Wild Waters Page 2

The storm had been raging for days. There was no way to tell where they were anymore, or even whether it was day or night. The Black Pearl shook and groaned as the waves battered it, and empty rum bottles rolled across the floor below the hammocks. It was a sign of how seasick all the pirates were that not a one of them lamented the lack of rum; they were too ill to want anything at all.

  “Jack says it might be supernatural,” Carolina said. She clung to the door frame, trying to stay upright. She was determined to be the strongest, healthiest sailor of them all…but even she couldn’t imagine enduring another terrible night of sleepless nausea and howling gale-force winds.

  “Don’t go spreading that around,” Billy said. “Even if it is probably true.”

  “Who would do this to us?” Jean asked. “Can the Shadow Lord send storms, too?”

  “No,” said Alex’s gloomy voice from the far corner of the room, where he had been banished as far as possible from the hammocks. “He can’t do that. Sometimes a storm is just a storm.”

  “And sometimes it’s the end of the world, isn’t it?” Billy muttered.

  “It is the end of the world!” Marcella wailed. “I’m going to die surrounded by horrible, horrible, smelly pirates!” Her hammock and Carolina’s were hung behind a makeshift curtain, separating them from the other pirates. Carolina made a determined effort to sleep there only when Marcella was elsewhere, but Marcella had been lying in her hammock and whining for almost the entire length of the storm. None of them could see Jean’s cousin in her screened-off area, but they could all most definitely hear her. “Oh, where is Diego?” Marcella went on. “Why doesn’t he come take care of me?”

  “I’m going back on deck,” said Carolina, staggering toward the ladder. “I’d rather die wet than listen to this. Or put up with this smell any longer.”

  The lower deck, normally not the freshest-smelling place, stank worse than it ever had, with all the pirates crowded together in the dank underbelly of the ship. The tarpaulins lashed across the hatchway kept the rain out, but they also made the space below even darker and stuffier.

  Carolina lifted the hatch to climb out, prompting a yell of protest from some of the pirates belowdecks as a gush of water poured down the ladder. She hauled herself onto the deck and slammed the hatch behind her.

  The wind immediately tugged her long dark hair loose and sent it flying around her face. She’d lost her hat two days earlier when it went sailing over the rail. Jack had looked horrified when she told him. He’d clutched his own hat to his head and refused to come out of his cabin ever since then, just in case.

  The only good thing Carolina could say about the storm was that at least it was warm and tropical. She much preferred that to the freezing rain she remembered from her childhood in Spain. Her bare feet were soaking wet as she splashed through the two inches of water on the deck, but at least they weren’t also numb with cold.

  She glanced up at the masts looming over her and saw a figure huddled far above in the crow’s nest. Diego was up there again, although she was sure he couldn’t see anything useful ahead of them in this storm. It was impossible even to navigate; they just had to cross their fingers and hope the storm would deliver them somewhere near Africa. Jack had actually stationed Catastrophe Shane, the worst pirate he’d ever had on his ship, at the wheel, figuring he couldn’t do any more damage than the storm did—and maybe he’d be tossed overboard by the force of the storm. The clumsy pirate gave Carolina a half-hearted wave.

  She climbed up to the foredeck, taking deep breaths to clear the stale ship air from her lungs. She leaned against the rail at the prow of the ship, imagining the day when she would be a pirate captain herself, sailing the seas, liberating treasure from Spanish ships, and fighting villains such as the East India Trading Company. Her favorite daydream was that one day she’d capture a ship and find the cruel old governor she was once supposed to marry on board. He’d be horrified and beg on his knees for mercy, and she would laugh and laugh before leaving him on a beach somewhere—somewhere his soldiers could eventually find him, so they’d laugh at him, too.

  Normally this daydream included Diego as her first mate, but after she saw him kissing Marcella in India, she’d thrown him off her imaginary ship. She hated to think that her mother might be right—that boys wanted girls who acted like true princesses. She’d thought at least Diego was different…but apparently not. Well, if he wanted a girl who wore pretty dresses and loved tea and embroidery, then fine; that certainly wasn’t going to be her. If that’s what he wanted, then he deserved Marcella.

  She brushed at her cheek angrily, telling herself it was just raindrops she was wiping away.

  That’s when she noticed the rain was stopping. Carolina held out her hand and watched the drops slow to a drizzle. A ray of sunlight suddenly broke through the heavy cloud cover, and she saw a glimmer of blue in the ocean below her. She wanted to whoop with joy. Finally, the end of the storm!

  “Land!” Diego shouted from the crow’s nest. “Land ho! Dead ahead!”

  “Aaaah!” Catastrophe Shane yelped, grabbing the wheel. He spun it one way and then the other, and the Pearl listed perilously.

  Carolina jumped down from the foredeck and ran back to the wheel, pushing Shane aside. She could see the land ahead of them now, too: dark green hills and thick jungles emerging from the fog along the white sandy beaches.

  Emerging fast.

  She gripped the wheel and hauled on it, praying that there weren’t any rocks hiding in wait for them.

  “Carolina,” Diego called, swinging down through the ratlines. She wanted to ignore him, but she knew she had to listen for the sake of the ship. “There’s a bay ahead,” he shouted. “If you sail between those spurs of land, we might be able to drop anchor there for a day or two to resupply.”

  “Oi,” Jack said indignantly, popping his head out of his cabin. “Who’s the captain here, eh?”

  “Sorry, Jack,” Diego said. He landed on a crossbeam and stopped, clinging to the ropes. He pointed to the land ahead of them. “I was just saying—”

  “I’m not deaf, lad,” Jack said. “But I am the captain. As such, I give the orders around here, savvy? Carolina!”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Steer us between those spurs of land. We’ll drop anchor in that bay and resupply.”

  “Yes, sir!” Carolina called.

  “But that’s what—” Diego started, and then he stopped himself. “Very good idea, sir.”

  Pirates began clambering up from below-decks, yelling about the land and the end of the storm, as Jack strode over to stand beside Carolina. He pulled out his spyglass and squinted at the long, green shore ahead of them.

  “Hmm,” he said. “This looks horribly familiar.”

  “Is it Africa?” Carolina asked eagerly. “Will we see more elephants?”

  “Blimey, I hope not,” Jack said. He tapped the end of his spyglass against his teeth. “No. What are the chances we—it can’t be.”

  A few of the pirates were dancing on the deck, exulting in the fresh air and faint rays of sunlight. Barbossa stomped out of Jack’s cabin and stopped them by thrusting mops and buckets into their hands. “The deck could use a good swabbin’, ye lazy sots,” he growled.

  “Look!” Diego shouted, pointing. The Pearl was sailing into an enormous, gleaming blue bay. The water here was calm and clear, and they could see huge-eyed monkeys with ringed tails watching the pirate ship from the trees. And then there was the collection of buildings that Diego was pointing at. “There’s a settlement of some kind—a town!”

  “A well-guarded town,” Billy observed. On either side of the harbor, on the bits of land jutting out into the bay, stood an eight-sided fort built of thick wood, bristling with cannons and guns—all of them pointed at the Pearl. More cannons were lined up along the water’s edge. And a fierce-looking crowd was already gathering at the dock, waiting for them. Most of them held swords or daggers or pistols, or, in some cases, all three. Several of the
m had long scars or missing teeth or eye patches, and, Jack noticed, a few had hats that were nearly as excellent as his.

  “Not to worry,” he announced to his crew.

  “I’ll just have a chat with these lovely gents and—uh-oh.”

  Carolina followed his gaze to the black flag that rippled over the town’s largest building. On it, a white skeleton and a pirate were depicted holding an hourglass between them, with a dripping heart below it. It was a Jolly Roger she’d never seen before.

  “Not good,” Jack said, seizing the wheel and bumping Carolina out of the way. “Not good, not good, not good.”

  Barbossa whirled around and spotted the flag as well. His jaw dropped. “It’s Libertalia!” he bellowed.

  “Libertalia?” Billy said. “I thought that was just a legend.”

  “It is!” Jack said eagerly. “Absolutely a legend! No such thing. Certainly not right there in front of us. Better we be off, then.”

  Barbossa bounded over to the wheel and seized a spoke opposite the one Jack held, stopping him from turning the ship. “Jack, are you mad? Never mind, don’t bother answering that. This is the perfect place to stop.”

  “Aye,” Billy agreed. “He’s right, Jack. If it really is Libertalia.”

  “What’s Libertalia?” Diego asked. Carolina had never heard of it either. She looked curiously at Jack’s alarmed expression.

  “A perfectly imaginary place,” Jack said. “Right, off we go, gold to acquire, bad guys to avoid.”

  “You seem awfully spooked by this ‘imaginary’ place,” Carolina pointed out.

  “Libertalia is a pirate utopia,” Jean answered, leaning on the rail as if he were thinking of jumping overboard to swim to the town. “A place where pirates live in harmony and safety after they’ve retired from their lives of plunder. It was founded by the infamous Captain Misson many years ago. Pirates all over the world tell stories about it. And here it really is, in front of us!”

  “Ha,” Jack muttered. “‘Retired.’ As if pirates ever do that.”

  “Maybe Lakshmi and I could live here once she’s free,” Jean said with a dreamy expression. Lakshmi was a warrior who had been assigned to watch Jack while he was in Sri Sumbhajee’s palace. Instead, she had fallen in love with Jean—and vice versa—and he had promised to return for her after the final battle with the Shadow Lord, when her debt to the Indian Pirate Lord would finally be repaid.

  “We have to resupply, Jack,” Barbossa insisted.

  “And fix the ship,” Diego said, pointing to a huge crack in the mainmast and the tattered black sails, which had been shredded by the storm.

  “And eat something,” Jean said urgently.

  “Fortune has clearly brought us here,” Barbossa said, waving his hand around at the bay.

  “Felt more like a horrible, wet, nasty storm than fortune to me,” Jack said. “We’re going to regret this,” Jack muttered under his breath as he sighed and steered up to the dock.

  “Cheer up, Jack,” said Carolina. “This is probably the perfect place to learn more about the Pirate Lord of the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe we can even find him here! Or her,” she added quickly.

  “That would be a little obvious,” Jack said snidely. “The Pirate Lord living a life of ease in Libertalia? Doubtful.”

  “Look at all the pirates!” Carolina said, awestruck by the range of characters lined up along the dock. She could see faces from all around the world—Indian, Arabic, Dutch, French, English, Chinese, and most numerous of all, African.

  “The legend of Libertalia says that the pirates here are famous for attacking ships as they leave Africa loaded with slaves. The slaves are all freed and offered the chance to live here as free men,” Billy explained to her.

  “Maravilloso,” she said, her eyes shining.

  “Oh, don’t you get all sappy about this place. It’s not all noble deeds and heroic heroism,” Jack scoffed. “They are still pirates. There’s a lot of looting and pillaging for treasure, too.”

  “You mean like normal pirates?” Barbossa grumbled. “Attacking ships instead of haring around the world on a vague, loony mission? Sounds bloody perfect.”

  The anchor thudded into the sand below them, and Jack led the way to the gangplank.

  His eyes roamed the crowd, and Carolina realized he was looking for someone. Knowing Jack, she expected a couple of angry women to come storming up and slap him at any second.

  So she was surprised when the pirates all stepped back and made way for a tall, thin older man in a long crimson frock coat, heavy with silver embroidery. His hair was dark and curly, held back by a green bandanna. Gold gleamed in his teeth and on his fingers. Sharp eyes peered over his prominent nose and matted goatee. He stopped at the bottom of the gangplank and grinned up at the Pearl’s captain.

  “Jackie,” he said. “Now this is quite a surprise. Come to visit your old man at last, have you?”

  CHAPTER THREE

  All the pirates on the Black Pearl goggled at Jack and the man on the dock.

  “Is that—did he just—” Jean sputtered.

  “Did he call you Jackie?” Barbossa said with enormous glee.

  “Crew, meet Captain Teague,” Jack said through gritted teeth.

  “Lord of Madagascar,” Teague said grandly, sweeping his bicorne hat off his head in an elegant bow. Carolina could see where Jack got his flamboyance from. “That’s me. And what lucky wind brings you to Libertalia, Jackie? In need of rescuing, as usual?”

  “Not at all,” Jack said, drawing himself up tall. “As you can see, I am the captain of this magnificent ship—which is mine, I might add, all my own—and I am not in need of any rescue at all!”

  “Except for that whole Shadow-Lord-chasing-you thing,” Barbossa pointed out.

  Teague’s eyebrows went up.

  “Nothing! Ignore him!” Jack shouted. “We are just here to resupply, and then we’ll be on our merry way. Lots of fierce piratey things to do out there. We’re very busy with all the, uh, looting. And the plundering, of course. With a bit of ransacking and a doddle of pillaging thrown in.”

  Captain Teague eyed the Black Pearl up and down. “Well, Jackie, I must say, you have got yourself a fine ship here. Much better than that one you started out with. What was that leaky old bucket called?”

  “The Barnacle !” Jean cried, starting to laugh. He remembered sailing the Caribbean with Jack Sparrow and their friends Arabella and Tumen when they were younger.

  “Yes, ha-ha-ha,” Jack said, infuriated. “I’ll have you know the Barnacle was a fantastic—well, great—well, seaworthy—for the most part—respectable boat, and it would have served me well for many more years if you hadn’t gotten it blown up by the Royal Navy,” he snapped at Teague.

  “You should thank me,” Teague said calmly, eyeing the Pearl. “You’ve evidently moved up in the world. I wonder how long this one will last you.”

  “None of your beeswax,” Jack said. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some bartering to do.” He waved Barbossa forward and started down the gangplank as if he intended to march right past Teague.

  But the old pirate put his arm out and stopped Jack in his tracks. His craggy face creased as he examined Jack’s face.

  “Still wearing too much eyeliner, I see,” he said disapprovingly.

  “Listen, when you’re captain of the fastest ship in the world, perhaps we can have a conversation about my fashion choices,” Jack snapped. “Until then, adieu.” He lifted his hat in a farewell salute.

  But Teague still wasn’t moving. And until he moved, none of the pirates behind him were going to let Jack get by them either.

  “Jackie,” Teague said with a thin smile, “the least you could do is stop by and say hello to the family.”

  “Now why would I want to do that?” Jack asked. “Years ago, I ran away from home precisely to get away from that ‘family,’ remember? And you, I might add.”

  “Now, Jackie,” Teague admonished, “your grandmother would be so de
lighted to see you.”

  “No, she wouldn’t,” Jack pointed out. “She’ll probably try to kill me. Again.”

  “Well, probably,” Teague agreed. He fingered one of the long braids in his beard, squinting cannily. “But just think what she’ll do if she finds out you were here and didn’t say hello.”

  Jack thought about that for a moment and shivered.

  “Come back to the mansion and stay with us for the night,” Teague said. “I insist. You can even bring some of your crew with you. That bonny one up there, perhaps.” He pointed at Carolina.

  Up on the deck of the Pearl, Diego scowled as jealousy flared in his chest. He wished he could go over and put his arm around Carolina, to let this tall, imposing pirate know that she was already taken…but of course, she wasn’t really, since she refused to even acknowledge Diego’s existence at the moment.

  Jack sighed heavily. “Fine,” he said. “Carolina, Diego, Barbossa, and Jean with me. Billy, you round up the other pirates and take care of business in Libertalia. Try not to lose any of ’em—I know how pirates can get once they see this place.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t!” Jack flinched as Marcella flounced down the gangplank. “You’re not leaving me with these horrible beasts! Where Diego goes, I go! Especially if there might be dinner with proper silverware and linen napkins involved.” She batted her eyelashes at Teague, who looked mildly horrified.

  “Might as well say yes,” Jack said to him, secretly pleased that at least he could inflict some pain on Teague in return. “She doesn’t take well to being told no.”

  “Did I hear you say you’re a lord?” Marcella said to Teague. She wove her arm through his and gave his elegant coat an admiring look.

  “Bad news, lass,” Jack said, enjoying the expression on Teague’s face. “He’s a lord of pirates.”

  “Oh!” she squeaked, jumping away from Teague.

  Jack beckoned Billy over to him and lowered his voice, but the Libertalia pirates were pressing in close, and he could see Teague watching him curiously.

  “Billy,” he said quietly, “see if you can find out anything about that…person…you know, the one we have a vested interest in finding?”