I've got nothing much else to say but hold on to yer hats.
Chapter Ten
Comeuppance
in which the storm breaks
"I want everyone on the Surprise in five minute's time! Lower canvas and clear the deck for action!"
Jack's blood boiled with the urgency of battle the moment he saw the sails. The once peaceful camp, the sight of song and dance and card games the night before, was now crawling with sailors as eager as he was for close action and a decisive finish. It was time to put their rudder to this trying business and refuse to look back.
He was watching the loading of the longboats when he remembered Stephen- damn his eyes, he was still in the jungle. It was well nigh noon and he hadn't returned. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the doctor coming towards him at a fast clip, following the curve of the beach, Miss Turner at his side. His heart sank when he saw her. At least he knew where she was now- no one had been able to find her at the first sighting of sail. Stephen's request to sleep out in the jungle made sense all at once.
There's no time for that now. He chastised as they got closer. That's Stephen's mess to sort out, once this is all over. I hope the dear old Surprise can bear all her canvas today- the Running could give us her topgallants in this sort of wind easy as kiss my handif she moves the way I think.
"Don't launch the boats yet!" Miss Turner said breathlessly when they were upon him. "Look at the direction she comes from. She can't have seen the Surprise yet- it's hidden by the jungle over there. She's going to come ashore. Captain, you could take her without a scrap of harm to either ship."
"Where will she go once she's ashore?"
"I can show you. We can set a trap there and take her. She'll bring the better part of the crew with her to carry supplies. We're low on men as it is. If we capture them the Running won't have enough men to put up a fight."
Jack looked to the sails in the distance, and then to the prisoner's frantic eyes. It stood to reason that she wouldn't want it harmed- everyone and everything she loved was aboard that ship.
Well, not everything. He thought, glancing at Stephen.
"Show me quickly." He said, feeling ready to set another trap.
"We've never left her this long."
Captain Arlen Turner, nee Starre, looked from the island before her and back at the woman rowing their longboat.
"Left who?" She asked absently, her mind full of preparations. Would they need two additional casks of beef or just one? One, she decided. It wouldn't take long to catch the Surprise. She was certain to be looking for them now. Once they sank her it was home to Alameade. Yes, one cask would do.
"Your daughter." Anamaria's voice was ice. "We've never left her this long aboard an enemy ship."
"We've never faced a ship quite this formidable, either. Not since the Deliverance. Did you hear about her action with that French privateer?" Her first mate shook her head. "Well, I did. He followed her halfway around the world. She had nearly twice his guns, and he brought her down in a matter of minutes. Leading him on another long chase has probably left his crew tired and angry. That's why she's still there."
"Have you ever once considered the kind of danger she might be in?"
"She can handle herself. She's never been hurt yet."
"Arlen-"
"That's Captain to you, Anamaria, and are you questioning my orders?"
"Lone Star," She said in a quieter voice, invoking the old childhood name. The name no one called her anymore, the name that died on the eve of the new century with Jack Sparrow and a girl called Black Wolf.
"Lone Star, tell me this is the last Navy ship we'll go after. They don't put any money in our pockets, and they don't bring back the dead."
The captain's hand tightened on the edge of the longboat. Sand ground beneath them and she stepped out onto the shore and surveyed Isla Cruces. Voices echoed in her head- Will, Elizabeth, and the rum-sodden voice of a beloved godfather loudest of all. Jack. A voice she would never hear again.
Had she killed enough men to silence that voice?
Then another voice arose. The voice of treachery. The voice of the Commodore who destroyed them all.
"Lone Star?"
It would never be enough.
"We will take on provisions. We will find the Surprise. We will burn her to the water and kill every man on board, and we will get Cora back. And we will continue to do what we have done until the hangman finally comes for us."
She walked up the beach in the direction of their cache, expecting the crew to follow as they had followed the captains who came before her. They did, but their steps were heavy and their eyes were questioning.
The jungle embraced them and they had to hack their way through, guided by Arlen's sense of direction. Anamaria fell behind, but the captain was joined by another presence.
"Momma, something's not right."
"What do you mean, Ashli?" She spared a glance for her younger daughter.
"I found this."
They were almost to the clearing that house their cache, so Arlen waited until they were clear of the jungle to look at what Ashli held in her hands. It was a cricket bat, and with it a ball. She took them with a frown.
"Who would've-"
Then the world was fire and smoke.
When the longboats arrived and the pirates they contained disembarked Stephen knew instantly which was the captain. She too wore a blue bandana, dangling her hat at her side. She had the same build and coloring, and Stephen was willing to bet that she had her eyes.
He spared time only to count how many pirates were with her before he and Bonden were streaking through the jungle, back to the shack where the rest of the Surprises were waiting.
"There's at least fifty of them." Bonden panted.
"And the captain?" Jack asked.
"She's there."
"Very well. Lads, you know your task. Form a circle but wait to strike until they're all in the clearing. Avoid killing the captain if you can." He turned from the waiting crew back to Stephen and Barrett. "How did you know who the captain was? Is she very different from the others in dress?"
"She looks just like Miss Turner." Stephen responded. Jack turned back to the men.
"You heard the doctor. Now take your places, and God go with you."
They heard the cutlasses in the vines and the heavy footsteps before they ever saw them. Jack and Stephen waited close by the shack, their fingers already growing sweaty on the triggers of their pistols. The rest of the Surprises, a good quarter of their crew, were in a loose circle around the clearing, ready to tighten to noose once the pirates were inside. Cora was in the shack beside them, at her own request. That was why when the captain stepped into the clearing ahead of her crew Stephen second-guessed himself; he realized with a clench of his heart that she indeed had the same eyes.
A younger woman who looked much the same as the captain came into the clearing next to her. She had darker hair and dark brown eyes, but Stephen assumed that this was the sister Cora had mentioned- Ashli.
Jack swore under his breath when he saw what she held: the cricket ball and bat the men were playing with the day prior.
Cora's mother raised her head after seeing these items and looked around, like a horse that hears a noise. She'd just started to speak when the last of her crew filled the clearing.
"Who would've-"
It started in a hail of gunfire. At least ten of the pirates fell right away. The others drew their own weapons and whirled around with fright, searching for their assailants. Jack drew his saber and led the charge into the clearing.
The pirates formed a tight bunch, spinning and each mentally counting their enemies. The Surprises formed a bristling circle around them, waiting for a signal.
"You are soundly beaten. I suggest that you do not attempt to fight back." Jack said.
The pirate captain turned to face her Navy counterpart and smiled.
"Why, I do believe you're captain of the vessel I intend to destroy. Fancy that. I didn't expect to see you before I was slitting your throat with your own sword." She, like her daughter, spoke with an English accent.
"I fear it's your sword that will be in my hands. Surrender your crew and vessel now or we will have no choice but to shoot."
The captain looked around, her smile morphing, and then stood from her fighting crouch. She was undoing the belt that housed her sword as she spoke.
"I'm curious, Captain, before I hand this over- where is my daughter? What did you do to her to make her tell you where we would be? Nothing untoward, I hope."
"They didn't do anything to me."
Cora wormed her way through the rows of sailors facing the shack, brushing past Stephen and Jack as she did so, until she stood in front of her mother.
"You're delirious. They must've tortured you, or else you never would've told them of this place. Now, come. If I must surrender my only term is that you are given back to me."
"No." Cora said softly. "I am not yours to use as a bargaining chip anymore."
The captain frowned a little, her eyes narrowing, then sighed.
"I shouldn't be surprised. You always did have too much Turner blood in you. The lot of you never could square with the fact that you're pirates. You were always trying to balance on the edge of a knife. But, if that's how you really feel..." She stepped forward and held out her sword in her left hand.
Jack took a step forward to meet her. His hand was about to close on the scabbard of her cutlass. Then her right hand came up with its pistol and fired.
The pirates turned and rushed the sailors, hacking to get away. The sailors couldn't fire for fear of hitting their fellows across the clearing. Stephen caught Jack as he fell.
"After them!" He roared, but his attempt to raise his saber ended in a choked cry. Stephen lay him down and then saw the blood welling from a space two inches below his right collarbone. The pirates were starting to get through the sailors. "Don't let them get to the boats!"
"Lie still, I have to-"
"There's no time!" Jack heaved himself to his feet.
Stephen picked up his dropped saber and thought to hand it to Cora, since she had no weapon. It was only then that he noticed she was gone.
They crashed through the jungle, following the trail of used pistols and bodies. Then flames- where had they started? The jungle burned, the sailors were trapped. Jack was lagging, his hand pressed to his shoulder. Stephen supported him, turning in a circle, searching for a way out.
"Over here!" He could see a break in the foliage several yards away, sunlight streaming through. They ran as one towards it, each man praying that the flames wouldn't reach it before they did, and that when they escaped the flames it wouldn't be too late.
Cora thought for sure her wrist would break before they broke free of the jungle, her mother's grip was so strong. Bullets whizzed around her, took down a nearby pirate. The jungle was full of screams.
"What the hell are you doing, Lone Star?" Anamaria was running beside them, turning to fire at the pursuing sailors with one of her many guns.
"We're going to get into the boats and back onto the Running. Set fire to the jungle to keep them from following."
They broke free of the foliage sooner than the sailors and while part of their group turned to keep them at bay the other seized driftwood and pulled the triggers of empty guns to set sparks to them. They threw them at the sailors and at the trees, until Isla Cruces was in flame.
"Stop it!" Cora shrieked. Stephen was in that jungle. "You have to stop!"
"Shut your mouth. I just saved your life."
"Let me go! I don't want to come with you!"
Her mother froze as they neared the longboats. Most of the crew was already in. Only her sister Ashli and her uncle remained.
"We don't have time, Arlen, they're-" He started to say.
"What do you mean, you don't want to come?" Her mother broke through.
"I mean exactly what I said. I will not go back with you." She jerked her wrist free of her mother's grasp. "Don't you understand? I betrayed you. I told them about our cache here. I was willing to sacrifice our ship to get a full pardon. I'm done."
Her mother reeled. Very slowly, so that the furious battle in the background seemed a distant thing indeed, she took her daughter by the shoulders.
"Why are you doing this, Cora?" Arlen didn't seem confused- only angry. "Why?" She shook her until Cora's teeth rattled.
"Because you aren't always right!" Cora snapped too. "Commodore James Norrington was one man, one dead man, twenty-two goddamn years ago! Don't make the whole Navy pay for what he did!"
"And what did you see on that ship that made you think they aren't all just like him?"
"I saw them laugh and cry and fight and die beside me! They're human just like you and I!"
"Oh, and is that all? Do they love as we do?"
Sailors were running by them; Cora heard Jack's voice shouting orders to go to the Surprise. Before she could stop herself her gaze flickered to her left to see Stephen running alongside him. And her mother didn't miss it. She backed away and pulled her second pistol out of her belt, leveling it at Cora.
"So you're saying that if I gave you a choice, you'd go back to them? To him?"
"A Starre is always fixed in its course." Her heart pounded. Once it was lashes she took for a man. Would it be a bullet now?
"You aren't fit to say that now. Choose."
Cora didn't respond for a moment. She took two steps away from her mother. Then she whirled and started to run towards the captain and the surgeon.
"Momma, no!" Her sister shrieked.
There was the sharp rapport of a pistol and before the smoke had cleared Cora was lying screaming in the sand, clutching her thigh. Blood welled up from between her fingers with dangerous warmth and speed.
"Run back to him now." Arlen seethed without lowering the gun.
Blackness.
The canopy began to burn. Fire fell from above now. A pair of sailors trying to support a fallen comrade weren't moving fast enough to escape the flames. They could hear them screaming even when they burst out into the sunlight.
There was already a pirate near them when they did get out, holding a flaming piece of driftwood. They'd used the fire to keep the sailors hemmed in so they could get into their boats. Before he could toss it onto the trees, Stephen raised his pistol and shot him dead in the chest.
"There they are!" Bonden shouted from nearby. Sailors were bursting out of the trees at random intervals, a few in flames rushing for the sea, the rest rushing towards the boats that were being launched from the shore.
"They're escaping!"
"Jack, you can't run into battle-"
Jack snarled and jerked away from Stephen, but there was no denying the truth of his words. Already he was paling and his hand still would grip neither pistol nor sword.
"To the Surprise!" He bellowed instead.
They ran across the sand, in the direction of their own longboats. Only one remained of the pirates'. Stephen froze when he saw who stood by it. The pirate captain had latched onto her daughter's wrist and was trying to pull her into the boat. Their mouths were wide open- they were shouting. But what? He was too far away to hear.
Cora backed away from her mother. For an instant he saw her face flicker to his. Her mother said something, then raised her second pistol. Cora made it only two steps before a shot was fired, and she lay screaming in the sand, clutching her leg.
"Cora!"
He had no chance to get to her. Her mother turned to the fair man beside her and he lifted Cora in his arms and threw her in the last boat. By the time they reached the spot of sand that was soaked in Cora's blood, they were already rowing furiously in the direction of their ship.
His world was a haze as he boarded the last longboat with Jack. He and Bonden took the oars and began to row, but he barely noticed the action. Jack was already shouting orders, sails were already furling in a hasty press of white, guns were running out with a rumble of fury. His orlop was already full with groaning sailors when he reached it. Even before the Surprise lurched and began to move he was wrist deep in blood and calling for sand. He tried not to think of how much blood he'd seen come out of Cora's leg.
Minutes later the broadsides started, a continuous din of shouts and breaking wood. The roar blocked out his attempts to think and he was glad of it. Then they staggered out, and there were fewer wounded streaming down. It was like a terrible nightmare.
Then, the shooting stopped altogether. As it always did.
Stephen knew even before Jack came down to the orlop and lost consciousness that they'd lost her.
A/N- Oh boy. That was an intense chapter for me. Have I got it in me to kill Cora...? I guess you'll find out, won't you? I want to give an enormous shout-out (even though I lost my voice 3 times in the last 11 days) to all my reviewers for the last chapter: FuchsiaII, Kelly Tolkien, silverwolf of the night, and Snape's Opera Rose. Keep working that magic!
