It wasn’t until mid-morning that Cheng managed to bring more water and rice to their cage.
‘Why didn’t we stop at the shrine?’ asked Jack after he’d taken a long draught from the jug.
‘Sea Samurai patrol these waters,’ Cheng explained, in a hushed voice so as not to let the guards hear him. ‘The captain can’t risk another confrontation with only half the crew and his ship in such a poor condition.’
‘Do you know if we’ll pass land again?’
‘They don’t tell me anything,’ said Cheng, shaking his head. ‘But I overheard the captain say that he intends approaching Pirate Island at night – so no one can follow us and you won’t know how to get back.’
Jack sighed. Captain Kurogumo was sly and shrewd. He wasn’t taking any chances with them this time.
With an apologetic smile, Cheng left the cage and resumed his cabin-boy duties. Jack and the others finished their meal in silence. They all appreciated just how dire their situation had become.
As the day drew on, the wind picked up and the sea turned rough. The Black Spider started to pitch and roll over the rising waves.
‘Looks like we’re in for a rough ride,’ observed Jack, glancing up at the darkening sky.
They all looked south towards a mass of ominous black thunderclouds. Captain Kurogumo gave orders to reef the mainsail, stow loose cargo and tie down any unsecured loads. As Skullface and his gang went to work, it became apparent that these instructions didn’t include the occupants of the cage. The prisoners were left helpless and exposed on the open deck.
With no land in sight offering a safe harbour, the Black Spider continued on its course. Jack realized the captain’s plan was to run before the storm. But the wind grew stronger, building rapidly into a gale. The sea heaped up, white foam blowing in streaks from the crests of the waves. The sky overhead lit up with forked lightning. A second later, a deep roll of thunder roared and shook the heavens.
The storm was almost on top of them.
Racing before it, the Black Spider heeled and listed wildly. The pirates hung on as best they could while making frantic adjustments to the sails.
Saburo threw up over the deck. ‘You said –’ as he wiped a hand over his mouth – ‘I wouldn’t be seasick after three days.’
‘There’s no cure for a storm,’ Jack replied grimly. Even he was struggling to find his sea legs in such a ferocious tempest.
The Black Spider surged in fits and bursts across the tumultuous sea, but the damaged ship groaned in protest, threatening to split apart with each and every battering. As the storm bore down on them, they were plunged into a hellish darkness. The sea was whipped into a cauldron of spray and gargantuan waves.
Jack and his friends desperately clung to one another, shivering from cold and terror at the sheer power of the storm. A monstrous wave broke over the ship and pummelled the cage, half-drowning those inside.
‘KAMIKAZE!’ yelled the Korean slave and raised his fists in a salute to the black boiling sky.
‘What did he say?’ cried Jack, thinking the slave had gone truly mad.
‘Wind of the Gods,’ Yori shouted above the crash of waves and the crack of thunder. ‘The pirates should’ve paid their respects … Susano-o is very angry.’
31
Sea Anchor
The typhoon hit the Black Spider with full force, the wind shrieking and howling like a banshee, deafening the crew and blinding them with spray. The Seto Sea churned and seethed as if wrestling with the storm-clad sky. Lightning bolts flashed and thunder boomed. Waves the size of mountains tossed the pirate ship like a piece of driftwood and Jack truly feared for their lives.
Captain Kurogumo, who’d lashed himself to the tiller, remained fixed to his course, running before the wild wind. The reefed sails were stretched to breaking point, the masts threatening to snap, and the deck warped and shuddered dangerously as the Black Spider rose up over the perilous peaks before plunging into the deep troughs. All of a sudden there was a ripping noise and the foresail was rent in two, the canvas now flapping half-useless in the gale.
Wind can be light … or tear a house apart, thought Jack, remembering the teachings of the Five Rings from the Grandmaster. The storm’s terrible power seemed intent on destroying the Black Spider and sending them all to the bottom of the sea.
A foaming wave surged across the main deck, and Jack and the others were thrown against the bars of their cage. Submerged in freezing water, they spluttered and choked for air. For a moment, Jack thought the ship had capsized altogether, then their heads broke the surface. The receding wave clawed at them, but they were saved by their bamboo prison. The two guards weren’t so fortunate. They were swept off their feet and borne away, screaming and flailing, into the dark swirling sea.
Jack spotted Cheng clinging to the main mast.
‘CHENG!’ he cried.
The pirate boy glanced over, his face pale and terror-stricken. Then, as the Black Spider rose up the next swell, the deck cleared and he threw himself towards the cage.
‘Open the gate!’ demanded Jack.
‘The captain will kill me,’ replied Cheng, keeping a firm grip on the bars as the wind and rain lashed at them.
‘This storm will kill us all if you don’t let us out!’
Cheng wavered as Yori pleaded with him.
‘You owe it to us,’ Miyuki reminded him, seizing the pirate boy by the arm. ‘We’ve saved your life twice!’
Cheng pulled the knife from his belt and Miyuki immediately backed away.
With a quick glance to check no other pirates were watching, Cheng wedged the blade into the gap between the lock and cage and sprang the gate open.
‘Stay here!’ Jack instructed his friends, much to their confusion.
‘But we can escape now!’ said Miyuki.
Jack shook his head. ‘Our only hope is if I can save this ship first. You’re far safer in the cage.’
He grabbed Cheng and they weaved across the heeling deck. Clambering up the steps to the helm, Jack grabbed a safety line and staggered over to Captain Kurogumo, who was fighting to keep control of the tiller with his helmsman. Running before the wind was usually a good strategy in a storm. But, when the waves grew too large or the helmsman too tired, the ship became vulnerable to broaching or, worse, pitchpoling.
The captain stared at Jack in shock before turning furiously on Cheng. ‘I’ll hang you for this!’
‘But I can save the ship!’ shouted Jack above the noise of the storm.
Captain Kurogumo laughed bitterly. ‘Only the gods can save us now!’
‘Not if we make a sea anchor and heave-to.’
‘Are all gaijin such dumb sailors?’ snarled Captain Kurogumo contemptuously. ‘We’d be pulled under the water. Knocked down by the waves. Besides, the sea’s too deep to drop anchor.’
‘A sea anchor,’ corrected Jack, struggling to keep his feet as the ship suddenly lurched. ‘It anchors itself to the water, not the seabed.’
‘I’ve never heard of such a thing,’ snapped the captain, rapidly losing patience. ‘And we certainly don’t have one.’
‘I can make one,’ persisted Jack. ‘It’ll act as a brake … turn the bow into the waves … stabilize the ship against the wind. We’d go straight through the heart of the storm … but it’ll be over quicker.’
A wave broke over the stern and they were deluged in seawater. The safety line slipped through Jack’s fingers, but Cheng held firm and caught him behind. When the wave had passed, only the captain remained at the tiller.
‘If you keep running downwind, the Black Spider will pitch-pole!’ cried Jack. ‘The bow will bury itself in a wave! We’ll be thrown end over end! Your ship will be smashed to matchwood!’
Captain Kurogumo scowled at Jack. ‘Who do you think you are, gaijin? I’m the captain of this ship! I know what needs to be done – and we run from a storm this big.’ He called down to Tiger. ‘Throw them both in the cage.’
Ascending the steps
, Tiger seized Jack and Cheng and began to drag them away. But at that moment the Black Spider crested a huge wave and hurtled down the other side. The ship nosedived into the bottom of the trough, the impact shattering the newly repaired starboard gunwale. The Black Spider spun towards the wind and heeled violently, on the verge of broaching. Jack, Cheng and Tiger were thrown against the stern’s bulwark. But miraculously, at the last second, the ship righted itself. Even so, Jack caught the grim expression on Captain Kurogumo’s face. They both recognized the Black Spider had reached its limit.
With their survival in the balance, Captain Kurogumo yelled to Jack, ‘Make the anchor!’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But don’t you dare trick me.’
Ordering Tiger to help the gaijin in whatever way he could, Captain Kurogumo focused all his strength on stopping the Black Spider from broaching again.
‘I need sail, rope and wood,’ Jack told Tiger.
‘In the hold,’ he replied gruffly.
Scrambling down to the main deck, Jack beckoned Miyuki and the others to follow them into the hold. Water poured in through the hatch and the floor was awash with displaced cargo.
Tiger pointed out the spare sailcloth. ‘And how much rope do you need?’
‘Ten times the ship’s length,’ replied Jack.
Tiger’s eyes widened in disbelief. ‘That’ll be all of it then.’
Jack handed out marlinspikes to Miyuki, Yori, Saburo and Cheng, then instructed them on how to splice the ropes together. They hurriedly set to work on forming a single length of line.
‘Making an escape, hey?’ Skullface dropped into the hold, sword drawn. He brought the blade to Jack’s throat.
‘No, I’m trying to save us all,’ protested Jack. ‘Even you.’
Tiger stepped from the gloom of the hold. ‘Captain’s orders are to help him.’
Skullface stared incredulously at his gangmember.
‘We need Manzo,’ said Jack, pushing away Skullface’s sword. ‘Bring him down here.’
Skullface looked incensed, but he stomped up the steps nonetheless. Manzo appeared a moment later. Jack ordered him and Tiger to carry the sailcloth, while his friends hauled up the massive length of rope. Back on the main deck, the storm continued to batter the Black Spider.
‘I need the side of the cage,’ Jack shouted to Manzo.
Unmoved by the wind and waves, the giant pirate strode over and wrenched off the front wall, leaving the cage in a state of half-collapse. Laying the bamboo frame upon the deck, Jack directed his friends to fasten the sailcloth to it. The task proved almost impossible as waves and spray washed across the deck, but eventually the job was done – resulting in a large kite-like structure. Jack fixed the long length of rope to the frame and handed the other end to Manzo. ‘Tie this to the anchor chain in the bow. And bring back the anchor itself.’
Manzo did as he was told and Jack lashed the Black Spider’s anchor to a corner of the frame.
With the sea anchor complete, Jack yelled to Captain Kurogumo, ‘LOWER THE SAILS!’
Against his better judgement, the captain gave the order. Without sail power, though, the Black Spider lost much of its steerage and they were in serious danger of broaching.
‘LAUNCH THE SEA ANCHOR!’ Jack ordered Manzo.
With a grunt, Manzo tossed the heavy canvas frame over the side. They watched as the sea anchor slowly sank beneath the surface, the rope trailing out behind them.
‘HOLD FAST!’ warned Jack.
As the line reached its end, the chain was yanked taut. The Black Spider jolted and spun on its axis. Its bow turned to face the howling wind and cresting waves. A mountain of foam and sea charged towards them, threatening to engulf them all.
‘This is sheer madness!’ Tiger exclaimed, diving for a safety line.
‘Curse you, gaijin,’ bawled Captain Kurogumo from the helm.
Skullface stood nose to nose with Jack, his sword still drawn. ‘I’ll meet you in hell, gaijin.’
32
Pirate Island
Like a ghost ship, the Black Spider drifted aimlessly on a sea smooth as glass. Not a puff of wind. Not a cloud in the sky. The mainsail hung limp, the foresail in tatters, the rudder all but useless. Bodies lay strewn across the deck, drying out like dead fish for market in the early morning sun. Captain Kurogumo dangled, unmoving, from the tiller arm. Several pirates were draped over the gunwales. Jack was wrapped round the remains of the cage, his friends caught like crabs within its bars. Nothing and no one stirred.
High above, a great albatross circled the lifeless vessel.
The seabird sounded a mournful shriek.
Jack’s eyes blinked open. His bones ached, his skin was rubbed raw, and his throat as dry as parchment. He could scarcely believe he was alive. Indeed, he had no right to be.
The Black Spider had passed directly through the eye of the storm, the typhoon being the most violent he’d ever witnessed. They had battled the entire night, riding wave upon mountainous wave, until exhaustion finally took them all. It was a miracle that the ship was still intact. But the sea anchor had kept their prow to the wind, avoiding a broach and preventing the ship from pitchpoling. And, with their progress slowed, the storm had blown over and mercifully left the Black Spider behind and intact.
Jack scanned the main deck. Most of the Wind Demons had survived, although several had been unavoidably lost to the sea. The Korean slave was also missing, taken at the height of the kamikaze. Easing himself to his feet, Jack quietly roused his friends, putting a finger to their lips. He woke Cheng too and signed for him to follow. Tiptoeing through the maze of pirate bodies, the five of them descended into the hold. Jack pulled out a cask of fresh water.
‘Drink your fill,’ he whispered, opening the wooden lid with a marlinspike.
They began to scoop as much water into their mouths as they could. Meanwhile, Jack found a knife, a wooden spar, two paddles and a square of sailcloth, then filled a crate with provisions. He quickly gulped down some fresh water himself, before pulling out a second cask and explaining, ‘We’ll take as many supplies as we can and all swim out to the sea anchor.’
‘But what then? I couldn’t see any land,’ questioned Miyuki.
‘I’ll dive down and cut the Black Spider’s anchor. The bamboo frame will float like a raft. We’ll make a sail and escape under our own wind.’
‘You had this planned all along,’ said Saburo in admiration.
Jack half nodded. ‘It was more a prayer than a plan.’
‘But what about sharks?’ asked Yori.
‘That’s the risk we have to take,’ he replied, laying a sympathetic hand on his friend’s shoulder. ‘But the storm should have frightened them off. First we need to retrieve our packs from the captain’s cabin. We must be quick, though.’
Gathering their supplies, they hurried up the steps out of the hold. As they emerged from the hatch, a circle of steel blades greeted them.
‘Leaving so soon?’ asked Captain Kurogumo, baring his pointed teeth in a hideous grin.
With no cage to hold them in, Jack and his friends were put to work on repairing the ship with the rest of the pirates. The rudder needed fixing, the torn sail mending, the sea anchor retrieving, and the starboard gunwale had to be shored up a second time.
Despite their status as prisoners, Jack noticed that he and his friends had gained much respect among the Wind Demons. Their actions had saved the ship and most of the crew. Such a debt of life was not easily forgotten or ignored. Even Captain Kurogumo paid due regard, acknowledging Jack’s service to the Black Spider by pardoning Cheng for his treachery. Over the course of the day, they shared equally in the pirates’ meals and many of the crew spoke to Jack, intrigued by his seafaring experience and knowledge.
It took until sundown before the Black Spider was shipshape enough to sail again. By then, a light sea breeze had picked up and the captain gave orders to set a course for Pirate Island.
Jack and his friends were escorted to an empty cabin, where
more food and water awaited them. But the pirates’ gratitude and trust only went so far and two guards were posted at the door.
‘I’d get your heads down if I were you,’ snarled Skullface. ‘You may have won favour on this ship, but you still have Tatsumaki to answer to.’
As soon as the pirate had left, Miyuki began searching the room.
‘What are you looking for?’ asked Saburo.
‘A way out,’ she replied, but it quickly became apparent that escape wasn’t an option. The cabin’s narrow window was barred and the walls were made from solid stems of bamboo.
Exhausted by both storm and ship work, Jack realized they had no choice but to take Skullface’s advice. ‘We should rest. We’ll need our strength for whatever tomorrow might bring.’
Settling down, the five of them soon fell into a deep sleep. The Black Spider sailed on through the night, following its secret course across the Seto Sea.
‘We’re here!’ announced Cheng, with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
Jack woke to see the pirate boy peering through the bars of their window, the golden light of dawn reflected in his face. Despite his lithe strength, Cheng still seemed too delicate to be a pirate – as if he were a butterfly pretending to be a spider.
The door slid open. Skullface and his gang stepped inside.
‘Rise and shine, young samurai!’ he said, prodding the still-sleeping Saburo with the tip of his sword.
They led Jack and the others on to the upper deck. Captain Kurogumo greeted them with a brief nod of the head. Both hands gripped the tiller, his eyes fixed upon two islands off the starboard bow. They lay side by side, separated by a narrow strait. The first and larger of the islands had sheer cliffs on all sides, giving it the appearance of a giant’s fortress. Its smaller sister was little more than a wide thrust of rock, with a crown of trees and sun-bleached scrub dotting its flanks. There was no sign of a settlement, let alone a harbour.
Captain Kurogumo steered the Black Spider towards the narrow channel.
Young Samurai: The Ring of Wind Page 14