Chapter 3: Ashcombe’s Astrolabe

Chapter 3: Ashcombe’s Astrolabe 

The Ranger sliced through rolling blue swells under a merciless sun. Weeks had passed since Bristol, carrying Edward Teach and Hornigold’s crew far into the warm waters of the West Indies. Salt and wind had toughened Edward’s skin; each morning he woke to foreign skies and the cries of curious seabirds he’d never heard back in England. With every nautical mile, he felt the old life of alleys and hunger peeling away, replaced by something new and full of promise and danger.

Late one afternoon, Hornigold summoned Edward to his cabin. The captain’s quarters were cramped but orderly, a hanging lantern casting a gold glow over charts strewn across a desk. Hornigold stood over them, Israel Hands and Quartermaster Remy at his side. Jack hovered in the shadows by the door, rolling a coin over his knuckles absently. Edward sensed tension in the room at once.

Hornigold tapped a spot on one aged parchment. “Isla de Oro,” he said, finger on a tiny island icon. “A spit of land off the Spanish Main. According to our…source, this is where we’ll find it.”

Edward stepped closer, eyes flicking over the chart. He saw notations in Spanish and an ink sketch of a coastline. “Find what, Captain?”

Remy’s one good eye glinted. “Ashcombe’s Astrolabe, boy.”

At that, Jack drew a sharp breath. Edward had heard whispers among the crew about their true prize, but little detail. “What makes it so special?” he asked quietly.

Hornigold reached into a sea chest and drew out a small object wrapped in ragged cloth. Carefully, he unwrapped it, revealing a broken fragment of what looked like a piece of an ancient astrolabe with tarnished brass etched with strange symbols. “This belonged to Captain Ashcombe, an old pirate who sailed these seas a generation ago. Ashcombe was said to bargain with dark forces. The story goes he crafted an astrolabe that could lead the way to the greatest treasure on earth… or to one’s ultimate destiny. Some claim it led him straight to the pit of hell. Others say it was the reason no navy ship could ever catch him.”

Israel Hands chuckled low in his throat. “Until a typhoon finally did. Sank his ship somewhere off Isla de Oro.”

Hornigold nodded. “Aye, Ashcombe’s ship the Devil’s Heart was lost, but bits of it wash ashore now and then. I bought this fragment off a trader years back.” He held up the broken astrolobe piece. “Ever since, I’ve chased the rest. If we find Ashcombe’s Astrolabe, it could be the key to riches and glory beyond imagination.”

Silence fell. Edward’s gaze drifted to the chart. Riches beyond imagination, the words pulsed in his mind. But also, an astrolabe that led to one’s true and ultimate destiny? He glanced at Hornigold and the others. Did they each silently wonder what such a device might reveal to them?

Quartermaster Remy cleared his throat. “We made port at New Providence for information, and our informant’s note points here.” He tapped Isla de Oro. “Likely wreckage or a hideout where Ashcombe kept his prize.”

Hornigold rolled up the map. “We’ll anchor off Isla de Oro by dawn. I want a small shore party. Remy, you’ll oversee the ship while I’m off.” Then he gave Edward a weighing look. “Teach, you’ll come with me.”

It was an unexpected honor for a newcomer. Edward felt Jack’s eyes on him and a scowl from Israel Hands. But Hornigold evidently trusted Edward’s quick wits.

“Aye, Captain,” Edward said, hoping his voice sounded steadier than he felt.

They quickly reached Isla de Oro with the sunrise. The island was little more than a crescent of white sand and dense green jungle rising behind it. As the Ranger found a safe anchorage, Edward joined Hornigold, Jack, and two burly crewmen in the wooden dinghy. They sailed ashore through a gently lapping surf.

Setting foot on land that hadn’t felt a human tread in years made Edward’s skin prickle. The beach was silent but for rustling palms. A line of black rocks jutted into the water at one end of the beach, forming a natural barrier. Hornigold pointed beyond the tree line. “According to the trader’s note, there’s a cave system inland. That’s our mark.”

They pressed on into the deep jungle. Unknown vines and ferns snagged at their tattered clothes. Mosquitoes whined in Edward’s ears. Jack walked just ahead, cutlass in hand to slash aside undergrowth. Despite the swelter, Edward noticed Jack shiver. “You alright?” he whispered.

Jack gave a tight nod. “Just a feeling… like we’re being watched.”

Edward felt it too. The further they ventured, the more oppressive and thick the air became. It was as if the jungle itself held its last breath.

After an hour or so of trudging, they found it: a gaping maw in a glimmering limestone cliff, half-hidden by hanging vines. Cool, damp air exhaled fiercely from the entrance. Hornigold drew a pistol from his belt and lit a small lantern. “Stay sharp men, we know not what is laying in wait.”

They all stepped inside, boots bounding and echoing on stone. The light gently revealed a musty cavern with walls slick from centuries of water drips. Not too far in, the passage quickly opened into a wider chamber. Edward’s heartbeat quickened when he saw, half-buried in sand and rubble, the rotting timbers of a ship’s hull. The wreck of the Devil’s Heart had been somehow swallowed by this cavern long ago.

Israel Hands let out a low whistle. “Grim place to die.”

Hornigold moved forward intently. He knew what he was looking for. “Spread out. Look for anything that resembles an astrolabe or its pieces.”

They fanned out. Edward and Jack clambered over a collapsed beam. The lantern light danced eerie shadows across the cave. Edward’s foot struck something metal. He bent and brushed sand away to uncover an ornate compass, green with corrosion. Nearby lay scattered coins and the hilt of a cutlass. Relics of the dead crew, perhaps.

Jack nudged Edward and pointed. Amid debris, an object glinted strangely, reflecting the lantern glow. It was an astrolabe, half-buried upright in the sand as if planted there. But it was unlike any Edward had seen: worked with swirling designs of sea serpents and infernal faces.

“Captain!” Edward called softly.

Hornigold was at his side in an instant. He knelt and lifted the astrolabe out of the sand. It was astonishingly intact, glass face unbroken, points marked in elaborate script. Hornigold’s hands trembled ever so slightly. “After all these years…”

Suddenly, a rasping sound echoed from deep in the wreck. Jack swung around, blade raised. Edward tightened his grip on his dagger.

From the shadows, a shape lurched a human like figure, clothes in tatters, skin greyed and stretched taut. One of the crewmen yelled in surprise. It was a corpse, animated by some foul luck, dragging itself forward from where it must have been pinned under wreckage. Its eyes were empty sockets, jaw hanging slack.

“God save us,” Israel Hands breathed, crossing himself.

The corpse slumped free of a beam with a wet ripping sound and collapsed at Hornigold’s feet, motionless once more. Perhaps it had only shifted as the wreck settled, not truly risen. But the sight left them all shaken.

Hornigold recovered first. He tore a scrap of cloth from the corpse’s rotted sleeve and wrapped it around the ancient astrolabe, then stowing the device. “We have what we need. Back to the boat, double time men.”

None needed convincing. They hurried out, Hornigold guarding his prize as if it might vanish. Edward and Jack brought up the rear, both casting wary glances over their shoulders at the darkness.

Only when the cave was far behind and the fresh breeze of the beach hit their faces did the tightness in Edward’s chest ease. He hadn’t even realized he’d been holding his breath.

Back aboard the Ranger that afternoon, Hornigold revealed the astrolabe to the assembled crew. The men pressed in, marveling and murmuring at its devilish craftsmanship. Some made warding signs. When Hornigold held the astrolabe, its concentric rings trembled, then slowly rotated with a faint grinding sound. Runes aligned. A soft line of light etched itself southeast, out toward the open sea. Toward something unseen.

“Ashcombe’s Astrolabe will bring us eternal glory and a legacy unmatched by any pirate.” Hornigold said, his voice hushed with reverence. “What is to be found beyond will be like no adventure and treasure you could ever dream.”

A cheer rose from the crew, though unease clung to its edges. Edward stood beside Jack, unable to shake the image of the dead sailor clawing from the wreck, nor the unnatural way the device had come to life in Hornigold’s hands.

As the crew dispersed to their tasks, Jack leaned close.

“Do you think it truly reveals adventure and treasure? Or just where death and torment reside in eternal darkness?”

Edward had no answer. He only knew the astrolabe had chosen a direction, and they were bound to it. As the Ranger caught the evening wind broadside and turned southeast under a darkening sky, a cold certainty settled deeply into his bones. The artifact was no longer dormant. It was wide awake. To whatever path it opened, there would be no turning back.