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Chapter 14~ The Traitors
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You never know when you are making history. But, you certainly feel it—like a different kind of blood is streaming through your veins. Nothing makes sense and the outcome is unclear. But, all you know is that you must persist and see it through. No one ever just gave up building empires halfway through. No wars were stopped short, no revolutions shrugged off.
Our plan was put into action with ferocious impatience. We could not grow weak. I knew if Reyes and I didn’t turn the crew against Kidd, we’d never leave there alive. I’d never arranged a mutiny before, though I had thought about it several times while under Thomas Tew’s iron fist. I only really knew the men who’d once worked upon the Quedagh Merchant. Even those men weren’t the most bloodthirsty or deadly. They would need to be fueled, trained, prepared.
It must’ve been the warmest day we’d had since the beginning of January. The sun sparkled over the dancing waters like some angelic specter that was soon to appear. I walked across that dark, dampened deck, reaching the stairs that led up to the main deck. Most of the Quedagh Merchant men worked there. I had thought many times how we’d been separated into different ships. There were fewer allies for me to recruit which meant I’d need to reach out to Kidd’s own men. It was dangerous—they could tell the quartermasters and have me killed on the spot. We’d need to be so damn convincing that they couldn’t say ‘no’. My gaze lingered over the working men. I spotted eight of our own. Some pulled rigging. Others washed the staircases. One worked repairing part of a railing that’d been damaged. The rest of the men, Kidd’s men, worked other menial jobs and lookout duties.
I had to be discreet and quick. I made my way down the staircase and stopped near an Armenian man I knew fairly well named Samvel. I knelt down next to him without tearing my eyes from the deck.
“Sam,” I started.
He paused a moment and looked at me.
“Edmund, I’m surprised you’d bother setting your precious feet down here with the rest of us.”
“You know good and well I didn’t want to be roped up in this mess, just like the rest of you. I hate this place just like you.”
He shook his head and continued his work. “You act so certain. The rest of us think you’ve changed, become one of them—a tsovahen, like the rest of them.”
“I’m not a bit different than I was then, Sam. In fact, I think it’s time we change our situation.”
Samvel looked back up at me with narrowed brows. “What are you talking about?”
“A fight, Sam,” I lowered my voice back down, “You must be tired of bein’ treated like scum, don’t you? This isn’t right or fair. You know it, Sam. I realize there aren’t many of us, but I know already there’s unrest in Kidd’s crew. Reyes and I have—”
“Reyes? The little boy from Quedagh? What do you two know about…fights?”
I grimaced to myself. “Not much yet. But, every revolution begins with one person. How about makin’ it three?” I held my hand out to him, but Samvel just turned and shook his head.
“You speak of dangerous things, Edmund. More dangerous than you know. You’ll get everyone killed this way. No one even trusts you anymore—”
“Fine,” I continued, “Let me prove it, then. Don’t worry about a fight just yet. Just let me speak to everyone and win them back, not as soldiers. As friends.”
“That will be difficult. They hate you now, ynker.”
“Please, old friend.” I held his gaze, hopeful and desperate. “Do this for me, please.”
Samvel held back for a moment before sighing and scrubbing harder into the floors.
“Yes, I will try. But, you owe me in return, Edmund. Getting them to listen will be a challenge.”
I grinned and clenched my fist. I could hardly contain my excitement.
“You’d be surprised, Sam. I can be very persuasive. Have whoever you can gather meet me in the storage deck at eleven o’clock. Tell them it’s extremely urgent.”
He nodded.
I stood and looked back at the deck as if I’d never noticed Samvel’s presence at all. The work went on. I caught Reyes’s eyes from across the deck. I sent him a brisk nod and padded down the stairs. It took several moments before I was able to reach Reyes. He was practicing knot-tying without the peering eyes of the quartermaster lurking about. He caught my arm. I stopped and kept a tight glare on the horizon.
He spoke softly and dared not force eye contact. “What did he say?”
“We have a chance. Only a chance. The others despise me. Samvel is givin’ me a chance to win back their favor.”
“What?” Reyes grumbled, “We have not time for rendezvous of friends.”
I squinted a bit. “You can’t pronounce my name right, but you can get ‘rendezvous’? ”
He shot me a quick glare and continued pulling ropes with his small, calloused palms. “We need plans, white boy. You said we’d leave here alive.”
“—And we will. But, we’ll never get the results we want if everyone on this bloody ship hates our guts as much as Kidd himself.”
He scoffed, “Speak for yourself. I am delight.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved him a bit with my foot. Nearby, a sailor turned our way. I straightened up and turned my back to Reyes.
“If you’re so popular, I can rely on you for their support then?”
“I will try my best. But, it is up to you to tell the plan. We near land every day, Edmūnd. We cannot fail.”
“I know.” How vast and deserted the horizon was…
“We won’t fail.”
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Later that night, I found myself pacing around the floors of the storage deck. It quite reminded me of my nights of restless sleep in the storage hold of the Quedagh Merchant. I couldn’t slow the shakiness of my hands. I clutched them tightly behind my back and kept my gaze from constantly returning to the closed curtain-door. Reyes sat atop a large, wooden barrel nearby, arms crossed. He worked on a bit of chewing tobacco that’d been given to him by a Venezuelan pirate of Kidd’s. His face was stuck in a hard grimace he tried to mask with satisfaction.
“Would you quit this? You act like scared animal.”
“I’d suggest you mind your own. Where are they anyway? It’ll be daylight soon enough.”
He hopped off of the barrel and approached me. I stopped in my tracks and forced my eyes down to him.
“It is not time yet. Watch your own, Edmūnd. They know you are frightened, they will leave.”
“I’m not frightened.” I looked back at the still raggedy curtains in the doorway. “I just need this to work. We all do.”
Then, Reyes did something quite out of his character. He took my arm with his small hand and squeezed just lightly. I could see something hidden behind his strong eyes. There it was—just a touch of fear mirroring mine. And I knew what position I was to take. I smiled back at him and rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Thank you,” I hummed in a warm breath.
Just then, a hand slowly reached in from behind the curtains. It pulled back the stained, torn drape to reveal Samvel. He ducked through and walked over to me. I grabbed his hand and shook it proudly.
I’m smiling too much. Stop smiling so much.
“Sam, you came,” I began.
He nodded and curtly broke the handshake.
“Yes,” he said, “And you’ll be satisfied to know I’m not alone.”
Just then, more bodies began appearing from behind the curtain. They came in a few at a time, each peering around the empty space as if expecting an ambush. I looked over at Reyes. He held a tiny smile and nodded back at me.
“Men,” I started, turning back to the small crowd forming, “I’ve brought you all here for a very important reason.”
“Ah, boys, he’s finally come to haul us under, once and for all!” sniggered a deep voice in the crowd. A few heavy grunts and laughs echoed the voice.
“No, not at all.” I could feel their eyes all over me. The hatred and distrust for me and Reyes clouded the air like smoke. I tried desperately to breathe and remain calm. I continued, “I understand the grievances you have with me. If I was to be completely honest, I probably share many of those thoughts. Over the months we’ve suffered under Kidd’s authority, I have learned. I have grown. But, I am still the same man you all invited aboard our ship that year ago.”
Another one remarked, “Suffered? Like hell! You’ve lived like a king while we break our spines just to stay alive.”
I looked around towards the voice. It came from an English sailor I knew fairly well on our old ship. Fredrick—his name was. He glared back at me with all of the disgust in the world. How had I gone from being so loved by these men to being thought of as a bitter enemy?
“Fredrick.” I approached him.
He was a taller man—rough, sandy skin and dark hair tied back from his face.
“Fredrick, do you remember when you told me about your adventures in Spain? Do you remember how I spit my ale clear across the cabin when you tried to tell me you’d bedded the Princess of Barcelona?”
He chuckled to himself a bit. “I did, you know. I am anything but a liar.”
I smiled. “Now, am I not that man? Am I so different now that I am unrecognizable in your memories?” I turned back to the crowd of faces—my friends. “Each of you has built me up and taught me ways of the world I was ignorant to before. I have not turned my back to you; nor, will I ever. In fact,” I paused, “I know now more than ever what kind of bloody monster Kidd is.”
Reyes pulled my arm back a bit. I shrugged him off. There was a spark somewhere in my chest ready to erupt.
“Many of you know of my sister, Gretchen Hemingway. She ran away from my home when I was but a young lad. I thought her dead until Kidd told me of her existence. I decided then to remain at his side and pull out any information I could, strand by strand until I could find her again. It was a selfish choice; I know that now. Kidd tried to play me false and convince me he was safe-housin' her as a dear friend. But, Kidd is a liar and a devil with the sharpest of tongues. I had the opportunity to kill him where he stood, but it would’ve been no use. I knew killin’ Kidd by own hand would be just as selfish as the choice I’d made to join him. I wanted a way to keep my fellow men safe from Kidd’s—to keep my friends safe.”
It was deadly quiet for a few moments. But, I didn’t know what more to say. It was there—left in the air for them to latch onto. I was done with the childish games, with the betrayal and the lies. The watchful eyes of my friends no longer felt so devastating. I looked to Samvel and his kind, tender eyes. He smiled back and checked with his group of men. Sam’s hand fell on my shoulder in a firm grasp. Then, another hand—Fredrick’s. More piled on, one by one until I thought I might be buried. My chest swelled with pride—maybe—but with something else as well. Something stronger and more lasting. I looked at them all, each of them, in the eyes as I looked about myself. They saw me as I saw them—a man trying his best just to survive. As I thought about these things, I found Reyes and his small hand atop the pile of rougher, larger ones.
He smirked as if to say, I predicted this. I’ve known all along.
“Go on, white boy,” he remarked, “Tell us your plan.”
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