Twenty

Tobias

She had kissed him. Tobias still couldn't fully believe it. He raised his hand to his lips, as if he could find some evidence lingering there, but all he tasted was salt. Still, he didn't think he'd hallucinated the moment between them: Mary grabbing his jacket, jerking his body to hers, her lips finding his. It had been the most wonderful surprise of his life.

Of course then she'd pushed him overboard.

By some miracle, Tobias hadn't died upon hitting the water. Nor had he died when he couldn't immediately surface. Instead, he'd found he could breathe underwater—just like before, when Jack had kissed him.

Because Mary had kissed him . She had the magic, too.

Not that it mattered, because the moment he resurfaced, Tobias immediately started climbing back onto the ship. So he'd been clinging to the hull just a few feet below them when Jonathan Barnet had been interrogating Mary about Blackbeard's treasure. Tobias had briefly considered jumping up onto the deck and declaring that he knew where to find the treasure, making some sort of devil's bargain to deliver the treasure to Barnet, in exchange for letting Mary and the crew go free. But Tobias was a realist, and he knew he had no leverage here. There was nothing to stop Barnet from then taking the treasure and hauling them all back to Port Royal for due process. Tobias knew he couldn't save them, not single-handedly. Not now. He needed help.

So, with a heavy heart, he let himself drop back into the water. Mary, Anne, and Jack were transferred to one of the British ships—the Kingston , ironically—in chains. Barnet's ships, with the Ranger and the Conspicuous in tow, set off in the direction of Port Royal. So he turned and swam in the opposite direction, toward where they'd sent the Jester and the William .

He'd wondered, during this long swim, if Mary had known she could still give him the ability to breathe underwater. Either she had known, and she'd been letting Jack kiss him this whole time, or she hadn't known, and she'd sent him overboard with nothing but hope to go on. But clearly she'd been trying to save his life.

It gave him something to think about as he swam. The kiss's magical properties didn't last long, but then (in the second most wonderful surprise of Tobias's life), a pod of dolphins found him and made him understand that they were there to help him on his way. Like Mary had sent him the dolphins, too. Like even now she was looking out for him.

In any case, Mary was probably winning their who-saved-who competition right now. But not for long!

At last he made it, with the dolphins towing him in turns to the cove where the Jester and William were anchored. He called out to them, and in moments someone hauled him up onto the Jester . And then, from flat on his back on the main deck, trying to catch his breath, he'd explained the situation to Caesar.

"We have to get to Port Royal," he panted. "We have to save them."

"If we aren't already too late," Caesar said grimly. "They're quick to hang pirates, these days."

Tobias refused to believe it was too late. He thought for a second. "Get me the William . Fly the Jester 's flag—the original one, not the Jolly Roger. And I need men—anyone brave enough to risk Port Royal to rescue our captain."

Half a dozen men sprang into action, and minutes later the William was sailing as fast as she could manage toward Port Royal. And the William was fast—she was a tiny sloop, even speedier and more agile than the Ranger .

But was she fast enough?

Tobias gritted his teeth the whole way to Port Royal, and as they came up on the harbor about midday, he scanned the gibbets hanging over the water, searching for familiar faces.

They weren't there. Not yet.

Tobias's relief was short-lived; he couldn't afford to relax at all. Because while Mary wasn't hanging inside a gibbet, she might be hanging from a noose.

He wouldn't let that happen. Not ever, but especially not now. Not when they'd just... Not when she might begin to understand how much he loved her, every part of her.

As the William berthed and Gregory—the most respectable-looking white fellow among them—acted as the captain, Tobias took his father's treasure map out of the oilskin envelope he'd stowed in his jacket pocket and tore the long piece of parchment in half. He handed one half to Caesar and returned the other half to the envelope, which he placed back into his jacket pocket. Then he shoved a cap over his head, nodded to the crew, and hurried down the gangplank—into the town of Port Royal.

"Good luck, lad," Caesar called after him. "Be careful."

A vague, distant part of Tobias knew he should be afraid here. He'd steered clear of Port Royal all his life, a place where people like him were considered property and not human beings. But he had to be here.

I'm coming for you, Mary , he thought. Just be alive when I get there. Please .

The city was loud and chaotic, with people pushing from every side. No one gave Tobias a chance to get his bearings, but he could see one promising location from here: a fort on a hill.

He hurried in that direction.

And as he did, he kept his eye on the people around him, noting who was brown and who was white and adjusting his course accordingly. He couldn't afford to be stopped. He scanned the streets and squares, looking—always looking—for signs that Mary, Jack, Anne, or any of the others had been here. But soon, he realized the town was abuzz with news.

The first significant item was about the Pirate King contest itself. It seemed the townspeople had all heard about it and were taking bets on which pirate captain would win the crown. Among the snippets of updates, Tobias learned that Captain Penzance had quite a lot of treasure (although no one could agree how much), Captain Ahab was out (Tobias knew that already), and Captain Crunch was dead. Oh, and Captain Vane—the clear frontrunner, according to everyone in town—had three ships full of treasure. Where he'd procured this treasure, no one knew.

The second bit of news was more urgent to Tobias, who could hardly think of the Pirate King contest at a time like this. The talk was of lady pirates and a hanging scheduled for this evening. The people were planning what they would wear and taking bets on whether or not they thought the pirates might scream during the short drop.

Tobias pushed himself faster toward Fort Charles. And now that he knew Mary was alive—for the next few hours—a new plan started to form in his head. Half a plan, anyway. More like a quarter of a plan.

But it was better than nothing.

"I need to speak to Jonathan Barnet," he told the soldier at the door. A white man.

The soldier looked him up and down. "You?"

Tobias forced his voice to be steady. Confident. "I was sent to bring him a message."

"Not possible. He's busy today. He's got a big execution coming up this evening."

"I need to speak with him before then," Tobias said. "It's about Blackbeard, you see. A most urgent message."

"A message from whom?" the guard demanded.

Oh crap, from whom?

"Leonardo," he blurted out.

"Leonardo who?"

"Leonardo Di—"

"Oh, yes. I've heard of that guy," said the guard. "Come with me."

As Tobias followed the soldier inside, he had the strangest sensation of being here and not here. Like it was someone else walking through the narrow halls of the fort. He passed closed doors and crowded rooms and a long stairway down, and finally, the soldier deposited him in an empty office at the end of a hall.

"Wait here," the soldier said. "He'll be along soon."

Awkwardly, Tobias stood by the desk and waited for the soldier's footsteps to recede.

He stared at the chair but wouldn't allow himself to sit. He went over the details of his haphazard plan in his mind. He would tell Barnet about the treasure. He would produce his half of the map. He would take Barnet outside onto the ramparts, give him a spyglass, and point out the William anchored there. On the ship, Caesar, who would be waiting for his signal, would hold up the second half of the map. And then Tobias would offer Jonathan Barnet a trade.

Was it a foolproof plan? No. Was it all he had? Yes.

Tobias reckoned that there was about a 50 percent chance that with this plan, he'd get captured, too. Maybe tortured. Possibly killed.

But a 50 percent chance was good enough for him.

Unfortunately the key part of this plan relied on Tobias being able to locate Jonathan Barnet.

Who wasn't here.

And the sun was dropping lower in the sky.

He started rifling through the papers on Barnet's desk, looking for a schedule or some clue of where the man might be. Then the desk drawer caught his eye. It was slightly open. Inside, something sparkled.

Tobias slid the drawer the rest of the way open to find the heart-shaped diamond. It was just... sitting there. In Barnet's desk. Mary's necklace.

Faint gray gathered at the corners of Tobias's vision as all the urgent, terrified energy that had gotten him here began to abandon him now, leaving him with bone-deep exhaustion and numb dread. He was running out of time. He couldn't wait any longer.

Tobias started for the door. But now he heard someone coming down the hall.

Barnet?

No. When Tobias peered out, a pair of soldiers were coming up the stairs, a prisoner, still shackled, between them.

Anne.

Tobias's heart jumped at the sight of her.

"Your father paid quite handsomely for your release," said one of the solders. "We're to deliver you straight to his ship."

"Already here on business, he was," agreed the other soldier. "So that's lucky for you."

Anne grunted but didn't say anything.

And before he could think better of it, Tobias let out a short whistle to the tune of "A Pirate's Life for Me."

Anne's shoulders stiffened. She glanced back. And her eyes narrowed slightly.

It wasn't like Anne Bonny to go down without a fight.

Tobias smiled. Because now his brain was finally catching up to his body and a new plan was forming in the back of his head. A better plan.

First things first, though: he had to get out of here before Barnet arrived. And then he needed to join forces with Anne.

Tobias followed Anne and the soldiers back to the docks, where a man was waiting for her in front of a large merchant ship. He was an older man with bright red hair—clearly her father.

The soldiers removed Anne's shackles, pushed her at her father so hard she nearly fell, and turned back to the fort.

"Ah, come here, my darling!" her father said loudly, and Anne stiffened at the term. He opened his arms wide, but Anne didn't step into his embrace. "Aw, don't be that way. Give your father a kiss now, lass, because I've rescued you from certain death. And for once I'd see you grateful for it. I'll take you home now, where you belong."

Anne didn't reply.

Tobias whistled, drawing her eye to the shadowy overhang where he was hiding. Her gaze lighted on him. He gave a little wave.

Anne turned back and took a long look up at the ship, at the man waiting for her, the safety he offered.

"Go to hell, Da," she said, then stomped on her father's foot and turned and ran in the opposite direction.

Her father ran after her, of course. Even the soldiers and more than a dozen men from her father's ship chased her, but Anne was too fast. Tobias watched as she darted and ducked around people and buildings alike, then as the soldiers and her father's men gave up chase, she looped back to Tobias's hiding place.

"So how are we going to do it?" she asked him breathlessly.

"Do it?"

"Rescue our sweethearts. We have to move fast. It's nearly sundown."

Tobias nodded. For the first time since midnight, he felt like there was a real chance this was all going to work out. "I have a plan."