VILLAIN

Chapter 27

We made it across the open sea without much trouble – all things considered. There were a select few times when one of our number would temporarily loose their happy thought and began to fall with a yelp, but it never took long for them to drift back up again, and all of our heart rates quickly went back to normal. It took us perhaps half an hour until we sighted the Queen Anne's Revenge below us, which was around the point where happy thoughts started being in very short supply. Every couple seconds one of us would dip down a few feet, then come back up again, but the longer we stared at Blackbeard's dreaded pirate ship, the fewer happy thoughts we could find, until finally Max announced that we had waited long enough.

"Alright," he said in a very captain-like manner. "So remember the plan. Tiger Lily and I are going to cause a distraction above-decks, whereupon the rest of you will sneak onto the ship through the window in Blackbeard's quarters, find Peter, and um...get to kissing. We'll meet on deck if everything goes according to plan. If it doesn't, just...adapt."

And with that comforting advice under our belts, we slowly descended toward the looming pirate ship. Marci, Muriel, Scarlet, Tinkerbell, and I hovered behind a pair of clouds, out of sight, as Max and Tiger Lily made their way onto the ship. Because of our vantage point, we couldn't see very well, so I dug out my mirror.

After I'd whispered the key words and asked her to show me Max and Tiger Lily, I watched with anxious anticipation as they dipped below the ship's side, obscuring themselves from the view of the pirates. As they were two people against an entire crew of infamous pirates, they were counting on the element of surprise. My heart pounded in my chest as they hesitated one final second before bolting out of their hiding place and boarding the ship.

As soon as they landed aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, things got a little crazy. Tiger Lily had already managed to shoot down a pirate before anyone noticed their presence, and the fighting only got more intense from there. They stood back to back, protecting each other's blind spots and fighting off the oncoming surge of scalawags. I wasn't a battle expert, but to me it at least looked like they were holding their own pretty well. They were outnumbered ten to one, but they didn't seem to care. They were doing an excellent job of distracting the pirates, but the only problem was that Blackbeard was still nowhere to be found. And I didn't have to be a genius to be able to assume that meant he was in his quarters – where we needed to get in at. I scanned the scene through the glass of my mirror, but I still couldn't find the infamous captain.

Max and Tiger Lily fought off pirate after pirate, slowly diminishing their forces. I knew they weren't going to last forever – especially since most of the blows they were delivering were not fatal. It went without saying that this was on purpose, because I had no doubt in my mind that if Tiger Lily wanted to kill someone, they'd be dead before they even knew what hit them. Nevertheless, almost all of the pirates they fought off ended up only with bad cuts and bruises, none pleasant but all with the capacity to recover. Max's eyes kept leaving the scene for moments, and I knew he must've been thinking the exact same thing I was. Why wasn't Captain Blackbeard out there? It was so unlike him to miss a fight. If he didn't show up soon, we were going to miss our window – both figuratively and literally.

After several minutes passed and still there was no sign of the captain, I decided that this officially qualified as a situation in which we needed to adapt. I whispered for Mirror to show me the captain's quarters, and the battle scene disappeared, replaced by the image of an empty bedroom – empty except for Peter propped up against the wall, of course. I frowned. That was odd. He'd been in the brig without fail for the past four days. Why had Blackbeard suddenly moved him?

The thought didn't sit well with me, but I brushed it aside. We had more important things to do. I took a good long look around the captain's quarters through my mirror to make sure I hadn't just missed Blackbeard, but it was clear that he wasn't in the room. After confirming that the rest of the pirates were still occupied with Max and Tiger Lily, I swallowed my fear and stowed my mirror back in my bodice.