Always Neverland

by Zoe Barton

  “He doesn’t know where it is,” Prank said smugly, as if he did know where it was.

  “He does now. They all do,” I said firmly. “Buttercup told him.”

  “She wouldn’t,” Button said slowly, looking horrified, and I remembered that he was Buttercup’s friend too. “A mermaid work with a pirate?”

  “No! They tortured her first.” Button went very pale suddenly, and I added hastily, “She’s all right now, though.” Feeling anxious all over again, I turned to Peter. “Can we stop the Jolly Roger?”

  A hush fell over the Lost Boys, a gleam of excitement in their eyes.

  Peter fingered his sword hilt, looking thoughtful. He didn’t answer.

  Wanting to convince him, I almost added that Buttercup hadn’t told the pirates where Button did laundry, but then I stopped myself. After all, I was sworn to secrecy about Button and Buttercup’s friendship.

  “If Buttercup’s being tortured, shouldn’t we rescue her first?” Button said, concerned.

  “I already did that,” I said.

  Peter raised his eyebrows really high. “You did?”

  “All by yourself?” Prank said, sounding impressed.

  “The pirates are getting closer to the mermaids’ treasure every second,” I said impatiently. “Please, Peter. I’m worried about Buttercup.”

  “We’ve never helped the mermaids before,” Prank added. “Could be fun.”

  Peter thought for a moment. The Lost Boys held their breath. Tink chimed uncertainly. I prepared to go by myself, but then the corners of Peter’s mouth curled, very slowly. He drew his sword. “It sounds like a fine adventure!”

  The Lost Boys cheered, and I hugged Peter around the neck before I could stop myself. He didn’t mind, but Tink did. She grabbed my hair and yanked me back fiercely.

  “Tink, I have banished you!” Peter shouted, shaking his sword at her. “Leave now, or I will chase you out.”

  With another ringing sob, she let me go and drifted into the forest. Even rubbing my sore scalp, I felt a little sorry for her, but the mermaids needed our help.

  “Lost Boys! Weapons!” Peter shouted.

  Button, Prank, Dibs, and Kyle flew to different spots on the trunk—their secret hiding places.

  “I wouldn’t bring that,” Prank told Dibs, pointing at Hook’s hat. “Not unless you want Hook to steal it back.”

  Dibs reluctantly took it off.

  I flew up a few feet. “Kyle, do you still have my sword?” I asked, beginning to pace the air, anxious to go.

  “Got it!” Kyle raised the long thin blade that I had found among the blankets.

  “Wait—she’s coming?” Dibs asked Peter, shocked.

  Like I said, very old-fashioned ideas about girls. But this time, only Dibs was thinking them.

  I raised my chin defiantly. “What did you expect me to do? Wait here?”

  “That’s what all the other Wendy girls did,” Dibs replied fiercely, glaring at me.

  “You need to get out more,” I said sharply. “Meet some people outside of Neverland.”

  “No, the Wendy girls came on adventures.” Prank paused, thinking about it. “Usually, they came.”

  “Not with a sword, they didn’t,” Dibs grumbled, watching Kyle hand me mine.

  “What was the point of teaching me to use it then?” I said, one hand on my hip and the other holding my sword.

  “Do we really have time to argue?” Button asked. Prank hovered at his shoulder, carrying a sword in each hand.

  We all turned to Peter. He looked at me in a long, measuring way. Then he rose into the air, and the Lost Boys followed. So did I, glaring at Dibs the whole time.

  “She comes,” Peter said finally. “If we tell her not to, she’ll only follow later.”

  I grinned. Peter really was starting to know me better.

  Then he added, “This way, we can keep an eye on her and keep her out of trouble.”

  My grin faded. I thrust my face into the wind. I would prove to Peter that the only trouble I would bring was the kind I gave the pirates.

  Chapter 18.

  The Pirates Learn That I Am Not a Lady

  The Jolly Roger moved quickly. By the time we burst out of the trees and flew over the waterfall, the pirate ship had already sailed past the spot where Buttercup and I had done laundry the day before.

  “I don’t see any mermaids,” I said, hoping that my friend had warned them in time.

  Peter didn’t answer. None of the Lost Boys did. They all looked at the ship, grinning as we rushed over the water. Peter only had eyes for Hook.

  The pirate keeping watch in the crow’s nest noticed us first. It was Noodler. He yelled something, pointing up at us.

  Peter crowed. It was the signal. The Lost Boys gave a great shout. I gripped the hilt of my sword tighter and joined them. We swooped down on the ship.

  Kyle landed first and charged a pirate in a striped shirt, swinging his sword like a baseball bat. Prank was right behind him. He stood on the ship’s rail, his chin lowered, and he raised both swords when four pirates came at him at once.

  Dibs dashed down one side of the deck, striking at pirates as he went, and they turned and chased him. Button stood at the bow bashfully, holding his sword loosely at his side, gulping as he watched two pirates approach.

  Peter didn’t land. He just circled the pirate captain with a quiet, dangerous smile.

  “Is it you, Pan, you insolent boy?” said Hook. “We were hoping you would show up.”

  “It’s me, you old codfish,” Peter replied, raising his golden sword.

  I paused a second, hovering in the air, out of the pirates’ reach. This was my first real battle. I wanted to do it right. I closed my eyes and Pretended as hard as I could: I was Ashley, the Wendy-girl Warrior, famed for her sword skills and feared by pirates.

  Confidence flowed through me, and my sword felt more familiar in my hand.

  Then, fingers and toes tingling, I landed among the remaining crew.

  They stared at me in astonishment. I raised my sword, watching them all, ready for a fight.

  “Ain’t you the new Wendy girl?” asked one wearing a green cap.

  “The one who saved the young mermaid princess?” asked another with missing teeth.

  I grinned. “Of course I am.”

  All the pirates drew back a little bit. “Can’t fight a girl,” mumbled the one with the green cap.

  “Not you, too!” I said, disappointed.

  “Even if she does have a sword,” agreed the one with missing teeth.

  “Hey! That’s my sword,” Black Patch Pat cried indignantly.

  “Finders keepers,” I said smugly.

  “Not fair,” Black Patch complained, but I looked over his shoulder at the anchor’s lever. If I couldn’t fight any pirates, I might as well stop the ship.

  I launched myself into the air and dived toward the lever, preparing to strike again.

  A long dagger blocked my swing. It belonged to Smee, who peered at me through his glasses. “Oh no, you don’t. Not again, missy,” he said, so sternly that he reminded me of my mother. “You dogs,” he said, turning to the pirates who wouldn’t fight me, “what do you think you’re doing, letting her go by?”

  All the pirates mumbled excuses at once, so quickly and quietly that I couldn’t understand any of it.

  “I don’t want to hear it,” Smee said sharply. “We’ve got to keep this ship going. We need to reach the mermaids’ palace.”

  “But Smee,” said Black Patch Pat, “she be a lady.”

  “Lady or not, she be crafty,” Smee replied. “The captain will not take it kindly if you let her stop the ship.”

  The three pirates turned to me with fierce scowls. I grinned and raised my sword again. They raced at me.

  I swung at Black Patch Pat first and jumped up into the air again. The pirate with missing teeth stabbed wildly in my direction. I dodged and kicked at his arm so hard that he dropped his sword, howling in pain.
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br />   “Don’t be such a baby!” said Black Patch Pat.

  “She be stronger than she looks, she is,” complained the injured pirate indignantly.

  I grinned. I was good at Pretending.

  I blocked a slice from the pirate in the green cap and kicked him in the stomach with as much force as I could muster. All the air went out of him with a grunt-like oomph. I started toward Black Patch Pat again, but then I heard a panicked shout behind me.

  It was Kyle.

  Four pirates had cornered him, and his sword was just out of his reach. Kyle grabbed a loose bit of rope and swung it at his attackers like a whip. The one on the right caught it and used it to yank Kyle toward him.

  How dare those pirates single out the littlest Lost Boy! Why couldn’t they pick on someone their own size?

  I charged. The four pirates didn’t see me coming. I pushed one into the other, and like dominoes, they all toppled.

  “I didn’t need help,” Kyle said, getting to his feet, but he sounded a little shaky anyway. “I could’ve handled them.”

  “Right,” I said with a small smile, passing him the sword that he’d dropped. Black Patch Pat and the four pirates after Kyle closed in again. I thought of a plan. “In the air, Kyle. Hold your sword in both hands again.”

  Kyle looked at me strangely, but he flew up off the deck, gripping his blade like I’d ordered. “Hold on to it,” I warned him. I grabbed his feet and started to spin us around, so quickly that Kyle’s sword swung out at our attackers.

  When we stopped spinning, all five pirates were on the deck, moaning. Black Patch Pat’s arm was bleeding.

  I let Kyle go. He straightened up dizzily, still twirling a little in the air over the prow. “Whoa,” he said, giggling. “That was awesome.”

  On the other side of the deck, Peter crowed. He had cut off one big chunk of Hook’s curly hair. The pirate captain grabbed the lock’s shorn end in horror. I grinned, thinking that Hook was going to start really missing his hat.

  “There she is!” shouted Noodler from the crow’s nest. “Queen Maris’s palace!”

  My heart sank. “Keep an eye on that one,” I told Kyle, pointing at a pirate who was starting to push himself to his feet.

  “Yes, Wendy girl, ma’am!” Kyle replied cheerfully, saluting me.

  I raced up, above all the pirates’ heads, above the sails, above the crow’s nest, glancing out over the water, looking for what the lookout saw.

  At first, I didn’t see any mermaids or anything like a palace. The sunlight reflecting off the ocean was too bright. Then the Jolly Roger moved forward slightly, and the ship’s shadow fell across the water in exactly the right way.

  Under the ocean’s surface, all the towers in the mermaids’ palace gleamed with mother-of-pearl, and schools of tropical fish swam around the entrance, as colorful as any banners. Mermaids streamed through the door, carrying shiny things in their arms—the treasure.

  The Jolly Roger’s shadow crept over the palace slowly, and all the mermaids looked up at once. The one wearing a crown—Queen Maris—signaled. A dozen warrior mermaids swam forward, carrying gleaming tridents and wearing chain mail shirts made out of seashells. The one on the far right was Buttercup, looking fierce but pale. She hadn’t recovered yet. She wouldn’t last long in a fight.

  I had to think of something fast.

  I looked for Peter first. He was busy. Hearing that treasure was so close had put a gleam in Hook’s eye and a spring in his step. He hacked at Peter with renewed energy, forcing Peter back. From the stubborn, angry look on Peter’s face, I guessed he didn’t like his retreat one bit.

  The Lost Boys weren’t faring very well either. Kyle was fighting again. A red-capped pirate knocked his sword from his hand a second time, but Kyle leaped up after it and caught the hilt in midair.

  Button was occupying five pirates at once. Even though he was the biggest Lost Boy, he was the best at dodging. Not one of the pirates could touch him.

  Dibs still had three pirates chasing him. They weren’t close, but he was tiring, slowing down.

  On the opposite side of the deck, Prank still wielded both swords with a merry mastery, but every time he disarmed one pirate, another one rose up in his place.

  It confirmed my worst fear. We weren’t going to overpower the pirates this way. They outnumbered us, at least three to one.

  “Two hundred yards, Cap’n!” Noodler called, pointing from the crow’s nest.

  Smee pulled two pirates out of the melee with Button. “You two, ready the cannons. When we get in range, blast through the mermaids’ defenses.”

  I looked wistfully at the anchor lever again. Peter and Hook were fighting directly in front of it—Peter on the offensive again, cartwheeling around the enraged pirate captain. I wouldn’t be able to reach it.

  There has to be some other way to stop this stupid ship! I thought, glaring furiously around the Jolly Roger.

  Then I thought of it—the sails.

  “Lost Boys!” I shouted, remembering how clumsy the pirates had gotten after I dropped the anchor earlier. “Brace yourselves!”

  I raced up to the top of the mast. From the crow’s nest, Noodler leered at me and raised his knife. I kicked at him, nearly knocking him over the rail, and turned my attention to the sail. I hacked at the rope that kept the canvas up, and the sail fluttered to the deck below. After my warning, the Lost Boys flew nimbly out of the way, but the pirates were too slow.

  “I can’t see!” shouted one, flailing under the thick canvas covering the whole ship. “I’m blinded.”

  Laughing, I cut the ropes for two other sails, and Prank—catching on faster than the others—soared up to cut down the last one. The Jolly Roger slowed and finally stopped.

  “Cap’n, the mermaids!” shouted Smee from the only corner of the deck not covered with the sail. “They’re getting away!”

  “Smee!” said a tall bump under the canvas, quivering with rage as only Captain Hook could. “Cut. Me. LOOSE!”

  The Lost Boys started a cheer. “Wendy girl! Wendy girl!”

  I gave my sword a little twirl and smiled, pleased, when Peter started cheering too.

  Chapter 19.

  The Mermaids Invite Us to Dinner

  Below us, a mermaid surfaced with a splash. “Ashley,” Buttercup cried, smiling widely.

  Button abruptly stopped chanting and zipped toward her. “Are you all right, Buttercup?”

  “Yes,” Buttercup said. Peter, the Lost Boys, and I flew lower. “Thanks to Ashley. And all of you.”

  “It was the least we could do,” Dibs said with a grand gesture. “I mean, we were the ones who stole Hook’s hat and made him meaner than usual.”

  Annoyed, I thought, You mean, I stole Hook’s hat.

  Startled, I dropped a little lower in the air, dipping my toes in the sea.

  That was right. I had stolen the hat. Did that mean that it was my fault Buttercup had been captured? I’d never heard of the pirates targeting the mermaids before, but what if they started doing it more and more now because of me? It was a terrible thought.

  “Don’t mention it,” I said to Buttercup, squirming uncomfortably.

  “Whoa,” said Kyle. “A mermaid who can speak English.”

  “Or can you all do that?” Prank asked. “And have you been tricking us all this time?”

  “No, just me.” Buttercup’s gaze slid to Button, who turned a little pink.

  Peter looked between them with a small smirk, and I could practically see him working out their secret friendship. Button gulped, like he thought he would be banished along with Tink, but Peter just looked over at the cliffs behind us. “Our allies arrive!”

  We turned. Princess Tiger Lily stood on the shore, the feathers in her hair dancing in the breeze. An arrow was notched in her bow, and, flanking her on both sides, her Cubs stood half hidden behind the huge tree trunks.

  I waved with a huge grin. Tiger Lily hadn’t been friendly the day before, but I had accidentally led
the pirates straight to her. I couldn’t blame her for being upset. But now I’d had my first real battle, and I hadn’t done badly. Maybe that would win her over.

  The princess didn’t smile back.

  “They’re a little later than usual,” Kyle murmured.

  “It’s not like we needed the help,” Prank pointed out, jerking a thumb at the Jolly Roger. Its red sails were still draped over the dock, but they were full of holes now that the pirates had cut themselves free.

  “How clever I am,” Peter said, but he nodded my way, like he was complimenting me. “A very fine adventure.”

  I couldn’t stop myself from rising giddily into the air.

  I glanced back at the shore, but Tiger Lily and most of her tribe had disappeared.

  Only one brave remained. Pounce. I recognized the red stripes painted down his arms. He raised both hands and shrugged, and then he too stepped back and faded into the shadows.

  Something about the way they left and the way they had looked at us—very quiet and reserved—made me feel a little worried, but I couldn’t figure out why.

  We spent the afternoon escorting the mermaids to their new home, a cove on the other side of the island. It took them a few trips to move all their treasure out of the palace. They swam under the water, but every once in a while, one surfaced to smile at us, her arms full of gold or sapphires or rubies.

  Peter, the Lost Boys, and I flew above them, our swords drawn in case the pirates came after Buttercup and the rest of the mermaids. It didn’t seem all that likely. As we flew around the island’s next bay, I glanced back for one last look at the pirate ship. The torn red sails were still spread all across the deck. The crew was crowded at the helm, where Hook was arguing with Smee really loudly.

  “Cap’n, it seems we be out of thread. Noodler used the last of it to sew himself a new shirt.”

  “Morons, the lot of you,” shouted Hook. “How do you expect to repair the sails?”

  Giggling, I raced forward to join Peter and the Lost Boys. “We probably don’t need to worry about the pirates for a little while.”

  “Then why do the mermaids have to move?” Dibs grumbled.

  Button explained, “It’s like with our tree. If the pirates know where it is, it’s not safe anymore. We can’t know when Hook will come back.”