‘I heard the gaijin saved you and your crew,’ said Captain Hebi.

Captain Kurogumo grunted. He clearly had no wish to disclose his inability to ride out a typhoon before the Pirate Queen.

‘A sea anchor, I believe,’ continued Captain Hebi. ‘Ingenious. I must have one made for my ship.’

Tatsumaki raised her right eyebrow in interest. ‘Captain Kurogumo, you never mentioned this.’

‘The boy’s a fine mariner,’ he admitted. ‘And, by all accounts, a talented navigator too. He gave us quite a chase when we first pursued the cargo ship he was on. But we caught him.’

‘Only because of the dragon!’ said Jack, his pride pricked by the captain’s suggestion that he’d been captured through the pirate’s more skilful seamanship.

The Pirate Queen and her captains shared an amused look.

‘Jack, your value is increasing all the time,’ said Tatsumaki. ‘I’m even more intrigued. Where does all this knowledge come from?’

‘My father,’ Jack replied proudly.

‘He was evidently a great man.’

‘He certainly was,’ said Jack. ‘Until Dragon Eye murdered him. But now my enemy’s dead, all I want is to go home.’

The table fell silent at the mention of the infamous ninja’s name. All the Wind Demons appeared unsettled, as if someone had walked across their graves.

In an attempt to break the tension, Li Ling asked, ‘Where’s home?’

‘London, England,’ replied Jack. ‘That’s why we’re headed to Nagasaki. To find a trading ship to take me back.’

‘Why Nagasaki?’ asked Captain Kujira. ‘Osaka has plenty of vessels you could use.’

‘Japanese ships couldn’t handle the open ocean. They sit too low and don’t carry enough sail,’ explained Jack. ‘Only a European galleon can sail that far.’

‘How far is far?’ enquired Captain Hebi.

‘Two years’ sailing. Mostly out of sight of land.’

Captain Kujira whistled through his teeth.

‘I can see now why you value this rutter so highly,’ said Tatsumaki.

Jack nodded. ‘It’s my father’s life work.’

Captain Kujira looked to the Pirate Queen. ‘It’s all well and good possessing such knowledge. But it seems an unnecessarily long and hazardous voyage simply to pirate foreign lands, when we already have a supply of rich pickings on our own shores.’

‘I agree,’ said Captain Wanizame. ‘Any venture would be highly dangerous without the appropriate ships.’

‘We could build some with the gaijin’s help,’ Captain Hebi suggested.

‘He may be a sailor,’ snorted Captain Kurogumo, ‘but I doubt he’s a shipbuilder.’

The Wind Demons continued to debate the prospects and pitfalls of pirating the greater oceans. As the discussion progressed, Jack sensed his value to the pirates rapidly dropping – along with his and his friends’ chances of survival.