It felt good to be back on land, James decided, even if the lack of
unsteady ground made it a little difficult to walk without a roll. But
being on land had given him time to think of Laura, the woman he had
finally given his heart to, left behind so many months before to await his
return in Port Royale.
If he closed his eyes, he could almost see her that heart-breaking morning on the docks, when he had taken his leave of her. Her dark hair had been bound back loosely, strands falling about her face as she endeavoured to keep from crying. Those sea-green eyes that had so captivated him when he first saw her had been wet with tears, shining with unspoken grief at their untimely separation.
Concentrating, James cast his mind back to a happier scene, one only a few days after his cousin's wedding. He had been walking with her along the bluff, Jack and Marin a few paces behind. Laura had asked him of his life, and he had set to talking about his deep love for the ocean. He'd never spoken of it to anyone before, this connection with the elemental side of his nature too personal and private to share, but somehow it had felt right that she should know. He recalled the wonder on her face as she listened, clearly enthralled by his words, and how she had unconsciously taken his arm, warming him through with that single touch. Fixing in his mind that sweet smile, James sighed softly, half-wishing he had never left.
A palm smacked into his behind with a resounding slap, making him leap forward in shock. He turned, ready to dress down whoever had done it, only to look into Marin's grinning face and find himself at a loss.
'Wool gathering, James?' she asked innocently.
He narrowed his eyes, growling impotently down at her as she slipped to his side with an impish smile.
'Marin Sparrow, if you ever do that to me again -'
She turned back to him, her entire posture a challenge.
'You'll do what exactly?' she demanded.
Glaring down at her, his mouth working in complete silence, James was fully aware that there was no threat he could make that would worry her in the slightest. In defeat, he threw up his hands, submitting to her laughter as she hugged him close for a moment.
'Oh, James,' she giggled. 'You're too uptight. Relax a bit, would you?'
He smiled down at her, speaking through clenched teeth.
'I was fairly relaxed before you interrupted me,' he muttered.
Marin simply laughed harder, slipping her arm about his waist as they continued on their way. They had looked into four cavernous openings already that day, all of which had drawn a blank. Ahead of them, James could see Jack and Will talking earnestly, and he could only imagine what kind of scheme the pirate captains were hatching between them. He glanced to his right, and found Harry watching Marin closely. What had happened to make the lad so protective suddenly, he wondered. Maybe he knew something of whatever ailed the young woman.
He shivered suddenly as a gust of wind blew down the neck of his shirt. The warmth of his cousin's body was very welcome, since the continual gale that blew across this piece of rock made for a cold habitat. And the constant wailing was eerie, almost as if the banshees really were howling for this island, or rather, for the blood that had been spilt to get them there. The silver locket was frozen against his throat, made so by the harsh surroundings.
Marin began to hum quietly, the simple melody floating up to sound gently in his ears, and no other's, before being swept away on the breeze. James smiled softly, recognising the tune from his childhood as the one that had brought them together when their differences could so easily have set them apart. As he listened, remembering the times his mother had sung it to help him sleep when he was just a boy, he realised that the bond that held him and his cousin together was not honour or duty, or even a promise made to a dying man. It was love, the love that grows within a family to bind and protect. The love that he had been lacking for so many years since his father passed away.
As her voice trailed off, he sighed once again, content to stand for a moment with her, his ears chasing the last notes of the melody as it drifted away on the wind.
'What does it mean?' he asked quietly.
Marin glanced up at him.
'In English, you mean?' she asked, and he nodded.
She shrugged.
'Ar eirinn ni neosainn ce hi means for Ireland I'd not tell her name,' she said thoughtfully. 'It's a story of sorts, I suppose.'
James smiled at her pensive expression, pleased to see that he had finally managed to provoke her into using her head rather than answering impulsively.
'What about?' he asked, genuinely curious.
Marin sighed, frowning as she worked through the translation of the gaelic words in her head.
'Well,' she mused. 'It's from a man's point of view, and he's singing about a maiden who lives on the next farm, about how much he loves her. But because she doesn't love him in return, he won't tell her name to anyone. I think.'
James held her gaze for a long moment until she shrugged again.
'It loses a bit in translation,' she offered.
He nodded slowly, amused by this anti-climactic revelation that his mother had been singing him a love song to make him sleep during his childhood.
'Yes, I think it does,' he agreed.
There was a shout from ahead of them, and they glanced up in time to see Will topple down out of sight, Jack very nearly following him, but for the restraining hands Elizabeth placed on his collar. They hurried forward, joining the two as they peered down into the darkness.
'It just crumbled out from under him,' Elizabeth told them, before leaning forward. 'Will?'
His voice floated up to them.
'Fine, I'm fine,' he called. 'Someone throw me a lantern or something, would you?'
A lantern was lowered on a length of rope, the tinderbox following with a clunk as it hit the rocks below. They watched as Will lit the candle within, showing himself to be a little over twenty feet below them. He ventured forward a few steps, and they could hear water splashing beneath his feet as he stumbled on the uneven ground.
Carefully Jack moved around to follow the light as it disappeared beneath him, trying not to disturb the rocks around the edge of the impromptu hole.
'What do you see?' he called down, listening as his voice echoed off the walls of the cavern below.
'Nothing much,' Will told him. 'Rocks and water . . . hang on.'
They heard him let out a low whistle, laughing slightly at what he had found. Jack found himself exchanging a glance with James as both men began to work out how they were going to get their friend out of there. Suddenly, his voice floated up to them again, tinged with humour and excitement.
'Marin, James,' Will shouted up to them. 'I think you definitely want to see this.'
*~*~*
No matter how much she tried to hide it, Marin hated heights. Really hated them. Hated them with a paralysing fear that seemed to centre on her capacity to breathe and spread from there. She was fine whilst at sea, for some reason the swaying of a mast top was nothing to her compared to being lowered awkwardly through a hole into a dark cavern.
She'd protested as much as she could against the action, even telling them she'd rather wait up there for them to tell her what Will had found, but Jack would hear nothing of it. She was going down with them, or no one was. Faced with such unequivocal orders, Marin had chosen to face her fear.
So here she was, dangling on the end of a rope, surrounded by the gloom that filled the cavern. She knew that below her, Jack waited to untie the rope from her chest, and that she was held fast by four men she had known and trusted since childhood, but still she could not quell her shaking. Fists clenched and eyes tight shut, Marin endeavoured to convince herself that her feet were on dry land, not flailing about twenty feet from the ground.
'Easy, love, it can't be that bad,' she heard Jack say soothingly as his hands grasped her waist, guiding her to the ground beside him.
Her eyes snapped open, giving him the full force of her flinty glare as he untied her.
'Easy for you to say,' she muttered through clenched teeth, slipping out from the rope and wrapping her arms about him to calm herself after that interminable few minutes. Surprised, Jack let her hold him, feeling slightly guilty for putting her through something her shaking told him she had not liked at all. She drew in a wobbling breath, forcing herself to calm down as he held her gently, hating herself for letting him see her so afraid.
There was a scrabbling noise above them, and James came into view, laughing at something someone had said to him as he let himself be lowered down to them. Moving himself and his wife from under the descending commodore, Jack lifted Marin's chin, looking into her eyes with an apologetic expression.
'Why didn't you tell me you were so scared?' he murmured.
She shrugged half-heartedly.
'A very dear friend once told me a pirate should never admit to being afraid, especially to another pirate,' she managed, smiling self- consciously as he laughed, remembering the night he had told her that.
'Good point, love,' Jack chuckled, turning back to where James was picking at the knot that held the rope about him. 'Now, lets go and see what young Master William has found, shall we?'
With James at their side, they picked their way among rocks and rivulets in the semi-darkness, to where Will was standing before a sheer wall of what appeared to be slate, his lantern flickering off a design that seemed strangely familiar. Marin gasped quietly, her hand going to her throat where the locket nestled, her eyes wide as she looked on the rock face with astonished eyes.
Wider than three men's combined arm-span, and higher still than James' head, chiselled into the rock itself was a design that could have been engraved on her soul. Four interlocking rings, joined together by chains that ran about each of them, and within those rings lay another surprise. Four separate pictures had been engraved into the stone, the four designs that made up the family crest in startling relief against the dark stone itself, each within its own ring.
Will nudged James, grinning up at the older man.
'I take it this is what we were looking for then,' he murmured.
James gave him a withering look.
'No, Mr Turner, we were looking for a fairy to light the way for us,' he said, his tone scathing.
Will's grin widened at this, even though by rights he should have been offended. James abruptly dropped his sarcastic expression, sending the pirate a grin to rival his own as he took a flame from Will's lantern to light one he had brought down with him. Stepping closer to the rock face, he ran a finger over the apex of the engraving, where an inch wide irregular circle had been cut from the stone, at the exact point where the four rings joined.
Marin joined him, her eyes narrowing as she, too, ran her fingers over the little hole. She glanced up at the picture, still entranced by the piece itself, though unable to quell the suspicion that it was important to them in some way. She could feel Jack's presence at her back, mildly inquisitive as he looked over her shoulder.
'You know,' he said thoughtfully. 'That hole there . . . wouldn't you say it's roughly the size and shape of that silver doubloon you're carrying?'
Marin's eyes widened, and she glanced back at the hole, seeing the similarities that had escaped her before. There was a clink beside her, followed by another, and she turned to see James holding two pieces of the doubloon together, examining their edges in comparison to the shape cut out from the rock face.
'Maybe we're supposed to put it there,' he murmured.
Will joined them, tugging the locket Elias had given him on his deathbed from around his neck. As he, too, removed his piece of the doubloon from the ornate silver, Marin did the same, placing it, together with the other pieces, snugly in the cut out. They were a perfect fit, and nothing happened.
James sagged, sighing.
'It was worth a try,' he shrugged, and reached out to take the doubloon back again.
Jack's hand clamped about his wrist.
'What?' he asked, alarmed.
'Shh,' Jack hushed him. 'Listen.'
The four of them stood together in the semi-darkness, straining their ears to hear whatever it was that had alarmed their friend. Marin frowned.
'I don't hear anything.'
Jack's eyes met hers, and for the first time she could see no amusement or humour within the black depths.
'Exactly,' he murmured. 'The wind stopped the moment that silver touched the rock.'
Her eyes widened in horror, and as one they began to back away from the wall of stone. Suddenly, Will froze, his face a mask of terrified concentration.
'Can you hear that?' he asked softly.
Once again, they stood, this time far closer to one another than before, listening for whatever elusive sound had come to Will's ears. And this time, they heard it.
A low rumble that seemed to rise from beneath their feet, steadily growing louder and louder as they stared at one another in unabashed fear. The ground began to shake, throwing them down as the tremors grew more and more violent with each passing second. As the noise grew, so did the earth's shaking, until that was all there was.
Marin was vaguely aware of Jack's arms around her as they huddled against the wall of the cavern, eyes tightly shut as they both tried to block out what was happening. She could just about feel James at her back, and knew Will would be just beyond him, both as frightened and shocked as she was, though that was no comfort as the rocks groaned around them.
She felt moisture seeping into her trousers, opening her eyes to find water trickling from beneath the engraved rock face, overflowing the little rivulets that ran about their feet to raise the water level steadily, inescapably. The rocks still shook, but now water ran around them, the flow from beneath the rock face increasing as the tremors continued.
As the water level reached their knees, they stood, each aware of an ear- splitting groan that was emanating from behind the rock face. Jack's eyes widened as he picked out tiny cracks beginning to appear in the smooth stone, and he gestured wildly to his companions, refusing to let go of his wife even as they stumbled backwards, as far from the cracking rock as possible.
As they reached the far wall of the cavern, with nowhere else to turn to, the rock face shattered violently, throwing up great lumps of granite and slate that were carried at a shocking rate on a rising tide of water towards the four cowering against the cavern wall. Jack's hands were ripped from Marin as the water hit him, lifting him from his feet in a swirl of debris from the shattered wall as he fought to break for the surface. He was lifted higher and higher, the cavern roof growing closer with frightening speed as the water rushed into the huge chamber.
A hand grasped his shirt, and he was turned in the water to face Will, who looked as terrified as he felt. Fingers grasped arms as the water pushed them together, unashamed to cling to each other as the rush of water slowed, and the rumbling quieted, and everything finally stopped, leaving them in that same semi-dark silence, their heads brushing the roof of the cavern, shivering as they drifted together in the sea-salty water that had drenched them so thoroughly. They could hear cursing from above them, where the sailors and Elizabeth must have been caught off-guard by the earth tremor, but that didn't concern them for a moment.
There was no sign of Marin or James.
*~*~*
Alright, I'm not that repentant. *grin* But you'll forgive me, won't you?
If he closed his eyes, he could almost see her that heart-breaking morning on the docks, when he had taken his leave of her. Her dark hair had been bound back loosely, strands falling about her face as she endeavoured to keep from crying. Those sea-green eyes that had so captivated him when he first saw her had been wet with tears, shining with unspoken grief at their untimely separation.
Concentrating, James cast his mind back to a happier scene, one only a few days after his cousin's wedding. He had been walking with her along the bluff, Jack and Marin a few paces behind. Laura had asked him of his life, and he had set to talking about his deep love for the ocean. He'd never spoken of it to anyone before, this connection with the elemental side of his nature too personal and private to share, but somehow it had felt right that she should know. He recalled the wonder on her face as she listened, clearly enthralled by his words, and how she had unconsciously taken his arm, warming him through with that single touch. Fixing in his mind that sweet smile, James sighed softly, half-wishing he had never left.
A palm smacked into his behind with a resounding slap, making him leap forward in shock. He turned, ready to dress down whoever had done it, only to look into Marin's grinning face and find himself at a loss.
'Wool gathering, James?' she asked innocently.
He narrowed his eyes, growling impotently down at her as she slipped to his side with an impish smile.
'Marin Sparrow, if you ever do that to me again -'
She turned back to him, her entire posture a challenge.
'You'll do what exactly?' she demanded.
Glaring down at her, his mouth working in complete silence, James was fully aware that there was no threat he could make that would worry her in the slightest. In defeat, he threw up his hands, submitting to her laughter as she hugged him close for a moment.
'Oh, James,' she giggled. 'You're too uptight. Relax a bit, would you?'
He smiled down at her, speaking through clenched teeth.
'I was fairly relaxed before you interrupted me,' he muttered.
Marin simply laughed harder, slipping her arm about his waist as they continued on their way. They had looked into four cavernous openings already that day, all of which had drawn a blank. Ahead of them, James could see Jack and Will talking earnestly, and he could only imagine what kind of scheme the pirate captains were hatching between them. He glanced to his right, and found Harry watching Marin closely. What had happened to make the lad so protective suddenly, he wondered. Maybe he knew something of whatever ailed the young woman.
He shivered suddenly as a gust of wind blew down the neck of his shirt. The warmth of his cousin's body was very welcome, since the continual gale that blew across this piece of rock made for a cold habitat. And the constant wailing was eerie, almost as if the banshees really were howling for this island, or rather, for the blood that had been spilt to get them there. The silver locket was frozen against his throat, made so by the harsh surroundings.
Marin began to hum quietly, the simple melody floating up to sound gently in his ears, and no other's, before being swept away on the breeze. James smiled softly, recognising the tune from his childhood as the one that had brought them together when their differences could so easily have set them apart. As he listened, remembering the times his mother had sung it to help him sleep when he was just a boy, he realised that the bond that held him and his cousin together was not honour or duty, or even a promise made to a dying man. It was love, the love that grows within a family to bind and protect. The love that he had been lacking for so many years since his father passed away.
As her voice trailed off, he sighed once again, content to stand for a moment with her, his ears chasing the last notes of the melody as it drifted away on the wind.
'What does it mean?' he asked quietly.
Marin glanced up at him.
'In English, you mean?' she asked, and he nodded.
She shrugged.
'Ar eirinn ni neosainn ce hi means for Ireland I'd not tell her name,' she said thoughtfully. 'It's a story of sorts, I suppose.'
James smiled at her pensive expression, pleased to see that he had finally managed to provoke her into using her head rather than answering impulsively.
'What about?' he asked, genuinely curious.
Marin sighed, frowning as she worked through the translation of the gaelic words in her head.
'Well,' she mused. 'It's from a man's point of view, and he's singing about a maiden who lives on the next farm, about how much he loves her. But because she doesn't love him in return, he won't tell her name to anyone. I think.'
James held her gaze for a long moment until she shrugged again.
'It loses a bit in translation,' she offered.
He nodded slowly, amused by this anti-climactic revelation that his mother had been singing him a love song to make him sleep during his childhood.
'Yes, I think it does,' he agreed.
There was a shout from ahead of them, and they glanced up in time to see Will topple down out of sight, Jack very nearly following him, but for the restraining hands Elizabeth placed on his collar. They hurried forward, joining the two as they peered down into the darkness.
'It just crumbled out from under him,' Elizabeth told them, before leaning forward. 'Will?'
His voice floated up to them.
'Fine, I'm fine,' he called. 'Someone throw me a lantern or something, would you?'
A lantern was lowered on a length of rope, the tinderbox following with a clunk as it hit the rocks below. They watched as Will lit the candle within, showing himself to be a little over twenty feet below them. He ventured forward a few steps, and they could hear water splashing beneath his feet as he stumbled on the uneven ground.
Carefully Jack moved around to follow the light as it disappeared beneath him, trying not to disturb the rocks around the edge of the impromptu hole.
'What do you see?' he called down, listening as his voice echoed off the walls of the cavern below.
'Nothing much,' Will told him. 'Rocks and water . . . hang on.'
They heard him let out a low whistle, laughing slightly at what he had found. Jack found himself exchanging a glance with James as both men began to work out how they were going to get their friend out of there. Suddenly, his voice floated up to them again, tinged with humour and excitement.
'Marin, James,' Will shouted up to them. 'I think you definitely want to see this.'
*~*~*
No matter how much she tried to hide it, Marin hated heights. Really hated them. Hated them with a paralysing fear that seemed to centre on her capacity to breathe and spread from there. She was fine whilst at sea, for some reason the swaying of a mast top was nothing to her compared to being lowered awkwardly through a hole into a dark cavern.
She'd protested as much as she could against the action, even telling them she'd rather wait up there for them to tell her what Will had found, but Jack would hear nothing of it. She was going down with them, or no one was. Faced with such unequivocal orders, Marin had chosen to face her fear.
So here she was, dangling on the end of a rope, surrounded by the gloom that filled the cavern. She knew that below her, Jack waited to untie the rope from her chest, and that she was held fast by four men she had known and trusted since childhood, but still she could not quell her shaking. Fists clenched and eyes tight shut, Marin endeavoured to convince herself that her feet were on dry land, not flailing about twenty feet from the ground.
'Easy, love, it can't be that bad,' she heard Jack say soothingly as his hands grasped her waist, guiding her to the ground beside him.
Her eyes snapped open, giving him the full force of her flinty glare as he untied her.
'Easy for you to say,' she muttered through clenched teeth, slipping out from the rope and wrapping her arms about him to calm herself after that interminable few minutes. Surprised, Jack let her hold him, feeling slightly guilty for putting her through something her shaking told him she had not liked at all. She drew in a wobbling breath, forcing herself to calm down as he held her gently, hating herself for letting him see her so afraid.
There was a scrabbling noise above them, and James came into view, laughing at something someone had said to him as he let himself be lowered down to them. Moving himself and his wife from under the descending commodore, Jack lifted Marin's chin, looking into her eyes with an apologetic expression.
'Why didn't you tell me you were so scared?' he murmured.
She shrugged half-heartedly.
'A very dear friend once told me a pirate should never admit to being afraid, especially to another pirate,' she managed, smiling self- consciously as he laughed, remembering the night he had told her that.
'Good point, love,' Jack chuckled, turning back to where James was picking at the knot that held the rope about him. 'Now, lets go and see what young Master William has found, shall we?'
With James at their side, they picked their way among rocks and rivulets in the semi-darkness, to where Will was standing before a sheer wall of what appeared to be slate, his lantern flickering off a design that seemed strangely familiar. Marin gasped quietly, her hand going to her throat where the locket nestled, her eyes wide as she looked on the rock face with astonished eyes.
Wider than three men's combined arm-span, and higher still than James' head, chiselled into the rock itself was a design that could have been engraved on her soul. Four interlocking rings, joined together by chains that ran about each of them, and within those rings lay another surprise. Four separate pictures had been engraved into the stone, the four designs that made up the family crest in startling relief against the dark stone itself, each within its own ring.
Will nudged James, grinning up at the older man.
'I take it this is what we were looking for then,' he murmured.
James gave him a withering look.
'No, Mr Turner, we were looking for a fairy to light the way for us,' he said, his tone scathing.
Will's grin widened at this, even though by rights he should have been offended. James abruptly dropped his sarcastic expression, sending the pirate a grin to rival his own as he took a flame from Will's lantern to light one he had brought down with him. Stepping closer to the rock face, he ran a finger over the apex of the engraving, where an inch wide irregular circle had been cut from the stone, at the exact point where the four rings joined.
Marin joined him, her eyes narrowing as she, too, ran her fingers over the little hole. She glanced up at the picture, still entranced by the piece itself, though unable to quell the suspicion that it was important to them in some way. She could feel Jack's presence at her back, mildly inquisitive as he looked over her shoulder.
'You know,' he said thoughtfully. 'That hole there . . . wouldn't you say it's roughly the size and shape of that silver doubloon you're carrying?'
Marin's eyes widened, and she glanced back at the hole, seeing the similarities that had escaped her before. There was a clink beside her, followed by another, and she turned to see James holding two pieces of the doubloon together, examining their edges in comparison to the shape cut out from the rock face.
'Maybe we're supposed to put it there,' he murmured.
Will joined them, tugging the locket Elias had given him on his deathbed from around his neck. As he, too, removed his piece of the doubloon from the ornate silver, Marin did the same, placing it, together with the other pieces, snugly in the cut out. They were a perfect fit, and nothing happened.
James sagged, sighing.
'It was worth a try,' he shrugged, and reached out to take the doubloon back again.
Jack's hand clamped about his wrist.
'What?' he asked, alarmed.
'Shh,' Jack hushed him. 'Listen.'
The four of them stood together in the semi-darkness, straining their ears to hear whatever it was that had alarmed their friend. Marin frowned.
'I don't hear anything.'
Jack's eyes met hers, and for the first time she could see no amusement or humour within the black depths.
'Exactly,' he murmured. 'The wind stopped the moment that silver touched the rock.'
Her eyes widened in horror, and as one they began to back away from the wall of stone. Suddenly, Will froze, his face a mask of terrified concentration.
'Can you hear that?' he asked softly.
Once again, they stood, this time far closer to one another than before, listening for whatever elusive sound had come to Will's ears. And this time, they heard it.
A low rumble that seemed to rise from beneath their feet, steadily growing louder and louder as they stared at one another in unabashed fear. The ground began to shake, throwing them down as the tremors grew more and more violent with each passing second. As the noise grew, so did the earth's shaking, until that was all there was.
Marin was vaguely aware of Jack's arms around her as they huddled against the wall of the cavern, eyes tightly shut as they both tried to block out what was happening. She could just about feel James at her back, and knew Will would be just beyond him, both as frightened and shocked as she was, though that was no comfort as the rocks groaned around them.
She felt moisture seeping into her trousers, opening her eyes to find water trickling from beneath the engraved rock face, overflowing the little rivulets that ran about their feet to raise the water level steadily, inescapably. The rocks still shook, but now water ran around them, the flow from beneath the rock face increasing as the tremors continued.
As the water level reached their knees, they stood, each aware of an ear- splitting groan that was emanating from behind the rock face. Jack's eyes widened as he picked out tiny cracks beginning to appear in the smooth stone, and he gestured wildly to his companions, refusing to let go of his wife even as they stumbled backwards, as far from the cracking rock as possible.
As they reached the far wall of the cavern, with nowhere else to turn to, the rock face shattered violently, throwing up great lumps of granite and slate that were carried at a shocking rate on a rising tide of water towards the four cowering against the cavern wall. Jack's hands were ripped from Marin as the water hit him, lifting him from his feet in a swirl of debris from the shattered wall as he fought to break for the surface. He was lifted higher and higher, the cavern roof growing closer with frightening speed as the water rushed into the huge chamber.
A hand grasped his shirt, and he was turned in the water to face Will, who looked as terrified as he felt. Fingers grasped arms as the water pushed them together, unashamed to cling to each other as the rush of water slowed, and the rumbling quieted, and everything finally stopped, leaving them in that same semi-dark silence, their heads brushing the roof of the cavern, shivering as they drifted together in the sea-salty water that had drenched them so thoroughly. They could hear cursing from above them, where the sailors and Elizabeth must have been caught off-guard by the earth tremor, but that didn't concern them for a moment.
There was no sign of Marin or James.
*~*~*
Alright, I'm not that repentant. *grin* But you'll forgive me, won't you?