White and Black Pearls 1 - Seven Pearls

Chapter Thirteen

They sat in silence together for the better part of an hour before Celeste was the one to speak. ‘You squid-faced sea-dog.’

Davy laughed and slammed his lobster-claw hand down on the table. ‘Is that the best you can come up with lass?’

Celeste scrunched her face up angrily. ‘I’m trying to be nice because in spite of what you’ve done I’d like to consider our relationship somewhat intact.’

‘Oh, it is far from intact,’ Davy said seriously then as he leaned forward over the table. ‘It hasn’t been intact since the first decade of my service as captain of the Flying Dutchman.’

She leaned in as well. ‘I suppose you thought yourself to be clever in your revenge when you struck that deal with Jack Sparrow.’

Again Davy Jones laughed. ‘Indeed,’ he said pointedly. ‘Very much so. Not only will I claim the soul of one of the Pirate Lords to work on my ship, but I’ll be breaking the heart of Calypso’s sister at the same time, the very woman who orchestrated my entire situation here in the first place. I hope you’re standing on deck of the Flying Dutchman the day the Kraken takes the Black Pearl down and Jack Sparrow with it. I hope you’re right by my side as Jack Sparrow is pushed down into the bowels of the ship to perform the worst duties I can think of for the next hundred years of servitude. And I hope, as you hear his screams of agony, you remember that you were the one to guide me to him and you were the one who begged me to barter for his life.’

‘When you say those things, sometimes it’s hard to remember that you’re the David Jones I met all those years ago screaming for my sister,’ she whispered darkly.

‘For the last few decades you have not been the Celeste that appeared before me all those years ago, curious about what it felt like to be trapped in a situation where your undying love is never to be returned!’ Jones snarled back.

The silence loomed between them again as they stared at each other like rams squaring off and ready to lock horns again in an instant. After several minutes it was Celeste who finally spoke again, softly. ‘There is nothing I can say to you and nothing I can offer you in this world that would cause you to release Jack Sparrow from his bond to you, is there?’ It was less of a question and more of a defeated statement.

‘You can change his situation about as successfully as I can change my own,’ Davy replied in a civil tone.

Their gazes locked once more but Celeste couldn’t hold the stare for long; she looked to the side and slumped down into her chair, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. A frown formed on her face as she closed her eyes and seemed unwell.

Again Davy spoke up, ‘You didn’t come here to argue with me. You could have done that any time for the last several years. Why are you here today?’ He already knew the answer but he wanted it from her.

Slowly her eyes opened, though only halfway, and they were already a dark orange colour that was quickly changing hues to bloody red. ‘You know why.’

‘With the Blood Moon happening tonight,’ he stared at her for a long moment before standing, ‘what better place to hide from all those who would see you harmed, than on the ship of the most dangerous man on the seas, is that it? What makes you so sure that you’re safe here, with me?’

Celeste reached out with one hand, and gently touched her finger to the tip of the heart-shaped locket on the table between them. It opened, and began to play the melody softly. ‘Because,’ she whispered, ‘You and I, while we are enemies, we are also some kind of friends… and we might as well be the same person. We’re in the exact same situation, and there isn’t another soul on this planet who could understand what it feels like. Even though you’ve done things to enrage me I couldn’t bear the thought of being alone in my sorrows. I think you feel the same way.’

Davy’s expression softened as he stared at the locket and listened to the music play. He was still for a fleeting few seconds before he reached out and closed the lid, cutting off the music. ‘There is a difference between us,’ he said sympathetically, in what almost sounded like gentle sorrow. ‘Eventually – and rather soon I would wager – Jack sparrow will die, and with him so goes your torment.’

Celeste closed her eyes again and covered them with her hand, sliding deeper into the chair as the brightness of her pale skin continued to dim, until she seemed like nothing more than a frail human woman seated before Davy Jones. He was stuck staring at her once more, but this time out of fascination rather than anger as she shivered and shook. Looking around, he found a blanket folded over one of the nearby chairs and picked it up, draping it around her carefully, making sure not to touch her with his claw in case he harmed her with it without intending to. The transition was complete; she was entirely a fragile human woman before him, susceptible to cold, hunger, and illness. This ship was barely the place for a weakened slip of a thing to be spending the night, but it was too late to change that now.

He wondered briefly what she’d spent her other nights doing, on other Blood Moons, and what she might possibly fear right now that would compel her to risk staying in Davy’s company. ‘Do I not… scare you?’ he asked quietly of her. Of course he didn’t when she was in her goddess forms, why should he? But here and now, she was a human, easily breakable, easily harmed… and he was a beast before her that could snap her arms off with a single tentacle.

Red eyes opened a sliver, and the corners of her lips pulled back in a small smile as she warmed up under the heavy blanket Davy had covered her with. She leaned forward as though to whisper something to him, and he leaned in as well to listen.

When her lips touched the side of his face in a gentle kiss, the Dutchman’s captain pulled away with a visible start. ‘What…?’ he stammered, unable to finish the question.

‘The tentacles haven’t changed anything,’ she whispered. ‘You’re still David Jones underneath all that. A monster would scare me… but a monster wouldn’t try to keep me warm while I suffered through the humiliation of being human for a night.’

He stared at her for another moment before leaving his quarters quickly, locking the doors behind him to ensure no others entered and found Celeste alone and vulnerable. When he turned around to look over his ship and found his crew standing still and staring at him, he frowned. ‘What are you slack-jawed gouts looking at? Back to work, all of you!’ he bellowed, though his voice seemed to hold less rage and more pride than usual. That night on the Flying Dutchman, there was oddly not a single crack of the whip to any man’s back and nobody suffered the cruel words of their captain; they sailed on almost like a real captain and crew, in a strange sort of peace under the crimson light of the moon. The wind was still and the clouds seemed to hang motionlessly above; the world was quiet.

___________________________________________
Chapter 14 still to come...