The Time Pirate (50 page)

Nick could see Blood thinking, he guessed, that the wily old pirate could exchange Nick's life for the orb. But the odds were not in his favor. There were too many marines and sharpshooters protecting the Marquis, and Blood knew it. He used his hook to open the lock, his brow furrowed with thought.

“He can keep his precious head for now,” he told Snake Eye. “I'll warrant I made a mistake the first time, throwing him in the oubliette at Fort Blood. I deprived the good citizens of Port Royal of seeing his head on the guillotine block afore it rolled into the basket. They were sore disappointed. Mayhaps they'll get a second chance, eh, boy?”

At that moment there was an enormous crash as a cannonball shattered the stern mullioned windows and then smashed into the far bulkhead of the captain's cabin, splintering it. Cannon fire was nearly continuous now, Nick realized, and the
Revenge
was taking a beating from the Brethren of Blood. He could only hope the surprise appearance of de Grasse and his fleet was giving the pirates a good pounding.

Blood rose to his full height. He was dressed, Nick saw, in a long scarlet silk coat and white satin breeches, which were stuffed into his polished black boots. He'd not lost his ill-deserved vanity.

“I'll be taking me leave now, Snake Eye. You hustle that feisty little bugger for'ard and down to the powder hold. There's a secret hatch down there in the hold, see, kind of hidden-like in the hull.”

“Yer secret escape hatch,” Snake Eye said, with a nod. “I know it well enough.”

“Aye. Give ‘er a solid kick and she'll pop right out. I always keep a small rowing gig under tow by that portside hatch, for emergencies such as this one. Take the gig and the boy to Nassau Town. Ain't but a mile distant. Make him row. I'll meet you there later tomorrow at the Greycliff Inn on West Hill Street. Then we'll take him back to Port Royal and give the crowds a proper send-off this time, eh?”

“Aye,” Snake Eye said, watching as the padlock was removed. Blood smiled, opened his lockbox, and lifted the gleaming orb
out of the chest. The cabin was suddenly filled with fire. He held it up to admire for a moment longer before twisting it open. Using one finger, he deftly entered his time and destination. Then he looked up at Nick.

“Don't look so a'feared, Nicholas McIver. Sooner or later, it was bound to come to this. Crossing William Blood is like jumping into a pool of ravenous sharks. Ye'll soon find yer carcass ripped to bloody pieces!”

“I'm not afraid of you, sir. I never have been.”

Blood looked at Snake Eye, and both of them snorted. “Then you really are the little fool I always took you to be!” Blood threw his head back and laughed loudly, the silver skulls braided in his black beard tinkling merrily. Then he rejoined the two halves of the Tempus Machina.

Despite his frustration over Blood's escape, Nick never tired of seeing the miracle of the golden orb. He heard the lovely tinkling of tiny bells and saw the captain's shape transformed into countless luminous fireflies. They began winking out, and soon enough Billy Blood was gone. Vanished.

“
Allons
,” Snake Eye said, grabbing Nick roughly by the shoulder. “Let's be on our way, and not a peep out of yer smart mouth or I'll take yer head for meself. Stick it on top of a pike and parade it through the streets of Port Royal. Would be my pleasure after what you've caused me.”

Nick stepped out of the cabin into the darkened companionway. With the tip of the pirate's dagger in the small of his back, he made his way along the dim corridor, down two sets of steps and forward to the powder hold amidships.

“Open it,” Snake Eye said, and Nick pulled the heavy door wide open. The pirate grabbed a burning torch from an iron sconce, and they made their way carefully inside, fire and tons of black powder being a most dangerous combination.

In the light of the flickering torch, Nick plainly saw the small escape hatch cleverly disguised to look like part of the hull. Snake Eye held him tightly by the throat and gave the hatch cover a mighty kick. It splashed into the sea, and all of a sudden Nick saw and heard the ferocity of the battle raging around him: many ships afire or sinking, dead men and debris floating everywhere. Smoke smelling of black powder burned his throat and nostrils, causing his eyes to water. Every were he looked, in any direction, he saw ships in flames, some of them sailing endlessly in circles, their rudders having been blown off by the bombs.

A small gig was bobbing just outside the hatch, tethered to the hull.

“You board first,” Snake Eye hissed, releasing his hold on the boy. “Seat yourself amidships between the oarlocks, facing the stern. I'll be in the bow with a pistol aimed at the back of yer head, in case you get any fancy ideas.”

“Aye-aye, sir,” Nick said, grabbing the painter and pulling the narrow-beamed little gig close enough that he might board it. He stepped down into it, felt it rock dangerously, got seated, and picked up the oar handles. He tensed his muscles and released them, feeling the tension wash out of him. He was ready. He knew this would be his one and only chance.

Snake Eye emerged from the hatch, his pistol in one hand and the flaming torch in the other. Nick could see him judging the distance to the boat, getting ready to step aboard. Concentrating on that tricky feat alone. In one blinding movement, Nick was on his feet, holding one of the oars over his shoulder like a cricket bat. Just as Snake Eye was stepping down into the boat, Nick shifted his weight, rocking the small gig.

Snake Eye struggled to retain his balance, for the moment
stunned and distracted at the prospect of being pitched into the water. Then he saw what Nick really intended. Before the pirate could make a cry, Nick swung the heavy oak oar with all his might. The flat of the blade struck the left side of Snake Eye's head a mighty blow. The man was staggered but still somehow remained standing. Blood was pouring from a gash just above his ear.

Nick planted his boots against the rider of the gig and pivoted his entire upper body for a second blow, coiling his energy. Now, with barely a pause, he swung the oar in a backhand direction, far more powerfully, and dealt the stunned pirate yet another fierce blow to the other side of his head.

Snake Eye pitched headfirst into the water and floated there beside the gig, face up, unconscious but still breathing. Nick stuck the blade of his oar in the man's chest and shoved him away. He had considered using the oar to submerge him, hold the murdering pirate under until he drowned, but found himself unable to finish off an incapacitated enemy.

That would make him a murderer, too.

He knew this decision might well come back to haunt him someday, but he quickly reboarded the
Revenge
and raced topside to find Lafayette and inform him of Billy Blood's escape.

B
ombshells bursting above Nick's head lit up the whole topside of
Revenge
as he emerged from below. Two motionless marine sharpshooters were hanging upside down in the rigging like dead marionettes. What was left of Lafayette's decimated gun crews were still in action, racing back and forth from port to starboard, reloading and firing the heavy guns as rapidly as they could.

Cannon smoke drifted across the deck as the boy raced aft to find General Lafayette. There were dead and wounded strewn about the deck, but at least the rigging and sails were still mostly intact and, to his great relief, he saw that
Revenge
was still in the fight. Even now, she cut across the bows of a pirate brigantine and raked her with deadly grapeshot.

“Sir!” Nick said, finding the General crouching beside the helm, tending to a gravely wounded man. The man's face was a rictus of pain, and Nick saw that he was biting down hard on a musket ball.

“Find our villainous Captain, did you, Nicholas?” the Marquis said without looking up. He was busy stitching up a gaping wound in an officer's neck with bosun's needle and catgut.
Nick looked closely at the man grimacing in pain. It was Lieutenant Valois.

“Will he make it?” Nick asked anxiously. He'd grown very fond of the brave young lieutenant.

“If God wills it. I've seen my share of battlefield wounds, and this one is survivable. And what of Blood?”

“Blood's escaped, sir!” Nicholas said, still breathing rapidly from his sprint up four decks.

Lafayette looked up, concern darkening his features. “Escaped, for all love? How can that be?”

Nick glanced at the other men round the helm, all pretending not to be eavesdropping on this conversation with Lafayette. Discretion was called for here, and Nick put his lips close to the Marquis's ear. He whispered, “By some extraordinary means, sir. At any rate, you see, he's quite disappeared.”

“Ah,
disappeared
, has he?” Lafayette said, and nodded his understanding. “Departed in a blaze of glory, I'd wager.”

Nick smiled and nodded “yes.”

Lafayette got to his feet after giving Valois a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. “Corporal, get this man below to sickbay. Hot soup from the galley and a tot of rum. More rum if he needs it.”

“And the battle, sir?” Nick asked, as two marines lifted Valois and carried him off to the ship's surgery to rest quietly until they had to leave the
Revenge
.

At that moment, one of the larger nearby pirate ships blew sky high, the explosion rocking the
Revenge
onto her beam ends. The vessel was no more than a pistol shot away. Her masts flew a hundred and fifty feet straight up into the air out of the cloud of fire and smoke that engulfed her. When the smoke cleared, all that remained were floating fragments and
corpses, facedown in the sea. The results of a direct hit to the powder hold.

“See for yourself how the battle goes,” Lafayette said, smiling as he eyed the trim of the mizzen sail above. “This audacious plan of yours is working beyond my wildest dreams of success. Look there off our port bow. The approaching vessel which just sank that pirate ship is
La Gloire
, Nicholas. The very last of Admiral de Grasse's twenty-eight ships of the line still within the scope of battle. All the others are safely through the pirate gauntlet and running before the wind for the Virginia coast!”

“Well done, sir!” Nick cried.

“Brilliant execution demands a brilliant plan, Nick.”

Nick felt his cheeks redden and said, “Sir, when
La Gloire
is safely through, your plan is to abandon this ship?”

“It is indeed. We've no more need of her. Our marines and gun crews will disembark and board the longboat Valois arrived in. They will subsequently rendezvous with
La Gloire
for the voyage to Virginia.”

“And you and me, sir? And Lieutenant Valois?”

“Why, Nick, Admiral de Grasse awaits us aboard the
Ville de Paris
, lying not half a mile from here, expecting a rendezvous. Once we are there, we'll see Valois attended to, after which we will retire to our cabin and fetch your wondrous orb from its hiding place.”

“Return to Mount Vernon as planned?”

“
Mais oui!
To the little garden house. We shall arrive just before midnight on the night we departed. We'll be snug in our beds and get a good night's sleep before General Washington calls us down for breakfast. General de Rocham-beau will be arriving at dawn with five thousand French troops. Then, it's on to Yorktown, where Lord Cornwallis
awaits us behind his supposedly impregnable fortifications!”

Lafayette laughed at the notion of any fortifications sufficient to withstand the might and wrath of the combined array of French and American forces.

“I imagine Lord Cornwallis still expects to be rescued by sea at the last moment?” Nick asked.

“Of course. But he'll quickly be disabused of that notion when he sees Admiral de Grasse arrive off Yorktown with twenty-eight ships of the line and fifteen thousand in troops and crew!”

Nick grinned from ear to ear. “We did it after all, didn't we, sir? What General Washington asked of you.”

“We well and surely did it, lad. And though no one on this good green earth will ever know about it, or by what outlandish methods we achieved it, you and I shall forever share this sweet victory, this happiest of all military secrets.”

“It has been an honor, sir,” Nick said.

“Yes. But the honor has been all mine,” the Marquis de Lafayette replied, the two of them smiling at each other as bombs burst overhead.

“Helm, put her hard over!” Lafayette said. “Steer due north for a rendezvous with the
Ville de Paris.
My young friend and I have had quite enough of your shipmates' fireworks for one evening.”