Free Day of the Shadow by Rob Kidd Page B

several years ago. Is he still quite insane?”
    Carolina nodded, smiling.
    “He helped me escape quite a horrible sorceress.” Tim patted Carolina’s hand encouragingly. “Maybe he’ll come save you, too.”
    Not after we abandoned him, Carolina thought. And it serves me right. For all I know, he’s trapped in a French prison right now.
    Tim saw the sad look on her face. “Can I do anything for you?” he asked. “More blankets? Maybe some food?”
    “Don’t get in trouble on our account,” Carolina said. Then she had a thought. “Wait, actually—there is one thing you can do. But only if you can do it without getting caught.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Ammand has a vial tucked into his waist sash,” Carolina said. She described the Shadow Gold to Tim. “If you can get that away from him, then maybe the Shadow Lord won’t find it. Then we can hang on to it for Jack—well, you can, if you don’t mind. I don’t know when I’ll be seeing Jack again…or anyone but my family and my least trustworthy ladies-in-waiting.” She sighed.
    Tim looked confused, but he nodded. “All right. I’ll try.”
    “Be careful,” Carolina said, catching his hand. “There are some very dangerous people who want that vial.”
    “Including Jack Sparrow!” Tim said with another small laugh. “Don’t worry—if I can get my hands on it, I’ll keep it safe.”
    He crept off into the dark, and Carolina went back to sitting beside Diego. Her heart was still heavy with despair at the thought of going back to San Augustin and marrying the cruel old governor. But she felt a glimmer of hope for Jack. If his old friend Tim Hawk could protect the Shadow Gold for him…maybe there was still a chance of stopping the Day of the Shadow.

C HAPTER T HIRTEEN
    “H ow dare they!” Jack raged, stamping up and down on the wharf. “Who would take my ship? Who would dare ?”
    “Uh, maybe the same people who dared to arrest you,” Barbossa suggested with a sneer.
    Jack didn’t appreciate the suggestion. He glowered at Barbossa. “If there are East India Trading Company agents sullying my ship at this very moment, then I promise you I will cut off the hands that dared touch the Pearl .” He shoved his hat back on his head and glanced at Billy. “How was that? Gruesome and piratey, wasn’t it? I think I’m getting the hang of this.”
    “What are we going to do?” Billy asked, not amused by Jack’s flippancy. “The guards are right behind us! We need a ship!”
    “I guess we’ll take Chevalle’s,” Jack said cheerfully.
    “Ah, non, non, non ,” Chevalle said quickly. “I regret I cannot take all these many pirates on board the Fancy. There zimply isn’t any space. Unless you all want to sleep in the brig.” The gleam in his eyes hinted that this sounded like quite a lovely idea to him.
    “That’s quite all right,” Jack said. He glanced around. “I mean, there are plenty of ships here. Someone won’t mind if we, er, borrow one for a while.”
    “What’s that?” Barbossa said, squinting at the next wharf over from theirs.
    “Now, Hector, let’s not get distracted,” Jack said. He twisted one of the braids in his beard thoughtfully as he studied the nearest ship, a plain merchant vessel with no cannons. Boring. That wouldn’t do for Captain Jack Sparrow, not at all.
    “I’m not getting distracted,” Barbossa said through gritted teeth. He pointed at a tall ship silently bobbing on its mooring. “Isn’t that Villanueva’s ship?”
    Everyone turned to stare in the direction he was pointing.
    The enormous galleon looked deserted. Jack’s gaze traveled up the mainmast to the Jolly Roger fluttering at the top: a skeleton with devil horns, holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear in the other, pointing to a red heart. A bloody strange Jolly Roger, if you asked Jack. His own had a nice clear bird on it, so with one look you could think “Aha! Captain Sparrow!” Most logical. Not like this vague