There, that wasn't too bad, was it? Now I'll return to what I can actually testify to first-hand.
After the Swiftsure and the Black Fortune, I decided that the Fancy was ill-named, for it was actually the plainest vessel I'd been on since I'd left Meribia. Still, she was a trim little sloop (I was beginning to pick up on some of that nautical slang), and several hundred times cleaner than any part of Blue Dragon Key I'd seen, so I was not one to complain.
Apparently, the Fancy had been Mel's first command as a pirate captain and his capture of the Black Fortune with her the first spectacular prize that had elevated him to the first rank of buccaneers. He'd handed the sloop to one of his lieutenants, a man named Stede, making it the first of a small squadron or flotilla that Mel had some loose authority over. That was why he was able to use the vessel for this adventure--well, that and the fact that the Fortune could have blown her halfway to the Frontier without half trying. Among pirates, negotiating from a position of strength was considered sound business practice.
Nautically speaking, the Fancy could sail with as few as ten hands and as a merchant ship would have only carried around that many to save her owners the cost of wages and provisions. Stede had manned her with over fifty, those sort of odds being another excellent reason why most mariners surrendered instead of fought when pirates were encountered. For this trip Mel had settled on twenty-five, enough to discourage trouble but likewise enough to keep under control and leave plenty of room in the cargo hold free for bringing back the booty they hoped to rescue from Teach's island.
Mel led the search, of course, with the old man as guide. I was along, as part of the purpose was to keep me out of the way of any potential rescuers. Edgars was there as quartermaster, which I learned to my surprise was the second most important position on a pirate ship; his role was to make a full accounting of the treasure and make certain it was valued for a fair split with those still behind on the Fortune. For the rest, Mel had selected officers he trusted: Jack, Ace, Morgan, Patch, and Scrope, to watch his and my backs; the crew consisted of ten hands each from the Black Fortune and the Fancy, chosen by lot because each would receive an extra share of treasure for doing the work of risking the reefs and digging up the loot from wherever Van Dierken had buried it.
Stede had remained behind in temporary command of the Black Fortune, while Finn and Black Ben would continue negotiations with my family's agent over the ransom. The magician was especially important, because of his education to decipher the blizzard of numbers and complex forms of payment the merchant would try to deluge the "poor, ignorant pirates" with ("We can't raise fifty thousand silver on such short notice, but we can offer twenty thousand and this cargo of silks to make up the difference...") and also because his magic was the pirates' best weapon against the use of brute force. Personally, I wouldn't have handled it that way, but I supposed that Mel knew his people and their trustworthiness better than I did.
That and, since he had both the kidnapping victim and the man who knew the location of the treasure with him on the Fancy, any pirate for whom greed outweighed loyalty would probably wait for his return anyway. About the only real risk he was running was that enough officers would get scared of House de Alkirk's revenge and flee in terror. But then, well, Mel would still have a ship, me, and more money than even my Aunt Cybele could run through in a lifetime, with considerably fewer people to share out with.
I suppose that meant that he did know what he was doing, after all.
It had been, I admitted, an almost pleasant four days at sea. I'd been all but given free run of the Fancy, since there was little I could do to sabotage her without causing myself as much trouble as the pirates, and I'd thoroughly enjoyed the sea air. Plus, the spirit of adventure and excitement was catching. I'd never done anything half so exciting in my life as sail off in search of the buried treasure of a long-dead pirate captain, and there were moments when I'd stood by the rail, hair whipping in the sea breezes, that it would escape my mind that I was a prisoner, effectively reduced to being an item for barter, and I would instead feel wild and free.
It was in one of those moments that Mel came to stand beside me.
"And what would it be that brings such a smile ta yer face, lass?" he asked, his hands gripping the rail beside mine.
"It feels so exhilarating to be here, racing the waves, in search of adventure! I feel like a little girl again."
"Do ya, now?"
"Yes! It's wonderful beyond words. Almost enough," I added, as his presence began to remind me of my status, "to make me forget what I am."
He missed my meaning completely.
"Well, now, I can't say that adventuring on a pirate ship is what I'd call ladylike behavior, but then ya've probably notice that I ain't what ya'd call an expert in the finer things."
"Or the finer feelings," I said, stung. "I was referring to my status as your prisoner."
"Aye," he said, dipping his head, "that's so."
I looked curiously at him. There was something in his voice that I couldn't understand. The notorious villain Hell Mel was ashamed?
"Ya can't imagine that we'd hurt ya?"
"Even if my parents choose not to pay the ransom?"
He looked poleaxed, which wasn't surprising. The point of kidnapping, after all, was "pay or else." He might easily promise that I would not be harmed or accosted by him or his men, and to give him his due, I believed that. What, though, if my parents proved to be everything Jack Hook suggested they were? No, I couldn't believe they would abandon me for greed's sake, but what of House de Alkirk's family honor? Might they decide that one child was not worth the public loss of face from knuckling under to pirates?
"Then what will you do, Mel? Will you just nod and smile and let me go? Will you give into them? How long would you stay captain in this curious pirate democracy of yours if you did that? And what would you do the next time your ship attacked a prize and its crew remembered that you hadn't done what you said you'd do to me? There'd be a bloody battle, and how many would die? How many people would you have to butcher, and how many of your own crew would have to die doing it, before you reestablished your reputation?"
I was being cruel, I knew. He'd known everything that I'd said before I said it; he was no fool. He'd put me in this position, though, and I was not going to pull any punches. Especially as words were all I had to use against my captor.
"Damn it all, Miss Amelie..."
So, I'm not "lass" any more?
Purposely, I turned my back on him and returned to looking out over the waves.
"We both know the truth, Captain. There's no need to dissemble. The threat is worthless without the will to back it up. If the time comes, you will do what is right for your crew. That's the truth of the matter, and we both know it."
What he might or might not have said then was forever lost in the keening cries of white-feathered seabirds, for even as they screeched their displeasure at us for not being a fishing boat, the hand in the crow's nest sang out with that age-old cry, "Land ho!" This turned Mel into the no-nonsense captain at once, all business. I think it was a relief to both of us to have immediate affairs at hand to distract us from the questions I'd raised.
"Shorten sail there, me hearties! Do ya want ta run us onto the reefs? Ace, prepare the jolly boat! We'll have ta sound out the reef. And get Teach up here. Time fer the old man ta earn his share o' the treasure."
The crew leapt to obey Mel's orders, furling most of the Fancy's sail to drastically reduce the sloop's speed. As we neared our destination, I could see black, jagged rocks pushing themselves from the water, some barely a foot or two above the waves and some reaching halfway up the mast. Behind them, though, I could catch glimpses of palm trees wreathed in a dull, leaden mist.
"Ahrrr, there she be," cackled Teach as he came on deck, his old seaman's legs still easily adapting his balance to the rolling planks beneath him even with his cane. "Dead Man's Isle, right enough."
"Isn't that name sort of like writing on the map, 'Look for Pirate Treasure Here'?" Morgan asked laconically.
"Bah, she ain't gon no name on any sea chart. That's what old Bloodheart called her, on account o' th' prisoners who died so he could hide his plunder."
"Even the man's sense o' humor was wicked," Mel grumbled.
"Whitewater ahead, Cap'n!" one of the lookouts hollered. I ran to the opposite rail, and I could see how, in places, there were swirls of foam caused by water churning over something just beneath the surface. Places, I guessed, where the reefs rose too high for stealth.
"This do be th' tricky part, Cap'n Mel. Ye'll have ter bring yer ship in through th' passage in th' reefs, so as ye can lower th' boat ter go ashore," Teach instructed.
"Why can't we just take the boat in from here?" Ace wanted to know. In response to Mel's orders, he and two hands were getting ready to go ahead with it to check the depth of the reefs.
"On account o' th' current, matey!" Teach cackled. "Th' rocks and th' reef make for a powerful current between 'em, and if yer lowers a boat in th' wrong place ye'll never make it ter the passage inter th' harbor. Ye'll come ter grief or be swept out ter sea, right enough. Ye'd have ter fly iffin' ye wanted ter avoid it all."
"Ace," Mel ordered at once, "make fast the boat ta the Fancy with a strong line, so's ya don't get swept off by that current while yer sounding out the depth."
I had to admit that Van Dierken had picked a well-protected spot. Mariners without any known reason to approach the island would watch boats be wrecked, or lose ships on the reef, and just mark the island as a danger spot to avoid on their charts. As for the pirate, I could only imagine how many lives the cruel captain had thrown away to learn the same path through.
To say that the trip was harrowing was an understatement. Relying on Teach's memory, weakened as it was by decades of time and more bottles of strong drink than I cared to imagine, as well as the depth readings taken by Ace on the jolly boat, we crept through the reef. The trick was made trebly hard by the fact that we relied on the wind for our source of power; although the sloop was easily maneuverable as ships went, I was afraid that some sudden shift in the wind would fling us onto the shoals and rip our bottom out. Half the time I could not bear to watch, and instead turned to observe Mel and his officers bellowing orders and the hands leaping to obey with a vigor and energy that implied they, too, felt the risk of it and were sparing no effort to fight off the danger.
It was on one of those moments that Mel's eyes happened to meet mine. The captain looked at me for a long moment, then said something to Morgan, which unlike his usual bellows that carried from stem to stern, I couldn't overhear. I got the gist of it in a hurry, though, because the pirate came over directly to me.
"Unnerved by our passage, Miss de Alkirk?"
"Shouldn't you be setting sails or something?" I asked nervously. The truth was, seeing any crew member with idle hands frightened me.
"Not if you want them set correctly. On board the Black Fortune I'm what passes for a captain of marines and an armsmaster. My duty is to keep the crew ready for battle, be it with prey or the minions of the law. I'm little more than a green'un when it comes to working aloft."
"If we expected this, I'm surprised that Mel chose the crew by lot instead of picking the very best sailors from the two ships."
"Oh, they were picked by lot--it's the only fair way--but the green hands weren't in the draw, as voted on by the crew. We knew exactly what you're talking about. It's also why the Fancy's sailing master is one of the officers"--he pointed to a grizzled man whose wolflike features proclaimed him to be a full-blooded beastman--"as he knows better than anyone how she handles, all of her little ways."
I smiled weakly.
"That's good to know. Still and all..."
"The prospect of ending on the rocks doesn't appeal? Well, you're not alone there. I'd rather face dangers I can fight instead of trusting someone else to carry me through. Still, I know one thing that ought to give you hope."
"What's that?" I pounced on the offer eagerly.
"According to Teach, the Balthasar made this run at least a half a dozen times--and she wasn't a sloop or schooner or even a brig, but a full-size square-rigged ship at least the size of the Black Fortune. The Fancy has a shallower draft and is much more maneuverable than Van Dierken's ship would have been on her best day."
"That is a comfort to know," I said, for indeed it was. Though I could hardly count myself knowledgeable in the various types of ships (what differentiated a "schooner" from a "brig" in Morgan's explanation, for example, completely eluded me), I certainly realized that a small vessel like the Fancy could sail rings around the Black Fortune if the wind cooperated. I'd seen the difference in how they handled for myself in traveling on board them. If the Balthasar could manage the approach, I was sure that we could, so long as Teach didn't run us onto the reef with a defective memory. "Thank you, Morgan."
"Don't thank me," countered the dandy. "The Captain's the one who asked me to try and set you at ease. I think he's taken a liking to you."
"It's too bad he didn't do that before snatching me off the Swiftsure."
"Well, it's too bad my father took a liking to my mother before putting a ring on her finger or else I'd not be here either, but we can't change the past." He tipped his hat to me in a gesture that mixed play and gentle mockery. "I shall now take my leave, Miss Amelie, as your fears appear to be eased as much as possible."
An intriguing character, I mused, but then, Mel appeared to have surrounded himself with the intriguing. Quite a number were not at all what I'd have expected, starting with Mel himself. It was no wonder my feelings were all a-tangle. He'd done what Mel asked, though, and as we worked our way to the safe anchorage, I watched and listened to our progress with anticipation rather than fear. Finally, we reached a place where the old man told us to drop anchor, and I could see a sort of channel between the rocks, that curved through them in an arc to reach the island.
"There she be," cackled Teach. "Ye kin pass at high or low tide, but never if th' tide be turnin'."
"Drop anchor, fore and aft!" Mel bellowed, and the crew hustled to obey. By dropping both anchors, the Fancy would have much less room to swing on her tether. If he'd had only a single anchor dropped, the current could have taken the sloop onto rock or reef. "Edgars, ready the longboat with provisions for the trip ashore. Goss, ya'll be in command until we return." Goss proved to be the sailing master. "Pick five o' yer ten ta go ashore, and Edgars, pick four o' the Fortune's. Morgan, Jack, Patch, and Scrope'll be with me, and Ace once he gets the jolly boat back aboard, and o' course, Mr. Teach."
"Ahrr, what about th' lass?" Patch growled, pointing to me.
Mel turned my way and looked me over. What he was thinking I didn't know, but my heart jumped when he said, "She'll be coming with us."