I must have cried myself out. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in my cabin with Vash sleeping beside me. I had no sense of what the time of day was or how I'd even gotten to bed. Sluggishly, I stepped onto the cold hardwood floor. I shuffled over to the porthole and drew back the curtain covering it. The sea was dark, tinged with the slightest shard of red as the dawn broke. Whoo. How long had I been out? Eh, no matter. how long I stood there I did not know. The sun was still climbing over the edge of the horizon when I stepped away. I stood in the center of the floor wondering what to do. Jennifer hadn't crawled into bed with Vash and me like she normally did, so I decided to go wake her up. (My mind was firmly rejecting the memories of the day before.)
Her cabin was clean except for a single book open on the floor, the pages the pure white of a dove's wings. The book was The Pirate Queen: The Story of Grania O'Malley. Meghan had given it to Jen as a birthday gift. It was a bit unusual that Jen would leave a book open on the floor, but I shrugged it off. The covers on her cot were rumpled over a lump that I assumed was her. I sat on the edge of the cot and talked softly to the lump.
"Heya, pet," I whispered, "It's time to wake up. There's the most beautiful dawn outside. Wake up, luv...hey." My eye had caught an irregular shape under the sheet. "Have you been sneakin' food from Rex again, ya silly sneak?" I gently drew back the blanket, but it wasn't the face of my sleeping child that greeted me. Just a mass of sheets and dolls; on the pillow was a bedraggled little ball of feathers--Jennifer's swallow. Dead. There was a small spot of blood near its head.
The memories finally asserted themselves and, unbidden, burst into my head like fireworks. The raid, Arthur Bluebeard, fighting against my own crew to follow a retreating ship on the horizon. My daughter was gone. She was no longer on my ship. I carefull picked up the corpse of the little swallow that had always followed Jennifer around. It looked so fragile in my hands that I was almost afraid that it would just fall to dust in my gentle grip. I just sat on the edge of my daughter's cot, looking at the feathery bundle in my hands, and wept.
Vash must have heard the sounds of my grief, because, presently, he walked into the cabin and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I leaned back into his warmth and let him murmur soothing words into my hair.
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At midday, we anchored the Sparrow and the crew descended into the galley to eat. Vash and I stayed on deck and gave the tiny body of the swallow to the sea. I would get my daughter back. I swore that to myself. I would get her back come Hell or high water. I gripped the ship's railing so hard that my knuckles turned white and glared out at the horizon.
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Leagues away, Arthur Bluebeard jerked back in shock as the grieving vampyr captain unknowingly made eye contact with him through his longlass. To him, she suddenly seemed a more potent evil than Davy Jones hisself.
"Holy Mary Mother of God! 'Salmost like the wench knew I was watchin' 'er!"
He quickly composed himself. Smirking, Bluebeard folded the telescope and returned it to the inside pocket of his long, patched coat.
"Heh. She can't hurt me," he chuckled darkly as he turned to face the small figure tied to the mizzenmast, "Not 'slong as I got you. Ain't that right, ya pretty li'l chit?" He tangled his hand in the girl's dark green hair and tugged so she was forced to look up at his face. "Well, brat?" he leered, "I can't hear you."
Jennifer Sparrow's violet eyes filled with tears of pain and anger, and, had she not been gagged, she would have spit in Bluebeard's filthy face in defiance.
pirate pirate pirate pirate pirate twisted twisted twisted twisted twisted
Dramatic. There's still more to come, faithful readers. There are plenty more chapters to go in this installation of Jaqueline Sparrow's saga. I encourage you to comment. Please, do.
SKBCTayuyaFluteofDeath Community Member 
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