Across The Sea (15 page)

The rain halted, the sky glowed
grey and a cool, wet breeze ran over Francis’ face.
Whatever
this Stream Blade was
, Francis thought,
it’s over
now.

* * *

That evening, as the small ship
sailed on, Francis lay awake in his hammock, and Bodin lay in his
own bed across the small room.

The rest of the crew slept out
of doors, on deck.

In the dark, Francis could not
help himself; he asked, out of the blue, “At the end of all this,
will I get to see my brother?”

No answer came.

Francis continued to stare at
the dark. The anxiety he had felt during the storm had worn him
thin. All the muscles in his body could not keep his eyelids from
closing. Sleep draped itself over him.

* * *

The next morning, the orbs were
no longer floating out of the ship’s hull. Francis was sitting down
on the port side deck when he saw another ship on the distant
horizon behind them. For the next thirty minutes, he watched as
this small vessel appeared to be following them. He also took
notice that Bodin’s ship was not sailing as fast as usual. Francis
stood and moved closer to the cockpit where Bodin was now speaking
to a man in a red cloak. Francis concentrated with great effort to
take in the words that were spoken between the two. He wanted to
know if Bodin knew who was behind them. He heard nothing coherent,
just low mumbling. By midmorning, the mysterious ship sailed in
alongside them. On her hull was inscribed: The Poisoned Rose.

A smiling man stood in her
cockpit. He was wearing a small, brown hat adorned with a blood red
feather. His crew consisted of eight brawny men dressed in stained,
raggedy clothing who all stood on deck. He turned to the crew of
Bodin’s ship, still smiling. He was missing one front tooth.

“Aye,” greeted the ever-beaming
man. “I pray the Stream Blade was worth the shortcut!”

Francis turned to the cockpit
to see who would answer this jovial fellow. Captain Leonard and
Ratwell looked joyous at the sight of him, both wearing big smiles
themselves.

“Yes,” Bodin answered,
unsmiling. “It was.”

“Is this the boy?” the smiling
man asked, locking eyes with Francis.

“Yes,” Captain Leonard replied.
“That runt is the key.”

Francis felt all eyes from The
Poisoned Rose fall on him. The smiling man’s smile grew wider.
“Well, you are in for some rousing encounters,” he quipped. “I can
assure you.”

The crew of The Poisoned Rose
ripped into laughter. Francis’ face blushed. He detested becoming
the centre of attention for these predatorial men.

“Well, from the look of your
teeth,” Francis shot back. “It looks like you’ve had one rousing
encounter too many.”

Now it seemed everyone laughed,
but the smiling man only smiled.

“Are you going to let him get
away with that?” Captain Leonard asked.

“There’s no time for your usual
amusements,” Bodin interjected, emotionless. “Elroy, what can you
tell us?”

“We’ve been waiting a few
days,” the smiling man told Bodin. “No one has come near nor left
the island.”

As the sun burned bright in
Francis’ face, he turned to the horizon ahead. Far away, where the
water and sky met, he saw a green and brown spot. Francis’ heart
glowed. It was land. He was thrilled to see it again.

A hefty hand fell on his small
shoulder.

“You have a mission today,”
said a deep voice behind him. He recognized it as Bodin’s. He
continued to stare ahead as he heard Bodin add, “You’ll be
perfect.”

The one thing that Francis could
not stop thinking about was Lily. What had happened to Lily?

Unbeknownst to Francis, when
Bodin had sailed away from the city of ships, and Lily was dragged
away from the edge of the Armada, Lily whispered something up to
Martino, the tanned leader of her capture.

“What did you just say?”
Martino asked. Lily noticed his accent. She knew from his dark
green uniform that this man must be with the Spanish Navy.

“I have the map,” Lily
repeated, lying.

Martino stopped.

“The map to what?” he
asked.

“What do you think? Atlantis,
of course.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s on the boat Leonard came
in on. I hid it inside.”

“And why should I believe
you?”

“You believe what you want,”
Lily said. “I just know what I have. Leonard stole it from me and
then I stole it back when I was hiding on his fishing boat.”

“Why didn’t Captain Leonard
tell us this?”

“He saw the map before I stole
it back from him. He knows where the Treasure is now. He just
doesn’t want all you people to know too.”

Martino paused, pondering.

Lily, guessing, added, “I’d
wager a hefty sum that he told you to kill me as soon as you caught
me, didn’t he?”

Martino stared down at her, his
hazel eyes confused.

“They wanted you to shut me up
before I could tell you what I know.”

“And why do you want
us
to know?”

“Right now, I don’t care who
knows. I just want to save my skin.”

“And how do you figure to
accomplish this?” Martino asked, annoyed now with this strange,
little girl before him.

“I know how men feel about this
treasure. I know they want it more than anything they’ve ever
wanted. And I have the map that leads straight to it. But the map,
you see, was made by my father. In code. And since he’s long dead,
I’m the only one who can decode it.”

“Your father?” Martino gave her
a sceptical look.

“He found the Treasure over two
years ago,” Lily revealed, still lying. “And it’s not where that
lying troll Bodin is leading everyone.”

“And how did Leonard decipher
your map?” Martino asked, after pausing for another moment to
think.

“I don’t know,” Lily answered.
“Once he saw it, he laughed and told me he had it all figured
out.”

“Very well. Where is this
map?”

“I told you already. It’s
aboard the fishing boat. I wrapped it up in one of the sails inside
the sail compartment.”

“All right,” Martino said,
turning to two of his men. “Alfredo, Alphonso, come with me to
Captain Leonard’s boat. The rest of you, bring the little girl
below.”

“I’ll need bread and water,”
Lily added, trying to sound like all this was old hat to her, but
inside she was petrified. She had just acquired herself some time.
Time enough, she hoped, before Martino came back for her to fashion
some improvements to the lie she had just fabricated.
I have to
get off this fleet
, she thought to herself.
Or else I’m not
going to get to live much longer.

* * *

Not an hour passed before Lily
was brought back up on deck to see Martino again. She looked up
into Martino’s hazel eyes as if everything she had told him before
had been the absolute truth.

“Well,” Martino said. “We found
your map.”

Lily never looked away from his
tanned face.

“I have shown it to the King,”
Martino continued. “His Majesty would like to speak with you.”

His Majesty?
Lily
thought.
What majesty? The King of Spain?

Lily tried hard not to look
surprised. She had to play on as if she had already known that the
King of Spain was aboard this fleet.

“If that’s the way it is,” she
replied. “Then that’s the way it is.”

Lily was led to the King’s
chambers, the same that Bodin and Francis had visited only one
evening before. As they entered, her eyes devoured the grand space.
On the raised floor at the opposite end of the room, she saw him,
with his crown atop his shaved head, sitting in his chair. Lily
knelt and bowed.
I have to look like I know what I’m
doing.

Martino and the guards bowed
down to their king as well.

“Where did this map come from?”
the King asked.

“My father,” Lily answered,
looking up. She knew enough not to stare at him. Martino elbowed
her, so Lily added, “Your Majesty.”

“Who is your father?” the King
asked, his face blank.

“He’s dead now, your Majesty.
He died at sea. His name was Gregory Still.”

“And how did he come into
possession of this map?”

“My father worked on ships,
your Majesty. And one day some of his crew got sent to a deserted
island to gather driftwood. My father was all by his lonesome, in
the middle of the forest, when a large, black bird flew right over
his head, almost knocking him over.”

Martino rolled his eyes.

“He ran up a hill, chasing
after this bird. He’d never seen a bird this big before. He came to
a cavern and inside, right from its nest, the bird just stared up
at him. Then it moved. Just a bit. But enough for my father to see
that it was sitting on top of a handle, like it had laid it like an
egg. My father reached right in, and the bird flew away. The handle
was all crusted over with hard, hard dirt. My father pulled on it.
Nothing moved. He pulled on it again. Still nothing. He pulled on
it a third time; with his arms, with his legs, everything. And this
time, in that pull, he heard a loud noise, like something really
old finally coming loose.

“And there it was… a trapdoor.
He lifted it completely and looked down below, but all he saw was
the dark. He lit a branch and threw it down. He saw something then
that almost made him keel over. From the flame of the branch, my
father saw that there was an entire room under him. The walls were
gold and the flame reflected off of them, really strong. My father
didn’t think twice; he jumped right in, and landed onto a mound of
loose jewels. He was surrounded by jewels. And gold. It was
everywhere.”

Lily glanced up at Martino. He
was staring at her, wanting to know more. She turned to the king.
His face was no longer blank; it was bored. Lily felt as if her
heart had just dropped to her feet. Her life depended on him
believing her and being excited about her map. Here he was,
however, looking indifferent; as if he wanted all this silliness to
end. Lily, solely of desperation, added, “And there was something
else. Something other than the jewels…”

“What?” the King spoke. He
leaned forward, as if these were the words he had been waiting to
hear.

“Yes,” Lily answered, nodding.
“My father told me.” Lily was now hesitant about what she should
say this “something else” was. The King’s eyes narrowed, appraising
her and she could tell that he had expectations of what this
“something else” was. If she said the wrong thing, he would know
for certain that she had made up the entire tale of the island and
the treasure. “It was a large gold chest,” she revealed. “But he
couldn’t open it. It was locked. And he couldn’t find where the
keyhole was, or a key. He looked everywhere in that room of jewels
for a key, but he never found any.”

“And?” the King asked.

“He ran out of time,” Lily
said. “He had to row back to the ship with his crew. But he didn’t
tell anybody what he found. He knew that if he did, the ship’s
master would take everything for himself. That night, my father
made the map. He’d come back one day for the whole lot. He gave me
the map to keep safe. And then he died, not so long after.”

“Martino and his men,” the King
began, “searched where you indicated and this is what they
found.”

Martino unfolded a white cloth
onto his lap. It was Lily’s flag with the three birds in flight.
Lily had stashed it aboard Leonard’s stolen boat. “How is this a
map to a treasure?” the King asked.

“The three birds are all the
one bird my father saw,” Lily answered, without hesitation. “The
three different places the bird is on the map is a code that tells
you where you can find the island and where you can find the
treasure. And since my father died at sea, I’m the only one who can
tell you what the map says. My father showed me how.”

“Well,” the King said. “It is
very fortunate for me that you are in my possession. Tell me now
how to decipher this map and I will not have you extinguished
within the hour.”

Lily knew that if she pretended
to decipher the fake map now, there was a good chance they would
kill her soon afterward anyway since she would no longer be of any
use to them. She had to say something now to keep this king from
doing away with her.

“I’m not sure how to find the
island. But I think you, your Majesty, might have an idea.” Lily
was guessing but she had an inkling that this was the correct
direction to take. She anticipated that they must already have an
island in mind.

“I do,” the King said,
expressionless.

“If the island you’re thinking
of is the right island, then when we get there, I’ll be able to
tell you where the treasure and this gold chest are. I can’t just
tell you off the top of my head. I have to actually be on the
island to know, your Majesty.”

The King looked into her eyes.
Lily could sense that he was unsure of her.

“What about Gustavo Leonard?”
he asked. “Why would he want you dead if you were the only one who
could decipher your father’s map.”

“He thought he had the map
figured out from my father’s story. He wants to betray you and take
the treasure for himself.” Lily then added, just to keep the King’s
interest piqued, “He was especially interested when I told him
about that gold chest.”

“I am certain he was,” the King
said. “Martino, take the girl back. Malora will be arriving in the
next few days. He shall be able to verify if there is actually a
code in that… drawing.”

Lily did not let herself think
about her situation too much lest her facial expression gave her
away. She had, yet again, earned herself more time. She had until
this Malora fellow appeared to improve on her lie or come up with
another plan altogether.