The Pirate Vortex

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 14: FLIGHT

The burly pirates took us to a place in the passage where three tiny cells had been built, fenced off by steel cages. We were bundled into these, three to a cage. Two of the burly pirates left, leaving one as a guard.
There wasn't anything to do except sit and listen to the partying. I hoped Peepers was all right, all alone on our ship.
Unexpectedly, Dad had found resolve. The shock of being carted off to a pirate ship must have cleared out all those cobwebs in his brain. Now he went to work on the guard.
"So, what's going on?" asked Dad. The pirate grunted.
Dad asked again, and this time got a response. "Big celebration," said the pirate.
"You're not celebrating, though," said Dad.
"Yeah," said the pirate. "Dat's cause I got the job of guardin' you guys. And I intend to do it."
Dad didn't say anything. He was considering his next move.
The noise was coming closer. It seemed like there were people all around us, shouting joyfully. Torchlight danced on the wall, as pirates passed by just out of eyesight. Our pirate guard didn't stir.
It was like this for another hour, and during this time the focus of the noise seemed to shift. From mainly coming from above us, now most of the noise came from below. I guessed that the pirates must keep their rum down below in storage. When the pirates went down to get some, they naturally had a drink for the road. And another. And stayed there. And more pirates came to get more rum, and they were followed by more pirates, as the supply of rum dried up, and soon just about everybody was down below.
A group of pirates came round the corner, with big smiles on their reddish faces and bottles of rum in their hands. They all shouted drunk shouts when they saw our pirate guard. They gathered around him and tried to get him to take a drink. The guard refused, reluctantly. He was clearly in a difficult position - he didn't want to look like a wimp in front of the other pirates.
Dad spoke up again. "Go on, take a drink," he suggested in a low voice. It was such a low voice that I didn't think the pirate could have heard him. But immediately the pirate stood up. He snatched a bottle from one of the pirates. "I'm going to drink this," he said loudly. He raised the bottle to his lips and took the whole bottle in one gulp.
"Now youse guys can bugger off," said the pirate guard, sitting back down on his stool. No doubt he intended to stay there until hell froze over.
I looked at Dad, and saw he was grinning. I didn't know why - our guard was still here, motionless in fact.
It took me a long time to work out that he was motionless because he was sleeping.
Dad put a finger to his lips. Me and Wendy were both watching with bated breath as his fingers stole out of the cage, grasping for the pocket of the guard. Dad must have longer fingers than I thought. Two of his fingers disappeared into the guard's pocket. When they came out again, they were holding a loop of keys.
Moving slowly so as not to jangle the keys, Dad turned them around in his hands until he found one that looked similar to the lock on his cage. He tried the key in the lock. It clattered about a bit, and my heart jumped, but the guard didn't stir. Dad turned the key, and his cage swung open.
Dad got out, now moving quickly, and opened our doors. There wasn't any noise close by, but we immediately made a break for it, moving on tiptoes past the guard, to a spot where the passage turned right then reached an intersection. Dad looked left and right quickly then hurried us through. We'd hardly gone any distance further when there was the sound of footsteps and torchlight dancing on the wall ahead.
We ducked into an open doorway. Dad swung the door shut, and crouched down behind it. I crouched down behind him. Wendy didn't crouch down. She was looking around the room. All I saw in the bustle and confusion was a desk, a cupboard or two, and a fountain pen. Wendy took a great interest in the cupboard. She knelt down and opened it up.
Dad stayed knelt at the door, listening. Eventually he decided the coast was clear. He pulled it open and ran out. I came after him almost immediately. We waited out in the passageway, and a second later Wendy came running. She started to say something, but Dad cut her short with a glare.
The trapdoor was up ahead. Dad pushed me up the ladder. When I poked my head out, I saw that the deck all around was clear. On the far upper deck, however, there were still a few partying pirates.
There was no torchlight around the trapdoor. We'd have to hide in the shadows and hope for the best. I scrambled out, followed by Dad and Wendy. We crept to the rail. There was the Que Sera, still tied to the pirate ship, and the gap between them was still spanned by several ramps.
Those pirates on the far upper deck were making an incredible racket, but the air around us was silent. Every noise I made seemed like a wailing klaxon. The creaking of the deck boards. The rattle of the ramp as I crawled across. Even on the Que Sera I felt like hidden agents were listening to my every move.
Wendy followed me across. I told her to run for the trapdoor. She did, keeping her body low. There was something in her face that I couldn't read.
Dad was halfway across when the first shout came.
He instantly shot to his feet, and leapt onto the deck of the Que Sera. "Untie the ropes!" he said to me urgently. I was already working on the first pair.
There were footsteps on the deck of the Quo Vadis. The pirates on the upper deck, numbering eight or nine, were running across the deck, swords in hands, yelling at us.
We threw off the last rope. Now the Que Sera was floating free. "Run!" Dad shouted to me. I ran, but not in the direction he was expecting. Instead, I ran for his room.
Behind me, the first pirate had leapt onto the ramp. Dad threw it off, and the pirate fell screaming into the sea. Dad threw off the second ramp. He glared at the group of eight pirates on the deck of the Quo Vadis, only ten feet away.
One of the pirates mounted the ramp, and leapt the gap. He landed on the deck beside Dad. But just then Peepers leapt up, hissing, and clawed at the pirate's face. Peepers had claws after all. The pirate stumbled back, but I didn't see the rest as now I'd run right into Dad's room and thrown open the trapdoor.
Peepers leapt free of the pirate's face just as he overbalanced. I heard the splash of the pirate's body as I fell down the trapdoor and into the passage. I pelted along its firelit length, past the anchor room, coming to a full stop at the cannon.
On deck, Dad and the pirates faced each other. Each considered the next move. One of the nastiest looking pirates raised his sword, drew his arm back, and hurled the sword at Dad's neck. Dad ducked, and the sword clattered to the deck. More pirates were running up from below.
I pulled back the cannon, tilted it up, and jammed whole handfuls of gunpowder down the barrel. In went the cannonball, then I rammed the barrel back down, jammed it against the window, and reached for a match.
The pirates above took the first thrown sword as a cue to throw all their weapons at Dad. Dad ducked to the deck and covered his head with his hands as cutlasses, dirks, daggers and knives hit the wood around him, quivering.
Above him, wind began to seize the sails.
Matches, matches! I found a box on the upper shelf. I grabbed them, took a match, and lit the fuse. A tiny spark ran down the fuse to the barrel, then disappeared. A second passed.
The cannon exploded, jerking backward, with a noise louder than any I'd ever experienced. The room was full of a cloud smelling of burnt gunpowder, as the cannonball flew from the barrel.
It struck the Quo Vadis about three metres above the waterline, plowing out of sight and leaving a hole a foot wide.
Everybody up on deck, on both the Quo Vadis and Que Sera, jumped as the cannon fired. The pirates at first didn't know who'd fired it. They guessed it had come from the Quo Vadis. Several of them cheered.
Then an explosion erupted down below in the storage room of the Quo Vadis. My shot had hit several gunpowder barrels. As I ran feverishly to the surface I saw the deck of the Quo Vadis tilted alarmingly, the whole rear of the ship sliding into the sea. Pirates ran about in panicked confusion. A geyser of seawater erupted from the trapdoor, bringing with it spluttering, yelling pirates. Then up on the deck appeared Raw Throat Hugo himself. Even above the noise, we heard his yell. "DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES!!" he roared at us. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL YET!"
But the wind was picking up further, and pulling our ships apart. Our sails were down, and the Que Sera was in perfect working order. The Quo Vadis, on the other hand, had just been holed. Soon the yells of Raw Throat and his pirate were lost to the wind, as his ship slowly sank into the water. The masts burned with an unholy glow. The sails went up like oiled sheets. The Quo Vadis was just a fireball on the horizon.
Then it was gone. We watched it sink, then me and Dad and Peepers went into Dad's room and fell over, exhausted.

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