Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
Ifight. I have to. Even though Jack hits me again, his hand open and stinging against my cheek. I won’t give in.
“Bitch!” He bares his teeth and wraps one palm around my throat. “Stop squirming!”
“Fuck you!” I claw at his hand, my fingernails scraping deeply as I try to free myself. Then I make a fist, my thumb locked against the outside of my fingers, and swing as hard as I can. I catch him in the face, and my hand explodes with pain as he yowls and grabs his bloody nose.
A whistle sounds outside, the noise high and sharp.
The pirate stills and turns his head to bark, “Fucking hell, what is it?”
“The Jolly Roger,” a pirate calls through the door. “Bearing down on us fast, Captain Jack.”
I hear the tremble in the pirate’s voice.
“That goddamn bastard is trying to take my spoils.” The pirate captain releases me and hurries to the door, opens it, dashes out, and slams it behind him.
I sit up and scramble out of the bed. My heart is thundering against my ribs, and hot tears overflow down my cheeks. My lip is busted, but that small burst of pain is nothing compared to the terror that threatens to engulf me. That was close. Too close.
I rush to the window. There’s a latch in the middle.
I flip it with shaking fingers, then swing the window open.
A narrow wooden ledge lines the back of the ship, perhaps just big enough for someone to stand on if they could maintain a hold on the railing that’s just below the window sash.
But below the ledge is nothing but black water, the depths inscrutable and covered with swirling mist. If I fall, I won’t survive.
I know that as surely as I know that if I stay here and Calico Jack returns, something bad is going to happen to me in this room. Something I won’t recover from.
I lean out the window, but something in the darkness behind the ship catches my eye. It’s a light. No, several lights—lanterns floating high in the fog and approaching quickly.
“Hoist the mainsail!” Captain Jack yells. “Now! Now!”
Scampering footsteps are everywhere as men yell, something whines and hisses, the ship jerking to attention, and then it shoots forward.
I hold onto the windowsill lest I topple overboard. We’re moving fast, the sea behind the ship becoming topped with white as we begin creating a wake. But the lanterns are still floating in the dark, coming closer even though the Ranger is moving at a decent clip.
It’s Hook. He won’t let Calico Jack steal his prize. For some reason, a single thread of relief sews through me. Hook at least took me to Huran for treatment. He didn’t try to … I glance at the bed, then tear my gaze away. Maybe that saying “better the devil you know” applies in this situation.
More yelling comes from the Ranger, but the Jolly Roger slices silently through the water, its lights glimmering in the mist.
Heavy footsteps sound overhead, and then I hear Calico Jack above me.
“He’s coming on fast. Too goddamn fast! Hard starboard!”
Someone yells back at him, “That’ll take us too close to the whirlpool!”
“I said hard starboard, Guernsy! Disobey me, and I’ll spill your guts on the deck!”
“Aye, Captain!” The ship veers hard, and I scrabble to hang onto the windowsill. I don’t. Instead, I go tumbling onto the wooden floor and slide hard up against the base of the bed.
With a cry, I climb away from it, the floor at a harsh angle as the ship turns.
Everything in the room stays put, but the dark lantern overhead hangs sideways.
I stay on the floor as the ship maintains its perilous tilt.
After what feels like an hour but is probably only a minute, the ship begins to even out again.
Now I hear the hiss of the sea, the water rushing against the timber as Calico Jack orders his pirates around on deck.
There’s fear in his voice.
Good.
I want him to be afraid.
I get to my knees and crawl to the door. Right when I get there, my stomach lurches.
I realize I’m going to be sick as I reach for the knob, then make a last-second decision and scramble back to the bed.
My stomach lets loose, tossing up everything it has as I aim right for Calico Jack’s nasty yellowed pillow. When I can finally breathe again, I spit what’s left on his bed, admire my handiwork for only a moment, then return to the door.
The ship is back to rights now, and I can feel its movement. We’re speeding through the water. But I still see the lights through the mist, the lanterns that promise a brief reprieve at the hands of Captain Hook. A laughable thought.
I grip the doorknob and turn it slowly. Cracking the door open, I realize I shouldn’t worry too much about stealth.
The pirates are dashing around and yanking on ropes, turning cranks, and staring at the water both ahead and behind.
They pay me no mind. The sails are full and tight, the wind pushing us ahead at a reckless pace.
The captain is above me shouting orders, and I ease out and peek up at him.
The ship’s wheel is on the top deck above the captain’s quarters.
He’s got a death grip on it, his eyes straight ahead, though I don’t know what he sees through the mist. It’s thick and swirling.
We could be heading right for an iceberg, and we’d never know it.
My stomach threatens to empty again, and I swallow hard, fighting off the nausea as best I can.
A pirate runs past, then scales the mast ahead of me. He moves easily up it, grabbing the ropes and bits of grip until he’s at the very top. Hanging onto it, he leans out and looks ahead.
“We’re too close, Captain!” His yell is barely audible over the sound of the ocean and the wind in the sails. “It’ll swallow us!”
“He won’t take this from me!” The captain yells back. “James Hook can bugger himself right in his own asshole before I’ll give him the girl!”
I don’t dare look up at Calico Jack again, but the ship doesn’t change direction.
We’re still hurtling straight ahead toward whatever the guy up the mast is worried about.
Wait, didn’t someone yell something about a whirlpool earlier?
The blood drains from my face, and I grip the door hard as I try to peer into the fog.
I remember a whirlpool on Hook’s maps. Is that where we’re headed?
If the map was accurate, then the whirlpool is enormous. Plenty big enough to destroy this ship.
“Captain!” The man on the mast is almost screaming now. “Captain, please!”
A shot goes off.
I jump back inside the doorframe as the pirate falls to the deck right in front of me.
He lands all wrong, his legs twisted and his face down. My gorge rises again, and I dry heave.
“If any more of you decide to go yellow on me, you’ll meet the same fate!” Calico Jack yells.
No one comes to check on the dead man. The others just keep working as if their captain didn’t just murder a man.
“If Hook gets ahold of us, you’ll wish I did you the same!” Calico Jack adds. “Guernsy, is the powder ready? Where the fuck is Guernsy?”
“He’s below, Captain. Cannons are ready,” one of the men yells.
Calico Jack laughs, the sound unhinged. He’s afraid. No matter what he says, he’s terrified of Hook. So scared, in fact, that’s he’s sailing us right into our death.
Keeping my hands on the outer wall of the captain’s cabin, I make my way to the side of the ship. The rowboat is there. Covered loosely with a tarp, it has oars poking out on either side. Maybe I could climb in and—I stop and look up when I hear a roar.
It only grows louder as I stare at the fog ahead of us. The crew does the same, some of them letting go of their ropes and hanging onto the rails as the mist clears.
The source of the roar becomes clear—the whirlpool. The waters spin in a huge circle, waves higher than the ship rising in a wall around it and echoing out into the sea before dissipating. We can’t go in there. There’s no way we’d survive.
“Ready the cannons!” Calico Jack yells, his voice barely audible over the din of the water.
My knuckles go white as I grip the sides of the rowboat.
Turning back, I gasp when I see the Jolly Roger right behind us, its figurehead a beautiful mermaid with her teeth bared.
“Hard port!” Calico Jack yells as the ship wrenches to the side.
I hold onto the rowboat as we veer away from the swirling walls of water ahead of us, the ship fishtailing as we swing around to face the Jolly Roger broadside.
“Fire!” Calico Jack cries.
The entire ship rocks as the cannons let loose.
I want to cover my ears, but I don’t dare let go of the rowboat.
Smoke and the acrid smell of burned powder fill the air as bits of wood fly off the sides of the Jolly Roger.
But it’s like a fly biting a horse—unpleasant for the horse but easy enough to ignore.
The Jolly Roger keeps coming, the figurehead aiming right for us.
But we’re moving again. Backwards this time.
“Captain, the whirlpool’s got us!” a pirate yells from somewhere behind me.
“No!” Calico Jack turns the wheel in a never-ending circle, but whatever he’s doing isn’t enough.
His ship can’t resist the pull of the water.
My stomach clenches and cramps, and I try to pull myself into the rowboat.
It’s futile. I know it is. The waves we’re being dragged into will drown everything—the Ranger and this sad little rowboat right along with it.
I get my good leg over the side and roll into the boat, the tarp beneath me as I sit up and grab the sides. When I look up again, I scream. The Jolly Roger is nearly on top of us, the mermaid’s fierce teeth right in front of me.
“Captain, they’re boarding us!” Pirates rush around me, their swords drawn.
Something swings past me, and then I see someone hit the deck in front of me, his sword swinging as he cuts down man after man. No, not someone—it’s Hook. I can tell by the fierceness of his fight, the way he moves. I can almost smell the sea spray and pine tar on him.