A Red Sky Rising Read online

  “What do you think we’re up against, Captain?” Eli shouted over the wind.

  Riggs, trying to hold his hat on his head, replied, “No idea. Somethin’ out o’ the ordinary, that’s for sure.”

  “Ya t’ink it has anythin’ ta do wit’ what dat man Owens said?” asked Ripper, just barely keeping control of his oar as the waves started to grow.

  “Do I think it’s an angel? No. Do I think it’s somethin’ to be reckoned with?”

  Riggs was interrupted as a blue light shone down from the island directly onto the longboat, startling all of the pirates. Cautiously, they turned around and stared into the light, trying to see what was causing it. All they saw was a swirling blaze of color at the end of it.

  “That’s goin’ to be a problem… JUMP!” Riggs shouted as a beam of light blasted into the middle of the longboat, cracking it in half just as the four leapt into the water.

  The sea was freezing as the pirates swam toward the shore. The waves tossed them around mercilessly, disorienting them just enough so that none could tell where the others were. Riggs flailed his arms, trying in vain to swim in the churning waters. In what felt like seconds, he was thrown onto the narrow beach, a wave cracking his back against the hard sand. He dug his fingers into the ground to avoid being yanked back out to sea and hauled himself out of the reach of the water. Ripper, Coral Jack, and Eli soon followed their captain, eventually clambering onto higher ground as the water crashed at their feet.

  “What the hell was that?” gasped Jack, spitting salt water out of his mouth.

  “That was somethin’ that doesn’t want us on this island,” said Riggs, kicking a piece of wood from the demolished longboat.

  “What’re we going to do?” asked Eli.

  The Captain pulled out his sword and said, “We’re gonna find it… and we’re gonna kill it.”

  The three others quickly followed their friend’s lead and readied their weapons. Watching the top of the cliffs, the group of pirates slowly climbed up the rocks. The wind howled through the cliffs, making any sort of communication impossible. It was an extremely dangerous situation as the pirates had no idea what to expect when they reached the top.

  As Riggs pulled himself over the edge of the cliff, a blue bolt of light shot past his ear, just barely missing him. As soon as his feet were on horizontal ground again, he rolled out of the way of another blast, this one nearly hitting Coral Jack. Riggs could see a figure standing at the edge of the tree line, shrouded in a black, shimmering cloak with a hood covering its face. It was waving its arms like it was performing some sort of magic.

  With no time to waste, Riggs dashed toward the creature, swinging his sword at its head. With an almost superhuman speed, it was able to dodge the strike, running into the woods. The Captain wasted little time in pursuing the creature. He did not have time to wonder why the creature chose to run rather than stay and fight. It just needed to be destroyed.

  Little by little, he gained ground on the mysterious figure. Strangely, it seemed more concerned with escaping the pirate than it did with attacking. It kept throwing its arm behind it, randomly tossing bolts of magic with no semblance of a plan.

  Suddenly, the trees stopped, opening into a clearing with a house in the middle. The cloaked figure dashed into the house, whipping the door closed just seconds before Riggs reached it. The Captain had only a split second to make a decision.

  *CRASH*

  Leaping through a window, Riggs smashed into the creature, knocking it to the ground in a hail of glass and wood chips. Hastily grabbing for the creature’s arms, he pinned them to the ground with one hand, holding his sword to its neck with the other.

  “I’ve got you now,” Riggs said, grinning at his accomplishment.

  To his surprise, the creature started laughing. It was not a menacing laugh, but more the kind of laughter that he would hear coming from a child.

  “What are you laughin’ for?” he asked, wary to lower his weapon.

  Rather than struggling to get away, the creature replied, “Is it my turn to chase you now? Is it?”

  The voice was cheerful, not what the pirate was expecting from his attacker. It almost seemed like the creature thought this was all a game. Unsure of what to expect, Riggs yanked the hood off of the creature.

  Underneath the black fabric was the face of a young girl, not yet even twenty. The hood had helped shield her long, blonde hair from the rain, also serving to hide her innocent face from the pirates. Once her blue eyes saw the weapon just inches from her neck, her expression changed from cheer to fear. She tried to scoot away, but Riggs grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her back, propping her against the wall.

  “Who are you?” she squeaked.

  “That’s none o’ your concern,” said Riggs, “What I want to know is why ye were attackin’ us.”

  Wide-eyed, the girl hastily replied, “Attack? No! That was only a game.”

  “You almost killed us when we were rowin’ to shore,” Riggs shouted in her face.

  “I didn’t mean it,” she said with a shaky voice, “Will just said it was what I should do when people come to the island.”

  “Will? Who’s that?” Riggs asked, quickly looking around to make sure there was nobody sneaking up behind him.

  “He’s the one who left me here. He’s my friend,” she said, her eyes darting from Riggs to the blade pointed at her flesh.

  “A friend, eh? Are you talkin’ about Captain Kidd?” asked an incredulous Riggs.

  At the mention of the infamous pirate’s name, the girl’s eyes lit up.

  “Are you with him? Is he here?” she asked, her demeanor changing to cheery again.

  “Why should I tell you?” Riggs said, getting to his feet.

  “Because he was…” the girl stopped, her gaze turning to the floor.

  Riggs said nothing, waiting for her to continue. He still could not tell if she was trying to trick him or not.

  “… he was like a father to me,” she said with a sigh as her eyes started to shimmer.

  Cautiously sliding the sword back into its scabbard, Riggs crossed his arms and looked down at the girl. She did not seem like she wanted to harm him. If anything, it seemed like she just wanted to get away from him. Her words seemed genuine enough, especially with such an emotional reaction. The most that he could do for her right now was tell her the truth.

  “I’m Captain Riggs of the Red Sky.”

  Before she could ask, he said, “No, I’m not with Kidd. He’s been gone now for about a decade, the victim of a conspiracy and the Crown itself.”

  “Is he…”

  “He’s dead.”

  Once the girl heard that last word, she instantly gathered up the cloak and tried to cover herself with it, trying to hide from the bitter news and her fears. The Captain watched as the bundled-up girl shook from crying, probably the only person he had ever known to mourn Kidd’s death.

  *crack* SLAM

  The rest of Riggs’ search party had caught up to their captain, kicking the door open to get inside the house. When they saw him standing over their weeping attacker, they hesitantly crept forward, their captain reassuring them that everything should be safe. Every single one of them was astonished when they saw that their magical assailant was a young girl.

  “What be yer name?” asked Ripper.

  Sniffling, the girl rubbed her nose and said, “Sapphire… it’s Sapphire.”

  “That’s a strange name for a girl,” said Riggs, pulling the cloak away from her. To ensure his safety and the safety of his crewmembers, he needed to make sure that she was not hiding any weapons.

  Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

  Once the cloak fell to the ground, a pair of semi-transparent blue wings sprouted from the girl’s back, shocking Riggs so much that he nearly fell over a chair. The wings looked like that of an insect, with veins running throughout them and a thin exoskeleton that almost looked like it sparkled. All of the pirates tried to cont
ain their shock as the girl stood there in a shoddy dress, dark blue and green bits of material forming a nature pattern. Little slippers covered her feet and fabric wrapped around her legs up until it reached her knees. This was what the pirates had been afraid of just seconds earlier?

  “What the bloody hell are you? An angel?” asked Riggs, his hand reaching for his firearm.

  “No… I’m a fairy,” said Sapphire, taking a seat on a table.

  “Do you have magic?” asked Eli, cocking his pistol.

  “Of course. I have this,” she said, taking something out of her crudely made belt.

  In her hands rested a thin piece of what looked like glass. It had a blue tint to it, even as it glowed and shined with little specks that made it resemble a night sky full of stars.

  “What be dat?” asked Ripper.

  “It’s a wand. All fairies have them. I was given mine when I was very young,” she answered, staring at the wand like she was reliving old memories.

  “Give it ta me,” said Ripper, holding out his hand.

  “It won’t do you any good. Only I can use it. When a fairy is given her wand, it is branded to her for life. It’s not like Old Magic where it can just change hands.”

  At the mention of the Old Magic, Riggs head perked up. How could she possibly know about that other form of magic? If she knew something that the pirates did not, then they would need to find out exactly what it was. For all they knew, it could be the difference between life and death.

  “Eli, Ripper, keep an eye on our friend ‘ere. Jack, get over here,” Riggs ordered.

  Once his crewmate had reached his side, the Captain asked, “Did you bring Kidd’s letters?”

  Coral Jack nodded.

  “If I’m rememberin’ this correctly, get out the first one we found and the hidden one ye kept track of,” Riggs said under his breath.

  “Why those ones, Captain?” asked Jack as he rummaged through the box, the inside of which had luckily managed to stay dry during the chaotic swim to shore.

  Casting a sideways glance at Sapphire, Riggs said, “I’ve got a feelin’ she knows more ‘n she’s willin’ to say.”

  At last, Coral Jack handed Riggs the first letter. One particular passage had been engrained in the Captain’s head, especially because of the mention of one specific word. Quickly skimming through the letter, he found the passage that he remembered.

  “I cannot wait any longer. The Navy is breathing down my neck at every turn. The crew onboard the Prize is ready to hand me over to save their own skin. I have no power… not even over my own crew.”

  Power.

  Taking the letter, Riggs stepped over to the fairy’s side and held the message up to her eyes. If Kidd had some sort of magic on his side, the pirates needed to know.

  “What’s this power that he spoke of?” asked Riggs, pointing to the passage.

  Cocking her head to the side like a child, Sapphire looked at the words and tried to remember back to her time aboard the ship. The four pirates watched the wheels turning in the girl’s head as she searched through her memories.

  “I’ll make it easy for ye. Was it magic?” Riggs asked again.

  Without any hesitation this time, the fairy nodded.

  “Was that how he became such a notorious pirate?”

  At the mention of “pirate,” the look on Sapphire’s face turned to extreme disgust. From her reaction, she did not want to be associated with that kind of scum.

  “Will was not a pirate. He was a privateer… at least that’s what he told me,” she said stubbornly.

  “William Kidd was a pirate. The stories don’t speak of a slave of the damn Crown plunderin’ ships. He did it for himself and no one else.”

  Taking a step closer to Sapphire, Riggs looked down at her and said, “Now… I’m goin’ to ask ye one more time. Did Captain Kidd use magic to become the legend that all of us have heard of?”

  Again, the fairy nodded, this time with a bit of a pause as she nervously bit at her lip.

  Riggs took the paper back over to Coral Jack, stuffing it back into the box. Captain Kidd used magic. Who could have possibly guessed that? However, the better question still had to be answered.

  How did he lose it?

  After his captain took a swig of rum, Coral Jack handed over the rewritten message that Kidd had composed in his jail cell. Even when Riggs had first read it, one part had not seemed to make any sense, sticking out like a murder of crows flocking to a dead body. His finger floating across the page, he tried to find where it was. When he found it, he tapped his finger against it, his excitement growing with each moment. Silently, he read the passage to himself, his attention focused only on the words scrawled on the page.

  “As I bid farewell to you, you worm of a human being, I will give you one last bit of knowledge to rot your mind until the day you die. Only one Block will know where I hid my precious treasure, and it most certainly will not be you.

  “Know one thing, Hunter. The grave of a true mariner isn’t filled with dirt or water, but with what he values most in this world.”

  Taking a seat, Riggs peered over at the fairy, still sitting on the table, curled up like a little child.

  “Sapphire, do you know where Kidd hid his treasure?” Riggs asked.

  “Ye-no,” she said, abruptly changing her answer.

  Riggs crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow, glaring at the fairy. She looked away, unable to meet the pirate captain’s gaze. At last, Riggs was getting the hang of dealing with her. She was nothing more than a little girl trapped in a teenage fairy’s body. All he needed to do was treat her as such.

  “I can tell you’re lyin’, Saph,” he said, trying to be a little more friendly, “Just tell us where the treasure is, and this’ll be much easier fer all of us.”

  “I won’t tell you,” she said, displaying a surprising amount of resilience.

  “Why not?” Riggs asked, creeping closer to her. If he needed to intimidate her, he would.

  Not daring to look at the pirates, the fairy replied, “I’d be disobeying the only person I remember as a father. The only reason he left me on this island was to guard his treasure until he came back to claim it. If he’s dead, then you’ll have to find it yourself.”

  After she finished, Sapphire hopped down from her perch on the table and slowly walked into the other room, fluttering her wings. Ripper followed after her to make sure she did not try to sabotage the pirates’ plans.

  Riggs sat down in a chair and leaned back against the wall, propping his feet on a footstool. He analyzed the passage in Kidd’s letter, hoping to find the answer that he sought. He and his crew had come too far to be thwarted this close to the treasure. He now knew that the Block that the letter spoke of was referring to the island. But who was the mariner that Kidd mentioned? Was he someone on the island? Whoever he was, Riggs needed to find him fast if he wanted to keep ahead of the Navy.

  Julia anxiously paced the deck of the Red Sky, every second seeming to take longer to pass. She had seen Riggs and the rest of his search party dashing into the woods, but she had not seen or heard anything else since that moment. It did not matter to her that rain was still pouring down from the sky. She needed to see as much as she could.

  “Something the matter, Julia?” asked Valera, leaning against the rail.

  “Nothing that talking will help,” replied the girl.

  The mermaid gave Julia a look of disbelief, knowing that she was just trying to avoid speaking.

  “Don’t give me that look, Val.”

  “Or what? Are you going to punish me somehow? You and I both know that’s not going to happen.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” said Julia, looking back at the island.

  Observing her friend’s behavior, Valera propped herself up on the rail. She could sense what Julia was thinking whether the girl wanted her to or not. She knew what was running through that mind, no matter how hard Julia tried to hide it.

  “You’re worried abo
ut him, aren’t you?” she asked.

  Julia shut her eyes for a moment and rested her chin on her hands, eventually peering over at the mermaid.

  “Don’t tell me you’re not worried too, Val. Jack is in the same situation as Riggs. It’s just as dangerous for one as it is for the other.”

  “You do speak the truth about the danger…”

  Julia started to speak, but Valera held up a finger, letting her finish her statement.

  “… but I’m not worried.”

  In disbelief, Julia asked, “How is…”

  “… that possible?” finished the mermaid, “By keeping in mind who I’m worried for. Jack has been pirating for as long as I can remember, even since before I first met him. My worrying is not going to help him.”

  “Then what can help him?” asked Julia.

  The mermaid reached out and took the girl’s hand. She could feel the quickened pulse as Julia’s hand twitched.

  “I don’t know,” the mermaid answered.

  Taking her crewmate’s attention away from the island, Valera said, “If there was any pirate who could get himself out of a bad situation, it would be Riggs. He’s always got something up his sleeve that’ll work in his favor.”

  “You’ll forgive me if I still have doubts about that. Here we are, just sitting out on open waters with no idea where or when a Navy ship could appear and kill us all… or a battalion of troops could row over to that island and ambush the search party without any of us even knowing.”

  “That unknown is part of the life of a pirate, Julia.”

  “Well I wish it wasn’t,” said the girl.

  Both of the women stood in silence for a moment, caught in a standstill as what was happening on Block Island still fought for Julia’s attention. Regardless of whether she liked it or not, there was nothing she could do.

  “Tell you what,” said Valera, trying to keep Julia’s attention, “come do something productive and if you want to come back here and stare at nothing after that, I’ll let you. If you don’t, then I’ll consider it time well spent.”