Queen Liliuokalani: Royal Prisoner (11 page)

“Throw them in the brig,” he ordered a skinny sailor, who didn’t look much older than Maisie and Felix. He had a smattering of acne on his cheeks, and his pants were too big for him; he’d rolled up the cuffs so he wouldn’t trip over them and looped a rope several times around his waist to keep them up.

“Come on,” Skinny said to them, contorting his face into a sneer that did not make him look any tougher.

It occurred to Maisie that they could probably run away from him without too much trouble. But the steady gaze of Gold Tooth dissuaded her from trying.

Skinny shoved them in the direction of a narrow, steep stairway that led down into a dark maze of rooms.

“Keep going,” he said in his fake tough voice.

Down an even narrower and steeper stairway, they descended into the bowels of the ship. It stunk even worse than the fishy deck and was as dark as the middle of the night.

“You can’t leave us down here,” Felix begged.

“Shut up!” Skinny yelled, giving Felix a hard push.

Maybe his toughness wasn’t just bravado, Felix thought.

Skinny produced a giant key, and Maisie and Felix watched as he unlocked what looked very much like a cage.

He grinned at them, revealing two missing teeth and many more blackened ones.

“Welcome home,” he said.

When they didn’t move, he yelled, “Get in!”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Maisie said.

Skinny stuck his face so close to hers that she could see the slight beginnings of a moustache on his upper lip.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” he said, sending a blast of onion breath at her.

Maisie shook her head.

“Now get inside!” he screamed.

Felix took Maisie’s hand.

“We have no choice,” he said softly.

They had to duck their heads to enter the room, if you could call it a room. Low and dark, it was more like an empty, smelly, dirty closet. As soon as they stepped inside, Skinny slammed the door shut and locked it. He peered through the bars at them and smiled.

“Might as well get comfortable,” he said. “It’s six weeks to Tahiti.”

Maisie’s legs had fallen asleep from the way she had to scrunch them under her in order to fit in the room. She stretched them as best she could, her feet sticking through the bars when she did, and shook them until she felt pins and needles.

As soon as the feeling came back into her legs, Maisie realized that her feet were touching something soft. Soft and moving. She prodded it with the toe of her sneaker, and the thing ran away.

Immediately, another one appeared. And then another one.

“Uh, Felix?” Maisie said hesitantly.

“What?” Felix said, his voice about as miserable as she’d ever heard it.

“There’s something…I mean…some
things
…alive out there.”

Felix didn’t answer.

Into the silence that settled between them came the sounds of small feet scurrying and the faint squeaks of…of…

“Rats!” Maisie yelled, yanking her feet back inside the bars.

“Rats?” Felix said, proving that his voice could, in fact, sound even more miserable.

Maisie inched away until her back hit the farthest wall, which wasn’t very far away at all.

Felix did the same.

“Rats,” he said, shivering.

“Maisie?” Felix said into the darkness. “Do you think this qualifies as a pickle?”

They had been sitting on the cold floor for a long time, their backs pressed against the wall, listening to the rats scampering around them, and trying not to cry.

“I would say yes,” Maisie said, her voice sounding small and frightened.

“Let’s try?” Felix offered.

He had no other ideas. They were locked into a room on the lowest level of a ship filled with scary sailors. The crown was who knows where, and even if they could escape from here and find the crown, how would they be able to get it away from Gold Tooth again?

Before he could say anything else, the ship jolted once, then twice, then a third time.

Felix looked at his sister.

“What the…?” he began.

“Uh-oh,” Maisie said. “We’re setting sail.”

Felix grabbed her hand.

“Say it! On the count of three, say it!”

She nodded.

“One,” Felix counted. “Two. Three!”

“
Lame demon
!” they said together.

And then, exactly nothing happened.

“This is all your fault,” Felix told Maisie.

“My fault?”

“You didn’t tell me everything Great-Uncle Thorne said, and now we’re on a ship sailing to Tahiti.”

Felix knew absolutely nothing about Tahiti, except that it was six weeks away from Hawaii, which meant that he and Maisie were going to be in this
dirty, smelly, cold cage for six weeks. And what would happen once they got to Tahiti? He thought of angry natives with spears, walking the plank, cannibals.

Maisie’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Maybe we should try again?”

“Why bother?” Felix said, slumping.

“We can’t just sit here,” Maisie said.

Felix didn’t answer. What was there to say?

“On the count of three?” Maisie asked him.

“Leave me alone,” Felix grumbled.

They sat in the darkness in silence as the ship moved farther and farther into the Pacific Ocean.

“Psssst.”

Maisie opened her eyes.

“Psssst.”

She waited for her eyes to grow accustomed to the pitch black. Outside the bars, a face slowly took form.

Skinny.

“I brought you something,” Skinny said.

“What? Bread and water?” Maisie said. That was what prisoners ate in the movies.

“No,” Skinny said. “This.”

He was holding something up for her to see, but she couldn’t make it out.

“I really can’t come any closer,” Maisie said. “There’s…rats running around out there.”

Goose bumps ran up her arms and legs at the very thought of those rats.

Skinny snorted.

“You afraid of a rat?” he said, all full of that braggadocio.

“I bet you are, too,” Maisie said.

“Am not!”

“Humph.”

Skinny sighed.

“I used to be,” he admitted. “When I first sailed, I spent all night scared rats would eat me up.”

“Do they eat people?” Felix asked.

“Nah,” Skinny said. Unconvincingly, Felix thought.

“What did you bring us?” Maisie asked, squinting toward the thing he held.

Skinny pressed his face to the bars.

“The key,” he whispered. “I’m going to let you out.”

Both Felix and Maisie crawled to the bars.

“You are?” Felix said, trying not to be too hopeful.

“Here’s the thing,” Skinny said. “The men will all be eating in about twenty minutes. While they’re in the mess hall, I’ll lead you to the crown.”

“But then what?” Maisie said. “We’re out at sea. Where will we go?”

“Look,” Skinny said. “We ain’t got much time. Just follow me.”

The most beautiful sound Maisie thought she’d ever heard reached her ears: the key turning in the lock.

Then the door creaked open, and Maisie and Felix stepped out of their prison.

Climbing the steps from the lowest floor to the next one, Maisie and Felix had trouble walking as the ship swayed from side to side. As they reached the top of the stairs, they heard the noisy voices of the sailors sitting down to eat. The smell of roasted meat floated through the air, reminding them of how hungry they were.

But there wasn’t time to worry about their stomachs now. They had to get the crown before Gold Tooth—or anyone else—finished dinner.

Skinny put his finger to his lips. “Ssshhh.”

Then he motioned for them to follow him through the maze of rooms.

At last they reached a large room filled with bunks made of rope. The beds hung from hooks, like hammocks.

Skinny pointed to one along the far wall.

There, poking out of a pile of clothes, Felix saw the crown.

Quickly, and as quietly as he could, he half tiptoed, half ran across the sloping floor toward Gold Tooth’s bunk.

The ship seemed to slip out from under his feet with every step, and Felix finally used the bunks for balance, grabbing the ropes that held one to the hooks and then swinging to the next one, until at last he reached the crown.

Maisie and Skinny motioned for him to hurry.

Using the same technique, Felix made his way across the room, the crown safe in his arms.

Skinny led them up the next flight of stairs, pausing to keep his balance each time the ship tacked sharply left or right.

On deck again, Maisie took big, deep breaths of the salty night air. Above them, the sky was heavy with stars. She thought if she reached hard enough, she might actually touch them. The full moon lit up the night like a streetlight, making their path clear and bright.

At the edge of the ship, Skinny stopped.

“You’ll have to do this next bit on your own, I’m afraid,” he said apologetically.

Felix swallowed hard.
This next bit
seemed to involve something over the side of the ship, where Skinny was now leaning and tugging on something.

“You just need to climb down—” he was saying.

“Climb? Down?” Felix repeated, glancing overboard at the roiling waves below.

“And get into this dinghy here that I’m freeing up for you.”

“And…row? Across the ocean?” Felix asked in disbelief.

“We’re not that far out to sea,” Skinny said. “Yet. That’s why you’ve got to get moving.”

“I don’t know,” Felix said.

Not only was it a long way down to that dinghy, but once they had set off, how were they supposed to know where to go?

Skinny stopped long enough to say, “You don’t have much choice, do you?”

The ropes slapped against the side of the ship, and the little dinghy bounced free.

“Off with you two now,” Skinny said.

They would have to climb over the railing and shinny down the side of the ship, holding on to the ropes until they reached the dinghy that bobbed in the water below, looking very much like a toy boat.

Maisie took a deep breath.

“It’s now or never,” she said, and swung her legs over the railing.

Reluctantly, Felix followed.

Skinny stood above them, watching to be sure they were safely off.

“May I ask you something?” Maisie asked before she began to climb down a rope.

Skinny nodded.

“Why did you decide to help us?”

He shrugged. “I can’t really say. I just…
had to
.”

Maisie glanced at her brother. His face was wrinkled with fear and concentration, but she wondered if he, too, thought
lame demon
had saved them.