~ ~ ~
“Leave the talking to me,” Captain Corvino says to me before turning back to the large oak door.
Corvino, Gull, and I have made our way out of the multicoloured homes where the safe house is nestled and into the broad tree-lined slopes of the Mansion district.
Corvino gives the door a single loud knock with his left hand; his right hangs at his side casually, clutching a small leather satchel that holds the one rubber duck I’d managed to save from the canals.
After Corvino’s announcement of a plan at the safe house, he’d pulled Patience off to the side and exchanged hushed words for a moment. Then, returning to the crew, he’d pointed. “Gull, Mateo, you’ll be with me. The rest of you – back to the ship, make her ready. I feel we may be making a hasty exit.”
The door opens. A burly man grunts and gestures us in. We’re led through a series of winding hallways. All throughout, the house is lavishly appointed: marble and gold, fine fabrics and paintings. Big men, like the one guiding us, tall and broad-shouldered, stand guard in every room we pass.
“Thale’s prized stable,” Gull says to me in a hush.
“Stable?” I ask softly.
“His fighters,” Gull explains. “Thale runs the city’s underground fights, makes odds, takes the wagers, and some say” – his voice drops lower – “fixes the outcomes.”
“What are they doing here?” I ask Gull.
“It’s the trade-off. If they fight the way he wants, then they live here; otherwise they live on the wharfs,” Gull tells me.
I imagine what it would be like to live in a big house like this, what I would give up to live here.
Finally our guide pushes open an ornate set of double doors that leads into a spectacular sitting room with high windows overlooking the sea out beyond Port Aurelia.
In the centre of the room, sitting in an oversized armchair, is a small yellow-skinned man with fine thinning hair. Beside him stands someone who looks to be a boy my age. He’s wearing a long leather jacket and a wide-brimmed hat that wouldn’t look out of place in an old cowboy movie.
“Your esteemed scholarship, Ambrose Thale,” Corvino says, bowing low and even dipping a knee towards the floor. “I’ve come on the matter of my debt. I have with me here but a small sample of the vast riches that my faithful crew have collected from the Aldobrandi family vault.”
The yellow-skinned man in the chair gives a little laugh, then a harsh dry cough, before standing to address us. “Ah, my good friend Captain Corvino, and you brought people.”
Thale smiles. He’s missing teeth, and the ones he has are yellowed and stained.
“Now show me what it is you’ve brought me,” Thale demands, eyeing the leather satchel in Corvino’s hand.
“But one,” Corvino says, placing the satchel on the table. “I propose an exchange. Forgive our debt – in full – and the location of the rest, every last one, is yours.”
“Ah… wise man,” Thale tells him, reaching out and grabbing the satchel. He opens it and withdraws the rubber duck, still in its packaging. “Hm,” he says, admiring the duck. “Beautiful. And how many are there?”
“Untold numbers,” Corvino says dramatically.
“Thousands, I hear,” Thale says, locking his eyes on Corvino. “Enough for every man, woman and child in Port Aurelia to have one.”
“Of course, if everyone had one, then no one would pay the sort of premium an item from across the Morrow Line could command. If someone could just fish them out of the canals… well, they wouldn’t be worth anything, would they now?” Thale leaves it as a question, but I can tell that Corvino knows the game is up.
“I suppose not,” Corvino says. “But you’d be the only one –“
“ENOUGH!” Thale cuts Corvino off. “ENOUGH of your schemes! I didn’t hire you for how you play at pirate. I hired you for your name, and here even your name has failed. I have word from my people that boxes of these… these… things! are floating all over the city.”
“I obviously didn’t motivate you properly last time you failed,” Thale continues, sneering. “Maybe the next captain of The Prodigal will understand what it means to fail me.”
“HA HA HA!” Corvino gives out a big laugh. I can tell it’s forced, but just hearing it is jarring.
“Did you really believe that I’d come empty-handed?” Corvino says.
“Here!” Corvino exclaims, suddenly grabbing my arm and dragging me forward.
Thale’s eyes lock onto me, looking me over, trying to see what it is that Corvino has seen.
“This boy has crossed the Morrow Line, this boy knows things about the other side, things that only you will be able to learn. Everyone in the city may have one of those trinkets, but only you will know how they work.”
I look back at Corvino. He’s locked a toothy smile on his face, and his eyes, staring at Thale, won’t meet my gaze.
“Interesting,” Thale says, considering for a moment. “Boy!?” He addresses me directly. “Is this true?”
“Yes,” I say nervously.
“You know who I am?” he asks.
“Thale,” I reply.
“Scholar Ambrose Thale,” he says, correcting me. “Do you know what that means, Scholar?”
“It means you’ve studied something?” I guess.
Thale nods. “I’m a Scholar, third circle, of the Maritime Society. You’ve heard of them, right?”
I shake my head no.
“Interesting, interesting,” Thale says, rolling the words over in his mouth before holding up the rubber duck.
“Do you know what this is?” he asks.
“It’s a rubber duck,” I tell him, dreading where the questions are going.
“A. Rubber. Duck.” Thale savours every word.
“And can you tell me what it’s used for?” he asks.
I try to think of something, maybe tell him it’s a weapon that takes years of training, or that it’s our currency system, or anything, but my mind keeps drawing blanks.
“Come on, can you tell me or not?” Thale presses.
“It’s… it’s not really for anything,” I stammer.
Thale eyes me for a minute and then shakes his head.
“Corvino, Corvino, Corvino, you almost had me. Thousands of these things and you expect me to believe that they serve no purpose. Well, still, you cost the Aldobrandis dearly, knocked out a competitor of sorts for me, and this Wharf Rat, he’s very convincing. I think I’ll keep him. A soft bed and a full plate in a house like this – he’ll want for nothing. As for you and your man there… well, debts must be paid.”
“GUARDS!” Thale calls, and goes to sit back in his chair.
In a whirl of his coat, Corvino leaps into the air, drawing a cutlass and landing squarely on the table in front of Thale. Corvino leans in, touching the tip of the sword to Thale’s neck. “You’ll release us from our debts one way or another,” Corvino tells Thale.
Thale leans into the sword. I can see a small trickle of blood running down his neck. “You’re a fool, and a dead man,” he says softly to Corvino.
A whip crack, and Corvino’s sword flies clear across the room. The boy who’d been quiet the whole time holds a whip in his hand, its long leather length pooled on the floor near his feet. Corvino goes to grab his other sword, but before he can, another crack, and the whip is wrapped around his wrist. He struggles, unable to reach the sword hilt. Seeing a chance, I charge the boy, but he sees me coming, moves only half a step and trips me, sending me sliding across the floor. As I look back, Thale is leaving through a secret door hidden in a marble panel.
“Have fun on your way out,” Thale says as he disappears into the passage. The boy with the whip is right behind him in a flash, and the heavy panel shuts.
“HELP ME!” Corvino calls as he rushes to the panel and tries to push it. I join him, but it’s no use; the door is jammed shut.
“CAPTAIN!” It’s Gull’s voice. He’s holding a bar across the double doors, but with the huge guards on the other side he can’t hold them for long.
Corvino surveys the room. The duck is still on the table where Thale left it. Corvino grabs it and calls out, “And now, gentlemen, we take our leave!” Grabbing a small statue, he throws it through the large window, causing the glass to shatter, and then he leaps through and disappears below the window ledge.
Gull is still holding the door. “GO!” he says to me. I don’t need a second reminder. I run and jump out the window.
It’s a long way down, but I land on soft, sloped ground. I feel a pain shoot up through my legs. It doesn’t feel like anything is broken, but… Gull lands right behind me. He’s bigger and heavier, and he slams straight into me, sending us both down the grassy hill.
Over and over I roll until at last, with a painful thud, I stop, the wind knocked out of me. I look around. I’m up against a small white tree, the beginning of what looks like a forest that stretches out beneath me. Gull is off to my side, not moving.
“Good, you’re both safe.” It’s Corvino. I look over and see him standing there, out of breath, scraped and bruised, but in one piece.
I manage to pull myself up to my feet using the tree. “I’m safe, no thanks to you!” I say, bitterness cutting into my tone.
Before I can lay into Corvino further, I notice that Gull still hasn’t moved. I head over.
His breath is shallow but regular. I touch his head; there’s no blood or anything. He must just have gotten knocked out by the fall.
“Is he hurt?” Corvino asks, coming to my side, a note of real concern in his voice.
“I think he’s just unconscious,” I say.
Corvino looks around. “We’re not safe here,” he says. “We have to get out of his gardens.”
“Help me with him,” I say to Corvino, trying to get my arm under Gull’s body. Corvino comes over, and together we’re able to scoop Gull up and hold him between us.
We head down the gentle slope of the forest, Corvino and I with Gull dragging between us. Corvino is directing our path, turning left and then right subtly, like he’s been here before.
“Was it a ruse?” I ask as we walk.
“Of course,” he says, and then explains, “The pirates’ code says you’re not to leave a man behind. Do they not have the pirates’ code where you’re from?”
I think about all the pirate books I’ve read. “We have a saying: no honour among thieves,” I tell him.
Corvino thinks about it for a minute. “Aye, I can see why you wouldn’t trust me, then. But I am an honourable pirate, and I keep to my code.”
I’m not sure I believe him.
“Here,” Corvino says triumphantly as we come to an old broken tree, larger than the others and standing alone. He helps me lower Gull to the ground. I watch as he presses on what looks like a mossy knot in the tree, and a door swings open.
“Go ahead,” Corvino offers. “I’ll bring Gull. We won’t fit three abreast.”
I walk to the old dead tree. As I get closer, I notice that it’s not a tree at all but a stone structure made to look like a tree. Inside, a stone staircase spirals down into the ground. Nervously I step forward and begin to make my way down. I’m about two-thirds of a turn in when the whole area is plunged into darkness.
“Keep your hand to the outside wall and keep going,” Corvino’s voice calls down.
I realize that he’s closed the door behind us. I can’t even make out his shape in the darkness, and I wonder if he really brought Gull with him.
We descend what seems like forever in the darkness when I see a sliver of light at the bottom.
The staircase opens up into a small paved landing built into a grotto. A little sunlight comes in through a small opening, but most of the light is from the blue-green glow of the water. Corvino is right behind me. I turn and see him coming out of the staircase, Gull awkwardly slumped over his shoulder. He puts him down and looks around.
“I had hoped we’d all be conscious for this part,” Corvino says, glancing at Gull.
“You planned this?” I ask.
“The second rule of being a pirate, Master Delmar: never enter a room you cannot leave,” Corvino says.
“By now Patience has brought The Prodigal around, and she’s waiting on the other side of those rocks,” Corvino says, gesturing to the stone wall. “We swim out and there’s a rowboat waiting for us.”
“I can’t swim,” I tell him. Corvino stares at me and then back to Gull. “You’re not the only one. We need a way to float him out.”
Suddenly I remember it. “My life vest!” I exclaim. Corvino looks confused. “The vest I was wearing when you picked me up, the green one. It floats; it’s enough to float a person. If I wear it, I can float through the opening, and if we put it on Gull, he’ll float through even if he’s unconscious.”
Corvino nods, thinking for a moment. “You’ll need to trust me, Mateo,” he says. “I will go and get your life… vest and bring it here.”
Before I have time to think about it, Corvino dives into the water. I see him give a kick and watch as he slips through the opening of the grotto and out of sight.
The grotto is quiet save for the lapping of water on the stone. I sit and stare at the opening. Corvino isn’t coming back, I realize. Why would he? He’s got my compass and the rubber duck. I’m worthless to him, except maybe as a bargaining chip for Thale.
I feel the exhaustion finally weighing on me. Back at home, Mom and Nora are probably planning for my funeral. No casket for another Delmar boy lost at sea. Maybe Grandfather was the only sane one, staying off the water.
I glance over at Gull, still unconscious where Corvino put him down by the stairs. My eyes linger on the entrance to the staircase. Thale had offered me a place in his home. I could climb up the stairs, turn myself in, and live in the mansion. The other boy, the one with the whip, had seemed happy enough. I’d be giving up any hope of making it home – not that I have any to give up. Without the compass, I’d never be able to find my dad.
Leaving now would mean leaving Gull; I can’t carry him up the stairs. He’d trusted me through the heist, and up at the mansion he’d held the door so I could escape. I vow I’ll wait till he comes to; then he can make his own choice to come with me or not.
Exhausted, and with my mind made up, I look around for a place to sleep, but before I can find one, I hear splashes from the water. I turn and see Corvino. He’s abandoned his coat and is swimming in with my green life vest pushed in front of him.
“Corvino!” I shout, surprised that he’s come back. Coming to the water’s edge, I take the life vest from him so he can pull himself out of the water.
“Show me how this goes on him. Quickly, now – we haven’t much time,” Corvino says.
Together we lift Gull’s unconscious body, slipping his arms into the life vest, and I zip it up.
“Patience waits just beyond the rocks with the rowboat,” Corvino says. “I’ll take Gull out, then return with this for you.”
I nod and help Corvino lower Gull into the water. The life vest mostly holds him; it’s enough to keep his head above water as Corvino pushes him out through the small opening of the grotto. He’s almost clear when I hear loud footsteps on the stairs behind me. Corvino turns. “They’re coming, Mateo! You must swim – now! There’s no time!”
I freeze for a second. It’s one thing to be in the water in the shallow canals, but here, in the open sea… I can see the bottom of the grotto. It’s sandy, but deep. If I sink to the bottom, I won’t be able to get back out. The footsteps are getting louder. “They’re down here!” I hear a voice call from the stairs.
“Now, Mateo!” Corvino yells.
I jump, landing in the water with a splash. My feet touch the sandy bottom. Fear gripping me, I force my eyes open. I can see the light coming through the cave opening. I push off, up and towards the opening, thrashing with my hands to try to move faster. Sunlight illuminates the water above me. I’m out, but I’m still under the water. I struggle, trying to pull myself to the surface, kicking and thrashing. I look down. The shallow floor of the grotto has given way to a deep, dark sea. I feel myself starting to sink.
~ ~ ~