Jenna opened her eyes and coughed, spluttering as she inhaled some of the water threatening to drown her. She was lying on her side in the wet sand, white foam from the gentle breakers lapping against her face. Grimacing, she spat the salty water out and rolled over onto her back. A palm tree swayed in the breeze as she stared at the azure sky above. It took her a moment to remember what had happened.
Mutiny.
She picked herself up from the sand, wincing as she climbed to her feet. The sea must have been rough last night. It felt like she’d been pummelled nearly to death, although she remembered nothing after diving from the plank. Her boots were gone, of course, and so was her hat, but her thick knee-length coat still clung to her wet body. Her breeches and white cotton shirt were caked with sand and scratched unpleasantly against her skin as she stumbled towards the shade of the tree.
She smiled when she saw a coconut lying on the ground, and flinched as her bottom lip split. Water, she needed water fast. She smashed the coconut husk open with a large rock, cracked the outer shell and gulped the warm liquid down, rivulets of juice running down the sides of her mouth and making her hands sticky. The fruit’s flesh was bland, but it patched the hole in her rumbling belly.
With her immediate needs satiated, she suddenly remembered why she no longer had a crew.
She stood up and looked about. She knew this beach. She followed the curve of the sand until her eyes could just make out the town walls in the distance, squinting against the morning sun’s glare. She’d have to hurry if she hoped to warn them in time.
***
Jenna hesitated just outside the town gate. Stepping foot inside these walls could spell disaster for her. She glanced towards the ocean, shimmering in the late afternoon glow. Time was limited. She needed to act now.
The guards at the gate stopped her immediately.
“You have some nerve,” the first man said as he blocked her way with his musket.
“I need to speak to the Governor. Immediately,” Jenna demanded.
“Oh, you’ll speak to him, alright,” the second guard sneered as he clapped a pair of manacles around her wrists.
Leaving their post unattended, they hauled her off towards the town square, where a large white mansion sat looking out over the bay. Jenna kept her gaze towards the ground, but she heard people whispering her name as the guards bundled her through the large oak doors and up the grand staircase.
A frown creased the Governor’s face as he looked up from a stack of papers at the interruption. Recognition turned the frown into a scowl.
“I warned you never to come back here.”
Jenna wrenched her arms free of her captors’ grips and squared her shoulders as she looked into the Governor’s eyes. “They’re coming.”
The man’s face paled visibly and he pressed his lips into a thin line. “And we’ll be ready for them. But you brought this upon yourself.” He nodded curtly at the guards. The men grabbed her arms again and dragged her from the Governor’s office.
A crowd was already gathered in the square, where the gallows waited for her. Jenna lifted her head as the hangman placed the noose around her neck. The sky glowed orange, the sun hanging low over the seemingly blood-red waters of the turbulent ocean waves. In the distance, she could see a black-sailed ship approaching.
She turned towards the Governor, her gaze pleading. “Brother,” her lips formed the word, but no sound escaped them.
The Governor averted his gaze and lifted his hand.
