by H. N. Klett
“H-h-how do you know?” she got out, fighting off the tears that wanted to come.
“History,” the sailing master volunteered. “During the War for Independence a couple of hundred years ago or so, your ancestor, Rachel Feron, the first Pirate Queen, led a band of privateers on the ship, the Revenge, against the Crown. They almost turned the tide of the war, actually.” He stood and strode to the window and looked out. “At one point, the Crown tried to use the plague to wipe out another town. This time it was Rachel’s hometown of Jakar. Rachel and her crew were able to stop the plague just in time with something she kept in the treasure cave.”
“How do we know we aren’t too late already?”
“We don’t know much about the plague, but we think it takes time to work,” the surgeon said. “I suspect there might be an incubation period of some sort. We think it might take several weeks before any symptoms appear. Then it comes on quite suddenly. The patient starts bleeding from the nose, followed by bleeding from the eyes and ears…” His voice trailed off as he saw the gravity of the room go from low to morbid.
“I think that’s enough, Doctor,” the captain gently suggested.
Several weeks? Hailey thought. Could that mean I have the virus, too? Hailey felt a deep pit forming in her stomach at the thought. Though she never saw any of the bodies from Cowl’s Ridge, by all accounts the results were horrifying. Reports of their messy and painful deaths were well known.
“So we have time?” Hailey looked at him.
“If we get to that device Rachel used, then yes,” he replied.
Hailey didn’t have a choice anymore. She had to save her family. These people were willing to help her get what could save them all. There was nothing more she could negotiate. She wasn’t sure she could trust them, but they had saved her from the Crown before. It was obvious that she was too important to betray, at least for the moment.
Hailey turned to the captain.
“What do I need to do?”
Zordebran slid the book to her on the table.
“Be our navigator. Consult your book, see what it says. Find out where we need to go and plot our course.”
She picked it up and nodded. Standing, she walked past Hadyn and Kyra, who both gave her sympathetic looks and went and sat on the bed at the back of the cabin.
The other crewmen continued the meeting, each executive officer giving their reports on their sections. Hailey ignored them and let herself get lost in the book. She looked up at the living map spread out before her in the air. She could see a great many things, but there was nothing about a treasure on it. She couldn’t help but look at her home port of Daden. Dozens of warships blockaded the port. Hailey wondered just how long her father, Grandmother Rose, and the other townsfolk could hold out.
She needed answers. She looked down to the blank page that stared up at her and projected her thoughts to the book.
Where is the treasure?
Words bubbled up on the page.
GOOD! YOU ARE GETTING THE HANG OF THIS!
THE TREASURE CAVE IS HIDDEN, EVEN FROM ME.
TO FIND OUT ITS LOCATION YOU MUST FIRST GET THE KEY
FROM THE PIRATE QUEEN’S COVE.
THAT KEY WILL UNLOCK THE LOCATION OF THE TREASURE ON THE MAP
AND THEN I CAN TELL YOU WHERE IT IS.
Okay, so where’s the cove?
THE PIRATE QUEEN CAN TELL YOU…
The page went blank for a moment, then a different sort of writing began to fill the page. Hailey flipped the pages and saw that all the once blank pages were covered in writing. It wasn’t block text, like when the book talked to her. This was different. It was actual handwriting. The looping fashion of the words on the page made Hailey think of someone using a quill. Most of the words on the page were blurred except for certain sections. It took her a moment to figure out that the book was showing her just the sections in relation to her question.
7 Octurine, 5546
I think I have located a safe harbor on the island of Eolan. It is tricky to get to, but that may be to our advantage. Since accepting the colonial alliance’s letter of mark eight months ago, we have either captured or raided a dozen ships and helped to lay siege to the key port in Aibronne. We have been nuisance enough now that they are actively hunting us. Only our good luck and this book has helped us in avoiding the several 80-gun warships they send looking for us. It seems our efforts have given them somewhat of a black eye. They have taken to calling me the Queen of the Pirates and are now offering a large sum of gold for my head. It would be best to find a port of our own than tempt anyone at the colonial ports. They are having a hard enough time as it is keeping people fed and fighting; no need to give them the temptation of a king’s ransom to betray one of their own.
Though they pursue us, they have yet to catch sight of us unless we want them to. With our smaller, more agile ship, and the aid of this journal, we have made a mockery of their hunt, but still, we need a place to rest and refresh our supplies.
The rest of the sections were blurred, and a colored arrow pointed to the edge of the page. Hailey guessed that meant she should turn the page.
30, Octurine 5546
We have established a harbor just off the lip of Eolan. After several days of digging narrow channels up the river to accommodate the Revenge, we reached a spot where we could carve out a small port that is completely hidden from view. I will put the coordinates for it in the notes.
Again there was nothing left for her to read on the page. Arrows pointed on page after page of blurred texts. Finally, towards the end of the book, a small section remained unblurred.
12, Tredecim 5550
Things do not bode well. With the recent losses in Baron’s Bay, the colonial alliance is on the verge of collapse. We are making our last stop in the cove to hide the key to the treasure cave we have found. I had hoped to go back there and get some of the magical items in the cave to help, but there is no time. We have to get to McKinnett before it’s too late. Damn Elias’s treachery!
I plan to send this book to a separate location for safekeeping after we leave the cove. We just can’t afford to let either the key or the book to ever fall into royal hands.
We will be setting up perimeter defenses and traps on our way out. Without this book and the ability to use it, I don’t see how anyone could ever find it or live long enough to see it if they got close. It’s my hope that no one ever finds our little cove, but if they do, I pray to the Ancestors that they pay a bloody price to get there.
After reading the last sentence, the words cleared from all of the pages.
She looked up at the map and text that said “Pirate’s Cove” hovered over an arrow pointing to the southern point of the tiny isle of Eolan. She zoomed in and saw that the course to get there was treacherous. That region was famous for its diamond shoals, which shifted often and whose sands wrecked even the hardiest of ships.
Hailey asked the book, Has anyone found Pirate’s Cove? It’s been two hundred years since she left it. Surely someone has been there.”
NO.
I HAVE A RECORD OF EVERY SHIP’S PASSAGE SINCE THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLONIES. NO SHIP OR PARTY HAS COME CLOSE TO THAT LOCATION
SINCE RACHEL LAST DEPARTED.
Hailey looked up from the book to the map floating in the air. She looked at the tiny island of Eolan. It wasn’t big, almost hard to notice, even though it was not too far to the south of the major seaport of Jakar. She wondered how it could be that no one had found the cove in all that time.
So I have the only map to get there?
YES.
And the only way to get in?
YES.
So how do I get there?
The image pulled back enough to show their ship in the air. A red line appeared on the map that zigzagged through the Diamond Shoals just off the coast, then up the river on the island. It was a complicated route. The flight there would be relatively short, but they would lose precious time once they got there.
They would have to land. The cove was located up river on the island and surrounded with a heavy canopy. The route was narrow and no doubt full of surprises, but they would have to risk it.
Hailey stood up from the bed and crossed the room. Dan, the sailing master, was just finishing his report on the rigging. He stopped mid-sentence as Hailey approached.
“I have our course, Captain.” She laid the book down on the table. Everyone leaned in to look, but the pages were blank to them.
They all gave each other puzzled looks.
“You can’t see that? I thought you just saw what was in the book earlier?” She pointed to the map floating in her vision.
“No. The book only talks to you. Only you can see anything,” the captain said.
“But you could read what it said when I opened the book.” Hailey cocked her head in puzzlement.
The engineer, Chloe, placed her hand on Hailey’s shoulder. “I think that was something built into the book as some kind of verification for everyone. The book is keyed to only be read by someone in your bloodline. We can’t see anything right now. Only you can.”
The captain leaned forward in his chair. “So where is the treasure?”
“First we need to go to Pirate’s Cove in Eolan and get the key. Once we have it, the book can tell me where the treasure is,” Hailey replied.
“The Diamond Shoals, how fitting for the Queen of the Pirates,” said Hadyn with a chuckle.
The tall, grim figure of the first mate, Olau, somehow managed to look even grimmer.
“That is a very dangerous passage, Captain.” He turned and looked down on Hailey. “Can we fly there?”
“Only part of the way. The rest of the way, we will have to land and do some tight maneuvering, but a ship this size would manage.”
Olau looked over to Dan. Had Hailey heard his earlier report, she would have learned that the sailing master had just spent the last three days changing the rigging for flight. Dan sighed and put his hands on his hips, the look of frustration was obvious on his face. He looked to the captain.
“We will have to change rigging again once we land to prepare for tight maneuvering.”
The captain nodded and ignored Dan’s frustration.
The eyes in the room returned to Hailey, who looked as if she was staring at nothing over the pages of her book.
“On our current course and heading, if we make adjustments, we can be there by mid-afternoon. I will give you the bearings and course.”
The captain stood up and pushed back the chair, his height matching that of his towering first mate. The two together were unbelievably imposing.
Telos looked over at Olau. “Get everyone to their stations and prepare to head to Eolan.”
Olau nodded, ducked his head, and moved through the door with a speed surprising for one of his size. Everyone began to follow and shuffled their way to the door. All except the captain, who stood there watching them all. Hailey reached over to the table and picked up the book and tucked it under her arm and started to follow the crowd.
“Hailey,” the captain called to her. She stopped and turned to face the tall, dark, imposing figure of Captain Zordebran. Hadyn and Kyra, who had been in front of her on the way out, hung back as well.
“Yes, sir?” she asked.
“Welcome to the crew of the Dark Star. You’re one of us now.” He slightly tipped his hat to her. She nodded her thanks and left the cabin with Kyra and Hadyn.
Chapter 15
As Hailey predicted, they landed midday just outside of Eolan and began the slow trek inland. Hailey was thankful they had the book. Not only did it show her the way around the dangerous shoals, it also deactivated all of the island’s outer defenses, of which there were many. Mines, automatic cannons, even fire throwers. Even after all that time, the book registered that they all were in working order. Malik decided to test it out for himself. Seeing a mine just barely below the surface of the water some hundred yards off their port side, he decided to set it off. He took one of the long rifles and, after a couple of tries, he hit his target and the mine exploded, reverberating into a huge shower of water, turbulence that shook the ship, and shrapnel falling just short of the hull.
“Yep. They still work!” he said, quite pleased with himself as he tossed the rifle to one of the automatons as he walked by the stunned crew, eyes wide at the size of the explosion.
Hailey and the crew now realized why no one had been on the island in over two hundred years. Without the book, they wouldn’t have gotten within half a mile of the island before the defenses ate them alive. It was no wonder no one else had been there since Rachel left over two hundred years ago.
She wished that they could have simply flown to the cove, but the map showed that between the shallowness of the channel and the thick foliage inland, flying was impossible. They made the slow trek to the river that flowed from the island to the sea. There was still some breeze getting through the canopy of trees, but Zordebran ordered the crews to break out the long poles to help move things along. Hailey zoomed in on their course as she stood at the front of the boat with her book and noted that they were surrounded by defenses every step of the way as they made their way up the river. It was as if the woods to either side of them had teeth. Barely covered by the dense foliage, they could make out cannons that tracked their slow progress. They rounded a bend and saw several skeletons speared to trees through their ribs from one of the automated defenses.
Oddly enough, they didn’t run into any trouble getting the tall masts through the ceiling of trees. Upon further inspection, Dan climbed to the top to discover that the foliage canopy was nothing more than an illusion of some kind, making them all wonder what was real or not in what they saw.
They eventually found themselves at the end of the river. It stopped at a pool just before a large waterfall that plunged down with great ferocity from a giant rock face above them.
“Is that the cove?” Hadyn asked.
Hailey consulted the map. “Nope.” She pointed at the waterfall. “Through there.”
Hadyn and Kyra shrugged at each other and signaled the captain and crew to push them into the waterfall. As they approached, Hailey and the crew watched as the water began to part for them, starting from the middle, as if it was a curtain. Once the water had completely stopped, they could see what the waterfall obscured. Looking at their black ship was a giant skull, its mouth opened up into a cave before them. The river continued into the darkness flowing from the skull.
As the crew slowly pushed the Dark Star forward into the mouth of the cave, Hailey could feel impatience welling in her to find the key. She felt as though she could explode in this mountain. Like the caldera of a volcano.
She didn’t know if she could get the key and get to the treasure in time, but she was desperate to try. As they pushed on further, suspended globes from the ceiling began to light one by one, trailing deeper into the cave.
The crew feverishly worked the poles to push the boat up the mouth of the lit passageway. The passage gave way to a large, cool cave populated with several buildings.
They had found Pirate’s Cove.
As they approached, Hailey got the impression of a city under glass, perfectly preserved. It looked as if time had forgotten the cave. There was a dock in perfect repair, complete with a boathouse. Several storehouses and cabins that dotted the interior looked as though they had been just lived in. Even the path to the main house, a two-story man made villa that sat back on the rocks, was clear of debris, as though someone had swept it the morning before. Its appearance reminded Hailey slightly of the colonial mansion. It was enough to give Hailey the chills.
The lagoon in the cave was large enough for the ship to be able to turn around in. It took some time to coordinate the crews but once around, they pushed in to the docks easily, throwing lines along the pillars to hold them fast.
Olau was the first one on the dock to make sure that the deck was as sturdy as it looked. The big, girthy man m
ade it a point to jump around on the dock, testing each board, as if the dock holding up to the large pirate meant it would hold the rest of the crew without so much as a creak.
The captain left Hadyn in charge of the ship and the skeleton crew and told them to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. The executive crew disembarked with Hailey to explore the cove.
Hailey tried to pace herself, but the image of an hourglass running out of sand kept pouring through her mind. More than a couple of times on the trail that wound up from the docks, the captain and Olau had to pull her back behind them.
“Hailey, we don’t know if there are any dangers ahead. You are the only one that can read the book. I’d prefer if you kept to the rear of us.” The captain cocked an eyebrow at her.
Even on land, he was the captain, and to defy him was still insubordination, if not outright mutiny. It was better to be a part of the crew than in the custody of the crew. She felt her shoulders slump in surrender as the group slowly made their way forward.
Several of the buildings were storehouses, fully stocked with various types of supplies in large quantities. Rachel’s crew could have resupplied for years with what was in those storehouses. There were even canned goods that looked to be still sealed and rust free. Hailey wondered if any of the crew were brave enough to test the canner’s skill and try and see what almost two hundred-year-old food tastes like.
Their armory was quite impressive. Everything from swords to cannons lay within, along with a full blacksmith’s shop. The gunpowder was, of course, set farther back and away from any other building. Surprisingly when they checked, even though it had all been kept in a cave with a lake for all those years, every powder keg was dry as a bone.
The longhouse looked as though a crew had just left. Just as in the cave earlier, every room they entered began to be lit by suspended globes. Row after row of bunk beds, all looking recently slept in, filled the insides. There wasn’t a speck of dust or decline here or in any of the houses that they had seen. The longhouse held baths, indoor toilets, and even a surgeon’s station.