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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1592763" data-attributes="member: 812">My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock. My name is William Hancock.*****Ana stepped out of her cabin and looked up, startled, at the sudden nearness of Red. The brawny Englishman sneered and reached out to stroke the woman's face with a stained finger. Ana jerked back, and the two big fellows standing behind Red chuckled."Sweetheart."Ana looked up and down the companionway. To her right doors led to the armoury and to the captain's cabin, and to her left a door opened onto the quarterdeck. Across the hall another door opened into Mister Black's cabin. Besides herself and the three sailors, there was no one else in the companionway.Red closed in."You want to be friendly, squaw. Things gonna change around here, and you'll be happy you were."Three of them, all grinning. Ana knew if she yelled chances were good that only more of Red's cronies would come to see what was happening. She wished Dras were around. The men pressed forward and Ana drew back into her cabin. The door was just a couple of slats, enough for privacy but by no means would it stand up to any sort of determined effort. Her knife and her bow were behind her, in a far corner of the room. They might as well have been back in England.She considered trying to diplomatically convince the sailors to leave her alone.One look at the advancing leers decided her."You keep your filthy hands off me, you foul son of a pig."Red grunted in surprise. Whether that was due to Ana's display of bravado, or the cold muzzle of the pistol suddenly pressed to his temple, Ana couldn't really say.Black spoke quietly, with complete assurance."You are troubling the lady, sir. Better if you left."Red scowled and started to turn around to face Black, who'd come out of his room unseen and planted his gun against the ex-pirate's head. Black made sure the hammer was pulled back. The click seemed unnaturally loud.Outside, Lieutenant Fulcher's voice rose in angry denunciation of the watch's performance. The ship rolled and creaked around them. The wind shifted a few points and they could hear the snap snap snap of the sails bellying to the new breeze."Better if you left, sir. I promise you."Ana drew herself up to speak, but whatever words she was planning were lost in the sudden piercing scream that exploded from the captain's cabin.*****Dras and Quinn loitered by the bowsprit. The Ascot Marine hurtled in advance of a north-westerly, the bow breaking across low rollers in endless succession. The stern of the ship had become a zone no one liked to enter, ever since the captain's "breakdown" the previous day. Word had spread rapidly across the ship: the captain screaming at nothing, seizing weapons, accusing everyone aboard of mutiny. Other, darker things were whispered on the lower decks. Had the captain claimed to hear voices? Had he threatened to cut open his own head to show everyone what was happening to him?Doctor Ignatius had refused to comment on the captain's condition, which of course ensured that the wildest of rumours were flying around the ship within seconds."Heard they had to tie him up. Only stopped screaming when Fulcher clopped him across the head." Quinn spat over the rail.Dras lay back, eyes closed against the sunshine."Now what? Do we keep going or what happens?""Don't know. Nothing good -- hello."Eyes open again, Dras sat up and looked where Quinn was staring. At the far end of the quarterdeck, Morrison, the drunken master-at-arms, came out of the companionway with an armful of pistols and cutlasses. Horse and Red followed, the little monkey clinging determinedly to Horse's shoulder.Dras and Quinn looked at each other and nodded. They found the nearest grating and dropped to the gun deck. The three men they were following could just be seen through the gloom, descending yet again.The Ascot Marine had stairs from deck to deck both forward and aft. Morrison, Red and Horse were descending the aft stairwells as Dras and Quin descended the forward, the two groups separated by a hundred feet of low-ceilinged, cramped quarters. Once they'd descended to the hold, there was nowhere further to go. The lowest hold only had one stairwell leading to it, amidships. Dras and Quinn crept carefully aft, making their cautious way around creaking barrels and crates. Rats scurried about in the darkness. Beyond the hull the Atlantic Ocean hurtled past in a dull roar.Quinn tapped Dras' shoulder and pointed. Someone had lit a lantern up ahead, and in its glow the two could see their quarry heading down into the lower hold. Once the three men had completely disappeared below they both crept forward and peered down the stairs.The lantern had moved away from the stairwell and as they watched its glow dwindled to almost nothing. Quinn and Dras shrugged at each other and slipped silently down the steps, separating without a word and creeping towards the glow from different directions."Why don't we kill the bastard? He's trouble."Red's French was rough and accented. When Horse responded, he spoke with a thick African accent but was obviously a practiced speaker of the language."Do nothing until we give the word. Nothing. The time is not yet right.""I get that Indian tramp, though. I get her first.""Do nothing until we give the word. Disobey us again, Red, and there will be consequences."Dras had gotten on top of a pile of massive sacks of grain and could just peer over the lip into the hollow where the three men sat glowering at each other. The cutlasses and pistols had been stuffed under a loose sack.Horse spoke again."The Captain is not yet ready. Once we give the word, move quickly. You know who's with us and who needs to be eliminated right away. Over the side with the bodies and there's no one to say otherwise, is there?"Dras' boot scraped noisily across the surface of a grain sack. In horror the youth watched as Morrison reached for the lantern and all went dark. There was a noisy scuffle of booted feet, then silence. And then...Something skittered nearby. Something small. Dras felt a breath. Something giggled.Quinn had been unable to get close enough to hear anything other than vague mumbles, but when the light went out he froze. In a sudden rush he heard a noisy exit from the hold as Horse, Morrison and Red sped through the darkness and up the stairs. Quinn stayed right where he was. For long seconds he held his breath, listening in the pitch-black hold as the ship creaked and groaned around him.He concentrated, sure that he'd heard something. Something not quite right. Something... high-pitched. Like a child whispering.A faint green glow developed over near where the lantern had been burning. Heart thundering in his chest, Quinn made his way toward it.He stopped as he saw Dras sprawled supine atop a stack of grain sacks, some sickly phosphorescent glow coming from around the youth's head. As Quinn watched, horrified, the glow faded and the hold went dark again. Something skittered through the cargo and up the steps."Dras? Dras, wake up, kid.""It speaks... The voice in the darkness... It speaks...""Hey, kid."Dras sat up, arms wrapped tightly, and scuttled back from Quinn."No, don't touch me."Quinn shook his head."It's okay, kid. You were... having a dream, or something. I guess."Dras scrambled upright, and with a frightened stare, ran for the stairs and up out of the lower hold. Quinn watched for a second, then crept around the grain sacks to where the three men had been talking. He pulled back the flap of burlap and studied the seven cutlasses that lay there. The men must have taken the pistols with them.Quinn recalled Black's words on mutiny."This ship will become a slaughterhouse."He turned to head up the stairs and stopped cold.Horse stood looking down at him. The former pirate's shoulders filled the companionway, his crossed arms bulging with masses of knotted muscle. Quinn swallowed. Horse looked big enough to EAT him. Raw.The massive sailor snapped his fingers and two cronies with improvised truncheons in their hands stepped forward."Kill kim."They descended the only stairwell into the lower hold where Quinn stood."You don't want to talk about this?"*****Ana and Black were staring at Aqbal when Dras came up from the lower decks, panting."There's-- "Dras fell silent at Black's signal. The youth's brow contracted in a confused frown as the scene before them became apparent.Aqbal lay sprawled next to one of the guns, dripping with seawater. Water poured off him and trickled across the deck.The gunports were all closed. The rest of the gun deck was dry. Aqbal looked as though he'd been dragged behind the ship for an hour and then magically deposited here, without leaving a trail of water to show how he'd gotten to this place.His eyes opened. Dras started and grabbed Black's arm in surprise. The gunner looked around without any apparent recognition. He spoke, his voice impossibly deep and resonating, but quiet, as though coming up from the very root of the ocean."The beast seeks the master of the dead. Follow the bell's ring but return not to where the creature awaits. The Lords of Yxche lie helpless, without riders or favours. The Loa may not interfere. You will help."Ana nodded. Dras leaned forward and ran a finger along Aqbal's cheek."Agwe? Papa Agwe?"Black looked back and forth between his two compatriots."Well, that seems clear enough. Where's Quinn?"</blockquote>

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