Butterfly Islands: Chronicles of the Twenty-One Butterflies, #1

By Chris Seabranch

Casey is only fifteen years old when her stepfather tries to marry her to a perverted and brutal man twice her age. However, minutes before the wedding, Casey flees into the jungle where she is rescued from her pursuers by a mysterious woman who sets the terrified young girl on a path to becoming a pirate - a path full of adventure, danger, personal struggles, and self-discovery.

Struggling with her own fears and desires, Casey hovers between being an innocent teenage girl confused about love and her own sexuality, and becoming a ruthless pirate seeking revenge on those who have taken all she cherished away from her. 

Casey strives to win the trust of the Twenty-One Butterflies, a group of female pirates living on Butterfly Islands, a mystic place filled with dazzling butterflies by day and swarms of moths carrying terrifying parasites by night. A disastrous trip by the Twenty-One Butterflies to a floating city in the sky known as God's Mercy, changes everything. While trapped once more in the hands of her former husband-to-be, Casey discovers that there is a traitor in their midst. From that point on, it is a race to save her new friends' lives and to escape from the man who wishes to make the young girl his wife and a slave to his twisted desires. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Seabranch
• Release date: Mar 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9788460859376

Book preview

Map of Gallows Sound

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Chapter I

Every female pirate was once a scared little girl fleeing from something. However, in time, even small girls can become death on the horizon and make grown men tremble in fear.

Mercy, cried the broad-shouldered man and begged for his life. But it was too late. The pirate Queen wanted her revenge and fed him to the sharks a piece at a time. In doing so, she wiped away the last bad memory of her former life.

***

Casey shook her head at the reflection in the large wood-framed mirror. For half an hour, she had tried to decide if she wanted her hair tied in a knot at the back of her neck or left hanging down over her shoulders. It was her wedding day, and like every other girl, she had dreamt of this day her whole life and of how beautiful it would be.

Casey had been in love with Jack, the blacksmith's son, for more than two years. Jack was two years older than she was, and at the age of seventeen, he was in many regards already considered a man. Their children would be gorgeous, Casey often thought to herself as she watched Jack hammering away in his father's workshop. Jack always worked without a shirt on, revealing his well-trained upper body, which years of forging had chiseled into shape. Casey knew he most likely took off his shirt only to impress the girls, and especially her, but she did not mind. She could sit for hours on the stone fence across the street from the blacksmith's shop and admire Jack working the bellows or shaping a piece of iron into a tool or a horseshoe on the big anvil. Just watching him gave her a warm sensation in her stomach that spread through her chest and up her neck until it made her blush. She was sure it was the feeling of true love.

Their feelings were mutual, and Jack had promised her that they would marry as soon as he became a skilled blacksmith. With his savings, they would buy a small workshop on another island. He would be the only blacksmith on the island with plenty of work to do, and she would give birth to a lot of babies. Just a few months previously, they had kissed for the first time. It was a kiss of promise, Jack had told her.

Casey stared into the mirror. She did not look anything like she had imagined in her dreams. Her long blond hair was a mess, and her usually clear blue eyes were swollen and red from crying. Her skinny body trembled and she breathed rapidly, unable to calm herself.

Today, Casey was not marrying Jack. Her father had been lost at sea a few years previously and he would not be there to walk her down the aisle. Instead, her mother's new husband, Mr. Stevens, would give her away. Mr. Stevens had also decided whom Casey would marry and it would not be Jack. In a few hours, she would be Mrs. Johnson, wife of Alfred Johnson, the Governor's son. Casey burst into tears as she thought of the life awaiting her.

Casey's mother had resisted the marriage between her daughter and the Governor's son for a long time. She dreaded the thought of Casey marrying Alfred Johnson, who had a reputation for being a hot-tempered gambling man and a drunkard. However, Mr. Stevens had worn down her resolve over the months until she gave in and agreed to the marriage.

Mr. Stevens' pressure had started with heated arguments where he angrily insisted that the wedding between Casey and Alfred Johnson was most sensible. When Casey's mother did not give in to his persistence, he became violent. He started slapping her across the face with the back of his hand whenever they had an argument and she disagreed with him. Sometimes, he also punched her hard in the stomach, sending her to the floor unable to breathe for minutes. Mr. Stevens would stand above her, roaring like a wild animal hovering over its prey. The bald, broad-shouldered merchant with hairy arms and a potato-shaped nose was not a man who accepted a woman's refusal. Besides, he had his own vested interest in the marriage that gave him direct access to the Governor's ear. A family relationship with the Governor, albeit a weak one, would make it much easier for him to secure the lucrative contracts to transport goods across the ocean to the Old World in the east.

In the end, the arguments and beatings wore Casey's mother down and one night, where Mr. Stevens had beaten her up more badly than usual, she ended up agreeing to the union between her daughter and the Governor's son. The stocky merchant made all the wedding arrangements a few days later, even though Casey was only fifteen years old and it was customary to wait with a marriage until the girl turned eighteen. Sometimes, poor families allowed their girls to marry at an earlier age, but among the wealthier families, it was very rare. For her part, Casey had accepted the wedding arrangements as well, only to end the daily beatings that her mother endured.

Alfred Johnson, on the other hand, was twenty-nine years old and eager to make a wife of the blue-eyed girl, who when she walked by, always turned the heads of the boys in the city. In the taverns at night, he proudly told his friends what he planned to do to Casey on their wedding night. When he acted out scenes of him and Casey in bed, using chairs or barmaids as stand-ins for his wife-to-be, his friends cried out in laughter, encouraging him to more bizarre and perverted acts.

Casey shuddered at the thought of her wedding night. She knew and feared what Alfred expected of her, and she had absolutely no desire to spend a single night in bed with him, let alone every night for the rest of her life. However, once Alfred put a ring on her finger, she could not refuse him. Everyone expected a woman to please her husband no matter if she wanted it or not. She would have to.

Casey stared despondently out the window and across the sea to the west. Her tear-filled eyes fell upon the place that would be her new home after the wedding. On the horizon lay the three-hundred-foot-high cliff faces of the uninhabited islands of North Island to the north and New Island to the south. Both islands stretched for hundreds of miles in either direction with only a narrow gap leaving a channel for the sea to surge between them. Once, a single great rock had blocked the passageway between the two islands and sailors used weeks to sail around. However, hundreds of years ago, someone had lifted the rock out of the sea to allow easier trade between the east and the west. The rock, they had left dangling one-hundred-fifty feet in the air suspended between four massive interlocked iron chains. Bizarre and intricate mechanical contraptions held the chains firmly anchored to the top of the cliff faces, which towered over the gap between them. Soon after the rock was raised, people began to settle this floating island-in-the-sky and today, an ever-expanding city of largely wooden houses populated the rock's uneven surface. The poorly built houses were crammed together in a confusion of dwellings. Between them, myriads of narrow streets and alleys created an elaborate maze. Twelve hundred people lived in the city, every inhabitant willing to chance the risk of the chains snapping one day under the weight of the growing population.

The city boasted a large port, which was located directly underneath the floating rock and almost spanned the entire gap between North Island and New Island. Ships moored at one of the several large wooden platforms where broad rope ladders led up to the city high above. The ladders were wide enough for three men to pass each other, but from time to time, someone would lose their grip and fall down, often landing on the wooden platforms or the ships below, creating quite a mess. When the winds were gusty, the screams of the unlucky ones carried for miles around. If a man fell from the very top of the ladder or from the sides of the floating island itself, he could sink a small vessel by landing on the deck. Because drunken guests from the city taverns often relieved their bladders over the sides of the rock at night, most ships preferred to anchor further away from the city after dark, avoiding both the rain of urine and fallen boozers.

Casey did not like God's Mercy - as the city was called - a fitting name for a place so ungodly. Though she had never been there, she had heard plenty of stories about the city, which had more taverns and brothels than any other island in the New World. Crude entertainment was really the only thing the city had to offer, as it produced nothing else of interest. Besides the excess of prostitutes and alcohol, the city had a market for clothes, food, wine, weapons, and furniture, as well as a jail alongside several government buildings.

Despite its lack of almost anything except questionable adult entertainment and cheap hangovers, God's Mercy still had its fair share of visitors. The city had a reputation that no matter a man's desire for a woman, he could always find it in God's Mercy. This meant that travelers and merchants in search of female company for a night often stopped in the city-in-the-sky rather than the other islands in the area.

God's Mercy was a scary place and Casey feared the life awaiting her there. Soon, she would not be Casey Archer anymore but Mrs. Johnson, the Sheriff's wife. After the wedding, Alfred would to take over as the new Sheriff in the city and Casey was very well aware that he would probably be the most corrupt and drunken Sheriff ever to take office. Little did it matter that he was incompetent and more interested in filling his own pockets and getting into bar brawls than upholding the law. As long as his father was the Governor of Gallows Sound, the collection of small islands sprawled over a vast area between the curved reaches of North Island and New Island, Alfred's position was secure.

Someone knocked on the door and Casey pulled her eyes away from the floating city and wiped the tears away with the back of her hand.

Come in, she said. Her voice trembled. She knew it was almost time.

Casey's mother walked into the room. Her eyes were the same color red as Casey's and she had a fresh bruise on the left side of her face. Her attempt to cover the bruise with her hair was useless, as it was getting darker and becoming more visible for every minute that passed.

Casey noticed how old her mother looked even though she was not even forty years old yet. Her hair was lifeless and graying and she walked hunched over, her face expressionless. Mr. Stevens had forced her to wear an elegant, blue dress and shawl, but the clothes only underscored the stark contrast between the expensive dress and the woman's broken spirit.

Casey remembered what her mother was like when her father still lived. She had been the most wonderful woman in the entire city, always smiling and singing. Casey's parents had been the kind of couple that people looked at and everyone agreed that they were meant for each other. They would always laugh together and from the moment they had met in their early twenties, Casey's father had been passionately in love with his wife. His sole ambition in life had been to make her happy and to make sure that she and Casey had everything they wanted. When he died, all of their happiness perished with him and the house, which was once filled with laughter and love, turned into a tomb of sorrow. Within two years, Casey's mother had spent their entire fortune on expeditions trying to find her lost husband. When she eventually ran out of money, she married Mr. Stevens, only because she could no longer put food on the table for herself and Casey. That was just over a year ago and Mr. Stevens had promised to 'take care' of them both.

Casey's mother stepped behind her daughter and started to smooth her hair with a brush. She cried and her hands were shaking.

I don't want to lose my only child to Alfred Johnson. I am so sorry for everything, she sobbed.

Casey felt a new round of tears fill her eyes and start to run down her cheeks. She didn't want to marry him either, and she feared what would happen after she had wedded Alfred and Mr. Stevens had no more use for her mother. If he had treated her badly before, it would only become worse after the wedding. Casey shivered at the thought.

The young girl and mother did not say anything to each other for several minutes. What could any of them say on this day of sorrow? There was no point in trying to reassure each other that it was going to be okay because they both knew it was not going to be okay. Only pain and suffering awaited them both.

Run, Casey's mother suddenly whispered with newfound clarity in her voice. Run away from here right now and make a better life for yourself elsewhere.

Casey gasped. Her wedding was minutes away, and now her mother told her to flee from it. In disbelief, she turned around and stared at her. There was determination, strength, and love in her eyes that she had not seen in a long time. It was a glimmer of hope, but to what avail? It was all too late.

I can't. What will happen to you if I run away? Mr. Stevens will be furious and he will turn his wrath on you. He will make your life a living hell, she reasoned.

Casey felt torn. She desperately wanted to flee, but she was also genuinely concerned for her mother's life.

However, her mother smiled softly at her concerns.

Ever since we lost your father, my life has been a living hell. Nothing, Mr. Stevens can do, can come even close to the pain I feel for that loss. I only have one thing left to live for and that is your happiness. You will never have that if you get married today. If Alfred gets his way, you will have a future filled with sorrow and pain just as mine. Run away from here and be happy, only then will I find my peace. I thought for a long time that there could be another way for us, but now I see that there is no such hope, she said.

But what if he kills you? Casey protested. She was convinced that Mr. Stevens was capable of murder if he became angry enough.

Casey's mother wiped the tears from her daughter's cheeks.

If I die, I will see your father again, and that is what I long for more than anything else in this world. We will lie together on a cloud in Heaven and look down at you and smile. We will laugh when you laugh, and we will be together again as we were meant to be.

Casey saw in her mother's eyes the spark that had been gone for so long. She threw her arms around her.

I love you so much, mom. I will come back for you. I promise.

The two of them hugged for a while. Casey could not let go. She feared that once she left their house, it would be the last time she would ever see her mother. The thought of fleeing and leaving her behind created a knot in her stomach and she wanted to delay the escape. However, a hard knock on the door reminded them of the urgency. If Casey was to flee her own wedding, it had to be now. There was no time to rethink the decision.

Casey! Alfred Johnson shouted from outside the door. You better get down here now! The minister is waiting for us and I will not tolerate my wife making me look like a fool in front of my guests. Do you hear me, girl?

A whole day of drinking had made Alfred's speech slurred. He knocked again, this time hammering his fist repeatedly into the wooden door.

Casey, if you don't open this door right now, I will make you regret it, he threatened.

The two women were silent, hoping that Alfred would think they were not there and leave. Then they heard another voice outside the room. It was Mr. Stevens.

Margaret! he yelled, addressing Casey's mother. I know you are in there, woman. Hurry up and open this door now or I will beat you senseless once I get inside.

Mr. Stevens did not wait for an answer from Casey's mother but threw his shoulder against the door. It gave way a little, causing plaster to fall from the ceiling. It was evident that the door would come down quickly from the weight of the stocky merchant ramming his shoulder against it.

Casey's mother took her daughter's head into her hands and kissed her.

Go now. Go through the window and do not look back until you are in a safe place. I will tell them that you are in the bathroom to buy you time. Go!

She hugged her daughter one last time.

I love you, mom, Casey whispered and opened the window, letting a breeze of warm tropical air rush into the room. She climbed out onto the ledge, took in a deep breath of freedom, and glanced back at her mother before she jumped down on the soft grass below. As she landed, she heard the cracking sound of the door crashing in.

Where is she? Mr. Stevens roared like an angry grizzly. He did not wait for an explanation from Casey's mother before he slapped her across the face, sending her violently to the floor.

The night was dark and Casey ran as fast as she could. She did not get very far before she heard her mother cry out in pain. The sound did not last long for Mr. Stevens' furious raging soon drowned out her screams. Casey sobbed as she turned one corner and then the next, running further and further away from the city center toward the northern part of Queen's Harbor. She kept seeing images of Mr. Stevens beating her mother as he had done so many times before. This time, Casey knew it would be worse, which made her long to go back and save her mother from the brutal assault. She knew, however, that if she went back, she would endure the same fate and her mother would lose her last reason to live. She had to keep on running.

Casey ran as fast as she could through the small streets that made up the northern part of the city. Queen's Harbor consisted mostly of small two-story stone houses threaded with narrow cobbled streets. Many of the houses had a shop at the street level and accommodation on the first floor, but all the shops were closed this late in the evening and only a few people were out on the streets. All of them turned their heads to watch the young girl in wedding dress and bare feet run by, obviously surprised by the unusual sight.

When Casey reached the blacksmith's house after ten minutes, she gasped for air and her chest burned from the exertion. She tried to get her breathing under control and knocked on the door, calling out Jack's name between breaths.

Jack?

Her voice pierced the silent night and when she got no response, she called again, this time, a little louder. After calling a third time, she heard a sound from the first floor and looked up as a window swung open.

Is that you Casey? What are you doing here? asked Jack's mother, surprised.

I need to talk to Jack. Please, Casey panted. She was desperate.

Jack is not here, sweet girl. He left Queen's Harbor on a boat three days ago.

He did what? Oh no, what have I done? Casey exclaimed horrified. Where did he go? You need to tell me.

I don't know. He was heartbroken when he learned you were getting married. He said he wanted to go somewhere where he would not be reminded of you. What happened to you?

I am not marrying Alfred Johnson. I want to marry Jack! Casey sobbed. Can you tell him that when you see him again?

She pulled her wedding dress over her head and left it at the front door of the blacksmith's house. She only wore her long undergarments, but she did not mind. She just wanted to be free of the confining dress and all it symbolized. Voices in the distance startled her and she took off running.

I will tell him. Be careful my dear, Jack's mother shouted behind her.

Casey ran further north through the city. Queen's Harbor was located in the southwestern part of Queen's Island, the largest island in Gallows Sound. Most of the island was farmland, with small villages scattered inland and along the coast. North of the city, however, a dense jungle covered the entire western part of the island. The jungle started just outside the city walls, with only a single narrow path leading into it.

Casey knew that the jungle would be her best chance at hiding from Alfred and Mr. Stevens. She took a right turn down a small alleyway and then a left turn onto a larger street. She followed this street until she came to the city's northern gate. Two guards stood watch at the entrance to Queen's Harbor and Casey worried that they somehow knew why she was running. She was pleasantly surprised when they passively nodded as she hurried through the gate. Apparently, they presumed that she was just a street child going to hunt for tubers in the jungle, and she passed them and disappeared between the trees.

The darkness of the jungle was overwhelming. Back in Queen's Harbor, the city lights had lit up the main streets and the moon had provided Casey with enough light for her to find her way in the small alleyways. Under the jungle canopy, it was pitch black and she had to slow her pace down to a walk to be able to follow the path without stumbling over roots and rocks. Sounds of wild animals filled the jungle at night. Everywhere, Casey heard a constant humming of crickets and the high-pitched squeaks of bats navigating their way through the dark. In the distance, a cat-like predator growled, and in the bushes close to the road, a snake slithered around on the jungle floor in search of an unwary rat or a chick that had fallen from its nest.

Casey did not mind the sounds of the wildlife. Having grown up in this part of the world, they were familiar to her. What did scare her was the sudden sound of dogs barking on the path behind her. The barks caused all other animals to become quiet and Casey clearly heard the dogs, even from far away.

Startled, she immediately picked up her pace again and ran down the path as fast as she could. Overhanging branches struck her in the face and her feet constantly hit rocks and tree roots, sending violent shocks up her legs. However, she kept going. She knew that neither Alfred nor Mr. Stevens had any dogs, which meant the dogs chasing her had to be Governor Johnson's fierce beasts. Only once had she seen the Governor's dogs. It was on the day that Mr. Stevens had arranged her marriage at the Governor's mansion. The Governor had six large, mixed-breed, black guard dogs. He kept them in individual pens to keep them from attacking each other, and only let them out when he went hunting or when he went inspecting the villages around Queen's Island. He had once let the dogs attack a man who, in an intoxicated state, had insulted him. The man ended up losing his right arm and the use of his left leg. He was now a disfigured cripple in the slums of Queen's Harbor, only left alive as a symbol of what happened to people who crossed the Governor.

Luckily, for Casey, the Governor still kept the dogs leashed. The pursuers did not want to release them yet because the dogs were unruly and would probably run off into the jungle after the first wild animal they heard or smelled. Even so, the pursuers were closing in on Casey. She could distinguish their voices and was able to identify them as Mr. Stevens, Alfred, Governor Johnson, and at least three other men who presumably were guards from the Governor's mansion. She heard them arguing with Mr. Stevens trying to convince the Governor that they would find Casey, reassuring him that the marriage would take place as planned. Governor Johnson quipped sarcastically that it depended on whether they or the dogs reached her first. He did not want his son to marry a disfigured and crippled little girl.

Chills ran down Casey's spine, and