"Why are they firing at us?" wailed The Swede as he hid behind a pillar.
"Livy didn't like the look of 'em so wouldn't land on their ship," said Buttons as he helped a member of the William's crew load a cannonball.
Jim grabbed hold of their hat and yelled, "You gotta be fucking kidding me! We trusted our lives to a bird?! Jesus, I should've stayed on the Revenge. At least they're going after the ship that doesn't have guns."
Olu hadn't let go of Jim's hand since the prisoner transfer just before the battle began. Jim gave his hand one last squeeze, nodded at him, then moved to help Wee John load another cannonball.
The Hollandia came about.
"Fire to disable! Target the guns!" called Bonny as she wrenched the wheel to swing her ship around. "Mare, take the wheel!" The large woman who acted as the ship's second mate stepped up to take control of the ship.
Bonny then moved across the deck towards Jim, Olawunde, and The Swede. "You three, with me. We're going to get on board..."
A shot of a blunderbuss from an enemy combatant sailed overhead.
"...get on board that ship and talk to someone in charge." finished Bonny.
"Why don't we just fly the flag?" asked The Swede.
"What?"
"The flag! To say we are friends!"
"Nah, can't do that, mate. If we stop firing, then your captain and the others are dead. They'll sort out that something's up." Bonny resettled the hat on her head and looked at the three of them. "You up for this?"
"Hell yeah," said Jim.
"No. No no. they'll kill us!" said Olu. "I just got Jim back. I'm not bloody losing them again."
"If it weren't for this whole stupid scheme of Stede's, you wouldn't have me back, Olu. Besides, that's what we do. We save these idiots from themselves. You know. Be badasses." Jim winked.
It didn't seem to reassure Olu much, who sighed heavily and picked up a mallet.
—
Jim had no idea how they actually managed to board the Hollandia. Mare, the second mate, turned out to be a hell of a sailor, who used the strength of her thick arms to bring the ship within feet of the merchant vessel. They didn't really know about ship combat, but it seemed to Jim to be a bad idea to get that close to a barrage of guns.
It turned out that a brief moment of mutually assured sinking made the Holladia captain hesitate just long enough for the four of them plus one of Bonny's other men to swing across and land on the deck of the merchant ship.
They were besieged immediately by men whose primary occupation was not warfare, but who clearly knew how to handle a sword.
Bonny led the charge with a flourish of her sword, head full of braids dancing out around her, jacket spinning and clanging as she dispatched her attackers with non-lethal precision. She had extraordinary grace and control and Jim found themselves staring so much that they nearly missed an attacker from the left.
An attacker that Olu dispatched with a clonk on their head with the mallet. He looked at Bonny, then looked at Jim.
"Should I be jealous?"
"You absolutely should," said Jim.
"Oh for crying out..." muttered Olu. "Bonny! Where we going?"
Bonny swung around, and pointed towards the bridge. "There!"
Jim didn't know how the four of them managed to fight their way up onto the bridge, seeing as they were terribly outnumbered.It took until Jim had their knife at the throat of the man steering the ship before they realized that most of the crew were manning the cannons rather than on deck.
"You can kill me if you want, but we won't stop firing," said the man in a thick Dutch accent.
Jim pressed their dagger a little deeper into the man's throat. "You really gonna die for some grain, little man?"
"Jim..." said Olu, calmly.
Bonny sheathed her sword and looked the man in the eye. "Look, this is a horrible...it's a bad plan that went south and you got caught in the middle. But if you're willing to extend a little bit of trust, I think we can fix this."
Bonny nodded at Jim, who reluctantly withdrew their dagger.
The man rubbed his neck and gave Jim a dirty look. "Explain."
"Well. From what I understand...it begins with a love story..."
STAI LEGGENDO
A Pirate's Life For Us
FanfictionEd is trapped on his ship with Izzy Hands and a new crew of murderous pirates who will kill him at the first sign of weakness. Meanwhile, Stede has returned and realized his terrible mistake. With no ship and no money, he goes to Spanish Jackie for...
