The Lost Prince (34 page)

“Inside.” It was Verrick. “Through those doors. The statue of the queen.”

Ronan pulled Dean toward the steps of the palace. “Let me at it.”

“Seize them!” ordered Lord Ralian. “SEIZE THEM!” His voice was wild. No one listened. The crowd parted as Dean and Ronan made their way into the palace. “What are you doing?” he shouted in disbelief. He raised his sword and went after them, but the regent blocked his path.

“Hold,” said Lord Kray. “First, I would know the truth.”

“No!” Ralian screamed. He looked as though he might explode, but the guards held him back as Ronan led Dean to the fountain.

The red marble statue of the queen and the infant prince was a unique fixture of the castle. Its crimson hue stood in stark contrast
to the white stonework throughout the palace. The color served as a fitting reminder of the blood the queen had shed trying to save her son. Dean noticed the aquariums that lined the walls around it were filled with water and tropical fish. The storm outside had driven the sea and its inhabitants into the palace along with water for the fountains. He knelt down before the statue of the late queen. Now that Dean saw the fountain in full working order, he recognized its heartbreaking beauty. The water that ran down the queen’s body to the bubbling pool at her feet started out as tears on her face. The queen was crying. The thought of a statue created in Waverly’s memory made Dean want to cry with her.

Ronan took his arm and pressed the knife against his brand. “Trust me.”

Dean felt the knife slice open his skin. It was just a tiny cut, but enough to draw blood. He held his arm out over the pool at the base of the fountain. His blood ran down to his wrist and dropped into the water, red as could be. At first, nothing happened. At least not as far as Dean could tell. Someone in the crowd saw the color before he did.

“Look!” they shouted.

A collective gasp overtook the room as the tears of the queen were transformed. Dean couldn’t believe his eyes—or hers. Color swirled in the giant tanks of water on the walls, and Dean shook from head to toe as the room was cast in a cool shade of blue. He
rose to his feet, stunned to find the people around him bending their knees.

“There you have it,” Ronan said. “He’s your prince.”

Dean walked to the door in a fog. The fountains outside were all gushing brilliant blue water. The people in the courtyard didn’t know what to think. He was their prince—their rightful king!—but he was also a pirate who had destroyed them. What were they supposed to do?

Dean knew what he had to do.

“I need a ship.”

He ran back to the statue of the queen. “I need a ship,” he said again. “I’m going after Waverly.”

“The
Tideturner
is yours,” Verrick said.

“It is not!” Arjent Ralian bellowed. “He has been sentenced to death.”

“That was before,” said Ronan. “He can pardon himself now.”

“He’ll get no such pardon from me.” Ralian advanced with his sword once more, but this time the guards disarmed him and held him tight. “No! This is madness! He’s ruined us. He’s ruined everything!”

Ralian struggled to break free of the guards’ grasp like a maniac, which was exactly what he was. His arrogant, unruffled facade had been shed like a second skin to reveal the madman beneath.

“Did his sons really try to kill you?” asked Verrick, eyeing him
with a mix of pity and contempt.

“Every chance they got,” Dean said. “But that doesn’t matter right now. Only Waverly matters.”

“Do you really think you can get her back?” asked Lord Kray.

“I’m going to get her back,” Dean said. “Her and the orchard. There’s an able-bodied crew tied up outside. All we need to do is cut them loose.”

The regent looked at the Pirate Youth. “They’ll follow you into the storm?”

“There’s a boy on that ship who killed their captain,” Ronan said. “They’re not about to let that slide.”

“It’s time to square things, once and for all,” Dean said. “We just have to make one stop on the way.”

“A stop?” Ronan asked.

“That’s right. I’ve got a plan.”

CHAPTER
33

A
crew of fifty hit the waves on board the
Tideturner
, all of them members of the Pirate Youth. Verrick took the helm, with Ronan serving as first mate. Dean escorted the ship on his kiteboard, scouting ahead. The
Tideturner
raced across the water, riding the wind toward dark skies. Rough seas forced Dean back on board the ship, but the weather was the least of his worries. One-Eyed Jack was nowhere in sight.

Were they already too late?

“She’s going to kill you,” Ronan told Dean as he climbed back on board. “You know that, right?”

Dean looked out over the side and hauled in his kiteboard sail. “No. She understands me.”

A mighty wave rocked the ship and almost knocked Dean back into the sea.

“The storm’s just beginning,” Verrick said, pointing at the inclement horizon. “Another day and the squall will be impossible to penetrate, but now …”—he bit his lip and gauged the wind—“we still have a chance. Provided these boys are fit to crew the ship.”

“Fit to crew the ship?” Ronan repeated, incredulous.

Dean put a hand up to keep Ronan’s temper in check. “Mark me, Verrick. The Pirate Youth are up to the task.”

Verrick gripped the wheel as a bolt of lightning ran a jagged streak from the clouds to the water. “I hope so. Treacherous waters lie ahead.”

“I’ve sailed them before,” said Ronan. “It’s not the water that worries me, but what lies beneath. Here there be monsters.”

“I know,” Dean said. He slapped the
Tideturner
’s gunwale. “Here too.”

Thunder boomed as the
Tideturner
reached the edge of the storm, and Dean got a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was so loud, it sounded like mountains splitting in half and crumbling into the ocean. The ship crossed an invisible line in the water, and the sun ran for cover, blown out of sight by a wind strong enough to strip flesh from bone. If this was what the storm was like when it was ramping up, Dean had no desire to see it at full strength. High seas pitched the ship up and down. Rain fell as
if fired from tiny muskets. Waves pounded the hull like solid rock and immediately transformed into wild rivers that blanketed the deck. Through it all, the Pirate Youth scurried to and fro, manning their posts, holding the ship together. Ronan barked out orders just as he had done on board the
Reckless.
Despite the storm, and perhaps thanks in part to its furious winds, the
Tideturner
made excellent time. The ship forged ahead, gaining ground on One-Eyed Jack’s Black Fleet. Verrick kept the wheel steady, clearly impressed with the crew.

“I told you,” Dean said. “Cut this lot and they bleed saltwater.”

Verrick shook his head. “They just don’t have the good sense to be afraid. When you’re young, you think you’re invincible. Small wonder you’re all willing to chase a whole fleet out here.”

“It’s not the fleet we want. There’s just one ship we’re after.”

“
Maelstrom
ahoy!” shouted Kane from up atop the crow’s nest.

Dean’s head whipped around. He shot a spyglass to his eyes. “I’ve got them.” The
Maelstrom
was still in the thick of the storm. From the looks of things, One-Eyed Jack had kept every tree from the pilfered orchard on board his ship. “I knew it! They’re moving slow, carrying a heavy load. I knew he wouldn’t trust a twig of that cargo to anyone else.”

“What about the other ships?” Verrick asked.

Dean’s eyes swept the horizon. One-Eyed Jack’s fleet was clearing the mist and escaping to safety. He lowered the spyglass.
“No. They’re all either gone or close to it.”

“No escort?

“None to speak of. His fleet’s too busy fleeing the storm to help him. Even if they weren’t, I’ll wager they spent every ounce of shot they had shelling the island. It’s just him and us.”

The winds howled. Verrick fought the wheel to keep it steady.

“You seem strangely confident, Your Grace. In this case, he is a first-rate English man-of-war—a hundred-and-ten-gun warship.”

Dean raised an eyebrow. The
Your Graces
were back now that he was the prince again. He had no desire for such honorifics, but he let it go. “It
was
a hundred-and-ten-gun ship, Verrick. Have a look.” He handed over the spyglass. “A hundred trees on deck … how much do you think that weighs? He had to lighten his load somewhere.”

Verrick peered through the eyehole and focused the lens. A moment later, he looked up from the glass as if he’d been given a gift. “The gun ports are all empty.”

“With that much cargo, he had to cast off his artillery to stay afloat.” A wave crashed down on the deck, and Dean grabbed hold of the rigging to keep his footing. “Especially in this weather! It’ll just be our crew against his. Hand to hand, steel to steel. Ronan, is the boarding party ready?”

“Just about,” Ronan called back.

“Tell them to hurry!”

“Maybe you want to tell them yourself?”

Dean looked at the crew gearing up for battle. They looked just as tough as they had the day they first met, when they had chased him through the streets of Bartleby Bay. He left them to their work. Dean looked through the spyglass again and set his sights on the
Maelstrom.
He saw One-Eyed Jack shouting orders at his men, and Scurvy Gill enforcing them. The pirate crew struggled to fight the storm on board the
Maelstrom
’s crowded deck. They were none too pleased to be caught in the Bermuda Triangle’s fabled tempest. Unless Dean missed his guess, every man jack of them was scared stiff.

Good. We can use that.

Dean scanned the ship from stem to stern, but he didn’t see Waverly anywhere. He had hoped to find her on deck, but it made sense that One-Eyed Jack would keep her stowed somewhere below. She had to be down there. One-Eyed Jack wouldn’t part with his hostage any more than he would his coveted treasure.

The
Tideturner
, slender sloop that it was, sped onward through the storm like a shark chasing a whale. One-Eyed Jack’s leviathan was less than one hundred feet away when Ronan walked up, holding a kiteboard and sail. “All set,” he reported. “Now or never.”

“Now for us, and never again for them,” Dean replied. He clapped Verrick on the shoulder. “We’ll leave you enough men to sail the ship home. Best get yourself out of here. Before conditions get any worse.”

Verrick bristled at the thought of leaving. “I’m not going anywhere. I set all this in motion when I brought you to Zenhala. You’d best believe I’ll see it through to the end.”

“Don’t be daft,” Dean said. “You didn’t set this in motion; One-Eyed Jack did. There’s nothing more you can do out here. You can’t fire on the
Maelstrom.
Suppose you sink
it
? Then what? You lose your trees again. We have to
take
that ship, Verrick. Make no mistake, this ends one of two ways.” He pointed at their target. “We come back on board that vessel, or not at all.”

Verrick grunted. “I don’t like it. You’re children going up against grown men. You saw what they did to the island. They’re a cutthroat crew, hard as coffin nails.”

“That may be,” Dean said. “But hard men soften up once you scare them out of their pants.”

“It’s what we do,” Ronan added. “We do it well.”

Verrick looked at the crew with their face paint, skull masks, and kiteboard rigs. They had swords on their belts and clubs in their hands. A handful of them were staying behind to help crew the
Tideturner.
The rest were getting ready to fly. Dean buckled a sail harness around his waist as they closed in on the
Maelstrom
. “This is your prince talking now, Verrick. Go home. You’ve done your part.”

A look of reluctant acquiescence came over Verrick’s face, and he bowed his head toward Dean. “As you command, Your Grace.”

Dean reached out to shake Verrick’s hand. “I told you to call me Dean.”

“Is that an order?”

“It is.”

Verrick took Dean’s hand in his and gave a hearty shake. “Godspeed, Dean.”

Dean joined the other young raiders on the gunwales. “Are you ready, lads?” he shouted. The Pirate Youth gave a mighty cheer. Dean stuck his fingers in his mouth and blew out an earsplitting whistle. The snapdragon surfaced off the starboard bow and gave a high-pitched howl in reply.

Verrick backed up off the helm as the beast emerged from the water. He caught himself mid-step and stayed put to keep the wheel steady. “That one’s going to take some getting used to!” he said. Dean smiled as the snapdragon raced alongside the ship. They were ready for battle. All of them.

Ronan shrugged at Dean. “I guess she does understand you.”

Dean grinned a devil’s grin. “Let’s go to war.”

CHAPTER
34