Chapter 31: La María Silenciosa

Some Spanish phrases towards the end of the chapter; translations provided at the bottom of the page.

Voices.

So many voices.

Spanish, English, French...

Voices all around me in the dark, some faint and distant, some so close I should have felt their breath against my ears.

So, so many voices. Voices upon voices upon voices, going on forever; conversations upon conversations upon conversations, happening all at once, happening all around me.

Mon dieu, Lieutenant! Vraiment? I am sure your Capitán remembers how to win a lady's heart! If what that pirate said is true -

It's true, Cortez! She will break our Curse when he -

El Capitán, caring for the Señorita? I do not think so! She is too -

Buggering bollocks, Spanish, it's not gonna kill yer to make an effort! I mean, look. If it's any consolation, I don't think she's actually, y'know, pining after that Scarfield bloke -

Yet you are far too easily impressed, Diego! You saw courage, I saw only foolishness, and the Capitán is blinded by desire -

You and I know all too well the sort of trouble Capitán Salazar's obsessions have landed us in before -

The Capitán may be – difficult -

You refuse to believe what is completely obvious to every one of my men!

But be assured, he cares -

... she will take my Mando to bed…

And then the voices started to come thicker, and faster: overlapping one another, interrupting each other, the simultaneous cacophony of multiple conversations.

With the strange intuition that only ever comes in dreams, I knew I was hearing every conversation that had ever taken place aboard La María Silenciosa. All of them. At the same time. Every sob and gasp and cry, every shouted curse word and every whispered prayer, surrounding me, crowding me, deafening me. If I'd been able to move my hands I would have clapped them over my ears. It was too much.

stop

stop

"Stop!" I cried out, and at once, all the voices ceased.

All of them, save two.

Two voices, speaking in low, urgent whispers, as if afraid of being overheard.

The first was a young man's voice: clear, confident, educated-sounding - if also a little defensive.

"... what? It was best plan I had!"

"Ye a damn fool, Turner!" Growled the second voice. "Worse than a fool! Go back t'yer cell, afore the others wake an' notice yer missin'! They won't think twice about kickin' up a stink an' raising the alarm to the Spanish!"

I thought I knew that voice. The accent, the tone, the harshness of how he spoke, sounded curiously familiar to me.

"I'm not going back! Here - take it!" Another soft muffled sound, and I heard Captain Barbossa grunt as if making an effort to move. "I brought your spare leg for you - so it's now or never! If Lady Stanhope hasn't fallen unconscious yet, she will soon - and then we can escape!"

"Ye risked yer stupid neck, sedatin' the woman - and f'what? To bring a wooden leg to me?"

Captain Barbossa, I realised. The second speaker was Captain Barbossa!

But the dark still surrounded me; I couldn't move or see or feel - I could only listen, as he and the younger man kept talking.

"To get us out of here!" Soft metallic clicks started; the young man was trying to pick the lock of Barbossa's cell door.

"I thank ye kindly f'the leg," a grunt, and a twisting sound, as Barbossa fixed his new leg on, "But ye still haven't explained how ye plan for us to cross all that sea betwixt here an' the safety of St Martin's shores. Because I don't see me swimming far."

"There's a rowboat, the other side of Queen Anne, so we only have to swim a few yards -"

"Tell me that I still got some of me laudanum left in that bottle, an' that ye didn't waste it all on Lady Stanhope!"

"There's some."

"Some!"

"I'm sorry! It was -" Another soft metallic scrape. "The only thing I could think of!"

"What, wastin' all me laudanum?" Another huff, and a grunt of pain, followed by a wooden thump on the floor. "This leg be makin' me right sore, afore long. Ye shouldn't have given her none!"

"Well, you didn't see the way they protected her! I did. She's important to them. More than important. So I did! I put it in her water, and on her apples - enough to get her sick - and they'll be so worried, they won't even notice we're gone until it's too late!"

"Aye, but tis my laudanum! Twas a fool's plan! What if it failed - did ye ever stop to think o'that?"

"Well, something has happened. I know it has. We weren't even guarded tonight. Something happened to draw them away - somewhere else on the ship, and I wasn't going to wait any longer!"

"She be a tiny woman, Henry - what if she had more than 'just a little'?"

"She'll just fall asleep!"

"Ye ever seen what happens when someone has too much laudanum? I have. It's not pretty, boy. A little laudanum - she'll sleep, aye. Too much, all at once, in a tiny woman like her? It'll kill her."

"Then," there came a harsh grinding, followed by the soft whine of Barbossa's cell door swinging open. "It'll just give us more time to get away."

A pause.

"Ye are a cold bastard, boy. Never thought I'd see the day a Turner got a cold heart."

Suddenly, there were footsteps above, and a few seconds later, rough laughter. It sounded like the imprisoned pirates, jeering and taunting someone - but it stopped very quickly when a cold Spanish voice interrupted with, "Pray to whatever gods you believe in -"

"Henry!" Barbossa whispered. "Quick! Hide! In here, with me!"

Barbossa's cell door whined again, and I heard a stifled curse from him, before it thudded softly closed.

And then I heard footsteps approaching, right above us.

"Come, Señorita," Magda was saying, "We must go further down, to the hold."

Understanding dawned.

Officer Magda - had said that to me. He'd said it to me, right before we'd descended the last set of stairs, to go down to the hold.

Which meant…

Captain Barbossa had been hiding this young man, this Henry Turner, in his cell this whole time. When he'd looked through the small barred window, when he'd seen me, he'd been watching not just to see who was there - but to block anyone from looking into the cell, and stop them seeing the young man he had in there with him.

But even while I realised this, sensation was slowly being returned to me.

I heard a great wooden groan, followed by the familiar, tchhhhhh, tch-tch tch tch tch tch. I felt the hairs on my arms start to prickle. A cool breeze touched my face, and then I lurched upwards, as if being pulled away from Captain Barbossa's cell, up from the hold, towards the top deck. My breath choked in my throat as metal and wood blurred fast before my eyes, but the ambient creaks of La María Silenciosa soothed me, and I went with it, trusting her to be with me for whatever was about to happen next.

Solid deck formed beneath my feet, and the sense of motion promptly stopped. I shook my head a little and squeezed my eyes shut, feeling like I was still moving, and it took me another minute for the dizzy and disoriented sensation to pass.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw that I was standing back on the deck, by the main mast. A thick, white fog surrounded the ship. Silence reigned. There was not a breath of wind, nor even the constant surge of the waves.

But unlike the last time I was here, the mast was, curiously, repaired - just like in the waking world. It made me wonder if the Curse's Nightmare was less a 'Nightmare' and more an.. alternate reality. A mirror of the real world. If what happened in the real world, happened here… I wondered if the reverse would also be true. Would anything that happened here, also happen in reality? It wasn't exactly a comforting thought.

I couldn't help a glance down at my hands, and it was with relief that I saw that they were mine. I never thought I'd be so grateful to see my own hands. I missed their strength. A lock of loose hair fell forward as I examined my hands, and I could see it was my hair. I felt instantly better. I knew it wasn't my real body. My real body was still stuck in the future; and it was with resentment that I thought of Lady Stanhope, imagining she must be having the time of her life in it - but at least here, I looked like myself again.

But I was wasting time: it didn't matter what I looked like or not. I was here, and there was something I needed to do. I turned in a circle, looking for Capitán Salazar. I was alone. I even looked up towards the wheel, hoping I might see him there again; but there was no one.

"Where are you…" I whispered.

Tchhhhhhhhhhh...

"La María?" I was glad she hadn't left me. "Where is he? Where's Capitán Salazar?"

She clicked and creaked and groaned, Tchhhhh tch kck-kck-kck kck…

She was trying to tell me, I was sure of it. I listened carefully as the noise repeated; and the more I listened, the more it seemed to be coming from near the high turrets at the back of the ship, on the deck above Officer Magda's cabin.

Tchhhhh tch kck-kck-kck kck.

She needed to show me something.

I walked quickly along the deck towards the turrets, ascending the steps, guided towards the source of all the noise she was making.

As my eyes came level with the raised turret deck, I saw the form of a large wooden woman, lying almost face down on the deck, her back towards me. Her head rested at a painful angle, one of her arms was splayed out awkwardly behind her, and her legs were half-bent; exactly as if she'd collapsed there, unconscious, on the deck.

"Who - is that?"

But La María was silent now.

As I stood there, I had the oddest sense of déjà vu. As if I was always meant to have come here, somehow. I stepped quietly towards the wooden woman, and the closer I came, the more the feeling of déjà vu grew. I reached out a tentative hand towards her shoulder, without even really knowing why I did, but simply intuitively knowing I needed to touch her…

… and the moment my fingers brushed the hard woodgrain, she raised her head and twisted it around to face me.

My mouth opened in fright but no sound came out.

The woman had no face.

Where her face once should have been there was nothing but burnt and blasted wood.

She shot out a great wooden hand, blindly reaching for me, and managed to close her fingers around my arm in a crushing grip.

I cried out in surprise, and no small amount of pain, but she did not let go of me. Still holding me by my arm, she jerked herself up into a sitting position. I didn't dare try to pull myself out of her grip. I could feel the strength of her, and I got the distinct impression that if I tried to fight her, I'd really regret it. So I just stood there, terrified and silent, watching as she slowly raised her other hand up, and splayed her blackened fingers stiffly over the ruins of her face.

I watched in horror as she gingerly felt where lips must once have been. She touched the stump of her nose, traced the blackened hollow in her cheek, the left eye socket that had cracked and split open. I could tell from the way her hand trembled, and the way her shoulders shook, that this was the first time she was feeling her injuries. As if she was unused to the body she found herself in - or, perhaps she just hadn't been able to bear being in her body before now…

Her entire body shook.

"Who did this to you?" I found myself reaching out a steadying hand towards her. "Who... who made you like this?"

Her mouth cracked wide open, a gaping fissure in her blasted features, and she threw her head back to howl at the sky.

TCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTCHTCHTCHTCH!

I started back in shock before I could stop myself, my wrist grinding in her tight wooden grip, splinters from her fingers stabbing into my skin. Her head snapped towards me, and I stopped moving at once, but it was too late. She'd turned her full attention now on me, the chilling remains of her face telling me nothing of her true intentions towards me.

Tchhhhhhhhhhhhh, she hissed.

"... La María…" I was petrified. "You're… La María... "

She grabbed both my hands in a single one of hers - and her hand really was enormous, engulfing mine entirely - slowly getting to her knees, and then to her feet, pulling my hands up over my head as she did.

I was stretched almost to my toes as she held me. I had to tilt my head back to the point of agony, just to stare up at all twelve feet of her.

I was suddenly very, very unsure of what La María Silenciosa actually wanted with me.

And she'd wanted me to eat the apples, I remembered belatedly.

The same apples the Curse had wanted me to eat. The apples that had been drugged. I knew from the conversation I'd overheard between Captain Barbossa and Henry Turner, whoever he was - that they'd been heavily dosed with laudanum. And it hadn't occurred to me before now, that maybe Capitán Salazar's ship didn't exactly have my welfare in mind when she was encouraging me to eat them.

"Please - please let go!" I pleaded. "I - I don't know why you wanted me to - I mean, I know you wanted me to eat the apples, but - please don't hurt me -"

She bent her charred head in my direction while I pleaded, as if considering, and then started to tug me with her towards the other side of the ship.

To the edge.

"No… oh, no -" I tried to pull back, but she was insistent, forcing me to follow her.

Was she going to put me over the side? Did she mean to drop me into the sea? I wasn't going to be able to stop her if she did, but I was terrified about what it would mean for the real me, lying unconscious while she dropped me over the side in this dreamworld - would I disappear from the hold in the real world? I couldn't risk it. My feet slid against her massive strength as I struggled to free myself.

"Please, please, I promised the Capitán I wouldn't leave the ship, I made a promise to him not to leave!"

She stopped.

"If you put me off the ship, he'll think I meant to leave… and I don't - I don't want to let him down. Please?"

She tilted her head.

And then, to my bewilderment, she reached down her other hand.

I couldn't help shrinking back a little, one of her hands alone could easily crush my skull…

But she only touched a finger to my cheek.

It was such a strange gesture.

Almost an affectionate one.

And then that hand opened up and took hold of me by my waist, and lifted me up against her rough chest.

Tchhhhhh, she soothed me. Kckkckkckkckkck - tch tch tch tch tchhhh...

We started to go down. We were sinking down through the deck's timbers like they were quicksand.

I cried out in panic; but she made that same soothing sound again, and tapped my cheek once more as she cradled me like a child in her arms, taking me down into the dark.

Without warning, bright white light shone into my face, and I winced and covered my eyes.

I felt La María gently placing me down, and I carefully squinted when I felt something solid beneath my feet.

We were in a bright, enclosed courtyard.

Smooth stones, black and white and shining like polished marble in the sunlight, curved in perfect geometric patterns across the even ground.

Thick orange trees grew in exquisite marble pots, lined in precise rows on the stones. Delicate little white blossoms trembled among their leaves.

A tall stone fountain graced the middle of the courtyard. Water cascaded down from the mouths of four fierce-looking dragons. Their tails intertwined to support a small stone island, upon which a carved saint stood, tied savagely to a gnarled and twisted old tree. His hair had been chiselled with eerie skill to look exactly as if he were drowning underwater, and his eyes were tightly closed in anguish.

Around the courtyard, thick ivy climbed the walls; but there were no windows, and no balconies, like I would have expected. There were no doors into or out of the courtyard, either. An involuntary shiver shot down my spine.

In spite of the sunlight, I felt cold.

A frail-looking woman suddenly appeared, just to the side of the fountain, shielding her wrinkled eyes from the midday sun, staring in disbelief at something between the orange trees.

"¡No puede ser!" She muttered to herself, stepping forward to get a better look. "Mando?"

I heard laughter, and a deep baritone exclaiming, "¡Mama!"

Between the orange trees, a young man bounded towards us.

I froze, thinking he would see us, wondering what he'd say, what he would do, when he saw the giant twelve foot tall wooden woman, but - he didn't see us. He didn't look at me or La María at all. We were completely invisible to him. To them both.

"¡Lo hice mamá! ¡Estoy en la Armada!" He shouted in excitement.

He didn't stop running until he'd reached the older woman, and then caught her up in his arms, spinning her around and around until she slapped his shoulder in protest, scolding him to stop.

"¡Mando! ¡Para, para, harás que se me caigan los ojos!"

He spun her around once more before setting her down with another joyful laugh, and stepped back with a grin, resting his hands on her frail shoulders -

"Oh my God." I said faintly when I saw who it was. "It's… Capitán Salazar."

He was younger and very obviously happier, but it was definitely him. The Curse had not touched him in this place. He looked so different - and yet, he still had the same impetuous quirk of his mouth when he smiled, the same air of confident command.

And he'd called the other woman - mama. His mother.

I watched them both, a sense of quiet awe overwhelming me, as they continued speaking to one another, their affection for one another clear.

"But… I thought he was in a Nightmare…" I looked around at the immaculately arranged courtyard, bewildered; before looking back at the handsome young man speaking eagerly to his very doting mother. "But he's … he's happy."

Next to me, La María uttered a sad, "Tchhhh, tchhh, tchhh," from the remains of her mouth.

I shook my head, trying to understand. "Is this - is it the Curse?"

She nodded once, and I saw her broken mouth slowly form a grimace - or was it a smile of appreciation, because I'd guessed? I couldn't tell. In fact, there was a lot I couldn't tell about her, I realised; and a lot I wanted to know.

"Uh." I turned to face her. "I'm - glad, you brought me to him, but..." I took the plunge, and went ahead. "How can I trust you. Because... look. You told Bracero you wanted me to eat the apples. And, that... that's kind of... well, it's confusing, to put it bluntly."

She turned her entire body towards me.

I stepped back, suddenly aware this was not a - being - I wanted to anger. "Please - I just want to understand why you'd -"

"Tch!" She shook her head, in a jerky motion, and held up one finger.

I stared, puzzled.

She shook her finger again at me, and held it closer, trying to emphasise it.

"One?"

She nodded.

"You just wanted me to have - one? One apple?"

She nodded again.

"Why - one? Because honestly, after what the Curse tried, I'm pretty sure I shouldn't eat any of them -"

She slammed her hands together as if in a prayer, and then put them up to the side of her face.

I tilted my head, frowning and trying to figure out what she meant.

She tilted her own head, as if resting her cheek on her hands, and made a curious rasping sound, as if she were breathing deeply.

"Oh." I realised. "You just wanted me to sleep…"

I remembered then what Barbossa had been saying. How a little laudanum would put me to sleep, but a lot would - kill me.

La María had known about the laudanum, of course. She'd known that pirate - that Henry Turner - had drugged the apples and the water, but instead of raising the alarm, she'd decided to keep silent about that little fact. Because she needed me to sleep. So she could bring me to see Capitán Salazar.

"So - you just wanted me to sleep -" I studied her ruined face, wishing I could read her expression. "To help Capitán Salazar?"

She nodded, a lurch of her shoulders seeming to indicate relief that I'd understood.

"But why. I mean, everyone thought he was in a Nightmare…" I turned back to the scene in front of us. "But it looks like he's actually happy."

The older woman was by the fountain again, shielding her eyes from the sun.

"¡No puede ser!" She muttered to herself, stepping forward. "Mando?"

The same laughter as before; and then Capitán Salazar's voice ringing out: "¡Lo hice mamá! ¡Estoy en la Armada!"

I watched as the exact same scene repeated.

"What... what's going on?"

The scene reached its conclusion, just as Capitán Salazar embraced his mother once more with a cheeky grin and a "Hasta pronto!", and then - they both disappeared.

And then the mother reappeared by the fountain, and the scene started again.

"Tchhhhh," La María shook her head, lifting an open palm out towards the scene in front of me.

"It's - it's the Curse, isn't it." I whispered. "It's - keeping him here. In a loop. Keeping him... happy. So that he doesn't want to wake up…"

Clever, I ruefully admitted to myself. Very clever.

Showing someone like Capitán Salazar, who knew only suffering and rage, who had lived in bitterness and heartache for so long - showing him something happy and sweet for once...

It would be pure addiction.

And the Curse was doing it to entice him into never wanting to leave. Into never wanting to wake up. If he knew he was imprisoned here by the Curse, he didn't look like he cared. And who could blame him? After everything he'd been through, I saw at once that he'd happily stay here. Forever.

I stared as the scene finished, and then started up once again.

"La María..." I took a deep breath. "I hope you have some ideas, because I don't." I watched as he swung his mother around in a happy embrace for the fourth time since we'd arrived. "He doesn't even see us. He apparently can't hear us. So... how am I going to wake him up this time?"

SPANISH TRANSLATIONS:

¡No puede ser! - I don't believe it!

¡Lo hice mamá! ¡Estoy en la Armada! - I did it, Mama! I got into the Armada!

¡Mando! ¡Para, para, harás que se me caigan los ojos - Mando! Stop, stop, you'll make my eyes fall out

Hasta pronto - See you soon!

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The 'memory' in this chapter is not a real memory... but a fabrication. As I hope became clear, the more Athena watched...

Special Thanks and Deep Gratitude to my beta, who inspired and motivated me greatly. She even researched specific Catholic iconography (namely, aspects of the stone carving I wanted to write for the fountain). The statue is a 'Capitán Salazar' version of St Sebastien: the martyr who was tied to a tree and shot with arrows, but was rescued by a woman (Saint Irene) who saved his life and healed him. Thanks to her for putting up with my random queries about the possibility of using iconographic symbolism of hand gestures, or the specific kinds of Spanish Limestone (which is such good quality that it is sometimes mistaken for marble). Thank you!

Lastly, for anyone interested in knowing who exactly Athena overheard at the beginning of the chapter, I've made a little list. Hope you had fun guessing!

The list of Characters Athena hears at the beginning are, in order:

Eleni

Officer Moss

Officer Cortez

Jack Sparrow

Officer Magda

Lieutenant Lesaro

Officer Santos

Capitán Salazar

Officer Santos (again)

Bracero

Keen readers will pick up that some of the lines she overhears are the actual words spoken to her in previous chapters - but the rest are 'behind the scenes' conversations we never got to see…