Always Neverland (16 page)

That wasn't very comforting.

I leaned my head against Peter's house and prepared myself for a long night.

I must have fallen asleep. One minute, I was staring into the dark, determined to stay awake until Peter returned. The next, I woke, still clutching my new belt.

A terrified bell-like wail filled the air, and a flickering light zipped frantically over the Lost Boys' hammocks.

“What's wrong, Tink?” Dibs said, sitting up.

“I thought that she was banished,” Kyle said, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

“She says, it's Peter,” Button whispered. I couldn't see his face in the dark, but he sounded horrified. “He's been captured.”

Chapter 27.
Tink Asks for Help

F
or a moment, everyone held their breath.

“Impossible,” said Dibs fiercely.

“That's not funny, Tink,” Prank said. I had never heard him sound angry before.

“Do you honestly expect us to believe that Buttercup was captured yesterday, Kyle was captured today, and Peter is captured now?” Dibs said. “That's a lot—even for Neverland.”

But I believed her right away. The idea of Peter Pan captured was too scary to joke about.

“She says it's her fault,” Button said softly.

That made everyone quiet again. It was probably the first time Tink ever admitted something was her fault.

“What
happened
?” I asked.

The fluttering light froze and turned slowly to face me, saying something in a low, frustrated chime.

“She says that they were trying to get rid of you, Ashley,” said Button.

That didn't surprise me.

I mean, the other kidnappings had been my fault. If I hadn't stolen Hook's hat, would the pirates have captured Buttercup? If I hadn't gone to fight the pirates, would the Cubs have laid the trap that got Kyle?

My new friends were better off before I arrived. I waited for someone to say so, but no one did. Not even Dibs.

That didn't stop me from feeling guilty.

The fairy started chittering so quickly that Button struggled to translate fast enough. “Tink watched us rescue Kyle. She knew how much Tiger Lily hated you—her words, not mine,” Button added quickly, but I shook my head, not caring. “Tink had a plan. She knew how easy it would be to convince Tiger Lily to help.”

“You needed someone big enough to make it happen,” I said to Tink in a cold voice.

The fluttering light bent a little. Tink hung her head.

“Tink says she made the nets for the traps. She started as soon as she was banished and she finished yesterday morning,” Button translated. “After we rescued Kyle, Tiger Lily strung them up, somewhere close to our tree, where they knew Ashley would have to fly. They were going to give Ashley to the pirates.”

“That's not very smart, Tink,” Kyle said. “You know that Peter would have rescued her.”

We didn't have time to talk about how intelligent her plan was. “Tink, do the pirates have Peter?” I asked impatiently.

Tink's chimes started to sound like wailing again.

“Tink says she and Tiger Lily waited in the tree to trap you. Finally, a figure zoomed by. They saw the golden coat that the mermaids had given the Wendy girl,” Button said, shooting me an anxious look. I forced myself to keep breathing. “Tiger Lily loosed an arrow and cut the rope. The net fell and knocked the figure to the ground.”

We gathered close around Tink. I could see how mussed her hair was, how torn her clothes were, and how her tiny hands were shaking as she chimed her way through the tale.

“Tink says that she thought she had won. But she didn't catch Ashley,” said Button. “She caught Peter, and he wasn't moving. He wouldn't wake up even when Tink shook him and pulled his hair and shouted.”

“Do you think he hit his head when the net knocked him down?” Dibs asked.

“Was he breathing?” I asked Tink. Kyle made little sobs like hiccups in the back of his throat, and I took his hand.

The fairy didn't answer me.

“Tink says she shouldn't have shouted,” Button went on. “The pirates, they heard her, and they came. They found the crown that had fallen from Peter's head, and then they found Peter. The pirate with one eye aimed his sword at Peter's throat.”

“No,” said Prank, pained.

My chest felt tight, like I had to breathe around a knot between my lungs.

Tink was crying so hard that she kept interrupting her story with little bell-like hiccups.

“Smee was with them. He made them stop,” Button translated, and all the Lost Boys let out a relieved sigh. I shook my head slowly, still worried. “Smee told the others how delighted Hook would be when they brought him Pan.”

The Lost Boys glanced at each other nervously.

“When they started taking Peter away, Tiger Lily attacked them,” Button said when Tink went on, “but the pirates captured her, too. Smee called it getting two for one.”

I couldn't care less about Tiger Lily.

“Peter,” Kyle said in a choked voice. “Captured by pirates!”

“It's the worst thing that has ever happened in Neverland,” said Prank with clenched fists.

“What will we do?” Dibs said, starting to panic. “What will we do?”

I began to pace across the air beside Button's bed, thinking hard. Turning the Cubs against the Lost Boys was bad.

But nothing compared to this.

If the pirates killed Peter, this place would never be the same. What kind of Neverland would there be without Peter Pan?

“Please, Ashley.” I turned to look at Button, but then I realized that he was still translating for Tinker Bell. The fairy raised her tiny arms toward me. “Please, Ashley, Tink says. There isn't anyone else. Only you can find a way to save Peter.”

The Lost Boys rushed into the air, crowding me. I could see the hope in their eyes, and a tiny part of me started to panic too. We only had time for one rescue attempt before the pirates hurt Pan. It couldn't fail.

“Give me a second, everyone,” I said, beginning to pace the air again. “I need to think.”

I had to save Peter.

Chapter 28.
The Pirates See Two Peters

I
t was the best plan ever. If I do say so myself.

This is how it began.

Peter woke and found every pirate in Neverland surrounding him. Some laughed. A few leered. Their captain smiled and smoothed his black mustache with his hook. Peter looked around slowly, testing the ropes that held him and scowling.

I know this, because Prank and I hid only thirty feet from him, hovering on the far side of the ship. We pressed up against the slimy wood and peeked over the
Jolly Roger
's railing as the mended red sails flapped in the wind.

Black Patch Pat had my golden coat. Since it was too small for him, he had stuffed it into his pocket, like a handkerchief, and I vowed to steal it back.

“Peter, how good of you to join us!” said the pirate captain, smiling. “We've been dying to have you visit for
ages
. Just. Like. This,” he added slowly, letting his hook caress the ropes that tied Peter to the deck.

The pirates laughed. Peter raised his chin, eyes glittering in the early-morning light.

Prank curled his fists, furious that they would treat Peter like that, but he didn't move—he was practiced at being sneaky.

“We thought you might want to take a walk,” Hook told Peter.

“We've prepared the plank for your enjoyment,” Smee added with a smile full of gray teeth. “And Cap'n thought we might make sure you had an anchor on you too. Just so you wouldn't be bothered by flying.”

“We've thought of everything, you see,” Hook told Peter. “The only question that remains is whether you would like to die
before
your little princess friend, or
after
?”

Peter's gaze traveled to the left, to the right, and finally behind him. There Tiger Lily lay, bound with
almost
as many ropes as Pan himself. She looked at him, gulping.

Then Tiger Lily raised her chin and said, “The Sixth Amendment in the Bill of Rights clearly states, ‘In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy—'”

I had to stifle a gasp. That was
my
line.

The pirates looked uncertain, but not their captain.

“My dear princess,” he interrupted, “the Bill of Rights is a legal document signed in the United States of America.
You
are in Neverland. We have no laws here.”

The pirates laughed smugly.

Tiger Lily glared, but Hook turned to his other prisoner.

“Peter,” he sang in his lofty tone. “We
do
require an answer. You
don't
want us to decide for you.”

Peter didn't speak, but I could tell he was worried.

Then someone crowed, way high up in the air. All the pirates froze except for their captain. Hook looked up, very slowly, the glee draining from his face.

A figure in green swooped among the sails, his fists on his hips. He wore Hook's hat, and the feather danced as he spun in midair and rocketed up past the mast.

Peter stared, stunned.

“What do you think you've captured, you stupid old man?” the figure in green shouted, and he crowed again.

“
Now
,” I whispered to Prank.

Prank nodded once, with a determined sort of smirk. Then he crawled over the ship's railing, across the deck, toward the cannons. Not one pirate turned away from the two Peters. I flew in the opposite direction, around the rail of the
Jolly Roger
.

“Did Peter have a twin?” asked one of the pirates. “Have there always been two of them?”

“No, of course there haven't been two of them,” Hook said with a snarl. “Pan? Is that you?”

“Who did you
think
it was, you codfish?” shouted the figure zipping through the air.

I heard a bell-like trill and then a bunch of pirates grunting as they hit the ship's deck, face-first. I had told Tink to distract everyone while I freed Peter. She was taking her job very seriously. She had stolen a small dagger from Black Patch Pat, and, hugging the hilt with both arms, she wielded it as well as Peter wielded his sword.

“Can't be Pan. We've already got him here,” Smee said, kicking Peter in the ribs, but he started to sound a little doubtful.

“Remember these?” shouted the figure wearing Hook's hat as Polaroids began to flutter down to the deck.

Smee picked one up. “Cap'n! Cap'n, look! It's just like I said—Pan, he's developed some new sort of magic.”

I peeked over the side of the ship, right next to where Peter was tied.

Her dagger in her arms, Tink sent Noodler sprawling over the deck with a swift kick to his backside.

Prank knelt unnoticed, hidden behind a cannon, sawing at one of the ropes.

Hook bent scowling over the Polaroid that Smee held out to him. “But it looks just like Pan—a tiny, little Pan.”

“Aye, Cap'n.”

“Just like
that
one, and
that
one,” Hook said, stabbing a finger first toward Peter on the deck and then the figure weaving dizzyingly among the sails.

“It's as we feared, Cap'n,” Smee said, looking very serious behind his spectacles. “Pan has made a copy of himself.”

“Is that true, Pan?” Hook shouted up to the flying figure. “Have you made a copy of yourself?”

The flying figure crowed again and said, “The great Pan is never caught!”

Peter's mouth opened. Furious now, he was a second away from shouting and ruining everything. I leaped soundlessly over the deck and clapped a hand over his mouth. When he tried to twist his way free, I whispered, “Just think how you'll trick them, Peter.”

He stopped struggling, and he looked over his shoulder at me, blinking in astonishment. I let him go.

Two pirates turned toward us, but Tink rushed at them with her dagger.

“Pan, if it
is
you, come down and fight me, you insolent boy,” Hook shouted.

Peter watched the figure wearing Hook's hat cartwheel around the crow's nest.

“That's Dibs,” I told Peter, using my sword to saw at the rope. He had several layers of it around his shoulders, and elaborate knots tying down each hand separately. “Wow, the pirates certainly weren't taking any chances on letting you work yourself free.”

“Of course not,” Peter said in a low voice with all his usual cockiness.

Rolling my eyes, I smiled. At least Peter's ego hadn't been injured during the capture. I sliced through the ropes around his right hand, freeing it.

“If you don't come down,” Hook shouted to the figure in the sky, “then we will
shoot
you down. Ready the cannons!”

“I knew you would come, Ashley,” Peter said in a completely different tone. Almost like he was grateful.

I paused. A Wendy girl had never rescued Peter before, but then again, before I came to Neverland, Peter never
needed
rescuing.

I shouldn't have stopped sawing at the ropes. Just at that second, one pirate ducked past Tink's guard and noticed me helping Pan.

“Hey, it's the Wendy girl!” Smee yelled, pointing at me. “Cap'n, it's a rescue!”

I looked across the ship. Prank gave me a thumbs-up and drew his two swords to deal with the small crowd of pirates who had come to ready the cannons.

Turning back to the ocean, I shouted, as loud as I could, “Now!”

Black Patch Pat and three other pirates started toward Peter and me, weapons raised.

I drew my sword, stepped in front of Peter, and rose a few inches off the deck. “You might want to hold on,” I told Peter.

Grinning, Peter grabbed the ship's rail with his free hand. Tiger Lily's eyes widened.

The
Jolly Roger
began to tilt.

From the look of things, it was even harder to walk than when I had dropped the anchor.

“Not again!” cried Black Patch Pat, falling forward a few feet from us. The three pirates behind him tripped over his head. Black Patch Pat howled in pain when one of them fell on his hand.

I snatched my coat back with a triumphant smile.

Captain Hook grabbed Smee, who grabbed a rope beside him to keep them from falling over.

A couple of the pirates near Prank toppled over the side. The cannons rolled into the sea right after them. Prank twirled both his swords and danced along the ship's railing, pleased with himself and his rope-cutting skills.

I saluted him with my blade and shrugged my coat back on.

“Watch out!” Prank shouted, pointing to my right.

I ducked out of the way just before a shining hook sliced through the air, exactly where my head had been. The pirate captain had snuck up on me, clawing his way along the ship's railing to reach us.

“What have you done to my beautiful ship?” Hook shouted.

“Just enlisted a little help,” I said, pointing over the railing toward the water.

The mermaids lined the starboard side, pushing against the wood and swimming with all their might. Their tails threw up great big splashes, sparkling in the sunlight. Seeing Hook, Buttercup bared her teeth fiercely and gurgled breathless orders to her comrades.

Button, who I'd sent to fetch our allies, left the mermaids and flew up onto the deck, just in time to engage Smee, who had been about to attack my other side.

Hook swung at me again, this time with his sword.