Dagger Dauntless was having an excellent day.

She swung out of her bunk at sunrise, went for a swim in the lagoon with the other Troublemakers, ate some cake for breakfast, spent a little time leaping happily from the treehouse deck and being caught by the vines, and then went with the other pirates to collect ingredients from all over the island.

She could not remember what any of the ingredients were for, but she contented herself with collecting the shiniest shells and the sweetest-smelling blossoms. She shimmied up palm trees and waded into the shallows, eventually tramping back to the treehouse with her pockets full of shells, heavy-scented flowers and curling fronds of rainbow seaweed, her fingers tingling strangely.

At the treehouse, their captain sat hunched over a table, scowling at a half-finished hat.

‘What madcap piratical thing are we doing next?’ Dagger asked one of the pirates, whose name escaped her just at that moment.

The wild-haired pirate smiled at her.

‘Making!’ he said. ‘Can you teach me how to sew memories into cloak hems?’

‘I don’t think so!’ Dagger said. ‘Why on earth should I know how to do that?’

The pirates all stared at Dagger with something that looked like concern – though Dagger was not quite sure that’s what it would be called.

‘Can you teach me how to weave happiness into hat ribbons?’ a moustachioed pirate asked.

‘Or moonlight into bootlaces?’

‘Or stitch gratitude into glove seams?’

Dagger Dauntless scratched her head, dislodging her smart blue hat for a moment.

Making …

A pirate helpfully pushed her blue hat firmly back on to her head, securing the buckled chinstrap firmly. Dagger smiled blankly at them all.

‘I don’t think so!’ she said cheerfully. ‘I don’t know anything like that!’

The captain snorted.

‘Not much use to us then, are you?’ she sneered, throwing a half-finished hat over the edge of the treehouse.

Dagger peered over the edge to see a large pile of discarded clothes in a heap on the jungle floor.

‘That’s a silly waste!’ she pointed out.

Some of the other pirates made faces at her, miming silence. She saw the captain’s face redden.

‘They’re all rubbish!’ the captain yelled, leaping up and slashing a cloak in two with her cutlass. ‘It’s these useless clothes! We need to plunder ourselves some new ones! What ships are leaving St Freerest today?’

‘A handsome one full of Venetian treasures, according to the whispers,’ the wild-haired pirate supplied helpfully. ‘The Splendora.’

‘What say you, Troublemakers?’ the pirate queen demanded, glaring around at the other pirates. ‘Shall we take the Splendora’s treasures?’

They erupted into cheers.

Finding cheering in a bloodthirsty manner to be quite appealing, Dagger joined in.

The sails of the Trouble were raised, and the Sea Dragon was lassoed. Soon, the ship was surging out of the tailbone bay through the jagged white arch, with a rope straining into the water in front of them.

Dagger clambered into the rigging, forgot what all the knots were for, and climbed back down again. She stood at the prow, admiring the jester figurehead with his three-pointed hat grinning into the teeth of the wind.

Dagger Dauntless and the jester had several things in common. Neither knew where they had come from or where they were going; they were both stuck on the ship whether they liked it or not; and both smiled woodenly at the oncoming adventure.

Dagger felt the wind in her hair and the captain’s eyes on her back. She waved uncertainly at the captain, who scowled in reply.

The wind pushed up the brim of her navy-blue tricorn and she tugged it thoughtfully. A fellow Troublemaker wedged it firmly back on to her head and tightened the chin buckle.

The hat was a comfort to her; it fitted snugly. But the more firmly it was pushed down and buckled on, the more certain Dagger felt that something important was trying to emerge from the very middle of her head, like a seedling trying to find the light.

Before she could wonder about this strange little sprout in the blank blue of her brain, the captain – Thorn Lawless, her name was! – spun the wheel and howled.

‘Swords at the ready!’ Thorn called out.

‘AAARGH!’ came the chorused reply as a silver forest of blades were stabbed skywards.

‘Fiercest battle faces ready?’ the pirate queen cried.

‘YAAAARGH!’

Dagger howled, a wild cry that made her soul roar.

‘She’s in our sights!’ a bearded pirate yelled, pointing from halfway up the rigging.

Dagger ran to the rail and saw a beautiful ship on the horizon.

The ship seemed familiar to Dagger. Or perhaps it was familiar in the way all ships are, with her sleek wooden hull and her puffy white sails and a Venetian flag flying from the topgallant.

‘The Splendora will be ours!’ Thorn Lawless cried. ‘TROUBLEMAKERS, ATTACK!’