Star of the Sea

Chapter Eleven - Unnaturalstyle='color:#1B3B5E'>

The sails hung slack, the air was heavy, hot, tense, it crackled with raw
energy. As if there should have been a storm about to break above them. But
there was not a single cloud marring the intense blue of the sky and the sun
beat down mercilessly on the wilting crew.

Jack stood at the wheel; there was nothing to look at, no horizon coming to
meet him. There was nothing to do but wait, wait for the wind to rise again, to
hope that it would happen before the men began to fight amongst themselves,
each needing to blame the other for this unnatural calm. For unnatural it was,
twice now he had seen sails in the distance, white sails that scudded across
the green of the sea. It was unnatural and he had a fair idea of who was responsible.


They had not spoken in the two days since she had left his cabin. Not a single
word had been exchanged but in that time neither had the Pearl moved an inch.
He would have bet a crate full of the best rum on the fact that the wind had
dropped the moment that she had caught her breath, the moment that she had
realized what had just been, and their fate had been sealed with the slamming
of his cabin door. He would have bet on it yesterday, today, even at noon but
this afternoon he had noticed how she had been peering at the sky, shaking her
head and she had begun to pace. He could see her now, down below him striding
backwards and forwards, her hips swinging under those tight black trousers, the
fabric molded to her……he knew how those hips felt beneath him, how she had
rocked….Fu*k, he cursed under his breath, snatching his eyes away from her even
as she spun to look at him. As if she had sensed his thoughts, his
recollections. He fumbled in his pocket for the compass, flipping the lid open,
wishing to be anywhere but here, asking it to show him what he really wanted.
The arrow spun, and he whistled under his breath, now he was getting somewhere,
he was Jack Sparrow, nothing was beyond him, the arrow spun around and around
before suddenly stopping, pointing without wavering at Maia.

He almost dropped it in his haste to put it back in his pocket. He did not, it
was preposterous, stupid compass, obviously she had bewitched the bloody thing
along with the wind. He muttered and mumbled under his breath as he pulled his
sticky shirt away from his chest, he really wanted to take the damned thing
off, to be bare-chested like the rest of the crew but he knew how they would
stare at the scars, scars that should be open wounds, scars that were healed as
if they had been worn for years. No he knew that they would gawk and whisper
amongst themselves, and he was not ready for that. Not yet.

*

Maia spun to look at him, she could feels his eyes on her touching her, as
palpable as if his hands had been running over her back, down her hips as he
had pulled her body down on top of his…..she hissed under her breath…a long
drawn out angry sigh. Calypso and her games, that is what this was, she could
feel her presence, she knew that the other woman was near, her pacing stopped
and she moved to the rail to lean and to look into the deep green, down into
the depths, her eyes seeing but not seeing instead watching as a face appeared.
Solid but yet not, it was the woman that was known as Tia Dalma to most, as
Calypso to but a few.

“Why are you doing this?” the words were thought not spoken and she flung them
at the other, anger making her thoughts snap out.

“This be not of mine doing, it be you and wicked Jack that have becalmed and
befuddled them winds”

“Us” the thought was just as befuddled as what the winds seemed to be.

“Aye”

Maia’s face was horrified “you are not suggesting that I go back there…and…”

“Did you not enjoy it Star of the Sea?” the smirk was clear in the others
thoughts and there was more than a hint of laughter “do you not think of them
clever hands on you, and does not your breath come faster, aye Jack Sparrow him
be a man who knows a woman…”

“I will not, he hates me, he thinks I have stolen his memories, it was a stupid
thing to do….it was a mistake”

”There be no such thing as coincidences…no mistakes” her voice was so soft that
Tia seemed to be speaking to herself, her eyes were looking through Maia as if
seeing something, someone different, but when she spoke again her thought was a
command and her eyes made Maia want to step backwards, away from the power
barely controlled by the vision in the waves. ”You do be needing him, to be
finding what your destiny is, them winds will not be released to fill de Black
Pearls sails til you do dem things that you fear will choke you”

“What things?”

Tia Dalma laughed and her face changed from that of wise woman to the calm
implacable face of the Goddess “I will not be finding dem for you.” Cold wet
fingers seemed to touch Maia’s face and she flinched “look behind them bars
Star of the Sea…”

Calypso was gone, the only remnant of her presence the small crab that scuttled
along the railing, waving one claw as if in entreaty to wait before it
plummeted over the side of the ship to spin into the depths, down, down until
it vanished.