Bellona Reborn Part 3[]
Ch 3: A Death is Promised
Three months have passed. I have been teaching Reyna how to throw the knife. She does better than I do. I have not have practice for years. Reyna has also been becoming increasingly angry about those pirates. She yells curses in Latin againist them when they deliver our food. She talks about getting revenge on them so much, you'd think she was a child of Nemesis. I should have seen this coming. I should have warned her to stop these rebellious feelings. But it was too late. Disaster struck on one balmy day. We had been at sea for months, and the swell of the tides did not do good on my stomach. One of the pirates who has the job of delivering our food came early. He was a greasy man called Orlick, and he had a scar than ran like a twisted snake down his face. He was the pirate that had killed Circe. He walked into the Brig and opened the door. I was hiding in my usual corner of the room. Reyna and I were careful to hide when dinner was served, since if the pirates saw we had freed ourselves from the ropes so easily, they might had been suspicious.Usually Orlick would put the tray on the floor and leave the room. Once he was gone, we would eat it. Orlick walked into the center of the room. As he was setting the dish down on the floor, Reyna struck. Reyna pounced on the pirate, her knife in her hand, her eyes wild. The Battle Ectasy had taken over my sister. My heart turned cold. Reyna's aim was deadly. With one stroke, she plunged the knife into Orlick's side. He hollered with pain. My battle-crazed sister charged into the corridor. Her roving eyes were searching for something to kill. She wandered aimlessly along the wall, her eyes wandering. I ran after her. It was our best chance for escape and I took it. In the dim hall, I heard Reyna's sandals clomping up a stairway. I followed her, and a blast of briny air struck my face. I was on deck.
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I sputtered in the air. The first sunlight in three months hits my face. Even Reyna looks up, before she turns back to her killing mission. I glance out at sea, and my heart jumps into my throat.The Sea Bane is anchored by a sheltered cove a mile out at sea, with green hills all around. Land! My eyes are greeted by an even greater surprise when I notice a small skiff on deck. The tiny boat is covered in barnacles, but it is just enough to escape in. I creep over to the boat. "Reyna!" I whisper. SNICK I glance up and gasp. Reyna has scaled the main mast. She was busily hacking at a tangle of ropes-the ones holding the sail on the mast. I fall silent just as I realize what's going to happen. "Reyna!" I scream just as she cuts through the final rope. Just then, the Ugly Face pirate and Orlick appear on deck. Ugly Face is holding a pistol in each hand, and Orlick charges at me, grimacing with his knife wound. I run toward him to the side of the deck. He stumbles and leans against the railing. Reyna lets the sail fall. Yards of billowing white cloth hurtle through the air toward Orlick and I. I pounce on the unfortunate pirate as the sail plummets toward him, knocking him off the railing into the sea below. Reyna comes out of her Battle Ectasy with a jolt. She stares at the blood-stained knife in her hand and screams. She falls off the mast and her fall is cushion by a fishing net. Ugly Face rushes to her. Another pirate seizes me from behind. He drags me away from the railing spitting curses at me. My one escape attempt, an it's foiled. I my never get off this ship again. Tears well up in my eyes, but I stop. No matter what. The pirate does not know about the weapon I took when I attacked Orlick. I smile in spite of myself. Ugly Face is holding Reyna and talking with another pirate, who is holding Reyna's pocket knife and wiping the blood off it. The other pirate yells at Ugly Face. "I told you Cap'n this here girl is dangerous. She killed Orlick!" he wails. Ugly Face rolls his eyes and turns to the pirate holding me. "Take these girls to the brig, now ! They die tommarrow at sundown !" The other pirate obeys, and we are hauled down to the brig. The key turns in the lock and we're shut in forever. Reyna wails "I'm sorry Hylla, I didn't know what was happening, I...." She stops to gaze at the thing I'm holding in my hand, the thing I took from Orlick. A dagger lies in my palm, a foot long with a flat, sharp, blade. The hilt is carved into a horse's head, and is made of jade. This weapon killed Circe, but it will be our salvation. "We escape tonight" I say.