‘We’re doing the right thing, aren’t we?’ Goose asked Sam anxiously, boosting her into the crow’s nest.

‘Goose, this was your idea!’ Sam pulled him up behind her and curled to one side, to make space for him. ‘It’s a great plan,’ she added reassuringly. Then she continued, ‘Well – maybe it’s not a great plan, but it’s the best plan we have.’

Goose nodded nervously.

Standing forlornly on the dock at St Freerest and wondering how on earth to begin rescuing Cordelia, Goose had realized that the Splendora, bursting with valuable cargo, would be an enticing prospect for the Troublemakers. When the coast was clear, they had sneaked aboard and climbed up to the crow’s nest. They reckoned Capitano Boniface did not seem likely to make stowaways walk the plank.

Now, as the tide turned, they listened as the ship woke below them.

They heard the cheerful voice of Capitano Boniface, the busy patter of a dozen sailors and the clank of the anchor. The Splendora met the open ocean with the wind singing in her sails and her hull rushing through the waves. The ship spoke a language to join sea and sky: a vessel between two deep blues.

St Freerest slowly became a green speck on the horizon.

‘How long till we show our faces?’ Sam muttered to Goose a little while later. It was getting uncomfortable folded up in the crow’s nest, crouched to make sure nobody saw their heads poking up above the rail.

‘Long enough so they don’t turn round and take us back,’ Goose said.

‘All right.’ Sam nodded. ‘After sunset.’

It would be hours before the sun set. Indeed, it climbed higher, blazing down on them, and Goose began to wish he had thought to bring water and food.

‘What if the Troublemakers don’t come after this ship?’ Sam asked Goose.

‘Then I suppose we’ll just have to go wherever the Splendora’s going, turn round and go back –’

A cry from the rigging interrupted them.

‘EHI DELLA NAVE!’

‘I think that means “sail sighted”!’ Goose was triumphant. ‘Must be the Trouble!’

He was immediately visited by a feeling of unease. They peered out from the crow’s nest to see a ship coming straight for them, in full sail.

Sam groaned. It was not the Trouble. It was Admiral Ransom’s ship, the Invincible, surging towards them with all the shiny purpose of a knight rescuing a damsel in distress.

‘The Troublemakers’ll never come after us with the biggest ship in the Royal Navy hanging around!’ Goose moaned.

The Invincible ran up flags, a series of chequers, crosses and colours conveying a message.

‘Stop … urgent …’ Goose translated. ‘Pirates nearby. Oh no! We’re being saved from the pirates before we can even be attacked by them!’

Sam rolled her eyes.

‘Heroes,’ she tutted. ‘Always getting in the way.’

The Invincible sheered through the waves, hatches opening in its side as it turned broadside. A hundred cannons emerged from the dark belly, pointing directly at the Splendora. The shouts from the naval crew sharpened and soured.

Another flag ran up the Invincible’s rigging.

This one meant ‘Surrender’!

There was a shocked silence. For a moment only the wind could be heard, whistling in surprise through the rigging.

‘I don’t fink they’re here to save us after all,’ Sam muttered.

Alarmed murmurs rose from the Splendora’s crew.

Goose shook his head, frowning at the dark blue machinery of men’s elbows and arms working on the cannons in the belly of the Invincible.

‘They can’t be going to fire on us,’ he said. ‘That would be an act of piracy! This is Admiral Ransom; he’s a hero of the Royal …’

The words died on his lips as he saw the sparks of fuses being lit.

A BOOM shook their bones. Solid gobs of thunder bowled across the deck beneath them, knocking all the crew sideways.

The Splendora’s hull burst open.

BOOM – BOOM – BOOM –

The air ruptured around them as the crow’s nest spiralled in the sky.

‘Whadda we do?’ Sam cried, digging her nails into the mast.

‘We’re safer up here!’ Goose yelled. ‘If we just sta-ay-ay –’

Before he could utter another word, there was a terrible screech of tearing wood and the world came loose.

‘HOLD ON!’ Sam cried.

She and Goose clung to the crow’s nest. The sea rushed up to meet them as the mast fell like the great tree it had once been.

They slammed to a stop, barely an arm’s length above the water.

The mast was sticking out, horizontal, over the ocean like a broken limb. Sam and Goose clung to it, their world turned sideways.

The ocean churned darkly, tasting their legs like a ravening creature, and Sam’s fingers slipped in panic.

‘I can’t swim!’ she whimpered.

The waves undulated hungrily beneath them.

‘It’s all right,’ Goose panted, grabbing her. ‘Come on!’

They inched along the mast towards the ship –

BOOM!

Further chaos broke out aboard the Splendora. Another volley of solid thunder made matchsticks of the deck. The air stung with splinters. Sails were aflame in horrifying banners of fire.

Sam peered over Goose’s shoulder to see Capitano Boniface dragging a snow-white flag from a chest.

‘WE SURRENDER!’ he cried, waving at the Invincible like a drowning man. ‘HOLD YOUR FIRE!’

A cannonball caught him in the stomach. In a blur, Capitano Boniface went over the side of the ship.

Goose and Sam stared in horror at the boiling crater in the sea where the capitano had fallen. They screamed his name, trying to call him back from his fate. But Capitano Boniface did not reappear above the surface and the water closed over.

‘He – he’s –’ Goose croaked. He couldn’t say the word.

The mast squealed. It was uprooting itself from the ship.

‘QUICK!’ Sam cried.

They scrambled over the smashed railing to safety. But the moment they set foot on the deck, they realized nowhere on the Splendora was safe. A swarm of navy-blue sailors swung across the sky, boarding the ship with cutlasses drawn. The crew of the Splendora were quickly overcome by the admiral’s men. They were caught in iron chains and hurled into the sea, disappearing beneath the waves after their capitano.

Goose and Sam fled, scrambling over ruined rigging and under falling crossbeams. But they reached the dead end of the stern and there was nowhere further to flee.

They ducked for cover and peered over the bulwark. Admiral Ransom stood on the prow of the Invincible, directing the attack. He was terrible in his spotless finery, his medals flashing fearsome in the flames. The Invincible was a calm reflection of the devastated Splendora, separated only by a narrow chasm of sea.

‘Find the cargo!’ the admiral called across the water. ‘I want every valuable chest brought aboard my ship!’

Sam and Goose watched in helpless horror as English sailors carried dozens of chests over to the admiral, who counted every one that came aboard. The Splendora was being robbed of her riches.

Admiral Ransom yelled orders to a sailor, who began daubing a word across the deck in paint as red as blood. It was the same scarlet word Sam and Goose had seen on the burnt carcass of the ruined ship Innocenze: .

‘He’s the one raiding the ships!’ Goose spluttered in disbelief, craning to stare at his treacherous hero. ‘And he’s framing the Troublemakers for it all!’

‘Very professional system,’ Sam said grimly.

The admiral jerked round, his terrible glare locking on Sam and Goose.

‘There’s two hiding back there!’ he yelled, pointing. ‘Kill them!’

A pair of sailors in navy-blue suits charged towards the stern.

‘Quick!’ Sam gasped, pulling Goose backwards.

But there was nowhere left to run. They whirled round, ready to fight as the sailors closed in –

‘Ig!’ Goose yelled.

One of the sailors skidded to a stop, astonished horror warping his face.

‘Goose!’ he gaped. ‘Goose?’

It was Ignatius Bootmaker, swamped in the dark blue uniform of the Royal Navy.

The Bootmaker brothers stared at each other. Then the second sailor lunged for Goose, swishing his blade.

‘NO!’ Ignatius bellowed.

He launched himself at his crew mate, who came crashing down, his cutlass slashing a deadly stripe in the air barely a hair’s breadth from Goose’s chest. Ignatius wrestled the sailor to the deck, fighting for the cutlass.

With a tearing creeeeeeeeak above them, the mizzenmast came loose.

Sam kicked the cutlass – it spun away across the deck and scythed into the sea.

There was a swoosh of flame and falling timber as the mast came down between Goose and his brother.

‘JUMP SHIP!’ Ignatius bellowed, struggling mightily to subdue his crew mate. ‘It’s your only hope! I can’t keep him back!’

Goose turned to Sam.

‘I can’t swim!’ Sam mewled, terror in her eyes.

‘It’ll be all right,’ Goose promised, taking her hand and squeezing it tight. ‘We go on three. One –’

‘Two –’

‘THREE!’