The Following Sea (The Pirate Wolf series) (28 page)

Dante nodded. “I have some experience with female family members who liken the act of catching a mouse to Drake’s sacking of Cartagena. I am also aware that several hundred thousand ducats worth of treasure would likely test the honesty of any man, but you may rest assured, Master Chandler, I have no designs on the
Nuestro
Santisimo
Victorio
other than a natural curiosity.”

“May I assume you would like to see her?”

“I would, indeed.”

William stood and held a hand down to Eva. “Come along then. We’ll leave Billy Crab to tend our supper and see that it does not char. That damn bird was a wily beast and difficult to catch. Probably tough as string too, but it will have to do.”

He lit a lantern and led the way along a damp, winding tunnel in the rock. At various points along the way, the light revealed stacks of crates, ropes, and barrels of supplies. They followed the natural curves, pausing where William raised the lantern to show offshoots branching out of the main tunnel like tentacles.

“A man could get lost in here and wander for days without finding the way out. I know this from cruel experience.”

He chuckled and carried on until they came to a long, straight stretch with a light blooming faintly at the far end. The passage began to slope downward and the ground underfoot became soft with moss and mud. Around a final bend the ceiling rose, the walls spread wide on either side and they found themselves in yet another glittering blue-green cavern, this one twice the size of the first, filled with haunting echoes from the constant
ping ping ping
of water dripping from the walls and ceiling.

Dante halted, the sight before him causing his breath to stop somewhere in his throat.

The broken, canted hull of the lost treasure galleon was settled deep in the silt at the bottom of another wide pool. Most of it was underwater, with just a few shattered timbers sticking up above the surface. Her masts were gone. Her enormous superstructure had been razed and scraped away, leaving only the flat, scarred planking of the maindeck behind. The hull itself showed signs of tremendous damage; gashes and dents where the wood was hove-to on the rocks. There were lanterns hung fore and aft on protruding timbers which cast an eerie light down over the sunken wreck and made the ceiling of limestone overhead undulate with shades of brilliant yellow and green. A maze of ropes covered her like a spider’s web stem to stern leading to pulleys and winches that were obviously being used to salvage her treasure.

Dante walked to the water’s edge and stood staring at the giant hulk. “My God,” he whispered. “My good sweet God, she’s real.”

“Aye, she’s real all right,” William said. “Near as I can figure, the storm blew her into the Tongue and smashed her up against the reef at every turn. She likely had no steerage by the time she was in the bight, no sails, no rudder, and was at the mercy of the wind and the sea. Both conspired to send her spinning into a whirlpool that sucked her under the lip of rock and into this cavern.

“From the seaward side, the opening is too low to suppose a ship this size could clear it, but I have seen the effect of stormy seas hereabout. The gap yawns and the tide sweeps out enough for the current to suck a broken hull through. The souls aboard would have had no chance. As you can see,

we found a belly full of the ones who tried to hide.”

He aimed his lantern toward a shadowy side of the cavern and Eva gasped as the light revealed an entire macabre wall stacked high with bones and skulls. Some of the tiny iridescent creatures had taken residence in empty eye sockets making it seem as though hundreds of glittering eyeballs were staring at them.

“Creepish, aye,” William said, chuckling at the looks on both their faces. “Too many to bury but we didn’t know what else to do with them.”

Gabriel’s attention had already shifted to another source of glittering lights. Gold, in the form of plates and goblets and crucifixes were set out on crates and chests. Pillars of gold and silver bullion bars were stacked as high as a man’s shoulders, built between casks full of coins and jewels. Dress swords belonging to the scores of noblemen who had perished on board the galleon formed a bejewelled armory against the cavern wall, the golden hilts set with rubies, sapphires, pearls, and emeralds.

Eva stared, moving slightly behind her father’s shoulder as if the sight of such an enormous treasure was too frightening to contemplate or believe. Even Gabriel, who had seen more than his fair share of wealth taken from captured treasure galleons, could feel his pulse quickening.

“Barely a tenth of what’s down there still,” William commented, standing at the edge of the pool. “Billy ‘n me, we had a couple of native divers helping for a while, but they tried to slit our throats one night and so that was the end of them. It’s slow work, as you can imagine. Billy-boy has lungs the size of barrels but he can only do so much at one time. And he doesn’t let me dive anymore after I came up once with a fish wriggling in my eye hole. The sight gave him the night sweats for weeks afterward.”

“Would you mind if I take a closer look?”

William nodded and reached for a strange, bell-shaped object made of canvas covered with a layer of black tar. He tipped it and hung the lantern to a hook on the inside. “It holds enough air to keep the wick burning for a few minutes. We’ve a larger one rigged for when Billy is diving and needs to take a breath Works a treat, it does.”

Dante unbuckled his belts and dropped them onto the mossy ground. He shed his boots and stockings then untucked his shirt and peeled it over his head. His breeches went next in a display of natural immodesty that had William casting a sidelong glance at his daughter.

“Anything else you would care to tell me?” he asked when Dante’s naked body had sunk below the surface of the pool.

“Not particularly,” Eva said quietly, her cheeks flaming. She followed the glow from the bell shaped light as Dante swam down and disappeared through a large gap in the hull.

“The Pirate Wolf’s cub, eh? He has a brother and together they’ve quite a reputation as the Hell Twins, and having seen him, I vow it is for more than one reason.”

“He saved my life, Father.”

“Aye, so you keep telling me. And what was the payment he demanded?”

Eva met her father’s single accusing eye. “He demanded nothing. What I
gave
him, I gave freely.”

William contemplated the defiant set to Eva’s jaw, a look that reminded him so clearly of her mother that he raised a hand in contrition. “I’ll not attempt to suggest I have the right to chastise you, Daughter. You’re a woman grown and I’ve no right to be shocked or to pass judgment.”

“It is not my intent to shock you, Father. But I am not going to apologize for seeking comfort when I needed it. You are correct: I am not a little girl anymore. You have been gone for four long years and I have had to do a lot of growing up on my own. In the last two months alone, I have been cheated on and lied to; I’ve been shot and burned and left alone on a plague ship. I’ve travelled halfway around the world to find you and if it displeases you that I found a man who is compassionate and thoughtful and exciting enough with whom I might share more than empty words and promises, well then… I am truly sorry for that. The truth is, I went willingly into his bed and would do so again if he wanted me to… which he hasn’t. We’ve been too busy fighting the Spanish and trying to rescue you from God-knows-what fate Muertraigo and your former business partner have planned!”

In the silence that followed, William’s one eye blinked. Standing a few feet away, his naked body gleaming and dripping water, Gabriel Dante looked from father to daughter as the echo of her words resonated off the walls of the cavernous chamber.

Eva turned at the sound of the canvas bell being set on the rocks. Seeing Dante, and not knowing how long he had been standing there or how much he had overheard, she shook her head and whirled away, hurrying back along the passage they had taken from the first cavern.

Billy Crab was still seated by the fire. The capon was missing a leg and there was grease on Billy’s chin, but he did little to acknowledge her return other than to nod his head and continue turning the spit.

Billy grinned, revealing only gums and no teeth. “She’ll be that an’ more when I buy her a big house an’ a big shop an’ hire a hundred cooks to do the bakin’ for her.”

“I am entirely thrilled for you,” she said curtly. It was enough to silence the lad and keep him from venturing forth any more conversation. He contented himself by imagining his mother dressed in silks and brocades, while across the width of the firepit, Eva was left to wonder what would happen next, now that her father had been found and Dante no longer needed to bear the burden of being her sole protector.

CHAPTER TWENTY-
THREE

Gabriel’s thoughts were indeed divided as he dressed and walked back through the passage with Chandler. The older man’s estimate of how much treasure remained in the hold of the wreck could easily be doubled, judging by what Gabriel had seen. While underwater, he had caught murky glimpses of countless broken barrels, crates, and chests in the one large cargo bay, the contents spilled in glittering heaps across the decking. He knew from experience there would be bigger bays packed full, as well as a wealth of personal jewels in the cabins that had been occupied by the rich hidalgos returning to Spain. A hundred men diving for a hundred days might be able to raise most of it to the surface, but they would be hampered by the depth as well as the condition of the sunken hull. He had been hard-pressed to stay under for as long as it took the lantern to burn out, smothered by lack of air, and there were certain to be blocked passageways and collapsed timbers to slow the salvage.

The rest of his musings were distracted by the echo of Eva’s words and he could tell, by the glower on William Chandler’s face, he was not alone in that.

“Well? What are your thoughts, Sir?” Chandler asked, slowing as they drew near the cavern where Billy and Eva sat by the fire.

“I… think we were both caught off guard and were perhaps swept away in a moment of high emotion. I don’t say this as an excuse for my own behaviour, but in truth, what with all that has happened in such a short period of time…”

William stopped.

“I was speaking of the treasure,” he said dryly. “As my Eva said, she’s a woman full grown now and her mind is her own. I’ll not say that I applaud or condone her actions, but considering what she has had to endure, I’ll not pass judgement. Not for the time being at any rate.”

He started walking again. Gabriel blew out a breath and followed, taking several long strides before he came abreast the older man again.

“With regards to salvaging the treasure, the best divers I have in my crew can remain underwater for perhaps two minutes. The lower deck of the hulk is roughly forty feet under, which cuts that time in half.”

“By boat,” Chandler nodded. “The same way the
Victorio
came in. Frankly, we didn’t know there was another access from up top until you dropped down from the rocks. How, by blazing hell, did you find it?”

Dante explained about the shifting green and blue rays of light. “I expect if we look in daylight we’ll find the opening overgrown with weed and gorse.”

“A quick way in but impractical.” They approached the fire and William sat beside Eva, giving her a big hug. “You’re both lucky you didn’t break bones on the slide down.”

Dante settled, cross-legged, opposite them, his hair gleaming wetly in the firelight. “Speaking of getting out, my men will be looking for me come daylight.”

“They’ll not have missed you already?”

Dante glanced at Eva, who managed to avoid eye contact. “No. I doubt they’ll become concerned until morning. How far are we from Spanish Wells?”

“Half a day of hard rowing by the shortest route we’ve managed to find, but a full day if by land. Happily there are no short-cuts for a deep-bellied ship. Muertraigo and the bastard will have to stay in the middle of the channel and keep their sails trimmed and their eyes sharp for underwater coral. You said you hulled one of their ships and another was damaged?”

Gabriel nodded. “One of them was listing badly and unable to follow into the bight. Muertraigo’s crew was making temporary repairs to the mainmast of the
San Mateo
when we last saw him, but we can’t count on that delaying him too long. He will have realized by now that we were not a ship owned by a preening nobleman returning to Spain, and he will be making all haste to the Wells.”

“They’ll find nothing along the way but a few old huts and some even older women selling the bitter, thick brew they call
xocolati
. ‘Tis almost undrinkable the way they mix it with hot peppers and ground maise, but they swear it gives them long life. Billy here stirred up a pot with cane sugar to make it sweet instead of spicy, and it made for a much finer drink.”

He studied the flames for a moment then added, “That was what I was trying to do when we stumbled across the
Victorio
. I was having the natives show me how they pick and roast the cacao beans, then grind them into a fine powder. I was planning to fill a ship with barrels of the beans in the hopes it would restore our fortunes back home.