A Riddle in Ruby Read Online Free PDF Page A

make sure to check my valuables in the cargo hold. We don’t want anything waylaid.”
    Ruby caught the faintest whiff of sarcasm in the boy’s voice. She dug her fingers into the edge of the folding seat where she was sitting, fighting to keep her eyes on the pudding.
    â€œWaylaid? Oh, no, Lord Athen, those days are long behind us,” her father reassured. “This crew battled its fair share in the teeth of the warring sea, but that was years ago. Now we carry travelers, not sixteen-pounders.”
    She wanted to scream. How easily he lied. She shoveled another spoonful into her mouth. She had spent thirteen years on this ship, and Wayland Teach had been repeating this tired old spiel for at least as long. He only seemed a pirate. They were smugglers, no more. Sneak into portwith a hold of tobacco or rum. Do their business. Move along to the next port with the next shipment.
    â€œAnd what of your famous brother, Captain? What is it like to be the brother of Blackbeard the Pirate?”
    Teach puffed up, ready to launch into his favorite lie, the one with the walrus and the powder keg. The hooks that held the makeshift table into the wall groaned as he planted his hands, leaning across it. “Well, sir,” he said.
    â€œIt is a hard thing, sir, to be brother to a legend.” It rumbled out of Ruby from somewhere deep. “To be Blackbeard’s brother is to fly ahead of a firestorm with an iron anchor cutting into the sea floor below ye! Nowhere to turn, demons and krakens to port, the crown and all the iron angels of the Royal Society to starboard! Why, there was one time—”
    â€œRuby.”
    â€œPaw, I must tell the story of the walrus! This beastie, you see, had tusks the size of birch trees, and—”
    â€œAruba.” Sometimes the captain’s voice could sear.
    The door to the cabin burst open. Skillet’s slight frame blocked very little of the wind and rain that rushed pasthim. Hunched under an oilskin slicker, Gwath appeared a moment later.
    The little man raised his voice above the howl of the gale behind him, “Mawk needs you at the helm, Captain!” he yelled. “It’s coming on out here!”
    â€œSo be it!” Teach roared. “Stow the chow and finery, Skillet. Lord Athen, I trust we’ll continue another time. Gwath, help the gentleman and his man to their cabin. Aruba, bide here, lass.”
    The stuffy little room burst into action. Skillet and Gwath scurried in to break down the table, and her father danced around them and out into the blow without a second word. She kept her head down and pretended to help clear the table as Gwath ushered Lord Athen and Rodent Boy (what kind of name was Cram?) out the door.
    Her only company the wind and the rain, she breathed and straightened, shaking the tension out of her shoulders. Another storm weathered. The Thrift rolled hard, and Ruby braced herself against the wall.
    One of the table legs rolled onto her foot. She grabbedit to stow it, but her hand closed on leather, not wood. It was the scabbard of a sword, with a bronze-capped hilt. It wasn’t her father’s sword. He carried a cutlass.
    Then the door opened. She might have turned away, but it happened too fast. She took a step back, and cold brine splashed her face. The cut under her eye burned from the salt. Lord Athen was there, staring at her. He had swung into the room, one gloved hand on the doorframe, the other outstretched. “Quick, boy, hand me that.” She held it out instinctively, and he grabbed it and launched himself into the storm. It was only after she closed the door after him that Ruby realized what he had said.

CHAPTER 6
    ALL AUGUST TRAVELERS
    En route to and from Atlantic ports,
    who wish to voyage in Style, Grace, and Comfort
    WITH TRUE PIRATES!
    Call upon Kevin, known as the Walrus, No. 8 Dale Street.
    Inquire at dusk or after.
    â€”Advertisement, Delaware River docks
    T he gale had come