The Cabin Girl

Cassia stood dockside and looked up at the massive wooden ship. She had to crane her neck to see the two masts towering above. She never realized just how large these sailing ships were. She never had reason to venture down to the docks. Never been close enough to smell the heavy scent of tar and salty wood, or to hear the way the ships creaked as they bobbed with the tide.

“Move aside, boy!”

The bellowing directly behind her gave her a start and she turned to see two men carrying a large chest between them. She was standing on the gangplank, the wooden walkway laid between the ship and the dock, and she wasn’t moving up it, but simply blocking the way. She hopped off to let the men pass.

“Is this the Savage Mamba?” she asked them. She got only a grunt for a reply. The men trudged on up the plank, and another man followed closely after with a sea bag hoisted on his shoulder.

“Mister, is this the...” she asked the lone man, only to be completely ignored. Well goodness sakes. She frowned but fell in line after him. She crossed the gap between the dock and the deck.

She supposed she should take their lack of interest as a good sign. Not a one of them looked at her with surprise. None were questioning why a young woman was boarding the ship. They saw her as the boy she was pretending to be.

Last night, mere hours ago, she completely altered her appearance. Her dark brown hair that once fell into silky waves against her mid-back was now butchered short into a boyish style. Her dress had been replaced by trousers and an oversized shirt that was cinched with a belt around her waist. She no longer looked like Cassia, the runaway slave. She was now Cato, the new cabin boy.

Yes, she thought, let them take no notice of me. I’m just a boy. Nothing to see here.

She smiled to herself as she took her first steps onto the ship. The deck was a flurry of activity. She felt horribly out of place and yet that didn’t scare her. As the wind ruffled her strangely short hair, she felt a rush of excitement. Excitement to be on a boat for the first time ever. Excitement to be starting a new chapter in her life. And, most of all, excitement that she actually got away with it. She hadn’t been captured last night. She lucked into a position on this merchant ship and soon she would be safely at sea.

The man who hired her hadn’t exactly told her what was expected of her. She also hadn’t asked. She grabbed onto the opportunity like a lifeline and didn’t want to sever it by admitting her ignorance. All she knew was that she was to be the cabin boy and to report to this ship before it finished loading. Now here she was and... what was she supposed to do?

More men came up the gangplank and she was quick to move aside. These men ignored her the same as the others. They all looked rough, weatherworn from years under the ocean’s sun. They didn’t look like a friendly or welcoming bunch. They didn’t look any more willing to answer her questions, so she didn’t bother asking them.

All she wanted was to confirm she was on the right vessel. She was fairly confident she was, but it wasn’t like there was a sign out front boldly announcing the ship. She supposed their silence might be confirmation. If this wasn’t the Savage Mamba, wouldn’t they have at least said ‘no’?

Her mind wandered as she turned to have a look across the deck. She felt an urge to explore. The ship looked even larger there than it had from the dock. There were stairs upward to a higher deck on her left, and the front of the ship was far, far off to her right. She didn’t cave to that urge only because the deck was so busy. Men were moving everywhere and she feared getting in their way. She didn’t want to cause trouble on her first day.

Perhaps she should just move away from the traffic. She had no belongings with her to store below. She wouldn’t know where to begin finding her bunk, anyway. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to go into this blind, but what better choice did she have? Fleeing on a ship, disguised as the opposite gender, was her best option. They’d be searching the outlying roads for her. They’d find her if she fled on foot or if she dared stay in town. They’d never find her on a ship.

She walked toward the stairs, moving away from the gangplank and the bustle of activity. It was then that something caught her eye. There, on the stairs. Well, would you look at that?

The stairs had a railing, as stairs typically do, and this railing was decorated with a snake. The snake was carved into the same wood that formed the railing, yet it was skillfully done, looking more like a living creature than a stretch of wood. Its long body wrapped around the entire length of the railing, its tail disappearing somewhere at the top of the stairs, its head at the bottom near where she stood. Its mouth was open in a hiss, its eyes menacing, and each individual scale had been carved in intricate detail.

She didn’t care for snakes, not at all, but this one was a welcomed sight.

“A savage mamba,” Cassia whispered, tracing her fingers over the snake’s wooden eye. She didn’t know her snakes, didn’t even know if this carving was a mamba, but she knew a mamba was a snake. She found her ship.

A renewed sense of confidence washed through her. She might be posing as a boy, in an unfamiliar job, but she was in the right place. She slid her palm over the top of the snake’s head, giving it an amused pat, before pulling away. She turned around then, moving to the side of the ship. She found the height gave her a view of the city she had never seen before. The people on the docks looked smaller, and the city itself spread out before her as its structures and streets gently rose with the hillside it was built upon.

She leaned against the outer railing and looked out at the city she had lived in since the day she first drew breath. Vendice was a bustling place of stone and wooden buildings, people going about their day on foot or horseback. The narrow streets led up to a huge marketplace and the city was overpacked with docks along the ocean’s shore. It had been an interesting place to live. A place where something exciting was always happening.

She would probably miss Vendice. That little house she had lived in with her parents. That nook behind the bakery she called home after that. The wonderful way the bakery made the street smell in the mornings. The different accents she’d encounter every day from the merchants who came from far and wide. Yeah, she’d miss it. But she wasn’t afraid to leave it.

No, no. She was eager for this new adventure! She would always see the ships sailing in and out of the docks and imagine all the exotic places they had seen. Where would this one take her? Another grin spontaneously came to her face at the thought. She turned from the railing and looked over the ship that would be sending her to freedom. The gangplanks were now being raised and, soon after, she heard the clanking of the anchor chain being cranked up.

Orders were shouted here and there, yet everyone in the crew seemed to know exactly what to do. A whole slew of people working seamlessly together to get the ship prepared. She watched as they did things she didn’t understand, to get pulled away from the busy docks and headed out towards the sea. It was fascinating how there was actually order in what looked like a hectic mess.

She never knew just how much went into operating a ship. It was very different watching the actions from right there on the deck rather than off from a distance somewhere. She looked up at the sails, where men were standing on ropes far above. They were so high that falling would surely leave one dead, yet they moved as if they had no fear. Fresh excitement filled her as she watched the sails fall and billow out with loud flaps of the cloth.

Ropes fed from high on the masts down to the sides of the ship. More ropes were bundled at the bases of the masts and wrapped around things along the sides of the deck. There were ropes everywhere. Many more than she would’ve expected. How could they possibly remember what all those different ropes did? Would she have to remember? A cabin boy didn’t have to do that stuff, did they? She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, and she was prepared to do a lot of physical labor, but it was looking like this gig might be more complicated than she intended.

She decided not to worry about it right now. She was passing herself off as a boy, not a man, so maybe she could use her ‘youth’ as an excuse for not knowing everything. Surely they didn’t expect a cabin boy to be an expert sailor. It was a role meant for young boys, so how hard could it be?

You got this. The hard part’s already done. She looked back over the railing, at the city they were now drifting away from. Yes, the hard part was getting out of that city. She did it. She was now a free woman again.

The Savage Mamba navigated away from the docks of Vendice. They passed other ships in the harbor, some larger and some smaller, and Cassia enjoyed looking at the others as they went. Eventually they were cruising with nothing ahead of them but open sea. It was more breezy now, the wind carrying a mist that made her skin damp. Her hair blew around uncontrollably, for it was too short to tuck behind her ears. It was also too short to be in her eyes, though, so it didn’t matter. It just felt so unusual for her. Her hair wasn’t meant to move in such ways.

“Listen up, men! Gather ’round for your captain!” barked a gruff voice from somewhere behind her. Somewhere above. She turned around and looked up. At the helm was a large wooden wheel, spoked with handles to control it, and there stood two men. The rest of the crew was gathering on the lower deck, making her quickly realize she should join everyone else.

She hurried away from the stairs and she slid in amongst the crowd. She was much shorter than all the men that stood around her. Even the shortest of men stood taller than her because she was a mere 5’3”. She looked like a boy who still had growing to do.

“Alright, for you lot that just came on, I be Captain Malko. And this dog here is my right hand, Alaric,” announced one of the men standing at the helm. What he said brought on a loud uproar from the crew, with cheers and shouts probably from those who had already been on his crew and weren’t the new lot he was talking about.

Cassia felt taken by the sight of him. She hadn’t noticed him during all the hustle and commotion while the ship was setting off. But looking up at him now, she found him to be a surprisingly attractive man.

She would occasionally see a good-looking sailor in town, but most of them were weathered and ugly in her opinion. Even the man standing beside the captain was nothing to fancy. But the captain, Captain Malko, put all the others to shame. His features were strikingly handsome. That chiseled jaw with that 5 o’clock shadow. That full head of thick dark hair that fell long against his shoulders. That strong build and confident posture. Wow, he was gorgeous.

Granted, he was rough looking like the rest of them. His hair didn’t look like it had ever been washed. He had a few scars visible, white against his tanned skin. But she found the rugged look made him even more appealing. He looked like a man who could handle anything the world threw at him. She got by just fine on her own, but she wouldn’t mind having the arms of a man like that wrapped around her.

Another uproar from the men around her startled her out of her admiring thoughts. She glanced around and suddenly felt silly. Why did she get so distracted by the man’s appearance? That wasn’t like her. Come on, girl, pay attention. The captain was speaking and it might be important. She missed all that he said after his introduction, but she focused on picking up the rest.

“So, we’re gonna sail the Savage Mamba up and down this coast. We’re gonna find every town with loaded pockets and every ship sitting fat on the waves, and we’re gonna take every last coin for ourselves! We’ll plunder to our heart’s content and should anyone dare try to stop us, we’ll send ’em to the mighty depths below!” Malko was saying, riling up his crew in what was clearly meant to be an inspirational speech. It worked. The crew got louder, all of them shouting and cheering and throwing fists in the air. Cassia, on the other hand, was stunned.

Wait. Was this a pirate ship?! Was that gorgeous man up there a pirate captain?!

Worry filled her as she looked around at the others with fresh eyes. The men crowded around her weren’t just rough looking sailors. They were all pirates. All of them were thieves and rapists and murderers. She didn’t like this at all. This was supposed to be a merchant ship! A safe ship!

What could she do about it now? She looked over the side of the ship, out at the land that was much too far away for swimming. She was stuck on this boat. With a crew of pirates. What had she gotten herself into?

“Who’s with me?!” Malko yelled, to which the crew got louder than ever. There were shouts of agreement and excitement all around. The excitement she had felt, however, had now fizzled out. It had been stomped to death.