A/N: Back from the holidays, suntanned but otherwise unchanged. I had a lot of time to think of this story, though. The plot is more or less layed out, everything is clear now.

Hope you enjoy the show

darklight03: Sparrow for you – I feel more comfortable with him not after having thought about him a lot. As for Susannah on Tortuga – well I can safely say that she will not end up with 'that guy', he is, of course, on his quest for Elise and thus modestly sailing out of this story :D

As for the rest, I cloak myself in silence, as they say (Is there such a saying in english, btw?)

Chapter 20

A lesson of fencing

„Jack, I'm fed up with this."

The Pearl was softly rocking on the waves that rippled the sea between the twin islands. A soft mist had crept down from the mountains, blurring the horizon, that divided the world outside this place into sea and sky, both equally promising the freedom of the untouchables.

Jack Sparrow had always appreciated this fact. He had spent quite a lot of time in various briggs on various ships – his own, not to say, the least – but this had never led to him feeling truly and completely trapped. And so, he was surprised how much the door closing behind Anamaria's slender frame reminded him of the prison dor of Port Royal, all ways of escape gone. It was, all in all, not a feeling he overly cherished.

The mulatto woman eyed him under the brim of her hat that she had not cared to take off when entering. The sounds of the crew celebrating outside were muffled by the walls of Jack's cabin, and yet it seemed to come from another world, the cheerful sounds, unable to break through Jack's brooding.

Not that he looked as if he were brooding. In fact, he gave the perfect image of a man completely at peace with himself, sitting back in his chair, feet propped up on his table, sorftly rocking himself as he idly looked at his dirty hands.

„Oh, and a good evening to you, Anamaria. Isn't it great, the place I found us here?"

Anamaria however, was not fooled.

„Jack." Her voice was somewhere between beseeching and annoyed. „Jack, goddammit, listen to me." She placed herself on another chair, slapping her flat hand onto the table. „Stop this! All of it! Try to fool the crew if you need to, but tell me what this is all about, or I am off this ship the next port we come to!"

It was, Anamaria realized almost immediately, probably not the most efficient of threats. In fact, she was well aware, that it was very probable Jack saw in her maybe the most annoying crewmate, the one, he would be glad to be rid of.

To her surprise, he stared at her in that peculiar way of his, eyes wide, and face completely expressionless, for a second, two, three, before the world snapped into focus again and he shook his head, an impatient hand waving off any word Anamaria had said.

„Don't be silly, luv." It was weak considering this was Jack. Jack Sparrow. With an internal rush of satisfaction, Anamaria realized, that slowly, but determinedly, she was getting to him.

„Considering where we have been today, considering, what we have seen there, I am not sure yet who of us is the silly one. You knew where this cave was, and what it was."

„True to the first, dear, which is obvious, yet a huge, resounding no to the second, rest assured. I may have known – to our advantage – that this is a place where treasures can be found, but well..." He spread out his hands in a gesture of pure innocence. „I am a simple man... captain... pirate. Whatever."

Anamaria squinted her eyes. She was a cunning woman, and Jack knew this. She had traveled with him long enough to be able to see that he was not telling the truth, not telling the full truth at least, and this was not surprising, considering, that this was Jack Sparrow she was talking to. Wringing out information out of him was harder than pressing water from a stone. She had to trick him, had to rely on her own conclusions to coax answers out of him. Anamaria mentally counted off what she knew of this affair.

First and most basic point. Sparrow had not come to these islands by accident. He had been worried all through the way, and he had, among all the targets that might have presented themselves, very specificly sailed to Arraka.

Which was the first point to be considered. The question was – why?

His actions had made clear, that he had known where to find the cave and had been – as far as Anamaria was concerned, even though she admitted, that Jack Sparrow had been known to be quite the bluffer – certain or at least quite hopeful, that they would find a treasure there, meaning, that he had been there before, or that his past dealings had included intimate knowledge on the circumstances of the islands of Arraka.

Third point – he had said, that the cave on Arraka had been a prison. A prison for what he had not said, but the sheer size of the whole setup seemed fit to send shivers down her spine. Something seemed to have literally torn apart the entrance of the cave. The entrance – behind which lay the treasure.

This inevitably led to the conclusion that Jack had known – or at least suspected – that whatever had been captured inside the caves was gone for good.

One could think, that maybe this might have happened a long time ago. Indeed, many of the bricks outside the cave had been overgrown with moss and trees, but yet, those, that were closest to the entrance, had been fresh, the strong jungle vegetation not yet reclaiming the stone that had so brutally been cast amidst it. No, if Anamaria were to make a guess, then the scouring of this prison was of a very recent date.

Maybe, if she were to play devil's advocate – maybe Jack's strange moodiness coinceded with that very escape.

She squinted her eyes, her mind jumping from conclusion to conclusion, while Jack was still sitting there, looking too much at ease, his smile flashing towards her, trying to stop her from thinking and failing. Charming as Jack might be, he was not able to charm Anamaria out of her wits. She decided her thoughts were good enough to take a shot.

„How did you know it escaped?"

Wood on wood made a dry sound, not very loud and yet a hint to the loss of control of Jack Sparrow, as he sat up abruptly, his composure wavering for a moment. His expression of indifference was in place again only seconds later, but Anamaria had realized that the arrow had stuck. Deeply.

Satisfied, she leaned back to eye him leisurely, as if that very comment had not been the result of much thinking on her part, but instead something very obvious, that might have been plain for anyone to see. It was the natural game of Captain Jack Sparrow, but Anamaria had learned it well.

„What do you mean?"

„Oh come on, Jack, don't be dense." The silent scale had tipped in her favor and both knew it, but Jack tried to ward off the inevitable for another few seconds. She however was thoroughly fed up with the game.

„I've been there when it was locked in."

Anamaria squinted her eyes, digested this new piece of information. She dimly remembered the evening, when Jack's bad humor had begun, the evening, when Commodore Norrington had sought them out. There was something Gibbs had told her... something about Jack brooding and tossing something into the sea. He had not known what to make of it, but now, things were starting to make sense.

„And you had the key."

Again that look of shock, of discomfort, of wonder. Jack Sparrow again learned, that Anamaria was indeed a force to be reckoned with. She had gained the upper hand in this conversation and held it in an iron grip. He did his best to grin leisurely.

„Well... not exactly... the key. More like one of the keys."

Anamaria was not satisfied. Her response was dry, sarcastic and held a bite that she intentionally used to spice her words and show her annoyance.

„And you threw it into the ocean."

„Well..." Jack was the image of innocence, arms spread wide. Despite the discomfort of his situation, which was plain to see for those who knew him well, he had begun to swing in his chair again, but his left had gripped a bottle of rum, and he took a deep swallow before continuing to speak. „... it was broken anyway. No use keeping it."

„Just so that I understand you correctly, Jack. What kind of key?"

„Not much of a key", Jack confessed uneasily. „Some gimmick of metal and glass, whatever it really was. It was broken, so I figured it was no use any more."

„And you figured, that whatever it was the key to, was broken as well, right."

Anamaria seemed to skip over this hint for the unnatural as if it were nothing. The Carribbean was a place of many wonders, and her dealings with the ghost crew of the Black Pearl had moved her closer to anything beyound the veil than before. The cave in itself had already hinted, that it was, as sailors liked to put it, spooky.

„Well, yeah, sort of, luv", Jack confessed and took another swig. Anamaria leaned over to claim the bottle to herself to help herself to one as well. Jack seemed disappointed, but did not complain.

„And what was it?"

Now, that Anamaria had begun to go down the line, she was determined to pursue it to the very end. However, she was in for a disappointment.

„Frankly, I have no idea. It was her who asked me to guard that. As a price."

Her.

That might as well have been written in capital letters. No name was mentioned, no name needed to be mentioned. Anamaria knew, what he was talking about, and even though she had, dimly, maybe, in the hidden back regions of her mind, suspected that her name was connected to these events, she had not yet made this connection. Now, that he said it, however, it was obvious.

„So it was her who sealed the prison."

„Yeah", Sparrow confirmed. „An' gave me that key."

„And you took it? Just like that?"

„A little bargain between her and me." Again, Sparrow managed to look very pleased with himself. „I do her a favor, she does me a favor. As simple as that." Gold flashed, as he grinned. „You know, her and me, peas in a pod, remember?"

„Yeah, yeah." Anamaria had had enough of Jack's „peas-in-a-pod"-companionship to last her a lifetime – and well into the next. How like him to claim to be on good terms with someone as her. However, to say one were on good terms with her meant about the same thing as to say, that one was on good terms with the sea. One might like it, even enjoy it, but never, ever trust it.

The Carribbean bore many treacherous secrets, and she was the impersonation of all of them.

„And now you are afraid of what had escaped from there, hm?"

Jack snorted.

„No way. I'm terrified of what happens, when she finds out!"