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“Help!”
Garnet called out to the passing ship as loudly as she could, not knowing if her voice would carry over the water or if anyone would see her frantic waving. The small sloop she had stolen from the harbour two days ago had run into difficulties as she slept, and was now taking on water fast. If the ship didn't stop to help her, she might drown.
She didn't know enough about sailing to recognise the vessel, or the colours it flew – but that didn't matter. For the first time in her life, Garnet had found happiness, and she was going to fight to keep it – even if that meant a dangerous venture into the unknown.
Slowly, the ship drew closer. It drew level with her floundering vessel, and a rope ladder was tossed over the side, but no-one aboard was visible. With no other option, Garnet leapt into the sea, swam towards the strange ship, and began the slow, aching climb to the deck.
As soon as her head appeared over the railing, a rapier was pointed at her throat.
“Don't hurt me! Please!”
The rapier was held by a slender woman, who met Garnet's gaze with a steely look. After a moment, she jerked her head, signalling for Garnet to climb aboard – but she did not lower her sword.
As Garnet's feet hit the deck, she heard a voice for the first time.
“We have a visitor?”
She turned her head at the sound, in time to see a woman emerge from below decks. She was vast – taller than Garnet by at least a foot, and heavy-set in a way that suggested strength as well as comfortable living. Thick pink curls cascaded over the shoulders of her worn leather jacket, and at her belt hung two enormous pistols in holsters marked with the emblem of The Rose.
Garnet suddenly realised where she was. This was the Crystal Gem, flagship of the notorious pirate queen Rose Quartz.
Which meant that the woman whose blade was at her throat was the first mate, Lady Pearl, the renegade daughter of one of the most illustrious families in the colonies, and the most deadly swordfighter Garnet had ever seen.
Rose's brow furrowed.
“I remember you,” she said, softly. “From the raid at Blue Harbour.”
“Yes,” Garnet said, hesitantly. “I – I couldn't stay there any more. Not after…”
“You're a runaway?” A smile crossed Rose's face. Garnet wasn't sure whether to be hopeful or terrified. “You're not the first runaway to come across this ship.”
“Captain, this could be a trap,” Pearl said. “We don't know anything about her.”
“But we could learn,” Rose said lightly. “What's your name?”
“… Garnet.”
Pearl's brow furrowed.
“Well, Garnet, will you swear fealty to Captain Rose Quartz and the Crystal Gem?” she demanded. “Will you serve this ship, obey its captain, and forswear all ties to the Diamond Authority?”
Garnet didn't hesitate: “Yes. I will.”
Rose smiled.
“Welcome aboard, sailor,” she said. “Pearl, could you introduce our new hand to the rest of the crew?”
Garnet didn't know a lot about sailing before she stole a ship and ran away, and there was a great deal to learn in a short time. She learned about port and starboard, topsail and rigging, how to load cannon and tie bowlines and weigh anchor – but mostly, she learned about Rose Quartz and Lady Pearl.
Legends had a lot to say about the terrible pirates aboard the Crystal Gem, but it had left out a great deal. Garnet had never heard anyone mention that the feared pirate queen might be found crying over an injured seagull, or tenderly splinting its broken wing. No-one's hushed whispers had ever included the fact that Pearl, though she walked on deck as silently and gracefully as a courtier, often hummed to herself as she worked. No tale of those steely gazes had mentioned how their eyes could soften and warm, especially when they looked at each other.
Garnet had definitely never been told that on the Crystal Gem, the captain shared her cabin with her first mate.
It was a revelation. Every relationship Garnet had ever seen before had a strict hierarchy of obedience and deference, master and consort. But these two broke every rule in the book. Rose might be a leader, but she preferred asking questions to barking orders – and Pearl, though she might place herself at Rose's side, never hesitated to argue her own point of view.
“So, are you prepared to admit you were wrong about Garnet yet?”
Garnet overheard the snatch of conversation as she was passing by Rose and Pearl's cabin, and at the sound of her name she stopped to listen.
“What?” Rose asked. “I think she's working out wonderfully -”
“That wasn't what I meant and you know it,” Pearl said. “Garnet might be shaping up to be a good sailor -” Garnet glowed at the compliment with a kind of hard-won pride that she had never felt before joining the ship - “but letting her on-board was still a huge risk. It's one thing to take in convicts and slaves, but she was at court. We had no idea where her loyalties might lie!”
“I had some ideas.” Rose laughed, and Garnet could just picture the annoyance on Pearl's face. “Don't look at me like that! People can change, Pearl, even if that means giving up their power. I changed, didn't I?”
“That's… different. You were never like the rest of them.”
“But I never spoke out. Where do you think I'd be if we'd never been betrothed? I'd still be locked away in my palace, waited on hand and foot, never thinking to ask if the servants all around me had dreams of their own.”
“And what about me?” Pearl asked. “You think I could have made it here without you? If I had been betrothed to someone else, I'd never have been anything but what they made me.”
“That's not true, I don't believe it. You're a fighter, Pearl. No matter where you wound up, you would have kept fighting.”
“And been arrested for my trouble?” Pearl scoffed. “I would never have made it to sea without your help.”
“Ah,” Rose teased, “So all you needed from me was my boat.”
“Don't be ridiculous!” Pearl said. “I needed you – I need you – for so much more than that. Rose...”
Garnet backed away, realising that their conversation had grown too intimate for her to listen further. Already, what they said made her head spin. At court, all that mattered was being who you were born to be, fitting neatly into your assigned role in the great system of the colonies. But Rose and Pearl talked about changing together as though it was the greatest gift they had given each other – and the more Garnet thought about it, the more she saw things their way.
Garnet had been aboard three weeks the first time she saw combat. The Crystal Gem ambushed a cargo freighter, snaring it with grappling lines before Rose led the boarding party across.
The battle was fierce and bloody. The ship was better armed than they had expected, with a garrison of soldiers stationed aboard to guard the vital supplies being shipped to Blue Harbour. Rose's orders were to capture rather than kill where possible, but it made little difference. Once cornered, the officers fell on their own blades rather than admit defeat, just as they had been trained. Only the lowest castes of the crew survived, faced with the choice of joining Rose's fleet or being set adrift in a rowboat to take their chance with the open ocean.
The casualties to the pirate crew were light – no fatalities, and only a handful of serious injuries, but the mood after their victory was far from celebratory. Rose Quartz had been carried back to the infirmary with a stab wound to her side, and no-one on board smiled until the medic had stitched the wound closed, rinsed it with whiskey, and bound it with thick linen bandages.
Garnet was also convalescing in the sick bay. A stray bullet had grazed her forearm, taking a chunk out of the flesh. She'd been told it would heal well enough, but she'd be left with a scar. She had a feeling it wouldn't be her last.
Rose lay on a cot in the corner of the room. The medic had finished with her and left to see to the new recruits up on deck. Pearl was sat by Rose's side, where she'd been since Rose had been carried back on board.
“I'm fine,” Rose told her companion. “You should get some rest. You heard the doctor, a couple of weeks and I'll be good as new!”
“She said you might be good as new,” Pearl corrected. “Rose… what were you thinking?”
“It could have happened to anyone.”
“Anyone in the boarding party,” Pearl said. “Anyone we could afford to lose.”
“There isn't anyone we can't afford to lose,” Rose said, darkly.
“You're our leader -”
“And today I led,” Rose cut her off. “Pearl, I'm not going to order my crew into a battle I wouldn't fight myself. That's not who I am any more.”
“Perhaps it should be,” Pearl snapped.
Rose struggled to sit up. Her face was pale in a way Garnet knew had nothing to do with her injury.
“What are you saying?”
“Rose, I'd rather you turned back into a spoiled princess than see you die in some meaningless battle over a couple of crates of food!”
Rose flinched as though Pearl had slapped her. Garnet saw her face crumple with pain in the moment before she turned away to face the wall.
For a moment, no-one spoke.
“She doesn't mean that.”
The words escaped Garnet before she'd had a chance to think about them, or else she would never have dared. Pearl looked over in indignant surprise, but Garnet met her gaze. After a moment, her look softened to regret.
“She's right,” Pearl admitted. “I didn't mean that. I'm just – I'm scared. Rose, you might have died.”
Rose turned back slowly, and the mere act of looking seemed to pain her. But after a few seconds, she took Pearl's hand.
“I didn't,” she said softly.
“But -”
“But if I had,” Rose continued, and Pearl fell silent. “If I die… Pearl, you can sail this boat without me. If I die, the Crystal Gem is yours.”
“No,” Pearl gasped. “I couldn't -”
“You would make a wonderful captain,” Rose told her.
“Not without you,” Pearl insisted. “Without you – there wouldn't be sailing. There wouldn't be any sea. Rose, without you the waves would never be the same.”
Pearl pressed her cheek to Rose's hand, and Garnet looked away. She reached across to touch the bandage on her forearm, thinking of how far she'd come, and how much further there was to go. Outside, she could hear the waves slapping against the hull, and her her heart seemed to beat in time to them. She had never felt more like she belonged than she did now.
Then Rose laughed.
“You're never going to agree to become a captain, are you?” she asked Pearl.
“Some day,” Pearl promised. “After we've won. We'll sail off together, just the two of us. Then you can be my first mate.”
“But who would look after the Crystal Gem?” Rose teased.
“I will,” Garnet offered.
Rose nodded seriously at her. “Of course.”
Then she burst into a fit of giggles that made her wince.
“Don't rip your stitches!” Pearl scolded. “Garnet!”
“I was being completely serious,” Garnet said, and Rose only laughed harder.
Pearl glared at them both.
“Okay, I'll stop.” Rose was beginning to sound tired.
“You really ought to rest,” Pearl said.
“So did you.”
Pearl shook her head. “I don't want to leave you.”
“Then don't.”
Rose gestured to the narrow strip of cot beside her, shuffling back towards the wall in an effort that probably cost her more than Pearl realised.
“Sleep with me?” she asked, softly.
Pearl glanced over her shoulder at Garnet.
“Keep watch until Medic returns?” she asked.
Garnet nodded. “Of course.”
Pearl climbed carefully onto the cot, curving herself protectively around Rose's injury.
“Now, sleep,” she told Rose. “You must be tired.”
Rose kissed the top of her hair.
“Sleep well, love.”
Unseen by either of them, Garnet smiled, and listened to the sound of the sea.