Chapter 31
“ Are you mad!?” John said.
“Watch yourself!” Henri said evenly. “ I am still the king here. We will
surrender presently and parlay with the Dyba as best we can. If we fail, there
is always plan b.”
“Plan B?” Liza said.
John smiled and laughed. “Yes, plan ‘B’- un-surrender.”
“Raise the signal.” Henri said to a man by his side. He then turned to
face the rest of the deck. He spoke loudly and quickly in French. Liza admired
the discipline of the pirates as there was not a peep, instead they all came
forward and stood out in the open on the deck.
Liza turned to look at the floating animal balloons. They were still
advancing, still no sign of anyone on them. Then they slowed and stopped, just
feet from the bow of the ship. Liza could see three other pirates ships, all
also had floating animal skins in front of them.
Shouting came from the basket. She strained to hear what was being said.
It sounded like French but she could not tell. She turned to Moto.
“Moto-“ He put his hand up.
“It is a creole Liza, I can barely follow. I think they are negotiating
the terms of surrender.”
Liza looked around and saw the pirates slowly putting down their weapons.
“Drop the gun” Moto whispered. Liza did, but noticed that neither Will
nor Moto made any similar moves. Their pistols remained hidden in their
jackets.
The top of one of the baskets popped open. A head with black hair and
gaudy feather arranged in it popped up. It was the face of a man, but not like
one Liza had ever seen. He looked to be Asian, with a ruddy complexion. He had
smeared white paint in strange markings across his cheeks.
“Chinese?” Liza whispered. Will shook his head.
“Indian. The Dyab are Indians. I suspected as much. He looks like the
people we saw in the city. N wonder they fight with the Pirates so much. They
must have come up here to escape the Spanish much like Henri’s forefathers came
here to escape the French.”
The man in basket spent the next few minutes shouting at the pirates on
the deck. Liza asked Moto to translate, but Moto just smiled.
“No, no, Liza, I will not. Such things as he says should not be repeated
in the presence of a lady-“
“I’m not a-“
“Even one such as yourself.”
Finally, after the man in the basket had evidently sufficiently belittled
the pirates, he popped back down, closing the basket. Then the basket drifted
gently over the deck of the ship and settled in the middle next to the tower.
The lid of the basket popped back open and three men climbed out. All three
were decked out in feather and war paint and looked not a little like demons to
Liza’s mind. Then, slowly, yet another person climbed out of the basket. This
was not a Dyab, rather a very thin, gaunt looking man with a shock of blonde
hair on his head. He wore a dour expression along with his black suit. He
appeared to be sweating profusely. The man hung back, by the basket while the
three Dyab walked over towards Henri, who had gone to meet them halfway across
the deck.
The four of them began to talk, animatedly and very quickly amongst
themselves. The man by the basket leaned back into the basket and pulled out a
handkerchief to mop his brow.
“That Man” Liza whispered to Will and Moto.
“Yes, I recognize him” Will said, “one of Ingellsdin’s men.”
“I thought so, wonder what his role is?”
“Spoiler” Moto said.
And, sure enough, the man stood back up and put away his kerchief and
strode over to Henri and the Dyab, who were still talking. They stopped as the
man got to them. The man smiled a weak and empty smile and then motioned to one
of the Dyab. The two of them huddled for a moment. Then the man looked up and
looked directly where Liza, Will and Moto were standing. The man then strode
over towards them. Liza sensed Will trying to hide behind John, who was still
standing with them.
“No need to hide Mr. Cogsworth. It is not unexpected to see you here.” To
Liza’s surprise the man seemed to have a German accent. “We assumed you would
come here as fast as you could. However, as you see, we are already here and it
is too late. My partner-“ Liza glanced at Moto, who’s eyes went wide.
“Yes, My business associate, I should say, knew you had been to the
Caribbean and that it was just a matter of finding the right place. Once we
knew, well, as you are aware, the telegraph is a marvelous invention, no? So
efficient.”
“Do the Dyab know what you are up to?” Will said, coming from behind
John.
“Tch tch, Mr. Cogsworth, such terms, such vulgar terms. They are not the
Dyab, if anything these… dark devils are the Dyab. My friends prefer the term
the Arawak.”
“Does it matter, once their dead you can call them whatever you want.”
“You get ahead of yourself Mr. Cogsworth. It is not they who will die
today. You should tell your Negro friends here that surrender was most unwise.
If you had fought you might have had a chance, but now…”
“We can hear for ourselves.” John said evenly. The man with the blond hair arched his
eyebrows and then waived his hand as if swatting a fly. He turned and talked
again to the Dyab or Arawak, as Liza made up her mind to call them.
The Dyab then began a very short but heated conversation with the other
two in a language Liza could not recognize. Then, suddenly, the Arawak stood up
straight. In what appeared as an afterthought he plucked a feather from the
front of his hair and put it behind his ear.
“Vanquished people of the great warriors of the Arawak nation. You have
surrendered honorably and how you will be rewarded with a swift and painless
death. We withdraw and will now set fire to you ships.”
And with that he and the other three turned heel and climbed back into
the basket after the man with the blond hair. They closed the lift and lifted
off gently. The deck was stone quiet. No one moved.
“What is going on? They cannot be serious! We surrendered!” Liza said,
panic rising in her voice. “John, we must go with plan B.”
“No Liza, no, we must accept our fate.”
“But we will die, if the fire does not kill us, the fall!”
“Liza is right John, our weapons are here, we must fight back.”
“No!” John said
“But we will be killed!” Liza shouted.
“It will not be that bad…” John said, a smile on his face.
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