Vampirates: Tide of Terror (18 page)

23

LITTLE DOVES

As the bell chimed for afternoon classes, Jacoby led Grace and Connor through the sunny grounds to the gymnasium complex. Inside the bright, high-ceilinged gym, they found Cheng Li, who had changed out of her usual clothes and was dressed instead all in white, her feet bare. As usual, she did not look up to greet them as they came into the room. Her face was bent low over a bowl of incense. In her hands was a small, leather-bound book.

“Please take a seat to the side,” she said, still without looking up.

Jacoby removed his shoes and encouraged Grace and Connor to do the same. Then the three of them walked over to a row of seats at the side.

Cheng Li paced carefully across the matted floor. She lit a second bowl of incense and waited for the smoke to rise.

The school bell chimed once more. Shortly afterward, the gymnasium door opened and in trooped the fifteen children of the lower class, all dressed in white robes like their tutor. They look so sweet — like little doves, thought Grace, as they took their positions, spread evenly across the mats, though the wings on their backs were just two short lengths of bamboo held in place by straps. As the children settled silently into position, Cheng Li turned toward them and began speaking softly.

“First check your head. This is neither tilted up nor down. It does not lean to the side, nor is it crooked. It floats perfectly, like the sphere of the full moon.” She paused. “Your eyes glance neither to the left nor to the right but remain in the center. Your sight extends from the center to each side,
without
your eyes moving. Behind your observing eyes, behind your eyelids, is an eye which sees deeper into all situations you encounter. Engage this all-seeing eye now.”

The children stood like statues, as their tutor surveyed them coolly, moving between them as softly as a breeze through blossom.

“Now, let your attention fall to your neck and shoulders . . .” Cheng Li took the young students through similar mantras until their bodies were fully engaged. Every now and then she stopped to gently turn a neck, or correct the posture of a spine. Grace was dazzled by the control the young students exerted. Either they were naturals or they had already been rigorously trained. Whichever, it was undeniably impressive, but at the same time a little spooky. In Captain Quivers’ Knot class, they had still seemed like children. Here, it was as if Cheng Li was moulding little warriors out of clay.

“Now, drop both shoulders, keep your back straight — do
not
stick out your rear — and put strength from your knees to the front of your feet. Extend your stomach so that your hips will not be bent.”

Once more, the young pirates made the infinitesimal adjustments to their posture to meet Cheng Li’s satisfaction. Nodding, she made her way back to the front of the class. “I am impressed. You have all learned your lessons well. You have laid the foundations for becoming not merely pirates, but warriors.”

She turned and picked up the leather book she had been holding before. “And now,” announced Cheng Li, “Let’s get working on a fresh attack strategy. Divide yourself into your combat groups . . .”

At these words, the children deftly rearranged them-selves across the mats, and Cheng Li began her briefing. “Today, we’ll start to look at another technique for deflecting an enemy’s blade,” she said. “I’m going to show you how to deliver a diagonal downward cut.”

There was a buzz of excitement as Cheng Li continued her instruction.

Grace leaned across to Jacoby. “Aren’t these kids a bit young to be learning about diagonal cuts?” she asked.

Jacoby smiled but shook his head. “This is key stuff,” he said. “When these kids return to their parents’ ships, they have to be able to defend themselves.”

“Well, yes,” said Grace, “I understand that. But these children are only, what, seven and eight years old? Shouldn’t they be allowed to just play, like normal children?”

Jacoby shook his head once more. “They’re not
normal
children, Grace. These kids have been chosen to be the future leaders of the oceans. One day each of them will control a fleet! They
have
to start young. Besides, do they
look
like they’re having a bad time?”

Far from it! That was perhaps what bothered Grace the most. In front of her eyes, Mika, Samara, Nile, Luc, and all the others had mutated from the joyful young kids of the morning class into tiny killing machines. As they swung their twin bamboo sticks up and down, they looked like lethal clockwork toys.

“What do
you
reckon to all this, Connor?” Jacoby asked.

Connor said nothing. He was watching the kids intently, using his own hands to mirror the maneuvers Cheng Li demonstrated with her katana blades.

Jacoby smiled, but Grace frowned. She leaned back into her seat, continuing to watch the lesson in silence. As she did so, she reflected on her own actions. She had brought Connor here to the Academy, to rescue him from certain death aboard
The Diablo
. She had wanted him to fall under the spell of the Academy and he was showing every sign of doing so. But, Grace thought with a shiver, had she taken him out of the frying pan and into the fire? Was there no escape anywhere from death at the hand of another’s sword?

It wasn’t, she reminded herself, sword fighting in itself with which she had a problem. She had brought Connor here because the Academy reared its pirates to act in a strategic, coordinated way. If Connor stayed here and embraced the Academy’s teachings, he would become a more thoughtful pirate. He would almost certainly return to the oceans as a captain, not as mere rapier fodder. But still, Grace found little comfort in the thought. Whether Connor stayed on board
The Diablo
or took up residence at Pirate Academy, the same fate ultimately awaited him. He would be engaged in swordsmanship on a daily basis and his life would be endangered with the same frequency. Her only chance to save him was to dissuade him from being a pirate altogether. But that seemed a remote possibility now.

“Isn’t this amazing?” he said, suddenly turning to her. “The Academy is
such
a cool place. I’m so grateful you persuaded me to come here. It’s
really
opened my eyes.”

Grace smiled, though she felt sick. But worse was to come.

“This is excellent work,” Cheng Li said, facing her students. “You have learned our teachings well. Do not for a moment grow complacent, however. You are like young birds at the beginning of a long journey. Though today takes you a step closer to your destiny, there is still far to fly.”

At these words, the gymnasium doors opened once more and in strode Commodore Kuo, dressed in an elaborate red silk robe, bearing the Academy insignia of the dagger, compass, anchor, and pearl. Behind him came two students of the upper class, pushing a tall lacquered chest on wheels.

The young children on the mats turned around excitedly. There was a buzz of chatter but Cheng Li silenced it with a glance.

“Commodore Kuo,” she said. “We have just seen exemplary work from the lower class.”

“I’m delighted to hear this,” said Commodore Kuo, smiling. He strode forwards to address the young students himself, but not before giving a friendly nod in Grace and Connor’s direction.

“Now, my young warriors,” he said, addressing the chil-dren on the mats, “the time has come for you to step up to the next level of your learning here. The prefects will now pass among you with silk sashes. These must be bound tightly across your eyes.”

As he spoke, the two older students who had arrived with him moved across the mats, drawing each small child to his or her feet and blindfolding them. In a moment or two, all the younger students were blindfolded with red silk sashes, of the exact same hue as the head-master’s robe.

“Now, remember what I told you before,” Cheng Li said, “there is observation and there is seeing. The lids of your eyes do not need to be open to see. You must sense your enemy’s sword even when you cannot observe it.”

As she spoke the words, the headmaster took a key and opened up the lacquered chest that had been brought with him. The two prefects helped him to open it and it fell away, revealing rows of gleaming swords.

“Now,” Cheng Li said, “using your all-seeing-eye, and making no sound, make yourself ready.”

Connor turned to Jacoby. “Wow!” he said. “What’s going on?”

Jacoby simply smiled. “Watch and learn, my friend. Watch and learn!” At these words, a shiver shot down Grace’s spine. She felt a deep sense of foreboding. In spite of this, she could not remove her eyes from Commodore Kuo.

The headmaster beckoned Connor over. Instinctively, Connor stood up and padded toward him. Grace watched as the headmaster whispered something in Connor’s ear. Connor nodded and Commodore Kuo lifted a pair of small swords from the lacquered chest. Connor carried the swords over to one of the children on the mats, extending them toward the child by the hilt.

After a moment, the small hands suddenly shot out, each seizing a sword by the hilt. Connor let go. Now, the child held a daisho in each hand and a broad smile broke across his face.

Between them, the older kids and adults bestowed the same gift upon each of the children. At last, they all stood in a row, still blindfolded, their small fists gripping the hilts of their sharp, steel blades. Grace could see them struggling to suppress their excited smiles.

The prefects closed the lacquered case. Connor sat back down next to Grace. Commodore Kuo stood before his diminutive warriors as Cheng Li passed swiftly behind them, removing their blindfolds. The children’s eyes shone like jewels as they had their first sight of the daisho in their hands.

“Let these blades be your most treasured possessions,” said Commodore Kuo. “These swords represent our trust in you and our belief that you are the future of piracy. Use these weapons not in sudden anger nor for quick gain but with precision and with honor in the way that your teachers show you. These blades in your hands now connect each of you back through time to the noble line of pirates who came before you. They connect you forward into the future to the line of pirates to come. But, most importantly, your daisho connects each of you to one another — to your comrades at the Academy and also in the Pirate Federation.”

He bowed toward the kids, then walked over to Connor and Grace.

“I’m so glad you could be here to see this,” he said, “It’s one of the most exciting moments in the Academy year.”

Grace nodded, unable to speak for the risk of saying the wrong thing.

In front of her, the prefects were lining the kids back up again.

“What’s happening now?” she asked.

“Ah, well,” said Commodore Kuo, “now, they’re being taken to the sword store. They don’t keep their swords with them at this age. We wouldn’t want any mishaps!”

Her work done, Cheng Li padded forward across the mats to join them.

“I was just saying how pleased I was that Grace and Connor could be here to witness this,” said the head-master.

“Yes, indeed,” Cheng Li said.

“Why,” said Commodore Kuo, “it seems only yesterday that an especially talented young seven-year-old was standing on that mat, stretching out her arms to receive her daisho.” He smiled. “And now look at you, Cheng Li.”

She smiled in the way she did when she was just a little embarrassed.

Now, Commodore Kuo turned to the twins. “So, Connor and Grace. You may not have come here in time to receive all the training we can offer, but there is still plenty to share with you, should you want to stay.”

Grace glanced at Connor. What was he thinking? She no longer knew which way she wanted him to jump. Perhaps it was time to stop interfering and let him make his own choice. She remembered thinking that he had made a mess of things by signing Captain’s Wrathe’s articles. And how she had believed that she was better at making decisions for the two of them. And where had it led them? To an Academy which created killing machines out of seven-year-olds. And then there was the small matter of her unfinished business with the ‘ship of demons.’
Oh yes,
she thought.
Yes, I really am blessed with great decision-making skills.

“Grace, you’re looking a little peaky,” said Cheng Li.

She turned to see Cheng Li smiling at her.

“Would you like to go for a walk?” Cheng Li asked.

Grace considered for a moment. She knew that Cheng Li was offering more than a walk. They’d have a chance to talk about things and for her to tell Cheng Li about her latest journey to the Vampirate ship. It was a tempting offer, but suddenly Grace hungered to be alone.

“Thank you,” she said. “Actually, I thought I might go for a swim before supper.”

“A swim?” Cheng Li said, amused.

“Yes,” replied Grace. “I missed out on Captain Platonov’s run this morning and I could really do with some exercise.”

“Great idea!” Connor said. “We’ll come with you, won’t we, Jacoby?”

“Sure,” Jacoby said. “We might even ask Jasmine to come along.” He whispered to Connor, “I never pass up the chance to see her in a bikini.”

Commodore Kuo beamed at the three of them. “Excellent,” he said, “excellent. Have fun, guys.”

They turned and walked out of the gym. As the door swung shut behind them, Commodore Kuo turned to Cheng Li. “It’s good to see Connor and Grace making new friends, isn’t it?”

“Oh yes, Headmaster,” said Cheng Li, smiling. “Yes, isn’t it?”

“I don’t suppose I can tempt you to a bout of swordsplay before dinner?” he asked. “For old time’s sake.”

“I’d make mincemeat of you, John,” she said, smiling.

Commodore Kuo laughed. “At least, I’d die a happy man.”

“Death is death, John. Whether you die smiling or with tears in your eyes, it amounts to the same thing. A whole heap of nothing.”

24

EXILE

Grace went through the motions of swimming and, later, dinner with Connor, Jacoby, and Jasmine. It wasn’t as elaborate as the previous night’s dinner with the captains, but it was more relaxing and the Academy food was still delicious. However, Grace wasn’t there — not really. She felt herself withdrawing from the Academy and letting all her thoughts drift to the Vampirate ship. Perhaps if she made things right there, then she’d be able to settle in properly here. Wasn’t that how karma was supposed to work?

After dinner, Jacoby suggested a pool tournament. Connor was keen and Jasmine said she’d join them later, after she’d finished some reading she had to do for the next day’s classes.

“Brains as well as beauty, you see,” Jacoby said to Connor as Jasmine departed for her room. “What about you, Grace? You’ll join us to shoot some pool, won’t you?”

Grace smiled but shook her head. “I’m exhausted,” she said. “I think I’ll have an early night.”

Jacoby looked a little disappointed. “Just us then,” he said to Connor. Grace bid them both good night. And as she headed off toward the accommodation block, she heard Jacoby saying to Connor, “Let’s make this more interesting with a wager . . .” She smiled. The two of them were incorrigible.

As Grace crossed the terrace, she saw a familiar silhouette standing there, looking out to the harbor.

“Cheng Li.”

Cheng Li turned toward her. “Hello, Grace. Off to bed already?”

“Yes,” said Grace. “It’s been a long day.”

Cheng Li shook her head. “You’re not talking to the headmaster now, Grace. There’s no pulling the wool over my eyes. We share
everything
, remember.” She reached out her hand to Grace’s shoulder.

“Come on, a quick walk round the Academy gardens won’t kill you. You can get it off your chest — whatever’s bothering you. And the fresh air will ensure you get a great night’s sleep. Come along.”

“Cheng Li, I’m just not sure I fit in here. Connor does, but I don’t think I do. And I’m worried for Connor — I thought if I got him away from
The Diablo
he’d be safe. But since we’ve been here, he seems even more set on being a pirate. So we’re no safer here than we were with Captain Wrathe!”

“We brought Connor here because we both know this is what’s best for him,” Cheng Li said. “He’ll have a glorious future if he stays at Pirate Academy. In a few years, he’ll return to sea as a deputy captain, just like I did.”

“But will he be safe?” Grace persisted.

Cheng Li came to a standstill, smiling. “You each have such an admirable desire to protect the other. It’s under-standable after everything you’ve been through. But don’t you see, Grace, there’s no such thing as safety in this world,
our
world?”

“You mean the
pirate
world,” Grace said. “But we weren’t born into that world. Maybe it isn’t for us.”

“What then?” Cheng Li said. “Tell me what other plan you have? Would you prefer it if you and Connor headed back to a life of drudgery in Crescent Moon Bay? Really? Is that what you’d like? Because if it is I can borrow one of the Academy tenders and sail you down the coast tomorrow morning. We can have you checked into the orphanage by teatime!”

Grace looked hard at Cheng Li.

“No,” she said, after a lengthy pause.

“What was that, Grace? I’m a little hard of hearing.”

“I said NO,” Grace repeated. “That isn’t what I want.”

“Of course it isn’t!” exclaimed Cheng Li. “You may not have been born into the pirate world but it has claimed you...well, it’s claimed Connor at least. We still have to work out exactly where
you
fit in. But we will. We
will
.”

Grace sighed. Cheng Li’s words were invigorating as well as reassuring.

“Get some sleep,” Cheng Li said. “It’s been a long day and tomorrow won’t be any different. Life at the Academy is no free ride. Maybe tomorrow you’d like to do some combat practice with me? I heard a rumor that you’re actually pretty talented in that area, and it might help you work out some of your tension.”

Grace smiled. “Could be fun,” she agreed.

“All right. Well, let’s see how you feel in the morning. Off you go, now. And promise me, you’ll stop worrying about Connor. Everything is working out just as I planned.”

“Just as
we
planned,” Grace corrected her.

“Yes, of course, that’s what I said.”

Up in her room, Grace tried to sleep but, tired as she was, the minute she changed into her nightclothes and got into bed, she felt wide awake. She closed her eyes, willing her mind to come to rest, but it was just no good. Instinctively, she reached for Lorcan’s Claddagh ring. It had helped to calm her before.
Before
the visions had begun. But now, as she pressed it between her thumb and forefinger, nothing changed. The temperature remained constant. There was no vision of any kind. It seemed as if Cheng Li was right. The ring had served its purpose. Nevertheless, touching it brought her closer to Lorcan in her own mind and that, she concluded, could only be a good thing.

She remembered someone saying that if you couldn’t get to sleep, the worst thing to do was to stay in bed. So she threw back the covers and walked across the room toward the balcony. She opened up the shutters and stepped out into the cool night air, lifting her face into the breeze, then looking out across the grounds, down to the harbor. The Academy looked so beautiful by night. Some of the students had taken musical instruments out onto the terrace and were playing now. They were actually pretty good — their haunting, rhythmic, almost tribal music both calming and utterly suited to the hot night. Grace watched them play, then shut her eyes, letting the music flood her senses and conjure its own pictures.

Suddenly, Grace’s head was full of a different, but similar, music — the music that she had heard on board the Vampirate ship as an overture to the Feast. She stood dead still, recognizing the start of another vision. Every time, it seemed, the vision came a little differently.

Now her mind’s eye was full of the vampires and donors making their way to the banqueting hall, several decks below sea level, dressed in all their finery. This didn’t seem to be a fresh vision, but rather a memory. She remembered the elaborate sense of ceremony and etiquette. She remembered the fine china, crystal, and linens and the strange lack of symmetry of a table set along only one side. And the hundreds of faces she had never seen before — the pairings of vampires and donors talking softly together across the table and then leaving the banquet to go to their cabins, where “the sharing” would begin. Connor had been appalled at the idea of “sharing.” Was it really so repellant? The vampires simply had a need that had to be met and the captain, in his infinite wisdom, had devised a humane way for this to happen.

A peal of laughter brought her attention back down to the kids on the terrace below. They were talking between songs. Then, once more, her head was filled with the strange rhythmic music and her thoughts raced back to the Vampirate ship. Was it possible, she wondered, that a Feast was taking place there this very night?

She felt a sudden jolt. Her body lurched forward, against the balcony. Using the railing to steady herself, she drew upright again. As she did so, she realized that the balcony had torn itself away from the building and that she was now hovering in midair above the terrace, looking down at the musicians. One of them looked up and smiled, but he did not appear to really notice her. She clung on tightly as the balcony began to swoop through the air, out toward the harbor and through the night.

This time, she had more of a sense of the exhilaration of motion. She actually enjoyed the journey. The wind raced through her hair and she felt as if she were hurtling on her own private chariot through space and time. The sky was setting and all around her were the hot oranges and pinks of the dying light, as if the earth and sea were on fire and she was riding through the flames — a part of it, yet disconnected.

At last the flames gave way to velvet darkness and she lost the sense of rapid movement as she became enclosed in a blanket of black. Then, just as suddenly, the sky was filled with starlight and the balcony continued onward, her eyes dazzled by the light of the stars and moon. It was the most incredible adrenaline rush she had ever felt. How blessed she was, she thought, to be able to experience the world in this way. How many others were granted a chance like this?

Then the stars began to fade as the balcony entered the inevitable mist. She was a little sad to leave the night sky behind but she knew that it was only a staging post on her journey. So she submitted to the mist, aware that it was like the anteroom which led onto the Vampirate ship. In a matter of seconds, she would be there again. She sighed, looking forward to seeing Lorcan. This time, she decided, she was going to talk to the captain. This time, she was going to find out more about Lorcan’s wound and what she could do to help.

As the mist slipped away, she found herself back on the deck of the ship. Just as before, she could not feel her feet on the boards — as if she were hovering just a little above them. It was nighttime and Darcy had lit all the lamps. Mu-sic was playing. Familiar, percussive music. Grace felt a frisson. She had been right. Tonight
was
the night of the Feast.

The deck was crowded with vampires, taking their
passagiata
— an extended stroll around the deck in all their finery — before the Feast got underway. A group of them were striding straight toward her, as if they did not see her. She darted to one side, just in time. A moment later and they would have trampled her underfoot. She turned and watched them pass. They appeared utterly unaware of her — no doubt solely possessed by the hunger that had been growing in them and which would, in a matter of hours, at last be sated.

She watched another pack of them take their turn around the deck. One of them stared at her strangely as he passed, his head almost twisting off its axis. Grace shivered. She remembered seeing him at the last Feast she had witnessed. She didn’t know his name but his face had unnerved her then, just as it did now. But, thankfully, in an instant he was gone and another gaggle brushed past her, without even glancing in her direction.

She made herself as comfortable as she could against the deck rail, still feeling as though there was an invisible barrier between the rail and her body. She was pleased to be back, though. And this time, she was going to get some answers.

“Well, look who it isn’t!”

Grace was tugged out of her reverie by the familiar cockney voice.

“Darcy!”

There, before her, was Darcy Flotsam, resplendent in a dress of sky blue chiffon with a trim of gold sequins. “Figurehead by day, figure of fun by night!” exclaimed Darcy, reaching out her arms to hug Grace. They passed straight through her.

“Oh!” sighed Darcy. “I hoped you was back for real this time!”

Grace shook her head. “I wish I was, Darcy. But I don’t know how to make it happen. Do you?”

Darcy shook her head. “You’d have to ask the captain about that. All I know is that when you’re on a visit — like you are now, like I was to that pirate ship of yours — well, the only people who can see you and hear you are those of us who’ve got a connection with you. The captain explained that much to me.”

Grace nodded. Now she understood why some of the ship’s inhabitants appeared to stare right through her, while to others — like Darcy and Lorcan — she seemed as real as the very boards of the deck.

“Oh, Darcy,” Grace said. “After I saw you last time, I did what you said. I went to see Lorcan.”

Darcy nodded sadly. “He’s in an awful way.”

“I know, Darcy, and it’s all my fault.”

Darcy shook her head. “No, Grace. He knows you think that. But it
isn’t
your fault.”

“Yes,” Grace insisted, “it is. But I’m going to help him. I’m going to find a way back here
properly
and I’m going to find a cure.”

Darcy looked at Grace sadly.

“What is it? Has something else happened?”

“His sight shows no signs of improving,” said Darcy, “but it’s worse than that. He refuses to take blood. He’s growing so weak. He has taken to his bed. Oh, Grace, I don’t know how long he can survive. Tonight is the Feast but Lorcan won’t even leave his cabin for blood. It’s as if he’s given up.”

Grace was chilled by this latest turn of events. She had to do something to help — but what? She didn’t know how long she could stay this time, and not being able to touch any-thing or anyone was becoming more and more frustrating.

“I must go,” Darcy said. “I wish I could stay and talk, but I must go and take my seat at the table.”

“Of course,” Grace said, “You go. You must. I’ll wait here, as long as I can. Come and look for me later.”

Darcy nodded. Her face was wet with tears.

“Fabulous dress!” Grace called after her.

When Darcy turned again, she was smiling through her tears and she gave Grace a delicate curtsy.

The strange Feast music grew to a crescendo and Grace watched as the deck completely cleared. She imagined the twin lines of vampires and donors arriving at the banquet hall and taking their places. She was tempted to go and watch but something held her in place up here — some power which she couldn’t quite explain.

She felt her eyes drooping with tiredness. No. She tried to fight it, not wanting to be carried away from the ship — not after so brief a visit. But her lids were heavy and there was nothing she could do. Her eyes closed and she fell into a deep state of relaxation, as if she were floating on the dark waters once more. She did not fight the feeling, knowing that it would carry her wherever it wanted.

The next thing she heard was a cry, or rather, a roar. Her eyes opened and she found, to her surprise, that she was still on the deck of the Vampirate ship. She hadn’t been taken anywhere else — she had simply drifted off to sleep. She was unsure of how much time had passed, but the music had faded now so she sensed that the Feast was over and that the vampires and donors were in their cabins, where the sharing was taking place.