Disclaimer: Pirates of the Caribbean belongs to Disney and Gore Verbinski. Captain Cinders is mine.
Chapter 2: Wildfire
Things remained oddly quiet and civil until the second day at sea. Lucinda had let her first mate Young Muddy steer. Muddy earned the nickname because he tended to fall in the mud unloading the ship at various ports. The captain had moved over to the railing on the lower deck, resting her forearms on it. Elizabeth walked over to her and leaned on the railing as well.
"May I ask you a question, Captain Cinders?" the younger woman began.
The other nodded. "I don't see why not."
"Were you and Barbossa more than acquaintances at one time?" Elizabeth inquired.
Lucinda raised an eyebrow. "Miss Swann, I don't think I understand what yer askin' so if ya don't mind spellin' it out plainly…"
"Barbossa told Will that you were an old flame," Elizabeth stated.
Lucinda chuckled. "Did he now? Don't be worryin' about that. It's an old joke between us. Because I tend to play with fire, he calls me an 'old flame,' and because of his crotchety nature, I call him an old sea dog. We were never anything romantic, if that's what ya ment." Despite the older woman's truthful tone, Elizabeth had her doubts and eyed the woman skeptically before speaking.
"Romance with pirates is a bad thing," Elizabeth said quietly.
"Does that comment have anything to do with Sparrow?" Lucinda probed.
Elizabeth bit her lip and did not respond for a moment. "It's my fault that he's gone. I made a decision for him and let the kraken get him."
Lucinda sighed and shook her head. "First of all, ya shouldn't be forcin' pirates into anything. And aren't ya attached to Mr. Turner? Furthermore- wait, did you say 'kraken'?"
The younger woman nodded. "The former commodore we're after, Norrington, has Davy Jones' heart and the kraken got Jack-" the captain did not let her finish.
"Davy Jones?" Lucinda said the name like it was a set of epithets. "He's involved in this?" she left the railing and began pacing. "Then why… that's why he needed my ship!" she exclaimed.
Stomping toward her cabin, she pounded on the door. "Hector Barbossa, you open this bloody door right now! I want some answers!"
Barbossa had been charting a course on the map in the room and headed over to the door. He swung it open hard enough to jar the wall. "Woman, if you're going to yell loud enough to wake the undead, then ask questions outright!"
She calmed down slightly and spoke through gritted teeth. "What the bloody hell is going on with Davy Jones? Why didn't ya tell me about him sooner?"
He stepped close to her and she took a step back. "You of all people know that ya don't get answers when ya don't ask the specific questions. You never asked about Davy Jones, so I figured I didn't have to be tellin' ya yet. Norrington took his heart, which as we all know is cursed, and we need to retrieve it. The other part is that the kraken ate Jack."
Her arms were crossed in front of her and she continued to glare at him. Then he held out an apple and she took it. "Don't think that I see this as any sort of appeasement. I know now exactly why ya needed my ship: the kraken is allergic to the barnacles on the bottom."
As she ate the apple he continued. "The problem is that we need to find him in order to find Jack. Say, didn't ya tell me that since it's yer ship, yer the one who's steerin'?"
Glancing over at her first mate, she waved him off the wheel and took it as Barbossa followed her. "I have my first mate steer once in a while," she replied in her normal tone. Then she looked out at the sea as she began steering, glaring at it.
"Something tells me that you've had dealin's with Davy Jones before," he observed.
"I'd like ta ring that inky neck of his, or feed his peg leg to the kraken. He and I had a run-in the last time his ship could dock. The man, no, creature stole half my crew. The only reason my ship was intact was because the kraken won't go near it. He almost had me on his ship too, but I beat him at his own game," she explained.
"What do ya mean?" Barbossa inquired.
She adjusted the wheel slightly. "Jones has this game with dice and I just beat him at it's all. And you, where have you been for the last ten years?"
He glanced out on the sea and smirked. "Ah Lucinda, that's a rather long story. The short version's that I caused a mutiny, ended up with a curse from Aztec gold, and was nearly dead for a while."
She chuckled and shook her head. "And I thought you'd been in prison all that time."
"Afraid not, I've got better things to do."
"When I saw ya as Sparrow's first mate, I knew that ya looked out of place and wouldn't be there long. So where're we headed first on this adventure of yers?" she continued.
Barbossa turned and spied Will. "Mr. Turner, would you care to tell the lady where it is that we're headed?"
Will stepped up by the wheel. "We are headed to the office of a man named Beckett, in Port Royal, but before that, Singapore."
Lucinda's brow furrowed and she slammed a fist down on the rail after throwing her apple core overboard. "I'm cursed to run into past acquaintances," she glowered.
"So you know Beckett?" Barbossa probed.
The woman huffed and pulled her black hair to one side. Then she took off her coat and pulled down the collar of her shirt to reveal a 'P' between her shoulder blades. She then redressed herself after hearing a gasp from Elizabeth. "Ya could say that I know that bottom dweller, Beckett. I'd like ta feed him to the kraken."
Barbossa cleared his throat. "Might I ask how he managed ta-"
"It's not what yer thinkin' Hector. Wouldn't have been exposed except I'd been whipped first. Beckett caught one of my crew hidin' the pirate flag. Instead of hangin' me, he wanted something that I had no intention of sharin' with him, so he let me be whipped and branded. The only reason any of us got away was because he had underestimated my abilities and found himself with a few fires to put out."
"And Singapore?" Will inquired.
Lucinda chuckled and looked at Barbossa, who seemed to share in some private joke as he smirked. Will and Elizabeth stepped down from the bow and helped the crew with a few ropes as they adjusted the sails. "You should be rememberin' Singapore. I do," Lucinda mentioned coyly.
Barbossa grinned fiendishly. "Of course I remember. Ya set fire to the whole port last time." As their eyes met, suddenly the two were playing an old game that made every word spark. After all, eleven years was a long time.
Hector Barbossa succumbed to no woman.
Lucinda Tavish succumbed to no man.
Yet he remembered how stunning she had looked in candle light. She remembered that he had charm when he chose to use it. Two painfully stubborn pirates had joined forces in a haze of incense, bamboo, and fireworks. And the whole matter was no one else's business.
Lucinda backed away and glanced over her shoulder to watch Elizabeth and Will, then turned back to Barbossa. "What's the story on those two, Miss Swann and Mr. Turner? I can tell Miss Swann is at least a governor's daughter because of how she carries herself, despite the fact that she looks like a cabin boy. Mr. Turner works with his hands a great deal, which means he's either a blacksmith or a carpenter."
"She's a governor's daughter and he's a blacksmith, but how did ya know that?" Barbossa confirmed as he studied the woman.
"I'm observant. What I want ta know is why they're here. It's plain ta anyone with eyes that those two aren't pirates," Lucinda pointed out.
The old pirate sighed, as if trying to withhold something. "From what I've learned, both of them have business with Beckett and it's because they let Sparrow go a while back."
Comprehension dawned on Lucinda's face. "Do ya mean to tell me that ya brought people that Beckett's lookin' for on my ship?" He nodded and she glared at him mercilessly. "I can't believe I let ya talk me into this! Since I saw ya, I've learned that we're tryin' ta rescue Sparrow, we need ta see Davy Jones, we need ta get the heart from Beckett, and now ya tell me that I've got wanted people on my ship! Is there anything else I should know about?"
"No, I believe you've covered it," he stated.
"Let's just hope that despite you bein' a mutineer, ya still keep yer word with me," she spat.
In contrast to her obvious irritation he chuckled. "I value what's left of my life enough not to be makin' that mistake. The honest truth is that you were always quicker with the sword."
To his surprise she smiled genuinely. "I've missed you, ya old sea dog," she conveyed.
He rested his right hand over her left briefly. "I've missed you too, ya trouble-makin' fire starter."
"How long 'till we reach Singapore?" she inquired.
"We'll probably get there by sundown tomorrow," he replied.
She left the wheel and called her first officer back. "We've got many things ta do in preparation then if we need ta disguise Turner, Swann, you, me, and the ship," she reminded.
As she was heading to her cabin to look for one of her other flags, the all too familiar noise of a ship rising out of water off to the port side caught her attention. The gnarled frame of the Flying Dutchman came into view and she turned toward Barbossa.
"I suppose yer going ta tell me that ya invited him here," she seethed, glaring at him