The Lost Prince (2 page)

One-Eyed Jack put a hand out to catch a few raindrops. “Looks to me you’ve seen your last sunrise, boy. Mr. Gill, have our guests arrived?”

“Got their invitation right here, Cap’n.” Scurvy Gill dumped a bucket of chum over the side. Moments later, a group of large dorsal fins swirled about in the water below. Dean’s eyes went as wide as sand dollars, and his stomach tied itself into an icy knot.
He shook the bars of his cage. “Captain, please! I’m begging you, don’t do this!”

One-Eyed Jack snorted out a small laugh. “You call that begging?” He spat something sticky and brown onto the deck. “You’re not even trying.” He nodded to his men. They let the rope slip and caught it just above the waves. Dean leapt about the cage as sharks snapped at his toes. He grabbed the bars above his head and pulled his feet up. “Help!” he cried as he held on for dear life. “Somebody, please!”

The crew of pirates laughed. One-Eyed Jack leaned out toward Dean with a hand cupped behind his ear. “What’s that, Seaborne? I can’t hear you all the way up here. For a second, it sounded like you were asking my crew for help!” He turned to face his men, looking very much amused. “What say you, lads? Anyone care to lend the boy a hand? Scurvy Gill, how about you?”

Scurvy Gill bit a dirty fingernail and shook his head. “Sorry, Cap’n. I’m busy.”

One-Eyed Jack nodded. “Of course. Your personal hygiene comes first, I know that.” He put on a mock frown and turned back toward Dean. “Sorry, son. Scurvy Gill says he’s busy.” He turned up his palms. “What can I say? I tried.”

Dean clung to the bars as One-Eyed Jack snickered away, safe on the deck of his ship. He was having a jolly good time as the sharks poked their noses up out of the water below. Dean was angry with himself for crying out like that. He knew no one
was coming to his aid. His nerves had gotten the better of him was all.

“It’s your own fault you’re in there, you know,” said One-Eyed Jack, turning serious for a moment. “Running away after all I’ve given you … what were you thinking? Thanks to me, you had food! Shelter! Gainful employment! I would have thought that earned me some small modicum of gratitude, but no. You choose to repay me by deserting your brethren in the Black Fleet. By deserting
me
!” One-Eyed Jack touched his fingers to his chest. “You wound me, Seaborne, truly. My feelings … they’re hurt!”

Dean grunted as he shifted his grip on the iron bars of his cage. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. First of all, One-Eyed Jack wasn’t like normal people. He didn’t have feelings. Second of all … Food? Shelter?
Gainful employment?
Was he serious? The most Dean could say for One-Eyed Jack was that he’d given him a job, and a lousy one at that. One-Eyed Jack had a fleet of ships, an army of pirates, and a vast network of spies. Dean was one of his best. Spies like him stowed away on ships and found out what they were carrying, infiltrated their ranks before raids, and even spied on One-Eyed Jack’s own men from time to time, just to keep an eye on things. Sure, Dean got food and shelter, but there wasn’t much beyond the unreliable protection of his fellow pirates, and a moldy slice of bread now and then.

Working as a spy in One-Eyed Jack’s service was a miserable existence with a bleak future. Dean hated it. More than anything,
he hated scouting ships for the pirate fleet to raid. He felt like the angel of death delivering innocent sailors into the hands of One-Eyed Jack and his men. It had been different when he was just a small child. Back then, he didn’t have any choice but to go along. Now that he was thirteen years old, Dean had decided that he didn’t want that life anymore. He didn’t belong with One-Eyed Jack and his band of cutthroats. He was tired of being Dean Seaborne, pirate spy. He wanted something better. He wanted a new life. Now he had one coming his way, all right … the afterlife.

“I thought you was supposed to be a smart one, Seaborne!” Scurvy Gill tapped the inside of his left forearm. “Ain’t no use runnin’ when yer so easy to spot.”

Seaborne frowned at the mark that had been tattooed on his own left arm. Every one of One-Eyed Jack’s spies had been given their own unique brand. Dean’s was in the shape of three wave crests rising inside a circle. Dean kept the mark covered up most of the time, but sooner or later, someone always saw it. After he didn’t report back from his last assignment, the word went out to all the other spies that he was a deserter, and One-Eyed Jack wanted him found. It was only a matter of time before he was spotted, captured, and taken to the island of St. Diogenes for punishment. Now he was back on One-Eyed Jack’s ship, the
Maelstrom
, dangling in a giant lobster trap over a family of hungry sharks.

Dean’s arms and legs were getting tired. He couldn’t hang up
there at the top of the cage forever. He shifted his grip again, muttering under his breath. “Maybe if I was as filthy as you, this mark would have gone unnoticed, Gill.”

“What’s that, boy?” Scurvy Gill asked.

“Nothing!”

The grime-ridden pirate scowled. “Take ’im down again!”

The pirates let go of the line, and Dean’s cage dropped for a second time. He wasn’t ready for it. Dean lost his grip and fell right along with the cage. He hit the bottom and tried to get up quickly, but his feet slipped through the bars and down into the water. He pulled himself up, fast as he could, just before the sharks could bite off his legs. He got a firm stance with the arch of each foot resting on the bars at the base of the cage. Seawater splashed up past his ankles, and a frenzy of sharks filled the water beneath him. Dean screamed as the cage rocked from side to side. Hundreds of ravenous teeth pressed up from below, desperate for a mouthful of flesh and bone. Before the sharks got him, Dean felt the cage rise up out of the water. The pirates on deck pulled him back up. Scurvy Gill and the rest of the men were laughing hysterically. Dean gritted his teeth. This was fun for them. Live entertainment for as long as it lasted. What could be better?

“Any last words, Seaborne?” One-Eyed Jack waved at the laughing pirate crew. “Maybe you want to ask this lot for help again?”

Dean took a deep breath. Anger wasn’t going to get him
anywhere. All he could do was throw himself at the mercy of the pirate king’s court. “Captain, I’m sorry I ran off. It was a mistake. I can see that now. Please, give me another chance. I’ll do anything.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Because I’m good at my job! Captain, you know I am. I’m a good spy. I eluded your men for nearly a month at sea. I can’t remember anyone ever lasting that long on the run, can you?”

“Reminding me of your crimes is
not
the way back into my good graces.”

“I’m sorry, sir. Truly, I am. Please, I’ve never let you down before, have I?”

One-Eyed Jack tilted his head to the side. “No, you haven’t. That’s what makes this so difficult. You had a future here, Seaborne. I was actually starting to like you.”

Really? ’Cause I can’t stand you.
Dean bit his tongue and wiped a mixture of rain and sweat from his brow. “Like I said, Captain, it was a mistake. I just … I didn’t understand how important it was to you that I stay a spy.”

One-Eyed Jack’s expression turned wild, and he straightened his back with a start. Dean got a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what he’d just said, but it had clearly been the wrong thing to say.

“Important?
You?
Important?”

One-Eyed Jack drew his cutlass and stormed over toward the men holding the rope. He raised his sword high, looking to cut
the line that held up Dean’s cage. The crew scattered and Dean’s stomach shot up to his chest as he felt the cage drop. He took a deep breath as the white water and swarming sharks raced up at him from below. Dean plummeted into the wild sea, completely submerged. Cold seawater stung his eyes as a blurry vision of sharks surrounded him. They banged against the cage’s rusty iron bars, pounding it with all their might.

This is it
, thought Dean.
I’m dead.
Even so, his survival instincts kicked in. He resisted the urge to scream, trying to keep his lungs filled with air as long as possible. The sharks pushed forward, and he waved his arms frantically, trying to push himself back. There were more sharks behind him, on top of him, and below him. Dean saw nothing but bubbles, churning water, and teeth. It felt like every shark in the sea was outside his cage, and all of them were starving. The biggest of the bunch, a great white, was the hungriest. Dean’s heart pounded in his chest as the relentless predator bashed into the rusty iron door of his cage again and again.

The shark wedged its nose in between the bars and spread its jaws wide. As Dean’s short life flashed before his eyes, he remembered the tale of an old sea dog who had once boasted that he’d survived an encounter with a great white. The old man’s story was that he had punched the shark square in the nose, and it had swum off like a frightened minnow. Dean hadn’t believed a word of it at the time, but at this point, anything was worth a shot. He
slammed the palm of his hand into the shark’s nose, hard as he could. It was an action he regretted almost immediately. The shark didn’t swim away. Instead, it was as if Dean had energized the beast. Enraged, the shark redoubled its efforts to get him, pushing forward so hard that the bars of his cage began to bend. There was nowhere for Dean to go.

Just when Dean had lost all hope, his cage was hoisted out of the water. He gasped for air and crawled into a corner of the cage as it climbed higher and higher above the waves. Trembling, Dean looked down at the primal chaos below. The sharks were still circling, and the great white was thrashing about, visibly angry about its stolen meal. The cage drew level with the
Maelstrom
’s cannons, and Dean saw the crew tugging on the line. One-Eyed Jack hadn’t cut it after all.

One-Eyed Jack stood with a foot on the ship’s railing. He pointed the tip of his blade at Dean. “I see what the problem is now. You’re getting too big for your britches. Don’t be getting all high and mighty on me, boy. There’s nothing important about
you.
What’s important is that everyone knows there’s only one way out of the pirate king’s service—death. Are we clear?”

Dean nodded rapidly. “Aye aye, Captain. Yes, sir. Absolutely.”

One-Eyed Jack stared Dean down for a few seconds before he finally lowered his cutlass. “Reel him in, men.”

The crew pulled Dean’s cage back over the deck of the ship and opened up the cage. Dean fell out face-first and collapsed
with his cheek pressed against the floor. Never before had the mildew-soaked timber of the
Maelstrom
smelled so sweet.

One-Eyed Jack stayed at the railing of the ship, looking out on the horizon. “Today’s your lucky day, Seaborne. I’m going to give you that second chance you were hoping for.”

Once again, Dean couldn’t believe his ears. He leapt to his feet. “Thank you, Captain! You won’t regret this. You won’t! I swear, I’ll never—”

“Quiet yourself before I change my mind!”

Dean buttoned his lip.

“Make no mistake, this decision isn’t born out of any affection for you. The only reason you’re alive right now is because I have a task for which you happen to be ideally suited.” One-Eyed Jack turned to face Dean. “I want you to look in on one of my ships. The
Reckless.
You know it?”

Dean searched his memory. “The
Reckless
 … Captain Harper’s ship?”

One-Eyed Jack wagged a finger at Dean. “
My
ship. They’re all my ships. Remember that.”

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir.” Dean was being very careful not to say anything that might trigger One-Eyed Jack’s infamous temper once again. For the moment, his head was off the chopping block, and he meant to keep it that way. He could scarcely believe he was back on the ship at all, but he was starting to understand why his life was spared. “Gentleman” Jim Harper was more than just the
captain of the
Reckless.
He was the youngest captain in the Black Fleet—the leader of the Pirate Youth. One-Eyed Jack was right; Dean was ideally suited for this job.

Scurvy Gill came up behind Dean and put a hand on his shoulder. “The cap’n’s been hearin’ some rumblings about Harper lately. Last few payments from the
Reckless
have been a bit light. Word is, Gentleman Jim’s holdin’ out on us. Yer going to find out what’s what, savvy?” Dean nodded, but Scurvy Gill wasn’t finished. He leaned in close. “If ya don’t come back this time, we’ll do a lot worse than feed ya to the sharks, understand?”

Dean winced. Scurvy Gill’s breath smelled like a dead octopus. “I understand.” He pulled away from Gill’s grip and turned to One-Eyed Jack. “I’ll do you proud, Captain.”

Scurvy Gill kicked Dean’s legs out and shoved him to the deck. “Never mind that. Just do yer job.”

Dean stayed down as One-Eyed Jack walked over to where he was. “Aye, Seaborne. Do your job. Get inside, gain the man’s trust, and report back what you see. Quickly. You’ve officially used up the last of my patience. You don’t want to be disappointing me again.”

“No, sir.”

One-Eyed Jack walked off, and Dean sat up. For once, the two of them were in total agreement. Dean definitely didn’t want to disappoint him again. He had been given a second chance. There
would not be a third. Dean resolved to look at things differently from here on in. It was time for him to count his blessings and resign himself to the fact that he was a pirate spy, for better or for worse. If he was very lucky, he’d live to be an old pirate spy.
This is my life
, Dean thought.
This is it.

CHAPTER
2