Taube770: переводы

→“Take them, men!” James snarled, forcing himself to be brave. “Aboard the ship! No mercy!”

→James pretended that the rattling he felt was not the shaking permeating him to his bones, but the vibration of cannon fire.

→Only Starkey stood solid and resolute, hand on his blade, tense and ready for battle.

→There was sudden pandemonium aboard the Spanish Main as men who were not accustomed to sea battles were forced to evolve into war strategists rather instantly. Smee tottered about, scrambling as quickly as his round little body would allow him, accomplishing less than nothing, but that was unsurprising. Jukes grabbed at a weapon and hurtled toward the cannon, another pirate with missing teeth beside him. And Flintwise jerked on the wheel so hard that the ship threatened to topple.

→James jumped and immediately fell to his stomach as a cannonball blasted over him, landing on the other side of the ship into the water with a thunderous splash.

→He wondered, then, having had little to no real exposure to pirates other than his own, if there was some sort of code amongst these ruffians. Would they pass peacefully by one another, nodding to their shared love of criminality? Or were they supposed to stop and board each ship together and have a grand lecherous celebration and drink rum and sing and dance until morning? Or, were they expected to fire upon one another and plunder and pillage, business as usual? His musings were answered with the sound of a cannon.

→There were men of several shapes and sizes—tall, short, skinny, large, all in various states of filth, blackness in the air around them. They wore eye patches, peg legs, and all. He could almost smell the rum sweat radiating off them from here. Swords glinted on the deck, lying around or hanging off the pockets of men who carried them so casually; there was no explanation but that they used them often.

→Starkey handed him a spyglass, which he took with exaggerated reluctance. What he saw snapped him quickly out of his apathy. He strode quickly across the deck and leaned over the edge, as if that would give him a clearer view.

→“I doubt Pan would allow a regular sailor dream into Neverland,” said Starkey, and James nodded.

→He narrowed his eyes. “Pirates?”

→“Aye.”

→“A ship.”

→“Please, just take a look.”

→Starkey stepped in front of him, and he was hulking and no easy man to step through. James stopped and flared his nostrils, frustrated but largely unsurprised.

→He knew in his inmost self that the odds of taking that bath and returning to Tiger Lily with any sort of haste were not high in light of this mysterious chaos, but he pressed on toward his cabin nonetheless.

→“Later.”

→“But, Captain, it be of the utmost importance.”

→“Don’t bother me now, Starkey. I’ve got things to attend to.”

→“Captain,” Starkey said, thundering up to him, out of breath.

→WHEN JAMES GOT BACK TO HIS BOAT, IT WAS SITTING peacefully at the dock, as James knew it would be. But its inhabitants were not nearly so serene. They were scrambling back and forth and yelling at one another, looking like a collection of bugs running from a bird. James wondered for a moment how exactly they’d gotten on at all before he’d shown up.