955. Chapter 955

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.

They came to the edge of the cliff and looked down on dozens of campfires below them on the plain.

"Someone is waiting for us." L'Anie said. "But who?"

At dawn Kate was up and peering down into the valley with her telescope. "I think it's Umslopogaas. I see warriors with ostrich feathers and others with a long, thin white feather in their hair. And….some with something red on their heads."

"He has three impis with him now." Queen L'Anie said. "And he wants something."

Kate looked around. "We can't stay here and I don't think the Romans will welcome us back, so we should go see what he wants."

That day, they stopped more than half way down the mountain so that they could face Umslopogaas in daylight. They were up before dawn and made it to the plains in the early morning. Kate swept the horizon with her telescope, but could only see a small number of scouts ahead of them.

"He may wait for dark to attack us." She said bitterly. "There's little wood for fire ahead of us. Not within a day's march, anyway."

They had marched no more than an hour when they saw Umslopogaas' impis forming up ahead of them. The three impis had their shields locked together, and they were massed together in a line some four men deep and perhaps five hundred men wide.

L'Anie stopped Kate as she began to give orders to form up in a line of musketeers two deep with the spearmen behind them.

"I've seen this before. He'll pin your line in place, but send men around your flanks to attack you from behind. You can't meet him in a line as you Europeans do in your wars."

"We don't always fight in a line, you know." Rick said, and without waiting for permission from Kate, he began to form their little army into a hollow square. The mules and the carts were in the center, but no matter which way they were attacked, Umslpogaas' impis would face a wall of musketeers.

There was, however, one problem. The men at the front of the square could march normally, while those on the sides had to march sideways and those at the back of the square needed to walk backwards. This slowed the march to a crawl. They tried to have the entire square march facing forwards, but when they did, the impis closed in as if to attack and the square had to face outwards again.

Kate cursed. "We'll run out of food before we reach the river at this rate. That is if Umslopogass doesn't over run us in the night."

But as they moved, they saw an old man approaching them. He stopped some fifty feet away and the square stopped when they were some ten feet apart. The man said something and L'Anie replied.

"He says he wants to talk. I've agreed to go out and talk to him."

"Be careful. I'll have Ryan cover you with his rifle."

L'Anie stepped out of the square and stood before the man.

"I will be brief." The man said in his own tongue. "The great Lord Umslopogaas knows you can do him great damage with your weapons. Perhaps even defeat him."

"We will certainly defeat him." L'Anie snapped at him.

The man shrugged. "Perhaps, perhaps not. But, Lord Umslopogaas has an idea. You need but leave your gold behind for us and go on your way with no fear of us. We will wish to return to our own land with the gold to further….certain plans Lord Umslopogaas has."

L'Anie shook her head. "An excellent solution to our problem, if we but had gold to leave for you."

"You say you have no gold? Do you take us for foolish children?" The old man spat.

"Not at all, but we still have no gold. I have a counter proposal. Lord Umslopogaas may send twenty unarmed men to search us all. The mules and the carts included. And if Lord Umslopogaas wishes to search me and the Great Lady Kate, our leader, he may also send one woman. What could be fairer than that?"

"I will speak to Lord Umslopogaas of your proposal." The man turned and left.

Lanie went back to Kate and told her what she had proposed.

"It's as good a deal as we'll get, I suppose." Was all Kate said.

Shortly, they saw men coming towards them. The leader was Umslopogaas himself, with nineteen other men and one woman.

"It seems he trusts us." Kate said.

The men began with Rick and then searched each man thoroughly until they had searched everyone. Then they turned to the mules and then the carts. While they did this, the one woman searched both L'Anie and Kate, finding nothing.

The men came back to Umslopogaas with several gold coins they had taken from the pirates. And the bag of uncut diamonds.

"What is this?" Umslopogaas asked, holding out the bag.

"Religious items given to us by the Romans atop the cliff." L'Anie replied. "When you die, if you hold onto it, it will accept your soul and your soul will be safe from demons in the afterlife. Do you want one? Take a big one." L'Anie handed him a large diamond. "You look like you have a big soul."

Umslopogaas stared at the stone, then spat at it and threw it away. "You took no gold from the people up the cliff. Are you fools?"

"No, we came here to rescue my people who'd been captured by slavers. We beat the slavers and freed my people. We did not come to take from others."

"You are fools. Go on your way, I will not risk the lives of my impis to kill fools." Umslopogaas turned and strode away. As soon as he reached his troops, they began to move away.

Kate had her people continue to march in a square the rest of the day and doubled her guards that night. When the sun rose the next day, L'Anie sent scouts out in all directions. They reported no sign of Umslopogaas and his impis.

Kate made sure there were scouts out in every direction as they crossed the plains, and she doubled the guard every night, but she didn't truly start to relax until they returned to the great river and paddled down river to the Revenge.

"Kate! Look ahead."

She looked around her husband and saw something she'd been dreaming of and hoping for since they had left the Romans. "Oh, God! Rick! It's the Revenge with new masts and everything. I wonder if Alexis sees…."

She didn't finish the sentence because she could see a redheaded figure yelling and waving to them. She was soon joined by a blonde.

The boats pulled up to the Revenge and Kate scrambled aboard, closely followed by Rick, L'Anie, Ryan and hen the rest of the crew. They found one more young woman waiting for them.

L'Tori bowed low to her older sister. "Welcome home, Queen L'Anie. I live to serve you?"

"What happened to King D'Ming?" L'Anie asked, looking around.

L'Tori, Alexis and Priscilla explained what had happened to the late, unlamented King D'Ming. L'Anie took her sisters hand and pulled her up straight. "You are now the Queen, L'Tori. I have been with my friends for a long time now and I wish to help them fight the evil in this world. You will be a strong queen and you will keep our people safe from slavers and others."

"Thank you, my sister. In my heart, you will always be our queen."

That night Rick cooked a fine meal with fresh food from Queen L'Tori's town. After eating, he relaxed over some wine with Kate, Alexis, L'Anie and Priscilla. "We're rich. What should we do now?" He asked.

"We could go back to the Caribbean and put a fifty thousand pound reward on my father's head." Priscilla said.

Kate shook her head. "Other pirates might try to claim the reward, but no naval officers would. And pirates would want the pardon as much as the gold. We can't pardon anyone."

"We could sail east." Alexis said. "The Indian Ocean."

"There are Arab slavers there." Said L'Anie. "And pirates."

"And warships of many countries, and the various East India companies." Kate added.

"There's the Pacific Ocean." Priscilla suggested. "The coast of China, Japan, the Indies and more. When I was much younger, I talked to a sea captain who'd been Asia. The lands there are rich and we could live happily there."

"We could go to Europe as I suggested earlier." Rick said. "We should go there anyway to get the best price for our diamonds." He reached over and took Kate's hand. "And I'd be much happier if we could fight Bracken from the safety of France and use money instead of cannons. I love you so much, Kate."

Kate smiled at him. "And I love you as well, Rick. As I love all of you. However, we don't have to decide tonight. We'll need to spend several days on a shakedown cruise for the Revenge, and we'll need to buy food, water and other supplies. We'll think about what to do next."

Rick raised his wine glass in toast. "To Captain Kate, the finest lady on the seven seas."

"To Captain Kate." They all responded.

Author's note: I know, hurricanes don't blow from the Caribbean towards Africa. Well, in this story they do.

And if you're looking at a map of Africa, wondering where this story took place, don't bother. The Africa I used is purely fictional.

I'm still writing Follow the Orange Brick Road and I have a start for a sequel to the above story, entitled After Captain Kate and the Sorceress.