The Turning Tide (6 page)

D
iego tore after Carolina, running faster than he’d ever run before. He could hear snorting and heavy breathing and branches cracking behind him. Sri Sumbhajee had monsters! No wonder everyone feared him so much!

The palace was too far away to reach in time, not with the monster chasing them over open ground. Diego glanced around and noticed something to their right: a dark tower rising from behind a thicket of vines and branches. If nothing else, the shrubbery should slow the monster down.

“Carolina—over here!” he called, swerving toward the tower. Carolina followed him without hesitating. They plunged into the thick bushes, feeling vines and thorns tug at their clothes as they shoved their way forward.

Carolina spotted an opening at the base of the tower: the stone door was open, and a small, warm glow flickered from within. She grabbed Diego’s arm and they threw themselves inside.

Diego tumbled across the stone floor and nearly skidded into a trio of low, guttering candles arranged at the base of an altar. He flung his hands out to stop himself, accidentally scattering the marigold wreaths piled around the candles.

“Are you OK?” Carolina crouched beside him.

“Yeah.” Diego panted. “Where are we?”

They both looked up, and their mouths fell open in surprise. An enormous stone statue in the shape of a man loomed over them, nearly filling the tiny room and stretching up into the shadows at the top of the tower, where his head was hidden in darkness. Carolina and Diego could see a stone snake coiled around his neck and shoulders. He was seated, cross-legged, and, strangest of all, he had four arms.

In the flickering candlelight, it was an eerie, imposing sight.

“This must be a temple,” Carolina whispered, glancing down at the marigolds and other offerings arranged on the low stone altar before the statue. “I don’t know for which god.”

“Well, I hope that monster can’t get in here,” Diego said, climbing to his feet. “Whatever it is.”

Carolina started laughing. “You don’t know what it was? Silly Diego—that was an elephant.”

“An elephant!” Diego cried. “But it was enormous! Are you sure?”

“It looked like the drawings I’ve seen—from what I could tell,” Carolina said. “But I could be wrong.”

“So why did we run away if we knew what it was?” Diego asked.

She wrinkled her nose at him. “I still don’t want to get trampled by anything, even if I know its name!”

“Well,” Diego said. “I wish I’d known; I wouldn’t feel quite so ridiculous—”

A voice intruded on them, speaking somewhere outside the temple door.

“Hold on, let me get away from all these horrid mosquitoes. There’s a door up ahead.” It was a woman’s voice. It carried a British accent and the clipped, nasal tones of high society.

Carolina broke away from Diego. Her eyes were wide in the candlelight. Diego was still too dizzy to speak, but Carolina glanced around the room quickly. There was nowhere to hide. There was nothing else in the room except the altar and the statue.…

Carolina leaped over the altar and clambered onto the statue’s knees with Diego right behind her. There was only a small space between the statue and the back wall. Carolina rolled over the statue’s lap and pulled Diego after her. They crouched, pressed together in the tiny, dark space. Diego put his arms around her and they ducked as low as they could as a woman carrying a lantern came through the temple entrance. They could see her shadow stretching up behind her across the front wall of the temple.

The stranger set the lantern down on the altar. “That’s better,” she said. “Can you hear me now?”

“Yes,” said a second voice. Carolina and Diego glanced at each other. Who was she talking to? Only one shadow moved on the wall; she seemed to be alone.

“Good,” she said. “Now, have you been taking notes? You’ll remember all that about the fake rocks?”

“Yes, yes,” said the other voice. It sounded male and impatient. “You mentioned a curtain of moss covering the entrance on the outer wall. Can you get to it and lift it for us?”

The woman inhaled sharply. “But that would be
dangerous
! You wouldn’t want me to be in any
danger
, would you, Benny?”

Benny?
Carolina mouthed to Diego.

“Everything you’re doing is dangerous,” Benny’s voice growled. “It would be helpful, that’s all.”

“I think I’ve been QUITE HELPFUL ENOUGH,” the woman snapped. “You know this is the closest the Company has ever come to catching Sri Sumbhajee. I can’t do
everything
for you, Benedict. Would you like me to storm the palace, too? Sail our ships into the harbor? Hold the Pirate Lords at gunpoint? Take them back to England with me? Tell you what, you don’t even need to show up at all. I’ll just defeat the Pirate Lord of the Indian Ocean by myself, shall I?”

Carolina’s fingers were digging into Diego’s arm. She was talking to Benedict Huntington! They’d thought the
Pearl
had escaped him in Hong Kong! How had he followed them here?

“Barbara, Barbara, I’m sorry,” Benedict said, trying to stem the tide of angry words. “You’ve been amazing.”

“I know,” she said snippily, “and I think I deserve a little appreciation, that’s all.”

“I
do
appreciate it,” he said. “The entire East India Trading Company will thank you for it. Why, you’ll probably get a medal.”

“I’d rather have some new perfume,” Barbara sniffed.

“I’ll buy you all the perfumes of the Far East,” Benedict promised. “Don’t worry about a thing. Keep yourself safe, and we’ll handle the rest of the plan from here.”

“Thank you, darling,” Barbara said. “Kisses!”

“Kisses to you, too,” Benedict said. “See you soon.”

There was a small snapping noise, and then the woman picked up the lantern and strode off into the night.

Diego and Carolina looked at each other in horror. Somehow that woman had infiltrated Sri Sumbhajee’s defenses and revealed his secrets. And now agents of the East India Trading Company were on their way to Suvarnadurg to capture them all!

“Well,” said a voice from above them. “That can’t be good.”

“J
ack?” said Diego, peering up into the shadows. The voice sounded like their captain. But what was he doing here? Diego saw someone moving beside the statue’s head.

“’Allo down there,” Jack Sparrow said cheerfully. “Fine night for a walk, and then a chase, and then a fright and some eavesdropping, isn’t it?”

“What are you doing up there?” Carolina asked.

“Getting a little perspective,” Jack said. “That and waiting for the guards to stop looking for me.”

“I think they have,” Diego said. “I heard a couple of them on the way out here.”

“Given up already?” Jack said, sounding aggrieved. “Well, that’s not very sporting of them.”

Carolina wiggled out of the tight space and climbed back onto the statue’s knees. Balancing her bare feet lightly on the folds of its robe, she clambered up to its arm and then scooted up to Jack. Nervously, Diego climbed up behind her. It looked like a very long way down from the top.

Jack was fiddling with his knife. The statue’s face was serene and blank.

Something glittered from the center of the statue’s forehead.

“Jack!” Carolina cried. “Are you trying to steal that ruby again?”

“No, no!” Jack protested. “Much better—I am waiting for it to fall into my pocket again. Could happen any minute. You never know.”

“I knew it!” Carolina cried. “You’re going to steal back that ruby!”

Diego realized she was right. The large jewel that formed one of the statue’s eyes was the same gem Jack had just returned to Sri Sumbhajee. The Indian Pirate Lord had already returned the ruby to its original home.

“Am not!” Jack protested.

“Are, too!”

“Am not!”

“Are, too!”

“I just happen to be sitting here,” Jack said. “I am merely taking a short rest that happens to be in close proximity to the ruby in question. Is that such a crime?”

“No,” Carolina said, “but—”

“And if that same ruby should happen to fall into my pocket again, would that be such a crime, either?”

“Yes!” Carolina said. “Don’t make Sri Sumbhajee mad at us! We need him to believe us that the East India Trading Company is coming. We have to get out of here as soon as we can.”

“Absolutely,” Jack said. “First thing tomorrow morning.”

“No, right now!” Carolina said. “We have no idea when they’ll get here!”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Nobody wakes Sri Sumbhajee once he’s asleep.”

“I heard the same thing,” Diego admitted.

“What about for emergencies?” Carolina cried. “Emergencies, like, say, your archnemesis finding out all your secrets and coming to kill you possibly within minutes? Wouldn’t he want to be woken up for that?”

“Certainly not,” Jack said. “Even pirates need their rest, love.”

“It’s all right, Carolina,” Diego said, touching her shoulder. “I doubt they’ll be here before morning. If there’s to be a fight, we’ll be more ready for it after a good night’s sleep.”

“Fine,” Carolina said. She slid down glancing back at her crewmates. “But if we’re captured, I am not going back to Spain or San Augustin. I would rather die.”

She jumped down, landing amid the marigolds at her feet, and vanished out the door before Diego could get to her.

“Come on, Jack,” Diego said. “Back to our quarters.”

“You go on ahead,” Jack said, squinting up at the roof and trying to look casual. “I’ll be along in a minute.”

“No, Jack,” Diego said. “Leave the ruby alone.”

“I
am
leaving the ruby alone,” Jack said in mock outrage. “I’m not
touching
it, am I? It’s not my fault that its setting is a little loose.” Jack bumped the statue’s head as he spoke and then whirled around with his coat outstretched.

The jewel stayed in place.

Disappointed, Jack gave the head a few more “accidental” shoves. It didn’t budge, and neither did the ruby.

“Well,” he muttered, “it used to be a little loose.”

“Let’s go, Jack,” Diego said.

“
Captain
Jack,” the pirate muttered. “
Captain
Jack. Why doesn’t anyone ever remember that?”

They climbed down the statue and made their way back to their rooms, skulking along the dark corridors without encountering any guards. Once in bed, Diego tossed and turned for hours, replaying his kiss with Carolina over and over again in his mind. What did it mean? Did Carolina love him, too? What would happen next?

In her part of the palace, Carolina couldn’t sleep, either. She stared up at the shimmering fragments of mirror embedded in the ceiling, glittering like tiny stars all around the dark room. She ran through Benedict and Barbara’s conversation a hundred times, trying to figure out their next move. Where was Barbara hiding? How had she gotten in here? And most important…when would Benedict and the East India Trading Company attack?

Jack, on the other hand, fell asleep as soon as he returned to his quarters.

But his sleep was neither peaceful nor dreamless. Shadows wreathed around his legs as he walked through a swirling fog, alive with shapes darting like cats in the mist. Others flew down from the sky and tried to snatch his magnificent hat, but Jack clutched it to his head and fended them off.

“Away with you!” he proclaimed, flapping his hands at them. “Away! Leave me in peace!”

“Ah, there you are, Captain Jack Sparrow,” a voice hissed.

“Finally someone gets it right,” Jack said. Then he paused, looking concerned. He whirled. All around him he could see nothing but fog and shadows. “Ominous fog?” he echoed in the same whispery tone the voice had used.

“I’m surprised to see you still alive,” said the voice.

“Most people are,” Jack said airily. “Technically you’re not seeing me, though, are you? At least not with…eyeballs. Given that I don’t currently see any eyeballs, er, seeing me at the moment.”

“I can see you fine,” the voice whispered.

“But you won’t see me until it is far too late.”

“Well, from the sounds of it, you’re not very pretty,” Jack said with an apologetic grimace, “so I think that’s a plan that works for both of us.”

“Why aren’t you dead?” murmured the voice, as if it were talking to itself now. “I killed you myself.”

“Also something I hear quite a lot,” Jack said. He jumped as a patch of fog suddenly whooshed toward him and then dissipated. “Turns out it’s harder than it looks to kill Captain Jack Sparrow.”

“You have been infected with the shadow-sickness. Why hasn’t it progressed further?” Another shadow whooshed toward Jack, circled him a few times, and flashed away.

“Oh, was that from you?” Jack said. “Thanks ever so much for that.” He was pretty sure he knew who was behind the voice now. Or at least, in the sense of knowing it was the Shadow Lord. Other than that, Jack didn’t know much about the mysterious pirate who had destroyed an entire town in Panama without leaving a trace of his army behind. Except that he seemed to hold grudges, the vials of Shadow Gold had once belonged to him, and he really didn’t like the Pirate Lords—especially Jack.

“What is this?” The voice sounded angry. A shadow hurtled up out of the fog and twined itself around Jack’s neck. He grabbed it and tried to pull it off, but it squeezed tighter and tighter. It felt uncomfortably like a noose—and Jack had already been too close to too many nooses in his lifetime. It was one of the hazards of being a pirate.

“You have tasted Shadow Gold!”
The fury in the voice was so powerful it singed Jack’s skin.
“That Shadow Gold is MINE.”

“Well,” Jack croaked. “Your own fault, innit?

Giving me this—aurk—shadow thingie—’course I’d try not to die.”

“WHERE?” Fog blasted past Jack’s ears. “WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS MY GOLD?”

“Don’t…have it,” Jack wheezed. He was getting dizzy. He tried to tell himself that it was an illusion; if the Shadow Lord could send shadows to actually choke Jack to death, he would have done that from the beginning instead of messing about with lingering illnesses. This was just a nightmare. But it still
felt
awfully real.

“I will find out for myself, then,” the voice snarled. Tendrils of black smoke rose from the shadow around the figure’s neck and plunged into Jack’s ears. Jack could
feel
them poking around in his brain.

“Stopitstopitstopitstopit!” Jack shouted. “Leave my brain out of this!”

“
Pirate Lords
,” the voice fumed. “I should have known. I
loathe
the Pirate Lords.” The smoke withdrew abruptly, sucking back out of Jack’s ears, away from his neck, and into the fog around him. Jack dropped to his knees, gasping for breath.

“You won’t get away with this, Jack Sparrow,” growled the Shadow Lord. “I will stop you. That Shadow Gold belongs to me.” Jack glimpsed a pair of red eyes glaring from a monstrous shape in the swirling clouds. It blinked at him once and then vanished.

“That’s…
Captain
…Jack Sparrow.” Jack gasped, and then he keeled over and passed out.