Chapter 12 — Making Deals with Pirates

Xiaohe pressed her back against the wall of the ship, hating pirates. After Yixing’s daring rescue attempt, her neck had been spared the beheading up on the main deck, but, rather anticlimactically, confessing his true identity really only landed them back in their cell. Still, Xiaohe sighed. This was better than execution. Yixing leaned against the bars of their at-sea prison holder. It was getting dark below deck. There was just a few lanterns down in the brig, and one was near where the tall pirate was sitting on a stool. Tao had been tasked with watching the captives again, but he was busy trying to read a book that was upside down. 

The two had sat in silence for hours after Lau had demanded to know which of them was the prince. Neither spoke much, either because they were terrified that they had just made a terrible decision or because the tall pirate would throw onion peels at them whenever they opened their mouths to speak. Tao still had a bump on his forehead from when Xiaohe had knocked his head into the bars, and he wasn’t quite ready to forgive her for it.

But after a while, they heard footsteps, and First Officer Luhan appeared again. Tao stood at attention, but the First Officer just gave him cursory glance and then stood in front of the cell. 

Yixing didn’t have enough energy to give him a defiant stare, but Xiaohe apparently still had some fight left in her. Luhan looked at the two prisoners with an amused grin on his face. 

“Good evening, Your Highness,” Luhan said, mocking in his voice. Yixing only nodded in reply.

“Captain Lau wishes to speak with you two,” the First Officer said. Out of nowhere, Tao appeared by Luhan’s side with iron manacles. Luhan looked between these and the captives.

“Not necessary,” Luhan said, as he pulled out a key and inserted it into the lock. “Though maybe I should bring them just in case. I don’t like the way the little one is looking at me.”

Xiaohe had a threatening glower perpetually plastered onto her face. After what nearly happened up on the main deck earlier that day, she would never drop her guard as long as she was on this ship. The cage door opened, and Luhan led Yixing and Xiaohe out and back onto the main deck. 

It was nighttime now, and the main deck was cleared of crew. Now that all was quiet, Yixing cold finally get a look at the ship they had found themselves on. They had emerged from the bow of the ship and were now walking astern. There, the First Officer opened a set of doors. Strings of beads hung down over the passage, and they rattled as Yixing and Xiaohe walked through. 

They found themselves in an exquisite room. Persian and Afghan rugs on the floor. There were books, seashells, antique furniture. On the wall, Yixing noticed the scroll painting of Mazu the Sea Goddess. It was faded and slightly tattered around the edges, but he could see it was the exact same kind as the one he had seen on the Chimera. 

“I have a lot of questions,” said that man seated at the low table. On its surface, he had the pack of oracle bones unbound, and he was examining them, each and every crack. Lau smiled.

“By the state of these bones, evidently so did your father,” he said. Yixing tensed at the mentioned of his family. There on the table, he also saw his ring. Xiaohe stood closely behind Yixing. Luhan closed the doors behind them and stood aside. 

Lau motioned at the cushion on the other side of the table. Yixing swallowed as he took a seat on it. In front of him, the captain had discard the leather vest he wore and now, dressed in his gold-trimmed silken robes, Yixing felt like he was addressing the king of another small country. His back straightened as he sat, the force of old habits. Xiaohe tried to sit beside him, but Lau put out a hand.

“No, you can stand.”

Yixing looked at Xiaohe apologetically. But there was fire in her eyes as she grudgingly stood up again. Yixing turned his attention back to Lau, fully prepared to bargain for their lives.

“I have been sailing these waters for eighteen years, Your Highness,” Lau said. “But I haven’t come across anything curiouser than this. A runaway prince with a pack of oracle bones, dressed like a Palace Guard of the Order. And closely behind him, a rebel army led by none other than my former First Officer, Cheng Shu. The new Chancellor of the Empire, I’m told. So, tell me. What news from the shore? What’s become of my old home?”

Yixing couldn’t tell which was more surprising: that the leader of the People’s Army had been a pirate lord’s First Officer or that Captain Lau had called the Twin Demons Empire his home. 

His throat suddenly felt parched as he recalled the events of the past week. Yixing had been in survival mode for such a long time that he had forgotten the heart wrenching pain of the memories of that night. The images that flooded back to him were of his childhood home burning in the middle of the night, his mother bleeding to death on the side of the rode, his brother’s horse disappearing forever, Captain Huang shot with an arrow and then drowning in a storm, Old Bi Yu drawing her last breath in his arms. He took a deep breath.

“There’s been a coup d’etat in the Capital,” Yixing explained slowly. “The dynasty has been thrown off and my family, murdered. Cheng Shu is the name of the leader of the People’s Army, the rebel army. The burned the palace to the ground and established a new regime.”

“Which explains why she is looking for you, then, I suppose,” Captain Lau said. “Kill the crown prince, kill the dynasty’s last hope of restoration. But, then, tell me about these.”

He tossed a turtle plastron at Yixing and it landed in his lap. Cracked and blank and devoid of all interpretations. 

“She is consulting astrologers and asking me to join her league,” Captain Lau said, his eyes narrowing. “An ordinary man would have ignored those, but I’m no ordinary man, Your Highness. I recognize oracle bones when I see them. And my former Officer has taken to the seas again in search of them. I want to know why.”

Yixing swallowed. He turned to look at Xiaohe, whose eyes looked as lost as his. 

He looked into the captain’s face and tried to decide whether or not he trust this man enough to reveal everything to him. But the more he thought about his situation and what he wanted to accomplish, he began to realize that choosing was not a luxury he could afford right now. If he was going to accomplish what he set out to do, he would need these people to be on his side. 

So he opened his mouth and started to explain. Lau listened closely and Xiaohe stood on the balls of her feet, anxious about Yixing’s decision to volunteer so much information. When Yixing finished explaining what happened at the capital and the legend of his family’s mandate to rule, Lau sat still. Turning the information over in his head. 

Lau knew this story, having grown up in the Empire as a young man. The Sea Goddess’ Mandate to Rule, bestowed upon the earliest Zhang ancestor, whose determination and selflessness had touched her spirit. As he looked the young prince in the eyes, he was beginning to see an opportunity for himself.

“Your Highness,” he said. “What if I lent you my ship and ferried you to the Goddess’ Realm? What sort of reward would you bestow upon me and my crew?”

Yixing was taken back at the swiftness of his suggestion. He had been expecting to bargain for at least another hour or so. He shrugged.

“Anything that would be in my power to give you,” Yixing said. Behind him, he could hear Xiaohe cursing under her breath at him. Lau smirked. He stood from the table and Yixing followed suit. Lau walked over to a cabinet in the corner of the room, opened it, and seemed to be looking at something inside of it. He spoke with his back turned to them.

“Piracy is a dangerous occupation, Your Highness,” he said. “But if one is steadfast and skilled, the reward for risking one’s life can be very satisfying. For a while, of course. I may be a pirate lord, but can you imagine what great reward occupies my mind the most?”

He closed the cabinet and turned back to them, his eyes soft.

“Retirement,” he said. “I may be a pirate captain, but I don’t want to die like one. When I’m done being a scourge on these seas, what I want is…” he paused for a moment. 

“What I want is to return to my home,” he said slowly. “To my family. If I do this for you, restore you to the throne, I want pardons for all my men, licenses for them, to pillage enemy ships.”

 It suddenly made sense to Yixing, looking into the captain’s sad eyes. This was as much about getting revenge on Cheng as it was about returning home for Captain Lau. This was a man who had known pain in his life, and it demanded respect. Yixing straightened up again.

“Have we a deal then?” Yixing asked. Before