Chapter 20: Brethren Court
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The loud sound rang through the chamber of the Brethren Court as Barbossa hammered on the tabletop with a cannonball.
Jack glanced nervously around the room. He had a lot of enemies in here.
The chamber was hidden in the abandoned hull of a derelict ship, with curved spars rising up on either side of them like the ribs of a long-dead prehistoric beast. In the center of the candlelit room was a large oval table. Eight Pirate Lords were assembled around it, some alone, others guarded by attendants.
Eight swords, one for each Pirate Lord who had arrived, were stabbed into a globe nearby, where the pirates had left them before taking their seats.
Lining the walls behind the Lords were their crews, packing the room full of fierce—and fully armed—pirates.
Barbossa continued to bang on the table until silence finally descended upon the room. He gestured to a wooden bowl lined with a red scarf, in the center of the table. "To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow captains."
Grudgingly, each pirate Lord stood and dropped an item into the wooden bowl. Pintel perched on a ledge and peering over the heads of the assembled pirates, noticed that the objects weren't actually silver pieces of eight—they were odds and ends of things one might find on any pirate ship—or busy harbor.
"Those aren't pieces of eight," Pintel objected to Gibbs. "They're just pieces of junk."
Gibbs nodded. "Aye, the original plan was to use nine pieces of eight to bind Calypso," he explained, "but when the first Court met the Brethren were to a one, skint broke."
"So change the name," said Pintel.
"To what?" Gibbs asked. "To nine pieces of whatever we happened to have in our pockets at the time? Oh yes, that sounds very piratey."
Apart from Barbossa, Jack, and the missing Pirate Lord, there were six pirates gathered around the table. Ammand the Corsair, Villanueva, Captain Chevalle, Gentleman Jocard, Mistress Ching and Sri Sumbhajee.
As the Pieces of Eight clattered into the bowl, Mistress Ching lifted her head. "We're missing two," she said alerty.
Villanueva turned and glowered at Jack. "Sparrow," he growled.
Jack cocked his head, considering. "We're still short one Pirate Lord," Jack pointed out. "I'm content to wait until Sao Feng joins us."
"Sao Feng is dead," said a voice form the doorway. "He fell to the Flying Dutchman."
Everyone turned to see Elizabeth Swann.
"And made you captain?" Jack asked. "They're just giving the bloody title away now."
"Not to me, Jack," said Elizabeth as she stepped aside as Dawn in full pirate garb, flanked by Tai Huang and another Chinese crewman walked. "But to her."
"He named me captain of the Empress," Dawn explained, "and passed his lordship on to me."
She started forward, but Tai Huang touched Dawn's shoulder to stop her and pointed toward the globe. Dawn drew her sword and stabbed it in alongside those of the other Pirate Lords.
"What happened to Sao Feng?" demanded Ammand the Corsair.
"She or her sister probably killed him," Jack muttered.
"Will you never forgive us?" Elizabeth said to Jack. Then she turned to answer the Pirate Lords. We were attacked by the Flying Dutchman."
The room erupted in chaos at the mention of the terrible ship.
Jack, Dawn and Elizabeth could see alarm spreading on the faces of the Pirate Lords.
"Le monster des profondeures!" Chevalle cried in dismay. The pirates along the edge were shouting in horror, demanding that they take to the seas and escape before the Dutchman found them.
"Listen!" Dawn yelled. "Listen to me! Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett—they're on their way here."
This news, of course, only led to further uproar.
"Who is this betrayer?" Gentleman Jocard snarled, as if he were ready to strangle the traitor with his bare hands.
"Not likely anyone among us," Barbossa said.
Elizabeth looked around, and something occurred to her. "Where's Will?" she asked Jack.
"Not among us," Jack said pointedly.
Barbossa hammered on the table again, calling for quiet. "And it matters not how they found us!" he cried. "The question is what will we do now that they have?"
"We fight," Dawn said in a voice that sound stronger and braver than she felt. It was times like this she wondered how Buffy did it.
Pirates all around the room began laughing. Fight the Flying Dutchman? Was she crazy? Did she think they were all fools, to throw their lives away so easily?
Mistress Ching stood and spread her hands, offering another option. "Shipwreck Cove is a fortress. A well supplied fortress," she pointed out. "There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us."
A murmur of agreement rippled across the chamber. That was true. They could hide for a long time here. Wait until the Dutchman and the East India Trading Company gave up and left them alone.
"There be a third course," Barbossa said. The room fell silent as everyone turned to look at him. He paused, waiting until he had their full attention. "In another age," he began, "at this very spot, the first Brethren Court captured the sea goddess and bound her in her bones." He leaned forward intently. "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 eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. Y'all know this to be true!"
Despite himself, Jack found himself nodding along with Barbossa's impassioned speech. The nasty man made a rather good argument and the other pirates were nodding as well.
" Gentlemen," Barbossa continued in a ringing tones, "ladies, we must free Calypso."
Silence fell. Everyone was too shocked to react.
The Indian Pirate Lord beckoned to this bodyguard, Akshay. The large man listened and then step forward and spoke. "Sri Sumbhajee says …" Akshay pointed to Barbossa. "He has lost his senses! Do not let him speak any further."
"Shoot him!" Ammand the Corsair chimed in eagerly.
"Cut out his tongue!" Gentleman Jocard agreed.
"Shoot him and cut out his tongue," Jack cried enthusiastically, "and then shoot his tongue! And trim that scraggly beard!" Barbossa glared at him.
Dawn spoke up. "Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa!" She and Elizabeth both remembered Sao Feng's respect for the sea goddess Calypso, and the way he had looked at Dawn when thought she might be the goddess in human form.
"And I would have agreed with Sao Feng," Villanueva said."
"But it matters not if he would have or not. He's not here now is he?" said Elizabeth.
Jocard shook his head vehemently. "Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now!"
"And it's unlikely her moods improve," Chevalle agreed.
Vallenueva pulled out his pistol and slammed it on the table. "I would still agree with Sao Feng. We release Calypso!" he growled.
"You threaten me?" Chevalle asked.
"I silence you!" Villanueva shouted. He raised the pistol, but before he could aim, Chevalle punched him in the face, sending the Spaniard sprawling into a group of other pirates. As he fell, the pistol went off, and suddenly the room exploded in chaos. All the pirates began shouting and brawling, pushing and shoving. This was sure to lead to bloodshed and death in no time.
Elizabeth was horrified. "This is madness."
"Not to them it's not," said Dawn. "It's politics. Something you and I were schooled in remember. Back when we were the Governor's daughters."
Barbossa banged the cannonball again, trying to restore order. But the noise was too loud for anyone to hear him, and the pirates were too angry to stop fighting. Finally Barbossa hurled the cannonball at the globe, which toppled over sending swords clattering in all directions. That got their attention.
"It was the first court what imprisoned Calypso!" Barbossa cried. "We should 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 twoddlespeak says I," said Jack.
"If you have a better alternative, please, share," Barbossa demanded.
"Cuttlefish. Eh?" said Jack. "Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish, flipper penurious little sausages, hang em up together and they will devour each other without a second thought. Human nature isn't it? Or... fish nature. So yes, we could hold 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, we can 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 like which fury hell hath no? We cannot. Res ipsa loquitur, tabula in naufragio... we are left with but one option. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are coming out of my mouth, Captain Swann. We must fight."
Barbossa rolled his eyes. "You've always run away from a fight."
"Have not!" said Jack.
"You have so!" said Barbossa.
"Shut it!" Dawn commanded. "Or do you forget who's Captain of the Pearl?"
Jack and Barbossa frowned at Dawn and stopped their argument.
"Anyways I have fought hard and often, in order to run away. We all have, else none of us would be here today, and free." He pointed at Mistress Ching. "We can hole up here for years, but we will have become our own jailers. "He turned his accusing finger on Barbossa. "We can release Calypso, but if she's not in a merciful mood, she controls the seas themselves, so there'd be nothing we could run away to. Or on." He raised his fist in the air. "We must embrace the oldest, noblest tradition of piracy. We must fight—to run away."
At last, a plan the pirates could get behind. Cheers rose form the crews lined against the hull.
"As per the code an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king," said Barbossa.
"You made that up!" Jack said.
"Did I now?" Barbossa laughed. "I call on Captain Teague, keeper of the code!"
"Sri Sumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly!" Ashay said. "Hang the code! Who cares a-" He never gets to finish what he was saying as he is shot dead.
Captain Teague steps up as he blows the smoke from his pistol, "The code is the law," he said as he walked down the table; to Jack as two pirates carry a large book to the table. "You're in my way boy."
"The code," said Pintel with amazement.
Ragetti nodded. "As set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew."
Captain Teague whistles and a dog appears with a set of keys.
"Wait... that cant... how did- ?" Ragetti asked.
Captain Teague laughed. "Sea turtles, mate," he said.
Captain Teague opened the book and flipped through the pages to the one he wanted. "Ah, Barbossa is right," he said.
"Hang on a minute," said Jack as he looked down at the book. "It shall be the duties of the king to declare war, parley with shared adversaries... Fancy that."
"There has not been a king since the first court, and that's not likely to change," said Captain Chavelle.
"Not likely," Captain Teague said in agreement.
"Why not?" Elizabeth asked.
"Politics," said Dawn.
Gibbs looked at Dawn and nodded in agreement. "See, the pirate king is elected by popular vote," he said. "And each pirate only ever votes for hisself."
"I call for a vote!" Jack said as Captain Teague started to play a guitar.
"I vote for Ammand, the corsair," Ammand said.
"Captain Chevalle, the penniless Frenchman," Chevalle said.
Sri Sumbhajee's Second Assistant smirked. "Sri Sumbhajee votes for Sri Sumbhajee," he said.
Mistress Ching looked at the assembled group. "Mistress Ching."
"Gentleman Jocard," Jocard said with a nod.
"Elizabeth Swann," said Dawn.
"What?" Elizabeth asked shocked that Dawn would pick her.
"Barbossa," said Barbossa.
Vallenueva smirked. "Vallenueva."
Jack smiled and looked at Elizabeth. "Elizabeth Swann."
"What?" Elizabeth repeated.
"I know, curious isn't it?" Jack said with a smile as chaos broke out as the pirates started angrily shouting. "Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code then?"
Captain Teague snaps one of the strings of his guitar.
"Very well," said Mistress Ching. "What say you Captain Swann, king of the Brethren Court?"
"Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn, we're at war," Elizabeth declared.