Jacob was surprised at how easy it was to persuade his men to go back and fight for their possessions, but he couldn't find it in him to be happy about that. The fact that they were willing to put their lives on the line so easily worried him. When he looked round the room, all he saw in their faces was desperation and weariness. Pete summed it up well.

"We're tired, Captain. We've been at this now for 5 years. None of us are getting any younger and losing Marco has brought certain truths home to roost. If we never succeed, what's the point of our lives? Our children have grown up without their fathers, some of our parents have passed away without us there to pay our respects. And for what? So we can feed Jinx and his ever growing army of reprobates? I say it's about time we took the battle to them. Let us be the ones to hunt him down for a change. And you know what? If I die, so be it. But I'll be damned if I don't take several of those blood thirsty parasites with me."

That speech got a resounding amount of cheers from the rest of the men. Pete was right. They'd been doing this for far too long and getting nowhere. It was time for a change.

Jacob had spent the rest of the day coming up with a plan. He'd gone over and over different scenarios in his mind, and this was the best he could come up with, but he knew it was still a long shot.

"Ok," said Jacob, addressing his men that evening, "here's what I've come up with. Fingers has informed me that he has tricked the pirates into thinking that the Muntle seaweed actually works. This is where we have the advantage. We know it's all lies so we'll have to come up with another way to stop us from hearing the song."

"Other than just putting our fingers in our ears?" Tyler asked.

"Yes," Jacob replied. "You never know if you'll have to fight, which you can't do if your hands are stuck to the side of your head, can you?" Jacob said, sounding a little impatient.

"So you think we should plug our ears up with sommat then?" Pete asked.

"Yes, and I've given it some thought and I was thinking candle wax."

Most of the men looked baffled, but Jacob could see that the more intelligent men in his crew were thinking it through and nodding their heads.

"It goes soft when it's warm so we should be able to mould it to the shape of your ear canal. It's waterproof so that means that no air can get through either so it should be good. I tried it last night and I couldn't hear a thing."

"Right, so we've all got our ears plugged, so what happens next?"

"Well I think we can safely say that it's no good just attacking Jinx's ship. Their ship will easily overpower ours, so I think we've got to be clever about this. What if we offer Jinx something he can't refuse. Something we can try and get him to agree to trade Raephier for."

"But we've got nothing to trade!" James said.

"I know. But that's not important. He just needs to think we have something."

"Ok, but what is he going to want enough to give Raephier up?" Pete asked.

"Oh that doesn't matter, anything will do."

"How can you say it doesn't matter?" James asked, looking rather stressed. "We're going to have to come up with something big for Jinx to even consider the trade."

Jacob chuckled and shook his head. "But we're not going to trade."

"What?" James said, looking confused.

"Jinx is a pirate," Jacob said, "a pirate who just took everything we own. He's so arrogant he will accept the trade of anything because he has no intentions of trading. He's going to just keep everything himself."

"You're right," Pete said nodding, "so we persuade him to agree to a trade, a trade which neither side has any intention of honouring. So what happens next?"

"Ahh, well that's the difficult bit," Jacob said. "I need to get Jinx to agree to let me close enough to Raephier so I can speak to him and try to persuade him to use his powers."

A collective murmur went up around the crew. Jacob knew this was where the plan could fall apart. There were too many variables that were out of his control.

"Ok, so let's say you do manage to get close enough to him to have a conversion, how on earth are you going to persuade him to sing. No one has done that!" Pete said.

"You're forgetting one important factor," Jacob said. "When the pirates attacked us last time, he wanted to sing. He wanted to use his powers to help us. But he couldn't because you wouldn't listen to him about the Muntle seaweed! So I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take much to get him to agree."

"Right," said Pete concentrating hard, "so we persuade Jinx to trade with us, somehow get you close enough to Raephier to ask him to sing, then what?"

Jacob shrugged. "Then he sings, and all the pirates start fighting each other. I'm not a hundred percent sure how this thing works but I'm hoping that they'll focus on each other and leave us alone."

"But what if they don't and they fight us?" Tyler asked.

"They won't," Lyle said firmly.

"How do you know?" Jacob asked.

"Because I've been there. I've seen what happens first hand. I wasn't affected by the song and neither of my brothers attacked me, even when I tried to stop them. It was like they couldn't see me, they were so focussed on fighting each other."

"Oh, right," Jacob said, only just remembering that Lyle had some experience with this. "And can I ask why you weren't affected?"

Lyle shook his head. "I have no idea. The only thing I can think of is I was so young at the time. Only a child."

"Hmm," Jacob said in thought, "I suppose that's quite likely. The mind of a child is too innocent for any of that."

"I think we're missing one important thing here," James said.

"And what's that?" Jacob asked.

"If we all have our ears plugged, how do we know what is being said? How do we talk to the pirates and persuade them to let you talk to Raepheir? In fact, how are you even going to talk to Raephier?"

"Ah, you see, I will be the only one without my ears plugged. I'll do all the talking."

"But what about when he sings?" Gabriel spoke up, looking worried for his Captain.

Jacob tried to give the boy a reassuring smile. "I'll be ok. I'll have a set of the wax ear plugs on me, and hopefully I'll get those in in time. If not, then I guess I'll just have to fight."

"That's risky!" Pete said.

"I know," Jacob said, nodding. "But I have an advantage that all those other pirates won't have."

"And what's that?" Gabriel asked.

Jacob smiled. "I'll have all of you looking out for me."

"That's true!" said James. "We can help fight them off you, keep you safe Captain."

Jacob gave a nod to James in thanks.

"It's risky," Pete said, very matter of factly.

"I know," Jacob said. "It's very risky. There's lots that could go wrong, but I can't think of any other way. If anyone has a better idea, or wants to back out, I don't mind."

There was a general murmur of agreement that this was probably the best plan, so Jacob, Pete and James, spent the rest of the night fine tuning the details and trying to come up with contingency plans for each stage in case things didn't go their way.

Then the following day Jacob met with Fingers and just less than 24 hours later he had flown a message to Jinx via pigeon to ask for a trade.

The message came back agreeing to the meet and in a matter of hours Jacob's ship was tethered to Jinx's in a secluded cove with calm waters.

Just as Jacob, Tyler and Lyle were about to cross onto Jinx's ship, Jinx shouted to them.

"Leave your weapons. You say you come in peace, I need proof of that."

Jacob put his hand in front of Tyler and Lyle making them stop.

"Then where's our proof?" Jacob asked, already seeing his plan start to unravel.

Jinx laughed. "You organised this trade. So you would be the ones trying to double cross us."

"Lay down your weapons and we'll come across," Jacob shouted.

"I don't lay down my weapons for anyone," Jinx replied. "If you don't want to come on my ship, we can trade from here. Show me yours and I'll show you mine," Jinx said with a grin that made Jacob want to shudder.

That wouldn't do. Jacob needed to get on that ship. But if he didn't have his weapon and he didn't have time to get the ear plugs in, he would be a sitting duck.

"Fine!" Jacob spat and threw his weapon down on his deck in front of Pete. If he could trust anyone to get his weapon to him in a hurry, it was Pete.

Jacob subtly lifted his hands to Tyler and Lyle gesturing for them to stay on his ship. It was one thing going unarmed himself into the Lion's den, but he'd be damned if he was going to subject his men to the same fate.

But Tyler and Lyle seemed to have other intentions as they too shed their weapons, and with looks that dared him to argue, they followed stubbornly behind.

As soon as Jacob landed on the deck of Jinx's ship, Jacob demanded to see Raephier.

"Raephier?" Jinx said with a smirk, "who said anything about Raephier?"

And with a flick of his wrist in signal to one of his men, a woman in a tattered green dress and fiery red hair was pulled onto the deck. Jacob noticed straight away that she was chained, both her hands and feet.

Jacob heard Lyle gasp and stagger back behind him, but he paid it no mind. He was too cross.

"What's this? This isn't what we agreed! Who is this woman?"

"You asked me to trade a Siren. This is a Siren."

Jacob was still so blinded by anger that it took him a few seconds to realise the extent of the predicament they were now in. There was another Siren on the ship. One that Jacob had no influence over. One that could very well be working for Jinx and who could start singing at any moment.

But despite the ever creeping fear that seemed to want to slide over and consume him, and despite the fact he was vaguely aware that Lyle seemed to be hyperventilating behind him, he still couldn't help but think of Raephier.

"I need to see Raephier," he said, in a voice that was a lot calmer than he felt.

"And why would you need to do that?" Jinx asked, the grin on his face showing that he was enjoying this very much.

"The trade was with Raephier. I'm sorry if you thought otherwise, but if you're not willing to trade Raephier, then the deal is off."

"The deal is off is it?" Jinx said, pacing around like a circus master, showing off to his crew. "Well what if I just go on your lovely little ship over there and just take the Ruby anyway. What's stopping me?"

Jacob smirked at him.

"We're not stupid. The Ruby is hidden, and hidden by magic. You have to know the right word to say before it reveals itself."

Jacob's heart was thumping heavily with the lie, but he breathed out a discreet sigh of relief when he saw Jinx's grin falter for a split second, before it was back on his face.

"I suppose I can reconsider my trade."

The woman was dragged roughly back towards the bow of the ship, but no further, making Jacob still feel uneasy about her presence. Jinx and Bones disappeared down a hatch, leaving Jacob to stare at the other Siren, wondering if indeed she was what Jinx said she was. And then remembering that Fingers said something about him having something that belonged to him. He decided he was going to give Fingers the beating of his life if he failed to tell him that the something Jinx had was another Siren!

Jacob's gaze was pulled away from the woman by the sound of boots coming back up the steps. First Jinx came out, and then he saw the unmistakable mop of wavy blonde hair and felt an almost calmness descend on him.

Raephier blinked and raised his hand to protect his eyes from the sun, and Jacob felt a twist of something in his chest at the thought of Raephier being kept in the dark. It took everything in him not to just go over to him and run his hands all over his body checking to make sure he was ok.

When Raephier finally turned and their eyes met, Jacob felt as though he'd been thumped in the chest. Raephier gave him a small smile, and he fought the urge to smile back. He didn't want to give Jinx any reason to doubt his intentions.

"Do you accept my trade?" Jacob asked.

Jacob felt a certain relief that the plan seemed to be back on track. Jinx ordered three of his men to go over onto Jacob's ship to check the Ruby. As soon as those men stepped onto his ship, he knew he didn't have long. James was under strict instructions to stall them for as long as possible, but he knew that wouldn't be long.

"Wait!" Jacob shouted, holding his hand up. "If you get to inspect your goods first, then it's only right I inspect mine."

Jinx laughed.

"That's fine by me, but just to warn you, if my men are not happy with what they find on that ship, or if at any time I think you're trying to cheat me, every single one of you is going to die."

Jacob hid the fact the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. The enormity of this was only just starting to hit Jacob. If this went wrong then there was a strong possibility that none of them were getting out of this alive. That thought was now sitting on his shoulders with the weight of ten anchors.

Jacob glared at the skinny pirate with no teeth as he pushed Raephier towards him, hard enough to make him stumble.

"Are you alright? Have they hurt you?" His eyes scanned his body as he asked, and he noticed that his appearance had altered slightly. He looked older and more hardened.

"No," he replied. "They haven't hurt me."

Right on cue, there was a commotion on Jacob's ship and he heard several of his men shouting. Maybe it was because the noises were planned, or maybe it was because he finally had Raephier in touching distance, but Jacob barely even registered the noises, or the tension that was rapidly rising in the pirates around him.

Jacob finally could no longer resist and grabbed hold of Raephier's arm and pulled him closer.

"You need to listen, we don't have much time!"

"Time?" Raephier said, looking a little dazed and confused.

"Yes, this is all a part of a plan, but if we want the plan to work, we need your help."

Raephier's eyes widened and Jacob had to fight not to get lost in the two pools of blue.

"Of course I'll help," Raephier replied. "What do you want me to do?"

He looked at Jacob with the eagerness and innocence of a child, and he suddenly felt a wave of guilt for what he was asking him to do. But he couldn't back out now. His life and the lives of all his men were on the line.

He tried to smile but he was sure it came out as more of a grimace.

"I need you to sing."