Pirates 4.The Blood Sisters

By Luc Dragoni

Despite her doubts and hesitations, Blandine Veyre finally chose to stay in the company of the pirates.
However, on board the ship, the decision to join the West Indies has been unanimously voted, which will take her definitively away from her native Mediterranean province.
Somehow, the young girl seems to get used to her new life. Her skill in repairing the sails really impressed the Pirate's Captain but now, at the request of this same Captain named 'The Brigantine', she will gradually have to carry out tasks much more delicate, intense, even perilous, which nevertheless represent only the daily lot of the freebooters' existence...

"I remain alone, legs and wrists tied. I lean with my back against one of the frames of the hull and finally this position of rest relieves me. The sharp pain I was feeling in my stomach slowly begins to fade. I close my eyes by thinking of these last events and this particularly violent boarding. The whole operation lasted a good part of the day and ended in a total abomination.
On top of that I had to kill a man and I keep thinking about it…
I try to find a justification, to comfort and persuade myself that without this action, without my gun shot, this soldier would have struck me with his sword and I would probably have died in atrocious suffering, but nevertheless I cannot avoid tormenting myself because of this life that is no longer available, that breath, that look I eliminated forever…"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luc Dragoni
• Release date: Mar 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9781370315604

Luc Dragoni

Passionate about naval subjects, I wrote this novel about piracy, whose action takes place first in the Canary Islands and then in the West Indies. The story is mainly composed of two heroines, who sometimes will be opposed to each other and will eventually become friends and accomplices. Enjoy reading ^^

Book preview

PIRATES

Fourth part

The Blood Sisters

Luc DRAGONI

PIRATES

Fourth part

The Blood Sisters

ISBN: 978-1370315604

All rights reserved

CopyrightDepot.com N°: 00062930-1

Copyright © 2024 by Luc Dragoni

Independently published

No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews, without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Dear readers,

Thank you for your kind attention.

Your comments, your reviews, either laudatory or unfavorable, are always welcome!

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Chapter I - A young pirate

Agony

« Buen Pasage »

Pieces of Eight!

Bart Roberts

Usnan Alfaar

Meridiano

Front guard!

Chapter II – Arthémise

Sisterhood

Memories...

The redhead creature from Santa-Marta

Monsieur ‘De Saint Aloe’

Bad air

Chapter III – Violence

The lookout

Spiderweb

Boarding!

Down in the hold

Surgery

Chapter IV - The Alliance

La Rouge

The Dragon

Disillusion

An unexpected encounter

Head wind

Chapter V - Two sisters

A pirate Sloop

Blood red

Captain

Loneliness

Epilog

Chapter I - A young pirate

Agony

What a disgrace!

I sadly look at my pirate Captain, the aptly named ‘Arthémise De Lomvast’, but usually called with respect the ‘Brigantine’ by those who used to know her...

Again, she is enduring her bad fever and feeling worse than ever! When I see her, so sick and permanently gasping for air, I cannot help but try to release her pain.

Breathe... come on, breathe! Enjoy this gentle stream of air. This sea air, this fresh air from the wide ocean will make you feel better. Yes, this so pure air, this fragrance of the sea you like so much. May I help you to get out of our cabin? Maybe stretched out on the shore you would feel better... I say darkly.

She weakly turns her head towards me and whispers:

Blandine La Rouge, ma belle, my friend, it’s over, it’s finished! This is the end of my travel and of course you know that. I’m exhausted. I’m shivering with fever and at the same time I’m burning in hellfire... leave me now, please let me die...

But no Arthémise, this is not the end, you’ve already had crises like this and then it goes and calms down, everything gets quiet again.

Although she is trembling, she weakly takes my hand and puts it on her forehead, then she replies:

Touch me! Don’t you feel how warm I am? The hellfire is burning inside of me! The Devil himself is calling me back, in order to possess my soul and at last to consume my entire body...

Don’t talk nonsense! The Devil, if he exists, then he’s surely laughing at us, he knows nothing about our existences and it’s the same with God! They don’t care about our lives!

No, I’ve made a deal with the devil, of course you noticed that. I enjoyed pillaging and killing people, it was my pleasure to harass the others! Even with you, Blandine la Rouge, at the beginning I considered you as a prey, as a mere toy between my claws.

Fortunately and for a long time, I have forgotten all these bad moments I had to endure with her, but now I only need to reassure her:

Yes, I know, I’m well aware of that! But I could easily survive and nevertheless you often taught me a lot of things. Eventually, what would I have become without your help? As for your legendary wickedness and cruelty, they are just the consequences of the injustice and the misfortunes you suffered in your young time and which marked you forever. If these horrible events didn’t happen, today you would be the beautiful, affluent and admired Viscountess De Lomvast and we would have never met each other!  

She suddenly stares at me while she does not seem to understand, and she mumbles:

Yes, my true name, my parents, my father the Viscount, and my handmaid Khaaly... where are they? I want to see them one more time before falling asleep forever!

Don’t think about your parents, that gives you too much pain! And about Khaaly, obviously she’s not here, of course you know where she is...with the Dragon, your former Captain, and thanks to us, she now lives free and happy! 

What? Where are they? I don’t understand. What about my crew? Call my crew immediately! I want to talk to them, lead me to the quarter deck, hurry! Of course she is raving again and she sighs heavily...

Keep quiet! Your fever is going up. We don’t live on board our ship anymore, we stopped living there a long time ago! We are on the dry land, on this tiny island we like so much. Look! You are lying on this good straw mattress, inside our little cabin... but this cloth put on your forehead is becoming hot! Let me get it wet with fresh water.

However, she does insist:

Rum, give me some Rum and get this cloth wet with Rum only! You don’t know, I have to tell you...

Yes, tell me whatever you want, I listen! But this conversation is exhausting you, you should let yourself go, then fall asleep...

It was the first time, during my youth, on board this Frigate named ‘Le Havre De Grâce’, the Captain offered me a grog... that was so sweet, I swallowed my saliva all night long. Rum, this very special drink, helped me to survive... give me some, make it fast!

Warm as you are, it would be bad and worthless, or just good enough to increase your fever!

You know nothing Blandine, you don’t understand anything!

You’re right, I understand nothing at all, but stop talking and take a breath, you must breathe deeply. Try to close your eyes and please don’t think about anything. Remember, you often told me to forget everything about the past, a past which caused us a lot of pain and a past which wounded us deep into our hearts... then stop all these memories!

I want my beautiful hairy creature. I want her on my chest! Go and fetch her, make it quick! I won’t die without her... I want you both with me, go!

Yes but wait Arthémise, I don’t know where she’s hiding...

Since the beginning, I have learnt not to fear this big spider, although I have neither touched her nor approached too close to this very strange creature. At first she was red, then she shed her skin several times, evolving from a chestnut color to a dark brown and now she is entirely red again, like Arthemise’s long hair.

So, I have to find her and then... how will I cope with that? She usually likes to stay crouched in the dark, under our little sideboard. With such a creature in our place, no mouse or other small animal ever dared to come and steal anything inside our pantry!  

There, I can see her, at this very place! Quiet and sneaky as usual! A branch, large enough, will be convenient, I have to fetch one outside. With all these driftwoods which ran aground the beach, I have no trouble to find a suitable piece. Of course I would like to stay outside and enjoy the delightful end of this afternoon, but my friend is waiting for me and even if she is partly unconscious, I must hurry in order to satisfy her because unfortunately I fear the last moments of her life have already arrived.

I come back inside quickly but at present I can hear my pirate Captain who is breathing loudly, so much so that this permanent gasp forces her to cough and to spit. The spider is always at the same place...

With my branch, I tap slightly the wooden floor just in front of her bristly mass. I know that the Brigantine, except when she grasped her creature with her own hand, used to proceed this way to make her climb on her shoulder, but she was tapping with her fingers instead of a wooden stick, and of course I wouldn’t dare to do such a thing!

Wake up, stop being so lazy bloody beast! Your mistress is waiting for you! Climb on this branch and I’m gonna take you to her.

After a while which seemed rather long and thanks to my infinite patience, the red spider finally decided to rise slowly on the end of my branch by moving alternately her long hairy legs.

I must admit, you’re a beautiful creature. My pirate Captain made a very good choice with you.

There we are, two more toises to walk with this wooden stick and if this strange beast doesn’t go down... that’s it, I put her on the Brigantine’s chest.

Arthémise? She’s here, on your chest, as you asked me before. Please, open your eyes!

But although she was panting just a moment ago, she now doesn’t breathe anymore. I give her some light slaps on the cheeks and I call her repeatedly...

At last she faintly moans:

Yes yes, but why are you fighting me? And tell me, where are we?

I’m not fighting you, I was afraid you couldn’t breathe! We are inside our little cabin, located on our small island. Please, raise your head and lean it on this jute bag. Look at your beautiful hairy, as you used to call her, she’s here, on your chest, I brought her for you!

Ah thank you, that’s nice! I want to die with you by my side, close to me, and also with my creature on my belly.

Who talks about dying? Take some rest. Daylight is fading and night is falling. We’ll sleep quietly and tomorrow morning I’m sure everything will get much better...

My Brigantine doesn’t say anything more, she breathes steadily and her spider remains motionless. Little by little I feel that exhaustion is overwhelming me, because her disease, her fever and her ramblings have already lasted for a few days, and assisting her constantly has become really trying. This day has been particularly exhausting. Even while our worst boardings, my fear and my emotions never became so intense!     

Now what I fear above all is that my friend would abandon me and definitively leaves toward this gloomy world from which no one never comes back.    

I am lying down by her side and I hold her hand. She is hot and entirely sweaty. I think tomorrow will be another day, maybe a bit more joyful or on the contrary extremely grim. I close my eyes and I don’t think to anything else... 

The first rays of light coming from our good tropical sun are lighting the wooden wall just behind our heads.

Gradually, I can feel this pale daylight and this ambiance which is warming up little by little. I look around me, I am well-rested and my sleep was very nice. The great weariness which oppressed me yesterday evening completely disappeared. I am still holding the hand of Arthémise and I notice she is no longer warm! I even get the impression she is a bit cold. I’m happy, this is a good sign! Eventually, I am quite sure she gets much better. I release her hand, I sit up and I begin with stretching out, then I watch in her direction. The red spider is not on her belly anymore, she might have left during the night...

At last, due to the daylight which is slowly increasing, I can see the face of my friend. It’s particularly strange because her eyes are wide open. Perhaps she is already awake... or maybe she slept like that, with her eyes open... But no, this is impossible, everyone always sleeps with eyes closed!      

Athémise, can you hear me? Did you sleep well?

In the room, the brightness heightens and I suddenly realize she is terribly pale. Her forehead and her cheeks are pallid, nearly as white as the hessian on which she lies.

Arthémise?

I put my hand on her face, she is really cold, nearly freezing!  Nevertheless the ambiance of this rising sun is rather warm... I seize her shoulders, I shake her body, I shout and I’m continuously calling her but she remains motionless. Even if that hurts me, I must recognize Arthemise passed away. Her adventurous existence is over and life definitively left her.

I stay here, listless, I’m staring at her... Casually, I caress her long red hair. How beautiful she is! In this daylight, lying serenely on her bed, she looks like a princess of ancient times or a majestic goddess. Her wide green eyes denote an expression of absence and nothingness but also a feeling of satisfaction and distance, like when she was gazing at the vastness of the skies or at the great ocean. Her face is quiet, relaxed. Just before her death she might have shortly woken up and perhaps she tried to look into this utmost darkness, attempting to make out anything that could reminds her of the world of the living... she said nothing, she uttered not any sound and then she passed away, silently and discreetly... I did sleep beside her but I noticed nothing!  

I take my time as I like to admire her green eyes, so wide, so pure, these eyes that terrified me so much at the beginning, this look I found sometimes stern and cruel without any mercy or compassion, sometimes mocking and sneaky with this permanent expression of hate and contempt, then much later and very slowly, in the course of time and our adventures, this same look I finally understood and appreciated, to eventually discover deep inside its benevolence and friendship.    

As you can you see my Brigantine, we became associated, partners in crime, blood sisters. We will remain just the same forever, and I will never forget you! Henceforth, you will live inside of my soul and I know you will accompany me everywhere. I am quite sure your words will guide me, like the voices of the persons I used to love so much. Actually and during all my life, I have perceived their good influence and their reassuring protection.

I have to make a decision. The sun is rising and I can’t stay like that endlessly, just staring at her... I put my hand on her forehead and I let it slowly coming down on her face... my fingers touch her eyelids, I slightly push downward and then a bit more with a great gentleness... There we are, her eyes are definitively closed. I would never again be able to see or admire them. Only my memories will allow me to catch sight of them from time to time.  

At present, I have to go outside. I want to breathe the pure air of the morning, I wish to inhale all the fragrances the ocean may bring to me. I want to walk along this beach on which we enjoyed strolling and admiring the horizon. I am not tired and I don’t feel any sorrow, I just perceive a kind of emptiness, which is beginning to overwhelm me... Then I appreciate to gaze at this natural landscape in order to revitalize myself and to cling to life, even if what I can see can neither hear nor talk.

I take both of my three barrels pistols, my rapier and my bludgeon. For such a long time I have learned to bear all these weapons without enduring any fatigue, thanks to my leather straps which lean on my shoulders and cross under my chest. Usually, this island on which we chose to live is totally uninhabited but no one knows who by chance might visit this place...

I quietly begin to walk around our tiny island and it will take the whole morning. So, I will be able to think about my situation and thoughtfully ponder how to cope with my future. I will be back at the cabin, with Arthémise we used to call it the den, when the sun passes the zenith. I hope my thoughts would be firmly established at this moment and I would find how to pay a last tribute, a final homage, to the one who doesn’t live anymore, to my deceased Captain.    

What could be your preference? We never brought up this topic! We were much too carefree to worry about that!  And in my own case, am I really able to define what kind of funerals would suit me? Little by little, three different ways of going on are coming to my mind...

Firstly the most classical, the one taught by my religion, a tradition which allows to come back at the same place from time to time, in order to remind of our good old times and our past adventures, then leave some various objects without any importance but with a certain value that the both of us used to know and appreciate. It would also be possible to place some ornaments like flowers or why not a flask of your beloved Rum... as soon as I come back, I would have to dig a long and large grave in the soft and loose soil located just behind our cabin, then I would just let you slide into the hollow of this last home, carefully wrapped inside your shroud.

But perhaps something would better suit your past life of pirate Captain. We used to practice this ritual for our men who died during our numerous battles. I could wrap your body in the same hessian, then take you aboard our small sailing ship and row a few cable-lengths, in order eventually to offer your remains to this ocean on which you spent nearly your entire life. You would float during a short time and at last you would irremediably sink down to the dark depths.  

Finally, an even more prestigious idea also comes to my mind. You were not much occupied with cannons because you commonly preferred the company of tall masts and wide sails, but nevertheless you used to like the fire, the one created by powder, the one of red-hot cannonballs when they set fire to foes’ ships, the one of pistols and muskets which send their volley of shots during the boardings. And also during your last moments you were talking about the hellfire inside of which you thought you were consuming... of course you used to appreciate Rum. I must admit, since the beginning of my life as a pirate, I have had a very moderate use of this beverage but as far as you are concerned, you discovered this alcohol during your youth, when accompanied by your parents you came to live in the West Indies on an island moreover located not far from here. Then your father, the aptly named ‘Viscount De Lomvast’, following the good advices of the man who later became your Captain and whose nickname is ‘The Dragon’, started to produce this famous Rum in fair quantities. This activity allowed the young girl you were, Arthémise De Lomvast, to get used to the ambiance and the fragrances of the products made from the cultivation of sugar cane. But at that time you were not allowed to taste it, even as little as a single drop! Nevertheless, when you became a pirate, you started to drink Rum and you appreciated it so much over the years that this sweet and alcoholic beverage never gave you any drunkenness. Actually you were considering Rum like a kind of fruit syrup or a particularly refined nectar. And here, on this island, we’ve got plenty of Rum’s barrels! They are perfectly hidden, not too far from our cabin, in the coolness and darkness of the small cellar we found at the time of our arrival and whose entrance is dissimulated among dense bushes and under a lot of foliage. Yes, I think that you, the Brigantine, would appreciate this kind of funerals... wrapped inside one of your sails, possibly this famous sail of the mizzenmast which has the very name of the terrible Captain you used to be, this so essential sail, called in French the ‘brigantine’, largely soaked by heated Rum and then burned down in a last fire, in a great farewell blaze.

Reaching a bend of this long path, I sit down on a flat rock. I must think it over. What solution will I choose and what kind of funerals will I adopt? But as I am observing the far horizon, so clear and so pure because not submerged by the almost daily heat haze, I cannot avoid to remember some events of our common life, the most significant facts, those I would never forget...

I close my eyes and suddenly I feel like I experience this terrible moment of anxiety again. I was much younger at that time and I believed my end was nigh when accompanied by the ‘Bear’ I landed on this island where the port of Santa Cruz is located, in order to sell our merchandises at a good price.

I cannot help but laugh! I must say that at this precise moment I thought I was about to be hanged with a rope tied around my neck...

« Buen Pasage »

The squad of soldiers is now at less than twenty paces from us and suddenly the guards’ Commander, wearing a superb tricorn decorated with gildings, talks to the Bear with his loud voice:

¡Buenos días señor, Capitán del reino de Francia! ¡Bienvenido aqui en Santa Cruz!

What a surprise! With the bear, we are briefly looking at each other and our pirates are completely stunned! These people, although they are armed soldiers, don’t have any bad intention against our little group. On the contrary they came up here in order to say good morning and welcome us in their city! Besides the guards’ commander speaks this Spanish language slowly, and this way his words seem quite easy to understand...  

The Bear, sly as usual, and watching some of our pirates who immediately hasten to translate his speech, answers nearly the same:  

Buenos Dias gentlemen, and thank you! What a beautiful harbor you’ve got here!

¿ Usted viene para comerciar aquí Capitan? 

The pirates are immediately translating everything said as best as they can and in this way the Bear begins a conversation with the ‘Guarda Mayor’:

Yes commander and we’ve got a lot of products to sell to the merchants of this pleasant city!

Señor Capitán, primero usted debe visitar al Oficial Real, para pagar las cuotas de entrada !

Do we have to visit the royal Officer to pay an entry fee? But our ship is not moored in the port, she lies at anchor at the entrance of the bay!

One of our pirates is about to repeat these last words but now I must interfere:

Please no, don’t translate this! Bear, we shouldn’t discuss any longer. The Brigantine entrusted us with crates full of Piasters so that we can pay these taxes without mishap, and then we’ll be able to meet the traders and the merchants of this place as fast as possible!

Yes Mademoiselle, you’re right, let’s not draw attention to ourselves...

Then, accompanied by only three pirates,