Epilogue

Mary stood on the beach outside Nassau, facing the sea. The warm waves lapped at her feet like a playful dog. The wind ruffled her hair.

She opened her hand to reveal the hourglass her father had given her. Out of habit, she threw it as far as she could into the shimmering water and smiled as she felt it return to her pocket. She took it out again and held it up to the light.

There were only a few grains left of the magical sand running from the land side of the hourglass to the sea side. As she watched, those last grains trickled away, leaving the land side empty. She expected something dramatic to happen then, like a trumpet sounding or a light flashing, but nothing did.

She looked at the water again. Waiting.

Not far away, she could faintly make out the dark shape of the William resting along the sandy bottom of the harbor. It wasn't lying far from where she'd initially come upon it that first day, when Effie Ham had so proudly offered it (and herself) up for Mary's service. It felt grossly unfair that Vane had scuttled it—the ship had more sentimental value to Mary now than any other except perhaps the Ranger , which she'd also lost. She'd have to remember later to send Jack to retrieve the part of Blackbeard's treasure that the William had been carrying when she'd sunk, and then she must find a way to provide Effie with a new vessel, so that the young lady could live out her dreams of piracy for many years to come.

She smiled. Women like Effie Ham could have dreams now. Mary was a realist, and she understood that the world the humans Above lived in was tough and full of injustice. Especially for women. But at least, with Mary serving as the Pirate Queen, she could offer women an alternative to marriage, prostitution, or servitude (which in Mary's mind all felt a bit like the same fate). Now a girl could be a pirate, if she so desired, and it was hard work, and it was often dangerous, but in so many ways there was real freedom to be had in the profession. There was adventure. There was choice. Which made all that Mary had suffered and sacrificed feel worth it.

The water at her feet suddenly surged to her knees, and Mary turned to see her father sitting on a rock not far away.

"Hello, Father," she called.

"Hello, Mary," he said.

Her breath hitched as she reached for something to say. She'd been thinking hard about how she was going to prove to him that she'd accomplished her task—that she had won the contest and become the Pirate Queen—without exposing him to any actual pirates, and without exposing the pirates to the terrifying realization that they lived in a world in which mermaids were really a thing.

She pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket and smoothed it.

"I know you can't read this," she said, "but it's the Nassau News , an article that discusses how I won the Pirate King contest, and I—"

"I know you won," he said then, but he still reached out and took the paper from her gently.

"You know?"

"I've been watching."

"The entire time?"

"Well, there was a while there that you were on land, and I couldn't see you," he admitted. "But I knew you'd be fine. You're my daughter, after all. You've the strength of the ocean in you."

Right. Right. Mary made a mental note never to tell him how close she'd come to getting her neck stretched on the gallows.

"I am proud of you," he said. "I've made a mess of showing it. I know that. But I am fiercely proud."

"Aw, thanks, Dad."

She leaned in to hug him, getting her shirt completely soaked, but she didn't care.

He cleared his throat. "But I still wish for you to come home."

She pulled away, her heart sinking. "No, Father, I—" How could she explain to him how much the world Above meant to her? How could she make him understand her love for Tobias and for Nassau and for the pirate's life?

"Not permanently," her father clarified. He reached into a Mer's purse at his waist and brought out a slender vial. "This is from your aunt Witch. If you drink it, your legs will become a tail again, for one day only, and you can use it to come and visit."

Mary accepted the potion mutely. That would have been a good potion for her to have a year ago, when Aunt Witch's best solution for her had been a knife. "I will. I'll come and see you."

"Your sister said you swim very badly with those legs of yours," her father chuckled.

Ugh. Karen. But that reminded Mary.

"I have something for you, too." She took off her hat, then removed the pearl crown and held it out to him. "For Big Deal."

"Oh, thank the Great Waters," her dad sighed. "I was getting so weary of listening to her go on about this." He gazed at the crown for a long moment, then looked up at Mary again, his eyes shining. "She would have been proud of you, too, you know. Your mother, I mean."

Which may or may not have caused Mary to ugly cry. But then she talked to her father for a while, feeling the rift that had been between them finally beginning to heal, and hugged him again, tightly, and promised to visit him soon. He smiled a bit sadly and disappeared beneath the waves, and Mary made her way back to the docks. To the Jester , which was still parked in the harbor. Mary walked up the gangplank, past Swift, Nine Toes, Diesel, Quint, and DuPaul. Gregory, who was scribbling his new play furiously into a notebook. Caesar, who'd decided to stay with Tobias. After she'd finished greeting them all, she proceeded to the helm, where Tobias (and Jack and Anne) waited.

"So how'd it go?" Tobias asked.

"It went well," she said. "I'll have to bring you to meet him sometime. He gave me a potion that—well, I'll explain later." She turned to Jack, who was standing with Anne near the rail. "Oh, and your mom wanted you to have this."

She tossed his shell phone to him.

Jack squealed. "My phone! Oh, thank you, thank you!"

"What is that?" Anne wanted to know.

Jack clutched the clamshell to his chest. "Only my most precious possession."

She gave a mock scowl. "Is that so? I thought your most precious possession was me."

Jack shook his head. "I would never dream of trying to possess you, darling."

This was a sticky subject for Anne, Mary knew. Only yesterday had the girl sought out James Bonny, paid him his odious one thousand pieces of eight, and dragged him to the law house to formally dissolve any legal connection she'd ever had with the man.

Then Jack had—right there in the street—dropped to one knee and proposed to her. (Again.)

But Anne had merely laughed and said, "What do I want to be a wife for?"

Mary thought she understood her reasoning. Jack, too—save for a momentary flash of confusion—had understood. He was good, he'd said, so long as they were free to be together.

Now Anne relented, a smile replacing her scowl. "All right, then. But let's get this straight: you are mine, Jack Rackham."

He kissed her. "And happily so."

"Get a room, you two," Tobias said with a groan, but he looked at Mary then like he was thinking along the same lines himself.

"What should we do now?" Anne asked, impatient as always. "Back to pirating, I hope?"

"Of course," Mary said. "But there's something we must do first."

"What's that?" Jack asked.

Mary gazed out toward the horizon. "We need to get the Ranger back."

"That will be tricky," Tobias pointed out. "Some might even say foolhardy."

"And dangerous." Anne grinned.

"And fun," Jack added.

"So we're agreed," Mary said. "We're going after the Ranger. Jack, can you get in touch with that whale again?"

He considered. "Yes, I think so."

"Anne, what can you do with half a dozen sticks of dynamite?"

Anne grinned. "What can't I do is the question."

"What about me?" Tobias asked. "What should I do?"

She drew up onto her tiptoes to kiss him—a peck—on the mouth. "Chart us a course, mate. You're going to get us to Port Royal undetected—they won't know we're there until we're right under their noses." Mary felt the beginnings of a plan forming in the back of her brain. "This should be easy."

"Why did you have to say that?" Jack groaned.

They climbed up to the quarterdeck. Mary glanced around at the crew, both men and women, who were waiting for her order. "Are you ready for an adventure, friends?" she called out.

"Aye!" they shouted.

"Then hoist the black!"

In a moment the Jolly Roger was waving merrily above them as they sailed south, toward Port Royal and the mischief they would surely make there. Mary took off her hat and let the wind play through her hair. The ocean rolled out before her like a deep blue carpet, brimming with opportunity and fun. Beside her, Tobias cast his crooked smile at her. She grinned back at him. This was her life. She could go where she wanted. Take what she pleased.

It was a fine life, indeed.