Day of the Shadow

by Rob Kidd

On the Centurion, Villanueva bolted toward the brig to free his pirates. He wasn’t about to fight this battle alone!

  Ammand strode around the deck of the Seref, shouting orders at his pirates and swinging his scimitar in swift, deadly arcs. Carolina looked around frantically. She had to get Diego out of here! The Seref was too dangerous to hide on.

  Then she saw the gleam of the Shadow Gold flashing from Ammand’s sash. If Jack had that vial…maybe he’d be able to defeat the Shadow Lord. But without it, according to Tia Dalma, he would fail.

  Back on the Pearl, Jack had also drawn his sword. He ran to the railing and tried to hack at the coils of shadow that had ensnared his beloved ship. But his sword sliced right through the bindings as if they were made of air and went clunk into the wood of the Pearl instead. Outraged, Jack yanked his sword free and whirled around.

  And found himself face-to-face with the Shadow Lord.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Jack whipped his sword up to Henry’s neck. Henry peered down at it and chuckled, unconcerned.

  “I’ll thank you not to be stealing my ship in the future,” Jack said proudly.

  Henry smirked. “You won’t be doing much of anything in the future, Jack Sparrow.”

  Jack tilted his head and looked confused. Henry waited a beat, then added, “Because you’ll be dead. In the future, I mean. The near future.

  Which is why you won’t be doing much.”

  “Ah, I see,” Jack said. “Yes. Good threat.”

  Henry started to scowl, but suddenly his face froze, and then a wide smile that was far more terrifying than any of his angry expressions slowly spread across it. He lifted his hand, and Jack saw that there was a black crystal ring on his left middle finger. The large stone in it was glowing with an unearthly dark light.

  Henry looked up at the sky, and his smile grew wider and wider.

  “Here it comes,” he whispered.

  Jack’s heart sank as he raised his eyes to the sky as well. He could already sense the shadow that was slowly spreading across the sun. The horrible feeling of swarming creatures gathering around him was getting stronger and stronger.

  This was the meaning of the prophecy. The Day of the Shadow was an eclipse…and it was happening right now.

  He looked back down at the man on the other end of his sword and immediately wished he hadn’t.

  Before Jack’s eyes, Henry was transforming from a pudgy, poorly dressed old pirate into a dark, hideous form, swathed in shadows and darkness. This was the terrifying Shadow Lord from Jack’s nightmares. The eyes that gleamed from the shadowy folds were horribly familiar, as was the rasping, ominous voice.

  “That’s right,” the Shadow Lord hissed. “My time has finally arrived…the Day of the Shadow has come! This is an eclipse like no other. I have poured all my power into it, so when my shadows triumph today, the sun will be eclipsed forever. My reign over the world will be a Day of the Shadow that will never end.”

  Jack shrugged nonchalantly. “Wouldn’t really be a day then, would it?” he pointed out. “Rather more like a night, savvy?”

  The Shadow Lord glowered at him. Long shadows snaked themselves around Jack’s sword, pushing it away from the Shadow Lord’s throat. Jack took a step back and felt his arm trembling as shadow creatures leaped and danced along his sleeve.

  No. It was too soon. He wasn’t ready for this battle…he was still too weak from his illness. He needed the last two vials!

  But there was nothing he could do. The Shadow Army was rising.

  Half a world away, Pirate Lord Sao Feng was examining charts in his cabin when he felt an eerie shiver go through him. Carefully, he moved the Deep Sea Opal to hold his papers in place and stood up. With measured steps, he strode out onto the deck of the Empress and frowned up at the darkness that was swallowing the sun in the middle of the day.

  “How surprising,” he murmured. “Jack Sparrow was right. I never thought I’d say that.”

  He signaled his pirates to prepare for battle. Behind him, Lian and Park pulled daggers from their hair and stood ready to fight to their death to defend him.

  In Shanghai, Mistress Ching was leading a band of her pirates along a narrow street. They were heading for the port, where one of her junks had come in with a new cargo of goods “liberated” from an East India Trading Company ship. She didn’t know where the troublesome Huntingtons had disappeared to, but she didn’t care. It certainly made her life much easier to have them gone.

  She turned a corner and stopped, surprised. Normally this courtyard was full of sunlight at this hour of the day. She looked up at a sky which had been blue and clear moments ago.

  Something was eating the sun.

  That girl-child who had saved her life had been telling the truth. The Day of the Shadow was here. It was time to fight.

  Toolajee, the young heir to the Indian Pirate Lord, was practicing his dueling in the gardens of Suvarnadurg with his uncle’s prized female warrior, Lakshmi. They both felt the shadow start to fall and turned to run to the palace at the same time. Lakshmi had been coaching him for this moment ever since the Pearl sailed away. Even if Sri Sumbhajee would not listen, the rest of Suvarnadurg was ready to stand against the Shadow Army.

  “Ha-ha-ha!” Grandmama cackled, stomping down the steps of Teague’s house in Madagascar.

  She grinned at the darkening sky. “What do you know! Sonny boy was right for once!” She twisted the top of her cane and whipped out the razor-sharp sword inside. “And it’s about time. I’ve been itching for a good fight.”

  “Looks like we’re going to get one,” said Captain Teague, leading the way to the main town of Libertalia at a run. Grandmama galloped behind him, whooping with bloodthirsty glee.

  “Did you hear that?” Gentleman Jocard set down his spyglass. “I think I heard cannon fire coming from that island.” He called across to his navigator. “Aim for that cove.”

  “Really?” Marcella said nervously, standing at his elbow. “Going toward the cannon fire? That sounds like one of your worst ideas, which is saying something, because frankly they’re all terrible.”

  Jocard put one arm around her and glanced up at the eclipse. “It could be Jack and your cousin,” he said. “If the battle has started, we should be there to help.”

  “Um,” Marcella said, leaning into him. “I think we might have enough problems of our own.”

  Shadows were swirling around the objects scattered across the deck. Jocard and Marcella watched in horror as a pile of chains wrapped itself around the swabbing mop and advanced toward them, waving deadly chain-link tentacles and trailing wet slime.

  Up in his spying tower, Sri Sumbhajee had his telescope trained on the new secret entrance his pirates were building, so he did not notice the eclipse until he began to wonder why it was too dark to see his men. Finally he looked up, his mustache twitching with irritation. That’s when he noticed his array of listening cones slowly rising up from the floor, as if an invisible puppet master held their strings. They began to twine together into a solid ball, and before he knew what was happening, his own sword flew out of his waist sash and sank into the mass of writhing shadows. The horrible creature pointed the sword directly at him and began to float across the floor in awful silence.

  Sri Sumbhajee let out a piercing, high-pitched scream and fled down the tower stairs.

  Mistress Ching had never seen anything like the shadow warrior facing her across the courtyard. It was wreathed in shadows and smoke; opium pipes made up its arms and legs and coiling neck, while the embers of fire coals glowed as its eyes. An old red blanket was its body, flapping in a dreadful, empty way. It sucked objects into it as it moved toward her, absorbing everything from loose stones to drying fish to roof tiles and then firing them back out like bullets.

  She dodged another roof tile and swung her sword to knock aside a projectile fish. The only good news was that her pirates weren’t running away, gibbering with fear. They hadn’t expected exactly this…but at least t
hey had expected something.

  She hated to admit it, but she felt lucky that Jack Sparrow had come through and warned her this was coming. Mistress Ching frowned. She was never glad about anything Jack Sparrow did! She slashed at her attacker, slicing opium pipes and shredding the blanket, but it barely flinched. If he’d really wanted to be useful, Jack could have told her what the shadow warriors would be like! Or more helpfully—how to kill them!

  No, Jack Sparrow was no use at all. Satisfied with her conclusion, Mistress Ching fought on.

  Lakshmi rounded a corner in the palace and found all the cooks from the kitchen running in a terrified pack toward her. She jumped back against the wall as they barreled past, and then saw what they were running from.

  It was as if all the kitchen implements had risen up in rebellion. Shadow creatures, made up of pots and pans and knives and cauldrons, swarmed down the hall. She saw one with an enormous saucer for a head waving hands, each finger a skewer from the meat grills. Its serving-spoon feet clattered against the marble floor as it hurtled toward her.

  Lakshmi unleashed her double-bladed urumi and began to swing it in wide, graceful arcs, shredding the shadow creatures into their smaller components. Sri Sumbhajee’s wife, Parvati, ran up to join her, waving a long spear at the terrifying warriors.

  As pots and knives clanged to either side, the shadows let out a series of shrieks. Then their long shadow tendrils snaked out and seized their parts again, drawing them back slowly into their bodies.

  Lakshmi kept swinging the urumi, but inside she was terrified. The shadow creatures weren’t alive—there was no way to kill them! How could they ever win this battle? As soon as her arms got tired, the shadows would be upon her…and what would happen then?

  Things were not going much better back in the Mediterranean. The only good news was that the soldiers and agents were much too busy to attack any more pirates. They were fighting for their lives against the Shadow Army. At one point, Jean glanced around and realized he was fighting back-to-back with Benedict Huntington! Astonished, he edged away a little, but kept fighting.

  A volley of cannon fire came from the mouth of the bay. Barbossa squinted through the darkness, now almost complete, and spotted two ships sailing into the harbor: Jocard’s Ranger and Chevalle’s Fancy, both of which had finally caught up with the Centurion.

  The other Pirate Lords had come to join the fight—but the fight had already come to them. On the deck of both ships, pirates were battling furiously against more shadow warriors. Barbossa saw more than one man leap overboard, howling in fear, as his own weapon turned on him.

  “Carolina, don’t!” Diego cried, grabbing her arm before she could jump into the battle. He pulled her back behind the boxes, wincing at the sharp flood of pain that blossomed from his shoulder as he moved. His eyes were wide with fear. “This is it, Carolina: the Day of the Shadow. The day Jean said you would die!” He wrapped his arms around her. “I won’t let that happen.”

  Carolina put her arms around him, too, and they hugged for a moment, but then she pushed him away. “Diego, look at what’s going on. The Shadow Army can’t be killed, no matter how bravely everyone fights. If they’re going to be stopped, Jack needs that Shadow Gold. It’s our only hope.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “I love you, Diego.” He tried to hold her again, but she evaded his arms and sprang to her feet.

  “No!” Diego shouted as she disappeared into the melee of pirates and shadow warriors. He pushed himself upright, ignoring the agonizing pain in his leg. Why couldn’t he have kept her away from this?

  Carolina darted around a barrel that seemed to be waving a musket angrily. She spotted Ammand on the quarterdeck, using his scimitar to slice a shadow warrior’s rope arms into tiny ribbons before they could strangle him. She vaulted over a writhing towline and sprinted up to the corsair.

  “Give me your vial!” she yelled, grabbing Ammand’s sash.

  He jumped and gave her a startled look. “What in the world are you doing?” Ammand blinked down at her fingers fumbling with his sash. “Look, I appreciate the interest, but this hardly seems the time—”

  “We need this,” Carolina said. She felt the vial of Shadow Gold under her fingers and yanked it free. To her and Ammand’s surprise, the shadow warrior attacking him recoiled a little at the sight of it.

  “Ooooh. What a useful idea,” Ammand said, reaching for the vial. Carolina jumped out of his reach.

  “It’s for Jack!” she cried. “He’s the only one who can save us!”

  “Jack Sparrow?” Ammand said. “That doesn’t sound likely. It doesn’t even sound plausible. Give me that.”

  “He will save us!” she said. “You’ll see!” She dodged his outstretched arms again and ran back across the deck. To her dismay, she saw that the gap between the Seref and the Pearl had widened. The Shadow Lord was too busy toying with Jack to pay attention to the shadow lines that held the ships together.

  Carolina gripped the Shadow Gold firmly in one hand and grabbed a trailing rope with the other. The rope started to squirm, and she realized it was possessed by the shadows. But she had no other way across. Quickly, she held the vial up to the rope, letting the Shadow Gold cast its unnatural golden glow over it. Immediately the rope went still in her hands.

  Before it could come alive again, she jumped onto the railing, took a deep breath, and swung across the space. She saw the dark sea below her. At the last moment she let go, hoping she’d timed it right. With a stinging thud, she landed on the deck of the Pearl and rolled, nearly careening into Jack’s boots.

  He peered down at her without pausing in his duel with the Shadow Lord. “Ah, greetings,” he said. “I was wondering where you’d gone off to, love.”

  Jack was being his usual casual self, but Carolina could see a fierce weariness in his eyes, as if it took every ounce of strength he had just to stay alive. As she stood up, she lashed out with her foot and kicked the Shadow Lord hard in the shins. With a growl of pain, he stepped back for a moment—but a moment was all she needed.

  “Jack, here!” she said, pressing the vial of Shadow Gold into his free hand. His face lit up.

  She didn’t know what he would do with it.

  She only knew that he needed it.

  “’Allo, shiny,” Jack said lovingly to the vial. He popped the cork off with his thumb.

  “No!” the Shadow Lord bellowed, sending a wave of roiling shadows bursting across the deck. But as he charged at Jack, Jack tipped the vial up and poured the Shadow Gold into his mouth.

  Carolina stared at him, astonished beyond words. Had he been drinking the vials of Shadow Gold this whole time? He’d told the crew he was keeping them safely hidden in his cabin!

  Well, from the waves of rage pulsating off the Shadow Lord, it was clearly the right thing to do.

  Jack certainly thought so. He felt more alive than he ever had before. He felt as if he were brimming with dazzling energy, as if he could run all the way around the world if he wanted to. The Shadow Gold seemed to sparkle through his veins, making him faster and smarter and more skillful than he’d ever been in his whole life. Just as with the first vial, he suddenly found that he could see in the dark. The shadow of the eclipse didn’t affect him; everything around him was as clear as day.

  He danced away from the Shadow Lord’s sword, parrying and thrusting easily. Where before he had been terrified, now he found the Shadow Lord amusingly slow. He couldn’t believe that he needed the last vial. Surely he couldn’t feel healthier than this! But that was what Tia Dalma had told him—he needed all seven vials to cure the shadow-sickness.

  He took a hard look at the Shadow Lord in between sword strokes, using the improved vision the Shadow Gold had given him. And there it was, gleaming around the Shadow Lord’s neck.

  The last vial.

  With a swift movement, Jack flicked his sword past the Shadow Lord’s defenses and severed the cord around his neck. The vial tumbled to the ground, but Jack’s hand was there to ca
tch it before it hit the deck. He jumped away, flipping over a barrel and springing onto the railing, where he windmilled his arms for balance.

  Jack turned with a flourish, holding up the vial as if he were toasting with it. He wanted to see the look on the Shadow Lord’s face when he triumphed over the shadow-sickness.

  But as he turned, the Shadow Lord grabbed Carolina. Tendrils of shadow wrapped around her arms, preventing her from fighting back. With a smug look, the Shadow Lord pressed his dagger against Carolina’s neck.

  “Give me back the vial, Sparrow,” the Shadow Lord growled. “Or else she dies.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “Do it, Jack!” Carolina cried. “Drink it! You have to!”

  “Shut up,” the Shadow Lord snarled, pressing the dagger harder until a thin line of blood trickled down Carolina’s neck. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, waiting for the final cut.

  Jack hesitated. This was exactly what Jean had predicted in the jungle. The Shadow Lord wasn’t bluffing…if Jack drank the last vial, Carolina would die.

  But if he didn’t drink the last vial, he would die. And potentially so would everyone else—everlasting Day of the Shadow, et cetera, etcetera, although he’d never really worried about that too much before.

  He stared down at Carolina, wavering. And then he heard the voice of Tia Dalma in his head: Drink it, Jack! Drink it now! ’Tis the only way to defeat the Shadow Lord!

  “I know, I know,” Jack grumbled. Then he paused. “Wait, what?”

  You need that power, witty Jack! You’ll never beat him without it. Drink it, quickly!

  “Only way to defeat the Shadow Lord?” Jack echoed, puzzled. “What power? What’s that got to do with anything? Don’t you mean ‘only way to save my life’?”

  Er…yes, certain sure, said the voice in his head. Now do it! Drink! Quick!

  Jack glanced at the glowing vial in his hand.

  “Tell me the truth,” he said. “Do I need this to save my life?”

  “Ha-ha!” the Shadow Lord barked, overhearing only Jack’s end of the conversation. “You are a fool, Jack Sparrow. The Shadow Gold is so much more than a cure for the shadow-sickness. How do you think I became the way I am?” His evil grin gleamed from the shadows of his face once more.