Thanks for the continuing support!
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Pirates of the Caribbean nor it's characters. I only own Abigail Unger and Sarah Williams.
Chapter 10: The Brethren Court
Stepping inside the town was nerve-wracking. Sarah and Abby stayed close together as they walked through and past dozens of old ships turned into a town. There were poorly made wooden bridges they had to walk over and with the infamous drunkards that stumbled around.
"Why do I feel like I never left Tortuga?" Abby asked Sarah as they walked along the boardwalk Barbossa led them on.
Sarah stole another glance behind her. "They do share similar atmospheres, don't they?" Jack walked in front of her, avoiding the eyes of anyone they walked past. "Hey, Jack," she called. "You have been here before, haven't you?"
"Of course," he answered gruffly. Pausing, he waited for Sarah to catch up so they walked side by side. "The first time I ever set foot in the place was when the Court of Inquiry met."
"For what reason?" She asked, sounding bored, but she was rather interesting in hearing what happened. They reached a crowded area and Jack's voice grew loud as they went through.
"Rogue pirates," Jack said, maneuvering around past a man so slow it barely looked like he was walking. "They disobeyed the code, slaughtering victims and attacking fellow pirate ships. One of the pirates there, Boris Palachnik, was accused of being one of them but when the Brethren met, we found no evidence of his alliance. So dear ole Davy Jones was summoned to the meeting."
Sarah's jaw dropped. "Jones? He actually went to a meeting of the Brethren Court?"
Jack nodded, waving his hand as he explained. "That was after meeting in the hall. Jones was summoned onto a ship where he was questioned since of course he knows everything that happens on sea. Jones found Boris guilty and he and his men were imprisoned."
"That's rather fascinating," Abby commented, trying to keep up her pace with the two throughout the crowd as she ran into many people.
"You could say that. The bloody idiot deserved it, being imprisoned and all for being behind the murders of fellow pirates."
Sarah linked her arm through his. "I was wondering something. How did you become a pirate, Jack?"
Jack's face grew solemn. Peering ahead, he pointed and exclaimed, "Ah! Here we are!" Freeing himself of Sarah's arm, Jack went ahead of them through the doorway that lead to the Pirate Hall (or Great Chamber as it is also known as). Sarah scoffed and walked in, linking her arm with Abby's instead.
Nine crews crowded into the large room around a long table where each captain sat at. Sarah stared in awe at them as the pirate lords sat with confidence, waiting for the meeting to start.
The main source of the light in the room came from a rusted small chandelier that hung over the table. Candles line the many bars and rings that made up the chandelier. There were other lanterns, candles, and torches scattered around in the corners.
The doors closed when the last bit of people gathered in. Barbossa stepped up to the table with a small cannonball chained to the end. He knocked on the table three times with it. "As he who issued summons," he announced, "I convene this, the Fourth Brethren Court."
The crews murmured to each other and also what Abby assumed to be some translating.
"To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow cap'ns."
Ragetti pushed through to each pirate lord for their pieces of eight into the bowl he carried.
The pieces of eight weren't exactly the pieces of eight Sarah had in mind. They were pieces of…stuff. One captain had tweezers, another with a card from a deck, and one even put a little cup in there.
"Those aren't pieces of eight. They're just pieces of junk," Pintel said under his breath.
Sarah nodded in agreement. "Yeah, what is up with that? Where is the cool little matching coins or something?"
"Aye," Gibbs also agreed. "The original plan was indeed to use nine pieces of eight to bind Calypso. But when the First Court met, the Brethren were to one skint broke."
"So change the name."
Gibbs looked amused. "To 'nine pieces of whatever we happened to have in our pockets at the time?' Oh yes. That sounds very piratey."
Sarah watched the bowl go around. "Well I think it sounds better than lying about not using some cool coins." She crossed her arms and leaned up against the table, but Barbossa pulled her back, giving her a warned look.
Ragetti finally came full circle back to Barbossa. Holding out his hand, the captain motioned for something. "Master Ragetti, if you will."
Ragetti looked up from Barbossa's hand. "I kept it safe, just like you said when you gave it to me."
"Aye, you have. But now I need it back."
18h agoNeither Sarah nor Abby knew what the two were talking about. Abby looked at Ragetti to see if he was taking anything out of his pockets. But his hands clutched the bowl with his head bent downward. Barbossa slapped the back of Ragetti's head and caught the wooden eye that flew out of Ragetti's socket, and tossed it in the bowl.
"But that is his eye," Abby said, pointing at the bowl.
"Not anymore," Sarah replied with disgust from the pop the wooden eye gave when it fell out.
"Sparrow," one of the captain's shouted. The attention in the room turned to Jack who stood behind the crowed, playing with the small swords sticking out of a globe. He brought his hand up to his bandana that had a small piece of hair covered in beads with a coin at the end handing from the top. He toyed with the coin for a minute, and then dropped his hand.
He strolled up to the table with an attempt to change the subject. "Might I point out that we are still short one pirate lord, and I'm as content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us."
"Sao Feng is dead."
By the main doors, Elizabeth stood sporting new clothing with a crew behind her. She stepped up to the globe and stuck her sword into sea by eastern Asia. "He fell to the Flying Dutchman."
"What?" Abby asked. "So Jones knows where we are at?"
"It seems so," Elizabeth said with a frown.
The room erupted into chaos as one yelled at another about the ship or even about another topic.
Jack spun around to face Elizabeth. "He made you captain? They're giving the bloody title away now. I thought Sarah over here would be given it first."
Sarah's jaw dropped. "What?"
"What?" he mocked.
Pushing past the two, Elizabeth stepped up to the table. "Listen. Listen to me!" Her voice was almost lost in the sea of voices, but she kept speaking. "Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett. They're on their way here."
The voices quieted at the last part. Sarah thought back to the previous night when Will fell off of the boat. "That son of a b***," she growled.
"What?" Abby looked at her for an answer.
"I know who gave us away," Sarah whispered, hoping she would remember. "Remember a couple of nights ago when Jack sent Will off again to Jones?"
Confused, Abby raised an eyebrow before she remembered. "But why?"
"To get what he wants: the Pearl."
One of the captain's stood up from his seat, looking around. "Who is this betrayer?"
"Not likely anyone among us," Barbossa reassured.
"Where's Will?" Elizabeth asked.
"Not among us," Jack replied.
"It matters not how they found us. The question is, what will we do not that they have?"
"We fight," Elizabeth said, breaking the silence. The room erupted into laughter at the suggestion. Yet, the crew of the Black Pearl remained silent.
An older pirate lord, Mistress Ching, stood up. Her face, painted white with her eyes outline in black and her lips and cheeks blotched with red, remained solemn. "Shipwreck Cove is a fortress. A well-supplied fortress. There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us."
Agreement passed around. "There be a third course," Barbossa said finally ready to get to his point. "In another age, at this very spot, the First Brethren Court captured the sea goddess and bound her in her bones." He nodded along with everyone in understanding, but then shook it. "That was a mistake. Oh yes, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye. But opened the door to Beckett and his ilk! Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. You all know this to be true." He paused. "Gentlemen. Ladies. We must free Calypso."
Sarah shut her eyes waiting for the reaction of the others. It was silent in the room and she opened an eye wondering why someone hadn't already said something. But many voices started to speak at once and she closed her eye. "I had a feeling something like this would happen," She muttered under her breath.
"Shoot him!"
"Cut out his tongue!"
"Shoot him, cut out his tongue, then shoot his tongue," Jack agreed, putting the two threats together. "And trim that beard."
Tai Huang stepped up. "Sao Feng would've agreed with Barbossa."
"So you decide to be on our side again?" Sarah asked him with her eyes narrowed.
Tai Huang looked at her. "I was always on your side. Just under different circumstances."
"Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now." The same captain that suggested to cutting out Barbossa's tongue, Jocard, said.
"It's unlikely her mood's improved," said another.
"I would still agree with Sao Feng. We release Calypso!"
A fight broke out between two captains and gun fired in the air. Sarah and Abby stared at the scene in awe, trying to comprehend all that had happened.
"What is happening?" Abby wondered aloud, not anticipating an answer.
Elizabeth looked at the fighting with disgust. "This is madness."
"This is politics," Jack corrected, cringing at the fights.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Meanwhile, our enemies are bearing down upon us."
"If they not be here already."
"Please tell me that they aren't. I wouldn't want them walking in on this embarrassment," Sarah pleaded. From the looks of it, the fighting wasn't planning on settling. With a huff, Sarah pulled out her pistol, pushed Barbossa out of the way who moved forward, stepped up on the table, and fired it.
The room fell silent. "Guys, fighting about this will get you nowhere," Sarah scolded. "Can we at least be civil about this and calmly figure things out?"
"And who might you be?" The Pirate Lord, Eduardo Villanueva, asked with narrow eyes.
She dropped her arm and put the gun back in it's strap on her belt. "My name is Sarah Williams and I have come here to stop this madness that is happening out there! In order to fix all of this, we might actually have to free the sea goddess whether some of you may like it or not. Understand?"
The stares she got in return intimidated her. In that moment she realized she scolded some powerful pirates like they were children. No other words formed in her throat as she stared with a hint of fear, right back at them.
Barbossa pulled her off of the table before someone shot or threw something at her. He seethed with anger and frustration when he spoke. "It was the First Court what imprisoned Calypso. We should be the ones to set her free. And in her gratitude, she will see fit to grant us boons."
Jack peered in front of Barbossa. "Whose boons? Your boons? Utterly deceptive twaddle-speak, says I".
"If you have a better alternative, please, share."
"Cuttlefish. Aye." Jack smiled and shooed people out of the way while we walked around the table. "Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends, the cuttlefish. Flipping glorious little sausages. Pen them up together; they'll devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, isn't it? Or…or fish nature."
"Where are you going with this, Jack?" Sarah followed Jack around.
He turned and put a hand up to her. "Let me finish."
"Fine. Go on."
"So, yes, we could hold up here well-provisioned and well-armed," he continued while his hands lingered on the back of Mistress Ching's chair. "Half of us would be dead within the month. Which seems quite grim to me, any way you slice it. Or…uh…As my learned colleague so naively suggests, we can release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful." He leaned down to a short man. "I rather doubt it." He stood back up. "Can we pretend she's anything other than a woman scorned like which fury hell hath no? We cannot. Res ipsa loquitur, tabula in naufragio. We are left but with one option. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are coming out of me mouth…Captain Swann. We must fight."
Barbossa's eyes narrowed. "You've always run away from a fight."
"Have not."
"Have too," Sarah interjected right when Barbossa said "Have so."
"Have not!" Jack told the two.
"Have so!"
"Have not!"
"You have so, and you know it," Barbossa finished.
Jack frowned. "Have not. Slander and calumny. I have only embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit that here now that is what we all must do: We must fight…to run away."
"Aye!" Gibbs shouted, following with many other ayes.
Sarah shook her head and shouted, "Nope! Definitely not!"
"As per the code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king."
"That pirate who?" Abby asked. The name rang a bell somewhere in her head, but she wasn't sure.
Jack pointed a finger accusingly at Barbossa. "You made that up."
"Did I, now? I call on Cap'n Teague, keeper of the code."
Sarah watched Jack's face go from victory to dread. Some man was shouting about hanging the code, but she ignored him and went up to Jack. "Jack -"
A gunshot rang in the air and the man fell onto the ground with a thud. Sarah froze with her hand outstretched to Jack and turned her head towards the source of the gunshot.
Up on a balcony stood a figure with a large hat on. He moved back into the doorway and reappeared in the room where Sarah could see his features better. Now she knew why Jack looked freaked. Captain Teague looked like an older version of Jack. His long black hair, twisted into dreadlocks, held many beads and two small matching crosses. Scars covered his face along with the many wrinkles showcasing his age.
"Code is the law," Captain Teague said with his deep bass voice. He swaggered towards the table to where Jack and Sarah stood. They both turned around as he neared them. "You're in my way, boy," he told Jack. Pushing Sarah along with him, Jack slid away to the corner of the table. Teague signaled for the two old men that stood in the corner to come forward.
Shuffling towards the table, each of their hands held a corner of the large book they carried. Sarah was afraid it might break off their arms from the size of the book.
"Is that the thing with all the things?" She asked Jack.
He nodded. "It is."
Sarah eyes bored into the cover of The Code. The cover was leather lined with pieces of metal and a lock where it opened. The dog that Abby remembered from the jail cell came running up to the table when Teague whistled and set the keys in his hand.
Abby stared at the dog. "Holy crap how did that dog get here?"
Teague looked up at her. "Sea turtles." The dog barked as Teague unlocked the book and opened it in the middle. The first half of the book fell onto the table with a thud, spraying dust everywhere. His eyes skimmed the page, reading the text. Sarah leaned over and squinted at the tiny cursive letters.
Looking up from the page, Teague nodded towards Barbossa. "Ah. Barbossa is right."
Jack read the page. "Hang on a minute.'It shall be the duties, as the king, to declare war, parley with shared adversaries…'" He tapped the word Parley. "Fancy That."
"There has not been a king since the First Court. And that's not likely to change."
" Not likely," Teague muttered, walking to the back of the room.
"Why not?" Elizabeth asked.
"You see, the pirate king is elected by popular vote," Gibbs explained and Abby leaned in to listen.
"And each pirate only votes for hisself," Barbossa concluded.
"I call for a vote!" Jack announced. A guitar began to play as everyone murmured to each other in agreement with Jack and began to vote.
"I vote for Ammand the corsair."
"Capitaine Chevalle, the penniless Frenchman."
"Sri Sumbhajee votes for Sri Sumbhajee."
"Mistress Ching."
"Gentlemen Jocard."
"Elizabeth Swann."
"Barbossa."
"Vallenueva!"
"Elizabeth Swann."
"What?"
Jack smiled. "I know. Curious, isn't it?" Shouting erupted once again.
"Way to go, Jack." Sarah told him shaking her head.
"You know, if you were a captain and not Elizabeth, I would have voted for you."
She scoffed. "Yeah right. But I have to agree with you on this one. Elizabeth is a good choice to be the Pirate King…or should I say Queen…"
"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" Jack acknowledged. The room was silent and a guitar string broke, making Sarah cringe.
Sitting down, Mistress Ching nodded. "Very well. What say you, Captain Swann, king of the Brethren Court?"
Elizabeth straightened. "Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn…we're at war." She met Sarah's eyes. Sarah nodded, backing her up.
"And so," declared a high pitched voice, "we shall go to war!"