The Turning Tide (8 page)

E
veryone in the courtyard leaped to their feet. Instantly the pavilion bristled with swords and sabers and pistols. Carolina saw Parvati and Jhumpa draw long, sharp knives out of their saris. All the women in the courtyard looked as ready to fight as the men.

“Treachery!” Pusasn cried, pointing at Jack. “Blackguards! Betrayal!”

“I beg your pardon,” Jack protested. “Would we have TOLD you they were coming if we wanted to betray you?”

“Oh, right,” Pusasn said. “Good point.”

“A signal has come from the outer wall!” the guard on the wall shouted. “East India Trading Company ships have broken through our outer defenses! They are sailing into our harbor now!”

Sri Sumbhajee drew his sword and waved it in the air.

“To the harbor!” Askay yelled. “Defend the island! Suvarnadurg must not fall! Sri Sumbhajee will lead us to victory!”

“HUZZAH!” shouted all the pirates. There was a pell-mell rush toward the stairs.

“But what about
breakfast
?” Jean moaned woefully as the trays were spirited quickly away. Lakshmi was on her feet, holding the handle of her hidden belt-weapon. She grabbed Jean’s hand and pulled him up as well.

“Fight alongside me?” she said.

“Any day,” Jean agreed. Her eyes crinkled, and he could tell she was smiling behind the mask.

Diego fought through the crowd, looking for Carolina.

“Diego!” He turned with a hopeful expression, but the girl latching herself to his elbow was Marcella. The diamonds in her hair were askew and she kept tripping over her heavy ankle bracelets. “Diego, save me! Protect me!”

“What about Jean?” Diego said desperately. “Can’t he help you?”

“He doesn’t care about me anymore!” Marcella cried, her eyes flashing. “All he cares about is that girl! It’s not fair! Nobody loves me, and I’m going to be killed by pirates, and I never even got to see Paris, and I don’t want to die wearing this horrible color—” Her voice was rising to a wail.

“All right, all right,” Diego said. “We’ll find you a safe place to hide until the battle is over.”

“Oh, thank you, Diego!” Marcella said, flinging her arms around his neck. He dislodged them as gently as someone could in the middle of all the chaos around him.

“Come on, this way,” he said, trying to lead her against the flow of the crowd.

“I can’t walk!” she whined. “My jewels are too heavy! This stupid outfit is tangling me up! I’ll never escape the terrible, awful pirates!”

“The pirates aren’t the problem!” Diego pointed out. “It’s the Company agents you need to hide from!” But he could see they wouldn’t get far with her flailing and tripping around. Reluctantly, he scooped her up in his arms. She let out a cry of delight and hugged his neck tightly.

Gasping for air, Diego struggled to a door at the end of the courtyard. If he could dump Marcella somewhere in the women’s quarters, he could go back, find Carolina, and join the fight.

Suddenly he spotted Carolina through the mass of pirates. She was tying back her hair with a length of vine and wrapping her sari in such a way that she could fight unimpeded.

“Carolina!” he called.

She started to turn toward him, her face lighting up in a smile. But suddenly Diego felt his face seized by two hands with sharp nails. Then Marcella pressed her mouth to his.

Startled, Diego nearly dropped her. He tried to pull away, but her hands were strong and his were full. Finally she let go.

“What did you do that for?” he sputtered.

“Oh, Diego,” she sighed happily, nestling into his chest. “You are so brave and wonderful.”

Diego looked around for Carolina. Had she seen what had just happened? What did she think?

He caught a glimpse of her dark eyes, just long enough to notice sadness and hurt reflected in them. Then she turned and vanished into the crowd of pirates.

“Carolina, wait!” he called.

“Oooh, just over there under that mango tree,” Marcella said, pointing. “That would be perfect. And maybe you could pick me some mangoes before you go running off to defend my honor.”

Furious, Diego dumped Marcella on the grass in the women’s courtyard.

“Hey!” Marcella objected. “Careful! You’ll crush my sari!”

“Stay here,” he said.

“But what about my mangoes?” he heard her wail as he ran back to the crowd of pirates. He couldn’t worry about Marcella now. He had to find Carolina and explain—not to mention fight off the East India Trading Company armada at the same time.

He nearly barreled into Billy Turner as he charged down the stairs to the outer gardens. Billy was fumbling with his pistol, making sure it was loaded.

“I knew this would happen,” Billy remarked. “Jack never goes anywhere without causing trouble. Why do I ever listen to him? I ask you. I’m never getting home at this rate. I’ll never again see my son—little William—”

“Come on, let’s catch up,” Diego said, drawing his sword. They ran across the gardens to the stone stairway that led down to the hidden harbor. There they stopped at the top of the stairs, frozen in horror.

The harbor was teeming with East India Trading Company ships. Pennants with their triple-cross symbol flew from every mast. Marines of the Royal Navy were already swarming up the stone dock and boats were being lowered from the other ships to bring more of them to shore.

Benedict Huntington was leading the charge onto land, slashing the air in front of him with his rapier. Sri Sumbhajee and his pirates rushed down to meet him, shouting curses. They met with a furious clang of steel.

“Where’s Jack?” Diego shouted in Billy’s ear.

Billy scanned the crowd. “I don’t see him.” He sighed heavily. “Which is either a good sign…or a really, really bad one.”

T
he guards who were normally stationed outside the kitchens had run off to join the fighting. Inside the high-walled courtyard, the cooks were hurrying to clear up so they too could leap into battle.

A head poked through the doors—a head in a very striking hat.

“Excuse me,” said Jack Sparrow. “Could I have some curry?”

The cooks paused, trading bewildered glances.

“Your spiciest vegetable curry,” Jack said. “And lots of it.” He glanced furtively over his shoulder, peering up and down the hall. “You do make curry in this kitchen, don’t you?”

“We have vindaloo,” one of the cooks said nervously. “Or the
phaal
is even spicier.”

“That,” Jack said. “The falalalalal. All of it.”

A cook lifted a small cauldron off the embers of a dying fire and passed the handle to Jack. Jack reached one finger toward the stew inside of it.

“You—might not want to do that, sir,” said the cook. “It really is very spicy. Foreigners rarely handle it well.”

“I imagine you’re right,” Jack said, wagging his finger at the cook instead. “Take your word for it, shall I?”

The cook looked worried. “But sir—how can that—”

“No time for questions!” Jack said and popped out the door again.

There was no one about as he trotted through the corridors and out into the gardens, where the night before he had been startled by an elephant much the way Diego and Carolina had. He stopped, holding the cauldron aloft, and squinted around the vast complex.

Now, where had those elephants come from?

N
ot far away from Jack, although he didn’t know it, a bedraggled girl in a yellow-green sari was pushing her way through a thicket of vines. She stumbled into the quiet stone temple, rubbing her eyes.

“Barbara!” she called softly. “Barbara, are you in here?”

Barbara Huntington rose regally from the altar where she had been sitting. She’d kicked aside the marigold offerings and candles to clear the way for her long green skirt.

“Marcella,” she said. “Did you bring me more food?”

“I’m sorry,” Marcella panted. “I couldn’t. The palace has been attacked!”

A small smile played across Barbara’s face. “Oh, really? I had no idea what all the shouting and gunshots were about.”

“You’ve got to get out of here,” Marcella said. “It isn’t safe! I’m so sorry I brought you into this horrible den of pirates. But I’m sure the East India Trading Company will believe you if you tell them you’re an innocent bystander. They’ll know
you’re
no pirate!”

“Yes,” Barbara said, “I have a feeling they will.”

“You should run down there and ask them to save you,” Marcella suggested. “I just know they’ll take care of you!”

“Most likely,” Barbara said, tugging on her white gloves.

“I wish I could come with you,” Marcella said. Barbara raised one eyebrow. “But Jean—I can’t leave him alone with these nasty pirates. Who knows what might happen to him? Plus, things are going really well with Diego. If we survive all this, I’m pretty sure we’re going to get married.”

“Mmmm,” Barbara said, deciding not to share her opinion on whether any pirates would “survive all this.”

“I’d better get back before they miss me,” Marcella said, unaware that nobody
ever
missed her. “I wouldn’t want any pirates to follow me and find you!”

“No, that would be dreadful,” Barbara agreed wholeheartedly. “Marcella—in case we don’t meet again—I wanted to give you a gift to thank you for all your help to me.”

“A gift?” Marcella exclaimed in delight. “What is it?”

Barbara drew a small silver mirror out of her coat pocket. She snapped it open, showing Marcella the clear smooth surface inside, and then closed it again. Marcella accepted it reverently.

“It’s beautiful,” Marcella said. “People hardly ever give me gifts. Which is so unfair, because I deserve presents more than anybody.”

Barbara smiled her sly, catlike smile. “Remember me when you look into it,” she said. “That way we’ll always be close. And if you’re ever upset, just imagine I’m right on the other side of that mirror and tell it exactly what you’re feeling…and where you are…and where the
Pearl
is going…all that sort of thing. After all, we are friends.”

“Friends…” Marcella said dreamily, clasping the mirror to her chest. “Thank you,
mon ami
.”

Barbara placed a hand on Marcella’s shoulder. “No, Marcella, thank
you
.”

Outside, marines and Company agents were pressing the pirates back up the steps. Diego kept trying to get down to the front of the battle line, where he was sure Carolina was, but the crush of pirates in front of him was too thick. And they kept moving up the stairs as more and more of the enemy flooded onto the stone dock. Swords flashed and clanged as marine met pirate, and more than one howl of agony split the air as fighters on both sides were skewered or driven off the steps into the harbor below.

Diego found himself forced back into the gardens with no way forward. He was desperately worried for Carolina. In her bright red sari, one of the pirates might mistake her for a red-coated marine and stab her without realizing it. He wanted to be by her side to protect her. And he wanted to help her fend off the Company!

Frustrated, Diego glanced around the garden, hoping something would give him an idea of how to help. To his surprise, he spotted Jack gallivanting away around the side of the palace with a small metal cauldron dangling from his hand.

Diego frowned and ran after him. Jack Sparrow’s methods were…unorthodox, but often effective, even if sometimes accidentally. On the other hand, Jack’s ultimate goal was usually to save Jack. And the rest of the pirates needed him right now.

Diego chased his captain around the wall of the palace. Up ahead he could see a long, tall stone building with twelve enormous open archways facing out, each with a decorative dome up above. Jack merrily dashed through one of these archways, and Diego hurried after him.

His eyes took a moment to adjust to the dimmer light inside, but when they did, he reeled back in surprise.

Probably his nose should have warned him first. The stall—for that’s what it was—smelled strongly of animals…and not just any animals.

Towering over Diego was a massive gray elephant. It blinked at him in surprise.

“Uh-oh,” Diego said. He took a step back and then realized the elephant was tied to a metal ring embedded in the stone floor. It also didn’t look like it was about to charge at anything. Still…its feet were enormous.

Jack poked his head out from behind the elephant.

“Ah, Diego,” he said, as if meeting in an elephant stable during a pitched battle was perfectly normal. “Make yourself useful. Knock over his water trough, will you?”

“What?” Diego said. “Why?” He paused. “No, actually I meant
what
?”

“Or unchain him from that,” Jack said, pointing to the metal ring. “Either one. Savvy?”

“I—Jack, what are you up to?” Diego asked.

Jack sighed and rolled his eyes elaborately. “I do have to do everything around here, don’t I?” He hurried over to the elephant’s wooden water trough, built into the side of the wall where the elephant could reach it easily with its trunk. Jack lifted the trough off of its hooks and upended it, pouring the water out onto the straw on the floor.

The elephant gave Jack a baffled look, lifting its feet one by one as the water spilled across the floor.

“Did you untie him yet?” Jack asked Diego.

“Jack,
what are you doing
?” Diego cried. “Didn’t you hear that the Company is attacking? Shouldn’t we be fighting instead of harassing elephants?”

“Diego,” Jack said, “is it ever a good idea to argue with me? Aren’t I always right in the end?

Why don’t we just skip ahead? Here, I’ll help—‘Oh, no, Jack, I don’t understand, how puzzling you are,’” Jack said, imitating Diego’s Spanish accent. “‘But Diego, it’s all very clear; I’m going to save the day, as usual.’ ‘But, honor! And swords! And—’ ‘All right, here’s my entire brilliant plan.’ ‘Oh, I see. All right, I’ll just do whatever you say.’ ‘Exactly, thank you.’ And now we’re done with that. Savvy? Now, untie this elephant.”

Diego could see this argument wasn’t going to get him anywhere useful. With a sigh, he crouched and studied the rope tied to the metal ring. The knot looked complicated, so Diego stood up, drew his sword, and slashed through the rope instead.

“Very good,” Jack said. “Direct cuts, straight to the point. I like it. Now go do the same thing to the others.”

Reluctantly, Diego went down the line of twelve elephants, knocking over their water troughs and cutting them loose. Not one of the elephants left his stall despite his newfound freedom; they were too busy poking their trunks curiously around their empty water troughs. Diego wasn’t sure they’d even noticed they weren’t tied up anymore.

When Diego was finished, he ran back down the line to Jack and found him in the sixth stall, pouring something from the cauldron into the trough. Jack was standing well out of the way of the elephant, and as soon as he’d poured out a little of the vegetable stew, he jumped out of the stall. Diego glanced along the row of stables and saw that Jack had done the same in the first five stalls as well.

“What—what is that?” Diego said, pointing to the cauldron.

“Lovely Indian food,” Jack said, holding it out to him. “Try some.”

Diego dubiously poked a finger into the sauce and tasted it. His eyeballs nearly launched out of his head. He grabbed his throat; his tongue felt like it was on fire, and he thought he might vomit.

“Jack.” He gasped. “Wa—fi—ba—” All he could manage was a string of nonsense syllables. He was sure his entire mouth was being scalded from the inside out.

“Oh, good, it is spicy,” Jack said cheerfully, moving on to the seventh stall. “Just checking. Now think how that’ll feel to an elephant!”

Diego stuck out his tongue and fanned it with his hand. “Wha—?” he mumbled.

“Use your noggin, lad,” Jack said. He patted the seventh elephant’s trunk as it came over to investigate what he’d dumped in the trough. “When these elephants need water…where are they going to go?”

Understanding hit Diego like a mainsail collapsing on top of him. “But we have to get the pirates out of the way!” he cried, forgetting the searing pain in his mouth.

“Oh, right,” Jack said, snapping his fingers. “Knew I forgot something.”

Diego took off running across the gardens. There was no way he could outrun an elephant. He had to hope he could get to the pirates before the mammoth beasts decided to taste Jack’s fiery stew.

A knot of pirates was seething and roiling at the top of the stairs, punctuated by shouts of rage as they accidentally poked each other with their swords.

“Let us through!” howled the ones at the back. “We want to fight!”

“Get back!” yelled the ones still out on the steps. “There’s no room!”

“Everyone get out of the way!” Diego bellowed at the top of his lungs. The urgency in his voice was so strong that many pirates actually fell silent and turned to see who was making such a fuss.

“Elephants!” Diego shouted. “Look out!”

BRRRRRRRREEEEEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

The pirates’ eyes widened, and Diego spun around to see what they saw.

Trumpeting in fury, elephants were starting to stampede out of the stables. Diego caught a glimpse of Jack swinging himself to the safety of the roof. Almost as one, all twelve elephants charged straight for the stairs where the pirates were fighting.

Several pirates let out shrill screams of fear, and immediately scattered into the trees. Startled, the pirates still fighting on the stairs turned to see what the commotion was. Diego kept shouting, “Elephants! Run! Get out of the way!” as he dove into the crowd, searching for Carolina.

It didn’t take much convincing to get the pirates to run once they saw the elephants coming. They boiled out into the gardens and fled across the manicured green lawns. Askay and Pusasn actually lifted Sri Sumbhajee, one at each elbow, and ran with his feet dangling between them. Lakshmi and Jean were among the last to make it up the stairs and through the door.

“Where’s Carolina?” Diego cried as they ran past him.

“She was down on the dock,” Jean called. “I don’t know if she made it up!”

The earth was shaking as the elephants’ galloping feet got closer and closer. Diego looked desperately down the stairs.

The Company agents were advancing with gleeful grins of triumph on their faces. They thought they had driven back the pirates. They were sure that Sri Sumbhajee and his minions were giving up and running away. They had no idea that the thundering sound they heard was
not
that of hundreds of pirates retreating.

Finally Diego spotted Carolina. She had her back to the
Pearl
, fighting right at the edge of the dock. Her sword flashed and her sari glowed in the sunlight. Her opponent was Benedict Huntington.

“Carolina!” Diego yelled, hurtling down the stairs. The marines didn’t even try to stop him; they were too eager to get through the door into the prized inner sanctum of the notorious Sri Sumbhajee. Diego shoved his way through them and nearly tumbled headlong onto the stone dock.

He drew his sword as he ran up behind Benedict.

“I don’t think so,” said a cold voice as a blade appeared in his path. Diego skidded to a stop. Barbara Huntington stood at her husband’s back, smiling maliciously at Diego. He’d have to get by her before he could help Carolina with Benedict. He saw Carolina take a step back—one more and she’d fall into the harbor—if Benedict’s rapier didn’t slip through her quick parries and kill her first.

“Get out of my way,” Diego said.

“I’m afraid it’s
you
who will be getting out of
our
way,” Barbara said, but as she stepped toward him, she glanced up, and suddenly the smile dropped off her face.

“Benedict,” she said, her voice rising. “Benedict!”

Diego turned and saw what Jack had wrought.

Marines and Company agents were rushing headlong down the steps, shoving each other out of the way. Some were diving straight off the steps into the harbor. Others were trampling anyone who fell under their boots. All of them were shrieking with fear.