950. Chapter 950

After Captain Kate and the Hurricane

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Not only do I not own Castle, but there never was a Castle episode called Captain Kate and the Hurricane, but you knew that. Rating: M Time: The 18th century.

Previously on Castle….Captain Kate's pirate ship was blown by a hurricane across the South Atlantic and now find themselves near Queen L'Anie's homeland…..

L'Anie shook her head. "I should have known. A large, well armed ship? They think you're slavers come to capture them. Let me go ashore with my people and I'll talk to them."

L'Anie set off for the town with three longboats full of her followers. Although L'Anie was sure they would be safe, Kate made sure that every man had a musket and a cutlass. From the deck of the Revenge, she saw L'Anie walk through the empty town and disappear into the forest. Many hours passed.

"Should we go after her?" Kate asked her husband. "Something could have happened to her."

Rick shook his head. "We'd have heard gunfire. That many men couldn't have been completely surprised. We should let her talk to her people."

Late in the afternoon they saw L'Anie, her men and a number of locals heading to the beach where the longboats were. L'Anie and her men came back and the town slowly returned to life.

"What happened?" Kate asked as soon as L'Anie stepped on the deck.

"We'll talk in your cabin."

Once in the cabin, L'Anie explained. "My younger brother, D'Ming, is now the king. He's big and strong and has organized the warriors of the kingdom to follow him. He was not happy to see me come back. He prefers to use force to solve problems, I prefer guile and intelligence. But I convinced him that I had not come back with my heavily armed followers and a ship of white people to take his place. In fact, I would rather stay with you and fight Bracken at your side."

"I'll always be happy to have you with me, if that's what you want."

"D'Ming will help us with the ship. After all, it is in his best interest to get me out of here in case I change my mind. He is a suspicious man. But all royalty is that way, I suppose."

"But he wants something?" Kate guessed.

"Short term and long term. They were raided by a group of slavers only three days ago. Instead of loading the slaves on a ship and sailing away, they headed inland with the slaves being used as porters. So, my brother wants us to go after them and bring the slaves back. And he wants muskets, cannon, powder, shot and lead."

"And what do we get in return?"

"My people are expert woodsmen and iron workers. We can cut down ebony trees and shape them into masts and yardarms for you. Your ship will be as good as new." L'Anie lowered her voice. "I'm not sure my brother can be trusted. For a man who loves power and force, this ship and its weapons will be a great temptation."

"I'll need to leave a large part of the crew here anyway to oversee the repairs to Revenge. I'll leave Alexis in charge with Esposito as her lieutenant. Priscilla should stay here as well. We have extra muskets in the hold. Every time we take a ship, we confiscate their weapons. We also have some cannons doing duty as ballast. We can give those to your brother when we leave." Kate stopped and took up a pen and a piece of paper. "We have over three hundred men aboard Revenge, counting your people. We could take a hundred or a hundred and twenty to go after the slavers and leave the rest here. That's more than enough to fight the ship. And we can give your brother's men who come with us a small number of muskets. Say, twenty?"

L'Anie nodded. "According to my brother, the slavers number about two hundred. They include whites, Arabs and, I regret to say, local African mercenaries, all armed with muskets. There are over three hundred porters, but being slaves, they won't fight us."

That night King D'Ming came aboard to dine with Kate and her family, as well as L'Anie. Kate watched him as his eyes roamed over the ship and its weapons. She could see the greed and lust for power in his eyes. She decided that a hundred people would be enough to go after the slavers. And she decided to have Alexis keep a body of armed and ready men available at all times.

The next day, the expedition upriver began. Kate and her people were in longboats and numbered a hundred, half were L'Anie's people and half were Kate's. King D'Ming had sent his best general, L'Van, by name and three hundred warriors who rode in neatly made boats. L'Van's men were armed with short iron swords and a six or seven foot spear topped with a heavy, leaf shaped iron blade. For protection, they had shields made of inch thick ox hide over a wooden frame. Kate knew that the shields would not stop a musket ball. However, once the initial volleys of musketry between the two sides were fired, a sword and spear would be better than an empty musket and a bayonet.

They stopped the first night at a village that was within King D'Ming's kingdom. L'Van took food from the villagers without paying and took a married woman for his bedmate that night. Kate quickly arranged to pay for the food in gold coins, but could do nothing about the woman. She made sure the guards were doubled that night, however.

The next three nights were the same. L'Van and his men behaved like conquerors, taking food and women as they wished. Both Kate and L'Anie tried to get L'Van to behave properly, but to no avail.

On the next day, they were out of D'Ming's kingdom.

"I smell smoke." Said El Tee, inhaling deeply.

As the little convoy of boats moved up the river, the smell of smoke increased. And, as they rounded a bend in the river, they could see smoke drifting skyward ahead of them.

"There's a good sized town just around the next bend." L'Anie said. "This does not look good."

It was not good.

The town was nothing but smoking rubble when they got there. Whatever food the town had had was gone and there were many dead bodies.

"The dead are all either too old or too young to be useful as slaves." Castle said. "But why kill them?"

"To terrorize the ones they did take." Queen L'Anie replied.

"There's nothing here." Kate said. "We should leave."

General L'Van agreed.

It was another day before they got to the next town, a small village, really. Like the last place, this one had been burned to the ground.

"There are only a few bodies here." Kate said.

L'Anie agreed. "The people fled into the jungle and hid there until the slavers left. But I see no food here. All gone."

General L'Van walked to the edge of the jungle and began yelling.

"He's demanding that they come out of hiding in the name of King D'Ming." L'Anie translated.

L'Van stood and screamed for several minutes, obviously becoming angrier and angrier.

"He's calling them cowards. He's threatening to kill them all." L'Anie told them.

As L'Van stood screaming, an arrow flew out of the jungle and hit him in the arm. It had barely penetrated the skin, so he pulled it out and threw it away. He resumed screaming. Then he staggered a bit and began walking back to the village. He pitched forward on his face.

L'Anie, Kate and Rick as well as a dozen pirates rushed to him.

"Dead." Kate said.

"A poisoned arrow. We should leave now."

Everyone agreed with L'Anie.

That night they camped on a small island in the middle of the river. Once they had eaten, Kate and L'Anie walked to the river bank.

"The river is beginning to narrow, L'Anie."

"And the river will soon turn to rapids and falls which we cannot pass. We'll have to leave the river tomorrow."

"What's the territory ahead like?"

"There is a great cliff some twenty of your English miles ahead of where we'll leave the river. Atop that is a great open plain. I have talked to people who have been to the plains. They say that there are many animals of all sorts there and fierce warrior tribes. They say that in the far distance you can see mountains covered in white, but no one I ever talked to knew what was in those mountains."

"Do you have any idea where the slavers are going and why?"

L'Anie shook her head slowly. "I have no idea. I can think of no reason to go this far inland." She smiled. "I have some good news, though. L'Van's men need a leader. He wasn't the type to encourage his followers to do anything but follow his orders. They have come to me and asked that I lead them. I agreed, of course."

Kate smiled back. "That's one less thing we have to worry about then."

"But we still have many things to worry about, my friend."

The next day they did reach the end of the navigable portion of the river. Ahead of them they could see white water rapids and beyond that, what appeared to be a waterfall in the distance. There was also a city of some size, perhaps five thousand people there. It was surrounded by a wall of wood and stone. A suspicious looking official came out to greet them.

L'Anie spoke with him and then came to talk to Kate and Rick. "The slavers were here five days ago. They tried to coerce the city dwellers into giving them food by firing their muskets, but the walls are too thick for muskets to do any damage. They bought food with silver coins instead."

"Will they sell us food?" Kate asked.

"For gold or silver, yes. But they won't let us inside the city. They don't trust us. We look too much like slavers, I'm afraid. They will also look after out boats. There are traders who go up to the plateau and come back down, so they're used to looking after people's boats. This is a trading city, after all, so they are friendly to passers-by." L'Anie laughed. "Most passers-by."

The next day they headed into the jungle. It took them no time at all to find the slaver's trail.

"There's a trail here." El Tee said. "It's overgrown, but jungle growth has been chopped away quite recently."

"No one's gone this way except the slavers." L'Anie agreed. "How kind of them to make our way easier."

They marched through the jungle and came upon the remains of a camp in late afternoon. L'Anie smiled. "They're moving more slowly than we are. There's a good two hours of daylight left for us, but after chopping through the jungle, they had to stop here. We will catch up to them."

By the time they had gone through the jungle, they estimated they had picked up a day on the slavers ahead of them. Then they stopped at the edge of the jungle and looked at the cliff looming before them.

"My God!" Said Castle. "It goes straight up. How will we ever climb it? It looks to be a good thousand feet tall."

"People do climb it, Castle, so we'll find a way."

"There are two ways up the cliff. "L'Anie said. "There is a quick, but dangerous way and a slower but safer way. We'll look at the quick way first."

At the foot of the quick way they found the shattered bodies of three slaves, still carrying the supplies that had been loaded onto them. L'Anie sent El Tee up the cliff. He came back in a few minutes.

"Previous travelers have carved steps and handholds in to the cliff here, as well as pounding pegs in as handholds. They've been destroyed. It will be very dangerous to climb here, my Queen."

L'Anie turned to Kate. "The slow but safe way is perhaps a mile to the south. They weren't taking any chances with being followed, but I don't see how they could damage the safe way up. We shall see however."