Hey everyone, I've decided to start posting this story also on Archive Of Our Own. While preparing the story for that site I decided to go back in the story and do some much-needed grammar and spelling edits, as well as tiny bits of fixing/polishing/tweaking of sentences and maybe the occasional paragraph. So if you reread the story, you're not going to find brand new scenes, but there might be a moment or two you don't recognize.
Although, I haven't finished editing the chapters, and I might add a new scene of what Will once referenced, Philip giving him impromptu therapy sessions to deal with the revelation of his father being a pirate.
Let me know if you want me to add that in.
Birds of a Feather
The Curse of the Black Pearl
Chapter Sixteen
The Mermaid's Tale: Part Two
The waters were calm on my return home to Whitecap Bay. The Mother Goddess smiled upon me and granted me safe passage – not that she controls the waters anymore, but she does still have some magic in her veins.
No, Philip, I do not mean a metaphorical Goddess or an invisible figure in the sky like you believe in. I mean an actual Goddess, one whom I have met in the flesh.
…Can we not start debating the idea of your God and my Gods coexisting at this time?
Thank you.
"I am home! Sisters, I have returned!" The Mermaid joyfully exclaimed as she swam around the mermaid home of Whitecap Bay.
The Sisters of the Bay crowded around in confusion at the strange thirteen-year-old they didn't recognize.
"Who is that?"
"Does she belong with us?"
"I think she is the Red that went missing during her First Swim."
"Someone get Tamara."
Soon the beautiful blonde leader of the Whitecap Bay mermaids made her way to The Mermaid through the crowd that had gathered.
"Who are you?" Tamara demanded.
"I am one of your Sisters," The Mermaid bowed her head respectfully. "I was kidnapped thirty-five moons ago upon my First Swim. I have returned to claim my place among you and accept my name."
"Your name, Little Red?" Tamara said flatly. "You were kidnapped upon your First Swim and you come to me asking for a name?"
Something dropped to the bottom of The Mermaid's stomach, "Ye- Yes."
A murmur went through the crowd.
Tamara fixed The Mermaid with truly terrifying gaze, "Do you not understand the purpose of a First Swim?"
"It is to prove your abilities as a Sister."
"And you think getting kidnapped proves yourself?"
"Please, Sister, they had a metal net and a liquid that rendered me unconscious. I tried to fight-"
"And you failed," Tamara snapped. "You failed your First Swim. The Sisters of the Whitecap Bay are the best mermaids in all the worlds. We are the Mother Goddess' prime creation. We are the strongest, most beautiful, most cunning, most dangerous… And a kidnapped Red Tail is going to tell me that she deserves a spot among us? Do not come into my Bay and act like you have some say in leadership or our ways of doing things. That is a job for myself and other Blue Tails. And you are not a Green Tail, who are the soldiers. You did not fight valiantly, nor will you ever fight off something like that. You are a Red Tail, a servant, a raiser of the young, and breeder of the next generation. And you failed in your task. You failed your First Swim, Red Tail. You forfeit your right to a name, and your forfeit your place among my Sisters. You will leave Whitecap Bay immediately. Maybe the Mother Goddess will smile upon you and you will find some desperate group of Sisters who will take you in… but I doubt it."
"Good," a Green Tail named Nerissa laughed. "The Red stinks of human men. She will infect our home with their stench."
"Silence, Nerissa!" Tamara snapped.
"Please, Tamara, Highest Sister," The Mermaid begged. "I tried my hardest and I did even manage to escape a year ago, all by myself!"
Tamara frowned, "You did?"
"Yes!" The Mermaid exclaimed.
"Then why have you returned to us only now?"
"I was captured again because I lingered in the area too long."
Tamara laughed, "Continue, Red Tail. This is unquestionably winning me over to your abilities. Quite a cunning plan to not actually escape during your escape."
"I stayed to save the life of a child."
"A child?" Tamara paused. She could not ignore the carrying out of one of the acts they were created to perform.
"Yes!" The Mermaid grinned. "Truly that is an action blessed by the Mother Goddess, Highest Sister Tamara."
She thought over The Mermaid's deed, "The Mother Goddess would be happy…"
"Tamara!"
"Nerissa, silence!"
Nerissa fell silent, but her glare at The Mermaid was deadlier than any she had given to a man she consumed.
"So, Little Red… you saved a child," Tamara said slowly, thinking hard over the action. "You saved a little girl from the sea."
"Well, actually," The Mermaid corrected, "it was a boy."
There was dead silence.
"You… saved a boy?" Tamara hissed, her eyes turning black.
A set of claws ripped across The Mermaid's face, and she screamed in agony.
"You saved a man from drowning!" Tamara screeched, she and the rest of the mermaids going Full Siren.
"Traitor!"
"Leg lover!"
"Outcast!"
"Disgrace!"
"Betrayer!"
"She broke our laws!"
"She saved a male!"
"She must die!"
"Our laws are very clear, Little Red," Tamara advanced on The Mermaid as the little one clutched her face and backed away in fear. "You saved a male at sea… Not only do you forfeit your claim to Whitecap Bay's Sisterhood… but to the entire Sisterhood of Mermaids in this world and the next. By the rights of the Blue Tail and Leader of Whitecap Bay I rightfully am, I sentence you to death."
The next thing I knew were my Sisters descending upon me. They bit, scratched, and clawed at me. My face, my throat, my chest, everywhere. They tore out chunks of my hair and ripped off scales from my tail. I was bloody, broken, and had no escape. I tried to get away, but they overwhelmed me.
Finally, Tamara pinned me to the ground and sunk her teeth into my neck. I was going to die by the hand – or rather teeth – of my own Highest Sister.
And suddenly, we heard it, a great cry of No, and my Sisters were ripped away from me by some invisible Force. The Mother Goddess herself had come to save me. She told my Sisters that they could force me from Whitecap Bay, outcast me from all other Sisterhoods… but I was not to die. I had some greater purpose to accomplish, and I was not to die.
So, Tamara cast me out, declared me unfit to be a mermaid, and barred me from joining any other Sisterhood. Then the Mother Goddess led me away, far away and told me that I would know where to go next.
I did know, because it was the only place I knew how to get to other than Whitecap Bay. Broken and bloody, I returned to Isla de Muerta.
I found the rocks where the crew secured their boats, and I laid myself upon them. My tail in the water and my body above the surface, I closed my eyes and waited. Only half in the water: enough to do it, and enough to know I would suffer. I had come back to Isla de Muerta to do but one simple thing.
Die.
"Twelve more pieces, Boys. We're almost there!" Barbossa's voice echoed through the cave.
The Mermaid gently cracked open her eyes. To her amazement, the crew of the Black Pearl rowed to the caves at that very moment, ready to deposit their latest haul and the new pieces of Aztec treasure they had recovered.
She knew should escape, but she had no strength and honestly no desire to do so. Couldn't they just let her die? If only she had come one day sooner, she would have already been dead by the time they arrived. Maybe they wouldn't notice her.
"Gents, we be but one step closer to enjoying this haul, now start unloading!" Barbossa ordered as his boat hit the shore.
"Look!" Pintel called.
Every head turned to see The Mermaid lying unmoving on the rocks.
"Fins!" Ragetti exclaimed, and he and Pintel sprinted towards her.
"Oh, Poppet, what has been done to you?" Pintel said, dropping to his knees as he and Ragetti took in her injuries. The Mermaid had not allowed herself to be healed since her attack.
"Move, move!" Barbossa pushed his way through the crowd. He came to a stop when her eyes locked on his, and he viewed her battered body in complete horror. "What- Why are you here?"
The Mermaid stared into Barbossa's eyes; there was something genuine in them, fear or regret or sorrow or… something. Whatever it was, he looked like he was going to be sick.
"I came to die," The Mermaid simply said. "My Sisters have banished me. Please… just let me die."
The Mermaid pushed Ragetti and Pintel away and rolled to her other side, turning her back to the group.
Suddenly, she heard splashing, and a pair of arms lifted her off the rock.
"Told you I'd get her back, men!" Barbossa boasted to the crew, yet the way he cradled her against his body was surprisingly gentle. He stood in the water, her tail dangling down to submerge enough that she didn't transform. "The Creature didn't get too far, and this time, I'm not letting her go!"
The crew cheered, and Bo'sun directed them to get back to unloading their treasure.
"Masters Ragetti and Pintel, with me. We're bringing the Creature back to the ship," Barbossa announced. He held her tight against him, and whispered in her ear, "Don't you worry, Lass. I've got you now. You're safe with me. I promise."
And somehow, as her eyes slipped shut, she truly did feel safe.
The Mermaid's eyes fluttered open gently, and instantly she was confused. She was lying in a bed, a wet cloth and bucket sat on a table next to her, and Barbossa sat in a chair at the foot of the bed.
"You're finally awake," Barbossa smiled at her. "Good. I was worried for a minute that with all those injuries we might lose you."
The Mermaid grimaced as she realized she was covered in various bandages and healing plasters, "Why? Why did you save me?"
"Because I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done any of this to you."
"No, you should not have!" The Mermaid snapped. "Now I have nothing! Now I am nothing! All because of you!"
"What happened to you? You've been begging for freedom, and now you wish to die?"
I told Barbossa all that happened, and when I came to my conclusion, he was very quiet. That was the first moment I truly saw a different side to Barbossa. Perhaps it was because he could understand my situation. He had been cursed to be unable to feel anything, and he had taken everything from me.
Seeing me on those rocks that day, Barbossa realized the extent of what he had done to a mere child. And that was the day he decided to make things right.
"I'm not going to let you die," Barbossa declared.
The Mermaid barely lifted her head, "Why not? There is nothing for me. What point is there to continue living?"
"Clearly there must be something if Calypso saved you. She's not the type to go out of her way to interfere in someone's life. Sure, meddles when there's an opportunity, but doesn't orchestrate chances to come to her. And she declared that you have some grand destiny. She needs you, and whether you like it or not, she's not going to let you die. We did have an unusually easy time getting here on this occasion."
"The Mother Goddess no longer has control over the tides of the sea."
"But she did save you." Barbossa took a deep breath, "Look… I can offer you help. You can stay here with me."
The Mermaid frowned, "I do not wish to be your prisoner again."
"You won't. Well, maybe pretend to the crew so I don't lose some authority, but let's look at the facts: you have nowhere to go. You have no resources. Do you know what you need to make your way in this world?"
The Mermaid shook her head.
"Gold," Barbossa said.
"Pirate," The Mermaid shot.
"It's true. Look, you're a mermaid. I reckon in a few years you will put up one hell of a fight. I could use a girl like you on the crew. You help us find the gold and break the curse, and when we do, you get an even portion of our haul. Then go on your way and make a life for yourself."
"I… I can not."
"Then what exactly be your plan? Humans will kill you for being a demon, and mermaids will kill you for being an outcast. I can offer you protection and maybe a little bit of comfort."
"What kind of comfort?"
"I've been sitting here for a while, thinking about it as I waited for you to wake up. Maybe I could make some renovations to your cabin. What do you think? A guarantee of food, shelter, safety, and gold in exchange for staying with me until the curse is broken. It's the best deal you're going to get."
The Mermaid thought over the proposition, "… Alright. I'll do it. But I need a few things."
"Name your price."
Barbossa and I haggled for the better part of the day. We agreed to all the rules we have in place now: no chains, I have freedom, I have Ragetti and Pintel. He would not agree to a name, but he would keep the secret of my legs, and I had to promise not to try to die again.
They had been at it for hours when a large yawn overtook The Mermaid.
"Is that the time?" Barbossa glanced at the clock. "You should be getting to sleep."
"I am not tired," The Mermaid yawned, not wanting to be ordered around by Barbossa.
"Of course, you aren't," Barbossa smiled. He walked over and pulled the blanket tighter over The Mermaid, "But maybe you should rest your eyes for a little bit… today's been a long day."
"Alright, but only for a minute. Just resting my eyes… not… sleeping… at all…"
And so, I slept.
I woke later that night when Barbossa knocked something off his desk. I woke with a start, forgetting for a moment where I was. He allowed me to continue to sleep in his bed in his cabin as he worked. Barbossa came over and calmed me, reminding me where I was, and wiping me down with the cloth at my bedside.
Mermaids need to get wet at least once every 72 hours or they will die. He had been keeping me alive by periodically wiping me down.
"There, better?" Barbossa set the cloth in the bucket.
"Yes," The Mermaid whispered. "Thank you."
"Here," Barbossa brought over a plate of fish. "It's been a while since you ate."
"Thank you." The Mermaid started digging into the food.
Barbossa smiled and went back to his desk. He was busy working with a map and some strange looking tools. Jack climbed around the furniture of the cabin as Barbossa hummed a familiar song under his breath. The Mermaid wasn't sure if he knew he was doing it.
Curiosity taking over, The Mermaid slowly got out of the bed. She clutched at the furniture, clumsily making her way on foreign legs to the desk. With relief, she collapsed in the chair that he earlier been sitting in at the foot of the bed.
"What are you working on?" The Mermaid asked, trying to scoot the chair forward.
"Navigating some charts," Barbossa stood and pushed her chair up to the desk so she could see what he was doing. He sat back down in his own chair and went back to work, "This here is a map of the entire world as we know it."
"It is a beautiful map." The Mermaid's fingers traced over an image near the top of the chart, "Funny. I did not know there were mermaids in artic waters."
"There might not be," Barbossa chuckled. "Artists tend to draw imaginary creatures in the edges of maps when they don't know what's beyond that. Mermaids are popular for edges of maps."
"I am imaginary?"
Barbossa grinned, "Only if you want to be."
The Mermaid watched him work in silence for a long time. Staring at the map, it was hard to make sense of the world.
"Where are we?" The Mermaid tapped a landmass, "Is this Isla de Muerta?"
Barbossa laughed, "No, that's Europe. Isla de Muerta isn't on this map."
"Why?"
"It's too small."
"How big is Europe?"
"Well, let's put it this way, this is Jamaica," he pointed to a tiny shape among the water.
The Mermaid's eyes almost popped out of her head.
"Amazing isn't it when you put it in perspective?" Barbossa smiled.
"The world is just so big," The Mermaid's eyes scanned the map in wonderment. "How could you ever see it all?"
"You try your hardest. That's why I first started to sail; I wanted to see the entire world."
"Did you succeed?"
"No," Barbossa laughed. "I'm still a long way off."
The Mermaid looked at the map, "I would like to see how large this Europe is."
"Maybe I'll take you some time, but for now we're charting a course for Brazil. That's this country here."
"What is Brazil like?"
Barbossa told me all he knew of Brazil, which admittedly was not very much. He had never been there before, but one gold piece had ended up in it according to a source of his.
But he did know about many countries, and he told me of his adventures all over the world. Africa, England, Glasgow, Florida, Singapore, and he particularly liked Australia.
We would go through phases where he spoke and then where he worked, humming under his breath. A mermaid is always drawn to singing. Music is in our very souls, especially the song that he was humming. I had never heard the words out loud, but my heart knew every syllable.
I could not help but let them have a voice.
The King and his men stole the queen from her bed,
And bound her in her bones.
The seas be ours and by the powers,
Where we will...we'll roam.
Yo, Ho haul together, hoist the colours high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never say we die.
"You have a beautiful voice, Lass," Barbossa said. "Though, perhaps that not be a unique virtue for the merfolk."
"Perhaps not," The Mermaid found herself with a small smile on her face. She hesitated and then let her fingers drift across the map. "You must have spent much time memorizing the names of the world. I feel as if I could point to any of them, and you could name it."
"That I could, but only if I read the name," he too found a smile on his face.
"Read?" The Mermaid frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I would read the name," Barbossa scowled, not quite understanding. "You know, see what the letters say?"
"Letters?" it puzzled her still.
He blinked, "Wait now, are you telling me you don't know about reading? A map, a book, a-"
"What is a book?"
It took Barbossa the better half of an hour to explain the concept of writing and letters to me. In my life at Whitecap Bay and later as his prisoner, I had never really seen writing before. Now, obviously, I had seen letters, but not with enough frequency to know those shapes meant anything. In hindsight, after I learned to read and write, I could recognize scenes where writing had been around – the side of a ship for example – but at that time, I did not know of it.
Oh, yes, Philip, indeed I can read and write. Barbossa taught me. In fact, it was that night that he agreed, or rather, insisted, I learn to do so. He was adamant that I learn as to get far in life, particularly to help me after I left him.
It was hard at first for him to teach me, there were not many books around. Yes, we practised my letters and what he could teach me to write, but it wasn't until he started collecting books for me that I learned to read and write.
I remember the very first book he ever brought to me. It was something called 1001 Nights, an English translation of some Arabic tale of a woman who told stories to a King. Barbossa would come to my cabin late at night and read me the tales. My favorite I think was Jullanar of the Sea. She was a mermaid who was captured and did not speak for a year.
You can see why I was drawn to the tale.
Moonlight shone through the small window of The Mermaid's room. She floated in her tank, tail lazily flicking back and forth, arms resting on the dull edge of the glass and her head atop her arms. By that time, The Mermaid was sixteen and quite beautiful. A lazy smile lay on her lips as Barbossa sat on a chair across from her, just outside of the moonlight's reach.
His voice was strong yet quite soothing as he read the seventh volume of the series. The other six were back in his cabin, looking worn and dog-eared, sitting neatly next to the final three volumes they had yet to reach.
"And after that, the King went in to the damsel, and sat with her, and embraced her and pressed her to his bosom, saying to her, O my mistress, who ownest me as thy slave, wherefore hath been this silence, seeing that thou hast been with me a whole year, night and day, awake and asleep, yet hast not spoken to me during this year except on this day? What then hath been the cause of thy silence?"
The Mermaid let her eyes drift shut and she just hung onto his words as images of a mermaid looking like her and a King like Barbossa filled her imagination.
"The damsel answered, Hear, O King of the age, and know that I am a poor person, a stranger, broken-hearted: I have become separated from my mother and my family and my brother."
As Jullanar spoke of her family, The Mermaid's mind shifted to first images of Tamara, Nerissa, and the other mermaids of Whitecap Bay. The Mermaid winced as she remembered Tamara's cruel face.
"And when the King heard her words, he knew her desire, and he replied, As to thy saying that thou art poor, there is no occasion for such an assertion; for all my kingdom and my goods and possessions are at thy service, and I also have become thy memluk: and as to thy saying, I have become separated from my mother and my family and my brother-inform me in what place they are, and I will send to them, and bring them to thee."
In her mind, The Mermaid saw a hand land on the shoulder of Tamara. Tamara looked up in shock, and it was Barbossa looking down on her in anger. He shoved her aside and behind him Ragetti, Pintel, and Jack the Monkey shoved away the other mermaids.
"So she said to him, Know, O fortunate King, that my name is Jullanar of the Sea. My father was one of the Kings of the Sea, and he died, and left to us the kingdom; but while we were enjoying it, one of the Kings came upon us, and took the kingdom from our hands. I have also a brother named Salih, and my mother is of the women of the sea; and I quarreled with my brother, and swore that I would throw myself into the hands of a man of the inhabitants of the land. Accordingly I came forth from the sea, and sat upon the shore of an island in the moonlight, and there passed by me a man who took me and conducted me to his abode, and desired to make me his concubine; but I smote him upon his head, and he almost died; wherefore he went and sold me to this man from whom thou tookest me, and he was an excellent, virtuous man, a person of religion and fidelity and kindness."
I did always like that part; the idea of a man who was an excellent, virtuous man, a person of religion and fidelity and kindness. They seemed like such wonderful words, though as hard as I searched, I could not find a man who could be described as such.
An excellent, virtuous man, a person of religion and fidelity and kindness.
…Why do you look at me like that, Philip?
The image of Barbossa then pulled The Mermaid onto his arms and held her close. Not like a lover would do, for he would never be the prince of her stories, but there was something in his arms that made her know she was safe.
"But had not thy heart loved me, and hadst thou not preferred me above all thy concubines, I had not remained with thee one hour; for I should have cast myself into the sea from this window, and gone to my mother and my people."
Then and there, The Mermaid knew that Tamara, Nerissa, and all the other mermaids who had tried to kill her would never touch her again.
Not as long as Hector Barbossa was there to protect her.
It took time, Philip. It took a very long time. But the years passed, the moons waxed and waned, and things changed. I came to forgive Barbossa. I came to love Barbossa. I came to know him as the father the mermaids would never allow me to have.
Yes, mermaids are vicious, perhaps even evil. But I am not one.
Yes, pirates are vicious, perhaps even evil. But I am not one either.
Yes, Barbossa is vicious, perhaps even evil. But I am not that either.
I am all of the above, mermaid, pirate… even a Barbossa, though he refuses to give me his name. But I want to be more that. I want to be better. To be worthy of being looked upon by someone as kind and pure as you. I am a demon who yearns to be an angel but knows I can never be such.
There is a place out there somewhere in the world for me, maybe with pirates, maybe with mermaids… maybe even with missionaries, blacksmiths, and governor's daughters. And once this curse is broken, I will seek out my destiny. I will see what purpose the Mother Goddess has in store for me. I will do whatever it takes to finally be worthy of a proper name.
To be different.
And that, Philip Swift, is my story.
Any questions?