Of Priests and Pirates

Story Synopsis

Captain Hector Barbossa, Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, is waiting to be hung at the St. Kitts gallows two years before the infamous mutiny that would get him captaincy of the Black Pearl, when he receives an unexpected visitor with an offer that could change his life forever if he were to accept.

Fort George, St. Kitts – 1708

The shadows along the stone walls and iron bars flickered in the dim candlelight, causing them to appear more sinister and dark in the dank, dirty cells that made up the small dungeon of the English fort. All but one cell was empty, in it, its sole occupant stared at the single candle that lit the dreary place, until a flurry of movement, a squeak of the dying and the mewling yowl of a feral cat caught his attention in the far off corner of the dungeon. In the shadows, the occupant could make out a gray cat feasting on a mouse it had caught and for a moment, the prisoner could relate to the unfortunate mouse. The little thief had been minding its own business looking for scraps of food left by the dungeon's larger occupants, only to find itself threatened by a hunter and, in it's attempt to escape, it had fallen into the hunter's trap and was ensnared by its claws.

Like the mouse, the prisoner had been the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in search of food and now he was waiting for his own demise to come about. At least the mouse had a quick end to its agony; he, on the other hand, was left to contemplate his fate until death finally took him. Waiting to die was a terrible way to go.

The prisoner returned his piercing blue gaze back to the flickering candle and quietly watched as its flame slowly died through the bleak night and within its flame, he could see his life slowly flash by in a series of short, meaningful events: a small boy gazing at the massive crystal blue sea from the shores of England for the first time and finding himself being pulled by the allure of its sweet blue mystery and the divine promise of freedom. A young man besting his mentor for the first time in practiced swordplay while his captain, Henry Morgan, was audience to the spectacle. A pirate standing over a good day's haul and grinning madly with pride as he realizes it was his first ship he had captured as a captain. A wooden ball rolls between the captain's fingers as he reads with the thirst of a young man seeking knowledge from the fat, old and dusty tome that contained the words of the Pirata Codex and he understands what the small ball means to him and to the world of piracy. A Pirate Lord watches helplessly as his ship burns and sinks to the depths after a night of drunken revelry, leaving him penniless and ship-less. A thief running through the market crowd with a bushel of apples under one arm as he greedily and hungrily bit into a succulent green one all the while a group of redcoats shouted and chased. And the same thief that now sat on the straw covered floor staring into a candle flame and remembering his short and yet long lived life.

He continued to watch the flame and then its guttering smoke well after it had burned itself out and the last vision of his memory faded into the back of his mind until exhaustion and fatigue finally lulled him into a dreamless sleep. It was a welcoming sleep for it allowed the thief a respite from the dread of facing the gallows on the morrow.

The rising sun on the east horizon was a promising one to the thief who had awoken at the rooster's crow of dawn. He was not a superstitious man, but to see the morning sky quickly fading to the cerulean blue from orange and yellow bode no ill will on the seas this day. It was a good omen to a sailor. For a brief moment, he allowed hope to fill his soul that he might live through this to see such a sunrise again. But as the sun slowly rose, that same hope sputtered and died as he understood that it was only nonsense and that he was still condemned to the gallows as long as he was a prisoner of the English.

He stepped down from the stone bench and straightened his crimson waistcoat by tugging it back down and then sitting once more. He began to absentmindedly play with the tail end of his yellow-gold sash and for a moment he stared at it wondering if it was strong enough to hold his weight. If he was going to die, at least he would die knowing that he had denied his captors the victory of personally hanging a Pirate Lord. It would be his last show of defiance toward the authority of these seas.

But before he could even begin to untie the golden sash and bring his plan to fruition, his ears caught the sound of footsteps and metal clanging and scraping against metal. His gaze flickered down the dungeon to the stairs leading to the iron door that now opened with an earsplitting screech that made him wince. Slowly, he stood and walked to the door of his cell and gripped the bars, wondering if his captors had finally come for him or if a new prisoner was being brought in to await the same fate as he.

To his surprise a single guardsman walked down the stone stairs with a brown robed priest in tow whose face was hidden in shadow by the hood over his head. A golden cross hung down from around his neck on a braided rope and clutched to his chest was a small, worn leather bible. The pirate quirked an eyebrow at the two men who approached his cell, the guardsman expression telling him he didn't want to be letting the priest down here.

"Come to read me my last rites, have yeh?" the pirate asked them.

"Of course, my son," came the answer from the cloaked priest. His accent was peculiar but the pirate merely dismissed it as nothing of real interest. The priest turned to the guardsman and spoke to him. "You may leave us, good sir."

The soldier regarded him carefully and then glanced at the caged pirate with disdain before nodding, "If he causes you any trouble, Father, just holler and I'll put him in his rightful place." The priest said nothing in reply as he waited for the man to leave. As soon as the iron door closed once more with a loud bang and screech of un-oiled hinges, the priest approached the pirate's cell closer even as the pirate turned away to go back to his seat.

"You should have left with him," the pirate said as he lowered himself back down on the bench and regarded the priest with emotionless calm. He straightened his waistcoat again and flung his sash from his leg so that it dangled at his side, over the edge of the stone bench.

"Then I would be unable to offer you a way out of this dreadful fate you have found yourself in, Hector Barbossa," the priest replied and the pirate snorted derisively.

"I don't need nor want to confess my sins to you to save my soul from Eternal Damnation." Hector stared disdainfully at the priest for a moment before looking away. "Salvation from Hell is not what I want."

"Of course not. I know precisely what you want, mate." The pirate glanced up quickly at the priest; men of the Cloth do not say "mate". "A man of your stature and skill only wants one thing in a situation like this and that is a way to delay his appointment with the hangman."

The priest reached up and pulled back his hood to reveal a young and handsome face that Hector did not recognize immediately. The "priest" stared back at him with intelligent brown eyes and stroked his short, but well-groomed goatee which only added to his tanned comeliness and shoulder length black hair that was tied back in a loose ponytail. Hector did not doubt one moment that the young man had any difficulties persuading ladies to do whatever he asked of them.

When the priest smiled a toothy grin and revealing a couple gold and rum-stained teeth, the pirate's eyes widened in surprise as he finally recognized the man beneath the robes. Hector leapt out of his seat and crossed the cell to grab at the bars separating them, both glad and surprised to see him in such a place (and on the other side of the bars), "Jack Sparrow, you sly dog! How did yeh get in here and what's with the clean look?! How's yer father, eh?"

The priest turned pirate snapped a hand to the other pirate's mouth to silence him. He glanced back toward the stairs and listened quietly for a moment. When no sounds of the guardsman having been alerted to Hector's shout, he turned back to the pirate and hissed in a whisper, "Keep your voice down, mate, or you'll be having me for company."

He removed his hand.

"My apologies," Hector replied in a quieter tone. "Just moments ago I was ready to give up and accept me fate so it's quite a surprise to see yeh here, Jaack."

"I have that effect on people, mate." Jack watched the older pirate relax his grip on the cell bars.

"Aye, that you do, Jack. Now are you gonna spring me from this wretched place or what?" Hector frowned when Jack shook his head and stepped back. "No? Then what in blue blazes are yeh here for?!"

"Ssshh! Keep your voice down, mate!" Jack hissed at him again before answering. "I will spring you but first I have a proposition to give you that I think you will be most… agreeable to."

Hector regarded him suspiciously for a moment, knowing how sly Jack can be sometimes, before nodding to at least hear him out. "All right, I'm listening."

Jack smiled like a fox who has sighted a succulent meal in a farmer's chicken pen. "As you know, I had chosen to live the honest life rather than the dishonest life."

"Aye, and your old man wasn't all too happy about that either."

"Yes, well… it turns out the honest life isn't all it's cut out to be it seems." Jack continued as he walked back and forth in front of Hector's cell much to the older pirate's annoyance. "I was a merchant captain for Cutler Beckett and the East India Trading Company for about three or so years before I recently fell out of favor with him and branded a pirate." He stops long enough to show the pirate a large, red "P" burned into the skin of his naked forearm before covering it up again with the sleeve of his robe. "He also burned and sank my beloved ship, the Wicked Wench. But I was able to acquire a new ship, a better ship, and a skeleton crew to sail her. However, because of my "disgrace" from society I cannot respectfully return to the honest life as a merchant captain and because I have only a small crew, I cannot effectively and successfully raid ships."

"So then hire a crew, Jack."

Jack held up a finger as he faced the pirate one more time, "Ah, but therein lies the problem, mate."

Hector narrows his eyes a bit and then smiles as he understands the problem to which Jack referred to. "You can't hire a crew, can yeh?"

"Unfortunately, no." Jack scrunched up his face unhappily. "I've tried with little success. I was fortunate enough to get the ragtag group that I got now."

"Why can't you? Not saying the right things?" Hector asked, curious to know how someone as charismatic as Jack couldn't recruit a crew for his ship.

"I have no reputation except that of a Company merchant captain. No one wants to hire on with a Company captain, former or not."

Hector chuckled a little and leaned against the cell wall as he spoke to Jack in a voice that sounded almost fatherly, "Jaack. Jaack. No pirate in his right mind would hire on with a man who served the Becketts. You'll need a pirate with a pretty damn good reputation to overshadow yers, mate. At least until you can build one for yourself."

Jack leans toward him a bit, grinning, "Exactly, mate. So what do you say about becoming my First Mate and help me raid, pillage, and plunder, and otherwise pilfer our weasley black guts out?"

"Aside from you freeing me from this place, what's in it for me?" Hector asked seriously. "I'm no mere pirate after all and I've been a captain for a long time. First Mate is rather beneath me, yeh know."

Jack gave him a sly smile and tapped his lips thoughtfully before answering, "Of course. I wouldn't dream of treating you anything less. So how does an equal share sound to you?"

Hector Barbossa pulled away from the bars to walk slowly around the cell deep in thought. He stopped after a moment and folded his arms across his chest as he glances back at the younger man, "An equal share in everything?"

"You will have an equal share in everything but the captaincy, mate. Can't have two captains, you know," Jack replied and Hector nodded in agreement. "So do we have an accord, Captain?" He held out a hand through the bars. The pirate looked at it for a moment before coming over and grasping it firmly in his own gloved one. "Excellent!"

Right then the metal door up the stone stairs clanged and screeched as someone began to open it. Jack snapped his head around as Hector looked up. The younger man flipped his hood over his head before looking back at the older pirate. "I'll spring you later this morning, mate."

"I'll be dead by then!" Hector hissed quietly at him and Jack frowned.

"Kneel."

"What?"

"Trust me. Kneel." He opened up the Bible to a bookmarked page to emphasize his meaning and Hector understood and knelt before the disguised pirate a little reluctantly. He bowed his head as Jack began to recite a prayer in Latin as the footsteps came down the stone steps behind him. Hector glanced up with his eyes only and saw that it was the same guardsman from before.

The man waited until Jack was finished with the prayer before respectfully asking, "Finished giving this dog his last rites, Father?"

Hector stared back down at the floor and his knees as the guardsman approached before looking up at both men. "Yes. This man has confessed his sins and has begun to walk the path to salvation. He is ready to part from this world and face his Judgment before the Lord."

"Even though I still think I'll end up in Hell any way," Hector quipped quietly.

"As long as you are sincere in accepting our Lord and Savior in your heart and regret all the evil that you have done, then the Lord will welcome you into his Kingdom of Heaven, my son," Jack the priest replied. Hector was a little impressed at how well the younger man was playing the role. "May He have mercy on your soul if otherwise."

"Hmph. Hope the Lord doesn't for this one, Father," the guardsman said and Hector gave him a dirty scowl as the two men started to walk away for the stairs. He didn't get to hear what the Englishman said next or Jack's reply for they had disappeared up the stairs and the dungeon had fallen silent.

A minute would pass before a loud thud echoed through the dungeon and tumbled down the stairs. Hector stood and gripped the bars for a better look at what was happening. All he saw was an arm falling into view from the stairs and then a moment later it disappeared before the brown robed Jack Sparrow reappeared dragging the unconscious guardsman by the arms. He tossed the keys to the caged pirate and as the Pirate Lord let himself out of his cell, Jack dragged the guardsman inside before locking him in.

Hector went over to the wall where his affects were hanging and slipped them on. "Not bad for a greenie."

Jack gave him an annoyed look before tossing the keys into the next locked cell. "I'm not new to piracy you know."

"Of course not, lad." Hector grabbed his feathered hat and placed it on his head and looked at the priestly pirate. "I hope you have a plan on getting out of here, Jack."

"It's a work in progress, mate." Jack ascended the stairs with his new First Mate right behind him.

"Yer not exactly inspiring a lot of confidence here, mate." Hector waited a step behind Jack as the disguised pirate glanced out the iron door for a moment before signaling that it was all clear. Both pirates crept out of the dungeon and quickly made their way down the hallway. But when they reached a t-junction at the end, Jack paused and glanced both ways indecisively. "Which way out, Jack?" Hector whispered.

"Erm… this way!" Jack pointed down the right and started down the corridor ahead of Hector but after they rounded a bend, both men stopped suddenly as they came face to face with several guardsmen. "Erm… not this way!"

"Stop!" shouted one of the guardsmen as both pirates turned and ran back the other way.

"Yer really not inspiring a lot of confidence at all, Jack!" Hector shouted as both men turned down another hallway just in time to avoid several gunshots from behind.

"So I didn't exactly pay attention to how I got to the dungeon!" Jack replied and threw off his robes. Underneath the robes was his regular clothing and a sword strapped to his leg. As they ran out onto an open corridor he ended up hopping one legged in his attempt to free the sword and let it dangle at his side. He skidded to a halt suddenly and Hector ran past him a few feet before he realized that Jack had stopped and was leaning through a arched, open and stone window down to the courtyard below. "This way," he said.

Hector blinked as the younger pirate climbed onto the edge of the window. "Are yeh crazy, Jack? That's more than twenty feet down! You'll break yer legs!"

"It's either a broken leg or the gallows, mate. Your choice." Jack then jumped and Hector ran to the edge to look over. His eyebrows shot up into his hat as he saw the younger man holding onto a banner and shimmied down it to safety below. Jack glanced back up and gestured for him to follow.

"Come on!"

Hector muttered under his breath at how crazy of an idea this was while he climbed onto the edge and steadied himself. He glanced down and felt his hand grip the window column tighter. "This is nuts," he murmured.

Chips of stone sprayed next to him as a bullet lodged itself into the stone and the older pirate glanced behind him at the half dozen of red coats running up to where he was. They stopped a dozen meters away and aimed their rifles at him. Hector wasted no time in making a decision and dropped out of their sight just before they fired. The red coats ran to the edge and looked over to see him doing the same thing Jack had done and the Englishmen began reloading while one of them shouted the alarm to the whole fort.

"About time!" Jack exclaimed and grabbed the pirate by the arm and helped swing him up onto the back of the black mare he had commandeered from a cavalryman. The two men galloped down the cobblestone courtyard for the open gates amidst several gunshots, a ringing bell, and shouting and running soldiers. Hector could see two red coats desperately trying to close the gate and prevent the pirates from escaping and the pirate gritted his teeth in agonizing suspense.

"We're not gonna make it!" he shouted to Jack and the younger pirate dug his heels into the steed's sides just as the two gatemen began taking their swords at the rope. Even the soldiers were beginning to believe that the pirates weren't going to make it until both men ducked underneath the quickly falling iron gate. Hector laughed in triumph and Jack turned their steed around to face the red coats locked inside their own fortress.

"Gentlemen, remember this day as the day you were fooled by Captain Jack Sparrow!" Jack smiled devilishly as he saluted them before turning the horse back around and galloping away from the fortress.

Two Years Later, The Black Pearl – Three Days Out from Tortuga

"I trusted you." Jack Sparrow said disappointedly at his First Mate of two years turned mutineer. He was standing on a wooden plank with his hands bound, dressed only in his shirt and breeches. The morning sun was rising on the east horizon and bathing the sky in red and casting sinister shadows on the motley crew he had thought was loyal to him after two years of successfully pillaging and plundering the Caribbean. Hector stood at the safer end of the plank beside a large African who was the bo'sun and whom they called Bo'sun because he had no other name when they picked him up a year ago from a Company slave ship.

"That's what led you into this situation in the first place, Jack." Hector didn't smile but his tone sounded equally as disappointed and perhaps a little regretful.

"I saved your life and this is how you repay me? By wooing my crew and mutinying against me?" Jack snarled angrily and hurtfully.

The older pirate put an arm around Jack's shoulder and he felt him tense up. Hector turned him toward a small island in the distance. "Jaack. Jack. That be the only reason why yer still alive now rather than dead and feeding the sharks. I never forget the debts I owe, lad. So that's why I'm gonna make yeh governor of that island yonder."

"Why thank you, Hector. How thoughtful of you," Jack replied sarcastically. "I suppose that island has no food or fresh water?"

"I wouldn't know. I've never been there."

"Then as an old friend could you give me a pistol with shot?" Jack asked and stared at him. "It's the least you could do."

"Aye. Bring Jack's pistol!" Hector shouted and someone handed him the younger pirate's pistol and he tucked it into the man's belt. "It is a shame that you weren't up to par as a pirate like I had hoped. Although I've had a great time, I think that it would be in the best interest of us all that a Pirate Lord took command of this ship. Especially considering that said Pirate Lord has been doing most of the planning and running of this ship anyway. Be only fair to give him the captaincy as well. No?"

Jack glared at him and said nothing for a moment. "Promise me one thing, Hector."

"And what's that?"

"Don't die before I kill you."

The End