The Iron Maiden halted close enough toward the wrecked frigate. One of the crew pushed a plank over the edge of the other ship.

Lucy, Byron, Tashina, and Charles walked across the plank as Ivy climbed back into the crow’s nest. Walton, like a coward, locked himself back inside the brig, where he thought it would be safe. He doesn’t care what cargo the frigate carried.

Kiki preferred to stay in her quarters to wait for further notice. Like Walton, she doesn't want to get eaten by killer mermaids.

On the frigate's deck, Lucy spotted empty barrels on the rusted wood, seaweed on the rails, and the smell of decay drifted through the musky air. Lucy felt like she stepped aboard a ghost ship.

“Where should we look?” The panther warrior asked.

Lucy glanced at the door to the cabin at the back of the ship. “Check everywhere while Charles and I check the cabin quarters.”

“Alright.”

While the party split up, Lucy and Charles approached the cabin. She kicked the door open, releasing a strong earthy stench. Inside, she found a desk covered in yellow scrolls and empty boxes. An empty bookshelf lay on the fractured wooden planked floor and black mold grew across the walls.

It seemed the ship remained in the reef for ages instead of a month. Maybe time was different in the mermaid’s territory.

Lucy opened the drawers below the desk and found nothing. She couldn’t read the wet smudged letters on the yellow paperwork. Maybe nothing important Lucy could read to find the cargo.

“Why did this ship sail through here? Did they know the danger this reef has?” Lucy asked.

Charles opened a rusted safe in the corner. Only tiny crabs crawled out and vanished through the cracks in the walls. He only startled a bit and closed the seal. “They probably didn’t know, or someone chased them here. Walton knows the mermaids better than I do. When they find a ship stranded in the middle of nowhere, they leave nothing behind except things they cannot eat.” He glanced around. “I think this quarter is no use to us.”

Lucy closed the drawers. “We better hope the cargo didn’t fall into the water. If the mermaids collected them, this quest is already a failure.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Charles grimaced.

“Captain! Captain!” Tashina raced into the cabin. “Mi darling find di cargo below di deck!”

“Darling?” Charles asked with a small smirk.

The hyena blushed. “Mi mean Byron… Come! Come!”

*****

Down the stairway, Lucy and her party walked down into the large cargo deck. Byron faced hundreds of wooden containers stacked across the walls like a warehouse. No muck or seaweed coated the boxes. Only the ones on the cracked floorboards received the grime.

Lucy walked toward the panther as her eyes grew at the cargo. “Great sea gods! There is a lot in here!”

“Did you count them?” Charles asked.

Byron turned to them. “A hundred boxes, I think. They are not too heavy.”

Lucy approached a stack and opened one box. She found ten white bottles with corks on each one.

“Is that wise?” Charles peeked over Lucy’s shoulder. “Du Su will not like that if we go nosey through his belongings.”

Lucy glared at him. “I don’t care. We are risking our lives to deliver this cargo to him. If I am going to die, I whether know what I am dying for.”

Charles chuckled. “Now that’s the pirate way.”

Lucy shrugged and picked up a cremated bottle.

One Opium bottle received!

Opium? Lucy opened the bottle and sniffed it. Her nose cringed at the strong ammonia-like scent. “This is opium.”

“I am unfamiliar with that drink,” said Byron.

Charles gazed at the bottles. “It isn’t a drink. It is a drug used to make addicts high and relaxed. Usually, it works when you smoke it inside a hookah. The pandas invented it for medication and medicine. When they traded opium, many islander colonies went insane over the drugs. To stop the chaos, the Imperial Navy illegalized the drugs from spreading. Anyone who sells it will face imprisonment for a long time. I know this because I used to help the navy hunt the dealers. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop the pandas from making them. They had to trade the drugs in secret to continue their illegal businesses. Greedy bears.”

Lucy closed the bottle and placed it back. "If the navy catches us with this cargo, we will never reach Ghost Island."

Charles pursed his lips. "Then we better hope they don't."

"Captain!" Ivy’s voice shouted from above. "You better come up here quick!"

Lucy gulped. What now?

When Lucy returned to the deck on the frigate, her eyes grew wide at the sky, knowing why Ivy called her. The sky faded into a yellowish color, meaning time was close to running out.

“Everyone! Start moving the cargo to the Iron Maiden now!” She ordered. “The rest, get the harpoons and cannons ready! If we move slowly, we will never see daylight again!”