Pirates of the Caribbean 05 The Age of Bronze Read Free Page B

moon."Impossible," Fitzwilliam said slowly. "An entire metal ship? It would never be able to float!"
    "And yet, there it is, mate," Jack said, squinting. "Bronze, it looks like.""Look--the water," Jean pointed. The waves around the base of the ship weren't just unnaturally still. They were solid metal, too. A whole skirt of metal water surrounded the ship."Maybe it's some kind of sculpture," Arabella suggested tentatively, knowing it was stupid even as she said it. But she could think of no other rational explanation."Maybe to commemorate a battle at sea?"Jean and Tumen shook their heads. "No, we have been in and out of the port at New Orleans many, many times," the Creole boy said. "Even if the British or Spanish or French made something like this, we would have seen it or heard about it."Jack made a decision. "Take the wheel, Fitzy."Jack put an extra knife in his belt and wrapped a length of rope around his waist. He was going over to the ship. And as he stared at his crew, it was clear none of them would be helping him.He snarled at the crew and, grabbing another rope, leaped over the side of the Barnacle onto the metal water below ... which cracked beneath him!Like ice, the metal plates snapped under Jack's weight. Unlike ice, the moment a piece broke off it sank quickly and heavily into the water.With a scream Jack leaped again, flipping himself into the air and closer to the bronze ship. The metal water was thicker there and supported his weight. But the metal that touched the real water was blue and scaly. He reached down and easily broke off a piece.He looked at it curiously, then tossed it aside. He had to be more careful. Then he undid the rope at his waist and threw it up and up until a loop at the end hooked around the lowest spar on the mizzenmast. He pulled it a few times, making sure it was firmly caught, then scurried up it. He didn't look down; falling and landing on metal "water" would surely kill him.At the top, Jac k grabbed the rail and hoisted himself over. His boots hit the deck with a dull clang, not the clunk wood boards would have made.
    He knocked on the rail--it made the same noise. So did a barrel sitting to the side. So did the ropes. He peered at them closely. Every fiber, every kink and knot and hair was made of solid metal."If Bell is right, whoever did this was a brilliant sculptor," Jack said. "I'll need to find him, as I'd love for him to decorate the estate I will one day inherit from whatever rich old widow decides to bestow her property to this charming, good-looking captain."A looming shape near the wheel of the ship cast a long, ominous shadow on the deck. Jack swallowed hard, then snuck over to the wheel.Jack's eyes grew wide.
    "Oh, this is not normal at all," he said.A bronze man was standing at the wheel. Every detail was perfect, from the hair on his head to the fingernails on his hands. He was staring at something beyond Jack, on the other side of the ship. His face was frozen in horror, as if he had been screaming.Jack shivered. Then he made a fist and rapped on the fellow's head.
    "Anybody home?"Searching the ship turned up the rest of the crew, also metal."Cheery lot," Jack said. Except for the man at the wheel, everything seemed completely normal. But metal. It didn't look like anything traumatic had happened. No fights had broken out. Nothing onboard the ship was unusual in the slightest--except for the ship and the crew themselves.It was in the captain's cabin that things began to h int of what went wrong. On the floor, the captain himself was frozen on his hands and knees, hand to his throat. His eyes bugged out of their sockets. He looked sick, or like he was being tortured. But there wasn't anything around his neck nor visible wound s on him. Not a drop of blood, bronze or otherwise. And then Jack found the doll. Even though it was just stic ks and rags and bits of things all bronze--it sat on the bunk, placed on the pillow.
    “Either the captain has one very creepy