CHAPTER 28: COLLECTING THE DAMNED
The Navy wanted witnesses for the treasure cataloging.
That's how I found myself back in the cave less than twelve hours after leaving it—part of a work crew "volunteered" by Jack to assist Norrington's marines with the official accounting. The Commodore didn't trust pirates around gold, but he also didn't have enough men to move it all without help.
Ironic, I thought, stepping back into the treasure chamber where Barbossa's body still lay. The curse is broken, but the gold remains. Still dangerous. Still tempting.
My Curse Sight flickered to life as I crossed the threshold.
The chains were gone—those massive tarnished bonds that had connected every cursed pirate to the chest. But something remained. Traces. Echoes. Like the lingering smell of smoke after a fire is extinguished.
The coins themselves still carried it. Not an active curse, but a memory of one. Supernatural residue clinging to gold that had touched the divine.
Useful, part of me whispered. Potentially very useful.
I pushed the thought aside and joined the work crew. Hauling treasure into organized piles. Counting coins while naval clerks recorded everything in ledgers. Pretending to be just another sailor doing his duty.
Barbossa's body had been removed overnight—burial at sea, appropriately enough, for a man who'd spent a decade unable to feel the ocean's embrace. The marines had also cleared most of the cursed crew's remains. What was left was gold, gold, and more gold.
And me, watching for my opportunity.
It came near midnight.
The marines rotated shifts. The naval clerks took a meal break. For perhaps ten minutes, I was alone in the treasure chamber with nothing but torchlight and the weight of Aztec curses.
I moved quickly.
The three coins I'd already taken pressed cold against my thigh—hidden in a pocket I'd sewn into my borrowed trousers during a quiet moment on the Pearl. But three wasn't enough. Not for what I was beginning to imagine.
My hands trembled as I reached for more.
These killed people, I thought. Not directly, but absolutely. Barbossa's crew murdered thousands while cursed. The gold drove that madness, that desperation.
I palmed two more coins anyway.
They felt different from ordinary gold—heavier somehow, though they weighed the same. My Curse Sight showed them clearly: dormant but not dead. Waiting, perhaps, for the right circumstances to wake.
Five coins. Five pieces of supernatural potential.
I secreted them with the others, adjusting my trousers to hide the bulge. The treasure chamber held thousands of coins—the Navy wouldn't miss five. Probably wouldn't even notice the discrepancy.
A sound from the shadows made me freeze.
I turned slowly, precognition humming but not screaming. Not immediate danger, then. But something.
Barbossa's monkey sat on a pile of gold, watching me.
The creature had survived the curse-breaking—it had touched the gold too, I remembered, been part of the undead crew in its own animal way. Now it sat there with disturbingly intelligent eyes, observing my theft with what looked almost like approval.
Animals see more than people realize, I thought. If this thing could talk...
But it couldn't. It was just a monkey. And even if someone noticed its attention toward me, who would believe the testimony of an animal?
I held its gaze for a long moment. Then I turned and walked back toward the entrance, rejoining the work crew as if nothing had happened.
The monkey didn't follow.
Dawn found me exhausted and five coins richer.
The cleanup was finally complete. Naval officers signed off on the treasure manifests. Prisoners were loaded onto ships for the voyage back to Port Royal. Jack's crew gathered on the Pearl's deck, preparing for departure.
I found a quiet spot near the mainmast and leaned against the wood, letting the rising sun warm my face.
First death in a tavern, I thought, remembering the knife sliding between my ribs nearly three weeks ago. First resurrection in the harbor. Now I've died twice, come back twice, and started a collection of cursed artifacts.
My life was becoming increasingly strange.
"You look like a man with secrets."
Anamaria's voice. I opened my eyes to find her standing a few feet away, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
"Everyone has secrets."
"Not like yours." She glanced around, confirming no one was close enough to hear. "The crew is talking. They saw what happened on the beach—the cannonball, the... after."
"I know."
"Gibbs says you're touched by the sea. Cotton's parrot keeps calling you 'dead man walking.' Marty thinks you're cursed." Her voice dropped. "What should I tell them?"
The question hit harder than it should have. Anamaria was asking for the official story—the lie I wanted spread, the narrative that would let me function among superstitious sailors who'd watched me die and return.
"Tell them I made a bargain," I said slowly. "Something I don't fully understand. The sea brings me back when I fall, but there's a cost. Always a cost."
"What cost?"
Your trust, I didn't say. Your affection. The chance at something normal.
"I don't know yet." Which was almost true. The Fortune Link was still a mystery—I could see the golden thread connecting me to Jack, but I didn't understand its terms. "Maybe I'll find out eventually. Maybe I won't."
Anamaria studied me for a long moment. Then she nodded once, sharply.
"I'll tell them. Whether they believe it..." She shrugged. "You saved lives during the battle. Multiple lives. That counts for something, even among men who fear you."
"Do you fear me?"
The question slipped out before I could stop it. Anamaria's expression flickered—something complicated passing across her features.
"I don't know what I feel," she admitted. "You're not what I thought you were. That's... difficult."
"I'm still the same person."
"Are you?" She turned away before I could answer. "We sail for Port Royal within the hour. Jack needs to deal with the Navy before we can truly be free."
She walked away, leaving me alone with my coins and my questions.
The sun rose higher. The Pearl's crew made ready.
And somewhere in the shadows of the treasure cave we'd just left, a monkey watched our departure with eyes that remembered everything.
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