977. Chapter 977

After Captain Kate and the Sorceress

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Je ne regret rein, except not owning Castle. Rating: M, here and there. Time: 18th Century

Next he was introduced to Lord and Lady Rodger's daughters. Lady Alexis was a redhead whose jewelry of choice were rubies to match her red hair. Lady Priscilla was a blonde and wore stunningly white pearls in great profusion.

"Governor, this is our guest, Princess Jasmine of the Sultanate of Malabar. She also commands the Tulwar, as fine a twenty gun brig as you'll find in these waters." Lord Rodgers was quite certain that Cabral wouldn't notice that he had made the Tulwar seem more powerful than she really was.

Cabral bowed to the princess and noted that she wore a silk dress that was quite revealing, and that she had no jewelry at all. She did have a sturdy steel tulwar at her waist.

"This is another of our guests, His Excellency Lord Sassani, Ambassador from the King of Kings, the Shah of Persia, to the court of the Sultan of Malabar."

Sassani took Cabral's hand and shook it. "As a diplomat, I should point out that I am here merely as a guest of Lord Rodgers. I wished to officially visit Goa to bring you the greetings of my master, the Shah. This was merely a convenient way to travel."

Cabral didn't believe a word of it. The Persian Shah had a large and fierce army that already had added parts of India to his realm. Doubtlessly the Shah would like more.

"This is Captain Sorenson of the Witch of Endor, and another of our guests, Lieutenant de Ruyter, of the Dutch East Indies Company Ship Texel. "

Cabral managed to shake the Dutchman's hand without appearing to be too upset. The idiotic Marathas had let an officer of the Texel live. An officer who doubtlessly knew more than was good for Cabral.

Lord Rodgers opened a bottle of wine and asked everyone to sit. In seconds servants brought forth the first of many courses of the dinner. And hour later, Cabral was feeling quite stuffed, a bit tipsy and rather happy that nothing untoward had been said about his activities.

Then Lord Rodgers dropped his bombshell. "When we retook the Texel from the Maratha pirates, Lieutenant de Ruyter advised us of some very disturbing documents that were aboard the ship. Would you care to examine them?"

Cabral looked at the documents handed to him. It was all there. The whole plan to sell modern weapons to the Marathas and to line his own pockets.

Cabral shrugged. "I fear that these are forgeries, Lord Rodgers. I would never do such a thing."

De Ruyter smiled coldly. "I was aboard the Texel in Mangalore when a Colonel Esteves came aboard. I did recognize him, but as I was being worked as a slave, he failed to recognize me. I did hear all of his conversation with the Marathas, however. It supports what the documents state."

"If, and I say, if, Colonel Esteves has failed in his duty, he will be punished under Portuguese law."

Cabral began to get up to leave, but Lord Rodgers took his hand and forced him to sit again. "Governor, I imagine it would be very unfortunate for Portugal if I were to send these documents back to France. Might I add that the consequences for you might be equally unfortunate?" Rick smiled. "But I think we can arrange matters between us as gentlemen."

Cabral sighed in relief. A payoff was in order. He was an expert at these. He smiled at Lord Rodgers. "Of course. We can settle this matter between ourselves, as gentlemen." Cabral was already trying to decide how much Rodgers and his people would want, how much the princess would want, how much the Persian wanted and how much the thrice damned Dutchman would want.

"As it happens, Governor Cabral, you can be off assistance to us as we can be of assistance go you. You presently have a large consignment of weapons for which you have no buyer. We wish to buy weapons, but have no supplier. When we retook the Texel we naturally got a salvage fee for the vessel and its cargo. That, of course belongs to France. However, we took a great deal of pirate's loot that was aboard the Texel. We propose to exchange the loot we have for the weapons you have. A straight trade." As he spoke, Lord Rodgers casually waved the incriminating documents around, as if to remind Cabral of their importance to his career. Nor did he advise Cabral that part of the salvage money had already gone directly to Princess Jasmine for the Tulwar, in exchange for her share of the pirate loot.

Cabral needed no reminder, but was appalled at the price they were asking. He had purchased the weapons with a substantial fraction of the funds he had set aside for his retirement. He knew the value of the other loot aboard Texel and it was less than half of what he had invested in the weapons. If he accepted the deal, he would have to remain in Goa for far, far longer than he had anticipated, or desired. However, he smiled at Lord Rodgers and made a counter proposal.

As it happened, Cabral was an excellent negotiator, even when at a disadvantage, and Lord Rodgers was not unwilling to sweeten the deal with some of the proceeds of the salvage of the Texel. If the truth were to be known, the fortune that Rick and Kate had acquired in their adventures, especially the one in Africa, was far, far larger than the full cost of the Texel and its cargo, and all of the Portuguese weapons.

When Cabral left the Magicienne later that night he was not exactly happy, but was less in danger of having to live out his life in Asia than he had thought. He did have some ideas, as well, as to how he could further turn this incident to his benefit.

"We can't trust him." Kate said, after Cabral had left.

"Not one bit." Agreed Rick. The rest of the guests in the great cabin agreed.

"We need to think of how he might cheat us, for one." Said Alexis. "Substitute old weapons for new ones, send us inferior gunpowder, put weights in the gunpowder kegs to make us think they're full."

Kate nodded. "We'll have to examine every weapon and every barrel of powder that comes aboard. What else?"

"He could tell the Marathas that we now have the weapons they wanted to buy." Priscilla suggested.

"They'd be very angry at him, wouldn't they?" Sorenson asked.

Priscilla shook her head. "They know he's in this for the money. If they don't have the money, they can't expect him to just leave the weapons here to rot. If the Marathas find out we have modern weapons, they could speed up their preparations to attack Malabar."

"Or, they could attack us here." Jasmine added.

"Here?" Rick said, frowning. "We've drubbed them so badly that I doubt they'd want to attack us again. These are basically pirates and not a regular navy, no matter what they call themselves. They want to attack poorly armed merchant ships, not warships."

"What about an attack from the land?" Jasmine replied. "Or from both. The Maratha army is an army, they're not going to shy from a fight."

"But they'd have to invade Goa to attack us." Alexis said. "Portugal may be weak in India and even in Europe, but they have long been allies of England. And the English might take offence to an attack on a neutral European power."

"Not if the Venkoji and his Marathas aren't involved. Suppose a large group of "bandits", not associated with Venkoji in any way were to slip into Goa? It's not like the defenses are so strong or the soldiers so well armed and brave. I'm sure Cabral would make every effort to assure that Venkoji escaped any blame."

Kate thought for a moment. "We'll take delivery of the weapons while anchored in the port and not tied up to the dock. If Cabral complains too much, we can sweeten the deal for him. That way we can keep a close eye on the weapons as they board and stay out of the reach on anyone on land."

Cabral did complain, but some gold quieted him down. And, one night there was some sort of disturbance in the town, caused by marauding bandits, but nothing that would bother the ships anchored far from the docks.

As they approached the port of Mahe with their weapons on board, a small ship came out to meet them.

"It's Ahmed, one of the functionaries from the palace. Something must have happened in our absence."

The small ship came alongside and a small boat took Ahmed to the Magicienne. As soon as he saw Princess Jasmine he prostrated himself on the deck. "Your Highness, I regret to inform you that your father, the illustrious, well beloved, magnificent…"

"What happened?" Jasmine screamed.

"Your father has died, Your Highness."

"What of Prince Ismael and Prince Hassan?"

"When he was informed of your father's death, Ismael attempted to enter the palace with armed followers. Partisans of Prince Hassan resisted. There was a great deal of fighting in the city, and many unruly elements were about, robbing and ransacking the city. But, praise be to Allah, Ismael was driven off and Prince Hassan now awaits you in the palace."

"Prince Hassan? Not Sultan Hassan?" Jasmine said sharply.

"Prince Hassan is still a child. A regency council will have to be established, which will require…."

"No time at all." Jasmine barked. "I will lead the Regency Council and I will have the members selected by nightfall. But what of Ismael? Dead, I hope."

"No, Your Highness. He left the city with his followers and the Frenchman, d'Schlemming. They have headed north to join the Maratha, Prince Venkoji."

"The bastards." Jasmine swore. "I'll see both of their heads adorning the throne room."

"We might want to go ashore and see how things are." Kate said quietly.

"Of course, of course. Will, you and your husband and some of your marines accompany me with my marines from the Tulwar?"

After a short discussion, it was decided that Rick, Kate, Alexis, Priscilla and Ryan would go ashore along with fifty Irish marines, along with a similar number of the Princess' troops. Landing at the wharf, they found a troop of cavalry, dressed in chain mail, armed with swords and lances, but looking very nervous, awaiting them.

They rode slowly through the city, partly because the marines had no horses and had to march, but also so that Princess Jasmine could see the city and be seen by its people. As they rode, she spotted numbers of young men, mostly armed with clubs, staves or knives, with the occasional sword.

"Who are these men, Ahmed?" She inquired.

"The merchants of the city have armed their employees and apprentices as best they could. Few of Prince Ismael's men…"

"You mean the traitor Ismael." Jasmine snapped.

"Yes, yes. The traitor Ismael. Few of his men came this way as most went to the palace. And the rioters and thieves were no better armed than these men and so were driven off." They passed a burned out and looted storehouse. "Not entirely, of course."

Arriving at the Palace, they found the place a madhouse, with functionaries running this way and that, issuing contradictory orders and getting in each other's way. Jasmine, followed by her troops and Kate and her party strode to the throne room. They found Prince Hassan sitting disconsolately by himself at the foot of his late father's throne as courtiers argued around him. Jasmine pushed her way through and went to her knees in front of Hassan.

"Sultan Hassan, you now rule Malabar, but you are under age. Accordingly, by our laws a regency council must be established. I will head the council and I have chosen the members who will be here soon." She got to her feet and turned to the courtiers. "I thank you all for your unflinching support to our dynasty in this time of trial. Please now go about your business."