Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization

by Elizabeth Rudnick

  Unfortunately, Jack wasn’t completely back. Not yet, at least. While the Pearl had returned, so, too, had the feud between him and Barbossa over who should captain it. And this round had gone to Barbossa—and his blasted monkey, freed along with the ship.

  As the Black Pearl once again took to the ocean, the fastest ship at sea, Barbossa stood at its helm. On his shoulder, Jack the Monkey bared his teeth and let out a monkey laugh. Jack the pirate looked up from where he was being unceremoniously tied to the center mast, and scowled. He had never liked the foul creature. The monkey had an attitude. And it had only gotten worse since he had been stuck in the bottle.

  “The course you sail must be exact, Captain,” Jack heard Carina say. Straining his neck, he saw that she and Henry had also been tied to a mast. That, at least, gave him some pleasure.

  Barbossa barely gave the girl a glance. His eyes were fixed in front of him, one hand on the wheel and a smug smile on his face. “There is no exact at sea!” he replied.

  “You need to listen to her, Captain!” Henry pleaded. “She’s the only one who can follow that X!”

  That seemed to get Barbossa’s attention. He looked down at the pair and raised an eyebrow. “Is that a fact?” he asked sarcastically. “This girl knows more of the sea than I?”

  Carina ignored the jab. “You’ll follow the Southern Cross to a single reflection point,” she said. “I have a chronometer which determines longitude which will then take us to the exact spot at sea.”

  I do like a girl with a little bit of spunk, Jack thought, smiling. Especially when that spunk comes in the form of proving Barbossa wrong. He fidgeted with the ropes tying him to the mast, trying to loosen them. He knew that Carina was right and that she could find the X. He also knew that if he were still tied to the mast when that time came, he was unlikely to be the one to get the Trident. And if he was going to survive any future encounter with Salazar, he would need it.

  As Jack struggled with his restraints, Barbossa stared long and hard at Carina. His eyes narrowed. She certainly seemed to know what she was talking about. He looked at Jack. Jack would never have brought her along if she couldn’t be of some use to him. “Untie them!” he finally ordered. When Carina was free, he signaled her to join him at the helm. “Take the wheel, miss.” The words were clearly hard for him to say. It was a known fact that having a woman on board was bad luck. And it was even worse luck for a woman to captain a ship. But he thought as he turned and looked behind them, spotting the Silent Mary in swift pursuit, that she was the best bet he had for surviving. He would let Carina follow her star. If he didn’t, they were all going to die together anyway.

  Carina raised her head. In the sky, the Southern Cross twinkled brightly, leading the way toward the destination only she could see. Henry stood beside her, and she sensed him following her gaze. The young man had been oddly quiet since they had been untied and she had taken the wheel from Barbossa. She wondered if he was thinking of his father. That was often where her thoughts went when night fell. That night, however, her thoughts were darker in nature.

  “This ship…those ghosts,” she said softly, breaking the silence between them. “There can be no logical explanation.”

  Henry tore his gaze from the sky and looked at her. “The myths of the sea are real, Carina. I’m glad you can see you were wrong.”

  “Wrong?” Carina repeated the word, letting it hang between them for a long moment. Henry shifted nervously on his feet. Perhaps that had not been the right thing to say. He saw Carina’s eyes narrow, and yet the corner of her mouth lifted as though she was trying not to smile. “Perhaps I had some doubts—thought you were mad.” She paused. “One could say I was possibly, arguably a bit…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Wrong,” Henry finally said when it was clear she wouldn’t say it herself. “The word is ‘wrong.’”

  “Slightly in error,” Carina countered, her eyes sparkling.

  “This is the worst apology I’ve ever heard,” Henry observed. He got the feeling that she was teasing him—and enjoying it.

  Carina cocked her head. “Apology?” she asked as though she were confused. “Why would I apologize?”

  Henry gestured around him. “Because we’ve been chased by the dead; sail on a ship raised from a bottle! Where is your science in that?” I’ve got her there! Henry thought.

  “It was science which found that map!” Carina said, not backing down.

  Henry shook his head. “No,” he replied. “We found it. Together.”

  “Fine,” Carina said, looking down at the helm and studying it with feigned interest. “Then I will apologize. Although…one could argue that you owe me an apology, as my life has been threatened by pirates and dead men.”

  Henry stared at Carina for a beat. She was incorrigible with her teasing. He knew when to wave the white flag. “I’m going to the lookout,” he announced, walking away with a small smile on his lips.

  Behind him, Carina watched him go and grinned, pleased with herself. Turning back around, she was surprised to see Barbossa standing in the shadows. Stepping forward, he started to say something but stopped when he spotted Galileo’s diary clutched in her hand. His eyes narrowed. “Where did you get that book, missy?” he asked. “I know this book.”

  “I would doubt you have read Galileo’s diary,” Carina snipped.

  The pirate’s long fingers reached out and gently brushed over the spot where the ruby had once been. “This book be pirate treasure,” he said softly, “stolen from an Italian ship many years ago.”

  “Stolen?” Carina repeated. “You’re mistaken.”

  Barbossa shook his head. “There was a ruby on the cover I would not soon forget.”

  Carina reached into her pocket and pulled out the ruby. Barbossa’s eyes grew wide as the red gem caught the moonlight and twinkled. “This was given to me by my father,” Carina said, holding out the ruby, “who was clearly a man of science.”

  Before she could stop him, Jack the Monkey grabbed the ruby. He squealed and placed it in Barbossa’s open palm. “He was clearly a common thief,” the pirate said, correcting her.

  Carina slapped Barbossa. How dare he defile her father’s name? The man knew nothing of him. He knew nothing of who he had been or what he had possibly suffered during his life. Her heart ached at the mere thought of her father’s being anything but the man she had always imagined he was—a good, kind man with a scientific mind. A man who had suffered terribly at the loss of his daughter. A man who would have hated to know she had suffered even a day while she was alone in that orphanage. She clutched the diary to her heart. “This is my birthright,” she said, “left with me on the steps of a children’s home along with a name. Nothing more.”

  Expecting the pirate to laugh at her outburst, Carina was surprised when Barbossa instead took a step back, an unreadable expression crossing his face. “Oh, so you’re an orphan,” he said. He looked at her closely. “And what be you called?”

  “The brightest star in the north gave me my name,” she said cryptically.

  “That would be Carina,” Barbossa said.

  His answer surprised her. She nodded slowly. “Carina Smyth,” she said, introducing herself. “So you do know the stars?”

  “I’m a captain,” Barbossa said, his voice now soft and a touch sad. “I know which stars to follow home.” Leaving Carina to mind the helm, Barbossa walked to the railing. His face was pale as he pulled the compass from his pocket and looked down at it. The needle shivered and then turned until it came to a stop—pointing straight at Carina.

  Staggering backward, Barbossa nearly collided with the mast that still held Jack. The pirate had overheard the whole conversation and now looked up at his old friend and still older nemesis with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Smyth? Smyth? What an exotic name, Hector,” he said, his voice playful. “Didn’t we once know someone named Smyth? Don’t tell me, it’s coming to me…I’ll pull the memory straight from the abyss….”

 
; “Be warned, Jack!” Barbossa growled.

  Never one to heed a warning, Jack went on. He lifted a finger to his goatee and began to play with it. “I’m remembering the visage of a pretty young lass. A fair beauty with one undeniable flaw—you.”

  “Shut yer trap!”

  Clearly Jack had hit a nerve. Still, he kept pressing, finding pleasure in Barbossa’s obvious pain. “Now what was her name? The one you were revoltingly entwined with twenty years ago? She’s on the tip of my tongue….”

  Barbossa drew his sword. “You’re about to lose that tongue!” he warned, his hand tightening on the hilt.

  “No, don’t help me,” Jack went on, unable to stop when he was having such fun. “I’ll get it. It was a royal name—regal as the creature it adorned.” He paused, letting the suspense—and torture—build. Then he let out a happy shout, as though he had only then remembered. “Margaret! Margaret Smyth! I can picture her as if she were standing in front of me!” Purposefully, he turned so he was looking right at Carina. Then he looked back at Barbossa. He could practically see the fire coming out of the man’s ears. Jack had accomplished just what he had set out to—revealing Barbossa’s connection to Carina—his familial connection. Not only had it been a fun game of sorts for Jack—after all, he really did love teasing his old friend—but more important, that connection gave Jack a very big bargaining chip. “So…shall we make an accord? Or should I tell Carina Smyth what we both know to be true?”

  Barbossa leveled his sword at Jack’s throat. “This secret we will take to our graves!”

  “Kill me and you have nothing to bargain the dead with,” Jack pointed out with a shrug. “You need me, Hector. The way a child needs a—”

  “Silence!” Barbossa’s voice rang out over the deck, startling a sleeping pirate and causing Carina to shoot the two men a look. Lowering his voice, Barbossa grabbed Jack by the throat. “Margaret died and I summoned as much honor as a worthless blackguard ever could. I named the nursling myself. Placed her on the orphan steps, never to see her again. I thought the ruby would afford her some ease of life.” He had never imagined that instead of using the gem on the diary to help her situation, Carina would make the scribblings inside her life’s work. Nor could he ever have imagined that somehow that very obsession would lead her straight back to him—and make him vulnerable to Jack. “Tell me what you want.”

  Despite the fact that Barbossa’s fingers were still tight around his neck, Jack smiled. “Well, let’s see,” he said gleefully. “I want my compass, your jacket, a lock of your hair, two hundred and sixteen barrels of rum…and the monkey.”

  “You want the monkey?” Barbossa said, surprised. He hadn’t seen that one coming.

  Jack nodded. “Yes. For dinner. And throw in the Trident, if you don’t mind. Everyone else seems to—” Before he could finish, Jack the Monkey reached out and stuffed a dirty cloth in Jack’s mouth, gagging him.

  “No deal, Jack,” Barbossa said, regaining his composure. “A clever girl such as that would never believe a swine like me could be her blood. The Trident will be mine!”

  “Redcoats!”

  Henry’s frightened voice rang out. Both Barbossa and Jack craned their necks to see where the young man stood in the lookout. Even from a distance, they could see his face had turned ashen. He was pointing behind them.

  Rushing to the rail, Barbossa looked out over the water. As the Pearl rose on a wave, he saw just what had given Henry such a fright—and rightly so. Coming on fast was the British warship Essex. Its cannons were at the ready, and he could make out marines rushing about the decks, preparing for battle. “She’s come starboard!” Barbossa shouted, turning to his own men. “We’ll fight to the last. The Pearl will not be taken from me again!”

  Jack could do nothing but watch helplessly as Barbossa began to bark orders. He struggled against the rope that held him tight to the mast. But the rope would not budge. Jack was going nowhere, which left him in a uniquely uncomfortable position to witness as the Essex moved closer and closer until it was within firing distance. Then he watched as thirty cannons on the Essex were lit and aimed at the Pearl. Over the waves, Jack heard the unmistakable voice of Lieutenant Scarfield as he shouted, “Prepare to fire.”

  Jack started to squint his eyes shut but stopped as he spotted something moving up behind the Essex. He realized the Pearl was not going to be destroyed—not by the Essex, anyway. For there, rising out of the waves like a great toothed sea creature, was the Silent Mary. As Jack watched, her hull opened wide and then, with a loud groan, snapped down, breaking the Essex in half. The British warship didn’t stand a chance. It exploded from within, the barrels of gunpowder that had been readied to destroy the Pearl igniting all at once.

  Bursting through the wreckage, the Silent Mary continued to sail toward them. Barbossa stood, his hand on the railing, the fire from the Essex reflected in his eyes. Quickly he turned and rushed to the helm. Carina was holding on to the wheel, but barely. Her fingers shook as she took in the carnage the Silent Mary had wrought.

  “Whatever happens,” Barbossa said, trying to calm her, “stay your course!”

  She looked up at him, her eyes wide. He worried she was going to faint, or scream, or do something equally silly. But to his surprise, she simply nodded and lifted her head back to the stars. Turning, Barbossa hid a smile. It seemed it was not just a love of the stars the young woman had gotten from her father.

  Captain Salazar was pleased. He had destroyed the Essex as if it were no more than a flea beneath his foot. And now he was about to take the Black Pearl and, with it, Jack the Sparrow.

  Jumping onto the deck of the Pearl, sword at his side and death in his eyes, he stared around at the pirates. Sorry lot, he thought as he took the men in. Their clothes were a mess and not one was in a uniform. Some didn’t even have shoes. And as he looked at the wood beneath him, he observed that clearly no one had done a thorough cleaning of the Pearl’s deck in years. Those pitiful excuses for seamen deserved to die. But not before one pirate in particular met his demise.

  “We’ve come with the butcher’s bill!” As he spoke, his ghostly crew joined him on the Pearl. “Where is Jack the Sparrow?”

  Stepping forward, Barbossa drew his own sword. “We’ll fight to the end!” he shouted bravely. Unfortunately, not all his men seemed to agree with him. He heard splashing as some jumped overboard. Others tried to fight the ghosts but stood no chance. Screams echoed over the Pearl as those men were slain where they stood.

  “Where is he?” Salazar asked again.

  “Tied to the mast!” Mullroy cried.

  Barbossa turned and shot the weaselly man a look. The man shrugged.

  All eyes turned toward the mast.

  Jack wasn’t there.

  He was, thanks to Henry’s quick thinking and fast rope cutting, now aboard the Silent Mary. Salazar saw the pirate jauntily waving to him from the ship.

  “Leave him to me!” Salazar said to his men. He sprinted across the deck, stepped up onto the railing, and then leapt across the water that separated the two ships. He landed on a cannon beside Jack, his sword already drawn and ready.

  Jack met him with his own sword drawn. As the two men began to parry along the side of the ship, it became clear that Salazar was the stronger swordsman. His blade whipped through the air with frightening ferocity, slicing anything that got in its way—ropes, canvases, the occasional wick of a cannon. Trying to escape, Jack began leaping from cannon to cannon. But Salazar stayed with him leap for leap.

  “I will break you this time,” Salazar said, his voice as cold as the dead blood that flowed through his veins, “punish you for the pain I must endure, feeling my own death over and over.”

  “Or you could simply forgive me,” Jack suggested. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the Pearl had floated close enough to the Silent Mary that he could jump onto it. Quickly, he did just that. Salazar followed.

  On board the Pearl, all hell had broken loose. Pirates were f
ighting ghosts. Jack saw Henry desperately trying to keep Carina safe while she, in turn, tried to save Barbossa, whose peg leg had gotten stuck in a hole. As Jack watched, Barbossa tried to duck out of the way of a ghost’s sword but failed. He let out a roar as the sword slashed his side. Jack also spotted his old crew among the pirates. It looked like they had escaped the redcoats on a rowboat in the confusion and had boarded the Pearl. Gibbs and Scrum were standing back to back as they tried to keep the ghosts at bay, the uncharacteristically clever tactic working well. Jack opened his mouth to welcome his men back to the Pearl but stopped when Salazar’s sword swung down, missing him by mere inches. With a cry, Jack leapt back onto the Silent Mary.

  “You took everything from me!” Salazar shouted, following him. “Made me more repulsive than any pirate!”

  “That’s not necessarily true,” Jack said. “Have you ever met Edward the Blue? He’s very repulsive. The way he eats…” His voice trailed off as a loud wrenching sound pierced the air. Looking at the front of the ship, he saw that the carved female figurehead on the Silent Mary’s bow was slowly coming to life. The figurehead detached herself from the ship and climbed over the rail, then stood towering over Jack. “That’s very strange,” Jack said. “But I do like your dress.”

  In answer, the figurehead let out a horrifying scream.

  Jack screamed back—and took off running.

  Behind him, the figurehead raised a sword and went on the attack. Stuck between Salazar and the figurehead, Jack desperately tried to fight his way free. But no matter how fast he moved, the strange, horrific pair kept coming. Ducking in front of a cannon, Jack tried to catch his breath only to watch Salazar light the cannon. Just before it fired, Jack swung it up and over so it was no longer pointed right in his face. Instead, when it went off, it blew the figurehead’s face completely apart. But still she kept attacking, angrier than ever. Behind him Salazar stood, blocking any escape.

  Raising her sword high above her, the figurehead was about to finish off Jack when there was a loud crunching sound. In front of his very eyes, she was squashed between the bow of the Pearl and the side of the Silent Mary as they collided. The momentum threw Jack to the deck. Looking up, he found himself staring right into the very angry eyes of Salazar. The ghost lifted his sword high. Jack gulped.