Cordelia and Thorn bounded through the jungle, Turbidus Vines swooping them up off their feet so they ran on air.
They clattered on to the treehouse prow jutting from the jungle high over the beach to see the Invincible surge from the skeleton mouth into the bay. It was sundown and the sea was like a bloodbath, stained red.
‘DOUBLE, DOUBLE!’ Thorn roared, and the other Troublemakers came running.
‘I – I thought this island was impossible to find unless you’re being hunted!’ Cordelia gasped. ‘But Ransom’s a hunter!’
Everyone converged on the deck in time to see the Invincible drop anchor with a crash. The Trouble bobbed like a toy ship beside the massive bulk of the naval galleon.
‘What shall we do?’ Never wailed. ‘It’s an invasion!’
‘The admiral’s terribly dangerous!’ Goose cried.
‘We need our hats!’ Annie yelled. ‘To make us look old and fierce!’
Before she could rush away to fetch hers, Thorn caught her arm.
‘We don’t need to pretend to be something we’re not,’ she said. ‘No disguises. We fight as ourselves.’
A swarm of sailors poured from the Invincible, coming ashore in skiffs. Among them, glinting with medals, loomed Admiral Ransom.
A hundred sailors landed their boats on the sand.
The admiral stepped ashore with the ruthless swagger of a man coming to conquer.
‘TROUBLEMAKERS!’ the admiral boomed, striding up the beach. ‘SURRENDER!’
Cordelia gripped the prow as the admiral glared up at them. He was terrible with medals, each a glinting memento of some frightful violence he had achieved.
‘WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!’ Thorn bellowed.
‘NEVER!’ Cordelia yelled.
Their defiance was caught and amplified by the rebels around them.
‘NEVER!’ everybody roared in one voice.
In answer, the admiral raised his arm and let it drop.
BOOM!
The report of cannon fire echoed off the rocks.
A blast of smoke burst from the side of the Invincible.
The Trouble lurched in the water and dipped in a clumsy curtsey.
Smokestack arrived, puffing, on to the prow just in time to see the ship that had carried him over oceans sinking beneath the water. The jester figurehead was still grinning as though it was all a great joke.
In the shocked silence that followed, the admiral reached a hand into his jacket. Cordelia was sure he was going to produce some dreadful weapon –
Admiral Ransom pulled out a paper scroll.
‘I have here a letter of marque,’ he announced. ‘Do any of you know what a letter of marque is?’
Cordelia didn’t know, but Goose made a noise like bellows inflating.
‘It’s a licence giving you permission to commit – commit – PIRACY!’ Goose blustered in disgust. ‘On behalf of the British government.’
The admiral tilted his chin up to look at Goose.
‘Exactly right!’ He sneered, before turning to Thorn. ‘This letter is from your father, Prudence.’
Cordelia saw Thorn shudder.
‘He sent me to fetch you,’ Admiral Ransom explained. ‘And this letter gives me permission to do whatever is necessary to bring you home.’
‘It wasn’t necessary for you to sink all those ships!’ Cordelia spat. ‘And drown innocent crews!’
The admiral shrugged. ‘I deemed it necessary. And, according to this letter, I am allowed to keep all the riches I might happen to acquire on my mission to save Prudence Oglethorne.’
The smile he flashed was full of the kind of teeth that tear things apart.
‘SHE DOESN’T NEED SAVING!’ Tabitha screamed. ‘SHE’S ALREADY SAVED HERSELF!’
Admiral Ransom raised an eyebrow.
‘I have you cornered now, Prudence.’ He smirked. ‘And I will burn every inch of this island to get to you, if you make that necessary too.’
There was a tense silence; the space between navy and Troublemakers bristled with impending violence. Then a large round-bodied bird with stout wings and splayed feet shuffled on to the beach, blinking curiously at the shiny man towering on the sand.
‘No!’ Never groaned quietly. ‘Dodo – go away!’
‘Hide,’ Cordelia urged the bird desperately.
But the dodo shuffled up to the admiral, tilting its head inquisitively at this strange glinting vision. He uttered a polite honk.
Cordelia’s heart squeezed with fear for the fine-feathered creature peering innocently at the crushing might of the British navy.
The admiral pounced, snatching the bird by one leg, swinging it into the air. It honked frantically, flapping its short wings.
‘NO!’ Thorn cried.
‘PUT THE DODO DOWN!’ Cordelia demanded.
‘I will visit extinction upon this island!’ the admiral bellowed.
More dodos, alarmed by the distressed honks of their fellow, came bustling down the beach. Cordelia’s nails bit into her palms as she turned to the others.
‘We’ve got to stop him,’ she gasped. ‘He’s going to destroy everything!’
‘He has actual cannons that fire cannonballs!’ Never protested. ‘All we have are exploding coconuts and some vines!’
Cordelia was forced to agree that cannons were more dangerous than vines. But her eyes met Thorn’s, which burned with righteous fire.
Thorn’s hands clenched on Cordelia’s shoulders.
‘Look after them for me, Cordelia,’ Thorn whispered.
And the pirate queen leaped over the side of the prow, into the arms of the vines, and was carried down to the beach.
‘Thorn – WAIT!’
‘What’re you doing?’
The pirate queen landed on the sand in front of the admiral.
Thorn drew her sword – a stripe of silver through the air – and laid it at the admiral’s feet.
‘I surrender!’ she declared, loudly and clearly. ‘And now you have me, you don’t have the right to wreak any more destruction. You have to leave the island immediately and take me with you – back to my father.’
Cordelia was dizzy with shock. She stared at Thorn – the girl who had only just become her friend – standing straight-backed in front of the towering admiral.
Thorn was giving herself up to save Soulhaven.