Chapter 18

“Carmen?” Shane wandered down the bilge of the newly captured merchant vessel, past the few cells crowded with the men from the Groene Draeck . She paused for a minute and smiled at one of their temporary captives. An old man, with a bushy silver beard and sunken features holding onto the bars with one hand and looking out at her as she walked by.

Shane gave a small smile, the same smile she gave during an insincere greeting, “Hey, how you doin’?” He immediately stuck up his middle finger at Shane and she grinned wider and laughed before carrying on.

Shane paused for a second and backed up a couple feet to once again look at the man who had just given her the finger. She looked down to his hand in confusion and back up again. She peered past him and to the other members of the Groene Draeck. Each man had a red apple in his hands, some just the core, having already eaten their apple. “Where the hell-” Shane didn’t finish her question, already knowing the answer. She shook her head and left the men alone.

“Carmen? Where are you?” She looked further on down the body of the ship’s stomach, around barrels and crates and loosely hanging canvas material while trying to find the elusive Latina pirate. “Come on now! Quit being a wench!”

Shane stopped seeing the small sliver of light coming from the underside of an ill fitting wooden door. She took a second to listen, weary of opening the door in case Carmen wanted to be left alone, but soon shook her head and pressed her way in.

The door hit many pieces of rigging and supplies as she pushed it open, probably caused from when they had rammed the ship earlier in the day. She forced it open just far enough to squeeze through and then shut the door behind her silently.

Carmen sat quietly on a bench along the wall of the small supply room, her head back, her eyes closed and boot discarded on the floor, leaving her toes bare. She had taken off her belt, and her cutlass and pistol were laying on the bench beside her along with a small dirty rag that she had obviously used to clean the blood from her blade. Shane simply watched her for a few seconds, not entirely sure what to say.