Raven Quest

by Jo Ann Ferguson

  Holding her shoulders, he pushed them back against the mattress. She screamed as he bent toward her. “I told you I would not force you, Rory, but you must comply with my wishes soon, or …” He did not finish. It was not necessary. As he walked to the door, he added, “The things you brought from the Vengeance are on top of the sea chest over there.” His nose wrinkled. “You might want to clean yourself. You smell like bilge.”

  She did not move until he had left. Staring at the wall, she thought of what he had said. From Port Royal, she had run directly into the arms of the man she was trying to escape. Yellow Hal had vowed he would have her in his bed.

  Jumping off it, she shivered. She must think. She must be prepared for when they returned. She could not betray Nathan to Yellow Hal Warwick. Even if she did, she would get nothing but death. And Guillermo’s certain death—didn’t he realize that as soon as she gave him the answers to the first three lines of her father’s poem, Yellow Hal would kill him?

  She shuddered again. Panic taunted her, but she fought to ignore it. The Vengeance must be in pursuit. Otherwise, Guillermo would not be so confident she would see Nathan die. Why had she never told Nathan that she loved him? Last night when she slept in his arms, she should have told him. That he could not say the same to her no longer mattered.

  “Think!” she whispered. “Think! What do you know to help you and the Vengeance?”

  Yellow Hal must have left some trail for the Vengeance to follow. He intended to lead the ship and her crew into his deadly trap.

  She had to prevent that. She only wished she knew how.

  Twelve

  Rory scanned the room. Yellow Hal had left her nothing but her own few possessions. Biting her lower lip, she walked to the battered sea chest. The answers for the first two lines of the poem had come from these things. Could the solution for the last line be here?

  Collecting them, she set them on the table. She picked up her mother’s Bible. Turning to the psalms, she touched the remnants of dried glue. Her father had found this way to get her the answer to the second line. He would have made sure she had some way of solving the whole poem. Had he left the final clue with her mother?

  It was not in the Bible, but.… She lifted her mother’s locket out of her gown. Tapping her finger against it, she heard it ring hollowly. Nothing inside. How else could he have planned for her to use it? She turned it over and stared at the sharp projection.

  “Oh, my!” she whispered. The locket was not broken or poorly made, as she had always assumed. Something had been connected to it on purpose. Was this the key? But to what?

  She looked at the table and smiled. The Blindman had given her the Bible and the box decorated with shells and coral. She turned the box upside down and noticed a hole in the bottom. The metal tab on the locket fit perfectly into it. The riddle had meant exactly what it said. Find the coral key.

  Twisting it, she watched the top open. She pulled out three pieces of paper. She glanced at the door, then spread them across the table. There was no time to waste. She needed to know what they said, but she could not let Yellow Hal or Guillermo find them.

  The top page was addressed to the Blindman, but she knew that he would not care if she read it.

  Dear Captain Keller,

  You have been my friend since the day I signed aboard your ship as a cabinboy. I have written you this letter, which Kassy will read to you, but the thoughts expressed here are mine.

  Keep this little box for my child. It will contain all he or she needs to know to find my ship, if I don’t return. With luck, Warwick will be dead and the Raven forgotten by the time my child is old enough to search for my ship.

  Kassy will give you the locked box. Hold if for me. I hope all precautions are unnecessary, but I must think of my child’s future. Many thanks.

  I remain

  your friend,

  Stuart Powell

  Rory smiled. She never had known the Blindman’s true name. She would have to ask him more about his voyages with her father the next time she saw him. Then her smile faded. Would she ever return to Port Royal?

  She wished her father’s prediction that Warwick would be dead and the Raven forgotten had come true. Again, she looked at the door. She had to read the rest of this before Guillermo returned.

  Lifting the next page, she smiled when she saw it was for her. She smoothed it out and bent close to read the words that had faded more than the ones hidden in the Bible.

  Dear child,

  This map shows where I will beach the Raven if I must. The treasure will be in the shallows among the coral, or, if we have time to take it to our cache, it will be on the high hill in a cave you will be able to find by following the river from the cove to its source.

  Enjoy the gold, my child. I hope you have learned to live a wiser life than your foolish father. Remember to give a fair share of the gold to anyone who has helped you find it and deserves a share. A good captain rewards his loyal men.

  Good-bye, my child. I would have liked to have held you once and told you aloud the words I must write only. I love you, little one. Never forget that.

  Your father,

  Stuart Powell

  She whispered, “I love you, too, Father. I will make sure your treasure goes to those who should have it.”

  She refolded the letter and the map beneath it. She could not risk studying it now. Until she escaped, the Raven’s location was of less importance than hiding these papers from Yellow Hal.

  Sitting, she pulled off her right shoe. She ripped the inner sole and placed the two pages under it and resealed it, hoping any crinkle would be swallowed by the sound of her footsteps.

  She put the letter to the Blindman in the box and relocked it. When she needed something to placate her enemies, she would offer them this, not letting them know she had already opened it.

  Going to the small window in the stern wall, she looked out. The ship was moving very slowly through the rain. Yellow Hall must be giving the Vengeance a chance to catch up. She wrapped her arms around herself, wishing she was in Nathan’s arms. He would follow. For her or for the gold? Either way, he could die.

  The door opened. Guillermo’s face was pale as he entered. She suspected he was coming to regret linking his desire for revenge to Yellow Hal’s greed.

  “If you had asked me,” Rory said, “I would have told you you were a fool to trust Yellow Hal.”

  “Be quiet! You don’t know what you are talking about!”

  “I used to work for him until he tried to rape me. I ran away to the Vengeance to escape him.”

  “He did that to you?” He reached for the knife in his belt.

  “It’s too late to act like a hero, Guillermo.”

  Grabbing her, he pulled her around the table. The chair fell to the floor with a crash. “Rory, mi querida, I do not intend to die for your silence. Give me what I want to know, or Yellow Hal will take his turn at you.”

  “It will have to be that way, Guillermo,” she said softly. “I don’t have what you want. You abducted the wrong person. This is Nathan’s quest.” She peeled his hands off her and watched his face grow more wan. “I went with Nathan to escape Yellow Hal. He took me aboard the Vengeance, not to gain my aid in solving the mystery of the Raven, but to make me his mistress. I didn’t know of this gold until I met Nathan.”

  “You’re lying!”

  She sat on another chair and smoothed her skirts to hide her slippers. “I am telling the truth. I do not want to die, but I will. So shall you and Nathan, if he follows us.”

  “He will.”

  Closing her eyes, she whispered, “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. A message was delivered to Lawler at my great-uncle’s house. De Palma took it there.”

  “The harbormaster?”

  He nodded. “The plan is that he pretends to be Lawler’s ally—”

  “Nathan will never believe it.”

  “Whether he believes it or not, he will take the information of where Yel
low Hal is sailing The Scourge of Spain.”

  “And Nathan will come after us.”

  “Mi querida, give me the answer to your father’s poem. Then we all might live.”

  She hesitated, then whispered, “I can’t because I don’t know it.”

  He stared at her in disbelief. “You said you were searching to find your father, Rory, that you had ties to the past to help you! Certainly, you meant the answers to the riddle.”

  “Ties of love, Guillermo. My father left me a letter in my mother’s Bible. I found it on the Vengeance. I learned he had been hunting your father’s galleon, so we decided to go to Cuba to see if the answer was there. As you know, it wasn’t.”

  “You should not brag about being the whelp of an English pirate.”

  “My father was not a pirate. He was a licensed privateer in the service of his majesty King Charles II.”

  A deep voice answered, “He was a liar and a cheat.”

  She jumped to her feet and gasped as Yellow Hal came into the room with two of his men. She had thought he would slam the door against the wall to announce his arrival. Instead, he had skulked to the cabin. She must never underestimate his treachery again.

  He grasped her arm and wrenched her toward him. When she screamed in pain, he asked, “What’s wrong with you, wench? I haven’t hurt you yet.” Releasing her, he ripped the sleeve of her dress to reveal the bandage. “Who’s been playing so hard with you, Rory?” He chuckled. “Did Lawler get tired of waiting for you to give him the information he needed?”

  She glanced at Guillermo and saw his fear. If she told the truth, Yellow Hal would kill him. Guillermo was not much of an ally, for he would betray her as soon as he could, but he was the only ally she had. Quietly, she replied, “It was an accident.”

  “I will show you how kind I can be.” He grinned as his dirt-encrusted nails bit into the bandage.

  She refused to cry out again. She would not give him the pleasure of enjoying her pain. As his grip loosened, her eyes cleared enough to see Guillermo flanked by Yellow Hal’s men.

  “Thank you for showing me the breadth of your clemency, Captain.” She was proud her voice was steady.

  He frowned at her sarcasm. “Rory, my girl … or do you prefer to be called Aurora?”

  She shrugged. “You will call me whatever you wish.”

  “Has anyone ever told you how much you’re like your father? He never knew when to surrender either.”

  “Yes,” she replied tersely.

  “You don’t need to tell me who. Keller, I suppose.” His gaze wandered along her, and she stiffened. “You’re like your mother, too. Kassy Mullins was a real beauty. I never got a chance to bed her.”

  Rory could not help blanching. He had wanted her mother but would settle for her. This man had destroyed her family. “My father was her only lover.”

  “Aye. She was faithful to Powell. She believed the lies he made up about his exploits.”

  “They couldn’t all have been lies if you are looking for his gold.”

  Yellow Hal spat on the deck. “He was a liar and a cheat, just like Keller. Fools! They were tools of the king instead of free men wiping these Spanish dogs from the sea.” He ignored the muffled protest from Guillermo, who was silenced by a pistol barrel pressed against his head. “I should have known you were Powell’s as soon as I saw you. I did not get the chance to pay him back for what he did to me, but you will even the debt.”

  “What he did to you?” she retorted. “Proving that he was a better captain?”

  “Don’t force me to hurt you, Rory.”

  She did not back away as he raised his hand. With a laugh, he lowered it, then seized her and brought her mouth to his. His tongue forced its way into her mouth as he reached for her gown. She struggled to escape and heard material rip. He laughed as his moist mouth moved along her neck.

  She screeched. He jerked back, releasing her, as he clamped a hand over the ear that had been close to her mouth. She took a step back, steeling herself for his blow.

  He whirled at the sound of laughter. His eyes narrowed as Guillermo chuckled.

  “Guillermo, no!” she whispered, but her warning was too late.

  Yellow Hal gave a small signal. One of his men grabbed Guillermo’s left hand. He raised his pistol and smashed it into Guillermo’s smallest finger. Guillermo shrieked in agony.

  “Don’t laugh at me!” snarled Yellow Hal. He turned to Rory. “Rory, my girl, tell me what I need to know, or it will be your finger next.”

  She clasped her hands together. He was utterly mad! She had to tell him something. “All right, Captain Warwick. What do you want to know?” She bit her lip as she looked at Guillermo. His face was the color of foam on a breaker.

  Yellow Hal took a threatening step toward her. “Tell me the answer to the riddle.”

  “Nathan and Ernest, the first mate on the Vengeance, discovered the answers to the first three lines of the poem.” She did not let her gaze waver. “Nathan thought ‘Aurora Raven’ might be the blackbird of the poem.”

  “I knew Powell would make you part of the rhyme so he could be sure you shared in the gold. That is just like him.”

  “The next line about the shepherd’s tale led them to my mother’s Bible.”

  “Kassy was often at St. Paul’s, even after Powell bought her and forced her into his bed.”

  Rory smiled. He could not hurt her with gossip she now knew was false. “There we found a letter giving us the route of the Raven’s last voyage. The third line was given to us, in fact, by Guillermo’s great-uncle.”

  Guillermo gasped, “My great-uncle? He doesn’t know where the Raven is!”

  “No, he doesn’t,” she agreed quickly when Yellow Hal scowled. “Padre Fernando spoke of the voodoo gods of Hispaniola. Ernest realized ‘low gods’ should have been ‘loa gods.’ That told them to steer for the Windward Passage. That is all they solved.”

  Yellow Hal snarled, “I need to know the meaning of the last line, which tells the location of the gold from La Madre Maria.”

  She gazed up at him with undisguised fear. “I don’t know, Captain Warwick. I told Guillermo that. I would tell you if I knew, but I don’t!”

  Again, he signaled his men. Again, the pistol butt came down on another one of Guillermo’s fingers. She cringed at his scream.

  “You see what happens to someone who fails to help me. Now it’s your turn!” Yellow Hal reached for her with an obscene grin.

  “Wait,” she cried, backing away from his eager fingers. “I think I know where the answer may be.”

  “So suddenly, Rory?”

  She sidestepped him, reaching for her things. Her hands trembled as she brought them to the table. She spread them out, touching each one. Without looking up, she knew Yellow Hal stood behind her.

  Picking up the locket, she placed it against the bottom of the box. “I noticed the hole in this before we went to La Casa de las Flores, but I never checked it I think this is the key to this box. ‘Seek the coral key if treasure you yearn to gain’ is the last line of the poem.”

  The box and the necklace were wrenched from her fingers. Yellow Hal’s coarse hands made turning the small key almost impossible. When it clicked open, a murmur of expectation rippled through the room.

  He withdrew the single page and opened it. Slowly, he read it, then wadded the paper and threw it at the wall. “Where is it?” he roared, spinning to face her.

  Her fear was not faked as she cringed. “Where is what, Captain Warwick? Didn’t that page tell you what you needed to know?”

  “It said nothing! Where is the map to the Raven?”

  “I don’t know! The box could not have been opened before because the Blindman had it all these years, and I had the locket.”

  “You’re right. He didn’t know where the Raven was.” Yellow Hal’s lips pulled back in a sneer. “If he had known, he would have told me. I gave him enough chances to tell me before he died.”

  “Died? The
Blindman is dead?” She gripped the side of the table. Nathan had told her that the Blindman was not at his hut the night she had fled from Yellow Hal. She should have checked. She should have gone out there immediately. “No,” she whispered. “No, it can’t be true.”

  “It’s true. It was time he paid for helping Powell instead of me.” Yellow Hal laughed. “Just in case you want to know, his last words were your name.”

  With a cry, she leaped at him. She punched him and kicked him as she sobbed. She wanted to hurt him as he had hurt the Blindman. How could he kill the man who had been her only friend for so many years? How could he?

  With a curse, Yellow Hal swung his arm. She slammed back against the wall and collapsed into a mound on the deck. He ignored her as he picked up the box and shook it. Nothing! He scowled at her.

  Herrera y Fallas shouted, “Captain, don’t kill her! Without her, you’ll never find the Raven.”

  He laughed. “She won’t die until she tells me what she knows.” He whirled to face the man who was holding his broken fingers in his other hand. “And she will tell me. Don’t worry about that.”

  “I’m not so sure she’ll tell anyone but Lawler.”

  “Lawler! He must have stolen the map. If he was on his way to get the gold, then—”

  “Captain Warwick!”

  He turned to see his first mate in the doorway. “What is it, Cheevers?”

  “The Vengeance is off our portside bow. Lawler is demanding to see you. He wants to see Powell’s daughter, too.”

  Yellow Hal looked at the woman crumpled at his feet. Lawler could not have the map if he was here. Rubbing his hands together, he murmured, “I hope you can hear me in your watery grave, Powell, because now the fun begins. When it’s over, your gold will be mine.” He glanced at the deck and laughed. “And so will your daughter.”

  Thirteen

  Nathan gripped the rail and scanned what he could see of Warwick’s ship through the downpour.

  “He’ll have her imprisoned somewhere, Cap’n,” Ernest said, coming to stand beside him. “He knows how wily Miss Rory is.”