Jim Morgan and the Pirates of the Black Skull

by James Raney

  The tentacle crashed across the main deck and smashed one of the cockboats to a thousand pieces with a single blow. The ship shook from aft to prow. The crew scattered in all directions, throwing themselves behind masts and barrels for protection. Jim and his friends rushed together on the quarterdeck as the arm reared back for a second blow. Jim feared the next blast would split the ship in two and throw the entire crew into the water with the creature. The awful question of what it would feel like to be dragged down into the depths with a tentacle wrapped about his waist snuck into Jim’s mind.

  But then Dread Steele melted onto the deck. He appeared in the heart of the fray, dark cloak flowing about him like a black flame. He stood with the splintered wound in the ship’s deck beneath his feet and a gleaming cutlass in his hand. The Lord of the Pirates sneered at the creature’s arm, as though it was the beast that should fear him.

  The tentacle whipped back to strike. The crew of the Spectre - Mufwalme, Murdoch, Wang-Chi, and even old MacGuffy - flew to Steele’s side. They raised their swords in the air as one and stabbed the creature’s arm as it fell upon them. The tentacle jerked back as a burnt hand from a flame. Great drops of black blood fell to the deck from its wounds.

  A dash of hope stole into Jim’s heart when Steele and his men drove back the creature’s tentacles. Yet it was quickly doused. From all sides of the ship, five more tentacles burst from the sea. But if Dread Steele was surprised or frightened, not a trace of it showed upon his face. He raised his sword again and rallied his men once more.

  “Do not forget your courage! Defend our ship! Defend the Spectre!” As the crew rushed to obey Steele’s commands, the pirate captain locked eyes with Jim, who was huddled with his friends on the quarterdeck. “Cornelius!” Steele yelled. “Get the young ones below!”

  “Yes, yes!” the raven shrieked. He flew to Jim’s shoulder, pecking Jim mercilessly on the side of the head as he did. “Below, below, you fools! Are you mad?”

  “What about courage and all that from before, Cornelius?” Jim shouted back.

  “Yes, well, in your next lesson I shall endeavor to demonstrate to you the fine line between bravery and stupidity! Now let us get below decks at once before the lot of us are tossed beneath the waves or worse!”

  Jim and the others leapt to their feet, but they only reached the stairs before a pale arm broke through the railing beside them. The tentacle knocked them all to their backs as it curled around a trio of pirates. The crewmen screamed and dropped their cutlasses point first into the deck as they were dragged overboard and into the sea.

  “Come on, Jim!” Lacey shouted, her face white as a sheet. “George, Peter, Paul! We need to move!” She grabbed Peter and Paul by their shirt collars and yanked them to their feet. Jim and George finally came to their senses and followed close behind.

  When the five of them reached the steps to the below decks, Jim breathed a sigh of relief a moment too soon. A tentacle lanced from behind them and seized poor Peter by the ankle. It hauled him into the air as he cried out at the top of his lungs. Paul, who had been holding his brother’s hand in a vice grip, never let go, and thus two Ratts now dangled in the tentacle’s grasp, screaming in terror.

  “Peter! Paul!” George yelled. “No!” Lacey was shouting for someone to do something, but the pirates were fighting for their lives and could offer no aid. As Jim searched for help, his eyes lit upon the three cutlasses speared into the ship’s deck behind them.

  With no time for discussion, Jim grabbed Lacey and George by the arms and dragged them to his sides. “Cornelius, circle above and watch our backs for more of those tentacles. We’re going to have to do this ourselves.”

  “Madness, madness!” Cornelius screeched. But the raven had been with Jim in dark places before, so off he flew in a low orbit above the children’s heads.

  “Do what by ourselves, Jim?” Lacey asked. Her question was answered as Jim pulled her and George to the three, fallen swords. The three of them yanked a cutlass each from the deck. As there was little time to think of something more memorable to say, Jim simply shouted as loud as he could:

  “CHARGE!”

  The three friends attacked the tentacle that held Peter and Paul, hacking and stabbing at it with all their might. The whipping arm pulled back from the Ratt Clan’s attack, moving to escape and drag Peter and Paul to their doom beneath the water. But Jim leapt up and landed a well-timed jab directly into the heart of the tentacle’s underside. The giant limb shuddered and reared up in pain. A loud roar reverberated through the waters below the ship.

  The tentacle unspooled and dropped Peter and Paul just beyond the edge of the ship. Throwing down his sword, Jim rushed forward and dove between two rails. He caught Paul by the ankle at the last moment. But Paul still held Peter by the hand and the weight of two Ratts threatened to drag Jim into the water as well. Just when Jim tipped over the side, two pairs of hands gripped him by his legs. Lacey took hold of one ankle and George grabbed the other.

  “Pull, pull, pull!” Cornelius cawed. The brave bird even flew down to seize Peter by his hair, flapping with all his strength to help. Of course, this simply made Peter scream louder and watered his eyes more than it aided in getting him to safety. But the entire clan finally managed themselves back aboard, where they collapsed in an exhausted heap.

  “Are you two alright?” Lacey cried to Peter and Paul, tears welling up in her big eyes.

  Neither brother said a word for a moment. Paul stared straight ahead, and then finally looked to his brother for confirmation. “Actually, I think we are.”

  “Yeah,” Peter agreed, nodding. “You know, I think that may have been the most brilliant thing that’s every happened to me. I just rode a sea monster, didn’t I? I didn’t even pee meself!” Then the two brothers unleashed as mighty hurrahs as they could and pumped their fists as though they’d meant to be picked up the entire time.

  “Oh, you blockheads!” George cried, pulling his brothers into his arms.

  “This is all rather touching,” Cornelius shouted, dropping out of the sky and lighting upon Jim’s shoulder. “And while I will, I assure you, be adding this little misadventure to my rather reputable collection of fascinating sea stories, perhaps we could handle all the formalities down below?”

  Jim was about to agree when one more shadow fell over the deck. The giant squid was yet to be defeated. It snuck one of its arms through the crew’s defenses, sweeping men aside and wrapping itself all the way around the Spectre. As the creature took hold, another roar split the air. The squid’s massive face rose into view. Two dark orbs, lidless pools of black, stared over the deck. From the center of the six tentacles a sharp beak, large enough to swallow a grown man full, chomped and gnashed with ringing claps. The beast began to squeeze. The railings shattered beneath the creature’s hold and the ship’s hull groaned and trembled.

  Neither Jim nor any member of the pirate crew spoke a word. Every voice had been robbed of sound until George dared a whisper from Jim’s side.

  “Well, there’s somethin’ we never woulda seen in London, now would we ‘ave?”

  “No George,” Jim agreed. “We most certainly would not.” Jim saw no hope for escape this time - until Dread Steele appeared at his side. The Captain’s black hair, hat long lost in the battle, flew like a flag, and not a whisper of fear betrayed his stormy eyes.

  “Find your way below, Mister Morgan,” Steele growled, his eyes locked with the beast’s, ready for the next attack. But Jim hesitated, not out of rebellion, but because some strange spirit had seized him by the heart. He had tasted action on the high seas for the first time, and had not yet had his fill. He scrambled to his feet and made for the cutlass he had dropped, bringing it back to stand beside Dread Steele. George, Peter, Paul, and Lacey gathered around him in a circle.

  Jim fully expected to be spurned and sent down below decks with naught more than a dismissive bark. But Dread Steele glanced down at him, measuring him with his sea-gray eyes. Then he smil
ed. Not a hint of a smile, nor some simple curve at the corners of his mouth. No, this smile split the Captain’s battle-hardened face like a ray of sunshine and he loosed a long laugh, full and joyous.

  “Morgan and Steele,” the pirate captain cried at the end of his laugh. “Together again at last! So be it, young Jim! But hang on tight to your sword and stay close to my side!”

  “Attack that arm!” Steele shouted to the men who had fallen. “Force it to release the ship or we shall all be dragged into the deep!” Boards began to pop and break. Splinters and dust rained on the crew’s head. Jim knew the Spectre, mighty as she was, could take little more of this.

  “Stand fast!” Steele shouted.

  But though the Captain and his crew, along with Jim and the Ratt Clan, did their worst to the squid’s squeezing arm, the monster refused to surrender. Cracks and groans snapped from the ship’s hull. Fears of falling into the grasp of the monster once again filled Jim’s mind. All seemed lost, when from nowhere a spear flew through the air. It struck the creature in the side of the head and took the beast by surprise. Yet this was no pike from the Spectre’s armory, nor was it even made of any wood from any tree upon the earth.

  This spear was fashioned of the coral from the sea.

  Another spear flew and another. A barrage of arrows rained down on the creature’s head - arrows crafted of the same white coral. The squid bellowed in pain. Its grip on the Spectre loosened as it turned to face this new threat. Jim followed the creature’s gaze, but it was Lacey who saw them first.

  “Jim, George, look! There are people in the water…but…well, they aren’t people at all!”

  “Captain!” Cornelius called, circling overhead. “Sea folk off the port bow!”

  “Merpeople!” Jim exclaimed as he craned his neck to see.

  Floating in the water, some two lengths off the port bow, a handful of bearded men, hair long and tangled, skin bare to the sun, hurled spear after spear with deadly accuracy. They shouted battle cries in a tongue Jim had never before heard and charged the squid without fear.

  “Look at that!” George shouted. He pointed just beyond the spearmen in the waters. Two hammerhead sharks surged from the waves. They were bridled like horses and pulled behind them some sort of chariot, encrusted with jewels that must only be found in mines at the bottom of the sea. A golden-haired mermaid guided the sharks with seaweed reins, until she released them to fire coral arrows from a bow fashioned from the jawbone of some great fish.

  “Now men!” Steele shouted. “Do not lose the moment!” The Captain rushed to the tentacle wrapped about his ship and used the shattered remains of a board to pry the arm from the deck. Jim and his friends ran to Steele’s side, helping as best they could. Slowly but surely the crew forced the behemoth to release the ship from its grasp.

  The pirates reformed their ranks upon the deck. They fired their pistols and hurled wooden spears of their own at the squid. Under this assault the monster roared again, so loudly that Jim had to cover his ears. At last the creature fell back from the Spectre and dove beneath the waves. Storm clouds of black ink swirled in the waters to mask its escape.

  The Spectre’s pirate crew raised their spears and cutlasses and pistols into the air, filling the sky with shouts of victory. Jim, the Ratts, and Lacey grabbed each other tight, jumping up and down with joy. Only Dread Steele remained calm. He sheathed his sword as though victory had been assured from the very start.

  “Tend to the wounded,” he said. “Search the waters for those fallen overboard. And extend the plank. I must break words with our rescuers.”

  NINETEEN

  fter the battle, the ocean around the battered Spectre calmed once more. The froth and ink from the monster’s attack faded away, and the brilliant-blue waves sparkled again in the sun. Seawater and monster blood drenched Jim, the Ratts, and Lacey from head to toe. But other than a rather nasty cut over Peter’s left eyebrow, along with a few other bumps and bruises, all were well and warmed by the sun and the ocean breeze.

  The Spectre, on the other hand, came away far worse than the Ratt Clan. Overturned barrels, broken boards, and all manner of battle debris littered the deck. Pirates helped one another to their feet and formed a long line before Mister Gilley. The pot-bellied pirate seemed to be something of an expert at stitching up bloody wounds and setting broken bones, of which there were several amongst the crew. The rest of the pirates gathered at what was left of the portside railing, where Jim, the Ratts, and Lacey now stood. They watched Dread Steele step to the edge of the extended plank, where he bowed his head low to the clutch of mermen gathered in the waters before him.

  “We are in your debt, Fulkern,” Dread Steele said to the foremost merman, who seemed to Jim even larger and more powerful than giant Mufwalme. A brown beard covered Fulkern’s grim face. A string of shark’s teeth hung over his chest and blue and gold tattoos lined his arms and shoulders. Though the battle had ended, he still gripped a coral spear in his powerful fist.

  “Payment in advance, Dread Steele,” Fulkern replied. “For the keeping of your word given long ago. Had this been any other ship upon the sea, we would have stood by and watched the Kraken drag it down into the depths.” The warrior scowled at the pirates behind Dread Steele, until a voice chimed over the waters to silence the enormous merman.

  “Peace, Fulkern!” the voice said. The words rung in the air like a chorus of bells. “Dread Steele is a Friend of the Sea. He may be the last of them from the world of men. As such, he is like a brother to your King, and also to me.” Fulkern bowed his head low and swam aside, as did the mermen with him. They cleared a path for the chariot, which rode up beneath the plank, pulled by the hammerhead sharks.

  Without doubt, the mermaid in the chariot possessed the loveliest face Jim had ever seen. It was smooth and gentle as porcelain. Golden hair flowed from beneath a crown of pearls upon her head. Her ivory arms and shoulders were bared to the sun, but she wore a seaweed gown wrapped about her body. It was not dank, nasty seaweed that would wash upon the shore. Rather it was fresh and vibrant, as though still alive upon her skin, green as spring leaves upon a tree. A bejeweled necklace, laced with gold, hung about her neck. Where her green raiment ended, scales, sparkling blue in the sun, ran down to a bright white fin like a dolphin’s tail.

  “She’s beautiful,” said Lacey. Jim could not agree more. He could hardly look away from the mermaid as she spoke with Dread Steele, Lord of the Pirates.

  “Dread Steele, it is good to see you again, especially after so many years.”

  “It is my honor, Queen Melodia. Forgive me that it has been so long.”

  “A Queen?” Peter asked from just behind George and Jim, where he and Paul stood on their tiptoes to see. “Queen of the Merpeople?”

  “She looks like a Queen, don’t she?” Paul said.

  “I’m glad to see you safe from the wrath of the Kraken, Captain,” the Queen continued. “Fulkern and I chased this beast all the way from the cold depths, below even our great city. It is a rare thing indeed for such a monster to swim to the warmer waters near the sun. But such things have been happening more and more often. It makes me afraid for us all. The tides speak of ill fortune, Dread Steele. They speak of the Trident - that which you call the Treasure of the Ocean - found again. They speak of the blood red storm stalking the skies. They speak of destruction and despair.”

  “If that is so, your majesty, then where is Nemus?” Dread Steele asked the queen of the Merpeople. “Where is the King?” The Queen paused for a long moment before answering. Jim thought he saw her brace for only an instant in her chariot and squeeze the seaweed reigns tight in her ivory hands.

  “Nemus does sit upon the throne, Captain. But his heart is still broken, even after all this time. He has never been the same since the Flower…our Flower, was taken from us. He may have lost the will to take up his spear ever again. But those are our concerns. What business carries you and your men over our waters?”

  “I still seek T
he Treasure of the Ocean, your majesty. I still chase Count Cromier and his son, the dark child, Bartholomew. They now sail with Splitbeard the pirate upon the Sea Spider, on a course to the rocks known as the Devil’s Horns.”

  “You’ve been chasing the Treasure a long time, Captain, and much to our thanks,” said the Queen. “But there is a renewed urgency in your voice and in your face. Something has changed, hasn’t it? What is it, Dread Steel? What has happened?”

  Dread Steele took a deep breath, so much so that his shoulders rose and fell. He stole a sideways glance in Jim’s direction. Jim could see troubled thoughts churning behind the Captain’s grey eyes.

  “Something has changed indeed, your majesty. A new clue has been found,” Dread Steele said. “A map was discovered – in part by young Jim there – Jim Morgan. He is Lindsay Morgan’s son.”

  The weight of a hundred pairs of eyes descended upon Jim. A hush fell over the Spectre’s deck. The mermen stared at him from the ocean waves – but there was no kindness in their eyes. Judging by their hardened glares, Jim thought more than a few of them wanted to skewer him alive with a coral spear. Even the pirates gathered around him took a step or two back, murmuring quietly amongst themselves. Only Jim’s friends stuck by his side. But when he met the Queen’s gaze, even Lacey and the Ratts’ presence were of little comfort.

  “I would meet the son of Lindsay Morgan,” said the Queen. Her eyes, which were nearly as golden as her hair, were fixed upon Jim’s face. Jim looked to Dread Steele for help, hoping the Captain would say no, or send him down below decks or into his quarters. But the Captain nodded for Jim to join him on the plank.