Chapter 9

No

"Will you tell me about what happened to him?" Pearl asks.

"Whom?"

"Corr."

A single word. A name. So many memories. Aye, I met him again. Years after he had me flogged. I did. Just outside some tavern in a nameless coastal city.

- - -

He's coming really close, I can feel the heat of him. "Very well! Now look who that would be – Hal Sparrow! Long time no see!", he hisses. When the "s" passes his lips, a drop of saliva hits the skin of my cheek. "Now how's it going without that pretty eye of yours?" His nose almost touches mine. I smell his breath, and God, I do remember that breath. I feel my jaw is trembling. Shivers running down my back. My throat feels cold as stone. I'm standing with my back to the wall. Palms flat on the bricks. I'm dead scared, but I am so outraged at the same time. I want to kill him. Or just get away from him and hide. He comes even closer and his chest touches mine. He leans to my throat and sniffs. I feel his nose under my ear.

"Leave … me … alone." I bring forth from clenched teeth. He throws back his head and laughs. With a quick motion his hands are on my face, covering my cheekbones and ears, and his head comes darting forward. He licks my cheek. "And just what will you do if I don't?"

I close my eyes. I am still shivering. My hands are trembling. I hear him laugh.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

I open my eye and meet his gaze.

He looks at me.

The grin fades from his face.

I thrust my hands up in between his arms on both sides of my head. Push him away hard. He stumbles backwards. Looks at me in surprise.

"You ask me what I'll do if you don't?" I tilt the heel of the katana on my belt with the left hand. The right hand wraps around it. The sound of the blade slowly emerging from the sheath is loud in my ears. I move towards him. He's bigger than me but in that moment he looks small. Backing away from me. He tumbles over a rock on the ground. Falls. I am standing very tall and in a way very remote from him suddenly, glaring down at him. Draw the katana. Raise it.

"You had better not asked."

I bring the blade down to his throat in a quick thrust.

Stop in the second the blade touches his skin. A tiny cut on his neck. His eyelids are pressed shut. After some seconds he opens them again. I move the katana away from his throat, the point of it now loosely on his chest, turn it and rest my hands on the tip of the hilt. With one foot on the rock, I look down on him. "Thought I would kill you?"

He grins at me. "For a split second, yes."

In that moment, I lean forward onto the katana and it enters his chest with a cracking sound. I bring more weight onto the hilt until the blade has passed through the whole of his body.

He's breathing heavily. I pull the sword out again.

Raise my hands with it, stand erect, assuming a perfect position, my master would be proud of me. I'm facing the two of his men that were with him. Blood is dripping down on me from the katana. They look at me and run. I lower my arms with the sword. And allow myself a slight little bit of a smile.

I kneel down next to Corr. Stroke his face that is wet with sweat. Brush his hair out of his face. "Go to sleep."

The pool of blood under him is growing very fast. I have cut his heart. I wipe blood from the blade with my hands. He looks at me. Strength is fading quickly from his eyes. I lick my fingers. The blood is bittersweet on my tongue. I can feel the power of it.

There is still some of it on my hand. With my left ring finger I draw a red line from his forehead to his chin, and from his eyes down his cheeks. He grips my wrist with his cold fingers and holds my hand on his shoulder. Just stares at me. I look back at him.

"Thank you." I say.

"… what for?"

"For reminding me of who I am."

I think he is dead before I finish the sentence.

My glance falls onto his hand on my wrist. He has a silver ring with a ruby on his index finger. I take it. It suits on my thumb. I will remember him.

Look down on him again. And suddenly I laugh. I close my eyes and laugh. Turn on my heels and just fall to the ground next to the body. Laughing until there are tears in my eye. Then I am very calm, and I just lie there breathing.

The tears cool on my cheek. The katana has dropped from my hands. There we lie, Corr, the blade, and me. Me finally again. Or me for the first time.

- - -

I look at her. You'll have to decide for yourself about what to do to your scars, and your fears. I don't want mine to be on your mind. For what was right for me might not be right for you. Or, not right now. Let it heal a bit. I won't tell you. And so I say a simple word.

"No."

Not yet.