Chapter 23
Smee felt his captain go limp beneath his hands. With a hammering heart, he watched Tiger Lily. She pointed at the water bucket, calm; only a hint of a tremor in her voice betraying her tension.
"Now, Smee."
The first mate dragged the bucket closer and plunged Hook's hand beneath the water. Cooling it, was the hope. Just one more way to fool the enchantment. Tiger Lily rearranged her supplies, grasping the longest dart in her fist. Then it was a waiting game.
"Is he… dead?" whispered the first mate. Tiger Lily pointed at the cuff, hissing urgently,
"Keep watch."
When Smee's eyes were firmly locked on the captain's wrist, Tiger Lily continued.
"I diluted the poison so that it slows and weakens his heartbeat to the point of being almost imperceptible, hopefully without actually killing him. With the addition of the tourniquet, and the cooling of his skin, to the cuff it will appear as if it has stopped. Unless it can sense the heart itself. Then this is all for nothing." After a beat, she added, "Long enough without the antidote, and he will die. But the antidote wouldn't work if his heart were completely motionless."
Still watching the cuff, Smee nodded in understanding. He twirled the gold around his captain's wrist and searched for any sign of a crack forming, any weakness. With each passing moment, his tension grew. Even Tiger Lily began to fidget, murmuring something under her breath: a prayer, an incantation, more frustration; Smee couldn't tell. What he did know, without a doubt, was that Hook didn't have much time left. The tips of his fingers were slowly turning a dusky purple, visible even under the water in the dark bucket. Smee wasn't much for cursing, but he indulged himself now, aiming a few choice words at the gold band in his grip.
His words quickly transformed into a startled exclamation: the cuff suddenly shimmered a blinding white, and a definite crack slowly split the metal.
"It's working!" Smee shouted, voice echoing around the cavern. He tugged at the cuff, but it was still stuck fast.
"Get it off, Smee," urged Tiger Lily. "We either revive him now, or not at all."
Smee redoubled his efforts; the crack in the cuff had not yet fully penetrated, and no hinge had appeared on the other side. Smee whimpered in anxiety. "Just do it! Bring him back! I'll keep working on this."
The first mate hoped desperately that the enchantment was permanently broken; that it wouldn't resume its hold once it sensed Hook's strengthening heartbeat. Tiger Lily hesitated for only a fraction of a second. Then she violently stabbed her dart directly into Hook's too-still chest, leaving it in place for longer than she had the others. Smee shuddered and pulled at the cuff with all his might. A faint 'snap' beneath the water released a tiny air bubble - seeming to signal the instant the crack split through the gold.
Meanwhile, Tiger Lily had rested her head over Hook's heart; she listened intently, then selected another dart and plunged it just above where the first had been.
"Come on, Captain," she breathed. "I didn't mean I actually wanted you to make a murderer of me!"
And then it all happened at once. A hinge appeared on the cuff, Smee's exertions began to have an effect… and with a faint, but audible intake of breath, Hook proceeded to convulse wildly, limbs flailing, head smashing against the rock wall. Smee choked on his own startled gasp, but managed to keep hold of Hook's wrist as the bucket tipped and flooded the floor beneath them both. Much more calmly than Smee could have sounded, Tiger Lily instructed,
"Help me lay him down, away from the wall."
Keeping a few fingers between the cuff and Hook's wrist, Smee clutched the captain's twitching shoulder, and together, he and Tiger Lily dragged him toward the center of the cave. Impressively mindful of his injured shoulder, Tiger Lily rolled him onto his right side as he continued seizing.
Smee decided to trust the fairy's judgment on dealing with the seizure, and he returned all his attention to the cuff. Laboriously, he tugged and heaved, and it creaked open millimeter by millimeter. He had gotten it open just far enough to fit all but the thickest part of Hook's wrist through when his progress abruptly stopped. Even with the shaking, he could tell that the cuff would not be budging any further.
With whatever Tiger Lily was sticking into Hook's skin, the pirate's spasms were slowly subsiding, and he seemed on the verge of lucidity. Gone was the discoloration in his fingers, and his breaths were shallow and quick, but even. Tiger Lily sat with her fingers on his neck, measuring his pulse.
"Do you have any of that oil somewhere?" Smee asked tentatively.
"Furthest left shelf, in a small jar." Her eyes never left Hook's face.
The first mate hurried over to the shelf in question, located the jar in short order, and returned to his captain's side. He dug out a large quantity of grease and started rubbing it all along Hook's wrist. As he worked, he noticed Tiger Lily drizzling liquid of some sort into the captain's mouth.
Soon after, Smee used slippery fingers to wriggle the cuff sideways, dragging the open edge from pinkie side toward the thumb. Predictably, it jammed in the middle, one edge digging into the tendons and veins on the inside of Hook's wrist, the other on the opposite side. That was going to leave a bruise.
He tried pulling again, but it did no good. Then, to his horror, a familiar shimmer lit the gold. He felt it twitch beneath his fingers; saw the dents where it dug into Hook's flesh get a little deeper. Casting about wildly for inspiration, Smee frantically scrubbed his hands against his trousers in an attempt to clear them of oil. If he didn't get the cuff off immediately, it might keep going… it might pierce right through.
Nothing clever came to mind. In desperation, he dug out a handkerchief, wrapped it around the metal to give himself more purchase, and turned Hook's arm to face palm up. Then, bracing his feet against Hook's arm and hand, cuff between them and his knees bent, he twisted the handkerchief around one hand while slipping the other in the vacant area inside the cuff.
"Sorry, sir," Smee murmured to the still-mostly-dazed Hook. Then, using his legs as leverage, he pulled as hard as he could. He felt more than heard the sickening pop as something in the captain's wrist succumbed to the abnormal forces being applied, and he was both heartened and sorry to hear Hook's pained grunt in response. But then the handkerchief suddenly slipped from his grip, sending him sprawling.
"Hook?" Tiger Lily prompted gently while Smee caught his breath. The captain hummed an irritable reply and shifted weakly. The fairy rested a hand on his shoulder. "Shhh, just lie still a moment and breathe. You're going to be all right."
Smee sat up, grimacing, and located Hook's arm. He'd lost his grip on the cuff… the closed cuff that once again lacked a hinge, enchantment presumably reactivated. It rested directly next to Hook's wrist, and he could almost believe his scheme had been successful, except for the fact that the freed metal would have flown backwards with him. Gingerly, Smee lifted cuff and wrist.
"I… can work with this…" he mumbled, trying to sound optimistic.
The metal had indeed fused shut again - just beneath the skin on the thumbward side of Hook's wrist. Like some bizarre piercing; a hoop earring… a really large one. A bruised, abraded skid mark passed from the sticking point in the center of the wrist until the place where it had snapped closed. Centimeters further, and it would have been free.
"What was the result?" wondered Tiger Lily.
"Ninety-five percent success," Smee reported. Hook appeared to be attempting to vomit and Tiger Lily stroked a gentle hand through his hair. The captain groaned and shivered, starting to reach toward his face, but Smee stopped him with a hand on his forearm. "Hey, Captain. Can you hear me?"
Hook gave a weak cough; he was panting as if he couldn't catch his breath. Tiger Lily checked his pulse again.
"Hook, I gave you something that speeds your heart up, so that's why you might be feeling anxious and tense. Just try and stay calm; it will wear off, eventually."