Dead Man's Hand
Chapter Eight
Captain Blood's Treasure
As the last of Captain Blood's ghost ships sank beneath the clouds, taking its undead crew with it, I turned my head back to face the bow. "Set sail for Motherlode Mine!"
As the Aquila unfurled her sails, we began sailing towards Captain Blood's hideout in Motherlode Mine, in the northern part of Haunted Skyway.
As the Aquila dropped anchor and set down the gangplank, my trusted associates and I walked to the entrance of Motherlode Mine, blocked by two large doors with a lock.
Reaching for a pocket on the inside of my coat, I brought out the key and with a loud click, the doors were unlocked.
The doors led into a large ridge overlooking an even larger dockyard, and in that dockyard was a junk, a type of ship from MooShu, made of exotic hardwoods and its sails a golden color. It was perhaps a little smaller than the Aquila.
Look at that. It's the Santo Oro, the ship Marco Pollo took to El Dorado!" Ratbeard whispered loudly in awe.
"The second piece of the map must be on it somewhere." Bonnie said, and she led the rest of us down the ridge until we stopped in front of a caved-in mineshaft. "Oh bother, the way's blocked! Now what do we do?"
"We could blast our way in. There must be dynamite down here somewhere..." Ratbeard said, and we split up to search, our rendezvous point being the caved-in mineshaft.
Ten minutes later, everyone had found at least one stick of dynamite, and El Toro said, "I spied a mine cart further up the tracks! Quickly! We must put the dynamite in the cart and send it down the tracks!"
Though this raised eyebrows, we nonetheless did as El Toro suggested, and a minute or two later, the fuses were lit as the mine cart began rolling noisily down the tracks. Just in case El Toro's plan didn't work, we had kept three-fourths of the payload in reserve.
"Wouldn't it have been simpler to set the dynamite against the rocks ourselves?" Bonnie asked the question that was in all our minds, and El Toro answered. "Well... perhaps. But it would have had far less dramatic flair!"
We followed the mine cart as it rolled down the tracks, and a second after the mine cart had bumped against the rocks in the mineshaft, the dynamite exploded, sending small chunks of rock flying everywhere.
"You're right, that was more fun!" Bonnie cheered, and El Toro sighed with satisfaction. "Ah. When a plan comes together, it is beautiful, is it not?"
"It is. Now let's be about getting to the Santo Oro." I said, nodding. We followed the mineshaft down into the dockyard, and Emmett cheered as we reached the gangplank. "We did it! Captain Blood's treasure is ours!"
"Stop! Stand where you are! You're caught, Pirate - there will be no escape for you this time." A familiar mechanical voice said, sending chills down my spine, and we turned to see Deacon, spymaster of the Armada, flanked by an entire platoon of Armada marines and musketeers.
"You've proved the perfect tool to further my efforts. When I'm finished here, the Armada will control half the map. Kane seems to think you're a grave risk to his plans. I shall be proud to prove him wrong."
I suppose I owe you my thanks, Pirate. In return, I give you my solemn pledge that your end shall be swift and painless. Destroy them!"
"Huh. You don't usually meet such polite bosses." I remarked as the Clockwork marines began marching towards us, covering the musketeers. Drawing my sword and pistol, I led the charge into the battle.
As an Armada marine thrust the point of his halberd towards me, I switched hands and used my sword to deflect it off to the side, and I aimed my pistol with my right hand at his exposed chest.
One pull of the trigger later, the marine fell onto the wooden dockyard, smoking pouring out of the chinks in his armor.
"Take cover!" Emmett shouted from behind me, and a second later, a cannon blast was heard as a cannonball plowed through the ranks of the marines, scattering them.
The two squads of Armada musketeers replied a second later with bursts of electricity fired from their muskets, forcing us to duck behind some barrels, allowing the remaining marines to regroup and resume their march.
"If you're conscious, say aye!" I shouted, and received seven ayes in response. "Where's Bonnie Anne?!"
"I don't know! She disappeared during that last attack!" I heard Rena shout back, and I shook my head as I stood up. "No matter. To battle!"
My trusted associates cheered as they ran into the battle again, and as an Armada musketeer thrust his bayonet towards me, I grabbed his musket by the barrel and tore it out of his gloved clockwork hands.
Slamming the butt of the musket into his white mask, I then took aim at the back of an Armada marine and pulled the trigger, and he hit the dockyard with smoke coming out of the chinks of his armor.
Two marines then seized me by the arms, and as I struggled against them, they forced me down onto my knees, and I could feel Deacon's presence looming behind me. I then heard the sound of a wheel-lock pistol cock, and I glanced behind me to see Deacon aiming at my head.
"Stand down or your captain dies!" Deacon shouted in his mechanical voice, and as much as I struggled, the marines held me even tighter, and Deacon pressed the barrel of his pistol into the back of my head. "Don't move or else..."
I swallowed as I reluctantly stopped struggling and looked down to my knees, and without looking up, I heard Rena shout, "MATT! NO! WHAT'RE YOU DOING!"
Suddenly, there were three loud bangs, and with three mechanical groans from inside the Clockworks around me, they fell onto the floor, smoke pouring out of chinks in their bodies.
Taking advantage of the confusion caused by Bonnie's assassination of Deacon, the others quickly defeated the remaining Clockworks, and we regrouped at the bottom of the gangplank to the Santo Oro.
"You have mighty enemies, my friends. Who was that?" El Toro asked, and Rena answered. "Deacon, spymaster of the Armada. He arrested Matt and I while we were on a trading voyage aboard his uncle's ship."
"He was at Boot Hill, too - I think the Duck of Death was working for him. The Armada's a lot closer on our heels than we thought." Bonnie said, and then there was a brief silence.
"Enough o' that - let's search the ship!" Ratbeard interrupted suddenly, and he was the first one to reach the deck of the Santo Oro, before anyone else had even stepped foot onto the bottom of the gangplank.
As we went below decks, we soon found something inside the forecastle at the bow of the Santo Oro, and Bonnie said, "Those chests there - they must hold Captain Blood's treasure!"
We eagerly opened the three fairly small to find them all full of artifacts, jewelry, and gems, and Ratbeard remarked, "Can't say I'm impressed by the size o' Captain Blood's treasure. Where's all of Marco Pollo's gold?"
"Don't you see? Captain Blood stole Marco Pollo's gold. The name of the ship, Santo Oro, means 'holy gold.' The ship is Pollo's treasure." El Toro said, and Ratbeard growled in frustration. "What? That isn't fair!"
"It could be worse. Water Moles might've thrown all the gold in a volcano..." Bonnie said, and everyone except El Toro, who wasn't there at Waponi Wu, laughed.
"I ought to..." Ratbeard began, but Rena caught him off. "Anyway, the ship is ours! She's old, but she'll still fly. There are even two Green Windstones!"
"Aha! Here's the second piece of Marco Pollo's map!" Bonnie cried as she brought the piece of the map up for us to see.
"It be Pollo's map for certain - this be the true treasure now be one step closer to El Dorado. But how we find the next piece?" Old Scratch asked, and Bonnie brought out something else.
"There's another thing here, too - a strange picture..." Bonnie said as she held it out for us to see that it depicted Marco Pollo along with his crew.
Marco Pollo was a Chicken dressed in the robes of a Valencian scholar, and with him, I could see Merriweather's father, Christopher Clark, along with a young Catbeard, a Goose, a Bear, a giant in the background, and everyone was wearing gold jewelry.
But what really struck me was the human woman with them. She looked strangely familiar to me, though I didn't know why.
Ratbeard snatched the picture away from Bonnie. "That's a photograph, ye silly girl! Were ye born in a barn?"
"Look at all that gold! This must be Marco Pollo's crew in El Dorado." Jack said, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the photograph more closely. "Hey, wait a minute! I recognize that woman - Captain... that's your mother!"
"Really?! Give me that!" I said as I took the picture from Ratbeard. I could see that she was beautiful with her soft smile. I could see why Dad fell for her. Rena grinned mischeivously as she gently elbowed me. "She looks just like you, Matt! Say, I bet if we grew your hair out..."
"I do not look like a girl!" I protested as Ratbeard looked over my shoulder at my mother, and then he shouted at Jack. "What? The Captain's mother went to El Dorado?! Why didn't ye say something sooner?"
"She never mentioned El Dorado to me. But think about this - the other people in the crew here. I'll bet they'll know where the rest of the map is." Jack said, and Bonnie asked, "But who are they? And where do we find them?"
"That historian back in Cooper's Roost - Argleston. Maybe he knows who they are." Emmett spoke up.
"Well, let's get to it, then!" Bonnie said, and a half hour later, we were ready to sail out of Motherlode Mine aboard the Santo Oro.
With Rena at the helm, I aimed the tip of the elongated hexagonal Windstone at the sails of the Santo Oro, and as wind filled her sails, the Santo Oro sailed out of the dockyard, and as we caught sight of the Aquila, Bonnie and Emmett fired a salute with the swivel guns.
The Aquila responded in kind, and we raised the signal flags on the mainmast to spell out the message, "Follow us!"
We sailed through Haunted Skyway and Santo Pollo Skyways to reach Cooper's Roost, where my trusted associates and I found the Dog historian, Desmond Argleston sitting down to dinner at the Silver Spur Saloon.
"Ah, we meet again! I hear you made out well in your search for El Toro. Did you find Captain Blood's lair?" Argleston asked. He gestured for us to sit down, and the serving girls brought us our dinners.
I nodded as I began to eat, and Argleston exclaimed, "You did? Astounding! Oh, what a find! The Santo Oro, Marco Pollo's second ship, from MooShu. Her name means 'sacred gold.' Interesting."
I showed him the two pieces of Marco Pollo's map we had, and asked, "What can you tell me about the markings on the map?"
"The markings on this map are also from MooShu. Some form of Moodhist mysticism. You'd need to go to MooShu to translate them." Argleston answered, and then I showed him the photograph of Marco Pollo and his crew.
"This photo is fascinating! There's Pollo himself. I don't recognize the others. I'm afraid I'm rather weak at nautical history..." Argleston said sadly.
"Avery might know. Looks like we're headed home to Skull Island." Emmett, who sitting with us, spoke up. After dinner was over, I gathered the crew aboard the Santo Oro for a meeting.
"Gentlemen, I've called you here today to discuss who will be part of the crew of the Santo Oro. As first mate, Rena Raden has claim to the captaincy of the Santo Oro. Does anyone think someone else is more suitable for the role?" I asked.
The men muttered amongst themselves, shaking their heads. They knew full well that Rena could beat anyone amongst them in a duel, and they knew she was a good leader. I then nodded. "Now that that's settled, who elects themselves to crew the Santo Oro?"
Several hands went up, and I nodded again. And so it was decided that we would provision the Santo Oro with more guns and crewmen once we reached Skull Island, and that Jack would take over as first mate aboard the Aquila, just as he'd done all those years ago with my father.
As the men trudged off the bed, it was just me and Rena at the railings of the Santo Oro, and for the first time in a while, she looked unsure of herself. "Hey Matt, do you really think I'm ready to become a captain?"
I looked at her from the starry night sky of Cooper's Roost. "What're you talking about? Of course you are. Everyone else thinks so too."
Rena gave me a nervous smile that was also kind of cute, and she nodded as she turned to the door to her captain's quarters. "Thank you, Matt. Good night, now."
"You're welcome. You have a good night, too." I said, nodding as she left. Heading back to my own quarters aboard the Aquila, I laid down on my bed, smiling as I began dreaming of my mother and her warm smile.