in which maggie starts gathering her navy
Nov. 21st, 2013 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smackenzieThe Black Lightning continued on towards Port Doras, and by the time it put in to the harbor, Maggie was up and about and had reclaimed her hat and her position from Abna. Abna gave both up with good grace and told Maggie that she would like a ship of her own, if Maggie's dream of a pirate navy came true.
"I have gotten used to wearing the hat," Abna added, "but your head is too large."
"It is all the hair," Maggie said. She tossed her head for good measure, and a breeze picked up and blew her hair around, as if in agreement.
The ship sat docked in port for merely a week - not quite enough time for the crew to spend all their ill-gotten gains, although a great many of them tried - and then Maggie and her pirates were off again. Her reputation was growing, she knew, helped along by her capture and destruction of the military ship and, oddly enough, her survival of the poisoned sword blade. She had Marise to thank for that, and privately she did thank her, but in public, when whispers followed her of how the Black Lightning had encountered the Aconite, and how its captain had survived an attack by a poisoned blade, she merely smiled to herself and let people talk.
She had not realized the ship that had attacked them was a known entity. She had never heard of the Aconite or the pirates who sailed her. But someday she would chase them down and have her revenge.
And in the meantime, her ship and her crew, which was now composed solely of women save the priest, plied the southern seas around the islands looking for merchant ships to board, military ships to sink, and treasure to steal. They grew bloodthirsty and reckless, chasing larger and potentially better-armed ships, and when a merchant vessel surrendered without a fight Maggie was actually disappointed. She was growing to enjoy the exhilarating rush of jumping over the gunwale and onto the deck of another ship, wielding her sword and her pistol in an attempt to subdue the crew, and then listening to Abna recount the booty they had acquired. She did not enjoy dispatching severely wounded men, but she consoled herself with the fact that they were near death anyway, and to put them out of their misery now was a kindness and a mercy.
She did not want to be seen as soft. She did not want other pirate captains, other pirate crews, to think her merciful. She wanted word to reach the Usurper that Red Maggie and her ship the Black Lightning were slippery and dangerous and a force to fear.
But she could still laugh with her crew, and drink and dance with them, and she still took her pick of any clothes and jewels they might find, for a part of her was still the pampered, privileged Lady Cleystone, and that part of her was used to fine things. And like a great many pirates, she quite liked rich fabrics and gold thread and exquisite jewelry. Pirates were like magpies, attracted to the shiny.
And yet, when Viga ran her flag up the mast, the crossed pistols and the skull wearing a crown, Maggie could see a tremor of fear run through people who might be standing on the deck of a tempting ship. She exploited that fear as best she could, and after many months of chasing and catching (and occasionally losing) and plundering, she could say with near certainty that she was ready to begin talking to other pirates about her navy, and she was powerful enough and had earned enough of a name that they would listen to her.
She began in Port Doras, because it was a place she knew, and was laughed out of four taverns before she found someone to listen to her. She had just begun to think she should have brought some of her pirates with her, but once she sat down with the captain, she wondered if he had consented to speak to her because she had approached him alone.
His name was Diono, this pirate, and he had come from a seafaring country far to the west. He wore a red coat with immense sleeves, both it and his shirt dripping with lace and gold buttons. He had a broad face and long black hair and his beard was shot with gray and Maggie had heard that he was both retired and still sailing the seas looking for plunder. If he was retired, he was lucky and she was confident she could convince him to return with the promise of impressive treasure, and if he was still running down other ships, she was even more confident she could sway him to her cause.
But she would still have to convince him to follow a woman.
"Women on ships are bad luck," he said flatly.
"And yet you know my reputation," she countered. "You have heard of the merchants that I and my crew have robbed, the ships we have captured and sunk, the treasure we have acquired. You have heard we were attacked by the pirates of the Aconite and yet pushed them back. You know that whatever I have brought down on my ship, it was not bad luck."
"And yet a ship of women."
"And yet. I would pit my crew against yours any day. But that is not what I wish to discuss. You still command respect, Diono. Men know if they sail with you they will return with rich plunder. You know they will. There are captains yet who see your flag and quail with fear."
Perhaps she was laying it on a bit thick, but she knew that appealing to a pirate captain's vanity - or any man's, if she were honest - was never a bad idea.
"It is true, they do," he said with satisfaction. He picked up his glass, drained it, and called for more wine. When the serving girl brought it, he slapped her ass in thanks. She giggled and sashayed away. Maggie thought that if Diono tried that with any of her girls, they would break his wrist.
"I can promise you the treasure of entire cities. A country, perhaps. You will have the thanks and protection of a grateful king."
"And what will I do with a king? Am I a coward, that a letter of marque is necessary? I need no king's protection."
"But you will benefit from a king's treasury. There is much to gain from this arrangement. You know there is."
"I will not follow a woman's orders."
"I was trained in the Naval Academy, and I served in the Royal Navy before the old king died and I transferred my allegiances to Duke Laverry. I know a great deal about planning and fighting a battle. And even if I did not, my record these past two years should speak for me. What have you been doing, Diono? Sitting in a tavern in your fancy coat, drinking wine and letting other men and women claim the treasures of the seas? Someone who did not know you might say you had gone soft."
"I am not soft!" he roared, slamming his glass down on the table so hard that it broke. "I am the scourge of the western seas! I but snap my fingers and men drop to their bellies in fear!" He snapped for emphasis. Maggie regarded him calmly. He would agree to follow her, she knew he would. She nearly had him. "I will sail with you, Red Maggie. We will build your navy."
She did not bother to correct him - she would be building the navy, for it would be hers. But if he wished to think himself involved in its creation, she could give him that.
"When do we leave?" Diono asked, eager now that he had decided to sail with her.
"I need many more captains and many more ships. How many men can you gather?"
"Hundreds." It sounded like a boast to Maggie, but she knew he believed it to be simple fact. But she too believed in his ability to draw more than one ship's worth of pirates, otherwise she would not have come to him so soon.
"Good. Start now. Promise them what I promised you - great riches and the gratitude and treasury of a king. If any of them wish immortality, this is the way to it."
("Man cannot achieve immortality," the priest had told her. "That is left to God." She had not thought it worth an argument, and did not respond.)
Diono stood up, spat onto his palm, and held out his hand. Maggie spat into her own hand and shook. It was such a childish way to seal a deal, and yet it was one of the ways pirates used. Diono would keep their conversation with the same seriousness as if they had signed an official contract with witnesses. He would join Maggie's navy and he would follow her orders - they had spit and shaken, so it would be done.
He invited her to stay and drink with him, and perhaps they would eat, and if she wished a girl he could provide, and she thanked him but said no, she had other business elsewhere.
Her other business was an aborted meeting with another captain, followed by some dinner at a tavern, followed by a walk around the port so she could think. Her meeting with Diono had gone well in that it ended with him on her side, and even though she had not quite planned to insult him, it had worked out. She filed it away for future use, that other captains she might talk to would possibly respond to her casting aspersions on their virility.
Well, she should have known. They were all men, and men did not like to be thought of as soft and weak.
But to be honest, she did not either.
words: 1680
total words: 35,387
"I have gotten used to wearing the hat," Abna added, "but your head is too large."
"It is all the hair," Maggie said. She tossed her head for good measure, and a breeze picked up and blew her hair around, as if in agreement.
The ship sat docked in port for merely a week - not quite enough time for the crew to spend all their ill-gotten gains, although a great many of them tried - and then Maggie and her pirates were off again. Her reputation was growing, she knew, helped along by her capture and destruction of the military ship and, oddly enough, her survival of the poisoned sword blade. She had Marise to thank for that, and privately she did thank her, but in public, when whispers followed her of how the Black Lightning had encountered the Aconite, and how its captain had survived an attack by a poisoned blade, she merely smiled to herself and let people talk.
She had not realized the ship that had attacked them was a known entity. She had never heard of the Aconite or the pirates who sailed her. But someday she would chase them down and have her revenge.
And in the meantime, her ship and her crew, which was now composed solely of women save the priest, plied the southern seas around the islands looking for merchant ships to board, military ships to sink, and treasure to steal. They grew bloodthirsty and reckless, chasing larger and potentially better-armed ships, and when a merchant vessel surrendered without a fight Maggie was actually disappointed. She was growing to enjoy the exhilarating rush of jumping over the gunwale and onto the deck of another ship, wielding her sword and her pistol in an attempt to subdue the crew, and then listening to Abna recount the booty they had acquired. She did not enjoy dispatching severely wounded men, but she consoled herself with the fact that they were near death anyway, and to put them out of their misery now was a kindness and a mercy.
She did not want to be seen as soft. She did not want other pirate captains, other pirate crews, to think her merciful. She wanted word to reach the Usurper that Red Maggie and her ship the Black Lightning were slippery and dangerous and a force to fear.
But she could still laugh with her crew, and drink and dance with them, and she still took her pick of any clothes and jewels they might find, for a part of her was still the pampered, privileged Lady Cleystone, and that part of her was used to fine things. And like a great many pirates, she quite liked rich fabrics and gold thread and exquisite jewelry. Pirates were like magpies, attracted to the shiny.
And yet, when Viga ran her flag up the mast, the crossed pistols and the skull wearing a crown, Maggie could see a tremor of fear run through people who might be standing on the deck of a tempting ship. She exploited that fear as best she could, and after many months of chasing and catching (and occasionally losing) and plundering, she could say with near certainty that she was ready to begin talking to other pirates about her navy, and she was powerful enough and had earned enough of a name that they would listen to her.
She began in Port Doras, because it was a place she knew, and was laughed out of four taverns before she found someone to listen to her. She had just begun to think she should have brought some of her pirates with her, but once she sat down with the captain, she wondered if he had consented to speak to her because she had approached him alone.
His name was Diono, this pirate, and he had come from a seafaring country far to the west. He wore a red coat with immense sleeves, both it and his shirt dripping with lace and gold buttons. He had a broad face and long black hair and his beard was shot with gray and Maggie had heard that he was both retired and still sailing the seas looking for plunder. If he was retired, he was lucky and she was confident she could convince him to return with the promise of impressive treasure, and if he was still running down other ships, she was even more confident she could sway him to her cause.
But she would still have to convince him to follow a woman.
"Women on ships are bad luck," he said flatly.
"And yet you know my reputation," she countered. "You have heard of the merchants that I and my crew have robbed, the ships we have captured and sunk, the treasure we have acquired. You have heard we were attacked by the pirates of the Aconite and yet pushed them back. You know that whatever I have brought down on my ship, it was not bad luck."
"And yet a ship of women."
"And yet. I would pit my crew against yours any day. But that is not what I wish to discuss. You still command respect, Diono. Men know if they sail with you they will return with rich plunder. You know they will. There are captains yet who see your flag and quail with fear."
Perhaps she was laying it on a bit thick, but she knew that appealing to a pirate captain's vanity - or any man's, if she were honest - was never a bad idea.
"It is true, they do," he said with satisfaction. He picked up his glass, drained it, and called for more wine. When the serving girl brought it, he slapped her ass in thanks. She giggled and sashayed away. Maggie thought that if Diono tried that with any of her girls, they would break his wrist.
"I can promise you the treasure of entire cities. A country, perhaps. You will have the thanks and protection of a grateful king."
"And what will I do with a king? Am I a coward, that a letter of marque is necessary? I need no king's protection."
"But you will benefit from a king's treasury. There is much to gain from this arrangement. You know there is."
"I will not follow a woman's orders."
"I was trained in the Naval Academy, and I served in the Royal Navy before the old king died and I transferred my allegiances to Duke Laverry. I know a great deal about planning and fighting a battle. And even if I did not, my record these past two years should speak for me. What have you been doing, Diono? Sitting in a tavern in your fancy coat, drinking wine and letting other men and women claim the treasures of the seas? Someone who did not know you might say you had gone soft."
"I am not soft!" he roared, slamming his glass down on the table so hard that it broke. "I am the scourge of the western seas! I but snap my fingers and men drop to their bellies in fear!" He snapped for emphasis. Maggie regarded him calmly. He would agree to follow her, she knew he would. She nearly had him. "I will sail with you, Red Maggie. We will build your navy."
She did not bother to correct him - she would be building the navy, for it would be hers. But if he wished to think himself involved in its creation, she could give him that.
"When do we leave?" Diono asked, eager now that he had decided to sail with her.
"I need many more captains and many more ships. How many men can you gather?"
"Hundreds." It sounded like a boast to Maggie, but she knew he believed it to be simple fact. But she too believed in his ability to draw more than one ship's worth of pirates, otherwise she would not have come to him so soon.
"Good. Start now. Promise them what I promised you - great riches and the gratitude and treasury of a king. If any of them wish immortality, this is the way to it."
("Man cannot achieve immortality," the priest had told her. "That is left to God." She had not thought it worth an argument, and did not respond.)
Diono stood up, spat onto his palm, and held out his hand. Maggie spat into her own hand and shook. It was such a childish way to seal a deal, and yet it was one of the ways pirates used. Diono would keep their conversation with the same seriousness as if they had signed an official contract with witnesses. He would join Maggie's navy and he would follow her orders - they had spit and shaken, so it would be done.
He invited her to stay and drink with him, and perhaps they would eat, and if she wished a girl he could provide, and she thanked him but said no, she had other business elsewhere.
Her other business was an aborted meeting with another captain, followed by some dinner at a tavern, followed by a walk around the port so she could think. Her meeting with Diono had gone well in that it ended with him on her side, and even though she had not quite planned to insult him, it had worked out. She filed it away for future use, that other captains she might talk to would possibly respond to her casting aspersions on their virility.
Well, she should have known. They were all men, and men did not like to be thought of as soft and weak.
But to be honest, she did not either.
words: 1680
total words: 35,387
