Martinique (The Acolyte Book 1) by Stevie Prescott Page B

skittish pet.
    "I have never forgotten it. And you, ma chère , are far more beautiful."
    My mind raced. I knew that in wartime, any ship was a potential prize, and battles could go on for years in the prize courts over the ownership of vessel and cargo. I also knew my father would pay a ransom to have me returned. But I could take no hope in either, for this was not the Indies, and he was not a privateer. In Barbary and the Maghreb, with the most vicious pirates on earth, such etiquette was forsaken. These men took what they wanted, from anyone who had not hired them, and sometimes even then.
    He alone would have been bad enough, but the fact that there were three of them was ratcheting up my fear into panic. The one near him looked much like his captain, long brown hair that sported a braid, though he was tall and lanky. The Turk had a shaved head, with a strange tattoo snaking down his cheek. Still standing just behind me, he smelled like a goat.
    The captain stepped to the table and uncorked the large bottle, running it beneath his nose, as if he'd expected the finest cognac. His eyes scanned the room, finding the crude metal cup overturned on the table. Then he did a strange thing, the ominous reason behind it not yet clear. He poured from the bottle and brought the cup to me. When I turned my face away, he forced it to my lips, his hand at the back of my head.
    " Boire , chérie ." The eyes darkened. "Drink it.  It will make it easier."
    I'd never had anything but wine at table, laced with water. When the cup came to my lips, I recognized it at once; black lightening, obviously carried from Martinique by one of the crew with a taste for it. It burned like fire, and I choked, but still managed to get most of it down, the rest running out either side of my mouth onto my clothes. To my dismay he poured another to the brim.
    The stinging tears welled, and I shook my head, but he was unimpressed, ordering me to drink. It went down a little easier, since I knew what to expect. But the effects, unlike wine, were sudden and potent. I was already feeling it, making my blood warm and my legs weak, my head spinning.
    Perhaps it gave me the courage to push out the question haunting me.
    "What have you done with my uncle?"
    Surprised, he asked, "The captain of this vessel is your blood?"
    "Yes," I hissed. "And a better man than you could ever hope to be!"
    He studied me once more, with an expression that seemed nearly indulgent.
    "Wait here, my sweet." Glancing at the other two, he snapped, "Watch her. I'll be back." At the door he turned and repeated, with a note of warning, "I said wait."
    I found, for some insane reason, I felt even less safe once he'd gone, as if such an animal could ever be a protector. The Turk sat me down none too gently in the same hard chair where I took my meals, before the long table that somehow still held most of my breakfast things, some overturned, the rest on the floor.
    They murmured to each other in their strange tongue, all the while drinking from the bottle, handing it off to one another. The time stretched, expanding, and my nerves were drawn ever tauter. The Frenchman seemed as if a hot wire ran through him, tormenting his flesh, and I sensed his blood was still up from battle. Every pull from the bottle was a longer one, yet it didn't seem to settle him, but rather had the opposite effect. He began to pace the little cabin, his eyes continually drawn back to me where I sat absolutely still, trying to make myself invisible.
    At last something within him, that hot, coiled wire, seemed to snap. He shouted an order to the Turk, who was obviously lower in rank, though he didn't leap to obey, until the same words were shouted again.
    Without warning they took me, one by the hands and the other by the feet. Though I struggled and kicked, shouting every profanity I knew at the top of my lungs, I was no match for them, and was, in fact, nothing more than a mild annoyance. I felt myself lifted and then