Chapter Text
A weathercock exploded inches from her head.
Ahsoka yelped as she vaulted the roof, skidding down the far side. She just barely managed to brace her feet in time to push off and leap onto the next roof. The shingles were wet; she cursed as she struggled to find purchase, scrambling over the point just in time to avoid another whistling musket ball.
“Too close,” she muttered. “Way too close…”
Jumping across rooftops like this was way too visible. She grabbed hold of a gable and swung around one-handed, ducking awkwardly through the open window just as the sound of running boots rounded the corner. Ahsoka stepped to one side and listened; the redcoats were following her trajectory, pounding along the main street. Nobody had turned.
She gave a sigh of relief, then looked up.
“...Afternoon.” The white-skinned young woman turning down the bedsheets squeaked, and Ahsoka gave her a quick salute as best she could with her hands shackled. “Talk about the weather, right? It is just raining lead out there, thought I’d step inside until it stopped. ‘Scuse me…”
Don’t scream, she prayed as she darted out of the room and took the stairs two at a time. Don’t scream don’t scream don’t…
The girl, her brain having apparently caught up with events, gave a bloodcurdling shriek just as Ahsoka had located the back door and casually slipped back onto the street.
Why were there so many goddamn soldiers in this town? Just because it was attached to a major military fort. That was no excuse. Some people were trying to earn a living, here.
Ahsoka ran through alleyways, hid behind a series of convenient bushes, took the risk of ducking through a building occupied by a blacksmith so drunk he didn’t even twitch when she kicked out a window and escaped through it, and eventually found herself on a side street with no red-coated presence.
That was when she got cocky.
Empty street, she’d figured. No one around, no one watching, no soldiers. So she’d walked out without any further thought, and it was only after she was standing in the middle of the road trying to map out her next move and heard the approaching thunder of boots that she realized there was no way forward.
Hard running footsteps coming from either end of the street; going back was suicide, no convenient nooks or crannies to duck into, and a solid stone wall ahead.
Nothing for it, then.
Praying she hadn’t somehow gotten turned around while scrambling around Port Royal—it would be just her luck to jump the wall into the damn fort, at this point—Ahsoka took a step back and then made a running leap for the wall.
She almost got over in one go. But...well, something about horseshoes. Her foot slipped; she scrabbled against the wall for several terrifying seconds before she found another foothold, then hauled herself up and rolled over onto the other side just as the first flashes of red came around the corner.
Ahsoka took the opportunity to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, and then brushed some palm fronds aside and looked around.
Nice garden, she thought.
She then thought, shit.
The idea had been—well, the idea had been “ditch the redcoats,” but she’d hoped that the wall was a sort of city limit. She’d planned to vanish into the tropical forest, where her dark, loose clothes would vanish while all these good English boys stuck out like sore thumbs. Then she’d wait until nightfall, meet up with the boys again, get someone to finally take these shackles off, and they’d go back to the original plan.
The original plan didn’t involve Ahsoka being arrested twice and escaping through some powdered wig’s back garden, but—look. She improvised, okay?
Ahsoka ducked behind a topiary as she tried to plan her way out. Luckily there were no gardeners or other servants around; the garden was empty, and the house was quiet except for...the squad of sharply-dressed soldiers marching up to the front door. Fantastic.
There was a trellis against the wall of the house. She could probably make it from here if she ran…
It was her best chance, anyway. She’d last about ten seconds once those soldiers started searching the garden, and Ahsoka Tano had more important things to worry about than a dawn appointment with a rope.
Hoping for a bit of luck and that anyone inside who might have been looking out over the garden was distracted by the soldiers’ arrival, Ahsoka sprinted across to the trellis. She was just on the level of an open second-story window when the back door opened.
Ahsoka froze.
“...will certainly appreciate your thoroughness, Lieutenant, but…”
“Ensuring your safety is of the utmost....”
Soldiers began to fan out into the garden. Holding her breath as their officer and the woman who was presumably the lady of the house watched from below, Ahsoka took one foot off the trellis and felt gingerly for the windowsill. She didn’t dare rush and make noise, but any minute now one of those idiots in red was going to look up…
Got you.
Ahsoka grinned, shimmied sideways, and swung herself inside.
Barriss knew she ought to feel a bit guilty, but she couldn’t quite manage it.
It was a beautiful day, if too warm to be comfortable; there was a gentle breeze off the ocean, the trees rustled outside, and she had a glass of water nearby and was halfway through a new book. True, it was really too late to still be lounging in bed in her nightdress, but...well. She was enjoying herself. Besides, she hadn’t slept well last night.
The sound of quiet footsteps across the room roused her from her book; glancing at the clock, Barriss winced and sat up. Really, her mother’s maids had been incredibly patient in leaving her alone thus far, but it wasn’t fair to ask them to wait any longer.
“I’m sorry,” she said, glancing over without really looking. “I lost track of the time, I’ll dress in a moment—”
“No rush,” answered an unfamiliar voice, and before Barriss could react there was a cold chain pressing tight against her throat.
To her credit, this one didn’t scream.
“Easy,” Ahsoka murmured into her ear, pulling her manacles a little more firmly against her captive’s throat. “I’m in a little trouble here. I’d rather nobody get hurt, so, you just do as you’re told and nothing bad will happen. Okay?”
After a short pause, the girl nodded stiffly.
“Good girl.” Ahsoka shifted, sitting down on the bed and absolutely leaving dirt on the pristine white sheets. Rich girl could deal. “I don’t think I caught your name,” she said. She had to keep her voice pitched low; everything depended on nobody hearing them. “But I did hear your mother talking. Was it Barriss?”
The girl hissed. It was an unexpected bit of temper, and Ahsoka revised her opinion. Not quite the wilting flower she’d expected. “ Miss Offee, to you.”
“Well, keep your voice down, Miss Offee,” Ahsoka told her softly. “I really don’t want to hurt anyone, but I’ve been sentenced to death twice already this morning and I really haven’t got much to lose at this point if I have to shoot my way out of this house.”
There was another slight pause. Offee’s response was not what Ahsoka had expected.
“For what?” she asked, obediently pitching her voice not to carry.
Ahsoka looked askance at the back of the girl’s head. “Sorry?”
Offee glanced over her shoulder. “Sentenced to death for what?” she asked again, just as quietly. “If I’m going to help you surely I have the right to know.”
Ahsoka’s lips twitched, she couldn’t help it. This girl kept her head better than most of the grizzled sailors she’d met.
“Petty theft,” she said.
She could feel Offee roll her eyes.
“I’m sure.”
Ahsoka shrugged, bumping her cheek against Offee’s delicate bronze neck and letting her feel her grin for a moment. “A few shillings in pocket change, some jewellery, a few unpaid tabs. Maybe a ship or five.”
A faint sigh. “Piracy.”
“Oh, right.” Ahsoka grinned wider. “Must’ve forgotten that one.”
Offee carefully placed a strip of ribbon in her book, closed it, and set it aside. “And what manner of assistance are you requesting?” she asked. Ahsoka laughed under her breath at the ridiculous formality.
“I’m letting you go,” she informed her captive. “Don’t try anything. I’m faster than you.” Unhooking her shackles from around Offee’s neck, she tapped the girl between the shoulder blades. “Now go get a hairpin, you’re bound to have one around here somewhere.”
Offee brought her the pin without bothering to disguise her disdain, holding it out at arm’s length. Ahsoka, rather than taking it, twitched two fingers to summon her unwilling host back to sitting on the bed.
“Know how to pick a lock?” she murmured. “You’re about to learn. Put that end in the keyhole here, and then you’re going to bend it toward you…” She trailed off as she realized Offee had preempted her and was already moving ahead. “Well now. That’s an interesting skill for a fine lady, isn’t it?”
“My mother taught me years ago,” Offee said mildly. “She says every lady ought to know the basics. I wouldn’t be the first wealthy woman’s daughter to be kidnapped for ransom.” A hint of venom entered her voice as she glared up at Ahsoka. “Especially with this area infested with pirates. Besides.” The shackles fell away from Ahsoka’s right wrist and Offee moved to the other. “No self-respecting woman would ever allow herself to be kept out of a room in her own home just because a key was misplaced.”
A door closed downstairs. Ahsoka held her breath until she heard the faint sound of footsteps leaving again.
“Well,” she said. “It’s been a pleasure making your acquaintance, Miss Offee. Now, you’re just going to keep quiet, and I’ll leave the way I came in, and there doesn’t need to be any—”
There was a rap on the door.
They both froze; Ahsoka recovered first, drawing her cutlass silently from a well-oiled sheath. Offee’s bright blue eyes went wide.
“No—” she whispered. Ahsoka hissed a warning and crossed the room, pressing flat against the wall as the polite knocking repeated itself.
“Barriss?” her mother called through the door. “Are you there?”
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow at Offee, flicked her sword in the direction of the door, and mouthed, Get rid of her.
Offee’s throat worked for a moment. “I, yes,” she managed. She swallowed, then said more clearly, “Yes, what is it? Have the soldiers gone? I’m not decent.”
There was delicate laughter as the handle turned, and Offee scrambled across the room to place a hand on the door, trying to look natural as it opened and she reached out to stop it from revealing anything in the room except herself.
“Reading again, my dear?”
Offee gave a nervous laugh. “Yes, I...must have gotten sidetracked.”
Her mother gave another fond laugh; Ahsoka, watching with her sword ready, saw Offee’s hair brushed back over her ear. “It happens to the best of us. But I think it’s more than time you got ready, hmm?”
“Ready?” Offee repeated faintly.
“...the banquet up at the fort, Barriss, have you forgotten? That’s not like you. Are you feeling well?”
“Yes!” she said, visibly clutching at the lifeline. “I mean...no, I don’t think...actually I’ve been feeling poorly all day, I think I may lie down for a while.”
“Hmm. You don’t feel warm. Is it your stomach bothering you?”
Offee nodded, maintaining her white-knuckled grip on the door. Ahsoka felt a faint twinge of regret for that. The cutlass was just a precaution, in a situation like this. She didn’t slaughter people for the fun of it. Well...not unarmed noncombatants, anyway. She wasn’t about to make an exception to that rule now, when shoving the woman aside and running for it would be just as effective.
It sure was convenient Offee didn’t know that, though.
“Go lie down,” the lady of the house said kindly. “You do look very pale. I’ll give word not to disturb you. And don’t worry, Barriss, I’ll make your excuses this evening.”
Offee smiled shakily. “Thank you, mother. I’m going to go and—yes.”
The door closed. Ahsoka waited until she heard the lady move away, then sheathed her sword.
“Well done,” she said quietly. “You almost convinced me.”
Offee backed away, stiff. “May I assume that was everything?”
Ahsoka rolled her eyes. “I don’t want me here any more than you do.” She brushed past Offee and glanced cautiously out the window. There didn’t seem to be anyone in the garden…
The attack was quick and quiet, but not quiet enough. Without looking, Ahsoka spun, knocked the copper heating pan out of Offee’s hands, caught it in her left hand before it hit the ground, and pinned the girl to the wall with a hand clamped over her mouth and nose.
“That took guts,” she acknowledged in a whisper. “But I really wish you hadn’t done it.”
It was dark by the time Ahsoka slipped in through the back door of the tavern.
Her boys knew better than to greet her with their usual exuberance; even battle-jaded pirates could be subtle when the other option was a hangman’s noose, it turned out.
Sometimes.
If they felt like it.
“Evening, gentlemen,” Ahsoka announced as she casually flopped into Fives’ lap, slung an arm around his neck, and stole his beer. It was always a good idea, in a dangerous situation, to just let the nice law-abiding people see what they expected to see. Show a seedy tavern a young woman cuddled in a rugged sailor’s lap and they wouldn’t know to tell the Crown about a pirate captain if she’d signed her name on their foreheads.
She’d tried this act with Rex before, but it freaked them both out so much they’d sworn never to do it again.
Fives gave a long-suffering sigh and grabbed Jesse’s tankard. Good boy. He knew better than to try to take his own back. “Eventful day, sir?”
Ahsoka grinned. “Nah. Just went for a bit of a walk. And how was your day, Rex?” she asked, voice carefully light as she glanced at her stolen beer and took a casual sip.
Rex shrugged and sat back to rest his elbows on the back of his chair. “Not much. Went fishing. Had some laundry done.”
Ahsoka’s eyes flashed with satisfaction.
“Good to know.” She knocked back the rest of the tankard. “One hour. Make sure you’ve eaten and everything’s packed, then I want us ready to move into position.”
“Aye, sir.” The others got up and moved off; Ahsoka gratefully moved so Fives could leave, settling into his chair. It was a little early to move, yet, but she wanted them ready and waiting when the watch changed and she wanted plenty of time to set that up.
A hand on her shoulder made her jump; but it was just Rex, pausing to give her arm a reassuring squeeze.
“Holding up all right, sir?”
Ahsoka flashed him a sharp grin. “Don’t I always?”
He rolled his eyes. “That might work on the boys, sir. I know you better. We’ll figure it out.”
She sighed. Too damn perceptive, as usual.
“Thanks, Rex.”
“I mean it, sir. There’s got to be a good reason. We’ll get back on a good ship and we’ll be one step closer.”
Ahsoka took a deep breath.
“Yeah,” she said, this time without the forced levity she’d been keeping up all day. The pirate voice, as it were. “Thanks. Really. I just…”
There was a low, concussive boom in the distance.
Ahsoka’s first thought was: Thunder?
Followed quickly by: Cannons.
And that, as a second cannon blast growled in the night, led to: I know those cannons.
This place was filled with career sailors; most of them had gone still to listen, and Ahsoka stood and bolted for the door only a split second before half the tavern.
“Rex!”
She grabbed him by the arm as he struggled out the door at her heels, yanking him aside.
“Sir?"
She gripped his collar. “It’s the Resolute. We’re altering the plan. Get everyone together, we move now.”
His eyes widened slightly; but, God bless him, he didn’t question how she knew. He just nodded and ran to grab her people.
Out on the bay, Ahsoka’s old ship spat fire and lead at the cliffs of Port Royal.
There had been a plan, she thought ruefully. It had been a good plan, even. But, well, Anakin had always said no plan ever lasted more than five minutes.
Ever since she’d lost the Resolute to that thieving, no good—well, she was in the market for a new ship, put it that way. And there was an awfully nice one down at the Royal Navy docks. Oh, she was small, to be sure; but she was sleek and swift, a lady if Ahsoka ever saw one, and if the tales of the pirate captain Ahsoka Tano agreed on one thing it was that she knew how to treat a lady. What was even better, HMS Fulcrum was just at the tail end of being fully resupplied and re-armed by the helpful lads in red down at the fort. Rex’s “laundry” was six clean uniforms and the guards were stupid, especially when it was late and they wanted to get home.
It really might have worked, too. No time to change now, though. Ahsoka cursed Captain Secura under her breath as they ran.
Rex and the boys shouldered through the crowd to reach her, and she gestured them after her as she took off running. They were in a race now; even if it didn’t occur to the Navy to cut the Fulcrum loose and set her on the Resolute, it would absolutely occur to Aayla to destroy the only ship in the harbor capable of chasing her down.
Port Royal was in chaos. Aayla’s landing parties moved with purpose; buildings burned, windows were shattered one after another. A young man with a rifle fell without a sound, an axe buried in his forehead. Men and women rushed through the smoke; some screaming, some pulling children, others laughing and tossing golden candlesticks, silver sets, bags of jewelry or coins to one another to cart off to the ship.
A woman screamed nearby; Ahsoka reached for her sword, but before she could draw it Rex had already shot the assailant through the eye.
“Good shot,” said Ahsoka. “Let’s go, move!”
She snatched up the small bag of valuables the man had dropped and tossed it to Hardcase as they ran.
Rex shot a man with an axe who was in their way and looked over his shoulder. “We ought to talk to Aayla about her hiring standards, sir!”
“Oh, I’ll be having words with her, all right!” Ahsoka shouted.
They’d cleared the town by now, shoving their way through the forest; it was easier, less likely to get them killed by a stray shot. The raiders ignored them for the most part; whatever else you could say about her (and Ahsoka had a list), Aayla Secura knew how to deploy her people. She had to realize that even the Resolute wouldn’t stand forever against the fort; she had her people causing chaos and drawing forces away from it while smaller groups made fast smash-and-grab strikes against some of the wealthiest houses in the area.
It was a smart tactic, Ahsoka grudgingly allowed as her group hurried toward the water. That place, for instance—the same one she’d been a guest in earlier this afternoon. They’d find plenty of good loot there, very weakly guarded. Lockboxes, gold and silver trappings, coinage and high-quality tradeable goods of all varieties…
Ahsoka came to an abrupt stop.
She knew exactly what they’d find there. Gold, silver, yes, high-quality goods. And the noblewoman’s daughter she’d left bound, gagged, and shackled to a bedpost earlier that afternoon.
What? She hadn’t been able to trust that the girl would stay quiet long enough for her to get a safe distance away! A servant should have checked on her at some point and let her go. Ahsoka hadn’t exactly planned on a pirate raid of Port Royal—
But if it hadn’t been for her, Barriss Offee would be with her mother, safe in the inner sanctum of a naval fort.
A shot rang out in the house.
“Rex,” she croaked. Then, trying again: “Rex! Detour!”
In retrospect, entering by the back door would probably have made more sense.
Just, well, Ahsoka already knew one good, reliable way into the house. Her brother would have her keelhauled if he heard she was repeating her routes so soon, but somehow she doubted the EITC would be setting up an ambush in this window.
Besides, this way didn’t involve shooting her way past some of Captain Aayla Secura’s best men. She liked most of them, as much as pirates ever liked one another; they were friends, as much as pirates could have friends.
The trellis, which had apparently been damaged when she scrambled up here a few hours ago, creaked under Ahsoka’s feet. She cringed and paused just beneath the window, listening to the sounds of shouting and breaking glass from inside the mansion.
She recognized a familiar voice, absurdly formal and more than a little haughty, from the open window.
“What’s that?” Ahsoka couldn’t place the pirate’s voice; probably one of the new men.
Offee’s response was clear, even if she couldn’t keep the fear out of her voice. “I invoke the right of parley,” she repeated. “Once an adversary demands parley, according to the Code of the Order of the Brethren as established by the pirate lords Revan and—”
There was a burst of rough laughter that Ahsoka took advantage of, using the noise to cover the sound of a pistol being drawn and cocked.
“What makes you think you weren’t going anyway?” he asked “And what makes you so eager to meet the captain, then, sweetheart?”
“Perhaps I wish to negotiate—don’t touch me!”
“Well if you want to be taken to the captain so bad—”
Ahsoka rolled her eyes at the blatant leer in his tone—who was Aayla hiring these days? This had to be a rookie, she was better than this—and pulled herself up level with the window.
“She reconsidered,” she informed the man, and shot him in the head.
Barriss Offee could say honestly that this was not what she’d expected.
It had taken her a little time to work herself free; she had of course kept a second hairpin tucked up her sleeve when her captor had sent her after one, and once she’d picked the lock and worked her hands free it was just a matter of time before she got her gag loose and ankles untied. By that time there had been very little point in raising any kind of fuss; the military already knew about the escaped pirate, after all. But her nerves had been rattled enough that she’d decided to lie down after all.
A pirate raid on Port Royal hadn’t factored into her plans. It was, apparently, going to be that kind of day.
That she would be targeted had been an inevitability. She’d tried to steel her nerves and hope that the pirates would be rebuffed before they got here, but she had known the reality. The parley had been a desperate gesture, but she’d had to try. She’d only been able to come up with a handful of hazy plans to protect herself, and negotiating her own ransom was the most likely to end well for everyone involved. Especially her.
So, the raiding party in her bedroom, for all the shaky terror it had inspired, had not been a surprise. This, on the other hand, was.
The woman from earlier, the pirate, lowered her weapon and swung a leg through the window, straddling the sill. “Haven’t got all day here, kitten, you can come with me or you can take your chances on a ransom.”
Barriss did not trust this girl. You couldn’t trust the word of a pirate, and her timing was suspiciously perfect. On the other hand, her phrasing at least suggested she wasn’t looking for a prisoner, and she certainly didn’t appear to be in league with the attackers.
She made an executive decision.
The trellis, as she peered out the window, seemed extremely unstable—and she wasn’t certain how two of them were meant to climb it at once. “How…?”
The pirate looked vaguely apologetic. “Sorry,” she said. “No time for that. Jesse! Catch!”
Barriss blinked. “I’m sorry, what—”
She yelped as she was picked bodily off her feet. It was at least a comfort to her dignity that when her so-called rescuer dropped her out the second-floor window, she was too shocked to scream.
Strong arms caught her—that would be Jesse, she assumed—and immediately set her on her feet. There was a splintering sound, and Barriss looked up just in time to see the trellis, still in one piece, falling slowly away from the house. One of the other pirates ran forward and caught it near the base, and backed up quickly to lower the far end close enough to the ground that the dark-skinned young woman clinging to the top could drop safely to the ground.
The pirate brushed herself off.
“Right,” she announced, and turned to Barriss. “You helped me out, I returned the favor. We’re even. Run somewhere safe. Rex, let’s go.”
It took Barriss less than two seconds mentally plot out the route that would take her to the fort. A route full of burning buildings, bloodthirsty pirates, and fighting in the streets. Well, it would at least be safer than staying here. Realistically it shouldn’t be too difficult for a terrified young woman still wearing a nightdress to find an intact home willing to shelter her, but…
Someone screamed in the city.
She gathered her skirt and sprinted after the pirates.
In her dream, Barriss was a little girl again.
The chill in the air made her sniffle; she’d never fallen ill easily, but she’d caught cold on the voyage from England and it hadn’t quite passed yet. Her mother was sympathetic, promised her that once they arrived the heat and availability of fresh citrus would help, and encouraged her to get the sleep she needed. Barriss saw the wisdom in that for many reasons; a twelve-year-old child would only be in the way of the sailors, no matter how well-behaved.
However, her mother also encouraged her to spend most of her time on deck.
“I won’t have you adding seasickness on top of a cold,” she’d said with a kind smile. “Staying below where you can’t see the horizon will make it much worse.” Barriss had not been seasick yet, so she assumed it was working.
Not that there was any horizon today. Thick grey fog pressed against them on all sides, and the sky was overcast. Barriss could feel the effect it was having on the crew. The air was silent, unbroken by even the sound of waves; with almost no wind, the ship inched forward creaking and whispering, alone in the gloom.
After a moment, she located her mother leaning casually against the bulwark at the bow of the ship. Unlike the others, she seemed entirely at ease. She was even whistling, the sound carrying across the still water
Luminara looked up as Barriss approached, and her lips twitched.
Barriss pulled the blanket she’d borrowed more firmly around her shoulders, feeling a little self-conscious. She’d assumed the sailors wouldn’t mind the impropriety, but next to her mother she always felt gangly and inelegant.
Her mother didn’t seem to feel that way, however. “Good morning, my dear,” she murmured, holding out an arm and folding Barriss under it as she looked out over the grey fog. “How are you feeling?”
Barriss sniffled. Her mother laughed softly.
“You’ll feel better when the fog breaks,” she promised. Barriss nodded obediently and leaned into her, grateful for the comfort.
“I heard some of the men talking,” she said. “They’re worried about pirates.”
Fingers carded through her hair. “It’s natural for nerves to be on edge in this weather, Barriss. I don’t believe their fears have any foundation.”
It was foolish, really, to be reassured by something her mother was obviously only saying to make her feel better. It wasn’t as if she could possibly promise that there wouldn’t be a pirate attack. Nobody could promise that. But she said it with such certainty that Barriss believed her anyway.
Her mother started to whistle again.
It wasn’t a tune, exactly. It was more of a pattern, a five-toned rhythm that was a little bit eerie, in the fog. But it was soothing nonetheless.
Just for a moment, the grey clouds parted.
Barriss’ breath caught. It was a moment, just a cluster of heartbeats, where suddenly she could make out the shape of a scarlet ship, flying a black flag, trailing just barely off their vessel’s stern. As she watched, its sails shifted, and the stalking ship began to turn back and away.
Reflexively, she looked up at her mother.
Luminara’s face was still and serious; she’d noticed, too. But she glanced down at Barriss, smiled slightly, and placed a finger on her lips.
Barriss nestled back into her side and said nothing, and her mother’s low whistle echoed in the fog.
She woke to the sound of waves.
For a long few seconds, Barriss couldn’t remember where she was. The water was louder than usual, and there was a curious absence of the tropical birdsong she was used to. And everything smelled like...salt, and old leather, wood, the faint scent of sulfur…
The night came flooding back.
Barriss, who had been about to open her eyes, froze. Then she chided herself for the impulse. As if squeezing her eyes shut would make everything go away. She took a deep breath, and opened them.
There, she thought. That wasn’t so bad.
Some part of her had subconsciously expected...well, a pirate ship, the way anyone would envision it. Gloomy and dirty, poorly-maintained, probably filled with alcohol of some sort. It had been a foolish thought; HMS Fulcrum was the pride of the Royal Navy, or had been. She was sleek and beautiful, perfectly designed and built. Her hull gleamed inside and out. She’d only been in pirate hands a few hours, after all.
And anyway, Barriss supposed that pirates, who lived and depended on their ships perhaps even more than merchantmen or naval officers, might take similar pride in them. Surely anyone who felt even the slightest call to the sea could respect a lady like this one?
Her mother had been married to a merchant captain; anyone could see that she had shared his love of ships. Barriss had inherited it almost automatically. The idea of a band of rough pirates mishandling a beautiful little brig like this because they couldn’t appreciate what they had caused her a near physical agony.
Shaking her head and hoping for the best, for Fulcrum’s sake, she tried to navigate climbing out of the hammock her...rescuers...had rigged for her the night before.
She’d been unceremoniously shoved below the moment she’d stepped aboard, and that much had only been allowed because the young woman they called captain visibly didn’t have time to protest. They hadn’t locked the hatch—of course they hadn’t, they needed access to their supplies—but Barriss knew better than to insert herself into a naval battle.
As it happened, there hadn’t been one. She’d felt Fulcrum fire off a few shots, but she was being manned by a skeleton crew. Six people could, in theory, manage to sail her; but they certainly couldn’t fight her, and they knew it. And once she’d shaken clear, there was no pirate vessel in the world that could catch this ship.
She supposed many people would call her a fool for getting onboard. She agreed with them, but—it had made sense at the time. The choices had been remaining in a house crawling with pirates intent on kidnapping her, fleeing half-naked and on foot into a burning town crawling with pirates intent on sacking the place, or throwing in her lot with a different pirate who had already threatened her life once that same day but who genuinely seemed to have come back out of a sense of obligation.
So she’d tried to stay out of the way and the pirates had let her. None of them seemed particularly interested in her presence at all, which was...reassuring. One of them had made a flirtatious pass at her, but another had cuffed him in the head—the one they called Rex, she thought, who seemed to be first mate if pirates had any such rank. The first had apologized, even, which was unexpected to say the least.
The girl had offered Barriss the use of her quarters. Barriss, who sensed no malice in the offer but was not actually an idiot, had turned her down instantly. The acceptance with which her answer had been received made her rethink the intent behind it, actually; but it was done.
“Oh, there you are!” Rex waved to her from the helm as she cautiously climbed to the deck. “We were wondering whether you’d be coming up at all. Get yourself something to eat?”
Barriss fumbled over her words for a moment before managing to shake her head. One of the men whistled brightly—they’d called him Fives last night, she thought—and she just barely managed to catch the apple he tossed her.
“Thank you,” she said, because it would take more than running off with pirates to make Barriss Offee forget her manners.
The girl announced herself with a slither of rope and the clunk of boots on wood as she slid down to the deck.
“Should be smooth sailing,” she reported to the crew in general, and promptly reached out to knock three times on the nearest mast. “But let’s not get ambitious until we’ve got some actual crew on this beauty. Speaking of, good morning, Miss Offee. Pirate suits you.”
Barriss cleared her throat self-consciously, pulling at her sleeves. The pirates had brought some of their own supplies onboard and their captain was close enough to Barriss’ size. It was nothing special; just a loose cotton shirt and trousers in a man’s style, a band of torn fabric to tie her hair back, and a pair of boots pulled from the stores that had already been onboard. She’d supplemented it with a dark blue officer’s jacket that somehow made the ensemble look even less legitimate. But it was better than a nightgown, certainly, and had been offered freely and without embarrassing fanfare.
And really, given the circumstances, there was no excuse for rudeness.
“I.” She swallowed. “Thank you. I do genuinely appreciate your hospitality...Captain?”
The girl’s shoulders relaxed, and this time her grin seemed much more natural than Barriss had seen before. She perched on a barrel across from Barriss, handing her half a loaf of bread to go with her apple. “Never got around to introducing myself the other day, did I?”
“No,” Barriss agreed. All right, her tone was a bit acerbic, but she was entitled to that much. “You were somewhat distracted by taking me hostage.”
“Pirate,” the girl reminded her. “I wouldn't have hurt you whether you screamed or not, if that helps.”
Barriss was skeptical, but let it pass.
“Anyway.” She offered a hand; after a moment of hesitation, Barriss took it. The pirate’s handshake was warm and firm, but not crushing. “Nice to meet you properly. It’s Ahsoka. Ahsoka Tano.”
Barriss nodded politely and took her hand back.
“So.” It wasn’t quite a drawl, but Ahsoka looked at her with great interest and a slight smile. “Don’t think I didn’t notice, Barriss. Or is it Miss Offee, still?”
“To you.”
If Ahsoka took offense to that, she didn’t show it. “You were quoting the Code when I found you,” she said. Her voice was mild and unthreatening, but there was nothing casual or teasing in her eyes now. “And quoting it well. So now I’m interested. You know an awful lot about the Brethren for a well-bred lady.”
“You’re imagining things.” Barriss brushed her hair behind her ears. “My mother took care with my education, I’ve studied ethics and law since I was a child. The Code of the Brethren is a fascinating piece of legislation. If it were enforceable it might even be worthy of great respect. It was a worthwhile study in what common people value in their laws as opposed to those in power.”
Ahsoka’s expression was...disorienting. Focused. “That could almost have been a compliment.”
Barriss cast around for something to say to that, but gave up after a moment. Normally she would fill the awkward silence by complimenting the ship, changing the subject; but given she had been complicit in the theft of this one mere hours before, it felt inappropriate.
Luckily, Ahsoka didn’t appear to be expecting an answer. She moved off to check up on the rest of her tiny crew. Rex clapped Fives on the shoulder and gestured him to the helm, taking her spot near Barriss.
“Captain’s still kicking herself for not making you stay back on the docks,” he said, not unkindly. “Wasn’t time to argue and we weren’t about to send you back to that kind of scum, but she’s gone and branded herself as a kidnapper now if they figure out you’re not on the Resolute.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think—”
Rex waved the concern off. “Not your fault. Besides, there’s a good chance the docks got blasted to pieces. But she’s got a soft heart for a pirate and she thinks with you in her care she’s got to worry about your safety now, too, on top of everything else. You’ll probably be with us for a while, until we can figure out safe passage; and the kinds of ports we put in at are really no place for a girl like you. Begging your pardon.”
“Do pirates do that often?” Barriss asked. “Beg anyone’s pardon, I mean.” He laughed.
“Eh, depends on the pirate.” He waved a weathered hand. “Sometimes you get real ugly characters, sometimes good men who’d die to save a stranger’s child. Mostly in the middle. But you know, kid, speaking from experience, you get the same bunch in the King’s Navy. The uniforms are just worse.”
Barriss considered it.
“Which are you?” she asked.
Rex gave a rough laugh. “Well,” he said. “I like to think I’m a good man. Maybe just good enough, mind. Better than some. No one on this ship is cruel for the fun of it, we don’t hurt people because we can. I’ve served under decorated officers that couldn’t say that much.”
“Most people would say that good men don’t become pirates.”
“Do good men become privateers?” He shrugged. “I’ve been Navy enlisted, I was an officer once, I’ve been a pirate and I’ve been a pirate with papers from the King saying it’s an honorable profession. You attack honest merchants in transit who knew the risks, and you take what they have; is it worse to say you live for the fight and open sea and you enjoy it, or to lie? I’ll bet I don’t find out in this life, anyway.”
Barriss examined her apple for a long moment.
“I still struggle with the idea that anyone could choose that life,” she decided. “At the end of the day there’s no motive behind it but greed. No one has to choose to place themselves above the law.”
Rex inclined his head, but there was something sad and serious on his face. He glanced over to his captain, and Barriss followed the look on reflex.
Ahsoka stood on Fulcrum’s rail, leaning casually against a sheet line with one ankle crossed over the other as if she were on a city street. Fine, intricate braids fell almost to her waist, bound out of her face by blue-and-white ribbon and tucked under an odd, jaunty two-pointed hat. And she looked out over the sea like…like she saw something in it that no one else could.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Rex said quietly.
Barriss forced herself to look back at the man. She couldn’t find the words to ask, but he saw the question in her face. The smile he gave wasn’t a happy one.
“What,” he said. “You think she just woke up one day, decided to go pirating? The captain and her brother were the best pair of honest merchants on the water, easy.” He smiled at Barriss’ surprise. “That’d be before I met her. Her brother worked himself half to death to buy this little sloop, named her the Twilight.”
Barriss laughed. “After the legend?” she asked. “The ghost ship that can never be followed. That’s either a very bold good-luck charm or courting disaster, if I know sailors’ superstitions at all.”
Rex gave her an odd look, then answered, “Yeah—yeah, named after the legend, right. Captained it well by all accounts, and she learned right next to him.”
“Parents?”
Rex gave her a reproachful look. “I reckon if there was much to tell she’d have brought it up. Her brother raised her, that’s all I know.”
Barriss flushed slightly and bowed her head. “Of course.”
Rex grunted, but apparently the misstep wasn’t nearly enough to dampen his eagerness to tell a good story. “Well, they made a name for themselves, didn’t they? You hear stories as a sailor, and if there’s one thing that stays the same it’s that this man was brilliant. He got maneuvers out of that little ship that shouldn’t have been possible, won battles with pirates that had him outgunned twice over. There were rumors half the pirate crews in the Caribbean had standing orders to turn and run if they saw him coming.”
Barriss smiled at the image. “Not exactly the traditional arrangement between pirates and lightly-armed merchant sloops.”
Rex shook his head in obvious awe. “A sailor like that turns up once every couple generations. And that’s if you’re lucky. The Twilight didn’t look like much, but she was the diamond of the merchant marine.”
Was. Barriss glanced again at the still, quiet figure looking out over the water. “I take it something happened.”
Rex winced. “Well, it was just another contract on the surface. Picking up a load of cargo for transport to certain settlements in the Caribbean. They’d done the job a hundred times. And it’s not that unusual, with certain kinds of contractors, not to know what exactly you’re transporting until you get the manifest; sometimes they don’t know for certain what they’ll have until the ship gets there.”
Barriss sat forward. “What was the cargo?” She could think of any number of disasters. Contraband that the captain didn’t realize was stolen, perhaps he’d been asked to transport volatile materials like weapons or ammunition; a tiny stray spark would doom everyone on board…
“There wasn’t any,” Ahsoka said from her shoulder.
Barriss jumped; she hadn’t realized anyone could walk so quietly on the deck of a ship, wearing heavy boots. Seemingly without realizing it, Ahsoka rubbed an old scar on her wrist that Barriss hadn’t noticed before; a mark like a cattle brand, a ropy letter P.
“I don’t…”
Ahsoka’s voice was quiet but hard. “There wasn’t any. People aren’t cargo.”
Barriss’ breath caught with sudden understanding, and Ahsoka inclined her head in a short, sharp acknowledgement. She seemed about to say something else when there was a sudden sharp whistle from the rigging.
“Ship to port!”
Ahsoka’s head snapped up.
Rex had also straightened. “The Resolute, sir?”
“Can’t be.” But Ahsoka’s face was grim. “I’d feel better if it was. Echo, I need an eye on those sails yesterday!”
Barriss didn’t want to intrude, but she couldn’t help asking, “The Resolute is the pirate vessel that attacked Fort Royal, isn’t she?”
Ahsoka hummed in affirmation. “She’s mine. Or was, up until six months ago. This isn’t her.”
“You sound very sure.” Barriss forced herself to be calm. In all likelihood this was a Royal Navy vessel, which could only be a good thing for her.
The wry smile Ahsoka gave her was unexpected to say the least.
“Hey,” she said. “I loved that ship, but trust me, I traded up. A ship of the line sounds like an impressive catch—until you have to run. Nobody’s catching us with the Resolute.”
Echo called down again. “Looks like a merchant ship, sir! Brig of some sort, but she’s too far off to tell more than that.”
There were sighs of relief from a few of the crew, but Ahsoka barely reacted.
“Hold steady,” she ordered. “Hardcase, get on a gun in case she gets any closer.”
“You can’t be serious,” said Barriss. “With six people?”
“Not now, please.”
The pirate crew ignored the exchange. The man Barriss could only assume was called Hardcase ducked below, and after a moment she heard the rattle of a single cannon being run out. Much good that would do them if this turned violent!
For some time, there was silence. If they’d seen the merchant ship, she had to have seen them; but the entire crew waited to hear the report on their target’s movement.
“Coming about,” Echo reported. “She’s moving to intercept.”
“This ship can outrun her, sir.” That was Jesse, voice pitched low.
“She can,” Ahsoka acknowledged. “But we can’t, not with six people and a civilian. We barely got the sheets up in the first place. If they get much closer it doesn’t matter how stupid that merchie is, it’s not exactly gonna be hard to figure out we’re not a Navy escort!”
“Hardcase can get off a warning shot.” Rex’s brow was furrowed as he tried to work through the problem. “But they’ll be way too close by then for it to do much good.”
Barriss shifted, uncomfortable. Pirates or not, these people had risked their own safety to rescue her from...from what, she was trying not to think about for too long. In these waters, merchant vessels ran nearly as heavily armed as the Navy itself. Fulcrum wouldn’t be able to put up any fight if that ship got near her, and…
They were pirates, criminals. Barriss wasn’t naive enough to think that their friendliness and decency toward her meant they weren’t killers and thieves. But she didn’t...enjoy the thought of seeing them at the end of a noose. That in itself wasn’t wrong.
Was it?
“Captain,” she said quietly.
“Not right now, kitten.”
“Captain,” she repeated more firmly. “If you have a flag, I suggest you raise it.”
Ahsoka Tano blinked and turned to stare at her, and Barriss spared a moment to hope she’d read the young woman correctly and that Ahsoka wasn’t the type of captain whose ego was easily wounded.
“Come again?”
Barriss plowed forward. “Run up a pirate signal, you must have one. That vessel is approaching you because it thinks you’re a naval escort ship! Taking down the Navy flag can hardly make the situation worse at this point.”
There was a pause.
“She’s got a point,” Ahsoka acknowledged. “She really shouldn’t be giving orders on my ship, but she’s got a point. Fives! Run up the flag.”
If there was any hesitation about the source of those orders, the crew didn’t show it. Moving efficiently, they hauled down Fulcrum’s naval flags and replaced them with a vaguely familiar sigil. Black silk, unfurling in the wind with a snap to display a jagged pattern in bone-white, traced with thinner red lines out the outside—two parallel bars, flaring out in the center to form a hollow diamond. It matched Ahsoka’s most striking facial tattoo. Idly, Barriss wondered which had come first.
For almost a full minute, with a pirate flag waving over their heads, they waited.
The news was bad.
“She’s turning in, sir!” Echo reported. “She’s ready to fight!”
There were curses across the deck, and Barriss felt her stomach twist with a combination of fear and embarrassment. She’d thought the black flag would work…
“Damn it,” Ahsoka muttered. “That skipper’s smarter than he should have been. He must be wondering why we would show our colors so soon.”
Rex cleared his throat. “You might be giving him too much credit, sir,” he pointed out. “Plenty of men feel safer fighting than running, especially in a fat merchie. He knows he can’t get away, and he's got the firepower to send us straight to hell whether he knows it or not.” He glanced at Barriss. “Begging your pardon again. It was worth a shot, miss.”
Ahsoka nodded slowly. “I’m not writing off the possibility that he’s figured out we’re in trouble,” she said. “And when we keep running it’ll confirm it. But he might decide it’s not worth the fight. Hardcase!” She called through an open hatch. “Run out all the guns on the port side. If he thinks we can get a broadside off he might turn off the idea. Fives, Jesse, on me! Let’s get a little more speed out of this canvas if we can, yeah?”
For the next twenty minutes or thereabout, a dark tension hung over the ship while Barriss tried to appreciate the irony. A prize pirate ship, the jewel of the Royal Navy stolen fully-stocked with ammunition from right under their noses, facing a valuable merchant prize—and running before it with her tail between her legs.
Then, finally, a shout from Echo: “Turning away, sir! She’s running.”
The tension snapped as the men whooped and laughed. Rex accepted a clasp on the shoulder from his captain and jumped into the ratlines, climbing up to join his brothers in watching the merchant retreat.
Ahsoka gave a tight smile. She nodded to Rex, then turned to give Barriss a speculative look. When she noticed she was being watched in return, her smile widened. She brushed her fingers over the edge of her hat in Barriss’ direction in what could almost have been a gentlemanly gesture, and excused herself.
Fulcrum whispered around her as she ducked into the hold.
Damn it. Ahsoka pounded a fist against the timbers. She’d been trying so hard not to think about the Twilight, the way she used to be. Not thinking about Anakin was a lost cause, but—didn’t she have enough to worry about, without the pang in her chest that came with remembering the old days?
She’d die before she knuckled under to the EITC, she took a fierce unashamed pride in who and what she was. Ahsoka Tano would be an honest pirate gladly before she became a servant of the monsters that ran the Company. But she thought at heart all but the worst pirates must think back sometimes and miss the honest work.
Anakin had talked about going freelance as escorts; skipping the heavy cargo that impeded their maneuverability and offering their services to the big, fat ships that couldn’t defend themselves as easily. They’d been planning to do it, after a few more merchant runs to build up the funds.
Back...before. Before everything.
Her breath hitched as, just for a moment, her lungs remembered being filled with billowing smoke. Smoke and salt, and she couldn’t tell which was the source of the blackness choking her…
She tightened her grip on the beam, and breathed deep. The waves breaking against Fulcrum’s bow breathed with her, in and out, steady, sure. After a moment, the memory passed.
Where are you, Skyguy? she thought miserably. Come on, Anakin. Talk to me.
She opened her eyes, and frowned.
Weird. She’d expected a Royal Navy ship to be better maintained, especially one as highly valued as Fulcrum. How in the hell did a ship grow barnacles on the inside, anyway? As she watched, a mussel opened and closed its lips. Hermit crabs scuttled along the beams and wriggled between the cracks.
“He won’t come.”
Ahsoka shrieked.
It wasn’t her proudest moment, and it wouldn’t have done much for her reputation as a competent and efficient pirate captain if there’d been anyone to see it. But she felt it was pretty justified; the rough, salt-sore voice had come out of nowhere.
Not nowhere. Ahsoka frowned and took a cautious step toward the dark shadows in the corner. The...rot, the decay, the cold darkness of a shipwreck in the abyss, spread out from one spot.
She recognized the man standing there. Or...what was left of him.
“...Tup?”
Tup gave her a pained, crooked smile.
“Hey there, sir,” he croaked.
Ahsoka realized she was staring, but she couldn’t help herself. “What happened to you?” she breathed.
Tup looked awful. His face was gaunt; pale and waxy like...she tried not to think a bloated corpse. His hair fell in greasy strings. His eyes were glassy. As he turned to face her, Ahsoka’s stomach heaved; live barnacles burst from the skin on the right side of his face.
“He won’t come, sir,” Tup repeated. The visceral horror didn’t fade, but it was joined by an even harsher tug of pain. His voice was ragged, but more than that it was hopeless. He spoke like a man too exhausted to go on. “He can’t. You have to stop calling to him.”
Ahsoka shook her head without meaning to. “I don’t understand. What’s—”
“He’ll kill you. He doesn’t have a choice. They’ll make him, sir. He couldn’t stop them.”
“Anakin?” No, that wasn’t right. “He wouldn’t. Anakin would never hurt me. What’s going on? Why won’t he talk to me, why—where is he? And what happened to your…” She gestured. “I saw Anakin six months ago! He was going to visit the twins, he was fine!”
Tup shook his head. Seawater ran off him in rivulets.
“I can’t tell you that,” he said. “He told me not to. Said if you knew, you’d try to help.”
“No kidding!” Ahsoka took a step forward. “Tup, if my brother’s in trouble, you’d better tell me what’s going on! He obviously needs help, he can’t protect me from everything! Will you just—”
“You can’t.” Tup’s voice was shutting down, becoming more and more hollow. “There’s nothing to be done anymore. Let him go. Save yourself. He wasn’t supposed to send anyone. If they find out I was here…”
“They?” Ahsoka pressed. “Tup, don’t do this. Who’s they? ”
“He sent me to warn you.” Tup didn’t even seem to hear her anymore. “They told him he couldn’t. He sent me to make sure you knew. He sent me to tell you to run.”
He was stepping back, water rushing off him in waves now as he melted between the boards of Fulcrum’s watertight hull. “Tup, don’t! Who’s they? Run from what? Tup, what’s wrong with Anakin?”
“He sent me to warn you,” Tup muttered. “Sent me to warn you. He sent me to tell you…”
The waves rushed by against Fulcrum’s hull. Tup was gone.
Ahsoka clenched her fist, and her blood ran cold.
Barriss’ balance was not nearly as good as Ahsoka’s. She sat on the rail, and kept one arm firmly around a secure line.
If she felt a twinge of guilt over how right it felt, the rush of the sea eased it. She...she was drawn to the sea, she always had been, to the crashing waves and the snap of sails. She was a sailor’s daughter and a lady’s daughter and there would always be moments, with that kind of bloodline, when the stifling restrictions of society grew almost too much to bear. Was it any wonder she dreamed of the freedom of the sea?
Just because she wasn’t supposed to didn’t mean she never had. Just because she knew it was impossible for a woman of her status to ever be an honest sailor...it didn’t mean anything. It was only a passing fancy. The kind of passing fancy that had stuck with her since she was a child and only grown stronger with age.
The thud of booted footsteps announced the captain’s return. She didn’t seem to notice Barriss—or much of anything, really. She nodded tersely to Jesse before moving to Rex’s shoulder at the helm.
Her voice was pitched low; but Barriss was close enough that she could just barely make it out.
“Rex,” she muttered. “No chance we can get any more speed out of these sails, is there?”
He blinked in surprise. “I don’t think so. We’re flying as it is. Is there a hurry, sir? There’s nobody chasing us.”
Ahsoka’s hand, resting on the helm, clenched.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she said, and tilted her hand to show Rex something in her palm.
The man immediately went pale; the kind of ashen grey Barriss had only ever seen in men and women about to faint. Or about to die.
“You know, Captain,” he said shakily. “We might be able to coax a bit more speed from her after all.” She dipped her head, and Rex took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “Echo! Take the helm!”
Ahsoka strode off as the men switched places, idly wrapping her right hand in a strip of cotton. After a moment’s hesitation, Barriss followed her.
In theory she didn’t want to encourage familiarity from pirates. In practice the prospect of not knowing something took priority.
“What are we running from?” she asked. She only just managed to keep her voice down, taking her cue from Ahsoka’s discretion.
Ahsoka glanced over and raised one tattooed eyebrow. “Eavesdropping is rude,” she said drily.
“As is avoiding a question.”
Ahsoka shook her head. This time, it wasn’t a condescendingly amused gesture. There was a deadly seriousness about it.
“Don’t ask,” she said softly. “You don’t need to know that. It’s better if you…” Something passed across her face, and she reconsidered. “It’s...not the kind of thing you can unknow. This isn’t your world. I’ll find someone reliable on Tortuga and put you on a ship, that’s all you need to worry about.”
Barriss waited.
After a minute, Ahsoka sighed.
“You don’t want to know,” she said. “This kind of thing changes you, okay? There’s nothing wrong with the ship and you’re not in any danger as long as you get on the right boat at Tortuga. Don’t.”
“You know you’re only making me more curious.” Barriss watched the girl’s face. The pained expression seemed genuine. What could possibly have happened? She’d only ducked down to the lower decks for a few minutes. Had she found notes of some kind? Discovered a plot, learned that some hideout or other had been discovered? “I’m not as delicate as you seem to believe, Captain Tano.”
Ahsoka’s lips twitched seemingly against her will. Barriss’ irritation spiked preemptively at what she knew would be a sly, mocking comment; when Ahsoka finally spoke, therefore, it surprised her.
“You’re really not, are you.” She sighed. “All right. I received word about my brother. I’m worried about him.”
“He’s alive?” Barriss blurted. She’d assumed from the way Rex talked that Ahsoka’s brother had been executed, but—oh, surely not. That quiet sadness could just as easily have come from a vicious falling-out between them, the kind of thing that might occur if someone she loved and trusted had willingly transported slaves. But Rex had spoken of him so fondly, surely…
Ahsoka just looked at her, sharp and focused.
“My brother,” she said clearly. “Captain of the Twilight. How much do you know about Anakin Skywalker?”
For a moment, Barriss just looked at her.
“Oh, of course,” she finally snapped. “How foolish of me. And I suppose the man at the helm is Poseidon? Does that make you Blackbeard in disguise?”
Ahsoka shook her head, very slightly, just once.
“It’s not a legend, Barriss.” Her eyes were an absurdly bright blue, burning and intense against her dark skin. “I was there. Anakin Skywalker is my brother.”
“Anakin Skywalker is a myth,” Barriss hissed. “I’m not so sheltered that I don’t realize that! Yes, I know the legend of the Twilight, and I know that if a real ship by that name ever even existed it burned to the waterline almost a hundred years ago!”
Ahsoka’s eyes flashed.
“You’re right.” For the first time Barriss had seen, there was real anger simmering just under the surface. “We were betrayed. The Company planted a man in our crew. They were hunting us like sharks but we could have run that line, with cover of night on our side. Until that worm set off a flare and broke our cover. But why am I bothering to tell you that when you know the story already? Why don’t you tell me, Miss Offee. Tell me again what happened to the Twilight.”
Faced with an angry and apparently delusional pirate captain, she should have felt intimidated; but Ahsoka, for all her sudden anger, made no threatening movement. Barriss took a deep breath and firmly brought her thoughts back in line.
“It was boarded—she was boarded.” Barriss tried to think back to what she’d read. “The boarders...destroyed the lifeboats, according to the myth. And then set her on fire with all hands. That’s why the legend is of a ghost ship. Charred black, with burnt sails, crewed by the dead. In some versions she attacks merchant vessels for revenge on the merchant company that murdered her, in others she protects them out of a desire to see that no others die that way. In most she’s just a shadow.”
“Same story, different versions.” Ahsoka’s anger seemed...tempered, somewhat. “There’s always a bit of truth in legends. But none of them really know.”
Barriss swallowed. “But—Ahsoka, Captain Tano, she doesn’t exist. It’s a story, a superstition…”
It felt absurd, having this conversation on a sunny afternoon. Weren’t ghost stories meant to be told on fogbound, moonless nights?
“She exists.” Ahsoka turned to stare determinedly out over the water. And—well, Barriss had heard conviction in sailors’ voices before, talking about silly myths like mermaids and ghost ships, guardian spirits in the form of birds, a green flash at sunset. This solemn certainty was new, though. “But not the way you think. And it wasn’t all hands.”
“I’m sorry?”
Ahsoka’s eyes closed.
“It wasn’t all hands. It was all hands but the captain.” After a long moment, she took a deep breath. “They took axes and sledgehammers to the boats. Drowned us in bodies and held what was left of the crew at gunpoint to do it. Then they beat him half senseless in front of us, locked us all belowdecks, and dragged him off the ship. And then they burned her.” She swallowed. “They burned her and us along with her just to make him watch.”
Barriss reminded herself firmly that this was impossible and the story had taken place over eighty years before. She had to, because the chilling horror in Ahsoka’s voice, the sound of tugging at a raw wound, was close to making her believe it.
Ahsoka was quiet for a while, watching the waves.
“And then…” She breathed out slowly. “No one had ever seen anything like it. I still don’t...we don’t know how he did it. But one minute we were dying, and the next…”
A hand squeezed Ahsoka’s shoulder; Rex, who’d come up to them without Barriss noticing.
“The sea always did seem to know him,” the man said quietly. “He served her too well to have escaped her notice. Some sailors, the best ones, they read the ocean like a book. Skywalker read it like music. It was a sixth sense. So when he called on the sea, she answered.”
Ahsoka’s eyes were closed. She almost smiled, and some of the pain left her face.
“One minute we were dying,” she repeated in a murmur. “And the next the waves swallowed the hull, put the fire out. We were drowning and then we weren’t. There was black water over our heads, but all of a sudden we could breathe. The wounds healed.” Seemingly without realizing it, she rubbed a spot on her abdomen. “The burns vanished like they’d never been there. That was the deal, wasn’t it? His ship and crew, in return for whatever the sea would ask of him.”
Barriss shivered. “That’s a dangerous bargain,” she said, forgetting for a moment that it was impossible.
Ahsoka shook her head. “The sea isn’t cruel,” she said. “Harsh. Unforgiving. It’s not...human. Its demands aren’t human. But not cruel on purpose. He asked to save us from death, you understand? He asked her not to claim something that should have been hers. And she agreed. But the price...people die at sea every day. Who cares for them? So she let him save us, but only if he would show the same care and respect for every soul lost at sea. Protect them the way he protected us. So...the Twilight.”
“Ferryman of the dead,” Rex agreed. “It’s a sharp price to pay for what he did.”
A quiet sort of mourning passed between them. After a moment, Ahsoka reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “Get back to work, sailor.”
A chuckle from Rex. “Aye, sir.”
It did not escape Barriss that Ahsoka Tano had failed to answer the question.
She watched the young woman push off from the rail and gather herself, moving away to call orders to her people, and thought again:
What are you running from?