Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom

yellow streaks on the black river.
Jack was just about to suggest that they walk up the road a bit,
when Chamba suddenly turned his head, listening. Moments later, he
saw movement. Wearing a dark dress, her head covered by a shawl,
the woman coalesced out of the dark. Soundless on bare feet, she
drifted toward them like a wraith.
They stood up, watching her approach. When Ayisha reached
them, Jack gestured her to a seat, and asked, “Did you have any
trouble getting away?”
Chamba translated. She shook her head no.
“Good.” Jack sat down beside her, and regarded her for a long
moment. “Miss Ayisha, it’s time for us to speak frankly and
straightforwardly. Enough tacking back and forth, savvy? I’m going to
run straight before the wind, and I want you to do the same.” He waited
while Chamba translated, knowing the lad was smart enough to put the
nautical phrases into terms a landlubber would understand. Ayisha
nodded agreement, sitting poised, her hands folded in her lap.
“You obviously want to escape slavery, Miss Ayisha. I can help you
escape. If I could do it, I’d free every slave here in Calabar,” Jack said,
then added, in a burst of honesty, “I’d bloody free them all,
everywhere.” Hearing the anger in his own voice surprised him, and he
turned his head to stare out at the black river, seeing the yellow trails
marking the anchorages of the slave vessels. He heard Chamba
translating, very quietly. After a moment he took a deep breath. Tend
to business, Jacky boy, the voice in his head reminded him. Or are
you going soft? Slaves aren’t your business. Finding treasure is.
Jack turned back to his two listeners. “So, Miss Ayisha, I can take
you with me when I sail away from here, if we come to an agreement.
I’ll be leaving port soon.”
He waited while Chamba translated. Ayisha spoke a few words.
Chamba turned back to Jack. “She say, what agreement? Why would
you do this for her? You must want somethin’—so what that somethin’
be?”
“She’s right,” Jack said. “I want to find the lost island of Kerma.
There’s treasure there. I read about it in a book when I was younger
than you are now, Chamba. At first I thought the whole tale of a lost