The door to the captain’s cabin creaked open, and Reeva stepped in, closing it behind her.
She reached for the end of her shirt and used it to wipe the blood from her face, rubbing so hard her skin almost broke. Sick rose in her throat, but she held it down.
She tried to force air into her lungs, but a knot in her throat refused to let it pass.
The world spun, she grabbed her knees trying to steady herself. Her lungs burned as she forced air down. One breath, two breaths, three …
The world stopped spinning. Her heart that threatened to jump out of her chest dropped to a calmer pace, and she leaned back on the door.
“It’s done,” she muttered as she passed her still trembling hand through her hair. The three tight braids on the left side were loose from the battle and the rest of her long, wavy, silver hair a mess filled with dirt and blood. Those silver hairs made most people stare at her and whisper the word deathwitch - a creature from Aweki myths rumoured to have the power to control the dead. The myths still struck fear, but the silver hair was the only part of it based on reality.
She brushed a strand out of her eyes; her hand brushing against a large scar starting from above her right eyebrow and stopping just on her cheekbone.
The scar was a constant reminder of her first raid that her father let her fight at his side, at the age of fifteen.
She breathed in and out deeply as the knot in her throat loosen, letting the air pass freely.
“I did it.” Pride pushed her panic aside as she realized that she had successfully led her first raid as Captain of her father’s ship. She straightened and looked around her.
The cabin was small and kept tidy. On the desk, maps gathered in a neat pile on the desk together with the captain’s log. The room looked a lot like her father’s. He liked to keep everything organised, and she was trying to do the same, but it turned out that tidying wasn’t a quality of hers.
She opened the log and read the last pages. The entry said the ship left one day late from the harbour because of bad weather. One day. That’s all it took for Reeva’s ship to get in their way and turn the journey upside down.
On the wall, they were shelves with books of all sorts. She skimmed through them until one caught her attention. A small brown book, a little torn on the edges. “Creatures of the Depths” the spine read. She took it off the shelf and placed it into the back pocket of her breeches as she heard steps outside the door.
“Come in,” she said before the person on the other side had the chance to knock.
The door opened, and she turned around. A tall, muscular man entered the room. Contrary to Reeva his dark skin clearly stated his Aweki heritage. He was wearing boots and brown breeches. His chest was bare of clothes but covered in scars. Mr Tates, her father’s loyal first mate, and now hers.
“Captain,” Mr Tates said, and stood in front of her, towering over her average figure.
“How many?” she asked.
“Three men. Cooke, Stillson and Bear.”
Her heart sank. No matter how many years she had been at sea and how many men she had seen die, losing a member of the crew was never easy. Especially when they had a family waiting for them back home, and Bear’s was the one that wouldn’t see him come back this time. Reeva shook the thoughts out of her mind. There will be plenty of time to find a way to break the sad news to his wife and daughter.
“And the cargo?” she asked
“Mostly wetpyro” Mr Tates answered.
At least that was great news. Wetpyro was a popular drink and one of the easiest goods to make a profit out of.
“Good. That’s good.”
She walked to the small and only window of the cabin and looked out to her ship. The Silver Lady. A beautiful ship she was. It belonged to The High Empire, had used it to transport slaves before her father took control of it and turned to piracy.
“You did well,” Mr Tates said, his voice warm, a discreet smile drawn on his lips. “Your father would be proud of you.”
“Thank you, Mr Tates,” she said, a bittersweet smile on her lips.
Those simple words were enough to lift the weight off of Reeva’s shoulders. After the death of her father, six months ago, she knew that taking over his ship would be a daunting task. And this raid was her final trial to prove to her crew, but mostly to herself, that she was ready for this.
I wish you were here, a lump formed in her throat. Since she first stepped on the deck, she had dreamed of the day she’ll be captain. But in her dreams her father was on her side, watching her from the main deck, pride filling his eyes. But now the day came, and he wasn’t at her side, and nothing would fill that void.
“How long to be on our way?” she asked, getting back to business.
“We’ll be sailing before dusk, and if the wind is on our side, we should be back on Naukusa in five days.”
She nodded, “I’m done here, let’s go join the crew.”
Captain and first mate walked out of the office and back onto the deck, where her crew came and went, carrying barrels of rum and sacks of tobacco back to their ship. Despite the loss of three of their companion, it had been a good day and their morale rose as they chatted and sang.
Back on her ship, Reeva climbed the stairs up to the quarter-deck, her hand brushing the wooden railing. The Silver Lady used to be an imperialist merchant ship and her father was the first mate. Until one day the cargo they had to transport was Aweki slaves. Her father had tried to convince the Captain to refuse the job but in vain. Halfway through their route when they sailed near the Free Island, her father raised a mutiny freeing the slaves and taking over the commands of the ship.
With his new find ship and crew, he sailed to Naukusa and established himself as a powerful captain. He then return to the Capitol for Reeva when she was at the sweet age of thirteen. After 15 years at sea together, Reeva was now standing at the helm of the Silver Lady, as captain but on her own.
Her gaze drifted to the horizon, south, where home was waiting for them. The sea was where she felt more at home, but after a month of hunting, she longed for steady land beneath her feet.
“Get us home, Mr Tates,” she called to her first mate on the main deck.
The main sail dropped, and the ship slowly sailed away from the remaining of the battle and back to a safer place.
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