The Ship of Lost Souls 1 (14 page)

Forgetting his disguise, Jem ducked behind Emmett, remembering the captain screaming “Plank! Plank!” condemning Uncle Finn to death.

“Stand your ground,” Emmett whispered, taking a few steps toward the pirates. Jem gulped and shuffled after him. Captain Wallace and Pete stared up at them, transfixed, as they slowly backed away on their hands and knees. The terror on their faces eased Jem's nerves, and as he reminded himself what these two had done to his uncle, his unease gave way to anger.

“P-p-p-please,” the captain said, crawling backward until he hit the wall. He wiped his rodent nose and squinted at the Lost Souls. “Don't hurt us. Take a doubloon or two. Oh heck, take a sack of them. A small sack, mind you. And leave the shiny ones, please. Oh, and don't touch the rubies. I'm partial to rubies—”

“Captain.” Pete shot his leader an incredulous look. “Captain, shut up!”

“Don't you tell me to shut up. I know how to handle this.”

“Captain, you're trying to reason”—Pete threw his arms up in the air—“with the dead!”

“Oh, and I suppose you have a better idea?”

“Well, actually—”

“Ahem.” Tim cleared his throat, and the pirates looked up as if they'd suddenly remembered the four ghouls standing before them. Jem rolled his eyes.

“Look, let me try,” Pete said. He turned to the boys. “Just listen for a moment. We're good pirates. We follow the laws of the sea. If we've offended you in some way, we're very sorry. Won't happen again.”

Suddenly Captain Wallace jumped to his feet, hand on the cutlass at his hip. “That's it!” he cried, and jerked his weapon out of its sheath. Its blade glimmered in the low light. “I've had enough of this. If I'm going to die at the hands of the Lost Souls, I'm going to die fighting! Make sure they bronze my boots, Pete!”

And with that, he rushed toward the Lost Souls, his blade aimed right at Jem's nose. Jem ducked and dove out of the way, heart pounding, and the others spread out across the room. Pete scrambled to his feet and drew his weapon, too, looking less enthused at the prospect of dying a martyr.

Captain Wallace bounced off the wall and spun to face them again. Jem reached into his pocket and drew out his knife without tearing his eyes away from the captain's twitching lip. With a great “Argh!” the pirate charged once more, straight for him. But just as Captain Wallace was bounding across the cabin, a foot reached out and connected with his shin. The pirate turned a double-somersault and landed in a heap at Jem's feet. His cutlass spun across the floor, and Jem ran after it, snatching it up before Pete could. Then he turned toward the door to see the scaring team pouring in and surrounding the pirates. He had no doubt it had been Scarlet who tripped the captain.

Her whispers soon emanated from a cloak beside him. “Great work, Fitz. We'll take over now. Keep searching for clues.”

Sopping with sweat under his cloak, Jem grasped his new weapon and started for the door, flanked by Tim and the twins. Outside the cabin, the four stopped and burst out laughing.

“Did you see their faces?” Tim cried.

Emmett mimicked Captain Wallace's moment of truth, brandishing an imaginary cutlass. “Bronze my stinky boots, Pete!” They doubled over, gasping for breath.

“All right,” Jem said, finally regaining his composure. “Let's go on. We still have some searching to do.”

Together, they continued down the hall. The next two rooms were sleeping quarters, equally smelly as the first, with no sign of Uncle Finn or any of his belongings. They had only one more room to search, at the very end of the hall. Jem shoved its door open, stepped inside, and froze.

“What d'ya see, Jem?”

“Is it your uncle?”

It was not Uncle Finn, no. Jem wouldn't have been quite so surprised to find his uncle mending sails on the
Dark Ranger
as he was to find Lucas Lawrence.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Lucas Lawrence lowered his needle and thread slowly and with a sly half smile that made Jem's fingers tremble as they closed around the hilt of Captain Wallace's cutlass underneath his cloak.

“Visitors.” Lucas rose to his feet. “What a pleasant surprise.”

The Lost Souls looked at one another, eight bewildered eyes peering out from black hoods.

“Lucas,” Tim finally managed to squeak. “What are you doing here?”

“Wouldn't you love to know?” Lucas smirked. “But I think you'll just have to wait and see. For now, I'd get off this ship if I were you.” He cast a scornful glance at their disguises. “Those aren't going to protect you forever. Not from
real
pirates.”

Jem was grateful for the hood that hid his open mouth. He had no idea how Lucas had gotten there or what on earth the boy was doing mending the
Dark Ranger
's sails. But he did know one thing: If the other pirates still believed in the curse of the Lost Souls—and it seemed, judging from their reactions on deck, that they did—they wouldn't be so easily fooled for long, not with Lucas around to set them straight. Jem also knew from the look in the boy's eyes that there was no sense hanging around to reason with him. It was a satisfied look, a look that said everything was going according to plan.

“Let's go.” Jem spun on his heel and marched back out the cabin door, followed closely by his three teammates. They stomped side by side down the hallway without a word, but Jem could feel the confusion and fear hanging over them. He swung into the cabin where they'd left Scarlet to torture Pete Morgan and Captain Wallace.

She and her crew had been busy. The pirates' hands and feet were bound with scraps of cloth that looked like they'd been ripped off Captain Wallace's now-raggedy trouser legs. The captives sat back-to-back in the center of the room as the Lost Souls, daggers and cutlasses drawn, marched around them in a circle shrieking, “Give us our man, give us our man.” The captain, who'd been declaring his intention to die a hero the last time Jem saw him, was now blubbering like a baby.

Jem stepped right into the middle of the circle and grabbed the sleeve of the ghoul whose shrieks sounded most like Scarlet. “We've got to get out of here,” he whispered. “It's Lucas. He's here. He's joined the
Dark Ranger
pirates.”

Scarlet froze. For a moment, she said nothing. Then, from the depths of her hood came the nastiest curse Jem had ever heard—so nasty, in fact, that it made both Captain Wallace and Pete Morgan blush and look down at their boots. Scarlet broke away from the circle and swept out the door, leaving Captain Wallace and Pete Morgan tied up on the floor and looking bewildered.

“Where? Where is he?” Her voice sounded strangled. Jem pointed, then hurried behind while Scarlet charged down the hall toward the last door. “Lucas!” she yelled, throwing herself across the threshold and right onto the boy's worktable where she proceeded to lunge for Lucas's throat. “What the flotsam do you think you're doing? Answer me! This is what you do, after all the Lost Souls have given you?” She released his neck and began to pound his chest with her fists. “How could you?”

“Pull her off,” said Tim, who had appeared beside Jem. Together they grabbed Scarlet's arms and pulled her back. Lucas looked a little surprised, but all in all unfazed by Scarlet's wrath. He almost looked like he wanted to laugh, and Jem prayed he wouldn't; that would send Scarlet over the edge and straight for her cutlass for sure.

“Captain, stop,” Jem said to her. “It'll do no good. We've got to get off this ship.”

“That's right,” Lucas spoke up, straightening his collar. “Listen to little Fitz and get your sorry selves off my ship. Or you'll pay for it, mark my words.” Then he smiled with all his yellow teeth. “Actually, you're going to pay for it, anyway.”

Scarlet stopped struggling at that point. Her fists fell to her sides. “Swig, gather the crew. Let's go.”

“What's going on?” some of the Lost Souls murmured as they climbed the stairs back to the main deck. “Someone tell us what's up.” But they had to wait until the stealers had been alerted and herded back to the grappling iron, and all three teams had slid back down the rope onto the
Hop
before they found out the reason behind the hasty retreat.

“Lucas Lawrence?” Ronagh screeched when she heard.

“That scurvy swine! That scourge of the seven seas!” Smitty slashed the rope that connected the two ships as if he wished it were Lucas's right arm.

Jem looked up at the
Dark Ranger
as the
Margaret's Hop
began to pull away. Captain Wallace peered over the edge at them, lips twitching into a slow smile. “Ha!” the captain yelled, then turned back to his crew. “I scared off the Lost Souls! Did you all see that? The Lost Souls cowered at the very sight of me!”

Well, Jem thought, it seemed that Lucas hadn't gone and revealed their identity just yet. But it was only a matter of time.

A few Lost Souls scurried about tending to the sails, but most stayed to watch Scarlet pace the main deck, muttering, “What does it mean? What does it mean?” Then she stopped and scanned the crew. “Gil Jenkins! Where is he?” she bellowed.

Smitty plunged into the crowd and emerged, after a brief scuffle, with a squirming Gil Jenkins, who'd been a stealer during the raid. Someone produced a chair, and Smitty shoved the boy down onto it.

“Ow!” Gil protested. “Why me?”

“Should I tie 'im up?” Smitty asked Scarlet, who regarded Gil as if he were a shark circling the ship.

“Yes. Get the thickest, itchiest rope you can find.” To Gil she said, “I've got some questions for you, and you'd better be ready to answer.”

“Right,” Smitty chimed in, “like what do you know about this?”

“And how did this happen?” Tim hollered from his place behind the ship's wheel, steering them through the black night.

“And what does this
mean
?” Scarlet bellowed.

“All right.” Jem stepped forward, hoping he could help by keeping a logical, cool head. “Everyone calm down. One question at a time.”

“Right.” Scarlet took a deep breath. “Gil, you might be Lucas's friend, but you're also a Lost Soul. You must tell us what you know. First off, how would the pirates have found Lucas on the island?”

Gil grunted and shrugged. Smitty whipped his dagger out of his boot and pointed it between the boy's eyes.

“All right, all right. I'm guessing that since Lucas went to the trouble of learning all about the other pirate ships over the years, he used some kind of code or smoke signal to attract their attention.” Gil shrugged again. “But since I wasn't there, how would I know?” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

The answer made sense to Jem, who recalled Lucas's friendly exchange with Deadeye Johnny a few days earlier.

Scarlet drew another deep breath, evidently trying to keep a cool head herself. “All right then,” she said through clenched teeth. “So Lucas decided he'd rather be a Dark Ranger than a Lost Soul. The next question is, what about our identity? Will he tell his new crew who we really are?”

“Of course he will,” Smitty moaned. “He wants to see us fail, and he knows his new crew'll thank him nicely for telling our secret.”

“He didn't even take the oath when he left!” Monty whispered.

“That's it. We're doomed!” Emmett wailed.

“We'll never fool anyone now,” Edwin added.

“Wait a minute,” Ronagh called out, and twenty-two heads turned to her. “Do you think Lucas'll take the pirates to the treasure?”

Twenty-two heads swiveled back to Gil, who was studying the calluses on his big toes.

“He couldn't,” Smitty said. “He doesn't have a map.”

“Would he need one? He might be able to remember the directions,” Tim said.

“Um . . . ,” Gil said to his calluses. He tugged at his collar as if it were a noose.

“Um
what
?” Scarlet's voice held daggers.

“Um . . . Lucas . . . um . . . might have, maybe . . . oh, scurvy. He's got the map.”

“What?” Jem had to grab Scarlet's arms so that she wouldn't throw herself on Gil and wring his neck before he could explain. “What do you mean he has the map? When did he take it?”

“When he stole Jem's knife.” Gil's voice was quiet now.

The announcement hit Jem like a blow to the head. He hadn't thought to check on the map since they'd returned from Island X.

“Who . . . who knew about this?” Scarlet wrenched herself out of Jem's grasp and turned to the rest of her crew. “WHO KNEW?”

No one answered, no hands were raised.

“Lucas only told me,” Gil said. “Look, I'm not happy about this, either. When Lucas stole the map, he said that when we mutinied, I could expect a big slice of the booty. And now I won't see a speck of it.”

Jem caught Scarlet's arms again before they could wrestle Gil into a headlock. He almost didn't, though, tempted to let the little traitor pay.

“What are we going to do?” Ronagh asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

Jem looked around at a sea of dejected charcoal-coated faces. Within a few minutes they'd gone from lively pirates to, well, lost souls. He could tell they were seconds away from giving up completely.

“We're going to go. To the treasure. Right now.” As soon as the words escaped his mouth, Jem wondered where they'd come from. But he didn't take them back.

“Fitz, are you crazy?” Edwin said. “Lucas has our map
and
a gang of grown-up pirates on his side. We can't compete with that.”

“Wait,” Scarlet spoke up, wriggling out of Jem's hold. She looked at him as if he'd just invented a long drop that cleaned itself. “Jem's right. We're going, anyway. We've got to.”

“But we've got no map!” someone yelled.

“Then we'll try to remember the way,” Scarlet shot back.

“Their ship's faster than ours!” another pirate protested.

“If we get a head start, we might beat them,” Scarlet said.

“They're bigger than us!” Ronagh said.

“We're smarter,” Jem returned, and a few Lost Souls dared to giggle.

Scarlet nodded. “By the time the pirates reach Island X, we'll be waiting onshore to scare them off.”

The pirates began to murmur among themselves. “But how?” one asked. “What if Lucas has already told them we're only children? They won't be scared of us.”

Scarlet paused for a moment. “Then it's time for us to be real pirates,” she said. “It's time for us to show them, and ourselves, that we're more than just children.”

“We are?” Ronagh had to ask.

“What do you mean, ‘We are?' We can pillage with the best of 'em. Swig could sail blindfolded in the fog, and Liam's sneer'll make your heart stop. We've got a ship that's never let us down. I'd say we're some of the best pirates around, of any age, and it's time we face these old sea swabs and conquer them.”

The murmurs grew louder, and the crowd of Lost Souls began to wiggle and sway. Jem felt their energy swelling, and he decided that now would be the perfect time to prove their faith in their captain.

“All right then,” he said. “Let's put it to a vote. All who want to stand behind Captain McCray and prove that children can be pirates, too, raise your hands.”

Scarlet shot him a look of panic, but it was too late. Her status as captain had been challenged outright. Again.

The first hands in the air belonged to Smitty, Tim, Ronagh, Liam, and of course Jem. Then a few other hands shot up out of their cloaks. Followed by a few more. The night sky was already full of quivering fingers when Gil stood up to add his to the scene. His friends, seeing this, quickly added theirs.

Jem counted twenty-two hands, including his own. “Right then.” Relieved, he gave Scarlet a grin. Then he yelled, in his most piratelike voice, “To Island X! Full speed ahead!”