The Pirate Princess: Return to the Emerald Isle (17 page)

Alonzo raced up the hill that separated the low road from the high road. Meg and Trout were not far behind. Along the way, Meg and Trout were able to whisper back and forth without Alonzo hearing them.

“How did he know we were at the abbey?”

“He must’ve seen us from the high road and come down. I’m gettin’ sick of him creeping up on us all of the time.” Trout looked up and stuck his tongue out behind Alonzo’s back.

“Yeah, I know, but he wants to bring us along to find the treasure.”

“He only wants us ‘cause you have the key.”

“But he has the clues
, and without him we wouldn’t know anything about the treasure.”

“True enough. But I still don’t trust him. He’s slimy as an eel.”

Sitting at the high road, as promised, was a beat up, old land rover. They got inside and soon Al was driving them uncomfortably fast down the narrow road, heading west. A few times along the way they were forced to wait until a cow or sheep cleared off the roadway, but they soon passed the pond where Meg had seen the woman with the white cow. They drove past the beach on the bay where they saw Mr. Woods’s yacht anchored.

“I have always thought that the Sea Witch hid the treasure in a sea cave because she knew these islands better than anyone. I have even searched the blowhole in the past. Is there anything on the compendium that might help us?” Alonzo asked Meg.

“I really am not sure. There are all sorts of things in it and I barely know how to use any of them,” Meg replied.

“I know that, once a day, the sun comes straight down into the grotto for just a short time,” Trout added, using the name the locals called the blowhole.

“There is a sundial. That must be what we need to use.”

“Ah, a sundial.
That sounds very promising. We may just find the treasure after all,” Alonzo said. He pulled the land rover off the road and stopped alongside a well-worn path that headed towards the ocean.

The three walked down the path and soon found themselves under the earth in a rocky cave that had been carved out from millions of years of the violent Atlantic Ocean hitting rock. The echoing sound of waves through the ancient cave was like nothing Meg had ever heard; it was very haunting. The cave had the interesting smell of both deep earth and the sea. Meg looked down past misty rocks where the sun had just begun to shine its light, and there, just below them, a seal was poking its head out of the turquoise water. It had dark gray skin and strange, cloudy white eyes that seemed to be looking straight at her. Meg nudged Trout.

“Look at that,” she pointed to the seal.

“There is a large seal colony just outside this cave. That one must have cataracts,” Alonzo chimed in.

The seal did not shy away. It remained there, looking directly at them. Meg was convinced the seal was her great grandmother, the selkie who had saved her.

As if reading
Meg’s mind, Trout whispered to her, “There she is. She’s watching over you again.”

“Would you let me have the compendium?” Alonzo asked Meg.

She pulled the chain and brought it out of her shirt. Not taking it off her neck, she said, “You can look, but you can’t touch. It’s my family’s treasure.”

She held up the compendium for Alonzo to see. His mouth gaped open. “It is much more exquisite than I imagined. Can you open it, please?”

The light of the sun reflected brightly off the metal. Meg pressed the latch and exposed the inner instruments. She carefully opened up the small sundial that was on hinges. The circular dial opened on top of a semicircular base. Attached to the base was a long, pointed needle that folded out to protrude past the dial. They looked at the markings, but other than the roman numerals representing the hours, there was nothing else remarkable about the sundial.

“Maybe this is the wrong tool,” Meg
said.

“No. You need to hold it in the right place.” Alonzo reached out to grab it, but Meg pulled it back towards her.

“What do you mean?”

He nudged
Meg and Trout further down into the cave until they were standing on the last rock before the water. “You must hold it above your head facing the western ocean at exactly noon, and the reflection will show us where to look. It’s almost noon now. Do it!” Alonzo yelled.

Meg looked at Trout
. She pulled the chain over her head and held the compendium as high as she could. The sun glinted off the metal in an indiscernible spattering of light on the walls of the cave. Meg looked all around her but was unable to see anything specific being lit up. Alonzo was standing behind Meg. Just as she was about to turn to ask him what to look for, he grabbed the compendium and thrust both her and Trout into the water.

The water was cold
, but the shock of what Alonzo had just done brought Meg to the reality of the situation. When she came up, she saw him running out of the cave at top speed.

“What are you doing
?” she screamed to him as he retreated ever further.

“You stupid kids
! Do you really think I would show you how to find my treasure?”

His voice echoed down the blowhole and out to the ocean. Meg began to drag herself out of the water
when she realized Trout wasn’t next to her. She turned and saw him flailing his arms, struggling to keep from drowning. She quickly dove back into the water and pulled him up on the rocks.

Trout had a look of terror on his face
. He coughed violently, spitting out water and gasping for breath.

“You don’t know how to swim?” Meg yelled at him.

Trout looked at her, annoyed at her question, “Of course I don’t, or I would’ve saved meself!” he said between coughs.

Meg started up the cave
. “We’ve got to get my treasure back.” Trout recovered and followed close behind. They ran as fast as they could, but when they got back to the road, all they saw was dust kicking up farther down as Alonzo raced his land rover for his yacht.

“We’ll never get it now,” Meg said disheartened.

“We have one chance. Me da usually is lobstering in a cove on the other side of this hill. If he’s there, maybe we can intercept The Digger before he gets out of the bay,” Trout said, pointing to the rocky hill behind them.

“How are we going to catch him in a row boat?”

“The tourists are gone! Da put the outboard on the currach this morning!”

Meg didn’t even hesitate
. She took off in a run towards the hill with her friend by her side.

Not far into their run, Meg’s heart started to race and she was losing her breath. Even though the incline on the hill was not very steep, Meg wheezed and she was not sure she would be able to make it to the top. The farthest distance Meg had ever run before was out to the dock and into the water back at home. Her premature birth had left her with weaker than normal lungs and even the short run to the dock always winded her. As she struggled to breathe, she thought back to what had just happened. How could she have been so gullible? Trout had told her more than once to not trust that nasty man, but curiosity got the best of her. Alonzo’s echoing voice was stuck in her head.
Stupid kids. Do you really think I would help you find my treasure!
But just the thought of him getting away gave Meg the strength she needed, and she was able to catch her breath and run like she had never run before.

The road led
Meg and Trout up past bogs and then down towards rocky cliffs. They finally reached the edge of the island. In the distance, Meg saw several large, stone outcroppings and beyond, lonely Shark Island. When they looked down to the water, the welcome sight of Trout’s father and brother greeted them. The two were dressed in yellow fishing gear and standing in the currach in the middle of the cove. As they made their way down the rocks Trout whistled. His father looked up and waved to Trout and Meg. He then started his outboard motor and pulled the boat up to them.

“I’m asking
meself, ‘Why it is Megeen and you, who were headed to the east, are now in the west quarter whistling for me when she should be headin’ back to Galway?’”

“Da,
the Digger tricked us and stole Granuaile’s compendium from Meg. He’s around in the bay and gonna be headed out right now if we don’t stop him.”

Trout’
s father looked back and forth at the two desperate kids and an incredulous grin spread across his weather-beaten face. “Well, it’s a good thing I put the outboard on, isn’t it.” Declan reached out and helped Meg and Trout get in the currach. “What about yer vow, Megeen?”

Although it was the last thing on her mind
, she instantly said, “My vow is to stay off a motor boat. This currach is a rowboat with a motor on it…big difference. Just get me to that yacht!”

Declan twisted the handle of the outboard
. The motor growled back, and soon they were darting across the waves faster than Meg could have imagined. Dozens of seals occupied the cove, but despite the speed of the currach and the sound of the motor as it passed through the cove, not one budged an inch. Meg looked around to see if she could find the seal she had seen earlier in the grotto—the one with the cloudy white eyes—but that seal was nowhere to be found. Meg felt certain she would recognize her great grandmother again by those eyes.

The sea water crashed over the bow of the currach as they raced around the point. Meg was
both thrilled and sad at the same time: thrilled, because she had never been on a boat going as fast as the currach was at that moment, and sad because she had lived with her vow for so long and now it was broken. The boat skipped up and down in the rolling ocean. It soon passed the entrance to the blowhole and the grotto. At one point Dennis handed Meg a plastic bowl amid the sea spray raining down all over them.

“What’s this for?” she asked.

“For you to bail the boat out with,” he said matter-of-factly.

Meg immediately started scooping out the water that was collecting in the hull of the currach.
It did not take long before they saw Alonzo’s yacht ahead of them, making its way north towards Boar Island.

“There it is
. We’ll be on it soon. What’ll ya do when we get to it?” Trout asked Meg.

“Board it, of course. I am a pirate princess
, you know.”

“We’re
gonna need these.” Trout handed her a fishing knife that was under the seat and took one for himself.

Declan looked at
Meg and Trout. He smiled, shook his head in disbelief, and then, in a jerking move of his chin toward Meg, shouted to Dennis, “O’Flahertys!” But he kept the currach on course.

Fortunately,
the yacht was moving as slowly as a whale and they gained on it very quickly. They did not see Alonzo anywhere on the decks of the yacht and figured he must have been in the pilot house. Declan pulled the currach alongside the yacht, and Meg and Trout jumped on the aft deck. Trout’s brother tried to grab hold of the hull but they were crashing over big waves which made that impossible. He and Declan were forced to pull behind and follow the yacht.

From the moment they stepped on board,
Meg’s heart was pounding in her chest like a drum and she seriously thought the sound of it would give them away. They were unable to see inside the tinted windows of the yacht as they crept their way towards the door. Meg reached out her hand and turned the knob to the galley door and slowly pulled it open. Alonzo was not inside. The table was covered with scrolls, and books had spilled out from the shelf, the strap that normally held them just dangling. Meg held her finger to her lips to signal for Trout to be quiet as they tiptoed into the cabin. She could hear nothing over the hum of the engines and the waves crashing into the hull. Trout pointed up a ladder to the pilot house and whispered in her ear, “He must be up there.”

Meg
stepped closer to the table. Amid all the scattered papers she saw the diary of Don Bosco wrapped tightly in its leather cover. Impulsively she grabbed it and tucked it into her pants.
Steal from me; I’ll steal from you
, she thought.

“He may have
the compendium on him,” she whispered to Trout, “but let’s check the safe anyway.”

They snuck down the hallway and opened the door to the stateroom.
Meg was practically expecting Alonzo to spring out from behind something, but he was not there either. She went straight to the safe they had found open the night before, and turned the handle again.

“He
really should lock this thing.” She pulled the heavy door open. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw light reflecting off the brassy, haunting gaze of Grace O’Malley’s image on the compendium. She was never so glad to see anything in her life. She grabbed it, and then she and Trout headed back out the way they had come in. Alonzo was still nowhere to be found. They easily walked back out on the aft deck of the yacht, waving for Declan to come back aside them.

“You little
bruja
! You don’t give up do you,” yelled Alonzo as he clambered down a ladder from above. When he got to the deck, Trout lunged at him with the knife. Alonzo swiftly dodged the thrust and hit Trout over the head with his fist, sending him to the deck. The knife went tumbling away from Trout, and Alonzo picked it up. Turning towards Meg, he said, “The Boscos will not lose to your family a second time.” He drew closer to Meg. She had nowhere to go as she was up against the bulkhead with only the ocean behind her. She looked out to the water and was just about to jump in when Trout jumped Alonzo from behind and put him in a full nelson headlock. The knife dropped back to the ground and the two of them wrestled for control. Alonzo was much bigger, but Trout was a pretty strong kid, and managed to hold the headlock. They staggered back and forth coming close to falling off the back of the boat a couple of times when, suddenly, Alonzo bucked his back like a stallion and sent Trout over the side of the boat into the water.

“He can’t swim!” Meg screamed.
She quickly climbed the bulkhead to jump in after Trout. As she dove towards the water, Alonzo grabbed her hand. A bolt of pain shot through her. She felt her shoulder go out of joint, but held onto the compendium with all her strength. She was being dragged by her arm, half in the water, while Alonzo tried to pry open her fingers to get the compendium she was holding so tightly. Meg was in so much pain and was about to give up when the boat crashed over a large wave, breaking Alonzo’s grasp and sending her into the ocean, surprising them both. The sudden release relaxed her own hand enough that she accidently let go, sending the compendium into the air.

Meg hit the water hard but managed to keep her head above it
. She watched as the compendium flew through the air in an arc and splashed out of reach into the ocean. Without hesitation, she dove after it. One-armed and discombobulated from the struggle, she saw her treasure slowly sinking in front of her but could not swim fast enough. She kicked her legs as hard as she could and reached out with her good arm but it was all for naught. Meg’s lungs burned from being deprived of oxygen and she was all but out of breath. She watched with horror as the brassy glimmer of the compendium disappeared into the dark depths of the Atlantic Ocean, and gave up hope of catching it. Resigned to the knowledge that she had lost it, she swam upwards. For a moment, she thought she saw the dark shadow of a seal dive down past her.

Meg
surfaced with a gasp and floated on the waves with what felt like a hole in her heart. What had previously filled that hole was slowly drifting to a watery grave. She bobbed in the waves of the cold Atlantic, just as she had a few days earlier. She did not like the sensation, but she could see the dark hull of the currach against the green of the sea, and was not afraid. And this time, she was not being swept away in a current. Meg treaded water, and watched Declan and Dennis pull Trout into their boat. Alonzo’s yacht was getting away but she did not care. Alonzo did not matter to her anymore. What really mattered was the she had lost Granuaile’s compendium forever. Meg was devastated.

Rising up and down in the swells of the ocean
, Meg started to cry. She looked to the sky and said, “I’m so very, very sorry, Grace.” She blinked away her tears. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something else in the water with her. She spun around and there, barely ten feet away, was the seal from the grotto, staring directly at her.

“Hello,” she said to her
selkie great grandmother. She was hoping she might see a glint of chain hanging from her mouth, but saw nothing. With its head just sticking out of the water, the seal remained motionless, staring at Meg with its foggy white eyes. Meg and the seal stared at each other in silence for what seemed to be a long time. The seal swam slowly towards her and stopped just a few feet away. Meg felt a tingling in her shoulder that had been hurt, and miraculously she was able to move it. She smiled at the seal and was sure it smiled back. Then, from behind, Meg heard the engine of the currach approaching. Upon hearing the boat, the selkie moved as if to dip below the surface. Before going under, Meg called out to it, “Thank you…for everything.” The seal winked one white eye at her and then disappeared beneath the waves.

Declan and Dennis hauled
Meg into the boat where she saw an unconscious Trout laying on the deck.