Chapter Thirty: I Plan to Break Your Spirit
She continued to stare blankly at him, her mouth wide open. How had he escaped? The last she knew, he had earned himself a sentence of being locked up for life due to his madness! Her mother had told her the whole story about how she had defeated Amos and how her father had been locked up because he had gone insane shortly after.
Looks like it might be a genetic thing, a wry little voice whispered in her ear. She shook her head and looked at her grandfather again.
"So, I finally see my only granddaughter. I would likely have more grandchildren if your whore of a mother hadn't gotten my son hanged," he said in an emotionless voice. Reanna boiled with anger when he called her mother a whore. "And then there's that witch, Amara. She always encouraged your mother, you know, and I'm sure that your mother received her whorishness from her. I do hope the governor sees Amara for what she really is."
"My mother and my grandmother are not whores," Reanna said through clenched teeth.
"Then there's your father, Jack Sparrow. The bloody pirate had the nerve to threaten me--twice!" Arthur didn't seem to have noticed that Reanna spoke, but continued speaking, getting more feverish with each statement. "Ah, but wait! I do have another grandchild!" he said gleefully.
Reanna stared at him with disgust and a morbid sense of curiosity.
"William the third, he's called, but he's no child of Will Turner, no. He's my dead son's child by Elizabeth!"
Reanna's eyes widened involuntarily. Little William was her mother's nephew? He was her cousin? She had long known that he looked nothing like his father, and even little like his mother, but she hadn't had any idea that he was someone else's son altogether! Briefly she wondered if he knew that, but the thought vanished when Arthur spoke again.
"Why isn't this little slut wearing the dress I laid out for her? Why is she standing before me, when she should be kneeling? Did you not hear my orders?"
"I did, sir, but she overpowered me," she heard Devon say slightly behind her.
"That dratted seer...I shall have to punish him for not giving her the right dosage of the drug. But that still leaves no excuse for you! You conceived of the plan that brought her to me, but you still haven't quite convinced me that she held you against your will."
"I want to know," she said loudly, and Arthur stopped speaking in shock, "why the bloody hell you've been searching for me. I want to know why you killed my father. And I want to know what exactly it is you plan on doing to me so that I can tell you precisely how I'm going to foil your plans."
Arthur snarled, his face nearly unrecognizable in the animal-like visage it had taken on. "I DID NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO SPEAK!" he roared.
"I DON'T BLOODY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR PERMISSION, ANSWER MY QUESTIONS NOW OR I'LL HAVE TO SET YOUR HOUSE ABLAZE WITH YOU IN IT!" she roared back, and he took a step backwards, his eyes wide with disbelief.
He overcame his shock quickly, however, and said quite calmly, "Fine, I shall answer your questions, even though there is no fire for you to set to my home." She would have told him what she could do, but Devon put a hand on her elbow, shaking his head when she glanced at him. Furiously, she glared at Arthur and awaited his explanations.
"Why have I been searching for you, you ask?" he began. "Your mother was beyond my reach. I could have done nothing to her that would have had any effect on her. The same thing goes with Amara. Besides, I'd seen how Arianne looked at you sometimes, with such jealousy plain on her face. I decided that I would instead endeavor to capture you so that I might torture you into the proper subservience owed by women to men."
Reanna snorted loudly, conveying her scorn for the last statement.
Arthur glared at her, but continued on, "Your father--if he even was your father--wasn't killed by any plan of mine, though he would have eventually died anyway. The seer did that on his own, though I had no objection to it when I found out. It brought you to us that much sooner, so it appears.
"What do I plan to do with you? I plan to break your spirit, you wretched little girl. You should be on your knees before a man, not playing at being a pirate captain. Your parents raised you very badly," he said, sounding disapproving as he shook his head.
"I have another question," Reanna stated. "How the bloody hell did you get out of your cell in Port Royal?"
He laughed. "There's no need to be telling you something so trivial as that." He snapped his fingers then, and a man came into the room. "Take them to the dungeon again and have the seer punish them until they feel ready to bend to my will."
"Yes, sir," the man replied, then grabbed Devon's elbow but missed hers as she jerked out of the way.
"I'll not be going back down there, Arthur," she said coolly.
He laughed loudly at her little show of defiance, but as quickly as the laughter had started it stopped, and he glared at her. "You will do as I say, woman, and you'll not complain." Then, speaking to the guard he had brought in, he said, "Make sure the seer gives her a heavier dose of the potion he gave her earlier."
The guard nodded and reached for her again, but again she stepped out of his grasp.
Arthur's eyes were cold with fury now and he walked up to her, his face on level with hers as she stared defiantly at him. Faster than she would have believed possible, his hand shot up and across her face, knocking her to the side a couple of steps. The guard made another move to grab her, but she gave him a look that spelled death should he touch her, and he backed away.
**
Devon stood still, allowing his elbow to be held by the guard. He was vastly amused by the man's attempts to get a hold of Reanna, and when she gave him that deadly glare, he barely restrained himself from laughing out loud.
The handprint on her face was stark white against her very flushed cheeks. Her eyes seemed to spit sparks, and the fireplace burst into roaring flames, candlewicks all around the room flaring to life, but fire did not consume the house. Not yet, he thought. He knew from experience that her skin would feel like a hot stove if he were to touch it now.
Arthur simply stared at her with hatred in his eyes, as though he hadn't noticed the fire that had sprung to life. She took a step to face him again, and his lip curled in a sneer. When he lifted his hand to slap her again, she caught his wrist long before his hand reached her face.
She squeezed it tightly, and for the first time Arthur seemed to notice the pain she was causing him. Skin blackened on his arm and the smell of burning flesh permeated the room, and the temperature was rising steadily.
The guard that held his arm fled the room, leaving Devon to stand there and watch as Reanna, glaring into her grandfather's eyes, burned the flesh off of his lower arm.
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Elkengrove: Hey, glad you liked the chapter!
Rin: Good, you have started reading Arianne...when you finish it, you'll understand Arthur Bailey considerably better.
The story's almost finished, I can feel it! And...I'm considering writing yet a fourth story involving Reanna's destiny being fulfilled...let me know what you guys think.