Lions of the Sea

60

The tidings reached also the filthy, reeking dungeon in the basement of the Governor's palace.

The only relief in that nauseating place was the small barred window opening at the street level. As soon as they were shoved in there, Morris helped Marina to sit down and she rested against his side to drowse, shaking out of pain and exhaustion. The pirates ripped their dirty shirts, using the strips to try to tend to her feet, when the first small bulk wrapped in a cloth fell from the window. It was a loaf of bread.

Maxó looked up in surprise, but he only got to see the bottoms of a skirt hurrying away. The pirate went to the corner. "Here, little pearl," he said.

The girl glanced at the loaf and shook her head, trying to smile. "You eat, my friend. I wasn't hungry over the last days," she replied. "The food you saw Castillano bring, it was all for me."

"That's a tale I really wanna hear," said De Neill, biting off a piece of bread before passing the loaf on to the others.

"Oi! A wineskin!" Oliver whispered.

The packs kept dropping with food, water and little presents, like rosaries and candy. Until the palace garrison noticed what was happening. Two soldiers stood guard on the street, flanking the window, and didn't allow anybody close enough to throw anything else into the dungeon.

Among the last objects that fell at the pirates' feet was a small stone wrapped in paper, tied with a velvet ribbon.

"A message?" Maxó muttered, opening it. "Here, you can read," he said, handing it to Morris.

He leaned to expose the few lines of neat, elegant handwriting to the light. The others saw the shock reflecting on his face.

"What? What does it say?" De Neill asked.

Marina woke up when Morris moved, and he turned to her, his eyes widening in horror.

"Speak up!" said Maxó.

"The church wants the pearl for witchcraft. They're coming for her tomorrow."

Maxó fell on his butt and grabbed his head with his hands.

"Who sent the message?" asked De Neill suspicious.

"Dolores Mondrego," Morris muttered, his eyes still on Marina.

"Who?"

"The cuckold wife of the San Juan toad," Maxó replied roughly. "I thought I saw her here outside."

"Yes, I saw her too," Morris muttered, and he dropped the message to hold Marina.

The girl was petrified in horror, and hid her face against his chest. Morris kissed her forehead, devastated, and rocked her as if she were a child.

"Damned Laventry!" Maxó snarled, punching the wall. "Where the hell is he? Trust me that if he doesn't take the city before they come for the pearl, I'll make him wish he'd sunk along the way."

De Neill picked the message up. "Does it say anything else?" he asked. He couldn't read, but it looked like too many words for what Morris had said.

"She'll try to see us tonight," Morris replied dully.

Oliver grunted and sat against the wall like the others. "Then we can only wait."

The five pirates lingered quiet and still, lost in bleak thoughts. Overwhelmed by the situation, Marina fell in a fevered slumber. Outside, since the soldiers wouldn't let them bring anything to the Pearl of the Caribbean, women and children left flowers on the street all around the window, as close to it as they could. The faint smell reaching the dungeon lightened slightly the disgusting stench.

By nightfall, several soldiers lined up outside the dungeon door and pointed their muskets at the prisoners. The pirates hardly glanced up at them before going back to their gloomy musing. Two more soldiers came with a large pot, a bucket of water and a ladle.

The pirates didn't move until the soldiers left. They woke Marina up. She refused to eat but drank a long gulp of water. They let her drowse again and wolfed down that revolting stew. It was their first meal since they'd been captured, and for them it tasted like the finest delicacy.

A couple of hours later they heard voices approaching. Morris and Maxó traded a look. One of the voices was no doubt a woman's. She addressed in an annoyed way a man, whose answers always ended in, "yes, Your Grace, sorry, Your Grace."

Soon they saw a tall, pale lady in a wealthy dress, followed by three soldiers who tried to stop her.

"Do you know who I am?" she barked at the pirates in French, standing before the barred door.

Morris signaled De Neill to wake Marina up and got to his feet, not fighting his little smile. "Some sights can't be forgotten, ma'am."

"These lambs can't speak French, but any moment now they're sending an officer who can," Dolores Mondrego said haughtily, meeting Morris' eyes. "I can hide the Pearl, but I can't get her out of here, or the church."

Marina tried to sit up, shaky and fevered. De Neill held her up and lowered his head to hear her words. Then he went to stand by Morris, who couldn't look away from the lady's beautiful face.

"The pearl says that the only one that could help her is the lion," De Neill whispered.

Dolores frowned for a moment. Then she turned her face, as if taking offense, and stalked away, dragging the soldiers behind her.

The pirates were still trading puzzled looks, as curious as suspicious, when Marina reached out to Morris. He hurried to her side and took her in his arms again.

"Don't lose heart, my pearl," he said, smiling. "There's still hope."

"You think that blockhead will help us?" asked Maxó.

Marina shook her head slightly. "I don't know," she muttered.

A few hours later, a few streets away, Castillano would've given anything to be surprised when he got back to the lodge. Because at the foyer he found the lady the behemoth had recognized earlier that day. She was there with her maid, her queenly dress overflowing her seat. Waiting for him.