in which maggie is thrown in jail
Nov. 24th, 2013 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smackenzieThree days later the Black Lightning set sail from Port Doras with a full complement of pirates, all women save for the priest. Severein, the sailing master, had left and been replaced with a girl named Adriata, who did the best she could with the maps and charts that she had but who could also navigate by sun and stars to at least point them in the right direction. She seemed to know her way better than Severein had, and what was more, where Severein had been captured and pressed into service, she had wanted to join Maggie's crew.
Maggie's pirate navy was some of it already at sea, and the plan was to convene all the commanders - if not all the ships - in two weeks' time on an island much like Port Doras, without imperial oversight or law. But first, before the Black Lightning turned towards this future pirate council, Maggie had one last stop, one last captain to speak with, and she had Adriata point her ship towards the town of Merrinport so she could keep this last appointment.
Maggie knew that there was a special bounty on her head in Merrinport for the slave ship she had sunk so long ago, and so she planned to set foot on the island in disguise. The Black Lightning dropped anchor outside the town's water border and a couple of pirates rowed Maggie to shore in one of the ship's small rowboats. She had them disguise themselves as well, and on the busy dock where she climbed out of the rowboat, no one seemed to notice them or care.
But she should have known, and she should have been more cautious, and perhaps she should have sent someone in her stead, for the meeting was a trap and rather than a pirate captain and some of his entourage, she walked into the back room of a tavern and met four men from the city guard.
They took her sword and her pistols and the hat and jacket that had been intended to help her disguise, and threw her in prison for piracy.
The cell was cold and damp and there was nowhere to sit and nowhere to sleep and not even a window through which she could guess the passage of time. She paced up and down and ignored the comments from other prisoners in other cells - the men in the cell opposite hers kept up a stream of highly explicit commentary and questions, even though they could not see her clearly thanks to the dim light cast by the flickering sconces on the walls - and tried to figure out how she could possibly get a message to her ship that she had been taken prisoner. Someone would realize she had not returned, and they would come looking for her.
Well, perhaps they would not. After all, if she was killed or captured, control of her ship passed to whoever the crew voted to replace her as captain, or they would all claim a piece of it and own it as a group. There was in fact not a great deal of incentive for someone to come find her.
But they liked her, some of them - most of them, she wished to think - and the priest would miss her, and how could a jailer gainsay a priest? No one had to know that he had left his church before the church could excommunicate him.
Oh, but people knew that. It was one of the stories about her and her ship that passed among the islands and had no doubt traveled to the colonies and across the sea on the gossipy lips of merchants and common sailors and people traveling from place to place.
So the priest might come for her, but how would he get her out? She did not imagine he could pay her bail, for the simple fact that she did not imagine there was bail to be paid. He could not match the price of her capture, if that were even an option.
She had only been in prison once before, after the Usurper took power and imprisoned all her opponent's supporters. Maggie had not been in prison very long then, but it had been long enough.
"My crew will come for me," she yelled out her cell and down the corridor, her words chasing a guard who had brought her something to eat. "They will come for me and you will wish you had let me be."
Someone in another cell laughed, a high-pitched cackling laugh that sounded unhinged to Maggie's ears.
She resumed her pacing.
She could not measure time or count days without a window in which to see the sky, but she thought she could judge by the number of times someone brought her hardtack and filthy water. That was once a day, and after three such deliveries someone came to see her. Someone dressed like a boy, and a bit too short to be a full-grown adult. Someone who was not the priest. Bernade.
"How did you know I was here?" Maggie demanded, trying to keep her voice low so as not to alert anyone. Was the Cormorant not at sea? Was Bernade no longer its captain? She had pledged to join Maggie's navy, and Maggie thought she would have known if Bernade's situation had changed.
"Blind luck, it looks like," Bernade whispered. "There is a plan. Do not worry."
"Where is the Cormorant? Have you spoken to anyone on my ship?"
"I have. I heard a rumor that Red Maggie had walked into a trap and been caught, so I asked around. I sent someone to the Black Lightning with word. We will get you out."
"How?"
"Bribery and violence." Bernade grinned widely. "More of the second than the first, no doubt. Tomorrow night, during full dark. Doren and Yora helped me plan. If this works, you will have them to thank."
"They took my sword and pistols."
"I know. We will try to find them. I have to go." The guard she had likely bribed for some privacy was walking back down the corridor towards them. "We are doing what we can."
"Thank you."
"Oh, do not thank me. All I did was tell your crew. They are the ones who insisted you be rescued." Another grin and she turned and swept away up the corridor, pushing past the guard without saying a word to him.
"What did he want?" the guard demanded of Maggie.
"Words passed between lovers," she said loftily, "and none of your business."
"Your business is my business."
"Then - " A racket farther up the corridor interrupted her, and the guard went off to see what it was.
Maggie bided her time and tried not to fret, and the next night, when she imagined it must have been full dark, she heard a commotion down the corridor and out of sight, and then she could see lights bobbing at the far end. They came closer, bouncing up and down like they were being carried by someone running, and soon Yora and Doren and Bernade and (she should not have been surprised) the priest came into view.
"We have very little time," Doren said as she fumbled with the ring of keys that she must have taken from the night guard. She tried four before she found the one that opened Maggie's cell. "We found your sword but not your pistols. But we took one off the guard."
The cell door creaked open and Maggie jumped out. Bernade handed her the pistol and Doren handed over the sword. The priest was carrying a bundle that turned out to be a nun's robes, and he gestured for her to pull them on over her clothes.
"If we are caught leaving," he explained, "we will say that we are merely ministering to the prisoners in their darkest hours." Maggie thought she could see him grin, and was briefly impressed at how confident he seemed in their jailbreak.
The men in the cell across the corridor woke at the noise and begged her to release them and take them along.
"You cannot promise me enough," she told them. "You may stay here and rot for all the things you said to me."
The others hustled her back down the corridor and past the night guard, who was slumped against the wall and seemed to be unconscious. He did not look like he was bleeding in the shaky light from their torches, but in the uncertain light it was hard to tell. She could see Yora's proud smile, however, and was not surprised. If anyone was going to administer violence tonight, it would be her.
They passed a couple of guards on their way to the outside door, and once they were stopped and an explanation demanded for why they were in the prison so late. The priest, as expected, explained that he and Maggie were ministering to the prisoners - one of the guards had sent for them - and the other three women were their escort. The guard did not seem entirely convinced, but the priest's words were so serious and so earnest, and Maggie kept her eyes downcast as a sign of female humility, and eventually he let them all go.
Maggie breathed an inward sigh of relief as they walked out of the prison and headed towards the docks. But then there was a shout behind them, they knew they had been discovered, and they ran.
There was but one rowboat tied up for them, but before Maggie could ask if Bernade was going to stay in town or if she had another way to get to her ship, they all piled into the rowboat, Yora and Bernade unshipped the oars, and they pulled away from the dock just as several guards pounded into view and saw them.
"Stop!" they yelled. "In the name of the law! Stop!"
No one in the rowboat paid them any heed.
"That was much easier than I had been expecting," Maggie commented, as they pulled up alongside the Black Lightning and someone dropped a rope ladder over the side. The women and the priest climbed up one by one and clambered on board the ship. Abna gave Maggie her captain's hat and Maggie found someone to row Bernade back to the Cormorant, which was docked farther down the coast.
"That was my first successful jailbreak," Bernade commented, as the two pirates who had volunteered to take her back to her ship shimmied down the rope ladder to the rowboat. "Or at least the first time I successfully broke someone else out. You were stupid, though, to go into Merrinport alone."
"I know that now," Maggie said. "I have had such luck so far, I thought it would hold."
"Our luck is as fickle as the sea we sail. You did not know that?"
"I did not think."
"Clearly." Bernade grinned, and then clasped Maggie's hand. "I will see you in two weeks and we will arrange this navy of yours. I have never sat on a pirate council. I expect it will be fun."
"I do not know if 'fun' is the word I would use, but it will at the very least be interesting. Thank you again, and be safe."
"Always." Bernade tipped her hat and climbed over the gunwale and down the rope ladder to the rowboat. And Maggie resumed her post as captain and directed Adriata to find them open water and a good breeze.
words: 1934
total words: 41155
Maggie's pirate navy was some of it already at sea, and the plan was to convene all the commanders - if not all the ships - in two weeks' time on an island much like Port Doras, without imperial oversight or law. But first, before the Black Lightning turned towards this future pirate council, Maggie had one last stop, one last captain to speak with, and she had Adriata point her ship towards the town of Merrinport so she could keep this last appointment.
Maggie knew that there was a special bounty on her head in Merrinport for the slave ship she had sunk so long ago, and so she planned to set foot on the island in disguise. The Black Lightning dropped anchor outside the town's water border and a couple of pirates rowed Maggie to shore in one of the ship's small rowboats. She had them disguise themselves as well, and on the busy dock where she climbed out of the rowboat, no one seemed to notice them or care.
But she should have known, and she should have been more cautious, and perhaps she should have sent someone in her stead, for the meeting was a trap and rather than a pirate captain and some of his entourage, she walked into the back room of a tavern and met four men from the city guard.
They took her sword and her pistols and the hat and jacket that had been intended to help her disguise, and threw her in prison for piracy.
The cell was cold and damp and there was nowhere to sit and nowhere to sleep and not even a window through which she could guess the passage of time. She paced up and down and ignored the comments from other prisoners in other cells - the men in the cell opposite hers kept up a stream of highly explicit commentary and questions, even though they could not see her clearly thanks to the dim light cast by the flickering sconces on the walls - and tried to figure out how she could possibly get a message to her ship that she had been taken prisoner. Someone would realize she had not returned, and they would come looking for her.
Well, perhaps they would not. After all, if she was killed or captured, control of her ship passed to whoever the crew voted to replace her as captain, or they would all claim a piece of it and own it as a group. There was in fact not a great deal of incentive for someone to come find her.
But they liked her, some of them - most of them, she wished to think - and the priest would miss her, and how could a jailer gainsay a priest? No one had to know that he had left his church before the church could excommunicate him.
Oh, but people knew that. It was one of the stories about her and her ship that passed among the islands and had no doubt traveled to the colonies and across the sea on the gossipy lips of merchants and common sailors and people traveling from place to place.
So the priest might come for her, but how would he get her out? She did not imagine he could pay her bail, for the simple fact that she did not imagine there was bail to be paid. He could not match the price of her capture, if that were even an option.
She had only been in prison once before, after the Usurper took power and imprisoned all her opponent's supporters. Maggie had not been in prison very long then, but it had been long enough.
"My crew will come for me," she yelled out her cell and down the corridor, her words chasing a guard who had brought her something to eat. "They will come for me and you will wish you had let me be."
Someone in another cell laughed, a high-pitched cackling laugh that sounded unhinged to Maggie's ears.
She resumed her pacing.
She could not measure time or count days without a window in which to see the sky, but she thought she could judge by the number of times someone brought her hardtack and filthy water. That was once a day, and after three such deliveries someone came to see her. Someone dressed like a boy, and a bit too short to be a full-grown adult. Someone who was not the priest. Bernade.
"How did you know I was here?" Maggie demanded, trying to keep her voice low so as not to alert anyone. Was the Cormorant not at sea? Was Bernade no longer its captain? She had pledged to join Maggie's navy, and Maggie thought she would have known if Bernade's situation had changed.
"Blind luck, it looks like," Bernade whispered. "There is a plan. Do not worry."
"Where is the Cormorant? Have you spoken to anyone on my ship?"
"I have. I heard a rumor that Red Maggie had walked into a trap and been caught, so I asked around. I sent someone to the Black Lightning with word. We will get you out."
"How?"
"Bribery and violence." Bernade grinned widely. "More of the second than the first, no doubt. Tomorrow night, during full dark. Doren and Yora helped me plan. If this works, you will have them to thank."
"They took my sword and pistols."
"I know. We will try to find them. I have to go." The guard she had likely bribed for some privacy was walking back down the corridor towards them. "We are doing what we can."
"Thank you."
"Oh, do not thank me. All I did was tell your crew. They are the ones who insisted you be rescued." Another grin and she turned and swept away up the corridor, pushing past the guard without saying a word to him.
"What did he want?" the guard demanded of Maggie.
"Words passed between lovers," she said loftily, "and none of your business."
"Your business is my business."
"Then - " A racket farther up the corridor interrupted her, and the guard went off to see what it was.
Maggie bided her time and tried not to fret, and the next night, when she imagined it must have been full dark, she heard a commotion down the corridor and out of sight, and then she could see lights bobbing at the far end. They came closer, bouncing up and down like they were being carried by someone running, and soon Yora and Doren and Bernade and (she should not have been surprised) the priest came into view.
"We have very little time," Doren said as she fumbled with the ring of keys that she must have taken from the night guard. She tried four before she found the one that opened Maggie's cell. "We found your sword but not your pistols. But we took one off the guard."
The cell door creaked open and Maggie jumped out. Bernade handed her the pistol and Doren handed over the sword. The priest was carrying a bundle that turned out to be a nun's robes, and he gestured for her to pull them on over her clothes.
"If we are caught leaving," he explained, "we will say that we are merely ministering to the prisoners in their darkest hours." Maggie thought she could see him grin, and was briefly impressed at how confident he seemed in their jailbreak.
The men in the cell across the corridor woke at the noise and begged her to release them and take them along.
"You cannot promise me enough," she told them. "You may stay here and rot for all the things you said to me."
The others hustled her back down the corridor and past the night guard, who was slumped against the wall and seemed to be unconscious. He did not look like he was bleeding in the shaky light from their torches, but in the uncertain light it was hard to tell. She could see Yora's proud smile, however, and was not surprised. If anyone was going to administer violence tonight, it would be her.
They passed a couple of guards on their way to the outside door, and once they were stopped and an explanation demanded for why they were in the prison so late. The priest, as expected, explained that he and Maggie were ministering to the prisoners - one of the guards had sent for them - and the other three women were their escort. The guard did not seem entirely convinced, but the priest's words were so serious and so earnest, and Maggie kept her eyes downcast as a sign of female humility, and eventually he let them all go.
Maggie breathed an inward sigh of relief as they walked out of the prison and headed towards the docks. But then there was a shout behind them, they knew they had been discovered, and they ran.
There was but one rowboat tied up for them, but before Maggie could ask if Bernade was going to stay in town or if she had another way to get to her ship, they all piled into the rowboat, Yora and Bernade unshipped the oars, and they pulled away from the dock just as several guards pounded into view and saw them.
"Stop!" they yelled. "In the name of the law! Stop!"
No one in the rowboat paid them any heed.
"That was much easier than I had been expecting," Maggie commented, as they pulled up alongside the Black Lightning and someone dropped a rope ladder over the side. The women and the priest climbed up one by one and clambered on board the ship. Abna gave Maggie her captain's hat and Maggie found someone to row Bernade back to the Cormorant, which was docked farther down the coast.
"That was my first successful jailbreak," Bernade commented, as the two pirates who had volunteered to take her back to her ship shimmied down the rope ladder to the rowboat. "Or at least the first time I successfully broke someone else out. You were stupid, though, to go into Merrinport alone."
"I know that now," Maggie said. "I have had such luck so far, I thought it would hold."
"Our luck is as fickle as the sea we sail. You did not know that?"
"I did not think."
"Clearly." Bernade grinned, and then clasped Maggie's hand. "I will see you in two weeks and we will arrange this navy of yours. I have never sat on a pirate council. I expect it will be fun."
"I do not know if 'fun' is the word I would use, but it will at the very least be interesting. Thank you again, and be safe."
"Always." Bernade tipped her hat and climbed over the gunwale and down the rope ladder to the rowboat. And Maggie resumed her post as captain and directed Adriata to find them open water and a good breeze.
words: 1934
total words: 41155
