There had been a number of surprised looks at Mel's announcement that I'd be joining the expedition ashore. It was not, however, until I attempted to change position and nearly fell into the sea (I would have, had Patch not caught me by the scruff of the neck like a mother dog rescuing an unruly puppy) that those looks were given voice.
"Beggin' yer pardon, Cap'n, but why'd we have ter bring th' wench along?"
Begging Mel's pardon, indeed! It wasn't Mel he had just called a wench! My irritation at being spoken of in such a fashion distracted me momentarily, so that I did not at first realize that Mel was not immediately responding to the complaint. Indeed, he seemed to just be sitting there, not even rowing his oar, with the oddest look on his face.
"Don't be any more daft that you have to, Patch," Jack said. "You've still got one good eye to see how he feels."
How he...feels? Surely, Jack didn't mean--
"That girl's worth a small fortune in silver all by herself. Leave her on the Fancy and maybe Goss figures a ship and a captaincy are worth a little betrayal. Or weren't you paying attention when Teach, here, explained how Bloodheart got himself stuck here in the first place?"
Oh. Of course. I don't know what I was thinking, to see it as anything else.
"Goss wouldn't do that!" argued a slim, red-haired woman named Anne, one of the Fancy's original crew. "You've got no call to be saying those kinds of things about him, or about any of our crew. For that matter, you've got shipmates of your own you're talking about. Don't you even trust your own people?"
"There's something you'll come to learn about Jack," Ace said. "He only trusts one kind of person."
"And who's that?"
"The dead."
"Sounds like they've got a fair bit in common, fer my money," grumbled someone else.
"Stow yer bilge!" Mel cut in sharply. "I'm sick o' hearing ya squabble like rats over the last wheel o' cheese! The lass is here, we're here, and soon enough we'll all be rich men, which is enough fer me ta think on without having ta sort out whether ta crack yer skulls or just makes ya swim ta shore ta shut ya up. Now there's an end ta it!"
He was very convincing, and the subject was dropped all at once. Still, that didn't stop people from thinking about it, and I found myself mulling it over when before I'd hardly considered it. Just why had Mel brought me along? Had it really been to keep the crew left on the Fancy from mutiny? They were pirates, after all... and yet, if there was one thing this experience had taught me, it was that there were pirates, and then there were pirates, not all of them being the same.
Truthfully? I didn't believe that the pirates who sailed under Captain Mel were the kind who would be dishonest enough to sell out their shipmates and stupid enough to do it when said shipmates were hoping to bring back enough treasure that they could retire comfortably. That would be a rare combination of evil and folly.
If even I could figure that out, then it was certain Mel had as well. Despite being huge and powerful, he was by no means the "big and dumb" stereotype I'd once believed him to be. So if he knew that too, then what was his purpose in bringing me along? It did not make sense.
Come to think of it, why had Jack made the claim in the first place. He was every bit as distrustful as Ace had made him out to be, but he was also smart--easily bright enough to recognize that his captain was not cut from the same cloth. Unless it was a case of seeing things as he wanted them to be...
I gave up with a sigh (I'd have shaken my head in frustration, but I didn't want anyone asking what I was doing, not to mention my fear that any great movement would again toss me towards the water). My father had always said that if people were acting out of character, then there was something you were missing.
We came through the channel in the rocks easily enough, with the efforts of the men at the oars enough to deal with the current, and came into a kind of lagoon, calm water sheltered by the reefs and rocks from the waves and sea-currents. Now clear of the rocks, we could see a small horseshoe of sand beach and the trees behind, with little contour or elevation to the isle that I could see. The mist I'd noticed before was still there, though, despite the sun in the bright blue sky. It clung to the island like a steel-gray veil, cloaking the details in a blur of mystery.
"Grim place," Ace observed laconically. "Dead Man's Isle isn't a bad name for it, at that."
"Any place that's this hard to get to ought to be prettier, just as a reward for the effort."
"But she is, missy!" argued Teach. "She's got th' fairest o' colors here fer us. Bright gold like liquid fire, an' shinin' silver, an' a rainbow o' jewels. Now, ain't that be better than any green palms or golden sand?"
"To a money-hungry pirate, perhaps."
"Or a money-hungry noble?"
"You should have been an actor, Jack," Ace said. "I've never known you to miss a cue."
"Not that you do, either, Ace," laughed Morgan. "You just have different lines."
The dark-skinned pirate bowed at the waist (without so much as missing an oar-stroke, darn him).
"Just keeping my end up for our little troupe."
"If ya don't mind, fellas," Mel cut in, "we happens ta have serious business ta deal with."
We reached the beach not long after, the pirates dragging the boat safely on shore and beginning to unload their gear, picks, shovels, ropes, sacks, and lanterns.
"We've come this far on yer say-so, Teach," Mel told the old man, "and now it do be time for ya ta come through with the goods. Take us ta the treasure."
Teach's response was not precisely what I'd expected.
He burst out into wheezing, cackling laughter.
"An' jest what makes yer think I know?" he said between bouts of hilarity.
This did not seem to be what Mel and the other pirates had expected from Teach either. There were dark looks, mutters, and more than one cutlass loosened in its sheath.
"Ya'd best be explaining yerself, Teach. If we've come through all this fer nothing but a taproom tale, we'll be leaving ya here ta think over yer lies fer a few decades or so."
"Ye heard me story, Cap'n. Only Van Dierken an' Colvin came back, out o' all those who went ashore. Th' day o' th' shipwreck were th' only time I've set foot on these sands. Th' treasure do be here on this island, but only th' dead know where exactly it be."
"Ya do realize, Teach, that if we don't find anything, ya don't get one silver out o' this?"
"Th' treasure be here, Cap'n; all ye hafta do be ter find it."
"I guess we look, then," I said, which of course got everyone to turn in my direction. Sometimes I think that just because I was a hostage the pirates expected me to sit there like a sack of silver, at least by their surprise whenever I spoke up. Well, I wasn't having it any more. I planted my fists on my hips and faced them down. "Don't give me those stares of disbelief. You've dragged me back and forth across the Meribian Sea, taken me prisoner, mocked my family, and nearly got me killed in that stinking tavern--"
"That was your family's doing, not ours," Morgan interrupted.
"I didn't mean the fight or the fire. I was talking about the smell." I sniffed and tossed my head. "Now you've sailed through reefs and rocks to find the biggest treasure haul ever taken by any pirate in known history, and you're complaining now because you have to search one little island for it? And you call yourselves pirates?"
"Harrr!" Mel roared, and clapped me on the shoulder with a heavy hand. "Amelie do have the right o' it. We'll comb this place from stem to stern if we have ta. We haven't come this far ta give up at the last!"
There were a number of cheers and huzzahs from the men; they sounded genuinely inspired by our speeches. I knew I was--gold fever, perhaps? Or the chance to, for the first time in my life, take part in a genuine adventure rather than only reading about one?
Or maybe it's just that as long as we're hunting the treasure, I don't have to worry about the pirates' other problem--my own fate!
"Fer now," Mel ordered, "we'll make our camp here. There be a good four hours 'til dusk, so's we'll start exploring right away. Look fer anything suspicious. And remember that Van Dierken be marooned here years ago. If he survived any length o' time, there'll be signs o' it, shelter, fire pit, that kind o' thing. Keep yer eyes open, 'cause a man like that'd be sure ta keep his silver close, seeing as it be all that he had. And watch yer backs!"
"Watch fer what?" one man asked.
"Fer monsters, o' course. None o' us know what be living here, so keep an eye out, less ya wants ta follow the Balthasar ta Blue Dragon's Deep."
Mel quickly divided the crew into several search parties, with one group left at the boat to start setting up camp. We'd have to spend at least one night on the island just because of the hour, and it would be best to have the maximum comfort if we were to make a decent job of it. Ace, Scrope, and I went with Mel himself.
"Now wait a minute, Cap'n. I can sees bringin' her along, like yer says," Patch protested, "but at least she oughter do the cookin', seein' as how she's here."
"And why should she be doing that?"
"Well, she's a girl, ain't she?"
I'd have liked to box his ears for that remark, but one of the female pirates took care of that with a sharp cuff on the back of his head.
"That's fer thinkin' cookin' be women's work, shark bait."
She cuffed him again, just to drive home the point.
"Ow!"
"And just to make the point, before Jack does it for me, may I remind you that as the spoiled and pampered child of the aristocracy, the closest I've come to cooking was to ring for the servants and give them the menu for a luncheon party."
On which note, we were off into the woods.