The Wonderful Roundabout

hurt you on this ship. I am the Captain.’

  With my heart still in my throat I managed to get out three words. ‘Captain De Ville?’

  ‘That would be me, yes. So you’ve heard of me. Hence the fear, probably.’

  ‘You’re a pirate.’

  ‘I am. And you are…’

  ‘A sailor.’

  ‘Well, I’m also a sailor. Just a certain kind of sailor. You have a name, sailor?’

  ‘Peter.’ I said. That isn’t my name, but it was the first one that came to mind. Truth be told, I liked the man the first moment I saw him. He was a gentleman. I didn’t want to look stupid in front of a gentleman.

  ‘Hello, Peter. I am Elijah. When you’re done eating please visit me in my office cabin.’

  After he left, I started inspecting the room. A desk stood right by the bed, with a beautiful old map spread out on top of it. In one corner, I could make out my home land. In another…there was Willow Island. I wanted to read the way there but there were symbols on the map that I’d never seen before. At first I tried to read them. But soon enough I realized that if I closed my eyes, even for an instant, they would change into something else. After a while, I gave up and decided to visit the Captain.

  I knocked at the door and he called me in. I noticed that there was no bed in this cabin. Only maps, compasses, a few sextants, a back staff, spyglasses, hourglasses, a nocturnal and even a ring dial. The walls and shelves were filled with them, like the room was a museum of navigational instruments. In the center stood an ebony desk with chairs, all of them engraved with willow leaves.

  ‘Sit down, Peter. I want us to talk about how you took down my mast. Don’t worry, I’m not angry or upset. I just want to know how in God’s name you did it. I fought hundreds of battles and the Nemesis hasn’t ever been damaged. Up until now.’

  ‘I don’t know, sir. I didn’t do nothing special. I just loaded the cannon and shot.’

  ‘Who taught you to shoot the cannon?’

  ‘No one did, sir. It was the first time I fired a cannon. I think it was darn luck, is what it was. I have no idea how I did it.’

  ‘I see. So how’d you get on that ship?’

  ‘I’ve been sailing with the old man since I was a boy. I want to know what happened to him.’

  ‘We took him aboard and then dropped him off in a life boat, near the shore, a few days later. He’s alive and well, don’t worry.’

  ‘How can I be sure?’

  ‘I am a pirate of my word. I don’t harm old men. Look, Peter, I want you to be part of my crew. I figure any man who’s lucky enough to do me harm might as well be on my side. What do you think?’

  ‘You want me to be a pirate?’

  ‘Yes. I will teach you how to sail but you have to promise to be completely loyal. You must never lie to me, never do anything to harm the Nemesis or its crew, you do everything in your power to keep it alive and afloat.’

  ‘I already know how to sail.’

  ‘No you don’t, Peter. You know how to sail like a man. I’m going to teach you to sail like the spirit of the water. You’ll never drown, your ship will never sink, your men will always listen to you and you’ll become a myth. Like me. You’ll be able to travel around the world if you want, the sea and the stars will take you there. You’ll see places no sailor has ever seen.’

  ‘But I don’t want to be a pirate.’

  ‘Well, I’m afraid that’s not an option. You are on the Nemesis and you will stay on the Nemesis and as this is a pirate ship, you are a pirate. We don’t pillage, plunder, steal or kill. We protect Willow Island. That is what we do. Sometimes when we do it we sink other ships so they call us pirates. That is not important. Our name is not important. Who we are is. I am a Captain and you will be trained to be a pilot and my second. You will become a myth, Peter.’

  ‘So what if I say no?’

  ‘You won’t.’

  ‘What if I still say it?’

  ‘We’ll leave you like the old man and when you wake up you won’t remember any of this. You’ll live a normal life, like your parents and their parents and nothing like this will ever happen to you again. But I’m getting tired. I don’t ask twice. Will you join my crew or won’t you?’

  ‘I will.’

  THE PIRATE’S TALE

  PPart V

   ‘Things are as they should be. Go see the ship now, Peter. Forfax is waiting for you outside. He will be your guide. He is now my second. When the time is right you will take his place. Learn everything from him.’

  I walked out and, sure enough, there was Forfax. He was tall, though not quite like the captain, and he had large, round spectacles and white hair. He looked like a scientist.

  ‘I hear your name is Peter. I am Forfax. I am your guide. As such, you can ask me anything. But, first of all, I have to tell you something that you wouldn’t think of asking. On this ship everyone has a special skill. A sort of power to understand and do something. Mine is astronomy. The crew only consists of seven people, including yourself. I…’

  ‘Must I have a skill to be here?’

  ‘It’s not polite to interrupt. I think so. The captain has issued no rule on it, but it seems to be the habit of the place.’

  ‘How could you sail a ship this big with just six people?’

  ‘The ship does a lot of the work herself.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Please ask more precise questions.’

  ‘How does the ship do anything?’

  ‘She is, after all, a magical ship. She also has a… master, if you will.’

  ‘The captain?’

  ‘No. He is her commander. Her master is her architect, the man who built the Nemesis. Phoebus. You will meet him later. There is not much human sailing done on this ship.’

  ‘But how can she sail? Who positions the sails? Who steers?’

  ‘The captain decides where to go, but she steers herself. Phoebus manages everything else. The captain decides where, he decides how and she gets there.’

  ‘That’s impossible.’

  ‘I think “magical” is a much more suitable word. The Nemesis is magical, as are the people on it.’

  ‘You have magical powers? Does that mean I have magical powers?’

  ‘No. We just have a magical understanding of things.’

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘We… understand how things come together. When the wind blows, it blows in a certain way for a reason. If you know why, you can either use it, change it or ignore it, depending on where you want to arrive.’

  ‘Will you teach me that?’

  ‘You will learn it as you live here with us. First of all, though, you have to sail us to Willow Island.’

  ‘But how can I sail there if the ship sails by herself?’

  ‘You have to make your will her will.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I can’t explain, but you will do it, the captain has no doubt.

  Now, we will go to the bow. You have to meet the rest of the crew. We’re supposed to set sail under your direction as soon as possible.’

  THE PIRATE’S TALE

  PPart VI

  I had no idea how to do what was asked of me. I stood on the bowsprit, looking at the stem slicing through the sea. My thoughts wandered home. I remembered everything that the old man had taught me. And to what avail? I couldn’t sail the Nemesis that way. So I sat down on the ancient wooden floor and started talking to her.

  I told her all sorts of things. That I was just lucky to be there. That I had no special skill, other than my sheer fortune. That I was ashamed and wanted to become a good second for the Captain. Though I feared I’d never be as smart as Forfax. I asked her to take me to Willow Island... so I wouldn’t have to leave the ship. I also asked her to keep me alive so I can see my parents and the old man once again.

  After a while, when I finally looked up, I saw a beautiful, shattering sunset. Like someone had peeled off the skin of the sky. I felt tiny drops of water hitting my face and
took in the salty smell of the ocean. And that’s when I saw it. A shard of blue cutting through the cloth of the sunset, from the bottom all the way up, where the sky turns to black. I remembered what the old man had told me. Water, running backwards, from the ground up towards the sky. Under it, I can make out a speck of brown and green. We were heading to Willow Island.

  ‘Land Ho!’ I call. Only I hear no footsteps or cheering. I turn around… And there he was again.

  ‘How’d I do that, Forfax?’

  ‘Same way you knocked the mast down, probably. You know how. You’re just not used to thinking about it. Let’s go to the berth deck.’

  I thought I was finally meeting the other crew, so I followed Forfax in silence, thinking about what I was going to say.

  ‘Where is everyone else? You mentioned four more people.’

  ‘They’re here. They just have no business with you. When they do, you’ll meet them.’

  ‘Here where?’

  ‘Here in this room and everywhere else. On the ship. Now here, look at this map. This is Willow Island.’

  It was the same map I’d seen in my room earlier. The lines were still moving.

  ‘The signs are changing. And I can’t read this… this… whatever it is. I don’t know the language.’

  ‘You’re not looking at it properly. You’re looking at it as if it owed it to you to show you the way. But it will not do so if it is not indeed your way. If your path is set to Willow Island and it’s not important what gets you there, the map will just as well show you the way. If not, it won’t.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous. It’s a map. It’s supposed to show the way whether I have to get there or not!’

  ‘Whether you agree or not with how things work here makes no difference whatsoever.