"Well, that isn't helping much," I said, hanging to my sack. We were basically talking about myth, the boogeyman—someone everyone believes exists, yet no one had ever seen him.
A misfit pointed at the rippling water in the distance.
We all ran to look. The bed of water was changing its color. Something was swimming underneath. Something black or grey, blocking all visions from below.
"Whales!" someone screamed.
I expected Captain Ahab to burst out of his cabin, but he didn't. A closer look and I saw the door to his room flapping in the wind. He wasn't there.
If Captain Ahab, a.k.a. Long John Silver, had escaped, I wondered what the rest of us were to do.
The whale swam around the ship peacefully, not making sounds, then sank deep below and never came up again. I didn't understand a thing, but before I could analyze what had happened, a ship came out of nowhere, approaching us.
"It's him," the boy chirped. "The Jolly Roger!"
It was the name of the ship. A pirate ship sailing closer. We all stood stranded, waiting for it to arrive. This was a ship designed to hunt whales, not to fight pirates.
Standing among the crowd, I watched a silhouette of a man walk toward our ship. The man was tall and intimidating. He was taller than Angel—and broader. His silhouette showed a French hat on top of his head, and was that an eye patch? The reflection of the tides manipulated his image.
That was when I realized what was wrong with the picture. The man approaching us was walking on water.
He was walking on water!
Each step, splashing in the water, a few mermaids somersaulted behind him, as if celebrating his coming. He held something in his hand—a bottle, maybe. It was too small for his immense stature. A few men walked beside him, half his size at least.
One of the misfits fainted next to me. The sailors held out their guns. The puffing boy was already on his knees, ready to offer his soul—that was, if Him would accept it.
The men from the pirate ship seemed to sing the song, the same damned song the mermaids and Night Von Sorrow had sung. Although it was noon, still no sun shone where he treaded.
Instead of backing away like everyone else, I stepped forward, rubbing my eyes to see clearer. I was afraid like everyone else, but my curiosity overruled it.
Then I heard someone say his name. His real name. Hook. Captain Hook. That was why everyone mistook it for "Him." Every time someone tried to say his name, they had been afraid to utter it and said, "H—" instead.
I didn't know who Captain Hook was, or what his relation to Captain Ahab, a.k.a. Long John Silver, was—although years later Peter Pan told me that his name had been mentioned in books, that the only one all pirates in the Seven Seas feared was Captain Hook. I didn't know why one would sell his soul to him—in exchange for what? All I knew was that he scared me. That he scared everyone, even the devil. Even the Seven Seas feared him.
And I knew one more thing.
That he wasn't walking on water. The whales had risen to make ground for him. The man everyone feared walked on whales, and I think his eyes were on me.
34
Fable's Dreamworld
Something was wrong.
Why had the Queen of Sorrow asked the huntsmen to step ahead, closer to the throne? Did she know Fable was among them?
Fable lowered her head immediately to escape the Queen's piercing eyes. She wouldn't have seen her face anyway, as it was smeared with black mud and hidden behind the cloak. It was Fable who was scared to look into the Queen's eyes.
While walking toward the Queen's throne, Fable felt something roll under her feet, as if a few tiny boulders had been thrown onto the floor. Then she noticed Jack had probably walked on the same tiny boulders. Except Jack crushed them so hard, they almost made a popping sound.
"What is this?" Fable whispered to Jack, about to panic.
"Please proceed!" the Queen demanded.
"It's peas under our feet," Jack said. "Why are there peas on the floor?"
"It's a trick," Marmalade said. "I just don't know what it is."
None of them could argue with that. Since when were there peas on the Queen's floor? It had to be a trick, but what kind of trick?
"I think I know," Jack said.
"What is it?" Fable said.
"Give me a second," Jack said, crushing a few peas as they slowly approached the throne. "I need to make sure."
"We don't have a second." Marmalade didn't look like much of a leader now.
"I know, I know," Jack said. "Crush the peas as hard as you can when you walk."
"Why?" Fable asked.
"Just do it." Jack gritted his teeth, his voice almost heard by other huntsmen at the far sides.
Since everyone trusted Jack, they did as they were told, crushing the peas under their feet. Fable enjoyed it, actually.
Glimpsing the Queen's gaze far ahead, Fable saw she was a bit perplexed now. It was as if she'd lost something she was sure she would find.
"Where are they, Mary?" She was angry.