"Pirates on the starboard bow, captain!" shouted Lucinda.

While keeping watch in the crow's nest of the Victory, she had espied the fearsome pirate vessel, the Cut Yer Throat. For they were now traversing the Castilian Main, and pirates there are as common as sparrows in Camden, but far more dangerous.

The captain of the Cut Yer Throat was Filthy Ned, the terror of the high seas, and the blackest-hearted and dirtiest-faced pirate in the world. There were none alive who did not fear him, and there were many dead that Filthy Ned had taught to fear.

"Pirates on the starboard bow!" Lucinda cried again. "It's Filthy Ned, Captain!"

"All hands on deck!" shouted Captain Dene. "Okay men. And Lucinda. Things look pretty bleak, but we'll try to out run the Cut Yer Throat. The Victory is smaller and lighter, and with a steady wind, we have a good chance of making Port Lucia this day."

Captain Dene took the wheel, and the crew worked hard, none harder than Lucinda herself, once she had clambered down from the crow's nest. But no matter how fast the Victory ran for the safe port, the Cut Yer Throat was always snapping at her heels.

At last the dreaded moment came when they were boarded by the fearsome pirate horde of the Cut Yer Throat, led by the black-hearted Filthy Ned, a cutlass between his dirty teeth. This is a very stupid and dangerous thing to do, but pirates care nothing for safety at sea, or anywhere else.

"Avast ye, ye scurvy dogs!" shouted Filthy Ned. "I be taking your ship, and all its cargo."

"Have at you, Ned!" shouted back Captain Dene, and he held up his own sword, which he hadn't stupidly put between his teeth, but carried in his hand like a gentleman.

The captain brandished his sword at Filthy Ned, but the black-hearted pirate cared nothing for this, and only gave an evil grin. You couldn't see it very well from a distance, because his face and his teeth were equally dirty, but it was truly frightening close up.

The captain tried to hold Ned back with his gleaming blade, but the dreaded pirate horde swarmed over the side of Victory. Every man on the ship, and Lucinda, had to fight to save it.

Lucinda fought bravely, taking on three pirates at once, and fighting them bare-handed, throwing all three of them overboard with her mighty arms. And she climbed the rigging, and leapt down upon the pirates like a wild jungle cat. And she picked up a barrel of rum to throw at some more pirates, sending them flying like ninepins.

But mere courage alone is not enough when a small but valiant crew is overtaken by an enormous horde of bloodthirsty pirates. It ended with the stalwart Captain Dene lashed to the mast, helpless to save his ship, and the crew in chains, ready to be sold into the evil trade of slavery.

Filthy Ned was cruellest of all to Lucinda. It might have been because she was a girl, and sailors don't like a female aboard ship. Or it may have been because she threw so many of his crew overboard and fought so desperately. Or perhaps he just liked being bad and black-hearted.

That dastardly pirate, Filthy Ned, tied Lucinda's hands behind her back with rope, and he put the sharp tip of his cutlass in the middle of her back.

"Ye be walkin' the plank, ye biscuit-sucking bilge rat," he spat at Lucinda. "Now walk, wench. And keep walkin', until there be no more plank to walk."

Lucinda held her head high, and gave the dastardly pirate just one scornful look to scupper him, before she replied, "You may force me to walk the plank if you like. But you will be never be a gentleman. And I don't believe you ever clean your teeth, and you're meant to do it twice a day."

"Shiver me timbers, wench," Filthy Ned said roughly. "Face the front, stow yer yap, and start walkin."

Lucinda slowly started walking the wooden plank. She couldn't walk too slowly though, or Filthy Ned would push the tip of his cutlass harder into her back.

Lucinda reached the end of the plank, and looked down into the deep green depths below. It wasn't as high as the cliff, but it was more frightening, because there was a shark in the water at the end of the plank. It snapped its bright white teeth at Lucinda, as if wanting to start biting her straight away.

There was only one thing Lucinda could do. It was the act of a desperate girl, but she took her courage in both hands and bounced on the end of the plank as hard as she could. The pirates shouted at her madly, but she jumped up and down on her powerful legs, higher and higher. Finally she launched herself into the sea, sailing through the air, and landing a long way from the shark.

Lucinda then took her trusty dagger, which she had cleverly concealed in her sleeve, and used it to cut through the rope binding her wrists behind her back while she trod water. The shark found her again, its fin circling Lucinda, just waiting to gobble her all up. And Lucinda didn't have her trusty dagger any more, because it had snapped on the last bit of rope.

The defenceless Lucinda had just decided that she must try to wrestle the shark into submission when a huge grey head appeared out of the water. It was a sea serpent, the largest that ever lived, rising up out of the water like a tall column, many hundreds of feet high. Even the brave Lucinda could not help but feel terrified of this monstrous beast, and felt sure that this was the end for her.

The sea serpent pounced, and ate the shark in one mouthful, before it snapped the Cut Yer Throat in half and sent it to Davy Jones' Locker. As the pirates yelled in fear and rage at the creature, shaking their fists and cutlasses at it, the sea serpent opened its great maw like an endless yawn, and swallowed the Victory whole. It then sank beneath the waves again as if it had never existed.

Lucinda was now alone in the middle of the tropical Caribbean Sea with no land in sight, only water as far as the horizon. Lucinda had no idea what to do next, and she wept for Captain Dene and her companions from the Victory. She didn't weep for the pirates, but it was still a dreadful shock seeing them munched up by a sea monster.

As her salty tears mingled with the sea, Lucinda thought she heard a sound, as soft as the wind sighing, and then it was like the distant cries of gulls. Then she heard it properly, and it was singing, the sweetest song in the world that got into Lucy's blood and made her heart beat faster, and then ... the beautiful mermaid appeared!

All Lucinda's fear left her, and she felt nothing but calm and happy. Her clothes slipped off and sank to the bottom of the sea, for she needed them no longer. She floated on her front, and held out her hands to the beautiful mermaid, who swam to her and grasped them.

"I am Lucinda," she said with a smile.

"My name is Edena," the mermaid said, and her voice was like bubbly music. "Come with me, Lucinda."

They kept holding hands, and soon Lucinda was swimming smoothly through the warm tropical sea beside the mermaid. She barely needed to move her arms and legs, but could swim for miles without tiring.

Lucinda knew not where she was going, and she had lost everything. Yet she had never felt more at peace in her life.