CHAPTER NINETEEN: A Sea of Flames
A few nights later, the motley fleet of pirates were drifting on an eerily peaceful Mediterranean sea under a bright full moon. The water was a deep, beautiful blue which reflected the clear starry sky. They were not expected to reach their destination until the morning and so had a few hours in which to enjoy the quiet. It was the sort of the night that made it easy to forget what they were facing. Jack and Katie were sleeping in each other's arms. Despite the sense of calm that had fallen upon the whole crew over the past few days, the strange and mixed memories fading out, their dreams were still bizarre and more vivid than usual.
Jack was dreaming of Katie in the dress she had been wearing the first time he met her, her long red hair pinned up fashionably, her smile as pretty as ever. It was sunset and they were at the docks in London again, and her green eyes seemed to glow as she looked at him. He was smiling back, content and happy. But Katie seemed to be getting further away… he was on a ship, sailing down the Thames, away from her. He was yelling for her, calling to her, but she just raised her hand and waved before turning and going back home, back to whatever her life had been before him...
Katie was dreaming of dancing with Jack on the empty deck of The Black Pearl. They span round and round and beautiful music played in the background. He was the only person she'd ever danced with that she was so aware of as they danced, her attention not just on the steps of the dance and the music they were set to but on his firm, calloused hands on her waist and his warm, bright brown eyes. But there was something wrong. His eyes were cold… dead. Jack fell away from her, falling back onto the deck of the ship, lifeless…
"No!" Jack and Katie awoke at the exact same time and in the same way, sitting abruptly upright. Katie looked around at Jack. He had a tear leaking from the corner of his eye. He pulled her to him, letting out an audible gasp of relief. "You're here…"
"Jack?" Katie asked, and he heard the fear in her voice. And then the chance of them waking at the same time, in the same manner, swam to the front of his mind. It was too coincidental; spookily so. They stared at each other, realising what it meant.
"It's time…" He muttered. She nodded and leaned towards him, holding his face in her hands for a moment. She didn't know what to say, but he seemed to know what she meant. He placed his hand over one of hers for a moment, caressing it, before they both dropped the contact and leapt out of bed, pulling on boots and swords and guns hastily. By the time they clattered out onto the deck, there was already noise and commotion from the rest of the crew, who had also been forced to witness their worst nightmare in horribly potent detail. Fear was in every face as they performed the manoeuvres they had rehearsed a thousand times before this day. The night was clear enough to be able to see the other ships, and Katie found herself looking toward the Flying Dutchman. It had come to a stop in the centre as the other nine ships began to position themselves quickly into a circle around it. To their right, Barbossa was at the helm of the Queen Anne's Revenge, looking determined but with not a single shred of worry in his face. Jack saw him and thought, as he often had, that nothing scared that man. It was a detached, random thought that soon passed.
When the ships were in their position there was a silence, but then Elizabeth's voice rang out from the Empress towards the sky.
"Mindful of the full moon this night, Calypso, daughter of the sea, we summon thee!" Tensely, the pirates waited. The silence seemed to stretch on for an eternity, not even the sea itself seeming to move or make a sound. Jack reached out a hand, and Katie took it, and they both gripped hard. Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak, not sure the summons had worked. But then, out of the centre of the sky, the swirling eye of a storm appeared where before it had not existed. It was not large but intensely concentrated and hovered directly above the Flying Dutchman. A terrible voice, all at once feminine and deep, boomed out.
"I have heard dis treacherous summons before!" Katie felt the back of her neck prickle with the power the simple words contained. "I have been waiting for dis call, waiting for de day de Brethren Court come find me again! Come find me when dey have an enemy dey cannot defeat!" Jack squeezed Katie's hand and Katie squeezed back. "Some of you might tink I am such an enemy, but though my wrath is terrible, I have restraint! I was freed! No longer was I tied down to de whims of man!"
The sea gave a threatening lurch beneath them all, every ship being violently tossed upwards for a moment before it settled once more, too neatly and quickly to be natural.
"De stagnant heart of Barbossa… de man who freed me." Katie looked towards the Queen Anne's Revenge. Barbossa stood defiant. "But you are still here to see me bound again. An' de blooming love of Kathryn and Jack… a love none would guess would come, but de love the main architect of dis meeting between god and man… more dan you both realise." Katie and Jack felt every eye on them at this. The other Brethren had not been sure that they had a 'blooming love', giving that all the couples there were already married. "The love last time, dat was my love… mine and Davy Jones, before him tricked me. But dis time, dere will be no resistance from me… provided you know what you are dealing with!"
On the last words, the entire sky was covered with clouds so thick and dark that it was difficult to see more than an arms-length ahead. The sea immediately began to toss and rile beneath them so violently that most people were thrown off their feet, and the Flying Dutchman submerged itself hastily. Katie and Jack managed to remain on their feet but only because they both grabbed the wheel, which span wildly as a result. Gibbs had also managed to stay standing and he rushed forward along with Cotton to still it, while Jack began firing off nautical orders with ferocity.
"Batten down the hatches! Come around the wind! Ballast!" Sailors were scrambling to their feet and hurrying to try and secure the ship so that it could hold its own against the suddenly raging wind.
"Jack!" Katie cried sharply as the ship lurched and water sloshed on deck. Jack looked at her and saw her frozen to the spot. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into a corner which was slightly sheltered by the quarterdeck steps.
"I've seen 'er do worse than this, love. When she was freed she created a maelstrom that almost sucked us in." He told her.
"I'm scared." She whispered, and though it was hard to hear her over the thunderous storm, Jack read her lips. This wasn't dissimilar to the way they had spent Christmas Day, though now they were much further off port and the worst was surely yet to come. He saw all of this in her face and forced himself to be firm rather than nurturing to her fear.
"Katie, you've never been scared of anythin' in yer life." She stared at him for a long moment and then nodded, squaring her shoulders in a gesture he recognised, one of determination. "By the way…" He added, ignoring the cries of the crew as they struggled for a moment longer, "Kathryn, she called you?" Katie took his hand gently then.
"Jack, my Christian name is Kathryn but I've always been called Katie by friends. I've never lied to you about my name- I've never thought of myself as a Kathryn."
"Thank you." He said in an odd voice, before leading her out by the hand he still held and onto the deck. Katie could see the other ships struggling against the elements, and Mistress Ching's ship, the Kin Tai Fong, was just being brought back from the brink of capsizing. The Black Pearl was fairing among the best, as was the Queen Anne's Revenge, possibly Calypso had acknowledged those of the most stagnant heart and blooming love were aboard them. The Empress, almost the entire way across the circle of ships, was battling hard with the elements. The Dutchman had not resurfaced, though they needed Will for the actual binding of Calypso.
The ship jerked violently again and this time Katie fell, sliding on the wet deck. Jack managed to catch her before she hit the wood but before they could both straighten up again, there was a flash of lightning and suddenly everything was bright and blazing.
The sea had turned to fire. The crew froze in horror. While the violent tossing of the storm had immediately ceased, ships were made of wood and wood would burn! Jack ran to the rail and peered over. The flames licked the side of the Black Pearl and smoke rose along with extreme heat which smacked him in the face as he looked over. However, the flames didn't seem to be taking to the wood, though they were climbing higher. Some of them began to leap about and sparks jumped upwards, causing Jack and other pirates who had looked over the edge to pull their heads back hastily for fear of singed hair.
"The ship isn't burning!" Jack reassured them, and the crew broke out in cries of relief; a fiery death was more certain than a watery one, not to mention far more painful. However, the sparks were still threatening anyone who went too close to the edge and Katie's eyes followed them, even as she broke out into a sweat from the sheer heat of the flames. Somewhere, on another ship, a sailor leant too far over the edge and they all heard his screams as he fell into the sea of fire. Everyone winced, but Katie saw the flames rise as if his body had been sustenance to them, and her eyes crossed over the hold and the cannons.
"Oh God!" She screamed in horror, "The gunpowder! The rum! It'll blow up!" The reaction was instant. Everyone hurried down to the hold to try and secure the cargo in the centre somehow, away and out of the reach of the fire. The smoke that rose from the flames, though they didn't burn the ships, was thick and black and made it once again impossible to see very far. Katie felt it stinging her eyes and stumbled half-blind towards Jack, who held onto her with a grip so tight it might bruise.
"You clever girl," He growled, kissing her cheek. "We would've been done for…"
"Jack!" She cried again, "Jack, even if we don't burn and we aren't blown up, we'll boil to death soon! We need to cool down!" All around them, pirates were getting proximity burns from the heat and everybody was sweating buckets, Jack and Katie included.
"We need to keep our heads!" Jack barked, "GENTS!" Everyone looked towards their captain, "We need all the water we have, and we need to douse ourselves in it!" The kitchen door was jerked open, as was the hold once more, and every barrel of water was brought up on deck by men so hot it was difficult to move.
"We need to do this quickly!" Katie coughed.
"We need to cover everyone!" Gibbs agreed from the helm, which he hadn't left.
"Grenades in the centre of all the barrels!" A new voice cried suddenly, "When they blow the barrels will be shattered and the water will blow everywhere!" Realising it was the only way, the crew, including Katie, began to hurry to follow these instructions, other than one person. Jack turned around in the direction of the voice, beside the mast.
"Angelica?" And there she was, in the middle of all the chaos, as ever, though for once she didn't look as cool as a cucumber; quite the opposite. Her brown hair was sticking to her face and neck from the heat and she seemed to be struggling to breathe, panting as if she had run a marathon. "How long have you been here? How did you get here?"
"Oh don't worry, I haven't been here long! But surely I am the least of your worries now?" Angelica snapped.
"You are my one and only worry." Jack said through gritted teeth.
"And just when I may have saved your life! And your little wife, too!" Just as she said it, the water barrels exploded. Cool water splashed everywhere, drenching everyone head to foot, soothing burns and cooling everybody down. Laughing slightly hysterically, Katie turned around and spotted Angelica, also now soaking wet, and her expression turned to rage and hatred.
"YOU!" And Katie launched herself at the Spanish woman, knocking her to the floor and punching every inch of her that she could reach. Jack knew he should be breaking the fight up, yet stood rooted to the spot. His chest swelled a little in pride at Katie, however, even as he dreaded what Angelica might do. However, he was wrong to assume Katie was at a disadvantage. After a minute of violent scuffling, Katie came out on top, pinning Angelica down and glaring.
"I cannot fight back! I am unarmed! So do the dishonourable thing now and hurt me as much as you can, I cannot die anyway!" Angelica screeched. Both women were breathing heavily now.
"Don't – talk - to me- about - honour! You almost killed me!" Katie half-screamed in her face. Jack had never seen her so incensed. "You tell me how you got onto this ship before I throw you off it!"
"Girls," Jack made an attempt to interject with his usual bravado but his voice cracked in panic. The flames were still rising, he was starting to warm up again, and he still didn't trust that Angelica wouldn't and couldn't do any harm to Katie.
"Cap'n!" Gibbs interrupted, "I'm sorry to distract ye from this scene, but we need to find a way to navigate through this fire before we can enjoy this sweet reunion!" He spat the last word in Angelica's direction and Jack remembered that nobody but he, Elizabeth and Katie knew Angelica had been in the Money Pit on Oak Island. Jack looked toward the two women and sighed before agreeing.
"Unarm them and take them to the brig. I don't think they'll be done whatever we say to 'em." He said firmly. Neither Katie nor Angelica took kindly to being dragged to their feet, though Jack was the one who removed Katie's weapons, and he did so much more gently than the man who searched Angelica.
"Jack what are you doing?" Katie demanded of him as he slid his hand down her leg and into her boot to remove the very dagger Angelica had stabbed her with those months ago. He knew she'd carried it with her ever since.
"I'll give these back to you, love. Just, don't hate me fer this, alright?" He looked imploringly into her eyes and something in them softened slightly.
"I couldn't hate you, Jack." She murmured. He kissed her one last time on the lips, a chaste peck being all they had time for, before he allowed the women to be removed from the deck. He noticed Angelica glaring at the gesture, though he didn't look directly at her. There were more important things, right now, like saving all their lives while binding this goddess.
He took a deep breath and thought about the flames, trying to-reimagine them as a sea. After all, given the ships were not burning, he had guessed the flames were not truly fire, but a terrifying illusion Calypso had conjured up. She had caused the sea to become boiling hot, hot enough to kill. The sparks could inflame something, true enough, but the sea itself could not. Yes, if he focused, he could picture the orange flames as a dark blue sea with a quick current, and he could still feel the breeze that had driven them before the storm, though the breeze had turned hot enough to scald. Smiling at his success, he began to shout out commands once more, though his throat was dry, to sail. Confused but scared, the men obeyed. Elizabeth had also cottoned on and was directing the Empress. Slowly, the ships began to circle round in the pattern they had read, practised, charted and planned, ignoring the fire. It was even more important now that they bind Calypso, and to do that they needed to create the conditions needed to allow the Flying Dutchman to resurface.
A/N: I loved getting to write a bit more action in here, as well as the shock appearance of Angelica. What reason will she give for appearing now of all times? Thanks to everybody who offered their condolences last chapter, and for giving it positive feedback I don't feel it deserved. A difficult time is being made slightly easier by being able to write this, which I enjoy. So thank you more than ever for taking the time to read this, even if you don't leave a review (even though that that would be the icing on the cake!)