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Katrina flicked on the light, illuminating it over the space where his fingers trailed. Now I could see it. Barely. There was some sort of engraved inscription, also caked with decades worth of rotting mud and remnants of insects. I squeezed myself in between them and used my sleeve to clean it off, just enough to make it legible. It was two numbers that sent chills through my bones.
18° 27’57” N, 66° 6’13” W
“Well, what does that mean?” Noah said. I held up a hand, unable to hear myself think. I trudged back to the top of the cave entrance, giving my surroundings one more glance before I said out loud what was stirring in my mind.
Drawing in a breath, I paced a bit, stewing on the numbers, taking them in with their chilling familiarity as her voice rang like a bell in my thoughts.
“I love you 18 times 66, as far as North to West.”
Serena.
“They’re coordinates,” I finally said, my back still to a confused Katrina and Noah.
Katrina weaved her way up the fragments of stony, vine-covered ground and took up a position beside me. She held her eyes on me. When I finally looked up, those eyes burned into me beneath a tensed forehead, desperate for an explanation beyond my simple two words.
“Bastian must’ve left them as a clue to where he’s gone. A clue only a pirate would understand.”
“Hold up,” Noah stepped alongside me. “You are not telling us this means we have to hunt him down somewhere else after we came all this way.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t set the path, mate. I just follow it.” I balked at my own words. Because given the chance to forge the path I wanted to be on…back to Serena…I didn’t know how well I’d be able to stay on the current one. I’d try though. Because Milo needed us. Katrina needed me.
“So we sail on?” Katrina urged. “Where exactly do those coordinates take us?”
I glanced down, noticing at last the pressed stone we stood on. Ivy curled around it like snakes coiling through the mossy cracks. I nudged Katrina, asking her to step aside, revealing the remains of an intricate carving of a compass with mosaic tiles of shell and metallic stone.
“From here…” I uttered. “Oh forget it…Someone pull up a map on your phone.”
Noah handed me his cellphone, a digital display of the world at my fingertips lighting up the screen. What we once worked so hard to memorize, chart, and track was now available at the press of a button. No longer drawings, but now photos of the real thing, as though we were larks overhead with a bird’s eye view of the entire world. In some way, it saddened me. What was left to explore?
I studied the map, pinpointing where we stood, and followed the coordinates as they would lead. “Interesting.” I grumbled under my breath.
“What? What is it?” Katrina was practically leaning over my shoulder to see what I saw.
“The good news is it’s probably only a week away if the sea is on our side and the weather stays fair.”
“The bad news?” Katrina pressed.
“The weather is never fair west to east through the Caribbean Sea. Rough waters and upwinds the whole way.”
“What’s east of here? Where are we heading next, then?” Noah asked. It was almost entertaining stringing them along like this. I looked at them both before answering, building the suspense just a bit longer.
“A little blip in San Juan, Puerto Rico.”
12
Return of the Albatross
Katrina
“This is literally a building surrounded by souvenir shops and bars,” Noah argued, staring at the phone after Bellamy returned it to his hand.
“And?” Bellamy shot Noah a glance with a furled brow and eyes that looked on the verge of rolling. “After everything you’ve seen you still think there may not be more than what you realize under the surface?”
“Fair enough,” Noah clicked his tongue and looked away. I didn’t blame him for his bitter attitude towards it all. A wave of frustration crested within me. We’d come all this way for nothing. And now we had to set out again. With my mom on board and with time running out.
“Do we have enough fuel for that?” I asked, trying to mask the worry in my voice.
“We should have enough using what’s left in the tank and using some from the reserve we brought.” Bellamy scratched his head, squinting as a ray of golden sun broke through the forest ceiling and hit his face.
