The Map

Heading to Port

Usual Disclaimer:

Erm I don't think there are any advance warnings needed for this one, save for my terrible spellings and bad use of the Queen's English!

This chapter is a bit slower in pace; in fact it's very slow, but essential to build up the plot... so please bear with me. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

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Sir James Beaumont stood on the quarterdeck and looked down on the men scurrying around as they tried to make repairs.

The sails needed repairing and he knew that with the ship listing so badly at the aft that if he were to try and go after the Pearl now he'd be sending any chances he had of getting Nell back straight to hell.

It angered him incredibly to turn tail and make haste in the opposite direction but he had no choice.

He would drop anchor at Tortuga and either make repairs or find another ship.

Tristan De Mornay stood to one side of his Captain and life long friend.

"Tobias says there's an Island off the Port Bow, it will be closer than Tortuga and we can make the necessary repairs, James." Tristan braced his hands on the bulwarks in front of him as he looked over the deck below.

"I've come too far to let this slide past me," James said quietly, seemingly ignoring his friend. "We've come too far. Twice we've had the gold in our hands and twice we've had to let it go."

"We won't loose again James." Tristan looked across at his Captain.

Close to Forty he cut an imposing figure. Well over six feet with short black hair that was well kept and clean underneath the white rolled wig that he wore. He had kept himself trim and fit and was little changed from when Tristan had first met him over twenty years ago.

He was dressed in a long dark blue coat with gold decorations and buttons. His white britches were in a pristine state as were the boots he wore. He wore a sword at his right hip, a scarlet cord hanging from the handle. His hands were clasped behind his back, which was ramrod straight. He was good looking in a clean cut sort of way, with a long straight nose and firm chin. But his eyes were the window of his soul and they could burn a man or freeze him. Through their long friendship Tristan had often been glad that he was his friend and not his enemy, although James had never mistreated him or taken his friendship for granted. They were very much alike in temperament and both devious of character. Very well suited.

"Take us to the Island, Tristan and inform the crew that no one sleeps until repairs are made and we're back on course."

Tristan turned and left James briefly to carry out his orders. When he came back again James hadn't moved.

"What do you know of this Black Pearl?" Tristan had heard rumours of the vessel that used to sail in fog and had sacked Port Royal a few years back, but other than that he didn't know a lot.

"It was Jack Sparrow's ship," Beaumont said and looked sideways at Tristan "Till he got himself mutinied, but word has it that he's got it back again."

"Sparrow? Jack Sparrow?" Tristan frowned rolling the name around on his tongue "Tis been too long since we sailed these waters. I have not kept abreast with things the way you have. His name means nothing to me."

"Strangest pirate you'll ever meet. Seems mad as a jackass, but don't let that fool you, behind those eyes of his lies a quick and cunning mind. I read that he sacked Nassau Port without even firing a shot and I know for a fact that when he was caught by the East India Company he managed to escape. And not that long ago he took one of Port Royal's naval ships from under their nose and sailed with just one other person for crew. Not to mention surviving a mutiny in the first place. The man is not to be underestimated, especially if he knows what lies upon her back." He drew a quick breath and looked back over the deck below "Which I daresay he does now. If she did find out about it in the convent and that's what made her run, then she'll have used that to barter her life with him."

"He'd kill her?"

"I doubt it. If he's willing to sack an entire Port without killing anyone I'd doubt he'd kill an innocent female. But she won't have known that. Remember the tales we told her on the crossing to England?"

Tristan laughed as he remembered the very frightened seven year old. She had been very serious and sat quietly listening as they'd told her tale after tale of the way Pirates tortured and killed people they came across. It had amused them to watch her little mind soak up all the information and they knew for a fact that they had even given her nightmares. It had been a cruel sport and one they excelled at.

"But that is beside the point now," James continued "We have to assume that Sparrow knows about the map. It won't take him long to pinpoint which group of islands we used and then there's a strong chance he'll work out the puzzle and then he'll know exactly where to go."

"Then we had better catch up with them before he gets that far."

"We can't attack the Pearl. At least not through the day, we will have to attack them when they least suspect it. Sparrow will know that we're working on our own."

"What do you think he'll do now?"

"He'll head to La Romana; it's the closest port in that direction. He'll need to restock and regroup until he can work that map out. I just hope we've confused things enough to make it impossible for him."

"What will you do once we make repairs."

"Head to La Romana and retrieve Nell. If he makes out the map and manages to work out where it's hidden, he'll still need her for the exact co-ordinates. If he even works out she has them that is."

"And what if she no longer has it? What if she didn't bring it with her?"

"She will have," Beaumont replied easily "But he'll probably have taken it from her without even knowing what they are, so he will have it stowed in his hold anyway. We'll get it and her even if we have to send the Black Pearl to the depths of the sea."