Kingdom of Villains and Vengeance

by Laura Greenwood et al.

“Assana.” Jae put a hand on her friend’s shoulder.

  She didn’t stop singing, didn’t even open her eyes. The sound grew more urgent, more intense. She was in some kind of trance.

  “Assana,” Jae said again, giving her a gentle shake. He was nearly in to his nose, and she didn’t know what would happen then. The familiar phantom panic began to creep up on her and she touched a hand to her gills to remind herself that breathing was no longer a problem for her.

  Finally, Assana’s eyes flew open and the sound stopped, flooding Jae with relief. The apparition disappeared and the boy stopped, took a few stumbling steps backward, and then turned and ran to shore. He kept throwing glances over his shoulder at the water until he was out, and then didn’t look back as he ran to the trees.

  “It would have served him right,” Assana said, bitterness in her tone.

  Jae didn’t argue with her. “How did you do it, though?”

  “Didn’t you feel it?”

  Thinking for a second, her eyes on the spot where the apparition had last been, Jae nodded.

  “You just have to remember what it felt like to die, and tell them your story.”

  They didn’t stay long after that. The night had taken on a different feel. Even the animals and insects, usually noisy, had grown quiet. They could feel it, too, the presence of death.

  That night in their cave, with no light to show their faces, Jae asked a question into the darkness. “How did you die?”

  She heard Assana shift on her cot of woven seagrass. It creaked, and then she sighed. “It doesn’t matter, and you’ll soon see that. What matters is what you do with it. Will you help other girls survive and learn from your mistakes? Will you kill the men who would do the same thing to others? Will you hide and cower? That’s what’s important now.”

  Jae lay awake long after Assana fell asleep, thinking about what she said. This was one of the first times in her life when she had a decision to make about how to spend her future, a decision that for once, no one else would make for her. And she had absolutely no idea what to do.

  Chapter 6

  Sounds drifted out from the open door of the tavern and reached Jae, where she was hidden beneath a nearby dock, her hand pressed to the wooden planks overhead to keep her in place. James had said that a lot of his crew had left him, but apparently a lot of pirates still remained, and they were all drinking. They seemed to do this every night, and very little else as far as she could tell. All she wanted was to get James alone so she could talk to him about the treasure map, but he didn’t seem to ever emerge before she got tired and returned to her cave.

  She was determined to wait him out tonight, though. She dreaded the day when Wren returned and asked her for an update, only for Jae to have to tell her that she hadn’t been able to even talk to the captain, let alone get any information on the potion’s location.

  Twilight crept into midnight, and there was still no sign of him. Every time the tavern door opened, Jae would dare a peek above the dock, but she didn’t recognize anyone. After seeing Assana’s demonstration, she really didn’t want to have to use the siren’s call to lure him out. Who was to say that she wouldn’t lure out every pirate on the island, besides? That was the last thing she wanted.

  The moon was already on its descent when a familiar someone in a red cap stepped out of the tavern alone. Mr. Smee paused, taking a deep breath of salty air, and then started down the path. This would maybe be her best chance.

  “Mr. Smee,” she hissed.

  He paused, his eyes searching the docks but missing her in the water.

  “Here.” She pulled herself up as much as she dared and waved one arm at the bosun.

  “Who’s there?” Mr. Smee barked, far too loud for comfort.

  Jae almost gave up then, turning to disappear back into the water, but it was now or never. “It’s me,” she said. “Jae Darlington.” Was she still a Darlington? She didn’t know. None of the mermaids seemed to have family names. She wasn’t even sure they had families, except that Naunet and Mara seemed to be sisters.

  Mr. Smee squinted at her and removed his cap, wringing it in his hands. “Ms. Darlington?” He crossed the boardwalk and came down the planks to the dock, his footsteps loud.

  Jae kept expecting someone to come check on him or to ask about the racket, but no one did.

  He reached her and knelt on the boards, peering down at her. She smelled the ale on his breath before he even opened his mouth. “Oh, Ms. Darlington, we thought you were dead, we did. The captain, he’ll be so—well, nevermind him, no. What are you doing down there?”

  They didn’t know, then.

  She flipped her tail up, splashing him lightly. “I’m a mermaid.”

  His eyes went wide. “Well, look at that, will you? Amazing, it is. What a lucky girl you are, to have been blessed so.”

  Lucky? It was certainly a different reaction than the one her sister had for her. But she couldn’t dwell on that now. “I’m looking for Captain Hook, I need to speak to him. Can you fetch him for me?”

  Mr. Smee was already pushing himself to his feet. “I’ll be glad to.” He stopped and turned back to her. “Just, can you promise me one thing, Ms. Darlington.”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t lure him to a watery grave, if it please you.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “I won’t. Not tonight, anyway.”

  It was another hour at least before James emerged from the tavern, after it seemed like nearly everyone else had left. He walked casually to the dock, hands in his pockets. She could still see how she thought him a dream—he was almost too handsome to be real.

  When he was sure no one was watching, he made his way down to the docks to the same spot where she’d talked to Mr. Smee. She wasn’t there anymore, having put some distance between them just in case. She watched his eyes scan the water, until finally he said, “Jae?”

  She came up behind him. “Here.”

  He jumped, nearly tipping forward into the water but catching himself at the last minute. He turned toward her. “There you are. I wasn’t sure whether to believe Smee when he told me.”

  She flipped her tail, just as she’d done to Mr. Smee. “It’s true.”

  His eyes scanned her and she was suddenly very aware of her body as she hadn’t been since her transformation. Did he still find her attractive, or did he think her a monster? “Incredible,” he said finally. “You’re blue.”

  She looked down at herself. “I am.” Then, she leaned forward, folding her arms over the dock. “I have to ask you for something.”

  “A favor?”

  She sighed. “I guess you could call it that.”

  He looked back up at the tavern and the empty street, checking, she guessed, to make sure no one would spot him. Then, back to her, he said, “Go ahead.”

  “There’s supposed to be a potion that can turn me human again,” she explained when she had his attention again. “And you’re supposed to have the map that shows us where it is.”

  His brow furrowed. “Me?”

  “Do you have some kind of collection, maybe? Of maps? Like Granny did?”

  His face softened then. “That was something we bonded over. She liked maps in general, but I liked treasure maps.”

  “I think you have this one.”

  He focused back on her again. “How will I know?”

  She bit her lip, immediately regretting it when the sharp point of her tooth drew blood. “You stole it from a witch named Jinx.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Jinx.”

  “You knew her?”

  “I did,” he confirmed, but then he shook his head. “But that was a long time ago. I couldn’t tell you which one it was I took from her.”

  “I think we’ll know it when we see it.”

  “So, am I just supposed to bring every map out to you for your inspection?”

  She waved a hand at herself. “I can’t just walk over there, can I?”

  He looked around again, a
mischievous glint in his eye that she hadn’t seen before. “No, but I could take you there.”

  “What?” She laughed. He had to be joking.

  “I have a bathing tub in my flat. You can look with me. And then I’ll bring you back.”

  She narrowed her eyes this time. “Why should I trust you?”

  “You have my word.”

  “And what good is the word of a pirate?”

  “What kind of pirate doesn’t have a ship or a crew? I don’t think it’s fair to call me a pirate anymore.”

  She grunted. “What are you then?”

  “Just a man,” he said with a shrug. “Looking for a purpose.”

  That she could understand. “Fine. But—”

  She didn’t get to finish. He was already scooping her out of the water like she weighed nothing. In the open air, she felt terribly exposed. She covered her chest with her hair and flapped her useless tail over his arm. He had carried her like this once before, but she’d been in the middle of an attack and hadn’t been able to consider how it felt to be draped in his arms.

  “Stop squirming,” he instructed, tightening his arms around her as he stood. His hook was beside her shoulder but he took care not to let it touch her.

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face to his chest to hide her embarrassment.

  His answering laugh made butterflies take flight in her stomach.

  He went down the alley beside the tavern and then took a flight of stairs two at a time. She bounced in his arms but they both held on tight.

  “Open the door for me,” he said when they reached a door at the top story.

  “What? How?”

  “The key is on my belt.”

  She released his neck and fumbled around for the key, flushing when her fingers accidentally brushed the bare skin of his stomach. Finally, she found his key ring and turned slightly, fitting an iron key in the lock. It turned and tumbled open. They went inside and he kicked the door closed behind him.

  Jae hadn’t thought to ever be inside a human home again, and never this one. Everything was dark, just like she would have expected from him. The front room had a sitting area and a dining table, and a doorway at the rear of the room led to the bedroom. She didn’t get a chance to see much of the rooms, except to see that he kept things very neat. His bed was even made, the covers pulled taut and the pillows nice and fluffed. He breezed through them both and entered a door in the very back, where he deposited her in a porcelain bathing tub and turned on the tap.

  She squealed at the cold water at first, but it warmed up quickly.

  “Wait here,” he said, leaving the tap open as he left the room.

  “As if I could go anywhere,” she shouted after him.

  He returned a few minutes later and dropped a pile of papers on the floor. Then, he turned off the tap since the water covered her tail, though the tips of her fin did stick out over the lip of the tub.

  “Is this OK?” he asked, gesturing to the water.

  “It’s perfect.” She smiled goofily up at him, unable to help herself.

  He knelt beside the tub and picked up a few of the papers, fanning them out for her to see. They were old maps, their paper yellowed, their edges worn and curled. The ink had faded on some, and others even had black fingerprints from where they had been handled over the years.

  “These are all the treasures I never found,” he said, gesturing to the maps in his hand and the others on the washroom floor.

  “How many did you find?” she asked, her eyes scanning the maps he held out for her.

  He smiled. “Too many to count.” He tapped one of the maps he held. “This is a map to the crown that the mermaids held for Wendy. Your sister found it last year.” He put that map to the side.

  “What’s this one?” she asked, pointing to a map with seemingly random lines criss-crossing an island.

  He studied it, turning it upside down, and then shrugged. “I think this was stolen from the Lost Boys. It’s probably nonsense.”

  She longed to study it but there were so many that she didn’t bother to argue with him. They thumbed through them like that for a while, though none jumped out at her, even from the ones whose origins he didn’t know. None of them had been taken from the fairies. None of them had come from a crew member.

  “Wait,” Jae said. “If the potion was meant for a fairy . . .” She trailed off, wondering if her suspicion was ridiculous.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “So it was meant for a fairy and a pirate, right? So the map is for the pirate, but maybe only a fairy can read it.”

  James furrowed his brow in that way she was growing accustomed to seeing when he was thinking hard about something. “Maybe. Or maybe we need fairy dust.”

  She turned to him wide-eyed. “Do you have any?”

  He shook his head. “The fairies have been very stingy since escaping the Lost Boys. Not even Pan flies anymore.”

  “I’m a Darlington, though. Do you think they’ll give me some if I ask nicely?” There was also Bell, but who knew when she would see Wren again. And if she was wrong, she didn’t want her sister to know it.

  James scrunched his nose dubiously. “Maybe.”

  “Shall we go ask, then?”

  He stood, the papers gathered in his arms. “Which map do I take?”

  “All of them.”

  He deposited Jae back in the water and she swam while he walked. It would have been easier for him to go directly to Fairyhome via an inland route, but because she had to stick to the water, they went around, traversing Blind Man’s Bluff before turning inland via a small creek that would take them into the trees. She could have gone by herself, but he didn’t seem interested in leaving her to it. She didn’t want to ask why he was helping, either, for fear of scaring him away.

  “What are we expecting when we get there?” she asked him at one point.

  “It’s hard to say. Not many people have been allowed in Fairyhome since Wren left.”

  Of course not. The only reason the fairies had kept peace with the other residents of the island was because Pan had held a number of them captive. That was, until Wren discovered his stash and freed the lot of them. Now, they were like a small army, one that no one ever saw coming.

  “They tolerate me and my crew,” James said. “But only because we have a common enemy.”

  “So it shouldn’t be too bad, then.”

  James grimaced. “Define bad.”

  She laughed and the conversation took a different turn. “How are things with you and Pan?”

  “Same as ever. A constant struggle for power that neither of us even really have.”

  “Do you really want him dead?”

  His brow furrowed. “I thought I did, but we’ve been doing this for so long that I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if he did die. It’s almost the only thing I have left.”

  “All because of Granny?”

  “It started that way, but that’s not what it’s about anymore.”

  “What is it about, then?”

  “Revenge? Pride?” Hook grimaced. “I don’t know that either of us really know.”

  Silence fell between them then, as Jae pondered exactly how strange it was that she was feeling things for a boy who had been in love her with her grandmother once.

  Jae did not need to be told when they’d reached Fairyhome, for suddenly, the trees around them lit up with tiny, twinkling lights. Jae rolled to her back, gazing up at the canopy of leaves. There were so many lights that they looked like stars.

  “Ow! Hey!” James shouted from somewhere beside her, followed by a crash and a creaking of branches.

  She flipped back over, startled, and saw—well, James, but upside down, dangling from one leg in some kind of trap, his arms crossed indignantly over his chest, his hair that was usually perfectly coiffed hanging straight down. The maps had fallen from his coat pocket and fluttered into a pile b
eneath his head. A laugh burst out of her throat before she could stop it.

  “This is not funny,” he grunted.

  A swarm of lights approached them, then. As they grew closer, she saw the individual shapes of fairies. They were all jingling angrily, and Jae suddenly regretted not waiting for Bell. It might have been easier than dealing with an angry fairy horde.

  “Wait,” Jae said as they swarmed James. He was swatting at them, big hands batting some of them out of the air. One splashed into the water near Jae and she scooped her up quickly, setting her back on land to dry off and hopefully cool down.

  Finally, one fairy broke free from the others and came to a stop in front of Jae, wagging one tiny finger and jingling wildly. Jae had no idea what she was saying.

  She touched her chest. “I am Jae Darlington. Wren’s sister.” Then, she added, “I know Bell,” in a last ditch attempt.

  The jingling slowed.

  “I need help. Just—something small.”

  “She says she’s listening,” James called from where he dangled.

  “You speak fairy?”

  “Will you please answer her?”

  She looked back at the fairy. She was tiny, with short, dark hair and skin that looked like tree bark. Her wings were green as leaves. “Can you cut my friend down so we can talk? We don’t mean any harm.”

  More jingling, and then the fairies swarmed the rope where it attached to the tree. In a matter of seconds, it snapped, and James fell to the ground with a thump that made Jae cringe.

  “Thanks,” he muttered into the ground.

  The fairy returned, jingling again.

  “She wants to know what you want,” James translated.

  “We need fairy dust.”

  More jingling. She didn’t need James to tell her they were angry again.

  “Not a lot,” she said, holding her hands out. “Just enough to read a map.”

  She gestured to James who held out the maps like an offering. The fairies swarmed around him again, but this time, he was gentle, spreading the maps out and letting them look. Jae watched him from her place in the water as the fierce pirate captain conversed with the tiny fairies who were no bigger than his pinky finger, and she thought she felt something inside of her crack open to make room for him.