The Pirate Raiders Page 21

  He began coughing again and this time there was no bringing him back. The warning about Andrea was the last thing he ever said to me. I felt the tears well up in my eyes and a knot formed in my stomach. I wanted to hit something. I wanted to scream. I’d lost so many close friends over the past few days. The pain I felt inside was maddening. I then looked around to my other shipmates…the survivors. I could see the pain in their eyes as well and it was at that moment I knew that seeing me grieve wasn’t the best thing for them right now. I was their captain, and it was my job to see to their well-being first.

  I glanced over at the only survivor from Ricardo’s ship. The young man had tears streaming down his face and I then realized that my loss was not nearly as great as his. He’d just lost every man on his ship.

  “What’s your name, mate?” I asked him, hoping he spoke English.

  “Macuya,” he replied, his accent thick and heavy.

  I put a firm hand on his shoulder in an effort to comfort him. “Well, Macuya, I’d be honored if you joined my crew. Although our losses are not as bad as yours, we’ve still lost a lot of men. We could use another good sailor. I know any man that sailed for Ricardo was indeed a good sailor. He didn’t settle for anything less.”

  Macuya looked down at Ricardo for a long moment and then began to wipe the tears from his eyes. Finally, he looked up at me.

  “He wanted me to survive so that I could tell you to take care of Jane. He said he wanted you to look after his cats too.”

  I grinned and shook my head. “Leave it to Ricardo to think of those bloody cats as he’s dying,” I said, trying to stifle a chuckle.

  Macuya smiled for the first time. “They were like children to him.”

  “Aye, they were,” I agreed. “We’ll look after them, and we’ll look after you, mate." We stayed by Ricardo's side for a while, in silence. Finally, I asked him, "Have you ever seen anything like that, Macuya?”

  "Seen anything like what?" he asked.

  "The kraken."

  The young sailor turned his head and looked off into the vast ocean as if he were deep in thought. "I have seen things like it," he replied. "Beasts that will make you awaken from your dreams screaming and wet with sweat."

  I did not ask him to elaborate. Quite frankly, I didn't think I wanted to know. I left Macuya with his fallen captain, and then gathered up the surviving members of my crew. I climbed what was left of the quarter deck stairs and gazed upon the small group of men that were nearly all the family I had left.

  “Gentlemen, please know that the death of your shipmates was not in vain,” I said. “There are no words I can say now to express my gratitude to each and every one of you. Captain Trimble is dead and when the word spreads about what we—what YOU all did today…well, there’s not a pirate alive that will challenge us now mates! We’ll return to New Providence, we’ll make repairs, and then we’ll return to the sea, where all of us belong.”

  The men erupted in joyous applause. The sea was exactly where they would always belong.

  THE END