don't remember ever learning it, but I know how to do it."
"Yer one smart lad, yeh know that, Brian? Yeh'll fit in around here if yer useful. 'Cept for with those that don' do nothin' but sit around all day and play cards. Yeh know, the ones yeh asked me about before."
"Yes, I remember them."
"Well, this mornin' I told 'em that this ship better be in ship shape by this time today, and look! The floors are growin' stuff, I believe. And that good-for-nothin' boy Thomas, all he does is grumble about havin' to work. What does he think he was brought on fer? Ter have a picnic? Well, I don' think so. No one gets by on this ship without pitchin' in a bit, accordin' ter the cap'n. Yeh want ter help me darn the other sails, lad?"
"Absolutely. That's what I'm here for, isn't it?"
"Nay, lad, yer here to tell us where to find this Mirage Island place. Yeh'll make us all rich, yeh will. I, for one, was all for havin' yeh along with us, but some of the crew weren' too keen on havin' a young lad, and a rumored scamp at that, come with us, but Cap'n John said yes, we'll be needin' yeh. And here yeh are! I have a whole pile of those bloody sails that need to be mended."
After fifteen minutes at work, Brian had repaired all of the damaged sails and they were ready to hang up. "You there! You five! Get over 'ere, yeh need ter help us with these sails. Yes, you. You don' come over an' I'll notify the cap'n that all you wastrels do is play cards over there on that barrel," Scaggs threatened. Brian felt a thrill of trepidation as the five surly men that Scaggs had warned him against lumbered over to them. He gave the nearest a weak grin. The man merely growled at him, and Brian quickly looked ahead again. These weren't men to cross paths with.
"Everybody got a side or a corner?" Scaggs asked. "Good. Now, Brian, hook that side, and I'll hook this side, and Iheave!"/I He tugged on the rope, and Brian quickly went to help him. The other five let go of the sail, now that it had been hooked, and watched the two struggle on their own. "Get over 'ere!" Scaggs yelled, almost knocking Brian backwards. "You scalawags better pull yer wait on this trip, or the cap'n won' never give yeh a share of the Flame. Yeah, that's right, I'd thought yeh'd see it that way." With all seven of them pulling at it, they managed to hoist the sail up to the top of the mast. "Quick, now, boy, we set sail in ten minutes. That'll be hard to do if we don' have sails."
When they finished, Captain Erif approached. "Good work, lad, you're a good worker. You'll be valuable on this quest in more ways than one. We're pulling out!" he yelled to the rest of the crew, most of who hailed him with a chorus of "Huzzah!"
"Thank you, Captain," said Brian. "I'm just glad to be aboard, you know. I still can't believe it. I finally get to see all my dreams come true. Except-"
"Except you wish Miss Elanor Dayton was still on board with us?"
Brian cocked his head at the captain, eyebrow raised. "What makes you say that, Captain? And I say that respectfully, sir."
"No need to be respectful much, Brian. We're all comrades here. And I don't know how that came out of my mouth, lad. It works apart from my brain, see? Hoist anchor!" he yelled to some men standing idly nearby, who immediately began heaving a rope. When the anchor was sitting on the deck, two men unfurled the sails, which caught the wind and set them off on their journey, Captain Erif at the helm.
