CHAPTER FIVE: The Nebuchadnezzar sails to Port Royal
Jack, Morgan, and Sin sat around the same small table in the Black Mermaid. Two glasses of rum and one of water sat in front of them. Jack took a swig of rum and eyed Morgan's water.
"You really shouldn' drink the water here, love," he said.
"Why do you think I haven't touched it?" Morgan replied softly. Sin swished his rum around in his glass and set it down, looking at Jack.
"So, why is the Pearl so important?"
Jack set his glass down and scooted closer to the table. Morgan and Sin followed suit.
"There's a legend," he began to raise his hands and gesture, in the way Jack Sparrow tells stories, "a legend about a god. It's said that this god," he paused to drink the rum, "that this god betrayed the others by creating the Pearl. It supposedly holds his power."
"And why do pirates want it, Jack?" Morgan whispered.
"This god, love, was-"
Morgan cut him off. "The god of rum?"
Jack looked at her in surprise, then laughed. "Not quite, love. Though I wouldn mind meeting that god."
Morgan just smiled and shook her head.
"Anyway, the god helped create the universe; at least, that's what the guardians of it say."
Morgan glanced at the painting, then at Maryia. "Maryia and her mate?"
Jack shook his head, his beads thwacking him in the face. "No, the true guardians of it. They only appear when the Pearl's power is about to be unleashed."
Morgan nodded; Sin silently contemplated what Jack said.
"And, why do you want it?"
"I'm a pirate. I want it for the same reason that everyone else does."
Morgan sat back. "So we know little about the Pearl, but we know nothing about where my parents or Maryia's mate are." She looked at Sin. "How did you know to start in Port Royal?"
"Last night, while Maryia was sleeping, I was cleaning the passageway upstairs. I heard her talkin. She said that the answers lay in Port Royal, and to see the one she trusts. I was guessin that she meant you, Sparrow."
Morgan nodded. "There's only one person I trust in Port Royal."
"And that would be?" Jack asked, taking another drink.
"Commodore Kenwick Norrington."
Gibbs stared at what had once been the Majestic. She was now painted red and black, Jack's personal favorite colours, and the name Majestic was being scraped from her side.
Cotton reached into a bucket and produced a small paint brush. He dipped it in a bucket of paint and reached up. He began to paint the new name on her side.
N-e-b-u-c-h-a-d-n-e-z-z-a-r. Cotton leaned back to allow Gibbs to get a good look at it. Gibbs nodded.
"Now, we just wait for Jack and Morgan to return, and leave this feces rotten Tortuga."
Jack, Morgan, and Sin stared at the Nebuchadnezzar. "That used to be the Majestic?" Morgan asked.
"Aye, love." Jack replied. He reached for a bottle of rum and handed it to her. She stared at it.
"You want me to drink it?"
"Nay, break it on her side, then we sail." Morgan looked at him. Then she remembered that they did this in Port Royal all the time. She walked to the Nebuchadnezzar's side and threw the bottle of rum against it. It shattered, spilling the drink down her sides.
Jack patted the Nebuchadnezzar's side. "Welcome to the pirates way of life."
The Black Pearl and the Nebuchadnezzar floated side by side a few miles from Tortuga. Jack was getting ready to board the Nebuchadnezzar with Morgan and Sin, but he had some last minute instructions for his crew.
"Now, I want you to hide near the cliffs off Port Royal. Be on the constant lookout for one of us dropping from stone walls, maties. And if she has one scratch on her, I swear on pain of death, you will all face what Commodore Norrington puts so bluntly, a short drop and a sudden stop. Savvy?"
"AYE!" the crew shouted.
"Good." Jack jumped into the Nebuchadnezzar and cut the ropes between the ships.
"We'll be back, m'hearties!"
Jack walked up to where Morgan was steering the ship. He looked at her, then at the horizon.
"So, what do you reckon will happen to us in Port Royal?"
"I don't know. The first thing is docking. Security has been high recently."
"We need fake ID's then?"
"You and Sin will, they'll recognize me."
"Well, you're lookin at Mr. Smith, love. Or you can call me Smitty."
"Smitty?"
"Long story," Jack said.
"Ah. And you Sin?"
"Choose a name for me, lass."
"Mr. Smee. He was always my favorite in Peter Pan."
Sin and Jack laughed. The feel of the sea was lighthearted.
Morgan sighed. Jack leaned up against the railing and studied her.
"What's got ye down, love?"
"I have no idea what I'm about to face."
"That it?"
"No, I don't know where my parents are. I promised Maryia I would find her mate and I'm the guardian of the Pearl. It has not been a good week."
Jack smiled. "Don't fret, love. It'll get better."
Sin pointed ahead of them. "Look, Port Royal."
Morgan went silent and brought the ship into dock.
"It'll be four shillings to dock you ship, and your names." Morgan dropped the coins into the man's hands.
"Morgan Turner, Smitty, and Mr. Smee."
The man nodded and jotted it down.
"Name of the ship?"
"Nebuchadnezzar."
He nodded and Morgan, 'Smitty', and 'Mr. Smee,' walked off.
"They raised the prices," Jack stated. Morgan gave a brief nod.
"That would be Jake Norrington's fault. He wanted better ships so he jacked the prices."
"Ah."
They walked in silence until they reached a low garden wall.
"We have to climb over."
"I'll wait out here, lass. I dun like climbing overly much."
Morgan nodded as Jack gave her a boost onto the wall. Morgan scrambled over and waited as Sin gave Jack a boost. Jack dropped down next to her.
"Where are we, love?"
"Kenwick's garden." She looked up at a window on the third floor.
"Can you hit that window with a rock?"
"No problem, love." Jack scooped a small stone and threw it. The stone smacked into the window. The window opened a second later and Kenwick's head popped out. He looked down and saw Morgan. He gave a brief smile and closed the window.
"Why'd he leave?"
"He's coming down. Patience Jack."
"Patience, what's that?"
The door on their right opened and Kenwick walked out.
"Sparrow! And Jack." He nodded in Jack's direction.
"Ah, that would be Commodore Jack Sparrow. But call me Cap'n."
Kenwick shook his head. "Morgan, this arrived by post yesterday. It's addressed to you." Kenwick pulled a slim, yellow, letter from his breast pocket. He handed it to Morgan. She sat down on the small stone bench. Jack was looking at the fountain and the money in it. She opened it and began to read.
Morgan Sparrow Turner,
We know where your parents are, and we know you have it. Bring it to Jack's Island in four days, and you may see them again. Be prepared to hand over what you carry.
We hope you accept our invitation.
The letter wasn't signed. She let it slip through her finger tips.
"Jack was right…" she whispered. Jack swaggered up to her and picked up the letter. He looked at it, then shoved it in his pocket for later review.
"Well, love, I guess Sin was right. We'd best leave now." He turned to Kenwick.
"Thank ye very much." He boosted Morgan over the fence when Kenwick called his name.
Jack turned and looked at him. "What?"
"Take care of Morgan. She's everything to me. My wife died three years ago and Jake is a pompous ass who couldn't tell the stern of the ship from his own head. She'll do whatever it takes, just like her mother. And don't let her die, Jack Sparrow. I'm counting on you."
Jack nodded and prepared to leap the fence.
"Oh, and Jack."
He sighed and faced Kenwick again. "Yes?"
"You can keep the coins you took." Kenwick turned and walked into his house, leaving a very surprised Jack Sparrow to stare after him.
Morgan turned to Jack as soon as they were back on the Pearl. "You can't read, can you?"
"I'm a pirate, love. I've never felt the need to know how to read." He took out the letter. "Woulda helped with this though."
"I can teach you."
He glanced at her. "You would?"
"Aye, Jack."
"Will you read it to me, love?" He handed Morgan the letter and she read it to him in a soft voice.
"What does it mean, 'Jack's Island'?"
"The one Barbossa dropped me off on."
"The one where Mum burnt all the rum?"
"Right, love. And I don't intend to let it happen again.