Feed the Grave

"NO!"

Gadfly leapt in front of her to throw off the piece of wood. Serenica couldn't believe his reflexes.

He took the sharp end of the piece into his chest even though he tried his best to shield his vital organs. He diverted it from hitting her directly, but he still fell down on her and the impact of an adult male along with the weight of the wood knocked the air out of her.

She realized she had blood all over her. Only some of it was hers.

She touched the back of her head, warm and wet. She crawled on her feet. She saw the boatswain impaled by a sharp wooden spike.

"No, no, no, Gadfly, no."

She wasn't consciously moving her lips, so she couldn't tell where her voice was coming from. The wound was too much for her. She couldn't heal it. She had to focus on the ones she could save.

"You're a good girl, Serenica," the dying boatswain croaked, pronouncing her name perfectly.

Serenica pushed the pain back in her mind. She touched his cheek gently as his eyes became like glass, fading into an oblivion that had to be sweeter than the short, violent life he had lived.

Serenica pushed the pain away.

"Focus on the living, the living, the living," she repeated to herself.

The two ships were now side to side. The pirates secured them with ropes and jumped onto the deck of the immobile merchant.

Serenica held herself back. No matter how badly she wanted to kill someone right now, to avenge Gadfly, she was not good with a sword. She was too valuable. She was the healer of thieves. She had to stay alive for her crew.

At that moment, covered in blood and sweat, she realized she had become one of the pirates for good.

Spade put a bullet into the captain of the merchant, but the crew still kept fighting back. Perhaps the insurance policy meant they would die a slower death at the hands of the one who owned their cargo if they surrendered.

The pirate captain was no coward. He was leading his men, and while he was not one to dance with a sword, he was a beast with a dagger. Anyone foolish enough to come close to him received a swift cut and bled to death on the deck.

A sailor was aiming for Spade's head. Serenica took advantage of her position and her ability to aim. Her father was a hunter. She was a murderer. It came naturally to her. She breathed in and out, selecting a prominent scar above the eyebrow of the man pointing his pistol at the captain.

She fired.

A flintlock pistol did considerable damage, even from a distance. Blood splattered across his horrified allies.

The man now had more brains outside his head than he had inside it.

Serenica felt a dark satisfaction in her belly, a sort of vengeful joy. She decided to stop keeping count of people she had put under the waves.

The air reeked. Gunpowder, blood, human fear all mixed up in a grotesque perfume of terror. The shots from the pistols made Serenica's ears stop functioning. All the sounds became distant and muffled.

She saw a sailor take a blade into his belly. Some of his internal organs were exposed. Serenica couldn't help thinking about the waste of human lives.

If the merchant ship hadn't insisted on fighting, they could have shared the food.

Serenica saw the Admiral throw a man overboard with a swift movement that was almost too smooth to seem real. The first mate couldn't get his balance back before a tall sailor attacked him with a knife. The Admiral managed to get a hold of his hand. He pulled and down went the sailor. The man with the knife screamed. The blade had been under him during the fall.

Serenica loaded her pistol as quickly as she could.

"Serenica, I need help!" Spade yelled at her. "I have a leg wound!"

Serenica pulled out the paper with the correct name and put it in her mouth. This time, the chewing was easier, but she took a swig of rum from the flask she'd received from the captain earlier. It made swallowing the paper a quicker process. She still had to take a look at the actual wound. There was no way she could do it before the enemies had been subdued.

The crew of the merchant ship was quickly getting demotivated. Half of the men had been killed. Many had been wounded, and cruel insurance policy or not, they had to put their survival instincts first.

The pirates looked around simultaneously, apparently sensing the distress.

"We surrender!" a tall sailor screamed. "Have mercy! We will give you anything!"

The men of the merchant ship gave up their weapons at once. The tall one seemed to be the first mate, so easy it was for him to persuade the crew.

"What do you have?" Spade asked.

"Silk, food and water." The man rubbed his nose, panting, bleeding from his thigh.

Serenica thought the wound could have been worse. There was a place in the inner thigh of a human that could easily be the target for a fatal attack. The man would not bleed out, he was still standing, after all.

"We'll save you some rations to reach Aja Vana on time, but we need the rest," Spade said.

Serenica observed the pale flag of surrender being hoisted.

It hit her again that Gadfly was dead, the pleasant, brutish man who had mispronounced her name just to amuse her. She would never be Surmica again.

A sorrowful hiccup escaped her throat.

She motioned her captain to come closer in order to take a look at his wound.

"They took him, then," she said as Spade was climbing back aboard the Princess. "And you saved their lives."

"If you want heads to drop, just let me know."

Serenica couldn't believe her ears. Was she truly given this power?

"You heard me," the captain said. "One word, and they'll die. I'll have to spare some so that they may tell the tale. I'd recommend we punish the man who decided to fight us. Seems logical and not at all cruel."

Serenica was astonished.