Later they woke, and it was James who spoke first. "You were right about Beckett. He is a monster."
Elizabeth did not take the usual pleasure in being told that she was right about something. "The Brethren Court will stop him, James. We will convene at Shipwreck Cove to make a plan. There must be balance upon the seas. No one man should hold all that power. We will scuttle Beckett and Jones both if we can."
James knew something of the Pirate Lords from questioning captives but could hardly wrap his head about the fact that Elizabeth was one. "You will have to sail fast for the Cove once I release you. No dallying. No excess weight. I will stall here, but there is something unholy about this vessel. It makes time like the Devil himself speaks into her sails. Can you do that, Captain Swann?"
Elizabeth nodded eagerly, the novelty of being called captain still shiny and fresh, and hearing it from him did something ridiculous to her insides.
A small smile curled James' lips that did not quite reach his eyes.
"But what about you? What will you tell them?"
Wryly he replied, "Surely you do not think I rose so high in the Navy without mastering the art of explaining away a bungled order, my love?"
Elizabeth could not help but laugh, and his use of the latter endearment made her heart swell to the point where she thought it might burst from her chest.
He rose from the berth and went to a basket of rolled up charts, thumbing through and selecting one. He spread it out on the freshly cleared desk, and Elizabeth paused to watch him lovingly. He cut a dashing figure in his shirtsleeves and yellow waistcoat, short hair mused from their lovemaking and eyes bright for the chase.
Perhaps she'd lied a little when she said yellow was not his color.
He beckoned she join him with a crooked finger, and she slid down from the berth, picking her way through the spilled accoutrements scattered on the floor.
"At my last calculation we are here," he said, pointing out an area of the map. "You need to go this way, and if you take this channel the winds should blow in your favor. It looks longer, but trust me."
Elizabeth gave James an appraising look, surprise written in her eyes. "You know where the Cove is?"
"Am I or am I not the Scourge of Piracy?" he teased, an astonishingly playful glint in his green eyes.
"Yes but…if you knew all along…"
James let her wonder. The fact was that it was intelligence gleaned recently by one of Beckett's spies, and thus James had been made privy.
"The Devil's Throat, as they call the entrance, is not only treacherous but also highly fortified with canon. They can spot a hostile vessel from miles away, and can outwait a blockade almost indefinitely. I would think you may have trouble convincing the other pirates to come out of their fortress to fight."
"We will find a way."
Somehow, James knew that we included she and Jack. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.
She was so determined, but also so very young. James' heart ached with the thought of letting her march off to this uncertain fate, and yet he knew now that he could not keep her. She would not stand for it. He could hang her, or he could let her go.
He could not hang her, and so he had to let her go.
XXX
As her crew slipped over the aft of the Dutchman, shimmying down the tow ropes like so many monkeys, Elizabeth turned to James. His face was cast in shadow, so that she could only see the grim set of his mouth. She slipped her fingers into his, squeezing his hand. "You could come with us," she said. "I wish you would."
James paid her a crooked smile that tugged at her heartstrings. "I am not a pirate, Elizabeth, as I think you know."
"A wise man once said 'Perhaps if on the rare occasion pursuing the right course demands an act of piracy, piracy itself can be the right course.'"
James' smile widened a little as she quoted Weatherby's words, and a pang of regret for that dear man's fate pained him in his guts. "Indeed. But I should stay here. You'll need a man on the inside, my Lord. Now go on, it's your turn."
Elizabeth's lips twisted with amusement. It seemed that James enjoyed her new titles almost as much as she did.
"Who's there!" barked a gruff voice from the ratlines above.
James' heart sank to his feet. Discovery so soon would ruin everything. Quickly he checked to see if anyone was still visible climbing down the tow line, and thankfully the last Chinese pirate had made it aboard The Empress. Quickly he grabbed Elizabeth, tugging her to hide behind a stack of barnacle-crusted barrels.
"Oi! I know I heard someone here," grumbled one of Jones' crew members, jumping down to the aft gunwale of the ship. Slowly the crewman looked about, his greatcoat covered in seaweed and coral, constantly dripping upon the decks. It was a man they called Bootstrap, James recognized, and he hoped the man would prove as daft as on their previous encounters.
They held their breaths as Bootstrap came closer to the barrels, peering about. James did his best to tuck Elizabeth under him, making them small as possible in their shadowy hiding place.
Finally with a grunt Bootstrap moved on, talking to himself under his breath. "Part of the ship, part of the crew. Part of the ship, part of the crew. Losing it, ye are, ol' Bootstrap. Part of the ship…"
Elizabeth dared look up after the retreating fish-man. "That's Will's father," she whispered, her eyes wide with dismay.
"Not anymore, I fear," said James, and Elizabeth sadly agreed. The magic of this cursed ship did something awful to its crew and its master, making them unrecognizable as the humans they once were.
Elizabeth turned towards James, finding herself nose to nose with the Admiral. "James…when this is all over—"
James pressed his lips to hers, by far his favorite way of hushing her up. He knew what she was going to say. He knew it in his heart—what was left of it, and he just couldn't stand it. To know it was one thing, but to hear it, now, so soon after… When finally they parted, breathless, he assured her quietly, "You don't have to say anything, Elizabeth. I fear all along that our destinies have been entwined, but never joined. There is nothing for it, I suppose."
Elizabeth frowned, and her hand fisted in his waistcoat, pulling him into another torrid, almost violent kiss, her teeth clashing with his as she took him with her lips and tongue. "Daft man," she hissed at a star struck Admiral. She'd managed to kiss him silly. "I was going to say if we survive all this I would marry you, but I suppose not if that's how you feel about it." She stood quickly and made her way to the tow line, scaling the railing with a lithesome balance. She poleaxed him so perfectly with her heartfelt admission that James was too late to catch her. She mounted the rope and began to climb down to The Empress without another word, and he dared not shout out to her.
Instead he watched her carefully, waiting until her shadow disappeared onto the Empress before cutting the line with a boarding axe. His body trembled with the adrenaline of the caper, and of course plenty of fear. Despite all that, he couldn't help but smile a little.
If they survived…
They would survive, he told himself. They must. They had come too far. Despite the impossible odds, if anyone could pull this off, it was her and Jack Sparrow.
"Fair winds, Captain Swann," he whispered to the darkness, watching the junk's silhouette fade into the night, and his heart with it.