image [https://i.imgur.com/15eGPa6.jpeg]

palaver – An improvised conference between two groups, typically those without a shared language or culture.

NASSAU LOOKED ALMOST completely untouched by the Second Cataclysm—as the crews of the three ships were calling the fate of Port Royal. The docks were in good order, sloops came and went pretty as you please, and the flags upon Fort Nassau snapped in a healthy breeze. Hazard waved her black flags, while Lively and Edinburgh sailed to her port and starboard. The pirates of Nassau would likely assume the Ladyman had taken them each a prize.

But once they docked, the dockworkers could tell immediately things were off. For one, the Devil’s Son came ashore with the Ladyman. The Devil’s Son was a known privateer, he was not on the account. More, here came a strange, tall gentleman with a plague doctor’s mask and a few crewmen who looked fit for the grave. Their sallow flesh caused rumour to spread fast. It was not long before the Republic of Pirates sent envoys with guns to meet them.

____

Oddsummers remained on the docks by his ship and allowed both Laurier and Vhingfrith to go speak to the welcoming party without him. After a few moments, a fat man waddled out from a hut on the shore, making his way to them. Oddsummers recognized Munt from the descriptions he’d gathered. He waited patiently for his introduction to the Republic’s committee.

He was not surprised when the welcoming party approached him, guns and sabres drawn, and asked him to lay down his arms and submit himself to arrest. Oddsummers gave a whistle, and over the Edinburgh’s railing came thirty yellow-skinned men, most of them missing valuable body parts, aiming their own weapons at the pirates.

“I offer a counteroffer,” he told the welcoming party. “Let’s have ourselves a palaver, by Jove, what do you say?”

There was general disarray on the docks. Groups of men ran into Nassau to alert more people, but those people they alerted did not seem to know what to do when they reached the Edinburgh’s crew, either. And so those people alerted more people ashore, and this cycle continued until at last they decided to leave the Edinburgh and her crew alone for now. Still, armed men and women waited by the docks, muskets out, waiting in case one of the plaguemen tried to come ashore.

Oddsummers watched it all from the prow, amused at the posturing.

The Hazard’s crew was allowed to come ashore and receive medical care. The Lively’s crew seemed somewhat welcomed. Captain Vhingfrith was taken into custody, it seemed, but not shackled, and Captain Laurier stayed with him, leaving Oddsummers all alone against illiterate and superstitious criminals who only gathered news of the world by listening to rumours from afar and followed no laws save those laid down in the Pirate Code. And, as Oddsummers well knew, the Pirate Code really only served as guidelines for how pirates ought to treat other pirates, and it only defined pirates as those on the account, which Oddsummers was not.

And so, he and his plaguemen waited, weapons drawn, staring at one group after the next that came to view the Edinburgh and the strange yellow-skinned crewmen and their masked captain. When finally someone of import arrived, it was an old African man dressed in lord’s pants and jacket, and an aged Englishman missing all his hair from a bald and sunburnt scalp. “You be Oddsummers, then,” said the African.

“I am.”

“You come with us.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Why no?”

“We have a palaver here,” he said, pointing at the Edinburgh. “Aboard my ship. We do it there or nowhere else.”

“It’s not safe ’ere,” said the white man.

“I understood Nassau had at least one rule when it comes to visiting ships. They’re all safe in this harbour and their crews are to be unmolested unless they break any of the rules set in the Pirate Code. Have I broken any rules?” He smiled behind his mask. “The Code keeps you all from slaughtering one another. You ran far and fast to flee England’s laws, but you’ve got to have some laws, neh?”

That ruffled their feathers. The two representatives exchanged glances. Oddsummers tried to guess their positions in the Republic. Some sort of ambassadors? Local governors? Did Nassau even have governors in that sense? He looked beyond the docks to the rising, patchwork, piecemeal port city that went up the slopes and wove into the jungle. Buildings erected by a combination of clever stonework and sloppy woodwork, with planks serving as bridges across rooftops.

“Tell me when the Pirate Kings have assembled. I’m sure they will soon. They will want to hear the tale of the Ladyman’s assault on the Spanish fort in Panamá and hear the news from Port Royal. I should like very much to hear it all myself. And when they arrive, you’ll be sure to bring them here. Them, as well as the Ladyman and his sweet love. They will all want to hear what I have to say, if they ever have a dream of making Libertalia a reality.”

“Liber…?” The black man looked surprised by the word. The white man merely stroked his scarred chin.

“The World is not yet ending, but it is changing. Tell them that. Tell them that we shall all want to work together for what comes next. Oh! And also, do tell them I have wine aboard the Edinburgh. The finest French wine, straight from Paris. And if they have any bread, ask them to bring it. This should be a day of celebration, faith.”

____

Benjamin watched John from the window. John was out there talking animatedly with the pirates. The cabin where the pirates had put Benjamin had a bed, a filthy one covered in stains and reeking of sweat and rum, but Ben needed to lay down. Most of his crew was cooped up in here with him, and Scarecrow was seeing to his wounds. “I’m fine, Scarecrow, you should see to yourself.”

The surgeon touched the hideous gashes on his cheek and neck. He’d talked two of the others through the stitching, and it was jaggedly done, but Scarecrow kept reapplying poultices and assured his captain he was all right. “I’m fine, Captain. How’s the leg?”

“Fine. How are the others?”

“Fine.”

“Well, I guess we’re all fine, then. What’s say we set sail for the Colonies tomorrow and never look back?”

Scarecrow snorted. It may have been a laugh.

“I’m sorry I got you all into this. We were doing so well.”

“Not your fault, Captain.”

“If it isn’t a captain’s fault that his ship was stolen and all his men were put into a position to be taken prisoner, then at whose feet ought the blame be settled?”

“Not your fault,” Scarecrow repeated.

“It’s all so strange. I feel as if I’m in a dream. Ol’ Charley just showing up like that…like he’d been waiting out there to help me in John’s—er, Captain Laurier’s mad escape plan.” He shook his head. “And Jacobson.”

“He had it coming, sir. Galbraith and all of them, too.”

“Perhaps so, but I bore the man no ill will. Nor Galbraith. So many dead. And that Behemoth…what was it doing to Port Royal? Spreading its arms like that, making that yellow cloud. Like it was taking up root. Like the Monsters from the firmament are planning on making a home here. And what is Ol’ Charley? Is he connected to the Messenger?”

“Messenger, sir?”

Vhingfrith had not told anyone what all he had seen, not all of it. “And I saw Lawrence Burr beneath the waves, Scarecrow. I saw him! I barely escaped him down in the briny deep. He nearly kept me down there with him. What would’ve happened? Would I now be an Apparition like him—ow!”

“Sorry, sir,” said Scarecrow, tightening the bandage around Vhingfrith’s thigh. “Look, Captain, I’m only a surgeon. I’m not fit to decipher men’s minds. But I know enough to know this: do not dwell on it all.”

“Don’t dwell on what?”

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“Nature’s mechanics.”

Vhingfrith snorted. “A man of medicine advising me not to dwell on the natural sciences?”

“Aye, you make of me a hypocrite, and perhaps I am. But it’ll only drive you mad, trust me. I long ago decided to accept the mysteries—Where does air come from?—If the heart keeps the blood pumping, what keeps the heart pumping?—If a man can survive having his appendix removed, why does he even have it in the first place? Why did God put it there?”

“Beg your pardon, Mr. Tyndall, but this firmament business is a bit more complicated than—”

“No, it isn’t. Begging your pardon, Captain, but it really is not. I’ve already decided to just accept it and move on. This is the way things are now. You’re a smart man to figure out we’re passing through some disturbance in God’s own firmament, but that’s likely as much as we’ll ever know. God has His mysteries, it’s up to us to live through them. Savvy?”

Benjamin had never known the surgeon to be profound. He found it off-putting. Just how much did he not know about his crew? Men he thought he knew so well.

But I’ll wager Mr. Tyndall has not met the Messenger or his like before.

“There is something out there, Scarecrow. A new malevolent force. Not God and not Satan.”

“Another god, perhaps?”

“What?”

“One we missed?”

“What the devil are you talking about?”

Scarecrow sighed and checked Benjamin’s bandages again. “There was Thor and Odin, but we disproved the Vikings on them. Then there was Mars, Jupiter, and Venus, but the Romans all collapsed and their gods with them. The Greeks were failed by their gods Zeus, Demeter, and Aphrodite. The Orientals have their own strange gods but they’ve been disproven, I should think.” He shrugged. “But perhaps we missed one, an As-Yet-Unnamed-One.”

Benjamin studied the physician’s face a moment, then looked out the window again and saw John was now speaking with Dobbs and Akil. He spoke fast in that way Ben knew meant he was issuing commands. In that moment, John Laurier stood in the sunlight and Ben thought he’d never seen a more beautiful sight, and once more he was filled with deep longing that frightened him. That man had come for him, when no one else could. When no one else would. He had convinced his entire crew to execute the rescue of a privateer. I’m not on the account, and yet they came for me anyway.

“Did he tell you what he did?” asked Scarecrow.

“Who?”

“Captain Laurier. Heard some of his crew talking about it just before we left the docks. They did something in Panamá, Captain. Something big. Something you wouldn’t believe. They assaulted a Spanish fort that exists on no map. Totally secret, completely hidden, and heavily guarded. They found it, plundered it, and destroyed it. Made their way off with ungodly amounts o’ treasure. That’s what happened to the Ladyman’s hand. He lost it to some creature from the firmament while he was there.”

Benjamin leaned in close. “You’re certain?”

“I heard them talking to some of the Republic people that brought us here.”

Benjamin shifted uneasily on the edge of the bed, and looked out at John. He looked at the Corrupted hand. Others John spoke to were also glancing at it, for how could they not? A long, black, demonic hand with talons like long needles of steel. The thumb of that hand was tucked in his belt. No longer did John try to conceal it. Benjamin followed that hand up to the wrist, to the elbow where it terminated, to the shoulder and neck, to the lips moving, to the hardened eyes.

“Go to him, sir.”

Vhingfrith looked around. “What did you say?”

Scarecrow finished tying the bandage. “I said go to him. I’m no sage or great thinker, I’m not even a great surgeon, I learned all that I do from my father, and a bit o’ time in the navy. But in that time I’ve seen men die in utmost agony, oftentimes screamin’ for their mothers while shitting themselves. They called out for their mothers because that’s who they loved most. But some of them said different names. Ladies they missed, wives they pined for, fathers and sisters they wanted to apologize to. And sometimes they’d say a name nobody knew. A man’s name. Not a brother or cousin. Someone they loved, and who they wanted me to find and tell them how they’d loved them more than anyone else on Earth.”

Scarecrow sighed and started to walk away.

“Anyone tells you you’re a freak, Captain, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Many of us love those we’re told we ought not. But, God, did those boys ever regret not holding their loves closer in life. Don’t be like them, Captain. Don’t die wishing. Hold what you love now, while you still can.” He snorted derisively. “Neither God nor the Devil nor the fucking firmament can tell you you’re wrong for that. Love the ones you can, while you can.”

When the surgeon was gone, Ben stood there a moment pondering his words. Then he looked up and saw John was approaching the cabin. When the door opened, the Ladyman stepped in with Dobbs and Akil, and he addressed them all. “You’ve been welcomed into Nassau as guests,” he said. “My guests. As privateers some of you may have targeted pirates in the past. The Republic’s representatives are willing to overlook that for the time being.”

“Why would they overlook that?” Ben asked.

“Because I paid them.”

Ben winced inwardly. How much of that Spanish treasure had John been forced to pay on his account? He didn’t want to know. John had already sacrificed so much…

“Further, Captain Vhingfrith and I will palaver with the Pirate Kings and the captain of the Edinburgh later this evening. We will be discussing our next moves.”

“Our next moves?” Ben asked. “In doing what?”

John looked at him. “Honestly, Benjamin, I don’t know. Something has happened here on New Providence that I was unaware of. They had their own problems during the Second Cataclysm. While Port Royal was being destroyed, Monsters stepped out from these jungles, hunting people in the streets. And while it didn’t cause the calamity Port Royal saw, it has shifted priorities around here. The Long Night for one has caused irreparable damages—crops are failing. Without constant sunlight all plants wither, you do not have to be a Man of Letters to know this. Food is getting scarce, making plundering more necessary than ever if we want to survive. There’s been talk of cannibalism in some homes outside of Nassau.”

Every man in the room took on a solemn look. Cannibalism was an especially frightful thing for sailors, who’d often heard of shipwrecked men having to survive by eating each other. The fact that it might be happening even on land…

God in heaven, what is happening? The horrors of the firmament struck him anew, and Benjamin sighed and looked out the window at the blue sky and warm sun and scattered clouds.

“You will all sit tight here while Captain Vhingfrith and I have our palaver. Once a plan of action is decided, we will inform you all of our decision and you will be released back to the Lively, where you will not raise anchor without strict permission.” He looked at Benjamin, and waved to the door. “Captain, if you please.”

They stepped out into the hot sun together. Benjamin looked up at it, only now realizing that he’d half believed that he would never see it again, either because he was hanged or because the Long Night became permanent. It only hit him just now that he was actually, truly alive, that the escape had been successful, and that for the moment no one was coming for him. Not Woodes Rogers, not the Admiralty, not even Lawrence Burr. For right now, the sand at his feet and Fort Nassau were real. Nassau was his last bastion of freedom.

But something was bothering him. The look on John’s face said something was wrong. “What are you not telling me?”

“They really don’t want you here.”

“Who? The Kings? Dare I wager a guess as to why?”

“It’s that eye of yours. Many people across the World have developed your cat’s-eye. Since the first Cataclysm, some children have even been born with it. Or so say some of the people of Nassau.” John glanced behind them. He seemed to be making sure Dobbs and Akil were still armed, still guarding them. “But something has stirred the Republic’s representatives, which makes me think it has stirred the Pirate Kings. I’ve never seen anything like it, Ben. The representatives took Oddsummers’s demands back to the Kings and…you should’ve heard the way they said ‘Libertalia’ over and over, whispering it to one another almost like schoolgirls delighted to know a boy likes them.”

“What is this nonsense about? This Libertalia. I thought it all a myth.”

“You know I sailed with Edward Teach.”

“Yes. It’s how my father found you.”

“Teach and I…we weren’t close, but he did occasionally give me special attention. He—well, he gave me a lot of advice that I still follow. Advice that’s kept me alive. But he also told me stories, some of them were sailor’s tales, just horseshit. But he had this dream of Libertalia, a true haven for pirates. Not just a port and a place to stay, like Nassau, but a proper city, to be a hub for an Empire at Sea.”

Benjamin winced. “He confided this dream in you?”

John nodded. “In our last days together, yes, just before he and Caesar had their falling out. He dreamt of this Empire at Sea nightly, he said. Men and women with ships as their own vassal-states, any crew they had would be their willing subjects, who could easily leave whenever they wanted, no questions asked, but who voted in important matters of the Republic. Treasure split more evenly than amongst you privateers—sorry, Ben. ‘There will be no hereditary titles,’ Blackbeard said. ‘The only Kings we shall have shall be nominated by the people. As it was done in Rome.’”

“Rome?”

“He had a predilection for history.”

“But Rome had consuls, senators, representatives who were nominated and elected—” Benjamin broke off when he saw John’s face. “He wants to hold elections?” he laughed. “Pirates holding elections for positions of office and state?”

John said nothing for a moment, just looked out to sea. “That was his dream, Benjamin. You can account for no man’s dream.”

As they stepped onto the dock, Benjamin looked at all the eyes staring at him. Dingy faces leaning in, some of them spitting in his general direction. “But why has this cast such a spell over the Republic’s representatives, do you reckon?” he whispered.

“As far as I can tell, it’s because so many opportunities suddenly have landed in their lap. Namely the destruction of Port Royal, which puts Nassau as the absolute and official capital and pirate haven in these seas. But other things make them eager to mobilize: the general disarray the firmament has wrought, the rumour that you and Munt know of the whereabouts of Levasseur’s treasure, and my arrival.”

Ben winced at that last part. The others made sense, but not that bit. “Why does your arrival in particular matter? You don’t—” It hit him. “Ah.”

“Ah?”

“So, Scarecrow was right. You hit the Spaniards hard in Panamá.”

“He told you.”

“How much did you take?”

“Enough that the Hazard sagged low in the water all the way from Panamá.”

“She seemed to move nimbly enough on the way here.”

“That’s because my men forced me to make a compromise. For their promise to help me save you, they asked only that I not bring the treasure with us to Port Royal, lest she was captured or sunk. So, on the way to Jamaica, we stopped at an island and buried the treasure. All of it. Took us the better part of two days, and all the while I worried I would be too late, that you’d be hanged before I reached you. But the crew demanded it, and without them, I could not have devised a plan that would have worked. Not on such short notice. I’m sorry I didn’t arrive sooner. I’m sorry you had to wait so long in that dungeon. I’m sorry—”

Benjamin grabbed John’s collar and pulled him close and kissed him. They were both stunned by it, and for a moment Ben almost stopped himself. People were watching all around. Go to him. Scarecrow’s words had suddenly leapt to mind. Love the ones you can, while you can.

When they separated, Benjamin was aware of the awkward looks of others on the dock. Dobbs and Akil even looked a little nonplused.

John smiled, and took his hand. “You’re a pirate now, Captain Vhingfrith. If not by deed, then by that kiss. Come. Let’s hear what they have to say about Libertalia.”