I waited for Smee to look at me again and asked where Noodler was by twisting my left hand backwards and giving the Irishman a questioning expression.
Smee shook his head, then pointed to the wall.
Blackened keys dangled from a nail a few feet from him. I pulled at each of the bars. One was loose. I slipped my shoulder through, but my chest and back were too wide to follow and the keys were still inches out of reach.
I searched for an answer and my eyes fell on Tiger Lily’s narrow frame. I moved aside for her and bowed. She smiled her understanding and slipped underneath me and through the bars into the dungeon. From there she grabbed the keys off of the nail and handed them to Smee.
In minutes, the Irishman unshackled each of the crew. They stood and flexed, seemingly unhurt.
Gustavo and Cecco pulled at the loose bar with no success.
“Did you happen to bring a crowbar with you?” Smee said over the rush of the falls.
“There’s one on the ship,” I shouted. We looked at one another and laughed without a hint of humor.
Steel scraped against steel as Starkey wrapped his chains around the loose bar. He and Cecco then leveraged their weight against the stone. Gustavo gripped the loose bar again and they worked in time with one another until the stone cracked. Short minutes of work passed and the bar came free.
I climbed through the bars into the dungeon.
One by one, the warriors followed.
“New friends, Captain?” Smee asked.
“Don’t start,” I said. I motioned to the girl next to me. “This is Tiger Lily. She speaks English so talk to them through her if you have to. That is her brother, Bear Claw. He is their lead warrior. Their tribe is as dogged by Peter Pan as we are so make nice.” The crew and the warriors passed silent and tense greetings. “Does anyone know what happened to Noodler?”
The men looked to one another and shook their heads.
“Bertilak’s men took our weapons and slapped chains on us before we woke up. Then they and his dogs led us down here,” Starkey said. “Noodler wasn’t with us.”
The gentleman’s eyes dropped to my barren wrist. “Where were you?”
“That is a much longer story, one that we don’t have time for right now.” I made my way back to the bars by the waterfall.
“Where are you going?” Cecco asked.
“Back up through the falls,” I said. “Even if the door is open, it would be suicide to go through the castle.”
“What about Noodler?”
I stopped just short of the bars. “We’ll find him, but not while we’re unarmed, tired, and wet.”
As I reached for the bars, the door to the stairway creaked open. The warriors drew their bows taut and aimed them at the darkness. A figure crept out and I jumped between it and the warriors’ arrows.
“Hold,” I ordered.
Tiger Lily sprang beside me and called out in her language. The warriors lowered their aim.
The figure stepped forward into the torchlight and I smiled. “We were worried about you.”
“Funny,” Noodler said, “I went looking for you.” The man with the backwards hands waved us up the staircase and the men bound past him one by one, followed by Tiger Lily and her tribesmen.
I stayed behind and stared at the cell door at the end of the hall. A silent call reached out to me and I walked to it. I put a hand on the heavy wood, closed my eyes, and pushed. The door yielded with little force. It creaked and dust kicked up in my face. I didn’t know what to expect to find in the cell, but one thing I didn’t expect was nothing. I stood at the door of the empty cell for a few seconds more until Smee called out, “Are you coming?”
“Is it clear?” I asked.
“Aye Captain, it’s clear. Bits of litter here and there and the floor is slippery in places, t’be sure.”
“Weapons?”
“Finders keepers,” responded Smee. “Take your pick.”
I smirked as I climbed the stairs. I stepped into the main hall to find the bodies of several knights. Three had arrows sticking out of them. Others had mortal cuts and slashes, most likely from Noodler.
More groggy and unarmored knights rushed us, yelling about thieves and savages. Tiger Lily and Bear Claw took positions on either side of the group and let arrows fly. Little Panther rushed ahead, pulled the arrows from the dying men, and slit their throats. I walked the center as my men cut the surprised knights down like weeds.
We marched through the castle and into the courtyard. Cecco and Noodler opened the keep’s doors wide. Tiger Lily’s warriors fanned out and rained arrows on the unsuspecting men. The archers and those with crossbows were the first to take fire. Those who charged were second. The men who stood in stunned horror were last to die.
Bodies fell at my feet from the ramparts as I approached the inner gate. A whimper caught my attention. I motioned to the right and Starkey nodded. He and Smee rushed the noise and seized a man who was hiding behind the stable door with a knife.
“Please,” the man said. “These are yours.” He pointed to the open stable behind him and I saw the daggers, cutlasses, and pistols the knights took from the men. I motioned to Cecco. Smee and Gustavo let the man go and the Italian jabbed a sword into his stomach.
“Thank you,” I said to the dying man. I then turned to my crewmen. “Arm yourselves.”
We rummaged through the pile and took what was ours. Each man checked and loaded his pistols, then we moved onward to the gate. Three pirates turned the wheel that cranked the gate open while Tiger Lily’s tribesmen watched every possible angle of attack. We unlocked the gate open and pushed the doors of the inner wall apart.
Smee charged into the opening, but I held him back. “If I were going to kill us, I’d wait until we were trapped between the inner and outer wall.” The Irishman stared into the quiet passageway and exhaled. I motioned to Tiger Lily. The girl took her brother and Little Panther up to the ramparts behind the inner wall. Long seconds passed before I heard the near-silent whisper of arrows flying. Men screamed and I gave Smee a satisfied grin.
I walked over the bridge to the gate of the outer wall. Tiger Lily’s tribesmen climbed down and joined us in raising the gate. We pushed the heavy doors open and ran out into the field toward the trees.
Then a crash cut through the quiet forest, accompanied by a patter in the underbrush.
Smee’s face went white as the two dogs charged.
Starkey and Noodler shot them down before they were ten feet into the field.
The third dog crept out and, upon hearing the gunfire, barked at us but came no closer. She snarled, then fell quiet and sat beside a large mossy rock in the shape of a man. So intent was my focus on the dog that I didn’t notice that the figure next to her held a single-bladed axe until Bear Claw and Little Panther sank two arrows into its massive forearm. It plucked the arrows from its arm and crushed them in its hand.
The giant then lowered his arm and there was a moment in which I did not recognize him. It was only for a moment.
“Bertilak,” I said. “I knew you were called the Green Knight, but this defies my expectations.”
“I thought you were going to say that this defies belief,” the knight’s voice bellowed.
“No,” I said. “Disbelief isn’t enough here.”
“I disagree,” the knight said. “Sometimes disbelief is all that will keep you alive.”
More arrows flew and the Green Knight parried them with his axe. He took two steps and swatted one of the warriors. The man broke in the first hit, but the Green Knight stepped on him, lightly at first, then pressed his weight and crushed him beneath his boot.
Tiger Lily screamed.
The Green Knight looked at the rest of the war party and sneered. “The savages, Captain?”
“They’re not the problem any more than the Lost Boys.”
The Green Knight laughed and his bushy green beard shook with each breath. He leaned his axe against his leg and straightened his g
reen and gold tunic. His eyes fixed on me with a mixture of frustration and pity. “You are too soft-hearted.”
“It is called having priorities. Did you know that one of the tribe hunts Peter Pan as well?”
“And you would have me work with a savage?” the Green Knight asked. “It is bad enough that I sank so low as to ally myself with the crippled ilk of a disgraced sailor.”
I drew my pistol and fired. The bullet sailed through the Green Knight’s eye and exploded out of the back of his head. The wound bled for a heartbeat, then closed and healed. The Green Knight and his dog snarled. His eyes flashed red and they charged.
Pistols fired, arrows flew, and the Green Knight knocked us over like children.
As though honing in on the fear made by her master, the hound leapt at Tiger Lily. Smee tackled the beast and they tumbled in the grass, then disappeared behind a bush.
Bertilak grabbed for me, but I ducked and the knight’s massive fist clasped tight inches from my face.
I rolled to my right, rose, and unsheathed my sword.
Then, through the clash of steel and gunfire, came a voice as soft as a whisper.
“What a battle!” the voice said.
A chill rippled through me as I looked to the clouds. There, behind the moon, Peter Pan’s eyes widened with excitement. The boy let out a war cry and screamed, “This looks like great fun!”
And with a laugh, Peter Pan dove into the fight.
Chapter Fifteen
The battle turned into a haze of fists, steel, and smoke.
Peter Pan launched between the Green Knight and me. We both swiped at the boy and caught only empty air. Pan stabbed Bertilak in the leg and again between the ribs. I slashed at Pan with my sword, but the knight swung his axe across, forcing Pan and me to back away as he healed.
Pan flipped in the air and whistled. His eyes searched the crest of a near hill then his face lit up in excitement. “Lost Boys, attack!”
Whoops rose from behind the trees and, one by one, dirty and tired children ran into the fight.
My stomach sank. “You can’t be serious.”
Two Lost Boys charged Noodler and the man beat them down. A third boy took an arrow to the chest before making it to the foot of the hill. Another jumped on Cecco’s back, only to be scraped off against a tree. The boy limped a few feet away before he was struck down by an arrow between the shoulders.
“You’re going to get them all killed,” I screamed.
Then things got worse.
Peter Pan let out a second war cry and pointed over the hill. A moment of silence passed, then a faint ringing swelled in the distance and overtook the screams of battle. A light came over the hilltop, then another, and another. I looked on in terror as dozens of fairies swarmed over us.
One of Tiger Lily’s tribesmen fired an arrow into the cloud of light and it evaporated into a swirl of white smoke. One of the fairies advanced, charged its wings, and hit him with a bolt. The warrior’s chest erupted in a torrent of blood. Whatever remained of the man slushed into the grass.
“Peter, stop this!” Tiger Lily called out. Tears formed in her eyes as the Lost Boy I remembered as “Nibs” grabbed for her. She held his knife hand back and beat him with her bow until he stopped moving. I watched the gentle rise and fall of his chest when she was done and silently thanked her for her restraint.
“Now is the time, Captain,” the Green Knight called out. “Help me now and all will be forgiven.”
Peter turned to me and added, “Or are you a coward, knight?”
Knight? Was that what Peter thought I was? Thoughts rushed through my mind until I realized that it was worse than I imagined. Far worse. No matter what I did here I was second in line for Pan’s attention, maybe even third, behind Bertilak and Bear Claw. A sickening hopelessness filled my heart. What was the damn point in this? Why try so hard if I won’t even be recognized for the pain I inflict? This simply would not do. Captain Hook is no one’s consolation killer.
Pan flew between the Green Knight’s legs and stabbed him in the back. The Green Knight howled and swung his axe, missing the boy by inches. Bear Claw jumped onto the Knight’s back and dug two knives into him. Peter thumbed his nose at the knight and hung in the air, laughing.
Seizing the moment, I drew my pistol and aimed it at the still figure of Peter Pan. A fairy buzzed past my sight and peeked its head in the barrel of the gun. I pulled the trigger and the pistol exploded in a flare of sparks and red mist.
The force threw me to the ground. I scrambled to my feet and flexed the fingers on the only hand I had left. Through the stinging pain, I paused to watch the battle continue without me.
Donald Sotheby, or Curly as he was called by the other Lost Boys, drove a pointed stick through an Indian warrior’s chest and cheered as the man fell over dying.
Smee emerged from the bush, fresh blood covering his knife hand. His left arm and leg bled down to the grass as he limped back to the battlefield.
Cecco dodged behind a tree as a fairy blasted it into kindling. Smee jumped between them and slashed at it. His knife glowed white then became sand. He fumbled as it slipped through his fingers to the grass below.
An arrow struck a tree next to Starkey. It was different from the arrows that Tiger Lily and her tribesmen used. It was shorter and of a darker wood. I followed the path the arrow must have traveled and found Gabriel peering over the battlements of the castle’s outer wall. She lowered her crossbow and began reloading.
Peter Pan and the Green Knight swiped and taunted one another. Pan ducked his axe and cut the knight. The wound closed again and they resumed the fight in an endless dance, perfect for one another.
It was then that I realized just how outclassed we were. In this brawl. On this island. In every way we were ill-equipped and ill-prepared, ripe for death. I cradled my aching hand and searched for a way out that wasn’t guarded.
I scanned for several seconds before my eyes were drawn back to the castle wall by a swirling red cloud. It lingered in the air over the battlements, just feet from where Gabriel readied her crossbow. She rose and the red cloud formed the shape of the woman from my dream about the dungeon. Gabriel talked to the cloud woman, but their words were impossible to hear over the clashes and screams around me. Gabriel fired at the woman, but the arrow sailed through her as though she were still a dream. The woman said something and Gabriel turned to run, but the woman overtook her. The woman of the red cloud seeped into Gabriel like water into a sponge and a wisp of light came out the other side. Gabriel flexed and I saw an instant difference in her stance and her poise. The woman smiled a different kind of smile and swatted the wisp of light in front of her. Small sparks fell and burnt out.
She took a step, then stopped and placed her hands on her lower stomach. She darted a look at me and scowled for a moment. Her features softened into a smirk as ideas visibly churned in her head. She whispered over the battlefield.
Then something happened.
One fairy’s sting, meant for Noodler, grazed the wing of another. The second fairy turned and blasted the first one to a bright pink death. Other fairies saw this and turned on each other. Little hands clawed and little teeth bit in cannibalistic fury. Fairy blood is indeed red and it rained down on us all.
The moment was not lost on me. “To the ship!”
Each of my men dropped who they were killing and ran in different directions.
I sprinted past Little Bear, who hid behind a fallen log and cried while one fairy burned another to death with a molten rainbow.
“Wait,” Tiger Lily called out. “Where are you going?”
“Away from here,” I said as I ran by her. “This is beyond control.”
She grabbed my arm. “You can not leave us?”
“Watch me,” I said, shrugging her off of me.
A dark mass flew over our heads. I caught only enough of it to see the figure slam into a tree and slump down like a sack of wet flour. I realized who it was a second before she
did.
“No!” Tiger Lily cried. “Sewati!” The little warrior ran over and cradled her brother. She dragged the broken body onto her lap and rocked. If only I had loved someone so dearly.
“I’m sorry, child.”
Tears rolled freely down her cheeks and her jaw tightened. “You still run?”
“Yes.”
“You brought us here.”
“Now I am taking you away. Let’s go.”
“No,” she said. “You were to end our suffering.”
“I never agreed to any of that,” I told her, thinking again to my dream seconds longer than I should. I reached out my hand. “Come with me.”
“You are two things. One to what you care about and one for everyone else. That is your deception.”
“If you do not come with me, we’ll die here.”
“Better a thousand of you than any more of my people.” She looked up at me with dripping hatred. “Go. Run now to your ship where you are safe.”
I paused, just for a heartbeat, but it was long enough to recall the moments I felt like Tiger Lily did then. By the second heartbeat, the blurred faces and names that went along with those memories became too much effort to identify.
Dirt and color exploded around us.
I ran.
I met up with Cecco and Noodler over the first wooded hill. The three of us ran shoulder to shoulder for most of the way. We were within eye shot of the boat when Starkey caught up with us. By the time the four of us reached the trees that bordered the bay, Gustavo was already loosing the lines that moored the yawl to the root.
Smee got there last, panting. “You wouldn’t be forgetting me now, would ya, Captain?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
We guided the boat out into the bay and over the reef without another word. A gentle wind billowed the sails and pushed the yawl out to sea toward the Jolly Roger.
Captain James Hook and the Siege of Neverland Page 11