Vampirates: Tide of Terror (11 page)

“Best wishes!” exclaimed Ma Kettle. “Pah! Send her our love! And tell her to sail by for a drink one night.” She looped her arm through Molucco’s and walked him away to a small private room.

The pirates began to disperse, realizing that the fire-works display was over. Cate grabbed Connor and set off in search of Bart. Grace turned to face Cheng Li.

“Why did you taunt him like that?” she asked.

“Watch and learn,” said Cheng Li with a wink. “He said you could come, didn’t he? Now whoever would have thought that could happen?” She smiled at Grace. “I’ll come and pick you and Connor up at nine o’clock sharp tomorrow morning. Pack a small bag each and be ready on deck.”

In spite of the severity of Cheng Li’s tone, Grace couldn’t help but smile. “We’re really doing this, aren’t we?”

Cheng Li nodded. “Yes, Grace. By this time tomorrow, you and Connor will be free of
The Diablo
and settling down to your first night at Pirate Academy.”

14

PIRATE ACADEMY

The academy’s harbor was enclosed by a seawall, the entrance marked by a tall stone arch rising out of the water. As Cheng Li’s small boat sailed closer, the twins saw that the arch bore an inscription. Grace read it out.

PLENTY AND SATIETY,

PLEASURE AND EASE,

LIBERTY AND POWER.

“That’s the Academy’s maxim,” Cheng Li said, with a great sense of pride. “The words come from a famed captain of the old times.”

“What does ‘satiety’ mean?” Connor asked.

Cheng Li smiled. “Taking everything you want, and then everything else besides.” Connor’s eyes lit up but Grace couldn’t help frowning, thinking of Molucco Wrathe’s unquenchable thirst for treasure. “Of course, these days, piracy is a much more complex and subtle business.” Grace kept her eyes on her, awaiting further explanation. “You’ll see what I mean after a few days at the Academy.” Cheng Li turned away and busied herself with the sails.

As Cheng Li steered the boat through the arch and into the harbor, Grace and Connor gasped at the first sight of their surroundings. The Academy was a colorful oasis — a sprawling mass of old buildings, painted in bright yellows, pinks, and oranges and set among lush gardens, leading down toward the dockside. As they approached the dock, a flotilla of small sailing boats passed them, full of young kids — with one exception.

“Captain Avery!” Cheng Li called out. The old man jerked to attention and looked up, then smiled and lifted his cap to wave at her. “He’s taking the juniors out for their sailing lesson,” she explained to the twins. Now the young students noticed Cheng Li and began waving. As they did so, some of the boats began to veer out of line.

“Focus!” Captain Avery cried at his students with exasperation. “Now, let’s pay a little
less
attention to Mistress Li and a little
more
to our own navigation, shall we? Come on Mister McLay, look alive! And you, Miss Conescu — pull in the sheets now, that’s it. Oh yes, Miss Webber, nice recovery. Much improved! Very much improved!”

Grace and Connor watched as the pirate apprentices attempted — with varying degrees of success — to bring their boats back into line. Meanwhile, Cheng Li eased their own craft into its slip. She was poised to jump out to tie it to its moorings, but a man appeared at the dockside, held out his hands, and said, “Here, allow me.”

“Thank you, Commodore Kuo,” Cheng Li said, throwing out the line toward him. The man caught the coil of rope in one hand and deftly wound it around the mooring pin. He stretched out his hand to help Cheng Li out of the boat.

Commodore Kuo was smartly dressed in calico britches tucked into tall, black leather boots, which seemed to shimmer in the sunlight. He wore a crisp white shirt — open to reveal the beginnings of a strong, tanned chest — and a red silk waistcoat. Hanging around his neck was a chain with four charms on it. He wore his silver-gray hair to his shoulders, like Molucco, but — in contrast to Captain Wrathe — his hair was smooth, well-groomed, and noticeably free of reptiles. His handsome face was tanned and his dark-brown eyes sparkled as brightly as the sun on the water.

Standing beside him on the dockside, Cheng Li addressed the twins. “Grace, Connor, it’s my very great pleasure to introduce you to Commodore John Kuo, Headmaster of the Pirate Academy.”

Connor jumped from the boat to the dockside.

“Welcome, Mister Tempest,” said Commodore Kuo, shaking him firmly by the hand. “Connor, I’ve heard so much about you already — from Mistress Li and others. It’s an absolute delight to have you here.”

Now, Commodore Kuo reached out his hand to help Grace cross over onto the shore.

“Miss Tempest, welcome to Pirate Academy.”

As the headmaster leaned forward, Grace saw more closely the chain hanging around his neck. Suspended on a thin gold thread were four charms — a sword, a compass, an anchor, and a pearl. The headmaster caught her looking.

“I see you’ve noticed my chain,” he said, running a finger along it. “Each of the charms has an important meaning. They symbolize the three core talents required to be a successful pirate. The sword represents the ability to fight and is modeled on my very own Toledo Blade. The com-pass represents skills in navigation. The anchor recognizes that we must ground ourselves in pirate history. And the pearl ...well the pearl is perhaps the most important — it marks the capacity to take the most dark and unprepossessing of situations and break through it to find the treasure within.”

Grace felt she knew something of what the headmaster was saying. “Well,” said the headmaster, placing a hand lightly on each twin’s shoulder and brushing them forward, “what are we waiting here for? Let’s go inside!”

The four of them set off along a twisting footpath, through the grounds of the Academy. The gardens smelled wonderful. After breathing little more than sea air for weeks, the scent of the tall jacaranda tree near the dock was heady enough to knock you out. Its branches hung low, under the weight of its bundles of blue flowers. Running around the tree was a circular seat, on which two boys were sitting, both engrossed in the same book.

As they passed, the boys glanced up and straightened their posture.

“Sebastian, Ivan,” said Commodore Kuo. “Catching up on some reading?”

“Yes, sir!” said the first boy, holding up the book’s cover.

“Ah,
The Book of Five Cutlasses
,” said Commodore Kuo, “A piratical classic!”

“Mistress Li recommended it to me,” the boy said, excitedly.

“Indeed I did,” Cheng Li said. “Sebastian has made such excellent progress in Combat Workshop, I thought he’d find Captain Makahazi’s biography an engaging subject.”

“Ambitious — and violent — reading for a ten-year-old,” exclaimed the headmaster, “but it seems to have engrossed Sebastian, and it appears young Ivan is equally gripped.”

“Yes,
sir
,” said the other boy.

“Very good,” Commodore Kuo said, smiling. “Well, we shan’t disturb you any more, young
pirates
.”

The boys beamed at the word and returned to their study beneath the blue bower. Could there be a more ideal place to sit, wondered Grace — shaded by the branches, immersed in its scent, looking out to the glistening harbor.

“Come on, slowpoke,” Cheng Li called, already a good way ahead, standing in front of a dazzling fountain made of colored glass and seashells.

Grace hurried to catch up with her. “It’s all so beautiful,” she said with a sigh.

“So, you’re glad you came?”

“Oh yes,” Grace said, her eyes wide with wonder and delight.

“You’re a very long way from
The Diablo
now,” Cheng Li said, taking Grace’s arm. They walked side by side past the fountain, splashes of cool water bouncing up and onto Grace’s face. It felt delicious on her tanned skin, warmed by the morning sun. For the first time in ages, Grace found herself properly beginning to relax.

Connor and Commodore Kuo had made swifter progress and now stood, deep in discussion, at the entrance to a tall, domed terra-cotta–colored building. Grace could see that Connor and the headmaster were already getting along famously. She felt a strong sense of optimism. This was a new beginning. With Cheng Li’s help, she felt sure that she had rescued Connor from certain death as one of the pirates under Captain Wrathe’s leadership.

Cheng Li and Grace joined Connor and Commodore Kuo at the building’s entrance — a pair of vast, elaborately carved wooden doors. “These doors were plundered by one of our founding captains,” Cheng Li told the twins, “after an especially successful raid off the coast of Rajasthan.” She touched a hand to the intricate carvings. “Whenever I see these doors, I feel as if I am coming home.”

“The Academy
is
a home for all our students — old and new,” Commodore Kuo said, pushing open the doors. “And, wherever you travel in this world, our doors will always open to welcome you back from your adventures.”

As he finished speaking, he stepped back and Grace and Connor found themselves on the threshold of a vast circular room, bathed in cool blue light.

“This is the Rotunda,” said Commodore Kuo, “but our students’ affectionate nickname for it is ‘the Octopus’ — on account of all its tentacles.” He smiled, indicating the various corridors spinning off from the center.

Grace’s attention was drawn up above her head. The domed ceiling of the Rotunda was studded with circular glass panels, in every shade of blue — from pale turquoise to bright lapis to deep indigo. Sunlight streamed down through the glass filters, drenching the Octopus and those inside it in watery blues. The effect was stunning, as if you were wandering upon the ocean floor itself.

Following Grace’s gaze, Connor also looked upward. But his eyes were drawn by something different.

Hanging down on steel wires from the very top of the Rotunda were glass cases, forming a giant mobile. The cases came to a stop just a couple of feet above their heads and, as Connor examined them, he saw that each case contained a sword. It was strange — and not a little disconcerting — looking up at all these blades, swimming in the blue ocean of light like a school of beautiful but utterly deadly fish.

“Wow,” said Connor. “What’s the deal with all these swords?”

“Impressive, aren’t they?” Commodore Kuo said. “We’re very fortunate at the Academy to have swords belonging to some of the most celebrated pirate captains of our time. Most of the swords are bequeathed to us when the captain retires but, in some instances, it is the sword which retires first! That one up there, for instance, was once used by your friend Captain Molucco Wrathe. Do you see?”

The Commodore pointed up at three swords which hung together in a group.

“Which one?” Connor asked.

“Ah well, it’s true they’re almost identical. You see, those three swords once belonged to the three Wrathe brothers — Molucco, Barbarro, and Porfirio. But that one, in the middle, was once Molucco’s rapier. If you look carefully, you’ll see the telltale sapphire in its hilt.”

Connor was a little surprised that Molucco had bequeathed a sword to the Academy, given the rather dismissive way he spoke about the place. But he knew the captain well enough to know that he was a changeable man. Besides, Bart had told him when they’d first met that Molucco and his brothers were pirate royalty — so of course they would want the swords of the Wrathes in the Academy.

“What about
this
sword?” Connor asked, his eyes suddenly drawn to a simpler long sword, the hilt of which was leather-bound and glittered slightly.

“Did you prime our guests, Mistress Li?” Commodore Kuo asked with a smile.

Cheng Li returned his smile, shaking her head.

“What do you mean?” asked Connor.

“That’s
my
old sword,” Commodore Kuo said. “My Toledo Blade. It was my ally in many a conflict. It’s a quite unusual weapon.” He stood at Connor’s side, their eyes fixed on the sword hovering above them.

“It’s forged in the most exceptional way,” explained Commodore Kuo. “Iberian blacksmiths are masters of their art — and they surpassed themselves with this sword. The steel blade has an iron core inside, making it extraordinarily hard. That’s why Hannibal himself chose a Toledo Blade, along with great kings and leaders throughout history.” Commodore Kuo glanced across at Cheng Li. “Even Japanese samurai traveled to Toledo to have their katana and wakizashi forged there. And so did I.”

Commodore Kuo’s hand rested on Connor’s shoulder. “The weapon’s creation is a complex process. The smiths must forge hard and soft steel simultaneously and at exceedingly high temperatures. Then the sword is cooled with water, or oil, to weld the seam. The master black-smith who forged this sword blew upon the blade 20,000 times to achieve the perfect consistency. Just imagine! He only makes three blades each year. And you see the hilt? It’s bound in stingray skin — exceptionally tough and waterproof. My boots are made of the same material.”

Grace glanced down at his boots, realizing that they were not — as she had first thought — crafted from leather. She was reminded of her similar mistake over the Vampirate captain’s cape and the mysterious ship’s sails. Though Commodore Kuo’s boots shimmered in the light, she didn’t expect that they flickered with veins like the Vampirate captain’s cape or the ship’s sails. Nevertheless, the Academy felt similar to the Vampirate ship in at least one other respect — it appeared to have many exciting secrets to unlock.

Connor couldn’t take his eyes off the Toledo Blade. It sounded amazing. A thought crossed his mind. “Commodore Kuo, would I be able to try it out?”

“I’m afraid not,” the headmaster said with finality, though his voice was still soft and smooth. “The swords are only taken out of their cases once every year, on Swords Day. It’s when we celebrate the founding of the Academy and the accomplishments of our students. Those who have shone most brightly through the year are rewarded with the honor of exhibition fights with these swords.” He turned to Connor. “But alas, this is an opportunity only open to
students
of our Academy,
not
guests.”

Connor felt a sense of disappointment and frustration. Right now, he’d give anything to hold that sword in his hands, even if it meant signing up to a year at the Academy.

“The Academy has many different treasures to appeal to every taste,” Commodore Kuo continued, his voice echoing around the Rotunda. “Over the next few days, you must feel free to explore whatever seizes your interest and passion. Ask for whatever you need and, wherever possible,” he glanced up at the Toledo Blade, “it shall be yours. Mistress Li will be your guide and the door to my study is always open to you. But now, I fear, I must step away to finalize revisions to our Navigation curriculum. Mistress Li, I’ll leave you to show Grace and Connor to their quarters?”

“Yes, Headmaster.”

Commodore Kuo began walking away along one of the corridors. Then, apparently seized by a fresh thought, he spun around — his eyes flaming with passion. “Once I was captain of a thousand-strong crew. Now, I am captain of the brightest future stars of the pirate world. Should you feel, after a few days here, that you might want to join us, well, I’m sure that we could find a way to accommodate that. Don’t you think so, Mistress Li?”