Empty Throne, Part 2

Pirate’s Cove was the site of the first battle in the pirate wars, where the carnage caused the cove to be avoided for decades. Although I would never have told my crew, I was scared. John was planning with me on my raft when a large ship came up on the horizon. As we got closer, we recognized it as The Hellbound, the ship belonging to Will Harbor.

“It’s Will!” I whispered. But as we got closer, it became clear that Will was not on the ship. When we were about twenty yards from it, the pirates on the ship rushed to the side.

“Help us!” One man yelled. “We’re going to die. Our rudder is broken and we don’t have any rowboats.”

“Where’s Will?” I asked.

“He’s on the other ship. I don’t know! So much happened.”

“Then come on down and tell us about it! John, let them on.” It took a while and a little overcrowding to get them on the rafts, but we managed. Apparently, there had been a battle between Flame and Will, and The Hellbound had floated out of the cove. When they realized that the rudder was broken, they decided to stop fighting and try to survive.

“We should go and help Will!” Said Bob when they were done telling the story.

“When Flame sees us, he won’t be too happy. Most of us are deserters of his crew,” I said.

“If all goes well, he’ll be dead.”

“Fine, but I don’t know about this.”

The sky above the cove was like a thick, gray curtain over the sun. The world always seems dead in Pirate’s Cove, they used to say. It was an understatement; the entire universe felt dead. The air was still and silent, and even though there was no wind, it seemed to be pushing us back. The Double Crosser, Flame’s new ship, sat in the water like a painting. I and a few others of my crew climbed up and found, to our horror, the deck covered in bodies. Bodies of dark and light pirates; it seemed as if that battle turned out to be a stalemate.

“Look! It’s Captain Flame!” One man yelled, pointing towards the bow. Right below the front mast lay the body of Captain Jack Flame.

“He’s dead. I wonder who-” suddenly, I saw Will. He was lying on the ground with a knife in his stomach, and a pile of gold dust next to him. Instantly, I knew what had happened. Will destroyed the death doubloon, but was killed in the process.

“Get the rest of the crew up here to clear off the bodies. Then we’ll set sail and spread the news,” I ordered with a grim voice.

As the last bodies were pushed over the side of the ship, I closed my eyes. Will was a great man, and somebody would need to take his place as leader of the light pirates. I could volunteer, but that would mean that I wouldn’t be able to take the throne. I knew which one Will would want, I knew which one my father would want. In my mind, I saw the face of Crismon the First. I want you to become your own man. Suddenly, a real voice jerked me back into reality.

“You want to throw Captain Harbor over, Crismon?” It was John. In front of me was Will’s body, bloodied and battered. Without thinking, I picked it up and walked to the side of the ship. I loosened my arms, and the body fell into Pirate’s Cove. I watched as his face was submerged, eaten by the cold ocean. Slowly, a single tear dropped down my face.

“Captain! It’s the Imperials,” shouted someone. I turned my head, wide-eyed, and saw the naval ships forming a blockade at the entrance of Pirate’s Cove.

The sun, if it could have pierced through the veil of clouds, would’ve been setting. As I walked slowly down the quarterdeck steps, I looked around. Everything looked gray. The water, the deck, my skin, the cliffs, my clothes, it all looked gray. They’re waiting for you. They want to hear your words. I took a deep breath. I wanted to rest, I wanted to sleep, but whenever I closed my eyes I saw Will’s face, just below the surface of the water, sinking into the depths of Pirate’s Cove. My crew was waiting at the foremast, and each of them watched me as I slowly approached them. I want you to become your own man. I was breathing heavily now, my chest rising up and down like a wave on the ocean. My feet felt like weights, my head did as well with all of the thoughts going through my mind the same way water flows through the land in rivers. This day may be our last. Time wanted to stop, the sun wanted to darken. The ocean wanted to freeze, and the land wanted to crumble at that moment. I wished things didn’t go that way, they could’ve gone so much better. But they didn’t, and I had to deal with it. Stop. Stop thinking and talk to your crew. They’ll lose hope without you, and you’ll lose hope if you keep going like this.

I clenched my fists and closed my eyes. Will’s face was there, bright as day. I opened them and looked up at my crew. “The Imperials have made a proposition,” I said. “They said that if we surrendered, they’d give us a large sum of money and enroll us as privateers in the Armada. We’d be free of all criminal charges and honored by the king.” I let it sink in, and they stared at me as if expecting me to explode. “I can’t speak for you, but I know that you ain’t a pirate if you don’t agree,” I said, stepping onto the base of the mast. “BUT I WOULD DIE ON MY FEET BEFORE I WOULD LIVE ON MY KNEES!” A cheer rose from The Double Crosser that shook the cliffs and trembled the waters and the waves slammed into the rocks with a heavenly force that seemed to shatter the air. I closed my eyes, and I thought I saw a smile on the dead Captain’s face.

That night, we got onto the rafts and tried to find a way out of the cove. Luckily, Bob’s raft found a small cave running all the way through the cliff in the side, not big enough for any ship bigger than fifteen feet wide. Quietly, we gathered around and decided what to do.

“If we all go at once, they’ll notice something’s up,” whispered John.

“So we’ll go one night at a time until all the rafts are through. Then- then I guess we’ll figure it out from there.” There was a silent agreement, so I continued. “John, you and three other men will go first. I’ll go last, to see that everyone makes it out safely.”

Later that night, we saw John off and began waiting.