Skylark, p.1
Skylark, page 1
Skylark
SKYLARK
THE DRAGON LADY
a novel
EMILY N. MADISON
NEW YORK
LONDON • NASHVILLE • MELBOURNE • VANCOUVER
SKYLARK
THE DRAGON LADY
© 2022 Emily N. Madison
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James is a trademark of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com
Publisher’s Note: Th is novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Proudly distributed by Ingram Publisher Services.
ISBN 9781631958366 paperback
ISBN 9781631958373 ebook
Library of Congress Control Number:
2021951289
Cover Design by:
Karen Dimmick
ArcaneCovers.com
Interior Design by:
Chris Treccani
www.3dogcreative.net
Morgan James is a proud partner of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg. Partners in building since 2006.
Get involved today! Visit MorganJamesPublishing.com/giving-back
To my dad, who craves the sea and all its beauty, thank you for instilling your love of pirate adventures in me.
And to all the little girls who loved pirate tales more than the princess tales, pirate princesses exist too.
CHAPTER 1
“HAIL, BELLADONNA! QUEEN OF ZODIAC!”
The Zodiac was at war, and Belladonna Skylark hid herself away from the fight. Cannon and musket fire pierced her ears with a deafening shrill. Splintered wood, small enough to break the skin and large enough to take off the head, sailed through the air. And the smoke was dense; a dark haze wafted through the air. Between these things, it was almost impossible to remember the vast depths of the sea that spread itself beneath the bow of the Zodiac.
Belladonna emerged from her hiding place in the sleeping quarters when she heard Starlene’s name shouted above her. She knew who had declared war upon her captain. She ascended the steps, one by one, slowly but surely, avoiding any possibility of a quick movement that would result in her death. When she was eye-level with the main deck, she wished that she had never left her hiding place. Every member of Starlene’s crew was engaged in combat with dark, wicked men. Swords clanked, bullets whizzed through the air, and the ship rocked with every blow of the opposing cannons and every cannon fire the Zodiac returned.
But then there was the blood. The blood had begun to seep through the cracks, slowly dripping into the sleeping quarters. Belladonna looked behind her at the stairs and noticed she had trailed some of it, leaving sticky footprints on each step. As she looked down at her hands and her gown, she noticed she was dotted with droplets. She felt her stomach lurch and had to place her hand over her mouth to keep from retching. She stumbled onto the deck, woozy from nausea. Among the blood was a mixture of limbs, severed heads, entrails, and the like. Belladonna stood among the mess, looking around her at faces she recognized, now twisted in agony during their final moments of breathing. Somehow, in the few seconds it took for her to take in her surroundings, she was kept safe. It was all too much. She heaved her guts out, no longer paying attention to the bloodshed still happening around her.
She stood up, wiping her mouth as she focused on Starlene’s cabin, harsh wind wrapping her deep red hair across her face. The doors were open—not a good sign in the heat of battle. Before moving forward, she looked from side to side. Starlene, Snaggletooth, and Romulus were nowhere to be seen. She had to shield herself from the rigging that had torn free and was now falling to the deck. Not one of Starlene’s crew paid her any mind. They were far too engaged in saving themselves and the ship. Far too many had already been lost.
Romulus appeared in Starlene’s doorway and let out a low wail. He raised his snout in her direction, luring her toward the open doors. Belladonna moved toward the cabin, feeling as if she were floating above the deck and gore. Bloody footprints still followed her. It was obvious from Romulus’s eyes that Starlene was in danger. How could a tiger’s eyes look so sad?
The Lord’s good graces protected Belladonna between the place where she had stood moments before and Starlene’s doors. Romulus snorted at Belladonna, and she swore she could see his eyes watering. He turned and flicked his tail, beckoning her to follow behind.
“Belladonna?” She heard a hoarse rasp call quietly from deep within the dark quarters.
“Yes, Captain. It is I.” Belladonna took a brief moment to prepare herself for what she might see.
“Come to me, my love.” Starlene lay on her monstrous bed with her black pillows propped behind her. Snaggletooth, the Zodiac’s quartermaster, leaned over the bed close to her body. His salt and pepper hair hung loosely in his eyes and his old, feeble hands worked in the dull candlelight. He pulled away rags that were red enough to have been torn from a gown, much like the color of the gowns that Starlene and Belladonna wore. It did not take long before Belladonna realized that the rags were dripping with Starlene’s blood. Now that she’d seen what was happening, she realized the cabin reeked of blood and sweat. It was enough to make her sick all over again.
As she approached, she knew that Starlene’s life would end shortly. Starlene’s left hand was placed gently on the side of her stomach while her right hung limply from the bed. Belladonna noticed an ever-growing pool of blood on the floor under Starlene’s dangling fingers. Large cannon splinter from the ship’s wheel jutted grotesquely from the right side of Starlene’s stomach like it had grown from her very skin and become part of her. Where the wood protruded from her skin was the same scarlet red of the rags and the pool on the floor.
Starlene’s face was ashen and expressionless. With her left hand, she gestured for Belladonna to come to her.
“Captain, no! What happened?” Belladonna felt her face turn pale and the room began to spin. Her captain was the prize and love of her life. “You must make it. Please, you must.”
“I have done all that I can do, Bella.” Starlene was the only one that Belladonna ever allowed to call her by her short name. “But please, come down to me. Snaggletooth, can you try to put more pressure on it?”
“I don’t want to hurt ye, Captain. Be still.” Snaggletooth grunted at Romulus, who picked up another white rag in his teeth and placed it gently in Snaggletooth’s hand. He folded it down the middle and pressed it to Starlene’s side, first slowly then firmly. Starlene let out a scream, her body twisting in agony.
“Starlene, you need to be still. And why is the surgeon not here? Romulus, go fetch the surgeon!” Starlene grabbed Belladonna’s wrist and squeezed tightly. She looked at her firmly and spoke through gritted teeth.
“No! There is nothing that can be done, child. This is the end of my fight. I have fought hard, but the blood has flowed out of me too quickly. There is nothing that dastardly surgeon Cromley can do to keep me from bleeding to death now.”
“But perhaps there is something he can do. Some ointment he has, maybe. Please, Captain, please let him try.” Belladonna felt a tear escape her eye and roll down to her chin. It landed on Starlene’s chest. She looked down at it questioningly.
“Enough of that,” Starlene demanded. “I don’t want to hear any more about saving me. I had Romulus call you here because I wanted you to be with me. I don’t know how much time is left.” In the sixteen years that Belladonna had spent in Starlene’s care and custody, this was perhaps the first time that she heard a slight twinge of fear in her captain’s voice. The fear she heard willed her to thicken her own skin.
“I’m right here, Captain.” Belladonna grabbed her captain’s hand, not minding the blood that squelched between their fingers as they intertwined. This would be the first and last time that Belladonna would see Starlene shed a tear.
“I always thought I was too fearless to be afraid of the end, but here I am.” Starlene attempted a small laugh but ended up coughing instead. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. Snaggletooth was quick to wipe it away with a fresh cloth. Romulus rested his chin on the thigh of her wooden leg and sat patiently by her side. With her other hand, she reached out to him, patting him slowly on the head. “They say that animals know when someone is about to die.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Belladonna commanded.
“You have always been good to me. I thankee for that, my love.” Starlene reached out and touched Belladonna’s cheek, which was not far from her own now. Her chest fluttered, and she let out a gasp. Her fight was growing difficult.
“You know that you don’t have to thank me. You know that I owe far more to you than I have been able to give. You have raised me, which is more than anyone has done for me.”
Snaggletooth removed another rag from her side. The crimson flow did not cease. It poured forth with each beat of Starlene’s pulsing heart.
“Need I remind ye, Captain, that while it is well ’n good to have Belladonna here with ye in yer last moments, ye arsked me to remind ye of what ye needed to tell her.” Snaggletooth looked down at Starlene
“Thankee, Snaggletooth. You have been just as good to me.” She stroked his cheek and turned her face back to Belladonna’s.
“Bella, my love. I have much to tell you and not much time to tell it. But you need to know it. Your parents made me promise to tell you if I ever ended up with a piece of the ship stuck in me.” She tried to say this last bit in good humor, but Belladonna knew that she was still afraid of facing her end. Belladonna had not thought about her parents in years. She never knew them, so she gave up thinking about them and cleared the word parents from her vocabulary.
The word seemed to awaken a part of her that had been asleep for many, many years.
“Are they truly dead?” she asked.
“Yes, darling. That part remains true. But there is much more you will learn about them soon. I need only tell you what they asked me to relay should they pass prematurely.” Starlene looked at Snaggletooth and issued a heavy, efforted sigh, gaining the strength needed to tell her tale. Belladonna’s heart began to beat faster and louder in her ears.
“So what of them?” Belladonna asked. “What is it you need to tell me?”
“You know that I united with your parents many years ago as allies. Aye, they sailed the seas as part of my fleet. They always felt it was their destiny to be at sea, to take back what had already been taken. In those days, I had three ships in my fleet. They quickly became more to me than just allies in the name of piracy. Your father and mother were my confidants, my most trusted companions. But when Cornelius Blackfoot found out who they were and what they were doing, he found his way to them. To us. Blackfoot was their long-seated enemy, and so I became his enemy as well. One of the last things your father said to me was that he wanted me to make sure Blackfoot was cast to the bottom of the ocean in your mother’s name. He is the demon of the seas. He deserves to be cast to the bottom of the ocean just as Satan himself was cast back to hell by Christ.”
Belladonna knew who Blackfoot was. She knew that for as far back as she could remember, Blackfoot trailed the Zodiac wherever she sailed. She also knew that Blackfoot, in the very moment that she was sharing with Starlene, was doing all in his power to shred the Zodiac bit by bit, thus taking all the crew with her. However, she did not know that Blackfoot’s anger did not lie exclusively with Starlene, that it started because of her association with the Skylark name. But why? And how? These were all things that Belladonna desperately wanted to ask but knew that if she simply listened, Starlene may give her the answers.
“Blackfoot is the enemy. He is my own enemy, and now, he will become yours as well. Even before you knew of him, he was your enemy. I have kept you hidden from him for your entire life. He does not know that you exist. He knows that your parents had a child, but he does not know about you. He is unaware that you live and breathe this very day. If you don’t hold onto any of the things I have told you today, mark my words; you will want to hold on to these: Blackfoot is your enemy because he was first your parents’ enemy.
“Your mother, Jade Skylark, outlived your father by mere moments. Just as you are now, I was by her side to witness her final breaths. She made me swear on my life and my ship that I would send you to finish what they started—what we started. To rid this wicked world of Cornelius Blackfoot. It is the prophecy.”
The prophecy? Belladonna had never heard any mention of a prophecy in her life with Starlene. And a prophecy about her? What was she to fulfill that she knew nothing about? “Captain, you’re not making sense. There is a prophecy that I am to fulfill?”
“Yes, my child. Your father and mother started the journey, and you are to finish it.” Starlene sat up abruptly and grabbed Belladonna by the front of her corset and pulled her close.
“Listen to me, Belladonna. You are to go to the islands and find the Isla del Dragón, and there, you will find what your parents worked tirelessly to reclaim in their lives. I watched the power of their island consume them. Blackfoot will try to stop you as he did your father and mother before you. You cannot allow him. You must destroy him. You must. It is in the prophecy that you will slay the Demonclaw!”
As Starlene told her this, she began to convulse. She spoke through gritted teeth, her blood spewing between them and running down her chin. She was frightening to look at. Belladonna herself began to shake, feeling a mix of fright and exhilaration. Belladonna grabbed her wrists and pushed herself away from her face.
“Starlene, what is this? Where is this coming from? You must tell me more about them. Please, for my sake, why does Blackfoot want you? Why has he chased you year after year if my parents have been dead?”
“I have tried to take over their quest. I have tried to solve the puzzle of their lives, and I have doomed myself to die by Blackfoot’s hand because I am not part of the prophecy. I am not the one who is to destroy him and find the Isla del Dragón, and it has consumed me. I felt I must avenge them. All this time, I tried to be the remnant, but you are the remnant.”
An explosion rocked the ship, and the Zodiac keeled to the left. Snaggletooth jumped up to keep Starlene from rolling off of her bed as she wailed with the movement.
“How am I to do this? I know nothing of the islands, much less how to get there. What is to happen to me? Please, Starlene, I have been under your care and protection my whole life, and I don’t feel prepared to do what you’re saying I must do. All of this frightens me!”
“You will not be so afraid. You will grow. You will fight more battles than I ever have at sea. Your ancestors will guide you. And keep a weather eye for the Mark.”
“The Mark?” None of this made sense to Belladonna. She tried to take a moment to think about all the pirate tales Starlene had told her over the years, remembering the hushed stories shared among her crew. They whispered tales of the Isla del Dragón, the Mark, and the Dragon Majestics.
Starlene’s eyes began to roll back in her head.
“Captain!” Snaggletooth yelled. “Stay with us! Ye must finish telling Belladonna what she needs to do!”
“Look for the Mark,” Starlene gasped, “and fight.”
“Starlene, no, please! You cannot leave me yet! What do I need to do?”
“Fight.” With that word, Starlene let her body fall back into the pillows. She arched her back, using her whole body to take in the air around her. Suddenly, her body ceased. Blood continued to seep out around the wood stuck through her stomach, but her body stopped fighting.
Captain Starlene breathed her last.
Belladonna screamed, allowing her body to give in to the grief. She shook, and her hands began to sweat. Then she let her gaping mouth release sobs that started deep in the pit of her stomach. Starlene was the only person that Belladonna had in her life. She had no family; she had no formal education, she had only stepped foot off the Zodiac a handful of times throughout her short life. The grief and fear twisted her gut as she started to think of a world without her beloved captain in it. She got to the floor and curled into herself, letting her tears fall to the floor. Snaggletooth lowered his head and sighed, crossing himself as he did so.
“May she rest in peace.” He removed the rag from her side, giving up the idea that he could prevent her death. Romulus let out a series of low, sad snarls and paced the room. Belladonna was able to look up long enough to demand that Snaggletooth tell the crew that their captain was no more.
“You need to tell them. They need to know.”
“Now is not the time, Belladonna. I am sorry for yer loss. I know how much she meant to ye. She was like a mum to ye. I watched ’er raise ye and all that. She was good to ye, and ye was good to ’er.”
“If you will not tell them, then I will.” She stood up, steadying herself as the ship rolled to the side. Snaggletooth grabbed her arm.
“No, ye don’t. Now is not the time. Ye need to think about what Starlene done told ye. Ye suddenly have a lot to do. Ye need to think about that before ye be gettin’ the crew stirred up. They got much on their hands right now, miss, defendin’ the ship and all.”
