Chapter 8 The Messenger and the Crescent Moons
The pub is a complete disaster. Patrons are flipping tables back over. The floors are a mess, completely full of food, and it looks like some bottles behind the bar are broken.
As soon as we walk in Vincent is quickly swarmed by two women.
“Oooh, Vincent! I haven’t seen you in blue before,” one of the women says. “This looks good on you.” She’s touching his sleeve, and it’s driving me crazy. I don’t want anyone to touch him. I’ve never felt this way before, I don’t even know if it’s normal.
I sort of recognize the other woman pulling on his arm.
I can’t remember if he slept with her, but she’s definitely been around us a few times.
Her voice is annoyingly high pitched. “Vincent, it was so scary! These guys came in and they were just screaming and throwing bottles. We hid under the table, and luckily, they didn’t bother us. ”
Vincent nods at her. “Oh. That’s good. Well, the part about everyone being okay is good.”
She smiles brightly at him, clutching his arm tighter. “But I’ve been meaning to ask if you’re going to have room for me on your new ship. So…will you?”
Oh, hell no. “I don’t think so,” I say, grabbing his other forearm.
I pull him toward our fathers who are talking to the bar owner. “Oh! Vincent, you’re wearing blue, are you joining Captain Crawford’s crew?” Muffy, the bar owner, asks.
Captain Rodrigo shakes his head. “Don’t try to explain,” he says, holding up a hand to Vincent. “We don’t have time.”
The four of us walk around the bar, stepping behind a large black curtain.
The staircase in the back of the room leads to the downstairs bunker and holding cells.
We head down as a group, and I can’t help but to feel a little uneasy.
I normally have a plan for everything, but right now I have no plan.
“Hey,” Vincent says, hooking his pinky with mine. “I wouldn’t let someone you slept with join my crew. I don’t even like her.”
His pinky is interlocked with mine—it’s the closest we can get to holding hands, and for now it’s enough—it has to be. “What are you talking about? Who did I sleep with?”
“You slept with Mariah, that woman we were just talking to. Who do you think I’m talking about?”
“I didn’t sleep with her. You slept with her.” At least I think he did, but I definitely didn’t.
“No, I didn’t. You did, because she told everyone about it. But now that I think about it, since I’ve slept with you, the stuff she said doesn’t sound like you at all. Maybe she was making it up.”
“What kind of stuff did she say?”
He shakes his head. “It’s not important.”
I nod and notice his father looking over his shoulder.
Quickly, we release our hold on each other’s pinkies. Hiding this is already getting annoying, but truthfully, I need to think like a captain, and worrying about holding hands, or pinkies, or having sex, all those things are not important for captain or crew right now.
It’s dark and depressing when we reach the holding cells. Since we’re underground, the light has no way to get inside, which only adds to the somber atmosphere.
“Hello, hello, Captains!” the man behind the iron bars says cheerfully.
He’s beaten up pretty badly, although, I wouldn’t expect anything else to happen to someone who had just come into port and spouted nonsense about Slicer coming back.
He’s wearing standard black and green clothes of a crew member, which means he’s likely working for Slicer, but he has no ranking on his ship—if Slicer even has a ship.
Wasting no time at all, our fathers approach the cell. “Who are you?” Captain Rodrigo asks.
The man backs up from the bars and holds his hands wide. “Who am I? I’m the messenger. The messenger sent to find you two, and look, I’ve found you. Captain Slicer will be so glad when I tell him.”
“That doesn’t answer our question,” my father says. “You’re a messenger, but why are you here?”
“Well, he did answer the question,” Captain Rodrigo says to my father.
“What the hell are you saying, Rodri? No, he didn’t.”
“Yes, he did,” Captain Rodrigo says. “I asked him who he was, he said he was the messenger.”
“That’s right,” the man says. He’s giving my father the cockiest of smiles.
My father pulls his sword from his scabbard quickly and points it at the bars, coming within inches of the man’s dirty grime-ridden face.
“Shut. Your. Mouth,” my father says. He turns toward Vincent’s father.
“Now, Rodri, don’t correct me in front of people.
You just took his side, what the hell kind of a friend are you? ”
Vincent and I are trying not to laugh; we’re both covering our mouths. Only these two would be arguing in front of a holding cell. Captain Rodrigo is just shaking his head at my father with his hands on his hips.
“Why are you pointing your damn sword at me?” the man asks my father.
Captain Rodrigo quickly unsheathes his sword, pointing it at the man. “Shut it, messenger.”
The man backs up from the bars, with both swords pointing at him.
“You both are not very nice. I thought you were supposed to be peaceful pirates, that’s what everyone says.
That’s why I volunteered to come here. I just wanted to meet you both,” the man says, as he leans forward against the bars.
Both swords are poking through the bars on opposite sides of his face.
“We’re not nice,” Captain Rodrigo says. “Not even a little. We already don’t like you. And if you came here to make friends, you picked the wrong pirate to align yourself with. Now, why are you here?”
The messenger backs up from the bars again. He’s smiling in a way that makes me uncomfortable. He points at Captain Rodrigo. “Captain Slicer says you’ve got something that belongs to him. Says he wants it back.”
“Well, what the hell have I got that’s his?” Captain Rodrigo asks. “I think I would know if I had something of his.”
“I don’t know what you have of his,” the messenger says. “He said you’d know as soon as I said that. Wouldn’t tell me any other information.”
My father slides his sword back into his scabbard. “Well, now I’m upset. What the hell is he talking about, Rodri? I thought I was your only friend. Now you’re going behind my back and borrowing stuff from Slicer? I can’t even look at you,” he says, turning away from Captain Rodrigo.
I couldn’t be any more embarrassed than I am right now.
“Are you serious, Ray?” Captain Rodrigo asks, re-sheathing his sword. “I haven’t talked to him at all. Not even once since we took everything from him. You know better than anyone how I feel about him. We feel the same.”
My father turns around and lifts his gaze to Captain Rodrigo. “I didn’t think you would betray my trust. But he made it sound like you’d been in touch with him. I’m your only friend, right?”
“Ha!” I say loudly, causing my father to turn around.
“What are you laughing about?” he asks me.
“I’m laughing at you. You’re acting like a child. Pouting about your friend. You know he hates Captain Slicer. What are you getting so worked up about?”
“Shut up. I don’t know. I just thought for a moment that maybe—”
Captain Rodrigo pats my father’s shoulder. “No, no, there is nothing to think about. You’re my only friend.”
“Now, messenger,” Captain Rodrigo says. “What was your entire purpose in coming here? Just to tell me that I have something of Captain Slicer’s that he wants back, or were you and the others that got away supposed to stir up trouble and scare everyone half to death in the pub?”
“Oh, a little of both I suppose. Captain said to create some mayhem, but he also said not to get carried away. I was trying to take it easy, but you see, as soon as I said Captain Slicer’s name, people got jumpy and started to scatter. It was the craziest thing.”
“So, you came here for this, most likely knowing you were gonna get taken into custody, and still, you did this for your captain. But why? You don’t even know what he wants from me. Neither do I, for that matter.”
“I owe Captain my life, I’d do anything for him. I suppose I had wanted to meet you both a bit as well.” He smiles at our fathers.
“That’s really nice. I don’t care,” Captain Rodrigo says.
“Yeah, he doesn’t care because he’s my friend. So why should he care that you wanted to meet him?” my father asks, folding his arms. He looks like he’s in high school right now. Maybe Vincent was onto something with the two of them.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pirate jealous of another’s attention,” the man says to Captain Rodrigo. “You’re not together, right? You like women…you both have children.” He lifts his chin toward my father. “But he acts as though you’re together in that way.”
“That’s none of your business,” my father snaps.
Well, I was expecting a no, but instead he just denied him the answer.
“Right, it’s none of your business, but yes, we like women, how else would we have these two men here with us if we didn’t?” Captain Rodrigo asks.
The messenger looks like he’s in disbelief. “Well, you both had them when you were younger, lost your wives, then maybe—”
“We’re done talking,” my father says, turning on his heel toward the staircase. “This conversation has gone on too long.”
Captain Rodrigo is following close behind my father, neither man looking back. “Where can we find Slicer?” he asks the messenger, over his shoulder.
“You can find him under the double crescent moons. He said you’d know what that meant.”
Captain Rodrigo stops walking and throws his hands up. He turns toward the cell. “I have no idea what that means! How the hell should I know? We haven’t spoken to him in twenty-one years! Why the hell are you here talking to us in code?”
“I should shoot you,” my father says, stepping onto the staircase.
“This has got to be the most frustrating conversation of my life!” He continues walking up the stairs; he’s just muttering to himself at this point.
He must be really pissed off to threaten shooting someone, though. This guy really struck a nerve.
“Shoot me? I did nothing wrong. What would you shoot me for?”
Captain Rodrigo is standing just to the side of the staircase, looking quite confused. “Where is his ship docked? Just speak plainly.”
The man smiles with a grin wider than a crocodile. “Says he’ll find you in three days if you don’t find him first.”
The ceremony. He’s planning to attack on the day of the captaincy ceremony.
That’s what happens in three days. I guess our fathers haven’t realized that.
I’m sure Vincent has, because he’s nodding at me like he’s figured it out.
Which is surprising given the fact that not even our fathers appear to have realized it.
“How does he know where we’ll be in three days?” Captain Rodrigo asks.
“Rodri!” my father shouts from the top of the stairs. “Let’s go. He knows because he has someone here working for him. Let’s go figure out who it is. Just stop talking to him.”
Vincent and I are following behind our fathers. I wonder how this interrogation would have gone if it were just Vincent and I here?
The messenger gives a whistle. “Vincent,” he calls out.
Vincent and I both turn to look at the man. “What is it?” he asks.
I place a hand on Vincent’s shoulder, and the man’s eyebrows raise.
“Ah, would you look at that. You put your hand on his shoulder.” The messenger flutters his eyelashes exaggeratively. “So, little Captain Crawford is jealous, too. Is this a personality trait amongst your whole crew, or is it just you and your father that act this way?”
Vincent reaches for his sword, and I place my hand atop his and shake my head. “He’s not worth it,” I say, lifting my chin toward the staircase.
Our fathers are already out of sight, basically at the top of the stairs. We shouldn’t stay down here with him. Nothing good will come from this. Vincent nods at me, but he looks really angry. Thankfully, he starts walking beside me toward the stairs again.
“I wanted to congratulate you on your engagement,” the messenger says. “Best take care of that girl.”
Vincent laughs. “How do you know I’m engaged? Just happened last night.”
“Saw the lot of you at the pub and I watched for a bit. Strange thing was you two leaving in the middle of the celebration to do whatever it was that you did. I waited a while for you to come back. Your fiancée looked nice and cozy with that other fellow from your crew. The one they say will be your first mate.”
Vincent exhales, but we’re still walking toward the stairs.
Kind of strange for the messenger to bring Matteo up—but I shouldn’t dive too deep into what he’s saying.
Pirates like him just thrive on chaos; he’s trying to get Vincent worked up, hoping to sow discord between him and Matteo.
It would be a juicy story if Vincent actually cared about Harlow, so it’s not a bad angle, it just won’t work here since the engagement means nothing to him.
The messenger, not getting the reaction he so clearly hoped for, starts in again.
“Yep, he swooped right in and wiped her tears. Definitely a bit more going on there if you know what I mean. Of course, for us pirates, nothing is really ours, is it? All property of the crew. So, you must not mind sharing, is that it?”
Vincent is shaking his head as we reach the stairs. I give him a gentle push, urging him not to listen. “Just keep walking. Ignore him.”
“I don’t know…something tells me you won’t be worrying about one of them for too much longer!” the messenger shouts.