Prologue

A ship cuts into the calm sea like a knife, sharp and easily as it moves through the never ending cave. Those aboard are silent as they pass through the dark sky, feeling suffocated and afraid more than greed. They are all afraid to say anything, make a noise or sudden movement while they search for land. They have been sailing without end, just as they were warned.

One sailor, a young boy, is shaking with his hand wrapped around miraculous gold that shines even in the darkness. His eyes roll to the back of his skull and he opens his dry, cracked lips that taste of salt and nothing else. His voice echos in the cave eerily while he begins to sing:

Ho, she comes,

No sound, no breath,

The hands, the sail, all bound for death,

Lean, heave, say ye prayers,

For here, comes she,

At Hell's great gates…

The boy is silenced by a creak in the ship's bow while they enter . No man makes a sound while the ship stops. They're captain is crouched by the ship's helm and is praying for his soul while counting the beads of his rosary.

They don't have time to close their eyes from their own deaths as they fall to the abyss. The gold follows them, dropping toward the deep and reflecting their faces as they scream so they may see their sin.

Chapter 1

The market is going about its own business, bread being sold, smiles exchanged, when a very loud explosion erupts from Don Marquez's manor nearby. There is dead silence following the explosion and the people in the market just stare, frozen in place at the strange occurrence that has begun to produce black smoke from openings of the manor. Suddenly, deep yells in rough and angry Spanish come from the manor that all recognize as the cruel Don Marquez's followed by his wife's shrill and silly scream.

The second floor window to the Don's manor opens and Jack Sparrow jumps out of it, landing ungracefully to the front lawn. He bows to the Don's wife and puts his hat back on.

"Thanks very much," he says though and her heart goes aflutter. The Don bursts from the front door with a pistol in hand. He shoots at the pirate and narrowly misses as Jack ducks.

Jack runs from the angry Don who is screaming in Spanish still as they approach the Don's stable. The Don breaks open the stable door and looks for Jack ferociously. Jack, cradling the sensitive belly of a mare, is slipping. When the Don turns his head, Jack jumps on the grey mare and throws a bucket at the Don who drops to the floor.

Jack smiles. "I'm taking your other mare for a ride," Jack says as he rides off, ignoring the Don's curses.

Jack begins to ride for the gate that would soon lead to the port. He is grinning until he turns a corner and Spanish soldiers are standing before him, guns posed.

"Oh, bugger," Jack mutters. He smiles at them and they strengthen their pose.

A gunshot it heard and the tarp above the group of soldiers suddenly falls. Jack looks around, but takes advantage of the fact they were struggling with the tarp. Jack turns the horse to the other direction and feels a shift in weight as a foot it put in the stirrup.

"Ride!" an unfamiliar male voice says as the person is already on the horse behind Jack.

Jack follows the person's orders and goes on, the horse resisting to the speed. The soldiers have finally broken free and begin to shoot at Jack and his passenger.

"Turn left up ahead!" the voice says behind him. Jack feels the body turn around so they were back to back. His passenger begins to shoot at the soldiers on the back of the horse, reloading every other shot. Jack is impressed.

"Turn left!" the person orders again. "Turn left!"

Jack doesn't listen this time and goes straight. His passenger is still shooting and yelling.

"Idiot!" the person yells. "Left is the one you don't hold your pistol with!"

Jack doesn't listen and heads forward. He aims the horse toward the wooden ramp that rides up the side of a house and eventually over to the port. He runs the horse up the ramp and the mare jumps, causing Jack's passenger to grab hold of the horses' ass. They land in the middle of the port and Jack swings easily off the horse. He looks up and sees his passenger, cloaked and hugging the tired and gagging horse's rump.

"I can't imagine that being too comfortable," he says. "Unless, you've been lonely for a while."

The passenger sighs and let go of the horse, swinging down to the floor. Jack turned away from the passenger, knowing if the person wanted to save Jack, they would follow him, too. Sure enough, as Jack struts toward a pub where a very drunk man is pushed out, throwing up on the street at midday.

"Jack Sparrow," the unfamiliar voice says, taking off his cloak and displaying his tanned and youthfully handsome face. A long scar ran down the side of his cheek beginning on his cheekbone and ending at his defined jaw.

Jack frowns, turns and puts on a forced smile. "Ah, yes," he says standing where his is. "Great to see you…you."

"We've never met," the man says.

Jack waves this away and struts into the pub, taking a bottle of rum from an unbalanced man's hand. He drinks it and the man follows him.

"And it's Captain Jack Sparrow," Jack says as he drapes his arm over a woman with extreme cleavage. She looks at smiles at him, displaying rotted teeth.

"You don't seem to have a ship," the man rebukes, smirking in a familiar way. Jack smiles back sarcastically.

"Ah, that's where you're wrong," Jack says walking away from the disappointed whore and sitting in a chair, another woman dangling her bosom in his face. "I do have a ship, I just lack the ability to sail it."

The man sits down across from him and takes a sadly abandoned bottle of rum from the table next to them and begins to drink.

"Regardless," the man says. "I understand you intend to set sail."

Jack, against regular character, waves away the whore on his shoulder. "And what would lead you to understand that, boy?"
The man raises his brow, obviously not used to being called "boy". Jack smiles.

"Well, it would just be insensitive if I called you something like Scar, now would it?"

The man smirks and drinks more of his rum, licking some remnants off his lips.

"Captain Sparrow," the man says leaning back in his chair. "I'm willing to accompany you to Tortuga, acquire a ship, and sail with you as your ever so faithful first mate."

Jack laughs. "Are you now?" Jack says. "And what makes you so generous?"

"Greed."

Jack is surprised by the man's response. He smiles. "Greed," he says. "There's something worth having. But seeing how it would be an excellent honor for you to sail with me, I see no profit in it for me."

The man smiles and nods. He leans forward, speaking only so Jack would hear. "What do you know of the City of Gold?"

The dagger Jack had stolen from the Don's manor is hot in his coat. It is completely made of gold—right down to the blade. The blade is highly sharp and delicate—deadly when broken in a man's gut. It is said to be sent to Spain by the conquistador Pizzaro...

Jack tries to hide a smile. "El Dorado."

The man leans back again and smirks, reminding Jack again of himself as a young man.

"The captain of the Blood Crowne has a map made by Pizarro himself," he says. "I heard he'll be in Tortuga, searching for more men to crew. I suggest we join and start a mutiny."

Jack has heard of the Blood Crowne and its captain. Captain Glory has quite the reputation which makes Jack speculative. He eyes the man, trying to decipher his motives. "Why have you searched me out?" Jack asks. Not often does he have to ask questions, but this man is cryptic. Much like him.

A flicker of revenge sparks in the man's eye. "Captain Barbossa is searching for El Dorado, too," he says. He smirks, wiping any leads Jack had toward his motives away. "He has a new first mate-a woman by the name of Angelica."

The last time Jack had seen Angelica was when he left her on that island. He wonders how this man gained such information and intends to find out. "What's your name?"

"Jim Scarlet."

Jack eyes Rook again and smiles for effect. "Well, Mr. Scarlet," Jack says. "I will allow you the honor of being my, as you say, faithful bo'sun as long as when the mutiny arises you don't switch to the winning side as it were."

Though Jack wasn't finished speaking, Jim smiles and reaches his hand out. "Do we have an accord?"

Jack hesitates and looks at the man's hand and his face-a face with ulterior motives and selfishness and treachery-much like his own.

He smiles and shakes Scarlet's hand. "Agreed."