It did not take long for the ship to lay anchor a certain distance from the rocky shoreline. After that, the majority of the pirate crew and our heroes had taken the longboats and had moved to the shore.
Jack watched in silence as he stood on the ancient pier while the rest of the men were busy dragging large thick nets out of the longboats. The night sky above them was dark, barely any start visible as if they had been intimidated by the presence of Blackbeard himself.
Not a single sound could be heard, other than the grunt of the men and the splashing of the waves against the rocky shore. Not too far away from him, the only visible structure was an old standing lighthouse that towered above them and stood strong; despite the passing years since its construction.
"Lay 'em out flat, no tangles, mend the holes. Make 'em to look purty, for our dainty guests!" Blackbeard ordered, watching with satisfaction as the next part of his plan was about to begin. He then turned to face the old lighthouse. "We're going to need light. A lot of light." He continued and glanced at the two females under his command.
Without exchanging a word, the two of them started to follow him towards the wooden steps that climbed up the rocks towards the Lighthouse. Jack had also chosen to follow along with two normal pirates named Garheng & Salaman.
He kept glancing at Artemis, who had been quiet ever since they left the ship. It was obvious that she did not wish to be there and he knew why. Yet, she hid everything under the mask she wore, making it impossible for anyone to truly read her mind or her conflicted emotions.
Trying to distract his mind from everything, Jack had been busy talking to the other two men about the plan and the reason why they were in that bay in the first place.
"We require a mermaid's tear. So, we require a mermaid." He explained simply and yet, the men did not seem to share his thoughts.
Garheng especially, who shrugged his shoulder. "A mermaid. So?"
"You ever seen a mermaid? You start with a shark. Give them weapons. And make them all women." Jack explained briefly, even though he had never met them before, and did not fail to notice the faintest shift of Artemis; lips.
His words had amused her and he felt that inner warmth of personal satisfaction to see that he could still, somehow, make the mood slightly better. His lips still felt on fire after their last kiss not so long ago, clearly wanting more.
He kept glancing at her, wondering if she felt the same but she had her back turned on him and was too good to let him know; at least now.
"Beautiful women?" Salaman asked, quickly letting his mind fantasise about something completely else.
"Did you miss the part about the sharks?" he asked him, not believing that some men could think completely with their second brain.
Even he, who used to be like that, often thought with his first head to begin with; especially after meeting Artemis. That woman had turned his life upside down but made the whole ride the most enjoyable he ever had, and he regretted not a single moment of that.
"I heard Jack Sparrow once had the favour of the mermaids" Garheng pointed out.
This made Artemis lift a single eyebrow and glance above her shoulder at the three talking men. She knew that there were a lot of rumours about Jack but she had never heard that one. She doubted that this was a true story for he would have told her about it, wouldn't he?"
"Is that story still out there? A mermaid's favour, perhaps, that sounds more like it." Jack said, grinning to himself like an idiot and playing his part to perfection.
He played the part so perfectly, that it seemed to anger Angelica. "Is there a female anywhere, of any kind, safe from you?" she asked, clearly annoyed.
"Well" Jack started, his eyes glancing momentarily at Artemis. "Your Navigator so far," he said, shocking both females.
Artemis did not expect to hear him say that and for a moment, she truly wanted to turn and slap him. Was he serious right now? She understood that he played the usual fool many had him off but the fact that he somehow threw that line, with Blackbeard only a few steps ahead of them; made her worry.
It was unclear how much Blackbeard truly knew about her relationship with Jack and she did not wish for him to find out more. By Calypso's name, who knew what he would do if he ever learned of the feeling the two of them harboured?
The sound of slapping made everyone stop walking and turn towards the source of it. Angelica had turned and delivered a good hard slap on Jack's right cheek before she continued to march towards the lighthouse; all while cursing in Spanish.
Jack placed his hand where he had been slapped, clearly not expecting it although some of him deserved it. He looked at Artemis, who seemed to almost mock him passively and he could not help but remember their ever first adventure.
When he had brought her and Will to Togruta in search of a clue to save Elizabeth. In a matter of two days he had been slapped thrice, by three different women and she had made sure to remind him that she enjoyed every single one of them.
Without any more words to be exchanged, everyone continued towards the Lighthouse.
It did not take long for the group to reach the upper level of the tower. In its centre, the lighthouse mechanism was a Rube-Goldbergian wonder. A huge wick on a rotating platform with a large mirror behind, the system fed by a series of pressure-controlled pipes leading back to a very large tank.
"Smell that? Whale oil. Stuff burns like a miracle from God." Salaman pointed out, earning the attention of his captain.
"Can you make it work?" Blackbeard asked him, although it sounded more like a passive order than an actual question.
Salaman inspected it for a moment. "Made by the English, let's not get our hopes up." He said, amusing Artemis silently.
Her father and his family were of Irish Descendants, the same for most of the crew that worked for him when she was a girl. There was always this feud with the English, often a running joke between them about their failure in certain creations of theirs.
She turned her attention to the view outside, staring out of one of the archways. A silver crescent moon rode above the blue horizon, Earthshine giving a glow to the moon's dark area.
"The old moon in the new moon's arms" She whispered, just as Jack came to stand a few feet by her side. She cast a gloomy look, clearly bothered by the fact. "First of the summer as well. Ironically, it is the perfect night for a Mermaid hunt" she continued, clearly having noticed him standing there and listening.
Jack lifted an eyebrow, interested. Artemis knew a lot of things about both places and creatures. Considering that mermaids were something she favoured ever since she was a child, it was obvious enough that she knew a lot of things about them.
Something that Blackbeard had also taken advantage of, although he seemed to possess a more personal load of knowledge when it came to those creatures.
"How so?" Jack asked, wishing somehow to help her or understand the situation better.
Artemis turned her face to look at him for a moment, their eyes locking into a strong contest. "Because it marks the first day of mating season." She informed him and quickly turned to focus on Salaman, not wishing to think more of what would soon take place.
It did not take long for Salaman to fix the lighthouse. Once it was back into functioning, the bright yellow light was guided to cast upon a single longboat that drifted away into the dark waters.
On it, were a couple of selected pirates, amongst them being Scrum, Ezekiel, Derrick, the Cabin Boy, and Philip; with Gunner keeping watch while holding a pistol. They were the main bait that would attract the mermaids in, the light acting as a beacon and putting all the attention on that single longboat.
Elsewhere in the bay, two other longboats from the Queen Anne's Revenge waited, dark and silent. These boats were loaded down with large barrels, ready to be used once the signal was given. They remained quiet and waited, almost blending fully with the dark night above them.
Artemis watched in silence, biting her inner cheek faintly. She did not wish to be present on what would come next for both innocent men and mermaids would shed blood, all because of Blackbeard.
Suddenly, she heard the faint sound of singing. Scrum had started to sing after almost being threatened; since that was one effective way to draw mermaids in. The song was actually familiar to the redhead, who found herself repeating those words in a low tone.
"...My heart is pierced by Cupid, I disdain all glittering gold ..." she started, her voice a low whisper while the rest of the pirates in the longboat had started to sing as well, their voices reaching all the way to the Lighthouse."There is nothing that can console me but my jolly sailor bold"
She smiled sadly, finding the words of that particular song a bitter irony for many. She felt a pair of eyes on her and she glanced in their direction, seeing Jack staring at her as if he had been in a trance himself.
She offered him a small smile before others could see, remembering that he had never heard her sing. She had only sung to Elizabeth over the years, mostly lullabies when the younger one would feel lonely or missing her deceased mother.
More than once she had been complimented by her for her good voice that seemed to work like a charm, effectively putting her directly to sleep without much effort. Despite all that, she never felt the confidence to sing it to anyone else; not since she lost her father and his crew.
Sometimes, she would hum to herself but only when no one else was watching. However, long had that stopped ever since she made the deal with the black-bearded devil trapped in the body of a human.
"Let's go" she heard Angelica order, snapping her from this small moment.
Artemis hummed the next part of the song before she went silent, not wishing the others to hear her. She glanced above her shoulder, seeing Jack just starting at her retreating form a moment too long before he was snapped into reality; confusion written all over his face.
After they had returned to the sore, Jack watched from a distance along with Artemis, Angelica and Blackbeard. His mind replayed that sweet haunting melody he briefly heard coming from his lover and he almost fell into that trance again.
Jack had heard many women sing, some truly having a worthy voice but hers...hers just felt different. It seemed to creep under his skin and form a fog around his brain, keeping him a prisoner of his mind.
He had never expected her to sing but now, he simply wished he could hear it daily; for hours on end. Her voice sounded so fitting for her, so angelic that he found himself wondering how he missed that during the one year and a half they had spent travelling together.
His thoughts were all put to a halt when the sound of men screaming reached his ears, their shouts being carried across the silent night. Those screams would haunt his dreams for days to come as the mermaids not only had appeared but had wasted no time to attack those poor sailors.
Blackbeard, suddenly, passed by while carrying a burning torch. "Out upon it! It's begun!" he shouted as his crewmen got into action.
They bore the heavy fishing nets into the shallow waters, with Angelica lighting up their way with a torch of her own. "Nets into the water! Quickly!"
On cue, the two hidden longboats drop their barrels into the water and create strong explosions. Water was tossed up to the sky like a geyser while the strong light and sound caused many of the dangerous women to swim away from it and towards the shore.
However, that was not all done for out of the blue; the Queen Anne's Revenge appeared. Controlled simply by Blackbeard and his blade, the ship roared like a wild animal before it released a powerful wave of Greek fire from the skeleton figurehead of the bow.
"A gold doubloon to the man who spots the first! Do not be greedy. We need but a single one!" Blackbeard shouted to the men, who waited for the scared mermaids to fall into their nets.
Yet, all the commotion of the water disappeared. The black sea became eerily calm, barely a sign of the dangerous women that lurked beneath its silent waves. It made everyone uneasy, some finding it hard to stand still and wait for them.
One would even stand and wonder if they had chosen to retreat from them and the fight would end there.
Suddenly, a pirate in the water, net in hand, was pulled under. The only sound that could be heard was the loud 'Thwump' sound. A second later a second pirate met the same fate and then another. More and more started to disappear similarly.
Some tried to swim for the rocks, hoping they would be safe there but the Mermaids simply climbed after them; pulling them back into the sea.
Jack, who stood frozen and was merely watching; acted upon his instinct. "Retreat, all! To land! For your lives!" he shouted, not caring if it was going against Blackbeard's plan.
This was mere madness.
"Back in the waters! Cowards! There be no refuge on land, on my word!" Blackbeard shouted and to prove his point, grabbed one of his many pistols and shot one of his own men.
At the same time, whips made of seaweed started to fly in high numbers from the water. They wrapped with proficiency around the bodies, hands or legs of pirates and dragged them into the water.
The pier where Artemis and Angelica were standing started to swift both from the waves and also the swimming mermaids lurking beneath. Suddenly, a seaweed whip shot out of the water and wrapped around Angelica's boot.
Yet, before she could be pulled away; Artemis turned sharply and cut the seaweed. There was a silent exchange between them before Angelica rushed to help the men and her father with the mermaids.
Artemis merely stood there, conflicted. She knew she had to help for innocent men were dying but she did not wish for any mermaid to get caught and used in Blackbeard's plan.
The sound of men screaming as they were losing this unfair battle pierced through her heart like Davy Jones' blade did through her stomach 20 years ago. She could only look around through the darkness, barely seeing in detail from the few torches some of Blackbeard's cursed crew carried.
Then, a figure was seen running between them. Climbing the rocks and heading for the lighthouse. She quickly recognised it was Jack and while not sure what he had in mind, she chose to follow him.
It was far better than standing there, watching and doing nothing.
She rushed quickly, doing her best to avoid any seaweed whips and mermaids as she started to catch up with him. A whip of suck kind shot out of the water but Jack brought his sword up, effectively blocking it.
The whip was pulled back, taking his blade with it but that did not stop the man from continue running. He was out of breath by the time he reached the barely-standing rotten wooden door of the lighthouse.
He was about to kick it down when someone just smashed their shoulder into it, effectively throwing it off its hinges and opening up the passage. He looked shocked for a moment but a smile formed on his lips upon seeing a panting Artemis by his side.
They both gave a nod to their heads and started to climb up the steps of the lighthouse.