And then dawn broke over the horizon.
“Land!”
The cry startled both Salazar and Jack motionless. Slowly, they turned and looked over the railing of the Black Pearl. Sure enough, an island had appeared, seemingly out of thin air. Jack couldn’t help smiling. Carina Smyth had done it. She had found the X.
Then his eyes grew wide as he realized that not only had she found the X, but she was about to sail the Black Pearl right onto it! Salazar seemed to reach that conclusion at the same time. He looked down at Jack and then back at the rapidly approaching island. Jack knew the captain wasn’t stupid. If he didn’t return to the Mary and avoid dry land, he would die again—and this time, he would not come back.
With an angry shout, Salazar began to back up. But before he leapt onto the Mary, he reached out, trying to grab hold of Carina, who had made her way closer to Jack. His fingers were just about to close around the girl’s wrist when Henry leapt in between them. Salazar grabbed him instead, and as the Pearl ran aground, he hauled Henry aboard the Mary. With a groan, the ghost ship veered away, just barely missing the island.
Aboard the Pearl, Jack, Barbossa, and Carina watched as the other ship retreated to the sea.
“Henry!” Carina shouted. “We have to go back for Henry!”
Beside her, Barbossa shook his head. There was no going back. “The Trident is the only thing that can save him now,” he said, surprised by the sadness he felt at Carina’s possible loss. So we’d better hope we can find it, he added silently, or Henry is as good as dead.
I might as well be dead, Henry thought as he stared around at the ghosts who had gathered to see the Silent Mary’s newest prisoner. There is no way I’m getting out of this mess. I’ll go to a watery grave by the hand of Salazar or, worse, one of his crew, and then I’ll never save my father…or see Carina again. He sighed, feeling the tight ropes burn his wrists and ankles. It was going to take a miracle to get him free, and Henry was pretty sure he had used up all his miracles trying to find Carina and Jack.
As Captain Salazar approached, his dead men stood at attention.
“Capitan, Jack Sparrow is going for the Trident!” one of the ghost crewmen cried. “He’s on dry land; there is nothing we can do.”
Lifting his head, Henry tried to find Carina on the shore of the island. From his spot on the Silent Mary, he saw now that the island was more rock than beach. Dark stones formed from countless lava spills dotted the small strip of beach and rose into the hills, giving the whole island an air of desolation and dark despair. Henry shuddered at the thought of Carina there, with only Jack and Barbossa and their respective crews as company. He hoped she was okay.
“I took this boy for a reason.” Henry jumped at Salazar’s words, which pulled Henry’s attention back to his own dire situation. “I will walk in his shoes. No pirate will defeat us!”
Walk in his shoes? Henry repeated in his head. Whatever that meant, it did not sound good.
Evidently, Salazar’s men knew exactly what he meant. The ghastly crew members looked at one another, understanding dawning on their faces.
“But once you possess the living, there is no coming back. You will be trapped in his body forever!” said another ghost.
Possess the living? Henry looked around frantically. There had to be some means of escape, something he had not thought of.
Then Henry met Salazar’s gaze dead in the eye. “The Trident will set me free,” the ghost captain said with a wicked smile. “Time to kill the Sparrow.”
Carina was beginning to believe her luck had run out. She found herself staring down at nothing more than a rocky landmass. That was where the Map No Man Can Read led? From her spot on the deck of the Pearl, she looked over the deserted island and sighed. “It’s empty,” she said softly. “But this has to be it.”
Turning her back to the beach, she lowered her head. What cruel trick of fate was this, to come this far and not find what they were looking for? As she tried to wrap her head around the horrible realization that maybe, just maybe, she had been wrong all along, the first ray of daylight appeared on the horizon. Behind her, she heard one of Jack’s men give an excited shout. Whipping around, her eyes grew wide.
In the light, the rocks revealed their secret. Thousands of diamonds sparkled, embedded in the volcanic rock, ripe for the picking.
“We’re rich!” another pirate cried out, jumping down from the Pearl and racing to the rocks. Bending down, he began to pull at one of the larger diamonds, trying to free it from the rock.
Just as he managed to do so, there was a huge roar, and a blast of scorching hot steam shot up from a crack in the rocks. As Carina watched, the crack grew wider and wider. The pirate who had pulled the diamond free now let out a shout of terror as he was pulled violently down beneath the earth. Where he had once stood, an empty space remained.
“Back to the ship!” Gibbs shouted, pushing his way through the crowd of pirates who had hoped to finally get their treasure. As they ran, more light broke over the horizon, and suddenly, the entire island was flooded with light. Hitting the diamonds, the light caused them to shimmer and sparkle.
Carina stepped forward, her earlier disappointment fading. “Look at it, Jack,” she said in a whisper. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Jack shrugged. “Beautiful rocks,” he said, unimpressed, “that kill for no reason.”
“Not rocks, Jack,” Carina said, correcting him. “Stars.” Quickly, she began to climb down from the Pearl.
Behind her, Jack and Barbossa exchanged looks. Had she said stars? What were stars doing on an island? Confused and curious, Jack followed the girl. Barbossa followed a step later, not willing to let Carina out of his sight for too long.
“Stars and planets exactly as they appear in the sky,” Carina said as she made her way closer. “This island is a perfect reflection of the heavens.”
“But it’s still rocks,” Jack pointed out. “Murderous rocks!”
Carina ignored the pirate and kept walking, her mind spinning as the truth began to reveal itself more fully. She hadn’t been wrong. This island was what she had been looking for all along. And if the rest of her calculations were correct—which she had no doubt now that they were—when they found the missing star, they would find the X.
Unaware that both Barbossa and Jack were watching her, Carina followed the familiar patterns of the sky. As she walked over the diamonds, it seemed almost as though she were walking across the night sky. Turning to Barbossa, Jack put a sympathetic hand on the man’s shoulder. Clearly, his newfound daughter had a marble or two loose. He felt it only right to give the man the other bad news. “Hector,” he said, his voice serious, “I think you should know…she’s a horologist.”
Barbossa silenced Jack with a look. Then he turned back to Carina. She had stopped at a particular spot and was looking back and forth between the ground in front of her and the diary in her hand. “Finish it, Carina,” he said, realizing that she was staring at a cluster of five jewels—not diamonds, but vibrant rubies—formed to create a constellation identical to the sketch in the diary. And yet one of the rubies did not glow like the others. Carina knew exactly what she was supposed to do.
She took the ruby from her pocket and held it up. “For my father,” Carina said, unaware of the flash of sadness that flickered across Barbossa’s face. Then she removed the dull rock and placed her ruby down in the middle of the constellation. It slid into place, a perfect fit. “X marks the spot!” Carina said as the jems in the ground suddenly lit up, forming the shape of the Trident. A rumbling seemed to start deep within the island.
Just before a giant crack opened beneath her feet, Jack reached out and pulled Carina away. They stood a few feet away and watched as the world began to break apart—literally. In between the bed of diamonds and the Pearl, the beach gave way to water. Invisible winds tore at the water, causing waves to rush in opposite directions, parting the sea in front of their very eyes. The water r
ose up, up, and up from the ocean floor until it surrounded them and revealed the bottom of the sea.
Looking down, Jack had only a moment to realize what was about to happen. He told Carina to hang on before the sand beneath their feet gave way, and they slipped and slid down a wall of water until they landed, with a thud, on the ocean floor hundreds of feet below. All around them, the water hung like curtains, unfortunate fish, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, suspended for a moment between sea and air before dropping to the ground, where they flopped about, gasping the unexpected air helplessly. With wide eyes, Jack looked around at what no man—no living man—had ever seen before. He spotted dozens of shipwrecks, the ships’ sides worn through and covered in barnacles. He even spotted a giant blue whale as it swam around the hole. “The back side of water,” Jack said. “Don’t see that every day.” Then, noticing that Carina’s diary had fallen to the sea floor, Jack picked it up and pocketed it.
“Jack, there it is!” Carina’s voice caught the pirate’s attention, and he turned. She was staring at a shell-shaped chamber in front of them. Made of coral and sea glass, it rose from the ocean floor. And in the middle of it, in all its mythical glory, was the Trident. Nearly eight feet tall, with three sharp prongs that managed to reflect light even down in the depths of the hole, the Trident of Poseidon oozed with absolute power. It was an object ancient and strong, with an undeniable pull on the two mortals who now stood staring at it. As if in a trance, Jack and Carina took a step forward.
“Jack!”
Snapping out of it, Jack and Carina turned around. To their surprise, they saw Henry coming toward them.
“Henry!” Carina cried, joy flooding her face.
But Henry didn’t stop. He pushed past Carina, the force throwing her to the ocean floor. He took out his sword and swung it—right at Jack. The pirate ducked out of the way, just barely avoiding being impaled by the boy’s smooth and well-practiced swings.
Jack cocked his head. Smooth and well-practiced? Last time he had been in a sword fight with Henry, the boy could barely lift the sword without his arm shaking. He narrowed his eyes and watched as Henry came at him again. “Arms straight…shoulders square…front leg bent…” he observed with growing suspicion.
“Henry?” Carina cried out again, pushing herself to her feet.
Jack shook his head. “Henry doesn’t hold a sword like that,” he said. Lighting fast, Jack pulled out a small dagger from his boot and sliced the boy’s arm. As Jack watched, Henry looked down and touched the blood that welled up on his skin. Then he looked back up at Jack. But the eyes that bore into Jack with rage and pain were no longer Henry’s. They were unmistakably those of Captain Salazar. Jack gulped. Salazar had taken over Henry’s body—which meant, unfortunately for Jack, that he could now walk on land.
“Cut me and you cut the boy,” Salazar said in Henry’s voice, proving Jack’s suspicions right.
“Definitely not Henry!” Jack shouted as Salazar/Henry once again came at him, fighting with all the pent-up rage and anger he had bottled over the years. He knocked the dagger out of Jack’s hand and reached for him, his fingers clawing for Jack’s neck.
“Leave him!” Carina’s voice startled Salazar and stopped him. Looking over, he saw that she was holding the Trident, the tip pointed at Henry. “Drop your sword!”
“Carina…” Jack warned. He knew the girl had only just come to grips with the otherworldly and their ilk. He could tell she was having a hard time believing that the boy in front of her was anyone but the boy she had come to know and perhaps, Jack suspected, love. But Henry was just a vessel, controlled by Salazar, who would do anything to get what he wanted. And what he wanted was the Trident.
In one swift movement, Salazar rushed Carina, knocking the Trident out of her hand. As she once more fell to the ground, Salazar closed his hand around the ancient weapon. With a triumphant cry, he lifted it into the air. “It’s over, Jack!”
The Trident glowed, the full power of the ancient staff eager to be released after thousands of years. The ground beneath Jack’s feet began to shake, and the water, already torn apart in an unnatural way, flowed straight up, rising in front of his very eyes. Wind whipped along the floor of the ocean as it, too, began to rise.
Jack gulped as everything went upside down and topsy-turvy. It did, indeed, seem like things for him—and perhaps the rest of civilization—were about to get very, very strange.
Salazar felt the power rushing through him, the feeling greater than any he had ever known. Killing pirates paled in comparison to the feeling. Watching Jack squirm, while still satisfying, was a mere trifle compared to the sensations. With every passing second, Salazar felt the Trident giving him more and more strength until, with a triumphant cry, he was able to free himself from Henry’s body. As the boy fell to the ground, half-conscious and wounded, Salazar stepped forward. In the murky half-light of the ocean floor, his ghostly form looked even more ghastly. But he didn’t care. Now he was nigh unstoppable, a god among these poor mortals.
“Hola, Sparrow,” he said. Then he pointed the Trident at Jack and, with a flick of his wrist, sent Jack flying against a large rock.
Carina rushed over to the half-conscious form lying on the sandy floor.
“Henry!” She dropped to her knees and shook him. Nothing happened. “Wake up!” She shook him again. Still, nothing happened. Her eyes lifted to the curtain of water that surrounded them. Behind the curtain, unable to cross over into the clearing, were a dozen or so of Salazar’s crew. They stood, shimmering eerily, taunting her in ghostly whispers. Ignoring them, Carina cupped her hands, gathered some of the salty liquid, and then dumped it on Henry. “Wake up! He’s killing Jack!”
Ever so slowly, Henry opened his eyes. In a daze, he looked around, unable to wrap his head around his new surroundings. Finally, his unfocused gaze met Carina’s frightened one. “The Trident,” she said, seeing that she had his attention—sort of. “Salazar can walk on land with the Trident.” That fact had only just occurred to her. It explained everything: how Salazar could be fighting Jack while his men stayed trapped in the water. “Everyone knows ghosts can’t walk on land!” she cried, suddenly an expert on the paranormal.
As the true power of the Trident became clear to Carina, her eyes widened and she glanced at Salazar, who continued to torture Jack, throwing him in and out of the water as though he were skipping rocks. Struggling to sit up, Henry, too, looked at the old enemies. “The power of the sea…” Henry whispered.
Carina’s breath caught in her throat. That was it! The cryptic message she had translated in her prison cell. “‘To release the power of the sea, all must divide,’” she repeated aloud.
Henry looked at her, confused. “Divide?” he said. His head still hurt and he was having a hard time focusing.
Carina nodded. “If the Trident holds all the power—”
“Then every curse is held inside…” Henry finished, finally beginning to see—and think—clearly. “Divide!” he said. It all made sense. They had to divide the Trident. They had to break it. If they could do that, all the curses of the sea would be broken, including Salazar’s—and he would be mortal again.
Unaware that Henry and Carina had found a potential way to destroy him once and for all, Salazar continued to play with Jack like a cat playing with a mouse. Lifting the Trident, he hurled Jack into a large coral reef. Despite the obvious pain Jack was in, he struggled to his feet. “Surrender,” he said, his words echoing those of his nineteen-year-old self, “and I’ll let you live.”
Salazar snarled. “You want me to surrender?”
“I highly recommend it,” Jack said tauntingly. Behind Salazar, he saw Henry push himself to his feet. He and the boy exchanged one small, subtle nod. Then Jack looked back at Salazar—just in time to watch him plunge the Trident straight into Jack’s chest.
In the moment that followed, everything stopped.
The wind ceased howling.
The water appeared
to still.
As Henry and Carina stood watching, their mouths froze open.
And then Salazar smiled. His hand tightened on the end of the Trident, which he still held. “Jack Sparrow is no more.”
Looking down at where the pointed end of the Trident had pierced his chest, Jack was quiet for one moment. Slowly, he lifted both his hands and grasped the shaft right behind the prongs. Then he, too, smiled. “I’m pretty sure this was part of the plan.”
Salazar’s eyes narrowed. “And what plan was that?”
In answer, Jack opened his bloody shirt, revealing Galileo’s diary. The sharpest point of the Trident had gone straight through it, stopping just short of piercing Jack’s heart. And though he had not gone completely unscathed—the prongs had cut him deeply—he would live. Looking over his shoulder, Jack gave out a shout. “Henry! Be the last to die, mate!”
Salazar turned his head, but it was too late. While he had been focused on destroying Jack, Henry had gotten to his feet and pulled his sword. At Jack’s signal, he swung it down with all his strength. There was a loud clang as the steel of his sword met the metal of the Trident, and then the ancient weapon shattered into a thousand pieces.
As the fragments dropped, one by one, to the sea floor, Jack’s wound began to heal. Together, Henry and Jack turned toward Salazar. In front of their very eyes, they saw the captain begin to transform. His skin grew less translucent. The hole in his skull slowly filled in. His uniform, for so long bloodied and stained, became clean and perfect. In mere moments, he was a ghost no longer. Now Captain Salazar, in all his glory, stood in front of them, looking as though not a day had passed in all those long, horrible years.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization Page 11