Chapter Nineteen
The Penny Whistle
The next day dawned with clouded skies, but the rain held off whilst we took the skiff to Port Royal with the carpenter and his men, who had spent their time making numerous repairs to the Arrow and were ready to cut loose.
We had different destinations, as they were after playing at cards, and we only wanted to eat and drink in the tavern that had first brought us together.
The Penny Whistle sat next to the docks exactly as I remembered her.
Dinesh reached for my hand as the rain began to fall and pulled me along after him into the shelter of the familiar tavern.
The weather made the day all the more reminiscent of our first meeting, when I’d been soaked to the skin and starving besides.
Since that time Dinesh had fattened me up, nourishing me with food as well as spiritual comfort and the confidence of finding one’s place in the world.
My dog, Pearl, trotted at my heels as if attached to me by an invisible leash. The malicious intentions of the Leviathan had failed, and she was a testament to our triumph.
Dinesh let go of my hand when we went through the door, and I followed him to a booth in the corner. The tables he and his crew had occupied on that fateful evening were already taken by sundry small groups who laughed and drank and picked at plates of potatoes and what looked like mutton.
Pearl lay at my feet, as she’d recently learned to do, as if to make sure I stayed nearby.
“You sat right there, with all your crew around you. And you regaled them with tall tales. I recall the scene vividly,” I said, nodding toward the spot.
“Never,” he said, with a shy smile. “Doesn’t sound like me.”
“Right. They so obviously adored you. Respected you.” I sat back. “But I was terrified.”
“Bollocks. You came right up to me, told me your name, and asked for a place on my ship. I respected that attitude of yours from the start.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You pulled a pistol on me!”
“Was that before or after you threw a tankard of ale at me?”
“Never mind. Doesn’t matter. We were plainly meant to be together.”
“Plainly.”
A strange feeling prickled the skin at the back of my neck, like the sensation you get when someone is watching you but you can’t actually see them. I looked behind me.
Two cloaked individuals sat on stools at the bar, as if they didn’t want to be recognized. The sensation was coming from one of them. I was positive. I felt a niggle in my head, like someone was tickling my very brain, as the figure on the right turned and stared right at me.
The sensation was gone in a moment, and the person’s pale hands rose up and lifted the hood back from a strikingly handsome face, surrounded by shoulder-length hair that looked like a fall of snow. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
They looked at me with recognition and fascination.
“What’s wrong?” Dinesh asked me.
I held my hand up to bid him be quiet. Then I stood from the bench and walked toward the figure. Pearl scrambled up and followed me, then galloped past me to launch herself into the arms of the white-haired stranger as if they knew each other.
As I got closer I observed the swell of a moderate bosom beneath the woman’s cloak.
“Hello, there. My, my, what a beauty you are,” the woman said to Pearl, who wriggled and wagged her tail, as if greeting a long-lost friend.
I had never seen her approach anyone this enthusiastically upon a first meeting.
The woman put Pearl down and smiled as she extended her hand the way a man would in greeting. Indeed, she wore trousers and boots beneath her cloak.
“Hello, Simon Bartholomew White,” she said, as a wallop of energy slapped me in the chest, then burst around me like butterflies being set free.
My eyes widened and my hand went to my chest. “Did you do that?”
“Of course. I’m excited to finally meet you face to face.”
But the captain wasn’t impressed. He was at my side in a moment, extending an arm in front of me and eying the stranger as if he wanted to run her through.
“How do you know my name?” I asked, puzzled and intrigued. I didn’t feel threatened by her, only curious.
“You told me.”
“I didn’t.”
She gazed between me and Captain Martin, who still looked wary.
“Shall I tell you mine?”
I felt calm as I stared at her, then glanced at her friend, who now leaned down to accept Pearl’s enthusiastic greeting.
The captain tensed.
In my mind’s eye, a grey haze rose and swirled as if the smoke were alive.
“Smoke?”
“Yes. And she—” Smoke gestured to her friend, who pulled back the hood of her cloak to reveal a woman with dark skin and tightly curled hair. She was stunning, as beautiful as Smoke, if not more so, and more obviously female. “—is Fleur, my life, my love, my heart.”
A strange declaration to make to someone you’d never spoken to before, and in a room full of strangers who might hear and disapprove.
I glanced at the crowd of men at their tables, and a chill ran through me.
“Dinesh, do you see?”
The captain looked at the crowd, then swung his head back, gazing at Fleur and Smoke with suspicion.
“Stasis,” Fleur said. “They can’t hear us.”
She stepped down from her stool and joined Smoke, taking her arm and stroking the bicep.
“Or see us,” she continued.
“That’s a clever trick,” Dinesh commented. I could tell he was worried that these women would turn out to be untrustworthy, whereas I had the singular faith that they were on our side —and not only because they were two of the same sex who seemed closer than mere friends, although that did help.
“I have more,” Smoke said with a charming smile. “I hear you have some of your own, young witch,” she said.
“Fuck,” I said, startled by the address.
She laughed. Tinkling bells in a peaceful garden.
“Well, I wouldn’t take that liberty, to be sure, seeing as you appear to be already claimed,” Smoke commented.
Dinesh looked like he was more confused than he’d ever been, and that was saying something. He was a man of the seas, a pirate, and a—well a bit of a man-whore, although reformed.
“I am. This is Captain Dinesh Martin,” I said, introducing him.
“Oh, we know that too,” Fleur said, looking smug with a tawny blush to her cheeks.
“Okay, what the devil is going on?” the captain asked, gazing back and forth between the three of us.
“Not devils. Witches,” I said. “Right?”
“Yes,” Fleur replied. “Although Smoke is much more powerful than I.”
“In some things, yes. But you have your skills, my dear,” Smoke said, placing her hand over Fleur’s. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you, Simon White. I’ve been watching you for some time.”
Captain Martin frowned. “Since we came in the tavern, you mean.”
Fleur smiled, hiding her mouth behind a gloved hand.
Smoke only shrugged. “A bit longer than that.”
In my mind’s eye, I saw a vision of a young child at its mother’s knee, listening to her reading from a book that lay open on her lap. Then playing in the forest. Splashing in a creek. Lying in the grass. I recognized myself and my mother almost instantly.
“What are you saying?” I asked, gazing at her in wonder. “That long?”
“That long.” Her smile vanished, and she looked sober.
I saw a fire, felt pain in my side where the scar had been. Saw a vision of Carago. Then I saw this very tavern, and a thin, filthy young man crouched on a stool, gazing at a group of pirates.
I blinked. “Why…why didn’t you make yourself known to me?” My voice was a whisper, but I knew she’d heard.
“We were not here,” she said simply. “Fleur and I reside in England.”
“But…you’re here now.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“When you wielded your magic, we noticed. We thought to make the journey to meet you, Simon Bartholomew White. I want to teach you about those powers you hold.”
“Now just a moment,” Dinesh said. “Why should he trust you?”
“Because we are telling him the truth. And he knows our sincerity.”
“Beyond a doubt,” I confessed.
Captain Martin tugged my arm, glanced fearfully at the frozen men and the barkeep who was also in stasis, and pulled me aside.
“What if she’s put some kind of a hex on you? You don’t know that she’s trustworthy. How could you? You’ve only just met her.”
“I can’t explain how I know she’s telling the truth and that she has my best interests at heart. But she does. I can feel it. You saw how Pearl has reacted to them.”
I couldn’t blame him for being uncomfortable with the situation. But like the expert negotiator and leader that I knew he was, he got a hold on his doubts, gathered his resources, and made a reasonable request.
“I’m so sorry, but we’ve only recently arrived at Port Royal, and we were hoping to walk around and enjoy the night.
Can we perhaps agree to meet you again later?
I’m sure that Rooster—sorry, I mean Simon—has a great many questions for you.
But I’d like you to give us some space so that we can discuss what you’ve told us. ”
Smoke smiled with genuine kindness and put a hand on Dinesh’s arm.
“Of course. I’m so sorry we disturbed you.”
“No, I’m glad you did. It’s been wonderful to meet you,” I said, finding it difficult to look away from her and her partner. “We can meet back here…say, tomorrow?”
I glanced at Captain Martin, who nodded.
“Afternoon?” I suggested.
“Of course,” Smoke said. “We’ll be here.”
Fleur nodded. “Looking forward to it.”
Smoke lifted her hand, and the sound of the men talking and the clinking of tankards returned to normal.
***
We strolled the streets of Port Royal after the bizarre encounter.
The night was moonlit and calm, with the earth fresh from the recent rain. There were others about, men of all different races, similar to the town—former town, that is—of Cayonne on Tortuga. Most of the taverns and whorehouses were filled by now, and the streets were less crowded.