Stormy Seas: Finale

    Eldon fired back and I ducked behind the Captain's desk. I heard Stratt scream and then start cursing at her crew in between coughing fits.
    I peeked around the far side of the desk when the first round of shots stopped. Both pirates were laying motionless on the floor.
    “Vivian?” Eldon asked. He fired again as more pirates came to the door.
    “I'm alright!” I shouted back.
    Stratt was still shouting and coughing.
    “I'm running out of bullets,” he said. He set Stratt down on the floor and hid behind the desk with me.
    “Were you hit?” I asked.
    He started opening the desk drawers and searching them until he found more bullets in a lower drawer. “Only Stratt,” he said.
    A few shots were fired just above our heads. Eldon turned around and started shooting again.
    I glanced over at Stratt writhing on the floor. I could see a bullet wound in one of her bare thighs and she was clutching at a second one in her shoulder.
    We heard the cannons being fired on deck. The pirates were ignoring us now, running straight past the open door to man the guns.
    “The Voilitiers must be close,” Eldon commented.
    “Did they get our messages?” I asked him.
    “Probably,” he said. He began to reload the pistol. “But they must have been fairly close to begin with.”
    The cannon fire was replaced by guns. The pirates I could see on deck were shooting straight upwards.
    “Get down!” Eldon pushed me under the desk and continued guarding the door.
    “Cease Fire!” A voice boomed from the heavens. The Voilitiers must have had some sort of megaphone on their airship. “You are outnumbered!”
    The pirates refused to listen and a few of them ran for the Captain's cabin. Eldon fired a few more shots.
    “CEASE FIRE!”
    Eldon reluctantly stopped shooting. “They're coming down,” he said to me.
    Stratt rolled over and started trying to crawl away.
    “Stay where you are,” Eldon warned her. He turned the gun on her again. “If the Voilitiers want you to hang, I'll see that you hang.”
    She shot him a vicious look. “They don't want me to hang,” she seethed at him. “They want me back.”
    “Captain Carlotta Stratt?”
    I looked back at the door. A man stood in the doorway with a gun in his hand. He wore all brown leather and a cap with goggles.
    “She's our prisoner,” Eldon said to the man. “Who are you?”
    “Captain Emmerson J. Stratton of the Voilitier ship Lady Grey,” he introduced. He took off his cap and smoothed back his white hair.
    Eldon stood. “Eldon Palmer and Miss Vivian Winters.” He helped me stand. “Stratt is there,” he pointed.
    “Charity?” a woman called.
    Stratt groaned.
    “In here, Sarah,” Captain Stratton shouted.
    A woman in a leather coat and checked skirt hurried in.
    “Charity!” she gasped. “Who shot her!?”
    “Her own crew Ma'am.” Eldon explained. I noticed dark purple bruises forming around Stratt's neck and wondered if he would tell them about nearly strangling her to death.
    “Come on, let's get her back to the ship!” the woman said. She called in reinforcements with a stretcher and rolled Stratt on to it.
    We watched them go and then Eldon turned the pistol around and handed it to Stratton. “This is hers,” he said.
    “You may keep it,” Stratton said with a wave. “I certainly don't want her to have it back.”
    “So,” I thought aloud. “Carlotta Stratt is really Charity?”
    “Yes,” the man said wearily. “She was born Charity Stratton, my only daughter.”
    We waited for an explanation. He sat down and Eldon and I followed suite. Stratton eyed us for a moment and then handed Eldon his handkerchief. Eldon hesitated. “Go on,” Stratton said. “Get some of that coal dust off.”
    “Thank you,” Eldon said. He took it and started cleaning around his eyes.
    “Was Charity captured by pirates?” I asked.
    “Unfortunately yes,” Stratton said. “I carelessly left our families unprotected one day and a few of our children were captured by Captain Robert and his men. They said that if we ever came after them again they would kill the children.
    “Charity got a message out to us after a few weeks, asking us why we wouldn't pay their ransom. We offered Robert two of our airships and everything we had taken from other pirates, but we never heard from him or Charity again.
    “When his crew mutinied and killed him a year later we assumed the worst had happened. And then we started hearing rumors of a Captain Caroltta Stratt commanding his ship. We tried to chase after them, but eventually had to give up. She was too good at evading us since she knew all my tricks.
    “We had chased her this time from the Mediterranean and lost her again until your ship slowed her down.”
    Eldon laughed. “Our ship was called the Lethargy,” he explained.
    Stratton cocked an eyebrow but continued. “I should thank you two since it seems you played a large role in bringing her back to us.”
    “I apologize for the state she's in,” Eldon said. “I did use her as a shield for a bit there.”
    “I can't blame you,” Stratton said. “When fighting pirates you have to do whatever you think you have to to survive.” He stood up and pulled his cap back on. “Are there other prisoners?” he asked.
    “Several,” Eldon said. He handed back the handkercheif now blackened with coal dust. “I can show you.”
    “You know,” Stratton said as he eyed Eldon. “We could use another good man with our crew. Have you ever considered being a Voilitier?”
    Eldon thought for a second. “I think I could consider it. What does it pay?”
    “A share from every venture, and food and quarters for yourself and a family if you choose,” he said with a glance at me. “It's humble but good living.”
    “It sounds alright to me,” I said. I played with my skirts instead of looking at Eldon.
    “It doesn't sound easy,” Eldon added.
    “No, but the two of us have gotten used to adventurous living. Going back home would barely seem like living at all.”
    “Could we have a moment Captain?” Eldon asked.
    Stratton smiled and shut the door behind him as he left.
    “Would you stay with me?” Eldon asked.
    “Always,” I promised.
    “Even if our children were captured by pirates?”
    “It's a risk I'm willing to take.”
    “Vivian?”
    I looked up at him.
    “May I kiss you again?”
    I felt my cheeks flush, but managed to make myself nod.