Jaw fixed with fury, Caleb quickened his pace, vowing by heaven and sea alike that he would not let his boatswain swing upon so profane a gallows.
The crowd seethed like a restless sea as he pushed through with Alden and ten of his men at his back.
“Hang the cheat!”
“String him up!”
The crowd roared as the stench of rum and sweat hung heavy in the humid night air.
Liam mounted the crate and faced the mob, his light hair matted across his brow, his face pale but defiant.
The leader settled the coarse rope about his neck and yanked it tight.
“What is the meaning of this?”Caleb shouted, drawing all gazes his way.“Release him at once!”
A hush settled over the throng as he stepped in the center, hand gripping the hilt of his cutlass.
“Yer friend owes us more than he carries in his purse,” the leader spat, brandishing a tally stick as though it were a writ of law.“He thought to cheat honest men, and in this port a cheat hangs.”
Caleb’s gaze snapped to Liam, but his bosun lowered his chin, jaw clenched.Blast the man’s pride!
“You’ve no right to hang a man without a proper defense.He’s under my command.If a debt is owed, I’ll see it settled with coin, not blood.”
Jeers erupted from the bloodthirsty crowd.“The rope be the only justice we need.It will pay in full!”Some of the men drew swords, others knives, their fury as thick as the humid air.
Behind him, Alden groaned.“Seems we have no choice.God be with us.”
Nodding, Caleb freed his cutlass, the bright edge flashing in the lantern light.His men did the same, a dozen blades rising like a forest of steel.The crowd froze, muttering.“You’ll not touch one hair of him,” Caleb growled, “save you wish to end your days beneath this tree.”
The leader’s eyes narrowed, weighing the balance of numbers, the raw determination in Caleb’s gaze.He set his boot beside the crate, threatening to kick it over and send Liam swaying.For a breathless moment, the fate of one man hung as precariously as that rope.
A man charged Caleb, a farmer’s pickax raised high.Caleb swept it aside with a thrust of his blade.A sailor barreled toward Alden, teeth barred, but he shoved him back with a growl.The rest of Caleb’s crew lunged forward, knocking aside cudgels, steel meeting steel, forcing the mob to scatter.Steel rang, fists cracked against jaws, grunts and groans filled the air.In mere moments, the townsfolk realized they were no match against seasoned sailors hardened by sea and storm.
“Back up!They’ll gut us all!”one man shouted.Terror streaked across their gazes as they retreated, cursing and spitting and clutching bruised arms and bloody gashes.
“One man’s debt’s not worth me life,” another uttered as several of them darted into the darkness.
Still, a knot of men remained at the tree’s roots, venom in their eyes.
The leader stood beside the crate, daring Caleb to attack.Liam, his face taut, lips pressed to a thin line, hemp tight around his neck, still refused to meet Caleb’s gaze.One kick, one flick of the leader’s boot, and he would be gone.
Ignoring the searing pain from the recent wound on his shoulder, Caleb took a step forward, leveling his cutlass before him.“Name the price for this man’s life.”
The man sneered, his teeth yellow in the lantern light.“Price?Aye, he promised me the trinket he carried.The Ring.”
Shock rippled through Caleb, but he hid it behind a set jaw and steely gaze.“You’ll not have the Ring.Name your price or we’ll fight you to the death.”
Huffing, the leader ran a sleeve beneath his nose, his lips twisting as he pondered the offer.“Twenty pieces of eight,” he finally said.“Else he swings.”He nudged the crate, and Liam stumbled.
Unflinching, Caleb turned toward Alden.“Fetch the sum from the chest in my cabin.”
Alden’s brow furrowed, his scar tight against his cheek.“Aye, Captain,” he said before marching off.
Caleb snapped eyes full of fury back to the leader.“You’ve my word as captain, he breathes until the coin is laid in your hand.Harm him, and I’ll gut you where you stand.”
The rope creaked in the breeze, the silk-cotton’s ancient branches whispering overhead.The stand-off had begun, the fate of Liam balanced between a crate and a cutlass.
♥
