Rising In The East Read online

  Jean looked at her closely. Were those…tears in her eyes?

  BOOM!

  A muffled sound, like faraway thunder, echoed through the ship. Jean and Billy exchanged worried glances. Surely that wasn’t—

  BOOM!

  The ship rocked as if something heavy had just landed in the water beside it.

  Something like a cannonball.

  “Anyway, he never cooked my fish as rare as I like it, and he was all big and muscley and—hey!” Marcella realized that Billy and Jean had raced away to the deck. “I was talking, people!” she fumed. “Pirates!” She threw the biscuit at the wall. It bounced off and hit the floor with a dull, unappetizing thud.

  Jean poked his head through the hatch and realized that the storm was finally dying down. The heavy rain had become a light shower, tapping gently on the boards of the deck. The cold wind still whistled through the black sails, but something much more urgent than the thunderstorm had appeared on the horizon.

  Two ships were bearing down on the Black Pearl with frightening speed. It was as if they had hidden behind the thunderclouds, lying in wait until the Pearl reached the end of the strait and came upon the open waters of the Pacific Ocean.

  Even through the rain, Jack recognized the winglike shape of the red sails, the sleek outline of the ships, and the bright crimson banners fluttering from the masts. He snapped his spyglass shut. These were Chinese pirate junks, a type of ship known throughout the world for its speed and maneuverability. But here? At the gateway to the Pacific, just off the South American coast? It was clear that someone did not want the Pearl to enter the Pacific Ocean, and Jack had a good idea who that might be.

  If there were ever a time for the Pearl ’s legendary swiftness to be tested, this was it! But first they had to get around the junks, which were planted directly in their path.

  Jack narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to speak.

  “Mistress Ching,” Barbossa muttered darkly.

  “Hey, I was about to say that!” Jack objected. “I even had an excessively ominous tone of voice prepared. Quite better than your own, actually. Here, listen: ‘Mistress Ching,’” he intoned, pitching his voice as low as possible and drawing the words out slowly. “See? You’re not the only one who can do that whole sinister, brooding thing.” He waved his hand up and down as if summing up Barbossa.

  “Jack, this is no time for your strange behavior,” Barbossa snarled. “Mistress Ching’s ships will blow us out of the water in a matter of moments.”

  “Captain, Captain, Captain Jack, my dear Hector. Captain Jack,” Jack reminded him with an unruffled smile. He wasn’t worried. The effects of the second vial of Shadow Gold, which he had poured down his throat on top of a mountain in South America, were still coursing through his veins. He felt strong and alive and full of a powerful energy, like he could almost go running across the water to kick in the sides of those ships if he wanted to. That’s what the Shadow Gold did. It wasn’t valued as a precious metal, but as a liquid amalgamation that could restore youth to the person who consumed it.

  It also was a cure for the heavy shadow-sickness that had plagued Jack since Tortuga—a shadow-sickness that only all seven vials of Shadow Gold could cure. That was what Tia Dalma had told him. But Jack had decided it best not to share all that information with his crew. They might take it amiss that they were sailing all the way around the world just to save Jack’s life. They were pirates, after all. Selfish, the lot of them.

  So, instead, the crew thought Jack was on a mission to find the gold and stop the Shadow Lord. Some of them seemed to have the distinct impression that they would be sharing the wealth that would come from selling the Shadow Gold in the end. Jack wasn’t sure where they’d gotten that idea. Surely not from anything he’d said. Certainly not.

  And, of course, he didn’t let any of the others know that drinking the gold would have any affect at all.

  “Is that Mistress Ching herself?” Carolina asked excitedly, running to the front railing. “Are we going to see her?” Beside her, Diego shivered, remembering the tales he’d heard of the fearsome Chinese Pirate Lord.

  “You mean, see her laughing as our ship goes down in flames?” Billy said, joining the group around the steering wheel. “That does sound like something to look forward to.”

  “Always so negative, mate,” Jack said, cocking his hat blithely. “We haven’t met a ship yet that can outrun the Black Pearl.”

  “Of course you would want to run,” Barbossa growled.

  “And no,” Jack said, ignoring his first mate, “I doubt very much that the notorious Mistress Ching would come sailing all the way over here just to fight off a couple of measly intruders in her territory. Of course, if she knew it were Captain Jack Sparrow, I’m sure she’d have made an exception.”

  “Oh, yes,” Barbossa said, rolling his eyes. “I wager she’s quaking in her slippers at the very thought.”

  “Mistress Ching commands a fleet of thousands of these junks,” Billy said to Carolina, pointing at the approaching ships. “She can spare a few to guard this entrance to her territory. They probably have orders to loot any merchant ship that comes this way and drive off rival pirates. Say, Jack, you know where there wouldn’t be any pirate junks, Jack? NORTH CAROLINA.”

  “Sorry, Billy, mate, I’d love to chat about that, but I’ve got to concentrate here,” Jack said, furrowing his brow and focusing closely on steering.

  The Pearl swerved to the right just as another cannonball whistled past the masts and landed with a splash. Now the ships were close enough for the Pearl ’s crew to see the eyes painted on the bows and the elaborate dragon heads at the ends of the cannons. A couple of them were still smoking, as if the dragons were alive and breathing fire.

  “Ahoy!” Jack shouted at the ships. “Lovely day, isn’t it? Just passing through! No need to poke any holes in anyone’s ships, most especially mine!”

  BOOM! responded the nearest ship. This cannonball landed close enough to swamp the deck with a wave of water.

  “OI!” Jack bellowed, waving his arms. Alex, the zombie that Tia Dalma had given Jack to be her eyes and ears on the ship, shuffled up behind him, squelching wetly.

  “Stop that!” Jack yelled indignantly out to sea toward the junks. “We’re not here to steal your plunder! And we’ve got no loot for you, either! Not even any rum! I don’t know why, but the rum’s always gone! So, really, no need for this unnecessary violence—nothing at all to steal!”

  “Except for—” Alex began, and both Jack and Billy kicked the zombie in the shins. There was an unfortunate squishing sound and Jack made a face as he realized there were bits of decaying Alex-leg left on his boot.

  Jack could see the sailors on the attacking ships running around to reload the dragon-headed cannons. Still attacking. And here Jack was, being perfectly reasonable for once!

  “I don’t think they care about your plunder, Jack,” Barbossa pointed out. “All they want is to drive anyone out of Mistress Ching’s territory.”

  “Don’t care about plunder!” Jack cried. “Some beastie has addled those pirates’ brains.”

  “Whatever the reason,” Billy said, pulling out his pistols, “it looks like we have no choice. We have to fight.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “To the cannons!” Jack bellowed. “Battle stations! About the sails! Man the jib or the foresail or whatever it is! Just point some guns at those ships and shoot!”

  “Remember, lads…” Barbossa shouted. Carolina shot him a nasty look. “…and lasses,” Barbossa added. “If we don’t get past these ships, it’s back into the strait for us, and another few weeks of nothing but hardtack to eat!”

  That got everyone moving. The crew scurried madly around the deck, loading cannons and trimming sails. One pirate came staggering up from below and promptly tripped over his boots, tumbling across the boards and taking down three other pirates as he rolled. It was Catastrophe Shane. He was truly a disaster…even among a crew as haphazar
d as the Pearl ’s.

  “Diego!” Jack shouted, pointing at the heap of men. “Grab Shane! Make sure he’s not underfoot!”

  Diego leaped down to the deck, untangled the accident-prone pirate from his shipmates, and led him over to one of the masts. Resigned, Shane sat down and let Diego tie him up, so he would be out of the way and out of trouble.

  BLAM! BLAM!

  Jack jumped, startled. Turning, he saw that Carolina had liberated a pistol from his belt and was aiming at the nearest Chinese ship. He checked his pockets to make sure nothing else was missing.

  “Look here, love,” he said, reaching gingerly for the gun, “I really think I should be the one holding the—”

  BLAM! BLAM!

  Jack threw himself to the deck. But through the railing he saw that Carolina had fired right into the mouths of the junk’s cannons. Now sailors on the other ship were scattering away from the cannon as fast as they could.

  With an enormous bang, the two cannons exploded backward, sending iron pieces flying across the deck of the junk and leaving giant holes in the side of the ship.

  Jack made a face. He didn’t like it when other people had clever ideas. On the other hand, he did like it when his ship didn’t have great big holes in it. Quickly he jumped to his feet and ran to the wheel. He steered the Black Pearl behind the broken ship, placing the wounded junk between the Pearl and the other pirate ship. Now the second Chinese junk couldn’t fire on the Pearl without hitting its comrade. That gave the Pearl just enough time to scoot around the ships and make it to open water.

  A brisk wind immediately filled the Pearl ’s black sails. Waving his hat cheerfully at the defeated junks, Jack sailed his ship away at top speed, knowing that there was no chance the Pearl could be caught now.

  The crew breathed a collective sigh of relief as the burning junk grew smaller on the horizon behind them.

  Now all that stood between Jack and Mistress Ching’s vial of Shadow Gold was the Pacific Ocean. And a few hundred other pirate junks. And the twisted, dangerous streets of Shanghai. And the Pirate Lord’s personal coterie of fearsome, trained-assassin bodyguards.

  But other than that—nothing to worry about.

  “Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeego! Oh, Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeego!”

  Diego looked around the deck frantically. There was nowhere to hide. Marcella was hunting for him, and if he didn’t escape soon he would find himself rehanging her hammock (again) or showing her how to make tea (again) or listening to endless stories about her various ailments, sore feet, muddy dresses, and all the other pains and horrors she had to endure on this “nasty ship.” For some reason unknown to him, Marcella had decided that he was the only one who really “listened” to her. Diego had no idea how he had made such a terrible error. Or how the pained expression of terror and suffering on his face could be mistaken for “listening.”

  “Diego, where are you?” Marcella’s voice was getting closer. Soon she would come up the ladder to the deck and spot him. Diego lunged for the nearest ratline and started climbing. The crow’s nest was a fairly depressing place to be in the middle of the vast, empty Pacific Ocean, but at least it was somewhere Marcella would never go. Once she had climbed a couple of feet up the ropes to prove that she was as good as Carolina, but then she panicked, froze, and had to be rescued—by Diego, of course. Climbing up was apparently not a problem for Marcella; but climbing back down was. So the higher he was, the safer he was.

  Because no one else really wanted to sit up in the crow’s nest, waiting for a Chinese junk to pop up on the horizon, and also because it kept his smell well away from the rest of the crew, Alex the zombie had been posted up at the crow’s nest for the last three days. He didn’t need to come down for food and water, so it was a perfect assignment. Jack kept wondering aloud why he hadn’t thought of it sooner.

  The zombie was staring blankly out to sea when Diego hauled himself over the edge of the basket. A whiff of decay hit Diego’s nose, and he wondered whether this was really his best option. But when he glanced down and saw Marcella stomping angrily around the deck, he decided he should stay up here at least until dinner. That was, if he still had an appetite.

  “Hola, Alex,” Diego said nervously. “Er—how are you?”

  Alex blinked at him as if this was a very odd question. But considering that Alex’s eyeballs kind of rolled loosely around in his head, it was rather hard to tell what his facial expression was supposed to convey.

  “Seen anything interesting?” Diego asked politely.

  “No.”

  “Ah,” Diego said. “Okay, then.” He rubbed his arms to keep warm, trying to stay as far away as possible from the zombie, which was difficult in the tiny basket. All around them the sea sparkled blue and green like the jewels that Carolina used to wear in her former life as a princess. There was nothing to see for miles in any direction.

  Unless…

  Was that…?

  Diego squinted, shading his eyes from the sun. “Hey, Alex, do you see that?” he asked, pointing at a dark spot in the distance.

  “Hey, Diego, no, I do not see that,” Alex said in a monotone.

  It was a little unsettling that the zombie knew his name. It was a lot unsettling that he couldn’t see what Diego was pointing at. Maybe having reanimated dead-eyes wasn’t so useful for someone in a crow’s nest. Perhaps he wasn’t such a perfect lookout after all.

  Diego stared for a while until he was sure. There was definitely something out there. He memorized the direction.

  “I’ll go tell Jack,” he said, climbing out of the basket.

  “Captain Jack Sparrow,” Alex said agreeably.

  Diego sped down the ratlines, but before he could sprint across the deck to the captain’s cabin, someone seized his arm in a startlingly strong grip.

  “There you are!” Marcella cried triumphantly. “I was just saying, if only Diego were here, he’d understand why I can’t eat any of those horrible biscuits and he’d catch me a fish for dinner instead. Won’t you, wonderful Diego, please, please, please?” She batted her eyelashes at him, drawing attention to her strange yellow-brown eyes.

  “I have to talk to Captain Jack,” Diego said, prying her fingers off his arm.

  “I’ll come with you,” she said, latching on even tighter. He sighed, dragged her over to the captain’s cabin, and knocked.

  “Nobody here!” Jack’s voice called. “Very busy! I mean empty! Come back later! Or don’t, that’s all right, too!”

  “Jack, I think I saw an island,” Diego called through the door.

  Immediately the door was flung open. Captain Sparrow stood there, his kohl-rimmed eyes wide. They widened even further when he saw Marcella, but before he could slam the door again, she shoved her way inside and threw herself down on the couch.

  “Oh, lovely,” Jack said with an insincere smile. “Just the visitor I was hoping for.”

  Marcella stuck out her tongue at him. She kicked off her shoes and put her feet up on the couch, fanning herself with her hand.

  “I’m sure it’s an island,” Diego said. He pointed in the direction of the shape he’d seen. “Maybe we could resupply there.”

  “Darling Diego,” Marcella said. “Always thinking of my comfort. I would love some fruit. And some water that doesn’t taste like it has been sitting in a barrel for ten years. And some chocolate. Do you think they’ll have chocolate on this island?” She stretched, yawning.

  Jack leaned over the map on his desk. He narrowed his eyes and stared at it thoughtfully for a long time. Finally Diego pointed over his shoulder.

  “Maybe it’s that island?” Diego suggested.

  “Oh, we’re in that ocean!” Jack said. “No wonder I’m confused.” He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced at Marcella wearily. She just blinked her peculiar yellow eyes at him, and he looked back down at the map.

  “‘Rapa Nui,’” he read. “‘Also known as Easter Island.’ Well, that sounds cheerfu
l! Much better than Quicksand Swamp Island or Horrible, Painful Death Island. Wonder if there will be bunnies and baskets. Oh! And eggs! How I do love a good egg.”

  The crew was quick to steer the ship toward the distant island, but as the Pearl sailed closer to the shore, an ominous silence drifted across the deck. Pirates gathered at the portside railing, staring at the strange sight.

  “What is it?” Carolina whispered to Diego, standing on her tiptoes to see over the heads in front of her.

  “Yeah, Diego, what is it?” Marcella said quickly from his other side, also standing on her tiptoes while clutching his arm for balance.

  “I don’t know,” he said in awe.

  Enormous stone heads peered out from the top of the cliff walls, glaring down at the Black Pearl as the ship sailed up to the island. Large hollow eyes seemed to follow their every move, hulking silently at the water’s edge or looming from the rock faces far above them. They were taller than any man, vast and silent and mighty. What strange people had built these heads? For what purpose? Or were they once giants who lived here, transformed into rock by some supernatural power?

  Even Jack couldn’t hide a small shudder. But he was the captain and couldn’t show fear. Besides, what harm could a bunch of stone heads really do?

  “Right,” he said. “Doesn’t seem very Eastery, does it? Are you sure there wasn’t a Halloweeny Island on that map? Maybe Big Stone Head Island?” He squinted at the shoreline. “Bit of an eerie welcoming party, but I wager they’re great conversationalists. Who wants to go ashore and make some lovely, big, thickheaded friends?” No one volunteered right away. In fact, most of the crew shuffled around, trying to blend in with the scenery.

  Jack pointed to Barbossa and Jean. “You two, come with me,” he said. The first mate sighed and rolled his eyes. “Who else?”

  “I’ll go,” said Carolina.

  Diego said, “I’ll go, too.”

  And immediately Marcella chimed in: “Me, too! I’ll go, too!”

  “Eeuuuugh,” Jack said, peering at her with a skeptical expression. “Are you sure? There could be all sorts of beasties over there. Cannibals! Giant man-eating apes! Mosquitoes!”