Read Online Captain James Hook and the Siege of Neverland by Jeremiah Kleckner, Jeremy Marshall - Free Book Online Page B

than I offered in return.   I tucked the books into a bag, then turned to Billy Jukes, who had followed me into the cabin as well.   “You are staying aboard,” I told him.
    “Yes,” the broad man said.   “And so are you.”
    “This is something I have to do.”
    “And keeping you alive is something I have to do.”  
    I reached into my memory and called up a face from long ago.   “William, she died.   You don’t have to keep your promises to her anymore.”  
    Billy Jukes paused.   I searched for a look of understanding on my oldest friend’s face, but found none.  
    “It is stupid to go ashore for one man,” Jukes finally said.  
    “There is more to it than that,” I said.   “I have to go and I need you here.”
    “Teynte gave you his word.”
    “You and I have been at this too long to trust a man at his word,” I said.   I slung the bag of books over my shoulder.  
    “You’ll have a better chance of coming back if I go with you.”  
    “And I will have a better chance of having a ship to come back to if you are here.”   I stepped around Jukes and reached for the door, but stopped and pointed to the clock.   “If I’m not back in two day’s time, head for the falls.   Take every man with you.   Burn the ship down.”
    He scowled.   “Aye, Captain.”  
    I walked out of the cabin and slid down the line to the boat.   I gave the order and we sailed through the bay in silence, save for Gustavo, who groaned with each subtle rocking.  
    We came to the overhang and tied the ship to the same root as we did before.   The men fashioned a cot out of two young branches and a sheet.   Cecco lifted Gustavo onto the cot, then he and Noodler grabbed an end and carried the injured man into the Crescent Wood behind Smee, Starkey, and me.  
    Since we knew the way, the walk to the castle was short.   We weaved between trees of different types and suffered two bitter chills and a heat wave before coming up to the main gate of the castle’s outer wall.
    “What now, Captain?” Smee asked.   “Is there a bell?”
    I resisted the urge to call out.   My patience was rewarded moments later as Bertilak appeared over the gatehouse battlements.  
    “Greetings, Lord Bertilak,” I said.
    “It pleases me to see you again, Captain Hook, though I would not have guessed it would be so soon.   The food and wine should have lasted you and your men for days.”
    “However you count them in this world,” I said.  
    “Too true,” Bertilak said.   “There must be more of you than you let on.”
    “It isn’t that, Sir Knight.”   I motioned to the injured man in the cot carried behind me.   “His name is Gustavo and he is a loyal member of my crew.   We need the lady of the castle to heal him.”   Suspicion crept over the knight’s expression.   Suspicion and something else.   Something I recognized.   Opportunity.
    “The thunder you made earlier,” Bertilak said. “How do you do it?”  
    “It’s called gunpowder.”  
    “We will have some,” Bertilak said.   I looked to Smee and the boatswain shook his head.  
    “We have none,” I said.  
    “Then what have you to trade?”  
    “Nothing.   We came for help.”  
    “Help you got earlier,” Bertilak said.   “Now you want favors.”
    Noodler and Cecco grumbled to one another.   Smee growled and cursed in whispers.  
    “My crewman was shot in a crossfire defending my ship against Peter Pan.”   As I said the boy’s name, Bertilak’s face softened like water eroding a stone.   “Then Pan dumped our gunpowder.   It all happened while I was away.”
    “You spend too much time away from your ship, Captain.”
    “I have been told.”
    “When a man has a fortress, he should mind it.”
    “Trust me, Lord Knight, I have heard,” I said.   “I need every loyal hand I have if we are to end him.”
    Bertilak smiled.
    I pointed to the injured man at my side.   “But first, this man needs help or he’ll