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“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.
