I spent the next few days in bed with only my books to entertain me. Although that would usually do the trick and under normal circumstances I would gladly spend the day reading, now that I had no choice, I found myself thoroughly bored. Halfway through the third day, I lifted myself out of bed and hobbled to the mirror in my room, swearing nonstop at the terrible pain, and feeling my bruised back creak as I moved.
At the mirror, I lifted the back of my shirt and revealed the colorful array of bruises that decorated my back. Some had turned purple-blue already, but most were a mixture of yellow and green. I knew from the many bruises I had received over the years that those light ones would grown splotched and purple and would fade into the look of a normal bruise. These ones hurt the most, though.
I was still examining them when a voice from the doorway said, "Lovely."
I jumped, sending shots of pain up and down my body.
"Damn it, Jack," I said. "Don't sneak up on me like that. Or else."
"Or else what? You'll whack me with your cane?" he said, imitating my old-lady-walk.
"Yes, I will. And I'll make sure it hurts like hell." I glared at him. "What did you come here for anyways?"
"Just wanted to let you know that there's a merchant ship heading our way and we plan to raid it." He started to leave the room. Or attempt to. He was so drunk I was afraid he would walk into the doorframe.
"Now hold on a minute!" I shouted at him. He stopped. "We've got both Turnley's on our heels, right?"
"Aye."
"And if they catch up they'll most likely kill us, right?"
"Again, aye."
"Then why the hell are we wasting time looting another ship?! We're almost at Isla de Indicios! We need to get there as soon as possible!"
"We're still going to do it, luv. Pirate," he reminded me.
"Fine. In that case, hand me my sword, gun, and dagger."
"Why, seeing how you can barely cross the room?"
"I'm well aware of that, thank you very much. But if someone from the opposing ship manages to board ours and gets into my room, I'd like to be prepared."
"Suit yourself," he said, handing me my effects.
"Thank you. And how long before we're on them?"
"Half an hour."
"Good luck."
"I don't need luck; I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. And there's no need to worry about anyone getting near you. None of the crew will let anyone below deck. At least… I think they won't.
"That's comforting," I muttered as he staggered off.
Almost exactly a half an hour later, the ship shook and rocked as we bombarded the other ship with our cannons and took their damage as well. All I could do was lie in bed, clutching my sword in one hand and my pistol in the other, and hope I wasn't going to me killed.
As I was lamenting on the fact that I should have gotten more weapons, the door to my room burst open. I held my sword out, cocked my gun, and was about to shout when the man who ran into my room said, "Miss! It's only me." It was Gibbs.
"Mister Gibbs," I said as I lowered my weapons, "what are you doing here?"
"We're havin' a bit of trouble on the other ship, yeh see. There's a woman aboard, a native, and she's armed. We coulda sworn that we heard a baby, and think she's protectin' it. She's willin' to kill anyone who gets in her way. She isn't all that great with a sword, but she's angry. We thought yeh might be best able to calm her—yeh being a woman, too."
"And why couldn't Anne do this? In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly in the perfect position to fight."
"She insisted on pretendin' to be a man. Couldn't stop 'er."
"All right. Lead the way."
"Thank you, miss. We've been tryin' and tryin' and—"
"Just lead the bloody way," I growled.
He brought me all the way across the two ships—swinging over on a rope hurts like hell, by the way, if you've got a bruised back—and below deck to a room similar to mine. The hallway was full of a crowd of both our crew and Anne's. I pushed my way to the front, cursing loudly whenever someone touched my back.
As I neared the room, I heard a woman's voice shout, "Get back! I'll cut you to pieces if you don't!"
The crowd parted to reveal a dark-skinned woman with thick black hair tied back and decent clothes—neither fancy nor poor—brandishing a sword in the doorway. Every time someone would near where she was, she'd swing it faster, and they'd be forced to move out of the way to avoice losing a body part. It was easy to tell she was running on pure adrenaline. I tried to approach her, but narrowly missed losing a chunk of my nose.
"I said get back!" she yelled.
"I'm not going to hurt you," I said, as I extended my sword.
"Then why are you getting ready to use that thing?"
"Because if I don't, you're going to slice me into pieces. You just said you would."
She paused for a moment to think about it. "Yes, I suppose you're right." I could see the energy starting to fade.
"Of course I am. Now just lower your weapon…"
"No!" she screamed. "If I do, they'll come in and rape me! I know what pirates do!"
"I won't let them."
"And how do I know they'll listen to you?"
"Oi!" I shouted at the mix of crews. "Get out of here—all of you!"
"You're not the captain," said one doubtful man. "Why should we follow your orders?"
I pulled my gun and aimed it at him.
"Because if you don't, I'll shoot."
"You wouldn't." He was mostly right, but I wasn't going to let him know that.
"You willing to take me up on that?"
He glared at me for a minute, then gave up and left. The rest of the men followed, visibly shocked that I would do such a think—me being a girl and all.
"Sorry about that," I said to the woman before me. Now that I was up close, she looked to be about 19 or 20. "Can I come inside?"
She let me in and we both set our swords on the ground in truce.
"What's your name?" I asked her.
"Layna Phillips. Yours?"
"Kia Mathers," I said, trying not to show the shock I felt on my face. It had to be a coincidence, meeting a relative of the man who provided us with our bearings. "Are you by any chance related to an Ian Phillips?"
"He was my husband's father. Why do you ask?"
"No reason, I just had heard it before. So, where's your kid?"
"Oh, I hid him in the closet," she said, hurrying to retrieve him.
"What's his name?"
"Robert—after his father."
"He's adorable." And he was—with dark skin and hair like his mother and huge cherub cheeks. Despite being in the closet for who knows how long, he was laughing and grinning, happy to be with his mother. "How old is he?"
"Just turned two."
"And… what exactly happened to his father?"
"He died." She didn't say any more. "We've been a bit short on… everything since. We were lucky to find work anywhere, let alone on a ship. The captain is a good friend of my father's so he settled everything for us. We've had to stay in a separate room, though, 'for my safety'. So I carry around a sword now—'for my safety'."
"They're quite handy," I said. "Though you may want to consider getting a gun of some sort as well. Swords are nice, but they won't cut it for long distances. Daggers like these"—I pulled mine out from my boot—"they're handy too, if hidden well."
"Sounds like you've been with this lot for quite some time."
"Not too long, but I've had to fend for myself long before I came aboard that ship."
"That man back there, would you really have shot him?"
"Probably not," I said truthfully. "I was hoping he wouldn't call me on my bluff."
"You're very brave."
"As are you. How old are you?"
"21."
"And yet, you stood up to at least two dozen men. That takes a good amount of guts."
"I had to protect my baby."
"Understandable."
"Do you have kids?"
"No. I'm not married." There was an awkward silence, then I said out of the blue, "How about you come aboard our ship?"
"Me? But why—"
"After stripping this ship of anything and everything of value, they'll probably blow it."
"As in—"
"Kaboom."
Her face was horrified. "And the people left in the ship?"
"We take in numerous prisoners, but if the brig is full…"
"How can you let them do that?!" she cried.
"I have no say in the matter."
"My husband," she said, her voice shaking with rage, "was killed by a pirate who wanted his ship. He tied him up and threw a bomb at him."
"I'm very sorry. What might the pirate's name have been?"
"Barbossa." I breathed a sigh of relief. If it had been Jack or Anne we would have been in big trouble.
"Well, you'll be happy to know that he is not sailing with us. Are you ready to go across?"
"I'll just get my things together." She bustled about, grabbed items and tossing them into her trunk.
Meanwhile, I entertained her baby. Finally she was ready, and she took Robert and I lifted the trunk.
We started off, my back in excruciating pain from carrying the heavy trunk.
Layna asked, "Are you all right?"
"I took a nasty fall a couple days ago. My back's pretty beat up."
"Are you sure you can take that?" She motioned to the trunk.
"I'll be fine. Let's just keep moving."
She nodded and we moved on. As we were crossing on a rope, my grip slipped and I slipped a long while before the friction slowed me down. When we landed, I grimaced at the red, raw marks of a rope burn on my palms.
"I'll take that," said Layna, grabbing the handle of her trunk. "Ouch," she noted of my hands.
"Ow," parroted Robert.
I frowned. "Yeah. Ow."
Jack cut us off before we could go below deck.
"Kia, who is this? And why are they bringing their… offspring aboard our ship?"
"Jack," I said tightly. "This is Layna Phillips. Miss Phillips and her son, Robert, will be staying with us for the time being."
"Phillips, is it?"
"Yeah, and you're Jack?" She smiled politely.
"It's Captain Jack Sparrow, luv."
The smile vanished. "Don't call me luv."
"Didn't mean to offend you… miss." He swayed forward then back in a drunken manner with a tiny hand jitter.
I was shocked. When I asked him to do the same, he practically laughed in my face and continued to call me "luv" just to annoy me.
"Where will she be sleeping?" asked Jack.
"She can have my room," I said.
"Oh, I don't want to inconvenience you." Layna sounded genuinely worried.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine."
"And where will you be sleeping?" He had a sly grin on his face that made me very suspicious.
"I… don't… know…"
"You could sleep… in my room." His smile grew in size.
"What?…" I slowly began to follow his thinking. "No."
"Come on, luv, think about it. You. Me. A bed."
"I said no!"
"Then I suppose you'll have no choice but to sleep with the crew."
My face twisted as if I were in pain.
"Miss," said Layna. "You can have your room. I-I can stay with the crew."
"No," I said. "You are taking my room and that's final." I considered Jack's proposition. "Aren't there any other rooms?"
"Not unless you want to sleep in the storeroom," Jack said.
"How about on Anne's ship?"
"They're packed tight."
I paused to think. "Fine. I'll stay in your bloody room." He put on his smile of success. "But don't think this changes anything."
"Good," Jack said. It puzzled me greatly. As far as he—and that, for that matter—knew, I hated his guts. Something wasn't right there…