Chapter Sixteen: The Chase Is On!
"Captain!" called one of the crew members of the Lady Pandora. Devon turned away from his ale and thoughts of Reanna to look at the distraught pirate.
"Yes, what is it?" he asked in irritation.
"Well, sir, remember how ye told me to get ye the momen' the Pearl left the 'arbor?" the man asked.
"Yes," Devon replied slowly.
"Well...I bin searchin' fer ye for the past half hour, by me reckonin', to tell ye that the Pearl just left this mornin'. O' course, that was half an hour ago."
Devon stared at the man for a long moment, and then burst into a frenzy of cursing. Throwing a coin on the counter, he rushed out of the bar and ran as quickly as he could to his ship, his subordinate huffing along behind him.
He started calling orders to his crew the moment his foot touched the gangplank, telling them to make way as quickly as they could to try and catch the Black Pearl. He stood at the helm, thinking grimly that it would be quite the chase to catch up to that ship. But they couldn't have gone much farther than the bay, he thought. He abruptly called out an order for the oars to be manned. They would have to use every resource they had, even if it meant exhausting the oar crew. The boarding could be handled well enough with the rest of his men.
"Damn, she must have found out who I am," he groaned to himself. "Not that I made my identity much of a bloody secret in Tortuga. Blast!"
The Lady Pandora moved far more swiftly out of the bay than the Pearl had, and for all that the Pearl was the fastest ship in these waters, she wasn't a very quick starter. Perhaps there was some hope of catching up, Devon thought hopefully.
Especially if a certain few people remained loyal to him.
**
"Damn it all!" Reanna shouted, in a fine fury. "That's the bloody Lady Pandora! Can we not get any more speed?!"
"No, Captain, we can't!" Ana Maria shouted back. "Half the oarsmen are drunk off their arses!"
"Bloody hell, I hate Tortuga!" Reanna muttered. "Tell them to get to work right away, headache or not, it's their own blasted fault that they drank too much, and now they can pay for it!"
Ana Maria nodded and went belowdeck to bully the oarsmen into action, but Reanna knew that it would be of little use. She looked through the telescope to the Lady Pandora, which was disturbingly closer than it should have been, and figured that Devon was working his crew of oarsmen to the bone to catch up to her.
But none of this makes sense! her mind cried. Why would he bring me back to my ship only to chase me out into open waters?!
For a moment she felt her headache begin to come back, but she ignored the pain. There was no time for her to be feeling miserable, she had to prepare herself for what was likely going to be quite the battle. Hell, what was the point in even running? The Lady Pandora was going to catch up, it was inevitable. Perhaps, though, if she could find a favorable position, maybe get the element of surprise...she yelled, "Turn hard about! We're going to meet them and show them what the Pearl is made of!"
Some of the crew cheered before getting back to the hard work of preparing the ship for boarding and loading the cannons.
"I'm not going to be caught off guard, Devon," she whispered under her breath, loosing her sword in its sheath and making sure her pistol was ready.
**
"Damn--" Devon started to say, and then shouted, "They've turned about, get your worthless hides ready! Run out the guns!"
He roared a few more commands before staring out at the fast approaching Pearl. The girl's clever, I'll give her that. But she hasn't had any captaining experience before now, if my guess is correct. Of course, I do still have the advantage--she doesn't know about my spies yet.
"Why the bloody hell aren't you lot getting ready?!" she asked the group of four or five men.
One grinned widely at her, as though he was amused by her anger. "Because we ain't gonna fight. Leastways not for you."
"Bloody hell," she cursed under her breath. "You're Devon's spies, aren't you?" she snarled.
"Yup, and there ain't a damned thing ye can do about it, since the Pandora's approachin' right quickly," the same person that first spoke said.
Reanna let fly a kick to the man's chin and drew her sword, lopping his head off in a swift motion. "Nothing I can do about it, eh?" she growled at the remaining men. They backed away, seeming to be frightened at the anger that sparked from Reanna's eyes. Before they could jump ship, she stabbed one of them in the heart and cut into the stomachs of two of the others. The first slumped to the deck, blood pooling in his mouth as he died, and the other two shrieked in pain as they tried to hold their guts in with their hands.
The last man, unharmed as of yet, stood stock-still, staring at her in horror. "Take him to the brig, and make sure he's securely bound!" she shouted to anyone that would listen. Mr. Cotton appeared and took the man away.
Satisfied that her orders would be followed by one of her father's most loyal--and blessedly silent, even if his parrot was bloody obnoxious--crew members, she noticed that the Pandora was nearly beside them and called for the anchor to be dropped. She had no qualms about killing the bloody spies.
A couple of men dumped the four corpses off the side of the ship so they wouldn't be underfoot for the fighting that was surely to come.
**
Devon had been watching the approach of the Pearl in his telescope and had noticed that there seemed to be some action going on. Focusing in on it, his mouth gaped open in surprise when he saw what Reanna was doing. She was killing his men! But...how did she know? How had she found out?
He shook his head, amused. So she was even more clever than he had thought. Amazing woman, that one, and he grew even more reluctant to take her to his employer. Hmm...perhaps there was a way...
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Nikkee: Hey, I was wondering where you'd disappeared to! It's fine that it took you a while to catch up...I've sort of been writing so fast that it's probably been a bit difficult for everyone to keep up with me. Thank you so much for that lovely compliment, a craftsman (or woman) is always pleased to hear that his/her work is appreciated! ^.^
Rin: How did they ship Jack out to sea? Well, the funeral itself was held on the Pearl, and Jack's body was commended to the sea. So he's at the bottom of Davey Jones' locker or he's in some sea creature's belly! Thanks for the review!
Elkengrove: Lol, so glad you approve of Devon's name...sounds properly mysterious, don't you agree? Not to mention that your own name is Devan...lol! Thanks for the review!