Dead Man's Hand
Chapter Five: The Shadow of Death
A few minutes later, Madame Esmeralda and I were sitting across from each other inside the covered wagon, separated by a small round table covered with a woven cloth that draped over the sides.
"You come seeking answers. The cards will give them to me, and I shall interpret their message. Ask your question, and the reading can begin." Madame Esmeralda said as she brought out a deck of tarot cards and shuffled them.
"Here's my question: where can I find Captain Blood's key?" I asked, and Madame Esmeralda nodded as she set three cards down in front of me, and flipped the one to the left.
The tarot card was upside down, and it depicted a blindfolded angel with wings outstretched, wearing an orange robe while holding up a curved sickle in her left hand and a set of scales in her right.
"The first card represents the past, source of the present and key to the future. Here is Judgment, the card of laws, rules, and pacts." Madame Esmeralda said.
"The card is reversed - deception, betrayal, mutiny. These are the sources of all the obstacles that face you now. You must set things right." Madame Esmeralda said, and she then flipped over the card in the middle.
The tarot card depicted a skeletal pirate standing on a beach, with a hook for a left hand and a cutlass in his right, with the sun in the corner, something my art tutor from when I was twelve would've disapproved of.
"The second card is the present, the challenge confronting you. Here is the Drowned Mariner: Captain Blood, the pirate who lives beyond death." Madame Esmeralda said.
"Here is the answer to the question: Captain Blood has taken the key you seek. How can you take it from him? The cards shall tell us." Madame Esmeralda said, and then she flipped over the third and final card on the right.
The tarot card depicted a figure with purple wings and skeletal hands dressed in a black robe, the hood shadowing his face. One of the hands held a long scythe, its blade in front of the moon in the corner of the starry background, again something my art tutor would've disapproved of.
"The last card is the future, which reveals the solution to the present challenge. Here is a dark card, the wraith who is Death." Madame Esmeralda said. "Death was the dark master Captain Blood cheated. Death is the source of the pirate's power. Death himself will show you the way."
"You may delay all you like, but you cannot escape your fate. Death lies before you, and is the key to your future. Find him!"
I nodded as I got up from my stool to head outside back to the Aquila, and I passed by the blindfolded "mess cooks" calling out names for the portions to be served to.
Entering my quarters, I found my trusted associates sitting around the table, leaving the head open for me. As I sat down to my meal, I told the others about my reading with Madame Esmeralda.
"Death? Him be a hard one to treat with." Old Scratch said as he swallowed a bite. For some reason, he still needed to eat and go to the bathroom like the rest of us, and the food somehow disappeared as it fell down his mouth.
"But how do we call him?" I asked, and Old Scratch answered. "The ravens be Death's servants - them birds know. Feed them corn, and they will say."
"Corn? Ought t'be easy enough to find. Let's go to Santo Pollo and look in the marketplace." Ratbeard said. As the others left my quarters after dinner, I lied down on my bed and tried to fall asleep, but I couldn't, and after an hour or so, I finally fell into a troubled sleep.
The next morning, the sun was shining through the windows at the stern of the Aquila as I woke up, and then there was a knock at my door. "Come in."
The door opened to reveal Rena, and she said with a smile, "Glad you're awake, sleepyhead. We've just dropped anchor at Santo Pollo."
"Wait, what time is it?" I asked, and Rena answered, "It's seven in the morning."
"What?! How did I oversleep?!" I cried as I jumped out of bed to put on my coat and weapons. We walked down the gangplank together down to the docks of Santo Pollo, and we soon found a Mustang woman named Rosita Rodriguez selling dried corn at her stall.
"Wait, I know you! You helped El Toro defeat El Guapo! Take as much as you like!" Rosita Rodriguez said as she thrust the dried cobs into our hands.
As the men brought the sacks of dried corn aboard the Aquila, I paid Rosita Rodriguez for them before boarding the Aquila to set sail back to Isla de los Muertos.
After we had dropped anchor at Isla de los Muetros, Old Scratch led us to a dead barren tree, whose branches were filled with black ravens cawing at us.
"Here's the corn, Cap'n - feed the birds!" Bonnie said as she handed me a dried cob of corn. Clawing off a handful of kernels, I tossed them at the roots of the tree, and the ravens swooped down to eat. "Bart! Black! Black! Bart! Black! Black!"
"What's that mean? We need to ask the fortunetellers." Bonnie said. Luckily, the gypsies hadn't left their camp, and one of them wearing purple and red went to greet us and introduce herself as Madame Nadya.
"What can you tell us about Black Bart?" I asked, and Madame Nadya nodded. "Black Bart. Of course. To call Death, you must offer something he wants. There is a vile killer who has offended Death. Black Bart is his name."
"He led a group of pilgrims from Santo Pollo to the Haunted Skyway, but betrayed them and scattered their spirits to the winds. Gather the lost spirits in Haunted Skyway and take to the graveyard of the old church. Death will find you."
With that, Madame Nadya turned back to her work, and we boarded the Aquila to set sail east to Haunted Skyway. As Old Scratch and I stood on the quarterdeck, I asked him, "So how are we supposed to gather the lost spirits?"
"I and I will take care of that, Captain my captain." Old Scratch said as he waved his staff, its tip glowing with purple energy. Scanning the horizon with my spyglass, I spotted something like a glowing green fireball in the shape of a skull hurtling towards the Aquila.
The men manning the cannon in front of us ducked as the lost spirit struck the tip of Old Scratch's staff, and as Old Scratch held the wood of his staff up to where his ear would be, I heard the faintest of whispers. "Eleven more..."
We continued to gather the lost spirits as we made our way across the skyway, and by the time we reached the old church, we had collected all twelve.
My trusted associates and I walked down the gangplank to the dock as we dropped anchor at the old church, and we walked to the graveyard, filled with stone tombstones.
"Beware, oh my Captain. De wind whispers, and the shadows rise. Death be near." Old Scratch said as he held his staff, glowing green at the tip with the lost spirits.
A skeletal pirate wearing a black two-cornered hat and dark trousers and boots then stepped out from behind an obelisk, and he was missing his left hand and right eye.
"You there! Them spirits is mine! I took 'em fair and square! Now you give 'em back, or I'm gonna take 'em." The skeletal pirate, presumably Black Bart said as he drew a golden cutlass from a scabbard to his left.
"Over my dead body!" I said as I drew my own sword and pistol, and as skeletal hands erupted from the graves around us, I took on Black Bart.
Black Bart proved to be a dirty fighter in our very short battle, as his first and final move was to kick me in between the legs, hard. I cried in pain as I fell backwards onto the dusty ground, and Black Bart loomed over me with his cutlass held high.
As I aimed my pistol, I noticed that the shadows seemed to be pulling towards each other, and they rose to form a figure in a black cloak, holding a scythe in his skeletal hands like an executioner at a beheading. "Black Bart. We have unfinished business."
Black Bart nervously turned around, and he stumbled backwards away from the figure as he cowered in fear, trying to shield himself with his bony arms. "Oh no. No!"
With one gesture from the figure, Black Bart disappeared in a flash of black smoke, as did his crew of skeletons who were fighting my own, and I said, "Well, that was anticlimactic."
The figure then put down his hood to reveal a bespectacled skull with glowing red eyes. "There, that's done. Now, onto other business."
"I really do hate having to appear like this, in such a tiresome manifestation. Still, rather expected of one, I suppose." The figure that could only be Death said.
"I know what you want, and why. You need to defeat Captain Blood, who cannot be harmed. It's all very bothersome. You need the cards. I shall explain."
Death then snapped his fingers, making the ground tremble slightly as short, flat-topped obelisks erupted from the ground, and he gestured for us to sit as he began his story.
"I don't WHY Captain Blood wants to live forever. His life was never that great in the first place: all that violence and pillaging... Hardly seems worth the trouble."
"But he was - is - rather obsessed with immortality. And so on his death bed, he challenged me to a friendly game of cards."
"Wait, why would you willingly gamble with the most bloodthirsty pirate captain in history, who you know is obsessed with immortality?" Rena spoke up, and if looks could kill, Rena would've died a most gruesome death.
"Yes, I know. I have a gambling problem. I'm getting help, alright?" Death said, but Rena just had to get the last word, even in the face of a wicked-looking scythe. "Then your therapist didn't really do a good job with you."
"Look, I don't have to answer to you. It really is none of your business." Death said, annoyed. "Anyway, there we were, playing cards. In the final hand, Blood raised the stakes and bet me his soul. I had him, and that's when he cheated."
"I played my cards, but Blood went to the bathroom and never came back. And he took his cards with him! So here we are, stuck in limbo."
"I can't collect Blood's soul, because I haven't won the game. But I can't win the game, because the game can't end - Blood's hand remains unplayed. He hasn't lost yet, you see. Very clever."
"It was a dreadful loophole, and of course, I've had the rules changed, but I'm afraid it doesn't apply retroactively. Captain Blood is stuck between life and death, and I can't touch him. He cannot be killed - or even harmed, really - until our game is over."
"Captain Blood's cards must be played, by his own hand, on the table where my cards are still waiting. I know. It's all dreadfully improbable. Yes, yes, I know, he's made me look quite the fool. Look, I didn't ask you to do this. You called me."
"If you want to find your precious map, you need the key to Captain Blood's treasure. The only way to get that key is to pry it from his dead fingers."
"So, good luck with that. Call me when you've convinced Blood to put his cards on the table. I'm sure you'll think of something." Death said, and he disappeared in a flash of black smoke.
"An' how do we find these cards? Who knows where they might be!" Bonnie cried, and Ratbeard spoke up. "A member o' Blood's crew would know. Sly Winkum was in Blood's crew... Let's see what he can tell us."
I nodded as I stood up from the obelisk I was sitting on. "Then we'll set course for Tumbleweed straightaway. Let's be about it."
A/N: I know that Judgment and Death are two of the twenty-two tarot cards, but the Drowned Mariner isn't. Can anyone tell me what the card closest to it would be? Much appreciated.