Pirates of the Caribbean 05 The Age of Bronze (4 page)

Jean's eyes sparkled. "Come with me, my friends! I promise you will eat food like you have never tasted before!"Fitzwilliam and Jack exchanged looks, shrugging, and they all followed Jean as he made a beeline for one stall in particular. It looked even tattier and more questionable than the others. A giant
man with wild silver and
white hair stirred a giant iron pot over a
fire. Jean
held up a coin and tossed it into the air. Without taking his other hand off the giant wooden spoon, the big man caught it and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he pulled out a dirty-looking bowl and filled it, handing it to Jean without ever looking at him.Jack waited politely for the boy to offer it around first, but instead Jean dove right in, slurping from the side of the bowl like a pig.He didn't stop.The rest of the crew watched him with widening eyes. He ate the whole thing--and licked the bottom--seemingly without taking a breath.

When he was done, he had smears of food around his mouth and bits dripping from his cheeks. Fitzwilliam turned away in disgust. Constance lick
ed at the drops on the ground.

"We regrette ..." Jean apologized, wiping his face. "But it is too good to share."

"It smells delicious," Arabella said tactfully, handing him her handkerchief. "What is it?""Alligator stew, the best in Creole country," he replied, grinning.Arabella turned white.

Fitzwilliam couldn't hide a look of horror on his face. Tumen looked faintly ill."Right! Alligator stew all around, then, gargon Jack said, clapping his hands together quickly. "Four in your finest soiled little bowls."

Constance growled threateningly."All right, five, Jack conceded. "But I'm not paying the tip."The crew of the Barnacle brought their lunch over to a low stone wall where they could perc
h and eat in relative comfort.
Other people were eating lunch as well. Most were sailors, locals, and dockworkers, talking politics or about the ships that had come in. The hum of French, Cajun, English, and Spanish buzzed around them. The scent of Creole spices hung thick in the
air. And
then something piqued Jack's attention. He was especially attuned to anything that sounded scheming, plotting, or potentially
illegal. “Do
you have it? Did you get it from the
ship?”

“Yes
. And it is in place
now"This sounded good.Jack not so
casually turned himself so he could get a look at the conspirators. He pretended to concentrate on his stew and watched them over the rim of his bowl.The first one who spoke was an old man dressed in lon
g, tattered robes. And snakes. Dead ones lots of them
hung around his neck. He wore a top hat and held a long staff topped with a skull. Obviously one of the mystics from the square. His companion was a boy about Jack's age, who held something shiny in his hand."You did not draw any attention to yourself? Left nothing behind?" the old man asked."Only a bronze ship."

Everyone from the Barnacle heard that part. Tumen looked over anxiously.The old mystic cackled, then clapped the boy on the shoulder. The boy's hand shot out and revealed that he was clutching an amulet.Tumen's face went white. Then he darkened with anger. Jack raised an eyebrow at him: what?Tumen pointed at the amulet wordlessly, shaking with rage.Jack squinted, taking a better
look at it. It
had a sun design in the center, and what looked like three empty settings around the edges. . . . The treasure the Xitami had entrusted to Tumen's people! It was right here!

"Didn't know the mission would be quite this easy," he said, putting aside his bowl of stew. "The blasted amulet has practically landed in our laps!"He leaped up and drew his rusty old sword, raising it threateningly in front of the boy and the mystic.The two were caught off guard and didn't have time to draw any weapons of their own--if they had any. Jack lunged at the boy, hoping to grab the amulet quickly and be on his way, without causing too big a scene. He hit with the flat of his sword, not wanting to cut the boy, just hoping to kno
ck the amulet out of his hand.
Clang!The boy turned his hand out, blocking the sword with the amulet. There was a strange noise, like a hiss, and the stink of something burning. Jack watched in surprise as a reddish gold
colour
swallowed his sword from where it touched the amulet on up. In less than a second his sword had been turned into
bronze. It
was much heavier than before, and the unexpected weight pulled Jack's hand down."Well, we'll finish this the old-fashioned way," he said cheerfully, letting it drop and putting up his fists.

Fitzwilliam joined him at his side, and Jean rolled up his sleeves, ready for a good rumble. A still-angry Tumen pulled out his obsidion knife.Jack tried to grab the amulet. The boy pulled it back at
the last minute, slamming
his other fist into Jack's side. Jack doubled over in pain as Jean dove at the boy's legs, trying to tackle him to the ground. The boy shot his hands out wildly, trying to keep his balance. Jack recovered himself and lunged forward again--and was rewarded by being slammed in the face by the amulet.Clonk.His jaw shook with a head-shattering pain. It felt like a tooth had been knock
ed clear out of his mouth. Yes
there was that burning, metallic taste of blood. Not the first time he had lost a tooth, but this felt like a whole row of them from one side of his mouth!Jack tried to run his tongue over the hole where his teeth had been. Then he realized that the tooth was still there. The ac
rid taste wasn't just metallic
it was metal. Forgetting the fight for a moment, he panicked and turned to look
at his reflection in a nearby
window. He gasped. A row of metal teeth shined out among his other sort-of-white ones.

The boy
or the amulet--had turned it to
bronze! Jean
, Tumen, and Fitzwilliam had taken over where Jack left off. They had managed to wrestle the boy to the ground. Arabella crept up behind the mystic, raising her soup bowl over his head. But just as she was about to bring it down on his skull, he suddenly raised his hands in the air and shouted something in a language none of the friends knew.All the dead snakes around his neck came alive.Arabella jumped back as they began writhing and hissing, snapping at everyone who came near them.Taking advantage of Fitzwilliams and Jean's surprise, the boy slithered out of their grasp and
leaped up. The old man grabbed
him by the shoulder and pulled him close.Two of the snakes began gasping.

It looked as if they were regurgitating prey two round objects worked their way up their necks. The old man put his hands out and the twin snakes each vomited a pearly white egg into his hands.With another cry, the man raised the eggs above his head--and then smashed them to the ground.They exploded with a cloud of smoke and the stench of rotten eggs. The crew of the Barnacle fell back, eyes stinging from the sulfurous cloud. When they were able to see again, the boy and the old man were gone."There goes the amulet," Tumen said sadly. "Again"Who in the twelfth ring of Davy Jones's Locker was that?" Jack demanded."That," J
ean said, "was Madame Minuit."

CHAPTER EIGHT

Everyone stared at Jean."Well," said Jack, recovering first, "awfully ugly for a woman. Especially the stubble, the broad shoulders, the Adam's apple, and the fact that she looked, oh, nothing like a woman at all. I've seen female dockworkers who looked better. Come to think of it, IVe seen some old male dockworkers who were prettier. . . .""Madame can manifest herself in two different ways," J
ean said, cutting Jack off.
His eyes narrowed, looking at the spot where she had been. Only a few whisps of foul-smelling smoke remained. "One is a haglike man--that is what you saw here," Jean continued. "The other I have never seen"How can you be sure it was her?" Fitzwilliam asked."The serpents gave her away. They are her sign. Her trademark." Jean made his hand writhe like snakes."Oooooo, spooooky," Jack said sarcastically."Now," Jack said, clapping his hands together, "did any of you lot happen to get a close look at the amulet? Or notice anything funny about it?"The four other crew members were silent. Jack sighed impatiently."Tumen here said the amulet had a sun surround
ed by three empty settings for
gems. Well, mates--don't be shocked when I tell you this and go running off in a frightened tizzy, but ..."

Jack lowere
d his voice to a whisper
one of the settings was filledArabella, Jean, and Tumen stared at Jack."So?" Jean asked."There was a piece of bronze in one," Jack said, holding up his thumb and forefinger to indicate its size. "About the size and shape of a pearl. Shiny. Bronze. Oh, and did I mention it was bronze?"He casually tapped his tooth. One of the ones that was also shiny and bronze now.Arabella got it first."Oh!" she said."Yeah, 'Oh,'" Jack mimicked, rolling his eyes."The ship! With all those people . . . and your tooth . . ." Arabella continued."And y
our sword," Fitzwilliam added,
picking it up off the ground. He looked at it closely. "Pure bronze.""The amulet must be powered by the gem," Tumen said, nodding. "A bronze gem is in it, so it turns everything bronze."

"But why bronze?" Jack muttered, giving his old sword a disgusted look. It might have been a rusty an old sword before, but now it was completely useless--who ever heard of a bronze sword? "I mean, what good is bronze?"

"Jack," Arabella said with a smile, "the entire world used to use bronze. Before iron and steel. Swords, helmets, shields, armor, lances, cooking pots ... in some parts of the world, they still use bronze today.""You're not fooling?" Jack asked, surprised. He grabbed his sword back from Fitzwilliam, giving him a suspicious look."I wonder what would happen if we put in un d
iamant? A diamond?" Jean asked
thoughtfully. "Would everything it touched turn to diamond?"Tumen shook his head, not liking where this line of thinking was going. "My people know the amulet to be very dangerous, Jean. I do not think we should play with it. Or have you already forgotten what happened with the Sword of Cortes?"Jean nodded, looking chastised. "It almost got us enslaved to the corrosive conquistador, Hernan Corte
s.

"No more magic, no more curses," Fitzwilliam agreed, maybe a little sadly."No, no, no. This is not like the Sword of Cortes, this is totally different. Totally different!" Jack said, trying to forget what he promised himself about curses and treasure, and treasure and curses, and cursed treasure. "What could
possibly be so dangerous about
turning things into bronze? It's as useful as ... as ... turning things into tin, mates. Maybe if you want to upgrade your grandma's old cook pot, or there's a wood chair you want to make less comfortable for some odd reason."Arabella's eyes grew wide, thinking. "If we could find a gold gem the exact same size and sh
ape, we could test it out.
"

"It would be like what happened with King Midas!" Fitzwilliam said, getting excited. "Everything he touched turned to gold!""Yeah, and we all know how that one ended up, don't we?" Jack mumbled."Or maybe diamond!" Jean said again."Diamond stones, diamond chairs, whatever you want, then," Fitzwilliam said, grinning. "You could buy whatever ship on the sea you wanted, Jack!""I have a ship already," Jack said, waving his hand dismissiv
ely, then looking up
cautiously to see if any of the crew noticed that he knew full well that the Barnacle was little more than a fishing boat."I could have my own place. My own tavern. Well, saints--my own country!" Arabella said dreamily. "I'd never have to answer to anyone again."Tumen looked from one to another of his friends, growing more dismayed. It was as if once they figured out the power of the amulet, they all went a little mad. All they could think about was treasure as a means to control their own destinies. Again. No wonder his people feared and protected the amulet.Jean saw the look on his friend's face. Instantly, he felt ashamed."Friends, we are not after the amulet for its magical power," he reminded them gently. "We need it to go back and clear Tumens good
name so he can go home again."
Everyone looked blankly at him, and then at Tumen."Oh. Right, Fitzwilliam said quickly."Absolutely," Arabella agreed, blushing."Yes, yes," Jack muttered.Just then, Constance leaped up onto a barrel. Something dangled from her mouth. Arabella jumped back, expecting the cat's usual "gift": a half-dead mouse or rat. But this time it was neither alive nor dead, nor a mouse. It was a tarnished bronze key, dangling from the end of a pink silk ribbon."Where did you get that, Constance?" Jean asked, taking it in his hand and giving his sister a pat.Constance meowed and ran to the spot where she'd found the key. It was the very spot where the boy and
Madame Minuit had disappeared.

CHAPTER NINE

"Well done, mon soeur," Jean said, scratching Constance under the neck. "You have found for us a clue.""But what is it a key to?" Arabella asked, taking it and holding it up to examine it closely. It wasn't fancy, just a plain bronze skeleton key. It was old and burnished. The handle was in kind of a heart shape, and the shaft was long and narrow. Made for a simple lock, there were only a couple of grooves on the shaf
t. "It could unlock anything."

"Perhaps it is the key to a chest," Fitzwilliam suggested. "A key to where Madame keeps her treasure, like the amulet."

"Oh, that makes a pile of sense," Jack said, shaking his hea
d. "How convenient. The Madame or Mr. Madame or whatever she is
just happens to drop the precious key to her precious chest of magical and precious treasures?"