Twenty-Four

Jack

"Are you crying , cousin?" Mary smirked at him.

"No!" Jack protested. "Definitely not crying. Of course not." He coughed and pressed the end of his sleeve to his face. "It's so dusty in here, is all, and I got something in my eye." But that was a lie, dear reader. Jack had totally been ugly weeping while hearing Tobias read that very touching letter. It had just been so beautiful. What Jack would give for such a letter, for the knowledge of his own family legacy, his place in the world so firmly set. And when Tobias had gotten to the part about Blackbeard being proud of him, Jack's chest had gone tight, and in that moment, he'd come to accept that he would probably never know who his father was. The world was just too big, with too many Teds in it, to find a single one.

But perhaps that, too, was for the best. Not all fathers are good fathers, Jack knew. Some even came with booby traps. Jack had a strong, funny, amazing, magical mother, who loved him. And now he had Bonn, magical in her own way, who also loved him. He had Mary and Tobias, his best mates. He had air in his lungs. (He was never going to take that for granted again.) He had food in his belly. Clothes on his back. It was enough, he thought. It had to be enough. But still he'd gone ahead and shed a few tears right then for Ted.

A small, rough hand touched his arm. Bonn peered up into his face. "You all right?" she asked. "You're not injured, are ye?"

He patted her hand reassuringly. "Only my soul."

"All right then, good," she said. "So. What about—you know— the treasure ? Shouldn't we get down there and find it? Isn't time a-ticking? Isn't there a contest we still have to win?" She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet impatiently.

"Indeed." He offered Bonn his arm. "Shall we go, darling?"

She snorted at his chivalry but took his arm anyway, and together, very carefully, following closely behind Mary and Tobias, they made their way down the right side of the rickety stairs (there were no more traps, thank goodness) and into a huge, cavernous chamber. Seriously, it was like three times the size of the big cave they'd explored at the Kettle.

Then they all stopped and stared.

"Gawl," Mary whispered from one side of him. "Am I saying that right?"

"Yep. Gawl about covers it," said Bonn.

Mary lifted the lantern higher, taking in the view.

The scale of the treasure could not be overstated.

Imagine, if you will, an area the length and width of about half a football field. Now imagine that whole space filled with gold, silver, and precious gemstones. Everywhere they turned, there were piles and piles of coins. We're talking a Scrooge McDuck, Smaug level of money here. Coins were spilling out of trunks and chests, bulging out of overflowing bags, and amassed in heaps like haystacks. It was an absolute fortune of gold and silver coins, the faces stamped with the kings and queens of every country in the world, even countries no longer in existence. (But mostly, they were Spanish pieces of eight.)

So many more than a thousand pieces of eight.

Jack's heart soared. He laughed, grabbed Bonn by the waist and spun her, and for a few happy moments they danced around in the piles of gold, gleeful as children in a candy store—if candy stores had been invented yet.

"Now that's a treasure," Bonn crowed, and pulled Jack's face down to hers to kiss him enthusiastically on the mouth.

Mary and Tobias were also embracing, clutching each other, jumping up and down a bit, gaping in disbelief at the mountains of riches piled all around them.

"I had no idea that he had this much," said Tobias, scratching at the back of his neck.

"It's enough to win ten contests," Mary mused, grinning.

"We're going to need a bigger boat," said Jack, "to get this all back to Nassau." They were going to need more boats in general. The two ships they had would never manage to carry this much. Tobias had been correct in that.

Mary's smile faded. "But are you sure, Toby?" She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. "This isn't mine to take, not really." She turned to Tobias. "It's yours. You're the true son of Blackbeard. He meant this for you. I don't want to take this unless you're certain."

Tobias gazed warmly back at her. "I'm certain. I will gladly give it to you, Mary. For your cause. For equality. For... for you."

Aw , thought Jack. That was nice. He also thought they should kiss already, because that's clearly where all of this was headed, but they only looked at each other with moony eyes. Aw.

"Thank you," Mary murmured.

"Don't mention it," Tobias said.

"Hey, Toby, look over here," Bonn called. She'd raced to the far end of the cavern along a narrow trail through the gold and come upon a hodgepodge collection of furniture, fine tables and chairs (all a bit worse for wear on account of the damp sea air), sideboards and wine cabinets, even a throne. The gold chair was narrow, tall-backed, and cushioned in purple velvet.

"A seat fit for a Pirate King," Jack said in awe as the rest of the group moved to join Bonn.

"Not that, silly dear." Bonn motioned to the piles of tomes, scrolls, and parchment spread out on the largest of the dining tables. "Books! You love the books, right, Mary? And maps for Tobias! Perhaps some of these will lead us to even more treasure. Can you imagine that? Even more treasure?" She gave a very un-Bonn-like girlish giggle. "And there are all sorts of odds and ends for you, Jack darling. And the gemstones for me. It's like this treasure was made specifically for the lot of us."

"Gemstones?" Jack quirked an eyebrow at her.

She held out her hand and opened her palm to reveal a fistful of bright green emeralds, the exact color of her eyes. "I'm from the Emerald Isle," she explained. "So maybe these could be mine?"

"Jack," Mary said in a strange, almost strangled voice.

"I think it's not unreasonable for Bonn to call dibs on a few emeralds," Jack argued. He was thinking about the ring he'd tried to give her. Which was still back at the boardinghouse, hopefully.

"No, Jack. I don't care about emeralds," Mary said. "Come here. You have to see this."

Jack skirted around the big table to where Mary was standing, staring at something that was leaning against the far wall of the cave.

It was an enormous painting.

Of a mermaid.

Jack took the lantern from Mary to get a better look at the painting. The mermaid was a saucy young lass, sitting jauntily on a rock next to a seagull with her silvery tail stretched out before her, blue hair barely covering her buxom bosoms, a cutlass in her hand, and a knowing smile on her lips.

"Is that your... mom?" Mary asked in Merish.

Jack's mouth fell open . "It is." It was a bit disconcerting to see a portrait of his mother looking so, well, sexy, but it was undeniably his mother.

"I thought so," Mary said. "Not that many of us have blue hair."

"But how?" Jack rasped.

"I told you. My father was obsessed with mermaids." Tobias came up to stand beside them. He of course hadn't heard their conversation in Merish, so he assumed they were just admiring the painting.

"What... what was your father's name?" Jack asked slowly.

Tobias tilted his head. "My father was Blackbeard. You knew that."

"But his name wasn't actually Blackbeard," Jack said. "That's not what his mother and father called him, surely?"

"It was Edward," Tobias said softly. "His name was Edward Teach."

"Edward," Jack repeated. "Not—"

"Ted," Tobias added, his eyes widening. "Sometimes that's also a shortened name for Edward. Ted Teach. TED."

So there it was. Jack felt a bit light-headed, like the top of his head had been sheared off and his brains were floating away. His father was Ted. Ted, standing for Edward. Aka Edward Teach. Aka Captain Blackbeard. Captain Blackbeard was Jack's father.

Finally, FINALLY, he knew who his father was.

But also this: his father was dead.

"Are you all right?" Mary asked. "You look like a strong wind could blow you over."

Jack swallowed hard and nodded. "I'm fine. It's just..." Now he would never get to meet his father. "It's good to know."

"Wait, what?" Bonn was still catching up. Her eyes widened. "You're saying that Captain Blackbeard is this Ted bloke you've been looking for all this time?"

"And my pa," Jack murmured. He turned to Tobias. "Which makes us brothers." He shook his head, amused. Wasn't that just the way life Above always went? You could lose a father and gain a brother all in the space of a few minutes.

"So we are." Tobias's lips turned up into his quiet smile. "Although I hate to tell you this, but there are fifty-two more of us."

Jack's eyebrows lifted. "Fifty-two brothers? I shall have to meet them all, then."

He and Tobias awkwardly patted each other on the shoulder, and just like that, their relationship was fixed. They were brothers.

"Wow, that's great, it really is," Bonn said. "But back to the issue of the treasure."

Jack had nearly forgotten about the treasure. Which was something, considering where he was standing.

"She's right," Mary agreed. "We must see to the treasure. We've no time to waste."

They wasted no time getting word back to their ships about the treasure. After that, the crew was in a very good mood. They didn't know exactly how much of this treasure they'd receive, but they knew they were getting some of it, and even a little bit of it meant that they'd wind up rich pirates.

"This is wonderful," Jack said. "It turned out to be quite easy, in the end."

But then it became apparent that they were only going to be able to carry a fraction of Blackbeard's treasure back to Nassau. There just wasn't room.

"Vane has three ships full of treasure. That's what I heard in Port Royal," Tobias reported worriedly. "Three. And Penzance has amassed a large treasure himself."

"We need more ships." Mary sighed. "I miss the Ranger ."

"We've got three days, I reckon," Tobias said. "That is not a lot of time."

Mary turned the hourglass over in her hand. "Three days."

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Bonn said. "Let's sail!"

So they set out posthaste looking for another ship (or two, even, seeing as Vane was rumored to have three), but they did not find a ship that day, or by noon of the next.

It was awful. Jack wondered if part of this could be his fault, somehow, for remarking about how things had been easy. There was a power in words, he knew, like the spells his mother wove together. But there wasn't much to be done about that now. They had to find a ship. They just had to.

And then, like magic, a ship appeared. It approached them, flying a white flag of surrender.

"But what if it's a trap?" Jack said worriedly.

Mary snapped the spyglass shut. "I don't think it's Barnet."

The ship turned out to be a sweet slender clipper with the words La Marie freshly painted along the side, captained by a Frenchman named Captain Cale?ons . (In French, Captain Underpants, although this is technically the French word for boxers, not briefs.) He approached their group of ships and offered, as Effie Ham had done, to become part of their fleet.

"But why would you do that?" Mary asked when he came aboard to speak with her.

Captain Underpants dropped into a deep bow before her, and then grabbed her hand and kissed it ardently. "Because I saw you at the presentation all those weeks ago, and I knew it was fate. You are beautiful. I must have you. I am desperately in love with you, in fact. You are the captain of my heart, ma chérie. Please say that you'll be mine."

"I'll rip his heart out for ye," Bonn offered from above, where she'd been working in the rigging. She winked at Jack, which made him feel that he was in on a joke with her.

Captain Underpants waggled his brows at Mary suggestively. "I am a very good lover, you know."

Mary (to no one's surprise) did not accept the captain's generous offer to become his paramour or Bonn's generous offer to rip his heart out. Mary did, however, take Captain Underpants's ship. (She left the amorous Frenchman on the beach somewhere, still going on about how beautiful she was when she was annoyed.)

So now they had three ships. But the William was a small one, so it wasn't a given that they would be able to produce more treasure than Captain Vane.

"I'll gut that scurvy Vane," Bonn said, pacing the poop deck. "If it weren't for him losing us the Ranger , we'd be the clear winners. I'd like to slit him across the belly and let his guts all tumble out, and then I'd do a little jig upon them."

"That's nice, darling," Jack said.

"Or"—Bonn pressed her finger to her chin thoughtfully—"I'd tie him to a post in the bay and watch him struggle as the tide comes in. That sneaky snook."

"SAILS!" came the cry from the crow's nest.

"Oh, thank God," said Jack.

He and Bonn raced up to the quarterdeck, where Mary and Tobias were already standing peering through spyglasses.

"Is it really a ship? What kind of ship?" Jack gasped.

"Does it matter?" Bonn cried. "Let's get it!"

"It will matter if it's a warship," Tobias murmured, squinting through his spyglass.

Jack shifted nervously. He really hoped it wasn't Jonathan Barnet.

(Reader, it definitely wasn't Jonathan Barnet. We happen to know that our good old JB was fired after the incident at Port Royal. So he wouldn't be coming after them anytime soon.)

"No, it's—" Mary lowered her spyglass, her face paling slightly. "It's the Fancy ," she said almost to herself.

Jack, Bonn, and Tobias exchanged a confused glance.

"Uh, what's the Fancy ?" Jack asked.