Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom

by A. C. Crispin

  Barbossa and Don Rafael traded glances. “Captain Teague,” Don Rafael said, “I believe what we’ve heard just now justifies a search of Borya’s ship.”

  Teague’s seamed, normally impassive features tightened slightly. He glanced at Jack. “What made you decide to go out rowing around the cove today, looking at sloops, boy?” he asked. “And how did you wind up with Don Rafael’s dory?”

  Jack took a deep breath, trying to think fast, but he wasn’t fast enough.

  “I loaned Jack my dory, Captain Teague,” Esmeralda said. “And when he told me why he wanted to row around, I decided I wanted to go with him. I’m glad I did. Jack wasn’t the only one to get a good look at that brass bow chaser. I saw it, too. I think Captain Barbossa has the right to ask some very pointed questions.”

  Teague’s glance flicked to Jack quickly, letting him know he wasn’t off the hook, but when he spoke, he merely said, “Very well. Don Rafael, Captain Barbossa…I would like you to accompany me.”

  A short time later, Jack stood with Esmeralda, watching as Teague’s heavily armed men rowed a longboat out to Koldunya. “I wonder what they will find,” Esmeralda said.

  “I’ll wager the contents of me sea chest that there won’t be a brass bow chaser aboard that sloop,” Jack replied, glumly.

  Passing the spyglass back and forth, Jack and Esmeralda took turns following the progress of the longboat. When it reached the sloop, Teague stood up in the bow, and, within a minute or two, was addressing Borya. Shortly after, the three captains climbed up the ship’s ladder and went aboard.

  They were gone for a considerable time. At length they reappeared, and climbed back down the ladder into the longboat. But this time, they had added another man to their party.

  “Borya’s with them!” Jack said, looking through the spyglass. “They’re bringing him back here.”

  “Let me see!”

  While she peered at the longboat, Jack studied the sky, then licked his finger and held it up. “Wind’s changed. It’s picking up. Big storm coming,”

  The longboat glided quickly through the water. Seeing that the longboat’s destination was several docks away from the one where they’d tied the dory, Jack and Esmeralda ran to get closer. By the time they reached their destination, Teague and the others had already tied up and debarked. The Keeper gave low-voiced instructions to his men, who scattered. Another armed contingent of Teague’s men climbed into the longboat and began rowing out to the sloop. Jack guessed Teague had dispatched them to make sure Koldunya did not weigh anchor and attempt to flee.

  Teague led the other captains toward Shipwreck City. By now they’d collected an ever-growing crowd of curious onlookers. Jack and Esmeralda followed the crowd, trying to get closer, listening.

  “Teague’s apparently called for an official court of inquiry,” Jack said to Esmeralda, low-voiced. “Evidence will be presented to the Pirate Lords here at Shipwreck Cove.”

  By now it was early afternoon. Jack and Esmeralda followed the crowd inside Shipwreck City. Teague led the way. “He’s heading for the Great Chamber,” Jack said, when they stayed on the first level of the warren. “Here, I know a shortcut.”

  Grabbing her hand, he led her off down an alley so narrow they had to squeeze sideways, then down several empty corridors. Finally, he reached a door. Two of Teague’s men were already there, standing guard. Jack nodded to them, and they opened the doors, admitting the young pirate scions into a large, oval chamber that held a raised dais at one end. In the middle of the dais stood a battered “lectern” made from half a ship’s door, mounted on a thick chunk of a mast at the proper height for a speaker. Several long benches, perhaps liberated from churches, stood in rows on each side of the dais.

  The chamber was obviously the hollowed-out holds of two large vessels placed side by side. Overhead, one could still see the curved ribs that had been supports for the old planking and decks. Huge old masts, sawed in half, served as pillars to hold up the ceiling.

  Ancient benches and chairs filled the rest of the chamber, randomly scattered, leaving a broad aisle running up the middle. Jack guided Esmeralda over to the side of the second row. “We should be out of the way, here, but still get a good view,” he said.

  “Do you think you’ll have to give testimony?” she asked.

  Jack shrugged. “Not if Teague has anything to say about it.” Hearing an edge of bitterness in his own voice, Jack shrugged and laughed, lightening the moment. “Who knows?”

  As they waited for the Pirate Lords to assemble, Jack and Esmeralda shared some bread and cheese from her satchel, and uncorked the bottle of wine.

  Within a few minutes, the chamber started to fill. Pirates, tavern wenches—anyone and everyone was admitted to the chamber, though no weapons were permitted. Pirate society was democratic, though it did have its own form of “aristocracy,” evidenced by the Pirate Lords, who entered with their guards. The guards were unarmed, too, but each of them was a bruiser that Jack wouldn’t have cared to meet in an alley—or on the heaving deck of a ship during a battle.

  Mistress Ching, Pirate Lord of the Pacific, Villanueva, Pirate Lord of the Adriatic Sea, and Don Rafael, Pirate Lord of the Caribbean, entered the chamber. Captain Teague, who was Pirate Lord of Madagascar, as well as Keeper of the Code, entered last, with Borya Palachnik. Two guards flanked the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, though Borya wasn’t under restraint.

  Teague took his place behind the lectern, and nodded to the burly guard accompanying him. With a grunt, the guard hefted a huge old book, the size of a small hatch cover, onto the top of the lectern. Dust drifted into the air when the book thudded into place.

  Then Teague gave a low whistle.

  “Why did he do that?” Esmeralda whispered to Jack.

  Jack smiled and held a finger to his lips. “Wait,” he whispered.

  A minute or so later, a dust-colored mongrel came trotting down the central aisle, holding a ring of jingling keys in its mouth.

  Esmeralda looked at Jack, shrugging and turning her hands up in a very Latin gesture of incomprehension. Jack chuckled. “That’s Teague’s prison dog,” he murmured, into her ear, enjoying the brush of silken hair against his nose. “He keeps the keys to everything, including the dungeons, for Teague. I grew up with that mutt…it was one of my chores to feed him. Dog has a taste for rum—but only the good stuff.”

  “You grew up with—” Esmeralda looked from Jack to the dog and shook her head. “How old is that dog?”

  Jack breathed a laugh. “I was gone for several years when I was in my teens,” he said. “Teague must have gotten a new dog during that time. But I swear, this one looks and acts exactly the same as the mutt he had when I was a just a little shaver.”

  Esmeralda obviously didn’t know whether to laugh or not.

  The prison dog trotted up to his master, and reared up against the lectern, presenting the keys. Gravely, Teague removed the ring from the dog’s mouth and unlocked the massive book. Then he handed the ring back to the dog.

  “That book is the Pirate’s Code,” Jack said. “Some of it goes way back.”

  Teague solemnly knocked a small cannonball against the top of the lectern. Silence fell immediately in the chamber. “The question has been raised,” he said, “regarding whether the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea has broken the Code by knowingly targeting and sinking other pirate ships. This inquiry will hear evidence to discover the truth. I call as first witness—Captain Hector Barbossa.”

  Barbossa stood up from his seat in the first row, and approached the dais. Mounting the step up, he stood and gave Borya a long, searching glance, then turned his back on the little pirate to address the Pirate Lords and the assembly. The captain summarized the story of what had happened to him and his ship, then spoke of how his memory of the attacking vessel exactly matched the ship Borya called Koldunya. He mentioned being told of the brass bow chaser, and seeing something shining on the bow of Borya’s ship, then added that he was unable to confir
m it was the same weapon that had caused such destruction to his Cobra.

  Barbossa went on to say that, although he, Don Rafael, and Captain Teague had searched the sloop from the bilges on up, they’d found no sign of any brass weapons. “She did have a bow chaser, right enough,” the captain concluded. “But it were a regular iron nine-pounder, painted black.”

  Jack watched Borya as he sat on the opposite side of the dais, between the two guards. The undernourished little pirate appeared the same as always, with his wispy gray hair and beard, spectacles hanging around his neck, and his odd clothing. He listened to what was being said with interest, but he did not appear in the least worried or concerned. He looked so normal that Jack found himself wondering whether it was all just coincidence. Maybe Borya was innocent?

  When Barbossa had finished with his testimony, Teague nodded to him, and he returned to his seat. “I call as second witness—Jack Sparrow.”

  Jack was relieved to know that Teague wasn’t going to just dismiss Old Tommy’s death as unrelated. Still, it was strange to mount that dais in front of all those eyes. When he reached the spot opposite Teague, the Keeper of the Code nodded at him to begin.

  Looking out over the crowd would only add to his unease, and Jack didn’t want to look at Teague, of course. Or Borya, either. He couldn’t help remembering all the times he’d spent with the Russian pirate aboard his assorted Koldunyas, picking up pocket money by doing chores. Borya would always ruffle his hair and praise him for being a smart boy. Jack hadn’t received much in the way of approval while he was a lad, and those words had stayed with him.

  Taking a deep breath, Jack fixed his eyes on Esmeralda. Looking at her made him feel as though he could get through this, and that he’d be fine. He launched into his account of running into Old One Tooth Tommy, realizing who he was, then actually listening to what the drunken old pirate was ranting on about.

  Then he told of how he’d looked for Tommy the next day—and the next—without finding him, or finding anyone who had seen him. Finally, he finished by recounting how he’d seen the body floating in the black water of the cove—and of the conclusions he’d reached after pulling the corpse out and examining it.

  When he’d finished, Teague said, “Can anyone confirm your account that you met and spoke with One Tooth Tommy?”

  “Yes,” Jack responded, steadily. “Captain Christophe de Rapièr of La Vipère came to the back of the room to get me when it was time to escort Lady Esmeralda Maria Consuela Anna de Sevilla back to her grandfather’s vessel, Venganza. The Lady Esmeralda was present, and saw me speaking to old Tommy.”

  Teague looked out across the crowd. “Is Captain de Rapièr present?” he called, raising his voice so it carried.

  “I don’t see him, Captain Teague,” Jack said.

  “Very well. Lady Esmeralda,” Teague turned to where she was sitting on the side of the chamber. “Is his account accurate?”

  She rose in her place. “I could not hear what was being said,” she spoke steadily, “but I saw Jack Sparrow sitting with Old Tommy of the One Tooth, talking, just as he reported.”

  “Thank you, Lady Esmeralda,” Teague said. He turned back to Jack, and Jack suddenly realized what he was about to ask. Damn Teague! He’d do anything he could to make me look bad in Esmeralda’s eyes. He bloody well knows who I was with! She came to get him last night!

  “Can anyone confirm what you reported regarding finding Tommy’s body?” Teague asked.

  Jack took a long breath. “Yes,” he said, keeping his voice steady and free of anger with an effort. He realized he was clenching his fists, and forced himself to uncurl his fingers. “Melinda was with me when I found the body.”

  “Melinda?”

  “She works for Granny Martha,” Jack replied. He was afraid to look at Esmeralda, so he unfocused his eyes and stared at nothing.

  “Is Melinda present?” Teague called out.

  There was a rustle several rows back, and then Jack saw Melinda standing there. The trollop curtsied low to Captain Teague. He was, after all, the equivalent of pirate royalty. “I’m Melinda, sir.”

  “Was this account correct?”

  “Aye, ’tis, sir. Jacky found the body floatin’ just as he says he did. Horrible sight, it were, sir.”

  “Very well.” Teague inclined his head to Jack. “Now, describe the events of today.”

  Jack reported how he’d gone out rowing in the dory with Esmeralda, looking for evidence that Tommy had actually seen “the devil’s ship” anchored in Shipwreck Cove. He finished by confirming that he’d clearly seen the brass bow chaser.

  Teague again asked Lady Esmeralda whether Jack’s account was accurate. Jack was afraid to look at her when she stood up, but as she began to speak, he forced himself to meet her eyes across the chamber. “Yes, Captain Teague,” she said, steadily, “Jack Sparrow reported exactly what happened today. I looked through the spyglass too, and I clearly saw a brass bow chaser on Koldunya’s bow.”

  When she finished speaking, she gave Jack a faint smile. He smiled back, light-headed with relief. Teague nodded curtly at Jack when she finished. “You may step down.”

  Jack went back to his seat. As he settled in beside her, he looked at her and whispered, “I…I thought you might be…angry…”

  She met his gaze. “Jack, you keep forgetting. I’m a pirate. I know pirates. Now hush. I want to listen!”

  Teague was speaking to the assembled crowd. “Is there anyone present who saw or spoke to One Tooth Tommy after he left The Drunken Lady on the night in question?”

  There was a shuffling in the back of the chamber, and then a tall, skinny, ferret-faced man wearing a black eye patch was standing there. “I saw him, I did,” he said. “I knowed it was Old One Tooth Tommy, seein’ as how we was shipmates, you know.”

  Jack, who had turned around in his seat, like the rest of the assembly, narrowed his eyes as he took in the man sitting next to the speaker. It was that repugnant manikin…what had Melinda called him? Pintel, that was it.

  “State your name,” Teague commanded.

  “Ragetti, sir,” the pirate said. “I sails with Cap’n Barbossa.”

  “What did you see, Ragetti?” Teague asked.

  “I seen Old One Tooth, I did. I was lookin’ for me friend, Pintel—” he looked down at the bald pirate next to him, who gave him an excited glance and grinned broadly. “And I seen him. Tommy was walking…well, more like lurchin’ y’know, behind someone. They was headed down the corridor, the one what leads out of Shipwreck City to the docks.”

  “Who was with him?”

  “Dunno, mate,” said Ragetti, then at a glance from Teague, the one-eyed pirate swallowed and amended, “Uh, sir. He was ahead of Old Tommy, mostly through the door when I seen ’em. I didn’t get a good look. Tall as me, I think. He were wearing a hat, and it was night, so I couldn’t see his face. What I mostly saw was his coat sleeve as he held the door for Tommy to follow him. Pretty color. Turquoise, they calls it. Like a lagoon. Ladies, they like to wear that color.” He giggled. “’Cept of course, this was a man’s coat. Sir.”

  Jack rolled his eyes. Great. In the country of blind fools, the one-eyed idiot is king.

  “Thank you; you may be seated,” Teague said. He turned to Borya. “You have heard the evidence presented. What do you have to say?”

  Borya stood up. He shook his head regretfully. “I say I am innocent, Captain Teague. I am victim here, not Barbossa. Victim of malice and lies. Those two,” he indicated Jack and Esmeralda, “are lying, da? Why, I know not. Perhaps boy took girl off to make loving with her. Afterward she is afraid to be caught by Don Rafael, so they lie about why they are out rowing in dory. I only know I have no brass bow chaser aboard my vessel, never had, never, no matter what young bastard and pretty strumpet claim.”

  A murmur ran through the assembly. Up on the dais, Don Rafael tried to lunge to his feet, only to be pulled back down by Villanueva and Mistress Ching. Jack felt himself coloring—esp
ecially when he remembered what he’d been thinking that morning after he and Esmeralda had kissed. But, dammit, they hadn’t done anything! He glared up at the little Pirate Lord, wishing he had his pistol. Borya, you sodding liar!

  Esmeralda didn’t blush. She went pale with fury, right down to her lips, which were pressed tightly together.

  Teague banged the cannonball for quiet. As soon as it was restored, Borya spoke again. “As for this Old Tommy…hah! Ridiculous! Old drunk falls into cove and drowns. Is not first time, will not be last time. And anyone here who wishes to call Borya Palachnik tall, that person may borrow my spectacles, da?” He took off his specs and waved them in the air.

  A murmur of laughter ran through the chamber. Jack and Esmeralda didn’t join in, nor did the Pirate Lords.

  Borya continued, as soon as it died down. “You say Borya is evil rogue pirate because he has Bermuda-rigged sloop, da? Hah! How many Bermuda-rigged sloops in this world, I ask you? Hundreds…maybe thousands, Captain Teague, Keeper of Code. You know this. So do I. As for Captain Barbossa…Hector, you have been my friend many years. I am sorry you lost Cobra. Sorrow, they say, can affect the mind. Loss of your beloved vessel has made your mind…what do they say…unhinged. Sorry I am for your suffering, Hector, my friend. But is not my doing.”

  Borya sat back down on his bench, crossing his arms on his chest, to all appearances completely relaxed, even bored, by the proceedings.

  Silence reigned.

  For once Teague seemed uncertain of what to do next. He stared down at the Code of the Brethren book, as if it might give him some answer, but he did not open it. Finally, the Keeper turned to the Pirate Lords. “What say you?” he asked.

  Don Rafael rose to his feet. “We must get to the truth of this,” he said. “The reputation of the Brethren Court—and my granddaughter—depends on our finding the truth and dealing with those who have flouted the Code. I believe extreme measures are called for. There is one who will know the truth. We must summon him.”