Disclaimer: I am making no money. This is for my own entertainment.
NOTE: I've been told that the DVD of At World's End explains that Will was permitted to leave the Dutchman after the first ten years. This is not enough for me. I still don't believe Elizabeth would accept that or that Will would accept it. Plus I'm just not sure how things stand with the pardons that Will and Elizabeth never received. Regardless, I'm still working to fix this. I may have to write several versions of this before I'm happy.
Beyond World's End
By Ecri
Chapter 5
Jack easily brought the Pearl even with Sao Feng's ship, Empress, though Barbossa cursed him and all his unborn children for it. "Sorry, mate. It's out of my hands," Jack admitted, shaking his head. He could see Barbossa's point. They should simply be heading toward the court. Sao Feng was a pirate lord. He could sink or sail under his own power.
Tia Dalma, hearing of the argument, backed Jack. She scowled at Barbossa, shaking her fist at the man and insisting he would do as she willed or she would send him back where she'd found him.
Jack had never seen Hector Barbossa silenced so quickly and effectively. His mouth worked for a while, moving up and down for a bit, but no sound emerged. He turned on his heel and retreated below decks.
Barbossa's departure allowed the crew the luxury of having only one Captain's orders to follow, and Jack took full advantage of the situation. Soon, the Pearl fired cannon at the Endeavor in an attempt to force her to leave Empress alone. Certainly Beckett had to know he couldn't stand up to both pirate ships.
"What's he doing?" Jack mumbled trying in vain to find Beckett's form in the melee. He wouldn't be among the boarding parties. Jack knew that. Beck wasn't much good at a fair fight. He was much better at manipulation and deceit. It was too early in the game for the man to reveal his plan, and Jack knew all the pieces weren't in place yet. So why was Beck attacking Sao Feng?
Jack smiled as he finally understood that piece of the puzzle. Beck was after the pieces of eight. What it was he wanted them for Jack wouldn't speculate. It was enough that he wanted them, and Jack was going to make deadly sure that he was thoroughly disappointed.
He organized boarding parties, and, making sure Will and Elizabeth were with him where he could keep an eye on the pair, they swung across to the Empress.
**
The sounds of battle were not so foreign to Elizabeth as they were to most young English ladies of her station. Some part of her heard the clashing of steel against steel, the sound of pistols and cannon firing, and the screams of desperate and dying men, yet she moved with single-minded purpose. She kept an eye on Jack and another on Will as they moved through the pirates and toward Sao Feng. She didn't know why Jack seemed so deliberately to stand by Sao Feng's side, but she and Will took positions nearby as well. Swords at the ready, they fought while Jack called to Sao Feng.
"Beck's after your piece of eight!"
"He is not aboard, though I see the mission to return you from the Locker was successful."
Elizabeth wondered how he could sound so calm and matter of fact about things like that especially in the midst of a battle.
"I know him well enough, mate. He's playing some game and only he knows the rules. If you die, take it with you."
In that instant a small sound, so small it should have been unnoticeable in the cacophony around them, seemed to bring everything to a halt. Sao Feng glanced down at the smallest drop of blood on his chest. He glanced at Jack. "I will pass it along…"
He reached for the nearest body, dragging Elizabeth to his side even as Will cried out in protest.
Elizabeth felt her awareness dwindle until only she and Sao Feng existed. He reached for her hair and held her head with her ear close to his lips. He whispered to her, and her eyes widened at the words, but before she could object, his grip slipped and he fell to the deck. She stared at Jack, who stared back. "He made me Captain."
"What?" Jack and Will said the word together.
"I'm Captain!"
"Right." Jack rolled his eyes. "Then give your orders, Captain."
"Jack! She can't be a Pirate Captain!"
"Why not?" This time Jack and Elizabeth spoke together. Jack was puzzled. Elizabeth was angry.
"Elizabeth, we're already wanted. We're sentenced to hang…"
"Might as well be hung for actually being pirates rather than just for knowin' one, ay?" Jack spoke in his most reasonable voice.
"Will, he made me Captain. I've got to be one at least until we defeat Beckett. He's the one who can pardon us." Elizabeth wanted him to trust her, but she knew she didn't have the right to ask for that. She'd given him no reason to trust her in far too long. To her surprise he nodded once and stepped aside. His actions heartened her until she realized he hadn't met her eyes.
She was distracted from her thoughts when a cry went up. She turned to see the pirates cheering as the Endeavor broke off the attack. She turned to Jack, saw a puzzle on his face as well. "Why?" she asked.
Jack shrugged. "If I could guess that, love, we'd be finished here and celebrating your wedding in Port Royal." He looked her up and down, smiling cheekily. "You're a Captain, now Elizabeth. Make for Shipwreck Cove. The Brethren Court will meet there."
"Jack…we can't leave her here! She can't be the Captain!"
Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak, but Jack beat her to it. "She is Captain. We have to keep her there until after the Court at least."
"Why?"
Elizabeth would have argued that they shouldn't discuss her as though she weren't standing there, but she wanted to hear Jack's answer.
"We still have to free you from Tia Dalma's spell, not to mention achieving the "everything" I mentioned early. I'm wrapping up loose ends here, Will. Don't fight me on it."
"Then I'll stay with her."
"You can't."
"Will, go with Jack back to the Pearl." Elizabeth hadn't been prepared for the look Will gave her. Confusion and pain warred in his eyes, and she saw him blink rapidly as he turned away from her. She reached out and took his hand. "Will, Tia Dalma still has some hold on you. You can't stay here. I'll meet you at the Brethren Court." She reached a hand to caress his face and gently forced him to face her. Then she kissed him. Words had only gotten in their way recently, so she willed her kiss to tell him what she'd been unable to say.
When they parted, he stared at her, and she thought she saw understanding in his eyes, but a moment later, he was gone, hurried away by Jack, Gibbs, and Mr. Cotton but protesting all the while and calling out to her.
Elizabeth looked toward her new crew. They looked at her with murder in their eyes. They made no move toward her, and she realized they were waiting for the Pearl to leave. She turned and ran toward the Captain's Cabin, locking herself in.
**
Will stared after her as the Pearl moved away. She could not be taken from his side again! Helplessly, he looked up at Jack, who spared him a sympathetic look, but could do nothing.
Will struggled with the men holding him, but to no great effect. His struggles stopped as a pain lanced through his heart. He doubled over and fell to the deck, hands clutched uselessly to his chest. Writhing in agony, Will brought his hands up to his chest.
"Jack," he called weakly, not knowing who else to turn to for help, but unsure Jack could or would do anything for him.
To his surprise, Jack did do something. He moved to Tia Dalma's side. Will couldn't hear what was said, but he saw Tia Dalma laugh at Jack and caress his chest. Jack caught the wrist and gestured toward Will, and with a suddenness that cut off his breath, the pain stopped.
He struggled again to sit up, and looked at Jack for answers, but he got nothing in response.
Will stared at Jack as the Captain offered a hand to help the boy up.
"I don't understand any of this. What is it Tia Dalma's doing to me? Why would Sao Feng make Elizabeth his successor?"
Jack sighed, and looked Will in the eye. "Don't worry. I can handle Tia Dalma. As for Elizabeth and her new crew, we know where they're going."
"Shipwreck Cove."
"Aye, lad, and we're the fastest ship, so we'll catch them by then."
Will nodded, absent-mindedly rubbing his chest, as he followed Gibbs and the others to prepare to follow Elizabeth.
**
When Jack passed Tia Dalma, he glared at her, but the Priestess only smiled at him. He grabbed her arm. "We had an accord." He was barely controlling his rage, but it only made Tia Dalma laugh.
"Surely, ye don' tink I am bound by such agreements!"
Jack smiled, but there was menace rather than madness in his eyes. "You're bound by this one, Tia Dalma. Don't test me."
The Voodoo priestess tore away from him, indignation raising her voice. "Test you? You are 'ere by my whim…"
"Ah! Not whim! Face it, darlin' ye need ol' Jack. If I'd been foresighted and half-witted enough to pass my trinket along to someone before I died, you'd never have come for me. You're not doing this for my benefit, but for your own."
"And why not? Take what ye can…"
"…and give nothin' back! Aye, but you're no pirate. You can't hide behind the code."
"And you can? You know your destiny is greater den dis, but you've turned your back on it!"
Jack released her, surprise showing on his face. "My destiny…"
She laughed. "Did you tink it was over and done wit?"
He took her arm again dragging her a short distance away. "Whatever I thought, we have an accord. You leave young Will alone until after the Brethren Court convenes, or I'll destroy my little trinket before anyone can take it from me and use it to your benefit, savvy?"
He knew by the look on her face that she did. She turned from him and walked away. Jack threw up his hands, and looked to the sky as if in supplication. "A little help wouldn't go amiss!"
**
Will could not be coaxed to cease his vigil. His eyes were stuck to the horizon and he consulted the map again and again, testing the wind, peering worriedly at the sails, and, when he had exhausted every possible task three times over, he paced. His mind raced. Schemes and plots were adjusted and readjusted as he wondered if he would be able to save his father and Elizabeth and somehow find a way to start a life with them.
His distaste for Piracy had never truly left him; the early memories of his ill-fated voyage to the Caribbean had too deeply scarred the boy he'd been. He had somehow convinced himself that good men could be pirates if circumstances forced the issue, but he didn't believe he'd ever be truly happy living a life like Jack's. Attacking, killing, stealing, it was all distasteful to him, and yet he recognized that circumstances had conspired to give him more practice in the art of piracy than he'd have imagined a blacksmith could expect. Both Elizabeth and Jack had called him a pirate, and Jack had gone on about him having Pirate blood. Was it destiny as Tia Dalma hinted that kept him on the sea?
Thinking about it, he would confess that the sea held some captivation for him. There was a delight in sailing he had not recognized when he was a lad…no, that wasn't right. He had begun to recognize it, but the Black Pearl's attack had driven it from him. Before that moment when he'd found himself adrift atop a small bit of wood, he'd begun to enjoy the voyage. Salt air, blue skies…it was invigorating somehow. He remembered England as gray, he realized, and here, in the Caribbean, everything was blue and bright and bold. Well, not everything. He was sure he enjoyed the sea so much because it was such a contrast to his profession. As a blacksmith, he never saw sun and sky. His world was dominated by the smithy. Dark, hot, the flames were the only bright thing within making everything dark and dim by comparison. Except Elizabeth. She'd been his shining star. He took a deep breath intending to savor the salt smell and calm himself.
He felt a dull ache, nothing like the stabbing pain he'd felt before and he massaged his chest just over his heart without conscious thought.
"Pain?"
"Some. Not bad." Will answered without thinking. He should have been startled, but somehow he'd known that Jack had joined him. His eyes snapped to Jack's. "What is it? What's wrong with me?"
"I've tried to tell you, she has a crush on you."
He blinked. "Tia Dalma? What's that got to do with the pain?"
"She's the cause, lad. Does it have to fall from the sky and hit you in the head?" He placed an arm lightly over Will's shoulders. "She's the cause of all of this. She's why I need you to do me a favor."
"What sort of favor?"
"You need to lead Beckett and the Dutchman to Shipwreck Cove."
"How am I supposed to do that? They're out there somewhere." Anger seeped into his voice. "Besides, I won't do anything until we rescue Elizabeth."
"She doesn't need rescuing. She's Captain! Besides, Bootstrap is still aboard the Dutchman. If you lead them to Shipwreck Cove, we can rescue them both."
"Just like that? What aren't you telling me?"
"A great deal, as it happens."
Will scowled, but Jack kept talking. "All that matters now is what you can do, and what you can't. Can you trust me one last time, Will?"
"No."
Jack dropped his arm from around Will's shoulders. "All right, I deserved that. I did." He took Will by the shoulders and turned the boy to face him. "Look at me, lad." He waited until Will did. "We've got one last fight. We have to be united in this. We can succeed and achieve all our goals no matter how disparate, but we need to act quickly. Time is running out. What do you say?"
"I want to know everything, Jack."
Jack frowned. "Everything?"
"Aye. Everything."
Jack nodded, all pretense falling away. "All right, if you don't trust me, I'll have to take matters into me own hands."
Before Will could say a thing, Jack thrust his compass into Will's hands and hurled him overboard. Will came up spitting and sputtering, somehow still clinging to the compass and wiping water from his eyes. A moment later, a barrel hit the water, and Will swam to it.
"Jack!" He called out to the Pirate, wondering if he could ever truly trust anyone again. "Why?"
"I'll explain it to ye, lad, at your wedding."
Will shook his head in confusion and exasperation. He'd thought for a moment, Jack was going to tell him, trust him. Why could Jack never tell him everything? His thoughts turned to Elizabeth. She hadn't told him about killing Jack in the first place, so she didn't trust him, either. Was there anyone who did? Was he trustworthy himself? After all, he hadn't told Elizabeth his plans to free his father. Of course, at the time, he thought she was in love with Jack and that he was alone. He still wasn't convinced she wasn't, and he still felt alone, isolated. How could he have shared his plans with someone he'd thought was looking for the opportune moment to break their engagement?
Was it all just excuses? Perhaps Jack and Elizabeth thought they had good reason not to trust him. Perhaps it was a fairy tale to think that people could depend on each other in any circumstance. Perhaps the pirate code was the only rule you needed to get by in life. Take what you can. Give nothing back. Perhaps everything you did was a means to and end. Perhaps he'd been foolish to think otherwise.
No point in trying to get back aboard the Pearl. Jack would just throw him overboard again. He checked the compass, thoughts of his father pointing it toward the Dutchman, and began to paddle.
**
Sao Feng's appointing her captain was a shock to Elizabeth, but not more so than the sudden appearance of The Flying Dutchman.
The biggest shock, however, came when she saw Admiral Norrington. She seethed when he mentioned her father.
"My father is dead." She spat the words at him as though he were the cause of them.
"He went to England." His insistence, wide-eyed and almost unshakable, was heartening. At least she knew he hadn't been present when it had happened.
"Did Beckett tell you that?" She saw by his face that he hadn't believed things had gotten that bad. She tried to feel sympathy for him, but hers was spent. It went to her father—dead now—and to Will, struggling to make sense of what was happening, and hurt by her own misdeeds and poorly chosen words.
"Elizabeth, I didn't know." Norrington's words did not appease her.
"What didn't you know? Which side you chose?" She saw the words hit home, and wondered if she preferred to see him like this or as he had been in Tortuga when she'd shattered a bottle across his skull. He'd been more of a man then. Now, he was merely a pawn. By the look on his face, he'd just discovered that, and it didn't sit well with him.
"You know now," she whispered, as she and "her" crew were taken to their cells.
**
Norrington watched Elizabeth being led away, unsure if he should be more focused on her words, or in wondering how in the world the girl had managed to be named Pirate Lord of the South China Sea. She would hang now, surely. Beckett would relish it and the man had already hung anyone who'd even thought the word "pirate" let alone the actual pirates.
What Beckett had invested in this, he couldn't say, but there had to be more to this than met the eye. Beckett had made this a personal vendetta, and while some had said the same of him in his days as Commodore when he'd tried to rid the Caribbean of Pirates, this had the feel of something far more sinister.
Thinking of Beckett only made him recall his intense dislike for the man, and his discomfort whenever he was in Beckett's presence. He'd suspected it was merely his own dislike of being reminded of his shortcomings. Beckett, after all, had restored his career to him only after Norrington had bargained for it…parleying like any good pirate.
Dear God, he'd become a pirate! The very thing he'd hated, and he'd become as ruthless a one as any he'd arrested or hung.
Beckett, however, was something else. He was hiding something, and it was more than a dislike for Piracy. His obsession with holding sway over Davy Jones had been unseemly to say the least. He needed to know more about the man, yet there were precious few he could speak to. Who on his or any crew would actually speak in confidence to an admiral? Always remembering, of course, that he couldn't come out and ask about Beckett as some of his crew could well be loyal to the man, whether by respect, which seemed doubtful, or by profit, which seemed more likely. Had everyone in the British Navy become Pirates?
He cut off the thought. He didn't need to know anymore about Beckett, though he greatly wished to know more. He had all he needed. He would choose sides and then he would worry about Beckett later.
Later, the Commodore stared at his distorted reflection in the blade as he polished his sword. He tried to see what Elizabeth had seen. She had recoiled upon the recognition of his uniform. Admiral. She'd known instantly he had bargained for his rank. He had bargained to regain his life, and he had done it by the blood of others. The men of the Dutchman, if men they could be called, were the least of his victims. Elizabeth herself, along with Will Turner, had been denied the letters of mark because he'd taken them to barter a reversal of his own fortune. He'd cared nothing for Elizabeth and Will Turner. He'd not even attempted to save either of them…the woman he'd professed to love, promised to marry and to provide for. He'd assumed Sparrow would keep them safe. Did that make him a monster? He snorted. Not hardly. And yes.
He had chosen sides that day upon the gallows when he'd permitted Sparrow a day's head start, and when he had not insisted on pressing charges against Will Turner. He had told himself he'd done it for Elizabeth…for love of the woman who would rather woo a blacksmith…and yet, there was more to it than that. It had been the right thing. Too often, the right thing and the proper thing did not coincide. He had lost track of how many times Duty had required that he compromise his ideals.
That was why he'd hated Will Turner so much. The damnable boy…he shook his head. Man. The damnable man had been unwilling to back down from his one true goal. For Elizabeth, everything for Elizabeth.
Both he and Mr. Turner had been willing to do much for Elizabeth. Both were willing to kill for her, to die for her, but Will Turner was willing to break the law for her. He was willing to deal with Pirates whom he'd always purported to despise to the core of his soul. He was willing to allow her to marry another man without saying a word. He was willing to betray his own ideals secure in the knowledge that ideals meant nothing in comparison to the life and happiness of his one true love.
Norrington had known before Elizabeth had that the boy loved her. He could not be blind to something so obvious. That morning after The Black Pearl had raided Port Royal and taken Elizabeth with him, the boy's only thought had been for her. When he'd finally managed to speak the words just before he rescued Jack Sparrow from the gallows, only Elizabeth had been surprised. He'd considered it absurd that a blacksmith might be taken seriously as a proper suitor, but once he'd heard the words, he'd known he'd lost her.
That had been the beginning of his end, and yet, could he truly say he loved her? He shook his head as he slipped the sword into its scabbard. He didn't love her the way that Will did. That was all Elizabeth needed to know.
He doubted he would live long enough to put his life right, but he did know something. He had to make a start. He had to choose sides and consequences be damned. He had to see for himself that James Norrington was a man of integrity, and not some Courtier buying favor and position.
Decision made, he went in search of supplies.
**
Jack Sparrow's eyes were closed as he inhaled the scent of the sea. It was one he loved like Will loved Elizabeth. He had missed it from the Locker. Funny, he'd always assumed the Locker was the sea, and then, once stuck inside it, it had been bone dry.
He and Barbossa had stopped bickering over orders, mostly because none had to be given. The crew was tending the ship, the course was plotted, and the weather was fair. If it hadn't been for their ominous destination, it would almost be a pleasant excursion.
Pleasant except for the fact that you threw young Turner off the ship to face Beckett and Jones all on his onesies.
"That's all part of the plan. He'll be well."
Will he? Were you well in Beckett's hands?
Jack sighed and turned away from the horizon speaking out loud as though hearing the words rather than thinking them might make them truer. "That was different! Besides, Will's stronger than me. He'll be fine."
Keep telling yourself that.
"I'm keeping him away from Tia Dalma. He won't feel her there." He waited a beat, but as he'd apparently no reply to that remark he grinned. "That shut me up," he mumbled.
Sparrow didn't want to think about what he'd done to Will. Too often, it seemed, he'd ended up using the lad. To be fair, he'd never intended for him to stay aboard the Dutchman when he'd sent him across to settle his debts, but he had thought to use him to distract Jones. In his desperation, he'd tricked Will, but he'd tried, had felt a different desperation, to get Jones to agree to letting him take Will with him while he searched for 100 souls to replace his own.
He'd never dreamed the boy would find his father—old Bootstrap Bill himself!—aboard the ship. He'd never dreamed Bootstrap was still alive, and that upon meeting him, Will would make some foolish vow to release him from Jones' power.
Sparrow didn't like to lose, and he wasn't willing to concede that he could end up responsible for taking Will's life. "He'll be fine." He repeated, and he forced all the confidence and conviction into the words that he could muster.
**
Norrington had no cause to sneak around the Dutchman. He moved with the authority of the Crown, after all. Perhaps he'd felt like a fraud since bartering with Beckett for his commission, but he would not appear a fraud. Appearance, if you were to ask Norrington's father, was everything. James Norrington had begun to suspect that substance meant a good deal more.
As he approached the Dutchman's brig, he reviewed the plan in his mind. Everything was in place. If Elizabeth would simply be reasonable, he suppressed a snort at the notion, he might be able to pull this off.
Elizabeth was not being reasonable.
"What are you doing here?"
There were so many answers to that question it did not bear scrutiny. He settled for the obvious. "Choosing sides."
Elizabeth's eyes were not forgiving, but they did allow for something he had not considered: acceptance. She would accept this and deal with his treachery later. He wondered why he felt grateful.
He hustled them out of the brig…the Pirate Captain Elizabeth Swann and her Pirate crew…and directed them silently to the deck.
On the way, Elizabeth whispered to him, and again he felt a disconcerting flash of gratitude.
"We must get to the Brethren Court," she insisted. "Where are the Dutchman and the Endeavor headed?"
"The Brethren Court."
She stopped in her tracks, and Norrington took her arm dragging her along. "We do not have time for this, Elizabeth."
"The Endeavor…he hopes to destroy the Brethren Court."
"Not at all," Norrington sniffed. "He intends to destroy every Pirate he can find." He stopped then himself and caught her eye. "He will succeed." He moved, dragging her twice as fast.
Infuriatingly, frustratingly, she allowed the pirates to escape first. That she took her responsibilities as Captain seriously did not surprise him, but to think that she stood here and allowed men who would gladly leave her for dead—or worse—to escape before her set his teeth to grinding. They used the rope as though quite accustomed to it, and for all he knew they were. Was Elizabeth, he wondered, and he found himself anticipating her climb to ascertain if this could be another skill she'd picked up since last he'd seen her. He'd cursed himself a coward, but he had not been able to stay and watch her marry Will Turner. He'd lost his career to a pirate and Elizabeth to a blacksmith, but there was no reason he had to be cordial about it.
Resigning his commission in disgrace was not his idea. Leaving Port Royal was. Beckett had forced the resignation on him by hinting that charges of aiding Jack Sparrow would be dropped if he were to resign. He'd been unable to do that and remain in Port Royal. It was more than he could bear to remain, to see Elizabeth marry another, and to do it as a civilian.
The Royal Navy had been his every ambition and he'd done everything he could to acquit himself well. Beckett had stolen that from him, but it wasn't until he saw Elizabeth a few days ago and she'd talked to him about choosing sides that he realized Beckett hadn't taken his self-respect. He'd handed that over willingly when he'd handed over that accursed chest.
Elizabeth grabbed his hand. "Come with us."
Oh, but it was a tempting offer. His heart leaped in joy to hear that from her, but he knew she was only offering a way to escape Beckett. Her heart belonged to Will Turner. Still, he considered it. Why should he not? If he went along, he could protect her virtue from the scallywags with whom she sailed.
"Go," he said. "I'll follow."
"You're lying."
He sighed in exasperation, and then, whether because of the dire circumstances, or because he was not the man he once was, he kissed her.
Passion, desperation, regret, sorrow, and elation all mingled with that kiss, and when he pulled away, he spoke again. "Go, Elizabeth." Go aboard your vessel. Go and save your pirate friends. Go and marry Will.
"No! James, please. Don't stay here. They will kill you."
He laughed. "I'm a dead man, anyway, Elizabeth. There is no way to put my life back together. "
"Just as there is no way to retrieve the dead?"
"Elizabeth…"
"Please, James."
The use of his Christian name was his undoing. Perhaps she'd known that. Perhaps she was more calculating than he'd thought.
He smiled at her and found himself scrambling after her on the rope, slowly making his way to a ship captained by the only woman he'd ever intended to marry. He would stand by her side even if he did not believe they could defeat the Dutchman and her crew. An undead crew, he had learned long ago, was nigh unstoppable.
**
Beckett stared at his men as they pulled a man out of the water. They were bound by maritime law to see who it was and discover if there had been a shipwreck. If assistance were needed, he'd be bound to offer it to any survivors.
He despised being bound to anything at all, and only stopped because he thought the man in the water might be useful.
His eyes narrowed as the bedraggled and dripping man before him shook his own black hair from his face revealing….
"William Turner. Arrest him!" He snapped the order, and before it died on his lips, William Turner was clapped in irons.
"Parlay!" The boy spoke.
"This is no Pirate ship. We do not recognize that code."
"I have something you want."
"I doubt that." He began to turn away, but the next words stopped him.
"I can take you to them…all the pirates, gathered in one place."
Beckett turned back to face him, his face betraying nothing.
Turner stood there dripping on his deck offering him all he wanted. He didn't like it. It gave the boy too much leverage. He turned to the men holding the prisoner. "Take him to the brig. I'll join you there shortly."
He watched the boy struggle and try to call out to him, but his men were too good to let that go unpunished. They were dragging an unconscious body to the brig by the time Beckett returned to his cabin for tea.
Beckett contemplated the boy's words. This could be what it appeared or it could be a ruse. He would have to tread carefully. Davy Jones and the Dutchman would be of no help here. If Will Turner had ever had any worth to Beckett at all, it was in his ability to lead him to Jack Sparrow, and since Sparrow had been killed by Jones' Kraken, there was little Turner could offer…except, where had he been since Sparrow's death? He hadn't returned to Port Royal. He'd kept an eye on the ports hoping the boy would be foolish enough to try to return and bargain for leniency for himself and his would-be bride.
Sparrow dead was not something he wished to learn of third hand, but Turner could give him something almost as good. If he were even remotely telling the truth, then all of the Pirates, and he'd need the boy to clarify and specify, were amassing just as Beckett had planned. It had taken long enough for those damnable pirates to begin singing that damnable song before he'd killed them, and briefly, Cutler Beckett had wondered if that portion of his plan had been about to fall apart. The book had been right, however. It had never failed him once over the years, and truthfully, he'd been working too long at this to take it well if it had failed now.
Beckett could easily take every pirate down with Jones' ship. Even without the Kraken, Jones and his otherworldly crew could easily intimidate any Pirate on the sea. It was the reputation of the Dutchman; the fear it could strike in the hearts of men.
He sipped his tea, but replaced his cup without finishing. He had a prisoner to interrogate.
To Be Continued