Captain James Hook and the Siege of Neverland (17 page)

A wind pushed over the island and nearly ripped me from the rock.
 
I allowed myself a look down and saw nothing but black treetops.
 
I then fixed my eyes on the rock in front of me and climbed higher, toward the deafening crash of water.
 

I reached a narrow landing and hoisted myself up.
 
Spray from the falls misted the rock, adding a slippery and reflective sheen.
 
I kept myself low and crawled to where I saw the gathered warriors.
 

Tiger Lily greeted me.
 
Bear Claw and the warriors stood in silence as water poured down in front of me, violent and beautiful.
 
With the falls now so close, speech was useless.
 
Instead, I held my palm turned upward and asked my question with my eyes.
 

She pointed up and I saw where the falls started, only a few more yards from where we stood.
 
She then pointed down and I watched the flow of water snake behind the well-lit castle and out from underneath it.
 

I asked another silent question and was answered by Bear Claw, who started the steep climb down behind the falls.
 
One by one, the warriors followed and I was left standing on the narrow ledge.
 

With no one to reason with and no other option, I began a one-handed climb down behind the waterfall.
 
I grasped with my left hand, felt for a foothold with one leg, and braced with the other.
 
My right forearm extended out flat against the rock, hugging the mountain close to me.
 
I tested each step before releasing my left hand to search for another hold.
 

The climb was slow.
 
There was no varying degree of angle, nor was there any grip that wasn’t slick with mist or moss.
 
I managed because I had to and because I had seen death too many times to let it simply wash me away.
 

Something clacked next to my head and I braced myself.
 
A second clack told me the direction and I saw Tiger Lily on another landing behind the castle, throwing rocks.
 
I worked my way down to her and found myself across from the rusting iron bars of Bertilak’s dungeon.
 

Bear Claw stood ready, Tiger Lily by his side, and stared at me in a way that said, “I got you here, now it’s your turn.”

I walked to the narrow ledge around the waterfall until I came to the dungeon bars.
 
From there I saw three cells, each of which with two men, save for Gustavo who sat alone.

I called into the dungeon, but the falls drowned me out.
 

An arrow rushed past my ear and stuck into the ground between Smee and Starkey.
 
The two men jumped to their feet, dragging long chains with them.
 
They looked for their attacker and saw me at the bars and the painted warrior by my side.
 
Smee said something and Starkey laughed.
 
I tapped a finger to my ear and shook my head, signaling that I couldn’t hear them over the water.
 
After a moment, Smee alerted the rest of the men.
 

I waited for Smee to look at me again and asked where Noodler was by twisting my left hand backwards and giving the Irishman a questioning expression.
 

Smee shook his head, then pointed to the wall.
 

Blackened keys dangled from a nail a few feet from him.
 
I pulled at each of the bars.
 
One was loose.
 
I slipped my shoulder through, but my chest and back were too wide to follow and the keys were still inches out of reach.
 

I searched for an answer and my eyes fell on Tiger Lily’s narrow frame.
 
I moved aside for her and bowed.
 
She smiled her understanding and slipped underneath me and through the bars into the dungeon.
 
From there she grabbed the keys off of the nail and handed them to Smee.
   

In minutes, the Irishman unshackled each of the crew.
 
They stood and flexed, seemingly unhurt.
 

Gustavo and Cecco pulled at the loose bar with no success.
 

“Did you happen to bring a crowbar with you?” Smee said over the rush of the falls.
 

“There’s one on the ship,” I shouted.
 
We looked at one another and laughed without a hint of humor.
 

Steel scraped against steel as Starkey wrapped his chains around the loose bar.
 
He and Cecco then leveraged their weight against the stone.
 
Gustavo gripped the loose bar again and they worked in time with one another until the stone cracked.
 
Short minutes of work passed and the bar came free.
 

I climbed through the bars into the dungeon.

One by one, the warriors followed.
   

“New friends, Captain?” Smee asked.
 

“Don’t start,” I said.
 
I motioned to the girl next to me.
 
“This is Tiger Lily.
 
She speaks English so talk to them through her if you have to.
 
That is her brother, Bear Claw.
 
He is their lead warrior.
 
Their tribe is as dogged by Peter Pan as we are so make nice.”
 
The crew and the warriors passed silent and tense greetings.
 
“Does anyone know what happened to Noodler?”

The men looked to one another and shook their heads.
 

“Bertilak’s men took our weapons and slapped chains on us before we woke up.
 
Then they and his dogs led us down here,” Starkey said.
 
“Noodler wasn’t with us.”

The gentleman’s eyes dropped to my barren wrist.
 
“Where were you?”

“That is a much longer story, one that we don’t have time for right now.”
 
I made my way back to the bars by the waterfall.
 

“Where are you going?” Cecco asked.
 

“Back up through the falls,” I said.
 
“Even if the door is open, it would be suicide to go through the castle.”

“What about Noodler?”
 

I stopped just short of the bars.
 
“We’ll find him, but not while we’re unarmed, tired, and wet.”
 

As I reached for the bars, the door to the stairway creaked open.
 
The warriors drew their bows taut and aimed them at the darkness.
 
A figure crept out and I jumped between it and the warriors’ arrows.

“Hold,” I ordered.
 

Tiger Lily sprang beside me and called out in her language.
 
The warriors lowered their aim.
 

The figure stepped forward into the torchlight and I smiled.
 
“We were worried about you.”
 

“Funny,” Noodler said, “I went looking for you.”
 
The man with the backwards hands waved us up the staircase and the men bound past him one by one, followed by Tiger Lily and her tribesmen.
 

I stayed behind and stared at the cell door at the end of the hall.
 
A silent call reached out to me and I walked to it.
 
I put a hand on the heavy wood, closed my eyes, and pushed.
 
The door yielded with little force.
 
It creaked and dust kicked up in my face.
 
I didn’t know what to expect to find in the cell, but one thing I didn’t expect was nothing.
 
I stood at the door of the empty cell for a few seconds more until Smee called out, “Are you coming?”
 

“Is it clear?” I asked.
 

“Aye Captain, it’s clear.
 
Bits of litter here and there and the floor is slippery in places, t’be sure.”
 

“Weapons?”

“Finders keepers,” responded Smee.
 
“Take your pick.”
 

I smirked as I climbed the stairs.
 
I stepped into the main hall to find the bodies of several knights.
 
Three had arrows sticking out of them.
 
Others had mortal cuts and slashes, most likely from Noodler.

More groggy and unarmored knights rushed us, yelling about thieves and savages.
 
Tiger Lily and Bear Claw took positions on either side of the group and let arrows fly.
 
Little Panther rushed ahead, pulled the arrows from the dying men, and slit their throats.
 
I walked the center as my men cut the surprised knights down like weeds.
   

We marched through the castle and into the courtyard.
 
Cecco and Noodler opened the keep’s doors wide.
 
Tiger Lily’s warriors fanned out and rained arrows on the unsuspecting men.
 
The archers and those with crossbows were the first to take fire.
 
Those who charged were second.
 
The men who stood in stunned horror were last to die.
 

Bodies fell at my feet from the ramparts as I approached the inner gate.
 
A whimper caught my attention.
 
I motioned to the right and Starkey nodded.
 
He and Smee rushed the noise and seized a man who was hiding behind the stable door with a knife.
 

“Please,” the man said.
 
“These are yours.”
 
He pointed to the open stable behind him and I saw the daggers, cutlasses, and pistols the knights took from the men.
 
I motioned to Cecco.
 
Smee and Gustavo let the man go and the Italian jabbed a sword into his stomach.
 

“Thank you,” I said to the dying man.
 
I then turned to my crewmen.
 
“Arm yourselves.”
 

We rummaged through the pile and took what was ours.
 
Each man checked and loaded his pistols, then we moved onward to the gate.
 
Three pirates turned the wheel that cranked the gate open while Tiger Lily’s tribesmen watched every possible angle of attack.
 
We unlocked the gate open and pushed the doors of the inner wall apart.
 

Smee charged into the opening, but I held him back.
 
“If I were going to kill us, I’d wait until we were trapped between the inner and outer wall.”
 
The Irishman stared into the quiet passageway and exhaled.
 
I motioned to Tiger Lily.
 
The girl took her brother and Little Panther up to the ramparts behind the inner wall.
 
Long seconds passed before I heard the near-silent whisper of arrows flying.
 
Men screamed and I gave Smee a satisfied grin.

I walked over the bridge to the gate of the outer wall.
 
Tiger Lily’s tribesmen climbed down and joined us in raising the gate.
 
We pushed the heavy doors open and ran out into the field toward the trees.
 

Then a crash cut through the quiet forest, accompanied by a patter in the underbrush.
 

Smee’s face went white as the two dogs charged.
   

Starkey and Noodler shot them down before they were ten feet into the field.
 

The third dog crept out and, upon hearing the gunfire, barked at us but came no closer.
 
She snarled, then fell quiet and sat beside a large mossy rock in the shape of a man.
 
So intent was my focus on the dog that I didn’t notice that the figure next to her held a single-bladed axe until Bear Claw and Little Panther sank two arrows into its massive forearm.
 
It plucked the arrows from its arm and crushed them in its hand.
 

The giant then lowered his arm and there was a moment in which I did not recognize him.
 
It was only for a moment.
 

“Bertilak,” I said.
 
“I knew you were called the Green Knight, but this defies my expectations.”

“I thought you were going to say that this defies belief,” the knight’s voice bellowed.

“No,” I said.
 
“Disbelief isn’t enough here.”

“I disagree,” the knight said.
 
“Sometimes disbelief is all that will keep you alive.”

More arrows flew and the Green Knight parried them with his axe.
 
He took two steps and swatted one of the warriors.
 
The man broke in the first hit, but the Green Knight stepped on him, lightly at first, then pressed his weight and crushed him beneath his boot.
 

Tiger Lily screamed.
 

The Green Knight looked at the rest of the war party and sneered.
 
“The savages, Captain?”

“They’re not the problem any more than the Lost Boys.”

The Green Knight laughed and his bushy green beard shook with each breath.
 
He leaned his axe against his leg and straightened his green and gold tunic.
 
His eyes fixed on me with a mixture of frustration and pity.
 
“You are too soft-hearted.”

“It is called having priorities.
 
Did you know that one of the tribe hunts Peter Pan as well?”

“And you would have me work with a savage?” the Green Knight asked.
 
“It is bad enough that I sank so low as to ally myself with the crippled ilk of a disgraced sailor.”

I drew my pistol and fired.
 
The bullet sailed through the Green Knight’s eye and exploded out of the back of his head.
 
The wound bled for a heartbeat, then closed and healed.
 
The Green Knight and his dog snarled.
 
His eyes flashed red and they charged.