Chapter 24 Into the abyss
Darkness came quickly, as it did in these waters, and sleep followed just as swiftly, at least for two of them. Once growling stomachs were fed eachof them claimed a little territory beside the fire and rolled themselves into a blanket, Gibbs was snoring almost before he finished moving and Elanor had just time to wonder, once again, what it was that Jack wasn't telling her before sleep claimed her too.
Jack lay awake sometime longer, his weary body protesting as his wayward mind took yet another of its strolls through the pictures of the past, reviewing events again, as if the revisiting of them might change something. He cursed himself, and the lack of rum, roundly, as he did each time it happened, and wondered why it was that what was gone should haunt him so. Once..... before.... he would have closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep, knowing that what was done could not be undone and that regrets were better expressed in future actions than by the recalling of that which had now passed into history; but now it seemed that he was doomed to relive those last hours over and over again as if he had brought some part of the Locker back with him.
Perhaps it would have been different if he had still been on the Pearl.
With another silent curse he rolled himself tighter in the blanket Elanor had provided, the smell of it, clean and new, reminding him of the uncertainties of the present. For the lady on the other side of the fire was something as uncharted as the seas beyond the map, and yet as each day passed he found it harder to imagine a future that did not encompass her and her ghost. It was unsettling him, for it had been many years since he had felt this way about almost any one at all. The lesson, that there was nothing and no one he could trust, not even his father, and nothing to rely on other than his own wits, had been a hard one but he had learned it well. Mr Gibbs was as close as he had come to trusting another in many a year and the man had earned that special place through deeds and hardships they neither of them spoke of. Elizabeth had not understood that or she would have known that Gibbs did not need her to save him, nor the others either; but then Elizabeth had understood very little of the realities of his life. He bore her no ill will for that, for how could it be otherwise when she was the governor's daughter? But the woman sleeping by the dying fire, though she was as alien to him as Elizabeth had been, was somehow different, he didn't know how or why but he was stubbornly and resentfully sure of it.
Jack frowned to himself as he wriggled the sand into a more comfortable hole, his restless mind meshing past events and current concerns as he stared up at the stars. What would she, Elanor, have done if had been her on the deck of the Pearl that day? Imagining her facing down the Kraken was not so hard, and maybe her ghost would have offered them a way out. But if not then what action would she have taken? Not a kiss and a shackle, somehow he was sure of that. He let the scene play in his head and grinned to himself as it approached its climax; no she would have faced him squarely with the truth that he already knew, that he had to stay and they had to go. She would have looked around at the battered ship and those already lost and told him openly that it ended here, and she would have given him a choice, his legend or a bullet in the head. Go down with his ship alive and fighting, or a quick death. Then she would have left, tossing him a pistol as she went, leaving his final fate to his own hand. She would have understood the need to die a free man.
Yet how was he so sure of that? Why did he feel this link to her, this strange kinship? She who was such a painfully honest woman, despite the secrets she guarded so carefully, and him such a dishonest man?
He did not love her, he was sure of that, was not even tending to love her; nor was it the gut twisting lust she could inspire with such uncomfortable consequences, yet somehow she was becoming woven into the story of his life, just as Elizabeth and William had been. Yet he had never seen them as a part of his future, what little future he had even seen for himself that was, not in the way that something whispered this woman from a far off world and her ship were. Would she prove to be that most rare of all things, a friend in dangerous world, perhaps? A friend and an equal, for all that she was more like her maybe ancestor the Commodore than was comfortable, an uneasy combination. He wondered if she were somehow filling a hole he had not even realised was there.
But the present and the future held other uncertainties, despite all his efforts to make it otherwise.
Jack frowned at the arching sky, he had hoped that the knowledge of the heart would die with Beckett, who was a malignant little weasel but close mouthed. Not at all given to sharing and so unlikely to let slip any advantageous knowledge to those who might also wish to make use of it. The heart and the control of Dutchman certainly counted as advantageous knowledge and so was likely to have been clutched most tightly to Beckett's covetous chest. Or so he had reasoned. To ensure that it went no further than that unhallowed place he had been willing to sink the Endeavour, though he hated sending a ship down, never forgetting the sight of the Wench as she sank, nor the screaming of her timbers as the water claimed her. Jack shifted uneasily as he recalled the sight of it, the bile rising in his gullet even now. Many of his negotiatory skills, and the unpirateness of his piratory legend had been developed to avoid sending ships down, he mused silently, though few would ever understand that. 'Except perhaps the woman not ten feet away' a little voice whispered.
Jack squirmed in the warm sand at the thought, reflecting that he was no longer sure if he could hide from her at all. But he had secrets too, some that he was almost sure she and her all knowing ghost had not yet discovered. He hoped.
But he had also hoped that with Beckett had gone to his final judgement that it would be an end of the matter. To keep the heart of the Dutchman safe he gave the order to fire, though he delayed it until the last moment, knowing that he was sending many a soul to the new ferryman too. Beckett had seen him return, had seen the Dutchman rise again, so Beckett had to die or there would be no peace on the seas, for the man had been mad to think that he would be allowed control unopposed. Though the fight was not of Jack's making the ending of it had to be, for there had been no one else.
The one consolation was that, while Beckett's death brought him relief, and some satisfaction, it had brought him no pleasure. Teague's words had only reminded him of what he had already learned, before the spectre of Jones and his locker had driven all thought of anything but survival from his head. 'Twas strange indeed what a man would do to forestall his final judgement, but Jack had known from the moment Bootstrap left that a final judgement was the last of his worries when Jones was the debtor. That knowledge had seduced him into indulging in a moment of gloating, a mistake that had carried such awful consequences, a payment far in excess of the fleeting pleasure gained; he would not make such an error again.
Now it seemed that the battle was not over at all. Beckett had not been so close mouthed or cautious as he expected and amongst those he had allowed to survive there were others knew of the heart and its power. Perhaps he should have followed Barbossa's wish after all and slaughtered them as they struggled in the waters; he had not allowed that and now it seemed that judgementtoo, that granting of a man a second chance, was a mistake.
He sighed and rolled over again turning his eyes from the stars to the fire, feeling somewhere in the distant reaches of his mind the shout of an aching muscle and castigating himself for not having brought more rum.
Jack pillowed his head on his hand and stared at the fading embers, seeing unwelcome pictures in the shifting reds and greys. But things were as they were, and men being what they were, there had always been the risk that someone else, somewhere, knew of the reality of Beckett's action, through pillow talk if naught else; he had known that and so had Teague. Which had consequences, unfortunate ones. Elizabeth could not remain at Shipwreck because Will's heart could not stay within the pirate city and she would not be parted from it, nor allow anyone else to bury it. If they could have swapped it then matters might have been different, but the beating of the thing made that impossible, there was no way it could be done without her knowing. But that left them with a dilemma because Jack knew better than most that Becket was not the only pirate who stood beneath the canopy of the law or called himself a god-fearing man. Nor was Norrington the only man who set his steps toward hell in the belief that it was done for king and country. So, for the safety of them all, she had to die.
He had left that to Teague, feeling the first gratitude towards his father that he had felt in many a year. Maybe some good had come of it then? He sighed and rolled over once more, laying his cheek against the cooling sand, his arm spread across it in abandoned embrace, seeking solace, as ever, in the sight of the sea. He'd grieved for her of course, as he had for the Pearl when she sailed away from him again, though perhaps not as much as he might have done. It seemed that the fates were not done with him, and the loss of the Pearl now might be considered somewhat fortunate. While the powers that be sought him on the Pearl he had the time and space to find the fountain, and to secure the heart too. He could only hope that those same fates would keep the Pearl in one piece while he did the necessary, for Barbossa's days were surely numbered. Believing that he could use Tia Dalma for his own ends and still escape her had been his final mistake.
Jack felt the sudden sharp nip of a crabs claw on his finger and raised his head to glare at the creature as it scuttled towards the shoreline. It seemed to shake its claws at him in a mocking salute and he glowered at it suspiciously before turning back to the fire with a heavy sigh, settling his head on his hat and pushing the afflicted digit into his mouth for a moment, though there was no blood to be seen. Staring through the heat haze drifting above the dying flame he watched the shimmer on Elanor's hair, the pale silk of it taking on the hues of blood and smoke as if to warn him of what lay ahead of them. He shuddered and pulled the blanket closer remembering the lightening that she carried with her. No deity maybe but the trappings of a goddess none the less; she and her ghost were as powerful as they were strange and as long as her door home stayed closed then there was a chance of success. With her help he would find his escape within the fountain and then he could steal Will's heart away to safety. She would help him, he was sure of that, for what else did she have to do?
Once they had found the fountain they could set about the next task.
His mouth twisted at the thought, finding the fountain was proving more strenuous than he had anticipated. He felt another twinge of pain and shifted uneasily, tomorrow would be as back breaking as today even with her ghosts help. He would need all his wits about him, whatever it was that waited for them. With that thought Jack settled his hat more comfortably beneath his head and disciplined himself to sleep.
***
The little island knew few shadows, having not much to cast them away from its tiny top knot of vegetation, but as the humans slept two strange ones visited its spreading sands. One seemed created by the dying embers of the fire, while the other formed from the crests of the moon kissed waves that crept up the shore. The first shimmered in the light of the high riding moon, turning its silver to all the colours of the rainbow, but the second seemed to absorb the light of that same lantern and recast it in dark glitters that hinted of depths and high rising peaks. Both bore the shape of women as many such as they had done before.
"Witty Jack him have a heavy heart an' a weary body." The dark shadow said as she stood beside the sleeping pirate. "Yet he'll nat give in. Him will falla tat which he seeks to his very end. Can hold a course can Jack Sparra, better than near all. An steer a hard one too. But the shadow o' the lacker, it still sit heavy on him Lady, must it be this way?"
The other shadow seemed to incline her head, raising her hand to spread her fan before her shaded face, the medallions there glowing as if painted in light itself. The darker shadow edged close to peer at the fan, the lace of her tattered skirts whispering across the sand like the tide as she moved, the light of the fire showing her to be a woman of ebony skin and brown velvet eyes and with a wide brow that currently wore a frown. The painting on the fan seemed to come and go, only the two ships there, one white and one black, remaining unchanging; the frown on the watching woman's face deepened as she watched the images shift,
"Must be done, tis true," she said with a sigh, "but can none other do it? Him tired and there are more scars on him than human eyes can see. Your captain too has her grief and pain, I can feel it even as she sleeps, can she steer the line that must be fallad?"
The fire hissed, a flame rising up in a final burst of energy that glittered on the other lady's smile but did nothing to illuminate the shadow of her face; the fan fluttered again, the lace reflecting back the fire light in a burst of brightness that turned the sand to white. The dark lady seemed to read the reply in the fan's movement for she nodded,
"Ya keep them safe tis true, but will that be enough?" She looked out towards the seas, "There are those who seek what must nat be found and I cannot prevent them from followin' the call of it. Nor cant you. While they seek the Pearl I can keep them running and far away, but should they catch the Pearl and not find witty Jack aboard her. ....what then Lady? These here dance at ya biddin for they are ya own, and well chosen they may be. But wat of the others?"
The first lady followed the second one's gaze back towards the sea and the fan moved again, the images shifting one more time. The dark lady seemed to think, then she nodded,
"So be it. Shall remain as we agreed for the moment, Barbossa him be mine already and the seekers will nat find the seas their friend. The rest I trust to ya Lady," her mouth widened in a shadowed smile and her voice took on a sly and soft note, "While ya pay ma price."
She moved across to stand beside the man Jack called friend,
"Ah hope ya have the heart for tis Mr Gibbs for they will have need of ya these two before all be settled." She smiled again, but softly this time, "but happen ya would have it no other way."
Her skirts whispered once more as she stepped towards the sleeping woman, looking down with curiosity,
"Strange ya is tis true, but ah tink the Lady has chosen wisely. A woman of ma own heart I reckon ya be, and I'll trust witty Jack to ya care." She reached down to brush the pale hair from the wide brow, "treat him as gently as he will allow for ma sake, for he saved me once when I was a weary mortal and the power all sat in his hands. Nat a honest man Jack Sparra, a scallywag more often than he should be perhaps, but a good one when he need nat be and with the things that define a man, and that be a rarer and more precious quality tan honest by far."
The first lady moved to stand beside her, the fan moved again catching the eye of her dark companion who squinted at the pictures on the silk then threw back her head and laughed.
The waves rose higher and the moon sailed on, the sleeping humans turned in their dreams, and the shadows on the beach were gone.
***
Elanor was woken by a discrete call from Ariadne as the sun started to rise turning the sky and the sand rosy in the gentle light. Rubbing eyes that still longed for sleep she sat up and stretched her stiff shoulders, despite the softness of the morning breeze and the warmth of her coat she shivered, there was something about this place that bothered more than she cared to admit, and not only because they were here at all. Somehow she was sure that, even with the chart, this was another island that couldn't be found unless you were in some way intended to find it. Which was a truly stupid thought she kept telling herself, but one that had lodged in her head days ago and wouldn't move.
She acknowledged the signal and stumbled to her feet, braiding her hair as she looked around her. The fire had collapsed into a smudge of grey ash and the two men were still asleep, each rolled into a blanket, one each side of it. On a sudden impulse she crossed slowly and silently to stand over Jack, being careful that she didn't come between him and the rising sun. His head was pillowed on his hat, his arms were wrapped around himself, and the mass of his hair was lying neatly behind him, just one decorated braid falling across his cheek. He had washed the kohl from around his eyes, along with the sand, last evening and now the shadow there was nothing more than the fringe of dark lashes. Elanor smiled to herself, no man had any right to such lashes and certainly not a pirate. She studied him more closely noting the shadow of stubble on his cheek that confirmed her suspicion that his tidy beard was the result of some care rather than just luck. Vanity? or something else, something more pragmatic? She might not be of his world but she had cut her eye teeth some time ago and was no fool, so she could see why his image might be important to his legend and why the legend might be an important part of him staying alive.
He murmured something and moved his head against the leather pillow of the his hat, extending one arm out across the sand, long fingers curled loosely around the palm, the elegance of the hand and the narrowness of the lace bedecked wrist belying its strength. The growing light turned his skin to red gold and set the fine hairs of his moustache shimmering like a black cat's fur. Elanor continued to stare down at him, sombre faced, the whisper of the surf advancing up the sand sending her mind drifting back to other places and other people. Jack would not look out of place in her world, unlike most of those she had seen in Tortuga, which was of its self more than a little extraordinary. It was not so hard to believe, here on this island of secrets, in the slightly unreal light of a Caribbean early morning, that in this world he was marked for something special. More than special, if Ariadne was right, something downright weird. Something that she might have become caught up in.
She raised her eyes and looked across to the ship, recalling that conversation with the all-knowing Ariadne, another who was also becoming stranger by the day. But then she was forgetting that damned quantum wasn't she? Was anything really weird in the face of how the world apparently worked? How the universe worked come to that? Certainly this world, where curses claimed you even if you didn't believe in them, where sailors cut out their hearts and lived on and sea goddesses wandered about willy-nilly bound in human form.
"'lanor? Something wrong?"
His voice was still slurred with sleep but the eyes staring up at her were alert. She cursed herself for her distraction and was momentarily glad that he hadn't slept with his pistols, though as he moved she saw the butt of one of them peep out from beneath the rim of his hat.
"No." she said more shortly than she had intended too.
That brought her a look that was half amused and half wary as he sat up and tossed the blanket aside,
"So why are you standin' over me like this? Not that I'm complainin' you understand," he let his eyes drift her length with apparent appreciation, "there can't be many a sight a man would rather wake to," his lips curved in a suggestive smile and he tilted his head to look up at her sideways, "though the sight would be further improved if you were down here rather than up there..," he flicked a hand at the sand beside him and his voice trailed away suggestively.
She looked at him in resigned amusement,
"Do you ever stop Jack? Does it never get tiring or boring or just too much effort?"
That brought a wider smile as he got to his feet without apparent effort or stiffness, the movement bringing him close against her shoulder. She didn't retreat, not even when he reached out and took her hand, apparently fascinated by the lines in her palm. He turned his head towards her and when he spoke his breath ruffled the unbraided tendrils of hair about her face,
"With such as you? Never," he murmured softly into her ear.
"At least not this early in the morning," she countered, then wondered if the comment was wise as he saw his brows rise and his lips part, but she forestalled any question about her meaning with a stern look, "now, honour being satisfied on both sides can I have my hand back, I need to talk to you. Or are you planning on reading my fortune?"
She cast a quick glance towards Mr Gibbs who had showed some signs of stirring though his eyes remained closed and his mouth open.
"Either way not here."
***
Side by side they splashed through the surf, feeling the promise of the later heat in the rising sun. Jack said nothing but cast her an occasional curious glance as she wondered what to say. Finally she caught his eyes and stopped walking, turning to face him, deciding that there was no easy way and that she might as well just come out with it
"I'm worried, about Mr Gibbs."
"Gibbs?" Jack sounded amazed, "what is there to be worried about? I told you he's to be trusted and you've left it a little late to decide you don't believe me darlin'."
"I do trust him, that not the issue."
"Then what is?" He reached out and caught her arm, "Out with it, if ought is wrong with Gibbs then I want to know."
"There's nothing wrong, at least not yet, but I'm worried about how he is going to cope when Ariadne takes a hand."
She shook herself free and stepped past him,
" You've seen some of what she can do, but I think it's going to come as a shock even to you, in his case it will be much worse because you've insisted that I keep quiet about Ariadne."
Elanor shrugged impatiently as he opened his mouth to protest,
" Oh he knows she's there, and he's got used to her changing canvas and taking the helm, though he crosses himself each time he sees it."
"Does he?" Jack was wide eyed, "Well who would have thought it! Still I suppose he feels it necessary to take care with the Almighty, given that he put himself on the wrong side of one goddess."
Elanor decided it was best not to follow that hare, though she filed it for future enquiry.
"He might well think that the devil himself is rising when he sees."
"Might he?"
Jack was now looking decidedly uneasy and the look set her wondering when exactly she had marked out Jack as an equal, for she had and as result she had given little thought to how he might react to Aridane showing her claws. No more than she would have done to someone of her own world in fact, even though he too referred to Ariadne as her ghost, and even though she had been careful to keep him away from Ariadne's physical presence. Now she wondered how, exactly, he would respond to what was coming, and what that response might mean for the future. Drawing a deep breath she turned to face him putting her hands lightly on his shoulders; he shifted uneasily meeting her eyes with something close to apprehension. Elanor spoke gently but with emphasis,
"It's going to frighten him Jack. He finds me worrying enough as it is and I don't want him to be so scared of me he refuses to come back to the ship. Talk to him will you.... please?"
"And tell him what?" he shifted beneath her hands, as if he wanted to run but would not allow himself to move, "What should I tell him when I don't know meself?"
She shook her head in frustration,
"I can't explain. There is no way to explain. Call it magic of you will, but just don't let him be afraid of me." She was slightly shocked to realise how much that mattered to her, "I like him Jack. I wouldn't do him any harm willingly and I don't want to be the cause of him marooning himself here, I don't want to be the cause of his death."
Elanor became aware that Jack was pale beneath the tan and that his shoulders were stiff under her hands, it was only too obvious that he wanted to escape from her grip. Strange given his flirtations of ten minutes ago. His eyes were wide and black and the look in them shook her, if he'd brought his pistol she'd be looking down the barrel of it. With a frown she let him go,
"What is it? What have I said to make you look at me like that?"
"Nothing," he replied quickly, but he stepped away from her as soon as she released him, turning away to stride off through the surf.
"I mean it Jack," she called after him, "I don't want to hurt or frighten him, or you come to that."
He stopped and spun around in flurry of flapping sleeves and flying hair,
"Frighten me! Why should you think that you can luv?" The tone was mocking but there was a savagery in his face that pierced her own concern and made her stare at him in bewilderment.
"I don't. You might find it a bit of a surprise, a shock even, but you'll cope." She closed on him again, "You're a clever man Jack, I worked that out in the first day, and you're no coward either. Mr Gibbs, though also no coward is not such a clever man and he is superstitious. I am worried about him!"
"Kind of you!" the tone was still unfriendly.
"Jack what the hell has got into you? We are here because you want to be, we are doing this because you want to do it, Mr Gibbs is your friend, and possibly the only person in the world you can rely on, other than me. I'm not criticising him, or you, but I am worried about how he is going to react when the ship blasts the way through that rock without canon ball or powder and from the other side of the reef! Is that so surprising?"
He looked away from her, up towards the cloudless morning sky and drew a deep breath,
"Suppose not." His shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh, "don't worry, I'll stop him running for the hills," he looked back towards the centre of the little island, "were there any hills to run for. How long before your ghost does her magic?"
Elanor shrugged,
"I estimate we've got another couple of hours of digging still to do, then about half an hour of preparation before she can do her stuff."
He nodded then turned away again
"I'll warn him." He threw back over his shoulder, "But tis a pity we haven't any more rum."
***
In the end it was closer to three hours of digging before Elanor was satisfied that it could be done. But the time had taken its toll of them all and for a while the three of them sprawled on the sand in the shrinking shade, unable to find the energy even to think about going on. Water, and an easing of cramped limbs, eventually revived them and it was Jack who first broached the topic,
"Your ghost can take it from here can she?"
Elanor raised a weary head to look at him, repressing a smile at the sight of his sand rimed hair and sweat soaked shirt and wondering if he had ever worked quite so hard before or for so long. Surely it was to avoid labour of the kind he had seen in the last few days that he had turned pirate in the first place? But he appeared unconcerned by it and as he sat cross legged on the sand he seemed to be more than willing to go on.
"I think so. I'll check it with Ariadne to be sure."
That brought a grunt from Mr Gibbs,
"Rowin' back will take time. Sun'll be full high by the time we make it. Maybe we should leave the rest till tomorrow and start afresh."
"No. We need to get started now." Jack showed his first sign of irritation since they arrived, "Seen no one so far but might not stay that way. Sooner we get down there sooner we can get away."
"No need to go anywhere," Elanor soothed, "I can talk to her from here."
Both men turned to stare at her, one in fear and one in disbelief. Elanor sighed,
"Look just trust me will you? I know it seems strange to you but.. Well just trust me. We've not done anything to harm you so far have we?"
She cast Jack a warning look and spoke apparently to the sky.
"Can you hear me Ariadne?"
"Clearly" Ariadne's calm tone echoed across the sand.
Gibbs backed away with a curse, feet scrabbling in the sand and staring around him as if expecting to see some form of apparition materialise beside him. Jack reached out and caught his wrist, then just stared at Elanor open mouthed and wide eyed. She smothered a smile at his suddenly incredulous look, if ever Jack could look gormless he was doing it at the this moment, but then in his place she might well have run as far away as she could. Gibbs was white with the fear of it and she knew that only loyalty to Jack, and an iron grip, was holding him where he was; best make it quick for greater shocks were yet to come.
"Good. I think we have reached the point we agreed. I'll set the sensors and relay and then check with you again. Hold the wand until then."
"Agreed. I will wait for your signal."
Leaving Jack and Gibbs where they were Elanor crossed to the pile of equipment and pulled out the small box she had hidden under a stack of rope. Seeing the box open at her touch Jack gave Gibbs a warning look and strode across to join her. If she heard him come she paid no attention, nor did she when he leaned over her shoulder staring in fascinated confusion at the contents she was so carefully removing. The small objects had the shape and thickness of a coin, each had a dark glossy sheen that was unlike anything he had ever seen, and in the shimmering surface he thought he could see a tracing of silver. Then there was a square item too, larger than the black coins but still small enough to be hidden in the palm of a her hand and with a surface more grey than black but with the same hint of silver tracery within it.
"What are these?" he pointed a wary finger at the coins.
She cast him a flat and expressionless look over her shoulder,
"Sensors. They will allow Ariadne to decide if we have dug enough for her to take over. This " she indicated the other thing, "is a relay it will make sure that Araidne's ... knife. is long enough to cut down to where the channel widens out."
"Oh." Well there was little else he could say, "What are you goin' to do with them?"
"Put them in the hole, Ariadne will use them to make her decision. If she's happy then the hard work is over for the moment." She cast him an uncertain look, "and the surprises start."
"Oh" Jack said again, trying to ignore the sudden tightening of his chest. "I'd better warn Gibbs then."
Elanor nodded as she got to her feet hiding the things she had taken from the box inside her shirt. Seeing that she wasn't intending to explain any further he left her to her preparations.
***
They had done enough it seemed and Elanor spent the next half hour positioning and fixing the relay, and the two others she had brought, to Ariadne's satisfaction. Finally it was done and she joined Jack and Gibbs where they sat in the small patch of shade.
"Will it make much a noise ma'am?" Gibbs asked nervously.
"Not much at all," she said with a reassuring smile. "There'll be no explosion either, or at least not much of one. But its best to stay out of the way, get between the Chaser and the hole and it will cut you in two."
Gibbs eyes were as wide and as round a saucers at the thought and Jack looked suddenly nervous.
"Safe enough here though? Eh?" was all he said.
She nodded but Jack scowled at her all the same,
"So what is going to happen then? Goin' to open the hole you said, but not how. Like drawnin' Kracken's teeth getting anything out of you."
There was peremptory note in his voice and Elanor looked at him in surprise, he seemed calm enough, if a little irritated, but as he generally avoided any unnecessary reference to his past, went to great lengths to do so in fact, him choosing those words now could only be a sign of just how anxious he really was.
She thought for a moment,
"You've been inside a smithy I take it?"
Jack nodded with a sly smile,
"Aye. That I most certainly have."
"Then you've seen fire melt metal. Ariadne is going to use something like fire to melt the rock."
Jack stared out towards the ship,
"How's that? The ship is too far away and the land is in the way."
"Just watch, and if you still want to know afterwards I'll explain it when we have more time." She cast a worried look towards Gibbs, "It's alright really, it's common enough magic where I come from and nothing will go wrong as long as we stay out of the line of fire."
"Then lets get on with it!" Jack exclaimed.
Elanor shrugged,
"Ariadne?"
"I am awaiting instructions."
"Raise the wand."
Jack frowned at her for a moment then stared back towards the ship; though he couldn't be certain at this distance it seemed that a thin spire arose from out of the main mast, the flash of the sun on it the only thing that made him sure it was there.
"Wand extended to the required height." Ariadne's voice came calmly.
"Confirm trajectory." Elanor instructed.
Jack felt the tension growing as the reply came,
"Trajectory confirmed."
"Fire at will." Elanor instructed calmly.
From the thin spire came a lance of light, brighter than the sun and dangerous looking, flashing over the sea and land. Gibbs swore and scuttled backwards his face a mask of horror until Jack spoke warningly,
"As you were Mr Gibbs, as you were."
His words came out fainter than pleased him, but evenly enough.
The light, thin and evil looking as a rapier blade, struck the box she had set in the top of the hole and, turning a corner downwards, disappearing into the darkness beneath the overhang, shattering the shadow and filling the space with an eerie blue white glow as it went. For a moment the light held steady, then there was hiss as if water was falling onto hot rocks and then as suddenly as it appeared the light turned off.
Elanor spoke into the silence,
"Ariadne, status?"
"Operation completed successfully. Access achieved."
"Very well. Retract wand and standby."
"Confirmed, wand retracting. I will stand by."
Both Jack and Gibbs turned their eyes to the Dawn Chaser still riding sedately at anchor, the spire on the mast slowly disappeared.
Jack turned to look at her with an unfathomable look in his eyes and a set jaw, then he got to his feet and came to stand over her,
"More lightening?" he said coldly.
Elanor stared up at him calmly,
"I told you I wasn't defenceless, and that I couldn't let the Chaser be taken. Do you see now why I don't want to be backed into a corner?"
He stared down at her for a long moment then he nodded but his grim expression didn't ease,
"And here was I thinkin' the heart was danger enough. Didn't know the half of it did I?" He turned towards the ship again and the looked faded to a faint smile, "interesting though, very interesting.... and useful."
Gibbs stared at him in confusion but said nothing.
Elanor shifted on the sand and Jack held out his hand to help her up,
"On to the fountain then."
Elanor nodded as she dusted her self down,
"Rest first. The tunnel Ariadne has cut won't be large and the rock will be too hot to move through yet." She straightened, "Better we wait until nightfall anyway, just in case we get company. I'll go and check what's facing us then we can decide how best to play this."
Jack nodded and watched with sombre eyes as she moved towards the overhang,
"Elanor" he called. "One thing more thing,"
She turned, brows raised in question, and he pointed an emphatic finger at her.
"Don't ever use that fire on me ship. Others if you have to but never the Pearl. Not without my agreement. Do so and I'll not rest until I kill you. Savvy?"
***
It was decided that Gibbs would stay behind, and he wasn't sorry for it. Since Jack's threat the air between the two captains had been artic cold and all the ease he had seen in them for the last week was gone. If he read the situation rightly the tension was coming from Jack, his shoulders were pulled up and in on himself and his face was stiff. That and the frequent sideways glances at the object of his outburst spoke of his unease and Gibbs suspected he was regretting his remark. Jack being Jack he wasn't about to say so though. Captain Cavendish on the other hand was all collected calm and her tone when she spoke to Jack was politeness itself, but the humour was gone and there was a formality he hadn't seen between them before. Gibbs she treated as before.
In the seconds after Jack had spoken, when the words hung heavy and ugly on the hot air, she had simply stared at him with steady, but shuttered, eyes. Then she had shrugged just the once and turned her back on him, to Gibbs it seemed that she did it with deliberation, before replying,
"Oh yes, I understand your meaning, " she cast a chilly look back over her shoulder, "and you are a very persistent man, are you not? I will remember Captain Sparrow."
Then she strode away. Jack had watched her go but Gibbs had caught the flick of his head and the twitch of his beard braids as he grimaced and swore, and doubted that Jack knew which of them the curse was for. The he had turned on his heel and stalked off towards the sea. Gibbs had sighed in both relief and exasperation and followed the lady to the overhang.
In the shade of the rock a darker circle showed where the ghosts fire had done its work. The hole itself was twice a shoulders width and smooth as glass,
"Mothers love but it's black," he had muttered to himself as he stared down into the open mouth and wondered if he could bring himself to descend into it.
Elanor had assured him it was barely twenty feet before it spilled out into the wider channel her ghost had already seen, but, head first or feet first, twenty feet was enough for a man to suffocate and he felt no desire to risk it. Now it seemed that he wouldn't have to.
But as he watched the other two prepare he was determined that he would have a word with the lady before they set off. He had not forgotten that she carried that lightening on her belt, though Jack appeared to have done so, and he was unwilling to let the pair of them go into the darkness together without her having a better of understanding of Jack's feeling for the Pearl and the singularity of it.
She seemed to realise this and after a while she left Jack preparing ropes and grapples in the shade, taking herself down to the boat, now uncovered on the sand, to collect more supplies. He followed her as if to help but he didn't have long for Jack looked up occasionally to watch her about their business, but he hoped it was enough.
***
"It's a poor choice, head first with nothing but blackness before you or feet first not knowin' what's waiting for you below." Jack said quietly.
"Much like the rest of the life then." Elanor said shortly as she lowered the rope into the hole.
"That it is." Jack agreed. He turned to Gibbs, "best cover that boat again mate, don't want to attract attention."
"Aye, I'll do it now afore you two disappear."
Jack watched Gibbs hurry away toward the boat on the shore, a wry look on his face.
"Wish he'd used other words than disappear," he said softly.
"Changed your mind Jack?" Elanor spoke without raising her eyes from the rope.
"No," he paused and looked at her warily, "have you?"
"No. I agreed, I'll see it through."
There was silence for a moment then Jack reached out and grasped her wrist,
"Captain Cavendish," he started formally, but the words died as she turned to stare at him. He sighed and pulled her closer closing his hand over hers, and smiling with a most unusual diffidence, "'lanor, you're captain of a fine ship, and a good captain I'll not say otherwise. That fair lady out there is all that stands between you and the world and you'd do anything to protect her would you not? Including killin' me. I'd not berate you for that. But....."
"I do understand Jack," she broke in.
"Do you?" he said uncertainly, not quite understanding what was happening.
"Yes, better than maybe you think. But I'd not kill you for a ship, any ship, not unless I had to, not unless all other options were exhausted. Nor would I sell you. Can you say the say same?"
She turned back to the rope pulling on her hand but he held it tight, using more strength against her than he had ever done before. Elanor looked up again with a frown and his fingers tightened further around her own keeping them trapped. He stared at her uncertainly for a moment then smiled,
"Yes. I promise that in the same circumstances I'd do no more and no less than you would."
She watched him for a moment longer then relaxed, before yanking her hand away in a show of her own strength.
"Well that's all right then," she said.
A sound behind them warned of Mr Gibbs return and she smiled at Jack and gestured at the black shadow that was the entrance to the world below,
"So which of us goes first?"
Jack looked from her to the ship in the bay and then back again. His smiled widened into that familiar flash of gold and he reached out and took the rope from her hand
"I do."
With that he sat down and slid over the edge and into the darkness.
Elanor watched his head disappear with a faint smile,
"I'll take that as an apology shall I?" she whispered as she sank down to sit on the edge.
She heard Gibbs behind her and felt his hand on her shoulder for a moment,
"I'll watch yer backs ma'am," he said quietly.
She looked up at him over her shoulder.
"I know."
Gibbs nodded,
" Keep an eye on Jack for me will yer, for his he's in a real strange mood, no sayin' what he'll be agettin into to. "
She smiled and nodded once then she followed Jack into the ground.