THREE

            “So what happened to the key?” I said, my hand brushing my coat pocket.  Still there.

            “Aye, the key,” he started.  “Well, we pulled into her home port one day after being gone for a year or more, and she asked around for the exact center of town.  That night, she went to the courtyard in the center and placed the key there.  It’s a matter of fate you see; she came back and told us (after a good amount of rum) that whoever picked up the key and found her next, well, that’d be him.”

            “Him?”

            “Yes…her ‘one’ to put it that way.  Now, remember, this was after she was loaded to the gun walls, aye.”

            “Aye…” I said contemplatively, rubbing my as recently unshaved face.  I glanced up and saw Black and the leader of this little group making little hand motions, but stopped when Black saw me.  He grinned at me and I didn’t say anything. 

            “What of her sword then?”  I asked suddenly.

            “Her sword?  Oh, the old one.  Well, remember how I told you she picked up that girl, the rogue San Pan pirate?  Well, it wasn’t such a simple story.

            “You see, she was drunk the night she took this girl in.  I know, it happens a lot to our Captain.  Well, after she took this girl, she got into a ‘discussion’ with one of the San Pan Pirates in a tavern one night and challenged him to a fight.  Now, he was probably twice her size and four times her weight, but to be honest, none of us were worried.  Well, not until she bet her sword.  And, she didn’t lose…she just…passed out.”

            “Passed out?” I asked.

            “Aye, keeled over, drunk as you’ve ever seen.  Well, we were busy dragging her back to the ship and, of course, we forgot her sword.  Dropped it before she passed out.  Well, nobody noticed this until we got her back to the ship and the doctor, a little drunk herself aye, pointed it out.  We all looked at each other and knew trouble was ahead.”

            “And it was, I’m sure,” my first mate said in a droll voice.  The pirate called Black looked at him and smiled and my first mate shrunk back.

            “Surprisingly, not so,” the pirate continued.  “She was disappointed, but agreed that it weren’t such a good sword after all.  She had her gun for a while, but we got into some tight spots where she just took the first mate’s dagger right out from under her skirt; she kept it in a garter, we found.  Then she got a new one after a quick, ah, altercation with the armory wench.  The sword now has a blue hilt with a wide wrist guard sticking out from both sides of it.  It’s a large sword, so it be, and it was largely against the first mate’s wishes.  We were all just happy that she could hold the accursed thing and fight with it.”

            “Aye, so-“  But I was cut off by a sudden uprising of my guards.  They ran to the edge of our little powwow, guns at the ready. 

            “Show yourselves!” a guard called.  The two unknowns stepped into the firelight with their hands held lazily up by there shoulders; Captain and First Mate both looking around with feigned interest.

            “Calm down boys, I’m not gracing your presence to – oy, what’s all this?” She said, looking at her crew.  Black gave her a wiggle of the fingers and a smile and the rest went pale.  “Aye whelps!  You let this – “

            “Quiet yourself pirate!” Called another guard.  She turned her eyes slowly to him; her arms lowered, and she gave him a stare that would’ve turned sand to glass. 

            “Stand down,” I called to them, and they lowered their weapons reluctantly. 

            Her first mate was wearing a long-sleeved, green silk shirt with an almost oriental corset and a long black skirt.  She had a brown bag slung over her shoulder and she wore a large gold chain about her neck

            The Captain was wearing her sword on her left, her gun holster on her right, and she kept a wallet at her back, making four belts (one for the hell of it, I assume, judging by all the gold on the buckle).  She wore a lace and silk skirt that showed a hint of a garter, and her boots came to mid-calf.  She wore a corset, a tan shirt under that, and all of her plunder, I assume, was around her neck and wrists.  She wore a bandana around her head, hiding her hair except her bangs.  She caught my stare, and I rose.

            “Captain Floyd, the famous Blue eyes of the West,” I said, bowing. 

            “The pleasure is mine,” she bowed, “‘Captain’ Falk.”  Her emphasis on ‘captain’ put a tension in the air you could slice with your dagger.

            “I see you remember me, Juliet,” I said slyly.  Her first mate looked up at her, but she hardly blinked. 

            “This is my first mate, Soraya Cinzia of the San Pan pirates,” she said with a sweep of her hand.

            “An honor,” she said immediately with a little half-bow.  It was like she’d said it twenty million times before to ten million people she’d never see again; I’m sure that was the case, however.  I nodded to her and she looked at the crew, who I could see jump.  For two women they made an imposing presence together, though either one would alone. 

            “Are you done interrogating my crew, Captain?” she addressed me formally.  “Have they been of very much help to you?” I eyed the lock around her neck and smiled.  She raised an eyebrow at me.

            “Aye lady, you may retrieve them.”  She fumed a little at me, then turned to her crew.

            “Get back to the ship you dogs or I’ll have ye dance the hempen jig all the way to Davey Jones’ Locker!  Aye!” She called to them.  They scrambled up and she grabbed the leader of the four by the shirt as he tried to run past.  She whispered something to him, and he ran after his fellow crewmates.

            “A hanging threat, sai?  Really necessary then?” Her first mate asked her with raised eyebrows.

            “O’ course,” she replied.  She then addressed myself, “Captain Falk, I believe we’ve got words to exchange.  Will you, sai?”

            I turned away from her, and, addressing my crew, said, “No need to spy, right boys?”  I gave an extra look in the way of my First Mate. 

            “Aye, no need to hang a jib there,” said Soraya to my first mate with a smile.  “He’ll be back, no worries.”

            Soraya followed myself and her Captain far enough into the woods to make sure we had some privacy.  I assume that’s what Juliet told her to do though. 

            “Eron Phillip Falk, the privateer Captain I’ve been hearing about,” she addressed me, emerging from the forest to a beach where neither ship could be seen and we had enough privacy to be able to hear someone coming.  

            “Juliet Rhea Floyd, famous Blue eyed female Captain and a Pirate no less,” I said with a smile. 

            “I hear rumors, Captain Falk, rumors that you’ve been searching a long while for myself and my crew.  Aye?”   

            “Aye.  I heard a story from your crew back there, and it intrigued me,” I said, pulling a chain out of my breast pocket.  She watched me calculatingly.

            “And what story may that be?”  She hadn’t seen the key yet.

            “Well, let me tell you my story first.  I had heard you’d come back to our little town, but I seem to have missed you by a couple weeks, mayhap.  I happened to be walking around the square and, well…”  I didn’t finish.  She watched me expressionlessly, but I saw something flash across her eyes that I couldn’t quite read.

            I walked over to her; she still said nothing.  I came face-to-face with her, for the first time in a long while, and held her gaze.  I slowly ran a finger over her necklace, and then I took the small silver lock in my hand.  I brought up my other hand, and I saw understanding cross her face.  I put the key in the lock and turned it.  The click that the lock made when it popped open was louder than the waves crashing next to us. 

            “So…it’s you then…” she said, a little unsurely at first.  “What happened when I left you, all those years ago?” She caught the lock and the chain as it slipped off her neck.  I left the key in the lock; chain attached.