~Chapter 6~
Brian woke up in a dank, cold prison cell. For a minute he wondered what had happened, and then he remembered the high, dark sails of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow's face, the woman's sword, and a pain on the back of his head, which still lingered. Brian realized that he was standing upright, and then he saw that he was chained to the wall with manacles that seemed to fit him perfectly. No matter how hard he pulled, they would not come loose. He didn't even stop struggling when footsteps approached and stopped right in front of his cell.
"Not too fond of the brig, eh, lad?" said Jack Sparrow.
"Not.much." Brian retorted, pulling on the chains. "You bloody pirate, what do you want with us anyway?"
"I want your ship, lad. Isn't it obvious? I'm a pirate." He pronounced the last word carefully, as if talking to a four-year-old. "I raid and loot and plunder and steal. I could supply you with a definition, if you'd like."
"I'll pass," Brian spat. This man was pure dirt. Brian pulled again, but to no avail. "Let me out of this now, Sparrow."
"That'll be Captain Sparrow to you, lad. And I won't be letting you off that easy just yet. Now don't pull on it too much or the wall will collapse on you, and neither of us want that to happen, savvy?"
"Where are Captain Erif and the rest of the crew? Scaggs? Twigs? Walters? Thomas?"
"Thomas?" the pirate captain repeated, scrunching up his nose. "There wasn't no Thomas aboard the ship, mate. If there was he dove off."
"Deserves him right then, but I can't see him doing that. He's here, I know it. Your pirate crew must not be doing so well if you can't even capture everybody on board."
"You're just upset, mate, because we got you. If your little friend Thomas escaped, it won't be that way for long. I'm captain of this ship now, with Anamaria and Gibbs on the Black Pearl. I have the makings of me own fleet, I do. And you can be my cabin boy."
"I'll do no such thing, Sparrow."
"Captain-"
"Let me out of this bloody prison right now, or when I do get out my sole purpose in life will be to kill you!"
Sparrow stopped, trying to refocus his eyes. "Kill me, mate? I'm Captain Jack Spar-" And he fell forward onto his face. Behind him stood Scaggs, with the incapacitated captain's own sword and a mangled bit of rope.
"Scaggs!" Brian cried joyfully.
"Not too loud, lad, yeh'll rouse the rest of them pirates. Quietly, now." And the first mate of the Gold Flame led Brian past the unconscious madman and out of the brig. The rest of the crew was free, but the rest of the pirates were still on guard. On Scaggs's command, the crew attacked. Within a few minutes, the pirates were bound and gagged, struggling on the ground.
"I'll have to use force with that one," Captain Erif said, motioning to the pirate at the helm. He snuck up behind him and held a pistol to his head. "Steer clear of that bloody black ship or I'll be able to see straight through this thick skull of yours."
Brian looked on, feeling anxious. Captain Erif wasn't going to kill the man, was he? The pirate fervently steered farther and farther away from the Black Pearl. From across the way, Brian saw the woman's head snap toward them as they inched away. "Load the cannons!" she cried, her voice carried to the Gold Flame on the wind.
"Captain, they're getting ready to shoot," Brian said, rushing up to the captain. "What do we do?"
"We do nothing. We stand our ground."
"Or our water, whichever way yeh like it," said Twigs, coming up behind them.
"Load our own cannons. Issue the orders, lad."
Brian sped off. "Load the cannons! Orders from the captain! Load the cannons!" There was general pandemonium as the crew scurried about, looking for cannonballs and running into each other. "Load the cannons!"
"Be on the ready!" Captain Erif roared at the crew who were down below, waiting to fire the cannons. A cannonball hit the Gold Flame in the side. "Fire!" yelled Captain Erif.
As a dozen cannonballs burst from their cannons, Jack Sparrow swaggered on board. "What are you doing, mate?" he yelled at the rival captain.
"We're firing on the Black Pearl, pirate," Captain Erif spat.
"Quit blowing holes in my ship!" Jack Sparrow yelled, tackling the unfortunate captain to the ground. They struggled for a moment before Scaggs jumped in and pinned Jack to the deck, just as Anamaria had done to Brian. "Yeh've got to let me go, mate, or I'll scuttle this ship faster than you can say 'pirate,'"
"You can' scuttle this ship. You'd be dead before yeh did the deed," Scaggs threatened menacingly.
"Ropes!" yelled Twigs, ducking as the stout man swung over his head.
"Gibbs, mate, thought you'd never make it," Sparrow said gratefully.
"Stay away, pirate," said Captain Erif. "You don't know what you're dealing with, messing with me and my crew. We have nothing you'd want."
"Aye, except the most luxurious ship in the Caribbean, according to the rumors floating around out here on the ocean," said Sparrow, earning himself a jab from Scaggs's pistol.
"And the bearings to your namesake, from what your crew told me," said Gibbs.
"Crew? Which crew?" Erif turned and bellowed at the crew. "Who told the dirty pirates? Step up before I shoot each and every one of you and make you our food supply."
"It was him," said Gibbs, pointing. "And his four friends. They told us of every single detail of your little escapade."
The rest of the crew backed away, leaving the five burly crew members Brian had always felt dubious about standing in a half-circle all by themselves. Captain Erif strode over to them, undoubtedly to tell them off, but Scaggs got there first. "You traitors!" he yelled, drawing his sword. The leader, who Brian supposed was Thomas's father, followed suit.
"Scaggs! This really isn't the time-"
"Ah, but I think it is, mate."
Captain Erif turned and found the tip of another sword pointing at the bridge of his nose. Jack Sparrow was standing before him, smirking as if he had already won. Captain Erif retreated and drew his own sword, as did Gibbs, who proceeded to release his fellow pirates out of their bondage. In all the confusion as swords flew and glinted in the harsh sunlight, Brian slipped unnoticed into the library.
To his surprise, he found Thomas. "What are you doing here?" he said accusingly, drawing his short blade that the captain had given him on instinct.
"I think the better question is, what're you doin' here?"
"I'm escaping from those bloody pirates. Your father sold us all out!"
"Not all of us, mate. You, maybe. Yer beloved captain and his first mate, maybe. But I'm sailin' away on the Black Pearl tonight, mate, with me father and his friends."
Brian saw it now. Thomas, his father, and his friends had been planning this from the beginning. "You are a traitor," he said quietly, gritting his teeth. "You've known we were going to get attacked by pirates, didn't you? Didn't you?"
"Aye, mate. Glad yeh figured it out so soon. Also glad I didn't come in here without this." He extracted a pistol from the folds in his tattered shirts. Brian considered stabbing the boy who had betrayed them all, along with his father, but that would be risking too much. Thomas could shoot him before he died, and then they'd both be dead. As if in a dream, he heard a familiar voice call out, "Where's the lad?" and open the door. Jack Sparrow stood framed in the doorway. "Tom, lad, what're you doing?" he yelled, diving for the scrawny pirate lad. Before Thomas hit the ground, he let a bullet fly from the pistol he still held in his right hand. It hit Brian in the side. The pain was horrific and it wouldn't end. Brian slid to the ground for the second time that day, and possibly for the last.
~*~*~*~*~
Thomas had just left Elanor for a couple minutes when she heard a gunshot. Not even thinking about what the consequences might be, Elanor leapt out of bed and shot through the secret tunnel. If it was Captain Erif, and he died, she would be thrown off or given as a peace offering to those pirates. If it was Brian-Elanor kept on running.
Throwing open the carefully hidden doorway, Elanor hit something that was trying to stand. It was Thomas, and he was sent sprawling on his stomach again. She ignored him and instead rushed to the pale figure on the floor. "Brian! Brian! Answer me!" The blood was seeping through a hole in his shirt and staining the wooden floor. "Wake up," she said, tears forming in her eyes. "Wake up."
"I don't think he'll wake, lassie, not for a while yet anyway," said a voice behind her. Elanor turned and screamed. "Not to worry, lassie, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl, and you are-?"
"Why won't he wake?" she asked, blinking hard. She was not going to cry in front of Brian's murderer.
"Because he's shot, lass."
"I realized that," she retorted. "Why did you shoot him?"
"Me? Who said I shot him? It was this one, here, the backstabbing traitor." He jerked a thumb at Thomas, who was again attempting to get to his feet. "I agreed with him and his dad in Tortuga that there wouldn't be any injuries, unless completely necessary. Ain't that right, lad?"
"It was necessary," Thomas said, not looking at Elanor, but instead locking eyes with Jack Sparrow. "He drew a sword on me."
"I saw you, boy, you were ready to kill him, regardless of our agreement. A fine pirate you'd make, mate, but not a good man. You'll be hanged by your enemies someday, you will, boy."
Captain Erif, followed by Scaggs, Twigs, Gibbs, and the five surly men, entered the library. "Who shot? Who was shot?" Gibbs demanded, looking around at Brian. "The lad! Who did it? Was it you, Jack?"
"Nay, Gibbs, not me, that little worm over there. Your son, sir," he said, addressing the leader of the traitors.
"So what if he did? Can any of you prove it?" the man said.
"I saw it," Jack said. "Your son, sir, is a miserable little rat!"
The man didn't seem to know how to take this. He drew his sword, his rage going unchecked. Sparrow drew his own sword as well. Captain Erif grabbed Elanor by the shoulders and pulled her to a corner. "You've broken our agreement, you have."
"No, I haven't. He never saw me. He was." She couldn't bring herself to say dead. ".like that when I got here. So our bargain stands."
"True, lass. But will he ever have the chance to see you again?" The captain moved over to the pale storyteller and put his hand over his mouth. "He's breathing. It's shallow, but it's coming. Our doctor can't do much for him; we've got to get to the nearest port city as quickly as possible. I don't know which one it is, though."
Nearby, Jack and the man were locked in a stalemate of a swordfight. Slowly, the balance began to tip to favor Jack, but soon the man was breathing a pungent stench in Sparrow's face while Jack was on his back, his breath almost as shallow as Brian's. "So you're going to kill me?" Jack choked. "Just my last great adventure. But you, sir, you're going to have to live with the fact that you killed the legendary Jack Sparrow, almost as fantastical as the Gold Flame itself. What exactly did you plan to do once the Black Pearl caught up with your ship?"
"I planned to hold you and the other captain prisoner, along with the rest of the crew, and take these ships with Walters's bearings to claim the Gold Flame for meself. Then I would've disposed of you." He grinned maliciously, and Jack counted four gold teeth.
"But what are you going to do now? You kill me and my crew will have you in chains before you can say 'rum.' Aye, mate?"
"Aye, Jack," Gibbs responded.
The man considered this, which for Elanor seemed to take a long time. "I'll let you live. For now. You, girl, where did yeh come from?"
Elanor's eyes widened, and she looked pleadingly up at Captain Erif. "Me and the lass have a bargain that the boy is never to see her," he said. "You can understand a verbal contract, can't you?"
"He's a backstabbing traitor, mate. What about that don't you understand?" Sparrow said.
"Aye, a verbal contract. But she won' see him if she's at the bottom of the ocean, now, will she?"
Elanor's breath caught in her throat, and John Erif stepped in front of her. "You'll have to throw me over, too."
"I believe that can be arranged."
Elanor shook her head vigorously. "No, they need you. You can't be thrown off. There's still time to get rid of these mutineers before you reach Mirage Island or the nearest port city."
"The nearest port city?" Jack Sparrow repeated, looking around. "Why, that's Port Royal! I haven't been there for nigh on ten years! No one would give me a warm welcome, see, and." He trailed off as the man poked him with the handle of his sword.
"Out. Out of this library, every one of yeh!" the man ordered. "Except the dead one." They grudgingly obliged, each thinking of any way to regain control of the ship. Once outside, they squinted for a moment in the bright sunlight before a woman's voice sounded.
"You fools! Get them!"
It was Anamaria, flying through the air on a rope from the Black Pearl. With one swift movement, she hit Thomas's father on the back of the head with her pistol, and he fell, hanging precariously over the edge of the ship. Elanor thought that one quick push would be enough to knock him into the ocean before the four others and Thomas advanced on her and Captain Erif. Gibbs stuck one in the leg with his sword and another he threw a punch at, which landed squarely on the man's jaw. Twigs reached for the nearest man's foot and sent him sprawling on the ground, dazed. He quickly tied him up.
All that was left was Thomas and one more man. That one shoved Captain Erif out of the way and held his pistol to Elanor's head. "Not one move or the lass gets it," he warned.
By now the whole crew of both ships had gathered. No one wanted Elanor to be shot, even if they had no idea who she was. "You lowly, stinking, cowardly pirate scum," Captain Erif spat. "Threatening a lady, and a child at that. This is low."
"Don't do it, Bill!" Thomas cried suddenly. "Don't you dare shoot her!"
"What business is this of yers? If yeh hadn't shot the whelp, we would've taken control over both ships by now, yeh miniature fool!"
"You shoot her and I'll shoot you," Thomas warned, drawing his pistol again.
"Aye, but she'll still be dead, now, won't she? Take yer pick carefully now, lad. Yeh want her dead or be dead with her?"
Thomas stepped forward. There was a sound of a gunshot and a bloodcurdling scream.
Brian woke up in a dank, cold prison cell. For a minute he wondered what had happened, and then he remembered the high, dark sails of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow's face, the woman's sword, and a pain on the back of his head, which still lingered. Brian realized that he was standing upright, and then he saw that he was chained to the wall with manacles that seemed to fit him perfectly. No matter how hard he pulled, they would not come loose. He didn't even stop struggling when footsteps approached and stopped right in front of his cell.
"Not too fond of the brig, eh, lad?" said Jack Sparrow.
"Not.much." Brian retorted, pulling on the chains. "You bloody pirate, what do you want with us anyway?"
"I want your ship, lad. Isn't it obvious? I'm a pirate." He pronounced the last word carefully, as if talking to a four-year-old. "I raid and loot and plunder and steal. I could supply you with a definition, if you'd like."
"I'll pass," Brian spat. This man was pure dirt. Brian pulled again, but to no avail. "Let me out of this now, Sparrow."
"That'll be Captain Sparrow to you, lad. And I won't be letting you off that easy just yet. Now don't pull on it too much or the wall will collapse on you, and neither of us want that to happen, savvy?"
"Where are Captain Erif and the rest of the crew? Scaggs? Twigs? Walters? Thomas?"
"Thomas?" the pirate captain repeated, scrunching up his nose. "There wasn't no Thomas aboard the ship, mate. If there was he dove off."
"Deserves him right then, but I can't see him doing that. He's here, I know it. Your pirate crew must not be doing so well if you can't even capture everybody on board."
"You're just upset, mate, because we got you. If your little friend Thomas escaped, it won't be that way for long. I'm captain of this ship now, with Anamaria and Gibbs on the Black Pearl. I have the makings of me own fleet, I do. And you can be my cabin boy."
"I'll do no such thing, Sparrow."
"Captain-"
"Let me out of this bloody prison right now, or when I do get out my sole purpose in life will be to kill you!"
Sparrow stopped, trying to refocus his eyes. "Kill me, mate? I'm Captain Jack Spar-" And he fell forward onto his face. Behind him stood Scaggs, with the incapacitated captain's own sword and a mangled bit of rope.
"Scaggs!" Brian cried joyfully.
"Not too loud, lad, yeh'll rouse the rest of them pirates. Quietly, now." And the first mate of the Gold Flame led Brian past the unconscious madman and out of the brig. The rest of the crew was free, but the rest of the pirates were still on guard. On Scaggs's command, the crew attacked. Within a few minutes, the pirates were bound and gagged, struggling on the ground.
"I'll have to use force with that one," Captain Erif said, motioning to the pirate at the helm. He snuck up behind him and held a pistol to his head. "Steer clear of that bloody black ship or I'll be able to see straight through this thick skull of yours."
Brian looked on, feeling anxious. Captain Erif wasn't going to kill the man, was he? The pirate fervently steered farther and farther away from the Black Pearl. From across the way, Brian saw the woman's head snap toward them as they inched away. "Load the cannons!" she cried, her voice carried to the Gold Flame on the wind.
"Captain, they're getting ready to shoot," Brian said, rushing up to the captain. "What do we do?"
"We do nothing. We stand our ground."
"Or our water, whichever way yeh like it," said Twigs, coming up behind them.
"Load our own cannons. Issue the orders, lad."
Brian sped off. "Load the cannons! Orders from the captain! Load the cannons!" There was general pandemonium as the crew scurried about, looking for cannonballs and running into each other. "Load the cannons!"
"Be on the ready!" Captain Erif roared at the crew who were down below, waiting to fire the cannons. A cannonball hit the Gold Flame in the side. "Fire!" yelled Captain Erif.
As a dozen cannonballs burst from their cannons, Jack Sparrow swaggered on board. "What are you doing, mate?" he yelled at the rival captain.
"We're firing on the Black Pearl, pirate," Captain Erif spat.
"Quit blowing holes in my ship!" Jack Sparrow yelled, tackling the unfortunate captain to the ground. They struggled for a moment before Scaggs jumped in and pinned Jack to the deck, just as Anamaria had done to Brian. "Yeh've got to let me go, mate, or I'll scuttle this ship faster than you can say 'pirate,'"
"You can' scuttle this ship. You'd be dead before yeh did the deed," Scaggs threatened menacingly.
"Ropes!" yelled Twigs, ducking as the stout man swung over his head.
"Gibbs, mate, thought you'd never make it," Sparrow said gratefully.
"Stay away, pirate," said Captain Erif. "You don't know what you're dealing with, messing with me and my crew. We have nothing you'd want."
"Aye, except the most luxurious ship in the Caribbean, according to the rumors floating around out here on the ocean," said Sparrow, earning himself a jab from Scaggs's pistol.
"And the bearings to your namesake, from what your crew told me," said Gibbs.
"Crew? Which crew?" Erif turned and bellowed at the crew. "Who told the dirty pirates? Step up before I shoot each and every one of you and make you our food supply."
"It was him," said Gibbs, pointing. "And his four friends. They told us of every single detail of your little escapade."
The rest of the crew backed away, leaving the five burly crew members Brian had always felt dubious about standing in a half-circle all by themselves. Captain Erif strode over to them, undoubtedly to tell them off, but Scaggs got there first. "You traitors!" he yelled, drawing his sword. The leader, who Brian supposed was Thomas's father, followed suit.
"Scaggs! This really isn't the time-"
"Ah, but I think it is, mate."
Captain Erif turned and found the tip of another sword pointing at the bridge of his nose. Jack Sparrow was standing before him, smirking as if he had already won. Captain Erif retreated and drew his own sword, as did Gibbs, who proceeded to release his fellow pirates out of their bondage. In all the confusion as swords flew and glinted in the harsh sunlight, Brian slipped unnoticed into the library.
To his surprise, he found Thomas. "What are you doing here?" he said accusingly, drawing his short blade that the captain had given him on instinct.
"I think the better question is, what're you doin' here?"
"I'm escaping from those bloody pirates. Your father sold us all out!"
"Not all of us, mate. You, maybe. Yer beloved captain and his first mate, maybe. But I'm sailin' away on the Black Pearl tonight, mate, with me father and his friends."
Brian saw it now. Thomas, his father, and his friends had been planning this from the beginning. "You are a traitor," he said quietly, gritting his teeth. "You've known we were going to get attacked by pirates, didn't you? Didn't you?"
"Aye, mate. Glad yeh figured it out so soon. Also glad I didn't come in here without this." He extracted a pistol from the folds in his tattered shirts. Brian considered stabbing the boy who had betrayed them all, along with his father, but that would be risking too much. Thomas could shoot him before he died, and then they'd both be dead. As if in a dream, he heard a familiar voice call out, "Where's the lad?" and open the door. Jack Sparrow stood framed in the doorway. "Tom, lad, what're you doing?" he yelled, diving for the scrawny pirate lad. Before Thomas hit the ground, he let a bullet fly from the pistol he still held in his right hand. It hit Brian in the side. The pain was horrific and it wouldn't end. Brian slid to the ground for the second time that day, and possibly for the last.
~*~*~*~*~
Thomas had just left Elanor for a couple minutes when she heard a gunshot. Not even thinking about what the consequences might be, Elanor leapt out of bed and shot through the secret tunnel. If it was Captain Erif, and he died, she would be thrown off or given as a peace offering to those pirates. If it was Brian-Elanor kept on running.
Throwing open the carefully hidden doorway, Elanor hit something that was trying to stand. It was Thomas, and he was sent sprawling on his stomach again. She ignored him and instead rushed to the pale figure on the floor. "Brian! Brian! Answer me!" The blood was seeping through a hole in his shirt and staining the wooden floor. "Wake up," she said, tears forming in her eyes. "Wake up."
"I don't think he'll wake, lassie, not for a while yet anyway," said a voice behind her. Elanor turned and screamed. "Not to worry, lassie, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl, and you are-?"
"Why won't he wake?" she asked, blinking hard. She was not going to cry in front of Brian's murderer.
"Because he's shot, lass."
"I realized that," she retorted. "Why did you shoot him?"
"Me? Who said I shot him? It was this one, here, the backstabbing traitor." He jerked a thumb at Thomas, who was again attempting to get to his feet. "I agreed with him and his dad in Tortuga that there wouldn't be any injuries, unless completely necessary. Ain't that right, lad?"
"It was necessary," Thomas said, not looking at Elanor, but instead locking eyes with Jack Sparrow. "He drew a sword on me."
"I saw you, boy, you were ready to kill him, regardless of our agreement. A fine pirate you'd make, mate, but not a good man. You'll be hanged by your enemies someday, you will, boy."
Captain Erif, followed by Scaggs, Twigs, Gibbs, and the five surly men, entered the library. "Who shot? Who was shot?" Gibbs demanded, looking around at Brian. "The lad! Who did it? Was it you, Jack?"
"Nay, Gibbs, not me, that little worm over there. Your son, sir," he said, addressing the leader of the traitors.
"So what if he did? Can any of you prove it?" the man said.
"I saw it," Jack said. "Your son, sir, is a miserable little rat!"
The man didn't seem to know how to take this. He drew his sword, his rage going unchecked. Sparrow drew his own sword as well. Captain Erif grabbed Elanor by the shoulders and pulled her to a corner. "You've broken our agreement, you have."
"No, I haven't. He never saw me. He was." She couldn't bring herself to say dead. ".like that when I got here. So our bargain stands."
"True, lass. But will he ever have the chance to see you again?" The captain moved over to the pale storyteller and put his hand over his mouth. "He's breathing. It's shallow, but it's coming. Our doctor can't do much for him; we've got to get to the nearest port city as quickly as possible. I don't know which one it is, though."
Nearby, Jack and the man were locked in a stalemate of a swordfight. Slowly, the balance began to tip to favor Jack, but soon the man was breathing a pungent stench in Sparrow's face while Jack was on his back, his breath almost as shallow as Brian's. "So you're going to kill me?" Jack choked. "Just my last great adventure. But you, sir, you're going to have to live with the fact that you killed the legendary Jack Sparrow, almost as fantastical as the Gold Flame itself. What exactly did you plan to do once the Black Pearl caught up with your ship?"
"I planned to hold you and the other captain prisoner, along with the rest of the crew, and take these ships with Walters's bearings to claim the Gold Flame for meself. Then I would've disposed of you." He grinned maliciously, and Jack counted four gold teeth.
"But what are you going to do now? You kill me and my crew will have you in chains before you can say 'rum.' Aye, mate?"
"Aye, Jack," Gibbs responded.
The man considered this, which for Elanor seemed to take a long time. "I'll let you live. For now. You, girl, where did yeh come from?"
Elanor's eyes widened, and she looked pleadingly up at Captain Erif. "Me and the lass have a bargain that the boy is never to see her," he said. "You can understand a verbal contract, can't you?"
"He's a backstabbing traitor, mate. What about that don't you understand?" Sparrow said.
"Aye, a verbal contract. But she won' see him if she's at the bottom of the ocean, now, will she?"
Elanor's breath caught in her throat, and John Erif stepped in front of her. "You'll have to throw me over, too."
"I believe that can be arranged."
Elanor shook her head vigorously. "No, they need you. You can't be thrown off. There's still time to get rid of these mutineers before you reach Mirage Island or the nearest port city."
"The nearest port city?" Jack Sparrow repeated, looking around. "Why, that's Port Royal! I haven't been there for nigh on ten years! No one would give me a warm welcome, see, and." He trailed off as the man poked him with the handle of his sword.
"Out. Out of this library, every one of yeh!" the man ordered. "Except the dead one." They grudgingly obliged, each thinking of any way to regain control of the ship. Once outside, they squinted for a moment in the bright sunlight before a woman's voice sounded.
"You fools! Get them!"
It was Anamaria, flying through the air on a rope from the Black Pearl. With one swift movement, she hit Thomas's father on the back of the head with her pistol, and he fell, hanging precariously over the edge of the ship. Elanor thought that one quick push would be enough to knock him into the ocean before the four others and Thomas advanced on her and Captain Erif. Gibbs stuck one in the leg with his sword and another he threw a punch at, which landed squarely on the man's jaw. Twigs reached for the nearest man's foot and sent him sprawling on the ground, dazed. He quickly tied him up.
All that was left was Thomas and one more man. That one shoved Captain Erif out of the way and held his pistol to Elanor's head. "Not one move or the lass gets it," he warned.
By now the whole crew of both ships had gathered. No one wanted Elanor to be shot, even if they had no idea who she was. "You lowly, stinking, cowardly pirate scum," Captain Erif spat. "Threatening a lady, and a child at that. This is low."
"Don't do it, Bill!" Thomas cried suddenly. "Don't you dare shoot her!"
"What business is this of yers? If yeh hadn't shot the whelp, we would've taken control over both ships by now, yeh miniature fool!"
"You shoot her and I'll shoot you," Thomas warned, drawing his pistol again.
"Aye, but she'll still be dead, now, won't she? Take yer pick carefully now, lad. Yeh want her dead or be dead with her?"
Thomas stepped forward. There was a sound of a gunshot and a bloodcurdling scream.
