Blood in the Water (Part 5/?) [FanFic]
Title: Blood in the Water (Part 5/?)
Author: Tooks
Pairing: Team, Erin Strauss, Cutler Beckett, Mercer, James Norrington,Gibbs, and Lil Foyet,
Rating: FRT
Summary: Kali's voice was clear, pure, but no less thunderous on Captain Hotchner's soul. “I have a mission for you. You will do it. Now.”
Notes: Fifth part of the first big "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" AU piece. Only took forever, right? Sorry! There's some violence, cursing, adult talk, and mention of animal cruelty, but this chapter is pretty tame otherwise. A few references made are based on other pieces I've read in the Pirates fandom. ;-)
The alarms sounded, but it was much too late. Not a single dog or bit of structure could be saved. The smoke lingered, choked the well-groomed bushes and servants in the area. Only the lord and his clerk seemed unmoved as they surveyed the damage.
“Your thoughts?” Beckett clipped.
“It’s her revenge.” Mercer stated. “And she will escalate.”
“Bring her to me.”
“Very well, mi’lord.”
Mercer knew it would not be that easy, the young whore had declared war and she was better at this than Lord Beckett presumed. He was sure that the burning of the kennel was not even the extent of what Lil had done thus far and he didn’t even reach the carriage before he discovered he was right.
A servant ran up with a sack in hand. “Sir! Sir, a package for you, sir!” He puffed out. “It just arrived with a woman who gave specific instructions it be given directly to you.”
“Was there a message with it as well?”
“Aye. That she thought the gift suited you best, sir.”
“Very well, thank you. Go.”
He climbed into the carriage and opened the sack as he started to move. He pulled out the gold collar once worn by Beckett’s favorite hunting dog. Mercer’s lips let out a smirk.
***
Elle sat in the corner of the brig contemplating her next move. If only she could get out and show her worth. Impress Captain Hotchner somehow. She was midway through her fifth great idea when she heard boots hits the steps. She shot up to the bars, her breath bated. “Hello?”
There was no reply but the continued steps of a sailor. He grabbed a lamp by the stairs and headed over to her.
“Captain.” Elle straightened her posture.
“What do you want most in the world?”
Her smirk couldn’t be stopped. “To get the hell outta this cell.”
“Suppose I allow that. What would you want most?”
“To be a sailor.”
“Suppose I allow that.”
“To make my father proud.”
“And if I told you catching a pirate in the Indian Ocean would do that?”
“Then catching that pirate would be what I’d want most.” Elle answered.
Captain Hotchner gave a single nod before he went to unlock the brig. “I’m going to give you a compass, all you need do is direct this ship according to what it says. Understood?”
“Aye.”
“You’ll bunk with the surgeon.”
“I can stay with the crew.”
“You’ll bunk with the surgeon, that’s an order.”
“You fear I am unable to handle the men?” Elle challenged.
The captain’s lips hinted a smile. “I fear the men unable to handle you, Miss Greenaway.”
***
Hotchner escorted Elle all the way up to his quarters where Rossi, Gibbs, and Dr Reid all waited. “Miss Greenaway will be taking possession of the compass.”
“’Old on there now, ‘tis terrible luck ta ‘ave a woman aboard to start -“ Gibbs immediately began to protest.
“Better to have pirates aboard?” Elle countered angrily.
“That entire theory is hog wash anyhow,” Dr Reid added, smiling a touch at the woman sailor.
“Greenaway will have possession of the compass,” Hotchner pressed on. “She is the only person, man or woman, whose motives, and stubbornness concerning them, I am entirely sure of. Now, Mr Gibbs, hand her over the compass or prepare for the swim back to Tortuga.”
Gibbs eyed him warily, debating if he should argue, before he dug the compass out from his pocket. “Very well.” He held the compass out.
Elle walked within inches of the man and took it. “Gracias.”
“Gibbs, Rossi, get your orders from Morgan on deck. You are dismissed.” Captain Hotchner waited until they left before he headed to his desk. “Dr Reid, Miss Greenaway will be sharing quarters with you, make sure she is set up properly.”
“Uh…how, sir?”
“Same as you.”
“No, uh…special…requirements?”
Hotchner bit back a smirk. “Dr Reid, you and Miss Lil have been together in some manner since childhood, surely she’s informed you on what a woman requires to survive.”
Elle smiled as the surgeon blushed. “I don’t need anything more than you, doctor. Though if I’m going to make you uncomfortable perhaps you’d wish to partition your quarters some.”
Reid’s blush deepened. “I’ll do that now.”
“Thank you, doctor. Dismissed.” Hotchner let his smile slip out a moment. “Miss Greenaway, stay.”
Elle stayed at attention.
“If you disobey any of my orders I’ll have you bought up on charges when we return to Port Royal.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“You’ll be expected to pull your weight on this ship.”
“Of course.”
“And, should your motives, your desires, change, then you are to report it either Morgan or me immediately.”
“Aye, aye sir.”
“Morgan is expecting you at the helm. Dismissed.”
***
Beckett’s quick steps declared his frustration as he charged through the halls of the main house. “Bloody whore!” he roared out as he closed himself up in his office.
“You should have kept our deal.” A voice soothed out from his desk.
Cutler jumped in the first signs of shock he’d had since reaching Port Royal. He turned on shaking heel to see the cursed beauty sitting at his desk with a faint smile. He glared. “How did you gain access to my office? To this building?!”
Lil’s smile grew. “I told you, it’s not what I know, but whom.” She wore a deep violet riding habit with an aggressively seductive cut and matching feathered riding hat. “I take it your pet is on the hunt for me?”
“Mercer?”
“Mercer.”
“He is.”
“So, he hunts me and I’ve already found you. Not even your favorite dog can best me…how sad.” Lil faked a pout as she stood up.
“Give me exactly one reason I shouldn’t call for the guards to come drag you to the gallows right now.”
.“For all you know one of them will be the man who let me in.”
Lord Beckett eyes narrowed. ”Now I’ve been very patient with you…”
“I’m going to offer you a new deal,” Lil closed in on him
“…But my patience has just about run its course.”
“I can give you angles no one else can and you know it. I’m quite an asset and I’m offering my services, myself, in exchange for something I want.”
Anger did wonders for Cutler’s strength as he seized and pinned her to the wall by the throat the moment she was within reach. A knife unsheathed from under his cloak was placed at her breast. “Do not mistake an unwillingness to get blood on my hands as an inability.”
“You’d get greater satisfaction owning me.”
“Guards!!”
Lil’s gaze stormed as she smirked at the lord. She maintained focus on Cutler even as the guards burst and took over her custody with bruising grips.
“Hold her in the North Wing,” Beckett announced her fate. “The Tavington Room should suit her for the moment.”
His lips turned up cruelly and Lil’s returned the favor.
***
Mrs Strauss paced her inner-office, envelope in hand. She’d read the letter twice, but still had yet to make a decision about it. Turning it over to the lord could win her favor with him or give him ammo to destroy her. She didn’t believe he wanted to destroy her outright, he just wanted the business, but he would do anything to get it. Still she could part with the business if it saved her life.
She heard the door open and someone step in.
“We’re closed,” she called in reply.
“Mrs Strauss?”
Strauss tucked the letter into her desk and stepped out to tell the intruder off. She stopped seeing it was a member of the Royal Navy. “Sir?”
“My name is Commodore Norrington.”
“Commodore.”
“I’m here about Captain Hotchner and The Bau.”
“I know nothing of it.”
“I don’t believe you,” Norrington stated as he locked the door behind him. “I know the type of man Hotchner is, the type of sailor, and he is not a pirate. If he left he had good cause and he’d have informed you of his departure.”
“Lord Beckett will twist the truth into a noose, why should I help?”
“If I can find them perhaps I can protect them.”
“And if you can’t?”
Norrington stepped forward. “Would you rather I try, or one of Mercer’s breed?”
Strauss eyed him carefully, warily, before taking a deep breath. “If I give you what I have can you promise it doesn’t come back to me?”
“If you wish.”
“Very well.” She turned into her office to get the letter.
***
Elle sat on the upper deck and watched the sun set. It was even more magnificent as a sailor on a ship, the colors brighter and more enriched as they spread over sky and water. It was enough to make her smile and form tears in the eyes
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” A stern voice questioned as boots sidled up to her.
Elle looked up to see her captain at her side. “Aye, Captain.”
“The course has not changed, has it?”
“No, Captain.”
Hotchner sat down beside her. “Good. The wind and seas are favorable as well, perhaps this journey will not take as long as I feared.”
“This pirate, sir…”
“Yes?”
“Why are we hunting him?”
“Do you need cause aside what he is?”
“Just curious, sir.”
“Aside what he is the reason is unimportant.” And impossible to explain without the crew thinking him mad.
“Very well. What of the compass?”
“Do you intend to question everything, Miss Greenaway?”
“No sir, I just wish to understand so that I do not disappoint.”
“You do not need to understand, only to obey orders.”
“Of course, Captain.”
Hotchner stayed mute, watching the sun’s slow decline, until the urge to break the silence rose. “How are the men treating you?”
“As well as I am treating them, sir.”
“That brutally, eh?” He smirked a touch.
Elle’s smile turned to a soft chuckle.
***
Despite a regal posture, Cutler’s color had still not returned to his face when Commodore Norrington came to announce his find in searching Strauss’ office. “I found it tucked in the clerk’s desk.”
“In search of a pirate in the Indian Ocean, eh?”
“I would seem so, Lord Beckett.”
“A partner, perhaps?”
“Doubtful, my lord. I believe this pirate they’re hunting is the one responsible for the recent loss of Strauss’ ships and possibly some of your own.”
Beckett’s lips thinned as he read the letter once again.
“I think, if I leave with a crew on the next ship ready to sail, there is a strong possibility I can catch up within the fortnight and perhaps aid in the capture of this pirate they are searching for.”
Cutler caught Mercer step into his office in his periphery and raised a hand to Norrington. His gaze turned to his clerk. “Did you find her?”
“No, sir.” It was the first time Mercer had been unable to track something, man or beast, to its end. The shame of it cut so he could not catch Beckett’s eye.
“Really?” Cutler’s mouth mused. “Did you look everywhere?”
“Aye.”
“So you failed?”
“Mi’lord, I intend to continue -“
“You failed.”
“…Aye.”
“Tell me, Mercer, did you search these very grounds?”
“Aye.”
“This mansion?”
“Aye, sir. The men as well.”
The ice of his eyes danced in a controlled rage. “This very office?”
“Sir?”
“Because that’s where I found her. Sitting in my chair as if on break from a bloody hunt!” Lord Beckett stood with a slam to his desk that rattled both inkpots and men. “I do not appreciate this sort of incompetence from my men, so pathetic as to not be capable of protecting this place from a common whore!”
“Sir, she is not -“ Mercer stopped as Cutler circled the table to him.
“What? She’s not what?”
“Common.”
“No, you’re right. She’s uncommonly good at besting you.” He saw something in his clerk’s hand and grew saccharine. “What’s that?”
Mercer glanced at Norrington who quickly turned his gaze elsewhere. “A dog collar, sir.”
“From my dogs?”
“Yes, mi’lord.”
“You found it?”
“No, it was…sent to me.”
“Sent?” Beckett pressed on with feigned ignorance. “By whom?”
“Miss Lil, I presume.”
Norrington’s breath came out in a stifled laugh, he had to bite his lip hard to maintain composure. For all the times he’d witnessed Lord Beckett and Mercer’s cruel manipulations he’d never seen them on the receiving end. The fact that they’d been played so thoroughly by a young prostitute, even been turned on one another, was more than a little amusing.
“Did it come with a message?”
“Aye, mi’lord.”
“What was it?”
“That the collar was a gift that suited me best.”
Cutler let out a breath of a chuckle as he took it from Mercer. “Perhaps she is correct.” He set the collar on his desk before turning to Norrington. “Commodore, I want both The Bau and the other ship brought back for me to deal with personally. Is that understood?”
“Certainly, Lord Beckett.” Norrington replied as his face slipped back to professionalism.
“Excellent. Dismissed.”
James left with a bow.
Beckett’s eyes flashed back to Mercer once they were alone. “Miss Lil has proven more trouble than expected. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Shall I rid you of her now, mi’lord?”
“And have you fail in another task? Hardly.” He drawled. “No, I see value in her still.” He simply needed to approach the pretty little beast in a different manner.
***
The Bau rocked in the choppy water of the sudden storm and while she moaned under the strength of the wind not a single bit of her broke or bent. Lightening ran from water to sky and back, put the ship in a continuous spotlight, but not a single bolt struck wood or sail.
Captain Hotchner woke with the memories of death lingering. Instincts brought him upright and eyes front and center to the goddess. “Kali.”
She was in her human form as she had been in his room at The Nine Tales. “I have news,” her voice rumbled.
“On Foyet?”
“No.” Thunder came with each footfall towards the bed. “From Port Royal. Lord Beckett has sent men after you.”
“I figured he would.”
“He destroys to gain power.”
“I know.” He shifted. “Has he killed anyone?”
“Not yet.” Kali’s ruby lips curled as she sat on the bed. “There is a creature like me distracting him.”
“A goddess?”
“A destroyer.”
“Did you send this…creature to him?”
“Not directly.”
“Meaning?”
“It was fate, but she is effective nevertheless. Still,” the smile left her, “mortals can only do so much. You must go faster.”
“I go as fast as the wind takes me.” Hotchner countered even as the deity’s eyes burrowed into his and brought to surface the look of the last man who died in front of him. “Is there nothing you can do?”
“I will do what I can.”
“Which is?”
“Not your concern.” She ticked her head to the side to listen. “A woman comes for you.”
He sighed and started to get out of the bed. “Miss Greenaway, she has the compass.”
“Her passions have not changed.”
“Then why is she coming?”
Kali stood with a bloody smile. “A woman may have more than one passion.”
"Blue, green, grey, white, or black; smooth, ruffled, or mountainous; that ocean is not silent." ~ H. P. Lovecraft
Start the journey from the beginning here
Author: Tooks
Pairing: Team, Erin Strauss, Cutler Beckett, Mercer, James Norrington,Gibbs, and Lil Foyet,
Rating: FRT
Summary: Kali's voice was clear, pure, but no less thunderous on Captain Hotchner's soul. “I have a mission for you. You will do it. Now.”
Notes: Fifth part of the first big "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" AU piece. Only took forever, right? Sorry! There's some violence, cursing, adult talk, and mention of animal cruelty, but this chapter is pretty tame otherwise. A few references made are based on other pieces I've read in the Pirates fandom. ;-)
The alarms sounded, but it was much too late. Not a single dog or bit of structure could be saved. The smoke lingered, choked the well-groomed bushes and servants in the area. Only the lord and his clerk seemed unmoved as they surveyed the damage.
“Your thoughts?” Beckett clipped.
“It’s her revenge.” Mercer stated. “And she will escalate.”
“Bring her to me.”
“Very well, mi’lord.”
Mercer knew it would not be that easy, the young whore had declared war and she was better at this than Lord Beckett presumed. He was sure that the burning of the kennel was not even the extent of what Lil had done thus far and he didn’t even reach the carriage before he discovered he was right.
A servant ran up with a sack in hand. “Sir! Sir, a package for you, sir!” He puffed out. “It just arrived with a woman who gave specific instructions it be given directly to you.”
“Was there a message with it as well?”
“Aye. That she thought the gift suited you best, sir.”
“Very well, thank you. Go.”
He climbed into the carriage and opened the sack as he started to move. He pulled out the gold collar once worn by Beckett’s favorite hunting dog. Mercer’s lips let out a smirk.
***
Elle sat in the corner of the brig contemplating her next move. If only she could get out and show her worth. Impress Captain Hotchner somehow. She was midway through her fifth great idea when she heard boots hits the steps. She shot up to the bars, her breath bated. “Hello?”
There was no reply but the continued steps of a sailor. He grabbed a lamp by the stairs and headed over to her.
“Captain.” Elle straightened her posture.
“What do you want most in the world?”
Her smirk couldn’t be stopped. “To get the hell outta this cell.”
“Suppose I allow that. What would you want most?”
“To be a sailor.”
“Suppose I allow that.”
“To make my father proud.”
“And if I told you catching a pirate in the Indian Ocean would do that?”
“Then catching that pirate would be what I’d want most.” Elle answered.
Captain Hotchner gave a single nod before he went to unlock the brig. “I’m going to give you a compass, all you need do is direct this ship according to what it says. Understood?”
“Aye.”
“You’ll bunk with the surgeon.”
“I can stay with the crew.”
“You’ll bunk with the surgeon, that’s an order.”
“You fear I am unable to handle the men?” Elle challenged.
The captain’s lips hinted a smile. “I fear the men unable to handle you, Miss Greenaway.”
***
Hotchner escorted Elle all the way up to his quarters where Rossi, Gibbs, and Dr Reid all waited. “Miss Greenaway will be taking possession of the compass.”
“’Old on there now, ‘tis terrible luck ta ‘ave a woman aboard to start -“ Gibbs immediately began to protest.
“Better to have pirates aboard?” Elle countered angrily.
“That entire theory is hog wash anyhow,” Dr Reid added, smiling a touch at the woman sailor.
“Greenaway will have possession of the compass,” Hotchner pressed on. “She is the only person, man or woman, whose motives, and stubbornness concerning them, I am entirely sure of. Now, Mr Gibbs, hand her over the compass or prepare for the swim back to Tortuga.”
Gibbs eyed him warily, debating if he should argue, before he dug the compass out from his pocket. “Very well.” He held the compass out.
Elle walked within inches of the man and took it. “Gracias.”
“Gibbs, Rossi, get your orders from Morgan on deck. You are dismissed.” Captain Hotchner waited until they left before he headed to his desk. “Dr Reid, Miss Greenaway will be sharing quarters with you, make sure she is set up properly.”
“Uh…how, sir?”
“Same as you.”
“No, uh…special…requirements?”
Hotchner bit back a smirk. “Dr Reid, you and Miss Lil have been together in some manner since childhood, surely she’s informed you on what a woman requires to survive.”
Elle smiled as the surgeon blushed. “I don’t need anything more than you, doctor. Though if I’m going to make you uncomfortable perhaps you’d wish to partition your quarters some.”
Reid’s blush deepened. “I’ll do that now.”
“Thank you, doctor. Dismissed.” Hotchner let his smile slip out a moment. “Miss Greenaway, stay.”
Elle stayed at attention.
“If you disobey any of my orders I’ll have you bought up on charges when we return to Port Royal.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“You’ll be expected to pull your weight on this ship.”
“Of course.”
“And, should your motives, your desires, change, then you are to report it either Morgan or me immediately.”
“Aye, aye sir.”
“Morgan is expecting you at the helm. Dismissed.”
***
Beckett’s quick steps declared his frustration as he charged through the halls of the main house. “Bloody whore!” he roared out as he closed himself up in his office.
“You should have kept our deal.” A voice soothed out from his desk.
Cutler jumped in the first signs of shock he’d had since reaching Port Royal. He turned on shaking heel to see the cursed beauty sitting at his desk with a faint smile. He glared. “How did you gain access to my office? To this building?!”
Lil’s smile grew. “I told you, it’s not what I know, but whom.” She wore a deep violet riding habit with an aggressively seductive cut and matching feathered riding hat. “I take it your pet is on the hunt for me?”
“Mercer?”
“Mercer.”
“He is.”
“So, he hunts me and I’ve already found you. Not even your favorite dog can best me…how sad.” Lil faked a pout as she stood up.
“Give me exactly one reason I shouldn’t call for the guards to come drag you to the gallows right now.”
.“For all you know one of them will be the man who let me in.”
Lord Beckett eyes narrowed. ”Now I’ve been very patient with you…”
“I’m going to offer you a new deal,” Lil closed in on him
“…But my patience has just about run its course.”
“I can give you angles no one else can and you know it. I’m quite an asset and I’m offering my services, myself, in exchange for something I want.”
Anger did wonders for Cutler’s strength as he seized and pinned her to the wall by the throat the moment she was within reach. A knife unsheathed from under his cloak was placed at her breast. “Do not mistake an unwillingness to get blood on my hands as an inability.”
“You’d get greater satisfaction owning me.”
“Guards!!”
Lil’s gaze stormed as she smirked at the lord. She maintained focus on Cutler even as the guards burst and took over her custody with bruising grips.
“Hold her in the North Wing,” Beckett announced her fate. “The Tavington Room should suit her for the moment.”
His lips turned up cruelly and Lil’s returned the favor.
***
Mrs Strauss paced her inner-office, envelope in hand. She’d read the letter twice, but still had yet to make a decision about it. Turning it over to the lord could win her favor with him or give him ammo to destroy her. She didn’t believe he wanted to destroy her outright, he just wanted the business, but he would do anything to get it. Still she could part with the business if it saved her life.
She heard the door open and someone step in.
“We’re closed,” she called in reply.
“Mrs Strauss?”
Strauss tucked the letter into her desk and stepped out to tell the intruder off. She stopped seeing it was a member of the Royal Navy. “Sir?”
“My name is Commodore Norrington.”
“Commodore.”
“I’m here about Captain Hotchner and The Bau.”
“I know nothing of it.”
“I don’t believe you,” Norrington stated as he locked the door behind him. “I know the type of man Hotchner is, the type of sailor, and he is not a pirate. If he left he had good cause and he’d have informed you of his departure.”
“Lord Beckett will twist the truth into a noose, why should I help?”
“If I can find them perhaps I can protect them.”
“And if you can’t?”
Norrington stepped forward. “Would you rather I try, or one of Mercer’s breed?”
Strauss eyed him carefully, warily, before taking a deep breath. “If I give you what I have can you promise it doesn’t come back to me?”
“If you wish.”
“Very well.” She turned into her office to get the letter.
***
Elle sat on the upper deck and watched the sun set. It was even more magnificent as a sailor on a ship, the colors brighter and more enriched as they spread over sky and water. It was enough to make her smile and form tears in the eyes
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” A stern voice questioned as boots sidled up to her.
Elle looked up to see her captain at her side. “Aye, Captain.”
“The course has not changed, has it?”
“No, Captain.”
Hotchner sat down beside her. “Good. The wind and seas are favorable as well, perhaps this journey will not take as long as I feared.”
“This pirate, sir…”
“Yes?”
“Why are we hunting him?”
“Do you need cause aside what he is?”
“Just curious, sir.”
“Aside what he is the reason is unimportant.” And impossible to explain without the crew thinking him mad.
“Very well. What of the compass?”
“Do you intend to question everything, Miss Greenaway?”
“No sir, I just wish to understand so that I do not disappoint.”
“You do not need to understand, only to obey orders.”
“Of course, Captain.”
Hotchner stayed mute, watching the sun’s slow decline, until the urge to break the silence rose. “How are the men treating you?”
“As well as I am treating them, sir.”
“That brutally, eh?” He smirked a touch.
Elle’s smile turned to a soft chuckle.
***
Despite a regal posture, Cutler’s color had still not returned to his face when Commodore Norrington came to announce his find in searching Strauss’ office. “I found it tucked in the clerk’s desk.”
“In search of a pirate in the Indian Ocean, eh?”
“I would seem so, Lord Beckett.”
“A partner, perhaps?”
“Doubtful, my lord. I believe this pirate they’re hunting is the one responsible for the recent loss of Strauss’ ships and possibly some of your own.”
Beckett’s lips thinned as he read the letter once again.
“I think, if I leave with a crew on the next ship ready to sail, there is a strong possibility I can catch up within the fortnight and perhaps aid in the capture of this pirate they are searching for.”
Cutler caught Mercer step into his office in his periphery and raised a hand to Norrington. His gaze turned to his clerk. “Did you find her?”
“No, sir.” It was the first time Mercer had been unable to track something, man or beast, to its end. The shame of it cut so he could not catch Beckett’s eye.
“Really?” Cutler’s mouth mused. “Did you look everywhere?”
“Aye.”
“So you failed?”
“Mi’lord, I intend to continue -“
“You failed.”
“…Aye.”
“Tell me, Mercer, did you search these very grounds?”
“Aye.”
“This mansion?”
“Aye, sir. The men as well.”
The ice of his eyes danced in a controlled rage. “This very office?”
“Sir?”
“Because that’s where I found her. Sitting in my chair as if on break from a bloody hunt!” Lord Beckett stood with a slam to his desk that rattled both inkpots and men. “I do not appreciate this sort of incompetence from my men, so pathetic as to not be capable of protecting this place from a common whore!”
“Sir, she is not -“ Mercer stopped as Cutler circled the table to him.
“What? She’s not what?”
“Common.”
“No, you’re right. She’s uncommonly good at besting you.” He saw something in his clerk’s hand and grew saccharine. “What’s that?”
Mercer glanced at Norrington who quickly turned his gaze elsewhere. “A dog collar, sir.”
“From my dogs?”
“Yes, mi’lord.”
“You found it?”
“No, it was…sent to me.”
“Sent?” Beckett pressed on with feigned ignorance. “By whom?”
“Miss Lil, I presume.”
Norrington’s breath came out in a stifled laugh, he had to bite his lip hard to maintain composure. For all the times he’d witnessed Lord Beckett and Mercer’s cruel manipulations he’d never seen them on the receiving end. The fact that they’d been played so thoroughly by a young prostitute, even been turned on one another, was more than a little amusing.
“Did it come with a message?”
“Aye, mi’lord.”
“What was it?”
“That the collar was a gift that suited me best.”
Cutler let out a breath of a chuckle as he took it from Mercer. “Perhaps she is correct.” He set the collar on his desk before turning to Norrington. “Commodore, I want both The Bau and the other ship brought back for me to deal with personally. Is that understood?”
“Certainly, Lord Beckett.” Norrington replied as his face slipped back to professionalism.
“Excellent. Dismissed.”
James left with a bow.
Beckett’s eyes flashed back to Mercer once they were alone. “Miss Lil has proven more trouble than expected. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Shall I rid you of her now, mi’lord?”
“And have you fail in another task? Hardly.” He drawled. “No, I see value in her still.” He simply needed to approach the pretty little beast in a different manner.
***
The Bau rocked in the choppy water of the sudden storm and while she moaned under the strength of the wind not a single bit of her broke or bent. Lightening ran from water to sky and back, put the ship in a continuous spotlight, but not a single bolt struck wood or sail.
Captain Hotchner woke with the memories of death lingering. Instincts brought him upright and eyes front and center to the goddess. “Kali.”
She was in her human form as she had been in his room at The Nine Tales. “I have news,” her voice rumbled.
“On Foyet?”
“No.” Thunder came with each footfall towards the bed. “From Port Royal. Lord Beckett has sent men after you.”
“I figured he would.”
“He destroys to gain power.”
“I know.” He shifted. “Has he killed anyone?”
“Not yet.” Kali’s ruby lips curled as she sat on the bed. “There is a creature like me distracting him.”
“A goddess?”
“A destroyer.”
“Did you send this…creature to him?”
“Not directly.”
“Meaning?”
“It was fate, but she is effective nevertheless. Still,” the smile left her, “mortals can only do so much. You must go faster.”
“I go as fast as the wind takes me.” Hotchner countered even as the deity’s eyes burrowed into his and brought to surface the look of the last man who died in front of him. “Is there nothing you can do?”
“I will do what I can.”
“Which is?”
“Not your concern.” She ticked her head to the side to listen. “A woman comes for you.”
He sighed and started to get out of the bed. “Miss Greenaway, she has the compass.”
“Her passions have not changed.”
“Then why is she coming?”
Kali stood with a bloody smile. “A woman may have more than one passion.”
"Blue, green, grey, white, or black; smooth, ruffled, or mountainous; that ocean is not silent." ~ H. P. Lovecraft
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