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"I'm sure it'll be at least two weeks."
"I'm not. I give you ... half an hour. You're going to die here, Shandy, after a few years of being Governor Sawney's apprentice. Well I'm not going to - Jack and I are getting out of here, damned soon. I finally found a man who's not scared of women."
"I'm glad. I've got to admit they often scare me. I hope you and Rackam are happy."
Ann seemed disconcerted, and stepped back. "Huh. So where are you going?"
"Somewhere north of Jamaica. A ship's been seen there that I think is the old Vociferous Carmichael."
She grinned and seemed to relax, though at the same time she was shaking her head sadly. "My God, it's that girl, still, isn't it? Hurley?"
"Hurwood." He shrugged. "Yeah, it is."
"So will this trip be violating your pardon?"
"I don't know. Will Rackam's involve violating his?"
She smirked. "Just between you and me, Shandy - of course it will. But my Jack's got a girl that don't mind living with an outlaw. Do you?"
"I don't know that either."
She hesitated, then leaned forward and kissed him - very lightly.
"What was that for?" he asked, startled.
Her eyes were very bright. "For? For luck, man."
She turned and walked away, and he strode on toward the shore. Some children were playing with a couple of puppets he'd made once, and as they scrambled out of his way he noticed that they were using strings now to move the little jointed figures. Learn a trade, youngsters, he thought. I don't think your generation will have Mate Care-For to take care of them.
Someone was walking ponderously behind him. He stopped and turned, and then flinched a little to see Woefully Fat staring incuriously down at him. For once remembering that the man was deaf, Shandy just nodded.
"They'll get along without him," the giant bocor rumbled. "Every land go through the time when magic work. We heahabouts is nearin' the end o' dat time. Ah'm sailin' with you."
"Oh?" Shandy was surprised, for he'd tried, with no success, to get Davies' bocor to come along on the trip to Haiti. "Well great, sure, it certainly seems like a trip we could use a good bocor on, and I'm just wasting my time talking, aren't I?" He made do with nodding emphatically.
"You a-goin' to Jamaica."
"Well, no, actually - I mean, we might, we're going near there - "
"Ah was bo'n in Jamaica, though they ship me to Virginia when Ah was fahv. And now I'm goin' back - to die."
"Uhhh ... " Shandy was still trying to think of a response to this, and how to express it in gestures, when the bocor lumbered past him toward the shore, and Shandy had to sprint to catch up. There was a gang of arguing men clustered around the boat Shandy had been wrenching at, and when Shandy approached, two of them strode over to him, waving their arms and shouting. One was Skank, and the other was Venner, his face so red at the moment that his freckles were invisible. "One at a time," said Shandy.
With a furious chop of his hand Venner silenced Skank. "The Jenny isn't going anywhere until Vane gets here," he stated.
"She's sailing for Jamaica this afternoon," said Shandy. Though he kept a mild grin on his face, he was peripherally measuring yards and inches and wondering how quickly he could get to Skank's cutlass.
"You're not captain of her anymore," Venner went on raspingly, his face even darker.
"I'm still her captain," Shandy said.
The men standing around shifted and muttered, obviously not sure whose side they wanted to be on. Shandy caught part of a sentence: " ... damned drunk for a captain ... "
Then Woefully Fat stepped forward. "Jenny goin' t' Jamaica," he said in Old Testament prophet tones. "Leavin' now."
The men were startled, for not even Shank had realized that Davies' bocor was Shandy's ally in this; and though Shandy never took his eyes off Venner's face he could feel their confidence shift toward himself.
Venner and Shandy stared at each other for several seconds, then Skank drew his cutlass and tossed it to Shandy, who caught it by the grip without looking away from Venner. At last Venner looked down at the blade in Shandy's hand, and Shandy knew Venner had decided he wasn't quite drunk enough to take. Then Venner looked around at the other men, and his mouth became a straight, bitter line as, clearly, he realized that the emotional tide had turned against him when Woefully Fat had spoken.
