“Not really!” said Carlos. “Please hurry!”
“That’s my neck!” said Jay, who had pretzelled himself behind the driver’s seat.
Ben drove them back to the marina, and Mal filled him in as promised on the loss of the trident and the Uma situation. “Everyone on the Isle is really looking for this?”
“That’s what Evie’s mirror showed,” said Mal. “And if anyone could find it, it’s Uma. Knowing her, she won’t give up until she’s got it.”
“Why does she want it so badly?” Ben wondered aloud.
“I don’t know, probably because she thinks she can finish the job I was supposed to do, with Fairy Godmother’s wand I mean. You know, get rid of the dome and free all the villains,” said Mal. “She’s probably even taken over my old territory by now.”
“Your old territory?” asked Ben, amused. “What were you, some kind of boss lady?”
“Not some kind,” interrupted Jay. “THE boss lady of the Isle.”
“Shush,” said Mal, a bit embarrassed about her past as one of the most feared villains on the island. “That was before.”
But Ben looked at her admiringly. “Of course you were the best lady boss. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
She had to admit it had been fun, terrorizing the citizens of the Isle of the Lost, Jay and the rest of the thugs by her side. “Let’s just say everyone avoided getting on my bad side,” Mal said proudly, feeling just a tiny bit nostalgic about the old days.
“Or else!” said Jay, raising his fist and hitting the roof with his head. “Oof!”
When they arrived at the harbor, the royal speedboat was just as they’d left it, as if waiting for their return. Ben jumped off the deck and onto the speedboat’s helm, helping Mal and Evie aboard. The boys followed right behind.
Jay bowed and motioned toward the wheel. “Your Highness,” he said jokingly, but with a hint of seriousness as well.
“You can drive this thing, right?” Mal asked Ben.
Ben nodded. “I should, I’ve been taking lessons all my life.”
“Princes,” Jay said, rolling his eyes. “So many lessons.”
“Archery, horseback-riding, sailing, boating, swords-and-shields, dancing, manners, etiquette, statesmanship,” said Ben, counting them off in his head.
“Is there anything you can’t do?” asked Carlos, curious.
“I’m sure there’s a ton of things I can’t do,” said Ben.
“I sort of doubt it,” said Carlos.
“Where are we headed?” asked Ben, as Carlos and Jay saw to pulling off the ropes that secured the boat to the dock.
“Evie?” asked Mal.
Evie pulled out her magic mirror. “Yup, it looks like the trident is still under the waters by the Isle of the Doomed, over on the far side of Goblin Beach. I can see the dome shimmering.”
Ben nodded and the boat pulled out of the harbor. The waters were calm by Auradon Bay, but became rockier and harder to navigate once they reached the Strait of Ursula.
A fine mist coated the Isle of the Lost, and everyone had to hold on to the handles on the side on the boat, lest they be thrown into the water by the increasingly large waves. “Over there?” asked Ben, as they came closer and closer to the foggy mist.
“Yes! To the left!” said Carlos, yelling to be heard above the crashing waves and the distant roar of thunder.
“How are we going to slip through the barrier?” asked Evie.
“We’re not going to,” said Mal. “Ben, just get us as close as you can.”
Ben steered toward the edge of the mist.
“I see Goblin Beach!” called Jay. “Right through there.”
“Evie, how are we doing?”
Evie checked the mirror. “We’re getting closer. But I’m worried someone else could get to it first.”
“Hurry,” urged Mal, as Ben gassed the engine and zoomed forward. The speedboat jumped through the waves.
“We’ll get there just in time!” said Carlos, navigating with Jay.
Mal felt the usual excitement and adrenaline of a well-matched competition. This was just like when she used to race her toad against Uma’s for all the dirty candy in Ursula’s shop. Except this time, the winner didn’t get toad pee all over their hands.
The skeletons came out of the darkness, descending from the sky like ghosts, their calcium-white bones glistening in the light of Uma’s torch. They danced in the black, their limbs making herky-jerky motions up and down, bobbing as they walked.
Gil screamed and fell backward, splashing water everywhere. Uma thought one of the skeletons might have struck him with its sword. Harry bent to check for wounds, while the skeletons drifted closer, dipping up and down, their feet hardly touching the ground.
What magic was this? Uma was confused. How was this all happening? And now there were more skeletons, descending from the dark reaches of the cavern’s ceiling, a place so distant that not even her torchlight could reach it.
The crew formed ranks, drawing their swords and readying one another for the fight, but their faces were as white as the skeletons’. This was a hardened crew, but none of them had ever seen anything like this, not even Uma.
“Gil’s okay,” said Harry.
“Just a bit of wounded pride,” said Gil as he shook the water from his hair, stumbling backward to avoid the approaching skeletons. They were all retreating, but the lagoon was at their backs, so with each step they took they were forced to walk deeper into the water. This could only go on for so long before they’d need to stop and fight.
But the skeletons didn’t pass the water’s edge. They hung there, waiting, their twirling swords and nodding heads tempting the pirates into battle. Uma had never been one to turn down a fight, so she rallied her crew and stormed the beach. “At my back, you cowards.”
Shamed by her courage, the pirates called out battle cries and emerged from the water, splashing onto the beach.
Uma swung at the nearest skeleton with all her fury, hoping to nick a bone or perhaps to break a rib or two but instead its entire rib cage shattered, sending bones flying in all directions, landing in the water with a hundred different splashes.
Encouraged by her success, she struck the next skeleton, this one at the neck. The spinal cord popped in two, the body falling limply to the sand, but the head stayed where it was, bobbing in the air. It had to be some kind of magic, but she could barely make out anything besides the skull floating in the air. She struck it with her sword and it just rolled to one side, swinging back and forth like a pendulum, rocking like a child on a swing.
“It’s on a rope,” she said. Uma slashed at the darkness above the skull, severing the cord, sending the head tumbling onto the beach. A quick inspection revealed a whole series of thin black ropes that were tethered all over the skeletons. Some mechanism must have been jerking them up and down, back and forth, like marionettes on a string.