Pirates of the Caribbean 05 The Age of Bronze (6 page)

She threw her head back and laughed a terrible, hissing laugh. "Welcome to your first masquerade noir, my dear new friends. Now, let's see if you can survive the experience!"The old woman with the snake boas grinned at Jack and slowly lowered her mask. Instead of the frail-looking old biddy Jack expected, her eyes glowed yellow like a snake's and her cheeks were scaly. The muscles on her face and head stood out as if she were possessed. She hissed.The man in front of Jean and Tumen threw his ma
sk down. His face was chalky,
and the whites of his eyes were red. His hands were clawed with long, yellow finger nails."Mon dieu Jean whispered. "He is possessed! JACK! They are all possessed by Madame Minuit!"Around the room, everyone was taking off their masks. They all had crazed faces and stricken, leering mouths."Thank you for the update there, mate," Jack called back bravely. "I think I could have figured that out myself"And then the possessed attacked."Get her! Get Madame Minuit!" Jack shouted, waving his hands frantically. "She's controlling them!"Easier said than done. Jean and Tumen had their backs to each other as a group of partygoers closed in. Tumen p
ulled out his obsidian knife.

"Remember--these are normal people under a spell," Jean cried, punching the man with the snake belt as he lunged at them. "Try not to hurt them too much!"Tumen sighed and put his knife away. Then he kicked the feet out from underneath the person closest to him.It was too crowded in the ballroom for Fitzwilliam to draw his sword.

He put a protective arm in front of Arabella and head-butted a gaunt old man who was drooling black ooze. Arabella thought fast and grabbed the snake-cane from the woman they had been trailing and clocked him with it.But for each one of the fiends defeated, there were five more possessed partygoers behind them.Jack knocked one down and leaped over him, kickin
g another one in the face as he
went. A third stuck out a nasty clawed hand, and Jack spun out of the way, keeping his fist out and taking down two more.And they kept coming.With a final shove, Jack made it up to the podium. He ran forward and reached out to grab the amulet.The woman held up her hand. A snake came down from around her neck and slithered daintily down her arm. It raised its head and hissed at Jack.Suddenly, he couldn't move. It was as if he had no control over his own legs.He watched in horror as more snakes slithered up and around the woman's neck and down around her arms.She strode forward calmly, the snakes hissing and flicking their tongues out as she went. The possessed crowd made room for
her as she passed by, bowing.1
Arabella raised a pitchfork from a nearby hearth to strike Madame Minuit--but two of the Madames snakes rose up and hissed, one at Arabella, one at Fitzwilliam. They, too, were then frozen in place. Fitzwilliams arm was stuck reaching for his sword. Arabella opened her mouth to scream but couldn't.Madame Minuit made for Jean and Tumen next. Two more snakes hissed, and the boys couldn't move, either.The crowd gibbered and cackled. Madame Minuit looked around the room, smiling smugly. The crew of the Barnacle struggled in vain against the spell holding them. Madame Minuit approached Jack and waved her hand in front of him. Suddenly he could move his mouth--but nothing else.Tell me" she said in a hypnotic voice, "why you chase after the power of the amulet."

Jack fel
t himself compelled to speak.
"The whole story?" Jack asked."If you please," Madame Minuit said sinisterly.Unfortunately for the Madame, Jack was never at a loss for words."Well, you see," he began with relish, "it all started on the coast of the Yucatan. You know: white sandy beaches, yellow sun, blue skies, tall palm trees. That sort of thing. A veritable paradise. Actually, a real paradise. Great place to get away, if you know what I mean. For a holiday or a long rest from the job. The food there is simply marvelous, too. The natives have this amazing way with iguana. And dog. Well, maybe not so much with dog. They have this delightful cream sauce. . . ."Growing impatient, Madame Minuit had one of her snakes hiss in Jack's face
. Jack quickly became silent.

"It is obvious you have no idea about the real power of the amulet," she said dramatically, stroking one of her snakes on the head."Of course we do," Jack cut in, fighting the spell. "It goes around turning things into bronze. Big deal! Bronze. Puh!"Madame Minuit looked irritated. He had interrupted her big moment."It may 'turn things into bronze as you say, in its current state," she said acidly, "but it is also the key to the City of Gold!" This City of Gold business again! "I am sorry, my friends," she went on, "but you have become too great a threat to the amulet--and me. You leave me no choice. I must turn you over to the serpents."Four large snakes slithered down her body and out
to Jean, Tumen, Arabella, and
Fitzwilliam. They raised themselves up and swayed back and forth. Madame Minuit held her arm up near Jack. A snake raised its head and bared it
s fangs, preparing to strike.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Aah!" Jack said, cross-eyed from staring at the snake before him. He desperately tried to move, to fall down, to do anything to get out of its path. But it was no use. He was still paralyzed. The snake reared back and opened its jaw.Suddenly, Madame Minuit began shaking. Her hands flew to her neck and she screamed. The snakes all started writhing with her, pulling back
from their intended victims.
Jack lurched to the side as he was released from the spell. He caught himself and leaped up, sword out. The rest of the crew of the Barnacle also shook themselves awake, stepping quickly away from the snakes.Madame Minuit fell to her knees. Behind her was the boy they had seen her with before, back in the market. The one who originally had the amulet. Now, he held a weird little doll, one w
ith red hair and a black dress
a miniature Madame Minuit! He twisted its head and neck. Madame Minuit twisted and writhed in agony.Constance poked her head out from behind the boy's legs and meowed cautiously. The key hung around her neck."What ...?" Jack began to ask. Why was the boy, who was Madame Minuits partner in crime, now turning against her? Why did Constanc
e have the key they had found
earlier? And why was the wretched cat standing with the boy?

Fitzwilliam and Arabella were equally speechless."Get out of here!" the boy urged them desperately. "Run!""Let's not look a gift snake in the mouth, mates. Run!" Jack shouted. But before he turned, he grabbed the amulet and pulled it off Madame Minuits neck."NO!" she screamed, clawing at him. The boy gave the doll one last good twist before taking to his bare feet after Jack. Constance was close behind.Once more reunited, the crew of the Barnacle began to fight their way out of the ballroom. It was even worse than before.

Although the partygoers were just as crazed and vicious, they were now also stumbling around and s
mashing the furniture. Madame
Minuits hold on them had weakened--now they just wanted to destroy everything. And that included Jack and his friends."Look out!" Arabella shouted as a tall man in a top hat tried to rip Jack's eyes out. Jack threw an arm up, blocking the man's hand. The amulet swung out at the end of its chain and hit the man in the chest. Instantly, it turned him into bronze.There was no time to stare. There were still what seemed like several hundred creepy possessed men and women between them and the way out.As Jack and his friends made their way to the door, the fighting grew more intense. The amulet pitched around violently, knocking into possessed men and women, chairs, walls ... and once, almost Fitzwilliam. Everything it touched turned to bronze.

When they fin
ally made it to the exit, the
amulet struck the door frame as Jack ran through. Behind him, reddish metallic gold creeped up the walls and swallowed the floors and the windows. The entire hotel was being turned into bronze."Hold that thing close to you!" the boy yelled at Jack as they ran through the streets.Unfortunately, the suggestion came a moment too late. As they rounded a corner, the amulet knocked into a lamppost.Jack watched in horror as the cobbled street below him began to turn into bronze. Houses, buildings, side streets, walls, alleys, flowerpots . . .The crew didn't stop running until they made it back to the dock and onto the Barnacle. Only once they were safely aboard did they turn to look back at New Orleans. The entire city gleamed dully under
the light of the rising moon.

"Oh, wonderful," Jack said sarcastically. "A City of Bronze. The stuff that dreams are made of."Fortunately, unlike the boat they had found in the gulf, it looked like people-- and animals--hadn't been turned. They were walking, looking very confused. And falling a lot. Apparently bronze walkways were much more slippery than stone ones."Hold it!"It was the boy who had been with Madame Minuit. He was trying to board the Barnacle too. Fitzwilliam stood with one foot on the rail of the boat, his sword point on the boy's chest. "What, pray tell, do you think you are doing?" he demanded.

"Please," the boy begged. His blue eyes were wide with terror. "Let me come with you! I can't hold her forever--when she sees wh
at I've done she'll kill me!
Why should I let you onboard?" Jack asked. "Why should I trust you? You obviously stole the amulet from Tumens witch doctor. . . ."

"Great-grandfather," Tumen corrected, somewhat tiredly."... and used that weirdo dolly-thing to make him sick," Jack continued. "And you turned that entire ship and its crew into bronze!"

"But I just saved you from the Madame, didn't I?" the boy pointed out. He kept looking over his shoulder, as if expecting her to appear at any moment."Yes. But then, you also tried to kill us back in the square!" Jack countered.Jack looked him angrily in the eyes. The boy really did look terrified. And he didn't really fit the role of "partner" to the beautiful Madame Mi
nuit. His feet were bare, his
trousers worn and torn, his face dirty. He was little more than a street urchin. Maybe some poor boy she had kidnapped to do her dirty work.THERE THEY ARE!"A crowd of fancy-dressed people in masks had gathered at the foot of the dock. Dockworkers and sailors looked confused at their sudden appearance. The harbormaster strode up to them, demanding to know what they were doing.

"This is property of the port of Nouvelle Orleans!" he said, flustered. "Do you have your papers--A possessed man hissed and head-butted him in the skull. The harbormaster fell like a sack of wet mud into the river."Jack," Arabella said worriedly."I am completely on it," Jack said. Rather than taking th
e time to carefully untie and
coil up the ropes, he pulled out his sword and brought it down on them. The lines were severed, and the Barnacle was free of the dock. Hmm, maybe a bronze sword isn't all that bad, after all," he said thoughtfully, looking at his blade.Jean and Tumen leaned over, giving the dock a good shove. They pushed off, just as the first of the crowd reached the boat. One man overshot and fell into the water, letting out a horrible, gurgling scream.The boy looked around him and made a decision. Possessed folks behind him on the dock, a rapidly retreating boat before him in the water . . . He leaped.His feet just cleared the water, the drowning man who had just fallen off the dock reaching at his ankles. The boy landed on the edge o
f the deck, barely making it.

The possessed crowd parted. Madame Minuit stepped forward, dozens of snakes wrapped around her upraised arm
s. They hissed loudly
.
The crew of the Barnacle shrank back."Don't worry," the boy told them. "She is too far away for her snakes to have any power over you. We're safe. For now."Jean shuddered, then forced himself to turn and begin hauling up the sails. Tumen and Fitzwilliam joined in making the boat ready. Jack took the wheel, spinning it hard to get them away."Go where you will!" Madame Minuit shouted triumphantly at them. "But the City of Gold is wherever gold has lived!"That was almost exactly what Mam had said. What did they both know about the City and the amulet? It was something to think about . . . l
ater. Right now, it
was time to concentrate on escaping.The Barnacle drifted away from the port of New Orleans. The now-bronze city gleamed faintly in the moonlight. And Madame Minuits la
ughter echoed over the water.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Arrabella wiped her brow and muttered something most unladylike. Jean and Tumen slumped to the deck, and Fitzwilliam breathed a sigh of relief as they all watched New Orleans grow smaller on the horizon."Mighty close one, that was," Jack said grimly."What would have happened if the snakes had bitten us?" Tumen asked, curious.

The boy they had picked up was still standing at the
edge of the boat, staring at
the receding shoreline as if he couldn't quite believe he was free."It would have made you all slaves to the Madame. Just like the partyers. Just like me," he said softly. He shook his head, clearing it of morbid thoughts. He turned to face the crew. "The effect wears off after a time. She has to have them keep biting you." He pulled up his sleeve. Up and down his arm were dozens of pairs of little bite marks. Some were fresh, some were scabbed over, but most still oozed with venom and blood."Oh, me saints and heavens," Arabella said. "That woman is a monster!"

"You don't have to tell me," the boy said ruefully, covering his arm up again. "She kept me locked up in a room in the hotel, and used me to do all of her dirty work. Like stealing the amulet. I'm sorry about your great-grand
father," he said seriously to
Tumen. "I didn't have a choice. It was her, doing it through me. I didn't do it of my own accord."

"Will he be all right?" Tumen asked anxiously. He handled the Mam doll, which he had been carrying safely in his pocket.The boy nodded. "He should be fine, now that neither I nor the Madame has the doll."

"But what about the ship?" Jack demanded. "The ... you know ..." He took his hands off the wheel and waved his arms. ... "Big? Bronze? In
the
middle
of
the
gulf
ship? “The
boy frowned. "That was more of Madame's orders. She had me search the ship for the Bronze Bullet. That is what that gem is called." He pointed at the amulet, which now hung safely around Jack's neck. "Captain Henshaw was the last person known to have it. It's the first stone in the amulet, the
one you need to activate its
power. Madame Minuit made another doll of him so I could get him to tell me where the bullet was hidden, and then steal it.""All right, then," Arabella said, frowning. "But why leave the dolls? Didn't ye want to hang on to them? Didn't ye just say that they lose their power if they fall out of the maker's hands?""It's true," the boy said, nodding at Jean. "But I dropped them on purpose. As the snakebites begin to heal, the spell wears off. During those times--when Madame Minuit had little power over me--I formed a plan. I left the dolls as clues during those moments of clarity, so someone would find them and know it was Madame Minuit doing all of these horrible things. I hoped that someone would find the dolls and come after her. And you did."

"I like the way
you think, mate," Jack said,
warming up to the newcomer. Then Jack pointed at Constance and the key around her neck. She hissed at him out of habit. "What about the key there?" Jack asked."It's to the hotel room she kept me in. I dropped it, too, on purpose, when Madame Minuit was transporting us out of the market," the boy explained, grinning at his own cleverness. "I hoped you would come find me. Somehow, this ... 'cat? got
a hold
of it and slipped it under my door. Beautiful thing, whatever she is."He smiled and scratched Constance under the chin. Constance purred."Okay, what are you drinking, and where can I get some?" Jack asked.

"Beautiful?" Arabella asked doubtfully, exchanging a look with Fitzwilliam. The mangy cat purred with pleasure, exposing her cro
oked, yellow teeth. About time
someone respected her natural beauty.Jean beamed. "My sister! Good job!"

"I had stolen one of Madame's dolls earlier, during one of those times when I was myself again, those moments of clarity," the boy continued. "I dressed it like her. So when I came to the ballroom I was able to use her own power against her to free you."

"Right clever of you!" Jack said.They were all impressed by the young boy's ingenuity and perseverance. Imagine putting together a plan for escape while still under the spell of a sorceress!"What's yer name, lad?" Jack asked, holding the wheel with one hand and sticking out his other hand to shake."Timothy. Tim. Tim Hawk, sir," the boy said.The crew of
the Barnacle shrugged. Never
heard of him. But Jack definitely enjoyed being called sir. He was pretty sure he was going to like the newest member of h
is crew."Well, Timothy
sir," Jack said cheerfully, "Now that we've got your ex-employer's amulet we can bring it back to Tumen's village in the Yucatan. Tumen will once again be accepted by his friends and family, we'll have a strong ally on the coast, the amulet will be safe, and everyone will live happily ever after."Tumen smiled in gratitude. And maybe a little in surprise--was Jack really giving up a mystery, magic, and, most of all, treasure? Just to help his friend out? Jack wasn't a bad guy, but this was unlike him."Er, that's everyone happily ever after except for the good people of that there city," Jack added
, pointing at the coast. "New
Orleans will have to suffer the sad fate of being transformed into the notreally glamorous City of Bronze. Not one for myths or the history books, I'd wager."Tim studied him curiously. "You're just going to give the amulet back? You're not the least bit interested about what the other stones in the amulet will do?"

Jack thought about it a moment. Really and truly. He searched his soul."No," he finally said flatly. The determined look in his eyes convinced his crew.

* * *The next morning, the Barnacle sailed steadily through the Gulf of Mexico ... and wound up again passing the bronze ship. A little more of the bronzed water around it had rusted and cracked off into the sea. Tim stared
at it for a long while. When
Fitzwilliam went to get him for his turn at bilge pumping, the boy took a deep breath."I didn't mean to," he apologized. "I didn't want to. All those people ..."Fitzwilliam looked up at the bronze man at the wheel."It wasn't your fault. Perhaps we can find a way to turn them back," he said, clapping the boy on the shoulder."CREW OF
THE BARNACLE!" a thundering
loud voice called out, seemingly from the air
itself. The
crew turned around. They had all been so busy looking at the bronze ship that they never noticed the wooden ship that was coming up right behind them."Halt! Who goes there--oh, no . . ." Jack trailed off, exasperatedly. It wasn't just a boat. It wa
s a galleon, huge and strong,
with many, many cannons. It flew the Jolly Roger. A pirate ship. A nasty-looking one."Pirates, Jack!" Fitzwilliam said, hand to his sword.

"Your powers of observation never cease to amaze me," Jack said drily. He narrowed his eyes, scanning the ship. Each pirate's flag had something unique about it. Jack grabbed the nobleman's expensive spyglass and put his eye to it. Maybe he could figure out which pirate he was dealing with by looking at his flag. "The skull and crossbones has two--er, cross-flowers below the skull!"Just then, the captain came out to greet them.She strode up the deck, resting one boot on the base of the bowsprit. The pirate was magnificent: tall, beautiful, strong, every bit the perfect captain. A
nd she had a
fabulous hat. She drew a shiny, sharp sword. So did the thirty pirates behind her.Jack swallowed. But he refused to be intimidated. By anyone."Okay, lassie, make this quick!" he called back. "We're kind of on a mission here with a bit of a tight schedule. . . .""Watch your tongue, lad!" the woman bellowed back. Her long, auburn locks whipped in the wind. "Know that you're at the mercy of Captain Laura Smith!""You know, it's funny," Jack whispered to Fitzwilliam, "she looks a little bit like ...""MOM?!" Arabella cried, running
forward."Your mother is dead,"

Fitzwilliam reminded her gently. "Killed by the notorious pirate Left-Foot Louis. You must still be upset
. By y
our recent ordeal. This ... pirate ... only looks like your mother."

This pirate, however, stared down at the deck in shock. Twin sets of brown eyes locked on each other."Arabella?" the captain called out, a catch in her voice."Aye, it's her," growled a pirate from behind her. With the shuffle that was feared across the Caribbean, Left-Foot Louis stepped forward. The crew of the Barnacle gulped in shock. Louis glared at Arabella and gestured toward her mother. "And thanks to you, I must suffer on her crew for eternity!"The members of the Barnacle's crew stared at one another."Well," Jack said cheerfully, "here we go
again. . . ."
Don't mis
s
the next volume in the continuing adventures of Jack Sparrow and the crew of the mighty Barnacle:

SilverAs it turns out, Arabella's mother is alive and well, and living a pirate's life--alongside the feared captain Left-Foot Louis. Shocks abound as more is learned about the Barnacles new crewmate, Tim Hawk, and the crew faces their most dangerous foe yet--the powerful Mr. Silverback. All this, plus the mystery of the amulet continues.

THE END