Raven Quest (16 page)

“And Nathan will come after us.”

“
Mi querida,
give me the answer to your father's poem. Then we all might live.”

She hesitated, then whispered, “I can't because I don't know it.”

He stared at her in disbelief. “You said you were searching to find your father, Rory, that you had ties to the past to help you! Certainly, you meant the answers to the riddle.”

“Ties of love, Guillermo. My father left me a letter in my mother's Bible. I found it on the
Vengeance.
I learned he had been hunting your father's galleon, so we decided to go to Cuba to see if the answer was there. As you know, it wasn't.”

“You should not brag about being the whelp of an English pirate.”

“My father was not a pirate. He was a licensed privateer in the service of his majesty King Charles II.”

A deep voice answered, “He was a liar and a cheat.”

She jumped to her feet and gasped as Yellow Hal came into the room with two of his men. She had thought he would slam the door against the wall to announce his arrival. Instead, he had skulked to the cabin. She must never underestimate his treachery again.

He grasped her arm and wrenched her toward him. When she screamed in pain, he asked, “What's wrong with you, wench? I haven't hurt you yet.” Releasing her, he ripped the sleeve of her dress to reveal the bandage. “Who's been playing so hard with you, Rory?” He chuckled. “Did Lawler get tired of waiting for you to give him the information he needed?”

She glanced at Guillermo and saw his fear. If she told the truth, Yellow Hal would kill him. Guillermo was not much of an ally, for he would betray her as soon as he could, but he was the only ally she had. Quietly, she replied, “It was an accident.”

“I will show you how kind I can be.” He grinned as his dirt-encrusted nails bit into the bandage.

She refused to cry out again. She would not give him the pleasure of enjoying her pain. As his grip loosened, her eyes cleared enough to see Guillermo flanked by Yellow Hal's men.

“Thank you for showing me the breadth of your clemency, Captain.” She was proud her voice was steady.

He frowned at her sarcasm. “Rory, my girl … or do you prefer to be called Aurora?”

She shrugged. “You will call me whatever you wish.”

“Has anyone ever told you how much you're like your father? He never knew when to surrender either.”

“Yes,” she replied tersely.

“You don't need to tell me who. Keller, I suppose.” His gaze wandered along her, and she stiffened. “You're like your mother, too. Kassy Mullins was a real beauty. I never got a chance to bed
her.
”

Rory could not help blanching. He had wanted her mother but would settle for her. This man had destroyed her family. “My father was her only lover.”

“Aye. She was faithful to Powell. She believed the lies he made up about his exploits.”

“They couldn't all have been lies if you are looking for his gold.”

Yellow Hal spat on the deck. “He was a liar and a cheat, just like Keller. Fools! They were tools of the king instead of free men wiping these Spanish dogs from the sea.” He ignored the muffled protest from Guillermo, who was silenced by a pistol barrel pressed against his head. “I should have known you were Powell's as soon as I saw you. I did not get the chance to pay him back for what he did to me, but you will even the debt.”

“What he did to you?” she retorted. “Proving that he was a better captain?”

“Don't force me to hurt you, Rory.”

She did not back away as he raised his hand. With a laugh, he lowered it, then seized her and brought her mouth to his. His tongue forced its way into her mouth as he reached for her gown. She struggled to escape and heard material rip. He laughed as his moist mouth moved along her neck.

She screeched. He jerked back, releasing her, as he clamped a hand over the ear that had been close to her mouth. She took a step back, steeling herself for his blow.

He whirled at the sound of laughter. His eyes narrowed as Guillermo chuckled.

“Guillermo, no!” she whispered, but her warning was too late.

Yellow Hal gave a small signal. One of his men grabbed Guillermo's left hand. He raised his pistol and smashed it into Guillermo's smallest finger. Guillermo shrieked in agony.

“Don't laugh at me!” snarled Yellow Hal. He turned to Rory. “Rory, my girl, tell me what I need to know, or it will be your finger next.”

She clasped her hands together.
He was utterly mad!
She had to tell him something. “All right, Captain Warwick. What do you want to know?” She bit her lip as she looked at Guillermo. His face was the color of foam on a breaker.

Yellow Hal took a threatening step toward her. “Tell me the answer to the riddle.”

“Nathan and Ernest, the first mate on the
Vengeance,
discovered the answers to the first three lines of the poem.” She did not let her gaze waver. “Nathan thought ‘Aurora Raven' might be the blackbird of the poem.”

“I knew Powell would make you part of the rhyme so he could be sure you shared in the gold. That is just like him.”

“The next line about the shepherd's tale led them to my mother's Bible.”

“Kassy was often at St. Paul's, even after Powell bought her and forced her into his bed.”

Rory smiled. He could not hurt her with gossip she now knew was false. “There we found a letter giving us the route of the
Raven
's last voyage. The third line was given to us, in fact, by Guillermo's great-uncle.”

Guillermo gasped, “My great-uncle? He doesn't know where the
Raven
is!”

“No, he doesn't,” she agreed quickly when Yellow Hal scowled. “Padre Fernando spoke of the voodoo gods of Hispaniola. Ernest realized ‘low gods' should have been ‘
loa
gods.' That told them to steer for the Windward Passage. That is all they solved.”

Yellow Hal snarled, “I need to know the meaning of the last line, which tells the location of the gold from
La Madre Maria.
”

She gazed up at him with undisguised fear. “I don't know, Captain Warwick. I told Guillermo that. I would tell you if I knew, but I don't!”

Again, he signaled his men. Again, the pistol butt came down on another one of Guillermo's fingers. She cringed at his scream.

“You see what happens to someone who fails to help me. Now it's your turn!” Yellow Hal reached for her with an obscene grin.

“Wait,” she cried, backing away from his eager fingers. “I think I know where the answer may be.”

“So suddenly, Rory?”

She sidestepped him, reaching for her things. Her hands trembled as she brought them to the table. She spread them out, touching each one. Without looking up, she knew Yellow Hal stood behind her.

Picking up the locket, she placed it against the bottom of the box. “I noticed the hole in this before we went to La Casa de las Flores, but I never checked it I think this is the key to this box. ‘Seek the coral key if treasure you yearn to gain' is the last line of the poem.”

The box and the necklace were wrenched from her fingers. Yellow Hal's coarse hands made turning the small key almost impossible. When it clicked open, a murmur of expectation rippled through the room.

He withdrew the single page and opened it. Slowly, he read it, then wadded the paper and threw it at the wall. “Where is it?” he roared, spinning to face her.

Her fear was not faked as she cringed. “Where is what, Captain Warwick? Didn't that page tell you what you needed to know?”

“It said nothing! Where is the map to the
Raven
?”

“I don't know! The box could not have been opened before because the Blindman had it all these years, and I had the locket.”

“You're right. He didn't know where the
Raven
was.” Yellow Hal's lips pulled back in a sneer. “If he had known, he would have told me. I gave him enough chances to tell me before he died.”

“Died? The Blindman is dead?” She gripped the side of the table. Nathan had told her that the Blindman was not at his hut the night she had fled from Yellow Hal. She should have checked. She should have gone out there immediately. “No,” she whispered. “No, it can't be true.”

“It's true. It was time he paid for helping Powell instead of me.” Yellow Hal laughed. “Just in case you want to know, his last words were your name.”

With a cry, she leaped at him. She punched him and kicked him as she sobbed. She wanted to hurt him as he had hurt the Blindman. How could he kill the man who had been her only friend for so many years? How could he?

With a curse, Yellow Hal swung his arm. She slammed back against the wall and collapsed into a mound on the deck. He ignored her as he picked up the box and shook it. Nothing! He scowled at her.

Herrera y Fallas shouted, “Captain, don't kill her! Without her, you'll never find the
Raven.
”

He laughed. “She won't die until she tells me what she knows.” He whirled to face the man who was holding his broken fingers in his other hand. “And she will tell me. Don't worry about that.”

“I'm not so sure she'll tell anyone but Lawler.”

“Lawler! He must have stolen the map. If he was on his way to get the gold, then—”

“Captain Warwick!”

He turned to see his first mate in the doorway. “What is it, Cheevers?”

“The
Vengeance
is off our portside bow. Lawler is demanding to see you. He wants to see Powell's daughter, too.”

Yellow Hal looked at the woman crumpled at his feet. Lawler could not have the map if he was here. Rubbing his hands together, he murmured, “I hope you can hear me in your watery grave, Powell, because now the fun begins. When it's over, your gold will be mine.” He glanced at the deck and laughed. “And so will your daughter.”

Thirteen

Nathan gripped the rail and scanned what he could see of Warwick's ship through the downpour.

“He'll have her imprisoned somewhere, Cap'n,” Ernest said, coming to stand beside him. “He knows how wily Miss Rory is.”

Nathan nodded. That was what worried him. Rory would not give in to the pirate, no matter what he did to her. That thought had haunted him since he had rushed back to La Casa de las Flores to find that Rory had vanished. The warning that Yellow Hal Warwick had been seen in Havana had come too late. He should not have dismissed her fear as simple sun sickness.

When he discovered that Guillermo was missing as well, he and Ernest had gone to the harbor. It had been a shock when de Palma had met them there.

“Get out of my way!” Nathan had snarled at the harbormaster.

“Captain Lawler, I have a warning for you.”

“I have no time to listen.”

De Palma reached out to halt them but paused when Ernest pulled his pistol. “You will listen. Warwick has her.”

“I know.”

“He is headed east along the coast.”

With a laugh, Nathan said, “That I know, too.”

De Palma called after him, “He is hoping you'll follow. He plans to trap you. I can tell you his plans.”

“Why are you betraying him?”

“I have my reasons.”

“Such as?” he pressed.

The harbormaster's mouth curled into a grin. “Warwick refused me a share of the
Raven
's gold, giving me only a pittance. Do you want his route, Lawler?”

He glanced at Ernest. They had no choice. They had to find Rory if they hoped to find the gold. “How much?”

“There are three of us here. A third would be fair.”

Ernest exploded. “A third? Why, de Palma, you—”

“Enough,” warned Nathan.

“Listen to your captain, Dawes.” A snide smile oozed across his face. “I can help you. A third.”

“All right. You will get a third of what we recover.”

“Cap'n!”

“You've said enough, Mr. Dawes.” He had glared at his first mate. He had thought that Ernest realized the chance for finding Rory and the gold was worth trading away a third of it. “Now, de Palma, what about that information?”

As he scanned the decks of the
Scourge,
he hoped de Palma had not betrayed
him.
No, the fact that Warwick's ship had been sailing slowly, waiting for him to arrive, told him that his suspicions were true. Rory would not cooperate with the pirate.

The crew on the
Scourge,
which was far enough away so they could not board the
Vengeance,
began milling about the stern of the ship. Motioning to Ernest, Nathan pushed away from the rail and jumped down to a lower deck. There, they would not be such easy targets.

Ernest put a hand on his arm as Warwick strode across the deck of the
Scourge.
Hanging limply over his shoulder was Rory. “She can't be dead, Cap'n. He wouldn't be that foolish.”

“I hope you're right.” He gritted his teeth as Warwick paused by the rail and propped Rory in front of him. When Warwick laughed and slapped her, he reached for his pistol.

“No, Cap'n!” whispered Ernest. “He wants to make you so angry you'll do something stupid.”

Nathan swore as he crossed his arms in front of him. Raising his voice, he called, “So this is where you've run off to, Rory.”

“Nathan?” She lifted her face, and he could see the scarlet mark left by Warwick's hand even through the rain. “Help me! Please help me!”

He heard Ernest curse vehemently, but he swaggered toward the lower rail. His men fell back so he could face his rival for the
Raven's
gold.

“You have Rory,” he shouted, paying no attention to the rain coursing down his face. “Has she told you where the gold is?”

“Does she look as if she has been cooperating? The wench claims she doesn't know a thing. Did she give you the map?”