Day of the Shadow (7 page)

“H
ow dare they!” Jack raged, stamping up and down on the wharf. “Who would take my ship? Who would
dare
?”

“Uh, maybe the same people who dared to arrest you,” Barbossa suggested with a sneer.

Jack didn’t appreciate the suggestion. He glowered at Barbossa. “If there are East India Trading Company agents sullying
my
ship at this very moment, then I promise you I will cut off the hands that dared touch the
Pearl
.” He shoved his hat back on his head and glanced at Billy. “How was that? Gruesome and piratey, wasn’t it? I think I’m getting the hang of this.”

“What are we going to do?” Billy asked, not amused by Jack’s flippancy. “The guards are right behind us! We need a ship!”

“I guess we’ll take Chevalle’s,” Jack said cheerfully.

“Ah,
non, non, non
,” Chevalle said quickly. “I regret I cannot take all these many pirates on board the
Fancy.
There zimply isn’t any space. Unless you all want to sleep in the brig.” The gleam in his eyes hinted that this sounded like quite a lovely idea to him.

“That’s quite all right,” Jack said. He glanced around. “I mean, there are plenty of ships here. Someone won’t mind if we, er, borrow one for a while.”

“What’s that?” Barbossa said, squinting at the next wharf over from theirs.

“Now, Hector, let’s not get distracted,” Jack said. He twisted one of the braids in his beard thoughtfully as he studied the nearest ship, a plain merchant vessel with no cannons. Boring. That wouldn’t do for Captain Jack Sparrow, not at all.

“I’m not getting distracted,” Barbossa said through gritted teeth. He pointed at a tall ship silently bobbing on its mooring. “Isn’t that Villanueva’s ship?”

Everyone turned to stare in the direction he was pointing.

The enormous galleon looked deserted. Jack’s gaze traveled up the mainmast to the Jolly Roger fluttering at the top: a skeleton with devil horns, holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear in the other, pointing to a red heart. A bloody strange Jolly Roger, if you asked Jack. His own had a nice clear bird on it, so with one look you could think “Aha! Captain Sparrow!” Most logical. Not like this vague nonsense.

But Villanueva was notorious enough that most pirates recognized his Jolly Roger. Chevalle looked particularly displeased. The two Pirate Lords had been bitter rivals for many years. Their territories were entirely too close to one another for comfort, and on occasion a ship would come limping home to Chevalle with tales of suspiciously Spanish-sounding masked men attacking them.

Then again, Chevalle was quite notorious for his attacks on the Spanish fleet that Villanueva commanded, so he wasn’t exactly innocent in the rivalry, either.

“Odd,” Jack said, making a puzzled face. “I get arrested not ten feet from another Pirate Lord’s ship, and nobody tries to arrest him, too? Downright unfair, that is. Discrimination against the exceptionally handsome, if you ask me.”

“What is
he
doing here?” Chevalle hissed. “This is my port! He knows he is
never
welcome here.”

“Well, let’s go chase him off, then!” Jack suggested. “Sounds like fun!” He dashed off to the other dock, and all the other pirates followed in a stampede of thumping boots and clattering swords.

Jack slowed down as he got closer to the
Centurion.
Something was strange here. Why was the ship so still? Why wasn’t there a sound coming from the deck? Even if it was the middle of the night, normally there would be at least two pirates standing guard, pacing back and forth and watching the dock.

It was strange enough that the ship was here at all. Villanueva knew how Chevalle would react if he found the Spanish pirate in his waters, let alone in his very port. That should have inclined him to leave many more than one or two pirates on guard…certainly more than none.

Jack cautiously stepped onto the gangplank. When nothing happened—no shouts of alarm, no forest of pistols appearing over the railing—he turned and beckoned to Barbossa.

His first mate stomped up to him with an aggrieved expression. He knew what was coming.

“Hector,” Jack said offhandedly, “why don’t you just go on ahead and, uh…see if there’s anyone about.”

Barbossa snorted and stomped up the gangplank. He drew his pistol at the top and strode onto the deck, evidently hoping there would be someone there he could blast.

But nobody appeared. Nothing changed the eerie, silent atmosphere of the ship. Barbossa turned and shrugged at the other pirates. “Nothin’,” he said grumpily.

Jack scampered up the gangplank and stood next to Barbossa, surveying the ship. “Maybe they
did
get arrested, too,” he said. “Ah, well! Not our concern!” He clapped Barbossa on the back. “Looks like we have us a new ship!”

“Really?” Jean said dubiously, glancing around at the empty deck. “Won’t they come looking for it?”

“With what?” Jack pointed out. “And besides, we’re not going to keep it.
Blech
, no. You think I want a lumbering monstrosity like this? No sir, we’re going to catch the Pirate Lord of the Black Sea—Chevalle says his name is Ammand—acquire his vial, and then find the
Pearl
and get it back.” He ticked off his plans on his fingers. “Easy-peasy.”

“Villanueva is not going to be pleased with this,” Billy said glumly, touching the railing.

“Exactly,” Chevalle said, looking pleased. “
Très magnifique
. I wish you
bonne chance
, Jacques!”

“You should follow us to Ammand,” Jack said. “That’s almost certainly where the Shadow Lord will be going next. If you’re lucky, we’ll find him there.” He muttered to himself, “And if
I’m
lucky, we won’t.” He needed to get Ammand’s vial before the Shadow Lord did; he needed that extra strength if he’d have to fight for the vial stolen from Chevalle.

“Follow you!” Chevalle said huffily. “I shall
lead
you to Ammand!”

“We’ll see about that!” Jack said, sprinting to the wheel. “Pirates! To the sails! Make fast the heave-ho and the whatnot! We depart at once!”

Scowling furiously, Chevalle sprinted off the ship and ran toward the
Fancy.
He was determined to get out of the harbor ahead of the
Centurion
, so Jack would be forced to follow him.

Jack’s crew ran around getting the ship ready to go, but as they did, they noticed some more strange things about the Spanish galleon. For one, the ship was not tied to the dock. The anchor wasn’t even dropped. The
Centurion
was just sitting in the water as if it had nowhere else to go.

Concerned, Jack spun the wheel, and to his relief, the ship began to move. Whatever enchantment had held it here, it could still sail away. And without a heavy anchor to raise, they could be underway much faster than Chevalle, so at least there was an upside to the creepy enchantment business.

The
Centurion
sailed smoothly out of the harbor with Villanueva’s Jolly Roger fluttering in the night breeze. Jack turned to look back and saw Chevalle glaring from the nose of the
Fancy
. Jack waved his hat cheerfully and turned to sail on. He knew Chevalle would catch up eventually.

Especially since the
Centurion
really was a lumbering monstrosity. After the supernatural speed of the
Black Pearl,
Jack couldn’t believe how slowly the
Centurion
moved. It made him want to hit something.

“Head for the Black Sea,” Jack said, turning the wheel over to Barbossa. “Oh, and have someone take down that terribly silly Jolly Roger up there. I’m not sailing under that thing.” He also couldn’t stand on the deck watching the land amble by at a snail’s pace; it was too infuriating. He’d have to distract himself with some other entertainment—say, by snooping through Villanueva’s cabin.

The crew of the
Pearl
were settling into their usual roles as the ship’s sails billowed above them. Jack sauntered down to the captain’s cabin and, with his usual flourish, threw open the door, sending all the lace curtains on the windows a-flutter.

“MMMMMMMMMMMMMMFFF! MMMPPH! MMMMMMFFFFFFF!”

Jack leaped backward with a yell of fright. There was someone in Villanueva’s cabin!

Someone short and round and bearded…and tied to a chair.

Jack gaped at the prisoner who was struggling furiously against his bonds, trying to yell through the handkerchief gag tied around his mouth.

It was none other than Villanueva himself!

J
ack recovered his composure quickly. He grinned saucily at the bound-and-gagged Pirate Lord. Now this was exactly how he liked to see his rival pirates—unable to stick him with sharp pointy things, and more importantly, unable to talk back!

“Villanueva!” he crowed. “What a delightful surprise! Imagine finding you here!” He paused and thought for a moment. “Well, all right, perhaps it’s not
that
surprising to find you in your own cabin on your own ship. But the rest of it is a bit unusual.”

He sauntered around the Spanish pirate, enjoying the way Villanueva’s face was turning bright red with fury.

“Now what did you get yourself mixed up in?” Jack wondered. “Did the Spanish do this to you? That would serve you right for working with them.” Jack’s crew had discovered way back in South America that Villanueva was secretly working with the Spanish government to attack ships and eradicate pirates in the Caribbean. The Spanish wanted full dominion over the Caribbean Sea, and they were paying Villanueva quite a lot of money to help drive out the English and the French. This went against everything in the Pirate Code, at least the way Jack saw things.

Villanueva shook his head vigorously. “MMMMMMMMMMMMMMFFFF!” he insisted through the gag.

As much as Jack preferred Villanueva this way, he was also curious. With a shrug, he stepped forward and whisked off Villanueva’s gag.

“You horse-faced blackguard!” Villanueva shouted. “How dare you steal my ship?! How dare you walk these boards as if yoummMMMMMFFFFFF!” His rant turned into muffled howling as Jack stuffed the gag back into his mouth.

“Look, I didn’t think you were using it,” Jack said, waving airily at the ship around them. “And if you’re just going to yell about it, I’m perfectly happy to leave the gag on. You’re much more entertaining that way.”

Villanueva fell silent, breathing heavily and giving Jack a murderous glare.

“Splendid,” Jack said. “Now let’s talk like civilized men. Who did this to you?” He removed the gag again.

Villanueva opened his mouth as if to shout some more. Jack held the gag up threateningly. Villanueva closed his mouth with a snap. He harrumphed a couple of times, then scowled up at Jack.

“It was the Shadow Lord,” he seethed.

Jack had expected this response, but it still sent chills down his spine. He turned his back on Villanueva, hiding the expression on his face. Casually, he ran his hands over Villanueva’s desk, picking up silver knickknacks and elaborate inkpots.

“The Shadow Lord found you?” he asked. “When?”

“He was hiding on my ship this whole time,” Villanueva spat. “But I suppose you knew that.”

“Me? What! Slander and calumny!” Jack protested, looking at him in surprise. “How the devil would I know that?”

“You made me take him,” said Villanueva, wrestling with the ropes around his hands. “You acted like you wanted him for yourself! An underhanded trick, Sparrow!”

Jack blinked at him. “What…on
Earth
…are you talking about?”

“Henry!” Villanueva snarled. “That squidgy,
useless
pirate. I thought it was bad enough that he couldn’t sail a ship to save his life. And
then
that
diablo
betrayed me and turned out to be the Shadow Lord! He set his shadow creatures on my men!”

It took Jack another moment before he remembered Henry, the affable wannabe pirate who had tried to sign on with the
Black Pearl
back in Tortuga. Villanueva had snatched him right out from under Jack’s nose, just to spite Jack. If he hadn’t…if he hadn’t done that, the Shadow Lord would have been on
Jack’s
ship this whole time instead.

Jack reeled backward and fell onto Villanueva’s green velvet-lined couch. He clutched his head, feeling the flapping of shadow wings around his temples. Suddenly it all made sense. He remembered the firm handshake Henry had given him in the Faithful Bride tavern. That must have been the moment when he gave Jack the shadow-sickness. From that point on, Jack had been cursed. Henry—Jack never would have guessed.

Villanueva was staring at Jack. “You didn’t know?” he said, sounding surprised.

“This may be hard to believe,” Jack said, “but not absolutely everything I do is part of an intricately clever plan.” He tugged on his beard. “Only
almost
absolutely everything. Don’t tell anyone.”

Suddenly he heard shouts and running footsteps coming from the deck. He leaped to his feet as Billy burst through the door.

“What is it?” Jack demanded.

“Pirates!” Billy gasped, catching his breath.

“Where?” Jack drew his sword.

“In the—in the brig!” Billy wheezed. “The brig is full of pirates!”

Jack raised his eyebrows at his friend. With slow deliberation, he slid his sword back into its sheath. “Sounds like the perfect place for them,” he said. “Unless said pirates include me, of course.”

“Those are my men!” Villanueva shouted.

Billy spotted the tied-up Pirate Lord for the first time and leaped ten feet into the air in fright.

“Villanueva!” he cried. He stabbed his finger toward the Spanish pirate, giving Jack a frantic look. “Villanueva’s on board!”

“You don’t say,” Jack said, imitating Billy’s startled expression. “My, that’s going to be an awkward conversation, isn’t it?”

Billy stared at Jack, then at Villanueva, then back at Jack, and then he stepped right back out of the cabin and shut the door behind him. Whatever insanity Jack was up to now, Billy wanted nothing to do with it.

“So,” Jack said, pulling up a chair opposite Villanueva’s, swinging one leg over it, and resting his arms on the back. “What should we do now?” He plucked an orange from the glass fruit bowl on Villanueva’s desk and began to peel it, studying the Pirate Lord nonchalantly.

“I demand that you release me!” Villanueva snarled. “I’ll see you all walk the plank and be eaten by sharks!”

Jack lifted an eyebrow. “That doesn’t give me much incentive to untie you,” he said. “Quite the opposite, in fact. Your negotiating skills need work.”

“I’ll feed you to my pigs!” Villanueva roared. “I’ll slice off your fingers with my cutlass and watch you slowly bleed to death!”

“Hmm,” Jack said, wrinkling his nose. “Still not very enticing.” He leaned forward to replace the gag on Villanueva’s mouth.

“Wait, wait,
basta
!” Villanueva yelped, wriggling away. “All right, we can talk! What do you want?” He couldn’t stop himself from adding, “You son of a leprous baboon,” under his breath.

Jack wisely ignored the insult. “What I want is simple,” he said. “I want to find Ammand the Corsair and my ship, the
Pearl
, which was despicably stolen from me back in Marseille.”

“Stealing a Pirate Lord’s ship?” Villanueva said sarcastically. “What kind of suicidal idiot would do that?”

“Exactly what I wondered,” Jack said.

Suddenly both pirates’ eyes went wide. They’d both had the same realization.

“Eduardo,” Jack said thoughtfully, “the Shadow Lord tied you up and brought you to Marseille, correct?”

Villanueva nodded, his mustache bobbing up and down. “He left us there, on the
Centurion
…he didn’t say where he was going.”

“So the question is,” Jack said, “if he arrived in Marseille on the
Centurion
, does that mean he’s still in Marseille…or that he left again on
somebody else’s ship
?” He scowled. The thought of the Shadow Lord skulking about on the
Black Pearl
was even worse than the idea of it being overrun by East India Trading Company agents. Especially since it would be extrahard to catch him when he had the advantage of the
Pearl
’s speed.

The Spanish Pirate Lord smiled smugly. “Now you know how it feels,” he said.

“On the contrary,” Jack said, waving his hand at Villanueva’s restraints, “it’s not the same at all. He may have my ship, but at least
I
am not humiliatingly tied up in my own cabin.”

Villanueva turned red again. “I will find Henry and make him pay,” the pirate seethed.

“That would be lovely,” Jack said with a sigh. “Save me a lot of trouble.”

“All right, I’ll make you a deal, Sparrow,” Villanueva said, his eyes glinting with cunning. “You may stay on board my ship until we find the Shadow Lord. But
I
get to kill him.”

“I won’t stand in your way there,” Jack said. “All I want is the Shadow Gold.”

Villanueva looked disgusted. He was the only one who knew that Jack was drinking the vials of Shadow Gold; he’d seen him quaff one on top of a mountain in Peru. “You are
muy loco
, Sparrow. But I will agree—I’d rather have revenge than Shadow Gold at this point.”

“I still get to be captain until we find him, though,” Jack said.

“No!
Absolutamente
no!” Villanueva yelled. “This is
my
ship and only
I
get to be captmmmmmmMMFFFFF!!!!”

Jack beamed benevolently at the furious Pirate Lord. While Villanueva roared and bellowed through the gag, Jack sauntered around the cabin finishing his orange and admiring some of the treasures Villanueva had plundered from around the globe. Villanueva’s shrieks grew louder as Jack examined a pretty silver snuffbox with the Villanueva family crest engraved on the lid.

The scene continued this way for much of the rest of the night. Every time Villanueva quieted down, Jack would remove the gag, and then their argument about who would be captain resumed until Villanueva started shouting, and then Jack would stuff it back in again. Eventually Jack put a pillow over his own head and took a nap on the couch.

But by morning, they had finally reached an uneasy truce. Jack’s pirates gaped as the two Pirate Lords strode out onto the deck side by side. Jack was taller than Villanueva, but the Spanish pirate was older and had a significantly more threatening presence. He glowered at Jack’s inefficient, lackadaisical crew and began barking orders immediately.

Sunshine poured down on the deck, but the wind coming off the sea was freezing and all the pirates shivered as they hurried about their tasks. Jack started to stroll over to the wheel, but he stopped in his tracks as a yipping ball of sand-colored fur suddenly tumbled past his feet.

Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!
the fur ball announced, bouncing around Jack’s boots. The puppy leaped up and tried to snap his teeth into Jack’s long coat. Jack gave him a startled, mildly horrified look.

“Sorry!” Jean called, running up to them. He scooped up the puppy and gave Jack a nervous grin. “Hey there, Jack.”

“Is that—a dog?” Jack said, squinting at the bright black eyes under the flop of fur. “Jean, you have a knack for acquiring annoying sidekicks. Is this one under a spell, too?” He looked alarmed. “That’s not Constance again, is it?”

Jean shook his head. “No, no—he’s just a normal dog. Aren’t you, puppy?” The puppy licked his face and Jean laughed.

“And right after we’d finally got rid of Marcella,” Jack said with a sigh. “Speaking of which, there seem to be other members of my crew missing. What happened to Carolina and Diego?”

“We don’t know,” Jean said, looking serious again. The puppy took his mind off Marcella, but he was still very worried about her. “They disappeared during the battle in Marseille. Carolina’s father was furious.”

“Hmm,” Jack said, looking out to sea. It was a beautiful, clear day with wide-open blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Very not-shadowy, the way Jack liked it. And yet he could feel the mossy weight of dark anchors slowly pressing on his chest, and his vision blurred a little as imaginary shadows darted across his eyes. He needed those last two vials as soon as possible. He was so close to them! And yet also so far, if the Shadow Lord had already got his hands on them.

“A sail!” Billy yelled from the crow’s nest. “Avast! Look! A sail, that way! And it’s flying a Jolly Roger—a
green
Jolly Roger!”

“Ammand the Corsair!” Villanueva bellowed. “About ship and make chase! Quickly!”

Jack snorted. “As if this ship can do anything quickly,” he said loudly.

Villanueva glared at him. “This is the best ship on the Spanish Main! She has never been defeated in battle!”

“Because the battle’s probably already over by the time she gets there,” Jack sniped as the ship lumbered around and set off after the
Seref
.

Jean shook his head and walked away, leaving the two Pirate Lords to argue to their heart’s content about the
Centurion
’s value. He carried the puppy down to the lower deck, where he’d arranged a couple of dismantled hammocks in a pile on the floor for the puppy to sleep on. Jean stacked boxes and barrels around the makeshift pen.

“YIP!” the puppy protested. It tried to scramble up the boxes, but tumbled back onto the soft hammocks.

“Stay,” Jean said firmly. “If there’s going to be a battle with Ammand, I want you to stay away from it! Hopefully you’ll be safe down here.”

Rrrrrrrrruff
, the puppy grumbled. It started turning in circles and digging the hammocks into a better nest.

“Good dog,” Jean said. He hurried back to the deck in time to see the green flag of the
Seref
disappearing into the sheltered cove of an island. He ran to the railing to help the other pirates steer the
Centurion
in the same direction.

As they passed through the encircling cliff arms of the island, they found themselves in a horseshoe-shaped bay of glittering, sapphire blue water. A white sandy beach ahead of them slanted up to a high, rocky ledge overlooking the bay.

Jean blinked. For a moment, all the pirates were too stunned to react—even Jack.

The bay was full of ships.

A small armada of galleons flew the flag of Spain. Another several ships bore the dreaded insignia of the East India Trading Company. Then, of course, there was Ammand’s ship, the
Seref
. And—Jack caught his breath—there was the
Black Pearl
. She bobbed peacefully beside the other ships in the harbor. Her black sails fluttered lightly in the chilly breeze. He’d never seen anything more beautiful.