White and Black Pearls 1 - Seven Pearls

Chapter Eight


‘Captain,’ one of the men called out in a rough voice from the other side of the door. ‘She’s here.’

Davy’s head lifted as he closed the heart-shaped locket, cutting off its soft melody. There was only one ‘she’ that ever came upon this ship. He got up from his seat before the massive organ in his quarters, his hand brushing against one of the keys as he moved and causing a deep note to rumble through the ship in an almost foreboding tremor. Before he could reach the door to his quarters, however, it was opened for him, which took him aback with surprise and annoyance at the disrespect. He frowned at Celeste as she was frowning right back up at him.

‘David Jones,’ Celeste said quickly before he could remark about her rudeness, ‘I’ve come to call upon one of the two boons you owe me.’ She ignored the whispers of the crew, who were surprised at how she spoke to their captain today, and who still couldn’t get used to her – a woman – being the only person allowed to address him as David that they’d heard of.

This had his complete attention, and he put his curt remarks aside for now as his anger diminished and was replaced with intrigue. ‘Do you now?’ he asked slowly. He glanced up at the crew members who were all standing about listening. ‘Back to work!’ he roared at them, sending them scattering to their posts before his gaze dropped back down to fix upon the visage of a beautiful bronzed woman in a soft orange cloak that strikingly matched the colour of the sunset shimmering on the horizon at the moment. ‘What has prompted such urgency from you? I thought you had no intent to ever call upon me to claim these favors that are owed.’

‘I had no intent, you’re right,’ she said firmly, ‘But I’m glad now that I made you agree to them all those years ago. You are to find a specific captain of a ship that recently sank, and you are to strike a deal with him to raise that ship up from the depths once more. You are not to tell him who it was that prompted you to make this offer.’

Davy’s eyes narrowed. He disliked her rudeness earlier but this was bordering onto insolence and attempts and reigning authority over him, right in front of his men no less. ‘I seem to recall you telling me that your hands are tied, and you’re not to interfere directly with the lives of humans on a personal level,’ he said in a tone that betrayed his thinning patience.

‘I wouldn’t be the one to interfere,’ Celeste retorted without missing a beat in the conversation. ‘You would. Am I to understand that you’re planning to deny me my request?’

Eyes the colour of grim waters turned upon her then as he walked up the steps of the ship that lead to the helm and she followed at his side pace for pace. He seemed to be mulling over the answer, until he was standing before the wheel and looking out at his crew and the ocean before them. ‘You understand correctly,’ he said with a slight smug smile on his face. ‘Request denied. I have other plans to take care of at present and they do not include a search and rescue mission for some charity case that somehow earned your cruel and deceitful favor.’

The anger that rose in her face then caused even Davy to take pause as she clenched her jaw tight and her piercing stare fixed upon him. ‘David,’ she whispered through tightly grit teeth, ‘I am forbidden from interfering directly with humans. You seem to forget that you are no longer a human in any shape or form. That leaves you quite alone way out in the gray area of the rules where I could make your suffering far greater than it is right now. If you think the misery you wallow in at present is a bitter taste on your tongue, you have yet to know the wrath of Calypso’s elder sister. And before you feel the need to ask, yes, that is a direct threat. So, consider what I’ve asked of you less of a request then, and more of an outright order. Do you understand me or should I elaborate further?’

Davy Jones shuddered from head to toe with rage, and though he was many things, he was not a fool. ‘Hoist Main sails!’ he bellowed out suddenly to the men. ‘Prepare for a change in direction!’ His gaze turned upon her once more. ‘A heading,’ he demanded of her, as a spray of sea water dotted her face, splashing from his wet lips and tentacles as he spoke. ‘Give me the location of this captain I’m to barter with.’

Celeste lifted her arm without hesitation and pointed directly south. ‘The Caribbean Sea.’


The Flying Dutchman cut across the waters with all sails dropped, reaching its fastest speeds as the wind remained steady and at their backs. Davy had no illusions about the time they were making on this voyage; he knew that Celeste was breaking rules and sending him winds to fill those sails that pointed them in the right direction. The men didn’t even need to steer much at all, the winds pushed the Dutchman across the water with a might that reminded him why it would be a fool’s game to try and disobey the demands Celeste had made of him.

It made the crew nervous, to have her on board for such an extended period of time. For several full days she remained on the ship, spending most of her time standing right at the bowsprit and staring out over the waves with a dark and brooding expression upon her face. It spooked the men, not only to have a woman on board, but also to have her standing there, still and silent as a statue, with a forlorn aura wafting about her.

Now and again Davy came over to stand at her side, and it seemed as though their roles were reversed; this time it was Jones who seemed to be the one of calm heart and Celeste to be the one with troubled thoughts. He’d been too enraged with her to even look in her direction for the first few days, but eventually he’d come around and stood at her side.

‘Do you understand yet?’ he asked quietly.

She turned her head then, and looked down at one of the pockets on his jacket. From inside the pocket, something clicked, and a soft song began to play, very familiar to the both of them. As the notes drifted into the air and hung about them, she pulled her cloak closed tighter and wrapped her arms about herself. ‘You knew?’ she murmured.

Davy nodded. ‘Nothing else could compel the likes of you or your sister to make such moves and interfere so heavily in the lives of men but the swaying of your heart.’

Silence fell between them again, and for the moment, they seemed to have their old relationship back. The musical locket closed once more and the music stopped, leaving only the howl of the winds to fill their ears as the Dutchman sailed on.

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