Hey everyone! Thanks for all the reviews!!
Carn: Wrestling with Sparrow, man that was a drag to write. Glad you liked.
Arein: Woah, that's a lot of questions! The answer to most of them is "I can't tell you, it'll ruin the story". I can, however, tell you that we're getting quite close to the end... sob! Thanks for reviewing!
SwordSwallower17: Thanks - but Elizabeth won't be too out of character any more, as she's...er...dead.
American Drama: Where'd you go? Did you have fun? Thank you for the review!! Hope you like this chapter!
LAST TIME ON CATHERINE COSTA, PIRATE'S DAUGHTER...
I watch until the canoe disappears completely from sight, then I kick the wall angrily. The sound echoes around the walls of the cavern. I pace up and down aimlessly, stopping every now and then to enjoy the echoes that make it sound as though fifty other people are pacing even after I stop. I put my foot down as slowly as possible to see if it still echoes. Yes; it makes a sound not unlike people walking slowly. Creeping. How odd. I lift my foot off the floor, but the echoes continue. I am not making this noise. There must be other people in the cave. I spin around but nobody is there. I am just getting paranoid. I breathe out. I am just beginning to relax when a hand grabs my shoulder and a deep voice whispers in my ear, "All alone, little girl?"
I try to scream, but someone has clamped their hand over my mouth. I struggle and flail wildly, lashing out with my arms and kicking everything within reach. I hear a man grunt and double up in pain, which I hope I am the cause of. I struggle to escape but I only succeed in gaining several other people to hold me. My capturer, obviously growing tired of the whole charade, motions for the other men to let go. As they do, I wriggle to get free, but freeze when whoever is restraining me holds a pistol to my temple.
I am released, but make no move to attempt an escape, having no desire for a hole through my head, and, subsequently, a spear through my heart. The hand muting me, however, remains firmly in place. It is grimy and dirty. I keep my mouth firmly closed. One of the men lights up a torch and my attackers come into view. I catch sight of the man I kicked. He is tall and lanky, and is scratching his eye feverishly. He removes his hand for a split second and I catch a glimpse of nothing but an empty socket where the eye should be; then, to my utter disgust, the man produces a glass eyeball and inserts it into the socket.
Whoever is holding me removes their hand and ties a dirty rag in my mouth in place of it. I scream indistinctly and try to rip it out, but someone has bound my hands behind my back and I cannot move them. The person behind me gives me a violent shove and I obediently begin to walk forwards, behind the other pirates who have formed a procession-like line. I feel vaguely frightened, but I can't get too afraid because every step we walk, I think, brings us one step closer to my father!
After a few minutes of walking we come to a large, cavernous part of the cave, really just several islands protruding from a lake. One mound is higher than all the rest and a large chest stands at pride of place atop it, flanked by a tall man, around forty years of age, wearing a large, wide-brimmed hat, and holding a huge, bloodstained sword. He is obviously some kind of leader as all the other pirates look up to him in awe. As we enter, a silence falls, and all eyes turn to me. I glower back at them, then, to my utter surprise, spot a familiar face in the crowd of pirates.
"Pintel!" I try to say, but am muffled by the rag. What is Norrington's cook doing here? Was he part of some plan to get me here? Does he know my father? The questions swarm round my head like angry bees. Nobody has heard me speak; they have all turned their eyes to the tall man on the mound, who looks down at whoever is holding me and asks, in a light, jocular voice, "Who is the girl?"
A deep Jamaican voice erupts from behind me. "She was trespassing in the cave."
The man on the mound barely glances at me before saying, "Kill her."
"No!" I shout. The word is muffled by the cloth but the meaning is clear. The man turns back to face me, eyebrows raised sardonically.
"Oh?" he says. "Bo'sun, untie her. This could be interesting." Catcalls and jeers erupt from the pirates at his words. I glare at everyone in sight, but am determined not to show any sign of fear. Soon enough my father will arrive and show them who's boss.
"What are you doing here, little girl?" the man calls. I keep my mouth shut, chin thrust up defiantly. I will not give them the satisfaction of an answer.
"I said, what are you doing here?" he repeats dangerously. I say nothing. "Lost your tongue, have you? Well, let me give you a little encouragement." He loads a pistol and points it at my face. "Now I repeat. What are you doing here?" His face darkens as a thought occurs to him. "You're not from Port Royale, are you? You wouldn't happen to know anything about that damn fool Norrington?"
I forget, and open my mouth, about to tell them, then I remember, and shut it abruptly. The man sees the giveaway. He leaps from the mound, spraying gold coins everywhere, and lands deftly on the floor. He walks slowly towards me, never moving the pistol from its aim at my head.
"You know Norrington?" he asks again. I keep silent. "Answer me, girl!" he roars suddenly, lunging towards me so suddenly that I leap backwards. I shake my head vigorously. He narrows his eyes at me. "I don't have time for this. Tell me where Norrington is so I can go and kill him and be done with it. Damn fool man killed my daughter, as good as." He turns away for a moment and begins to walk back towards the mound.
"Do I kill the girl, Captain Costa?" Bo'sun says unsurely from behind me, and I realise. Captain Costa! That man is my father! He thinks I am dead!
"Your daughter's not dead!" I shout. I feel the faces of all the assembled pirates turn to me. My father stops in his tracks and wheels around slowly. "And how would you know that?" he says in a dangerously low voice.
"Because I'm your daughter," I say. A confused noise comes from the pirates. This logic is probably too hard for their collective brain cell.
The captain looks at me in a strange way. "My daughter is dead. My men brought her to me. Norrington killed her. They saw it happen."
"No, no, no!" I reply. "She's not your daughter. That's Elizabeth Swann. Norrington didn't kill her, she –" I pause here, then continue: "well, I did. I saw pirates carry her away, but they got the wrong girl, I'm her, I'm your daughter! I'm Catherine Costa!"
There is a huge silence. My father looks at me for several long seconds that feel like hours. "Catherine Costa." He repeats my name slowly, trying it out. "My daughter." There is a long pause. "My daughter," he repeats. "Norrington took you from me sixteen long years ago, and I have been haunted ever since by –" he pauses, then changes. "You shall join us on our ship. We will sail over the seas together. What say you?"
I am silent for a moment. My father and I, sailing the sea… it is almost too good to be true, and something holds me back. I am not sure why, but some sense is telling me that he is not all he seems, be careful…
But another voice argues, So what? I tried being careful and it got me nowhere. There is nothing for me at Port Royale. I hate Norrington. Will hates me. There is nowhere for me to go. I have no home. Why not?
So I throw caution to the winds and respond with, "I say aye!"
"Aye!" chorus the pirates, and a thousand Ayes echo from the ceiling. I smile. Catherine Costa, pirate's daughter, sailing the seven seas with her father and a merry band of men. Well, the men may not be merry, but it's good enough for me, I think as cheers fill the room.
Then something horrible happens that makes me feel sick.
Bo'sun removes himself from behind me and I see the tall Jamaican man striding toward the chest on the mound. He veers around it and picks something up from behind it. As he throws it over his shoulder I recognise it as the limp dead body of Elizabeth.
The pirates cheer as Bo'sun holds it up to them like a hunting trophy. Then he lifts a spear from the ground and holds it to the sky. More raucous cheers from the pirates.
Oh no, oh no, oh no, I think. I cannot watch. I know what will happen next. I cover my eyes, but I cannot block out the sickening sound of flesh being pierced, and the roar from the crowd. When I dare to look, poor Elizabeth is impaled on the spear, and the spear flung into the crowd of pirates, where they bear down on her like vultures.
I turn away. I cannot watch. My father is watching the pirates with amusement. I open my mouth to reprove him about laughing at a corpse being ripped apart, but before I can, an almighty roar erupts from the other side of the cave. I spin around to see a river of red-coated men brandishing swords and bellowing, Norrington in the lead, Will and Sparrow at his side.
Dun dun dun... reviews will be gladly appreciated. Be nice, it's nearly the end!