PROLOGUE
1501 Aboard the ship Fuerza

The sound of cannon balls whizzing through the air followed by a few seconds of silence before impact. Then all hell broke loose!

“Just rub the damn bottle and make a fucking wish already!” Genie shoved the iridescent bottle into the tall Captain’s face. ‘If you don’t act NOW, your crew are about to meet their maker in the form of floating ice cubes!’"Genie held the bottle over the man’s dark head. The once elegant, powder, white wig, now looked like a well-used mop. Pieces of red fabric hung from a mass of tangled hair that hung down his lean chest. Nothing like the neat ponytail with rows of ribbon tied into bows. Genie felt like reaching over and yanking the damn thing off to slap the human with it.

"Did you hear me, Captain? You are all going to sink with the ship. We are surrounded and unless you stop pissing yourself and make a god damn wish, I will be stuck forever on the bottom of the frigging Atlantic Ocean!" Genie sensed his powers draining the second he threatened his master.

What was a Genie to do? In extreme circumstances he looked after number one.

The Captain reached up and yanked the bottle out of his hands. He could wish for anything and the Genie would make it a reality. He looked around the burning decks of his ship. It was a gift paid with blood and sweat, which he gladly gave for Queen and country. Now he was under siege for the three thousand weights of gold lying down below deck. Crates of new coin meant for the coffers of his Queen would never reach her if the pirates managed to board his vessel. He would have to take the risk and fight. He held the oblong bottle by the neck and drew his hand back. ‘I command thee back into thine bottle!’

As the words came out Genie crossed his broad arms over his chest and gave a hearty laugh. ‘You didn’t say I wish’.

In a rage, the Captain tossed the bottle toward the giant man’s feet. Genie intercepted the flying bottle before it would have come crashing to the wooden planks that made up the deck of the ship.

‘What is the bloody point in wishing anything? You refuse to rescue my men. You have the power of the almighty god and yet you stand before me now offering nothing. I shall not wish to spare my life, but what I will wish for is this…’

Genie backed away as the Captain walked towards him waving his sword arm in a tight circle. ‘Back into thee bottle,’ Genie’s smile faltered as he looked down at the glowing bottle that began to shake between his hands, ‘because that is what I wish!’

‘Bastaaaaaaaaaaaard!’ Genie’s curse faded away before the slender bottle swallowed his mist form.

For the first time, the Captain felt a small measure of comfort knowing Genie was back in the magic bottle.

Captain Simons reached under his waistcoat and hesitated for a fraction of a second before yanking a gold button off and shoved it into the opening of the bottle like a cork. Satisfied he turned around, tossed the bottle below deck and raced off to help his men defend their ground.