Chapter 29
On the fourth night, the storm finally let up enough to get a small break in the clouds to see the night sky.
Rosetta read the stars alongside Naeem and Mr Smith, and they discovered they’d been blown far off course.
With the sorry state of her poor, damaged ship, it would take Rosetta another full day and night to get to her and Alister’s meeting location with her mangled sail.
That’s if the weather continued to clear.
When the morning came and they were showered in bright sunlight, Mr Smith stayed with Rosetta while she steered by herself.
Only once Naeem had rested did she finally allow the hatch to the lower deck to be opened permanently and let the crew come to the surface. They’d rotated shifts during the storm, but she was now allowing them all to greet the sun.
What she thought would be a celebration of success, considering they were all still alive, swiftly turned into something nasty.
“I thought we were going to be joining the Howling Death during the storm,” one of the people asked from the crowd of nearly a hundred men.
“We are. That’s currently our heading,” she answered from the quarterdeck. “We’re about a day away with our sails like this.”
The top half that had split apart had long ago rolled into the sea, taking part of her railing with it. She still had the bottom sails, but the top was completely gone.
Men stood around what was left of the main mast and she could see the look of concern on their faces. “You couldn’t even captain us through a storm without almost sinking us!”
“Mr Smith had to help you hold the helm!” another yelled. “What kind of captain can’t even steer their own ship?”
“Men died because of you!”
Rosetta’s heart nearly seized in her chest at their words, especially when men agreed with those who had spoken.
A large group of them began to make their way forward, pushing others out of their way to the point they almost fell to the ground. She could only guess the number coming forward. It appeared to be at least a fifth of her crew.
“A woman shouldn’t be on the seas, let alone commanding over men,” one of them said, pointing a finger in her direction. “You almost got us all killed. Hell, three men did die!”
She gripped the handles of the wheel, refusing to step away from it. It was her ship, and it would always be hers.
“I also got us through that storm with a damaged ship! I would like to see anyone else do better.” I worked tirelessly! I barely rested and they want to blame me? “I can’t control where lightning will strike. Their deaths aren’t my fault. I’m not a god!”
“But the gods of the seas bless good sailors and ruin those who aren’t! The destroyed mast is proof of that.”
A man standing at the very front folded his arms across his chest with his legs apart, like he wanted to take a stand. He hadn’t said anything yet, but it was clear he was the leader of this gang.
“By the laws of piracy, we want a vote.”
Her face grew cold as she felt the blood drain from it.
“We’ve told you we won’t accept a mutiny!” Naeem shouted, coming forward to stand next to her. “Rosetta is our captain.”
“To those who were her crew before,” one of them said. “If she didn’t want to be faced with the laws of piracy, then she shouldn’t have taken pirates as her crew!”
The bald man at the very front gave a smirk, his face twisting into something evil. He opened his mouth for the first time to say, “She no longer has Alister Paine to protect her. Without him here, we can do what we want.”
Rosetta was forced to stand her ground when she found three pistols pointed at her from below, raised up around the leader’s head.
“If you shoot me,” she said with an expression that hid every emotion she felt, lifting her nose up at the barrels poised to kill, “you’ll be dead before you even get the chance to vote.”
The narrowed, squinting gazes she received told her they knew what she said was the truth. Her men would retaliate with vengeance.
“We want to choose a new captain by making a vote, and if you value your life, you will let us.”
Those of her original crew stepped back and drew their own pistols or swords. They turned their weapons to those who were threatening her.
“We won’t let you overtake her.”
The men who wanted to vote her out faced them while drawing their swords as well.
Then there was the part of her crew who were confused and scared, those who were just common thieves or sailors who may have committed small crimes – or been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They immediately backed away, not wanting to be a part of what could potentially be a fight to the death.
Rosetta knew there were about thirty men of her original crew left. Those who opposed her were a smaller group in comparison, but they looked more dangerous.
Alister had taken the murderers. The prisoners she’d taken were mostly people who had turned to crime out of desperation rather than malice. But these men...
She knew she was facing pirates, men who were just as ruthless as her. If they were just like her, and men like Alister and his crew, Rosetta knew what was going to happen if she let this continue.
It’ll be bloodshed.
“Stop!” she yelled, making their heads turn to her. I’ve just escaped a storm and now I’m facing a bloody mutiny! “If I allow the chance to vote and you lose, will you concede?”
I feared this was going to happen. Her paranoia hadn’t been unfounded. I knew something was wrong.
“You can’t be thinking of agreeing.” Naeem gasped and gripped her arm, turning her to him with a frown of sincere concern. He looked so afraid it made her own brows crinkle slightly. “You know what will happen if you lose the vote.”
“What else can I do? They’ll kill each other,” she whispered, her stomach sinking at the truth and reality of the situation. She lifted her hands to shrug in frustration. “Then there won’t be a crew to sail this ship, no matter who the captain is.”
My men will fight for me.
She didn’t think her life was worth all of theirs.
She’d killed Theodore, she’d gotten to sail the Laughing Siren as her captain.
She’d been blessed with mind-shattering, body-aching pleasure for months, something she’d never thought she’d ever experience in her entire life – not with the way she’d been forced to live it so far.
Rosetta wouldn’t be any greedier than she already had, just to live a little longer – not at the cost of this many good men’s lives.
The leader stepped forward while finally pulling his own gun from its holster. “Other than these idiots,” the man said, while nodding his head to her original crew, “no one else will vote for you.” He cocked the hammer back. “Allow us to choose or you die.”
“I’m asking if you will concede?!” she yelled, earning her a dark look.
The man curled his upper lip back into a mean sneer, his eyes narrowed on her in an obvious glare. In every line of his features, she could see that this man, for some reason, despised her.
“Because, as it stands,” she continued, “I can either allow you all to kill each other and then none of us will be going anywhere, or I can allow this vote.”
A different man stepped forward, much older and greyer than the rest. He didn’t look any less violent.
“I’ve been a pirate for many a years. If ye win, I’ll lay me gun down.” But then he gave a cruel, near-toothless grin. “But if ye lose, ye’ll be going for a long swim, girlie. That’s how it works.”
She gave a huff of irritation. “Who is your choice?”
“I am,” said the bald man at the front. “Name’s Timmy Barnes, and I used to be captain of the Lazy Rocker before I was arrested for piracy.”
“I will follow the code and allow the vote. Naeem, take the helm.” He begrudgingly took it so she could step away.
Timmy started making his way up to be on the same level as her, but they stood at the top of the two different sets of stairs that led to this deck, one on either side.
He looked to be a man in his late twenties, Alister’s age from what she could gauge. He was bald, with a long brown beard that had been plaited and came to his sternum. He looked strong, with the cutthroat appearance of an average pirate.
“I have been sailing these seas since I was a thirteen-year-old boy,” he shouted to the men below them.
“I know how to lead a crew, far better than this pair of tits, and know these waters better than anyone. We’ve been following some stupid little girl who’s been using her pussy to get Alister Paine to protect her! She’s worthless without him.”
He turned to her with his arms folded, tapping the barrel of his pistol against his biceps.
Rosetta scrunched her nose up at him with distaste.
“She hasn’t got what it takes to be a captain on her own without him, and she wouldn’t even have this ship if it wasn’t for him. He just made her captain so he can take her hole but I’m sure, once he was done with her, he was planning on taking this ship from her.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. She took over the Howling Death and marooned him on Dunecaster!” one of her men yelled in defence. “She got the Bloody Storm of the Seas to bend to her will to get her this ship.”
“She made a deal with the devil!” Keat, the man often in her crow’s nest, added. “I’d like to see ye make such a deal with the likes of him. He would’ve sliced all yer necks before ye even got a chance ta speak ta him!”
More of her men continued to give her praise.
“No one else would have the cunning to get his help and she managed to escape getting her head removed when he took it back.”
“I’ve been sailing with her for two years and she’s better than most men on the sea. Us men, we’re stupid. She’s got more wit in her little pinkie than you do in your whole fat, fucking ugly head.”
She gave a puff of breath through her nose to stem the single laugh that tried to escape. Bless these boys.
“Can’t even speak for yourself, huh?” Timmy asked with a humorous laugh.