Apprentice To The Sorcerer

“Blood’s men are right decent,” Gibbs said. He dropped a piece of biscuit on his cast and cursed. “Five of ‘em are carpenters, can you believe the luck? Especially since he’s still got that jinx with him.”

“He married Bishop,” I cut in, raising my bottle. “She made it a point to come and tell me.”

Ragetti snickered. “She think you’re after Blood?”

“I dunno.” I smirked at that. “After blood, get it?”

Ragetti snorted. So did Pintel. “Least Lei is witty with words,” he said, taking a jibe at his friend. “What’d she say when she saw you weren’t no lad?”

“Nothing.” I passed the bottle to him. “I don’t think she noticed. If the captain ever gets his way and smooches me on the deck I daresay she’ll faint.”

Gales of laughter rewarded my poking fun of myself. Lloyd stood up, putting a big, greasy hand up to his forehead. “There be buggerin’ on this ship!” he declared.

“They kill you for that in my country,” Aziz said.

“What’s the difference?” I shrugged. “Love is the same anywhere. I can’t figure it out but who am I to judge?”

“The Bible says it’s wrong,” Ragetti said thoughtfully. “But the Bible was written by a lot of diff’rent blokes at a lot o diff’ernt times.”

“Men do dis wi’ each other and we call it profane,” Mokulu said. “But when we see two women do it, it be beautiful. Why?”

“Cause women are not like men,” Landry chimed in. “Women touch each other, hug and kiss and the like. It don’t look funny when they do it.” He nodded once as if he’d made a landmark, iron-clad point.

“I hate that,” I said. “I hate that touchy-feely, nice-nice, stab-you-behind-your-back shite.” I snatched the rum back from Pintel. “Oh Elizabeth, you look positively radiant! What have you done with your hair?” I scowled. “Then she leaves the house and goes home to tell her friends I look like a bloated cow. Hope she rots.”

“Men ain’t no better,” Ragetti claimed. “It’s jus’ all up front, y’see?”

“Cats fight but there’s always plenty of kittens,” Lloyd said, missing the point entirely.

“Speakin o which, where be your kitty-cat, Lei?” Gibbs asked.

“With Captain Sparrow,” I answered, giving him his turn at the rum. “She’s not going to leave him while he’s the least bit ill.”

“E talks to ‘er,” Pintel said. “I swear she knows what e’s sayin.”

“Listens to every word she does,” Ragetti agreed quickly. “Course, wi’ Captain Jack ye c’n understand that. E’s a wizard, ain’t e?”

“He has his own magic, that’s for sure,” Gibbs said. “Just like Lei.”

“What magic?” I lifted my pipes off my chest and held them up. “It’s the pipes, not me.”

“Dat be untrue,” Mokulu said. “Spirits do not answer all people who speak. We should have all known you be woman when we see you call de wind. This be magic only women do.”

“Says oo?” Pintel said, cocking his head. His dinner slid off his fork and into his lap.

“Many,” Mokulu answered. “The wind, the earth, the water, these be women-force. Fire is man-force.” He pointed at me. “My Hodari, she call de wind. Soon, she call de water and de earth to do her bidding. It take lifetime to do, but she do it. She need wise-woman guidance.”

“Remind me to introduce you to Tia Dalma,” Gibbs muttered. “You and her get on famous I say.”

“I learned a lot about medicine and plants from Tia,” I said. “I’m sure she could teach me more but I don’t want to live in a swamp.”

“Here, here,” Lloyd said. “Give me sunny beaches, rum, beautiful lasses and birds, not needle-toothed beasts, fire-water and pond scum.”

“De fire-water and de beautiful women sound good,” Mokulu said. “You take me to dis woman someday, Hodari?”

“As soon as we go near her place,” I promised. “Maybe the captain would let us take a special trip to see her. I could get more supplies and consult her on a lot of things I’ve been storing up.”

“She’s scary-beautiful,” Ragetti murmured.

“She is,” I agreed. The rum sure went down easy tonight. No one bickered, no one grumbled, we were all relaxed and quite comfortable.

“So we have five carpenters,” I said, bringing us all back to the original topic. “What else?

“Three masons, that I know of,” Gibbs said. “Lot o educated blokes wi’ Blood.”

“Means we’ll be doin’ grunt work,” Lloyd sighed. “But I like the idea o having a place to stay. A safe place. A place to call home.”

“We all do,” Pintel grunted. “Captain says we’ll all get homes to live in. Never could afford a home of me own.”

“Never ‘ad a ‘ome,” Landry said.

“We’ll have to be sailing fer women,” Aziz said. “Not a lot ‘o pirate women out there.”

“Might be more than you know,” I said with a wink. “You didn’t know I was a woman.”

“De firs’ man here propose to my Hodari get gutted,” Mokulu growled. No one looked overly upset. In fact, a few grinned at him.

“You’re like a mother hen,” Pintel accused. “Ain’t no one here what’s stupid enough to touch Captain’s property. Besides all that, Lei’s a mate.”

“So you all want pretty maids in gowns?” I teased.

“Well, not necessarily dressed,” Ragetti chortled.

“Captain says he’ll allow doxies, but I dunno,” Lloyd said. “If we be makin a home why do we need ‘em?”

Everyone quieted. After a few minutes, Ragetti sighed. “It’s a good point,” he admitted. “I kinda always wanted a wife.”

“Me too.”

Various sentiments of a similar nature were voiced. I clutched the rum bottle close to me, thinking of Will. I had been so ready to marry him, but then I saw how limited my life was, how limited it would become. It made me sad to think of how I’d hurt him.

“You alright there?” Gibbs leaned in close to me and took the bottle.

“I’m fine, just feeling a little sad for Will,” I answered.

“Ach, don’t be doin’ that, missy.” Gibbs took a healthy swig and handed the bottle to Pintel. “Young Mr. Turner can find a woman what suits him. You ain’t that woman.”

“I know, but I hate that I hurt him.”

“You can’t be respons’ble for the feelings huv other people,” Ragetti said to me, looking at me very seriously with his one eye. “You don’ owe ‘im nuffin.”

I nodded. “I know.”

“The captain’s the one fer you, lass,” Gibbs commented.

“De captain not good enough for her either,” Mokulu spoke up.

“Yer over reactin’,” Pintel complained. “Assuming ain’t no one what’s good enough fer Lei, y’makin ‘er life a mite lonely. She’s gonna want little ones someday. Ain’t you?” He said, looking at me.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Probably don’t have any choice, eventually. That’s the thing, see? Nothing at all against you blokes, but a woman’s got to be careful who she’s with. I don’t want grounded somewhere because I got my skirts lifted.”

“What about sheepskin?” Landry asked.

“Should we be talkin’ like this?” Gibbs posed, taking two quick swigs from the rum bottle. No one paid any mind to him.

“Nothing is foolproof,” I said.

“Aye, God is determined we make babies,” Pintel said.

“Ow do you know what God thinks?” Ragetti asked.

The conversation lapsed into a discussion about the Bible, God, and intermittently about contraception. I enjoyed listening to them talk. No one would ever believe the varied conversation pirates could hold unless they heard it. I was of a mind to conclude pirates were amongst the leading philosophers of the day. They could and did talk about anything they pleased because they trusted each other. Nothing we spoke of had to leave the hold. Even Gibbs remained quiet about our conversations, so Jack really had no idea what we discussed underneath him.

I drank enough to sink a ship and still I remained sober of mind. My body went numb and my limbs ataxic, but I had no trouble following the pastimes of my mates. Most of them ended up in a card game. A few played liar’s dice. Gibbs honed his cutlass. Mokulu plowed into one of my medical books. I had been teaching him to read but tonight he just wanted to look at diagrams.

Tomorrow would bring me a splitting skull but I still drank as if I hadn’t a care. I felt horribly tired of the circle my brain went in these days, and drink helped slow the revolutions around Jack to a bearable speed. After Gibbs and Pintel and I finished our second bottle, I volunteered to get more.

The rum storage always unnerved me. I put the lamp down and started going through bottles, quick in my movements while controlling myself. It wouldn’t do to have an accident here. One good fumble and I could ruin a lot of precious alcohol. While Jack was exceedingly generous with doling out the rum and spirits, he probably wouldn’t care to know I’d wiped out a goodly portion of it by clumsiness. I turned the corner of a shelf and ran directly into said Captain, coming out with a bottle of clear alcohol. We did a stumbling little dance, grasping onto each other and the shelf for balance.

“Sorry Captain,” I apologized, finally finding balance.

“S’all right Lizzie,” Jack responded, eyeing me. “I don’t mind a drunken grope in a smelly ship’s cellar, or a dance.” He frowned at me suddenly. “Why aren’t you with the crew?”

“Gettin’ rum,” I answered, smiling and holding the bottle aloft. “You?”

“I’m not with the crew because they need time without me,” Jack said sassily, cocking his head. “And I needed more potato juice.”

I held the lamp up. “Lemme see yer mouth.”

“You ain’t sticking yer fingers in me mouth no more tonight,” Jack said, turning me bodily and pushing me toward the hatch. “But I’m glad to hear you finally start talking like one of us.”

“All it takes is bein’ intoxicated,” I defended. “My new way of talkin’ll be gone come the morrow.”

“So drink more.” Jack pushed me out into the passage and shut the hatch behind him. “Tell the men I’ll be havin’ them on point tomorrow. Blood is beaching the Advocatus Diaboli in the morn. Has’ta scrape her. We’re makin’ sure he gets the job done without interruptions.”

“Are we to help?” I staggered out and nearly ran into the bulkhead. Jack plucked me back by my sleeve just before I’d have made painful contact.

“If’n ye wants to help, do it,” Jack said. “Be good, actually. We mean to be family here, y’know that?” He tugged at me until I stood mostly upright and only slightly aided. “You’ve really got a drink on, don’t you lass?”

“Verrrry much so Captain Sparrow,” I answered, grinning.

“Good for you.” Jack patted my shoulder and began mounting the stair. “Come see me in the morning. I’ll trade you lookin at me poor gums for a secret hangover cure.”

“What took ye so long?” Pintel grumbled, swiping the bottle from me the second I walked into our flop.

“Ran inta the captain,” I smirked. “Literally.”

“Then ya didn’t take long enough, or he didn’t,” Pintel answered, popping the cork.

“Nah, just a run-in,” I answered, refusing to be embarrassed by innuendo. “E says we’re watchin’ the sea for trouble tomorrow while Blood scrapes the barnacles off his ship. I think I’ll help.”

“Ah, we might as well all,” Gibbs said. “Quicker that job’s done, quicker everyone’s back to rights.”

“What about all dem ships he bring?” Mokulu asked, throwing down a losing hand and getting up. He joined the drinking circle. “Dere be six ships.”

“Not built fer war,” Gibbs replied. “Them’s all tradesmen and such. Flotsam from all over, I say, but fine enough people for us.” He looked at me. “You and Mokulu be havin’ a rough time of it. No other physicians ‘cept for Blood. I asked.”

“How many of us are there?”

“About four hundred.” Gibbs shook his head. “And more be on the way.”

“You need place to see people,” Mokulu said, scratching his head. “Build a place they come to see you.”

“I’ll pose it to Jack,” I said thoughtlessly.

“Oooo, Jack,” Pintel said, grinning. “First name basis after a run-in, eh?”

“He’s always been Jack to me,” I defended. “I just make sure to use his title most of the time.” I yanked the bottle from him. “I thought you blokes didn’t care who I slept with?”

“We’re all liars too,” Ragetti said.