Seize the Booty! (Erotica Arcanus) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the rain-soaked sail. Finally, I snagged it with the tips of my fingers and snatched it back from the second mast, wrapping it and myself around the wooden pole at tightly as I could.
    "See," Calico Jack said with a relieved laugh, "I told you he could do it."
    My hands were steady as I fit the riggings through the sail's holes and tied it as tightly as I could. "There you are," I said. "Won't come loose again from those knots, I reckon." When I began my descent, I was greeted by cheers and applause from the ship's crew. Even Fat Matt clapped his hands and whistled. None of their voices was as sweet as Bonny's, however. The way she called my name sounded like the voices in the Coliseum rooting for a victorious gladiator.
    The captain met me at the bottom of the mast and put his arm around me, making everyone fall silent with the wave of his hand. "Mr. Fat, find us a port by nightfall."
    "What kind of port, captain?"
    "Any port," Calico Jack said. He looked down at me and smiled, "For tonight, we celebrate this boy's arrival at manhood."
    The rain was a light trickle now, and all of the sailors clapped and called my name. The captain scrubbed the top of my head with his fingers, and I knew then, for the first time in my life, what it meant to be a crewmember on a ship. It felt like having found my family.
     
    The island was small and deserted, its pale, sandy beaches scattered with lemons and limes and large, strangely-colored nuts that Fat Mat seemed ecstatic to find. In the aftermath of the storm, the islands tall wild flowers glistened with white and pink petals and the grass and foliage was a lush and vibrant green.
    The cook sent small boats of men armed with spears out into the water, and they returned with fish so large it took two men to carry them. They dug pits in the ground and filled them with kindling, then slow-roasted the fish on spits above them.
    I sat on the beach, staring past the fires at where the dark waters lapped the shore. My reverie was broken by the sight of Calico Jack rowing toward me in a small boat. He dragged the craft up onto the sloped shore and removed two bottles from within, holding them while he scanned the beach. Much to my surprise, he nodded when he saw me and headed in my direction. "From my private reserve," he said, showing me the bottles as he sat on the beach beside me. "I acquired these from a blind monk whose entire monastery was made up of cripples dedicated to the crafting of fine rum. The blind ones are said to be able to taste each individual ingredient. The deaf ones are said to judge the potency of each barrel by their color alone."
    "And what do the lame ones do?" I said.
    "Drink the stuff, I suppose," he said. He opened both bottles and handed me one. "In honor of your becoming a man, today, Mister Fawkes."
    I took the bottle and thanked him, but told him that I did not understand what he meant.
    "A boy climbed up the mast today, but it was a man who climbed back down it. You did not wait to be told what to do. You did not hesitate. You showed no fear. That is not just what makes a man a true sailor, lad. That is what makes a man a captain."
    I looked at him, then. It was as if he could see into my heart's deepest desire, and I could not bear it, so I lifted his bottle to my lips and took my first gulp. It was like drinking the strongest medicine I'd ever been forced to swallow as a child and I nearly vomited it back up the moment it splashed into my stomach. Calico Jack watched me cover my mouth with my hand and laughed so hard he might have pissed himself.
    By nightfall, the food was prepared and each sailor ate his full of the roasted fish and hot, citrusy fruits cooked into them. I wound up passing Calico Jack's bottle around to the rest of them, which only served to make their celebration of me all the merrier.
    As the feast's end, the beach was littered with empty bottles and passed out sailors, glad to stretch out under the moon and stars away from the confines of