~~~
Chapter Six
Elizabeth had finally reached the Black Pearl, and now she looked at the filthy ship with disgust. How foul. The ship stank with dirt and layers of muck.
"I didn't know we were taking captives." A tall black pirate said, looking darkly down at Elizabeth.
"She invoked the right of parlay, Bo 'sun" Twigg explained.
"I am here to negotiate."
Her words were cut off as the heavily tattooed man struck her across her face.
"Ye will not speak until spoken to." Bo 'sun said.
"And ye will not hurt those under the protection of parlay." A haggard looking man interjected. "My apologies Miss."
"Captain Barbossa, I am here to negotiate my release and the cessation of hostilities towards my manor."
"I'm a simple pirate lass and there were an awful lotta long words in that." Replied the captain, sensing the girl's attitude and upbringing.
"I want you to let me go and leave my house alone."
"Oh, nice to see ye care about the rest of yer village." Captain Barbossa said sarcastically. "Well, Miss. I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request...means no."
"Very well. I'll drop it." Said Elizabeth, showing startling insight, uncommon in her character.
"Our holds are bursting with swag and you think that bitta glimmer matters to us? Why?" Captain Barbossa said sneakily.
"It's what you've been searching for. I recognize the ship. I saw it ten years ago on the crossing from England."
This theory was not her own. Will had mentioned that he thought the pirate ship was searching for his medallion, and that he had lost it when they attacked the merchant ship he was a deckhand on. The last thing he remembered from the merchant ship was seeing a rowboat with no oars drifting towards them from far off in the distance. Where it had come from he did not know, but it looked as though it had been in the water weeks.
"Did ya now?" asked Barbossa, interrupting her train of thought.
"Well, I suppose if it's worthless then there's no point me in me keeping it." Elizabeth said, dropping the medallion a bit, but keeping a firm grasp on the chain.
The pirates gasped and she smiled knowingly.
"What's your name Miss?" Barbossa asked.
'Elizabeth. Turner. I'm lady-in-waiting to the governors daughter." She lied, deciding she did not want to be held ransom.
"Turner. Bootstrap Bill." A pirate muttered.
"And how does a lady-in-waiting come by a trinket like that? Family heirloom perhaps?" Barbossa queried.
"I didn't steal it, if that what you mean." She said scathingly, even though it was true.
"Very well, hand the medallion over and we have a deal."
She placed the medallion into his hand, the chain sliding down with a satisfying clink.
"Still the guns and stow 'em. Signal the men, set the flags and make good to clear port." Barbossa ordered.
"Wait! You have to return me to shore! According to the code." Elizabeth started.
"First, your return to shore was not specified. We only had to let you go. And right now you'll see no hands holding ye. Second, you have to be a pirate for the code to apply, and that ye ain't. And third, the code's more actual guidelines than rules. So welcome to the Black Pearl Miss. Turner."
~~~
Will awoke with a thudding pain in the side of his head and the sudden realization that his beloved Miss. Swann had been taken by pirates. He strode up to the battlements and flung his hatchet into the nearby table, at which Commodore Norrington was sitting.
"They've taken Elizabeth!"
"That's Miss. Swann to you, William, and we are already aware of that."
"We must retrieve her!"
" We're trying, but if you have any information to the whereabouts of the Black Pearl it'd be the only we have."
"Jack Sparrow talked about the ship.erm. Mentioned it really." Said the blonde guard that had been present yesterday, quickly amending his mistake at revealing he had been talking with Jack.
"No- the pirates left Mr. Sparrow in his cell. They are not his ally." Norrington asserted.
"We must get the Captain to lead us to the Black Pearl!" Will protested. "William, you are not a military man, or a sailor, or even a blacksmith. What can you possibly do? Do not think you are the only one who cares about Elizabeth." Norrington sneered.
Will shook off his words as he stalked out the door, thinking that Elizabeth would have no interest in a pompous ass such as Commodore Norrington. If the Commodore would do nothing to rescuer Elizabeth, he would have to take matters into his own hands.
Finding no guards to hinder him, Will walked down into the jail cells, spotting Captain Jack Sparrow lying on the floor, seemingly idle. When he noticed half a bone jammed into the lock of the cell he thought that perhaps Jack's mind had been on her escape.
"Jack Sparrow." Will greeted her, noticing that despite the fact that her flowing curls were once again bound back under her hat she was still stunning and mysterious.
"Captain Jack Sparrow. Now what ye be wanting lad? I'm trying to get some sleep after last nights events."
"You know the ship, the Black Pearl?"
"Aye." Jack said, sitting up.
"Where does it make berth?"
"Where does it make berth?" Jack repeated, incredulously. "Ye've not heard the stories? Captain Barbossa and his crew of miscreants sail from the dreaded Isle De Muerta. It's a island that cannot be found except by those that know where it is."
"The ships real enough, so it's anchorage must be a real place. Where is it?" Will demanded.
"Why ask me?" Jack questioned, studying her nails in a lazy fashion.
"Because you're a pirate."
"And you want to turn pirate yourself, is that it?" Jack asked with a slow, teasing smile, watching outrage spread across the boy's handsome features.
"Never! They took Miss. Swann!"
"Ah, so it is that you've found a girl." Jack said, feeling strangely disappointed. "Well, if you intend to brave all, hasten to her and so win the fair lady's heart you'll be doing it alone luv. I see no profit in it for me."
"I can get you out of here." Will said, tempting the pirate.
"How's that? The keys run off." Jack replied cynically.
Only the bloody British would entrust a key to a flaming dog.
"I helped build the cells. These are half-pin barrels..with the right application of strength they will lift free." Will explained, seeing Jacks 'so?' look.
"What's your name luv?" Jack asked, seeing something familiar in the boy's eyes.
"Will Turner."
"That would be short for William, I'd imagine. Good, strong name. Named for ye father, no doubt?"
"Yes." Will answered suspiciously.
"Aha. Well than lad, ye have a deal. You spring me from this cell and I swear, on pain of death, I'll lead ye to the Black Pearl and ye bonny lass."
Will lifted a nearby bench and placed it carefully into position. With a burst of strength he levered the door off it's hinges, and it fell with a resounding thunk to the ground.
"Someone will have heard that, we have to leave."
"Not without me effects." Jack said, grabbing her hat, compass, sword and revolver.
They hurriedly left the building, sneaky through the town like criminals. Which one of them was, really. When they reached the beach Jack dragged Will under a nearby dock and pointed to a well made, not to mention heavily guarded, ship. The Interceptor.
"We're going to steal a ship? That ship?" Will asked, comprehension dawning.
Just what had he gotten himself into? He was running off with a notorious female pirate captain into god-knows-what to rescue.Miss. Swann. He was doing it for Elizabeth, he reminded himself.
"Commandeer. We're going to commandeer a ship. Nautical term. Now lad, before we start, one question about yer business. How far are you willing to go to save yer lass?"
"I'd die for her." Will said passionately.
"Oh good. No worries then." Jack said cheerily.
A little put out at the alluding to his demise, Will shot the Captain a dirty look. When it was returned by a cheeky grin Will found himself having difficulty staying mad at the humorous pirate.
Jack bewildered the young man again however, when she seized a rowboat and threw out the oars.
"De-ja-vu" Will muttered, remembering the boat that had floated near his merchant vessel before the attack of the Black Pearl.
"Come along lad, haven't got all day. Well, we do really, but your lass might not." Jack said with a grin, by this time having dragged the boat so that it was half-submerged in water, but strangely, not the right way up.
"I thought you were a pirate captain! The boat goes the other way." Will said, mocking Jack.
"Not in this case it don't." Jack said, shooting the man an angry glance, which strangely enough made Will feel hot all over.
When Will was striding across the ocean bottom, holding a boat over his head and still breathing due to the pocket of air trapped under it, he came to the conclusion that in this case Jack was right.
"This is either madness or genius!" Will exclaimed.
"Remarkable how often those two traits coincide." Jack replied with a roughish wink.
They crawled over the sides of the Dauntless, hiding until the 'opportune moment', as Jack said.
"Jack, this is not the Interceptor." Will whispered in her ear, sending little shivers down her spine as his breath touched her skin.
"I have a plan boy. Trust me."
Will rolled his eyes at the notion of trusting a pirate, and then smiling at the somewhat offended look gracing Jack's beautiful features.
Jack jumped down from the top deck of the ship, landing with an attention- grabbing thud. Believing that this must be the 'opportune moment', Will quickly followed.
"Everybody stay calm, we're just stealing your ship." Jack addressed the crew with a smile.
"Aye, avast!" Will joined in, hoping he sounded like the fearsome pirates in the plays he had seen.
Shooting him a mocking glance Captain Jack Sparrow turned her attention to the Royal Navy, who, at her announcement, had burst out laughing. Although Will's pathetic attempt at pirate slang could have hardly helped.
"The ship cannot be crewed by two men, you won't make it out of the bay!" The navy captain chortled.
Raising the tip of her blade to his throat Jack informed him what she thought would explain it all.
"Son, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, savvy?"
~~~
High up on the battlements Commodore Norrington was thinking of his future wife, and chatting to his future father-in-law about her rescue. His attention was quickly drawn to a boat full of Royal Navy men floating near the Dauntless.
"Commodore! Commodore! They've taken control of the ship!" the faint voice from across the water called.
Adjusting his telescope, the commodore spotted William and Jack onboard the ship, fiddling with ropes.
"Rash Turner, very rash. He is without a doubt the worst pirate I've ever seen." Commented Norrington.
Boarding the Interceptor and commanding the men to chase the barely moving Dauntless, the Commodore decided he would soon have Jack Sparrow hanging at the gallows.
~~~
"Here they come." Jack said, a satisfactory smile on her full lips.
"Sparrow, how is this a good thing?" Will demanded, amazed at the stupidity of the so-called pirate.
"Captain Sparrow lad. And ye'll just have to be trusting me. A job which, may I mention, yer not doing well." Jack said, un-fazed and ripping off the rudder chain to the ship.
"Turn about!" came the voice of the disgruntled navy captain in the boat, certain that he would soon re-gain his ship.
Jack pulled Will down besides her next to a pile of ropes, hiding them from the now boarding Royal Navy.
"Right were we want her." Jack said, looking at the Interceptor.
Will stayed silent as the Commodore gave orders to search the ship. He was filled with a strange sense of excitement.
"Lets go!" Jack said, pulling him to his feet and flinging a rope into his hands.
They swung across to the unguarded Interceptor, that taste of victory on their tongues. They were meters away when the Commodore finally noticed the disappearance of one of his ships.
"Thank ye for getting us ready to make way Commodore, we'd have had a hard time of it ourselves." Jack said with a flourish and a grin that she knew would infuriate Norrington.
"We must hurry after her!" Norrington commanded, not wanting to see a pirate escape.
"Ah, sir, we can't. They've disabled the rudder chain."
"That's by far the best pirate I've even seen." Commented another navy man.
"So it would seem." Norrington replied grimly.
Jack and Will sailed off into the broad horizon in high spirits, a cheeky smirk crossing Jack's face as she heard the smashing of the small boat she had set the Navy crew lose in.
~~~
Elizabeth had finally reached the Black Pearl, and now she looked at the filthy ship with disgust. How foul. The ship stank with dirt and layers of muck.
"I didn't know we were taking captives." A tall black pirate said, looking darkly down at Elizabeth.
"She invoked the right of parlay, Bo 'sun" Twigg explained.
"I am here to negotiate."
Her words were cut off as the heavily tattooed man struck her across her face.
"Ye will not speak until spoken to." Bo 'sun said.
"And ye will not hurt those under the protection of parlay." A haggard looking man interjected. "My apologies Miss."
"Captain Barbossa, I am here to negotiate my release and the cessation of hostilities towards my manor."
"I'm a simple pirate lass and there were an awful lotta long words in that." Replied the captain, sensing the girl's attitude and upbringing.
"I want you to let me go and leave my house alone."
"Oh, nice to see ye care about the rest of yer village." Captain Barbossa said sarcastically. "Well, Miss. I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request...means no."
"Very well. I'll drop it." Said Elizabeth, showing startling insight, uncommon in her character.
"Our holds are bursting with swag and you think that bitta glimmer matters to us? Why?" Captain Barbossa said sneakily.
"It's what you've been searching for. I recognize the ship. I saw it ten years ago on the crossing from England."
This theory was not her own. Will had mentioned that he thought the pirate ship was searching for his medallion, and that he had lost it when they attacked the merchant ship he was a deckhand on. The last thing he remembered from the merchant ship was seeing a rowboat with no oars drifting towards them from far off in the distance. Where it had come from he did not know, but it looked as though it had been in the water weeks.
"Did ya now?" asked Barbossa, interrupting her train of thought.
"Well, I suppose if it's worthless then there's no point me in me keeping it." Elizabeth said, dropping the medallion a bit, but keeping a firm grasp on the chain.
The pirates gasped and she smiled knowingly.
"What's your name Miss?" Barbossa asked.
'Elizabeth. Turner. I'm lady-in-waiting to the governors daughter." She lied, deciding she did not want to be held ransom.
"Turner. Bootstrap Bill." A pirate muttered.
"And how does a lady-in-waiting come by a trinket like that? Family heirloom perhaps?" Barbossa queried.
"I didn't steal it, if that what you mean." She said scathingly, even though it was true.
"Very well, hand the medallion over and we have a deal."
She placed the medallion into his hand, the chain sliding down with a satisfying clink.
"Still the guns and stow 'em. Signal the men, set the flags and make good to clear port." Barbossa ordered.
"Wait! You have to return me to shore! According to the code." Elizabeth started.
"First, your return to shore was not specified. We only had to let you go. And right now you'll see no hands holding ye. Second, you have to be a pirate for the code to apply, and that ye ain't. And third, the code's more actual guidelines than rules. So welcome to the Black Pearl Miss. Turner."
~~~
Will awoke with a thudding pain in the side of his head and the sudden realization that his beloved Miss. Swann had been taken by pirates. He strode up to the battlements and flung his hatchet into the nearby table, at which Commodore Norrington was sitting.
"They've taken Elizabeth!"
"That's Miss. Swann to you, William, and we are already aware of that."
"We must retrieve her!"
" We're trying, but if you have any information to the whereabouts of the Black Pearl it'd be the only we have."
"Jack Sparrow talked about the ship.erm. Mentioned it really." Said the blonde guard that had been present yesterday, quickly amending his mistake at revealing he had been talking with Jack.
"No- the pirates left Mr. Sparrow in his cell. They are not his ally." Norrington asserted.
"We must get the Captain to lead us to the Black Pearl!" Will protested. "William, you are not a military man, or a sailor, or even a blacksmith. What can you possibly do? Do not think you are the only one who cares about Elizabeth." Norrington sneered.
Will shook off his words as he stalked out the door, thinking that Elizabeth would have no interest in a pompous ass such as Commodore Norrington. If the Commodore would do nothing to rescuer Elizabeth, he would have to take matters into his own hands.
Finding no guards to hinder him, Will walked down into the jail cells, spotting Captain Jack Sparrow lying on the floor, seemingly idle. When he noticed half a bone jammed into the lock of the cell he thought that perhaps Jack's mind had been on her escape.
"Jack Sparrow." Will greeted her, noticing that despite the fact that her flowing curls were once again bound back under her hat she was still stunning and mysterious.
"Captain Jack Sparrow. Now what ye be wanting lad? I'm trying to get some sleep after last nights events."
"You know the ship, the Black Pearl?"
"Aye." Jack said, sitting up.
"Where does it make berth?"
"Where does it make berth?" Jack repeated, incredulously. "Ye've not heard the stories? Captain Barbossa and his crew of miscreants sail from the dreaded Isle De Muerta. It's a island that cannot be found except by those that know where it is."
"The ships real enough, so it's anchorage must be a real place. Where is it?" Will demanded.
"Why ask me?" Jack questioned, studying her nails in a lazy fashion.
"Because you're a pirate."
"And you want to turn pirate yourself, is that it?" Jack asked with a slow, teasing smile, watching outrage spread across the boy's handsome features.
"Never! They took Miss. Swann!"
"Ah, so it is that you've found a girl." Jack said, feeling strangely disappointed. "Well, if you intend to brave all, hasten to her and so win the fair lady's heart you'll be doing it alone luv. I see no profit in it for me."
"I can get you out of here." Will said, tempting the pirate.
"How's that? The keys run off." Jack replied cynically.
Only the bloody British would entrust a key to a flaming dog.
"I helped build the cells. These are half-pin barrels..with the right application of strength they will lift free." Will explained, seeing Jacks 'so?' look.
"What's your name luv?" Jack asked, seeing something familiar in the boy's eyes.
"Will Turner."
"That would be short for William, I'd imagine. Good, strong name. Named for ye father, no doubt?"
"Yes." Will answered suspiciously.
"Aha. Well than lad, ye have a deal. You spring me from this cell and I swear, on pain of death, I'll lead ye to the Black Pearl and ye bonny lass."
Will lifted a nearby bench and placed it carefully into position. With a burst of strength he levered the door off it's hinges, and it fell with a resounding thunk to the ground.
"Someone will have heard that, we have to leave."
"Not without me effects." Jack said, grabbing her hat, compass, sword and revolver.
They hurriedly left the building, sneaky through the town like criminals. Which one of them was, really. When they reached the beach Jack dragged Will under a nearby dock and pointed to a well made, not to mention heavily guarded, ship. The Interceptor.
"We're going to steal a ship? That ship?" Will asked, comprehension dawning.
Just what had he gotten himself into? He was running off with a notorious female pirate captain into god-knows-what to rescue.Miss. Swann. He was doing it for Elizabeth, he reminded himself.
"Commandeer. We're going to commandeer a ship. Nautical term. Now lad, before we start, one question about yer business. How far are you willing to go to save yer lass?"
"I'd die for her." Will said passionately.
"Oh good. No worries then." Jack said cheerily.
A little put out at the alluding to his demise, Will shot the Captain a dirty look. When it was returned by a cheeky grin Will found himself having difficulty staying mad at the humorous pirate.
Jack bewildered the young man again however, when she seized a rowboat and threw out the oars.
"De-ja-vu" Will muttered, remembering the boat that had floated near his merchant vessel before the attack of the Black Pearl.
"Come along lad, haven't got all day. Well, we do really, but your lass might not." Jack said with a grin, by this time having dragged the boat so that it was half-submerged in water, but strangely, not the right way up.
"I thought you were a pirate captain! The boat goes the other way." Will said, mocking Jack.
"Not in this case it don't." Jack said, shooting the man an angry glance, which strangely enough made Will feel hot all over.
When Will was striding across the ocean bottom, holding a boat over his head and still breathing due to the pocket of air trapped under it, he came to the conclusion that in this case Jack was right.
"This is either madness or genius!" Will exclaimed.
"Remarkable how often those two traits coincide." Jack replied with a roughish wink.
They crawled over the sides of the Dauntless, hiding until the 'opportune moment', as Jack said.
"Jack, this is not the Interceptor." Will whispered in her ear, sending little shivers down her spine as his breath touched her skin.
"I have a plan boy. Trust me."
Will rolled his eyes at the notion of trusting a pirate, and then smiling at the somewhat offended look gracing Jack's beautiful features.
Jack jumped down from the top deck of the ship, landing with an attention- grabbing thud. Believing that this must be the 'opportune moment', Will quickly followed.
"Everybody stay calm, we're just stealing your ship." Jack addressed the crew with a smile.
"Aye, avast!" Will joined in, hoping he sounded like the fearsome pirates in the plays he had seen.
Shooting him a mocking glance Captain Jack Sparrow turned her attention to the Royal Navy, who, at her announcement, had burst out laughing. Although Will's pathetic attempt at pirate slang could have hardly helped.
"The ship cannot be crewed by two men, you won't make it out of the bay!" The navy captain chortled.
Raising the tip of her blade to his throat Jack informed him what she thought would explain it all.
"Son, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, savvy?"
~~~
High up on the battlements Commodore Norrington was thinking of his future wife, and chatting to his future father-in-law about her rescue. His attention was quickly drawn to a boat full of Royal Navy men floating near the Dauntless.
"Commodore! Commodore! They've taken control of the ship!" the faint voice from across the water called.
Adjusting his telescope, the commodore spotted William and Jack onboard the ship, fiddling with ropes.
"Rash Turner, very rash. He is without a doubt the worst pirate I've ever seen." Commented Norrington.
Boarding the Interceptor and commanding the men to chase the barely moving Dauntless, the Commodore decided he would soon have Jack Sparrow hanging at the gallows.
~~~
"Here they come." Jack said, a satisfactory smile on her full lips.
"Sparrow, how is this a good thing?" Will demanded, amazed at the stupidity of the so-called pirate.
"Captain Sparrow lad. And ye'll just have to be trusting me. A job which, may I mention, yer not doing well." Jack said, un-fazed and ripping off the rudder chain to the ship.
"Turn about!" came the voice of the disgruntled navy captain in the boat, certain that he would soon re-gain his ship.
Jack pulled Will down besides her next to a pile of ropes, hiding them from the now boarding Royal Navy.
"Right were we want her." Jack said, looking at the Interceptor.
Will stayed silent as the Commodore gave orders to search the ship. He was filled with a strange sense of excitement.
"Lets go!" Jack said, pulling him to his feet and flinging a rope into his hands.
They swung across to the unguarded Interceptor, that taste of victory on their tongues. They were meters away when the Commodore finally noticed the disappearance of one of his ships.
"Thank ye for getting us ready to make way Commodore, we'd have had a hard time of it ourselves." Jack said with a flourish and a grin that she knew would infuriate Norrington.
"We must hurry after her!" Norrington commanded, not wanting to see a pirate escape.
"Ah, sir, we can't. They've disabled the rudder chain."
"That's by far the best pirate I've even seen." Commented another navy man.
"So it would seem." Norrington replied grimly.
Jack and Will sailed off into the broad horizon in high spirits, a cheeky smirk crossing Jack's face as she heard the smashing of the small boat she had set the Navy crew lose in.
~~~