On board the Maris Stella, port of
Dionna, Villanova Island, 10th day of Octavus 1668 AV.
Dear Friend,
I never knew about your father's tale! Your revelation
left me entirely surprised, and somewhat uneasy: I am trying to remember
whether I have ever spoken ill of the freebooting gentlemen before you
in the past. If I have, please believe that I regret it bitterly,
and now doubly so. I also hope I have not given you a bad opinion
of my cousins with my light words. We have travelled and seen much
together, and camaraderie can breed too much familiarity; we jest much
and exchange banter, but they are good friends and brave comrades.
Your last letter left me quite breathless – you certainly
have had an exciting time of late. You may think it is superstitious
of me, but I have grown to believe that this is a mark of those born
on the 21st day of Sextus in the Year of Truth 1647 that they attract trouble,
complications, and adventures like the pole calls to the compass's needle.
Verify for yourself: if you have not yet asked, I encourage to enquire
of your current companions what day they were born...
How fortunate for His Eminence Cardinal Verdugo that
you were able to defend him from those attackers. And how fortunate
for Castille. I know that Castille needs him right now, and it may
even be true that Good King Sandoval needs his insight as well. You
will forgive me, however, if any relief I feel for his sake is not entirely
unmixed with regret.
Let me tell you of my most recent adventures, and you
may yet see that our two stories continue to be intermixed in many small
ways, despite the distance. You remember that, at the time of my
last letter, I was planning on intruding onto the Dauphin to have
a look at her cargo. I wished to be certain the items of concern
were on board before I attempted a capture. Late that night, accompanied
by Rodrigo, I managed to sneak on board the fleut by climbing up the anchor's
chain. It took a bit of patience and a lot of care to be able to
get to the hold, but we did, and I inspected the cargo. After a careful
examination, I found three smallish wooden cases, oblong and each perhaps
a yard long, labelled as property of Prince Vincenzo Caligari, for delivery
to his palace in Reinascienza on Caligari Island. I felt certain
this was the cargo I needed to capture, but could see no way to remove
it right then and there without getting caught.
So Rodrigo and I returned to the Maris Stella
and I ordered to set sail on the next tide that night. After a careful
study of the charts, knowing where the Dauphin was bound (at least
I very much hoped it had no other ports to visit before Reinascienza),
I calculated an interception course and took the Maris Stella to
lay in ambush. I picked a location where we could hide among the
uninhabited islets to the west of the Vodacce Keys.
As you will readily picture when I remind you that
the Maris Stella is a lugger, I had the faster vessel – not the
least because I had it built for just such a purpose. With Velik
Galecatcher's expertise to help, I was able to ensure that I had the weather-gauge
of the Dauphin and could out-manoeuvre her. It was a bloody
affair, a third of my crew was lost or incapacitated, but we managed to
capture our prey thanks to the six lovely 12-pounders uncle Enrique has
seen fit to mount for each of our broadsides.
Aboard, I found some men I remembered seeing with Reis,
particularly his barbarian of a first mate Paul du Paix, who was acting
here as captain of the Dauphin, and one of Prince Caligari's seemingly
endless supply of nephews, a nasty fellow called Julius Caligari.
Although logic tells me I would likely have done Théah a favour
by having them all walk the plank, I could not bring myself to kill men
in cold blood (the heat of battle is another matter entirely, you will
agree with me.) I put out one of the Dauphin's longboats and
piled the crew onto it, knowing there were plenty of islands nearby for
them to find refuge.
At that point, the two men I have mentioned in my previous
letter, Jemy and Volta, indicated by signs that they would rather take
their chances with the Maris Stella than go with their crew mates.
Well, I could understand someone not eager to report failure to Reis, and
it seemed they had not betrayed my presence to their captain since the
Dauphinhad been taken entirely by surprise. I agreed to give them a chance,
since between the need to put a prize crew on the Dauphin and the
casualties we had taken, we were thinly spread as it was.
I had the three mysterious crates transferred to my
vessel, but there remained the question of disposing of the captured ship;
after all, the Maris Stella is a letter of marque, and I need to
sell prizes if I am to pay my crew. It had occurred to me that there
is no friendship lost between the princes of Villanova and Caligari provinces,
so I decided that Dionna, Prince Giovanni Villanova's capital, might be
a good location to sell cargo and fleut. It was also, conveniently,
the closest of the Vodacce Keys.
In Dionna, I respectfully requested an appointment
with His Highness Prince Villanova. This is much like saying that
I respectfully requested an opportunity to dangle my hand in front of an
asp. You must ask Lucas to tell you of our previous encounters with
His Highness. But I felt I had something to offer him, namely a chance
to interfere with Prince Caligari, which meant (I hoped) that this would
not place me extravagantly in his debt.
When I was granted the audience (to my surprise, the
very same day!), I explained that I had captured a smuggling ship and that
the scurvy rats had pretended to be in Prince Caligari's employ.
Naturally, I knew that no prince of Vodacce would ever have anything to
do with smuggling, but I had no wish to appear to give offence, and so
I hoped Prince Villanova might be gracious enough to offer me some advice
on how and where to proceed for the sale of the captured vessel and cargo.
He quickly saw the opportunities (both for interference and for indeed
having me owe him a favour), and I am certain he also realized that there
must be a story behind this. As I had hoped, he offered to broker
the sale for me. I also asked to meet with my aunt Lucia, whom Giovanni
Villanova is holding prisoner, but this I could not obtain. The Prince
provided me with help from one of his retainers, a name you will recognize:
Sebastiano Villanova. To be specific, Sebastiano Biancastro Villanova.
I am sure the prince thought this most amusing. You
see, the first time my cousins and I were in Dionna, we had a misadventure.
A young woman fell into a canal before our very eyes; she was in danger
of drowning so I jumped in and pulled her out, but her husband, one Fausto
Biancastro, felt slighted that we foreigners had interfered, thus implying
he couldn't protect his own wife. His cousins and him took our group
to task; and when a scuffle broke out, neither Miranda nor Lucas pulled
their blows. Lucas ran Fausto through himself. And this Sebastiano
is Fausto's son, who has taken the Villanova name while he serves his prince.
No wonder Lucas and him had words when you met him.
Yes, he did remember and mention you (as if there ever
was a man who could forget you, you vixen!) I offered my deepest
regrets and apologies on behalf of my family, but of course that is of
little avail. Sebastiano helped me sell the Dauphin, and I
was only too happy to be done with Dionna. I will sail west tonight
after I have put this letter in the post for you; Velik Galecatcher will
guide us to the Straits of Blood, where I can turn this cargo over to Captain
Allende. And after that, where am I to meet you now, my friend?
I will sail for San Cristobal and see if there is any word from you.
Your faithful friend as ever,
Constanza Aldana y Orduño
