----------------------------------------
Chapter XC : Thwarted
Earlnight of Tertius, Second Day of Duskmoon
----------------------------------------
Józef Brandt always had the benefit of family and allies to look after him, but no longer. His mother died of illness shortly after giving birth, but his father raised him while also ruling a kingdom. It might have been an impossible task for most men, but Henrich had loyal servants at his disposal and made sure his son had plenty of caretakers.
Those men and women were gone, now. Jósef was left with no one but himself, equipped only with the knowledge his father had taught him. One lesson in particular stood out. Henrich always said the world would misjudge him, but he should always use that to his advantage. He hoped the crew of seasoned pirates holding him captive would see a naïve boy. Spoiled, stupid, and incompetent. He wanted his enemy to underestimate him.
Left alone with his thoughts, yet motivated by death or imprisonment, he devised a way to escape. The signet ring he showed to the pirate captain was more than just proof of his heritage. It also held a secret compartment, filled with a deadly and highly concentrated poison. Fortunately, the captain decided that Jósef was worth keeping alive and allowed him to wear the ring on his finger. The only problem was how to administer the poison to the entire crew, without raising alarm or suspicion.
The obvious answer was to poison the food, but the entire crew had to ingest it at once. Otherwise, the first to die would alert the others, and they would easily trace it back to him. Not every pirate dined at the same time. They worked in shifts, and there were always a few that scouted for things like ships or storms.
Józef wondered how he could bring them all together, and then it hit him. He wouldn’t poison the food, but rather the ale. Then, all he needed was a reason to celebrate. He needed a holiday, with song and dance, something to motivate even those with odd jobs to abandon their posts and join. He was a bard, a master entertainer. All he needed was an instrument and permission to play.
For the most part, the crew saw him as no threat, so they allowed him to leave his cabin to use the head anytime. The rest of the ship was mostly off limits, since they didn’t want him getting in their way. However, after sundown, when things were quiet, he was allowed above deck for fresh air. He knew the captain often liked to take walks after dark, so he waited for an opportunity to approach.
He knew of a holiday called Wintertide, which many celebrated on the Northern Continent. It marked the end of harvest season and ostensibly welcomed a mild winter. It was the perfect entry point for a conversation. With that in mind, he approached the dark, bearded, suntanned man.
The captain sensed his approach and turned to meet him with a scowl. “What d’ya want?”
Józef tried to sound timid. “It’s Wintertide, you know.”
The captain’s voice held nothing but contempt. “Eh? What of it?”
The prince lowered his eyes. “At the end of Autumnmoon, the Kitezhian king … my father … would often call for a day of celebration. We’d have bands playing, fireworks, and the city would open wine casks, and everyone would have a good time.”
The captain hawked a wad of phlegm and spit it off the side of the ship. “So what?”
“I just ….” Józef took notice of the captain’s cold gaze. “I just thought people celebrated it everywhere. It wouldn’t take much to start a celebration here, you know.”
The captain took the palm of his hand and thrust it against Józef’s chest. It wasn’t meant to hurt him, but its force sent him a few steps back and succeeded in making a point.
“This ain’t a cruise ship. And you ain’t a guest.”
Józef rubbed his sore chest. “I know I’m only worth the doubloons you can get from me, and I know I’m only alive as leverage, so you can get the ransom and escape before the Kitezhian government hunts you down. Even so, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like putting my fears aside for one evening and getting drunk.”
He saw a grin creep across the captain’s face. Józef’s candor obviously impressed him. Now was his chance to clinch it.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
“If you have any instruments on board, I can play them. And I can show you how to make fireworks. All it takes is a little firepowder, charcoal, and sawdust. I’ll even clean up afterwards.”
The captain chuckled. “An’ what d’ya want from me?”
Józef felt a surge of excitement. It wasn’t in the bag, yet, but he was close. “Open the ale and tell your men to pretend I’m not their captive, just for one night. Then kick back and have fun. Or don’t. I don’t care, either way.”
The captain started laughing, until without warning, he grabbed Józef by his shirt collar and lifted him off the ground. “If this is your half-assed plan to get us drunk, so you can escape on one of the dinghies, I’ll belt your ass so hard you won’t be able to sit for a week.”
Józef shook his head vigorously. “I-I wouldn’t, I swear!”
The captain released his grip, and Józef fell to the deck floor. “Just don’t forget. If I suspect anything, you’ll be sorry. Got it?”
Józef nodded, just as vigorously. “Does this mean you’ll do it?”
The captain huffed. “The crew’s been workin’ hard. They could use a little booze an’ R an’ R. But you stay away from the good stuff. I’ll ask around an’ see if anyone has a musical instrument. And afterwards, you stay an’ clean up. By sunrise, I want this ship lookin’ cleaner than it is right now.”
Józef put on a face he thought would look appropriately happy and relieved.
“By the way ….” The captain gave him a final remark. “Wintertide was a couple o’ days ago. Ya missed it. But … we don’t have t’ tell the rest of ‘em.”
He snickered on his way to inform the crew. It didn’t take long before Józef heard cheers from men who appeared to be quite motivated to get the festivities started. Within the hour, the deck was lit by seashine, the softly glowing magical rocks that floated on the water’s surface, and a cask of ale was brought abovedeck. They even found Józef a lute, one of his favorite instruments.
The first stage of his plan was to just have fun. He couldn’t risk anyone showing symptoms of poison until the whole crew was nice and drunk. As he expected, everyone was happy to take part in the event. Even the captain had a few drinks, though mostly he watched from the sidelines. He was shrewd and overly careful. Józef needed to think of a way to get to him.
After midnight, when the first cask was empty, Jozef volunteered to go down to the hull to fetch another firkin. But when it came time to tap it, he laced the tip of the spile with powder from his ring when no one was looking. He then made sure everyone’s mug was refilled. He couldn’t leave anyone out, including the captain, who leaned lazily against the main mast.
He brought a mug to the old salt, hoping he could convince him to drink.
The captain met his gaze levelly. “Why don’t you have that one. You earned it.”
The token of appreciation took him off guard. He couldn’t refuse without being rude, but he couldn’t ingest his own poison, either.
He smiled. “It’s alright. I’ll get the next one.”
The captain stood tall and leered at him. “Naw. I insist.”
Józef seized up, wondering what to do, when a lifeline appeared in the form of a firework going off overhead. Józef took advantage and pretended to be startled by the noise, dropping his drink. The captain’s iron fist pelted him hard across his cheek.
“What are you, an idiot? That was good ale!”
Laughter erupted among the crew.
“I’m sorry!” Józef tried to sound apologetic. “I’ll get another.”
“You can keep your clumsy oaf hands off our brew. Just play us another song.”
The sailors shouted requests.
“I wanna hear, ‘The good king’s men’.”
“No, play, ‘The maiden an’ the pimp’!”
The men roared with laughter.
The captain faced his crew with a wicked grin. “Naw. What’s the one that goes, ‘The prince is dead, the prince is dead, off with his head, off with his head’?”
Józef felt a chill in the air. The men went quiet, waiting to hear how the captain’s prisoner would respond to the obvious taunt. He faced the captain bravely. “It’s called, ‘The king’s cousin’s coup’. But, you should know: in the second verse, the coup fails, and the king’s cousin ends up losing his head, instead.”
The crew stayed silent. The comeback wasn’t an insult, exactly, but it might have shown enough backbone to get Józef in trouble. He watched as the captain frowned, and his nostrils flared. “Maybe so, but on this ship, we sing the first verse twice. How ‘bout you start? What d’ya think, men?”
The crew responded with a cheer, followed by a thump. Among the crowd, one of the men appeared to have fainted, and it instantly grabbed everyone’s attention.
One of them laughed. “Grogged already? Someone get the man to bed!”
The others joined in, but it was no longer funny when a second man hit the floor. Two other men started coughing uncontrollably, while a third went over the railing to vomit.
The captain’s eyes went wide before they landed on Józef with a death stare. “You!”
The prince stood ready, his hand tightly grasping the extra spile in his pocket.
The captain marched over, grabbed Józef by the collar, and lifted him once again in the air. “I don’t know how in the Burning Pits you did it, but—”
This time Jozef was ready. He took the spile and jammed it into the captain’s neck, directly into the jugular. He didn’t waste a single moment. While the crew were experiencing the dizzying effects of the poison, he looted the captain’s knife from his belt, grabbed a nearby jug of water, and ran toward the dinghy. A few men tried to pursue him, but they were slow and off balance. He stabbed with the knife, leaving them wounded. The poison would kill them, anyway.
He reached the escape boat with weak knees and flushed cheeks. Now was the moment of escape or death. He didn’t know where the sea would carry him, but he hoped he would find shore or some friendly merchant vessel before freezing to death or dying of thirst. As soon as he hit the water, he grabbed the oars and rowed with all his might.