Chapter Forty Nine – Simonelius

Jack drowsily sat up, holding the inanimate body in his arms, trying to understand what had happened. He could feel something warm on his hand, and, raising it to his eyelevel, he was horrified to see that it was blood. Not his own blood, though, but a purple, slightly violet blood. Sarah's blood.

His heart missed a beat, his eyes and mouth widened at the sight. He desperately turned Sarah to face him, the people around them holding their breath in apprehension. Sarah's face was livid. Her blue hair was partially dyed purple. As Jack's shaking hand removed her hair from her shoulder, he could see the source of the flowing liquid. There was a deep wound on Sarah's shoulder, next to her neck. Anamaria leapt instantly forwards, kneeling down and driving her attention to the injury, Mr. Cotton joined her.

It was only then that Jack noticed the scene before him: the captain of the Medusa was being held captive by three of Jack's men and a pistol lay on the floor, some meters from him. Jack's speechless expression was twisted in a mixture of agony and hatred. He cast a last look at Sarah and made sure his companions were taking care of her before jumping to his feet. His eyes shone madly as he touched the handle of his sword.

"Stop." A powerful, controlling voice restrained him.

The Triton was being helped aboard by two strong mermen. His pearly hair and beard shone reflecting the sunlight. He sat majestically on the 'wall' of the ship, carrying his coral trident.

"Te bloody bastard…" Jack could barely speak, his typical drowsiness subdued by his fury. "Sarah…"

"I know." Azinareth replied in a placid, firm tone. He spoke in English, much to the present people's surprise.

"Then let me kill 'im!" Jack stared hungrily at the man struggling to free himself from his captors.

"No." replied the Triton peacefully.

Jack looked puzzled and offended, as the majority of the pirates.

"What… why not?!"

"This man and his companions must be judged according to human justice, because they are human. You will put them into your ship and lead them to your judges.

"But what about Sarah?!"

"You are aware, Captain Jack Sparrow, that this shot was meant to you, aren't you?"

"Aye."

"Then we can assume that, by protecting you, Sarahswati chose her own fate."

Jack was dumbstruck. That was no reason to leave the bastard alive.

"The men must be taken to human judges, Captain, this is an order."

Jack reluctantly let go of his sword and turned to see which was Sarah's condition. She was been examined by Mr. Cotton and Anamaria, who were trying to clean her wound with a white cloth.

"We need ter take her ter the Pearl, Jack, this ship won' last long." Anamaria said in a tone that resembled a nurse's.

Indeed, the Medusa was gradually sinking, due to the holes on its hull made by the Pearl's cannons. Mr. Cotton wrapped the cloth around the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. Jack hurriedly but carefully lifted Sarah in his arms. The passage to the Pearl was not easy, since the only devices available to make it were ropes. Once aboard the Pearl, Jack started running to his quarters taking Sarah with him. But he was once more stopped by the Triton.

"Wait." Said the commanding voice.

Azinareth was already sitting on the wall of the Pearl, he was incredibly agile, taking his age into consideration.

"Can't yeh see she needs bloody help?!" Jack asked harshly.

"Do you really believe, Captain Jack Sparrow, that I can do nothing to help my own people when they need?" The Triton was annoyingly calm.

"Then do it quickly!"

The rest of the crew was gradually getting back to the ship, not without carrying valuable goods they had found in the Medusa. After all, they were pirates, weren't they? They stopped on the deck, silently puzzled by the fact that Jack was still there and that the wounded mermaid had not received an adequate treatment yet.

"Lay her on the floor." Azinareth commanded.

Jack rolled his eyes and sighed. Sarah was paler and her breath slower, worrying him.

"I do hope it works." He said, finally giving in and laying Sarah carefully on the deck floor.

Anamaria and Mr. Cotton arrived carrying clean cloths and a recipient with water. Anamaria's face contorted in anger when she saw that Sarah had not been taken to the inner quarters, but the Triton's presence silenced her. She and Mr. Cotton kneeled down next to Sarah, intending to take care of her immediately.

"This is not necessary." Said Azinareth.

"I won' let her die!" Anamaria's tone was defiant.

"Trust me."

At that moment, Shison finished climbing the side of the ship, helped by his children Serenaswati and Allanechty. When the three of them saw the scene, they were taken aback in shock. Nevertheless, a silent movement of the Azinareth's hand prevented any action on their part. They knew that, if their Triton was controlling the situation, they should not interfere.

Azinareth turned to face Jack.

"When you came to me, Captain, it was your wish to be taken to the great wizard Simonelius, am I right?"

"Aye, but what…"

"And I told you that only the worthy ones could be taken to him, can you remember?"

"Yeah, but…" Jack was getting desperate.

"Well, Captain, I have to admit that, by saving my people, you have proved yourself more than worthy, against my expectations."

"Ok, but…"

"And, by risking her own life to save yours, my niece Sarahswati has also proved herself worthy."

"Yes, but she's dying!" Jack cried at last.

The Triton continued unperturbed, as if jack had said nothing.

"This means, Captain, that I could take you both to Simonelius now after all this without being preoccupied by your worthiness or lack of it. However, unfortunately, Simonelius is dead."

Jack blinked, processing the information.

"Dead?" he considered. "Well, that's awful, but if yeh don' hurry up, the dead one'll be Sarah!"

"And it makes no difference to you to know that, once Simonelius is dead, Sarahswati may never be able to become human and be your mate?"

Jack considered the question.

"O' course it does. Bein' with Sarah's what I wan' the most right now, yeh can ask me compass… but I'd rather see her alive an' happy, even if she couldn't be mine." He said without hesitating.

"Congratulations, Captain Jack Sparrow. You have finally understood that true love is beyond selfishness." The Triton smiled placidly.

"But this won' save her life!" Jack replied staring at the pool of purple blood that had started to be formed underneath Sarah.

"Perhaps it will. You know, Captain, when Simonelius was very old, he called me in his cave and told me he was afraid. He felt was close to his death, and when he died, the powerful magic that could unite two different worlds would be lost forever. I spent many days within his cave, learning his ideas, and, in the end, he gave me this." Azinareth raised his trident. "Now, observe."

As he leaned his forehead against the trident and started chanting words that were unknown both to humans and merpeople, a silvery light emanated from the trident. To everyone's surprise and disbelief, the light took the shape of a white specter. It had the form of a very old, bald merman whose curly beard reached his navel. The specter floated in midair towards Sarah and scrutinized her with his narrow eyes. The pirates and the merpeople watched him with terrified faces. Some held each other's arms and some prayed silently.

The ghost raised his open hand and Sarah's body was lifted by invisible forces and gently turned so her wound was exposed. The specter touched the injury with his hand, murmuring undistinguishable words. The bleeding ceased immediately. Sarah's body was turned again and laid back on the floor.

The specter dissolved into a shiny stream of 'liquid' light which floated involving Sarah's lower body, as if she had been wrapped by a glittering white rope. Her fishtail 'absorbed' the light and started to sparkle. Gradually, its blue color faded from blue to the rosy shade of Sarah's skin. Then the tail slowly divided itself into two slender parts, her fin gaining the shape of human feet.

When the specter finally let go of Sara's body, what was left on the floor amazed pirates and merpeople. A beautiful, naked, whole woman lay on her back on the deck of the ship.