by E. G. Foley
“Is that right?” the same deep, rough voice said from the other side of the boards, only it was angry now.
The audience had now gone absolutely silent.
“It’s him,” Dani breathed, peeking through the peephole.
Rather guessed that.
“Ah, it’s just a show, sir,” Archie said, his cheery voice sounding slightly strained.
“Well, I don’t like it. Whoever you are back there,” Jones warned, “you’d best keep a civil tongue in your head. Best teach those puppets to behave or someone might chop off yer hands.”
“Thresher Shark doesn’t look too happy,” Dani reported.
Jake supposed that the snapping sound he heard coming from beyond the puppet theater was the captain’s bodyguard gnashing his big shark teeth at the mockery.
“Now, now, mates, just having fun!” Sam the Clam assured his audience, laughing weakly. He’d left poor Archie out there alone. “Beg your pardon, sirs. Never mind me—I was only being shellfish.”
Dani rolled her eyes, but a smattering of uneasy laughter was all that came from the audience.
Apparently satisfied with his apology, or at least not wanting to look like an utter tyrant who couldn’t take a joke, Davy Jones let out a snort and, Jake guessed, turned away. “Enough of this nonsense. Let’s go find out if they’ve found my orb yet.”
“Jake!” Archie whispered in alarm, peeking into the box for a moment.
Blast it, he’s leaving! Jake could not let Jones return to the Flying Dutchman quite yet. They had not yet heard the signal from Isabelle, which meant that the others were still in the process of rescuing Liliana.
For the sake of Maddox and Nixie, he decided, however unwisely, to push Jones just a little further, though he knew there would be trouble. He nodded to Dani to leave the wooden box. “You and Archie clear out,” he ordered in a whisper.
“What are you going to do?” she whispered back, pulling the whale puppet off her hand.
“I’ll stall them,” he answered.
“How?”
“By trying to be as annoying as possible. Now go!”
She arched a brow at that, then slipped out to join Archie, and presumably relayed Jake’s message to the genius.
Praying he would hear Isabelle’s signal on the Triton Trumpet soon, Jake waited for Archie and Dani to withdraw out of harm’s way and racked his brain for some new cheeky comment that would keep Jones and his shark men distracted just a little bit longer.
“Well,” he made Sam the Clam say to his lobster chum, “there is one more thing you should know about Captain Davy Jones.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t tell me?” the lobster answered nervously.
“Oh, it’s not his drinking, of course. Everybody knows he’s an infamous drunkard. But the thing that nobody dares admit is this…” Jake paused for effect. “You know all that gambling he loves so much? And how he always wins?”
“Yes…” the lobster said slowly, and even Jake trembled with fright as Sam the Clam declared to all the world: “That’s because he cheats.”
“That does it!” the butt of his jokes roared.
Ha, thought Jake. But his moment of triumph was short-lived.
“Jake, get out of there!” Archie cried from somewhere unseen.
He should’ve listened. But for some strange reason, just for a heartbeat, Jake felt oddly safe inside the wooden box, as if nobody could get him in there.
But it was no fortress, a fact that was brought home to him when the whole puppet theater was suddenly lifted away and there stood the undead pirate king, having just hurled it aside.
“How dare you!” he thundered.
Jake was left crouching there, feeling as naked as a hermit crab robbed of its shell—only, when he tried to scuttle away, Jones clamped his hand down on his shoulder.
“Someone needs to teach you some manners!” Jones whirled Jake around, but his eyes widened when he saw him. He swooped closer and studied him, even sniffed him. “Who—what are you?”
Jake struggled to get away. He hadn’t been caught like this since Constable Flanagan had last nabbed him stealing potpies.
Impatiently, he peeled the puppets off his hands in case he had to use his telekinesis to defend himself. Whether his gift actually worked underwater, he wasn’t sure. He had been so distracted by all the wonders of the sea that he hadn’t thought to test it.
Finished sniffing him, Jones straightened up, looking baffled. “You’re human.”
“Er, guilty as charged.”
“How is this possible? What are you doing here? What is the meaning of this?” he demanded.
“Cap’n, those two also look human!” his thresher shark henchman reported.
“Yes, they do… I want answers! Seize them!” the captain bellowed.
His men obeyed—or tried to.
Jake strained against Jones’s hold, watching the sailor with the squid tentacles for hair trying to grab Dani, but the rookery lass kept swishing to the right and the left, ducking away from his attempts to grab her.
“Leave her alone! I’m warning you,” Archie shouted. Though backed against the wall of the hotel, the gallant boy genius had shouldered his flowery pneumatic blunderbuss. “Don’t make me use this!”
“What the deuce is that thing?” Jones uttered, furrowing his brow at the gun’s long, curvy teak handle and the chromium-copper muzzle that flared at the end like a trumpet. He gestured at his henchman in annoyance. “Carnahan, bring that little sea-squirt over here to me.”
The thresher shark man started toward him.
“Stay back or I’ll shoot, you horrid, toothy thing! Don’t try me!” Archie cried in magnificent defiance, cranking the side handle and peering through the sight.
Jake was quite impressed.
“I obeys me captain’s orders, laddie,” the fellow replied in a voice very like that of a onetime sailor in the Royal Navy.
Just then Dani screamed as Squid Head seized her. But when Carnahan moved toward Archie, the boy genius narrowed his eyes, declared, “You leave me no choice,” and pulled the trigger.
Jake knew the blunderbuss slugs were very large—the sort of bullets used for big game on land. But underwater, everything was different, and sadly, Archie must have miscalculated somewhere.
For they all watched as the big bullet left the muzzle in a cloud of bubbles, floated sedately through the waves at a slowed-down pace, and instead of blowing a hole in the shark man, hit him in the stomach like a beanbag and threw him backward several feet.
Which merely made him angry.
Archie’s eyes widened. He stood there for a second looking shocked at himself that he had actually fired the weapon in the first place. “I knew I should’ve gone with a crossbow.”
Then Carnahan jumped to his feet, and Archie snapped out of his daze. “Stand back, sir! Mark me, that was just a warning! All I have to do is flip this lever to change the setting and you’re a goner,” he lied.
I am such a bad influence on him, thought Jake, though he couldn’t have been prouder. Here he was, caught, and his short, bespectacled cousin was holding all the terrifying shark men at bay by himself.
They all eyed Archie’s strange, tulip-shaped gun warily.
Even Jones looked perplexed, and perhaps a little amused now that he had seen they were just kids. “Hoy, you three. Brats. Explain yourselves,” he ordered, glancing from Jake to his friends. “What are you doing in my seas? You think you’re clever with your little taunts? You have any idea what I could do to you?”
“Uhh,” said Jake.
“Ever seen a feeding frenzy?” Jones asked, arching a brow.
Jake flung off a pulsation of dread. “Please! Let my companions go. I’m the only one who said those things. Your quarrel is with me!”
Jones stared at him in astonishment, then laughed. “Well, aren’t you a fine one! Why not. Aye, indulge the boy.” He gestured to his henchman. “We don’t get many like this down here. Aye, this is n
ew. Let her go, Lebrec.”
Squid Head released Dani, to Jake’s relief. At once, she edged over to Archie’s side, since, fortunately, none of the shark men looked keen to risk finding out if he’d been lying about a more dangerous setting on his fantastical weapon.
The captain folded his arms across his chest and awaited Jake’s explanation.
“It is true, we are landers,” he admitted, using Sapphira’s term in hopes of sounding savvy about the underwater world. “We got hold of some magic and just came down on a lark to look around.”
“Oh, really?”
Jake nodded. “We wanted to see what it was like down here. It’s very nice, your realm,” he offered.
“Thank you,” said Jones with a skeptical stare.
“So, is it true, then? You really are the legendary Captain Davy Jones?”
“I am. You doubt it?”
“No, sir. It’s just—you’re so famous up on land. We’ve all heard about you in school. I am sorry I said those things,” Jake said, penitently hanging his head. “The truth is, I was just trying to get your attention—so you wouldn’t leave. That was the only stuff that came to mind.”
“You wanted my attention?” Jones snorted and looked at his henchmen, who laughed. “Most try to avoid it.”
“Not us, sir,” Jake said earnestly, hoping the man was buying the innocent kid routine. “We wanted to meet you, you see—me and my friends. I mean, there are songs about you in our world! And books and stories, too. Actually I was kind of wondering—if it’s not too much trouble—could we have your autograph? Otherwise the kids at school will never believe we really met you.”
Jones scrutinized him, and Jake feared for a moment that he was doomed for lying, but apparently the lure of being asked for his autograph was irresistible. “Very well.” Jones snapped his fingers, and one of his henchmen bustled over, handing him a shark-tooth pen and a scallop shell.
“I will grant you this favor,” Jones said, etching his signature on the inside of the shell. “I’m not a monster, after all.” He eyed his men discreetly with a look that seemed to say, Like them. “I don’t enjoy terrifying children—unless it’s absolutely necessary,” he added.
Jake supposed the pirate was thinking of Princess Liliana with that remark. Well, it was good to know he had something of a conscience left, anyway.
“Here.” The Lord of the Locker finished scratching his name on the smooth, flat inside of the shell, then handed it to Jake, who beamed.
“Oh, thank ye, sir! Thank you very much. I can’t wait to show this to all my friends at school.” He put it in his pocket.
“Humph. Very well, then. You’re free to look around a while longer, but you three stay out of trouble while you’re in my realm. You are guests here; don’t forget. Lucky for you, you’re too young for my collection, and I admire youngsters with a bit of pluck. Was a bit of a scamp m’self when I was your age. Mind you,” he added, gesturing at both Jake and Archie, “if we should ever meet when you get older, I’m not making any promises. You drown at sea, I’ll be seein’ you again. Count on it.”
“Not plannin’ on it, sir,” Jake assured him.
Jones’s lips quirked. “They never do,” he said dryly, then he left with his men, who again mumbled their doubts about his show of mercy.
Jake got the feeling this was rare.
Jones waved off his men’s complaints as they followed him away. “Ah, they’re just children. Come on, we’ve wasted enough time here. We’ve got work to do.”
“Goodbye, sir!” Jake called sweetly, but Davy Jones ignored him. Dani and Archie looked a little dazed as they joined him.
“Talked your way out of that one, I’ll say,” Archie mumbled.
“That was close,” Dani breathed.
Jake glanced at both of them. “You two all right?”
They nodded.
“Good. Let’s get out of here. Everybody’s staring at us.”
Trying to look as casual as possible, he and his friends swam down the street in the direction opposite that to which Davy Jones and his henchmen had gone.
But Archie glanced worriedly over his shoulder. “Jake, this is bad. You heard him. Jones and his crew are heading back to the Flying Dutchman now. Nixie and the others might still be out there! We haven’t heard Izzy’s signal yet.”
Jake shook his head grimly. “I know, Arch. But what are we to do? I’m afraid we’ve bought them as much time as we could with that stunt. I don’t care to chance another. For now, we need to get out of sight. I don’t trust these fish folk. They’re lookin’ at us funny.”
Jake beckoned them around the corner, out of sight of the crowd, when suddenly, one long, thin note echoed to them from the distance.
“The Triton Trumpet!” Dani exclaimed.
“That signal meant they got the princess! Let’s go!” Archie said eagerly.
But before they got too excited about their friends’ success, Isabelle also sent them the two short notes that called out a warning of trouble headed their way.
Uh-oh. Jake glanced toward the sound. “C’mon, let’s get to the Keyhole. Archie, which way’s north?”
Archie consulted his compass, then pointed. “That way.”
They ducked in between two ramshackle buildings and headed for the dark open ocean beyond the limits of town.
Who knew what dangers might lurk in those midnight waters ahead? But whatever was behind them wasn’t much better.
He could only assume that Liliana’s rescue had already been discovered by Jones’s crew. If that was the case, then the pirates’ forces were likely in pursuit even now.
For the next fifteen minutes or so, nobody spoke as they swam for their lives, constantly watching for the Keyhole in the indigo twilight of the sea. No one said it aloud, but Jake knew all three were terrified of getting lost out here.
Again and again, Archie checked his compass to keep them on course; Dani provided light, opening up her satchel with the sea candle inside just enough for him to read the needle without attracting the notice of the shark men, who were probably somewhere in the darkness behind them, giving chase.
“Hey—there they are!” Jake suddenly pointed.
In the navy-blue distance ahead and above them to their right, he could just make out four silhouettes racing through the water. It was Maddox’s team: two mermaids, one bigger, one smaller, two web-footed humans, and a seahorse.
“Nixie,” Archie said in relief.
“Look, there’s Izzy and the dolphins, too!” Dani had been scanning to their left.
Breathing a sigh of relief, they hurried on, keen to reunite the whole gang safely once more. Though hundreds of yards still separated the three teams, they were all racing in the same direction.
Ten minutes later, Jake could see the unusual rock formation looming in the distance. The Keyhole was unmistakable, rising from the sea mound just as Sapphira had described it: a towerlike column of stone with a hollowed-out ring of rock on top.
It wasn’t long before they all gathered around it, panting and congratulating each other. Maddox quickly freed his hand from Sapphira’s hold, but not fast enough: Isabelle’s eyes narrowed while the dolphins circled around them.
Still, they couldn’t linger long—just a short break to catch their breath. Everyone looked a little worn out, but the mood was jovial, since they’d obviously succeeded in their mission.
“Everybody, this is my sister, Princess Liliana.” Beaming, Sapphira put her arm around her shoulders.
“People, we have company!” Nixie warned in a stern voice, staring in the direction from which they had come.
“Already?” Sapphira swirled around, a look of dread stealing over her delicate face. “I don’t understand… How did they find us so soon? We had a decent head start.”
She glanced around at all of them, at a loss—and then abruptly pointed. “Maddox! You’re bleeding!”
“Am I? Oh.” He looked down at his arm, then shrugged. “One of the st
ingrays must’ve grazed me. Doesn’t hurt.”
“No—that’s how Jones’s shark men are tracking us!” she exclaimed. “Blood in the water—they can follow the scent for miles.” She shook her head, looking dazed. “We’ll never lose them now, and we’re many miles from land. We’re doomed.”
“Go,” Jake told the others automatically. “I’ll hold them back with my telekinesis for as long as I can.”
“No, no, you have no chance,” Sapphira said impatiently, waving him off. “We need to hide.”
“Where?” Isabelle asked in a taut voice.
“I know a place!” Liliana piped up. “It’s not far.”
Sapphira looked at her in question. “Surely you don’t mean—”
“The Seaweed Forest!” Liliana nodded eagerly, blond braids bouncing. “They won’t dare go near it for fear of the Colony!”
“Colony of what?” Jake asked.
“Friends,” Lil insisted. “Plus, the path through the forest is a shortcut home.”
But Sapphira didn’t look convinced.
“They’re coming,” Nixie reported. “What are we doing, people?”
“Sapphira, c’mon!” Liliana urged, pulling on her wrist. “The forest isn’t far. It’s just beyond that rise!”
“How do you even know that?” the elder mermaid demanded.
Her little sister floundered. “That doesn’t matter right now! The point is, his crew won’t risk going in there, even if they do smell blood.”
“Where’s he going?” Nixie asked as Maddox muttered something under his breath and suddenly swam away.
“St. Trinian, get back here!” Jake fairly roared.
“I won’t risk you all!” Maddox answered. “Find a place to hide and I’ll draw them off. I’m the one they’re tracking.”
“Maddox, no!” Isabelle cried. “You can’t go off alone! Are you mad?”
“She’s right. It’s too dangerous,” Sapphira agreed.
“Pardon, but we need a plan now!” Archie barked, losing patience. “They’ll be upon us in a moment! What about this forest Lil mentioned?”
