Chapter Twenty-Six
Pirate Brands
When spring came, the pirates of the Black Pearl and the Sparrows bade farewell to Kingston and its inhabitants. Lord Thomas continued to keep his residence there until such a time as Norrington would return with him to England. Chris thought that Governor Swann was relieved to no longer have the charge of looking after a pregnant pirate, but it broke her heart to see Pearl say goodbye to the Turner boys, who had been her constant playmates. Ali was growing to be a young woman now, and though she did not play with Pearl as often as her little brothers did, Ali was still someone who Pearl had looked up to. When Ali and Pearl bade each other farewell, the older of the girl gave the smaller one a great big hug and Pearl fussed as she and her parents left the house.
Similarly, Chris was a bit more reluctant to leave Elizabeth, her uncles, and her father and brother more than she was willing to admit. She and Elizabeth had grown strong in their friendship over the previous months, and Chris appreciated having another woman around who knew how large a task it was to raise a child. And while Chris would never fully admit it, she had missed the feeling of having a father and a brother, and had missed seeing them every day over the years. Of course her familial joy was incomplete with the absence of her mother, but her encounter in the underworld was not forgotten, and Chris simply thought that her mother was away for the present, nothing more. And then there were her three slightly insane and definitely exciting uncles. With friends and family surrounding her for so many months, she hadn't thought what a hole their absence could leave in her when she left.
Her melancholy soon dissolved when the merchant ships of the Caribbean proved to be easy sport. The Black Pearl attacked and plundered three fat merchantmen in their first month back at sea, and instead of selling the extra prizes at first, they were simply used to attack the following prizes and capture them. When the burden of the three extra ships started taxing the crew of the Black Pearl, they sailed into Port Freedom to sell the three extra ships. They had not been in the port since Jack had hauled Jocelyn from it against her will, but they found that little had changed.
"I'm going to go ahead and handle the selling of the prizes and cargo." Jack informed Chris as the anchors were lowered. "Ye can go ahead and take the kiddies to get the provisions squared away."
Chris arched an eyebrow at her husband. "Ye want me to take two infants and a toddler to go and get provisions in a pirate port?"
"Aye, I wouldn't want to rob ye." Jack replied, smiling.
"Very funny, Sparrow." Chris replied. "I'll figure something out."
Jack's smile widened. "See ye this evening then!" With that, the gangplank was lowered, and he departed into the port.
Having three small children on board was actually less taxing than Chris had thought, and it was mainly to the crew of the Black Pearl. For being pirates aboard one of the most feared ships in the Caribbean, the crew seemed to have a soft spot for children, especially Marty and Cotton. If one of the babes were crying, Cotton or Marty usually materialized and swept the babe from Chris' arms, quieting the crying child within minutes.
"Loki!" Chris whistled and the monkey dropped down from the rigging onto her shoulder. His lightened hair had not spread, but Chris did her best to make sure he got enough rest and was fed well. She had asked around in ports and learned that some monkeys like Loki could live forty years, if well taken care of. Chris did not know how old Loki was when she found him in the pirate ship, but she hoped it had not been a good deal of years. "Feel like going into port, mate?" She asked the monkey, scratching his head. He leaned into it and closed his eyes before Chris made her way to the captain's cabin.
The captain's cabin was scarcely clean anymore. Usually clean nappies, Pearl's clothes, and the small collection of toys were scattered all over the place, on top of rum bottles and Chris' papers. Sometimes a path would have to be plowed in between the door, the navigational table, and the bed, but Chris figured it could always be worse. Three hammocks had been strung up by Marty, each one a different color for the children, and as Chris entered, she saw that the twins were fast asleep in their hammocks, but Pearl was busy trying to swath Marty in some silk that they had obtained from one of the merchant's cargos. "Alright there, Marty?" Chris asked, smiling as she shoved a foot-full of clothing to the side.
Marty nodded. "Pearly's going to make me a maharajah, aren't you Pearly?"
Pearl laughed. "Yep! And then Uncle Marty's going to be the dragon and I'll be the butterfly!" One of the odd games that Pearl had invented was the dragon and butterfly game. Chris didn't know how it quite came about, but one day Pearl went up to her father and said, "Quick, you be the dragon, I'll be the butterfly! Go!" With that, she took off across the deck before Jack could fully comprehend what she had said. Sometimes Pearl was a princess, not a butterfly, but either way, she was always the one running.
"That sounds fun." Chris said earnestly. She looked at her sleeping infants and asked, "Marty, could I ask ye a favor?"
Marty removed a swath of silk from around his mouth. "O' course."
"I need to go get provisions –"
"I'll watch them." Marty said without waiting for her to finish. "I might just get Cot in on this too. Then the butterfly could be chased by two dragons." He grinned deviously at Pearl.
"Oh no!" Pearl exclaimed.
Chris laughed. "Thank ye, mate. I owe ye a watch."
"Don't worry about it, Chris. Go get our food so we won't starve." He turned back to Pearl as she continued to wind silk around him, and Chris exited the cabin after grabbing a pouch of coins, and made her way into Port Freedom
She walked past the Parrot's Eye, remembering the unpleasant experience she had previously had because of the tavern, and instead headed for the town merchant. When she entered, she found a tall blond woman behind the counter. "May I help you?" She asked, smiling.
"Aye, I need some provisions to be delivered to a ship in the harbor, and I can pay right now." Chris replied, setting the pouch on the counter.
"Of course." The woman pulled out a ledger and opened it to a fresh page. "What is the ship's name?" She asked, pulling out her quill and inkwell.
"The Black Pearl." Chris replied. She thought she saw the woman flinch, but it must have been her imagination, for the woman wrote the name down without another thought.
"Oh dear, it seems I'm out of ink." The woman said, peering into the inkwell. "You don't mind if I go in the back and get another bottle, do you?"
"By all means." Chris replied. The woman bobbed in a curtsy and sashayed into the back room. Chris spent the next few minutes drumming her fingers on the counter and wondering just how long it took to find a fresh inkwell. She heard the door to the shop open, and she turned to see who the next customer might be. Instead of another customer, she was greeted with the sight of four arm soldiers with an insignia reading "EITC" on their chests.
Chris' brow furrowed as they raised their muskets. Loki screeched, leaped, and streaked through the door just before it closed. East India Trading Company? In a pirate port? She raised her hands, for she was stupid enough to not bring her rapier and pistol with her into a pirate port (God, Chris, seriously? She thought), and she wondered for a minute whether the uniforms could have been pilfered and these four blokes were just putting her on. "Is there a problem?" Chris demanded.
"Shut it!" The lead soldier barked. "You are hereby under arrest by orders of the East India Trading Company for piracy!"
"What proof do you have?" Chris growled. She wasn't well known like her husband, something like this had never happened to her before.
"You're sailing with the Black Pearl, a vessel that was at one time belonging to the East India Trading Company and was taken by a pirate!" The leader sneered. Chris' blood ran cold. Would they go after the Pearl? If they did and they took her, what would happen to her children? "Now don't move an inch while we clap you in irons!"
Chris knew that she could not hope to win this fight. In the old days, before she was a mother, she would have fought tooth and nail, spewing out curses all the way. But she couldn't risk her dying like that, she couldn't risk Pearl and Jack-Jack and Victoria growing up without a mother (though if the EITC had their way, she would most likely be hung at dawn). "You've got me, I suppose." She said as calmly as she could. Inside, she was screaming.
The lead soldier had another man put the iron manacles about her wrists, and with that, they led her from the merchant and she saw no sign of Loki. She looked to the harbor and saw that the Black Pearl no longer floated at the pier. Maybe Loki had made it back to the ship, and she was sure everyone knew something was wrong when Loki showed up and Chris was nowhere to be seen. That arose a hope in her that the Pearl had been able to sail away free without being taken by the EITC, but then how was Chris going to get out of her current predicament? She could do her best alone, but some help would certainly not be frowned upon. The soldiers took Chris to a newly erected prison and threw her into a cell. "You will be standing trial this evening in preparation for your hanging tomorrow at dawn." The lead soldier informer her, removing her manacles through the bars.
"Looking forward to it!" She replied haughtily. The leader leered at her, turned on his heel, and marched from the prison. Chris turned to explore every inch of her cell. The floor was covered in dirty straw and filth, a bucket functioned as the privy, and there was no bench for her to sit on.
"Lovely accommodations, eh love?" A voice asked from the cell across from hers. She turned to saw Jack leisurely resting against the wall opposite the bars of his cell with his hands behind his head. "I asked for the king's cell. They said it was taken."
Chris leaned as far forward into her bars as they would allow, just so she could also be as close to her husband as possible. "Jack! They have you too? Damn!"
"Aye. Jumped me coming out of the shipwright's and took off with the money for the prizes, the greedy bastards." Jack's lips curled into a snarl, but he collected himself. "Where's Pearl? Are the kiddies alright?"
"Marty said he would look after them, so they stayed aboard." Chris explained. "And when they nabbed me at the merchant's, I saw that the Pearl is no longer in the harbor. I think they smelled the East India Trading Company and left before they could be attacked."
"Nothing to do but wait here, I guess." Jack removed his hands from behind his head. "It's a sad day when the bastards that gave me this," He tapped his left forearm where his pirate brand sat, "can overrun a pirate port. Sad day."
Chris was quiet for a few minutes. "How exactly do ye wager we can get out of here?"
Jack tapped his chin before speaking. "Your 'trial,' if ye could call it that, will happen before the sun goes down and they'll plan to hang us in the morning. I'm lucky that they didn't just decide to hang me immediately since I already have me pirate brand. Anyway, I'm sure that when night falls, something very fortuitous will happen." Jack smiled, and he had the gleam that occurred in his eye whenever mischief on his part was afoot. That calmed Chris' agitated nerves.
A short time later, two soldiers appeared and came to a halt outside of Chris' cell. "We're here to escort you to your trial." One of them announced. "Please produce your wrists." Chris raised her hands and manacles were clamped onto them. Her cell was then unlocked, and she was pulled from the prison with one last look at Jack.
The soldiers led Chris from the prison and into an adjoining building and then into the room the trial would be held in. The trial room was stone and cold. It held four benches in a row and on a raised platform sat a table with a few chairs. There was a ring embedded into the floor before the platform, and the only other furnishing was a brazier full of glowing red coals. The soldiers led Chris to stand over the ring, and before they left her, they ran a chain through her manacles and then padlocked the chain to the ring. Chris stared straight ahead as she heard people file into the benches behind her, and all were ordered to stand when the East India Trading Company authority arrived.
The soldier standing at the door announced, "In the trial of piracy against Christiana Thomas, Lord Cutler Beckett is presiding." The door opened and a short man entered the room. His face was round and though he was young, he seemed to have a small amount of jowls. He wore a powdered white wig, and when he ascended the platform, a gentleman that had followed him in removed his cape. The man sat and took up a ledger sitting upon the table before checking his pocket watch. Cutler Beckett? Hadn't Chris heard that name somewhere before?
Cutler Beckett looked back to the ledger and spoke as he did so. "The trial has commenced, please make note of that Mr. Mercer, at 4:17 p.m." The man who had removed Beckett's cape was standing nearby and made a note in a ledger similar to the one his master looked in. Beckett's cold blue eyes focused on Chris. His eyes scrutinized every inch of her flesh, from her rough bare feet to her hair barely contained by the damask bandana. "Your name is Christiana Thomas, am I correct?"
"No." Chris replied with as much haughtiness as she could muster.
Beckett's eyebrows flew up and disappeared into his wig at this development. "No?" He repeated. "Pray tell, what is your name then?"
"My name has been Christiana Sparrow for some time." She replied.
His eyebrows reappeared and furrowed. "And how came you to be called by that name?"
"I am married to Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl. I was sure word had gotten around, though we didn't invite many to our wedding." There were a few chuckles from those sitting on the benches, but they were silenced with a look from Beckett.
"But your maiden name is Thomas, yes?" He asked, irritated.
"Quite true."
"Mr. Mercer, make note of the change in the defendant's name." Mercer scribbled in his ledger. Beckett took a deep breath, as if settling himself, and continued. "Your husband is the same Jack Sparrow that has also been detained, yes?"
"My husband is Captain Jack Sparrow," Chris insisted, "Yes."
"Mr. Mercer, would you please have Jack Sparrow join these proceedings?" Beckett smiled bitterly at Chris. "Fitly shackled, of course."
Mercer nodded and walked along the edge of the room to exit. Beckett ignored Chris for the period in between by writing in his ledger, which left the room in silence except for the occasional whisper between those in the benches behind Chris. When Mercer returned, he had a pistol to the back of Jack's head as he prodded him along. Jack's hands were shackled before him.
"Where shall I stand him, sir?" Mercer asked. "There is only one ring in the floor, and it is currently in use."
"Stand him to the right of the defendant and have a soldier put a bead on his head." Beckett commanded. Once Jack was in the designated position and a soldier had his musket trained on his head, Beckett continued.
"So I am to presume that you both live on the ship named the Black Pearl?" Beckett asked, looking up from his ledger.
Chris didn't know what the man was getting at. "Aye."
"And you are certainly aware that the Black Pearl is a known pirate vessel, and the occupants are pirates." Beckett continued.
Chris realized what Beckett was going to get at, and the conclusion he would draw. If nothing else, she could attempt to be defiant. "It is a matter of opinion what makes a person a pirate."
"Let the record show that the defendant answered in the affirmative." Beckett said flatly.
"How?" Chris asked tersely.
"And so by a manner of association, has professed that she is a pirate. The defendant will be branded and hung on the morrow, case dismissed."
Those sitting in the benches behind Chris and Jack began to file out of the room, though two younger gentlemen leaned forward to ask Chris and Jack for their signatures. A soldier shooed them off, leaving only Chris, Jack, Beckett, Mercer, and less than a handful of soldiers in the room.
"So, Jack..." Beckett began, "How have you been faring?" His tone was almost casual as he descended from the raised platform, but malice glinted in his eyes.
"Better than ye by the looks of it, Cutty." Jack responded.
"'Cutty'?" Chris exclaimed, looking to her husband with an incredulous expression on her face.
"He used to be me best mate before he sold out to the East India Trading Company for a job. His price was me." Jack's eyes narrowed. "I think I mentioned him once in passing, to ye, but he's just a pissant little boy who isn't of much worth to remember, let alone speak of."
Beckett ignored the insult. "That I sold you is true enough. You were worth a lot to my reputation, Jack. It didn't do me well when you escaped."
"And it didn't do well for me when you tried to have me hung." Jack replied, shrugging.
Beckett clapped his hands together. "Well, first order of business. I'm sure you'll enjoy watching as your wife receives her pirate brand. That's why I asked for you to be here." A smile took place on Beckett's features, full of a sick kind of joy, the type Chris had seen on Black Bart's face that terrible time in the Tortugan caves. "I'm sure you remember the acuteness of the pain when you received your own brand." Mercer walked forward with a long velvet bag. From out of it, he drew a long poker with a reverse 'P' on the end and handed it to Beckett. "It has been so long since I personally branded a pirate, but this…" Beckett smiled, "This is a special occasion.
Jack waited until Beckett turned to the brazier and placed the poker into the coals to whisper, "It burns for a second, but it isn't so bad. Ye have some flesh on ye, so it won't hurt as bad as if you had bone right under yer skin." He smiled what he thought was an encouraging grin. "Just another decoration fer yer arm, 'ey love?" Jack asked, eyeing her already scarred arms.
"Actually," Beckett began, having overheard Jack's whispers, "We brand foreheads now. It's not as easy to hide."
"...Oh bugger." Jack muttered, looking lost for words.
Chris steeled herself as Beckett turned, whipping the poke from the coals. The reverse 'P' blazed a fierce red. Very few things alit fear inside of Chris, but as she looked upon the brand, the brand that had touched and scarred an innumerable amount of her pirate brethren and sisters before their death, fear began gnawing away in her stomach. She pulled on her chain, but it didn't allow her to escape. Beckett smiled. "I'm glad you're a fighter." He whispered.
He whipped the 'P' up to mere inches from her forehead, and Chris could feel the heat upon her skin. In that moment, she realized she could duck, and avoid the brand momentarily and perhaps in doing so, somehow do something to hinder Beckett. She bent her knees and bowed her head just as Beckett moved to brand her. It was only enough to take him by surprise, but he quickly adapted and whipped the brand down and planted the hot steel upon the flesh of the back of her neck.
Chris let out a scream as her spine went rigid with pain. There was a sizzling sound and the smell of burnt flesh. Somehow, through the noise though, gunshots were heard in the direction of the cells. Beckett pulled the brand from Chris' neck as she dropped to her knees, her mouth agape in pain. Jack looked as though he direly wanted to act, but the musket was still trained on him.
Beckett thrust the brand back into the brazier. "Just because you ducked doesn't mean you succeeded in unnerving me, Christiana." He hissed. "You'll simply receive a second brand, and I will hold it until the P is cool to the touch."
Chris looked up at him with hatred in her eyes just as the door was broken down. All in the room looked in shock as crew members of the Black Pearl stormed in through the door, immediately slashing at the soldiers that remained. With this distraction, Jack ducked and rolled on the floor, causing his soldier to become stunned when he looked back and saw his target was no longer there. Pintel took advantage of his shock and tackled him to the ground. Jack took to chasing after Mercer, and when Jack finally caught up with him, he launched himself onto Mercer's back and set to strangling the man with the chains of his manacles. The two of them sank to the floor and Jack was the only one who rose up.
Chris then realized her legs were free even though her hands weren't. She ignored the pain on the back of her neck and swooped her leg around, knocking Beckett to the floor. She crawled forward as far as her chain permitted her and placed her kneecap upon his throat as he lay on the floor. He looked up at her with wide blue eyes as she whispered to him. "Now you tell your guards to back off or I will kneel down on your windpipe until you stop moving." Beckett's eyes widened, questioning her. She began to apply pressure. "Do it!"
"Throw down your weapons!" Beckett rasped to his soldiers. They stopped for a minute, one receiving a punch across the face. "Did I stutter?" They obeyed him and their weapons clattered to the floor.
Jack stepped forward and looked down at the man upon the floor. "Now tell them to unlock Chris and I, Cutty."
"Release them!" Beckett demanded. One of his soldiers walked forward after plucking the key ring from Mercer's body, and he unlocked the manacles around the couple's wrists.
As Chris rubbed her wrists and rotated her hands, she looked to the man beneath her knee. "Maybe we should take good ol' Cutty here along... as security." She looked up to her husband and grimaced as the burn on the back of her neck was pulled. Pain shot into her scalp and down her back.
"I love the way you think, love." Jack grinned. He turned to his first mate, who had led the charge into the room. "Gibbs, ye would happen to have any rope?"
Gibbs shook his head. "No sir."
Jack tapped his chin in thought before receiving what looked to be an epiphany. "Bandanas then, anyone?" Bandanas soaked in sweat, bandanas used for handkerchiefs, and bandanas used to bind old wounds were collected from the pirates and tied together to bind and gag Cutler Beckett. He grimaced and moaned in disgust as the gag, made of the filthiest bandana, was stuffed into his mouth. Once he was bound tightly, Cutler Beckett was carried from the place like a sack of sugar on the shoulders of Anamaria.
Surprisingly, they were met with no resistance or agents from the East India Trading Company as the crew of the Black Pearl returned to their ship, hidden in a cove outside the town, with their bounty of Cutler Beckett. Once aboard the ship, the crew, with Jack in the lead, took pleasure in exacting vengeance upon the East India Trading Company lord and all the wrongs he had done to the pirates of the world. Chris plucked a gown from her trunk of disguises, and after the pirates relieved Beckett of "those awful clothes (as said by Jack)," the dress was pulled onto Beckett. Loki stole Beckett's wig and gave it to his mistress as the pirates took joy in applying cosmetics to Beckett. Chris brushed the wig straight and used it to teach Pearl how to braid hair. After Pearl's education was complete, Chris fed the twins and burped them both, using the wig as the burp rag. Only then was the wig placed atop Beckett's head once more Finally, as the pièce de résistance, a piece of canvas with 'landlubber' and 'scallywag' written on it was sealed to Beckett's forehead with hot tar, and he was bound tighter and set adrift in a jolly boat pointed towards Port Freedom before the Black Pearl set sail. As one last bit of revenge, Jack figured that Beckett would embarrass himself even more than his dress would by crying for help when want of a privy and thirst set in.
oOo
You suck my blood like a leech
You break the law and you breach
Screw my brain till it hurts
You've taken all my money – and you want more,
Misguided old mule
With your pigheaded rules
With your narrow-minded cronies who are fools of the first division
Death on two legs
You're tearing me apart,
Death on two legs
You never had a heart of your own
Kill joy, Bad guy,
Big talking small fry
You're just an old barrow-boy
Have you found a new toy to replace me,
Can you face me
But now you can kiss my ass goodbye
Feel good, are you satisfied
Do you feel like suicide (I think you should)
Is your conscience all right
Does it plague you at night,
Do you feel good – Feel good!
Talk like a big business tycoon,
But you're just a hot-air balloon,
So no one gives you a damn,
You're just an overgrown school-boy
Let me tan your hide.
A dog with disease
You're the king of the 'sleaze'
Put your money where your mouth is Mr. Know-all
Was the fin on your back part of the deal... (shark!)
Death on two legs
You're tearing me apart
Death on two legs
You never had a heart of your own,
(You never did, right from the start)
Insane you should be put inside,
You're a sewer-rat decaying in a cesspool of pride
Should be made unemployed
Then make yourself null and void,
Make me feel good
I feel good.