Chapter Twenty-Two: Crossing the Abyss

Sasame

It was unusual for him to stay afterwards. I narrowed my eyes as I watched him sleeping far too peacefully beside me. I knelt down and bit him hard on his lip, and he awoke with a yelp.

"There's work to do, first mate," I snapped.

His eyes focused out of his sleep-induced haze. I frowned. He had been far too aggressive yesterday, enough so that I knew he was hiding something. But it would be only a matter of time before I knew what that was. This was my ship after all.

He wordlessly rose and dressed, finding the articles of clothing he had shed so quickly and shamelessly last night. I had not dared to question it last night—that he had come to me himself—but now doubt twisted within me like a knife.

This man would be the undoing of me.

But I did not linger long on idle sentiments. There were preparations to be done for the journey across the Atlantic. It had been many years, but Hayate and I were returning to that cesspit of a city we once called home, and not as the poor weaklings we had been when we left, but as those with power and wealth.

Shortly after Hayate had left my cabin, I made my way onto deck to survey the work in progress. While my first and second mates were capable men, they were as error-prone as any. Hayate's oversight had cost the Pretear her main mast during the last storm we had encountered. And Kei's lack of involvement had allowed that joke of a mutiny to proceed as far as it did. No, if I wanted this voyage to go smoothly, I needed to monitor every detail.

As I made my rounds, I smirked as I felt more than saw the boatswain's shudder as I passed. She stood up and limped her way across the deck. Had Hayate turned abusive towards his little pet? It seemed unlikely, but the thought amused me all the same.

Looking around at my crew, I could tell they were getting complacent. They were dragging their feet from one chore to the next, tying sloppy knots. And there was only one way to get these simpletons to work.

I pulled out my pistol and released the safety. Although I loathed to part with a member of the crew—every capable hand being so essential for a transatlantic journey—incompetence and sloth was not permitted aboard my ship. Without a moment's hesitation, I aimed my pistol at a particularly inept seaman who had made a mess of the rigging and fired. All hands on deck froze at the sound, saw the dead man and sprung back into action.

Of the many captains I had encountered of both the pirate and privateer variety, many of them barked orders with the culture of an uncivilized dog that had learned to speak. I did not believe in words. They were empty, full of promise yet resulting in no action. And so uncouth. I had vowed since my debut as captain that I would never raise my voice, and that I would still effectively convey the discipline I expected aboard the Pretear.

By midmorning, she was looking ready to sail. A fresh southeasterly wind signaled a good omen for the onset of the voyage.

"Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen!" Hayate ordered out to the crew.

I felt the rush of excitement and anticipation I felt at the onset of a long journey. But this time, it was more than just the journey itself that set my blood on fire. It was the reward—the reward I had sought for years—soon to be mine. I did not dare to taste victory upon my lips just yet, but I could sense the hints of her flavor not too far from reach.

I ran my hands over my Pretear's wheel, steering her away from the harbor into the wide ocean ahead. I caught Hayate's gaze for a brief moment and I saw what I surmised was a reflection of my own excitement. And I wanted him all over again…

He had burst into my cabin, strands of his dark hair flying around his face, loose from the tight ponytail that usually held them at bay. His expression was a combination of fury bridled with desire. I looked up from my charts and surveyed him as I took another sip of wine. Without a word, he made his way over to me—yanking me forward by the collar—and crashed his lips onto mine. He was sloppy, urgent and wholly without the respect he should have shown me.

I growled and pushed him off of me hard. He fell backwards onto the table, scattering the charts and the ship figurines that I had painstakingly placed to mark our trajectory and the shipping lanes for merchant vessels. He lay on the table before me, panting as his erect member strained in his breeches. I observed his pathetically desperate self as I continued with my wine with an almost completely detached air. I made no effort to satisfy him—although his need was arousing me as much as it was irritating me—and instead sat back to my charts.

"Sasame, please," he begged.

That was more like it. I growled again, this time in pleasure at hearing him beg. To hear him need me so badly sent a shiver down my spine. I yanked him off the table by his hair and pulled his face towards me.

"Make me interested," I ordered.

He understood immediately—a sign of all the years we had spent together—and moved to my breeches. He unlaced the front and took my member gently, yet urgently into his mouth. I was hardening fast, not from the sloppy technique he was using today, but from the desire pouring out of him in his urgency.

I felt his hand creep around to stroke my behind and knew that today he wanted—no, needed—to take me. Very well, but it would be on my terms.

"Enough with your slobbering. Tell me what it is you want," I snapped as I pulled his head back, freeing his mouth to speak.

"Please let me take you, Sasame," he breathed, his eyes filled with yearning—and something else. I ignored the edge of the unknown in his countenance and grabbed him by his wrists, tossing him carelessly onto the bed.

I slipped a pair of shackles around his wrists and tied the chain attached to them to the head of the bed. He accepted them without struggle, lying on the bed and watching me as I removed his breeches. He was erect and throbbing. I sneered as I shed my garments and shoved my fingers into his mouth.

"Suck it," I ordered, even though he had begun salivating far before I had thrust my fingers into his moist opening. I pushed them farther and farther in until I could feel him almost choke. I quickly pulled them out before he gagged, watching him cough and splutter from the exertion. Smirking, I took my dripping fingers and eased them into my opening, kneading it until it loosened.

"Be grateful for this service," I drawled before shoving the full length of his member inside of me. He moaned in satisfaction as I slid my hips up and down his length, at first slowly and faster as I craved for his heat inside of me. I felt him shudder, close to release, but a quick glance in my direction caused him to bite down hard on his lip, holding himself back before I was ready to release. I was also close—but also didn't want the release. I wanted him trapped within me, I wanted his desire, and I wanted his desperation to remain.

But I could not hold for long. Each thrust was bringing me closer and closer to release. Unable to take it any longer, he thrust his hips hard without warning, causing my vision to go blank. I gasped and clamped down on him as I came, feeling his throbbing and pulsating member spewing inside of me.

And I collapsed onto him, gasping, as I smelled his familiar scent. I reluctantly freed him from the shackles on a foolish whim to feel his arms around me. And as he nuzzled closer to me, he murmured low in my ear, "Thank you."

His gratitude was not what I wanted, but rather the clinging desperation that brought him back to me time after time—whether willingly like last night or otherwise. But this time it had not been a machination of my own invention that had brought him crawling to me. I frowned as I looked into the clear seas ahead. I had a strong suspicion it had to do with that girl because I had made sure he did not—could not—feel attachment to anything other than myself. But somehow that girl…

I banished her from my thoughts. She was insignificant. So what if Hayate was developing an unhealthy obsession with her? She was a toy, nothing more. One that I could wrench out of his hands and break at a moment's notice.

I felt the breeze upon my face and the sharp smell of the ocean and felt free. This was where I belonged, this was where I was the master, and this was my home. I smirked. I was becoming too sentimental and soft. I needed something—or someone—as a challenge. A challenge I could conquer and kill.

It was several weeks into our journey that that wish was satisfied. We had been blessed with fair weather thus far into the journey—many of the superstitious bastards aboard had said that was an ominous omen for the remainder of the passage—but I knew better. It was fortune smiling down upon me, wishing me well as my hard-earned work ripened into fruit.

I frowned as I caught the helmsman fiddling with the sextant. I paused as I thought I caught a glimpse of movement beneath the waters. Our food rations were—for the moment—adequate, but additional fresh food sources were not to be scoffed at.

"Gather half your men to fish in shifts while the other half continues the work on the aft," I said to the boatswain. She nodded swiftly and gave the order.

The first mate, overhearing this, came over to me and commented, "It would be poor fishing in these waters due to these parts lacking nutrition for life."

"But there is something there for the taking," I murmured in a low voice.

He raised an eyebrow in question at me. I jerked my head towards the starboard side. He looked into the water, puzzled, until several moments later he saw a repeat of what I had seen earlier. A ripple breaking the smooth contour of the surface.

He narrowed his eyes but kept silent and I could tell the gears of suspicion were already turning in his mind, as it had the instant I had sensed movement combined with the helmsman confusion.

"Captain, there's something large down there," a crewmember on the port side commented.

I made my way aport and saw another ripple followed by a dark shadow few fathoms below the surface. Something was following the Pretear's progress, something of nontrivial size. My suspicions were confirmed when I confronted the helmsman about the ship's current trajectory.

"I'm steering her as you commanded, sir, but something seems to be throwing her off course," he replied, frowning in confusion.

But there was no further room for confusion in my mind. I turned to Hayate and he nodded in understanding.

"Bring out the harpoons! Load cannons and stand at ready to fire!" he ordered.

The weaponsmaster and the gun crew sprang into action. The girl—the boatswain—barked orders to the crew to move away from fishing to prepping the ship for combat. Young and as seemingly inexperienced as she was, she knew what she was doing when it came to organizing the crew for the sake of the Pretear. That, at least, I would acknowledge.

The weaponsmaster sent confused looks in the direction of the first mate for his seemingly strange orders, but made sure they were followed all the same. There was no ship in sight, so from a simpleton's perspective, his confusion was warranted.

And then the entirety of the ship rocked though the sea was almost perfectly calm. Silence followed the movement, until an idiot I should have disposed of earlier fired a cannon without signal into the water. I struggled to think of reasons why I shouldn't kill the moron immediately as silence followed the firing of the single cannon.

"Cap-captain…" he began shakily, but was interrupted by the sound of an inhumane screeching coming from the depths of the water. A moment later, a colossal serpent burst forth from the surface, its mouth open for another unholy screech.

I took a moment to survey my adversary. It was a gorgeous creature, to be sure. She, I decided, was a beautiful aquamarine being with a slender face framed by enormous fins that fanned and contracted along with the pitch of the screech. Her eyes were completely pitch black and set above a long alligator-like snout, framed by two long tendrils whose ends floated in mid air. Her body—at least the portion above water—was smooth and covered with scales that glittered in the sunlight. I decided then that I wanted this creature's head and scales for my own personal collection.

"Fire!" the weaponsmaster commanded, a second before Hayate would have issued the order. It was a crucial mistake. The cannons fired too short of the creature, only further angering her with smoke and noise. She screeched again and approached closer to the ship.

I waited to see what her next move would be. I saw the fool of a weaponsmaster open his mouth to issue another order and decided this was going to be one of the rare times I barked an order myself—but then Hayate intervened, holding a hand up in the air while shouting, "Hold fire!"

Even as her beautiful face came closer to us, there was another alarming development. I watched as her tail—the shape of an eel with feather-like projections—began to creep up the port side of the Pretear even as her face approached the starboard side.

"Harpoons aport!" I heard the second mate yell.

He had been focused on all sides of the ship, a careful, collected man even when the rest of these useless lugs were focused on merely the obvious threat and not the insidious one.

"Hold…hold…release!" he cried out, after enough of the tail had made its way aboard. Several harpoons found purchase, and she howled while withdrawing her tail. In retaliation, she released a stream of water that hit the deck with such force that it threatened to damage the masts. I had had enough.

I unsheathed my sword while simultaneously unsheathing Hayate's sword from his hip. Armed in both hands, I tensed waiting for her to come just a little closer. I sensed rather than saw her tail creeping over the port side again despite the efforts of the harpoons. Just a little more closer, I thought—and then the crunch of the railing on the port side made me snap.

As another volley of cannon fire was released, I leapt into the air towards the creature's snout. She opened her jaws wide, about to pummel me directly on with a jet of water, but I spun, adding momentum to my jump. I flew above her head and came down with both swords onto the back of her neck. Spinning, I tore out a chunk of flesh from her neck and then proceeded down her back.

But the cut was too shallow. I could hear beyond the cries of the beast the groaning of the Pretear as she was being strangled by the creature's massive length. I would not let her die. She was my hope and my freedom and my instrument to power.

I ran up her smooth, scaly length back up to her head. She turned to face me, jaws open once more. And I leapt straight into her welcoming maw and then into the belly of the beast, tearing flesh as I went. I spun, slashing as I went down until I had torn through her from the inside.

I saw from the corner of my eye her now separated head flying through the air. I grabbed a tendril and used it to propel it and me back to the deck of the Pretear. I landed solidly on deck, holding my prize beside me.

"Captain," Hayate called out to me as he made his way over after cutting the ship free of the beast's rear end.

"Make sure any damages, especially any below the water line, are to be fixed immediately," I ordered.

"They are already being attended to," he replied.

"Good. And injuries to the crew?" I inquired as I wiped off the serpent's blood and saliva off with the kerchief he had handed to me.

"Three wounded and," he grimaced, "one fainted."

"Tie the fool that fainted to the mizzen mast for a day. Make sure the others' wounds are tended to. We are too far from land to lose anymore to sickness," I directed.

"It shall be done," he replied.

"Very well. I leave the deck in your hands, first mate."

I walked back to my quarters to remove the stained clothing I was wearing. It was a shame, really. It had been my favorite white velvet overcoat with its usual satin lavender vest combination. Ah well. I would have another of its like tailored for me in London. I could not see her without looking my finest after all.

I turned back to see my prize once more. Though lifeless, the razor-like teeth the size of almost half my person were a danger on their own. I chucked to myself. What was it that Hayate had said earlier? 'It would be poor fishing in these waters due to these parts lacking nutrition for life.'

It had been a good day for fishing after all.