White and Black Pearls 3 - Ten Pearl Strand

Chapter Twenty

Will stood on the deck of the Flying Dutchman solemnly, his hands behind his back. “Do you two have plans for where you’re going to go or what you’re going to do?” he asked quietly.

Davy Jones shook his head no.

Will nodded and looked down at the railing of the Dutchman, their backs to the island, before his gaze wandered over to Jones. “I need to ask you something,” he said urgently, now that most of the tales of what had happened between everyone during this tragedy had played out and he figured he knew nearly the entire story.

“Would that be… how Jack Sparrow escaped from that cell?” Davy guessed slowly.

Again Will nodded eagerly. “And please, for the love of mother and child, don’t say sea turtles.”

A smile pulled at Davy’s lips and he laughed before shaking his head. “Nothing so fanciful,” he said in his thick accent, “Yet nothing less than what I’d expect of that luckless scoundrel.” Davy’s gaze wandered over to Will, and he watched the boy shrink back just slightly, still unnerved around Jones even in his human form. “He was drowning in his cell, clinging to the stalactites and trying to hold his breath. I was told to keep him alive until the night we needed him for Beckett’s plan – though it never came to fruition as he intended – so I entered the water and opened his cell door, reaching out and grabbing hold of his unconscious body before it was pierced through and through by the stalactites. I waited until the water had washed back out of the cell before tossing him on his back on the floor. He did the usual coughing and sputtering, laying there as I locked the cell once more, and we each returned to our posts.” Jones looked down at his hand for a moment. Not a claw, not a tentacle. It was still something to get used to all over again. “When the next flood came, I was already standing outside the cell, prepared this time for what was to happen. I watched as Jack clung to the stalactite, and when he released it and the air in his lungs, going limp, again I opened the cell and entered, dragging him back down before he reached the ceiling. However, when I touched down on the floor, he moved suddenly, not unconscious at all. The head of the spear I’d thrown at him was lodged in my throat and while I could not die I could certainly feel pain. I released him and he swam for the gate, out of his cell and up to the surface for another breath before down to the opening where the floods came from.” From there it became obvious he was speculating as he added, “I suppose he made the climb all the way up the tunnel on hand and knee or even on his belly, but all I really know is that I was left in that chamber with blood pouring out, barely able to move. It took all my strength to wrench the spearhead from my throat, and then hobble out of that cell and back up to the outcropping. I left to go find Beckett and inform him of Jack’s escape, which I suppose would be shortly before Barbossa and Calypso found the cavern and saw my blood everywhere.”

Will shook his head. Clever Jack. Would that Jack Sparrow ever cause trouble again? He couldn’t bear the thought of a life alone and miserable on a desert island until heat and starvation got the best of you, not for Jack. “What’s that noise?” Will said suddenly, lifting his head and turning.

He frowned as he saw the Black Pearl starting to move away from the island. “We had an agreement!” he roared angrily. “Barbossa!” He began to send out calls to the crew, and they woke immediately, raising anchors and dropping canvas, sailing after the Black Pearl.

“Look boy,” Davy Jones pointed out, his finger extended in the direction of the island.

Will paused his orders and looked over at the island. He couldn’t see much in the darkness, not from this distance, and he looked up at Davy blankly until he was handed a spyglass. Will extended it immediately, looking through the telescope at the island where Davy was pointing.

There on the beach stood Barbossa and his crew, throwing his hands into the air and roaring out curses. Will frowned and swung the spyglass over to the Black Pearl then, aiming it for the wheel to see who was guiding the ship away from the island if Barbossa was not. “Jack!” Will gasped, astonished, as he watched Jack Sparrow take off his tricorne and wave it in a ceremonious goodbye with a bow towards Barbossa and the beach. The captain of the Flying Dutchman broke out into a smile. Things weren’t going to get duller on the face of the Earth any time soon after all. He closed the telescope and looked up at Davy.

“I suppose that fixes our little problem then,” Davy Jones mused.

“Aye, it does,” Calypso agreed as she appeared on the deck of the Dutchman beside her husband. “So we best be makin our journey away from here as well.”

“But Barbossa and the crew…” Will pointed out.

“They’ll get off that island,” Calypso said matter-of-factly with a shrug. “Barbossa wouldn’t give up the Pearl that easily. Besides, what are you going to do about it, take them with you?”

He supposed she was right. Will scratched his chin as he watched Calypso and Davy drop one of the freshly repaired rafts off the side of the Dutchman and climb down to it.

“Keep true to your course,” Calypso called up to Will as she stood in the small boat and Davy Jones picked up the oars. “Do not stray from the path of the right and you’ll make a fine captain of the Dutchman.”

Will nodded and lifted a hand in goodbye before turning to the crew and his father. He smiled, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated somehow, and called out, “What are we waiting for? We sail!”

The crew cried out happily and hurried to their posts to get the Flying Dutchman speeding across the waters again.


END
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Thank you to those that have supported my writing, especially to hell_on_earth and Kat. I rather enjoyed writing this story though I tend to avoid writing fanfiction. If you have questions or comments for me you can email me at wingsofdirt at gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

-Wing
p.s. there’s an Epilogue…