“Look, if we turn ourselves in and explain how we killed those pirates – we could be heroes!”
“Look, Aeolus, I’m sorry, but I’m beyond caring. I’ll do whatever you think is best.”
“I understand,” he replied and they began to swim towards the nearest man of war.
...
Chad was furious. Having been elated at the destruction of the Navy ship, he watched in horror as, with only minutes left before he got back, the Nemesis pulled away. He understood. But it didn’t mean he had to like it. Now he and the rest of the crew were frantically rowing towards the island in a futile attempt to escape. Chad was not afraid of being caught … he was only afraid of what they might discover.
...
The water dripped on the deck from the boys’ drenched and tattered clothes. The Admiral strolled towards them.
“So,” he began, “back just in time for another keelhaul, hey?” He smirked at his own joke.
“Sir, during the battle Farren and I went to the Nemesis and killed as many of those blasted pirates as we could,” insisted Aeolus. Tears still streamed down Farren’s face.
“Hungh,” the Admiral grunted in surprise, “which was how many?”
“Seven.”
Cookie piped up, “It’s true sir. After the attack on the Guardian, they volunteered to fight. Next thing I know the two of ‘em leap over there, kill two pirates and go below decks lookin’ for more!”
There was a pause as the Admiral seemed to chew it over and digest this turn of events.
Farren and Aeolus nervously waited.
“Well boys,” he finally began, “as you can see I’m a little short staffed. See Lieutenant James later and he will give you a detail.”
“Thank you sir,” they both replied and scurried off in relief.
Admiral Douglas beckoned James over.
He lowered his voice, “I still don’t trust those two, James. Just keep an eye on them. We could do with the manpower for now. When we get to the next port we can either kill them or let them go – depending on how I feel on the day.”
“Yes, sir,” James replied.
“Now,” he smacked his hands together, “have we caught that blasted row boat yet?”
“We are still chasing them sir. They have nowhere to go but the island and each of the three man of wars have sent out capture parties, in case they try and make a break for it.”
“Dagnabbit! Hurry up and get on with it. I don’t want them getting away,” the Admiral started to leave and then paused and turned back, “and don’t kill them. I need them alive ... for now.”
...
Chad and the small crew paddled hard and the boat ran aground on the beach. They leapt ashore.
“Spread out,” the large man grunted as he ran across the beach towards the forest. The other crew members followed and then ran in different directions trying to find a place to avoid the Navy in a lethal game of hide and seek.
The sailors calmly made their way along the beach and fanned out. There was no rush. It was only a matter of time.
...
“Sir,” Lieutenant James Barnsworth approached the Admiral, “We’ve had the damage assessed and it’s not looking good. We are taking on a fair bit of water, we need a lot more medical supplies and we are down to about half capacity in manpower.”
“Well, by jove, let’s just stay here a bit longer and stock up,” replied the Admiral.
“We could get some wood and perhaps replenish our food and water here, but medical supplies and men are critical – we have to get to a port urgently sir. We can’t afford to stay here any more than is absolutely necessary. According to the charts, we are not far out from the New World, although it presents a risk, given that all the ports around here will be controlled by the Spanish.”
The Admiral hit the side with his fist, “Blast and brimfire! In that case, let’s hope those buffoons hurry up and catch their quarry very quickly. Lieutenant, prepare the ships to launch as soon as they return. Mara managed to escape my clutches just when I was finally going to kill her … I don’t want the same happening again.”
James averted his eyes, “Yes, sir.”
...
Chad was not concerned with what happened to the other three pirates on the island – their fate was not as important. The leaves crunched underfoot as the behemoth sprinted through the jungle. He found a large tree and raised his sword above his head and then thrust it into its belly. Thick sap oozed from within. Chad ripped the sword further into the tree and soon the sap was gushing out. He then turned his back to the tree and lay in the sap. Pretty soon it coated his whole back in a sticky brown layer. Satisfied, he got up and began to look around. He spied a large boulder in the distance which had a lot of foliage in front of it. Chad made his way over to it and kneeled down to wait. He checked his weapons - he had his sword which was now covered in sap, and three daggers. As he sat to wait for his pursuers he snapped off a branch and began to sharpen it.
...
Mara went over it again and again in her mind. She replayed the fight with the Admiral, the sharpshooters, the rescue by Renard, trying to work out where she went wrong. “The Admiral should be dead, and Chad should be here, by my side,” she thought, “instead we are running away with our tail between our legs. Fairclough is still smirking – the traitorous wretch and Chad – it surely is only a matter of time before he falls to the enemy. Why did I use him? I should never have made a copy.” She touched the metal pole in her side as she thought.
A crew member approached her. “Captain, I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
“What now?” she asked.
“When we attacked the Juggernaut, they must have sent some Navy men over onto our ship. Seven of the crew are dead.”
“What!!” she slammed her fist on the side of the ship.
“Er, that’s not all. They killed the old woman, too. I’m sorry captain; I know you had sailed with her.”
Mara’s face fell. She turned back to face the sea and took a deep breath. “That will be all. Dispose of the bodies. Continue on towards the New World. We know the treasure is around there and that is what we need to be focussed on right now. The Navy will not be far behind.”
“Yes, captain.”
For the first time since her near fatal encounter with the shark, tears streamed down the pirate captain’s cheeks.
“Of all people, her betrayal hurts most of all, and now she’s gone.” Mara stood on the deck thinking of what might have been.
...
Peter was itching to leave the infirmary and find out what was happening, but the doctor had refused. His injuries had yet to fully heal and the large scabs all over his body made movement difficult in any case.
So when Farren and Aeolus came in, the smile almost cracked the scars on his face. However his elation at finally seeing them was short lived. The sight of Farren’s red eyes and tear stained cheeks hit him in the stomach. He could barely bring himself to ask.
Farren looked at his brother and the tears welled up again, “Nanna’s gone.” He fell into his brother’s arms and the two sobbed uncontrollably. Aeolus stood by awkwardly, not sure what to do.
...
There was a rustling nearby in the undergrowth. Chad’s hand curled around the sharpened stake. Two navy sailors came into view, both holding muskets. Chad waited, hoping they would pass him by. They walked closer to where he lay hidden. One of them stopped and looked over in his direction.
He pointed, “What’s that over there?”
Both sailors raised their muskets and began to advance. Chad had no choice. With a roar he leapt from his hiding place and immediately threw two of the daggers. One missed but the other embedded itself in the sailor’s stomach and he fell screaming to the ground. The other Navy man raised his musket and fired.
PHHHUU!
The bullet whistled through the undergrowth and hit Chad in the leg.
“UGGH!” Chad grunted, picked up the sword and
advanced on the sailor. The Navy man fumbled with the musket and the giant pirate rushed up and with one swing beheaded him. The headless corpse fell to the ground. Chad looked down at the shocked expression on the sailor’s face.
“Over here!” He could hear the Navy search crews yelling and closing in. They must have heard the musket shot. Chad started to run as best he could, blood pouring from his leg. He ran blindly, the forest tearing at his clothes and limbs. He saw two more sailors in the distance who, having heard the noise of his approach, began running towards him.
PHHUU!
The crack of the musket firing ricocheted through the air. Chad changed direction … only to find more Navy men approaching, muskets raised. Six sailors slowly walked towards him.
“I kill all,” he rumbled, sword raised.
“That won’t be necessary,” said a sailor to his left who fired his musket.
PHHUU!
The bullet hit its target.
...
Farren and Aeolus began to tell Peter what he had missed since his horrendous keelhauling. Aeolus did most of the talking since Farren was still too emotional to be coherent. Peter listened in shock, unable to take it all in: the loss of the parchment to the Admiral, scrubbing the hull, the lost treasure of Nuestra Señora de Atocha, working for Cookie, the destruction of the Guardian, the attack on the Nemesis, the pirate captain being a woman and finally, the discovery of Nanna and the fateful accident. For Peter, it was almost like awakening to a new world, a world he neither understood nor liked. So much had happened in such a short space of time. He sat for a while until he could find the words.
“I … I don’t know what to say,” he started. “What possessed you to attack the Nemesis? I mean what were you thinking?”
Farren was taken aback, “What do you mean? The ship was there, Nanna was on board, and it seemed the logical thing to do.”
Peter snorted, “Logical? Since when have you ever been logical? Same old Farren – have to rush in all gung-ho, never thinking of the consequences.”
“Hold on. What else was I supposed to do? We hadn’t come all this way, gone through all this, for her to be only metres away and then what? I’m supposed to sit here? There was a chance Peter, a chance to rescue her. Wasn’t that why we came here in the first place, to get that chance?” Farren’s voice trembled.
“That wasn’t the time, Farren, can’t you see that? And by rushing in, with no plan, once again, you got her killed.”
“I can’t believe this,” Farren turned his head away. When he looked back, tears were in his eyes. “You can’t blame me for this. It was an accident. I was trying to set her free.”
“How? She was chained up and the crew were returning. We started on this trip without thinking it through and now look where it’s gotten us. You would have been better off trying to steal the parchment back and trying to trade the treasure map for her.”
Aeolus watched the argument with a calculating look on his face. Farren sighed. “Peter, you weren’t there. You haven’t been here. So I’ve had to make the decisions for once. And sometimes it’s better not to over think things. We had to take action. You weren’t there to help, so I made a decision. There was nothing more I could have done for Nanna, you know that. You’re just frustrated because you weren’t there. I get that. But don’t blame me for this.”
Peter gazed into his brother’s stricken eyes and sighed. After a long pause he said, “I’m sorry, Farren. It’s just … I just can’t believe she’s gone. And I never got to see her.”
Farren put an arm around his brother.
“It’s ok, Peter. I know.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Aeolus piped up, “but we need to decide what to do now.”“We go home of course,” replied Peter. Farren nodded.
“What? After all that talk about how far you’ve come and what you’ve been through you just want to give up and call it a day!” Aeolus began to pace the cramped infirmary.
“Aeolus, there’s nothing here for us. The one person we treasured most of all is now lost. As Peter said, we embarked on this without thinking. We followed her because, well, because she was Nanna. She raised us. She was like a mother. We were only here for her, and now she’s gone. As soon as the Juggernaut docks, Peter and I will try and find a ship back home. Aeolus,” Farren put a hand on his shoulder, “it’s over.”
“What about the treasure? You had the map to untold riches in your hands!”
“Half a map,” corrected Farren, “and you gave it to the Admiral.”
Aeolus glared at him, “Which, I may remind you, is probably the only thing that kept you alive. Look, here’s a chance for us to make it rich, set ourselves up.”
“How do you propose to do that, Aeolus?” asked Peter. “We don’t even have the map anymore, we only ever saw half of it, we have no idea where to search for it, let alone the fact that we are lucky to still be alive on this ship and we are hardly in the best shape!”
“You forget that the Admiral is looking for the treasure too. It will probably only be a matter of time before he finds the other half of the map!” Aeolus’ eyes lit up.
“And what then? We somehow wait until he has found it and then just take it off him under the nose of almost a thousand of His Majesty’s finest?”
Aeolus flushed, “It’s better than just giving up. Besides, you talked about following a dream and working it out as you went along.”
“Yes, Aeolus,” replied Farren, “but that was our Nanna, someone we cared about. This treasure is not something we care about. This is your dream. Good luck with it but we need to leave at the next port.”
Peter’s eyes shone as he stared at his brother.
Just then a commotion broke out. Sailors were running past the infirmary. Farren went to the door.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“The Admiral has called us all up on deck!” the sailor yelled and ran off.
The doctor quickly grabbed some bandages and a saw and ran out of the infirmary. Farren and Aeolus helped Peter to his feet and his legs quivered as they tentatively made their way out of the gloomy room.
It was slow going, but finally they made their way up onto the crowded deck. Peter blinked in the unfamiliar light. His eyes struggled to adjust. Then he saw what was causing all of the commotion.
There, on the deck surrounded by a dozen Navy men with muskets, were two pirates in chains.
Chapter 12
The Map
Henry glared at the Admiral. He cursed his luck. If it wasn’t for the buffoon standing next to him, he may never have been caught.
Chad stood defiantly. The blood was beginning to congeal on his leg wound, but his hand still dripped steadily onto the deck, the hole left by the bullet still open. It was a lucky shot, he mused.
Admiral Douglas Fairclough had a bandage around his side and fresh stitches in his face, but he was beaming. Finally some good news! He had eagerly watched the approaching row boats through the spyglass. His initial annoyance, that only two of the four pirates were returning alive, had abated somewhat when he realised that he had managed to capture the giant bosun. As soon as the two captured pirates were on deck, the Admiral gave the order to head for the nearest port and the three man of wars slowly turned and began to leave the island behind.
He told James to assemble the crew. They needed a boost after the destruction of the Guardian and this was a moment to savour … his moment. He strutted about on the deck for a short while, impatiently waiting for the crew to assemble.
“Crew of His Majesty’s Navy,” he began, “proud sailors of the Juggernaut, although the Nemesis has eluded us temporarily, we are in hot pursuit and we will catch her. It is only a matter of time. We will shortly dock in the New World,” there were murmurs from the crew, “to restock.” The Admiral raised his voice, “We have managed to capture two of their crew, including their bosun!” This announcement was not met with the expected outpourings of joy, so the Admiral continued, “… who wil
l not only shortly reveal where the Nemesis is heading, but the location of their treasure!” The Admiral paused dramatically. The Navy crew were silent. Irritated that they were not sharing in his moment of victory, the Admiral snapped, “Right, well back to work then.” Of course, the crew may have been a little more exuberant about the prospect of discovering the pirates and their treasure if they had not just witnessed their devastatingly brutal ability to fight and if they actually would be receiving any of the prospective treasure themselves. The Admiral, who stood to be rewarded handsomely by the crown for any treasure discovered, and who still had a personal score to settle, needed no further motivation.
He walked up to Chad.
“You will tell me where the Nemesis is heading. You will tell me where the map to the treasure of Nuestra Señora de Atocha is.”
Chad looked down at the Admiral and spat at his feet. “No,” he rumbled.
The Admiral punched him in the stomach. Chad barely flinched.
He leant closer to the giant pirate, “I will torture and kill your friend first and then I will do the same to you until you talk.”
With surprising speed, Chad grabbed the Admiral by the neck and lifted him up in the air.
PHHMP!
PHHMP!
The muskets fired and the bullets hit Chad in the arm and leg. He dropped the Admiral.
“He no friend of mine,” he said before slipping into unconsciousness.
...
Chad gradually awoke. Pain quickly spread through his body as the shock wore off. He gradually surveyed his surroundings. He was chained to the mast. He looked across and saw Henry’s corpse. The pirate’s body was surrounded by gulls that were gnawing at his exposed intestines. He glanced down and saw his own blood dripping on the deck from the bullet wounds in his body. He could hear the Admiral yelling.
“What is that?”
“Sap, sir. It’s formed a hardened layer over his whole back,” James replied.
“Well, use the cat and whip it off if you have to. I need him to talk. That other fellow knew nothing.”
Treasure Lost Page 9
