White and Black Pearls 3 - Ten Pearl Strand

Chapter Thirteen

Celeste’s eyes wandered across the ship when Jack was out of sight, and she turned slowly until her gaze settled upon Calypso and Davy. Her lips pulled back in an evil, heartless grin as she began to shuffle towards them, her knife held out at the ready. “Blood,” she gurgled out, as the very stuff she spoke of dribbled out of her mouth from between her lips.

“So it’s true,” Davy said hoarsely as he took a step forward and put himself between Calypso and this woman he had once considered a friend. “Nnh.” He grit his teeth as her knife thrust into his stomach. When it did nothing, Celeste drew the knife out again and slammed it into Davy’s chest. Still nothing. Her fogged-over gaze filled with anger as she drew the knife out once more, but this time she pulled his sword out of its scabbard as well. “No!” Davy barked, reaching out for the weapon. That had been a mistake; he roared with pain as Celeste stabbed him through the hand with his sword before walking away, trying to find somebody else to kill that would actually die.

“Spill the blood,” Celeste said wetly, her movements eerie and doll-like.

“Her hunt will be fruitless tonight,” Calypso said grimly from behind Davy Jones before she moved closer to the man and took hold of his hand between hers, pressing the cloth of her dress to the wound. “With the exception of Barbossa, none of the beings on this ship can die with those efforts. We will have to wait until the moon has set, or she dies… whichever comes first.” For the first time in a long time as she spoke about her sister, there was no rage and hatred in her voice.

Cutler Beckett was caught off guard when the doors to his quarters were thrown open, and he got to his feet immediately, grabbing for his sword when he saw Celeste shuffling into the room. “Still alive are we?” he asked haughtily, pointing his sword at her. “Fine then, I’ll just remove your head and be done with it.”

Her head tilted to the side as she grinned anew. “You can try,” Celeste gurgled.

Try he did. Beckett lunged with a swing of his blade, but was surprised to find that it was met with the sword in her hand in a rather forceful parry. It had just been fluke, surely. He thrust again from below this time, but again his blade was deflected with hers. Double luck, nothing more, he convinced himself. A third time Beckett swept his blade through the air, coming at her from the side, but this time when she blocked, he pulled his sword back and came at her from the other side in a hard arc.

Beckett gasped as his sword was blocked with hers and she lunged forward, burying the very knife he’d stabbed her with deep into his chest. He looked down at the wound for a moment, stunned, before looking up at her once more. Grin of evil met grin of evil as he pulled the knife out. “Nice try harlot,” he spat out. “But of the two of us you’re the only one that stands to get…” he stabbed at her stomach while their swords still clashed, sinking the blade in from the front this time, “Hurt!”

This time, it didn’t seem to even register with her that she’d been harmed as he pulled his hand back and left the knife in her gut. Celeste moved her blade, this time taking the offensive, and this time it was Beckett who blocked her swings one for one. Their battle grew faster as they each realized that their opponent was not as easy to kill as expected, and the battle rolled out onto the main deck, swords clanging loudly in the night air.

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