Chapter 3: Buried Treasures

'From the Chronicles of the Orb Nymph, by Mistress LaFitz':

Aphrodite had been reluctant to bring Oliver with them, but Josefina had insisted. The sprightly young boy was quick on his feet, good humored and loyal to a fault. It seemed only natural he should work with the two scouts. They also brought Rusty, because Josefina would only trust her sea-faring comrades so far. Now, as they crawled to the top of a high ledge, seeking the source of a magnificent waterfall, they all fell to their bellies and gasped.

There, in the valley below them, was the most magnificent hacienda they had ever seen since Spain, it's white adobe sides glistening in the hot sun, it's red tiled roof looking like new. The building was joined by several others -- a livery, a smithy, a bunkhouse. A dozen stately horses trotted easily about a corral. Everything was surrounded by rich orchards that filled the air with sweet fruity scents. And everywhere people scurried about, mostly men, strong and dark and busy with their labors. Aphrodite had expected primitive islanders, not this hubbub of civilization. Josefina smiled and turned to get up. Then she froze; her smile vanished.

When the others noticed her strange behavior, they turned also, and found themselves nose to nose with long-barreled rifles, the likes of
which they'd never before seen. Behind the rifles were a circle of men, each one eying the women with relish. Rusty quickly pulled Josefina behind him and Oliver tried to protect Aphrodite. In moments they were disarmed, bound and gagged, and led as prisoners into the compound....
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"What do you intend to do with us?" Rusty, the self-appointed spokesman for the group, demanded to know.

They had been led into a lavish courtyard and were now standing before a kind of throne carved of deep mahogany and covered with plush apricot velvet. Seated there was a woman of obvious authority, dressed in a light-colored, Grecian-styled flowing gown and holding a carved wooden scepter with the head of a snake, with two large pearls for its eyes. Next to her, a virile young man fanned away the heat. The entire scenario was protected from the sun by a canopy of palm leaves.

"Silence! Or I will use my magic to strike you down!" the woman warned.

She pointed the scepter at Aphrodite.

"You! Where do you come from?" she asked.

"We are mariners upon the Orb Nymph, which was caught in a storm and crashed on these shores," Aphrodite explained.

"The Orb Nymph? But that shipped was lost....." The woman suddenly fell silent, thinking.

"How many of your seamen have survived?" she asked.

There was no answer. The woman signaled to one of her men, who seized Oliver and pressed a blade to boy's throat. Rusty went to grab for the boy, but was held back at gunpoint.

"How many?" she asked again.

"We don't know," Rusty said, his eyes on Oliver. "A dozen, maybe two. We're not sure."

Satisfied, the woman allowed Oliver to be released. Fighting to keep fear from knocking him off his feat, the boy returned to the others.

"The Orb Nymph was a pirate vessel of women," their captor said. "How do men come to be among you?"

"We were rescued...." Rusty began.

The woman silenced him; her eyes fell on Aphrodite.

"The men are survivors of the Spanish galleon La Beltranista. We captured it at sea, but many of her crew had already succumbed to the fever. These men are our prisoners," Aphrodite said. Somehow, she felt this strange woman would appreciate that fact.

"La Beltranista," the woman said softly, smiling to herself. "I have often wondered.... I am Queen Widgit, ruler of this isle and practitioner of the black arts," the woman announced.

"Widgit?" asked Josefina, stifling a giggle.

The queen silenced the woman with a stern look.

"Your men will be assimilated into my workforce. Their strength will be added to our own. You will remain guests in my house, so long as I prove generous with my hospitality."

"And if that generosity should end?" Aphrodite asked.

"You don't want to know," said the Queen.

As the crew was being escorted away, another small band of soldiers appeared, this time leading Roberto and Jannie.

Aphrodite and Josefina suddenly sprang loose and ran up to their compatriot, hugging her and crying with delight that she was alive. Roberto approached Oliver and hugged the boy, happy to see him. Rusty stood back and watched, pleased his captain had survived. The Queen then had them forcibly separated, and she descended from her throne. As the guards held Roberto by each arm, she circled him, chuckling to herself.

"My, my, you are a fine specimen," she said.

"Leave him alone!" Jannie yelled.

"Why, my dear. Is he yours?" the Queen asked.

"Yes!" Jannie yelled.

"Then I'll have to kill you," the Queen responded, aiming her scepter at Jannie's heart.

Roberto suddenly realized the staff was some kind of weapon.

"No!" Roberto yelled. "I'm not hers. I'm her prisoner. Leave her be!"

The Queen lowered her scepter, a look of surprise on her face.

"Indeed, it would appear you are her prisoner, but not in the way you mean," she said. "Too bad."

She raised the scepter, again. As she pulled a hidden trigger, Roberto lunged forward and the orchard erupted into a cacophony of screams and yells, as the seamen of La Beltranista and the pirates of the Orb Nymph descended on the scene, drawing their weapons and battling their way
to the heart of the compound. The commotion startled the Queen, whose aim was thrown off. A bolt of lightening surged from the scepter and struck Jannie in the shoulder; she was wounded but still standing. As the fighting continued, Roberto pulled Jannie out of harm's way; then he joined the fight.

Realizing the magical and mysterious power of the scepter, Josefina and Aphrodite quickly intervened and took it away from the queen. Without it, Widgit's power was weakened.
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>From the Chronicles of the Orb Nymph, by Mistress LaFitz :

The battle raged on for hours, swords and flintlocks against long rifles. The mariners were outnumbered three-to-one, but the men of the island were unskilled in warfare and had grown complacent in their paradise. Many were under the witch queen's spell, and once that was broken, had no heart for the fight. By sunset, the men had surrendered and the queen was taken prisoner. The mariners rejoiced. They looted the witch queen's stores and held a feast. Little did they know they were consuming Luis' treasure....
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"Unhand that man!" Rosalita drew her weapon and leveled it at her rival. Stone, who had drawn Luis into a long kiss in the middle of the hacienda's foyer, now shoved him aside and drew her own weapon.

"Geez, Rosalita, you never learn, do you?" Stone asked.

"Ladies, let's not fight," Luis pleaded.

"Shut-up!" the two women yelled in unison. Both were staggering drunk, both were lusting for the same man, both were filled with the fury only a woman pirate can feel.

"You've been trying to claim him as your own from day one!" Rosalita yelled.

"And you've been a pain in the neck the whole time. When are you going to accept the fact that he's mine and leave us alone?" Stone yelled back.

The redhead tossed her curls over her shoulder and circled her opponent. Stone's soulful dark eyes turned darker. They lunged and parried, but this time Capt. Ursula wasn't around to stop the fighting, and Rosetta decided discretion was the better part of valor, and refused to intercede. The women were on their own, goaded on by their drunken pals, oblivious to the obvious dangers.

"You don't love him, you just want his body!" Stone charged.

"And you don't?" Rosalita queried, just missing her mark.

"We're soul mates. I love him, and I'm not giving him up!" Stone yelled.

"You stole him from me, just like you steal everything from me, and I want him back!" Rosalita countered.

They circled again.

"You don't want to fight me," Stone warned. "I'm not Telamarine. I won't pull my punches."

"Good," said Rosalita.

And the two went at each other with unbridled passion, slashing and slamming and dancing about as if nothing and no one else in the world existed. The crowd backed against the walls, giving them room. No one interfered. And in the end, a loud collective gasp went up as Stone sunk her knife deep into Rosalita's heart, and the redhead fell dead at her feet, leaving Stone gripping the blood soaked blade.

Stone, stunned by what she had done, turned deathly pale, dropped the dagger and fled the room, only to be seized by Rosalita's twin
sister, Telamarine, with help from Gary and Mac, and dragged back into the room, screaming and flailing as she was held. In the heat and shock that followed, no one knew what to say or do, until Ursula stepped forward.

"So, this is what it's come to, eh?" Ursula asked. "You mutiny against me so you can kill each other? Over men? You should be ashamed!"

Luis had gone to Rosalita and now cradled her head in his arms. He was pale and silent. He looked up at Ursula, who knelt down beside the body and took the woman's lifeless hand. Then she looked up at the crowd.

"Where's the witch?" she asked.

Gary and Mac hurried off and secured the witch queen, and brought her forward.

"You claim to have the power of magic," Ursula said. "Save her."

"I can't raise the dead!" Queen Widgit responded, angry.

"Save her or you'll join her," Ursula said, standing up and drawing her flintlock on the woman.

The queen looked nervously down at the corpse.

"I can't bring her body back to life," she said, "but her spirit never dies. That, I can reach."

"Then do it," Ursula ordered.

"Are you sure you know what you're asking? Have you thought this all the way through?" the queen asked.

"Now!" came the response.

"I'll need my staff."

Ursula send Josefina for the scepter, but kept her weapon trained on Widgit.

When the witch queen had her staff and her bag of tricks, she cast her eyes about the crowd.

"A spirit cannot walk upon the earth without a body," she said. "Who here will house this woman's spirit?"

Everyone backed away except Stone, whose actions had quickly sobered her.

"I will," Stone said. "She was my friend. Her blood is on my hands. I will carry her spirit."

>From the Chronicles of the Orb Nymph, by Mistress LaFitz:

The witch queen ordered Stone to lie down beside Rosalita's body, then she unwrapped a parcel tied in oilskin and lay the contents on the floor before her -- stones, bones, feathers, jewels and other objects. Kneeling down, the witch queen poured something into a stone bowl and set it on fire, filling the room with the smell of incense. Then she closed her eyes, raised the staff and passed it over the two bodies while she chanted. As the incense filled the room, she moved items about, her voice rising and falling in a hypnotic rhythm, the staff almost floating in the air.

Outside, night had descended, and the sky crackled with lightening. Candles in the room were blown to darkness by a wind that whipped and wailed through the house. The mariners shook with
fear, huddled together in corners with their backs to the wall, and peered about in the dark for signs of spirits. All drew away except Ursula, Widgit and Luis. The three of them stood guard over the bodies of Stone and of poor Rosalita, like ancient gargoyles in the moonlight.

The darker the room grew, the louder became Widgit's chanting, until a ghostly form could be seen rising like a vapor from the dead woman. It lie still, as if on a bed of air, and then it curled around the scepter like a snake. Those who dared to open their eyes could not make out a specific form, and when asked to describe it later, could only remember a cloud of soft light moving and stretching as if being pulled apart by a breeze.

The chanting grew louder, and the form twisted and turned, as if trying to escape the witch's hex. Then it coiled up into a small ball and descended
into Stone's body, entering her through her navel. Stone gasped as icy fingers moved along her spine, up her neck and into her brain. Suddenly, Rosalita was there, sharing Stone's mind and screaming obscenities at her. Stone screamed and fainted.

The wind and lightening stopped; murmurs began to rise in the room, and someone lit a torchier. As the mariners relaxed, they crowded about, waiting for something more to happen; but Ursula, afraid of what Stone would go through when she awoke, had Luis remove the pirate to an upstairs bedroom and sit with her until she should wake. Then Ursula turned the staff over to Emerald for safe keeping and ordered the rest to bed for the night, pondering what the morning would bring.