“Here, I will take over,” Archie said, relieving Beckett of the wheel. “Go below and get some rest.”
“Aye, Cap’n.” Beckett heaved in relief, rubbing the sore muscles in his neck as he relinquished the wheel. “Give me a yell should ye be needin’ me again.”
“I shall.” Archie smiled, keeping his eyes on the star. “Off with you, Beckett.”
The ship sailed through the night, and though Archie’s neck ached, he never took his eyes off that single, pulsing, silver star. Hours went by until the star was so big that it sat in front of the ship like a giant silver orb. The light was so bright that he was having trouble keeping his eyes open.
Well, now what? Do I continue to sail us through it? He wondered.
The star pulsed. Instinct took over and Archie shut his eyes against the light. Then, the ship shuddered and lurched, making terrible crunching sounds, as if it were attempting to sail through a field of rocks.
The first thing Archie discovered when he opened his eyes, was that daylight had come. The next thing he realized, was that he was lying on the deck, with his head propped up against the railing. He lay there for a moment, taking inventory of his body. He seemed to be unharmed, so he took in the scene around him. The few hands on deck seemed to be in the same state as he. A couple were sitting up, looking befuddled, while the rest were sprawled out wherever they had last stood. Fear knotted in his gut when he remembered Harper.
Reluctantly, he tilted his head up to look up the mast, fearing the worst and expecting to find the rigging empty.
One tattooed forearm stuck out the top of the mainsail. As he watched, the arm moved, and Harper’s head popped up. A string of curses rang through the air next, and Archie relaxed.
As he let out the breath he had been holding, it coalesced in front of his mouth in a frosty, white mist.
It was cold. As in dead-of-winter, in the middle of a blizzard, cold. Shivering, he sat up. Crunching sounds behind him caught his attention next. Turning, he spotted icebergs everywhere.
“All hands on deck!” he yelled, jumping up to grab the wheel, which had been turning aimlessly to and fro. Pirates came scrambling from below deck. They were still disoriented, and the sight of the ice didn’t help matters.
“We be in the Arctic,” he heard one say. “How did that happen? Last I closed me eyes, we sailed the Carolinas.”
How, indeed, Archie thought, steering clear of one large iceberg. Miss Bell has not shown us the way back to the Carolinas. “Every man to his station,” he ordered. “Best we be ready for whatever we find.” He nodded to Harper, up in the mast, while addressing those below, “Slow us down, lads, take in the sails.”
The crushing sounds of the ice became louder and the ship groaned as it pushed through the frigid sea. Carefully, Archie navigated the ship away from the boulders and into clearer water. Once it seemed they weren’t going to hit anything else, he sighed in relief.
“Well, this were warm a minute ago, but now it be as cold as ice,” Boggs announced, kicking open the door to the stairway. In his hands, and balanced on his belly, was a wooden tray with a bowl of soup. The dark-haired woman on his stomach seemed to be trying to do her part as the tray sat precariously atop her tattooed head, bobbing back and forth on its way toward Archie. “Here ye be, Cap’n. Didn’t figure ye had time to eat, so’s I brought it up. Where on this world are we, might I ask?”
“I have not the slightest idea, Boggs,” Archie said, watching as the round pirate rolled up to the quarterdeck and set down his tray.
“It be cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey,” the cook grumbled, gooseflesh mottling his bare torso.
As if in answer to Boggs’s assessment of the weather, one of the brass fittings holding the cannonballs contracted and a single cannonball shot upward in the air. Luckily, it landed in the middle of a coil of ropes, which softened its landing.
We have to get out of here, Archie frowned. Loose cannonballs rolling about the ship would not make for a happy occasion, especially if one were to knock a hole in the deck or smack one of his crew in the head, for he needed his ship and his crew whole, even though he suspected some of them had naught but air in their heads.
Ignoring the sloshing bowl of soup at his feet, Archie concentrated on the sky ahead of them. On their starboard side, the water looked clearer and the sun was shining. It at least gave him the impression of warmth. The port side, however, looked even more dangerous than the water they were in now, with towering, sharp spikes of ice that rose up from the blackest waters he had ever seen. He turned the wheel toward starboard and held his breath, hoping that he had chosen well.
Slowly, the Roger inched toward clearer water. After what seemed an eternity, the crunching noises were replaced with the soft sounds of water splashing against the hull. The temperature warmed, as if they had moved from one season straight into another. The sudden change of winter to summer seemed to make the crew happier, though most of them were muttering under their breath about magic and enchanted waters.
Suspicious lot, Archie smirked.
A few of the Indians came up from the hold and were looking over the railings. Lily walked toward him. The wind blew her hair over her shoulders. “So where are we?” she asked. The words were still in her strange language, but he understood every word. He looked at her in astonishment.
Thinking that he hadn’t understood anything she had said, she gestured around them and lifted her hands up in a questioning shrug. “Where are we?” she repeated.
“I do not know, but it seems to be a strange place, indeed,” he answered quietly, watching as her brown eyes widened. Then he turned his attention to his crew, who had noticed something amiss with the young woman who stood on the quarterdeck.
“Drop the anchor, lads! Let’s sit here for a bit and gather our wits about us, and enjoy this warm spot we’ve found. What say you?”
“Aye!” The answer was unanimous. Being as Boggs had been spotted bringing the soup up moments before, the crew was more than ready to pitch an anchor in the water and go below for a bite to eat. The captain and his guest were forgotten and left to themselves on the quarterdeck.
“Are you all right?” Archie asked Lily gently. The girl hadn’t so much as moved since she realized that there seemed to no longer be a language barrier.
“Yes,” she said, though she didn’t sound so sure.
“Would you like something to eat?” he asked, eyeballing the cold, sloshing bowl of soup with a look of distaste. The majority of it was splattered on the deck. “Perhaps something a bit less… mobile?”
She laughed and it was music to his ears. He looked up from the soup to see her face creased in a smile. “No, thank you. I’m not hungry. Do you have any idea of where we might be? This place feels… strange.”
“I truly do not know and I must agree, strange is a most fitting word for this place,” Archie said, peering at the ocean over her shoulder to make sure the ice was still a comfortable distance away. As it appeared they were safe, he turned his gaze back to the girl in front of him. It seemed she was doing the same thing as he, for she was watching something over his own shoulder. She glanced back to him.
“What will happen to us when you reach your destination?” Her brown eyes looked at him with no sign of fear. She sought the truth, and from her direct stare, Archie was certain that she would know if he told her otherwise.
“You were taken as plunder and will be sold when we reach port.” He hated the sound of those words as soon as they left his lips. They were blunt, sharp things and though they were the truth, he detested saying them, so he added a heartfelt apology in hopes of softening the truth, “I am sorry, Lily.”
“I will wish that we never reach port, then.” Her smile caught him off guard. It was not the reaction he had expected. “I also wish to thank you for my name.”
“Ah. Well…” He shifted from foot to foot. He didn’t want to admit the reason for the shorter nickname was that he had thought t
he name strange and ill-fitting.
“Lily is much prettier than Jumping Water,” she said, crinkling her nose in distaste.
I agree with you, he thought. Such a name put him in the mind of dangerous waterfalls and sharp-toothed beasties that leapt up out of the water to swallow ships whole. But instead of voicing his imaginative thoughts, he gave her a warm smile. “At first, I wished to call you Tiger Lily, truth be known, for you are as beautiful as a flower and as brave as a tigress.”
Her smile widened and lit up her eyes, then her expression grew serious. “I would be pleased if you were to call me Tiger Lily. Maybe it will keep me brave when we reach your port.”
Before he could answer, he spotted Smee, who had come up to the deck with his spyglass. “Yer blasted pixie is flying about again. Best she keeps her thievin’ hands to herself, or else.” The old man made a slicing motion under his chin with one gnarled finger, as if warning he would slit Miss Bell’s throat should the opportunity once again arise.
“Where was she?” Archie asked, ignoring Smee’s scowl.
“She flew in front of me, just as I was headin’ up the steps.”
Being as the staircase led to the deck, it was easy to assume Miss Bell was somewhere close by. “Very well. I shall keep an eye out for her,” he told Smee, who harrumphed and stalked to the opposite end of the ship, spyglass in hand.
“What is a pixie?” Tiger Lily asked, “Is it something like a water spirit?”
A sudden splash of golden dust landed between them. Archie smiled and held his palm out flat. A second later, Miss Bell landed upon his fingertips and stood there, smiling at them.
“This,” Archie said, returning the smile, “is a pixie. Her name is Miss Bell.”
“Oh my,” Tiger Lily said, leaning forward to get a better look at the tiny being who stood on his hand. “I’ve never seen anything like her before. She is beautiful.”
At the compliment, Miss Bell preened at her topknot of blonde tendrils and batted her big eyes.
She’s a bit vain, Archie thought, amused. The fairy was busy showing off, walking from his wrist to his fingertips, leaving tiny puffs of golden dust on his skin with every step. Then, she stopped in midstep as if she had heard something, a look of panic crossing her face. Then, she flew off his palm, disappearing across the water.
“Well, that saves me trouble,” Smee sounded unusually happy as he placed his spyglass to his eye to look in the direction where she had vanished.
Archie and Tiger Lily walked down from the quarterdeck. Archie planned to escort her below and find them both something to eat, when Smee announced, “There be land o’er that way where yer pixie went. I see a wee bit o’ it, but it be an island, nonetheless.”
Instead of continuing below deck, Archie strode to Smee and snatched his spyglass. True enough, a small streak of vibrant green sat on the horizon. “We will make preparations to sail,” he told Smee. One look at Tiger Lily’s saddened face made him add, “But best we use caution, lest we end up at the British Navy’s mercy once again.” He handed the spyglass back. “Keep a weather eye for anyone on that island. I’ll go below and fetch the lads.”
“Aye,” the old man nodded and set back to his task.
Archie ordered the pirates to their stations and soon the anchor was hauled up and the sails loosed. As the ship came closer to the island, the water below them began to change color. The dark, inky black lightened to the clearest, sparkling shade of blue that Archie had ever seen.
“I don’t see nary a soul,” Smee grumbled, “Not even a flag, or a ship near her shore.”
“It’s one side of her, Mr. Smee. Her port may well be in another place,” Archie said, trying not to let the hope seep into his voice. While part of him dreaded finding a port, for he had no intention of letting Tiger Lily be sold as a slave, another part wished to know where they were. If it came to it, he would use his own share of the plunder to ensure her safe return.
It is possible none of us will return, he thought, looking down into the water. As they came nearer the island, the blue in the water sparkled and glistened, as if the ocean were lined with diamonds.
They sailed close enough to the shore that Archie could make out the shapes of birds in the trees without the use of the spyglass, but saw nothing that spoke of anyone inhabiting that section of the island.
This could be the place we leave Black Caesar. He frowned, thinking of the man below deck. As if reading his mind, Tiger Lily stepped closer to him, so close that her shoulder brushed against his coat.
“I hope there is no port in this place,” she murmured so low that he barely heard her.
“All will be well. There is nothing to fear,” he told her, taking her hand in his.
They were sailing by a small inlet in the shape of a semi-circle. A large, flat rock sat in the center. It was sloped on one side, with one edge that dipped toward the ocean.
Archie’s first thought was that a dolphin was lying there, sunning itself. He’d never seen such a creature before, but he had seen pictures of them. The wide tail, which was fanning the surface of the water, seemed that it could belong to such an animal, though he’d never read of one actually choosing to be out of the water.
“Look!” Harper shouted from above them in the rigging, pointing at the rock.
The tail stopped its splashing as its owner sat up. A woman with long, black hair watched them with a look of curiosity painted on her face. Her hair was lying in wet tendrils down her shoulders to her bare waist. But that was as far as she looked human, for there the tail began. Half woman, half fish, Archie thought, dumbstruck, we’ve found a mermaid!
The pirates seemed to realize that in the same instant as he, only they were more verbal with their thoughts. A clamor rose up, with half of them demanding to sail to the rock, and the other half, being the more suspicious sort, demanding to leave it immediately for the fear of bad luck.
Before Archie knew it, one of the idiots fired a cannon. It whistled through the air and missed its intended mark, landing a distance beyond the rock. A giant splash soaked the mermaid, whose face took on the look of fear a split second before she jumped back into the safety of the sea, disappearing from sight.
“Fool! No man is to fire any weapon without my order.” Archie glowered at the guilty man holding the linstock. He walked down the steps from the quarterdeck and stalked toward the pirate, unsheathing his rapier along the way. He pointed the tip at the man’s throat. “If the British Navy heard your blast and lie in wait, you will breathe no more, I will promise you that.”
The man, who was one of the newest Spaniard recruits, gulped, and stepped away, nodding.
“Any man who disobeys me, I will throw overboard without a word. Consider this your last warning.” He gave them the full effect of the cold rage burning in his blue eyes. He returned to his place on the quarterdeck, and glanced at the rock. The mermaid had come back to the surface and was watching them from a safe distance. Even though Archie knew they wished something to be done, the pirates remained silent and still, waiting for his orders. It was the first time Archie felt like a pirate captain. He smiled.
“Sail on, lads. Let us see what other mysteries this island holds.”
13
Mermaids and Neverlings
BOGGS PATTED THE top of his stomach as if he feared he was starting to lose some of his wide girth. “We be runnin’ low on food,” he informed Archie.
“The men be getting antsy to set foot on dry land, port or no,” Beckett chipped in as he ducked into the room, shutting the door to the map room behind him.
“My people want to know what you plan to do with us,” Tiger Lily’s voice was just as determined as the other two as she crossed her arms over her chest and glowered at him.
Archie fought the urge to beat his head against the table in frustration. Apparently, the three of them had decided an ambush was in order. There was no way that all of them had arrived in his quarters at the same time by coincidence. The onl
y one who hadn’t made his demands known was the old man who sat in the corner, whittling on a piece of wood.
“And what of you?” Archie asked Smee, who stopped carving and peered over his spectacles. “What is it that you want?”
“Same as them,” he replied, shrugging as he went back to scattering wood chips and shavings on the floor.
A quiet sigh escaped Archie. He’d expected them to come earlier, truth be told. It had taken days to sail around the island, and no port had been found. That they had waited until the Jolig Roger came back full circle to the mermaid’s inlet was a bit of a surprise to him, and he hadn’t anticipated that they would all come at him at once. His gaze rested on Tiger Lily, whose bottom lip jutted out. Had he been a betting man, he would have placed odds that the woman had put the other three up to this ambush.
“We will disembark and search for a means to restore our rations.” He gave a pointed look to both Beckett and Boggs. “Best you tell the lads to make preparations. In the morning, we row ashore.”
The boatswain and the cook left in happier spirits, followed by Smee, who stood up, flipping the rest of his shavings to the floor. He whistled an upbeat tune as he went out the door.
The only one of the four intruders who hadn’t left, still stood in the same place as before, refusing to budge until he told her what she wanted to know.
“Lily,” he said softly. He stood to come closer. “I cannot tell you what you wish to hear. If we find anyone on the island tomorrow, the code will be followed.”
“And if we find no one?” A glimmer of a wish sparkled in her eyes.
Archie understood, for if the island was truly uninhabited, the Indian tribe could not be sold as the crew’s plunder. Still, he didn’t want to give her false hope. “If we find no one, we stock the ship as best we can, leave the island, and search for a port elsewhere.”
She nodded, not meeting his gaze. “I thought you would say that.” She hesitated then, just long enough that Archie spied the small knife hidden beneath her arm. That pause gave him the time he needed, for when she raised it up toward his throat, he blocked her, managing to trap her wrist. His momentum thrust her against the wall, pinning her with his own body. There was no threat now.
The Untold Stories of Neverland: The Complete Box Set Page 15