Holy Land

by BlndDog

Chapter 6

Gingersnap had never been in a stateroom before. He had seen plenty; had cleaned around several, and brought trays to and from the doors of a few. He had handled a silk-wrapped, silver-embroidered mattress meant for a stateroom. But the threshold had always been a sacred, forbidden thing.

After the first ten minutes it seemed rather boring.

The room was below the aftcastle; he could barely hear the crew moving about on deck. There was a small desk and a chair beneath the silk-curtained window, and a lantern hanging from the beam overhead. The two beds, one on either side of the door, were set into alcoves with a shelf and a cupboard above them and black velvet privacy screens.

After fiddling with the drawers and putting away their books, Gingersnap and Coral Frond undressed and each claimed a bed. The wool suits had left their coats messy and stiff, and neither of them had the courage to ask for a brush. The room was already far above what they felt they deserved.

“What do you think that was about?” Coral Frond asked, scratching his neck to soften the fur there. “I didn’t recognize any of those ponies that attacked Moonlight and Morning Breeze.”

“They weren’t ours,” Gingersnap said. Only his muzzle was visible above the well-stuffed pillow. “Rival pirates, maybe. Probably. In the end they’re all pirates, you know. They do what's right for them.” He paused and listened. There were no hoofsteps in the hall outside, but he got nervous nonetheless. “I don’t mean that in a bad way, mind you, but I don’t think Morning Breeze’s Chain Islands are as… civilized… as Equestria.”

“How can you say that?” Coral Frond sat bolt upright. Fortunately he was too short to hit his head on the top of his alcove. “They have a university, they have their own supply lines, they have cities and towns just as well-built as the ones in Equestria…”

“Okay! Okay!” Gingersnap said, desperately gesturing for Coral Frond to keep his voice down. “Maybe that’s not the best way to say this. Maybe they’re not so bad now, but you know how this all started. Whatever they have now they got from stealing. Think of how many ponies they must have killed between them. And this all started with Morning Breeze breaking out of prison. Most of these ships were stolen! He even admits it!”

“They had good reasons,” Coral Frond said. “These were desert islands! You can’t build something from nothing! What else were they supposed to do?”

“Why did they have to build anything at all?” Gingersnap said. "To escape justice? They murder a bunch of ponies, steal a few million bits worth of cargo every few months, and we should sympathize with them because... what? They're nice now? If any of these ponies had a conscience, they would have gone right back to Equestria. Heck, they wouldn't have left in the first place."

“Nopony would choose that,” Coral Frond said. “What would you have done? You’re floating in the middle of the ocean with twenty ships and three hundred crew, and supplies for a few months at most. You know that you’ll all be locked up forever if you ever set hoof in Equestria again. Would you seriously go back?”

Gingersnap was about to answer, but the sound of hooves coming down the stairs cut him off. There were at least three ponies outside. They did not speak. Gingersnap put aside his blanket and got on his stomach. Coral Frond sat up fully and turned to face the door.

There was a knock.

“Are you two settled?” Morning Breeze said in his raspy voice.

“Yes,” Gingersnap replied, falling back onto his mattress. Coral Frond also lay down and chuckled. “Come in.”

Morning Breeze had new dressing on his hoof. He was flanked by two bodyguards, each one with a leather-sheathed machete strapped to their side.

“Come with me,” he said. “The wardroom is upstairs. We have a lot to discuss.”

The room in question was spacious and for the moment sufficiently lit from the windows. According to the brass clock at the back it was nearly six. The walls were covered with charts and densely-written notes. A long desk ran all along the port side, cluttered with quills and pencils and long rulers and leather-bound books. In the middle of the room was an oval table made of a white stone slab bordered with red hardwood.

The two guards remained outside. Morning Breeze took a cushion out of a large crate in the corner and sat down at the stone table. Gingersnap and Coral Frond followed suit.

“It has come to my attention that we may not be on the same page on more matters than one,” he said. “Now we have a little time to set things straight, though I don't expect to get through everything. First, tell me what you’ve heard about me; what I did, what I do now, and how I got here.”

“You sank a civilian ship,” Coral Frond said. “It was some kind of yacht. Somepony really important died. You were arrested. Then you left Baltimare with your fleet before your trial. You also killed two ship inspectors on your way out.”

Gingersnap gaped at the unicorn. Seeing the look of abject horror on his face, Morning Breeze laughed.

“Most of that was right,” he said. “Yes, I sank a yacht. A very nice and expensive yacht too. Rumor was the Children of the Night had a say in its design, but I can tell you based on how easily it sank that it was an imitation at best. Be that as it may, do you think I would do something like that on a whim?

“That yacht ran down two of my clippers. I lost seventeen able sailors. And for what? A bunch of drunken kids; a son of Gold Standard and a bunch of his bratty friends. They had overwhelmed the yacht’s master and were running amok. I radioed them. I tried to reason with them. But when they started killing my crew, I had to put my hoof down. I was in the Falconeye with a full hold and a fresh crew. I saved as many of the crew as were left. Eight sailors in total, plus two cabin boys; they were the only ones they hadn't thrown overboard or stabbed to death. After that it took two minutes to blast them to bits.”

“Did it occur to you to call for backup?” Gingersnap asked.

“The navy would have escorted them back to Baltimare or one of the islands,” Morning Breeze said, glaring icily across the table. “They would have paid a hefty fine; it would have been a minor scandal. But there would have been no justice. Do you not understand that? Gold Standard controls your navy. Your markets. Everything. He’s the wealthiest pony on the east coast. And that night I became his biggest enemy.”

“So why did you go back to Baltimare at all?” Gingersnap asked. “If you’d stayed away, nopony would know what happened.”

“I was young back then,” he said, glancing down at the table. “I thought I could bring this to light; argue my case. Of course I realized my mistake quickly. They threw me in prison as soon as I reported the incident. They held a public funeral for that brainless brat, and you know what they said about him? He was an innocent flower; a green leaf, taken before his time. But there was no such recognition for my sailors; for my friends. And that's when I woke up from it all. Equestria is a lawless mess, and I vowed never to serve her again.”

Morning Breeze had bitter tears in his eyes. Gingersnap looked down at the table. He had seen something that wasn’t meant to be seen. The silence went on, broken only by the sound of hooves outside and the jarring ticks of the clock.

“So how did you get away?”

“Coral!” Gingersnap said sharply.

Morning Breeze sighed a deep, shuddering sigh. “I had help.”

“From who… m?”

“I had help!” Morning Breeze screamed, making both his guests jump. His voice cut out abruptly. He grimaced and rubbed his throat. “That's all you'll ever know. Please, ask something else.”

“What about the inspectors?” Gingersnap whimpered shakily.

“They were Gold Standard's thugs in disguise,” Morning Breeze said. “My crew and I found them lining our ships with gunpowder mixed with pitch. They were about to destroy my fleet; a few minutes later, and the whole harbor would have been burning. I made them confess before...”

He stood up and hobbled over to a cabinet, from which he produced a stack of steel mugs and a dusty bottle of black rum.

“Gingersnap, help me with this.”

Morning Breeze lit a lantern and placed it in the middle of the table. Gingersnap and Coral Frond only used the rum to flavour their water, but Morning Breeze poured himself a frighteningly-large helping. He took a sip and looked up at the others.

“Now what about those missing ships?” He asked. “The Firestorm was reported lost, you said. What about the Sunny Sky and the Trade Wind?”

“Lost,” Gingersnap said. Hesitantly he added, “But I suppose you have them as well?”

“That is correct,” he said. “Most of the time I cast the crew adrift and send a distress call on their behalf. But they must have been very careless not to notice that their seaworthy ship was sailing away and not sinking as you say. By my standards now they're not great ships. They're sluggish and delicate, but not so outclassed as to be entirely useless.

“It about time that Equestria found out: I’m not just some pirate roaming the ocean forever with my little fleet. You saw Port of Mercy. That’s not even close to the biggest island I have. I have shipyards, plantations and great cities to rival Canterlot. My ships patrol these waters more efficiently than the coast guard does the Horseshoe Bay. You can send the entire Equestrian Navy against me, and I'll defeat it with a quarter of my fleet. If you ever get back to Equestria, that will be your report.”

At that moment there was a knock at the door. Gingersnap and Coral Frond turned.

“Come in,” Moring Breeze said.

The master entered with a billowing cigar between his chipped yellow teeth. The sun had set entirely, but there were no lights on deck.

“Cover that lantern,” he said, waving frantically. “She’s on our tail! Twelve miles I reckon!”

“The Spectre?” Coral Frond said hopefully.

“The Snow Queen,” Morning Breeze corrected. He threw a lantern cover onto the table and went for the door. “Kill the light and meet me at the wheel.”

Gingersnap did as he was told, his heart racing. Once the lantern was out, he could barely make out the outline of the door. He had to sit for a half minute before his eyes adjusted. It was that or risk tumbling overboard on an unfamiliar ship, but those were the longest seconds of his life.

The sky was clear and a half moon provided enough light to work by. The sails were taut with wind, the sea calm all around.

Morning Breeze was looking through a spyglass held up by Hornpipe. Everypony except the pilot was looking to the starboard side.

On the horizon was a tiny point of yellowish light, bobbling up and down ever so slightly. As his eyes adjusted, Gingersnap though he saw something like a tower. It looked much too big to be a ship.

“What’s our speed?” Morning Breeze asked.

“Six knots,” Hornpipe reported. “With this wind I can push her up to seven or eight on a longer route.”

“Do it,” Morning Breeze said. “Sail dark tonight, and keep some rifles on deck. Have someone watch the Snow Queen at all times. If she follows or gains on us, tell me immediately.” He looked around, and seemed surprised to see Gingersnap and Coral Frond. “You two, back to your room. I’ll send you your dinner. Do not light a lantern, or candles, or your horn. Just stay below deck until morning.”

Neither of them had the courage to argue. They sat silent in their dark cabin for ten minutes, until a unicorn brought them a tray with two bowls and a rather large loaf of rye bread. The soup was some kind of creamy chowder. Gingersnap chewed the bread carefully. He recalled stories from his childhood of pirates eating worm-ridden biscuits in the dark. Fortunately his tongue picked out nothing unusual that night.

He did not know the time when he awoke, but it was still dark. His hair stood on end; he thought he had heard a rasping voice in his dream, loud and hideous.

“Your will be done.”

Gingersnap lay stiff as a board, clutching his blanket. The voice had come from beneath his window. From water level. He fell asleep in that position, listening for the voice. It did not speak again that night.