The Guardians of Island X (15 page)

Sina still looked uncertain, but she gave in when Kapu began to lead the way, bringing with him two sets of stilts to help build the tree houses.

They recounted their stories on the way back to camp, and Scarlet did her best to translate for Jem, who still looked a bit stunned by her latest talent. It turned out that Sina, Kapu, and a few of the elders had been immune to the Island Fever, surviving while all the others perished. The elders had passed on over the years, though, leaving the pair to fend for themselves.

“So no other grown-ups survived?” Scarlet had to ask.

Sina shook her head. “None.”

“None,” Scarlet repeated slowly, swallowing her disappointment. She knew it had been unlikely, but hearing it for certain was harder than she’d thought it would be. To distract herself, she began to tell the
Islanders about the Lost Souls’ mission as pirates and their new mission as guardians of Island X and the treasure everyone was after.

“Treasure?” Kapu asked. “What treasure?”

“Those rubies in the aras’ nests,” Scarlet replied.

The Islanders burst out laughing. “Those old rocks?”

Scarlet explained that Old Worlders thought rubies were precious and even traded them for other valuable things like ships and weapons.

Sina and Kapu shook their heads in disbelief.

“So all those men we’ve been spying on came for the red rocks?” Kapu asked.

“Sort of. The pirates—the scruffier ones—know about the rubies. They just don’t know where to find them. The King’s Men—the ones in blue coats—came for things like wood, spices, and maybe even aras. But we’re afraid they’ll find out about the rubies, too.”

“Sina pegged one of the blue coats to the tree yesterday after the man killed the pig!” Kapu said proudly.

Scarlet nodded. “That’s what we figured. Well, actually Jem figured it out himself. Excellent shot, by the way.”

Sina shrugged as if trying to look modest.

Scarlet translated the conversation for Jem, who didn’t bother trying to look modest about his discovery. Then she turned back to her new friends and said casually, “I can’t help but notice your clothes.” She pointed to Sina’s dress. “That must’ve been a jolly coat.”

Sina blushed. “It was yours, wasn’t it? I’m sorry,” she said. Then she added slyly, “But if it makes it any better,
we
didn’t actually steal it.” She whistled, and a small black monkey with a kink in his tail and fur that stood up on one side of his head scampered up to them.

“Hey!” Jem cried. “I know him!”

“You!” Scarlet exclaimed. “Little scalawag!” The monkey gave her the same hopeful look that had convinced her to part with her boots to begin with. Scarlet had to laugh. “But wait. You can communicate with this monkey?”

The Islanders nodded. The monkey scrambled up onto Kapu’s shoulder and began picking through the boy’s hair. Kapu swatted his fingers away.

“You can feel what he’s feeling?” she asked.

Sina nodded.

“
And
talk back?”

She nodded again.

“But how?”

Sina shrugged. “We talk to him in our language. He understands.”

Scarlet walked in silence for a moment, digesting this. Then she turned to Jem and relayed the information.

Jem jumped at the news. “Then my theory might be right!” he cried. “If the island animals have learned the Islander language, it only makes sense that the pigs learned Old World English! Scarlet, this is huge! It’s a groundbreaking discovery!”

Scarlet only nodded. She’d had quite enough groundbreaking discoveries for one day.

When they reached the edge of the clearing, Sina paused, her eyes darting around as if looking for an
escape route. But Kapu marched right out of the jungle so his sister had no choice but to follow.

“Captain!” Liam and Gil called as they came running across the grass.

“We were wondering where you were,” Liam cried. “We need you to settle an—” He stopped short when he saw the two newcomers. “What the—?”

“Liam and Gil, meet Sina and Kapu,” said Scarlet.

“Are they…?” Gil stared down at Kapu, then up at Sina, and his lower lip trembled.

“What’s wrong, Gil? You act like you’ve never seen an Islander before,” Jem said, brushing past the boy. “How very Old World of you.”

Scarlet grinned. Beside her, Sina whispered something to Kapu.

Within moments, they were surrounded by wide-eyed Lost Souls introducing themselves to the Islanders and apologizing to Jem. Finally, after she and Kapu had been thoroughly overwhelmed with all the new names, Sina pulled Scarlet aside.

“So the pirates know about the treasure?” she asked.

“Well, they know for sure now that it’s rubies,” Scarlet replied, “but they don’t know that they’re in the aras’ nests.”

“You’re sure.”

“Well, yes.” Scarlet looked into the girl’s eyes, which had turned wary once again. Kapu joined them, looking puzzled.

“Then why,” said Sina, “is one of them here?”

“Huh?”

“One of the pirates,” Kapu joined in. “Right there.” He pointed behind her.

Scarlet spun around. The rest of the Lost Souls did the same.

“What?” Gil Jenkins cried. “Why are you all looking at me?”

Jem had seen Scarlet come close to throttling people before. Like Elmo, the time he dropped his dagger from the crow’s nest and it narrowly missed her head. And of course Lucas Lawrence when he defected to the
Dark Ranger
with the treasure map. But judging by the look on her face, he doubted she’d ever wanted to wring a person’s neck so badly than she did just then.

Tim must have figured the same.

“Captain, no!” he yelled as she surged through the crowd, straight for Gil Jenkins.

And Gil must have seen it coming, too, for he immediately covered his throat. “They’re lying!” he cried. “Whatever they said, it’s a lie!”

Jem dove between them just in time, blocking Scarlet’s path. “Wait, Captain! At least tell us what’s wrong before you kill him.”

“Let’s let Gil tell us, shall we?” Scarlet ducked past him and grabbed Gil by the collar. “What did you do?” She lifted the boy a few inches off the ground.

Gil squirmed and kicked, but Scarlet held tight. “Erm…what’d they say I did?”

Scarlet spoke through clenched teeth. “Gil, have you been meeting with Lucas Lawrence?”

The Lost Souls gasped.

Jem smacked his forehead. “I
knew
something was
going on! I kept seeing him in the jungle by himself!”

Scarlet tightened her grip on Gil’s collar. “Tell me.”

For a moment Gil looked frightened. Then he pressed his lips together, narrowed his eyes, and said nothing.

“What were you doing out there alone?”

Gil spat out of the corner of his mouth. “Can’t a pirate go off by himself to do his business?”

“Not if your business is being a
traitor
!” Jem yelled. He could have kicked himself for not tackling Gil the first time he saw him in the jungle alone.

“Smitty,” Scarlet called, “what’s the island warrior equivalent of a keelhaul?”

Smitty leaned over her shoulder, grinning wickedly. “I’m glad you asked, Cap’n. I was just going to suggest that very method of torture, reserved for prisoners who’ve committed the very worst crimes.”

“And what would that be?” Scarlet asked without taking her eyes off Gil. He avoided her gaze.

“I call it ‘target practice.’ It’s for the good of Island X, of course. I mean, we have to practice our archery skills before taking aim at the pirates and King’s Men. Practice makes perfect, they say.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that, too,” said Scarlet.

“So we strap the prisoner to a tree, nice and tight, and put, say, a papaya on his head. Then, all together, we let our arrows fly right at that big, juicy fruit.”

Gil’s pale face took on a shade of green.

“But, Smit,” Scarlet growled, her eyes still on Gil, “the Lost Souls have terrible aim. What if we miss?”

Smitty leaned in closer. “It’s a chance we’ve got
to take, isn’t it? But I’m sure the prisoner won’t mind losing his nose or maybe an eye or two for the good of Island X.” He reached over Scarlet’s shoulder to poke Gil Jenkins hard, right between the eyes.

Gil looked as if he might spew. Scarlet lifted him an inch higher. “What. Did. You. Do?”

The boy’s face crumpled like a wrinkly piece of fruit. “He lied to me,” he muttered.

“Who lied?” asked Jem.

“Lucas,” Gil whispered. “I hate him.”

“Join the crew.” Scarlet dropped Gil onto his rear end but didn’t let go of his collar. “Explain yourself.”

Gil looked up at Scarlet, then back to the ground. “I…I met with Lucas,” he said.

“Speak up!” someone called from the back of the group.

“I met with Lucas!” Gil shouted, still not looking up from the ground. A few Lost Souls gasped. Others groaned. “But here’s the thing: I wasn’t going to. I didn’t want any more to do with him than any of you. I
didn’t
.” Finally he looked up at them. “But none of you would trust me. You didn’t let me go on any missions, you gave me the worst jobs, you accused me of stealing when I hadn’t done
anything
!” He looked at Jem. “I
didn’t
steal your knife, Fitz. And I
was
just doing my business in the jungle the other day. I mean, come on, mate. All we eat is fruit!”

“Oh,” was all Jem could think of to say to that.

Gil chewed on his lip and studied his dirty fingernails. “So, since you didn’t pick me to go spying, I figured I’d go
by myself and maybe discover something that would…help us, you know…make people respect me.”

Jem bit his lip, too. That he could understand.

“And early yesterday morning I decided to go find Uncle Finn and Thomas.”

“Uncle Finn and Thomas!” Jem echoed. In all the commotion, he’d completely forgotten about the missing explorers. “Did you really?”

Gil nodded. “But I guess I got too close to the pirates’ camp, and a few of ’em found me. Those swabs were threatening to boil me alive, but then Lucas showed up and told them to shove off. Then he said that if I told him what and where the treasure was, he’d give me a sack of doubloons and let me join the
Dark Ranger
pirates and share in the booty.”

“Gil!” Scarlet cried. “You didn’t!”

“No!” Gil looked up at his captain, tears gathering in his eyes. “I didn’t. I said I’d think about it, and he let me go. And I
wouldn’t
have told him. But then this morning, everything scuttled again. I wasn’t allowed to go spying. Everyone had to know what I was up to, all the time. It’s always the same, and it’s not fair!”

Jem swallowed, torn between feeling sorry for Gil, ashamed at accusing him without reason, and terrified of what was coming next.

“So I went and told him,” Gil finished in a whisper.

Tim and Smitty lunged for the traitor, but Scarlet raised her arm to stop them.

“Wait,” she said, still looking down at Gil. “Then what happened?”

Two fat tears rolled down Gil’s dirty cheeks. “That biscuit-eater went back on his word. He didn’t pay me. And he denied ever saying I could join his crew.”

Jem rubbed his forehead, suddenly feeling very tired. The boy sitting cross-legged on the grass before them was a scoundrel, absolutely. But this whole situation might have been avoided if he’d been treated just a little differently—by Scarlet, by Jem, by everyone. He could tell that Scarlet, too, wanted to hold her head in her hands and curse the world. But after a moment she cleared her throat and addressed the crew.

“In case you didn’t get that, Lucas now knows what and where the treasure is.” The Lost Souls burst into shouts and curses, but she raised a hand. “Quiet, everyone.” She turned back to Gil, who was picking his fingernails. “What Gil did was wrong. If we had a long drop here, he’d be cleaning it for eternity. And that would only be the beginning of the punishment.” The boy hung his head even lower. “But we’ll deal with that later. Right now, we’ve got an invasion on our hands. Gil, what else can you tell us?”

Gil swallowed. “Well, Lucas did say they’d get the King’s Men out of the way before coming for the treasure.”

A murmur rippled through the crowd.

“The King’s Men? Really?”

Jem noticed a strange look crossing Scarlet’s face. “What do you mean, get them out of the way?” she snapped.

Gil shrugged. “Attack them, leave no prisoners—the usual.”

“Could that…work in our favor?” Jem asked, reasoning that at least it would get one enemy out of the way.

Scarlet ignored him. “When will the pirates attack them?”

“Soon, I guess,” said Gil. “Maybe tonight?”

Jem looked up at the early-evening sky. This day already felt like one of the longest of his life, and it was nowhere near over.

“All right, crew,” said Scarlet. “You heard him. Gather your weapons. Search for ambush spots. We have to be ready for them and head them off before they get anywhere near the treasure.”

“What about Gil?” Smitty pointed at him. “What do we do with him?”

Scarlet looked down at the boy. He raised his eyes to meet hers, then quickly lowered them again. “Well?” she said. “What do you think?”

When he spoke, it was barely more than a whisper. “Just let me be part of the crew.”

Scarlet studied him a moment longer, then crouched down so that she and Gil were nose to nose. “If you betray us,” she hissed, “I will have your sorry rear end carried off by the stinkiest, hairiest, nastiest wild pigs. See if I don’t.”

Gil nodded vigorously. “I won’t. I promise.” He hopped to his feet.

The Lost Souls scurried off every which way. Jem looked around and jumped at the sight of Sina and Kapu behind him. He’d completely forgotten about them.

Scarlet brought the Islanders up to speed in that strange way of communicating they had—a word here, an intense stare there. Jem couldn’t begin to understand how she did it. When she’d finished, Sina and Kapu both looked thoroughly overwhelmed.

“Maybe Kapu and I can build the base of a tree house so we’ll have a place to ambush them from,” Jem suggested.

“Good idea,” said Scarlet. But she seemed distracted—as if some animal were trying to get her attention again.