The Caribbean (4 page)

“C
aptain Sparrow!” Diego shouted, leaping down to the deck. “Captain Sparrow! Sir!”

“I like it, I like it,” Jack said, popping up from behind a barrel he was rolling down the Spanish ship toward the
Pearl
. “See, Barbossa, that’s how everyone should address me. You could learn a thing or two.”

“Sir, it’s the
Centurion
!” Diego called. “Villanueva is heading straight for us!”

All the pirates turned pale. Several of them grabbed as much gold as they could hold and hurled themselves over the railings back onto the
Black Pearl
.

“Villanueva! First he steals my crew and now he wants to steal my gold,” Jack grumbled. “Bloody pirate.”

“Let us stand and fight, gents!” Barbossa said in ringing tones. “Let us defend our prize! Let us show that we are true pirates, brave and bold and—”

“
Or
,” Jack interrupted, “I’ve got a better idea. Let’s run away.”

“What?” Barbossa bellowed.

“Why fight when we can outrun them easily?” Jack said. He didn’t mention it, but his strange pain, which had faded during the battle, had suddenly returned. He no longer felt energetic and light on his feet. The mossy anchors were back in his chest, weighing him down. The last thing he wanted was another battle, especially with one of the more fearsome Pirate Lords. Besides, they had the loot and the girl—there was nothing to gain, and quite a bit to lose, once Villanueva discovered what lovely piles of gold they had liberated from the galleon.

“All right, men!” Jack cried, waving his sword. “Back to the
Pearl
! And away! Set sail for New Orleans!” The crew began to cast off from the Spanish ship, leaving nothing but tied-up soldiers and an empty hold. Fuming, Barbossa followed Jack onto the ship.

He wasn’t the only one who was mad. “New Orleans!” Billy protested. “Why New Orleans? What happened to North Carolina?”

“Yes, yes,” Jack said reassuringly. “Not to worry. Just one quick stop on the way! Give the fellows a chance to spend some of this gold while I run a brief errand. Maybe pick up a little more rum while we’re there, since we always seem to be out of it for some reason.”

“I hope you’re planning to dump these two troublemakers there,” Barbossa growled, pointing to Diego and Carolina. “We can’t even understand half of what they’re saying. They could be Spanish spies…they could be working for Villanueva himself !”

“We most certainly are not!” Carolina said indignantly.

“That man is a villain and a scoundrel,” Diego insisted. “He has no honor—not even the honor among pirates.”

“Oh, really? That’s rather a dramatic accusation,” Jack observed.

“We could tell you something—something that would interest you very much,” Carolina said, putting her hands on her hips. “But only if you agree to let us stay with you.”

“On the
Pearl
?” Jack said, furrowing his brow. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

Diego raised his hands. “Nowhere. We are fugitives. Where better for us than a pirate ship, where you are always staying one step ahead of the law?”

“True,” Jack said, tilting his head. “I am very good at that myself.”

“You can’t be thinking of agreeing to this,” Barbossa spat. “They’ll just get underfoot and be in our way.”

A few of the other pirates muttered in agreement, exchanging dark glances. They had left the Spanish galleon behind them and were skimming quickly over the waves, keeping the ship dark, and putting as much distance between them and Villanueva as they could.

“We won’t be in the way,” Carolina said, tossing her head proudly. “We learn quickly. We’ll be useful.”

“We can help translate,” Diego pointed out. “If you capture any Spanish prisoners you want to question—or desire Parlay with Spanish crews—or want to spy on Spanish sailors…”

“Hmm,” Jack said, stroking his chin. “And you say you have some interesting information for me, darling?”

“
Very
interesting,” Carolina said.

Jack knew that Barbossa—and probably most of the rest of his crew—would disapprove, but his curiosity always got the better of him. Besides, nobody said he couldn’t change his mind later, once he knew what he wanted to know.

“Very well then,” he said. “Welcome aboard!”

Carolina clapped her hands excitedly and hugged Diego.

“Now,” Jack went on quickly, before Barbossa could start his bellowing and bellyaching, “what were you going to tell me?”

“It’s about Villanueva,” Carolina said. “I overheard some of the soldiers talking while they had me locked up. The Pirate Lord is working for the Spanish now. He made a deal with them so he can eventually retire into the Spanish aristocracy. They’re planning to take over the whole Caribbean together and then divide it up between them.”

“What?” Jack cried.

“What?” Barbossa bellowed.

“That’s what I said,” Jack pointed out.

“You see?” Diego said. “No honor! He does not even follow the Pirate Code!”

“What do you know of the Pirate Code, boy?” Barbossa snarled. “Your grandfather wasn’t even born when captains Morgan and Bartholomew set down the Code for the Second Brethren Court. Some of us have been living by it for our whole lives.”

“Not Villanueva, apparently,” Diego said.

“If this is true,” Billy said seriously, “then it’s a good thing we ran. He was coming not just to steal our gold but to free the soldiers…and probably sink us, if he could.” He shook his head.

“That is their plan,” Carolina said. “To sink every pirate ship in the Caribbean and drive out the English and the French forever. The Spanish once controlled these waters completely, and they want to control them again.”

Jack set his jaw. “Not while I’m alive,” he said. “I am the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean.”

“Yes,” Barbossa muttered, “and after tonight’s dazzling display of courage, I’m sure Villanueva is absolutely terrified.”

N
ew Orleans!

The city glittered in the distance as they sailed closer—although not as much, of course, as it had glittered when it was made entirely of silver.

“I’m counting on you, Billy, old chap,” Jack said, pulling his friend close. The wind tugged at his long hair, but he knew it wasn’t just the wind; it was the strange shadows lurking in the corners of his vision as well. He needed to get rid of them as quickly as possible, before he went truly mad. “It’s up to you to keep an eye on the
Pear
l
and the crew while they stagger about spending their ill-gotten loot. My advice is to get them as drunk as possible. That should keep ’em busy while Barbossa and I go see Tia Dalma.”

“I don’t trust that mystic,” Billy said. “I don’t know why you need to go see her.”

“Ah, she’s not so bad,” Jack said, ruffling Bill’s hair. “We go way back. Old friends. I’m sure she’ll be delighted to see me. Probably forgotten all about last time. I don’t think she’s the type to hold a grudge.”

“Say, Jack,” Barbossa said, joining them at the bow with an apple in his hand. “You know, I could stay with the
Pearl
instead. Wouldn’t be any trouble. Happy to keep an eye on it for you.” He winked and took a large bite of the apple.

“Quite all right,” Jack said breezily. “Billy can handle it. And remember, it’s
Captain
Jack.” He tapped Barbossa lightly on the nose and swiped the apple from him.

Barbossa scowled and stalked away, muttering something about mangy bilge rats.

The
Black Pearl
sailed grandly into the port, and Jack remembered his visit to the town long ago, when he was captain of the
Barnacle
. Now things were very different. Now he had a whole crew and a ship to be reckoned with. Not to mention a quite excellent hat.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes. Was he seeing things again?

“Jean, mate!” he called down as the
Pearl
dropped anchor.

A freckled, green-eyed young man with curly red-brown hair looked up from the line he was tying to the dock. “Jack!” he cried in delight, smiling broadly.

“
Captain
Jack!” Jack reminded him, waving.

“Of course,” Jean Magliore said brightly. “
Captain
Jack.” Jean had been one of the first crew members Jack ever had, back when there were just a handful of them sailing the
Barnacle
around the Caribbean. Jack hadn’t seen him in years.

Jack didn’t even have to offer a place aboard the
Pearl
; Jean was anxious to leave the ship he was working on. “The captain is so boring, Jack,” he said as they stood together on the dock, watching the hustle and bustle of ships loading and unloading around them. “You’d barely even know he was there. Not one grand adventure in all the time I’ve been with him. Not a single ghost or mermaid trying to kill us, not one cursed amulet turning things to bronze. I’m afraid once you’ve sailed with Captain Jack Sparrow, nothing else quite measures up. You’re sure you have room for me on the
Pearl
?”

Jack beamed. “Absolutely,” he said. “Especially now that you don’t have that dreadful feline, Constance, following you around anymore. I don’t know if I ever mentioned this, but I quite loathed her.”

“Oh, you’ve always made that much perfectly clear, Jack,” Jean said. “
Non, mon ami
, my sister is back in human form and having a very normal
human
life, finally.”

“
Excellent
,” Jack said. “Then you’re welcome aboard!”

“But…” Jean said nervously.

“No, no, no buts,” Jack said, waving his hands.

“I do have one tiny problem,” Jean said. “That is, not really a problem, more like a—companion—a duty, kind of—I mean, she has nowhere else to go, so…I’m kind of responsible for her.”

“Oh,
no
,” Jack said, burying his head in his hands.

“She won’t be a bother!” Jean assured him. “It’s my, uh,
cousin
Marcella, you see. She’s been, um, orphaned, and she needs a protector, so that’s me, and…oh, Jack, say you don’t mind. She won’t be any trouble at all; she’s only a brat to me, really, I’m sure.”

“I HEARD THAT.”

Jack and Jean whirled around. A skinny girl stood on the dock behind them with her hands on her hips, glaring at Jean. She looked about the same age as Carolina, more elegantly dressed in a long gray gown, but not half so pretty. Jack blinked and rubbed his face. Her eyes looked brown—but then they looked yellow when she turned her head. Yellow eyes? His curse must have been making him see things again.

“Jean!” Marcella said, stamping her foot. “I am not a brat! I’m not! You must stop saying things like that! It’s mean and it’s not fair!”

“I’m sorry,” Jean said penitently. “Listen, I’m getting us a place on this fine ship here, isn’t that splendid?”

Marcella’s gaze swept over the
Black P
earl
, from one end to the other. She wrinkled her nose. “It looks like a
pirate
ship,” she said disapprovingly. As if the Jolly Roger at the top didn’t make that obvious.

“And so it is, love,” Jack said. “The fastest, most glorious pirate ship ever to sail the Seven Seas.”

The girl gave him the same long, considering gaze she’d given the ship, and her expression of disapproval didn’t change. “Hey, wait,” she said. “You look like…aren’t you…Jack?”

Jack was startled. Surely he’d never seen this young lady before in his life.

“Er,” Jean said quickly. “Give us a moment, Jack.” He seized Marcella’s arm and drew her away behind a stack of crates, while he talked quickly in French.

Jack gave Diego and Carolina a puzzled look as they came down the gangplank, admiring the busy madness of New Orleans. “No chance one of you speaks French, is there?” Jack asked. They shook their heads. “No, that’d be far too useful. All right, forget it, carry on.” He sidled closer to the crates as the Spanish pair walked away, but he couldn’t make out anything Jean was saying. He
could
hear Marcella stamping her foot and saying “
NON!
” every now and then, though. That was rather worrisome. Not exactly what he was looking for in a new crew member.

Meanwhile, Barbossa was preparing a longboat to sail up the river. “This is madness, Jack,” he said, stacking flasks of fresh water in the boat. “You don’t even know where we’re going. Just upriver, you’ve said. What type of direction is that?”

“Never fear, Hector,” Jack said expansively. “These things tend to work out in the end.”

“Yes, for you and for nobody else,” Barbossa muttered.

Jean reemerged, dragging Marcella behind him. “It’s all settled,” he said happily. “Marcella agrees that this will be a great opportunity for us.”

If she did agree, you certainly couldn’t tell from the look on her face.

“Er,” Jack said, “well then…welcome aboard…I suppose.”

Barbossa scowled at Marcella. “Another woman?” he said. “I suppose our luck can’t get much worse.”

Marcella turned up her nose at him. “I assure you, dirty man,” she said, “that it most certainly can.” She marched up the gangplank, her skirts flouncing.

“Oh, dear,” Jean said, rubbing his head.

“We’ll be off, then,” Jack said quickly. “You settle in and take care of…all that. We’ll be back in two shakes of a feather.” He jumped into the boat with Barbossa. “Never understood that phrase myself,” he said, settling down in the front of the boat and leaving the seat with the oars for his first mate. “Why would anyone be shaking feathers to tell time? It’s quite mysterious.” He stared at Barbossa’s feathered hat and raised an eyebrow.

Barbossa, realizing that
he
was going to be rowing all the way upriver until they found Tia Dalma, looked as if he was going to say something rather angry. But he narrowed his eyes, held his tongue, and sat down to row. One day things would change. But now was not the time.

The boat set off, weaving between the larger ships until it came to the wide, rushing waters of the Mississippi River. As they moved steadily upstream, Jack studied the banks from below the rim of his hat. His chest was beginning to ache again with the pain and weight of the shadow illness. He needed a cure as soon as possible.