Aztecs' Curse

Chapter 5

     The fog crept through Port Royal, casting an eerie twilight pall. An armed search party moved along the street, glancing down an alleyway, where a search party on the other side was doing the same. The men nodded to each other, then continued on. After a brief moment, Jack dropped from his hiding place beneath the eaves of a building, the manacles still hanging from his wrists. Across the street was a shop with barn doors, a pass-thru door set in the middle. Above the door was a sign with a black anvil. Without hesitation, Jack slipped through the door, taking a look around.
     There were no windows; the forge was dark, lit by lanterns. Works-in-progress are scattered about: wagon wheels, wrought iron gates, pipes, and even a cannon with a crack in it. But every tool was in place; even the workbench was tidy and neat.
     Jack was startled by a noise, drawing his sword as he turned towards it: Mister Brown, in a blacksmith's apron, snores in the corner, cradling a bottle. Jack gave him a hard poke, then another, but Brown only snorted, and turned away, eyes still glued shut. Satisfied, Jack sheathed his sword, took a short-handled sledge from its place on the wall, and moved to the glowing coke furnace in the middle of the room, and slowly, he held his right hand over the furnace, the chain down in the embers.
     The chain began to glow, and Jack began to sweat, grimacing at the pain. Moving quickly, he wrapped the chain around the nose of an anvil, and brought the sledge down with a fast, hard stroke on the glowing links. One shattered, and Jack dropped the sledge, plunging his manacled hand in a bucket of water, causing steam to billow. When he was finished, he pulled his hand out and flexed it. Blisters formed beneath the manacle, but his hands were free, which was the only thing that mattered to him at that moment.
     The latch on the door moved, causing Jack to whirl around before diving for cover, and Will Turner stepped into the forge, shutting the door behind him. When he spotted the drunken Mister Brown in the corner, a small smile curled at the corners of his lips. "Right where I left you."      He walked further into the room before something caught his eye, making him pause: an empty peg on the wall, the sledge lying beside the anvil. His voice was now a murmur, a frown visible on his face. "Not where I left you." He moved casually towards the sledge, slowly grabbing for it; but, the flat of a sword blade slapped his hand, causing him to jump back.
     Jack stood there, sword leveled at Will, and backed him up towards the door.
     Will glared at him and said, voice low and angry, "You're the one they're hunting. The Pirate."
     Jack acknowledged what he said with a tip of his head, then frowned as he regarded him. "You look familiar." His eyes narrowed. "Have I threatened you before?"
     "I've made a point of avoiding familiarity with pirates," Will responded haughtily.
     "Ah," Jack said, "then it would be a shame to put a black mark on your record. So, if you'll excuse me..." He started for the door just beyond Will, but before he could react, Will snagged the sword resting in the honing guide on the grindstone beside the door, pointing the blade at him. Jack eyed it wearily. "Do you think this is wise, boy? Crossing blades with a pirate?" Despite his annoyance, a flash of excitement seemed to spark up in his eyes, his grip on his own sword tightening.
     "You threatened Elizabeth's sister," Will snapped, still glaring, sword held at the ready.
Jack seemed to think a moment as he nodded absently, stepping forward just enough to slide his blade against Will's before giving him a mischievous expression. "Only a little."
     In response, Will assumed an en garde position, to which Jack appraised him, unhappy to see that Will knew what he was doing. Then, Jack attacked, the two men standing in one place, trading feints, thrusts and parries with lightning speed, almost impossible to follow. Will had no trouble matching Jack, a natural at the art.
     "You know what you're doing," Jack said, "I'll give you that. Excellent form. But how's your footwork?" He grinned. "If I step here-" He cut off as he took a step around an imaginary circle. Will stepped the other way, maintaining his relationship to Jack, their swords still clashing. "Very good! And if I step again, you step again-" He cut off again as he did so, and Will kept up perfectly. "And so we circle, circle, like dogs we circle." By then they were exactly opposite to their initial positions. "Ta!" Jack turned to the door, which was right behind him now, casually starting for it as if what he and Will had been doing before was mere child's play.
     Will registered this with angry surprise, and then with a vicious overhand motion, he threw his sword. The sword buried itself into the door, just above the latch, barely missing Jack. In response, Jack eyed it, then pulled on the latch, which wouldn't move up, the sword in the way. Rattling the latch, and tugging on the sword a few times, Jack mouthed a curse, but when he turned back to Will, he was smiling.
     "That's a good trick," Jack said. "Except, once again, you are between me and the way out." He pointed his sword at the back door. "And now you have no weapon."
     Eyes on Jack, Will simply picked up a new sword from an anvil, causing Jack to slump in dismay, but then the pirate leapt forward, clashing his sword with Will's. Their blades flashed and rang, and then--suddenly--Jack swung the chain still manacled to his left hand at Will's head. Will ducked just in time, and straightened back up wide-eyed. Then, Jack's chain smashed across Will's sword, disarming him. Will quickly picked up another sword, to which Jack then became aware that the entire room was filled with bladed weapons: swords, knives, and boarding axes in various stages of completion.
     "Who makes all these?" Jack asked, baffled.
     "I do," Will said, sword still clashing with Jack's. "And I practice with them. At least three hours a day."
     "You need to find yourself a girl, mate," Jack said with some amusement, and when Will's jaw set his smile only grew. "Or maybe the reason you practice three hours a day is you've found one--but can't get her?" A direct hit; and, Will coiled even more tightly with anger.
     "No," Will said, suddenly more fierce as they fought. "I practice three hours a day so that when I meet a pirate-" He slammed his sword against Jack's, causing him to falter for only a moment. "-I can kill him!"
     "Ah," Jack said, grinning wildly, as if merely amused by Will's outburst, eyes lit wildly.
     Will exploded: kicking a rack, causing a sword to fall into his hand; used his foot to bring his dropped sword into the air, catches it, and attacked Jack, both blades flashing. Jack parried with sword and chain, which wrapped around Will's sword; Will twisted the handle of his guard through a link, and stabbed the sword up into the ceiling, so Jack's manacled left arm is now suspended from it.
     Jack's amused grin suddenly disappeared, and he parried using one hand, twisting and dodging around the furnace as he compressed the bellows, blowing a shower of sparks into Will's face, causing him to cover his eyes in defense. Jack then grabbed the chain, hoisted himself up, kicked with his feet, knocking Will back, and used his full weight, yanking the sword from the ceiling. Then, he hurled a wooden mallet at Will, then a second, hitting Will on the wrist.
     Will dropped his sword, falling down before quickly getting back up, but Jack's pistol was aimed directly between his eyes. He stepped back, directly in front of the back exit, glaring as he rubbed his wrist gingerly. "You cheated."
     "Pirate," Jack reminded him, only smiling bitterly. Then, he stepped forward, which only caused Will to step into the way. "Move away."
     "No," Will said, hardly paying heed to the gun pointed at him.
     Jack's eyes rolled. "Please move away?"
     "No!" Will snapped. "I cannot just step aside and let you escape."
     Jack cocked the pistol, but Will only stared back, the stand-off lasting for a long moment. Then, he said, "This shot's not meant for you."
     Will's brows furrowed, unsure what Jack means, but before he could completely reassess the pirate, Mister Brown slammed his bottle against Jack's skull, having had gotten up unnoticed, and Jack crumpled to the ground. The front and back doors smashed open, and sailors filled the room.
     Norrington pushed forward, spotting Jack on the ground before saying, "Excellent work, Mister Brown. You've aided in the capture of a dangerous fugitive."
     "Just doing my civic duty," Mister Brown mumbled drunkenly, and off to the side Will's eyes resisted a roll as he muttered to himself.
     As Jack groaned, Norrington stood over him with a smug smile. "I believe you will always remember this as the day Captain Jack Sparrow almost escaped." He nodded to his men, who dragged him away, and gave Will and Brown a nod before following after the others.