All of them awaited his first words. His voice had became their obsession. Many were looking forward the new friend they could make.
The splintered wood creaked only under the boy's feet. The falling apart dwelling he was in made squeaking noises in the trough of the waves and the wind that passed through the planks, whistling practically all the time. The boy scanned all of their faces, he was fascinated. They were so many that he had a hard time seeing the walls or the floor.
Their round eyes and large nose, their many scars or missing limbs were the testimony of their numerous battles.
Ardi spoke, opening his arms in a victory gesture, hands open. "I would like to introduce you to the legendary richest pirates, King Genthius' crew!"
'A king? More problems are to come!' Thought Keith and Mister Show.
The kid bowed slightly before saying. "Good evening everyone."
He was acclaimed as if he solved all of the country's problems at once. There, he saw interactions between the crew members. They bumped their fists, they gave back pats, and even hugs between each other. Their emotions coloured the house up to its broken roof. It contaminated Keith, who felt joyous too. Rare were the moments when the kid had openly smiled.
Every head overlapped when they were cheering up the kid. There were so much of them that had eyes only for him... He could only glare back, not knowing what to do yet feeling fearless in front of so many strangers.
"How many are you?" The kid asked. Ardi came close to not have to speak too loudly, he spoke. "We're a thousand! But most of us are gone, looking for their coin, I can be here because you have mine! As for our captain, he was gone few days after our last grand battle. His assailant stole his crown and we haven't seen him ever since."
The kid wondered if their overreaction was due to their loneliness, he asked. "Did you speak with anyone other than the crew or me? Has it ever happened ?"
Ardi nodded. "Indeed... But it happened so rarely! We chose to stay here, where we died, hence we can never be alone, and we always know the way back home! This is our family. The children and the wives we've left behind when we chose the sea died because of their old age long ago."
"There was this woman, not long ago!" One said.
"Yes! That woman! But she couldn't hear us!" The other said. The conversation bent to fit the new subject.
"Oh the hideous one? She barely stayed a day! Are you sure she could see us?" And more answered to the man in an incomprehensible uproar, most argued on her beauty.
"Who is this all about?" Keith asked.
Another pirate came, his beard reached his torso and his hair was mixed with it. His two bulging eyes made him look constantly stunned. He said. "One with a line on the face."He said, touching the middle of his forehead down to his chin. "Her round belly said a lot about her eating habits, but also about the child she bore... That was some evil energy she carried! What a strange woman... When was it? Anyone knows?"
"I'd say two seasons ago!"
"I would say three at most!" They soon agreed on the last approximation. Keith knew only one woman with the mark they described. And a round one at that. Show spoke. 'Considering Foresee's talent to see the future, she might have gone ahead of us. As for the child, maybe the miscarriage we've provoked under Chandragupta's order made her want it even more. It is quite unexpected to have her on our path again.'
The pirates made a circle in which one of them mimed the woman's behavior. He used a high pitched voice and a silly posture when he walked around or gestured.
"I can see all of you here! I know you are all staying here! Your greed... Your greed will pique your interest anew. The obsession you've been feeding will finally serve greater matter! "He said, grimacing with all the length of his face.
They all roared with laughter. It seemed the acting was so good lots of them shed a tear.
'Kid, it's funny how what she said fits you, and in the other hand fits her. She's the one who claims to help you so far, she's the one calling you dark one, the greater being and all that.'
"Did she say anything else?"
"She came here only to blabber those few words. She then urged her way out of the city before the planks of the bridge could break under her feet." He said as more laughed.
"Excuse them, there are not much women who enters the city. The few we all know live underground and cook their fellows for a living. They are not very talkative..." Ardi added as more nodded.
"They cook human meat?" Keith asked, surprised.
"Of course! Have you seen any fishermen around? They get robbed of their possessions when they step in the city and never come back. Slaves are cheaper than farm meat that they have to snatch too if they want it to reach Chittagong." He shrugged, as if it was totally normal.
'Makes sense.' Said Show. The monster could roam freely when he hid in the darkness. Seeing the silver lines, he searched for a minute before understanding the recipes in the kitchens. Corpses hanged left and right next to the vegetables and above the spices which hid well their smell.
"That why it had that taste..." Said Keith. His tone was a little sad though it held no reluctance. It wasn't the first time he ate this kind of meat nor the last time he would. It astonished the pirates, who were also used to the habit, but not this kind of reaction. He shown no sign of revulsion or disgust.
'Has he ever eaten human flesh?'
'Are we living in an era that poor in resources?'
'If he's fine with it, so am I.' Those were the pirates' thoughts. They had worse time overseas when their ship lost its food supply in a tempest or when they fought and lost the battle.
One of them approached to pat his back, he spoke before touching the kid. "Hey! Why don't you tell how you died? I doubt you killed a hundred people to save your money!" He first pointed at the boy's neck scar, he then tried to pat his back.
And failed.
The man's hand passed through like it did with every living being. The shock spread across the room, the man had worried eyes. With a throat slash gesture he asked, not sure of himself. "Were you killed?"
"Well..." Keith said, looking at his now wide-eyed public. Their confusion made the atmosphere more awkward by the second. "Sadly yes, but I survived."
Another second of silence fell into the conversation before all came back to their hysterical state. Nothing could stop their laugh for what seemed to be an endless period. Keith had nothing to hide to them, he blatantly replied, his answer was just too good to be true. If any of the pirates had the chance to live a second time, they'd be glad.
"I really thought he was one of us." One whispered to the other. "Me too! A young ghost... I was sad at first, but now I'm speechless."
He tried to justify his survivability. "I learn shamanism, I'll become a curse master one day!" And it was the sole thing he shouldn't have said.
The emotional roller coaster the pirates sustained could've made their head hurt. 'Stop talking!' Ordered Show.
"I can see you, because I'm using the cursed coin as a... I don't remember the word." If Show had a nose, he would pinch it out of frustration. 'Beacon.'
"As a beacon! Want it back? You'd disappear to me." He got rid of his cloak and shirt. He then pointed at the horizontal wound on his belly and begun to scratch it. Seeing it wasn't sufficient, he muttered his mental strength to plunge a finger in it. Mister Show knew that Keith tried to intimidate them. After all what was the coin really worth?
The pirates' faces changed and they were now all wishing for it to remain where it was. "NO!" "Don't!" They said as they all stepped forward to touch nothingness. That's right, they were powerless, all but one, Ardi.
Being the one owning the coin, he could interact with things around the kid to make the coin come back to its rightful place. It needed to go back in the cave.
Ardi pulled his sleeves up, and slapped the kid who felt his cheek itchy. It became soon red and covered in swollen layer, like an allergy.
"Why did you touch this coin if you did not plan to do something with us? What's the meaning of this, to make us quiver with the sole human interaction we had in centuries!? You said you knew curses? Make us leave this place! Make those coins blessed anew!" His face expressed genuine distress.
'What if that woman was talking about Greenie?' Was a thought that floated in Ardi's ethereal mind.
Keith stopped pricking his wound and put both of his hands on his hips. 'Can we do something about them Mister?' He asked. 'Maybe' The monster replied.
He rose his chin to look at Ardi in the eyes, he said. "I'm the same as you guys, I'm cursed." He closed his eyes. He focused on his stomach and thought about how enchanting was the food when he fed. How pleasing were the warm organs were once passing through his throat. How exquisite were the bubbles that escaped his nose when blood flowed both ways.
He felt the blood vessels pumping hard in his eyes, and once he opened them, he was sure both were entirely black.