Chapter 8: A Fair Fight (Pirate Style)

The few remaining party guests huddled in horrified fascination on one side of the ballroom. El León's bully boys had the arms of Elizabeth and Will pinioned behind their backs. The two squirmed helplessly. El León languidly approached them. In his hand was a poker from the fireplace. Its tip glowed red hot.

"And so, my pirate friends," he said, his smooth voice as deadly as a viper's hiss, "you will tell me the location of Captain Jack Sparrow."

"We are not pirates!" snarled Elizabeth. "I am Elizabeth Swan, daughter of the Governor Swan of Port Royal! We have an invitation! You have seen it! This is my escort for the evening, William Turner, Esquire."

El León nodded. "I have seen your clever forgery; this is true. And your father is Governor of Port Royal; this is true. But as his daughter, you have shamed him by becoming a rogue, a renegade, and a rebel."

"Leave her alone!" snarled Will. "I'm the pirate!"

"Indeed you are," sneered El León. "Will Turner, infamous accomplice of Captain Jack Sparrow, son of the pirate Bootstrap Bill Turner. Oh, you shall look pretty dangling from a rope."

"We don't know where Captain Sparrow is!"

The glowing poker danced just inches from Will's face. El León smiled. "Don't you now?"

"Torturing me won't help," spat Will. "I can't tell you what I don't know!"

The poker flashed from dangling in front of Will's face to dangling in front of Elizabeth's face. El León's eyes remained fixed on Will's. "What about now?"

"Don't hurt her!" gasped Will. "Okay, I'll tell you want you want to know! Don't hurt her. I'll tell you!"

"Will, no! Don't!"

The young man shook his head helplessly. He couldn't bear to see her beauty marred.

"You see, mis hombres? Even a pirate can be reasonable. Where is he?"

Will's head hung. "Turn around," he said. "Captain Jack Sparrow is standing about twenty feet right behind you."

The pirate hunter pulled his cutlass and swung around.

Jack was smiling like a cobra. "Evening, mate."

Cutlasses scraped on their scabbards as El León's men drew their weapons.

El León smiled back. "Captain Sparrow, you appear to be slightly outnumbered."

"Twenty pirate hunters against one pirate? Sounds like a fair fight to me."

Ragetti and Pintel burst out of the library, cutlasses in hand. They took up station on either side of Jack. Pintel sneered, "Twenty pirate hunters against three pirates!"

Susanne burst out of the crowd of party guests. In one hand was a dagger; in her other arm were a collection of swords. She slammed into the backs of Elizabeth and Will and shoved them across the room to where the pirates were standing. Her dagger slashed, and the bonds of both were cut. They all grabbed for blades, and then turned to face El León's men.

Susanne swept back an errant lock of blond hair which had fallen free. "Twenty pirate hunters against six pirates!" she declared.

El León shook his head mournfully. "Minou, my sweet. Do not to this thing."

"It is done!"

He winced. "Así," he moaned. "But I will not let the woman I love die in an unfair fight." He turned to his men and motioned them back towards the crowd. He took a cutlass from one of his men and then motioned the others to sheath their weapons. They reluctantly complied. "Stay where you are," he ordered them. Then El León, a cutlass in each hand, turned back to the pirates.

"One pirate hunter against six pirates. Now this is a fair fight." El León dropped into a fighting stance and snarled, "Prepárate para morir!"

Pintel and Ragetti were the first to attack, followed closely by Will, Elizabeth and Suzanne.

Jack hung back, waiting for the opening that must come when El León defended himself against five attackers. An opening simply had to come. It was a sure thing. Except the two blades of El León were whirling like the wings of a hummingbird which had drunk too much coffee. His swords were two blurs, knocking cutlass after cutlass aside. Thrust after thrust were parried. Jack tried a couple of exploratory stabs, but each time, his cutlass was met with a stinging blow which slapped it aside. This man was astonishing.

Without warning, El León lunged for Ragetti's face. There was a hideous scream, and the point of El León's blade came back with an eyeball impaled on it. But no blood or fluid dripped from it. El León realized the eye must be made of wood and contemptuously he flicked his wrist, and the eyeball soared across the room.

Ragetti shrieked and went scrambling after it.

The eyeball bounced off the far wall, ricocheted off some furniture and came to rest, cradled in the trigger guard of a pistol that was lying on the floor. Ragetti dove for it. He scooped the eye up and fingered it back into its socket. Then he espied the pistol. It was engraved with the words, "Property of William Turner." The scrawny pirate picked the pistol up, pulled back the flint, spun around, aimed it at El León and fired.

The pirate hunter grunted when the ball hit him, and he flopped, spread-eagled, over backwards. Blood gurgled up from the gaping hole in the middle of his chest.

Jack peered passed the four pirates in front of him. "Ooh mate, that looks like a nasty wound. I'd have a doctor look at that if I were you."

As El León's men gathered around him, Jack led the pirates in a general retreat back through the library.