The first three pirates who clashed with Trajan, Roberts, and Inigo were cut down within seconds. This gave the others pause. The bolder ones retreated a few steps, others turned and ran to escape the fury of the artful swordsmen that sliced through their ranks.
Trajan lunged after them but was stopped short by a shout from Inigo.
“Trajan, above!” Inigo was pointing at the upper deck, and he looked up just in time to see a large barrel hurling toward him. Trajan managed to get his arms up before the barrel smashed full-on and knocked him backwards; his head hit the planking and he saw stars. Westley and Quidest ran to him, fending off pirates, while he slowly rolled onto his knees.
More barrels were thrown, empty and semi-empty powder kegs that burst upon the deck. Inigo and Roberts tried to jump out of the way but they, too, were knocked off their feet. Men who’d been ready to watch the duel from the rigging and the mast arms now descended upon the stunned swordsmen. Roberts quickly recovered and immediately engaged two pirates who attempted to back him over the side of the ship. His sword flashed, clanging back and forth with the blades of both pirates.
Inigo, raising himself up on his knee, felt a slash across his left calf. Wincing with pain, he rolled and saw the pirate who had cut him swinging his sword for a final blow. Inigo parried the attack and returned with his own. The pirate reeled back and went for another strike, but Inigo still sitting, blocked it again. The pirate raised his sword in both hands, ready to bring the full weight of his sword down on Inigo, but Inigo thrust his sword into his heart before he could, and he fell backward.
Trajan had regained his senses and fought with Westley beside him. As he turned, he saw Inigo sitting on the deck, blood soaking his pant leg.
“Inigo’s hurt,” he called out.
Quidest saw him and rushed to his aid, fighting her way there with a dagger in each hand. She came to a slide next to him and put pressure on his wound.
“Wrap it up…quickly!” Inigo said through gritted teeth.
“Wrap it up yourself if you’re going to be a child about it,” she said, tearing a length of cloth from her skirt and wrapping it around his calf, cinching it down with tight knot. As another pirate turned to strike them, Inigo and Quidest simultaneously struck him from two sides with their weapons.
“Now,” Quidest said as she set down the blade again, retightened her hair into a ponytail, then picked up her weapons and stood with both blades in her hands. “Get up and fight, man, and be quick about it.”
Archard and Kadir fended off furious attacks from pirates coming at them from above as pirates jumped at them from the rigging. Kadir used his weight and strength, swinging his heavy sword with one hand, punching with his other, and kicking pirates as he went.
In contrast, Archard fought with elegance as he ducked, slid left and then right, spun, and used all varieties of dodging moves to avoid the sword strokes of pirates who grew tired of swinging their weapons and hitting only air.
In exasperation, a pirate lowered his weapon and said, “Sit still, you darty varmint, and let me kill ya properly.”
“Good sir, if you were able to kill me, you surely would have done so by this point.”
The pirate swung wildly, another joined in, and Archard took them both on. “There now, you’ve got assistance. You’re doing splendid. Buck up.”
They backed Archard against a mast and seemed to have him cornered. He lowered his sword, and the pirates paused and grinned.
“We got ya now, Frenchie!”
“Truly,” Archard said and turned, giving the pirates an open shot while he adjusted his gloves. They lunged at him, but were cut down from the side by Kadir, who came from behind a crate.
Archard stuck his sword into the planking so it stood freely, and continued to adjust his gloves.
“You’re welcome,” Kadir growled.
“I’m sorry,” Archard said with an incredulous tone of voice, still not looking up. “Were you expecting me to thank you after the beastly manner with which you greeted me earlier?”
“I think we’re a little beyond that now,” Kadir said as another pirate came at him.
Archard pulled his sword out of the deck as Kadir and the pirate exchanged blows. “You needn’t have punched me earlier, you know.”
“What? It’s because of you we’re in this scrap now.”
“All the same, I would think a small degree of gratitude would have prevented such…” Archard finished off the pirate, “barbarity. I did save your life your life before, you know.”
“That’s ludicrous.”
“Hardly, and on more than one occasion, if you’ll recall.”
“I don’t recall!” Kadir pouted as they each took on another pirate.
“Barbados?” Archard said over the noise of clanking of swords.
“Don’t remember!”
“Madagascar?”
“Never heard of it!”
Archard took out his foe then assisted Kadir striking down his.
Kadir turned to face him, and said softly, “I’m sorry I punched you.”
“There, there, my boy,” Archard patted Kadir’s shoulder. “Was that so hard?”
An arrow hit Archard in the collar and he fell backward. Kadir moved to shield him, then pulled Archard behind a crate as more arrows peppered it.
“Are you alright?”
Archard looked at the arrow sticking out of him, then at Kadir.
“You’re not the most discerning chap, are you?”
Another volley of arrows was loosed and everyone scrambled for cover. From behind a mast Westley peered at the above deck.
“There,” he pointed to the four pirates kneeling behind the railing of the upper deck, reloading their crossbows. “We need to get up there.”
Roberts sprang for the ladder but three pirates at its base forced him into another sword battle. Trajan ran to his aid.
“Trajan, move!” Westley said as a pirate stood and pointed his crossbow directly down at Trajan and Roberts.
Trajan looked up just in time, grabbed his father by the tunic from behind and spun him away as the arrow embedded itself in the spot where Roberts had just been standing. Another shot hit him in his hip, and he cried out in pain as he fell.
Trajan tried to assist his father but pirates came at him. He fought them off as he knelt over Roberts, and soon Inigo and Quidest made their way over to them.
“Take him. Over there.” Inigo pointed to an area off to the left, out of the line of fire.
Trajan and Quidest pulled Roberts clear and assessed the wound while Inigo fought the pirates nearest them.
“Is it bad?” Trajan asked her.
“Yes.”
“It’s nothing,” Roberts said, sweating. “Stand me up.”
“No,” Trajan said, “we will deal with it.” He put a hand on Quidest’s shoulder. “Care for him.”
Westley was fighting to take the rungs at the base of the ladder, and Trajan sprang past Inigo to get to his side. Together they fought off the pirates in front of them as they dodged crossbow shots from above.
“Quite a business, this piracy, eh?”
“I’ve seen quite enough of it.”
“Right then, up we go,” Westley said as he climbed.
“Right,” Trajan said, following.
As they fought their way up the ship’s ladder, one of the pirates with a crossbow reloaded and pointed it at Westley, but Trajan pulled a knife from his belt and threw it with his left hand. Westley glanced down at Trajan as the pirate fell over the railing.
“See, we’ll make a pirate out of you yet.”
They reached the top of the ladder, and the pirates exchanged their crossbows for knives. Westley and Trajan now faced several who advanced, separating them in opposite directions, trying desperately to send them backward off either side of the deck.
Below deck, Inigo fought off three pirates as Quidest tended Roberts behind him. Archard stumbled forward and collapsed next to her.
“They pricked you too, I see,” she said.
“It’s been a rather unpleasant day,” Archard admitted.
The pirate who started the mutiny was the same one Roberts had confronted on the shore. His confidence at the outset of the battle waned as the newcomers cut through his ranks and his numerical advantage evaporated. He now forced a mostly toothless grin to mask his fear as Trajan killed yet another of his crew.
“How’s daddy doing with that arrow?” he mocked as Trajan drew near. “That was from my bow, you know.”
Trajan took a steadying breath, the warnings of Pilbrick echoing in his head.
Always remain poised. Don’t let them distract you with taunts.
He backed the ringleader into the doorway of the captain’s cabin. The sword of Domingo Montoya moved faster than most swordsmen would have managed to parry it; the pirate was no swordsman and he retreated to escape the long reach of the weapon.
The young Guilderian came faster and closer, the pent-up frustration of months, years of heartache and his desire for revenge unleashed on the man in front of him, the embodiment of the pain these mongrels had cost his family. The Dread Pirate Roberts had taken his father even as Kadir had spared his life. Now Mastan was back from the dead, but an arrow was stuck in his body and the notion of losing his father a second time galvanized him.
The pirate stumbled backward to avoid the onslaught, and Trajan paused to examine his enemy.
All the hits in the head from Pilbrick came in view, the first encounter with Inigo when he failed and bled. He remembered the conversations with Westley, the warnings of Archard and Tamati, the practicality of Quidest, and felt the power of the weapon in his grip.
The pirate thrust his sword, but Trajan deflected it as a man bats away a fly and took slow steps forward. The pirate pulled out a knife with his other hand and slashed at Trajan with a backstroke. Trajan caught the pirate’s arm, put his foot against his adversary’s ribs and kicked him, tumbling him backward over a chest. The pirate scrambled for his sword, but seeing a small woodstove he went for the ash bucket instead, flinging off the lid and throwing the ash at Trajan who closed his eyes and spun away.
“Filthy pirate, I know your tricks. Pick up your sword and face me like a man.”
The pirate jumped to his feet, out of breath. “Perhaps we can work out an arrangement.” He smiled.
“I do not treat with pirates.”
“Oh, but think of all of the treasure in this ship’s hull. You and your old man could keep a dandy of it. We can all walk away rich.”
“I don’t want money. I want satisfaction.”
The pirate gave a barely perceptible sideways glance. His voice shifted to a more soberly inflection. “Surely you wouldn’t hurt an unarmed man.” The pirate dropped his sword and slowly raised his hands.
Trajan smiled. “Oh, yes. I shall accept your surrender, and when I come close you will brandish that dagger in your belt and slip it in between my ribs. I told you once, I know your tricks.”
The pirate removed the dagger and let it fall with a shrug of his shoulders. “I wasn’t aware Guilderian gentlemen are so crafty,” he bowed his head in respect, offering up his hands and took three steps toward Trajan with his palms outstretched in apparent surrender.
Trajan let him get close, giving a slight grin. He leaned in and grabbed the pirate by the neck.
“I was trained by the best men who ever lived.” In a flash Trajan flung his sword to the left, straight though the chest of the other pirate who had been creeping up on his flank. “And they were all pirates.”
Westley reeled backward from the blow one of the pirates had pummeled him with.
“Yeah, that stings, don’t it?” the man sneered.
“Pity an old man a moment’s rest?” Westley said, leaning on the railing, his sword point touching the floor.
“You’ll get worse than that.” The foremost pirate sprang at him. Westley jumped to the side and flicked his sword at the man’s wrist, dislodging his grip on the weapon and sending it overboard.
“You were saying?”
The disarmed pirate looked at his companion, then leaped over the railing and into the water.
“Well, I suppose that leaves just us now.” Westley pointed his sword at the remaining pirate, who stood his ground but suddenly his face showed fear, and he also turned and jumped into the sea.
Westley looked over his shoulder and saw the flash of the cannon before the boom it generated. He threw himself to the deck as a portion of the captain’s cabin exploded, sending splinters of wood in all directions. When the dust cleared, he saw the smoke plume from the cannon of a Florinese warship firing another shot.
The next cannonballs hit the Revenge broadside and tore through the middle of its hull, impacting the Revenge’s own armory. The stored gunpowder and that from the broken barrels across the deck caught fire, and in seconds the Revenge was broken into several pieces, many burning.
Westley fumbled his way into the cabin to find Trajan on his back, cuts across his face and body. Half the cabin was gone, along with the pirate.
“On your feet now, lad. No more fighting today.” Westley pulled him up by the underarms and they stumbled out.
“Wait,” Trajan said, pulling away from Westley. He coughed as he retrieved Inigo’s sword from the other pirate’s body. They passed through the door, neither noticing the opened journal inscribed with the last words of the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Another shot hit the larger portion of the Revenge, and it listed. What few pirates remained abandoned ship and swam for the shore.
“Get them into the lifeboat,” Quidest said to Kadir.
Kadir picked up Mastan and carried him to it, plopped him down, braced himself as the Revenge tilted thirty degrees, and Inigo and Archard rolled into them.
“We must get Trajan!” Inigo shouted.
Kadir looked to the cabin and caught sight of Westley and Trajan struggling to keep their balance as they navigated what was left of the upper deck. “It’s alright, they’re coming.”
Westley struggled to stand upright and found himself staring at the Florinese warship close enough now to make out the faces of the sailors and officers. Humperdink’s officers. Westley and the Florinese captain locked eyes.
The Florinese captain dropped his spyglass, pulled his sword, and pointed it at Westley, smiling wide. “Roberts. I have you,” he said to himself.
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