Disclaimer: Let them taste the triple guns.
A/N: These chapters just keep getting longer. Huzzah!
Gibbs hung back, murmuring under his breath, leaving Squirrel and Will to move forward into the voodoo witch's tree-hut. Squirrel hung back with some trepidation.
Will smiled reassuringly at her, then made a half-bow. "Ladies first," he said gently. The chivalrous display of manners brought a pink tinge to Squirrel's cheeks, and she entered the cabin first, too flustered to think on her fears.
The inside of the hut was warm, packed with bottles and baskets and crates and all manner of strange paraphernalia. And it was all lit by candlelight. The smell of candle wax and scented smoke filled the air, dispelling the swamp smells from outside. Squirrel looked around, fascinated despite herself.
"You, ghel."
Squirrel looked up, and saw a dark-skinned woman smiling with blackened teeth. Squirrel took in the woman's strange tattoos and beaded hair; the elaborate dress - those brazenly bare shoulders! - and the strange, almost elemental quality of her movements. That, and the fact that she was practically in Jack's arms. Squirrel made her mind up to dislike the woman almost immediately. Not hate, just dislike.
"You weep for deh livin'," Tia Dalma said, moving away from Jack slightly, a knowing smile on her face. "An' not for deh dead. You are wiser dan mos'."
Squirrel looked at the woman, aware her expression was twisting into incredulity and disbelief. What kind of cryptic mumbo-jumbo is this? "You m-must be T-Tia Dalma."
The woman just smiled knowingly - darkly - at Squirrel. "An' you mus' be deh girl wid no mem'ry of her oon neem." If the woman was going to say anything else, it was forgotten… much to Squirrel's chagrin. Tia looked over Squirrel's shoulder and her eyes widened. "You."
Squirrel looked over her shoulder, and saw Will standing in the doorway, looking just as perplexed as Squirrel had been. Tia moved fluidly, crossing the floor with barely a swish of her dress.
"You 'ave a touch of dehstiny about yoo…" She crooned, inches from Will's face. "…Will-yam Tur-nah."
Squirrel jumped. Surely Jack could not have told the witch William's name. She looked to Jack, but he looked just as surprised. Squirrel frowned under her hood, but said nothing.
Will frowned uncertainly at Tia, moving away from her slightly. "You know me?"
Tia grinned and purred, "You wan' to know me…?" Squirrel was suddenly reminded of her cousin setting her sights on another man. Tia bore a striking similarity to Dawn in this regard.
Jack moved forward, and tried to regain control of the situation. "There'll be no knowing here!" He said gruffly, pulling Tia back out of Will's personal space. "We came here for help and we're not leaving without it!" He frowned slightly at Tia as he led her away. "I thought I knew you."
Squirrel barely held back an indignant noise of protest. Tia seemed to know - she turned and winked slowly at her, before dryly commenting to Jack, "Not whell enough, it seem." Squirrel pinked, but moved forward with Jack and Will, refusing to be shut out or to fail to answer Tia's silent challenge.
"Come," Tia said, standing behind a rickety wooden table. Scattered over the table were books, pieces of jewellery and… Squirrel frowned, and moved around to the table, standing at Tia's left. Were those crab claws? And the candle holders… those weren't really bats, were they? Squirrel looked around Tia's hut, taking in the strange collection of things - hanging from the ceiling, tied to the walls, hanging from the rafters…. They probably were bats. Real ones too. Taxidermy at its finest. Squirrel peered thoughtfully at them. It's amazing they don't get singed by the candle flames… Squirrel mentally shook herself, and forced herself to focus on what was being said and done by the people in the room.
"What… service…" Tia was purring, stroking Will's chin - an action he clearly did not appreciate but was far too much of a gentleman to push Tia away, "May I do you?" The voodoo woman lifted her head to look meaningfully at Jack, and her voice took on a harsher note. "You know dat I deman' pey-men'."
Jack smiled and nodded. "Course you do." He turned and whistled, and Pintel came forward, carrying a cage covered in canvas. Jack whipped the canvas aside, and presented Tia Dalma with Jack.
The monkey looked around the room in some alarm, even more so when Jack loaded his pistol and aimed it point-blank through the bars of the cage and fired. The monkey screeched in alarm as it was fired upon, but came to no harm.
"Look," Jack grinned. "An undead monkey." He passed the cage across Will to Tia. "Top that!"
Tia looked critically at the monkey, then turned the cage and pulled back the stick that held the door closed. And then she opened the door and set Jack free.
"No!" Gibbs said, then winced as he watched the monkey scramble out and across the table. "You've no idea how hard it was to catch him!"
Squirrel snorted. It may have taken you ages, Joshamee Gibbs, but all I had to do was call out and remind him of a favour owed, and he swung down and curled up in my arms. Albeit sadly and reluctantly, knowing he was going into a cage. She watched curiously as the monkey moved with purpose across the floor, leaping to a section of Tia's hut which resembled a bedroom. The monkey perched on a pair of boots and chirped quietly.
Goodbye, Jack, Squirrel thought to herself. I hope you're happier here. Then she frowned. The monkey was sitting on the boots… so why weren't they being moved by his weight? Unless… unless someone was already inside those boots…
"The pey-men' is feer." Tia's voice pulled Squirrel back to the discussion in the room.
Will pulled something from his belt and held it up for Tia's inspection. "We're looking for this," He said, spreading the square of oilcloth out on the table.
All the light and frivolity vanished from Tia's face as she looked at the drawing of the key. Her entire body was rigid; she sat down on the tall chair behind her very slowly, not once removing her eyes from the drawing.
Squirrel was suddenly gripped with a terrible feeling. She knows what this is. And not just from legend. She -knows- it. The voodoo witch may have well been playing War, or poker, or some other game. Squirrel knew what would happen next, what card she would play.
You'll bluff, Squirrel challenged silently, or fold and walk away.
Tia stared at the key, her eyes roving around its shape on the oilcloth, before she turned a predatory gaze to the captain.
"Did deh compass you barter from me not be helpin' ye find dis?" She said, her voice cold and harsh. Squirrel nodded slightly to herself. Tia was bluffing by challenging what cards Jack might play. She'd seen this many times, in Tortuga and in ports all over - out-smart your opponent, make him tip his hand once. Just once, and that's all it takes. But, Jack got his compass from Tia Dalma? How? And what payment had he offered? Squirrel looked sidelong at her captain, blushing a little.
Jack - playing with a strange feathered hat - shrugged with affected nonchalance. "Maybe." He said.
"Ah," amusement slid into Tia's voice, and she sat back in her chair like a little girl with a secret. Grinning, she mused, "Jack Sparra doesn' know what he wan's!" Then she paused, then added with a coy smile. "Or, he know what he want… but is loath to claim it fer 'is own…" Tia smiled, her eyes sweeping the room, before meeting Squirrel's briefly.
Squirrel quickly composed her face, trying to hide the surprise she felt, but was certain that the voodoo witch had seen what she was thinking. You're more than just a player in this game, aren't you, Tia Dalma? You're probably the only one who knows the rules. And on top of that, Squirrel added silently, looking sidelong at Jack, who was slipping something into his pocket, I'm not the only one who knows how to read people. But Tia can read Jack Sparrow? Interesting… and unexpected. Squirrel looked back at Tia Dalma, waiting to see the next play. Tia's move.
"Your key go to-a chest," Tia said, brisk all of a sudden. "And it is what inside deh chest you seek."
Will nodded, frowning. "What is in the chest?" He asked.
"Gold?" Pintel called, both he and Gibbs leaning forward eagerly. "Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?"
"Nuffin… bad… I hope?" Ragetti cringed slightly, looking away from the jar of eyes near his head.
Tia swept the room with her eyes once more, a cat's smile crossing her features. "You knoo of Deevy Chones?"
Squirrel frowned. This game more and more resembled a tangled skein of yarn, twisting and turning and no-one here seemed to know the rules… except for the one who was spinning the tales.
"A greet see-lah," Tia said, settling back in her chair and waving her hand about artfully. "A man of de sea. But he fell afoul of what vexes all men."
"What vexes all men?" Will asked, eyebrow raised.
Tia laughed softly, reaching for Will's hand. "What… indeed?"
"Well, the sea!" Gibbs put in, with the air of a man who knows what he's talking about.
"Sums," Pintel countered, with the air of a man sorely vexed.
"The dichotomy of good and evil." Ragetti said firmly. All turned to look at him, incredulous. But Squirrel - though surprised by such a fellow offering the opinion - silently agreed. It's always a hard thing to define. She looked to Jack, who was - once more - slipping something into his coat pocket, and sighed softly
The captain rolled his eyes. "A woman," he said, irritated, then looked over at Squirrel, his eyes locking on her unintentionally. Squirrel held her head high, but blushed nevertheless.
"No, no," Gibbs frowned, scissoring the air with one hand, "I heard it was the sea."
Tia looked at Gibbs as though her were a fool. "Same story, different versions," She snapped, "An' all are true! See, it was a wo-mahn," her hand brushed the air close to her chest, indicating… what? Womanhood in general? "… as harsh, and as chan-jing, as deh sea." Tia turned her attention back to Will with a small smile. "'e fall in love… and him never stop lovin' 'er."
Will squirmed slightly, his eyes going distant. Squirrel found herself fingering her medallion, her fingers brushing not only the smooth-worn edges of the silver coin, but the rough iron core of the spent bullet that had been meant for Jack Sparrow.
Tia's eyes turned back to Gibbs. "But dat love brou' him pain. Pain dat wa' too much to live wid… but not enough to cause 'im to die." Was it Squirrel's imagination, or were Tia's eyes softening with sadness too? "But him never stop lovin' 'er."
"That's so romantic." Squirrel said softly, uncaring that all faces turned her way. Tia looked amused, tilting her head at Squirrel as though studying her.
Fine. Read me, witch, Squirrel thought, dropping the amulet from her fingers, It's not as though you'll find anything interesting.
"So what is in the chest?" Will asked, bringing the attention back to the game at hand.
Tia turned back to him, and patted her hand across her chest, smiling with the knowledge of a sibyl. "Him heart."
Ragetti screwed up his face. "Literally… or figuratively?"
Pintel scoffed at his friend. "'E didn't actually cut the real heart right out of 'is chest…" He paused, and looked back at Tia, alarmed. "… Did 'e?"
Tia turned lazy feline eyes in Squirrel's direction. "It was not worth de small, fleeting joy dat life could bring," her hand and head danced to a slow, silent rhythm. "So he cut oot him heart, lock away in deh ches' an' hide it frum de world." She looked back to Will. "An' deh key 'e keep wid 'im at all times."
Will stood up, fuming, and turned to Jack. "You knew this all along."
"I did not," Jack said, calm and unreadable as he had ever been, "I didn't know where the key was. And now we do, so alls we need to do is go and fetch it and you can go back to your bonnie lass, ey?" He snapped his fingers, and turned as if to go. Even Squirrel felt a twinge at Jack's nonchalance - the captain was hiding something.
Tia stood up, a rising wave in a stormy sea. "Let me see yore han'."
Jack turned, wearing a fool's grin - he waved his right hand, but Tia was not placated. With a resigned look on his face, he held out his left hand to the witch. It was, Squirrel noted with some surprise, bandaged.
He was wrapping it in a rag that night, she recalled, a detail she had dismissed as unimportant during his cries for 'movement'. Tia unwrapped that bandage now, revealing a dark stain in Jack's palm. A dark stain with small tendrils, like some sea-fern or mould.
"The black spot!" Gibbs yelped, wiping himself, twirling awkwardly on the spot, and spitting. Ragetti and Pintel followed his example. Will and Squirrel just looked at the captain, startled and alarmed.
"My eyesight's good as ever, just so you know!" Jack said, trying to deflect attention from himself. He looked at Squirrel, and shrugged apologetically.
Tia sighed, irritated, and turned and went behind a screen, muttering to herself and calling to something. Squirrel reached across the table, over the bat-candlesticks, and held Jack's left hand in both of hers. She peered at this so-called 'black spot'. It was a death-sentence for pirates, she knew that. But to see one for real… She brushed it with a finger, and recoiled when it moved. It was organic, alive… and quite squishy. Like a sponge, or an anemone.
"Why didn't you tell us about this?" She said, looking up at Jack with undisguised concern. Jack just shrugged and pulled his hand away from her, looking awkward. Squirrel looked at him for a few moments more, before she withdrew her hands, hiding them under her cloak like she was an anemone herself. Jack looked aside, making sure no-one was watching - uncaring if Squirrel saw or not - then reached down to the table and picked up a ring. He slid it onto the thumb of his 'infected' hand. Squirrel sighed, but didn't say anything - why bother? Jack would have taken it anyway. Then her own eye was caught by the glisten of gold. On the table was a beautiful amulet. A heart-shaped thing made from finely-wrought gold. It would be so easy to just reach out as Jack did… but it would not be right. This belonged to Tia, surely. Besides… Squirrel already had an amulet.
And I'm a pirate, not a thief.
"Deevy Chones cannot make port," Tia said, coming up and standing next to Squirrel, a large jar in her arms. "Cannot set foot on land but once every ten year. Lan' is where you are seefe, Jack Sparrow." She held out the jar to Jack, "An' so lan' you will take wid you." Jack awkwardly reached out and lifted the jar from Tia's hands. He studied it for a moment - everyone did, wondering what magical gift Tia Dalma had bestowed upon Captain Jack Sparrow.
"Dirt," Jack said finally. "This is a jar of dirt."
Tia's expression did not change. "Yehs…" She said, as though wondering why such a question would be asked.
Jack looked at the jar he held. "Is the jar of dirt going to help?"
"If you don' want it," Tia said, her voice silky, "Give it back."
Jack frowned and clutched it closer to his chest. "No," he said, like a boy told to surrender a stick of sugarcane.
Tia gave a cat-like smile. "Den it helps."
Will sat back down as Jack clutched his jar of dirt close. "It seems," Will said, "That we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman."
Tia gave a small bow as she crossed the floor and sat down behind her table once more. With both hands, she gathered up her crab claws, and breathed on them. "A touch… of dehstiny!" The claws bounced and scattered across the table, coming to rest in strange patterns.
Squirrel squinted at the claws, doubting her own eyes. For a moment, she thought she'd seen - over the image of the claws - lines, like the kind drawn on yellowed paper. Lines which denoted latitude and longitude. She blinked, trying to clear her eyes, while Tia muttered and laughed to herself softly. Something flickered in the candlelight, a shadow on the table, moving towards the claws Tia had thrown. But when Squirrel focused her eyes, the shadow was… gone.
Probably a moth flying in the way of the light, Squirrel thought, trying to calm her suddenly panicked heart. A shadow. It's nothing. She tried to breathe slowly, to bring her fluttering heartbeat under control. Why had her heart started beating like that?
"Ye seel for dese waters," Tia said, indicating with a wave of the hand the scattered crab claws. She said the name of a certain part of the sea, but in Tia's accent it was lost to Squirrel. "Dere, you fin' deh Flyin' Dutch-maan." She paused, then added in a warning tone, "Be seefe. Sometimes deh sharks aren't oonly in deh water." She smiled, and motioned with one hand that it was time for the crew to leave.
Squirrel hung back, looking over her shoulder once more at the monkey. He seemed remarkably well-behaved; he'd hardly even made a sound this whole time. And he hadn't moved once.
Squirrel turned back to find Tia standing next to her, grinning her inky smile. Squirrel stepped back, wary. "W-What?" Tia just looked at Squirrel thoughtfully, amused for some reason. Squirrel blushed and turned to leave.
"You 'ave a mark about you, ghel," Tia said softly, her voice whispering like waves on the shoreline. "A mark dat ties you to deh Jack." She made a strange sound in her throat, half a laugh and half a purr, then tilted her head to one side, considering Squirrel with all seriousness. "Would you laike to know your naime?"
Squirrel's heart skipped a beat. "M-more than any-anything," she breathed, before she could stop herself.
Tia's smile widened, then vanished as she turned her attention back to the crab claws scattered on the table. "Den you mus' wait for a time. A greet pain will come, an' den you will remember. Dat's all I ken see."
Squirrel felt cheated. "Is that it?" She scoffed, indignant. "Some vague promise?"
"If you wan' more," Tia said calmly, "Den why don' you do deh searchin' yerself?" She looked flatly at Squirrel. "You an' I be nearly deh same, aye?"
Squirrel frowned, wondering what the woman was referring to, and then she laughed. "Similar? You throw crab claws and burn feathers," she gestured to a still-smoking brazier in the corner, "And I use cards and dice." Squirrel banished her smile. "Only thing is, I don't p-pretend it's something m-mystical or strange."
"Readin' people - as you call it - en't strenge?" Tia asked smoothly, one eyebrow raised. "Knowin' de outcome of a game before it even to begin, en't strenge?"
Squirrel's blush deepened. "I have to go." Don't pretend you know me…
"I saw you," Tia said absently. "You look at deh Jack and you feel it."
"Feel what?" Squirrel said, wondering if she even wanted to know the answer.
"Deh t'rill of fete."
Squirrel frowned, trying to puzzle out the woman's accent. "The trill of fate?"
"Deh t'rill of fete." Tia looked irritated for a moment. "Wedder a song or a shiver, you know of what I speak." She gestured vaguely at Squirrel's arm. "Fire and metal's what holds ye to deh Jack. You bear deh scars, chil'."
Squirrel gripped her right arm, alarmed. No-one could have seen that. She wore long sleeves and hid under a cloak. Tia could not have seen those burns. She could not have known… There was no way…!
"A tie to deh Jack, aye?" Tia smiled gently, as a mother smiles to a daughter, but Squirrel would not be comforted here.
She turned and fled, trying to keep calm but failing.
A/N: Thanks for reading, reviews make me happy. I'm thinking about going back and making the first chapter a bit more detailed. Yes, no?