Rising In The East

by Rob Kidd

  “Oh, you’ve got the wrong fellow,” Jack said. “Jack Sparrow doesn’t steal things. I liberate them. Mostly they just appear in my hands. Quite mysterious, really.”

  “Like the jade dragon you slipped up your sleeve earlier?” Sao Feng said darkly.

  Jack tried to look innocent for a moment, but now Barbossa was glaring at him, too. Finally Jack shook his arm and a small jade carving bounced out of the end of his sleeve. He feigned astonishment. “See what I mean? How did that get there?”

  “Oh, Jack,” Carolina said in a disappointed voice.

  “Oh, Captain Jack,” Jack reminded her.

  “You will steal the opal and give it to me,” Sao Feng said. “And then I shall have its power instead of Liang Dao.”

  “And what do we get out of it?” Jack demanded.

  “We don’t want to sail with a cursed capitán either!” Carolina exclaimed.

  “Who would?” Barbossa agreed. “Really, it’s a sign of a poor captain if he can’t avoid curses.”

  “You want the Shadow Gold,” Sao Feng said. “I want the Deep Sea Opal.” He crossed his arms and leaned back against green silk pillows. “You decide.”

  Jack wound his fingers in his beard, thinking hard. Was there a way around this? Surely there had to be. Wouldn’t it be lovely if he could get that opal for himself? But more important, he needed the Shadow Gold. After the nightmares, he needed it more urgently than ever. He couldn’t afford to sink into any more four-day slumbers. And he never wanted to smell that smoky breath in his face again. Perhaps the legends of the opal were only that—legends. Maybe it was all a hoax and nothing terrible would happen. Of course, given Jack’s prior experience with horrible supernatural thingies, he had a feeling it was all too real. But he had no choice.

  “All right.” Jack sighed. “Where’s this opal, then?”

  Sao Feng pointed down at the floorboards. Identical smiles crossed the faces of his attendants.

  “Er—south?” Jack guessed. “Right…New Zealand, maybe?”

  Barbossa rolled his eyes.

  “Where would you expect the Deep Sea Opal to be, Jack Sparrow?” Sao Feng asked drily.

  “Sitting on a nice island somewhere?” Jack guessed desperately. “Out in the open, like, where anyone can stroll up and take it?”

  “Deep, deep under the sea,” Sao Feng said deliberately. “Down in the watery depths.”

  “Oh, no,” said Jack. “No, no, no. I don’t deal with mermaids anymore, mate. No stealing from them, no making deals with them, none of that. I learned my lesson a long time ago. Actually, it’s a funny story, if you want to hear it—”

  “I know of no mermaids,” Sao Feng interrupted him. “The spirits are different here. The one who guards the Deep Sea Opal is known as the Rainbow Serpent.”

  That didn’t sound much better than mermaids to Jack, quite frankly.

  “But whether you speak of merfolk or rainbow serpents it should be no matter,” Sao Feng continued. “These are just things of folklore meant to scare away those who might steal the gem. You will encounter neither beast nor finned woman, I assure you. Lian will accompany you. To ensure there are no tricks.”

  “Tricks!” Jack said, pressing his hand to his chest like he was mortally offended. “As if I would ever—well, no, that seems fair, actually.” Behind Sao Feng’s back, he blew Lian a kiss. She hid her face behind the fan again, then peeked out at him with a flirtatious sparkle in her eyes.

  “Well, I am not going,” Barbossa said, putting his foot down. “Yer not getting me to the bottom of the ocean, I don’t care what ye say.”

  “Fine. I’ll take Diego and Billy with me. Your big, stupid hat would probably keep you from sinking down to the depths anyway,” Jack said.

  Carolina frowned at him. She knew Jack well enough by now to know that he was hoping to trick his friends into stealing the opal for him.

  But if that was his plan, it wasn’t going to work. Back out in the sunshine, Carolina managed to take Diego aside to warn him before the group set off.

  “Be careful, Diego,” she said, squeezing his hands. “Don’t touch that opal. Don’t go anywhere near it. And don’t let Captain Jack talk you into taking it, because he can be very clever that way.”

  “Stop worrying,” Diego said, brushing her hair out of her face lightly. “It’ll be all right.”

  “Oh, Diego!” Marcella cried, knocking Carolina to the ground and flinging her arms around Diego’s neck. “I’m so frightened for you! You’re so brave!” She stepped back and flapped her eyelashes at him. “Listen, if you see anything else down there that this Rainbow Serpent can spare—any smaller opals or pearls or pretty jewelry of any kind—well, I would be so charmed if you’d bring something back for me, dear, sweet Diego. I mean, it is my birthday…in a couple of months.”

  Carolina climbed to her feet again, amused at the mix of terror and confusion on Diego’s face.

  “Come on, Diego, lad!” Jack called, waving him over to the railing of the Pearl. “No time like the present for deep-sea diving and confronting serpents and liberating mystical opals, I always say.”

  Sao Feng stood at the rail of the Empress, watching closely as Jack removed his beloved hat and entrusted it to Carolina’s care. After some thought, Jack also removed his boots and set them carefully beside the railing. He rolled up the sleeves of his white linen shirt, revealing a blue sparrow tattoo on his right arm. Sao Feng raised his eyebrows at the P that was branded on Jack’s wrist just below the sparrow.

  “You have encountered the East India Trading Company, I see,” he said.

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” Jack said, waving his hand in the air. “Small misunderstanding. Are they over here, too? They really ought to think about changing their name to Whole Flaming Planet Trading Company, shouldn’t they?”

  “Ready, Jack?” Billy said from beside him.

  Lian stepped up to Jack’s side. He beamed at her. “’Allo, love,” he said. “Stay close to me; I’ll take care of you.”

  “Yes,” she said, leaning in seductively, “I think we should stay close.” Jack realized that while he’d been staring into her eyes, she had been tying their wrists together with a firmly knotted silk scarf. He tugged on it, but there was no escaping now.

  “Right,” he said. “Well, if that’s the way you like it, darling—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Lian yanked him up onto the railing, and then dove into the crystal blue sea. With a yelp, Jack was dragged along behind her.

  He managed to inhale a deep breath before they sank below the surface. Lian began kicking her feet immediately, scissoring swiftly through the waves, swimming deeper and deeper. Jack saw Diego and Billy splash into the water above them. Soon they were all diving down into the ocean depths.

  They swam past intricate castles of coral inhabited by schools of sunshine yellow fish, translucent pink jelly man o’ wars, and placid sea turtles that watched them swim by with bewildered expressions. Waving fronds of seaweed brushed their feet and sleek dolphins darted around them, inviting them to play. Explosions of bubbles burst like fireworks as clumps of fish suddenly darted out of their way. The water was so clear that Jack could see for miles across the coral reef, and down almost to the ocean floor. It was one of the most beautiful places he had ever been, and he imagined he would quite enjoy it if he weren’t tied to a pirate and on his way to pick up a new curse.

  Well, maybe he wouldn’t even mind the “being tied to a pirate” part, considering how attractive this particular pirate was.

  But she was also determined, and possibly able to breathe underwater, since she was still swimming at the same pace while Jack’s lungs felt like they were about to burst. Down, down, down they went, beyond the reach of the sun, into the mysterious, dark ocean depths. Jack was beginning to see stars. He tried to pull at the scarf with his free hand, but there was no chance of getting it loose. Lian glanced around at him, her long, dark hair swirling around her in the water.

/>   She pointed at a cave up ahead. He pointed at his mouth, then up at the surface. She shook her head and kept swimming. He really wished he could make a smart remark right about now.

  Suddenly the cave was right in front of them, and as they swam into it, as if crossing an invisible barrier, they fell to the sandy floor in an airy cavern. Jack sprawled onto his back, gasping for breath. Even Lian was panting a little. She leaned over him, gazing into his eyes.

  “Listen, love,” Jack said. “Normally I like to get to know a girl before I let her tie me up and nearly drown me. But in your case, I’ll make an exception.” She ducked away from him quickly, revealing that she had untied the sash that was holding their wrists together. He stretched out his arm, relishing the feeling of freedom.

  Billy and Diego crashed into the cave, rolling to a stop beside Jack in a flurry of sand.

  “Madre de Dios! There’s air down here!” Diego cried, jumping to his feet and looking around. “What kind of witchcraft is this?”

  “Why, haven’t you been in an enchanted, mystical, underwater cavern before?” Jack asked. “They’re everywhere, apparently. Really nothing to get excited about.”

  Jack was hiding a sense of uneasiness from his friends. He had actually been in a cavern very similar to this more than once, when he was a teenager and captain of the Barnacle. In order to save his friends from the sirens’ song, he’d swum down to a cave like this to bargain with some very disagreeable mermaids. And he’d nearly wound up being trapped there as their prisoner for life, too. He shuddered. He couldn’t bear to think about it. Billy had heard the story during his and Jack’s earliest adventures, and he and Jack had been trapped by the merfolk more than once.

  Luckily, however, those mermaids were on the other side of the world, in the Caribbean. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any Scaly Tails, as Jack called them, in this cave. The turquoise light reflecting off the coral reef walls was similar to the mermaids’ cave, but here the coral that spiraled all around them was pink and white instead of black, creating a much lighter, friendlier atmosphere. That suited Jack just fine.

  A tunnel led off from the back of the cave, with a glowing multicolored light at the end of it. Tiny rainbows shimmered in the nooks and crannies of the coral reef as the pirates tiptoed cautiously along the tunnel. Jack nimbly jumped over the pools of turquoise water on the floor. He admired how lightly and gracefully Lian slipped along beside him. She smiled when she saw him watching her.

  Suddenly the tunnel opened out into an enormous cave. Lian grabbed Jack’s arm and pulled him backward behind a coral outcropping. Billy and Diego crouched behind them. They all stared out at the source of the rainbow light.

  A giant snake filled the entire cavern. Jack couldn’t imagine how it got in and out—it seemed far too large to fit through the tunnel where he and his friends were crouching. Perhaps it never left. To be trapped in a cave forever, cut off from the sounds of the waves and the smell of the fresh sea air and the bracing wind of freedom…that sounded like Jack’s worst nightmare.

  Sunrise-bright clouds and swirling colors that Jack had never seen before shifted through the serpent’s iridescent scales. The tip of its tail, gleaming lavender-indigo–midnight blue, rested near where they were hiding, and the serpent’s coils took up almost every inch of floor space.

  Diego pointed over Jack’s shoulder to the serpent’s head, where forest green scales seemed to overlap with seashell pink and pale ivory, then changed as they watched to fiery reds and oranges. Its eyes were closed, and its long forked tongue flicked in and out as it slept.

  But more interesting still was what was just beyond the serpent’s head: another cave. It was the only other exit from this room. And based on the serpent’s position, it was clearly guarding whatever was inside that cave.

  Jack signaled to the others for silence. Slowly and carefully, in tense quiet, the four pirates slid around the serpent’s tail and tiptoed across the cave. They held their breath as they squeezed past, making sure to not even brush against the snake’s shimmering scales. It was a delicate dance, finding the next safe place to set a foot down.

  But finally they made it across to the far wall and darted past the snake’s tongue. One by one, they ducked into the last cave.

  In the center was a pool of clear water, lit by a glow from within. As they drew closer, they could see something shining from the center of the pool. It was an enormous black stone, shimmering with colors and gleaming with a mysterious inner light.

  They had found the Deep Sea Opal.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The four pirates stood around the pool for a moment, staring at their prize—so close, and yet so cursed.

  “I say, Diego,” Jack whispered finally, “could you just reach in and grab that for me? I don’t want to get my hands wet.” He lifted his hands in the air—not his cleverest trick, as he was still drenched from head to toe after the swim down through the ocean.

  “No, senor!” Diego said. “You grab it! This is your quest.”

  “Whatever happened to all your respect for your captain?” Jack wanted to know. He made a grievously wounded face. “What happened to being a loyal crew member, Diego?”

  “I am loyal,” Diego said, “but with the whole Spanish navy after Carolina and me, I need all the luck I can get. I can’t afford to make it worse. Lo siento—I’m sorry, Jack.”

  “All right,” Jack said. “Billy? How’s about it? Do an old chum a favor?”

  “Don’t even try,” Billy said darkly. “This was your idea, Jack.”

  Jack sighed deeply. There had to be a way to get the opal without cursing himself. He glanced hopefully at Lian, but he could see from her sly smile that he’d have no luck there.

  He edged closer to the pool, mesmerized by the glimmering rock at its center. It wouldn’t be hard to reach into the water…with just one movement, it could be his…but what if the curse was real? He couldn’t afford another curse. Not with creepy little shadow beasties already haunting him.

  Suddenly, the surface of the pool began to bubble. Jack jumped back.

  “What’s it doing?” he asked. “Why is it doing that?”

  Tiny bubbles foamed to the surface, faster and faster until the opal was hidden beneath the spray. Jack felt a moment of panic as the opal vanished. What if someone else was stealing it right now? He lunged forward to plunge his arm into the pool, but just as his fingers touched the water, a shape rose through the bubbles and burst into the air in front of him.

  With a shout, Jack fell back against the coral. He rubbed his eyes, blinked several times, and then rubbed them again. Billy and Diego were staring openmouthed at the pool. Or, rather, at the pool’s new inhabitant.

  “Oh, bloody hell,” Jack said. “I believe I was promised no mermaids.”

  “Did you misssss usssss, Jack Sssparrow?” the mermaid asked, narrowing her haunting dark eyes at him. She pulled herself out to sit on a rock, and the others gasped, seeing her bright blue tail for the first time.

  “I wouldn’t say I missed you, precisely,” Jack said to the familiar Scaly Tail. “More like I hoped never to see you again, to be honest.”

  “Honesssst?” the mermaid sniffed. “You? You who cheated usssss out of your eternal companionship?”

  “I am good company,” Jack agreed, “so I can see why you’d hold a grudge about that. Still, it’s been quite a long time, you know.”

  “Our kind never forget,” she said. “And you’ve brought friends along. Thisssss one I know,” she said, motioning to Billy, “but the othersssss…”

  “Oh, these folks. Yes, right. Diego, Lian—meet Morveren. Morveren, Diego, and Lian. Okay. Done? Good. And now how about you? Where’re your friends? Don’t think I’ve ever seen you without Aquala and Aqueduct or whatever she’s called.”

  “Aquila,” Morveren corrected. “They are otherwise occupied.”

  “Yes, you have seemed to have a lot of trouble in merfolkland since I liberated your subjects all those years
ago, haven’t you?”

  Morveren hissed.

  “What’s that? Bitterness? Rather undeserved, I’d say,” Jack said. “You were the ones who tried to trick me out of my freedom the first time we met.”

  Morveren spread her hands to suggest that he should expect that kind of thing from her. “Mermaid,” she said.

  Jack made the same gesture. “Pirate!” he said.

  “Hmm,” she said. “Touché.”

  “What is she doing here now?” Diego asked Jack.

  “I might ask you the ssssame quesssssstion,” Morveren said. “Why are you here, Jack Ssssparrow? Looking for ssssssomething?”

  “No, no,” Jack said blithely. “Just passing through. Isn’t this the way to Shanghai? Don’t tell me we’re lost again. I blame Barbossa.”

  Morveren stared at him with cold eyes. She lifted one hand and clicked her webbed fingers. Suddenly the light in the room went dim. The pirates turned to find the Rainbow Serpent’s head blocking the entrance to the cave. And now the snake was quite awake, much more awake than Jack really liked his beasties to be. It blinked enormous orange eyes at them and its tongue flickered within inches of where they stood.

  “All right,” Jack said, throwing caution to the wind. “Here’s the truth. We’ve come to get that opal, but we don’t want to steal it, because of the curse. Not saying we won’t, just saying—we’re open to other options. Why steal when you can negotiate, eh?”

  The mermaid tilted her head at him. “How refreshingly honesssst of you, Jack Sssssparrow.”

  “I’m like that sometimes,” Jack said. “More often than you’d think. Always catches people off guard, though.”

  Morveren said something in a hissing, clicking language to the snake. It hissed back at her.

  “The Rainbow Ssssserpent says a trade might be acceptable to him,” Morveren said, “if you have anything of equal value.” Her blue tail flicked against the rock.

  “Oh, no,” Jack said. “I’m not falling for that trick. No one will ever steal my freedom from me again!” He paused to think for a moment. “Would you like one of them instead?” he asked, pointing to Diego and Billy.