Ragetti knew something bad was going to happen when Beckett unchained him from his stool and ordered him to follow him with the harp.
He had never been allowed out of his office except for his daily bath, but this was early in the morning and Beckett was leading him outside and towards where the gallows were set up.
Ragetti stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the line of people in chains waiting behind the gallows and Beckett turned back to him with a sigh, rolling his eyes in annoyance.
"Just be glad that you're not one of them, pet!" he said, grabbing him roughly by his elbow and leading him to a small porch that rested just to the side of the gallows to give a better view of the people doing the jig at the end of the rope.
"Set your harp down over here." He ordered and Ragetti set his harp down in front of a cushioned chair, taking a seat slowly as he kept his eyes on the gallows and the first group of six to face it.
"I want you to play for me." Beckett ordered, sitting down so that he was facing away from the hangings about to take place.
But Ragetti could not play and he instead sat there and listened as Beckett's new laws were being read aloud, each new law followed by six people taking the final drop.
A soft moan escaped him as a large pile of bodies soon started to form and his eye started to water as more blood tears slid down his cheek.
"Play me something, pet." Beckett said, inspecting his nails now.
"Oh my God…" Ragetti whispered, spotting a young boy of no older than ten waiting in line to be hanged in the next line of six.
"God doesn't exist here." Beckett corrected him. "I am God."
"Why ar' ye doin' this?" Ragetti asked. "These people aint pirates!"
"And how do you know that?" Beckett asked, looking over at him and giving him a wicked smile. "That boy over there was a cabin boy on the ship Bloody Cutlass; a pirate ship!"
"Et's no' righ'! 'e's only a boy!" Ragetti said. "An' all o' these people…" He flinched as six more made the drop. "Ye can' really 'ang them all in 'un day!"
"Really? Watch me!" Beckett said, turning back around and lounging in his chair. "Now play me something, pet." He repeated.
Frowning, Ragetti almost got up and tried to strangle him, but he knew that that wouldn't solve anything since Mercer would then take command and make things even worse for everyone.
He couldn't do this alone and he knew what song he needed to play to try and get something to happen to end Beckett's slaughters once and for all.
There was an ancient pirate song that every pirate learns when they first take up the career, even though they never had to use it before. The song's purpose was to call for a meeting of the Brethren Court and even though Beckett currently held one of the Pieces of Eight, Ragetti prayed that the Pirate Lords would come together anyway to try and do something.
"I'm waiting for a song, pet!" Beckett snapped.
Narrowing his eyes, Ragetti quietly reached out and started to play the first bars of the song, the blood of one of the Pirate Lords who sealed Calypso away starting to burn in his veins.
"Yo, 'o 'aul tagetha, 'oist the colours 'igh." He began; his voice soft and gentle. "'eave 'o, thieves an' beggars, neva shall we die!"
The harp's music and Ragetti's singing caught the cabin boy's sharp ears and a small smile played on his lips as he looked up and saw Ragetti, recognizing him at once as a fellow pirate.
"Yo, Ho haul together, hoist the colours high." The boy started to sing. "Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!
The King and his men stole the queen from her bed
and bound her in her bones.
The seas be ours and by the powers
Where we will…we'll roam!"
The soldiers hesitated when suddenly all of the prisoners raised their heads up high and proud, clanking their chains and stomping their feet together as they too joined with the cabin boy and Ragetti's harp.
"Yo, Ho haul together, hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never say we die!
Some men have died and some are alive
And others sail the sea
With the keys to the cage
And the Devil to pay
We lay to Fiddler's Green!"
"Sir!" one of the captains cried, running to Beckett's side at once, pausing for a moment to look at the singing Ragetti in confusion.
"What is it?" Beckett snapped. "You're interrupting the lovely song!"
The captain was flustered at the sudden reprimand and he could only look at him blankly as the song continued.
"Yo, Ho haul together, hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die.
The bell has been raised from its watery grave
Do you hear its sepulchral tone?
A Call to all, pay heed to the squall
And turn your sails toward home!"
Beckett was slowly starting to get annoyed that more people were not being killed and he calmly held up a hand and then lowered it, signaling for the executioner to hurry up and pull the lever.
"Yo, Ho haul together, hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!"
Ragetti's fingers had started to bleed again as he started to play harder and with more feeling and just as the song ended, the lever was pulled and the cabin boy and the ones standing beside him were killed.
Standing up suddenly, Ragetti flicked his bloody fingers into Beckett's face, his blood making the man's eyes sting and his face hurt for some odd reason.
"Ye've go' the blood o' innocen' people on yer 'ands!" he growled, narrowing his eye. "An' ye will suffer fer et once the Cour' is assembled an' made ready again' ye! Then ye will know sufferin' a' their 'ands an' God's!"
Blinking rapidly to try and stop the burning, Beckett laughed and shook his head as he reached into his pocket.
Taking out Ragetti's wooden eye, he noted that it had begun to feel warm and almost vibrate with energy.
"And what good will the Brethren Court be without all nine Pieces of Eight?" he asked, arching one slender eyebrow. "Guards, take Master Ragetti away before he hurts himself some more. Lock him up in that cage I had made for the occasion."
Clenching his hands into fists, Ragetti did not resist as two soldiers came and took him by his arms, leading him away.
Beckett's smile faded once his slave was away, and he frowned as he wiped the blood off of his face, wondering what it meant when it burned his skin like that.