Ride out to see Red

“Maybe later,” Brenan replied, “I think I’m going to go for a ride first.”

“Yeah, where to?”

Of course, the best moments during his time spent being trained by Red had been when he had gotten to turn down her rewards, Brenan recalled at the same time as he realized that he had a hard time shaking the thought of her. It wasn’t exactly because he disliked her that he had turned down Red’s offerings of “good boy” sex, it was rather that almost ten years as a soldier in the armies of an evil empire had permanently cured him of any desire to jump through hoops to prove himself to a bunch of condescending whores.

So instead he had gone through the motions of learning all the necessary skills of a seaman while knowing that the discipline that he had learnt earlier in his life would protect him from ever ending up in a situation where he could be punished for any infractions, and kept to himself until he’d become a full member of the crew, after which he’d left The Kranderkill for good and joined the crew of another pirate vessel.

Brenan hadn’t had any real contact with anyone from The Kranderkill since then, apart from that one time when he had confronted the big, burly man who had used to actually administer the whippings of the recruits and had broken every one of his fingers to make sure that he would never be able to hold a whip again.

And then he’d told the man that he remembered the wicked smile that he had always sported when scarring people for life before slitting his throat and leaving him there to die.

Three weeks later, he’d kill the man’s brother when he came looking for ****, and word had started to get out that you should be careful how you treat people when Brenan was watching.

Since he was thirty-one, Brenan knew that Red would be thirty-seven by now, which was still young enough to resume her career as a sailor, even if her tutoring tactics wouldn’t be necessary; it was partly because he didn’t want to endure despising himself for enacting a load of silly training regimes that Brenan had opted for becoming the captain of such a small ship. While it was possible to teach a large number of raw recruits who to be proper seamen without using corporal punishment, Brenan knew that from his own time as a junior officer aboard The Perfidious, that did take an awful lot of work, and it would most likely be easier to gather up a crew consisting of him, a few other experienced men and women and a handful of the more promising of the green and inexperienced and allow the latter to learn from watching the former go about their duties. He’d still need to scream at them from time to time, but at least he wouldn’t get that sense that he was still a part of a system of institutionalized sadism.

“Remember Red Arlensen?”

“Oh yes,” Davy grinned again, “I’ve even heard that she’s supposed to live on the other side of this island.”

“You got a horse to lend?”

“You sure that that’s such a good idea?” Davy raised one of his eyebrows.

“She’s one of the finest officers I’ve ever met, why?”

“Didn’t she use to be your commanding officer?”

“Only for a short time, and she’s never been a first mate, but I have.”

“Yeah, but what if it turns out that she’ll still want to whip people and all that shit that you don’t approve of, are you going to kill her or something?” Davy knew Brenan well enough to be aware of his vehement opposition to corporal punishment, but he didn’t know where he’d gotten it from. His best guess was that he had seen things during his time as a soldier which had forever turned him against it, though the mere mention of it could be enough to make him adopt a hateful expression.

“Hopefully, I won’t have to, I kind of like her. Now, have you got a horse to lend me or am I going to have to rent one?”

“Sure, you can borrow my horse.” Davy said, after which he let out a sigh.