A/N: Hey thanks to the readers of the prologue for reading and supporting my story! I got four people adding me to their favorites, three story alerts, one author alert and one review. I'm glad you liked it! Keep reading guys and I will try to give you guys a good read! Here's the next chapter!
"C'mon boy! Look alive!" a man called, as he stepped up towards an older Tobias, both of them drawing swords. The young man drew his sword and bowed along with the elder man, both of them crossing their swords between each other. "And, begin!"
The two men began sword-fighting, clashing their swords together as they moved back and forth across the floor. "Watch your footwork boy! That's it!" the elder man called, as the two continued to parry. "Now, let's finish." The elder man thrust his cutlass towards Tobias, and Tobias blocked, then in a quick motion, he thrust his sword upwards and knocked the sword out of the man's hands, putting the blade against his neck.
"Very impressive." The elder man said. "Aye lad, if you do that in the play, they'll surely be convinced yer good n' dead. You've got lucky knocking it out of me hands, though."
"And lucky the past five times I did it as well." Tobias hinted humorously, and bowed to his opponent. "Cheers, Harvey."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, boy. So far we've gone uncaught – except for that one time we stole from the Queen of Spain." Harvey reminded him.
"Who could forget that one. We came close to being caught that time." Tobias recalled.
"Just do your job, and try not to show off this time Mr. fancy-pants, understand?" Harvey said.
"Yes, captain."
Harvey had been a good captain for the past few months since he had known him. He was a heavy man with blue eyes, blonde hair and sideburns all the way down to his chin. The ship he was a captain of, called the Dancing Peacock, was a traveling ship full of performers and minstrels that traveled the sea under the guise of a performance ship. But what Tobias and the crew really did was steal from the audience they performed for – they had a reputation for being the best showboat on the seas, and developed a routine once they had acquired a rich client to dazzle and distract the audience while the other crew members stole riches from their treasuries right from under their very noses. Tobias had been hired himself from stealing from the Dancing Peacock and handing back the goods he had stolen the day after – they were so impressed they welcomed him into the crew that day, despite there being some spite from the crew members. Tobias – or as he went under his alias, Daniel Bailey – had become very good at stealing while he had been hiding away from the authorities on the Dancing Peacock. And hardly anyone got killed, and if someone did, they would be long gone before anyone even noticed. No fuss, no muss.
"Curtain call in one minute!" Harvey called as the crew members scattered about to get ready behind the stage he and Tobias had been performing on, which tonight had been set up in the front yard of a palace owned by a duke. "Places, everyone!"
"I best go get into position, then." Tobias said, already in costume, wearing a puffy shirt, black pants and black boots.
"Good luck then, Daniel. You're going to need it." Captain Harvey said to him, then went to go stand on his side of the stage.
The lights came on and the curtains raised, then Tobias stepped out onto from stage left in front of the audience. Immediately he spoke the lines he had committed to memory of the play they were performing.
"Hark, where hast thou mine love gone? Why did my lover fall from this mortal coil?" he recited a play written in old English to the audience. "'Twas cruel, cruel fate that the sword from her own father did thrust into her chest; a blade meant for my own. In life, she was naught but a warrior, a strength, one proudly whom I could call mine equal in thy own place; in death she was but a fragile, beautiful flower, a petal, picked vigorously and thrown carelessly into the wind; for surely without her, this life has grown cold, as if all warmth has faded from thy world with her, one that would have remained unlike heaven, should she be amongst living still."
Captain Harvey entered from stage right with a sword in his hand. "Martyr fool! Who stolen thy daughter's heart! 'Tis all for naught!" Harvey shouted his lines. "Thou shall wretch thy revenge upon the, and shall make thy sacrifice to thy gods!" Harvey raised his sword.
Tobias looked at Harvey, still reciting lines. "Hail, father! Thoust daughter spared her life for mine! You deny her final request be honored, has thou revenge blinded you? Hark; I shall do upon ye what she could do naught, and halt thy bloody hands!" He unsheathed his own sword.
Then the two bowed, and jumped back into their sword fighting they had rehearsed. Tobias fought back and forth across the stage with Captain Harvey, parrying and blocking his advances. Then, at Harvey's gesture, he knocked the sword out of his hands once more and held the cutlass up for the point to touch his throat.
"Thou hast seen too much of war to know victory from reason; but know this." Tobias spoke the last of his lines. "'Tis not too late to clean thy hands of the blood of thy ememies and give the olive branch; is what your daughter died for. Thou shalt not dishonor her memory; as such I make my leave, sparing your life. Farewell, should we meet again!" Tobias threw a small ball onto the ground, which disintegrated into a smoke bomb. The audience gasped, and when the smoke cleared, Tobias was gone.
In reality, Tobias had been dropped into the trapdoor set into the stage; now was his chance. As Captain Harvey finished his lines and ordered the rest of the cast posing as soliders to 'find' Tobias in the audience, while lifting valuables off the audience members, Tobias exited the stage and moved through the darkness around them towards the duke's palace.
There were, of course, guards standing at attention and doing patrol outside the doors of the mansion. Nothing that Tobias hadn't come up against before. In the darkness, he snuck around to the service entrance where all the food was going in to be prepared, preparing to knock out the guard there. But when he got there, there was none. Suspecting something suspicious, Tobias proceeded towards the door with caution.
He entered and sneaked through the kitchen, passing all the cooks that were busy preparing the food. Everyone was too busy from cooking to notice him, and nobody seemed to be alerted to the fact there was no guard standing outside. Tobias exited the kitchen into the interior of the palace and not seeing any guards, snuck upstairs towards the duke's bedroom.
This is too easy, Tobias thought, and pulled out his sword as he found the bedroom door open, expecting a trap. But no-one leaped out at him from the darkness to challenge him. He stepped forward through the bedroom and with the blueprints of the mansion still in his mind, he turned a hidden switch on the wall disguised as a candelabrum, and stepped through the hidden door into the treasury room. All manners of golden items and paintings filled the room, and in the moonlight he could see on table what he had been looking for; the object he had lost at sea when he had been branded as a pirate after all these years. He cautiously stepped towards it and reached for it, picking it up with one hand, before he heard footsteps behind him and the cocking of the hammer pulled back on a pistol.
"Sorry mate, but I believe that belongs to yours truly." A man said behind him. Tobias knew it. He had walked into a trap. "Hands in the air, and turn towards me – slowly."
Tobias did as he was instructed, but not slowly, and looked at the guard. When he did, he realized it was no guard. The man had long brown hair that grew down to elbow length, some of it done in dreadlocks, some of it in beads. His short beard or goatee was done in plaits and he had a moustache. His brown eyes were rimmed in kohl. On his head he had a red bandana covered with a tri-cornered hat. He wore a long, brown overcoat over a grey unbuttoned vest, in turn over a plain white, slightly unbuttoned shirt, with three belts, one across his chest diagonally and the other two worn around his waist, one under the other. A pistol was tucked into the top-most belt. A red and pink sash was also tied around his waist, the end dangling down to about knee length. Some kind of bird foot was hanging from his belt, and he wore brown pants with brown, knee-high boots. This man was definately a pirate.
"You were trying to steal this, too?" Tobias asked.
"Of course I was. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, after all." The man grinned, focusing the pistol on him.
"Captain who?" Tobias said in confusion, wondering if he was supposed to have heard of the name before.
"Very funny, lad." Jack chuckled, "Where have you been all this time, hiding under a rock somewhere?"
Tobias raised his eyebrows and made an amused smirk, but ignored Jack's question. "How did you get in?" he asked, stalling for time, trying to move closer, trying to figure out his odds of knocking the pistol out of the man's hands or grabbing it from him without risk.
"I'm the one asking the questions around here." Captain Jack said, waving his pistol around slightly. "How did you in?"
"I snuck in through the service door." Tobias said proudly. "No guard there."
"Oh." Jack said in surprise. "That probably would have been a better way..."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Tobias raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Erm, nothing. Nothing to do with anything, especially of the female persuasion. " Jack said, and tucked way something lacy into his jacket pocket.
"Oh really?" Tobias smiled, finding this man to be somewhat odd, giving him a strange look. "You still have something red there, on your lips. Like lipstick." Tobias said, pointing to his own lips in reference.
"I do?" Jack wondered incredulously, and wiped his face with his hand. Giving Tobias his chance.
Tobias knocked the pistol out of Jack's hand, and pulled out his sword, pointing it at Jack. "Sorry mate, but you know to never to trust a pirate." He kept it pointed at Jack, keeping him away from his pistol.
"Hmm, touché." Jack said, sounding a little impressed. "That is, if I didn't have me own sword!" Jack pulled out his sword, and he and Tobias started dueling each other. Tobias lunged forward and missed Jack, ripping open a valuable painting. Jack grabbed the object in Tobias's hand. They clashed again, and Jack knocked over a suit of armor and sent it crashing to the ground, the distraction letting Tobias steal back the object. Their swords met each other again.
"Oy, stop stealin' me loot!" Captain Jack yelled at him.
Tobias grinned. "Not bad swordplay, for a captain!" he taunted.
"Yer not too bad yerself, for a wannabe pirate!" Jack said back. He slashed the sleeve on Tobias's shirt, revealing the P brand on his wrist.
"Not a wannabe," Tobias said, breathing heavily, "I am a pirate, mate." Tobias lunged and Jack blocked it, and their swords clashed again.
After a few swings of his sword, Jack finally pushed Tobias back, long enough for him to grab his pistol off the ground and point it at him. "Nice footwork, mate. But I don't have anymore time to waste." He took the object off Tobias. "I must be off. Thanks for knocking out the guards, by the way."
"I didn't knock any of the guards out." Tobias said, confused. "I thought you did."
Jack looked confused as well. Suddenly there was an explosion outside, and both Jack and Tobias walked to the window. The stage was in pieces. Captain Harvey was on the ground, not moving, obviously dead. The guests shrieked and shouted as soldiers in red coats came in. They both recognized the uniform. The East India Trading Company…