-Chapter Seven-
The Brethren Court
The room went silent for a few seconds after Barbossa had finished his speech, but then a thunderous uproar broke out among the pirates. Everyone started to yell at each other either for or against Calypso's releasing.
"Shoot him!" The spanish man called, pointing at Barbossa.
"Cut out his tongue!" The african pirate shouted.
"Shoot him and cut out his tongue, then shoot his tongue! And trim that scraggly beard." Jack put in, making me smirk.
"Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa!" Tai Huang called out from behind me.
"Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now!" The african pirate declared.
"And it's not likely her mood's improved." Jack muttered.
"I would still agree with Sao Feng, we release Calypso!" The spanish man argued.
"You threaten me?" A french lord with a curly blonde wig accused, loudly.
"I silence you!" The spanish man retorted, and got shoved over by the frenchman. A gunshot fired into the air, and the court began to fight, sliding each other over tables, punching or shooting blindly, and yelling at the top of their lungs.
"This is madness." I stated, in disbelief.
"This is politics." Jack corrected, and I glanced at him in incredulity.
"Meanwhile our enemies are bearing down upon us." I said.
"If they not be here already." Barbossa rolled his eyes.
After a few minutes of chaos, Barbossa stood on the table and fired a shot to gather everyone's attention.
"It was the first court that imprisoned Calypso, and we will be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude she will see it fit to grant us boons!"
"Whose boons? Your boons?" Jack asked. "Utterly deceptive twaddle speak, says I."
"If you have a better alternative, please, share." Barbossa derided.
"Cuttlefish." Jack stated, simply, I looked at him rather confused. "Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish. Flippant glorious little sausages. Pen 'em up together and they'll devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, isn't it… or… or… fish nature." Jack placed his hand on Mistress Ching's shoulders, and I wondered what in the world was he up to. "So yes, we could hole up here well provisioned and well armed and half of us would be dead within the month, which seems rather grim to me any way you slice it. Or, as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we could release Calypso, and we can pray she will be merciful. I rather doubt it. Can we in fact pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned, like which fury hell hath no? We cannot. Res ispo loquitur tabula in naufragio, we are left with but one option. I agree, and I cannot believe the words are comin' out of me mouth, Captain Swann. We must fight!" I smiled at him, gratefully, as he finished his slightly confusing speech.
"You've only ever run from a fight!" Barbossa argued, and I scowled at him.
"I have not!" Jack retorted.
"You have too!"
"Have not!"
"You have too!"
"Have not!"
"You have too, and you know it!"
"Have not, slander and calumny! I have only ever embraced the oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit here, that is what we all must do, we must fight… to runaway!"
"Aye!" I encouraged, proud of his wits.
"Aye!" Elizabeth agreed, and smiled at me. I looked back at her nervously. I knew my sister only agreed because she wanted me to forgive her, but I wasn't sure I could, just yet.
"As per the code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king." Barbossa shouted out.
"You made that up!" Jack accused.
"Did I now? I call on Captain Teague, keeper of the code!" Everyone gasped, and I wondered why. Who is this Captain Teague man? And what is this about a keeper of the code?
"Sesumbhajee, proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who cares…" Sesumbhajee's scribe was cut off by a bullet, shooting through his chest. I spun around to see a aged pirate, with silver cross earrings, a floppy black hat, wrinkly skin, and long dark dreadlocks. He strangely reminded me a bit like Jack. The pirate blew the smoke off his pistol, and walked up to the table.
"Code is the law. You're in my way, boy." He stated, and Jack stepped away, uncomfortably. Why is everyone so scared of this man? Two elderly men with white beards and spectacles carried up a huge, thick book, and set it down on the table. On the ancient cover it read:
PIRATA CODEX
"The code." Pintel marvelled.
"As set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew." Ragetti muttered, and I figured this must of been a big deal. The pirate whistled and a grey wolfhound came trotting up to him, carrying a ring of keys in his mouth. It seemed so familiar, but how?
"How did…?" Ragetti started, and I realized that the dog was from the cannibal island.
"Sea turtles, mate." The pirate shrugged, and opened the book, examing the writing.
"Sea turtles." Pintel muttered, in amazement.
"Barbossa is right." Captain Teague stated.
"Hang on a minute." Jack said, and quickly checked the code. "It shall be the duty of the king to declare war, parlay with said adversaries… fancy that."
"There's not been a king since the first court," the french lord said. "And that's not likely to change."
"Not likely." Teague mumbled and walked away to play his guitar.
"Why not?" I asked, confused with the matter.
"Because the pirate king is elected by popular vote." Gibbs explained.
"And each pirate only ever votes for himself." Barbossa added.
"I call for a vote!" Jack exclaimed, making everyone groan. I smirked.
"I vote for Ammand, the corsair." Ammand said, getting patted on the back.
"Captain Chevalle, the penniless frenchman."
"Sesumbhajee votes for Sesumbhajee."
"Mistress Ching."
"Gentleman Jocard."
"Rosabelle Swann." I voted, getting into the spirit of the Brethren.
"Barbossa."
"Villanueva."
"Rosabelle Swann." Jack voted.
"What?" I asked, shocked.
"I know, curious isn't it?" The court began to loudly shout things at Jack in protest.
"Why didn't you vote for me, why didn't you vote for me!" Jocard yelled, and they all started to argue once more.
"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" Jack shouted, over the noise, and Teague broke a string on his guitar. Everyone sat down again, silently.
"Very well," Mistress Ching said. "What say you Captain Swann, king of the Brethren Court?"
"Prepare every vessel that floats." I ordered. "At dawn, we're at war." Sesumbhajee then stood up and to my surprise and everyone else's spoke in an incredibly squeaky voice.
"And so, we shall go to war." The court stared at him for a moment in confusion, before clapping and yelling out to each other. I saw Jack go over to Teague and talk with him. Then it clicked, Jack is his son! No wonder they looked so alike.
"Captain, orders?" Tai Huang asked me.
"Head back to The Empress." I ordered. "I will be staying the night on the Black Pearl." He nodded and headed out of the room, and yawning I followed.
