The Captain and the Prince
The Captain and the Prince
“She’s a cursed woman, captain.”
“And what would you have me do with her?” The captain surveyed the open ocean before them, refusing to even spare a glance at his first mate.
“Throw her overboard,” he responded without hesitation.
At this response the captain’s eyebrows arched curiously. “What do you think that would accomplish, Soren?” He still refused to look at his first mate, much to Soren’s ire.
“Ever since we stole her from that Indian prince, we have had nothing but trouble. Our crew has been mysteriously ill. Several have turned up murdered. And the winds have been surprisingly bad. It is punishment.”
“Punishment from whom?”
Soren hesitated before answering, “God.” He knew his response would not reach his captain’s heart, as the surly old sailor claimed (and acted in accordance with such claims) that he did not believe in God.
The captain sighed wearily before turning his gaze upon Soren. Soren immediately longed for his captain’s penetrating and berating eyes to return to the waters. “You know as well as I do that none of these occurrences are anything new. We have always had men fall ill. This crew is almost entirely murderers, thieves, and liars; perhaps with the exception of only yourself and our lovely princess.” The captain then turned his attention to the woman tied up on the boat decks a few feet away. Although the captain and his first mate had been speaking of her as if she had not been present, she was aware of every word being said. She wisely chose to remain silent for the time being. “And we will always have periods of bad weather,” the captain continued. “A few minor coincidences are not enough to convince me of the existence of your God and are certainly not enough to persuade me to feed such a fetching creature to the black hell of the ocean depths. Not when there is still so much fun to be had with her.”
The corners of the captain’s mouth turned up into a sinister smile. The princesses cringed and her eyes widened in appeal to Soren. Perhaps she preferred the black hell to the captain’s fun.
Soren tried a different approach. “Okay, forget all my cursed punishment talk for a minute, William.” At the mention of his name, the captain’s eyes cut daggers into Soren’s soul. “I’m sorry. Sorry. It was a slip.” Although Soren was the closest thing the captain had to a friend and confidant, the captain tolerated nothing bordering disrespect from his subordinates. Any other crew member would most likely have lost their tongue, but the captain liked Soren.
“I was simply saying,” Soren continued, “that we should think of the Indian prince. He will surely want his beautiful bride-to-be returned to him. He is known to be a ruthless and cruel man when crossed. He received us hospitably, fed us, and even gave us riches. And we repay him by taking his woman?”
“I have lots of gold already. I can take more if I want; I don’t need anyone’s charity. I am obviously well-fed.” The captain gestured to his rotund frame. “I allowed him to give me what he wanted to appease his own sense of honour. And as a reward for such kindness, I took what I truly wanted. I’ve had a good life. Many conquests. Many pleasures. But never one with such long hair or dark eyes.” The captain looked approvingly at the Indian princess.
There was something bordering desperation in Soren’s voice now. “Captain, don’t allow her beauty to distract you. She. Will. Bring. Death!” The captain’s rage began to flare up. Soren pressed on. “There may not have been any witnesses who saw you kidnap her. If we throw her overboard, when the prince’s ships catch up with us, we can claim not to know anything about her whereabouts.”
“That’s ridiculous!” bellowed the captain. “Even if no one saw me take her, how stupid do you think these people are? What’s done is done! I’ve taken her. She is mine now. And I will kill anyone who tries to take what it now rightfully mine! I don’t know why this is so important to you, but the matter is finished.”
The captain stared down expectantly upon Soren. Soren knew that to say another word on the subject would be the equivalent of jumping over the side of the ship with his arms tied behind his back. “Yes sir.” He began to walk back to his cabin as he heard the captain order two men to take the princess to his own cabin.
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The next morning the captain entered the dining cabin to find Soren weary-eyed and disheveled. The princess was with him. She seemed rather peaceful for someone who was supposed to have been a victim of the captain’s fun the previous night. The captain, however, seemed irritable and was unable to look the princess in the eyes when he addressed her.
Shortly before they left the dining cabin, the princess found a moment to be alone with Soren. She whispered a warning to him: “My prince will come for me today.”
An hour after the sun had begun its descent from the sky, three ships appeared on the horizon. There was no mistaking who it was. The only puzzle was how their ships were moving so quickly with no wind. The answer to that particular question manifested itself an hour later, as the distance between the three ships and the captain’s continued to shrink.
The Indian prince had three galley ships, with hundreds of servants or slaves rowing in each one. The lack of winds had not adversely affected them.
“They will catch up with us,” Soren said.
“Your powers of observation, once again Soren, astound me,” the captain condescended. “Prepare for battle. Have the men ready. Drop the sails.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“You wound me with your doubt.” The captain’s previously poor spirits had left him as he now eagerly anticipated a bloody battle. “When the ships are within range, we will turn sharply and broadside attack them. Hopefully we can take out two ships that way. The third will most likely board us and we will have to fight them with swords and fists. Hopefully we are not badly outnumbered.”
“Yes sir. It will be done.”
When the galleys were close enough, the captain turned the ship so that his cannons faced them. Too late, the men on the two galleys to the right realized they had been lied to when the captain (when a beneficiary of the prince’s hospitality) said his ship’s cannons were merely ornate. The first round of fire tore the sky’s silence open and mingled the salty ocean air with the smell of lead and smoke.
The galley furthest on the right was completely torn apart. It began to sink immediately. The survivors began to scream and tried to swim their way to another ship or grab a piece of driftwood.
The middle galley only suffered damage to the right side. However, most of the men rowing on that side were killed. The galley briefly stopped accelerating, moving only because of momentum. But then the slaves on the left side began rowing again, as if ordered to press on. This was foolish because with one side dominating the rowing, the ship began to turn. As it turned, the stern collided with the wreckage from the other ship, killing men in the water and destroying most hopes of surviving on a piece of driftwood.
With two ships easily handled, the captain’s crew began to prepare for the other ships boarding party. “All men not manning the cannons should be on deck! Prepare to be boarded! And don’t be afraid, men. Today is a good day to die.”
At the bow of the remaining ship was the Indian prince. Tall, handsome, and muscular, he was a formidable figure as his eyes burned with vengeance. No longer was he attired in the regal garments of a man of his station. He was now dressed more practically; dressed for assassination. It was obvious that he would want the captain for himself.
While guests of the prince, the captain and Soren had been privileged to see displays of what a skilled swordsman the prince was. As expected, the prince’s ship rammed the captain’s. Men began pouring out of the galley and climbed over the side of the ship and onto the deck.
The ensuing fray was a frenzy of blood, severed limbs, and screams that died in the throat. While the captain’s men were outnumbered, they were superior fighters. They did not have the formal training of the prince’s men, but they had experience. They fought dirty and they fought to win.
The prince’s only chance was to wear down the captain’s men and defeat them by overwhelming forces. The battle raged on for hours. The air smelled of the iron from the spilled blood, which also made the decks hazardously slippery.
As he continued to fight, it became obvious to the captain that his crew would not be able to beat all of the prince’s men. He would need to do something. The captain stabbed a man wearing a white shirt and then tore the shirt off of the man’s back. He waived it in the air for the prince to see. The captain ordered his men to stand down, only fighting if necessary to defend themselves.
The prince smiled a victorious grin and ordered his men to do the same. The captain and the prince approached each other on the blood-soaked decks of the ship.
“Did we leave something behind, prince, and are you here to return it?” asked the captain facetiously.
The prince’s smile vanished. He responded with a heavy accent, “You have taken my bride-to-be. I want her back. I am not asking. She is mine and you have stolen her.”
“Hmmm…I see. Maybe you should have just asked. Instead of coming here and messing up my ship by having your men bleed all over it. It stinks now!”
“Do not mock me! And do not belittle the sacrifices my men have made. They will not be in vain. I will return with Princess Chandini. Even if I have to kill every last one of your men.”
The captain dropped his pretenses now. “I will duel you for her. If I win, your men will leave and I keep her. If you win, you can take her back and you can have the ship too. But you must spare my men’s lives.” At this, the captain’s crew began to cry out in objection, but he simply raised a hand and silenced them.
“A duel to the death?”
“Is there any other kind?” the captain asked, spreading his arms.
Suddenly, the prince lashed out with his sword at the captain’s chest, crying out: “Agreed!” Despite the captain’s great girth, he was surprisingly fast with a sword. He managed to block and parry the prince’s thrust.
The prince swung down with both hands from overhead and the captain blocked his blow once again, with his left hand. He took his right hand and swung his fist, connecting solidly with the prince’s stomach.
The prince grimaced in slight pain, but the blow did not have the desired effect. The captain felt as if he had just punched a beast or burden. Perhaps he had underestimated the prince’s formidability.
The duel raged on with the prince and the captain exchanging blows, thrusts, blocks, and parries. Neither one had an advantage over the other as they both continued to demonstrate excellent sword handling and footwork. Observers looked on as they received an education in swordplay.
It became obvious, however, that the captain would tire out before the prince would. The former had nowhere near the stamina of the latter. Their swords locked and the prince stepped in close to the captain. The captain attempted to use his superior size to knock the prince down, but the prince quickly backed away and the captain found himself off balance. The prince took advantage of this moment of weakness and struck out at the captain’s right knee with his leg.
A sickening crunch preceded the captain’s collapse onto the deck. The prince went for the deathblow to the back of the captain’s neck, attempting to relieve the captain’s head of its connection to his shoulders. But the captain managed to roll out of the way, receiving only a cut to his left shoulder.
The captain tried to rise, but only managed to kneel on his right knee with some help from his right hand. He had dropped his sword. The prince advanced on the captain. He said nothing about what a worthy opponent the captain was nor did he ask the captain for any dying words.
In this way, the prince was denied having any dying words of his own.
The captain reached into his right boot with his left hand and pulled out a small dagger. Just as the prince was standing over him, the captain quickly lunged upwards and planted the dagger into the prince’s neck. It happened so swiftly that the prince didn’t even have time to be shocked. The captain pulled the dagger out and the prince’s body collapsed to the deck, bleeding out in a matter of seconds.
The captain turned to the prince’s men and said, “Get. Off. My. Ship.” The prince’s men were still shocked at their leader’s murder, so they were slow in responding. The captain nodded at his crew, giving them permission to help the captain’s men be stirred to action. They started cutting down the closest men, which got the rest of the prince’s men to jump of the ship and try to return to theirs.
The captain had his men disengage from the prince’s galley and begin repairs to their own ship. The ship’s physician inspected the captain’s wounds, including the cut to his shoulder and the injury to his knee.
That evening, the captain lay in his bed, while the princess slept on the floor of his cabin, where she had spent the last few nights.
There was a gentle knock at the cabin door before Soren entered the chambers. “Soren, what do you want?” The captain looked approvingly upon his first mate and closest companion. It was obvious that despite his injuries, he was pleased with the events of the day.
Soren looked at the princess and then turned his attention back to the captain before he spoke. “I just wanted to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed my time on this ship and how much I admire you as a captain.” Soren stole another glance at the princess while the captain responded.
“What’s all this talk? Has the day’s battle turned you into a woman? We’ve had more heated scraps before.”
“Yes, but up ‘til now, we’ve always been on the same side.”
“What?”
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye?”
Soren finally dropped his pretense and looked the princess in her eyes. His eyes seemed to travel so deep into her as to travel through her.
“What is- Oh no…I underst-” the captain began to say before Soren plunged his knife through the captain’s heart.
Under the cover of darkness, Soren and the princess escaped together in one of the ship’s rowboats.
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Six Months Ago
A jungle village in India. A European sailor and a young Indian woman converse.
“I told you that a secret marriage was a bad idea,” said the tearful young woman. “Now the crown prince has decided to take a commoner as his bride and he has chosen me.”
“Well I must say that our prince has unimpeachable taste,” joked the sailor.
Reaching out to strike him, the woman cried, “It’s not funny, Soren!”
Soren effortlessly caught her hand and brought it to his lips. After kissing it, he looked her in the eyes and held her stare. “I will figure a way out of this. I promise.”
Overwhelmed, the woman’s tears began to flow with less inhibition. She nodded vigorously. “I believe you.”
“Okay. But it will be costly. There will be blood and betrayal. People will die. A nation may lose its future ruler. It will be a sordid, twisted affair. And we will remember all the lives that we’ve taken every time we look into each other’s eyes, every time we embrace. It will be there in the voices of our children and in the walls of our home. For as long as we’re together. Forever.”
“Yes. Yes. Anything. I just want to be with you. I’ll do anything. I love you.”
“I love you too, Chandini.”
“And what would you have me do with her?” The captain surveyed the open ocean before them, refusing to even spare a glance at his first mate.
“Throw her overboard,” he responded without hesitation.
At this response the captain’s eyebrows arched curiously. “What do you think that would accomplish, Soren?” He still refused to look at his first mate, much to Soren’s ire.
“Ever since we stole her from that Indian prince, we have had nothing but trouble. Our crew has been mysteriously ill. Several have turned up murdered. And the winds have been surprisingly bad. It is punishment.”
“Punishment from whom?”
Soren hesitated before answering, “God.” He knew his response would not reach his captain’s heart, as the surly old sailor claimed (and acted in accordance with such claims) that he did not believe in God.
The captain sighed wearily before turning his gaze upon Soren. Soren immediately longed for his captain’s penetrating and berating eyes to return to the waters. “You know as well as I do that none of these occurrences are anything new. We have always had men fall ill. This crew is almost entirely murderers, thieves, and liars; perhaps with the exception of only yourself and our lovely princess.” The captain then turned his attention to the woman tied up on the boat decks a few feet away. Although the captain and his first mate had been speaking of her as if she had not been present, she was aware of every word being said. She wisely chose to remain silent for the time being. “And we will always have periods of bad weather,” the captain continued. “A few minor coincidences are not enough to convince me of the existence of your God and are certainly not enough to persuade me to feed such a fetching creature to the black hell of the ocean depths. Not when there is still so much fun to be had with her.”
The corners of the captain’s mouth turned up into a sinister smile. The princesses cringed and her eyes widened in appeal to Soren. Perhaps she preferred the black hell to the captain’s fun.
Soren tried a different approach. “Okay, forget all my cursed punishment talk for a minute, William.” At the mention of his name, the captain’s eyes cut daggers into Soren’s soul. “I’m sorry. Sorry. It was a slip.” Although Soren was the closest thing the captain had to a friend and confidant, the captain tolerated nothing bordering disrespect from his subordinates. Any other crew member would most likely have lost their tongue, but the captain liked Soren.
“I was simply saying,” Soren continued, “that we should think of the Indian prince. He will surely want his beautiful bride-to-be returned to him. He is known to be a ruthless and cruel man when crossed. He received us hospitably, fed us, and even gave us riches. And we repay him by taking his woman?”
“I have lots of gold already. I can take more if I want; I don’t need anyone’s charity. I am obviously well-fed.” The captain gestured to his rotund frame. “I allowed him to give me what he wanted to appease his own sense of honour. And as a reward for such kindness, I took what I truly wanted. I’ve had a good life. Many conquests. Many pleasures. But never one with such long hair or dark eyes.” The captain looked approvingly at the Indian princess.
There was something bordering desperation in Soren’s voice now. “Captain, don’t allow her beauty to distract you. She. Will. Bring. Death!” The captain’s rage began to flare up. Soren pressed on. “There may not have been any witnesses who saw you kidnap her. If we throw her overboard, when the prince’s ships catch up with us, we can claim not to know anything about her whereabouts.”
“That’s ridiculous!” bellowed the captain. “Even if no one saw me take her, how stupid do you think these people are? What’s done is done! I’ve taken her. She is mine now. And I will kill anyone who tries to take what it now rightfully mine! I don’t know why this is so important to you, but the matter is finished.”
The captain stared down expectantly upon Soren. Soren knew that to say another word on the subject would be the equivalent of jumping over the side of the ship with his arms tied behind his back. “Yes sir.” He began to walk back to his cabin as he heard the captain order two men to take the princess to his own cabin.
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The next morning the captain entered the dining cabin to find Soren weary-eyed and disheveled. The princess was with him. She seemed rather peaceful for someone who was supposed to have been a victim of the captain’s fun the previous night. The captain, however, seemed irritable and was unable to look the princess in the eyes when he addressed her.
Shortly before they left the dining cabin, the princess found a moment to be alone with Soren. She whispered a warning to him: “My prince will come for me today.”
An hour after the sun had begun its descent from the sky, three ships appeared on the horizon. There was no mistaking who it was. The only puzzle was how their ships were moving so quickly with no wind. The answer to that particular question manifested itself an hour later, as the distance between the three ships and the captain’s continued to shrink.
The Indian prince had three galley ships, with hundreds of servants or slaves rowing in each one. The lack of winds had not adversely affected them.
“They will catch up with us,” Soren said.
“Your powers of observation, once again Soren, astound me,” the captain condescended. “Prepare for battle. Have the men ready. Drop the sails.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“You wound me with your doubt.” The captain’s previously poor spirits had left him as he now eagerly anticipated a bloody battle. “When the ships are within range, we will turn sharply and broadside attack them. Hopefully we can take out two ships that way. The third will most likely board us and we will have to fight them with swords and fists. Hopefully we are not badly outnumbered.”
“Yes sir. It will be done.”
When the galleys were close enough, the captain turned the ship so that his cannons faced them. Too late, the men on the two galleys to the right realized they had been lied to when the captain (when a beneficiary of the prince’s hospitality) said his ship’s cannons were merely ornate. The first round of fire tore the sky’s silence open and mingled the salty ocean air with the smell of lead and smoke.
The galley furthest on the right was completely torn apart. It began to sink immediately. The survivors began to scream and tried to swim their way to another ship or grab a piece of driftwood.
The middle galley only suffered damage to the right side. However, most of the men rowing on that side were killed. The galley briefly stopped accelerating, moving only because of momentum. But then the slaves on the left side began rowing again, as if ordered to press on. This was foolish because with one side dominating the rowing, the ship began to turn. As it turned, the stern collided with the wreckage from the other ship, killing men in the water and destroying most hopes of surviving on a piece of driftwood.
With two ships easily handled, the captain’s crew began to prepare for the other ships boarding party. “All men not manning the cannons should be on deck! Prepare to be boarded! And don’t be afraid, men. Today is a good day to die.”
At the bow of the remaining ship was the Indian prince. Tall, handsome, and muscular, he was a formidable figure as his eyes burned with vengeance. No longer was he attired in the regal garments of a man of his station. He was now dressed more practically; dressed for assassination. It was obvious that he would want the captain for himself.
While guests of the prince, the captain and Soren had been privileged to see displays of what a skilled swordsman the prince was. As expected, the prince’s ship rammed the captain’s. Men began pouring out of the galley and climbed over the side of the ship and onto the deck.
The ensuing fray was a frenzy of blood, severed limbs, and screams that died in the throat. While the captain’s men were outnumbered, they were superior fighters. They did not have the formal training of the prince’s men, but they had experience. They fought dirty and they fought to win.
The prince’s only chance was to wear down the captain’s men and defeat them by overwhelming forces. The battle raged on for hours. The air smelled of the iron from the spilled blood, which also made the decks hazardously slippery.
As he continued to fight, it became obvious to the captain that his crew would not be able to beat all of the prince’s men. He would need to do something. The captain stabbed a man wearing a white shirt and then tore the shirt off of the man’s back. He waived it in the air for the prince to see. The captain ordered his men to stand down, only fighting if necessary to defend themselves.
The prince smiled a victorious grin and ordered his men to do the same. The captain and the prince approached each other on the blood-soaked decks of the ship.
“Did we leave something behind, prince, and are you here to return it?” asked the captain facetiously.
The prince’s smile vanished. He responded with a heavy accent, “You have taken my bride-to-be. I want her back. I am not asking. She is mine and you have stolen her.”
“Hmmm…I see. Maybe you should have just asked. Instead of coming here and messing up my ship by having your men bleed all over it. It stinks now!”
“Do not mock me! And do not belittle the sacrifices my men have made. They will not be in vain. I will return with Princess Chandini. Even if I have to kill every last one of your men.”
The captain dropped his pretenses now. “I will duel you for her. If I win, your men will leave and I keep her. If you win, you can take her back and you can have the ship too. But you must spare my men’s lives.” At this, the captain’s crew began to cry out in objection, but he simply raised a hand and silenced them.
“A duel to the death?”
“Is there any other kind?” the captain asked, spreading his arms.
Suddenly, the prince lashed out with his sword at the captain’s chest, crying out: “Agreed!” Despite the captain’s great girth, he was surprisingly fast with a sword. He managed to block and parry the prince’s thrust.
The prince swung down with both hands from overhead and the captain blocked his blow once again, with his left hand. He took his right hand and swung his fist, connecting solidly with the prince’s stomach.
The prince grimaced in slight pain, but the blow did not have the desired effect. The captain felt as if he had just punched a beast or burden. Perhaps he had underestimated the prince’s formidability.
The duel raged on with the prince and the captain exchanging blows, thrusts, blocks, and parries. Neither one had an advantage over the other as they both continued to demonstrate excellent sword handling and footwork. Observers looked on as they received an education in swordplay.
It became obvious, however, that the captain would tire out before the prince would. The former had nowhere near the stamina of the latter. Their swords locked and the prince stepped in close to the captain. The captain attempted to use his superior size to knock the prince down, but the prince quickly backed away and the captain found himself off balance. The prince took advantage of this moment of weakness and struck out at the captain’s right knee with his leg.
A sickening crunch preceded the captain’s collapse onto the deck. The prince went for the deathblow to the back of the captain’s neck, attempting to relieve the captain’s head of its connection to his shoulders. But the captain managed to roll out of the way, receiving only a cut to his left shoulder.
The captain tried to rise, but only managed to kneel on his right knee with some help from his right hand. He had dropped his sword. The prince advanced on the captain. He said nothing about what a worthy opponent the captain was nor did he ask the captain for any dying words.
In this way, the prince was denied having any dying words of his own.
The captain reached into his right boot with his left hand and pulled out a small dagger. Just as the prince was standing over him, the captain quickly lunged upwards and planted the dagger into the prince’s neck. It happened so swiftly that the prince didn’t even have time to be shocked. The captain pulled the dagger out and the prince’s body collapsed to the deck, bleeding out in a matter of seconds.
The captain turned to the prince’s men and said, “Get. Off. My. Ship.” The prince’s men were still shocked at their leader’s murder, so they were slow in responding. The captain nodded at his crew, giving them permission to help the captain’s men be stirred to action. They started cutting down the closest men, which got the rest of the prince’s men to jump of the ship and try to return to theirs.
The captain had his men disengage from the prince’s galley and begin repairs to their own ship. The ship’s physician inspected the captain’s wounds, including the cut to his shoulder and the injury to his knee.
That evening, the captain lay in his bed, while the princess slept on the floor of his cabin, where she had spent the last few nights.
There was a gentle knock at the cabin door before Soren entered the chambers. “Soren, what do you want?” The captain looked approvingly upon his first mate and closest companion. It was obvious that despite his injuries, he was pleased with the events of the day.
Soren looked at the princess and then turned his attention back to the captain before he spoke. “I just wanted to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed my time on this ship and how much I admire you as a captain.” Soren stole another glance at the princess while the captain responded.
“What’s all this talk? Has the day’s battle turned you into a woman? We’ve had more heated scraps before.”
“Yes, but up ‘til now, we’ve always been on the same side.”
“What?”
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye?”
Soren finally dropped his pretense and looked the princess in her eyes. His eyes seemed to travel so deep into her as to travel through her.
“What is- Oh no…I underst-” the captain began to say before Soren plunged his knife through the captain’s heart.
Under the cover of darkness, Soren and the princess escaped together in one of the ship’s rowboats.
************************
Six Months Ago
A jungle village in India. A European sailor and a young Indian woman converse.
“I told you that a secret marriage was a bad idea,” said the tearful young woman. “Now the crown prince has decided to take a commoner as his bride and he has chosen me.”
“Well I must say that our prince has unimpeachable taste,” joked the sailor.
Reaching out to strike him, the woman cried, “It’s not funny, Soren!”
Soren effortlessly caught her hand and brought it to his lips. After kissing it, he looked her in the eyes and held her stare. “I will figure a way out of this. I promise.”
Overwhelmed, the woman’s tears began to flow with less inhibition. She nodded vigorously. “I believe you.”
“Okay. But it will be costly. There will be blood and betrayal. People will die. A nation may lose its future ruler. It will be a sordid, twisted affair. And we will remember all the lives that we’ve taken every time we look into each other’s eyes, every time we embrace. It will be there in the voices of our children and in the walls of our home. For as long as we’re together. Forever.”
“Yes. Yes. Anything. I just want to be with you. I’ll do anything. I love you.”
“I love you too, Chandini.”