The sky darkened rapidly as the clouds swarmed toward mainland. The Trinidad approached the pirate ship with her lamps off in the early nightfall, keeping a safe distance. The Phantom didn't seem able to move forward in the storm and rocked in a sea that grew heavy.
A midshipman ran from the larboard side to the bridge and whispered something to Lorenzo's lieutenant, who hurried to his captain. The three friends were standing there despite the rain.
"Wrecks in the water, sir," the lieutenant whispered.
Castillano frowned. Could it be that the dogs hadn't had time to finish repairing the holes in the hull? At the pace he'd seen them work?
"We're boarding them on the boats," Lorenzo said, and signaled his lieutenant to carry on his command. "Where are you going?" he asked, seeing Castillano and Alonso head for the steps down the bridge.
"To board them," Castillano replied. "Or do you expect me to miss the moment of catching those sons of bitches?"
Lorenzo nodded, smiling, and kept whispering orders to his men.
Castillano and Alonso boarded the first boat and led the other two toward the Phantom. The noise of the storm silenced the splashing of the oars, and they approached the pirate ship without hearing any alarm. They were near the starboard side when they heard the loud voices from the weather deck. Castillano stopped his men, paying attention. The voices came from the larboard side.
"No! Jean! Throw a rope! I don't want to lose him too!"
"Swim, man! Come! You can do it!"
"Oh, God, Maxó! I can't see him!"
"Go back below, pearl! It's dangerous here!"
Castillano and Alonso made a sign to their men, who threw hooks with ropes to the starboard gunwale. They sent two thirds of the soldiers to climb up that way and rowed their boat to a half-patched hole near the stern. Castillano tried the boards. Alonso had two men help him, and they pushed and pulled until they broke one of the boards.
"That's enough," Alonso said.
Castillano was the first to step on the boat gunwale, climb to the hole and roll through, pistol in hand. Alonso and the others followed him. They all crawled into the ship, jumping to their feet. Castillano made them spread all over the stern and stepped up, raising his pistol.
Marina held two guns, and when she saw him, she pointed one at him, setting her jaw. She was among the hammocks of the wounded men, two armed pirates with her. Castillano thought those were more hammocks than the night before, but he didn't have time to count them.
"I warned you, Velazquez," he said, walking toward her.
Marina shook her head, her face suggesting he'd betrayed her or something. Alonso signaled the soldiers to spread out and search the Phantom. Those who had climbed to the weather deck came down the waist hatch, pushing Morris, Maxó and De Neill, soaking wet and disarmed. Castillano recognized them and turned to Marina again.
"Surrender, Velazquez. You have no choice." Where were all the other pirates? Why hadn't they found any kind of resistance?
A dog with his head and chest covered in bloody dressings staggered down from his hammock. The soldiers tried to stop him, but Marina and the other two surrounded him, covering him until he reached the first cannon on the larboard side. There was a big bulk there, between the guns, covered with a spare sail.
The Spaniards readied their guns when the wounded pirate grabbed a lantern hanging from a pillar. Alonso's sign stopped them. The pirate yanked the spare sail away from the bulk, showing several barrels of gunpowder. He sat on them with the lantern open.
"If your men as much as touch a trigger, we're all blowing up, Castillano," Marina said.
The soldiers that had spread to search the Phantom came back empty. Alonso turned to his friend, suspicious. Castillano faced Marina again, clenching his teeth. He could smell a thousand rats there, but he couldn't figure the trick out. He knew any of the pirates on that ship was more than able to obey the order to blow the Phantom up if it came from her. Yet he couldn't quite assess how capable she was of giving it, and kill her beloved crew.
But now his men were in a deathly danger and he had to weather it. Oh, he would've strangled the child with his own hands! She always seemed to be two steps ahead!
"Where are the others, Velazquez?" he asked, fighting back his anger.
"Dead!" she replied bitterly. "Because of their wounds and the storm!"
"You expect me to believe the five of you were steering the ship in this squall."
"Of course not! We were only trying to wait it out!"
Everybody's eyes moved from her to Castillano and back, not knowing how that exchange would end. He took a deep breath. He hated it, but it was time to negotiate in order to get his men out of there alive. He'd find out how she'd tricked him later.
"Here's the deal, Velazquez: your life for theirs." He nodded to the wounded.
"No, pearl!"
"Don't even think about it!"
"To hell with the bastards!"
"Let's blow the damn ship up!"
Among the angry cries from the wounded pirates, Alonso approached his friend.
"What're you doing, Hernan? Are you crazy?"
"These dogs wouldn't make it alive to Maracaibo anyway. Let them think they can make it and let's save ourselves."
"You think she would—?"
"Of course she would!" Castillano raised his voice. "So, what say you, Velazquez?"
She looked him straight in the eyes and sighed. "Fine!" She turned to the pirate sprawled on top of the gunpowder barrels as if it was a throne. "Stay there until you're sure you're safe."
The pirate grimaced. "Aye, pearl."
She nodded with an affectionate smile at him. A new round of cries and objections raised from the wounded pirates.
Castillano signaled his soldiers to go back to the weather deck, and Alonso to get the blond giant and the other two.
"No! What're you doing!" Marina cried.
"The deal was for the wounded, Velazquez," Castillano replied harshly. "Now drop your weapons."
Marina seemed to hesitate, and for a moment, Castillano feared she'd order to blow the ship up. But she dropped her pistols and nodded at the two men behind her. The pirates obeyed and the three of them walked away from the hammocks, as the wounded still begged her to not surrender.
Marina ignored them and walked toward Morris, Maxó and De Neill, who held their hands up, heavily guarded, their faces reflecting a furious impotence. A soldier grabbed her arm. She halted sharp and glared at the man in such a way that he removed his hand and stepped back.
Castillano snorted, approaching her. "Enough, Velazquez. I don't have all night," he grunted.
He met her eyes and kept from touching her. She looked ahead, her head held high, and walked among the soldiers to the aft companionway. Castillano followed her, and noticed the way she touched the pillar by the steps. She wasn't grabbing it for support—she was patting it. He also noticed the explosive mix of dread and lust in his men's eyes.
Alonso led the party back to the boats and split the prisoners apart, two on each boat, hands tied behind their backs. Castillano boarded the one carrying Marina and Maxó, and sat down in front of them, grabbing the tiller.
"Ungrateful bastard," he heard Maxó grunt. "And I let the pearl give you a bottle of Oporto!"
The girl's eyes remained locked on her ship as the Spaniards took her away from it. Oblivious to what surrounded her, she tried to build up her courage and strength inside, and keep as calm as she could outside. She didn't know exactly what they'd have in store for her, those men who had drowned an entire continent in innocent blood to sack its wealth. But she could be sure it wouldn't be nice. At all.
Castillano was but a shadow for her, that came slowly between her and her ship. However, she thought she'd spotted a darker shadow behind him, on the bridge. Just like that afternoon two years earlier, when Morris had taken her to the eastern cove and she'd boarded the Phantom for the very first time.
"Watch over them, Father," she murmured.
She set her jaw again. She'd promised not to shed a single tear. Not until she was safe again. In that life or the next.
Castillano felt a chill down his spine when he heard her. And he saw Morris sit up on the next boat, his eyes on the Phantom too. But he'd be damned if he looked back.