Hello all!
I apologize for the hiatus again. I've been home, but back into the grind of work which for my job hits the height of hell preparing for halloween.
Thank you for reading along, and I appreciate every single word of kindness & criticism I receive!
Listen to Coming Down by Halsey for this chapter.
please let me know what you think!
-g.
The late day sun was finally waning away from the hellish temperatures that had tortured the crew of the Jackdaw for hours upon hours.
The crew had list fully went about their daily chores, until every single man had nothing more to perform, resigned to simply take up space on the deck waiting in the stagnant heat for a sign.
Even the very sea seemed to be holding its breath in anticipation, and similar to its quieted waves lapping gently against the hull, Liete's face matched in shade with her own lack of breath.
Giddy thoughts of death whispered behind her eyes, thinking sadistically of the down trodden faces the men around her would show if their captain failed. How long would it take before they'd come for her, hungry and angry calling witch and black magic to use and throw her to the depths below?
She was no fool, and although they gave her a semblance of normalcy with their greetings this morn, when simple men feared, they became violent and malicious.
Her entire being was the product of such men.
Sitting primly with her legs tucked under her railing seat keeping her balanced, Liete felt beads of sweat slide one by one down her cleavage, the nape of her neck drenched. The white underdress damp underneath her arms, and against her stomach where the rolling sweat pooled. Her skin itched with her own salt products and the heavy air cooking her ever so slowly.
Liete had watched Edward as he disappeared above the ruins, into the thick expanse of forestry. With the eyes of a hawk, she'd watched as he hesitated for only a moment once he'd pulled himself free from the crumbling ruins. He'd never stopped moving even as a set of stairs he'd tried gave beneath his fingers. Similar to a panther, he moved with agility as he threw his body weight to grasp onto an edge that was barely within his reach continuing on as if he hadn't almost plunged to his death.
Not even near death had made him hesitate, but as her age-old eyes watched him close, he took his moment, his form heaving with a steady breath.
A moment was all he could afford, and without a glance back down at the now small ship, he'd set off at a brisk jog disappearing right away.
When he'd gone from her vision, Liete had moved her perch to return by Drew's side, the pit within her chest widening till she could have swallowed every soul around her whole.
Drew had flashed her another innocent toothless smile offering her the end of sail he had been in the process of rolling by himself.
"Dis ain't too hard miss, none a'tall." Liete grasped the thick white cloth, her body giving off a shiver as she opened her mouth, taking longer than she'd anticipated to speak once more.
"I'm not fragile Drew, no need to hand me a child's task."
The man looked sheepish right away and grabbed at the sheet trying to pull it away sharply, stumbling over his words.
"I don' think yur a chil' miss Liete, nawta' bit. Lemme take un's, and get cha anythin' yur wantin'" A wave of guilt washed over Liete, and an anger, directed towards herself made her pearly cheeks now burned red, a shade of deep crimson.
She didn't want to upset Drew, he had nothing to do with her own mind, and as simple as he was it was the cruelest thing she would ever do to treat him as she did all other.
He above all deserved kindness from her, and would be the only one.
Pulling a smile from deep within the cavern of her soul, stashed in a river bed filled with death's presence, Liete held firm to the sail with one hand, her other patting one of Drew's humongous paws sweetly.
"I much prefer this task Drew, I'm tired and it is exactly what I want to do while I sit and rest." The light that returned to his eyes was enough to make the conjured smile genuine as he scrambled forward to pull a wooden case full of small cannon balls effortlessly for her to take a seat.
Without another word, Drew found himself a bucket and brush, plopping down near Liete to begin scrubbing a cannon of any debris left by their recent battle.
It was a comfortable stance, and Liete found peace in the quiet of the moment. She'd been subjugated to silence for so much of her life, stewing in her own thoughts driving her mad till she no longer had thoughts, and simply became the madness, that to find any silence peacefully felt impossible.
Yet, as she watched the giant of a child join in the humming of the crew as they all went about their business, her hands working slowly and carefully to roll the sheets perfectly, she found it.
With peace, came the clear thoughts she hadn't had in years, akin to a human being.
What would she do when she reached land and civilization again? She wouldn't be able to be as she was now, taken care of and kept in a cell. She'd be free..
Not free, her mind whispered shakily leaving a lasting burn across her mind, just a different cell.
It was true. Now she'd need to follow rules, someone's rules. Women's, societies, kings, governors… a new set for wherever she found herself. At least in her cage, she'd been able to fight against the bars with a sense of superiority to consequence, now to do so may result in the ending of her existence.
There was also the every looming discovery of her lineage, of the blood she shared that every single man alive wanted a part of.
"You've finished the task woman, careful not to strip it." Liete could have hocked the bile that rose in her throat from the sickly sweet tone Teach's words brought.
Glancing to Drew in front of her, whose content expression changed rapidly to narrowed eyes and lips thinned as the older man sauntered near the cannon Drew had just finished to place his boot heel against its frame.
He had a style, Liete would give Teach that. He thought more of himself that he should, but it amused her that for all her tongue lashings, he was still running back for me.
He was no Kenway, but damn all to the depths he was an odd charming cad.
Placing the rolled sail to the side of her makeshift seat, Liete made a show of tucking her legs to her right, her hands resting properly on her knee as she offered a small smile to Drew who looked ready to step between her and the rogue pirate captain.
"I don't believe you have ever been able to say that to a woman before, ."
Drew broke out into a large goofy grin, his brush still rasping against the metal of the cannons, but at such a lackluster speed he might as well have stopped since his full attention was on the lady and captain before him.
To Drew, Ms. Liete looked like a regal queen whenever she spoke to the captains who told him what to do. She'd never let them tell her what she should do. He'd never seen someone so out of place in his world of unwashed men, and slop. Yet as she pinned the pirate captain, nicely dressed in a jacket of black and with silver lines and accents in nothing but a dirty slip, with a droll bored look, Drew felt pride towards the little woman. He didn't have to protect her in her royal world.
He giddily thought to himself that was a good thing because he didn't know anything about noble things.
Teach grinned darkly as he scuffed his shoe against the wooden frame, glancing over to the island shore quipping as quick as lightning.
"Not a, woman, such as yourself at least."
"I take that to mean men then? For I don't see how any two women have any differences in that department."
Liete treated the banter with a complimentary yawn, as she batted her eyes at Teach. The mercury behind her eyelids slid back and forth in waves, interested in this form of torture the man to her right kept subjugated himself to.
Teach roared with laughter, drawing more eyes than necessary. Teach pulled his leg from its elevated position and moved closer to her with a swagger in his fine clothes.
He was the opposite to Kenway's entire being, and as intriguing Liete found him, something made her very wary of his movements as he entered her personal area.
Her madness roared anew, as her eyes hardened her neck staying still, refusing to look up at any man. If he wished to speak with her, he'd need to come to her level.
"Darling, you are something new aren't ya? No one will tell me your maiden name, and you speak with the lilt that only money can buy. Yet, here we sit-" He motioned to the deck next to her which she only glanced from the side, her gaze transfixed forward on Drew's ever changing expression as Teach suddenly plunked down next to her. "-together on the Caribbean waves. How you got to be here is a story I'd love to hear."
Liete's mouth curved in a vicious smile similar more to a snarl, before tossing her hair thick with sea spray and tangles of her shoulder.
Her hardened eyes stilled as her voice dropped a few octaves, hissing calmly and quietly.
"I took a pair of eyes, hoping to change them for my own." Turning her head sharply, her body jerking sharply and inhumanely as her snarl upturned to show a bit of her gums. Wolf like, feral. "See, mine seem to unsettle everyone, servants and family alike. I thought a new pair might make me more approachable."
Teach's eyes grew wide, and his brow furrowed. If he had been just an ounce of a lesser man, he would have been leaning back away from the sadistic siren twisting before him. He could feel the ice that dropped within his veins the moment her mysterious mercury gaze stilled bringing goosebumps to his skin.
Her siren's song had ended, and she was bringing death now.
The insanity she gave him now, was horrifying, and inspiring. Fear of insanity ruled the hearts of men, as she ruled his in this moment.
Liete licked her teeth, running her tongue along her canines for a few moments, suddenly snapping her teeth shut drawing an invisible shiver down Teach's back.
"It didn't work, you see Mr. Teach."
Drawing her lips together to hide the ghastly smile she etched now into his brain, the mask of a pout took over her lips making the beautiful woman before him look as innocent as spring once more.
"So, I am here on the Caribbean looking for a new set. Care to be the next supplier?"
Teach couldn't speak for once in his life.
He'd been a privateer, he'd seen men gut each other over last scraps of food, loose woman fight for coins rolling in the muck of the street. Children mangled from bouts of scurvy, and diseased mothers. He had hardened his heart and thoughts long before this moment.
Liete shook his core as she watched him with dead eyes, daring him to respond to her inquiry.
Liete's face broke out in a laughing smile, giving Teach a wink with one eye before turning away from him completely holding a hand out to the giant who guarded her.
"Drew, can you help me up? I think I need to find some water." The man instantly stood, pulling the slight woman up with no force as he ushered them away from the silent captain.
As Liete moved further away from him, Teach felt his ability to breathe return as he silently panted with effort.
He held no recollection on how long he sat there on the deck of the Jackdaw, lost within himself and his thoughts.
Liete after finding fresh water, had resumed her post on the railing near the ships wheel, as the sun moved closer to the west.
Two roars from the east brought all eyes in that direction, as flocks of sea birds erupted from the island they anchored by.
Liete's chest filled with relief, as the signal they'd all been waiting for set all hands and bodies into action.
Adewale erupted in a storm from within the captain's quarters, his bellows sending the entire ship into a frenzy.
The two other ships anchored nearby were in a similar sense of panic, and like something out a god whisper, the winds around them picked up in a fury.
Sails were thrown open and strung up with rope in moments, as Liete slid from her post as Ade took station at the wheel. Drew would been lurking nearby now worked nearly single handed to pull the anchor from its depths. The ship groaned with effort, as men yelled back and forth and life sprung a new from the seemingly dried up pirates.
Teach finally stood from his sitting place, with not a single word, striding to the railing of the Jackdaw, grasping onto one of the few ropes secured for swinging onto captured ships. With a grasp of the rope, and a rough push from the Jackdaw, he swung effortlessly to land on the deck of his already moving ship. Releasing the rope and striding with determination towards his own ships helm.
Liete watched him carefully as his ship pulled away steadily, the Jackdaw following suit quickly. The swagger she'd stripped from his very bones returned full force as Teach barked signals to his crew, standing tall as a heady grin of excitement broke across his face.
That man is a rogue, she thought fondly... of all things.
Careful not to be in any man's way as the sails were pulled open and tied to posts, the crew worked like a fluid machine as they began a quick wave riding pace towards the mouth of the island. Liete looped an arm around the posts on the staircase between the deck and the helm of the Jackdaw, her breath catching.
The man who'd sounded the alarm after nearly an entire day causing them all to race forwards created a battle within her rage as they drew closer.
She wanted nothing more than to see him, and nothing more than to disappear and leave him to his own devices.
They lived in a time of quiet servitude from woman, and blatant ignorance fueled trysts from men and that was from the noble men no less.
She'd seen as a young girl the way her mother's pursed lip came whenever her father excused himself from their presence to drink with the men of court. Liete would lie awake in hopes to see her father's carriage light ramble through the darkness on his way home. She'd never catch it, sleep would catch her before she could catch him.
Even as a teenager, she'd promised herself a life better than a woman watching out windows for a carriage light. She'd wanted passion, and poetry. Adventures through parks, and parties thrown in her honor. Liete had wished for the moon, a man to circle her as did moon to earth, his entire existence rising and setting over her lands and seas.
Innocent, and sweet musings of a young lady. Now in the twilight of her life, she had become the moon. Watching as people rose and fell to her movements, tides washing away and bringing forth new life from the tip of her tongue but… always distant. There was no space for moons in humans' lives, the moon is only there to remind them fleetingly that something was bringing change to time and to life, otherwise left forgotten.
Liete didn't want to be a forgotten moon, she didn't want to be deaths sunset only to be discarded when he meant to rise once more.
But, she wanted him. She wanted the fine lines brought on by harsh days of sunlight, she relished the pout of his lips whenever he thought something amusing. Liete wanted the banter and intoxication of this that seeped into her with each passing look.
The chaos they together created, setting and rising, was catastrophic and it was music.
Days of pirate life had brought more intense passion, than she'd seen in years of royal life & imprisonment.
Could she forsake the royalty that ran through her blood, a life she'd only known, for rotten food, sunburns, and unwashed months?
Her thoughts stilled as the Jackdaw rounded the islands cove edge sharply as the crew leaned with the force.
The cove that opened before her was breathtaking in the fading sun, lighting the small thatched roofs nestled on the shore leading up into the dark forest. It was picturesque, as most areas were in the Caribbean, but more so only because instead of the common settlements that slashed and burned the original terrain to make way for itself, this settlement looked as if it had grown itself into the island.
Taking over the small harbor was the immense galleon they'd been originally chasing, sails partially wrapped away, stilled now and guiltless as opposed to its fiery performance from before.
As they sped closer, she could see the outline of death, unmistakable now to her, leaning against the middle railing of the large monstrosity, its deck eerily empty from what she could see.
Liete found that she'd been wringing the hands she'd wrapped against the railing, warping them against the wood, her heart jumping against the very bones of her rib cage.
Ade bellowed with such a force Liete was sure her own body shook with it, raising a single fist in the air. The crew remained oddly silent, as the Jackdaw drew alongside the galleon with a skillful manning by Adewale.
Kenway stood tall now, and thrust his own fist in the air calling back with triumph dripping from his words, his clothes and hands covered in slick glistening blood.
"The cove is ours!"
As if given permission the crew let up a cry of joy, whooping amongst each other, a few men even shaking hands with grins plastered to their burnt faces.
Liete hadn't pulled her hands away from the railing and as the moments passed, her eyes trained on Edward, watching for his carriage, her soul held its breath as he turned away from the outward railing, to move towards the opposite side facing into the cove to hoist himself over the side.
Viciously tearing her hands away from the wood, Liete stomped to their own railing as the ship slowly now slid into the makeshift dock near the galleon. She scrambled up with the help of ropes above her, standing above the water now, her eyes lit with the rage she'd been internally battling.
Just as she meant to jump from the ships edge to the now approaching dock, she found Kenway striding nonchalantly towards their dock, having been hidden on the dock by the large expanse of ship he'd just conquered.
His swords had been sheathed now, and his hands swayed easy at his side, a cocky lilt lighting up his face, stilling her own fire.
Kenway couldn't have imagined a prettier picture if he'd been given years. Liete looked, well she looked pretty damn dazzling. Her hair out of its braid, whipped back and forth in the wind, catching the sun turning it into a halo of fire. Her alabaster skin now held a small tan, her fragile nose crimson as well. The slip dress hugged her ankles and with her arms outstretched holding onto the rigging on his ship, Kenway had the distinct feeling of coming home.
With that thought Edward broke out into a full out grin, as he came to stride along the docking Jackdaw his gaze never wavering from Liete's. With this endeavor, he'd found the solution to all his problems. At least those dealing with the queenly woman pinning him with a heated look so potent his inside began to boil.
As the Jackdaw finally stilled, Edward reached his arms up motioning for Liete to jump into his embrace, aching with need. Need to feel her skin, her weight.
The woman gave a laugh, and using the now slacked rigging, instead jumped gracefully to the deck beside him, landing with the touch of a feather. It took only a moment for her to compose herself before she set off at a skipping like pace, her laughter echoing in the cove as Kenway watched after her, snared.