We sailed into Shipwreck Cove and there were pirate ships everywhere.
"Look at 'em all!" Pintel exclaimed.
"There's not been a gatherin' like this in our lifetime." Barbossa commented.
"And I owe them all money." Jack looked uncomfortable.
We entered the main room where there was a long table and all the pirate lords were seated around it. Except for Barbossa who stood at the head of the table, Jack, who stood behind him and myself, standing on his right side.
"As he who issued summons, I convene this... the fourth Brethren Court. To confirm yer lordship and right to be heard, present now yer pieces of eight, my fellow cap'ns." Barbossa said loudly.
Ragetti went around the table with a wooden bowl collecting the pieces of eight. Which turns out... weren't actual coins.
What?
"Those aren't pieces of eight, they're just pieces of junk." Pintel looked confused.
"Aye. The original plan was to use nine pieces of eight to bind Calypso, but when the first court met, the brethren were to a one... skint broke." Gibbs explained.
"So change the name."
"To what? 'Nine Pieces of Whatever We Happened to Have in Our Pockets at the Time'? Oh yes, that sounds very piratey." Gibbs rolled his eyes.
Barbossa held out his hand, "Master Ragetti, if ya will."
"I-I kept it safe for you, just like you said when you gave it to me." Ragetti seemed reluctant.
"Aye, ya have, but now I need it back." Barbossa nodded and whacked him on the back of his head so the wooden eye would come out into the bowl.
That's interesting.
"Sparrow!" another pirate lord called.
Jack fingered an actual piece of eight that hung from his hair and came forward, "Might I point out that we are still short one pirate lord, and I'm content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us."
"Sao Feng is dead. He fell to the Flying Dutchman." we turned to see Elizabeth standing there.
"And made you captain? They're just giving the bloody title away now." Jack threw up his hands.
"Listen. Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett, they're on their way here." Elizabeth leaned on the table next to me.
"Who is this betrayer?" a dark skinned lord stood up.
"Not likely anyone among us." Barbossa commented.
Elizabeth looked around, "Where's Will?"
"Not among us." Jack replied.
The other pirates began talking among themselves.
Barbossa held up his hands to silence everyone, "And it matters not how they found us. The question is, what will we do now that they have?"
"We fight!" Elizabeth sounded determined.
A female Asian lord stood up, "Shipwreck Cove is a fortress! A well supplied fortress. There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us."
"There be a third course. In another age, at this very spot, the first court captured the sea goddess, and bound her in her bones." Barbossa paused to look around, "That was a mistake. Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye. But opened the door to Beckett and his ilk! Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with Eldridge creatures! But from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone! Y'all know this to be true! Gentlemen... ladies. We must free Calypso."
There was complete silence, then a pirate lord jumped up and pointed at Barbossa, "Shoot him!"
"Cut out his tongue!" the colored pirate exclaimed.
I pulled out my pistol and pointed it at them.
Jack spoke up, "Shoot him and cut out his tongue, then shoot his tongue. And trim that scraggly beard."
I turned my pistol toward him, "Shut up!"
He looked a little scared and I put the gun back with a small smirk.
"Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa!" Tai Huang sounded confident.
"Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now." the colored lord pointed out.
"And it's not likely her mood's improved." a french lord commented.
"I would still agree with Sao Feng. We release Calypso!" an Arab pirate stood up.
"You threaten me?" the french pirate looked down at him.
"I silence you!" the Arab corrected.
A fight broke out.
"This is madness!" Elizabeth looked disgusted.
"This is politics." Jack corrected.
"Meanwhile our enemies are bearing down upon us." I pointed out.
"If they not be here already." Barbossa rolled his eyes.
After watching the fight for awhile he stepped up on the table and shot his pistol in the air, "It was the first court what imprisoned Calypso! We will be the ones to set her free! And in her gratitude she will see fit to grant us boons."
"Whose boons? Your boons? Utterly deceptive tortlespeak, says I." Jack looked up at him.
Barbossa got down off the table, "If ya have a better alternative... please... share."
"Cuttlefish." Jack said and Barbossa looked confused, "Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish." Jack began walking around the table, "Flipper 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. So yes, we could hole up here well provisioned and well armed and half of us would be dead within the month. Which seems quite grim to me any way you slice it. Or, as my learned colleague so naively suggests..." he gestured to Barbossa, "We could release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful. I rather doubt it. Can we in fact pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned? We cannot. We are left with but one option." he reached the end opposite us, "I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are comin' out of me mouth... Captain Swann. We must fight."
"You've only ever run away from a fight." Barbossa sneered.
"I have not!" Jack was indignant.
"Ye have so!"
"Have not!"
"Ye have so!
"Have not!"
"Ye have so, and ya know it!" Barbossa all but yelled.
"Have not, slander and calumny! I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit here and now, that is what we all must do. We must fight... to run away." Jack smiled wildly.
"Aye!" Gibbs nodded.
"As fer the code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king." Barbossa looked smug.
"You made that up." Jack frowned.
"Did I now? I call on Captain Teague... keeper of the code." Barbossa smirked and Jack flinched.
A pirate stood up, "SeSumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who cares-"
A shot rang out and the man who had been speaking, fell backward.
"Code is the law." a man had appeared from a doorway and walked up behind Jack, "You're in my way, boy."
He looks a lot like Jack...
Jack scuttled out of the way and two men carried a huge book over to the table.
"The code." Pintel said in awe.
"As set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew." Ragetti added.
Captain Teague whistled and the dog I saw on the beach at cannibal island appeared.
Impossible!
"How did...?" Ragetti looked amazed.
"Sea turtles, mate." Teague shrugged.
What is this about sea turtles!?
Teague read through the book until he came to a certain place, then he looked up, "Ah. Barbossa is right."
Barbossa bowed slightly.
"Hang on a minute." Jack quietly read through that part of the code, "It shall be the duty of the king to declare war, parlay with said adversaries..." he looked up, "Fancy that."
"There's not been a king since the first court. And that's not likely to change." the french pirate stated.
"Not likely." Teague agreed.
"Why not?" Elizabeth asked.
"Because the king is elected by popular vote." Gibbs explained.
"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself." Barbossa added.
"I call for a vote." Jack smiled.
Everyone groaned, but they agreed anyway.
"I vote for Ammand, the corsair."
"Capitan Chevalle, the penniless French man."
"SeSumbhajee votes for SeSumbhajee." the other man next to SeSumbhajee sounded board.
Why doesn't he speak for himself?
"Mistress Cheng."
"Gentleman Jocard."
"Elizabeth Swann."
"Barbossa."
"Villanueva."
Jack look sly, "Elizabeth Swann."
"What!?" she exclaimed.
"I know, curious isn't it?"
"Why didn't you vote for me!?" the colored lord was angry.
The rest of them began yelling at Jack as well.
"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" he asked above the noise.
The room went silent.
"Very well." the Asian woman looked at Elizabeth, "What say you Captain Swann, King of the Brethren Court?"
"Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn... we're at war." Elizabeth commanded with a smirk.
SeSumbhajee finally spoke up in a squeaky voice, "And so... we shall go to war."
Ah. So that's why he usually doesn't talk.
