Barbossa's Daughter

Chapter 24

"Some have died, and some are alive, and others, sail on the sea," Cora sang as she paddled a single canoe through the stilted city on the waters of Singapore. Her hair was braided down her back and her eyes were hidden by a massive circular hat as she steered her boat. Her legs were clad in black leggings and her torso in its usual tunic and a vest. "With the keys to the cage and the devil to pay, we lay to fiddler's green. The bell has been raised from its watery grave, hear its sepulchral tone. A call to all, pay heed the squall and turn your sails to home," she sang before pausing as she watched Royal Navy officers march across a bridge over her as fireworks went off in the distance. "Yo-ho, haul together, hoist the colours high," she continued as she tied off her boat and stepped out onto the dock. "Heave-ho-"

"Thief and beggar," someone finished as they took a step towards her, and she stopped singing. "Never shall we die." Two more men stood to his back as he faced Cora who didn't seem scared in the slightest as her face remained blank. "A dangerous song to be singing, for any who are ignorant of its meaning. Particularly a woman. Particularly a woman alone."

"What makes you think she's alone?" came a voice as Hector Barbossa made his way down the stairs.

"You protect her?" the man asked before Cora had a blade to his throat.

"I think it is you who needs protection, especially if ye think that a woman cannot be a pirate," she snarled into his ear as the other two men aimed their guns at her.

"At ease, me Cora," her father said, but she still made no move to let the man go. "Your master's expecting us. And an unexpected death'd cast a slight pall on our meeting."

And Cora glared at her father as she reluctantly let the man go. "If the stakes weren't as high as they are, I'd run him through for being so disrespectful."

Her father grunted. "I have no doubt of that."

And as voices spoke loudly nearby, her father ushered her against a wall as the three men followed suit as the Royal Navy ran by them. And then they began to follow the men through the tunnels as they headed in for their meeting place.

"Any news from our associates, Father?" she asked as they walked, and Cora threw away that ridiculous hat she'd had on.

"I trust young Mister Turner to acquire our navigational treasures or lest he discovers what gunpower tastes like."

"Father," Cora reprimanded and he only laughed.

"And I trust you to be on yer best behaviour in the presence of Captain Sao Feng."

"Ye say that as if I am a heathen, when that is so clearly you."

"Oh, how I have missed ye, me Cora," Barbossa said fondly, and his daughter gave him a smile.

"Likewise, Father," she replied as the men knocked on a round, faded red door.

And as they entered and the doors were shut behind them, they were asked to disarm themselves. Cora had gone to step forward before she was stopped.

"Do you think because she is a woman, we would not suspect her of treachery?" a man asked, and Cora placed her hands on her hips.

"Ye seemed to have no trouble suspected me to be an ignorant woman singin' a pirate song," she returned, and her father growled at her.

"Remove. Please," the man asked, and Cora huffed as she began undoing the string of her vest and opening it to reveal the various guns and knives that she had strapped to herself. All the men watched with rapt attention as a tiny little thing like her removed four guns, eight knives and a bomb from her torso before reaching into her boots and pulling out another knife, gun and bomb. Even her father was confused and concerned with the size of some of those weapons and where and how she could possibly keep so many on her.