Skye heard something like the roar of a furious lion, and she saw that the Silver Hawk had come to the center of the room again, staring at her and her new captor, Teach, as Hawk had called him. “She is not public property, Teach! I took the prize, the prize is mine, and I will slay every man jack here who attempts to tell me otherwise!”
“What?” the pirate Teach said in dismay. “Why, I’d had in mind to bid upon this morsel meself! Can she be worth so very much then, Captain Hawk?”
The Hawk’s eyes raked her with a careful disdain. Even there, before all others, the gaze seemed to strip her of her clothing, to lay her bare and naked before them all. A sizzle of mockery touched his eyes. “No woman is worth so much,” he said, “and this one screams like a banshee and lies like a log. The equipment is there, but alas, she lacks the talent to use it.”
She gasped out loud, despising him, despising the way that he had made her feel. She hated the cold steel in his eyes, and she hated the humiliation he caused her. Snickers of laughter rose up softly at his suggestion of their intimacy. “The point, sir,” Hawk continued, “is that the prize is mine! What is mine, I shall keep!”
“But if she is of little use—”
“She will draw a good ransom.”
“I would pay that ransom.”
“Neverless, sir, I have begun a certain…er, contact with the lady, and I would continue where I have left off.”
“You said—”
“Aye, Blackbeard, but I believe I could train her and tame her, and for the very measures, I would keep her now in my possession until I have chosen to make other arrangements.”
Blackbeard! Skye shivered, aware then that she was being touched by another of the most notorious pirates in the Caribbean.
“Perhaps this could be settled with Captain Logan if you were to pay him the ransom,” Blackbeard suggested.
“I’ll not take money!” Logan cried.
“And I’ll not buy back what is already mine!” the Hawk claimed.
Watching him in fury and amazement, Skye suddenly screamed. Logan had wasted little time, but had come up behind him, his sword raised and ready to swing in a wide arc. The Hawk ducked just in time, else the arc would have severed his neck and sent his head flying. The Hawk swirled about, striking out.
“Logan, you backstabbing refuse!” the Hawk roared.
“This is a fight!” Logan snarled back. “Not a bloody mincing court of civil law!”
The Hawk caught Logan’s cutlass with his blade; the sword flew and clattered. The Hawk stepped back, but one of Logan’s men leapt into the fray, charging for the Hawk.
“The plate!” A heavy-jowled man behind Skye and Blackbeard called out. “Save the plate!”
Skye quickly understood why. The fight was no longer one-on-one, but a melee. Men leaped about to join in with roars and cheers, and steel was soon clashing about the room.
“Look at this, at what you have caused!” Blackbeard hissed in her ear. “Alas, the law does not catch men, but mere women send them to their dooms. Perhaps I should let them all battle it out, mam’selle, and spirit you away myself.”
She did not know if he taunted her or spoke the truth. The room had become terribly warm. Now screams arose, and injured men fell from the fray, crashing upon tables, falling to the floor.
Blood ran, mingling with the wine upon the sand and dirt.
Very likely, they would all long to slit her throat when it was over.
Skye acted on desperate impulse, reaching swiftly for the man’s cutlass and jerking it from his hold. She wagged the sword beneath his nose. “Leave me be, sir, and I will leave you be!” she cried out.
“Why, a fighting maiden. Girl, give me back that sword!”
She shook her head. Blackbeard yelled out. “Mr. Clifford! Toss me a sword!”
A sword flew his way. He grinned at Skye. “Now give me that weapon, girl!”
She refused and he thrust toward her blade. She parried him with swift skill, but knew that his strength would be great.
“Blimey!” he cried. “She knows how to use it!”
