Chapter 21: The Resolute and Unyielding Need to Travel Upriver…

Keira refused to speak to Jack their entire journey to Tia Dalma. She was so frustrated with him she was lost for words and she knew she was pushing his buttons with her silence. For the most part, she only really spoke to Will, which aggravated Jack even more. He broke their pressing silence a few hours before they anchored at the dreaded island.

"Love, will you please speak to me, this silence is killing me," Jack whined as he watched his wife stare blankly out the porthole in his cabin.

Keira slowly turned her head to look at him, her green eyes void of emotion, "Why must you send Will? He's my bloody brother! Send anyone but him for this key, I beg you!" she practically cried.

Jack pulled Keira into his arms, rubbing her back consolingly, "I have no choice, Love. And he has a fair reason to be doing this, if you ask me. I see it as fair trade, he gets my key I give him my compass."

Keira looked up at him and he kissed her. She pulled away, still upset, "But he could die doing this, Jack. How would I be able to live with that, my own husband risking my brother's life for a key!"

Jack stiffened at this, "You won't have a husband if we don't get that key, remember!"

This fact seemed to hit Keira like a slap in the face. She backed away from him and shrunk to the floor, not knowing what to do or say. Jack knelt down beside her had she let a tear streak her face. Jack wiped it away with his thumb and she huddled up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I can't lose you, Jack. But I can't lose Will either. He's the only family I have left," she whispered.

"Love, don't think of it that way. Think of it as an opportunity for you to save me and your brother from a lifetime of servitude at the hands of Davey Jones," Jack soothed, kissing the top of his wife's head.

Keira sniffed and nodded. They both looked up at the sound of the cabin door opening to reveal Gibbs standing in the doorway.

"Cap'n, we're anchored and the long boats are waitin'," he informed them and Jack got to his feet.

"Get the crew ready," Jack ordered and helped Keira to her feet as well and Gibbs nodded, leaving the two alone again.

"So, why is Jack afraid of open ocean?" Will asked quietly as they rowed through the darkness to Tia Dalma's hut.

Keira seemed to have lost her voice, her face a sick looking pale as she sat next to her brother. Gibbs looked at her expectantly, but opened his mouth to answer at the look on her face.

"Well, if you believe such things, there's a beast that does the bidding of Davey Jones. A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that suction your face clean off and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness. The Kraken. They say the stench of its breath is…ooh," Gibbs shuddered as Will listened intently, Keira looked away, her stomach turning at the thought. "Imagine, the last thing you know on God's green earth is the roar of the Kraken and the reeking odor of a thousand rotting corpses. If you believe such things," Gibbs finished.

Keira closed her eyes to try and shake the vision of this fabled beast but it seemed to haunt her in the darkness. She reopened them and Will wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"And the key will spare him that?" he asked.

"Now that's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough to go visit…her," Gibbs whispered.

Keira rolled her eyes but kept silent. Will's brow furrowed and he leaned forward.

"Her?"

"Aye," Gibbs nodded.

As the small group tied up the long boats Jack stepped onto the small dock below Tia Dalma's hut. He looked down at Keira, noticing her sick look and helped her from the boat, Will not far behind.

"No worries, mates, Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves, Nigh inseparable we are…were…have been…before," he trailed off and turned to the stairs leading to the hut's entrance.

Keira looked up at him and let the hand he was holding fall to her side. Will came up behind her and rested a comforting hand on her shoulder. She swallowed nervously and looked up at him.

"Let's hope he gets what he wants."

"We have your back," Gibbs said to Jack as Will and Keira looked up at the looming hut.

"It's me front I'm worried about," Jack muttered and Keira nudged him hard. "Sorry, love."

Jack took his wife's hand and led her up to the hut as the others stayed behind telling each other to mind the boat. Keira looked around the strange hut and shuddered, her eyes falling on a hanging jar of human eyes as she walked in.

"Jack Sparrow," a low, accented voice came from a corner of the room.

Keira looked around for the source of the voice but did not have to search long for the woman emerged from her spot and sidled over to them. Her dark chocolate skin was painted with strange black designs and her long dreadlocked hair was drawn up out of her face.

"Tia Dalma," Jack muttered as she fiddled with his shirt.

"I always knowed the wind was going to blow you back to me one day," she cooed, her eyes fell on Keira and her smile faded. "But alas, you come back to me with a wife, Keira Turner."

Keira looked surprised that this weird woman knew her name but she remained silent. Tia Dalma's eyes then shifted to Will, who stood uncomfortably beside her and she brightened.

"You!" she pointed at him and he jumped. "You have a touch a' destiny about you. William Turner."

Will looked as surprised as Keira did and he gaped at her, "Y-you know me?"

"You want to know me," she leaned close to him but Jack jumped in front of him.

"There will be no knowing here," he said, pulling Tia Dalma away, "We've come for help and we're not leaving without it."

The woman did not look surprised and Jack wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her away. Keira cocked an eyebrow when she heard Jack mutter, "I thought I knew you?"

"Not so well as I'd hoped," she frowned and motioned for the group to follow her.

Keira caught up to Jack and he motioned for Will to follow as well. She tugged on his coat and he looked down at her.

"Aye, love?"

"What was that all about? 'knowing' her?" she asked in a hoarse whisper.

"Nothing, love. Nothing," Jack assured her and turned to Tia Dalma as she sat Will down at the table in the middle of the cluttered room.

"What service may I do ya?" she demanded. "You know I demand payment."

Jack grinned and nodded, motioning toward Ragetti, who handed him a cage, inside was Jack the monkey.

"I brought payment. Look.." Jack drew his pistol and shot it, all it did was jump, "an undead monkey! Top that!"

Gibbs frowned as she let the monkey out of its cage and it scurried across the room into a back room. Keira narrowed her eyes as it nibbled on a pair of boots, barely visible from her point of view.

"You've no idea how long it took us to catch that," Gibbs sighed.

"The payment is fair," Tia said flatly and took a seat next to Will.

He drew out the drawing of the key and placed it on the table. Keira felt her breath catch in her throat as the soothsayer looked it over before she looked up at Will.

"We're looking for this and what it goes to," Will said, his eyes on Tia Dalma as she looked back down at the drawing.

She looked up at Jack, who was watching her, his hand firmly clasped around Keira's. He looked expectantly down at Tia and she spoke.

"The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?"

"Maybe," he shot. "Why?"

"Ah, Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants," she grinned. "Or do you know, but loath to claim it as your own? Your key go to a chest. And it is what lay inside the chest that you seek. Don't it?"

Keira's eyes narrowed in thought when Gibbs asked the question on everyone's mind.

"What is inside?"

"Gold? Jewels? Unclaimed properties of valuable nature?" Pintel demanded.

"Nothing bad I hope," Ragetti whimpered, wringing his hands.

Keira rolled her eyes at this and returned her gaze to Tia Dalma. "Well? What's in it?"

"You know of Davey Jones, yes?" she asked. Everyone nodded in agreement, except Will, who looked confused. "A man of the sea. A great sailor, until he run afoul of what which vex all men."

"What vexes all men?" Will asked curiously.

Tia Dalma smiled and touched Will's hand temptingly, "What indeed."

Keira rolled her eyes again and caught Jack slipping something into his pocket. She nudged him and he smirked at her, wiggling his eyebrows. She nudged him again and he stopped.

"The sea?" Gibbs piped up, trying to be smart and answer the question.

"Sums." Pintel corrected.

"The dichotomy of good and evil," Ragetti guessed and everyone looked at him. He smiled awkwardly and began to wring his hands again.

Jack nudged Keira back, causing her to step forward slightly, "A woman!" he grinned.

Tia Dalma glanced at Keira before nodding, "A woman. He fell in love."

"No, no, no, no, I heard it was the sea he fell in love with," Gibbs piped up, looking confused.

"Same story different version, and all are true," Tia Dalma held up a finger. "See it was a woman as changing, and harsh and untamable as the sea. He never stopped loving her. But the pain it caused him was too much to live with. But not enough to cause him to die," she explained.

"What exactly did he put into the chest?" Will asked slowly.

"Him heart."

"Literally or figuratively?" Ragetti asked, looking dumbfounded.

"He couldn't live, putting his heart in a chest," Pintel said skeptically and Keira sighed. "Could he?"

"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings, and so, him carved out him heart, lock it down in a chest, and hide the chest from the world. The key he keep with him at all times," Tia Dalma explained.

Will turned to Jack angrily, "You knew this?"

"I did not, I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So, all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lass, aye?" Jack said quickly.

At that Tia Dalma got to her feet moving toward Jack. Keira stepped aside with curiosity.

"Let me see your hand," she demanded.

Jack began to hold out his right hand but stopped at the look on Tia Dalma's face. He sighed and held out his left hand and she grabbed it, yanking the cloth from his palm. Keira looked away, the pain of seeing the spot on her husband's hand too much for her.

"The black spot!" Gibbs exclaimed, dusting himself off and spinning around and spitting on the floor.

Pintel and Ragetti repeated the same actions and Jack looked slightly amused.

"My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know," Jack advised them and Keira gave a weak smile.

Tia Dalma moved into her back room and began to shuffle around and Keira turned to Jack as he slipped another trinket into his pocket and rewrapped his hand. She sighed and he kissed her quickly before Tia Dalma strode back into the room.

"Davey Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you will be safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you," she shoved a large jar of dirt into his hands.

"Dirt, this is a jar of dirt," he looked astonished.

"Yes."

"Is the…jar of dirt going to help?" Jack demanded, still looking surprised that he was holding a jar of dirt.

"If you don't want it, give it back," Tia said smartly and Jack hugged the jar tighter to his chest. Keira had to fight a laugh at this.

"No."

"Then it helps," she nodded and took a seat next to Will again.

"It seems we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman," Will leaned forward.

Tia Dalma nodded and picked up a handful of shells and crab claws. She closed her eyes, "A touch of destiny," she muttered and let the items fall on the table.

Everyone leaned forward to see a map on the table and Keira looked at Jack, the sick look returning to her face.