"Gentlemen!" Barbossa calls in the large crowd of pirates. Even from up here, I can see every scar, smell every rank smell. And there is a lot of rankness to smell. "The time has come! Our salvation is nigh! Our torment is near at end!"
"Elizabeth." Will says, finally spotting her. She is dressed in a dark burgundy dress that exposes such skin that would have Father passing out.
Barbossa continues his tirade, "For ten years we've been tested and tried."
"Really?" I whisper to Jack, grinning and giddy at having finally reached out goal, "I couldn't tell through all the dirt and wounds and the smell... oh the smell!"
Jack grins back.
"And each man jack of you here has proved his mettle a hundred times over and a hundred times again!" Barbossa says as a cheer rises from the dozens of figures below. "Punished, we were, the lot of us-disproportionate to our crimes!" He kicks off the stone chest's lid revealing the blinding gold pieces of Cortez, "The cursed treasure of Cortez' himself. Every last piece that went astray, we have returned! Save for this." He says, pointing to the last coin, being used as a medallion around Elizabeth's neck.
"Jack!" Will hisses, scrambling up trying to get to my sister, upsetting some of the treasure as well.
"No yet." Jack replies, yanking him back to the ground. "We wait for the opportune moment.
Barbossa's voice rises again, "Eight hundred and one we found but despaired of ever finding the last.
"When's that?" Will argues, upset at being restrained, "When it's of greatest profit to you?"
"May I ask you something?" Jack says, trying to calm Will down, "Have I ever given you reason not to trust me? Do us a favor? I know it's difficult for you, but please stay here and try not to do anything stupid." He gets to his feet, "Both of you." He finishes before turning around and walking back the way we came.
Will follows him after a few moments but I don't dare move. I don't dare let Elizabeth out of my sight.
"And who among us has paid the blood sacrifice owed to the heathen gods?" Barbossa calls out to his men.
"Us!" I deafening cry rises from the crowd.
"And whose blood must yet be paid?" He asks.
"Hers!" They respond.
Barbossa leans back, obviously proud of his men's loyalty, "You know that first thing I'm going to do after the curse is lifted? Eat a whole bushel of apples."
He takes a dagger and calls, "Begun by blood, by blood undone."
My heart hammers in my chest. My breathe is gone and my mind freezes.
I am frozen in the spot, unable to do anything. Not call out for Will or Jack. Not call Elizabeth's name for what seems to be the last time.
Barbossa reaches for Elizabeth's hand and cuts her palm clean open, letting the blood flow onto the last medallion.
Faintly, I can hear Elizabeth gasp, "That's it?"
Barbossa's reply cannot be heard from my position as he drops the final coin onto the rest in the chest. No ones moves. I doubt any of them dares to breathe.
After a minutes, one of the pirates, a black man with long matted hair, walks forward, "Did it work?"
Another pirate, this one scraggily and skinny, speaks up, "I don't feel no different."
The man right beside him turns to Barbossa, "How do we tell?"
Barbossa swiftly takes out and shoots the man in the chest. Elizabeth's eyes grow wide but she doesn't make a sound. However, in my shock, I let a squeak of surprise and garner a few questioning looks from the crowd. Thankfully, the stones surrounding me are placed in a way that the can't see me.
The pirate that was shot still stands and the first man, Matted-Hair says, "You're not dead."
"No." The pirate replies happily then turns to Barbossa accusingly, "He shot me!"
Every one ignores him and the skinny pirate speaks up, disappointed, "It didn't work."
"The curse is still upon us!" Another pirate calls out.
Furious, Barbossa turns to Elizabeth, "You, maid! Your father, what was his name? Was your father William Turner?
Maid? William Turner? What does the curse have to do with Will?
Elizabeth straightens up and looks the pirate in the eye, "No." Is her proud reply.
"Where's his child?" Barbossa grabs the bloody medallion from the chest and shakes it in her face, "The child that sailed from England eight years ago, the child in whose veins flows the blood of William Turner. Where!?" He shouts, not even waiting for an answer before backhanding her, sending her, and the medallion, down the hill of treasure and to the edge of the water.
A tall black man covered in markings, who towers over everyone else turns to the two other pirates, the bigger one that got shot, and the skinny one that reminds me of an underfed rat. "You two! You brought us the wrong person!" He accuses them.
The bigger pirate who had survived the gunshot protests, "No! She had the medallion! She's the proper age!"
Rat-face speaks up, "She said her name was Turner! You heard her! I think she lied to us."
Again, talking about Will! Somehow, I know I didn't get the whole story I deserved.
I turn to where Elizabeth lies and spot Will, slowly swimming to her in the water. Her motions for her to follow him into the water. She grabs the fallen medallion and lets him lower her and the heavy extravagant dress into the water.
One of the pirates turns to Barbossa, "You! You brought us here for nothing!"
Barbossa only sneers, "I won't take questioning and no second guesses, not from the likes of you, Master Twigg."
Matted-Hair stands up for Twigg. "Who's to blame? Every decision you've made has led us from bad to worse."
Another pirate calls out, "It was you who sent Bootstrap to the depths!"
Markings speaks up, "And it's you who brought us here in the first place.
Barbossa shouts over the crowd of what he had believed to be his loyal men, "If any coward here dare challenge me, let him speak! Hmm?"
Matted-Hair takes on a different approach , "I say, we cut her throat and spill all her blood, just in case."
I rub my throat, disgusted by the turn of events and thankful that Will had gotten to her in time.
Barbossa looks on over to where Elizabeth had fallen and realizes that both her and the medallion is gone. "The medallion! She's taken it! Get after her you feckless pack of ingrates!"
I cower behind a rock and listen as the cave erupts into anger and arguing. The pirates race to their boats only to find their oars missing.
"No oars here! Where's the oars?" A pirate calls out.
"The oars have gone missing. Find them!" Markings orders.
Suddenly, from the corner of the cave, Jack appears.
Rat-face is the first to spot him, "You."
Soon all the pirates are crowded around, shocked.
"You're supposed to be dead!" Gunshot says.
Jack looks down at himself, "Am I not?"
Gunshot and a few other pirates take out their pistols and point them at Jack menacingly.
Jack looks up, "Oh. Palulay? Palu-li-la-la-luu, parlili?"He starts mumbling like an idiot, further confusing his audience, "Parsnip, pasley, par-partner. Partner?"
Rat-face speaks up, "Parley?"
"Parley!" Jack says, seemingly relieved at having found the right word, "That's the one. Parley! Parley!"
Parley: a discussion or conference, especially one between enemies over terms of a truce or other matters. I find myself thinking randomly, having recalled this term from my government lesson.
Gunshot spits on the ground, in disrespect, "Parley? Down to the depths whatever man that thought up parley!" He says in disgust.
Jack replies, "That would be the French."
Barbossa pushes his way through his men, "How the blazes did you get off that island?"
"When you marooned me on that godforsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate." Jack waits for a guess but when none comes, he finishes, "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Ah, well, I won't be making that mistake again. Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow? Kill him."
"No!" Someone shouts out as all the pirates take out their weapons and point them at Jack.
I look around to see whose voice that was. But when all the pirates turn towards me, I realize my mistake. It was my voice.
"There is a girl up there!" Gunshot calls out and a group of four or five pirates disappear around a corner, no doubt on their way to capture me.
I don't move but just stare at Jack, who looks both sad and angry at the same time. I keep my eyes on Jack as I feel harsh arms grab me from behind. I close my eyes as I am jostled around and then thrown to the ground at Barbossa's feet.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Barbossa gently pulls me to my feet, "Why, it is a wee little wench."
"Get your hands off of me." I hiss trying to pull myself away.
Barbossa holds on tight however and I only manage to annoy him. "You are a little fighter aren't you?" He whispers back.
Turning to Jack, he throws me to Markings and he proceeds to tie my hands behind my back.
"Where did she come from, Jack?" Barbossa asks.
"Um... she is my cousin's friend's husband's sister. Twice removed. Thought this was a pleasant trip and decided to sneak on board. No one important, really. "
"Come on, Jack." Barbossa laughs without joy. "You know you could never lie very well."
He takes out the same knife that cut Elizabeth's hand and presses it to my throat. "Now tell me the truth and I won't slit her throat just now."
"The girl's blood didn't work, did it?" Jack says, randomly, in an attempt to change the subject.
"You know whose blood we need?" Barbossa asks, lowering the dagger.
Jack nods, "I know whose blood ye need."
"To the ship!" Barbossa calls out to his men and with a cheer, they head towards their rafts.
"The oars! I found the oars!" Twigg calls out from behind a large rock near the entrance of the cave.
The oars are distributed and the men load up into the boats and one by one, they start rowing for the Black Pearl.
Markings still has a tight hold on me but as he is about to shove me into the boat, Barbossa calls out mockingly, "Bo'sun, be gentle. And put her in my room."
Jack is shoved in beside me and and grip onto him.
"Where is Will? And Elizabeth?" He asks.
I shake my head, "They must have left for the Interceptor. See? Our boat is gone."
"He left you, you know?"
"He must have forgotten." I reply, trying to defend Will's honour.
"He didn't forget. He just realized where his priorities lie." Jack's solemn response is.
"Hey you! No talking!" Bo'sun says roughly.
Jack and I pull our heads away as the dark waves and the strong oars pull us ever closer to the Black Pearl.
