Jack screamed in agony.
It was still night, but a glaring white light broke the darkness.
Strange voices encircled him, alien and confusing.
Jack could make out a man's face hovering over him. One side was pitted
and horribly scarred as though melted away. Curiously, the man's eyes
showed great concern.
The man reached out to him.
Jack's whole arm suddenly flared white-hot and beads of sweat broke
from his fevered brow. Gasping and writhing, he tried to pull away from the
excruciating pain, but felt himself slipping away, weightless as if floating
on a bed of soft straw…
He drifted in and out of consciousness… and dark memories took hold…
Jack was on the quarterdeck.
He could hear his father shouting. Men lay dead or dying, their bodies
piled one upon the other. His father, still standing but covered in blood, was
surrounded by five shadows. John Fletcher spun the ship's grappling hook
in circles round his head, fighting with the ferocity of a lion. The shadows,
clad head-to-toe in black, a single slit for the eyes, couldn't get near.
One lunged at him.
His father brought the hook sharply down, catching his assailant in the
side of the head with a sickening crunch… the shadow crumpled to the
deck.
'Come on!' his father roared. 'You may be phantoms, but you still die like
men!'
Two of the shadow warriors attacked. One was armed with a viciouslooking blade attached to a chain, while the other rapidly twirled two small
scythes, but neither could get close. The group circled Jack's father, waiting
for him to tire.
Jack couldn't bring himself to move; his feet were nailed to the deck with
fear. He'd never used a knife in battle before. He raised his father's blade
with a shaking hand, steeling himself to attack.
Then one of the shadows threw a glimmering star…
Everything was dazzlingly bright. Jack squinted into the daylight. His body
was on fire and his head pounded. A dull ache pulsed in his left arm. He lay
there, unable to move, staring at a ceiling of polished cedar. This wasn't the
ship…
His father didn't see it coming, but Jack did.
The shuriken struck his father on the bicep. John Fletcher grunted with
pain, then ripped the metal star out with disgust. A thin stream of blood
seeped from the wound. His father laughed at the pathetic little weapon.
But the shuriken was not meant to kill; it had merely been a distraction.
A shadow dropped silently out of the rigging immediately behind his father,
a spider pouncing on its prey.
Jack yelled a warning, but his voice was choked with panic.
The shadow slipped a garrotte round his father's throat and yanked back
hard. Jack felt utterly helpless. There were too many. He was just a boy.
How could he possibly save his father?
In utter despair, Jack screamed and made a courageous charge with his
father's knife…
Disorientated, he turned his head, the muscles in his neck stiff and sore.
There, kneeling quietly beside him, appeared a tiny woman. She looked
familiar but he couldn't be sure; everything was out of focus.
'Mother?' asked Jack. The woman edged closer. It must be his mother.
She had always nursed him when he was sick, but how could she possibly
be here?
'Yasunde, gaijinsan,' came the gentle reply, as soft as the trickle of a
stream.
The woman was wrapped entirely in white. Her long black hair brushed
his cheek as she pressed a cool cloth against his forehead. Its feathery touch
reminded Jack of his little sister… Jess's hair was just as soft… but Jess
was in England… this woman… no, she was a girl… looked like… an
angel all in white… was this Heaven?… A veil of darkness enveloped him
once again…
The shadow warrior stared directly at Jack.
A single emerald-green eye baited him with vindictive pleasure. The
shadow had Jack by the throat and was slowly squeezing the life out of him.
Jack dropped the knife and it went clattering to the deck.
'Rutter?' hissed the green-eyed shadow, turning to Jack's father.
John Fletcher, now restrained by one of the other shadows, stopped
struggling against his garrotte, the unexpected demand momentarily
bewildering him.
'Rutter?' repeated the green-eyed shadow, unsheathing the sword
strapped to his back and aiming its sharpened tip at Jack's heart.
'Leave him… he's just a boy!' spluttered his father, rising to attack.
John Fletcher's eyes flared with anger. He writhed against the garrotte,
reaching out to his son, but it was futile. The shadow yanked back hard.
John gagged and gradually all the fight in him ebbed away. Defeated, he
went as limp as a rag doll.
'Cabin… in my desk…' he wheezed, pulling out a small key from his
pocket and throwing it upon the deck.
The green-eyed shadow didn't appear to understand.
'My cabin. In my desk,' repeated John Fletcher, pointing first to the key
and then in the direction of his cabin.
The shadow warrior nodded to one of his men, who picked up the key and
disappeared below.
'Now let my son go,' pleaded Jack's father.
The green-eyed shadow gave a throaty laugh, drawing back on his sword
to deliver the killing strike…
Screaming as his eyes snapped open, Jack's heart pounded.
He looked frantically around the room. A single candle flickered in the
corner. A door slid open and the girl came and knelt beside him.
'Aku rei. Yasunde, gaijinsan,' said the girl with that same gentle voice he
had heard previously.
She once again placed the cool cloth to his forehead and settled him back
down.
'What? I… I… I don't understand,' stuttered Jack. 'Who are you?
Where's my father…?'
The laughter echoed on.
Jack's father exploded with rage as he realized the shadow was intent
upon killing Jack.
John Fletcher flung back his head, striking his captor in the face and
breaking his nose. The garrotte loosened and fell away. John threw himself
at his knife lying on the deck and, in one last desperate attempt to save his
son, seized the blade and slammed it into the green-eyed shadow's leg.
The shadow grunted with pain before he could deliver the killing blow
and Jack, released from his choking grip, collapsed in a barely conscious
pile. Whipping his sword round, the shadow flew at his attacker.
With a battle cry of 'KIAI', the green-eyed shadow drove his weapon
down into John's chest…