She started to make the net rock, though all it seemed to do was nauseate her. The rope was thick and sturdy, not a lock she could pick. An ocean of dread came over her. She couldn’t escape alone. As much as she loathed the fact, she needed…
“Help!” she screamed desperately over and over again. “Help me!”
Just as Carina’s voice grew hoarse, footsteps crashed through the jungle. She watched anxiously as two figures approached.
Henry and Jack.
“Carina!” Henry exclaimed. He moved to scale the tree, but suddenly, both he and Jack were swooped up in trappers’ nets, too.
“No!” Carina exclaimed, her heart sinking.
Now all three of them swung helplessly from a clump of trees.
“Some rescue,” Carina muttered under her breath. “Now what do we do?”
It seemed it would be up to her to figure out a plan. Carina was just considering rocking herself toward Henry so that they might weaken the branches holding them, when she suddenly saw a strange man standing near the trees’ roots. Carina stared, wide-eyed. She hadn’t noticed him before. He must have arrived when she’d blacked out. He was grizzled and filthy and carried a gun.
The man smiled knowingly as he approached Jack, who hung lower in his net than Carina and Henry did in theirs. Then he clocked the pirate with the butt of his gun, knocking him out cold.
CARINA, HENRY, and the unconscious Jack were dragged to the edge of the jungle, where a dilapidated village was set up. Carina noticed with disgust that the locals had constructed a makeshift chapel out of the giant skeleton of a beached whale. Rickety chairs were set up beneath the rib cage like pews, and at the front, beneath the gaping bony mouth of the once monstrous creature, stood a jagged stone altar.
The men shoved Henry and Jack into the chapel while the women forced Carina to don a tattered red gown. They pulled at her hair, arranging dead flowers among her curls.
“Henry, what is happening?” Carina called.
Henry shook his head. “I wish I knew.”
Carina looked around at the bizarre scene. The villagers were dressed in what they must have considered finery, but it was all twisted and wrong. The women’s gowns were colorful yet torn and filthy. The men’s hats bore exotic feathers bent and askew. It was more like a vision from a freakish nightmare than a church congregation.
From soldiers and mutinies to the supernatural and now…this. Carina grimaced. How far off course must I travel at the hands of Jack Sparrow?
Carina’s thoughts were interrupted by villagers pressing guns against her and Henry’s backs. They shoved them inside the chapel while Jack was dropped unceremoniously in front of the altar.
The man who had knocked Jack out directed a crowd of twenty or so unsightly miscreants to seats. Then a round woman holding a bouquet of dead flowers began to walk down the aisle. As she moved closer, Carina could see her face was terribly scarred, and scabbed sores lined her mouth. The woman smiled, exposing rotten yellow teeth.
That was when Jack woke up.
“Time to pay your debt, Sparrow,” the man with the gun sneered.
Jack looked up in surprise. “Pig Kelly, my old friend!” he exclaimed.
Pig Kelly raised his gun to Jack’s head. “‘Friend’? You hear that, boys? This lying pirate owes me a plunder of silver! But luck has brought him to Hangman’s Bay—and he’ll settle his debt here and now.”
“Of course, Pig, I’ve looked everywhere for you,” Jack said, trying to explain himself. “I prayed for your safety after inadvertently paying those men to put you in a sack. Name your price.”
“Her name is Beatrice,” Pig Kelly said. “And she’s my poor widowed sister.”
Jack grimaced as the woman with the dead flowers stepped up close beside him. She eyed him hungrily, as though he were a piece of meat.
“Let’s get on with it,” she rasped.
“She’s a midwife,” Pig Kelly explained. “Been looking for a respectable man, but they don’t come to this horrid place. So you’ll do.”
“I’ll do what?” Jack asked, unnerved.
“Make an honest woman of her.” Pig Kelly laughed. “This is how you’ll clear your debt. Congratulations, Jack. It’s your wedding day!”
Jack recoiled in disgust as Beatrice pulled a torn veil over her face.
“We’ll honeymoon in the barn,” she whispered.
With a scream, Jack tried to run, but Pig Kelly’s men had tied a noose around his neck, attaching him to the altar. He was trapped.
“Let us begin,” a terrified priest squeaked from the altar.
“Bring the best man and bridesmaid!” cried Pig Kelly.
Several men shoved Henry and Carina closer toward the altar.
“Let me go!” Carina exclaimed.
That made the men laugh.
“Pretty girl, Jack,” said Pig Kelly. “No wonder you were chasing after her. She’ll die by your side if you fail to say ‘I do.’”
“Place your hand on the Bible,” the priest instructed.
“I have scabies…” Jack warned Beatrice.
Beatrice laid her head on his shoulder. “So do I.”
“Say ‘I do,’” Pig Kelly repeated, “or I’ll put a bullet in your skull.”
Jack glanced sideways at Beatrice.
“Promise me you won’t miss?” he asked.
“They’re about to kill us!” Henry shouted at Jack.
“Say ‘I do’!” Carina urged him.
“I’m trying.” Jack swallowed hard. “Having a bit of a midwife crisis.”
Pig Kelly and his men all cocked their guns.
“Last chance,” Pig Kelly said menacingly.
Carina looked at Henry pleadingly. “Do something!” she whispered.
Suddenly, a look crossed Henry’s face. “Wait!” he exclaimed. “This is not legal.”
Catching on, Carina joined in. “He’s right! Does any man here object to these nuptials?”
“I do!” cried Jack.
“Congratulations!” the priest declared, misinterpreting Jack’s words. “You may now kiss the—”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Loud gun blasts suddenly rang out. For a moment, Carina thought they had been fired upon. But then she saw the whale skeleton splintering above them. The blasts had been aimed at the chapel.
Everyone turned. A man holding a smoking blunderbuss stood at the entrance to the chapel—along with a pirate crew.
“Hector Barbossa!” exclaimed Jack. “Who invited you to my wedding?”
Carina studied the sea captain standing at the opening of the whale skeleton. Hector Barbossa was a gnarled, weathered man, dressed in a rich naval coat trimmed in gold. Though he was aged, his eyes were sharp. Long curled hair spilled out from under his three-cornered captain’s hat. Carina imagined the captain had seen many a battle at sea.
“I always knew you’d settle down eventually,” Barbossa said to Jack, his voice gravelly.
“Did you bring me a present?” Jack asked hopefully.
Bang! Bang! Without warning, Barbossa shot Pig Kelly in the leg.
All the locals screamed. Chaos erupted as everyone scattered. Several men picked up Pig Kelly and hauled him away while a tearful Beatrice followed, dead flowers trailing behind her.
“Old Kelly has seen worse,” she heard one of the locals mutter.
“Thanks, Hector,” Jack said, breathing a sigh of relief. “It’s just what I’ve always wanted.” He looked Barbossa up and down. “I must say, you look marvelous.”
“And I’m amazed you’ve maintained your youthful appearance,” Barbossa said, returning the compliment.
“I’ve missed you so much,” said Jack.
“I know!” exclaimed Barbossa.
“Do you know who this man is?” Carina whispered to Henry.
Henry shrugged. “Never seen him before in my life.”
Carina noticed Barbossa’s pirate crew shifting uncomfortably.
“Um, Captain Barbossa,” one of the men said
, “shouldn’t we be getting back to Salazar so we can trade Jack’s life for our own?”
Henry and Carina stiffened. So the men were in league with Salazar!
“Aye, we could do that.” Barbossa nodded slowly. “But I have come for the Trident of Poseidon!”
Barbossa’s men murmured in alarm.
“You’re going to double-cross the dead?” one of them asked.
“And with the Trident,” Barbossa continued, “I will gut the dead who stole my command of the sea!”
Jack raised a hand to protest. “As much as I love this plan, there are two small problems. Firstly, I don’t wish to die. Secondly, no vessel can outrun that shipwreck.”
“But there is one, Jack.” Barbossa tapped Jack’s coat with the tip of his sword. A faint tink of glass echoed beneath the lapel.
“And she be the fastest ship at sea,” Barbossa said. “The Pearl. Entrapped in that bottle by Blackbeard five winters ago.”
Unexpectedly, Barbossa began waving his sword in a ritualistic circle above his head. “By the power of that blackguard’s sovereign blade, I hereby release the Black Pearl to claim her former glory!”
The pirate captain stabbed his sword—straight toward Jack’s heart.
Carina gasped. She couldn’t believe it; surely it was a mortal blow.
But Jack appeared unharmed.
The distinct sound of glass vibrating came from under Jack’s coat. Water—not blood—oozed through the fabric, and something rumbled beneath the lapel.
“Ooh, Hector,” Jack said. “I think my waters have broken.”
Moments later, they were all back at the beach.
“It’s coming!” Jack cried as the miniature ship in a bottle strapped to his side began to grow. Carina recalled Jack’s ravings on the Dying Gull about the tiny ship in the bottle being his true vessel. But that had all just been drunken ravings. Hadn’t it?
“She needs the sea!” Barbossa cried, quickly grabbing the ship from Jack and flinging it into the water.
Everyone watched in amazement as the water where Barbossa had tossed the ship bubbled and boiled. FWOOM! The full-sized Black Pearl exploded from beneath the surface. The ship stood, tall and majestic—a vision of glory upon the waves.
Carina couldn’t believe her eyes. It just wasn’t possible. But then again, neither were ghosts. “I don’t believe it,” she whispered. “A ship grown from…from…”
“Magic!” exclaimed Henry, his eyes twinkling.
Jack smiled brilliantly at his restored ship. It looked like his luck was finally turning around.
Then a gun was cocked at his head.
“There be room for only one captain, Jack,” Barbossa said, chuckling. “Time to race the dead.”
THE BLACK PEARL CHARGED through the ocean, cutting its way across the water. Though it defied all logic and conflicted with every law of physics Carina had studied, somehow the ship had been restored, released from a bottle and grown to full size.
And time to reach the treasure was running out.
Swiftly, Barbossa and his men tied Jack to the center mast while Henry and Carina were lashed to the back mast near the helm. For what seemed like the hundredth time that week, Carina had been taken prisoner, bound against her will, and carried off course from her mission.
She was not happy.
Carina stared hard at Captain Barbossa, who was minding the wheel. The man was clearly relishing his return to glory, a devilish monkey sitting atop his shoulder. He offered the only hope of reaching the treasure. For now, it seemed, she had to play along.
“The course you sail must be exact, Captain,” she called in a strong voice.
“There is no exact at sea,” Barbossa replied without looking back.
“You need to listen to her, Captain,” Henry urged him. “She’s the only one who can follow the X.”
That got Barbossa’s attention. He strode over to Henry and Carina and leaned in close.
“Is that a fact?” he hissed in Henry’s face. “This girl knows more of the sea than I?”
“You’ll follow the Southern Cross to a single reflection point,” Carina said, forging on. “I have a chronometer which determines longitude—which will take us to an exact spot at sea.”
“Captain, you don’t have to understand her,” Henry insisted. “Just believe her.”
Barbossa pondered that for a moment. He looked at the stars, and then at his men.
“Untie them,” he ordered his crew.
“Sir?” one of his men asked, confused.
“Untie them!” Barbossa commanded.
Jumping to attention, Barbossa’s crew released Henry and Carina from their restraints.
Barbossa stared at Carina for a long moment. “Take the wheel, miss,” he finally said.
Barbossa’s men sucked in their breath.
“Sir, you wouldn’t allow a woman to steer your ship…?” one of them asked, alarmed.
But Barbossa looked back at the Silent Mary, pursuing them far in the distance. “She’ll follow her star or we’ll all die together,” he determined.
The crew watched in shock as Carina stepped up toward the wheel.
Carina glared at them. “What are you looking at?” she demanded. “Full to starboard, you indolent scalawags!”
* * *
Later that night, Carina stood at the helm of the Black Pearl, steering the ship.
It was quiet. Most of the crew had gone belowdecks. Carina breathed in the sea air deeply. She was on her way to completing the quest she had been on her whole life, to solving the puzzle that had consumed her every waking hour. By all accounts, she should’ve been excited. But so much had happened, and there hadn’t been time before to think about everything. To let it sink in.
She gazed around the Black Pearl, trying to make sense of it all.
Henry moved up beside her.
“This ship—those ghosts,” Carina began. “There can be no logical explanation.”
“The myths of the sea are real, Carina,” Henry said softly. “As real as my father.”
Carina looked deep into Henry’s brown eyes. They shone under the starlight, and he seemed to be looking at her as if she were the only other person in the world. Carina wondered what he was thinking. And then he spoke again.
“I’m glad you can see you were wrong.”
Carina blinked. Oh, no you don’t, she thought, shaking her head.
“Wrong?” she asked. “Perhaps I had some doubts. Thought you were mad. One could say I was possibly, arguably a bit…”
“Wrong,” Henry said. “The word is wrong!”
Carina fought a smile. He looked rather earnest and sweet. And she supposed there had been something to the ridiculous stories he had been telling. She recalled how frustrating it had been when Lady Devonshire had thought her goal of finding the Trident was a fool’s errand. Still, she enjoyed teasing him a bit. “Slightly in error,” she replied.
Henry ran his fingers through his hair, a gesture Carina had grown to like. “This is the worst apology I’ve ever heard.”
“Apology?” Carina asked with mock indignation. “Why would I apologize?”
“Because we’ve been chased by the dead,” Henry said, leaning in close. “We sail on a ship raised from a bottle. Where is your science in that?”
“It was science which found that map,” Carina pointed out.
“No, we found it. Together!” Henry insisted.
“Fine,” Carina said, sighing. “Then I will apologize.”
“Go on, then,” said Henry.
Carina shrugged, a mischievous glint in her eye. “If I’m wrong, I’m wrong.”
“Then say it.”
Carina snorted. “One could argue that you owe me an apology, as my life has been threatened by pirates and dead men.”
“Which you now believe in, I’m sorry to say,” Henry said.
Carina nodded, her eyes twinkling. “Apology accepted.”
Henry groaned in exasperation, though
Carina noticed that the edge of his mouth twitched in amusement. “I’m going to the lookout.”
Carina, now grinning widely, watched him go. “I’m glad you see it my way!”
THE WATERS GREW ROUGH as the Black Pearl continued on its course. Wind howled, blowing Carina’s hair back from her face. But she kept the wheel true. All the while, the Silent Mary pursued them relentlessly yet never gained ground.
Captain Barbossa moved up beside Carina, taking note of her course. Suddenly, a glint at her side caught his attention.
“Where did you get this, missy?” he asked, pointing to Galileo’s diary. “I know this book.”
“I would doubt you have read Galileo’s diary,” Carina replied snippily.
“This book be pirate treasure,” Barbossa said, “stolen from an Italian ship many years ago.”
“Stolen?” Carina felt her old temper flare. “You’re mistaken.”
“There was a ruby on the cover I’d not soon forget,” Barbossa replied.
Haughtily, Carina produced the ruby from her dress pocket. “This was given to me by my father, who was clearly a man of science.”
Barbossa’s monkey scrambled up and snatched the ruby away from her. It handed the gemstone to the captain, chattering wildly.
“He was clearly a common thief,” Barbossa said.
Carina could not hold herself back any longer. She slapped Barbossa across the face—hard. How dare he insult her father like that!
“The memory of my father will not be defiled by the tongue of a pirate!” she exclaimed. “This diary is my birthright, left with me on the steps of a children’s home along with a name. Nothing more.”
Carina’s cheeks burned with anger. She expected Barbossa to retaliate.
But to her surprise, the captain paled. He stepped back, an odd expression crossing his face.
“Oh, so you’re an orphan?” he asked. “And what be you called?”
“The brightest star in the north gave me my name,” Carina replied proudly.
Barbossa’s eyes narrowed, and the wrinkles crossing his face seemed to deepen. “That would be Carina,” he said somberly.
Carina looked up, the captain’s reply startling her. “Carina Smyth,” she said. “So you do know the stars?”
The Brightest Star in the North Page 12
