Page 141 of Storm over the Caribbean
Oh my goodness.
He didn’t. He couldn’t have.
I looked at Mr Rikkard Ambrose’s eyes. Cold. Sharp. Calculating.
Oh, Lilly, he definitely did.
Instantly, my eyes flicked to the cut on the pirate captain’s face—just an instant before the man swayed ever so slightly.
Called it!
“Coward!” Briggs hissed, circling my husband with the intent to slaughter in his eyes. “You think you can win if you don’t evendare attack? Ha! If you just want to stand there like a fool, be my guest! I’m going to hack away at you until you slowly bleed to death!”
“Attack?” Swiping aside another slash of the cutlass with his sabre, Mr Ambrose took another leisurely step back. “I don’t need to attack. I have already won.”
“Won? Ha! Are you sick in the head?” Snorting, Briggs took a step forward—and stumbled.
“Sick? Me?” My dear husband shook his head. “No. But you might be. Do you feel it already?”
“What…what the hell…?” Swaying, Briggs tried to take another step forward, and nearly fell on his face as a result.
“You do, don’t you? You already feel weak. Your legs are trembling. Have you started sweating yet?”
“What…” The word that escaped from the captain’s mouth was nothing but a croak. “What did you do?”
“Oh, nothing much.” Lowering his sabre, Mr Ambrose reached into his pocket and, a moment later, pulled up a shiny, colourful fruit. A fruit that I recognized instantly, from far-too-painful memories. “Fascinating flora and fauna on these islands, don’t you agree?”
“Y-you…!”
“After a certain incident, I made sure to study it for some time. Make some tests. Do some experiments.”
“I’ll ki…ki…kill…y—”
“I see you’re already feeling the effects, correct?”
“Ki…kill…!”
Mr Rikkard Ambrose met the pirate captain’s eyes. He didn’t even bother to properly hold his sabre anymore. For good reason, it seemed. Briggs staggered forward once more, then fell to his knees in front of my husband.
“Ah, so you know how to show respect to your new captain. Adequate.” Nodding in satisfaction, Mr Ambrose steppedforward and gently touched the former captain’s face with a single finger, just below the poisoned wound. “Now…”
He pushed his finger forward, against Briggs’ cheekbone. Without resistance, the man toppled over and landed in the sand.
Stepping forward, Mr Rikkard Ambrose placed a foot atop the fallen man and looked around in challenge.
“Anyone here who wants to challenge their new captain?”
Utter silence reigned.
***
Far, far away on the ocean, several dozen heavily armed people were kneeling on the hard deck of a merchant ship, hiding below a tarpaulin that stunk of fish-oil.
“So…” One of the men cautiously cleared his throat. “Why are we doing this again?”
“Don’t you listen to anything I say?” a growl came from where the tip of a beard protruded from beneath the tarp.
“I did, but…I don’t understand. We’ve been searching the oceans, islands and coasts for weeks with a whole fleet of ships and haven’t found a single hint of the pirates’ lair. How can we possibly do better while hidden under a tarpaulin on a single merchant ship?”
