Barbossa's Daughter

Chapter 34

Mr Gibbs was waiting to help Cora onto the boat as she climbed back onto the Pearl. "Bring me Tia Dalma, but make sure she be restrained, heavily," Cora ordered and Mr Gibbs nodded.

"Aye, Captain Cora," he said as he rallied some men and made it below deck.

"What are your orders, Captain?" Will asked after he'd hugged Elizabeth, hello and Cora took a pained breath.

"Prepare the ship for battle. If this doesn't work, the Black Pearl will be the flagship to lead the others. I want every cannon, every gun and every bit of ammunition at the ready."

"Aye, milady," Will nodded sincerely as he went about making the arrangements, knowing better than to question whether or not this was a good idea.

Tia Dalma was wrapped in ropes and tied to the mast, several lengths of rope being held by the crew as the tray full of seven pieces of eight was held in front of her. Barbossa then took the piece from Jack the Monkey as he dropped it in.

"Captain Cora," her father announced. "Ye be the final piece."

And Cora approached as she undid the pendant from around her neck and placed it into the tray as she met Tia's eyes.

"You will be free," she said with the same conviction that Sao Feng had to her.

And Cora backed away as Mr Gibbs asked, "Be there some manner of rite or incantation?"

"Aye!" her father agreed before he began waving his hands over the tray. "The items brought together, done. Items to be burned...and someone must speak the words: Calypso, I release you from your human bonds."

"Is that it?" Pintel wondered.

"Tis said it must be spoken as if to a lover," he added, and Cora cringed at least until her father yelled the words in the most unromantic way ever.

"That's rather disturbing," Will commented.

"Ye can say that again," Cora agreed before she realised who she was talking to and stepped away from him.

And her father lit the tray, but nothing happened, just smoke.

"You didn't say it right," Ragetti blurted but instantly regretted it when he saw the look Barbossa gave him, but he didn't back down. "You have to say it right." And he leaned towards her ear as he whispered, "Calypso, I release you from your human bonds."

And the bowl ignited as Tia shuddered in her ropes and the men held her fast as the pieces of eight burned and she inhaled the smoke.

"Tia Dalma!" Will called, but Cora grabbed his arm to keep him from interfering. "Calypso," he rasped in such a way that it sent shivers down Cora's spine as she let him go, her fingers still tingling from touching him as Tia's eyes snapped open and the tray and its embers fell to the floor. "When the Brethren Court imprisoned you, who was it that told them how?" he asked, and Cora's eyes narrowed in intrigue. "Who was it that betrayed you?"

"Name him!" she thundered.

Will turned back to Cora as he said, "He whose music box is the same as hers."

And she bit her lips as she answered, in a small whisper, "Davy Jones."

And Tia Dalma began to grow.

Still inside her rope bonds, the ropes barely managed to still wrap around the heathen goddess as she grew taller than the main mast, the ship barely able to take her weight as the ropes cut into her skin.

"Calypso," Hector called as he approached her and dropped to his knee, everyone else following suit, Cora included. "I come before you as but a servant, humble and contrite. I have fulfilled me vow and now ask your favour. Spare meself, me ship, me daughter, me crew but unleash your fury upon those who dare pretend themselves your masters or mine."