The Depths of Madness 6 (story)

Сообщение от oneforthemoney

Peter did not like this. No, he did not like this at all.

To be sure everything had been going as he had hoped. The majority of the crew were too busy either glaring at each other, or trying to see something their fellow shipmates were hiding that may incriminate them to pay specific attention to Peter. As such, the situation was ideal for him as he had no need to hide anything, well aware the mere idea of having an Ellis on board was preposterous at best.

Then he spotted Ned entering the captain’s quarters. At first he had thought nothing of it, the teen had been carrying a tray of food and, as Karfiz typically ate alone, paid it no more mind.

But as the minutes ticked by and Ned did not emerge he began to feel uneasy. Why was the teen still in there? Were they talking? What about? Peter had only seen the teen about for this voyage and he had made no waves, so it was unlikely it was about Ned himself. Nothing about the galley boy was of note aside from his youth. Peter briefly entertained the thought that Karfiz was merely being social but almost instantly rejected the idea. The timing was too perfect.

Peter paused at that thought. The timing? What in Azeroth did that mean?

The murder last night he realized with a start, nearly knocking over the mop he had been leaning on while lost in thought. What if he had been seen? No, impossible, he had been certain he had been alone with the orc when the stabbing occurred.

But, then again Ned had just proven how adept he was at avoiding notice. He had snuck across the deck and even managed to slip beneath the notice of Ed, dodging around the bulky sailor without even being noticed. With such high tension aboard it was a remarkable feat. Ergo, if anyone could have seen the murder of Thrag and elude Peter’s notice, it would have been the teen.

“Damn.” Peter cursed, mopping the deck viciously as if trying to erase the evidence Ned had against him. But he could do nothing, forced to wait as he watched Ned exit the captain’s cabin, dodging around the crew once again and reaffirming the impression of the teen’s ability in stealth. The sailor watched as the galley boy disappeared back into the galley, vanishing down the stairs and leaving Peter to wait for the captain to come and fetch him, his execution assured according to the measures of the ship he had signed.

As time passed and neither Karfiz nor Hookjaw came to fetch him Peter began to feel slight elation. Perhaps he had in fact escaped with his neck intact, the tracks remained properly covered and the teen had seen nothing after all.

But what if he was just trying to convince himself of Ned’s innocence? Perhaps Ned had seen something, but had elected not to share with Karfiz yet in favour of making Peter sweat. Maybe the teen was thinking of blackmailing him!

“Not going to happen.” Peter growled to himself at that. If Ned thought him an easy target and planned to take advantage using his witnessing Thrag’s death, then he would find it harder than his infantile mind could possibly imagine to catch the sailor flatfooted. Peter was not a man to be taken lightly, and it appeared he was being underestimated in terms of his intelligence and drive. Since such was the case, then Peter had no option remaining open to him aside from one.

He would have to kill Ned, too.

()()()

Beldrum glanced back for the second time in one day as the galley door opened, expecting to see the youthful face of his new galley boy. He was half right as it was indeed Ned who had opened the doorway; it was the teen’s face that had the dwarf frown slightly in suspicion. Ned’s face was drawn, guarded even and he seemed to be staring off into the distance somewhat in thought.

“Oi,” Beldrum demanded, “what took so bloody long? Stop to watch the pretty birdies eh?” The dwarf asked sarcastically as, true to form, he really had no concept of the term verbal sensitivity, choosing to fall back on scornful comments in order to get the point across. It generally worked, didn’t exactly do well for his marriage when the question ‘do I look fat in this’ came up but whatever. Apparently, comparisons to sea mammals did not work well. Who knew?

Ned seemed to shoot back into himself at the dwarf’s words, blinking in surprise at the stocky man. “Eh, ah. Um, no, I’m sorry Mister Stonehearth, it was just…”

“Spit it out boy, I hate ta repeat myself but what took ye so bloody long?” Beldrum demanded again, quieter by a hair as it seemed that the youth had returned to the waking world.

Ned twiddled his thumbs nervously, looking to the floor to avoid meeting the gaze of his immediate superior. “Ah, well. I was just delivering the food and, um, when I got to the door the captain wanted to speak to me.” Beldrum’s face darkened slowly at that confession, his eyes narrowing.

“What’d ‘e want ta talk about?” The old cook asked in a deliberately measured tone. He had a very bad feeling about this. To start, Hookjaw coming and attempting to pry information from him, then Karfiz wanted to talk one on one with Ned of all people? Something wasn’t right about the whole situation.

“Oh, just some normal questions about the crew and stuff. Like how their feeling and… um, yeah. That was it. I couldn’t really tell him a whole lot anyway.” Ned uttered weakly, punctuated with a self depreciating laugh at the end.

Beldrum had been called many things over his long life, largely terms the antithesis of complimentary and usually involving rather crude connotations. Of course those had been followed up by his fist to the speakers jaw when he had overheard them, but what term he had never been saddled with which stuck was stupid.

The fact that Karfiz had sought out Ned meant that he desired to speak to someone of the crew, but did not want one with experience aboard a vessel. Nor did he want someone who might have credibility amongst the workers or connections to call upon.

“Lad, listen close ‘nd listen well.” Beldrum started, his voice carrying such grave sobriety that Ned immediately nodded, listening attentively with a suitably serious expression on his features. “Do not make any waves for awhile ye hear? Don’t rise ta any bait by th’ crew ‘nd avoid th’ captain as much as ye can. Understand?”

Ned stared at the cook with wide, if confused, eyes. “Um, okay. But, well, why?” He asked, the problem presented not quite reaching him. Ned had grown on the voyage, recent events forcing him to mature and giving him the wisdom to heed the advice, yet he retained the somewhat youthful curiosity that had so many of his peers involved in scrapes with each other and the law. Beldrum sighed at the youth’s naivety and shook his head.

“Let me tell ye something ‘bout the crew me boy. Ye’ve got trolls, humans, orcs, goblins, pretty much any kind a race on th’ face of th’ planet is aboard this ship. Ye ever wonder bout that?” Beldrum asked seriously.

Ned paused in thought. Now that the dwarf mentioned it, he had noticed the menagerie of races serving aboard the ship, but admittedly had paid little attention to it. Ned had grown up in Ratchet after all. As such, he was rather accustomed to seeing the wide variety of peoples which inhabited Azeroth all in one place, the patchwork goblin city not exactly what one would call discriminatory.

However now that he thought about it the situation did have a certain novelty to it. Generally the vessels he had seen in the ports of the goblin trade city had been crewed by a single race or with but a few members of different creed, the exceptions of course being those belonging exclusively to either Horde or Alliance respectively and perhaps pirates.

“I… I guess not.” Ned admitted a little shamefaced. Beldrum grunted and shook his head ruefully.

“Figgered. Anyway, th’ reason there’re so many different ones aboard’s simply t’ give the crew as little common ground as possible. The captain knows ‘e ain’t got exactly an intimadatin’ o’ form, so compensates it with makin’ damn sure ‘es the only thing the bilge rats aboard ‘ave to keep ‘em together. The measures, the diverse crew ‘nd the weapons ‘e carries’re all ways Karfiz controls ‘is ship. The captain doesn’t want any trouble and’ll nip anything ‘e sees as a threat in the bud given ‘alf a chance.”

“I see…”

“No ye don’t, not yet. Boy, if the captain wants ta talk to ye, then he thinks something is afoot and mark me words, I’ve been on this ship fer long enough ta know that his instincts ‘r as sharp as ‘is ears. Best ye don’t get involved.” Beldrum sombrely warned his charge.

Ned gazed at the dwarf, trying to sort through the information given. The level stare radiating from the orbs above the short humanoids massive beard were difficult to read. Yet Ned could not help but recall the storm, the metal hook on the dwarf’s limb that had imbedded him to the deck, the arm of flesh gripping him tightly and hauling him back to the mast. It had been the same hand which slapped him after the duel on deck and the dwarf who had told, with grim certainty, the nature of the rules aboard the ship in warning. He remembered the soft embrace of the blanket, drifting atop him protectively and securely from the cook’s stalwart hands to lull him to sleep.

“Yes Mister Stonehearth, I’ll try my best.” Ned answered, his face unexpectedly serious and voice as firm as a brace of steel.

The corner of Beldrum’s lip twitched in a half smile, the motion hidden beneath the thick curls of his beard, and the old dwarf nodded in acceptance.

“That’ll ‘ave ta do then.”

Сообщение от oneforthemoney

Bit of a shorter chapter then most. It just worked out that way. Regardless, things are finally starting to pick up and I hope I reflected that adequately.

Сообщение от Morec0

Ha, an extra post for three sentences XD

An excellent read, however. Glad to see the matter of the diverse crew get some unwinding. To be honest it didn't strike me as odd when I was first reading it (not to the point of "wait a second..." anyway) but once the explanation started I did start to wonder, so glad it got a bit of focus.

Сообщение от oneforthemoney

Yeah. A lot of stories have all the races just... together with everything and I always found that a little odd in many cases. I'm glad I conveyed that properly here since I was intentionally making it subtle earlier.

The Depths of Madness 6 (story)

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