The Stevenses told us that the name of Blackbeard’s ghost ship was Destiny’s Wyrd. Henry explained that ‘wyrd’ wasn’t a funny way of spelling weird but that it meant destiny – so the ship’s name was really ‘destiny’s destiny’. That made no sense at all to me, but Henry chuckled – he obviously found it funny.
How the ship kept sailing at all was a mystery. There were rotting timbers everywhere, and large holes probably made by cannonballs. The sails were mostly rags, and the ropes hung like big cobwebs from the masts. Yet Destiny’s Wyrd sailed on, fast and smooth, surrounded by its own dark cloud. I guessed this meant that no one at sea could see it, but it also meant that we had no way of knowing where we were going.
“I don’t understand what’s keeping us afloat,” Henry said as we walked about on deck for one of our exercise periods. “Everything seems solid enough – including the crew – and the ship keeps moving, even though there’s no wind and the sails are a mess. Something must be keeping all of this together.”
“What about the deal Blackbeard made – with You Know Who?”
“It could be the reason,” said Henry, “but I reckon it’s some kind of curse… ”
“Curse?”
“At least half the stories about pirate ghosts are connected with some kind of curse,” Henry told me. “Usually it has to do with an object they stole that has some sort of strange power.”
“So maybe there’s some kind of weird object on board?” I suggested.
“Exactly!” Henry exclaimed, eyes bright. “All we have to do is find out what.”
“But how?” I muttered.
Henry looked around at the several pirates hanging about, keeping an eye on us. The tall and sombre figure of Blackbeard stood by the wheel, staring out into the mist that surrounded us, as though, for him, it wasn’t there.
“We need a diversion,” said Henry. “I’ll take care of that. The rest is up to you, Dolf… As soon as they aren’t looking at us, see if you can get into the Captain’s cabin. Look for anything a bit unusual.”
My eyes widened – how would I know what was unusual and what wasn’t? – but I nodded. I wondered what kind of ‘diversion’ Henry had in mind and hoped it was a good one.
I soon found out.
We were walking around the main mast in a circle, most of the captives slumping along, heads down, eyes glazed. Even Cyrus Firestone had nothing to say. Since his plank-walking experience he had stopped demanding to contact the American Embassy and generally did as he was told.
As we came to a ladder that led up to the poop deck, Henry suddenly darted up it. The next moment I saw him standing in front of Blackbeard. I heard him say something that sounded like “Excuse me, Captain” and Blackbeard turned with a scowl.
Meanwhile the rest of the prisoners had all stopped where they were to look at HH and so the pirates began to shout at them to keep moving. Three of the crew took off towards Henry and Blackbeard.
In the noise and confusion a couple of the prisoners tripped over some ropes that were coiled across the deck and fell in a tangle of arms and legs. I glanced up at the bridge again and saw Henry dangling from one of Blackbeard’s large hands.
For a moment no one was looking at me.
I was close to the bulkhead with the door that I hoped led to the Captain’s cabin. I quietly darted towards it. Luckily, it opened easily and I slipped through.
The room beyond was dark. I made out a big table and a couple of chairs, all bolted to the deck to stop them moving about in rough seas. A cabinet was fastened to one wall and a wooden chest stood beneath the windows.
My heart was pounding so much I was sure everyone on the ship would hear it. My first thought was to look in the chest. I heaved up the heavy lid and gulped.
The chest was full of treasure! Coins, plates and goblets, ropes of pearls, bags of gems and piles of jewellery! I must have looked crazy, my jaw dropped and my eyes bulging, but enough of my brain was still working to remind me of my mission.
Any of these things could be the object I was looking for. Any of them could be cursed. But then I thought: If there’s just one thing keeping the pirates from dying properly then it has to be special. And if it’s special, surely it’s not crammed into this chest with the rest of this loot…
I closed the lid and looked round the room. I could still hear noises outside but there was less shouting. I realised that I was going to be missed soon enough and that someone would come looking for me. I didn’t like to think what might happen then.
Desperately I stared around the cabin – and caught sight of the cabinet, noticing that one of the doors was not quite closed. I crossed to it and opened it up. Inside, hanging from the back of the cabinet, was a sword – a big straight-bladed weapon that looked nothing like the cutlasses the pirates wore on their belts. The hilt was elaborately engraved and seemed as if it was made of solid gold. Cut deeply into the blade near the hilt were two letters written in an olde-worlde curly script that was really difficult to read. But I was fairly sure they read ‘CC’.
CC…
Christopher Columbus! My brain whizzed double-time. Was this really the legendary Sword of Columbus? I looked at it and I was suddenly sure – it gave me a funny feeling, a sort of tingling at the ends of my fingers. It even seemed to have a kind of glow about it – but that could have been my imagination working overtime.
In any case there was no time to linger. Leaving the sword inside, I closed the door to the cabinet and hurried away, slipping out onto the deck. I crouched down behind a barrel and looked out at the scene.
The rest of the prisoners were over by the main mast, guarded by three particularly ugly-looking pirates. At first I could see no sign of Henry, but when I looked up towards the bridge my blood turned to ice.
Blackbeard still had Henry by the collar – only now he was dangling him over the water. I froze. Henry Hunter was going to be thrown overboard!
