by Rob May
They walked the driveway in a tight huddle, and proceeded cautiously down Main Street. There was no one else out and about in town. The soft dirt and sand roads muffled the sound of even Dead Leg’s wooden stump. ‘I don’t like this,’ Kal said. ‘It’s far too quiet. If someone wanted to finish us off, now would be the perfect time to strike.’
‘They had their chance,’ Dogwood said, ‘and they blew it,’
That was when Kal felt a sharp sting on the back of her neck. She slapped it like she would a fly, but her palm came back black with dirt and ash. Kal turned around—there were burning embers in the air like fireflies. Back where they had come from, at the top of Main Street, there was a red glow.
‘They’re burning down the house,’ Dead Leg said. ‘Destroying the evidence of the zombie attack, I’ll bet. Let’s shake a leg—I ain’t going to feel safe until I feel the boards of the Swordfish beneath my foot.’
They were halfway to the beach when Dogwood called a halt at the crossroads between Main Street and the wide shopping thoroughfare of Beluga Boulevard. ‘Something’s different here,’ he said.
‘Well hurry up and tell us what, oh great detective,’ Dead Leg said, ‘so we can get going.’
Kal followed Dogwood to the wall of the posting house, where a mosaic of sun-faded fly posters had been stuck up. In the middle of the display was a freshly printed WANTED poster.
‘Yesterday there was a poster here offering a reward for Amaro Azul,’ Dogwood said. ‘Look at it now.’
The new poster showed a charcoal sketch of a ugly, vicious-looking pirate in a black hat and shirt, arms crossed and holding up a pair of meat cleavers. The block-stamped lettering underneath read:
WANTED
DEAD OR ALIVE
Kalina Moonheart
THE BUTCHER OF PORT BLACK
For Arson, Murder and Theft
REWARD: $1,000,000
One million pieces of eight! Kal did the sums in her head; it was roughly ten times the amount she had won off the Magician last night. She wondered if the person handing her in would really get paid. Or would they get fobbed off like Lula had, after she took Azul’s brother to the governor?
‘Pinning the blame on me will cover up what really went on tonight,’ Kal surmised. ‘Ah, well—it’s nice to feel genuinely wanted for a change.’
‘One million …’ Dead leg breathed. ‘That’s a big pile of loot.’
‘Don’t get any ideas,’ Kal said. ‘Anyone who survived the mansion slaughter isn’t going to be given a bag of cash and a pat on the back if they turn me in. We’re all loose ends that need to be stamped out. What do you pirates say? Dead folk tell no tales?’ She looked up and down the deserted intersection. ‘We should split up. Hanging around in a big group is going to get us noticed.’
Dead Leg turned to his crew. ‘You lads scatter and make your way back to the Swordfish. Haul up and make ready to go as soon as possible.’
The lads—technically eight lads and four ladies—all melted away down side streets. Kal, Dead Leg and Dogwood carried on down Main Street, but on a whim Kal took a random left turn. If she was alone, she might have taken to the rooftops, but the back alleys would have to do.
Dead Leg cursed as he tripped over a cat. Sea Dog barked at it and it slunk off. ‘Damned if that creature doesn’t run to the Magician and tell on us,’ Dead Leg said. ‘All the cats in this town carry messages for him. Well, all the black ones, at least.’
‘Where is his base of operations?’ Kal asked. She was wondering where the Sirensbane was manufactured.
‘Nobody knows,’ Dead Leg said. ‘He’s everywhere and nowhere all at once. He used to appear in person to hand us our latest shipment of Sirensbane, and always when you were least expecting it. The last time, I was sitting on the pot in the Fat Futtock—the tavern downtown—when there was this creepy cough behind me—’
‘Hold up,’ Dogwood hissed. A gang of armed men were prowling the street ahead of them; men in breastplates and combed helmets; a uniform of sorts, but the colours and styles were mismatched. And rather than patrol in formation, each man kept to his own personal space. Mercenaries, Kal thought. Working for the Magician not out of loyalty, or for love of his libertarian empire, but for money.
When the mercenaries had passed, Kal and the others pressed on. They were almost at the beach. At the top of a steep set of terraced gardens, they could see out across the bay. The moonlight rippled on the still water. A sprinkle of lights marked the position of anchored ships, and also the fort.
‘You know,’ Kal said, ‘there’s one player in this game we haven’t met yet.’
‘The governor?’ Dead Leg said. ‘Nobody’s seen him for a year. I’ve even forgotten what he looks like. Black guy with a big beard is all I remember. He’s safe in his fort pretending he hasn’t lost control of the town. But’s not even in the game any more, let alone a major player.’
‘We should go get him,’ Dogwood said. ‘He deserves asylum in the Republic. Plus, he might have some supplies we can use. Those cannon on the walls could be adapted to fit the Swordfish.’
Kal stared out at the fort. Lights were on in the windows of the lower levels close to the waterline. In the dungeons.
‘Alright,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and check it out. But we have to be careful! I’m not walking up to the front gate in plain sight, not with such a large bounty on my head. Dogwood, you should go back to the ship and bring it close to the fort. We might need to make a fast getaway.’
Dogwood clearly didn’t like taking orders. ‘Why doesn’t the captain of the ship go and do that?’
Because I want someone I can rely on to be there when I need them, Kal thought, but she would never feel comfortable admitting that to Dogwood. ‘I’ll be brutally honest,’ Kal said to him. ‘The crew aren’t going to be happy to see you when you climb on board. They’ll be anxious to come back for their real captain.’
Dead Leg laughed. If he guessed that Kal didn’t trust him not to bail on her, he didn’t show it. Both men agreed with Kal’s plan, and after Dogwood had gone his own way, Kal and Dead Leg found themselves approaching the half-mile-long causeway that stretched out to the fort. It was a concrete road lit by lanterns, but bordered by sloping verges of jagged black rocks. Kal and Dead Leg clambered over them, travelling parallel to the road. It was slow going, but at least they were out of sight. The fort was shut up completely, and there were no guards posted anywhere along the causeway; only up on the battlements, where a handful of tiny figures patrolled under a giant flag. The flag showed a gold triangle surrounded by twenty-four stars, on a red background; it was the only flag of the Republic flying in Port Black. Kal frowned as she looked up at it. There was something about it that didn’t look right.
The only life they encountered were lumbering animals on the rocks that Dead Leg called Sea Lions. They flopped off the rocks and into the water as Sea Dog bounded ahead, clearing a path. Eventually they made it under the shadow of the fort’s wall. A tiny barred window glowed with candlelight. When Dead Leg reached it and looked in, he seemed surprised.
‘What are you doing here?’ he said.
Che came to the window. ‘Zombies, they grab me and bring me here! I do not even know where here is. My eyes, they are not so good, man. I only see a dark blur.’
‘You’re at the fort,’ Dead Leg told him. ‘Maybe Kal can tell you why though. It sure beats me!’
Kal stepped up to the window. She touched Che’s hand in sympathy for his plight. ‘I guessed as much. The fort is under the Magician’s control now. No place in Port Black, or anywhere on the Islands, even, is safe from him. There are zombies on the battlements above. Only they would manage to put up the Republic flag upside down.’ The triangle that represented Arcus Hill was pointing down, not up like it was supposed to.
‘Is my father dead then?’ Che asked.
‘The governor’s been gone a long time,’ Kal confirmed. ‘The Magician has been keeping up the pretence that he is still h
ere for as long as he can, while he builds his strength. Illusion and lies, that’s what he deals with. And zombies, of course.’
Dead Leg grunted. ‘Well, let’s get you out of here, Che. You’re part of my crew and I’m not setting sail without you. In return, you can show us the way to this hidden treasure of yours.’
The window was too small to escape through, but there was a door just a bit further along the wall. Dead Leg kicked it. It was made of the hardest tropical heartwood, and there was no lock on the outside.
‘Treasure?’ Che said, as Kal and Dead Leg looked for a way in. ‘I got no clue what you mean.’
‘Vuda’s treasure!’ Dead Leg said. ‘Please tell me you’re the man with the map!’
‘It’s okay, Che,’ Kal said. ‘We know about the treasure. Or at least I do. But it’s not some legendary treasure of the gods. I think you stole the family fortune from your father, the governor, when you fled the Islands ten years ago. The Magician found out about it, and he had Dead Leg here bring you back from Amaranthium.’
‘Well, that explains a lot,’ Dead Leg said. ‘I’m sorry, Che. I didn’t know you were the governor’s son. The Magician bamboozled me. But I thought Gaspar Azul stole that treasure? They even hung him for it!’
Kal was picking at the shellstone walls with her knife. Tiny fragments of coral broke away. She could probably cut footholes to climb up, but it would be impossible to break through. ‘The Magician tortured the truth out of Gaspar before they hung him,’ she told Dead Leg and Che. ‘But the Magician must have kept that truth to himself. I’m guessing Gaspar did actually go to rob the mansion, but saw Che leaving with the treasure instead.’
Dead Leg nodded. ‘Gaspar must have told Lula, too, when she captured him. That’s where Lula got the legend of the albino thief from. He must have told her in the hope that she would let him go, but Lula must have thought she could collect Gaspar’s bounty and go after the treasure. Hell, when we get her back, I’m going to put that girl over my knee.’
‘It’s all true,’ Che admitted. ‘My father, he was very cruel and wicked man; and he was ashamed of my whitey skin. I only meant to thief enough to start a new life. I was sixteen back then, and jus’ wanted enough to escape and travel the world. I had no idea of the worth of what I take.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Kal said. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you out and then get far, far away from here.’ She was at the window, looking past Che, through the bars of his cell, to the guardroom beyond. There was a ring of keys on a hook on the far wall. ‘Dead Leg,’ she said. ‘How clever is your dog?’
It turned out that Sea Dog was very clever. He wriggled through the window, trotted through Che’s cell and jumped up and grabbed the keys in his jaws. However, Che tried them all in his cell door, and none of them fit.
‘They must be for the door in the wall,’ Kal said, ‘but there’s no keyhole on this side.’
Dead Leg was gently tapping the door with his peg leg. ‘Come on, Sea Dog,’ he cooed. ‘You can do it, boy. Put the key in the lock …’
Kal shook her head. ‘I don’t doubt he’s clever, Dead Leg. But I’ll be damned if—’
The door swung outwards. Sea Dog stood in the guardroom beyond, wagging his tail, the ring of keys in his mouth.
‘Good boy!’ Dead Leg exclaimed, stepping inside and scooping up the little dog in his arms. ‘I think you deserve your own full share of the treasure for this!’
Kal didn’t buy it; she had seen some strange things in her time, but not like this. A cold wind blew from somewhere inside the fort and hit Kal in the face as she followed Dead Leg inside. The hairs on the back of her neck rose, and a chill rippled through her body as she realised the danger they were in. The wind sucked back, and the door slammed shut behind her.
‘He’s here,’ she said.
The Magician materialised from the shadows of the guardroom. He was wearing a black cloak this time, and when he pulled his hood back he had a gold pentacle traced on his forehead. In the candlelight it flickered and became the focus of everyone else in the room.
‘You!’ Dead Leg said.
‘Father!’ Che gasped.
* * *
Kal had begun to suspect the truth when she had been throwing dice with the Magician. It seemed like days ago, but had in fact only been hours. When the Magician had talked about the governor’s missing family fortune, Kal had thought about the governor’s poor cursed son, Che, who had fled from the violence and cruelty of his own father. It was easy to imagine how the governor’s hatred and bitterness had grown over the following decade, finally breaking out into the creation of a new monster: a Magician who would suck Port Black dry of Republic money, and rebuild a new empire by creating his own curse … the curse of Sirensbane.
Dead Leg drew his cutlass and charged. The Magician calmly raised a palm and intoned one word: ‘Stop.’
Dead Leg stopped, and when the Magician said, ‘Kneel,’ he went down on his knees.
Kal knew that she should flee, but how could she leave Che to his fate?
The Magician picked up Sea Dog and stroked him gently. Dead Leg didn’t react; he just remained frozen in place. ‘Welcome home, my son,’ the Magician said to Che. ‘I’m sorry I had to have you thrown into this cell. I will release you as soon as I can, of course. As soon as you tell me where you hid what you stole from me.’
‘I will not tell you, never,’ Che said, from behind the bars. He turned to Kal. ‘Run, Kal,’ he said. ‘The treasure is yours!’
Kal shook her head. ‘I’m not leaving without you. I don’t know where—’
‘Yes you do!’ Che said frantically. ‘Remember the secret we cook up together to hide the trail?’
The Magician sneered. ‘Moonheart is never leaving this place alive. Neither are you, son, if you refuse my offer of reconciliation.’
Kal drew her dagger. The Magician was alone and seemingly unarmed. She could never kill a man, not even a man like him, in cold blood … but if he tried to stop them escaping …
‘Dead Leg,’ Kal said, ‘Help me free Che. We’re all leaving.’
But the captain remained rooted to the spot at the Magician’s feet. ‘Oh, Dead Leg doesn’t take orders from you, Moonheart,’ the Magician said playfully. ‘He is my man now. Isn’t that right, Captain?’
Dead Leg’s fist was clenching and unclenching. The fist that bore the mark of the zombie curse. He was trembling, as if struggling to get up, but all he could do in the end was nod to his tormentor.
The Magician grinned as he stroked Sea Dog. ‘Good man. It’s the Sirensbane that flows through his veins; it binds him to my will. Until I command otherwise, he will remain kneeling before me, no matter what happens. Am I right, Captain?’
‘No,’ Kal said, desperately.
‘Yes,’ Dead Leg said, hopelessly.
The Magician took Sea Dog by the tail and swung him against the stone wall, dashing the small dog’s brains out. Dead Leg didn’t even react. The Magician’s terrible grin widened.
‘Your will is my will now, Captain. You’ll do as I command.’
‘Yes,’ Dead Leg said again in a hollow voice.
‘Good. Now kill Kal Moonheart.’
END OF PART TWO
PART THREE
THE FORBIDDEN ISLAND
A swirling storm, a turning tide,
Send me to my shell to hide.
But the deepest sea and the darkest cave,
Are just new challenges for me to brave.
III.i
The Purple Mountain
Lula Pearl paused for a brief rest under the shade of the eucalyptus trees. They smothered the slopes of the Purple Mountain, and on a warm day like today they gave off a cloudy emission, the amethyst hue of which gave the mountain its name. Lula breathed it in; it was sweet, fresh and cooling, and gave her energy for the next stretch of the climb: a steep ridge on the side of the mountain that was exposed to the sun. She had better hurry; the peak of the mountain was riddled with
caves and secret gorges, and she couldn’t afford to lose her quarry.
Out on the ridge, she could see them ahead of her: a white man and woman, lugging a chest between them as they struggled up the path. If they looked back, though, they would just get an eyeful of the sinking afternoon sun, and not see the ten-year-old girl who was on their trail.
She didn’t know it then, but at the same time as Lula was climbing the Purple Mountain, halfway across the world her future friend and lover, Kal Moonheart, was trudging through the snow up the Starfinger Mountains. In some respects, their worlds were very different; in others, the same.
Lula stopped where a cloud of enormous green dragontail butterflies had landed on something. They fluttered away as she reached down and lifted it up: a golden cup that was fashioned with a pattern of geometric skulls. Inzek treasure! The Inzeks were the children of Vuda, and inhabited the Islands thousands of years ago. Legends of their lost cities and treasure hordes still fuelled the fantasies of adventurous children like Lula even today.
To take the treasure, though, was to be cursed by Vuda herself. Yet Lula wasn’t surprised that the woman she was following up the mountain paid no heed to ancient warnings. This woman was from a distant city called Amaranthium, where the people laughed off stories of the gods, and turned the temples into banks and casinos.
The woman Lula was following was her mother.
Back in the village, earlier that day, Lula had heard her father and her stepmother talking. Arguing, really, since Lula’s real mother was a prickly topic of conversation between them. But between all the shouting and sulking, Lula gathered that her mother’s ship had been spotted anchored off the coast. Then, later in the afternoon, Lula’s friend Otis had seen strangers on the mountainside. He said he had been out earning a few extra coppers picking coffee beans in the plantation on the leeward side of the mountain, and had fallen asleep on the job. When he woke up, everyone else had gone home, but he had spied two figures taking the path that led to the summit.