Seaborne #1: The Lost Prince Read online

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  First published by Egmont USA, 2014

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  Text copyright © Matt Myklusch 2015

  Map copyright © Adam F. Watkins 2015

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  Myklusch, Matt.

  The lost prince / Matt Myklusch.

  1 online resource. — (Seaborne ; book 1)

  Summary: When thirteen-year-old Dean Seaborne’s latest spy mission for the Pirate King takes him to the mythical island of Zenhala, his life changes as he fights to prove that he is the island’s long-lost prince.

  Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

  ISBN 978-1-60684-526-4 (ebook) — ISBN 978-1-60684-525-7 (hardcover)

  [1. Pirates—Fiction. 2. Princes—Fiction. 3. Spies—Fiction. 4. Islands—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.M994

  [Fic]—dc23

  2014029879

  ISBN 978-1-60684-525-7

  eBook ISBN 978-1-60684-526-4

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright holder.

  v3.1

  For Dean, a treasure more precious than gold

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Map

  Part One: His Majesty’s Secret Service

  Chapter 1: Swimming with Sharks

  Chapter 2: Been Caught Stealin’

  Chapter 3: The Pirate Youth

  Chapter 4: Sign Aboard, Matey

  Part Two: Honor Among Thieves

  Chapter 5: Seaborne Adventures

  Chapter 6: The Gentleman’s Code

  Chapter 7: The Wreck of the Reckless

  Chapter 8: Going Under

  Chapter 9: Drifters and Grifters

  Chapter 10: By Order of the King

  Part Three: Zenhala

  Chapter 11: Anchors Aweigh

  Chapter 12: The Return

  Chapter 13: Blue Blood

  Chapter 14: The Rules of Engagement

  Chapter 15: Spies Like Us

  Part Four: Trapped in Paradise

  Chapter 16: Masks

  Chapter 17: Survival of the Fittest

  Chapter 18: Snapdragon Grotto

  Chapter 19: All That Glitters

  Chapter 20: The View from Mount Skytop

  Chapter 21: Braving the Rapids

  Chapter 22: Eyes on the Prize

  Chapter 23: All Along the Watchtower

  Chapter 24: Living on the Edge

  Chapter 25: The Third Second

  Chapter 26: The Labyrinth

  Chapter 27: Last Dance

  Chapter 28: Forbidden Fruit

  Part Five: Into the Storm

  Chapter 29: Things Fall Apart

  Chapter 30: Justice Is Served

  Chapter 31: Bitter Harvest

  Chapter 32: True Colors

  Chapter 33: Turning the Tide

  Chapter 34: Riders on the Storm

  Chapter 35: The Belly of the Beast

  Chapter 36: New Horizons

  Acknowledgments

  CHAPTER 1

  SWIMMING WITH SHARKS

  I don’t suppose it would change anything if I said I was sorry.…”

  Dean Seaborne looked around the ship with a strained smile as rain fell hard against his shivering body. His words hung in the air like a bad joke. Gallows humor doesn’t work when coming from a thirteen-year-old boy who is about to die. Dean was terrified thinking about the punishment his captain had planned for him. It wouldn’t be long now, and it wouldn’t be pretty. Most pirates made you walk the plank if you crossed them. Not this captain. Not One-Eyed Jack. He was a bit more creative. He also happened to be the pirate king of the Caribbean, and like it or not, that made him Dean’s boss. At least, for as long as Dean was still alive.

  Dean gulped as One-Eyed Jack gave him a look mean enough to make a killer squid spill its ink. He was a large, barrel-chested man with a head like a cannonball, and the battle-worn face of a bare-knuckle boxer. His black leather eye patch, bald pate, and sun-scarred skin gave him a fierce, grisly countenance that was well earned, for he was a mad combination of short temper and violent rage. His name was known throughout the Caribbean as a merciless buccaneer, and otherwise-dauntless men trembled before him—his own crew most of all.

  One-Eyed Jack had been known to keelhaul men over such minor transgressions as not laughing hard enough at his jokes, or remarking that the weather was hot when he had already decided it was merely warm. Whether or not he had even told anyone how he felt about the weather was beside the point. One-Eyed Jack was not a man to be trifled with by anyone or anything.

  Dean felt the tip of a dagger in his back as one of One-Eyed Jack’s men nudged him toward a rusty iron cage. It was One-Eyed Jack’s right-hand man, Scurvy Gill, a slender, filthy pirate with eyes in the back of his head. Gill’s only job was to watch the captain’s back, and nothing got by him except perhaps a bar of soap. Black water ran off his body as the falling rain washed over him, but no storm on earth could scrub his grubby hide clean. Dean stepped inside the cage and ran his hands along the bars. He was thin enough to squeeze out between them, but he wouldn’t get the chance to try. Scurvy Gill pulled a red cloth out of his pocket, blew his nose with it, and offered it to Dean. “Blindfold?”

  Dean’s lip curled upward. “No. Thank you.” If he was going to die today, he would go to his grave without Scurvy Gill’s handkerchief wrapped around his head, thank you very much. The cloth smelled of rotten eggs, pickles, and very pungent mucus. Just the thought of it gave Dean the chills. He felt as though he’d dodged a musket ball when Scurvy Gill tucked the cloth back into his pocket, even as the door to Dean’s cage slammed shut.

  “Hoist away, lads,” ordered One-Eyed Jack.

  A team of pirates pulled on a thick rope, and Dean’s cage rose a foot off the deck. “Whoa.” Dean grabbed hold of the bars for balance as the strongest men on the ship heaved away at the line. It ran through a pulley at the end of a yardarm high above his head. The other end was tied to an eyelet at the top of his cage. One-Eyed Jack’s crew hauled Dean up over the gunwale and swung him out over the waves. A piercing wind blew right through him as he hung there, trapped and helpless. It was a cold, wet morning, and charcoal-gray clouds filled the sky.

  One-Eyed Jack put a hand out to catch a few raindrops. “Looks to me you’ve seen your last sunrise, boy. Mr. Gill, have our guests arrived?”

  “Got their invitation right here, Cap’n.” Scurvy Gill dumped a bucket of chum over the side. Moments later, a group of large dorsal fins swirled about in the water below. Dean’s eyes went as wide as sand dollars, and his stomach tied itself into an icy knot. He shook the bars of his cage. “Captain, please! I’m begging you, don’t do this!”

  One-Eyed Jack snorted out a small laugh. “You call that begging?” He spat something sticky and brown onto the deck. “You’re not even trying.” He nodded to his men. They let the rope slip and caught it just above the waves. Dean leapt about the cage as sharks snapped at his toes. He grabbed the bars above his head and pulled his feet up. “Help!” he cried as he held on for dear life. “Somebody, please!”

  The crew of pirates laughed. One-Eyed Jack leaned out toward
Dean with a hand cupped behind his ear. “What’s that, Seaborne? I can’t hear you all the way up here. For a second, it sounded like you were asking my crew for help!” He turned to face his men, looking very much amused. “What say you, lads? Anyone care to lend the boy a hand? Scurvy Gill, how about you?”

  Scurvy Gill bit a dirty fingernail and shook his head. “Sorry, Cap’n. I’m busy.”

  One-Eyed Jack nodded. “Of course. Your personal hygiene comes first, I know that.” He put on a mock frown and turned back toward Dean. “Sorry, son. Scurvy Gill says he’s busy.” He turned up his palms. “What can I say? I tried.”

  Dean clung to the bars as One-Eyed Jack snickered away, safe on the deck of his ship. He was having a jolly good time as the sharks poked their noses up out of the water below. Dean was angry with himself for crying out like that. He knew no one was coming to his aid. His nerves had gotten the better of him was all.

  “It’s your own fault you’re in there, you know,” said One-Eyed Jack, turning serious for a moment. “Running away after all I’ve given you … what were you thinking? Thanks to me, you had food! Shelter! Gainful employment! I would have thought that earned me some small modicum of gratitude, but no. You choose to repay me by deserting your brethren in the Black Fleet. By deserting me!” One-Eyed Jack touched his fingers to his chest. “You wound me, Seaborne, truly. My feelings … they’re hurt!”

  Dean grunted as he shifted his grip on the iron bars of his cage. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. First of all, One-Eyed Jack wasn’t like normal people. He didn’t have feelings. Second of all … Food? Shelter? Gainful employment? Was he serious? The most Dean could say for One-Eyed Jack was that he’d given him a job, and a lousy one at that. One-Eyed Jack had a fleet of ships, an army of pirates, and a vast network of spies. Dean was one of his best. Spies like him stowed away on ships and found out what they were carrying, infiltrated their ranks before raids, and even spied on One-Eyed Jack’s own men from time to time, just to keep an eye on things. Sure, Dean got food and shelter, but there wasn’t much beyond the unreliable protection of his fellow pirates, and a moldy slice of bread now and then.

  Working as a spy in One-Eyed Jack’s service was a miserable existence with a bleak future. Dean hated it. More than anything, he hated scouting ships for the pirate fleet to raid. He felt like the angel of death delivering innocent sailors into the hands of One-Eyed Jack and his men. It had been different when he was just a small child. Back then, he didn’t have any choice but to go along. Now that he was thirteen years old, Dean had decided that he didn’t want that life anymore. He didn’t belong with One-Eyed Jack and his band of cutthroats. He was tired of being Dean Seaborne, pirate spy. He wanted something better. He wanted a new life. Now he had one coming his way, all right … the afterlife.

  “I thought you was supposed to be a smart one, Seaborne!” Scurvy Gill tapped the inside of his left forearm. “Ain’t no use runnin’ when yer so easy to spot.”

  Seaborne frowned at the mark that had been tattooed on his own left arm. Every one of One-Eyed Jack’s spies had been given their own unique brand. Dean’s was in the shape of three wave crests rising inside a circle. Dean kept the mark covered up most of the time, but sooner or later, someone always saw it. After he didn’t report back from his last assignment, the word went out to all the other spies that he was a deserter, and One-Eyed Jack wanted him found. It was only a matter of time before he was spotted, captured, and taken to the island of St. Diogenes for punishment. Now he was back on One-Eyed Jack’s ship, the Maelstrom, dangling in a giant lobster trap over a family of hungry sharks.

  Dean’s arms and legs were getting tired. He couldn’t hang up there at the top of the cage forever. He shifted his grip again, muttering under his breath. “Maybe if I was as filthy as you, this mark would have gone unnoticed, Gill.”

  “What’s that, boy?” Scurvy Gill asked.

  “Nothing!”

  The grime-ridden pirate scowled. “Take ’im down again!”

  The pirates let go of the line, and Dean’s cage dropped for a second time. He wasn’t ready for it. Dean lost his grip and fell right along with the cage. He hit the bottom and tried to get up quickly, but his feet slipped through the bars and down into the water. He pulled himself up, fast as he could, just before the sharks could bite off his legs. He got a firm stance with the arch of each foot resting on the bars at the base of the cage. Seawater splashed up past his ankles, and a frenzy of sharks filled the water beneath him. Dean screamed as the cage rocked from side to side. Hundreds of ravenous teeth pressed up from below, desperate for a mouthful of flesh and bone. Before the sharks got him, Dean felt the cage rise up out of the water. The pirates on deck pulled him back up. Scurvy Gill and the rest of the men were laughing hysterically. Dean gritted his teeth. This was fun for them. Live entertainment for as long as it lasted. What could be better?

  “Any last words, Seaborne?” One-Eyed Jack waved at the laughing pirate crew. “Maybe you want to ask this lot for help again?”

  Dean took a deep breath. Anger wasn’t going to get him anywhere. All he could do was throw himself at the mercy of the pirate king’s court. “Captain, I’m sorry I ran off. It was a mistake. I can see that now. Please, give me another chance. I’ll do anything.”

  “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Because I’m good at my job! Captain, you know I am. I’m a good spy. I eluded your men for nearly a month at sea. I can’t remember anyone ever lasting that long on the run, can you?”

  “Reminding me of your crimes is not the way back into my good graces.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. Truly, I am. Please, I’ve never let you down before, have I?”

  One-Eyed Jack tilted his head to the side. “No, you haven’t. That’s what makes this so difficult. You had a future here, Seaborne. I was actually starting to like you.”

  Really? ’Cause I can’t stand you. Dean bit his tongue and wiped a mixture of rain and sweat from his brow. “Like I said, Captain, it was a mistake. I just … I didn’t understand how important it was to you that I stay a spy.”

  One-Eyed Jack’s expression turned wild, and he straightened his back with a start. Dean got a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what he’d just said, but it had clearly been the wrong thing to say.

  “Important? You? Important?”

  One-Eyed Jack drew his cutlass and stormed over toward the men holding the rope. He raised his sword high, looking to cut the line that held up Dean’s cage. The crew scattered and Dean’s stomach shot up to his chest as he felt the cage drop. He took a deep breath as the white water and swarming sharks raced up at him from below. Dean plummeted into the wild sea, completely submerged. Cold seawater stung his eyes as a blurry vision of sharks surrounded him. They banged against the cage’s rusty iron bars, pounding it with all their might.

  This is it, thought Dean. I’m dead. Even so, his survival instincts kicked in. He resisted the urge to scream, trying to keep his lungs filled with air as long as possible. The sharks pushed forward, and he waved his arms frantically, trying to push himself back. There were more sharks behind him, on top of him, and below him. Dean saw nothing but bubbles, churning water, and teeth. It felt like every shark in the sea was outside his cage, and all of them were starving. The biggest of the bunch, a great white, was the hungriest. Dean’s heart pounded in his chest as the relentless predator bashed into the rusty iron door of his cage again and again.

  The shark wedged its nose in between the bars and spread its jaws wide. As Dean’s short life flashed before his eyes, he remembered the tale of an old sea dog who had once boasted that he’d survived an encounter with a great white. The old man’s story was that he had punched the shark square in the nose, and it had swum off like a frightened minnow. Dean hadn’t believed a word of it at the time, but at this point, anything was worth a shot. He slammed the palm of his hand into the shark’s nose, hard as he could. It was an action he regretted almost immediate
ly. The shark didn’t swim away. Instead, it was as if Dean had energized the beast. Enraged, the shark redoubled its efforts to get him, pushing forward so hard that the bars of his cage began to bend. There was nowhere for Dean to go.

  Just when Dean had lost all hope, his cage was hoisted out of the water. He gasped for air and crawled into a corner of the cage as it climbed higher and higher above the waves. Trembling, Dean looked down at the primal chaos below. The sharks were still circling, and the great white was thrashing about, visibly angry about its stolen meal. The cage drew level with the Maelstrom’s cannons, and Dean saw the crew tugging on the line. One-Eyed Jack hadn’t cut it after all.

  One-Eyed Jack stood with a foot on the ship’s railing. He pointed the tip of his blade at Dean. “I see what the problem is now. You’re getting too big for your britches. Don’t be getting all high and mighty on me, boy. There’s nothing important about you. What’s important is that everyone knows there’s only one way out of the pirate king’s service—death. Are we clear?”

  Dean nodded rapidly. “Aye aye, Captain. Yes, sir. Absolutely.”

  One-Eyed Jack stared Dean down for a few seconds before he finally lowered his cutlass. “Reel him in, men.”

  The crew pulled Dean’s cage back over the deck of the ship and opened up the cage. Dean fell out face-first and collapsed with his cheek pressed against the floor. Never before had the mildew-soaked timber of the Maelstrom smelled so sweet.

  One-Eyed Jack stayed at the railing of the ship, looking out on the horizon. “Today’s your lucky day, Seaborne. I’m going to give you that second chance you were hoping for.”

  Once again, Dean couldn’t believe his ears. He leapt to his feet. “Thank you, Captain! You won’t regret this. You won’t! I swear, I’ll never—”

  “Quiet yourself before I change my mind!”

  Dean buttoned his lip.

  “Make no mistake, this decision isn’t born out of any affection for you. The only reason you’re alive right now is because I have a task for which you happen to be ideally suited.” One-Eyed Jack turned to face Dean. “I want you to look in on one of my ships. The Reckless. You know it?”