In the Hands of Fate II: Dead Man's Chest

Chapter Eleven

"After me; comoară."

"Com-air-uh."

I stifled a laugh. Comoară meaning treasure, was actually one of the simpler Romanian words. "No. Coam-ARE-uh. Roll your 'r.'"

"Com-ARE-uh," Jack tried again.

I shook my head. "Coam-ARE-uh, Coam, like comb, not com. Say it with me. Comb…"

"Comb."

"Are…"

"Are."

"Uh…"

"Uh."

I nodded, "Very good. Now, put that together."

"Comb-are-uh. Comoară," Jack smiled. "Did I say it right?"

My already present grin widened. "Yes."

"Good! How do you say 'love'?" he asked.

"Dragoste." I said as I wrote it down on the paper.

"Deraw-go-stee?"

I shook my head. "You have to roll your 'r,'" I repeated. "Dra.."

"Dra-go-stee."

"Stay. Dra-go-stay."

"Dra-go-stee. Dra-go-stay. Dragoste?"

I nodded again. "Great!"

"So how good am I doing, dragoste?"

I knew he'd only been working on the language for a little while, but at that moment I really wanted to laugh. It was funny to hear someone miss use a word. "No, no. Dragoste is the word for the feeling not the… poreclă."

"Pore-vey-cla?"

I smiled. "Poreclă means nickname. The word you want is dragă or drag. It depends on how you mean it. Drag is more… oh, care e cuvântul? Incivili, er, demeaning."

Jack nodded and went silent. "How would you say 'I love you?' … Out of curiosity."

"'Ego amare'." I shook my head as my hand wrote 'Te iubesc.' "Paenitet. Bluergh! Scuze!" I dropped the quill and threw my hands up. "'Te iubesc' is Romanian for 'I love you.' 'Ego amare' is Latin for the same phrase. Perhaps it would be better if we continued this at another time. I'm beginning to get tongue tied."

When I woke in the morning the first thing I did was climb up to the crow's nest for some much needed time alone. Up here I could hardly hear the commotion on board as we headed towards the island.

I ended up meditating, forcing myself as calm as possible. I cleared my mind and thought of one person I haven't seen in a while… Governor Swann…

After a dizzying array of colors, I found myself in an office that looked vaguely familiar surrounded by a bunch of people I didn't recognize.

Becket drew his sword, and turned towards me. "There's something to knowing the exact shape of the world and one's place in it. Don't you agree?"