Emily Windsnap and the Pirate Prince

by Liz Kessler

  “We’re here,” the guy at the back of the boat said as we pulled alongside and he threw a rope across to a cleat on the ship. It was the first thing he’d said the whole trip.

  “Thanks,” Sam said. “I’m sure I’ve seen both of you around before. You work for my dad. What’s your name?”

  The guy looked surprised. “Luke,” he said.

  Sam reached out to shake his hand. “Thanks, Luke,” he said.

  Luke stared at Sam. Then, taking a hand off his tiller, he wiped it on his leg and reached out to shake Sam’s hand.

  Sam nudged a thumb at the ship. “I — er — I guess my crew is waiting on board, is that right?”

  Luke stifled a laugh. “Your crew?” He shook his head.

  “What?” Sam insisted. “I don’t get it.”

  The guy openly laughed this time.

  I could feel Sam tensing up next to me. “What’s the joke?”

  Luke looked up and met Sam’s eyes. “You are, pal. You’re the joke. And the crew you’re waiting for? You’re looking at it.”

  “What? You? You’re my crew?”

  Luke jabbed a thumb back at the Sunbeam. “Me and Dean back there,” he said. “Plus another guy and a couple of girls who are on board already.” He looked me up and down. “And this one here that you’ve somehow managed to catch.”

  “Oh,” Sam managed to croak. “Right. OK, then. I thought maybe I’d —”

  “Be met with smiles and fawning?” Luke asked.

  “No! Not at all. If anything, maybe I’d have more crew than that. And, yeah, to be honest, I thought perhaps you’d be a bit more willing.”

  “We’ve been around your dad for years,” Luke replied with a shrug. “We know all about you. Let’s just say that you’re not exactly our first choice either.”

  Sam stared at Luke. “Right,” he said. “OK, I see.”

  “I’m going back for Dean,” Luke went on. “The boarding plank is there,” he said, pointing to the side of the ship. “Hal’s the chef, so he’s the one you want to keep happy. Not that Hal does happy. The girls are probably inside — hopefully making up the cabins and cleaning the place up. Get one of them to show you around. We’ll be back soon.”

  Cleaning the place up? That was the role of the girls on a pirate ship? I gritted my teeth.

  Luke indicated for us to get off the tender. We clambered across the plank, onto the ship. Sam made half a pretense of shoving me ahead of him.

  Once on board, Sam turned back to Luke. “We’ll see you —”

  Luke had already revved his engine and turned away from the ship.

  Whether he was coming back or not was anyone’s guess. Whether Sam was going to have a loyal crew working for him — that seemed even more unlikely.

  As we made our way across the deck, I couldn’t help wondering how on earth Sam was ever going to help me rescue Aaron if he couldn’t even command his own crew. And I couldn’t stop asking myself questions that turned my insides cold.

  What if he couldn’t? What if I’d made a terrible mistake?

  “Let’s try down here.” Sam pointed to a steep staircase that led under the deck. We had to turn around and climb down it backward.

  I set off down the staircase. Sam followed me. At the bottom, we landed in a room with four tables and bench seats around the sides. The ship’s dining room, I guessed. Or saloon, to use its proper name.

  In front of us was a corridor. Sam pointed ahead. “That way?”

  I followed him across the dining room.

  The corridor was short, with heavy doors on either side. We opened them as we went along. Each one led to a tiny cabin with a couple of bunk beds inside and the last one opening into a small bathroom. At the end of the corridor, a smaller staircase led down to a lower level.

  “Let’s go down there,” I said.

  Sam peered down into the even darker darkness below. “What for?”

  “You need to find somewhere to put me if you’re going to convince everyone you’re holding me captive. It looks dark and dingy. Good place for a prisoner, right?”

  Sam let out a sigh. “OK,” he said eventually. “Follow me.”

  We made our way down to the lower deck. There were just two doors in front of us. One was a tiny closet. It had shelves lining the walls on both sides, all crammed with jars and cans and boxes of food. That wouldn’t work. The chef would probably be in there several times a day.

  Next to it was a sliding door with a latch hooked onto a loop at one end. “Look!” I said. “You could put something through the loop and lock me inside.”

  “Let me see.” Sam pulled the door open and peered inside. I looked over his shoulder into the room. A tiny storeroom. A couple of shelves with toolboxes and books on them. A stool in one corner. A door at the back that led to a toilet. It even had a tiny porthole that half opened.

  “This will do,” I said. “Leave me here.”

  Sam shook his head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right,” he said. “It’s horrible down here.”

  “It’s supposed to be horrible! I’m your prisoner, and you’re supposed to be a mean, tough pirate! You have to act the part. It’s the only way they’ll respect you. Let them all know I’m down here; keep me here for a few hours.”

  “Long enough to show I’m serious.”

  “Exactly. You have to go in tough. It’s like when we get a new teacher at school. They always start off being mean and showing how much trouble we’ll be in if we don’t do what they say. Then, once we have gotten the message, they can back off a bit and show their nicer side. That’s what you have to do.”

  Sam nodded. “OK, I get it.”

  I pushed past him into the room. “Come on. Do it. Leave me here. Shove something through the latch and go. I’ll be fine.”

  Sam nodded. “OK. I’ll come and check on you really soon.”

  He slid the door closed and I heard him fumbling around outside. A moment later, something clanged against the door.

  “I found a broom,” Sam said from the other side. His voice was muffled by the door between us. “I’ve put it through the latch. I’ll be back soon.”

  “Good,” I replied. “Now, go be the captain of this ship.”

  Without another word from Sam, I heard him moving away and back up the steps.

  I tried the door. It wouldn’t open.

  A cold snake of fear slithered through me as the reality of my situation sank in.

  I was now imprisoned in a tiny room below deck, on a ship that was soon to be boarded by a team of unwilling and unpleasant pirates. Excellent.

  I sat on the stool, trying to stay calm while my brain fizzed with questions: What have you done? What kind of an idiot are you? Why would you literally abandon ship to get locked away in a hot, tiny room on a pirate ship — OF YOUR OWN ACCORD?

  I kept trying to tell my brain to stop. Stop thinking. Stop asking questions. Stop, just stop. I was here for Aaron; that was all that mattered.

  Every time my brain wouldn’t behave and do what I told it to, I forced myself to repeat the same thing, over and over again.

  We just have to win the contest. Then Sam will be in charge and he can order Noah to give Aaron back. Sam won’t leave me here to fester and die. Everything will be OK.

  Maybe if I said it enough times, I might start to believe it.

  What was that?

  A creaking sound. A tilt. Swaying.

  We were on the move.

  I let out a breath and tried to calm myself down. No point worrying and wondering. There was no turning back now.

  I twirled my hair around my fingers as I paced.

  Pace, pace . . . I reached the end of the room and turned around.

  Pace, pace . . . I reached the other side of the room.

  I stopped pacing. It wasn’t helping; it was just reminding me how small my cell was.

  And hot.

  And airless.

  I stood on the stool and stretched up to the porthole. There was a c
atch on the bottom. I managed to push the bottom half open. The gap was about as wide as my finger. But it was something. I shoved my face as near to it as I could and breathed in the fresh air.

  OK, that was better. Everything was fine. Nothing to worry about.

  BANG! BANG! BANG!

  Someone was at the door.

  I jumped down from my stool.

  “Um. Who’s there?” I called.

  The reply was a shuffling sound, as whomever it was pulled the broom out of the loop and fiddled with the catch.

  I glanced behind me. Should I hide? Could I hide? There was a tiny gap at the end of the bottom shelf. I could crawl into it and pull something over me.

  Except, there wasn’t time. The door was opening.

  Instinctively, I shut my eyes, held my breath, and pressed myself against the wall behind the door.

  “Emily?”

  Sam!

  I came out of the shadows. “Did you seriously knock on the door?”

  Sam shrugged. “I was just being polite.”

  I threw my head back and sighed. “Sam, you’re not supposed to be polite. You’re supposed to be a pirate! Who in his right mind knocks on the door that he himself locked less than half an hour earlier, when he was imprisoning someone on the ship he is supposed to be captain of ?”

  Sam did a half grimace, half grin thing that made his eyes sparkle bluer than the sea. “When you put it like that . . .” he said.

  I couldn’t help smiling as I shook my head, despite my situation. “What are you doing here, anyway?” I asked. “You were supposed to be leaving me for a few hours.”

  Sam turned away as he bit on a thumbnail. “I just wanted to make sure you were OK,” he murmured.

  “Sam, why are you really here?”

  Sam came in and plonked himself on the stool. “It’s awful up there, Emily. They hate me already. They’ve barely spoken a word to me. They keep making little inside jokes that exclude me. I don’t think any of them want to be here. They all wish they were on Noah’s ship.”

  “That’s what I’m here for. To help you get their respect. Somehow, I don’t think coming down here to complain to me is the best way of doing that.”

  Sam made a face at me. “You’re beginning to sound like my dad,” he mumbled.

  “Hey, don’t compare me to him!” I replied. “I mean, no offense, but your dad is one of the most horrible people I’ve ever met.”

  “No offense?” Sam laughed.

  “Sorry. But it’s true. And, anyway, that’s the whole point. You have to act more like him — and more like Noah. Make the crew think you’re tough. I mean, you don’t have to be horrible. Just — well, you have to act as if you’re in charge.”

  Sam opened his mouth to reply, but before he spoke, there was a sound outside the cabin. Footsteps, coming closer. “Someone’s coming down the steps,” he whispered in a panicked voice. “Now what?”

  “Here’s your chance,” I whispered back. “Show them you’re the boss. I’m your prisoner, remember!”

  “OK — but, just so you know, I’m acting. Like last time. It’s not real, OK?”

  “Of course. Me too.”

  He jumped up from the stool and stood in the doorway.

  A second later, the footsteps landed with a thump.

  “Hey, what are you doing down here?” A girl’s voice. That was my cue. Time to get our little drama started.

  “Please, let me out!” I cried. “It’s not fair, keeping me locked up like this. It’s cruel and — and unfeeling, and horrible, and mean.”

  I hoped my acting skills were convincing.

  Sam leaped into his role. “I can’t talk now,” he said to the girl. “Got to deal with this prisoner.” He turned to me. “You’ll stay in here for as long as I want you to,” he said firmly. “You’re my prisoner and you’ll come out when I say so, not when you ask. You hear me?”

  He was good. He almost had me convinced.

  “OK. But, please, don’t forget me,” I replied. “I could rot and die down here.”

  “What’s going on?” The girl’s face appeared around the door. She looked young. Maybe a couple of years older than me. She had a round brown face with dark eyes that narrowed as she stared at me. Her hair was braided, with a couple of black ringlets on her forehead. She had a tattoo on one arm: words in swirly writing; I couldn’t see what they said. She wore frayed denim shorts and a T-shirt that was covered in oil, or grime, or something.

  “Who are you?” she asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

  “I . . .” I began.

  “She’s my prisoner,” Sam broke in. “And she wants to get out, but she can’t. Not till I say. Because it’s my ship, and she’ll come out of there when I say so.”

  The girl stared at him. So did I. He was taking to his role rather impressively.

  “You hear me?” he asked, looking between us, challenging either of us to argue. “I’m the captain and I’m in charge.”

  “I hear you,” I replied. “You’re the captain.”

  The girl held her palms out in front of her and took a step back. “Cool. Whatever,” she said. “You’re the boss.”

  Sam seemed to stand a bit taller as the girl spoke. “I’ll send someone down with some bread and water for you,” he said to me. “Till then, you can wait in here and stop complaining.”

  He reached out to pull the door closed.

  “Please don’t leave me too long,” I said as the door closed in front of me. I was only half acting this time. Sam’s performance was so realistic he’d almost convinced me he was a tough, mean pirate after all.

  “I’ll come back for you when I’m good and ready,” he said. And with that, he pulled the door closed with a clang. I heard him drop the latch and shove the broom back through the loop.

  And I was left in the small, dark room, all on my own once again.

  Sam and the girl were still outside the door. I could hear them talking.

  “Will she be all right in there?” the girl asked. “It’s a small room. She’s not going to pass out from lack of oxygen or anything, is she?”

  “There’s a window. She’ll be fine, Ana,” Sam replied.

  “OK. Whatever you think,” the girl said.

  “Now, go tell the others I’m holding a meeting in the captain’s office in an hour. I need to set out some ground rules.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Ana said. It didn’t even sound like she was mocking him. He’d somehow done it. He’d managed to convince her that he was a tough pirate captain and someone who took prisoners without a second thought.

  Nice work, Sam. Now, just remember to come back and get me, won’t you?

  I waited to hear their footsteps moving away. I heard one person go up the ladder. Then a pause.

  And then . . .

  The door was being unlocked again. A second later, it swung open and Sam was in the doorway, grinning like a kid who’d just woken up on his birthday.

  “How was that?” he asked. “Do you think she was convinced?”

  “It was kind of amazing,” I replied. “Scarily so, actually. Firm and assertive might work just as well, you know! Remember, once they can see that you’re not to be messed with, you can start to back off with the mean and horrible.”

  “Don’t worry, I will.”

  “Hopefully, she’ll tell all the others you’ve captured a prisoner and you’ll be halfway there,” I said.

  “That’s the plan. And I’ve got another plan, too,” he said. “I’m going to bring you into the meeting I’m holding.”

  “What, like as guest of honor?” I joked.

  Sam made a face. “I was thinking more as walking proof that I’m in charge and they need to take me seriously. It’ll be safe by then anyway.”

  “Safe?”

  Sam shrugged. “We’ll be far enough out to sea that there’ll be no way you could get back to shore, so there won’t be any need to lock you up in a cell down here.”

  “Mm,” I said. �
�Yeah, good plan.” I didn’t like how it felt to lie to him — but what were my options? Tell him I was a mermaid who could swim back to shore from anywhere we sailed to?

  No way. After the conversation I’d overheard, where he and his family had pretty much said that mermaids were the root of all evil, that was the last thing I’d do.

  He was backing out of the room and pulling the door closed. “Just hold on another hour or so,” he said. “I’ll come back for you, and then you won’t have to stay in here.”

  “OK. Thanks, Sam. Good luck!”

  He saluted me in a way that made me smile. And then it made me feel guilty. I was here to get Aaron back, not to make friends with some pirate boy. He wasn’t anything to me. He was my route to finding Aaron: nothing more, nothing less.

  I made myself as comfortable as I could on my stool and settled into the gentle rocking of the ship, while I waited to see what the next hour would bring.

  Imust have dozed off. Next thing I knew, I was leaping off my stool as I was shaken awake by a clanking sound at the door.

  Sam came into the room. He had two of his crew members with him: Ana, the girl from earlier and a boy I didn’t recognize. He was tall and lanky with a pale face and long red hair tied back in a ponytail.

  “Take her upstairs,” Sam said firmly.

  The two others shuffled in behind him. “We’re setting her free?” the guy asked.

  “Look around you, Hal,” Sam replied. “There’s nothing but miles and miles of sea out there. You think she can escape?” He held Hal’s eyes and I watched the power battle take place between them.

  Eventually, Hal shrugged. “You’re the boss,” he said, with just enough of a sneer that I could tell he didn’t really mean it.

  “You go first,” Sam said to me. “Up there. And don’t try anything clever.”

  I felt a flicker of nerves in my stomach. I might have Sam on my side, and this might all be an act for him, but I already knew that most of the crew members weren’t exactly the kind to welcome me aboard with a smile and a handshake. What if they decided not to listen to Sam anymore? What if there was a mutiny and I ended up really taken prisoner — and not by Sam but by these guys?