Chapter Six—Return
It was a mistake.
Later that night, as Tetra lay awake in Link's bed, as he slept silently next to her, she couldn't tear her mind away from that single thought.
What had they done?
And with the way they felt about each other…
She closed her eyes, determined to sleep as he was so easily doing, determined to clear her conscience. An instant later, however, her eyes opened again when she heard and felt him shift positions next to her.
His own sleepy eyes under tousled hair glanced at hers, and she saw his shadowed face crease into a smile.
'Can't sleep?' he mumbled drowsily.
She shook her head, unable to make her voice function.
He gave a tired, muted laugh. 'You look scared.'
She nodded. He was right.
Another laugh, this one followed by a contented sigh as he rolled over onto his side, sliding one arm across her bare torso to hold her closer to him. 'Don't worry…you're safe.'
She took in a deep breath, and let it out tremulously, but she was far from reassured by his words.
Drifting off even as he spoke, he added in a soft whisper, 'I love you.'
That was what she was scared of.
Tetra woke up early the next morning, even by sailors' standards; it wasn't difficult, considering she hadn't really fallen into a deep sleep all night. With all the stealth she possessed, she slid to the edge of the bed, reached out from between Link's sheets and grabbed her clothes from the floor. Holding them close to her out of cold, she herself then slid down to the floor. She stayed low to the ground as she dressed with caution lest Link should wake up or one of his men should knock on the door. Only when she was fully clothed did she stand up and tiptoe to his dresser to check her reflection; when she returned to her ship, she had to look decent.
Of course, she had no idea how she was going to get back to her ship...
'Where are you going?' came Link's half-asleep voice unexpectedly.
Her heard immediately leapt and began to hammer in her chest. Hoping she had been imagining things, she didn't dare move or answer him.
But then she heard him moving, and turned around to see him sitting up in bed, his brow furrowed. 'Where are you going?' he repeated more clearly.
Tetra bit her lip; the hint of panic in his voice confirmed what she had been dreading.
'I'm just gonna leave, Link,' she said placatingly, turning back around to face the mirror rather than him, on the pretence of fixing her hair. 'It's better this way. We really shouldn't associate with each other. If your king or whoever found out—'
Link's eyes flashed with impatience, and she saw in the mirror that he rose from the bed to approach her. 'You can't be serious,' he began, crossing the room to where she stood. 'Do you really think I care about that more than I care about you?'
At this, she turned around quickly, and this time it was she who showed signs of panic. 'Don't say that,' she ordered him. She was uncomfortably aware that she had nowhere to back up.
'Don't say what?'
'That you care about me.'
'But you—'
'No, Link,' she reiterated insistently, pushing him away as he took another step closer to her. 'We just—I mean—' Her words failed, and when she tried to speak again, there was a tired, anxious note in them. 'Look, let's not make it more than it was. We had fun, and we're great friends and everything, so let's not ruin it, all right?'
'Friends?' Link echoed aggressively. 'Friends? You and I both know that we're not just friends. There's so much more between us, there's things that only we understand, and I just…I don't want to live the rest of my life without that. I want to be with you.'
She didn't like how soft his voice was becoming. She could hear her own breath quickening, and urgently wanted to get away, but the only way to the door was past him.
'Link, please don't…'
'But I l—'
'Don't say it!'
She startled even herself with how strongly her voice came out, and Link almost took a step back in surprise, looking hurt. Calming herself, she looked down before daring to speak to his face again.
'Look…' she began helplessly, 'I don't want us to hurt each other. And I know we will.'
He opened his mouth, but she cut off his objection.
'I'm not who you think I am,' she told him. 'I'm Tetra, Queen of Pirates. That's my life now, that's what I was born and raised, but that's not what you see in me. I know you don't, because when I look at you, I don't see Link the captain or general or whatever you are…I see the little kid you were. The Hero of Winds. But you're not him anymore, and I'm not—not a princess anymore, so let's both just forget it, okay? Let's both stop trying to chase something that's gone.'
Desperation had made its way, against her will, into what she was saying. To spare herself having to elaborate, she moved swiftly and slipped past him to get away. Though he didn't make an attempt to stop her, he did call out.
'Don't leave me again, Zelda.'
She stopped in her tracks, her blood suddenly cold. She had been waiting for him to call her by her name, alert to the fact that he had been avoiding it; this was the first time he had given her an appellation. And he had chosen the wrong one.
'You see?' she whispered, glancing back at him. 'You see what I mean? I'm not Zelda. I'm just not. I'm Tetra.'
His face didn't change. 'You can keep telling yourself that,' he said calmly, 'but I saw what you wear around your neck.'
Her hand twitched as she barely contained the urge to finger the gold chain. It was true that the one things she hadn't taken off the night before was her necklace. It was also true that she had noticed that Link's hands roved to it repeatedly, and he was unmistakably as passionate towards the gold as he was towards her.
Unable to devise a suitable response to this, she requested, 'Let it go.'
'No,' he said flatly, moving towards her again. 'I'm not just going to forget about—'
'Let me go.'
'No!'
She made for the door, but he stepped swiftly in front of her, and slammed each of his hands onto each side of the doorframe.
'Link—'
'I'm not letting you get away again. And I thought you wanted to catch up with me, too.'
'This is not catching up!' she snapped irritably. 'I told you, I have to get back to my ship, and we'll meet up on land…'
'Yeah, well, I don't believe you,' he told her bluntly.
She felt as though he had slapped her, and knew she looked it as well. 'Are you questioning my honour?' she asked in a deadly voice.
'I guess I am,' he concurred unabashedly.
'Well, don't,' she warned him, jabbing a finger harshly into his chest. 'I promised I would meet you, and I don't break promises lightly. Especially not promises to people that matter to me.'
They glared at each other a moment longer. Tetra could see no way to get out of this, given the words she had just spoken. She did care about Link, he was important to her…but she wanted to leave. She needed to.
'I'll tell you what,' she suggested finally. 'You get the captain of my ship over here, and all three of us can talk this over.'
'What does he have to do with anything?' Link asked suspiciously.
'He's my captain,' Tetra reminded him, as though this was a stupid question. 'I can't just leave his ship and his service. Would you let any of your men do that?'
She knew he had to admit her point, and she could see in the way his shoulders relaxed that he was giving in.
'Well,' he said slowly, 'I could invite him. But you have to stay hidden from my crew.'
'Of course.' She had no problem with this; she didn't want them to notice that she had spent the night with their captain.
Link chewed on his lips, apparently considering the situation from all angles before he agreed to give his consent to it. Tetra felt herself breathe a sigh of relief when he nodded at last.
'Right,' he said curtly, 'we'll get your captain over here to sort things out.'
'To negotiate fair and square?' she pressed. 'Promise?'
'Fair and square,' he assured her with a nod. 'Promise.'
'Thank you,' Tetra said sincerely. 'That's all I want from you. Well…except…'
Link frowned and stiffened. 'Except?'
'Except…could you not tell him who you are—your name, I mean—or what we did?' she requested. Before he could be offended, she explained, 'The reputation thing works both ways, you know. No one in my crew or anywhere else in the pirate world will respect me if they think I…' she gestured vaguely between them, making a face, 'with someone like you. And they won't think much of you, either.'
She knew Link would have to see the sense in this, even if he didn't like it. 'All right,' he agreed wearily. 'In that case, we'll need to come up with a cover story. Why did you come here, and what were we doing?'
'Let's work with the truth,' Tetra suggested; she began to pace the room, as she always did when brainstorming. 'I mean, there's no harm in saying… Your crew knows you want to capture me, right? So tell them you spotted me on the Pearl, and you recognized me. You tricked me somehow. I don't know, you claimed to be a friend of mine—'
'That's not plausible,' Link interrupted. 'Not the type of lie I'd make up. And not the type of lie you'd believe,' he added, with a wry smile at the irony.
'Fine, then, you…you claimed to have captured a friend of mine,' she suggested in exasperation; lying always exhausted her mentally. When he nodded his approval of this revision, she went on, 'So I came over. To negotiate his release, I guess. And then you imprisoned me.'
'And if anyone saw you hug me?'
Tetra bit her lip, unable to come up with a solution, but Link answered his own question momentarily.
'They're just nuts,' he said. 'I'll say it was a headlock or a tackle or something. If I tell them so with enough confidence, they'll believe it… That settles that, but there's still the issue of what we were doing all night.'
'You were trying to make me give up the names and locations and other info about the important pirates, but I wasn't cooperating,' she invented. That was an easy and obvious lie.
'And we're inviting your captain over because…?'
'Because…because…'
'Maybe you wanted him to come?' Link offered. 'No, that doesn't make sense, you'd have to be some kind of idiot—'
'Maybe I am an idiot,' Tetra interrupted. 'You know, I said I wouldn't talk without him around, I didn't want to give away any secrets or anything. Didn't occur to me that bringing him here would trap us both.'
'And since I do see that, I've agreed to your condition,' he concluded.
There was a pause.
'I'm not an idiot, though,' she warned him. 'Don't think you'll catch me and Jack this way.'
'Jack?'
'My captain.'
'Oh. Of course.'
Was she imagining things, or was there a bitter note in his voice?
'You promised to negotiate fairly,' she reminded him, 'and there's no honour in lying to a friend. So don't even think about trying to betray me. All right?'
'Right.'
'Now go find a way to deliver a message to Jack,' she ordered. Seeing the smirk on his face, she asked, 'What's funny?'
'Nothing,' he said quickly, shaking his head and smothering the offending expression. 'For a second there you sounded just like… But you don't want to be her anymore, so never mind,' he finished in a mutter.
Tetra didn't reply to this. It was obvious what he had been thinking, but he was right when he said that she didn't want to be Zelda. She was just a leader, that was all. Not all leaders were royalty.
'Get going,' she said, changing the subject and giving him a push in the chest. When he didn't move, she demanded, 'What are you waiting for? And what are you laughing at now?'
'Sorry,' said Link, this time not trying to conceal his mirth. 'I'm just picturing the looks on my men's faces if I strolled out there and started giving orders naked.'
Tetra felt the heat rising her face when she realized that he was indeed not wearing any clothes yet. Carefully casting her eyes anywhere but on him, she stammered, 'Yeah…well…put some pants on, for goddesses' sake.'
'I think that'd be best,' Link agreed, still grinning.
Still refusing to look at him, she took a seat by his dresser and leaned one elbow upon it, studying her reflection in his mirror. She looked different to herself, somehow, but she couldn't place exactly why…
And even stranger, she found that she still loved his smile.
No one was going to mystify Jack Sparrow and get away with it. He stood at the bow, by the mermaid that had for so long been Tetra's. At least, it felt like it had been for so long. How long had she really been a member of the crew?
He brushed these vague musingly aside. It didn't matter how long Tetra had spent aboard the Pearl; the mermaid just felt like hers.
Damn it—Balling his fist in impatience, he reminded himself that the mermaid was not hers, because no part of this ship was hers. Whether she was a traitor or the most loyal pirate ever to sail under his command, the Black Pearl still belonged to Captain Jack Sparrow. She always had and always would.
Rapping his knuckles against the mermaid's head, he made up his mind. He was going to take Tetra back by force. Right now.
Even as he straightened to march off and declare this resolution to the crew, he did a slight double take.
The Red Lion, well ahead of them, was turning. Even stranger, she was doing so almost on the spot, as if the captain had decided to turn back. And most bizarre of all, two flags were being hoisted up her mast: one blue, one white.
Jack tried to remember what Tetra had told him the flags meant. Blue was something about meeting face to face, but he had no idea what white meant. A white stripe on a red field was a request for a captive alive…so maybe it meant that was what they wanted to meet about? Despite the overwhelming incompletion of his knowledge of these signals, he thought he could be fairly certain that the captain of the Red Lion wanted to discuss Tetra with him. He raised a curious eyebrow when he reached this conclusion.
And—growing only further confused—Jack could have sworn that the wind was changing as well. He felt it catch his hair as it turned, in synchronicity with the Red Lion itself, until both had completely reversed their direction and were headed squarely toward the Black Pearl.
Jack was not a superstitious man; that was Mr Gibbs' department. But this could not be a coincidence. And since his encounter with Barbossa's eternally damned crew…Jack was admittedly more inclined to believe in the supernatural.
"Captain?"
He jumped slightly when a timid voice spoke up just behind him. Determinedly remaining stoic, he turned around and asked, "Yes, Mr Crawford, what is it?"
"I was just wondering what you're planning to do about that," he asked, nodding towards the Red Lion, which was approaching at an alarming rate now that the wind favoured her.
"Ah," Jack replied with a sage nod. "Actually, I was planning to board." He shrugged. "Can't think of a better way to get our shipmate back. Can you?"
A glance in Michael's direction showed the younger sailor's surprise. "Oh. Well, I was thinking we'd fight or something. But your way's good. Better."
Jack, however, had stopped listening. He was squinting in an attempt to see the small figures moving on the deck of the other ship as it drew close enough for him to be able to do so. One man seemed to be the centre of the activity; the captain, Jack presumed. When he had delegated tasks to all those around him, this man moved to the fore of his own ship. Jack leaned forward slightly in anticipation.
He watched closely as his opposite drew a bow and aimed carefully. Several seconds passed, during which the two ships drew still closer together at a remarkable speed. Then the arrow flew, and Jack glared as he watched it soar an impressively straight course towards him, lodging itself in the hull, just below the gunwale. He wrenched it free, and tore off the attached note.
To Jack Sparrow, captain of the Black Pearl, from the General of the Felicitovente army, greetings.
In the spirit of mutual benefit, I hereby request your presence aboard the Royal Imperial Ship, the Red Lion to negotiate peacefully the terms of the service of your first mate, Tetra, Queen of Pirates.
I await your response, in the form of a white flag of assent or a black flag of dissent.
No name was signed; Jack supposed that since this man was acting as an agent of a larger institution rather than as an individual, no name was necessary. Still, he studied the words closely, seeking any loophole. Something didn't feel right.
And since when was Tetra the "Queen of Pirates?"
"Captain, sir?" asked Michael timidly. "Do you have orders?"
"Send up a white flag," Jack decided. Looking up at the sailor, he explained, "Like I said, I'm boarding the Red Lion. And you're coming with me."
He saw Michael's eyes bug, and the young sailor made a noise as if he were choking on something. "I'm…"
"Coming with me to that ship," Jack finished the sentence for him, nodding to the oncoming vessel. "Yes."
"But…uh…Captain, sir, why do you need me?" he asked sheepishly.
"To keep an eye on things," Jack answered vaguely. "And mind you keep a close eye on things, Crawford, aye?"
Still looking rather pale, Michael answered, "Yes, sir."
"Excellent. Now go tell the men."
With a nod of obedience, Michael walked away, leaving Jack to dwell on what he was about to do. It was important that he appear to understand the situation, even if the truth was that he was more than a little confused. Confidence, however, would get him everywhere, and he was confident that he could get Tetra back; he also had a rather strong suspicion that Michael would discover something of interest.
It took only a few more minutes for the two ships to draw level. When they did, Jack, accompanied by a nervous-looking Michael, grabbed a rope to swing over. Before he could do so, however, the formally-dressed sailors on the other side produced a long, wide plank; this they laid between the pirate vessel and their own imperial one, then stood aside to await their guests.
"Oh. How elegant," Jack commented to Michael, who, apparently unsure how to act, only gave a feeble laugh.
The two crossed the plank, watched by their own crew as well as the other. Jack strode with his usual swaggering gait, having traversed far more unsteady terrain, but Michael looked as though he would have been more comfortable on his hands and knees. When the former dropped heavily onto the deck, a nearby soldier gave a slight tip of the hat and said politely, "The general is expecting you in his cabin."
"Very good," Jack proclaimed, with a grandiose wave of his hand. The soldier who had spoken replied with a tight smile and a short bow that was really more of a nod, then turned to lead Jack away. Michael scrambled to follow at his captain's heels.
"Captain, sir… What am I supposed to do?" he whispered hastily.
"You're my guard, if anyone asks," Jack replied subtly, in a low voice. "You wait outside the cabin and watch that his crew doesn't get too close, until I say otherwise."
Patting the other pirate on the back, he then stepped through the cabin door that the red-uniformed man held open with a bow; Jack put his hands together and nodded his thanks, then took in the scene when he entered.
The prestigious-looking cabin featured smooth, golden wood on the floor, walls and ceiling. A large desk of darker wood, perhaps mahogany, was strewn with various papers and navigational instruments. Behind it sat a uniformed man, presumably the captain, and in one of two chairs on the near side was—
"Jack!"
Instantly, Tetra leapt to her feet and into his arms. This alarmed him radically, as she had always made a point of avoiding and discouraging anything that could be considered affection towards him. When he heard her whisper in his ear, however, he understood.
"I promised I wouldn't leave, but I didn't promise you wouldn't take me."
Her meaning, through careful omission, was clear. To show his comprehension, Jack patted her on the back and muttered, "Right, love."
As she took her seat again, Jack noticed that the general had risen to his feet as well, and wore an oddly wooden expression. He was a young man, roughly Tetra's age, with blond hair under his captain's hat and blue eyes that were currently calculating Jack; his appearance was generally that of a well-groomed and physically well-trained man.
"Aren't we just the knight in shining armour," Jack observed, looking him over critically.
The general's expression darkened. "Captain Sparrow," he said in clipped tones as he sat, by way of greeting.
"Aye. General…?" Jack asked.
"General Reyga."
"General Reyga," Jack repeated, noticing as he did that Tetra cast a surprised look at the man to whom this name belonged.
"Really?" she asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "I didn't know that."
With a guarded expression, the general said evenly, "You don't know a lot of things about me."
Tetra looked rebuked, and as though she had more to say, but Jack wanted to keep himself in control. Cutting off the extraneous conversation, he asked, "What can I do for you today?"
"I'll be blunt," Regya said, turning his gaze from Tetra to the other man and interlacing the fingers of the hands he had folded on the desk. "Your first mate has found her way onto my ship, and I would like to request that she stay."
"Can't say that was very blunt, mate," Jack pointed out frankly. "You neglected to mention how my first mate came to be on your ship."
Reyga looked startled by Jack's astuteness; Tetra gave an odd cough that might have been a suppressed laugh. When he had regained his composure, the general clarified without looking at her, "She boarded voluntarily."
"What, you were just floating along, minding your own business, and one of my sailors dropped out of the sky and onto your deck?"
By now Reyga was definitely scowling. There was a pronounced bite of impatience in his voice when he said stiffly, "I initiated contact with her, and she chose, for no apparent reason, to board my ship in response."
Jack nodded; he would have liked to know why this man had contacted Tetra, but he knew better than to expect a truthful answer to that question under these circumstances. He would ask her later. "Right, then. Just one more thing, though, mate," he added casually, holding up a finger. "For what purpose were you wanting to keep this young lady around?"
"Yes, General," spoke up Tetra, folding her arms and raising an inviting, inquisitive eyebrow. "What would my…position be on your ship? Slave? Soldier? Sailor?"
"Strumpet?"
Both Tetra and Reyga, who had been watching each other with an abnormal degree of hostility, flicked their eyes to Jack when he spoke up. For his part, he kept his expression flat. He was beginning to wonder what was going on between these two, because they clearly had things to discuss that didn't involve him.
Clearing his throat pointedly, Reyga answered. "No. I'm afraid she has left the nation of Felicitovente illegally, and as an officer of the emperor, it is my duty to bring her back within our borders."
Tetra muttered something under her breath.
"What did you say?" the general asked, coldly polite.
"Huc mendoke, iakes!"
Though she was speaking loudly and clearly, Jack didn't understand a word she had just said. Looking to Regya, he saw an expression of blank shock on the man's face. The clearly discomposed general began, "I don't think—"
"Ey, tibi putagant nosci," she retorted, silencing him.
And then, to Jack's amazement, the general snapped, "Tibi kokay!"
Tetra stood up sharply, and the general was on his feet as well as she shouted. "Tantus ultoi, espa!"
"Cru fati te—"
"A ma chiay! Yugieplu tayis kei—"
"Noe sava… Jaide! Veti?"
"Autais—"
A quiet click silenced them both. They glanced at Jack, and started when they saw that he had calmly drawn his pistol and pointed it at Reyga.
"If you two would kindly stop your squabbling, I think I'll be taking control of this situation," he informed them conversationally. "I think you should sit down," he added.
When both made to do so, he corrected himself, eyes still fixed on Reyga, "No, Tetra, love, I just meant him."
The general looked murderous, but he didn't disobey. He kept his icy eyes firmly on Jack's face as the pirate captain rose to his feet.
"Now, I don't want to have a military man's blood on my hands," Jack explained. "I've never been very fond of prison, really. But I don't think anyone will much mind…if I kill her instead."
Tetra took half a step backwards as she found the pistol suddenly pointed at her. Reyga stood up again sharply, but froze when Jack cocked the weapon.
"No one, that is," he added, "except you. So don't try anything."
"You coward," spat Reyga viciously. "You're going to threaten her to get out with your life?"
"Are you advising me that I should threaten you instead?" Jack asked mildly, pointing his pistol back in the general's face threateningly; the soldier straightened defensively as the pirate captain told him calmly, "You don't want to be questioning me, mate. Might get hurt. Although…" Aiming his weapon somewhat lower, he added thoughtfully, "I hear eunuchs make lovely singers."
Reyga narrowed his eyes, but it was clear he would make no further objections; Tetra as well was rigid where she stood. She let out a slight gasp of surprise when Jack moved suddenly, seized hold of her, and flung her in front of him. With one arm around her waist and the other holding the gun to her temple, he backed towards the door.
"I'm not going to cause any trouble if you don't," he told Reyga calmly. "So we'll be going now."
"You bastard," Reyga growled; he looked as though he were about to burst with sheer outrage.
"Right," Jack confirmed. Lowering his voice, he muttered to Tetra, "Can you swim, love?"
"What do you take me for?" she asked, trying to laugh; there was obvious fear beneath her aloof confidence.
"Good."
In a single action, he released her to take hold of her wrist, shoved the door open behind him, and charged through it, shouting, "Crawford!"
"Yes, Captain!" Michael answered, jumping where he stood.
"Overboard!"
"Over—"
He didn't have a chance to finish the word, because Jack and Tetra were sprinting away, and fast on their heels was the general, who was shouting to his men, "Stop them! Stop them!"
But if Captain Jack Sparrow and Tetra, Queen of Pirates, didn't want to be caught, they wouldn't be. It took them mere seconds to storm through the soldiers, Michael following, and then all three pirates simply flung themselves overboard and into the sea.
The Black Pearl had of course remained nearby, and as soon as its crew saw their shipmates in the water, they were giving directions to each other.
"Throw 'em a rope, ya dogs, or be charged with mutiny for lettin' your captain drown!"
"Squawk! Shiver me timbers!"
Three ropes soared down to them; Michael took hold of one, but the other two became tangled together. Jack wrapped both hands around them, and rather than trying to extricate one for herself, Tetra simply wrapped both her arms around him. As their crew hauled them up to safety, they both looked back and saw the general of the Red Lion seething with rage against both of them.
Jack was winded when he tumbled to the deck, Tetra landing on top of him. She scrambled to her feet instantly to run back to the edge, and as their vessel turned away from the other, she beamed and waved back at the army, hollering, "Bye, boys!"
The rest of the crew looked from her to Jack, in bewilderment. Wiping his hair from his face and spitting out some water he had nearly inhaled, Jack panted, "Get to work. All of you."
They sensed that he wanted to get rid of them, and shuffled away quickly, leaving him to confront Tetra. He strolled over to where she stood, still grinning at the sight of the Red Lion falling behind them.
"So," he began, "what's going on with you, love?"
She shrugged without looking at him; her smile had disappeared. "Just what we told you. What he told you. He contacted me, and I went over there, and then he wouldn't let me leave."
"Aye, the men mentioned they saw him send you some notes," Jack confirmed; he had of course searched for these papers, but found nothing. He was sure she still had them. "What did he say?"
"He said…he'd captured a friend of mine."
Jack let this information turn over in his mind. "That wouldn't have been Link, would it?"
"What?" Tetra asked, with what Jack thought was an unreasonable level of alarm.
"The prisoner that Reyga caught. Was it Link?"
"Oh." She relaxed visibly. "Oh…yeah. Yeah, it was. But he didn't really have him, so…"
Jack frowned, knowing that she was lying, but unable to understand why. He decided to change the subject slightly, and told her, "That's good to know. When I saw you'd left, I was worried you'd turned traitor."
Tetra looked at him in surprise, but then cringed. "I guess I can understand that. Didn't occur to me you'd think that way, though."
"Because you were too concerned about Link, of course," Jack added for her.
"Yes," she agreed; this time, she sounded oddly sincere. Then it was she who changed the subject, casting him a small smile and saying, "I thought your code said that you abandon traitors. 'Whoever falls behind gets left behind,' wasn't that it? So what happened to the code?"
"Who says we have to keep to the code?" Jack replied shrewdly. "More like guidelines, really. And sometimes you've got to change your priorities. I didn't want to lose—"
"If you start spouting love poetry, you're going to become a lovely singer," Tetra cut him off warningly.
Jack smirked. "Wasn't about to," he assured her. "I'd just hate to lose a good sailor, that's all."
They both fell into silence, which was broken a minute or two later when Tetra gave a quiet laugh.
"What's that?" Jack asked.
"Reyga," she said thoughtfully. "I never knew that was his name. It doesn't seem to suit him, does it? But…" Her smile faded as she sighed, then she said briskly, "Well, like he said, there's a lot of things I don't know about him, so maybe it's just me. It doesn't matter."
She stared straight ahead, plainly not seeing what was in front of her. Presently, she blinked. "I should go to sleep," she said. "I didn't get much last night. He was interrogating me for hours."
The smile she flashed at Jack was fleeting and empty, but she didn't wait for an answer before she headed off to do as she had said. He watched her go, then turned back to see what the Red Lion was doing. It occurred to him to wonder why the army wasn't sticking close to them.
Reyga's crew was turning back again, to resume their original course, the one they had been following before the fiasco with Tetra had ensued. Evidently they didn't care that much about her, and had more important pursuits. It was definitely odd, and Jack didn't for a moment think this was over, but for the time being, he was willing to accept the relative peace that came with the end of open combat.
