Salazar’s curse had been broken.
“All curses are broken—which means my luck has returned!”
Jack’s happy shout quickly turned to a groan as he watched the walls of water, kept at bay because of the curse, begin to buckle with its absence. Perhaps his luck hadn’t completely returned.
“Run!”
Carina’s voice cut through the noise of the rushing water. Jack didn’t hesitate. Pushing Henry forward, he took off after Carina, who had already begun to run up the side of a coral reef. The prickly staircase to the surface was rapidly being covered in water. They didn’t have much time.
“The Pearl!” Jack shouted, pointing above them.
All eyes turned upward. There, hovering on the rim of the parted ocean, was the Black Pearl. The ship’s anchor had been thrown overboard and was hanging down in the abyss. On it, holding out his hand, was Barbossa.
“Hurry!” he cried as the walls of water continued to cave in.
Just in time, Jack, Carina, and Henry reached the large anchor. After they threw themselves onto it, Barbossa shouted up to the pirates on the Pearl to pull.
But they were not the only ones who had seen a way out of the water. Beneath them, Salazar and a few of his now living men had grabbed on to the bottom of the anchor. Pulling themselves up, arm over arm, the men began to climb toward the others as the water swirled around them.
Up on the Pearl, the pirates struggled to pull the anchor up. But between all the people clinging to it and the heavy current, they couldn’t. The ship began to tip.
“She’s giving way!” Henry shouted.
“Climb!” Barbossa ordered.
As fast as they could, Jack and Henry began to pull themselves up. Behind them, Carina struggled, the weight of her dress making it harder for her to move. The Pearl tipped further, knocking Carina off balance. She screamed as her hands slipped. But just as she was about to fall, she felt strong, rough fingers close around her hand. As she looked up, her eyes met Barbossa’s. “I’ve got you,” he said, his shirt sleeve slipping back, revealing his forearm.
Carina’s breath caught in her throat. And suddenly, she was no longer thinking about the terrifying fact that her feet dangled helplessly over the sea floor below and Salazar and his men were moving ever closer to her. All Carina could see, all she could think about, was the tattoo revealed on Barbossa’s arm: the tattoo of five stars clustered together—the tattoo that meant Carina. Her eyes once again met Barbossa’s. “What am I to you?” she whispered, though she believed she knew the answer. The truth was there, marked on his skin for her to see.
Barbossa stared at her, his face softening and his eyes clear. “Treasure,” he said simply. And then, making sure she was safely on the anchor, he grabbed the sword from Jack’s belt and let himself fall.
Carina screamed as she watched the pirate, her father, fall through the air, the sword in his hand slicing through Salazar’s men. And then, in one last—or perhaps first—act of fatherly love, he fell onto Salazar, stabbing the man in his now beating heart. Together, the pair plummeted back to the sea floor. As Barbossa looked up, his eyes locked on Carina’s and he smiled, content at last.
A moment later, the water rushed over him and he, along with Salazar and his men, disappeared from view.
“Hang on!” Henry cried as the anchor, now freed from most of the weight, began to rise rapidly. Just as the hole in the sea completely collapsed, the anchor burst through the surface of the water and flew into the air, where it hung, with Jack, Henry, and Carina clinging to it like wet barnacles, next to the Black Pearl. They had made it.
But the cost had been high.
The trio dropped from the anchor onto the deck of the Black Pearl and lay there for a moment, coughing and trying to catch their breath. When Jack was sure all the water was out of his lungs, he stood up and moved to the railing of the Pearl. In the sky, the clouds disappeared, letting the sun burst through, and below, the sea turned calm.
As the rest of the Pearl’s crew joined him, Jack removed his hat and held it to his heart. “A pirate’s life, Hector,” he said softly. It was hard to imagine life at sea without his old friend. But as Jack turned and looked at Carina, he couldn’t help smiling. The old man had left a legacy, something only a rare pirate did.
Carina had no idea that Jack was looking at her. Standing beside Henry, she stared out at the calm sea. She was surprised that it could be so beautiful when only moments earlier it had been so deadly. What surprised her even more was the depth of her sadness as she thought of the man whom she had not known for very long at all, the man who had sacrificed his life for hers.
“Are you okay?” Henry asked gently.
She sighed. “For a moment, I had everything, Henry, only to lose it all again.”
“Not everything, Ms. Smyth,” Henry replied. He handed her the diary. Then, slowly, he reached out and took her other hand, interlocking his fingers with hers. Before she could overthink it, she threw herself into his arms and squeezed him with all her might. He was right: she hadn’t lost everything. In fact, she realized as she felt Henry’s arms tighten around her and pull her closer that she had maybe even gained something more.
“Barbossa,” she said, correcting him. “My name is Barbossa.”
As the sun set over the Caribbean Sea, the orange light illuminated the giant cliffs that rose out of the water. The cliffs had not changed in hundreds of years. They were the same as they had been all those years earlier when Will Turner had said his first good-bye to Elizabeth Swann before returning to the Dutchman. They were the same as they had been when Elizabeth had returned ten years later to introduce Henry to his father. And they were the same as they had been when Henry set off on his adventure, the cliffs standing watch behind him.
Now the Black Pearl was sailing away toward its next adventure. Standing on top of the bluffs, looking out to sea, Henry felt nervous and excited at the same time. Glancing next to him, he realized it wasn’t just because he might see his father. In the setting sun, Carina looked almost ethereal. The rays of light made her hair sparkle and her eyes shine. Realizing he was staring at her, she flushed becomingly.
“Maybe Jack was right,” Henry said, breaking their companionable silence.
“About what?” Carina asked.
“The unscratchable itch,” he replied. Before she could ask him what that was, he leaned in and parted his lips. His eyes closed and his breath caught as he moved to kiss her, eager to feel the softness of her lips….
Slap!
Instead, he felt the palm of Carina’s hand.
“What are you doing?” he cried, lifting his hand to his stinging cheek.
“Just making sure it’s truly you,” she said, a small playful smile tugging at her lips.
Henry grinned. “It’s me—still me!”
“Then I guess I was…”
“Wrong!” Henry filled in for her, their first argument back on the Pearl replaying. But then Henry had been unsure of his feelings. Now he had no doubt.
“Slightly in error,” Carina said teasingly. “Although one could argue—”
Henry stopped Carina mid-argument with a kiss. Soft at first, it grew in intensity as they both let go of their reservations and admitted that Jack had, indeed, been right. Henry finally pulled away. He tucked a wisp of Carina’s hair behind her ear. “Apology accepted,” he said, going in for another kiss only to be stopped. Not by a slap this time, but by something he saw out of the corner of his eye. “Do you see that?” he asked, walking to the edge of the cliff.
Following him, Carina looked over the open ocean. At first she saw nothing but the rolling waves and a few birds flapping in the wind. But then, on the horizon, she saw a flash of something. Small at first, it became larger, moving straight toward them as though blasted from the sun itself. Beside her, Henry pulled out his telescope and, with shaking hands, lifted it to his eyes. Then he let out a cry.
The Dutchman had returned!
Will Tu
rner had never thought this day would come. He was alive. His curse was broken. He no longer had to spend his days trapped on the Dutchman. He could once again walk on land whenever he chose. And best of all, he could finally see Henry again. He disembarked the ship and climbed the cliffs, the most important place in the world to him. When he’d made it to the top, he watched as his son and a beautiful girl quickly made their way toward him.
“Let me look at you, Son,” Will said when Henry stopped in front of him. He put his hands on the boy’s shoulders and smiled. Man’s shoulders, he thought, correcting himself. For Henry was no longer the little boy he had left years earlier. Nor was he the headstrong and naive boy who had come to his ship and vowed to save him. Whatever events had unfolded to bring them both to that point and break the curse had changed Henry. The boy was gone, replaced by the handsome man who now stood in front of him. Unable to contain his emotions any longer, Will pulled Henry into an embrace. They stood there for a long time, reunited and unwilling to let go quite yet.
Finally, Will pushed Henry back. “How did you do it?” The question had been preoccupying him ever since he had felt the curse lift. “How did you save me?”
Henry looked at his father and then at Carina. “Let me tell you a story,” he began, “a tale of the greatest treasure any man can hold….” And as he started his story, Henry couldn’t help smiling, for he knew now that treasure wasn’t just gold and gems. Treasure was family and love. And he had both.
Jack was back where he belonged. Standing on the Pearl, he stared at the shore through his spyglass. Scanning the land before him, he paused as he spotted Carina and Henry. They kissed.
“That is a truly revolting sight,” he said under his breath.
“Captain Jack Sparrow on deck!”
Gibbs’s cry pulled Jack’s attention away from the lovers. Jack smiled. Captain. It sounded good to hear that said with respect again. He turned to Gibbs. Behind them, the cliffs were fading into the distance as they sailed toward the setting sun. They were surrounded by nothing but open ocean. There were no cursed sailors after them, no British warships moving up behind, no ghost sharks attacking at port or starboard. Just the sea. Just the way Jack liked it.
“What be our heading, sir?” Gibbs asked.
“We will follow the stars, Gibbs,” he finally said. “I have a rendezvous beyond my beloved horizon.”
As Jack turned, Jack the Monkey landed on his shoulder. The pirate nearly tossed him overboard but stopped when he saw that the monkey was holding something in his paws. Lifting his paws, the monkey dropped Jack’s compass into his palm. Then he pulled back his lips in a monkey smile.
Flipping open the compass, Jack looked down at its needle. As it slowly turned toward the horizon, Jack began to hum a tune under his breath. The compass no longer needed to point in any one direction, letting Jack know that he finally had all he’d ever wanted. He was back aboard the Black Pearl, and now he had only the infinite delight of the sea to look forward to. He was living the best life, the only life he could ever have wanted—the pirate’s life.
ELIZABETH RUDNICK has written over thirty books, including the original novel Tweet Heart and tie-ins such as Pete’s Dragon: The Lost Years; A Frozen Heart; and Maleficent. When not writing, she stays busy working as a teacher and restaurant owner on Cape Cod, where she lives with her husband, their wonderful new baby boy, and three lovable dogs.
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