by otis duane
Legend of the Gypsy Queen Skull
Book 1 - The Devil's Triangle
A Mystery, Legends and Lore Adventure Series
By
- Otis Duane -
Copyright © 2015 by Mystery, Legends and Lore Publishing. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, businesses, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.
Table of Contents
Introduction - Inside the Devil's Triangle
Chapter 1 - The Secret Contact
Chapter 2 - Pirate Gliv
Chapter 3 - Captain William Darcy
Chapter 4 - Dorian Gypsy Witches
Chapter 5 - Meet the Bismarcks
Chapter 6 - Pirate Battle
Chapter 7 - The Ancient Witch
Chapter 8 - Heinz's Plan
Chapter 9 - The Last Barbary Pirates
Chapter 10 - The Gypsy Queen Skull
Chapter 11 - The Mystery
Introduction - Inside the Devil's Triangle
Present Day ~ Late July ~ Bermuda Triangle ~ 22 Miles North of Nassau, Bahamas
Shortly after midnight, under the watchful eye of a full moon, the three Bismarck siblings motored along in their 20-foot wooden motorboat.
Manny, sitting in the rear of the leaky skiff, kept a steady hand on the outboard engine’s rudder handle. The 14-year-old was careful to throttle up and down as needed, over the long and rolling wave swells. His long dark hair blew in the wind behind him as he readjusted his backwards fitting baseball cap.
Up front, his 13-year-old brother, Heinz, used a GPS phone app to keep him on course to the last known vicinity of the legendary Raven pirate ship.
According to the Legend of the Gypsy Queen Skull, over 300 years ago the fearsome pirate ship had mysteriously vanished into thin air. No trace of her, or her crew, had ever been found. Tonight, Heinz was convinced the ghost ship would return to haunt this part of the Devil’s Triangle.
While the boys worked in tandem, their older sister, Tinnie, sat on the middle bench rubbing her thinly sleeved arms as she blew warm air into her cupped hands. Though only 15 herself, she was the boy’s self-appointed mother, and a worrywart at that.
Turning around with a troubled look on her face, she asked Manny, “What’s up with this fog, anyway?” Her breath quickly turning to steam, in the glow of the lantern’s light.
“Don’t know,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders.
Looking around in the soupy fog, he strained his eyes to see more than a few feet beyond the confines of their boat. The ever-growing waves around them were making it difficult for him to keep their craft on a steady course.
For Heinz though, a delighted smile broke across his face when he switched over to a Doppler radar app. Checking it, he didn’t see one single storm blip for at least a hundred miles. Cross-checking it with his compass, he watched as its needle repeatedly showed True North, only to veer off and return again.
“Come on... That’s it … Keep going,” he coaxed it along, when suddenly a loud gunshot-like sound startled them up out of their seats. PA-POW!
It was the sound of their engine backfiring and echoing across the seascape.
Tinnie and Heinz both jerked their heads around to see Manny frantically adjusting the engine’s choke as he throttled down on its rudder arm. The outboard motor backfired again, then gasped and sputtered its last breath before it finally died. Over the next few minutes, they watched as he spiritedly yanked on the starter cord over and over again until he stopped and shook his head.
Aimlessly adrift in the current now, there was nothing they could do.
Tapping Manny on the shoulder with her sparkly, pink-covered phone, Tinnie handed it to him and said, “Check the gas tank.”
Clicking on the phone’s flashlight, Manny looked at the gas gauge. The red arrow indicated there was three-quarters of a tank left.
“No, it’s cool. We have plenty of–”
“Check inside the tank,” Heinz said abruptly, cutting him off.
Wrestling with the stubborn gas cap, Manny eventually unscrewed it and peeked inside. Below, he saw the gasoline-oil mixture sloshing back and forth in perfect time with the tempo of the rocking boat.
“No, we’re good,” he said.
“Crap-a-hole!” Heinz blurted out. He’d completely forgotten about the engine’s sparkplugs needing electricity to work.
“Watch it,” Tinnie chirped, snapping and pointing her finger at him. Turning back around, Manny handed her phone back to her.
“I’m calling the Coast Guard,” she said.
“Give ’em our GPS location. They’ll need it to locate us,” Manny reminded her.
“Whoa, whoa. Hold on there,” Heinz interjected as he held up his hands, beckoning her to stop.
We’re too close to throw in the towel now, he thought to himself. I gotta stall her.
“We’re all gonna get busted if you call the Coast Guard. Just give it a minute… The carburetor’s probably flooded,” he said.
Tinnie narrowing her eyes on him snipped back, “We’re in this mess because of you. So shut it. I’m calling them.”
“But–”
“End of story!”
Heinz averted his eyes to avoid Tinnie’s icy stare. Instead, he pushed up his glasses and turned his attention back to the scribbled notes on his nautical map.
“Where exactly are we?” she tersely asked him. When he didn’t respond, she poked him in the back.
“Now,” she said more forcefully.
“About 22 miles due north of Nassau,” Heinz begrudgingly answered.
“After your call, turn on your strobe light app,” Manny added.
Tinnie was looking up their GPS coordinates when her phone’s screen began to flicker and distort. “No, no, no. Not now,” she groaned as the screen turned black.
“Crap a hole… No!” she said aloud.
Heinz couldn’t resist, and snapped and pointed his finger at her and chidingly said, “Watch your mouth.”
Biting her lower lip, she placed her foot on his lower back and shoved him off his bench seat.
“You suck,” he said as his butt splashed down on the boat’s watery floor.
Ignoring him, Tinnie tried to reboot her phone but the battery was completely dead. She then snatched his flashlight off his bench and clicked on its high beam while Heinz struggled to get back up to his seat. Shining it inside her orange backpack, she looked for a replacement battery when her black cat popped his head up and grumpily meowed at her. She’d forgotten Muenster was catnapping in there.
Shifting him around a few times, she finally located her spare battery as the flashlight slowly dimmed and went dark. Smacking it hard against her hand a couple of times, she managed to get it to briefly flicker back to life before it finally died for good.
“Here,” she said abruptly to Heinz, rudely pressing the flashlight into his back and dropping it before he could turn around.
“Thanks,” he said sarcastically, fishing it out of a puddle on the floor. Under the lantern’s light she installed the phone’s new battery, but it didn’t work either.
“What’s going on?” she said to herself and turned to Heinz.
“Mine’s dead too,” he said, anticipating her question, showing his phone’s darkened screen to her.
“Manny?”
“Heinz’s got my phone,” and pointed his head to their little brother. It was true. Recently, Tinnie
had thrown Heinz’s phone into the toilet as retribution for hacking into hers.
Checking his compass again, Heinz noticed its arrow was pinging back and forth, even more erratic than before. Curious at what he was looking at, Tinnie leaned over his shoulder when a booming thunderbolt ripped across the sky - KABOOM!
“Ahhhh!” she shrieked, falling over backwards, plopping down on the wet floor.
Behind her, Manny’s jaw dropped wide open as he watched a dramatic series of lightning bolts spider-webbing overhead. Seconds later, a roaring symphony of thunderclaps deafeningly rumbled across the seascape.
“Holy cow, that’s awesome!” Manny excitedly shouted out.
“Heinz!” Tinnie called out, using her authoritative mom voice.
“What’s going on?” she demanded, ducking down behind her bench seat.
He was sporting a huge grin when he extended his hand toward her, showing her his compass.
“That can’t be good,” she said, seeing its magnetized arrow wildly spinning around in circles.
“What does that mean?” she anxiously asked.
“It means Heinz was right,” Manny interjected. “We’re in the time anomaly, aren’t we?” he added, looking over at his little brother.
When Heinz didn’t respond, he pressed him. “Come on man, tell her.”
“Nothing electrical is going to work,” Heinz stated.
“Why?” Tinnie asked.
“Because we’re outside of space and time,” Manny answered for him. Looking over to Heinz for confirmation, his little brother closed his eyes and slowly nodded his head.
“What did you get us into?” Tinnie said in a stressed-out voice.
But before he could reply, she quickly drew her finger up to her lips and shushed him. Pausing for a few seconds, she turned her attention to the darkness in front of them.
“Did you hear that?”
In the near distance, they could hear the distinct sound of waves crashing up against something.
Listening for a few more moments, the sound only grew louder and appeared to be heading straight toward them. Reaching down into her backpack, she began to nervously stroke Muenster’s fur coat.
Meanwhile, all around them, the lightning flashes continued to crackle as the ever-increasing wave swells rocked their skiff side to side. Surprisingly, though, still no rain had fallen.
“Manny,” Tinnie said, pointing to their bow. “Can you grab the light and head to the front of the boat?”
Grabbing the kerosene lantern, he stepped over her middle bench and made his way up to Heinz, who headed back to take his bench seat next to the motor.
Looking apprehensively over his shoulder at his two siblings, Manny then turned and hoisted the lantern out over the front of their skiff.
Waiting, the three of them sat with their eyes glued to the darkness, as the mysterious sound of the crashing waves grew ever louder.
A few more tense moments passed when, all of a sudden, an ominous-looking bird with a broad wingspan broke through the fog bank in front of them. Gasping aloud, Manny’s eyes grew wide as the bird towered high above him and a lightning bolt frighteningly flashed behind it. In the brief moment of illumination, he saw it was a large wooden sculpture, attached to the front of a ship’s bow. The enormous vessel looked like it was from another place and time—a 17th century Spanish warship, to be precise.
“The Raven,” Heinz whispered to himself.
“Oh no…” Tinnie mumbled in a sinking voice, panning her eyes up at the menacing ship.
They were square in its path, and there was nothing they could do.
“Overboard! Now!” she screamed out as the Raven’s enormous bow ebbed high into the air.
“Move it!” she barked.
Heinz didn’t need any coaxing, hastily stuffing his map into his jacket, he dove headlong over the side. Tinnie, grabbing her backpack, was right behind him when she suddenly noticed Manny still hadn’t moved.
He’s in shock, she thought.
With the Raven’s hull bearing down on them, she horse-collared him and jumped over the railing, yanking him over with her.
It was none too soon, when a split second later the Raven came crashing down on top of their skiff, smashing it to pieces.
Treading water with one hand, Tinnie held her backpack afloat in the other. Inside, a none-too-happy Muenster Cheese was yowling and making a fuss. A few feet away, the boys were pushing hand-over-hand off of the ship’s barnacled hull as it passed beside them.
Looking over his left shoulder, Manny watched in horror as the last remnants of their skiff sank below the waves. This can’t be happening, he thought when Heinz smacked him upside his head.
“Grab a hold!” his little brother yelled. He was clinging onto a moss-covered cargo net that was hanging down the side of the ship. Reaching over, Manny grabbed ahold of it too, and began climbing up it when he heard Tinnie frantically cry out.
“Help me!”
She was thrashing about trying to keep her head above water.
Knowing she wouldn’t last long, Manny released his grip on the netting and speedily swam over as a surging wave washed over her.
Dipping his head beneath the surface he saw a glimpse of her yellow track suit and reached out, grabbing ahold of her collar. Pulling her head up out of the water, she coughed out a mouthful of seawater right into his face.
“Sorry,” she chokingly said, gasping for air.
“You okay?” he asked, wiping his face.
With one arm wrapped under her chest, he used his other to tow her and Muenster over to the moving cargo net.
“Hurry!” Heinz urged him, waving him over as the mysterious ship was swiftly passing them by.
Quickening his strokes, Manny was huffing and puffing, trying to catch up to the net, but it only seemed to pass by them faster.
Seeing they weren’t going to make it, Heinz released his grip on the netting, allowing it to pass behind him. It would buy his siblings some time to swim closer to the hull, where he could help them.
With seconds ticking by, Heinz treaded water as he looked over his shoulder and saw the end of the net fastly approaching.
“Now or never,” he said in a dire tone, thrusting his hand toward Manny. Lurching forward, his older brother seized it, just as Heinz snagged ahold of the last rung on the net.
“Hurry, this is killing me!” his little brother said, as his arm stretched out.
Climbing over Heinz, his siblings soon grabbed ahold of the netting too. Shaking his throbbing arm, Heinz then grabbed another roped rung, and pulled himself up and out of the water.
Meanwhile, Muenster squirmed out of Tinnie’s backpack and pounced on top of her head.
Sinking his sharp claws into her, he bounded up the cargo net.
“Ouch!” she said.
Looking up at him, sitting perched on top the railing, he glared down at her and scoldingly meowed.
“Uh huh, keep it up,” she said, with a disapproving frown on her face.
~*~
Stepping down onto the deck, Tinnie was the first to make it over the railing, when Muenster jumped down and gave her a drive-by rubbing.
“Ahhhh, you’re forgiven,” she said with a smile, scratching his arched up back as he purred. They could never stay mad at each other for very long.
Stepping down on either side of their sister, Manny and Heinz saw they weren’t alone. Across the deck, emerging from the rolling fog was a small group of men walking toward them. They were led by a tall, leaner man with broad shoulders carrying a torch in his hand. Its flickering flame cast an eerie shadow across his weathered face.
He was dressed in a tattered, colonial-style jacket and wore a leather tricorn captain’s hat on his head. Walking closer to the Bismarck teens, he drew a flintlock pistol from his leather belt and lowered it down on them.
His four men, walking on either of his flanks, were all dressed in similar attire. In their hands they carried an assortment of antiqua
ted weaponry: a cutlass sword, a dagger and even a couple of shorter navel muskets.
~*~
Finally reaching them, the captain leaned over and held his torch up to each of their faces.
“What’re you doing on me Raven?” he asked in an English accent.
Tinnie and Manny immediately froze in place but their bolder brother stepped up, extended his hand and introduced himself.
“The name’s Heinz.”
Towering over the boy, ignoring his handshake, the captain eyeballed him from head to toe when he heard the deck creaking behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw one of his pirates had taken a step back and was nervously stroking his finger across his rifle’s trigger.
Turning back to Heinz, the tall man clenched his lips together and then announced, “Captain William Darcy.”
Heinz, perhaps a little more comfortable than he should have been, sarcastically asked, “Don’t you mean the pirate, Gentleman Billy Darcy?”
Taking offense to the boy’s smart-alecky tone, the captain quickly tucked his pistol away and then stepped in and seized him by his throat. Lifting him high up into the air, Heinz’s legs dangled below him as he wrapped his hands around the captain’s wrist. For a leaner man, Darcy’s raw strength was truly impressive.
Drawing the boy up to his face, he coldly stared into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity.
“Excuse me sir… Um, please forgive him. He can’t help it. We dropped him on his head when he was young,” Tinnie explained in a nervous voice.
Breaking a sly grin across his face, the pirate captain released his grip, dropping Heinz to the deck.
Rolling over, the boy gasped for air as Darcy looked down at him.
“Pirate, aye. But gentleman remains to be seen.”
Turning his head to the side, the captain gave an order to his men.
“Lock ‘em in me lady’s room. I’ll ponder ’em later.”
Stepping aside, his men moved in and took custody of the kids.
Muenster, however, was another story. He wasn’t going to go so quietly when one of the pirates reached for him. Folding back his ears, he hissed and swatted him away.