Page 56 of Blow Me Down
“I thought this was your island, but you said someone else is governor?” I asked, a bit confused.
“I helped take the island from the English, right, but I don’t run it. Edward Teach is governor here now.”
“Edward Teach? Why does his name sound familiar?”
“He was Blackbeard,” Corbin said, smiling. “You didn’t expect me to create a pirate game and not have Blackbeard in it, did you?”
“How silly of me.” I smiled as Corbin hauled me up closer to him, enjoying it so much I missed a few blocks of his narration.
By the time we had seen all there was to see of the town and were headed to a dockside inn for dinner, I felt I’d let him have his way long enough. So long as we were stuck in the game and had to play out the scenario, we needed to talk about the future. The inhabitants of Turtle’s Back might not be real inourworld, but in this world they were, and I was growing extremely fond of many of them.
“Stop looking at me like that,” I warned Corbin as he sat down across a rough-planked table.
“Like what?”
“Like you’re on a thousand-calorie-a-day diet, and I’m a chocolate éclair. This is a public inn, and we need to talk, so behave yourself.”
His smile was so infectious, it was almost impossible to resist returning it.
“Well, youarefilled with creamy goodness…”
“I want to talk about this blockade,” I said, leaning back so a well-endowed barmaid could set down my mug of ale and Corbin’s glass of brandy. As I mopped up the splashed ale I gave her a fulminating glare, which was completely wasted because she was too busy trying to get Corbin to look down her cleavage.
He kept his gaze firmly on me.
“You get beaucoup bonus points for that,” I told him when the barmaid finally skedaddled.
“Whew. Good. I hoped so, because it was totally going against nature not to look, but I did try. What did you want to say about the blockade? I assume you want to help with it.”
“I’m already signed up to do so.” I took a sip of my ale. It was the most innocuous of all the beverages in the game, but even so, experience had taught me that it packed enough of a wallop that my brain translated its effect as a form of virtual drunkenness.
Corbin frowned. “What do you mean, you signed up? I’m organizing the blockade—if someone has spoken to you about participating without clearing it through me first—”
“Corbin, I’m not a member of your crew. You said we had to fulfill the scenario, so I have to stick with Bart, regardless of my feelings. Unless you think my switching would have no impact on the game play?”
He thought for a minute, then shook his head. “If Bart approached you to join his crew, then that means the scenario needs a player in that crew. If you left it, the scenario might stall, and we’d never get any farther. Much as I’d like to have you in my crew, it’s probably better if you stay a member of Bart’s.”
I took a deep breath, dreading the moment that had come. “Well, technically I’m not really a member of the crew; I’m sort of probational there. However, Bart has asked me to help protect Turtle’s Back from the blockade, and I’ve agreed to do so.”
I leaned back against the wall, waiting for Corbin’s reaction to my statement. I had decided that my involvement in the blockade was the best bargaining chip I had to persuade him to talk peaceable negotiations rather than all-out war.
“You’re my wife,” he said, his frown growing.
“Only in the game.”
“We’re talking about events in the game,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “You can’t blockade against your own husband.”
“You just said I had to stick with the crew. Could I possibly blockade against my crew without screwing the game plan up?” I asked.
I swear a black cloud started forming over his head. “No. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to allow this—”
“Wait before you get all riled up. I didn’t think you’d like me on the other side, so luckily, I came up with a solution to the problem.”
He waited for the count of five. “What solution?”
“You and Bart get together and hammer out a peace treaty. Or,” I said quickly, sensing danger from the way Corbin’s eyes lit with menace, “your duly appointed representatives meet and work on a peaceful end to the hostilities between you and Bart. That should be within the bounds of the scenario, and yet would cancel all the war stuff.”
“Except the ‘war stuff’ is what powers the game,” Corbin said, a definite note of finality in his voice. “This game is built to generate conflict, Amy. Blockades are a part of that. In this case, I’m going to have to say that this blockade is preordained, and going to have to be carried out in order to further the scenario.”
