Torture Medic Túta

I extended my hand to Viola. If she had nowhere to go and was going to be a target, I wanted her on my crew.

She looked at my hand and responded calmly.

“No.”

“No?” I blinked, lowering my hand in confusion.

“Like I said, no. I won’t be joining you.”

“I’m so sorry, perhaps I misread the room. I thought there was some chemistry building between us.”

She covered her mouth, but I could see on her face that she was smiling.

“Oh, you certainly seem nice and all. Definitely a change from the usual ruffians that frequent this bar, but I can’t…” She hesitated, as if searching for the right words.

“Is there a particular reason? Or is this more of a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ situation?” I asked.

“It’s my younger sister. She was born with poor health, and I perform to earn money for her treatment. That’s why I can’t be tied down to a single crew.”

Even though she told me not to get involved, I wanted to help.

“Perhaps Túta could have a look, she’s the best medic in the world,” I suggested.

“She’s a healer?”

“The best in the world.”

“Is that true? I’ve had countless healers try to help, but they can’t seem to heal her.”

I glanced at the blushing Túta and nodded. “I don’t know anyone better.”

“Well, I can’t promise anything. I don’t have a lot of my medical equipment, but I could at least look.” She replied, her cheeks rosy.

“If you could do that, I would be very grateful.”

She reached out and took Túta’s hand. For the first time since meeting her, she was smiling with a genuine look of happiness and not just a teasing smile. “My sister is most likely asleep by now. But if you could come around to my room tomorrow morning, I would be truly grateful.”

“Sure thing,” Túta responded.

“It’s room 203, Miss Túta. I cannot wait for you to visit tomorrow morning. As for me, I must prepare for my next show, so for now I bid you farewell. Thank you for your bravery, Mr. Gentleman, the Pirate Lark.” She blew me a kiss, and I could feel my face warm up.

She wandered up the stairs, her feathers swaying with each graceful step.

“Mummy issues,” Túta mumbled, annoyed.

“Mummy issue,” Elora nodded her head in agreement.

I knew they were talking about me, and with how hot my face felt, I couldn't deny it.

Túta turned her attention to me. “I need to look at your wound.”

I removed my jacket, and she let out a sigh as she leaned in to examine it. “Does it hurt when I do this?”

She pushed her thumb into the jagged gash, and I winced in pain.

“Yes it hurts!”

“Good… maybe if you remember this pain, you won’t want to get injured so often,” she responded smugly.

Reinhart, who was still watching on, was trying to contain his laughter.

“Is it serious?”

Túta sighed.

“It’s not, but we don’t have any medical supplies left to treat it.”

She turned to Reinhart.

“Have you got any sewing equipment?”

“Maybe, I think we may have some in the back I could fetch, but we don’t have any medical supplies.”

“That’ll be fine,” she smiled, and I had a bad feeling about this.

He went out back, and several minutes later, he returned with a wooden box. Túta opened the box and began sifting through it, and finally, picking out a thread and needle.

“Perfect, now can I get some whisky?”

One of the tavern workers went behind the bar, fetched a bottle of whiskey, and handed it to her.

I knew where this was going. I’d seen enough movies to know it was for disinfecting the wound.

She took a sip of the whisky. “Man, that’s good whisky.” She wiped her mouth with her sleeve.

I guess I didn’t know what it was going to be used for.

“Alright, time to stitch you up.”

She began to thread the needle through my skin, closing the wound. Every few stitches, she’d reach for the bottle and take another swig. I just prayed she would stay sober enough to finish.

“Is she actually healing him, or is this torture?” One of the tavern workers asked. They were all watching on in horror.

“As brutal as it looks, she is the best in the world.”

“You could’ve fooled me.”

“Oi lad, if you showed those other pirates this, they wouldn’t dare mess with you.”

“All done.” She paused for a moment. “I just realised I forgot to give you something for the pain. Whoops. Here you can have the rest of this.”

She tossed me the empty whisky bottle.

“Anyway, I’m off to bed. Night, Captain. Try not to die before morning.” She waved as she walked off to bed.

Once Túta left, the tavern workers swarmed me.

“That girl is a monster,” one of them commented.

“I’ve never seen such barbaric treatment,” another worker chimed in.

“Does she have a side job as a torturer?” a third asked.

“No, you’re all wrong. She is the god damn best medic in the world.” I tried to reassure them.

“If she’s the best, I’d hate to see the worst,” the first one added before Reinhart smacked her over the head.

“It’s rude to talk about paying customers that way. Besides, I’d seen this type of treatment before. The lad isn’t wrong. She’s talented, as brutal as it seemed. Now do your job.”

“Aye boss,” they responded with a salute.

One of them approached. “As part of the accommodation, meals are included. Would you like to have your meal down here or brought to your room?”

“Can we have our food in our room?”

“Sure, we’ll bring it up.”

With that, they went back to tidying the tavern, including removing the body of the man Reinhart shot.

We climbed the stairs, found our room. The room was minimal but spacious, with four beds, a small round table, and a cracked lantern flickering in the corner. Túta was already curled up under a blanket, snoring softly.

After eating the meal they brought up, Pippa, Elora, and I played some cards before we all decided to call it a night.

“Lark!” I was awakened by Túta screaming.

Pippa and Elora had left their beds and curled up on either side of me. Despite the yelling from Túta, they were still fast asleep.

“Look, this isn’t what it looks…”

“I know that!” she snapped. “It’s Viola. I went to see her and her sister. They are gone!”

“So they left already?”

“No! There was broken glass. I think someone took them.”

I quickly got up, and Elora and Pippa stirred awake as I got out of bed. We hurried downstairs to see the tavern workers gathered around Reinhart.

“I can’t believe Ivan would be as stupid as to pick a fight with me,” Reinhart commented. He looked enraged. His hand was hovering over his pistol. “I swear, I’ll kill that dumb brat.”

“Shall we set sail to chase him?”

“We don’t have a ship.”

I stepped forward.

“Is this about Viola?” I asked.

Reinhart sighed. “That brat Ivan decided to break in and kidnap Viola and her sister, Melody. He completely ignored the consequences of crossing me.”

“So it was kidnapping?”

“Afraid so, he left a crude message behind.” He scrunched up some parchment in his hand. “The brat dared to pick a fight with us.”

“If you are going to hunt him, I want in.”

“Why get involved? It has nothing to do with you.”

“I still haven’t given up on wanting Viola for my crew.”

Reinhart raised his hand to his head and laughed.

“You’re interesting, I’ll give you that. Unfortunately, there is not much of a hunt going on. He has already set sail. We can’t leave the tavern, and even if we could, we don’t have a ship.

“What if we set out?”

“You think you can bring down Ivan? No offence, but other than your impressive pain tolerance, you haven’t got much going for you.”

He made a valid point. I couldn’t even beat the pot-bellied man yesterday. How was I supposed to defeat Ivan? We also had no idea where Ivan was heading. If we set out now, we would be sailing the seas just hoping for the best. Still, I couldn’t let Ivan get away with it.

“Do you have any idea where he is going?”

Reinhart sighed.

“You really are set on this, I see. I won’t stop you.” He turned to one of the barmaids. “What do we know about his location?”

She smiled.

“Boss, you should never underestimate the information we tavern workers can collect,” she proudly commented as she patted her chest. “They mentioned heading North.”

“Can we catch them if we go now?”

Túta nodded. “We should be able to.”

“Then it is settled.”

“Can I cut them all down?” Elora asked.

“Only the ones I don’t get to first.”

We ran down to the docks and boarded our ship, setting out to find Ivan’s boat. We sailed for several hours until, in the distance, a pirate ship became visible.

“Just wait, Ivan. Captain Lark is coming for you!”

▪──── X ────▪

End of chapter 21