The Map
Chapter Two
Everyone aboard the Aquila tied themselves down as we prepared to enter the Erebus. I steered the Aquila into the vortex, where we all braced ourselves as the Aquila passed through.
A few seconds later, the Aquila safely entered the eye of the vortex, where we saw a Valencian ship with black sails, distinguishable by its turbine-like black sails and "fins" made of black sailcloth on the hull of the ship. Brass letters on the bow read "The Erebus."
I gestured to the men at the capstan to slowly lower the anchor, and my trusted associates joined me near the starboard railings to spy on Fin Dorsal, who was speaking with an Armada officer.
"Where's Deacon?" Fin asked. He had a small crew of Cutthroats with him.
"I have come in his place. I'm afraid you aren't worth his time. If you have the map, I'm prepared to…" Then the Armada officer, holding an ornate rifle, noticed us gathered on the Aquila's quarter deck, weapons drawn.
"What, who is this? Friends of yours, Fin?" The Armada officer asked.
"No." Fin said darkly before turning to me. "Looking for trouble, Pirate? You found it. I've got some new friends, and they don't like you. This is going to be fun."
Richard Clutterbuck shouted an order, and the men fired chain shots at the Erebus, ripping apart its sails.
"Hook us in! Bring her close!" Rena shouted as she pointed her saber at the Erebus. Richard handed each of his men a sparquebus, and they each took out a Cutthroat or a Clockwork soldier.
"Man the swivels! Cover from the quarter deck!" David Clutterbuck shouted as he fired a pistol at a Clockwork musketeer preparing to fire.
"Secure the aft lines! Tie off the bow!" Rena shouted as the men threw grappling hooks onto whatever part of the Erebus was conveniently available.
I and my trusted associates led the charge onto the Erebus, and as I landed onto the quarter deck, I summoned a Valor's Shield to absorb the blasts of the Clockwork musketeers.
I quickly stunned the Armada officer behind the firing line, and as the Clockworks were reloading, I broke through their lines to destroy their officer.
I brought the edge of the sword onto the Armada officer's head, and then quickly decapitated a Clockwork musketeer trying to stab me with a bayonet from behind.
Fin Dorsal barreled towards me, and I used Gunnery to send him reeling backwards. He recovered quickly and his cutters slammed into the flat of my blade.
I noticed Bonnie on the rigging of the Aquila, her Scaramanga aimed at Fin. She pulled the trigger, and he was stunned just long enough for me to kick him in the stomach and slam the hilt of my sword into his head.
The Aquila's swivel guns, haven taken out the Clockworks manning the swivel guns on the Erebus, began to fire grapeshot at the Clockworks, taking out many of them.
"We'll handle things here! Withdraw!" I shouted. As the men carried their injured shipmates back onto the Aquila, I and my trusted associates were left to face the rest of the Clockworks.
As a platoon of marines approached us with halberds and shields, the swivel guns fired round shots at them, breaking up their formation and leaving them disorganized.
Those of us with swords made short work of the marines, and as the Clockwork musketeers formed a firing line, I put up a Valor's Shield just in time to absorb the oncoming bursts of electricity.
As I put down the shield, the others charged into the fray, and feeling tired, I gladly let them as I stopped to catch my breath. I saw Rena throw her dagger into the head of a nearby Clockwork soldier, and decapitate another with her sword.
Bonnie and Emmett slammed the butts of their guns into the heads of the Clockworks, and Jack and Ratbeard hacked and slashed through their ranks while purple lightning arced from the top of Old Scratch's staff like the branches of a tree.
As the last of the Clockworks were defeated, I noticed the Armada officer twitching as he leaned against the starboard railing, and Fin beginning to sit up.
"I want you to remember this moment, Pirate. This is the…" Fin began menacingly, but was cut off by Bonnie, who responded with: "Enough already, you git! Now, let's get the map!"
"You think… you've won? You… haven't." The Armada officer asked me as I heard Bonnie stun Fin again from behind me.
"I recognize you, Pirate. You're the fugitive. You need to understand. Before, you were… an annoyance. Now… you are a target."
"The Armada will haunt you. Deacon will haunt you. We do not tire. We do not… sleep. We do not stop, ever. That map will be your… doom."
"They may not stop, but they do die." Ratbeard remarked as he stabbed his sword into the Armada officer's chest, silencing him. We walked up to the stern deck, where there was a small chest. "At last, let's have a look at this map."
"I've never seen anything like it. What are these marks along the edges?" Emmett asked as they all looked at the piece of the map over my shoulder as I took it out of the chest.
"These signs are the ancient mojo – I and I cannot read them. Ancient secrets are written here, waiting to be revealed." Old Scratch said.
"These are ancient letters from MooShu. I can't read them." Rena said. We had both picked up some of the language from our trading voyages there.
"Maybe Avery knows what they are. Let's go find out!" Bonnie said. We boarded the Aquila, leaving the Erebus to its own devices and returned to Skull Island, where we entered Captain Avery's office.
"That Fin, I'll never trust him again. So you've found the map? Good." Captain Avery said as I showed him the piece of the map.
"Fin was aiming to sell it to the Clockworks." I said darkly. Captain Avery nearly fell into his chair from shock as he cried: "Brimstone and biscuits!"
"If the Armada is hunting Marco Pollo's map, things are much worse than I'd thought. You got this piece back in the nick of time."
"I know the Armada imprisoned you. How much do you know about them?"
"Well, I know they're made of metal and they're the navy of Valencia, but other than that and what my uncle's told me, I don't know much." I said.
"That's all? You really should make a point of learning as much as you can about your enemies. And trust me – they are your worst enemies by far."
"The whole mess started years ago, back during the Polarian War."
"Marleybone, Valencia, Monquista – all the great powers were drawn into a terrible war with Polaris which threatened to tear the Spiral apart."
"The first Clockwork soldiers were invented by some genius in Valencia. The Valencians built a horde of them, and gave them control of their navy."
"The new Armada helped end the war. But the Valencians kept building more Clockwork soldiers. Now they've lost control of their puppets. And they are puppets – the Clockworks aren't alive like you and me: hollow men, run on gears and wires, heartless, soulless, and ruthless."
"Kane, first of the Clockworks, commands the Armada. They say Kane is stronger, smarter, and faster than any living being."
"Kane has a court of elite Clockworks to do his will. You know one of them: Deacon, Kane's spymaster. He's the one who imprisoned you."
"The Armada's been working its way into Skull Island – you've seen their expeditions in the jungles. Now we know what they're after – El Dorado."
"They mean to conquer the Spiral and rebuild it, with no place for pirates. If Kane reaches El Dorado, there'll be no stopping them."
"We've got to get the rest of the map before they do. Pollo died in Valencia – that's where you should start. Not an easy place to reach."
"You have to go – I'm too old, and I don't take sides. Talk to Hooktail, an old salt in Puerto Mico. Tell him I sent you, and that I was wrong."
We nodded as we left Captain Avery's office, and we boarded the Aquila to sail to Puerto Mico. We soon found a group of Monkeys sitting on benches near the governor's palace, and one of them had a hook at the end of his tail.
"Hooktail, Captain Avery was wrong, and we need to get to Valencia." I said to the Monkey.
"You'll pardon me if I'm a bit... skeptical. You want to go to Valencia? You're mad, my friend – and I don't trust you." Hooktail answered.
"Forgive my shipmate, Pirate, he's grown old and spiteful. There was a time when both of us fought against the Armada and we were glorious…" Another Monkey in purple said.
"That day is done. Want to win me over? Take revenge on they who took my tail – smash a Wharf Rat ship, and I could be convinced to help you."
"Well, it looks like we're sinking a Wharf Rat ship." I said to the others. We boarded the Aquila and Rena soon identified three Wharf Rat gunboats escorting a barge, probably loaded with goods to be smuggled.
"We'll take out the three gunboats and capture the barge." I told Rena. As we drew near the barge and her escorts, the swivel guns fired at the gunpowder kegs exposed on the approaching single-deck gunboats, lighting up the sky as the gunboats fell from the sky.
The crew of the defenseless barge agreed to hand over all of their cargo in exchange for their lives. After the last of the goods were loaded, we sailed back to Puerto Mico.
"You are no spy, I'll give you that. No Armada flunky would ever draw such attention to themselves. So, what do you want to know?"
"What can you tell me about Valencia?" I asked.
"Valencia is the home and stronghold of the Armada. If you go there, the Armada will destroy you. But you can't – all the Stormgates are blocked."
"There is another way." The Monkey in purple said.
"You mean… No – that's death for sure!" Hooktail said.
"You can go via Monquista. You'll need an indigo Windstone for the Gate: salvage one from the wreck at the Scurvy Dogs' hideout, and return to us to install it." The Monkey in purple said to us.
"Alright, we'll get going." I said. We sailed northwest to the hideout of the Scurvy Dogs, Dog pirates from Marleybone.
As we approached the Scurvy Dogs' hideout, they fired cannons at us from the shore, and we fired our own broadside in return.
We dropped anchor without much interference, as we had taken out most of the Scurvy Dogs with our broadside, and my trusted associates and I climbed onto the wreck of the old fourth-rate beached in the middle of a large lagoon.
As we went below decks, we saw that it was filled with water, and we saw several storm shark fins. One storm shark leapt out of the water at us, and Bonnie quickly aimed and fired before it could take a bite out of me.
As three more storm sharks leapt out of the water, Emmett and I stunned them with our pistols. The largest fin disappeared for a second, and then its owner leapt out of the water, covered in electricity.
I aimed my pistol again and fired one of the largest Gunneries I've ever done, and as it struck home, I fell backwards from the recoil and my exhaustion.
Rena caught me just in time, and as the storm shark leapt out of the water again, Bonnie and Emmett fired their guns, finally stunning the storm shark.
Jack took the risk of diving into the water to try and find the Windstone, and a few seconds later, he broke the surface, gasping for air with the glowing gem in his hands.
"The Windstone is ours! Now let's go talk to Hooktail and learn what he doesn't want to tell us." Ratbeard said as Jack came back onto the part of the deck that wasn't submerged. We quickly returned to the Aquila, where we sailed back to Puerto Mico.