-Chapter One-
Singapore
"…The bell has been raised from its watery grave; hear its sepulchral tone? A call to all, pay heed to the squall, and turn your sails towards home." I sung softly, while paddling my small boat through the murky waters under the walkways of Singapore. Military soldiers patrolled the lonesome streets. "Yo ho, haul together, hoist the colours high." As my boat drifted to a small Singapore dock, I slipped the rope around a wooden stub and slowly climbed out. The air was musty and hot, causing sweat to touch my face. "Heave ho thie―"
"Thief and beggar, never say we die!" Finished a male's voice. I spun around, startled, to face a chinese man, with worn skin and a wounded face.
"Dangerous song to be singing, for anyone ignorant of its meaning. Particularly a woman, particularly a woman alone." The man carried on. I was about to give him a piece of my mind, when a familiar voice rang out.
"What makes you think she's alone?" Barbossa walked down the stone steps and onto the dock of which we were standing.
"You protect her?" The chinese man asked, stubbornly. Sick of the nonsense that was going on, I pressed my dagger against the man's throat.
"And what makes you think I need protecting?" I whispered in his ear.
"Your master's expectin' us. An unexpected death would cast a slight paul on our meeting." Barbossa said. I released the man from my grip and lower my dagger. Suddenly, British soldiers pass on the path just above us, so we press ourselves against the wall, attempting to hide. The man beckoned to us from under a nearby bridge. Barbossa and I glanced at each other before deciding to risk it and follow him.
The man—which his name, I found was Tai Huang—was soon joined by more chinese men who led us through the eerie streets.
"Have you heard anything from Elizabeth?" I asked Barbossa, hopefully. I hadn't seen my sister for ages, and I hoped she was alright.
"I trust Miss. Swann and young Turner to acquire the charts, and you to remember your place in the presence of Captain Sao Feng."
"Is he really that terrifying?"
"He's much like myself, but absent my merciful nature and sense of fairplay." He answered. I smirked. After making our way past, cheap stores and poor street folk playing tunes on their half-broken instruments, we arrived at the entrance to Sao Feng's hideout. Someone on the other side of the doors slid open a small hatch.
"Hoi." Tai answered quickly and the doors creaked open. Slowly Barbossa and I walked through. We entered a smallish room, with a small wooden table. Tai Huang ordered Barbossa to remove all his weapons, he passed them to me, and I chucked them heavily down on the table. When he was finished I made a move to pass Tai but he held up his dirty hand to stop me and looked at Barbossa.
"You think because she is a woman we would not suspect her of treachery?"
"Well, when you put it that way."
"Remove, please." Tai Huang said to me. I rolled my eyes and reluctantly took off my hat and outer coat, to reveal my leather harness, full of guns, pistols, and grenades. I pulled out the pistols and guns and dumped them on the table, then pulled out the grenade and threw it up in the air and caught it before plonking it down. All the men's eyes were on me, quite shocked. I smirked and reached into my boot and pulled out a large gun. When I was finished I made another move to pass Tai but again he stopped me.
"Remove…" He smiled slyly at me. "… Please." I stared at him in horror and very reluctantly removed my pants.
Self-consciously I tugged my blue shirt down, hoping to cover as much of my legs as possible. Men lounged in steaming baths, fungus and mushrooms growing on their skin. I stared at them, disgusted. The air was humid, causing sweat to wash my face, I tucked the dark strands of my hair that had fell out from my plait.
"Captain Barbossa. Welcome to Singapore." A bald chinese man greeted. He had a darkened beard and a scar the stretched all the way down the side of his face. This must be Sao Feng. Barbossa bowed and gave me the cue to do so too. "More steam." He commanded to a woman on the left of him. "I understand you have a request to make of me." Sao Feng walked up to us.
"More of a proposal to put to ye." Barbossa answered. "I have a venture underway and happen to find myself in need of a ship and a crew."
"This is an odd coincidence." Sao said, scratching his scalp with his unusually long fingernails.
"Because you happen to have a ship and a crew you don't need?" I asked, hopefully.
"No." He replied. "Because, earlier this day, not far from here, two thieves broke into my most revered uncles' temple and tried to make off with these." He held up the charts. "The navigational charts. The route to the farthest gate. Wouldn't it be amazing if this venture of yours took you to the world beyond this one?" I gulped, because that was exactly what we planned to do.
"It would strain credulity at that." Barbossa said. Sao Feng motioned to his men who pulled out two people from a largetub of hot water. A soaked Will and Elizabeth appeared, breathing heavily. My heart sped up, No… It can't be…
"These are the thieves." Sao pointed at Will and my sister. "Are their faces familiar to you?" Barbossa and I shook our heads.
"Then I guess they have no further need for it." Sao pulled out two wooden weapons and made to kill Elizabeth and Will. I gasped. Sao put the weapons away and smiled. I slowly lowered my hands from my mouth, realising what I had done. "So, you come into my city, and betray my hospitality."
"Sao Feng, I assure you, I had no idea…" Barbossa started before Sao cut him off.
"That he would get caught! You intend to attempt a voyage to Davy Jones' Locker. When I cannot help but wonder… why?" Barbossa tossed a piece of eight to Sao Feng who caught it and placed it to his ear.
"The song has been sung. The time is upon us. We must convene to the Brethren Court. As one of the nine pirate lords you must honor the call."
"More steam." Sao ordered. The women pulled the lever but no steam came out. "More steam!" A gush of hot steam ran through the room as Sao Feng spoke again.
"There's a price on our heads, it is true. Since it seems that the only way a pirate can turn a profit anymore is betraying other pirates…"
"… The first Brethren Court gave us rule of the seas. That rule has been challenged by Lord Cutler Beckett." Barbossa said.
"Against the East India Trading Company, what value is the Brethren Court? What can any of us do?" Sao Feng scoffed. I stepped forward.
"You can fight!" I argued as a man grabbed my shoulder, but I shook free of him. "Get off me! You are Sao Feng, the pirate lord of Singapore!" I felt anger boil inside me.
"… Would you have that era come to an end on your watch? The most notorious pirates from around the world are uniting against our enemy, and yet you sit here, cowering in your bath water!" Sao Feng looked at me with interest and stepped forward. I stepped back, not liking this man at all.
"Rosabelle Swann… there is more to you that meets the eye, isn't there." He circled me, and I stood still, uncertainly. "And the eye does not go wanting." Sao turned back to Barbossa. "But I cannot help but notice, you have failed to answer my question. What is it you seek in Davy Jones' Locker?"
"Jack Sparrow." Will cut in, speaking for the first time. The two women giggled. "He's one of the pirate lords." My heart filled with sorrow when I thought of him… and in that horrible isolated place. Sao Feng, however, tensed up and anger flashed in his eyes.
"The only reason I would want Jack Sparrow returned from the land of the dead… is so I can send him back myself!" He kicked over a table in frustration and Barbossa walked up to him.
"Jack Sparrow holds one of the nine pieces of eight. He failed to pass it along to a successor before he died. So we must go and get him back."
"So, you admit you have deceived me." Sao Feng said. "Weapons!" Men jumped from their baths, clutching swords and guns and pointed them at us.
"Sao Feng, I assure you, our intentions are strictly honorable." Barbossa persuaded. Just then, swords flew into our hands from beneath the floorboards. Oh, great… Sao Feng held his knife to a man's neck.
"Drop your weapons or I kill the man." I looked closely at the man who was threatened. He wasn't our man.
"Kill him. He's not our man." Barbossa answered, speaking my mind.
"If he's not with you, and he's not with us… who's he with?" Will stated. At that moments a storm of East India Trading Company flooded through into the hideout, firing shots at everyone. I gripped the two swords in my hand and cut down the men charging at me, fighting my way out into the streets of Singapore. I felt shots fly past me, as I made my way to the dock. Explosions blasted houses and pathways to smithereens and frightened shrieks filled the air. Suddenly, a bomb blew up, not far from where I was fighting and the force pushed me into the greenish water. Annoyed, I pulled myself onto the stone dock and found Barbossa, Elizabeth and the rest of the crew gathered around Will who was leading a group of chinese men.
"You got the charts?" Barbossa asked, surprised.
"And better yet, a ship and a crew." Will answered. He said it as if it was nothing, but I couldn't help but wonder that him acquiring the charts that quickly was suspicious.
"Where's Sao Feng?" I asked Will, walking over to my sister.
"He'll cover our escape and meet us at Shipwreck Cove."
"This way," Tai Huang beckoned. "Be quick." Will put his arm around Elizabeth's waist as we began to walk to our newly acquired ship.
I walked up to Tia Dalma who was leaning on the railing of the ship.
"There's no place left for Sao Feng to cower." I said, looking over at the destroyed hideout and burning streets. "Do you think he will honor the call?" Tia gazed thoughtfully into the night sky.
"I cannot say. There is an evil on these waters that even the most staunch and bloodthirsty pirates have come to fear."
