Author's Note: Thank you all so much for continuing to read and comment on this story. This chapter was so fun to write, I hope you like it! Next update will come in a week! :)
Melody raced through the familiar corridors in the lower levels of the Lost Revenge, leaving the sounds of Harry fighting above. She pushed her legs hard until she came to the door leading to the cargo holds. The air down here was thick and hot, and it was so dark, it was difficult to find the door handle.
She peeked into first hold, finding Gil, Gonzo and Jay gagged and bound to chairs. Her friends lifted heavy heads in unison, their eyes pleading with her to help. They all wore their formal wear, which somehow managed to make her heart feel even heavier about the quick decision she was about to make.
She forced herself to duck back out the door to keep searching for Uma.
"I'll be back for you," she called over her shoulder, her tone sounding pathetically unsure, even to herself. "I need to find Uma first."
A stab of guilt followed her anyway. But she had to stay focused. They needed that protective spell up over the Revenge or this was all going to fail before they even had a chance. She could send one of her friends back for the others after she freed Uma.
She cracked open the second cargo hold to reveal Jane, Desiree, and Uma. Thank the seas. This room was even darker than the first, the only light coming from the corridor itself as she opened the door. It was only just bright enough to make out the shadowy outlines of their profiles. And just like how she'd found her other friends, they were all bound, gagged, and tied to chairs.
She dashed to Uma and pulled off her gag. Her friend's gown was torn and stained, and her makeup was smeared all around her eyes. Melody unsheathed her dagger and began sawing through the ropes around Uma's hands.
"We need to cast a protective spell around this ship or we are going down fast," Melody said, feeling sweat slide down the sides of her face as she focused on the ropes.
"What happened?" Uma asked. "I saw you next to Sparrow, you looked like… I thought…"
"I know and I'm sorry," she said. "Harry taught me a few tricks that came in handy. I had to get Sparrow to trust me to give me this chance." She finished freeing Uma's hands and began working on the ropes binding her feet. "But right about now Sparrow is realizing I've tricked him again and Harry is up there on deck taking on his entire crew by himself. So, we need to do this right now."
"I don't have my necklace Melody, he took it. It's imposs-"
Melody pulled the necklace from her jacket pocket and held it out. Uma took it, cradling it in two trembling hands. The nautilus shell was already glowing in her palm, as though relieved to be reunited with its owner.
Uma's shocked gaze rested on her before she appeared to gather herself. "Okay, the words are 'bolster our shields and strengthen our arms, protect our ship from further harm."
Melody reached for her locket and opened it. Feeling the pulse of its energy as it began to twine around her, she redirected the magic, sending it into the space around them, focusing her mind on defending the ship.
"Bolster our shields and strengthen our arms
Protect our ship from further harm."
And as she spoke the words of the chant in unison with Uma, the magic of the nautilus shell wrapped around her, reinforcing the energy of the sapphire. The two wove together and branched out, channeling through the frame of the ship.
With the words spoken and the defense in place, Melody rushed to Jane, pulling off her gag.
"Hey roomie," Melody said, working at the ties on her feet with the sharp edge of her dagger.
"You had me worried, Mel," Jane said.
"I had myself worried," she admitted. "I need you to free the others, then have everyone come to the deck and grab swords, we are going to have to fight our way out of this."
Once Jane was freed, Melody placed her dagger into her friend's hand. "You'll have to cut them loose," she said.
They locked eyes for a brief moment and then, Melody ran, through the long corridor and back up toward the stairs to the main deck. Uma followed close, until she reached the door to her Captain's quarters.
"I've got an extra sword and dagger in here," she said. She ducked into her room quickly and was back out behind Melody by the time she had ascended the stairs back to the deck.
They'd arrived just in time, too, because Harry definitely needed help. He was somehow holding his own against five crewman, but his back was to the railing. The afternoon sun set his burgundy jacket ablaze as he moved with uncanny speed against Sparrow's crew. Harry parried one attacker who'd pressed into his right side, as he simultaneously deflected a taller pirate's short blade with the handguard of his new hooked dagger. Four bodies already littered the ground around him, so Harry had been busy.
Melody rushed to his side, using those quick side-swipes Harry always encouraged against the beefy undead crewman at his left. The pirate was forced to disengage with Harry to protect himself.
Uma drew off another crewman, a pruney-skinned pirate who looked all too familiar. And now, the only sound on the deck was the ringing of swords in the air and Harry's panting breaths at her side.
The entire ship rocked as a shockwave of golden light fanned out across the sky. Melody ducked a strike to her head just before the Revenge listed again and this time she turned briefly to see where the blasts were coming from. She was not exactly shocked to find an enraged Zach Sparrow, glowing golden trident in hand, cursing and spitting orders at his crew as he sent another blast straight at her.
The blast hit the magical barrier they'd created around the ship, erupting in a blazing white-hot explosion. The burning energy slowly traveled across the shield, dissipating as it went, illuminating the giant protective bubble encapsulating the Lost Revenge. The spell they'd cast was completely invisible. It was only detectible when the magic of the trident set it glowing.
A gull swooped down, dropping another sword into Uma's hand and it became clear that the shield kept attacks out, but let allies in. That was useful.
Another thing became clear, though, as Sparrow sent blast after blast against their barrier. Melody had the distinct feeling its energy wouldn't last forever. Because where the first few blasts had been met with a brief crashing sound as the energy discharge dissipated quickly, these newer blasts were followed by a long, agonized whine and a slow buzz of magic as it traveled across their little bubble.
Apparently, two sapphires were better than one after all.
But Melody was forced to focus her mind back on the undead crewman scowling right in front of her. In her distraction, Beefy crewman had managed to push her back into a dead end near a crate with the help of another friend. His empty eyes narrowed, and his lip, with its skin partially peeling away, hung grotesquely as he smiled at her.
Beefy's weapon crashed down hard overhead and her arm ached with the force of the blow.
"I'm sure there'll be a reward for me if I can be the one to drag you back to the Cap'n," Beefy said, spit flying from his half-rotted mouth as he spoke.
His thick arm thundered down on her again and she felt the edge of his sword against her shoulder. The steel bit into her flesh, sending pain streaking all the way down her arm.
Just then, Harry hopped on top of the crate at her side and kicked a booted foot into the side of Beefy's head. He stumbled back, tripping over a coiled rope on the deck.
Harry dragged his sleeve across his forehead to wipe the sweat from his eyes, then smiled down at her. "What did I say about gettin' yerself in a corner, love?"
Melody's breath hitched. Was that a new nickname or was she just hearing things?
Harry's smile faltered as he glanced at the trail of blood dribbling down her shoulder, seeping into the bodice of her dress.
She inspected the wound, it looked worse than it was, long, but shallow. And luckily, it wasn't her sword arm. "It's not bad," she said, watching his frown unravel just a bit. "It's not deep."
But she didn't have any more time to consider it, because Beefy had recovered and come up beside Harry and he'd brought a friend, who stood just behind him. Harry leaped from the crate, using all of his weight to smash his blade down across Beefy's shoulder. The undead only just parried when Harry kicked into his chest this time, sending him backward into the railing. With one more heaving push into the man's chest, Harry dumped Beefy over the side of the ship and into the ocean.
The screams from below were her first indication that the sharks had arrived.
"Yer welcome," Harry said, flashing her his best smile.
Beefy's friend leaned over the railing, peering down at the darkening water around the body and was already backing up from the ship's edge. Unfortunately for him, he backed right into the tip of Harry's sword and crumpled to the deck.
Something primal inside of Melody loved seeing Harry like this. Face bloodied, hair sweat-soaked, and expression positively feral. He was a storm unleashed, beautiful but deadly.
Of course, she couldn't let Harry see how entranced she was. She chose to tease him instead. "You promised you'd have the deck clear."
"I was a wee bit outnumbered." Harry countered, with his signature smirk. "Besides, yeh didnae give me enough time."
A limping swordsman bravely dragged himself over to where she and Harry now stood side-by-side.
Harry raised his sword to ready position but directed his next comment at her. "So, yeh really forgive me then?"
It seemed Harry thought the middle of a swordfight was the perfect time to resume their heart-to-heart conversation.
"Right now, Harry?" she asked. "This doesn't exactly feel like the best time for this discussion."
The limping man swung low, but Harry was quick as he stepped backward and spun, sending his own sword in an arcing blow to the other pirate's back.
Limpy dodged, and Harry raised his hooked dagger to deflect a blow across his weak side. Melody watched, thinking of how perfectly accurate Diablo had been in his craftsmanship.
Limpy repeated his low strike to Harry's legs, forcing him to hop back again to avoid the swipe. "Who knows if we'll have a better time," Harry said.
Another man, missing half of an ear rushed into the fray and Melody was forced to parry, now standing back-to-back with Harry.
She growled at him over her shoulder. "This is not where I imagined we'd have this discussion."
Her sword arm buzzed uncomfortably as Mangled Ear's sword crashed into hers with such force, it actually hurt. She brought her other hand to steady the blade, feeling an uncomfortable stretch in her injured shoulder.
She clenched and unclenched her fingers around the hilt and feinted to Mangled Ear's flank. He took the bait and as he stumbled, she swiped to his weak leg, landing a hit deep into his calf which sent him backwards.
This definitely wasn't the perfect time for this talk, but Harry was right. What if it was the only chance they would get? No one could say whether a stray blade would cut too close or too deep and she'd never get another opportunity to speak her heart.
"Yes, I meant to forgive you," she said, raising her voice to be heard over the whine of steel from Harry and Limpy behind her. "I'd even begun to plan what I would say to you when I met you at sunrise. I was going to say that you hurt me, and it probably wouldn't be the last time. And that I would probably hurt you, too at some point. But I wanted you to know that you also showed me how to live, and you showed me how to…"
She jumped backward, narrowly avoiding an arcing sweep of her opponent's blade.
"Seas Harry, this is really not…"
She flicked her sword quickly in low, alternating strikes across his feet to get Mangled Ear to back up. She practically yelled the next words to make sure Harry heard. "I was trying to tell you that you showed me how to love someone."
Uma and her opponent had now wandered close and her friend was raising her own voice over her shoulder. "Are you two really having this conversation right now?"
Harry ignored Uma, shoving back hard against Limpy who stumbled over his already injured leg. This freed Harry up for a split second, long enough to push Mangled Ear back, too. Harry used the seconds he'd bought them to bury his nose in his favorite spot against Melody's neck, humming against that sensitive skin in his excited-Harry falsetto. His usual thank you for her honesty. "I cannae explain what it does to me insides to hear yeh say that," he crooned softly.
Then he was back with his opponent again, stabbing toward Limpy's midsection before coming across his shoulder with the hook of his dagger. This blow struck, and dark blood the color of wine seeped from the wound staining the man's tattered shirt.
"I cannae believe yeh love me," Harry was saying, partly to himself. "I didnae think yeh'd come."
An ear-splitting crack issued from overhead and she watched golden sparks fly in a giant sphere over the protective barrier. Not good. Their shield was definitely weakening.
Mangled Ear came at her again, but it was obvious he was wearing down, each blow connected with half the strength of when he'd started and now, she became the aggressor, hitting him fast with strike after strike until he parried too late and she sliced into his thigh.
He groaned and stumbled back. She followed him, raising her voice to continue her conversation with Harry. "You made a mistake. But I think I overreacted. You said you wanted to try to be someone worthy of me. But you already are, Harry."
Harry hooked into the arm of his tired opponent with his new dagger, causing the undead to drop his sword.
"Yeh didnae overreact," Harry said to her, pushing his unarmed opponent into the mizzen mast. "I lied to yeh again, after we promised to be honest with each other, and I would've understood if yeh didnae want to see me again."
Then, with Limpy trapped, Harry stepped forward and bashed him in the head with the blunt end of his dagger. He fell unconscious in a heap at Harry's feet.
Mangled Ear was staggering now, but still seemed determined that he would not be beaten by a princess.
Harry came to her side giving instructions into her ear. "He's reelin' now, love, come at him from his weak side. Force his arm across to tire him even more, then find yer opening."
There was that nickname again. She smiled to herself and followed his coaching as he stood back, watching. Finally, when Mangled Ear's parry to his weak side barely connected in time, Melody saw her opening and came across to his sword arm and sliced down hard.
His blade clattered to the deck and Harry stepped forward, pressing his boot down on the weapon before Mangled Ear could retrieve it.
"I believe the lady has bested yeh, mate."
Then, Harry bared his teeth and pushed the man backwards, over the railing to feed the sharks again.
She could not help the hungry look she gave Harry then. Seas, he was incredibly sexy when he was protective.
"I like my new nickname, love," she teased.
"I didnae even realize I'd changed it," he admitted. An adorable flush colored his cheeks and she couldn't tell if it was from his confession or from the adrenaline of combat.
"Even better," she said, "that means it came about naturally."
The ship rocked again as another thundering flash of gold passed overhead and Melody looked up to see Uma had just landed a debilitating blow against one crewman and was already engaged with another. Carlos had his blade crossed with a pirate near the bow and Jay was sprinting across the deck. He scooped up a sword that had fallen near a beaten crewman and sprinted to meet the last of the undead still aboard the Revenge.
There were more crewmen at the other end of the gangplank on the Jolly Roger, waiting to board, but they were trapped by the protection spell, unable to get across.
A shockwave unlike any before it sent the ship dragging anchor backwards, the shield around them vibrating with the impact. She looked up to see Sparrow had now found a way to amplify the Trident's strikes, instead of glowing just golden, it was now being reinforced by the sapphire in Triton's Sword, twisting in streaks of blue and gold. And the impacts were coming with twice as much power.
"There's nae way the shield is goin' to last against that," Harry said, looking around. "I'll have to jump across."
And her reckless pirate was about to do just that when she grabbed him by the arm. "Oh no you don't, not while he has both of the sapphires. I just got you back, I'm not going to lose you again so fast."
He raised a brow. "Yeh have another idea?"
"I do," she said. Then she was yelling over the railing, down at the sharks circling below. "I need your help to take down the ship with the black sails. Bring it down however you can, gather all the sharks that have come to help and make holes in that ship's hull."
They all seemed to obey as a hundred of dorsal fins dipped below the surface and moments later, she watched the sea-green lagoon darken below them as every last creature with jaws large enough to do some damage converged on the Black Pearl.
"Well sink me," Harry breathed, crossing to the other side of the ship, his eyes tracking the mass of scales and teeth now thrashing below the Pearl.
The Revenge rocked once more as another explosion from the Trident sent the ship tottering onto its side. She heard Jane squeak and turned to see her friend grab onto a line to steady herself. Carlos and Gonzo stood, swords at the ready, with no one to fight since the Revenge was now fully cleared.
"We'll have to wait to take the Jolly Roger. It's not protected," Uma yelled over the waning reverberation of the blast to their shield.
Melody turned back to the Pearl to see what Sparrow's next move would be. He must have felt something was wrong, and she wondered if the crunch of the wooden hull caused some kind of tremor under his feet, because he leaned over, seeing the roiling water caused by thousands of flippers under the surface and he was pointing the Trident down toward the sea.
His mouth formed words and blue and gold streams of magic shot from the trident. Then he moved the weapon in wide circles as if he was stirring the sea itself. Slowly, the water began to churn and bubble, boiling like a salty stew. The sharks who had been below the ship were drawn away in a current of Sparrow's own creation. It was so strong it sucked at the creatures under his hull until the water was completely clear again. Meanwhile, Sparrow kept his other hand on his sword and his black sails shifted as he controlled the wind, keeping the Pearl in place despite the current.
"Shite," Harry was cursing. "This isnae good."
Melody could only watch as every sea creature she'd summoned was sucked into deeper waters. All that work and their only hope for defeating Sparrow, simply drifted away with a sweeping motion of that trident.
Zach Sparrow raised his dark gaze from across the narrow gap between their ships to meet her eyes. He smiled, a repulsive expression that only magnified her failure. "You've made a big mistake, darling," he said. "It's a shame. We would have had a lot of fun together."
Then, with one hand still on his sword, he drew back the trident, and aimed a blast of gold and blue light into their barrier. It landed like a thunderclap and the ship rocked violently, listing to one side as boxes and ropes slid across the deck. Harry grabbed for Melody's arm to keep her from sliding away, too and he managed to haul her up enough to grab onto the railing.
She thought for a moment the whole ship might tip over, but somehow, its ballast was enough to pull itself right again. She released a tense breath, just in time for her to see the barrier above flicker one last time. And Melody could only watch as slowly, like glittering eggshells peeling away, the golden edges of their protective shield melted into nothing.
The sharp snap of Sparrow's voice filled her ears as he began issuing orders to his crew to board the Revenge. And the only thing she and her friends had left were their swords. She also had the assurance that Sparrow would need to keep her alive to open the locket for him. So, it seemed, he was forced to send his crew to capture her instead of just blowing them all to smithereens. Maybe they'd have a chance. They had decent numbers considering how many crewman they'd already beaten. And she was sure Harry counted for at least three swordsmen on his own.
But then, she noticed something moving at her feet.
Her vision tunneled as the dawning realization overtook her. The realization that their chances had just become much, much worse.
She watched in horror as Limpy's crumpled body twitched, flesh knitting together where Harry had hooked him across the shoulder. But it wasn't only him. The pirate Uma had stabbed through, was somehow pushing himself to his feet, despite the fact that his intestines were dragging on the deck.
All around her, bodies of fallen crewman were no longer bodies and Harry was calling out a warning to their friends. "We have a situation here!"
This had Uma and Gil rushing toward them. "We can't keep doing this," Uma was saying. "Defeating his crew only for him to raise them again and again. Maybe if I change to my cecaelia form, I can tentacle squeeze the life out of Sparrow before he realizes what happened."
"So he can blast you into calamari strips with that trident as soon as you're outside of the barrier?" Gil asked.
Uma gave him a look but didn't argue. In his own, very inappropriate way, Gil had a point.
"He's right, the trident is too powerful," Melody said.
Just then, the last of their barrier disintegrated and a dozen undead began boarding the Revenge.
They could put up another barrier, but what good would that do? Sparrow would tear it down in a few strikes and the crewman they killed would keep reanimating anyway. They needed something else. Something that could stop this.
Laughter rang out from behind them. "I can do this all afternoon ladies and gentlemen," Sparrow announced, looking particularly smug, standing with both sword and trident in hand.
Melody glanced at Harry and her friends, their expressions grim. Dread twisted, cold and nauseating, in her stomach as she was forced to face the consequences of what she'd done. She hadn't saved her friends at all. She'd doomed them. If she'd only just gone along with Sparrow's plan, they might have lived. But she'd been arrogant, she really thought she could save them. And now, she and her friends were going to pay the price for her mistake.
Harry positioned himself at Melody's side. If he was afraid, he didn't show it. This close to death, he looked it square in the eyes and didn't back down. She squeezed his arm, feeling his sturdy frame beneath that soft velvet jacket, hoping some of that resolve would seep into her and steady her shaking hand.
And with no other choice left to her, Melody raised her sword to meet the second wave of Sparrow's everlasting undead crew.
