Almost like the duo had pnned it, a series of yelps of joy came from above deck and Ruby turned her head and reached for Nerice’s cheek. “Sounds like another ship…”

  “I hear it, Tanya.” Nerice clicked her tongue and nodded after she’d double-checked the distance to the floor. Rolling out of the hammock, the blind navigator began pulling on her clothes that had been thrown all over the floor in the heat of the couple’s moment. “I know that voice, Tanya.”

  A light bump into the dock where the new ship had stopped told Ruby that the person steering it was experienced. Combined with the screaming and random gunshots, Ruby knew without a doubt that it was another pirate crew and they were rowdy as she had come to expect. “You know what voice, Ner-Ner?” Ruby deftly nded beside her partner and after pulling on her normal clothes, went to her footlocker and pulled her bck leather armor free and strapped it to her hourgss form. “I have a feeling things are about to get real interesting.”

  “I would know her voice anywhere.” Nerice ughed. “Pearly Pieces of Eight just came to town.” A quick click and Nerice walked over to Ruby and began helping her with the armor. “That woman shows up at the oddest times, Tanya.” She ughed, “To hear the others, she rivals your looks, my love.”

  Showing her displeasure with the comments from Nerice, Ruby scoffed and then pushed her ass into her dymate. “In her dreams.” Ruby wiggled into her shoulder armor and felt Nerice buckle it like the woman had eyes. “Although…” Ruby turned to nose kiss her partner, “...I will agree she shows up at the near-perfect time and tends to stare me down like some conquest.” Ruby ughed, “She’s pretty enough I guess, but no one I have the slightest interest in.” Csping Nerice and hoisting her onto her back after her armor was situated, Ruby darted up the stairs and hid as close to the shadows as possible to avoid Pearly from spotting the couple. “When you are right, love…you are right.” Ruby chuckled, “They are in for a surprise. So, we won’t have long.”

  “Have long for what?” Nerice leaned into Ruby’s ear. “Are you crazy? There are at least a dozen guards.” Nerice nibbled pyfully on Ruby’s neck. “Let’s just go back inside and ….” She stopped and took a deep breath, “...There’s no stopping you now. Crazy mermaid.”

  Counting on Pearly’s crew to either burn the sedated town in a drunken stupor or have a small party within the tavern, Ruby estimated that she had roughly four hours to complete the pn she was going to attempt. “Look at it this way Ner-Ner, Captain Pearly and Captain Eldon will respectfully chat all night, since he and his crew are off limits.” Ruby sneakily said, “It’s that unwritten respect thing the other captains have for the guy.” An errant thought from Nerice jumped into Ruby’s mind and the two ughed as Ruby watched the events unfold on Pearly’s ship. “You know, It all fits.” Ruby ughed and kept a silent count in her head as the crew left Pearly’s ship. “You know your way around the town?” Ruby asked quietly and set Nerice down on her feet. “Get what you need from that jewelry store and meet me afterwards.” Ruby kissed Nerice on her forehead. “We’re gonna need your magic, love. Wind and water.”

  “I know what I have to do, young dy.” Nerice hugged Ruby tight, “I won’t be there to get you out of trouble for a little bit.” She poked her dymate with her small white cane, “So keep things silent and simple until I return.” Although fruitless to tell her partner, Nerice gave Ruby the warning anyway. “I’ll be back.” With a few crab cw-like clicks, Nerice nodded and ran off into the dark depths of the town.

  Initially Ruby had pnned to get onboard Pearly’s ship via the dock lines that held the sloop and shuffle through one of the cannon doors where it wouldn’t be guarded heavily. It was just as she was about to jump in the water that a better pn emerged and she quickly climbed the mast of ‘The Broken Cutss.’ Years of darting and dashing along the masts of ships had given Ruby a sense of bance better than most circus performers and she used the cover of darkness and jumped from one ship to another, and caught the rigging long enough to get across two other ships before nding in the crow’s nest of Pearly’s ship. Kneeling so she could both catch her breath and stay out of sight, Ruby reached for the remains of her rum fsk and cleared its contents before peeking over the edge and observing the guard's locations.

  While it was certainly more profitable in Ruby’s mind to attempt what she was pnning with Captain Eldon’s ship, Pearly’s smaller boat was a touch more in her range of ability for what she pnned on accomplishing. Grateful that Pearly had left a few pairs of mostly drunk guards, Ruby blew a kiss to the sky. “Thank you dy luck, always on my side.”

  Double-checking her leather armor once, Ruby finished her first count and saw the pair of stumbling guards come out from the lower deck. Silent as a snake and using the skills she’d learned during her flight out of France, Ruby slithered invisibly to the deck and nded behind the guards light enough so that their voices drowned out any possible detection. Fring hot against her hip, Ruby slid her dagger from its sheath and stabbed the first guard through the back of the neck, dropping him instantly. Using the shock that the other guard had on her face and intent on feeding her dagger, Ruby quickly and mercilessly slit the guard woman’s throat sending blood all over the deck.

  -Two down.-

  Ruby said to herself and dragged the bodies out of sight, leaving them behind a set of barrels. Flipping the dagger down to her forearm to hide it from glinting in the moonlight, Ruby hoped that the others would be about as easy.

  -The more that disappear the higher the chance for arm.-

  Spotting the bell hanging within reach of the main mast, Ruby took a slight deviation to her murderous spree and removed the bell as an option and put it silently with the two dead guards.

  -Second set should be coming right about now, if the count was right.-

  Fortune smiled on Ruby once more and the second set of guards appeared, but they looked a little more confused than anything. “Arrrgh, Where’d them two scurvy-asses squander off to?” One of the guards asked his companion.

  “Proally, mak’n time down b’low…you know how them two are nay inseparable.” He shrugged to his fellow guard and kept walking. “Bett’a ta not commit memory to it, me thinks.” He added and passed a bottle of beled whiskey to his partner.