Honor Among Thieves || Book Two

~17~

"Barbossa? Hector Barbossa?"

"Aye, t'is me." Barbossa stated with a throaty chuckle as he took another bite of apple, offering a piece to his monkey. William finally found his voice. "Jack shot you. I saw it. You...You died."

Barbossa grunted. "I don't want t' be reminded o' that, Turner."

"Boy, 'ave we missed you!" Pintel exclaimed. "How've ye been, Cap'n? Well, er...besides dead, that is."

"Peachy."

"Enough chit-chat!" Gibbs yelled. "Are we goin' t' get Jack or not?"

"You need rest." Tia murmured, putting a hand on his shoulder. Barbossa nodded in agreement. "Aye. A few days rest at the very least. We've a long journey ahead o' us."

"I don't need rest." Gibbs shrugged the priestess's hand off. "I'm ready an' willin' t' leave right this moment."

"We don't have a ship." Elizabeth said, stealing a quick glance at Will. Gibbs cursed. "That's right. How are we t' go anywhere without a ship?"

"That's where I come in."

Sera emerged from an adjoining room dressed in black from head to toe.

She looked like a shell of her former self. Her chocolate hair fell around her shoulders in unkempt curls and her ghostly pale face bore the faded stains of tears that had mingled with the kohl lining her eyes. Still, she wore a smile.

"Ladies and gen'lemen," Barbossa began in his gruff voice, gesturing to her. "I give ye Seraphina Drake, captain of the Destiny, Keeper of the--"

"They know who I am." She interjected, trying not to cry as she pored over the forlorn faces of Jack's loyal crew.

Then she saw Elizabeth...

Her tears evaporated as searing hot anger surged through her body. What was she doing here, standing amongst those mourning Jack's death? Surely she would not be accompanying them to--

Nothing would have changed. She told herself, drawing in a deep calming breath. Nothing would have changed...

"I have plenty of room and supplies on my ship." She said, forcing herself to look away from the blonde. "Enough for everyone here."

"Good. I say we leave now!"

"No, Gibbs." Sera said flatly, shaking her head. "We leave for Singapore in three days."

"Singapore?" Elizabeth knitted her brows. Ragetti frowned. "Why do we gotta go to Singapore?"

"Yeah!" Pintel looked at her funnily. "Wot's in Singapore?"

"There is but one map in all the world that shows the way t' the world's end." Barbossa explained, stroking his monkey's head. "An' that map happens t' be in the possession o' Cap'n Sao Feng, who resides in Singapore."

William narrowed his eyes. "Why do we need a map? I thought you 'knew those waters'."

"The map is not t' help us find it so much as it is t' help us get back...

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Aboard the Destiny, three days later...

Sera watched silently from the helm as Gibbs and the others boarded her ship, a delicate wind gently moving her ebony curls. Tia Dalma had produced numerous supplies seemingly out of thin air, but no one dared question it. Sera didn't care, anyway. More supplies were more supplies.

"Sera? Er...Captain?"

Jeremy timidly climbed the steps with her dagger in one hand and a whet stone in the other. "I sharpened your dagger like you asked."