“I think we’re driving them back!” Monty shouted above the clamor.
“Keep it up, crew!” Scarlet yelled. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure bounding across the clearing toward them. “Some are coming back! There’s one…wait a minute.” She turned for a good look at the figure, then gasped. This was no pirate. This was a man in blue and brass.
“Father!”
A pirate lunged toward her, but she booted him in the knee and hurdled him as he fell. Then she ran to meet the admiral.
“Scarlet!” he cried, his eyes wild and bright. “Are you all right?”
“Of course! We’re driving them back!” She paused to wipe a stream of sweat from her forehead.
“When they didn’t attack us, I knew something was wrong. I—”
“Arrrgh!” The pirate Scarlet had kicked half ran, half limped toward them, cutlass raised.
“Oh, honestly.” Scarlet drew her own slingshot and pelted him in the knuckle with a stone, forcing him to drop his weapon. Then she shot another right at his ear, and he keeled over again, trying to clutch his knee, ear, and left hand all at once.
Admiral McCray looked down at his daughter as if seeing her for the first time. “So this is what your crew does?”
Scarlet grinned. “This is what we do best.”
“Captain, what’s going on?” Jem cried, pointing at Admiral McCray.
“It’s all right,” Scarlet yelled back. “He’s on our side. He’s here to help. Right, Father?”
“Father?” Jem cried. “Like, yours?”
“Bit of a long story, Fitz. Maybe later?” She turned back to the admiral. “You are here to help, aren’t you?”
He looked around at the battle scene, then nodded. “You bet I am!” he cried, drawing his broadsword. And he leaped at the nearest pirate, who responded by punching him in the chest.
“Hey!” Scarlet yelled. But to her surprise, it was the pirate and not the admiral who cried out in pain. Scarlet’s father watched him keel over, then patted his breast pocket and winked at Scarlet. He proceeded to charge a nearby group of three, hollering battle cries and curses that made Smitty look away from his next target and whistle.
“Now that’s an admirable admiral,” the boy quipped.
“That,” Scarlet replied, “is my father.”
“Your what?”
“Later! Let’s drive these pirates home!”
The pirates were now fleeing across the clearing, chased by arrows, stones, and grinning island warriors. The Lost Souls followed them over the grass, around the pool, and straight to the mouth of the trail.
Then Captain Wallace stopped and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “What…what is this?” he whined. “They’re children! They can’t chase us off! We were right there, at the treasure!”
“Captain, there’s no treasure!” Pete yelled back. “That stupid boy led us astray.”
“But the stories—” the captain said.
“Birds hiding rubies? Captain, that’s absurd! It’s—”
But Pete didn’t get to finish, for the rope trap in which he and Captain Wallace had been standing clamped tight around their legs, and before they could even yelp, they’d been strung up in a tree.
Scarlet cheered. Tim had sneaked in and sprung the trap while the pirates were arguing. It was brilliant! It was—
“McCray!”
It was Lucas Lawrence, cutlass drawn, looking none too pleased at being foiled in his attempt to steal the treasure.
The floor of Jem’s tree house hung a few feet above Scarlet’s head. Just before Lucas could reach her, she clambered up onto it.
“Think you’re safe up there?” Lucas growled. “You have no idea what’s coming to you.” He clamped his cutlass between his teeth, grasped a low branch, and followed her up.
“Oh, I know what’s coming to me,” Scarlet retorted. “Even if I didn’t have eyes I could smell you.”
There was no time to congratulate herself on the excellent comeback. In a moment, they’d both be standing on a very small platform with nothing to do but fight. Scarlet gulped. She’d been in this situation before. But this time, there were no pigs to save her.
Below, Jem came running toward the tree. “Stop! Stop!”
Lucas shoved him away and pulled himself up onto the platform.
“I don’t think it’s…” Scarlet heard Jem say. “Oh, scurvy.”
Lucas stood and plucked his cutlass from his teeth. He gave Scarlet a wicked smirk. “This is it, McCray. The moment we’ve all been waiting for.”
Then she heard the first snap. Realizing what was about to happen, she spotted a vine hanging nearby that just might hold her.
When the platform broke, splintering into a hundred pieces, she leaped for that vine.
Lucas tumbled to the jungle floor, knocking himself clean out of consciousness.
“HURRAY!” the Lost Souls below yelled as their captain swung down to meet them.
“Brilliant, Cap’n!” Smitty yelled. “A real island warrior, you are.”
Scarlet bent double for a moment to slow her heartbeats and her breath. Finally she looked up and shook her head.
“A real Lost Soul.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Lost Soul? As in the Ship of Lost Souls? That’s what your crew does?”
“Um. Well…”
Admiral McCray looked around at the Lost Souls, who were staring back at him equally bewildered. “Little ghouls, all dressed in black,” he murmured. “I can’t believe it.”
“Captain,” Tim whispered, “how do you know he…I mean, he is a King’s Man and all.”
“I know.” Scarlet turned to her crew. “But he won’t tell. Right, Father?”
He looked at the Lost Souls, then at the clearing beyond. “I won’t tell a soul,” he said.
Looking up at his messy hair and bright eyes, Scarlet doubted he’d ever said anything so true. The stern admiral was fading right before her eyes.
“The pirates won’t get far,” he continued. “My men are waiting a few hundred yards away in the trees. And no,” he added as Tim opened his mouth, “I didn’t tell them anything. I ordered them to lead me to the place where they killed the pig and stay put until I said so. Capturing any pirates who came their way, of course.”
Scarlet marveled at how the jagged lines on her father’s face had disappeared. She wanted desperately to talk to him alone, but there would be time for that later. Right now, they had a few more pirates to deal with.
She turned to Lucas Lawrence, still unconscious on the jungle floor. Jem stood beside him. “I’m not sure how to feel about this shoddy construction job.” He kicked a broken stick.
Scarlet punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Are you kidding, Fitz? Your tree house saved us all, just like you wanted it to. Well, all right, maybe not just like you wanted it to.”
Jem laughed. “So what should we do with him?”
“And those two?” Ronagh pointed to Captain Wallace and Iron “Pete” Morgan, who were hanging upside-down from a nearby tree. The captain was complaining that the rope was chafing his ankles, while Pete sighed, holding his head in his hands.
“Hmm.” Scarlet looked around at her crew, her father, Thomas, and Uncle Finn. Her eyes lingered on the last two. Then she cried, “I’ve got it! We’ll feed them that bromeliad!”
“I dunno,” said Thomas. “Neither of them’s got andro…alo…they’ve both got lots of hair.”
Scarlet shook her head. “The other one.”
“Really? I don’t think green really suits either of ’em,” Smitty mused.
Scarlet rolled her eyes. “The other one. The one that’ll erase their memories.”
“Jolly!” said Jem. “Uncle Finn and I will go get some. Nice hair, by the way,” he added to his uncle.
“You like it?” Uncle Finn touched his curly mane. “It’s not too much?”
Jem grinned. “Not at all. It suits you. And, Uncle Finn, I’ve got to tell you about
my new theory. It might sound crazy, but I think it’s sound. It has to do with animals learning languages, see…” His voice trailed off as they walked away.
Most of the other Lost Souls busied themselves tying up Lucas and lowering Captain Wallace and Pete from the tree so they could tie them up tighter.
Scarlet watched for a moment, then turned to her father.
“Thank you,” she said at the same time he said, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t—” she began, but he shook his head.
“I’ve been a terrible father, too consumed by my own grief and anger to focus on the one thing that mattered—you. I left you with that old woman, thinking she couldn’t possibly be a worse caregiver than me. At that point, I thought life couldn’t get any worse. And then you disappeared. I searched for you for three years, Scarlet. Three years of anguish. Three years of wondering if you’d be around every corner I turned.”
Scarlet nodded, remembering her time with Scary Mary, when every footstep on the stairs held the possibility of being her father’s.
“And then,” he continued, “as soon as I gave up, there you were. The spitting image of your mother. Except dirtier.” He reached out and tugged on a lock of her hair.
“Really?” Scarlet blinked hard.
“When you got angry the other day, I saw her right before me, in you. And I began to remember what we’d been through and…I was terrified. I didn’t think I could handle the memories. But then…” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the wooden star. The one he’d carved for Scarlet many years ago. The one Sina had somehow saved and handed to Scarlet the day before. The one Scarlet had passed on to her father in hopes that he’d remember.
“I did,” he said simply.
Scarlet slipped her hand into his. “Come on.” She led him a short ways off, where Sina and Kapu stood watching. When he saw them, the admiral stopped and drew a breath.
“Thank you,” Scarlet said to them through words and thoughts. “We couldn’t have done that without you.”
Sina and Kapu nodded without taking their eyes off the King’s Man before them.
Finally, Sina spoke up. “I remember you,” she told Admiral McCray in her language.
For a moment he said nothing. Scarlet felt his hand tighten and wondered if it would be too much for him—if it might make him run away.
But finally he nodded. “I remember, too. You and Scarlet were inseparable.”
Scarlet’s jaw dropped. Not so much because of what he’d said—she had suspected that when Sina had slipped her the wooden star—but because of how he’d said it. In the Islander language.
She marveled at him for a moment, then turned to Sina. “Did you know we were friends?”
Sina bit her lip. “I wasn’t sure at first. You look different now.” She pointed at Scarlet’s shirt and trousers, then grinned. “But you still play a mean game of tapo. So I figured it out.”
“Tapo,” Admiral McCray murmured. “Looks like I have a lot to catch up on.”
Scarlet looked up at him. “But you’re going away…aren’t you?”
He laid a hand on her head. “It occurred to me, when I saw you and your crew in this place I’d forgotten all about, that the Old World doesn’t need me. If you’re here, and you’re here, too”—he nodded to Sina and Kapu—“then I need to make sure that they”—he nodded toward the trees, where his men were capturing pirates as they spoke—“don’t come anywhere near this place. That”—he smiled—“will be my new job.”
“A renegade King’s Man!” Scarlet exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Infiltrating the enemies from within!” She couldn’t wait to tell the crew.
Jem and Uncle Finn soon returned with the plant samples and got to work stuffing them into the captives’ mouths. Lucas was just beginning to wake up and find himself cocooned in rope.
“Give ’em lots of that bromely-stuff,” Smitty crowed. “Let’s make sure they forget all about Island X. And about the Lost Souls!”
Uncle Finn shook his curly mane and said, “Unfortunately, I can’t guarantee they’ll forget everything forever. We haven’t tested this specimen adequately. But”—he pushed a big leaf into Captain Wallace’s mouth—“we’ll do our very best.”
“Now what?” Elmo yelled.
“I say we go to the Hop!” Scarlet said. “We’ll dump these swabs on the Island of Vengeful Vegetation and do a supply run in Jamestown while we’re out.”
“Finally!” Tim yelled. “A trip to the ship!”
“And I’ll move my men and the rest of the Dark Ranger pirates out of here,” said Admiral McCray.
“But you’ll be back?” Scarlet asked.
“Of course,” he answered. “As soon as I spread all kinds of rumors about the horrors on this island and the small but fierce creatures that live here.”
The Lost Souls laughed.
“We’ll stay and keep watch,” Sina said, and Kapu nodded.
“Actually,” Gil Jenkins spoke up, “I think I might stay. I’m thinking about planting a garden. For…you know…a bit of variety.”
Scarlet smiled at him. “Sounds like a perfect job. Sina and Kapu’ll teach you.” Then she turned to the rest of her crew. “To the Hop then, everyone?”
“To the Hop!”
GLOSSARY
Amulet: an object worn, often as a piece of jewelry around the neck, to ward off evil
Blimey: an expression of frustration or surprise as in, “Remember when you dropped the anchor on my foot? Blimey, that hurt!”
Broadsword: a large, heavy sword with a broad blade
Buccaneer: a pirate. The term buccaneer comes from a French word (boucanier) which means “barbecuer.” In the 1600s, buccaneers were humble men who sold barbecued meats to sailors passing through ports. Eventually they realized the opportunity passing them by and gave up their grills to make their fortunes by pillaging and plundering.
Careen: Cleaning the ship’s hull involves beaching it, tilting it to one side, and scraping off the barnacles.
Castaway: a person lucky enough to survive a shipwreck and wash ashore, hopefully not on the Island of Smelly Wild Pigs
Crow’s nest: the lookout platform near the top of a mast, not the best place for pirates afraid of heights
Cutlass: a short, curved sword with a single cutting edge, a pirate’s best friend
Doubloon: a Spanish gold coin, similar to the chocolate variety, but less tasty
Drivelswigger: a pirate who spends too much time reading about all things nautical
Flotsam: floating debris or rubbish
Fo’c’sle: the raised part of the upper deck at the front of a ship, also called the forecastle
Gun deck: the deck on which the ship’s cannons are carried
Jack-tar: a sailor
Keelhaul: the worst possible punishment on board a ship. The offender’s hands are bound to a rope that runs underneath the ship, and he is thrown overboard and dragged from one end to the other.
Long drop: the Lost Souls’ own term for the toilet
Mast: a long pole that rises from the ship’s deck and supports the sails
Piece of eight: a Spanish silver coin
Plank: the piece of wood that hangs off the side of the ship, like a soon-to-be-dead-man’s diving board. Unlucky sailors must walk it to their doom.
Plunder: to steal, or an act of thievery
Poop deck: the highest deck at the stern of a ship. It has nothing to do with the long drop, by the way.
Port: a sailor’s word for left
Quarterdeck: the rear part of the upper deck at the front of a ship
Quartermaster: usually the second-in-command on a ship
Scalawag: a rascal, rogue, scoundrel, or general mischief-maker
Schooner: a ship with two or more masts. One explanation suggests that the name comes from the Scottish term “to scoon,” which means “to skim upon the surface.”
Scuttle: a word used by the Lost Souls to describe som
ething awful as in, “Hardtack for breakfast again? That scuttles!”
Sloop: a small, single-mast ship
Spyglass: a much more intriguing name for a small telescope
Starboard: a sailor’s word for right
Swain: a short form of boatswain, meaning a sailor of the lowest rank, more of a servant
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Once again, I’m so lucky to have so many amazing people to thank for their support in the making of this novel. To my editors, Lynne Missen and Pamela Bobowicz, and agent, Marie Campbell: Thank you for letting the Lost Souls live on a little longer. To Catherine Marjoribanks, Melissa Zilberberg, Sarah Howden, and the entire team at HarperCollins Canada. To Fiona Pook, the talented artist behind this book’s treasure map, and Tara MacDonald, creator of splendid teacher guides. To fabulous friends and colleagues who actually volunteer to read my unwieldy first drafts—namely, Ria Voros, John Mavin, Jana Fernandes, and Paul Colangelo. To Louise Delaney—always on call, red pen and words of encouragement at the ready. Thank you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachelle Delaney lives in Vancouver, Canada, where she works as a writer, editor, and creative writing teacher. In 2010 she was named the top emerging writer in Canada by the Canadian Author’s Association.
by Rachelle Delaney
Coming Soon
CHAPTER ONE
“Water?”
“Check.”
“Map?”
“Check.”
“Empty pockets for filling with plunder?”
Jem Fitzgerald pulled his pockets inside out to show how empty they were. “Check. We’re ready, Captain.” He tucked his pockets back in his trousers. “We should get going.”
Scarlet McCray bit her lip. “Right…it’s just…” She looked up at the afternoon sky and watched a flock of green parrots flap by overhead. “I have a feeling I’m forgetting something.”
The Guardians of Island X Page 14