After the Flood

by Kassandra Montag

  “I can’t leave the crew, honey,” I said, my voice cracking. “Head for the Valley. I’ve shown you the map. Aim for the inlet, go over the mountainside down into the Valley.”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. I didn’t want it to be my last image of her, so I grabbed her chin and roughly wiped her tears away with my thumb.

  “I’ll be coming for you. I’ll be right behind you,” I whispered.

  Pearl’s eyes flickered with hope at this. “I know you will,” she said softly. Her hope broke over me like a wave, threatening to drown me. Doubt spiraled inside me, like tiny fractures running through my every bone, cracks and fissures widening with each breath.

  Our breath fogged before our faces and when I pulled her into a hug I smelled her familiar scent of brine and ginger, as steady and unchanging as her heartbeat. Her red handkerchief poked out of her pants pocket, so I tucked it down, thinking of that moment it had flown up from Grandfather’s face into the wind before Pearl caught it.

  “I can’t come after you until I take care of this first,” I whispered in her ear.

  She nodded. I boosted her over the gunwale and she swung her leg over the edge, catching the ladder. Halfway down the ladder she looked up at me, her expression tender, the canoe floating beneath her, bumping the ship gently.

  It felt like pulling my own heart out and sending it away. It won’t be the last time you see her, I repeated to myself, over and over, unable to believe the words.

  She settled into the canoe and took up the oars in her hands. She looked so small in the canoe, the water a blue expanse. Even the sky and ice burned a light blue. And she, a tiny thing unlike all that surrounded her, the blueness so whole it looked like the world could swallow her.

  Chapter 50

  I pulled my thoughts from Pearl to Sedna. If I was going to get back to Pearl, I had to focus.

  The Lily Black’s ladder was already hooked to our ship. We had no boarding netting, so they’d swarm us quickly. We didn’t have enough ammunition. We were too outnumbered to survive hand-to-hand combat. Panic built up in my chest, threatening to choke me.

  My mind went fuzzy. I felt as though I was moving in a dark room stuffed full of gauze, not able to breathe, hands out, trying to make room for myself in my own mind. I looked down at the water. So blue. Unlike the water in Nebraska, always green or brown, full of dirt.

  When I began to fish, Grandfather scolded me for fishing without intention, throwing lines in before I observed the water. Thinking that as long as hooks were in the water the fish would bite.

  Watch the water. You must submit to it. Don’t fight it, Grandfather would say as the boat rocked gently under a hot noonday sun.

  I looked back and forth between their ship and ours. Our ship was past saving, I thought numbly. I coughed from the smoke as the mainsail burned down toward us. I had to accept that we’d already lost Sedna.

  I thought of Pearl saying we’d sink. We’d be in the water. She was right, I thought grimly. The water is cold, she kept saying as though it were a secret she was confiding in me.

  I looked across our deck and starred at the Lily Black. Wayne threw a bomb and it exploded in midair, flinging someone from their ship into the water.

  The water. The icy water. If only we could get them in it, we could take their ship. Use the Lily Black to sail into the inlet and find Pearl.

  I ran into the cabin where the bombs lay in boxes on the table.

  Abran was in there, fumbling with a match in one hand and a bomb in his other.

  “We need to toss these over. Help me,” Abran said.

  I grabbed the bomb and match from his hand and darted out of the cabin. I ducked as I ran, gunfire spraying around me. I placed the bomb at the base of the gunwale where the ladder was hooked.

  Wayne fired his rifle from behind the gunwale, trying to pick the raiders off as they crawled along the ladder toward our ship. Two women and a man crawled along the ladder, machetes slung through their belts and rifles strapped to their backs. Wayne fired once, missed, and pulled the trigger again, but no bullet rang out.

  I struck the match along the rough wood and lit the bomb. Lunging toward Wayne, I grabbed him by the arm and hauled him backward, away from the gunwale.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Wayne yelled at me, trying to break free of my grasp.

  I shoved him toward the cabin.

  “Duck!” I screamed, pulling Wayne down with me to the deck and covering my head.

  The bomb blew bits of wood over us, a cascade of sawdust and smoke. The ships rumbled, shifting in the sea. I scrambled to my feet and dashed over the debris.

  The gunwale was gone where I’d placed the bomb. Their ladder was in pieces, littering our deck and the sea. The man who’d been on the ladder now thrashed about in the icy water.

  Daniel climbed to his feet near the mainmast and took aim with his bow and arrow. I ran toward him and yelled at him to come help me.

  In the cabin, I snatched our last strong rope from a bin, uncoiled it, and handed him one end, holding on to the other end myself.

  “What’re you doing?!” he yelled over the raucous noise.

  “Wait,” I commanded, a hand on his chest, holding him back. I peered out of the cabin.

  As I expected, they were throwing over more grappling hooks. The hooks caught on the gunwale on either side of the hole I’d blown. I felt Sedna shift toward them. They were pulling us close enough that they could leap on board without the ladder.

  “Crouch behind the gunwale,” I said, pointing to the left of the hole. “I’ll go to that side,” I pointed to the right side. “When they jump on, we’ll sweep them into the sea.”

  Daniel nodded and we ran to the opposite sides, crouching down behind the gunwale. The rope lay unfurled between us, lying in a wide arc on the deck. The smoke was so thick it was like a fog, making everyone indistinct.

  When the first man leapt through the hole toward us, I looked at Daniel and nodded. We both stood and yanked the rope tight between us, shoving him backward into the water. He screamed before he disappeared beneath the waves.

  We dropped down again, slackening the rope between us. Another jumped on and the rope sent him flailing backward into the water.

  Marjan screamed above and I looked up. She was in the rigging with a rifle, picking the raiders off from her higher vantage point. An arrow protruded from her shoulder, her white blouse darkening with blood. She struggled to hold on to the rigging with one arm, her foot slipped, and she wavered in the tangled ropes before falling to the deck.

  I closed my eyes and winced at the sound of her body hitting the deck. I kept them closed a few more seconds, arrows whirring above my head. Goddammit, I whispered. Goddammit.

  I felt the rope jerk in my hands, Daniel already pulling it taut, and I stood just in time to catch a woman and fling her into the sea.

  There was a pause. No movement. A chill coursed in my veins. They must have realized what we were doing. A storm of bullets peppered the gunwale and Daniel and I dove flat to our stomachs. Arrows flew over, striking the cabin, the deck, sailing on past our ship and into the sea beyond.

  Two men jumped on at the same time, their machetes out to chop the rope, but we raised the rope and flung them back before they could catch it with their blades. We squatted again, panting for breath. Six, I thought to myself. How many were left?

  Another jumped on and we stood, pulling the rope tight, but the raider ducked, our rope pushing past him until it made a straight line, touching only air.

  The raider swung his machete over his head, chopping our rope in two. He lunged at Daniel, machete raised, and an arrow stuck in his back.

  Abran, taking cover behind the cabin, reloaded his bow.

  I pulled my long knife from my belt and braced myself. Several raiders jumped on at once. One threw a hatchet toward me and I ducked. It splintered the gunwale behind me.

  The man pulled a knife from his belt and lunged at me. I sidestepped him, grabbed
his hair, yanked his head back, and slit his throat. He crumpled at my feet and I lurched to the side as another raider swung a machete at me.

  A scream erupted from the cabin and I turned to see Abran, face blanched, his hands fumbling around a sword stuck in his gut. Jackson stood in front of him, hand on the hilt of the sword, and ripped it out of Abran.

  Blood dribbled from Abran’s mouth and he fell to his knees, his face blank, his muscles paralyzed.

  “NO!!” I roared, stepping toward them, when I was jerked backward by my hair and tossed to the deck. A woman raised her machete over me and I rolled to the side right before her machete struck the floor where I’d been. An arrow pierced her chest and she stumbled and fell.

  I looked back at where Abran lay. Daniel was near him now, crawling backward on the deck, away from Jackson. Daniel’s hand left a bloody streak on the wood in his wake. Jackson stepped toward him.

  I dashed toward them, leaping over fallen bodies. Jackson raised his sword, his eyes on Daniel, only a few feet away from him. I tossed myself at him with all my weight. We tumbled across the deck. He clawed at me, catching my throat. The world narrowed as I gasped for breath.

  I kicked him in the gut. His grip loosened and I rolled to the side, grabbing a fistful of his hair to arch his neck open for my blade.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Daniel coming at us, knife in his good hand, when someone rammed into him. A frenzied screech. Blood across the deck, spraying across my vision.

  Jackson caught my shirt and ripped me off of him. I rolled a few paces on the deck before finding my footing. He fumbled about the deck for a weapon, his hands rough and red, his movements wild and panicked.

  I pulled my second knife from the sheath at my ankle and lurched forward with both knives. He blocked my first blow to his neck with his forearm. I slashed my second knife into his gut, pulled it out swiftly, and struck him across the neck.

  He leaned back from me, hands at his throat, blood pouring over them. He tried to say something, but the words came out a gurgle.

  Like the calm after a storm, it took me a moment to notice the sudden stillness. No more bullets or machetes or bombs. Only the wind, pulling Sedna into pieces. The creaking and moaning of a sinking ship. Small fires and smoke. Torn sails fluttering and cut ropes swaying. Broken glass and wood all about our feet, the whole ship a weapon, ready to cut you. Everything sharp except the bodies, all lying in a posture nothing like repose.

  Daniel crawled to his feet, his attacker lying facedown. He slipped in the blood and caught himself on his palms.

  Jackson saw Daniel out of the corner of his eye and shuddered. He slumped against the gunwale and seemed to will himself to leave this earth before his brother could reach him. Before he went still, his eyes clouded over with a great sadness that looked like emptiness, as if he were being sucked out of himself.

  I couldn’t get the taste of blood out of my mouth, bitter and metallic. I spit and wiped my face with the back of my arm, trying to keep the blood out of my eyes. I turned in a halting circle, my knife held out in front of me, moving like a compass without north.

  Daniel crouched beside Jackson as he cradled his injured hand to his chest. A finger hung loose by a tendon. He laid a hand on Jackson’s heart and then moved his hand up to his face to gently thumb his eyes closed.

  A breathless, giddy relief began to build in me until I looked beyond our deck. The southwestern coast thrust toward us, waves pushing us onward, hurling us toward the rocks.

  Chapter 51

  Sedna’s bow was buried in water, the stern lifting upward in a tilt. Daniel and I clung to the gunwale as we scurried to the starboard side.

  I kept my eyes on the Lily Black, waiting for more of them to emerge. Thomas clung to the mainmast and used the flagpole as a crutch. Both the Lily Black and Sedna were flying toward the rocks, but Sedna would sink before it crashed. We had a better chance of surviving shipwreck on the Lily Black than sinking on Sedna. We needed to gather everyone and move quickly.

  “Thomas!” I called out, waving for him to follow us.

  He limped toward us. Blood stained his pants on one leg.

  “Where’s Pearl?” Daniel asked me.

  I stared at him in confusion and then realized that no one had seen me put her on the canoe. A numbness spread through me; I felt the sky would blot me out.

  “I put her on the canoe,” I said. My chin quivered and my knees buckled.

  Daniel stepped forward and caught me from falling. “We’re going to find her,” he said.

  I nodded in a daze, leaning against him. Daniel shook me hard.

  “Myra, we’re going to find her. Come on.”

  A slave came above deck on the Lily Black. We all froze, staring at each other. My grip tightened on my knife. He backed up until his back touched the gunwale and then turned and leapt into the icy water.

  Daniel, Thomas, and I clambered around the side of the cabin. Marjan lay slumped against it. I dashed toward her and knelt. Her face was ashen and her eyelids fluttered when I lifted her chin. I touched the belt tied in a tourniquet around her upper arm.

  Abran. He was trying to save her when Jackson attacked him.

  Abran lay on his side near Marjan’s feet. I reached out and ran my fingers through his hair. I should have been there to help him, I thought. A chill ran through me. It shouldn’t have ended like this.

  I remembered him laughing as we lay in bed, his boyish smirk and messy hair. How he’d roll over and read me his favorite passages from books, saying words I rarely heard anymore: ebullient, resplendent, succulent. I thought also of the haunted side of him, the shadow he carried. But more than that, I thought of the charming man who had enough vision and hope for a village, the eager heart so pure it was sure to break.

  I’m not going to let you down, Abran, I told him silently, touching his hair again.

  Wayne stumbled out of the cabin and almost tripped over Marjan and me. He carried the backpacks Marjan had packed full of water and food.

  He dropped them at his feet and knelt beside Marjan. “I’ll get her,” he told me. Daniel and I strapped the packs on and I struggled to my feet under the weight.

  “Marjan, we’re getting on the other ship,” said Wayne, his rough voice unusually soft. He lifted her up over his shoulder. Sedna lurched, her bow sinking deeper. Water was halfway to the mainmast. The grappling hooks from the Lily Black strained against Sedna.

  Daniel cut the ropes of the grappling hooks from the gunwale.

  “Myra!” Daniel called out to me. “Hurry!”

  We all gathered at the hole I’d blown in the gunwale. One by one, we leapt and fell onto the Lily Black, Daniel and I catching Wayne when he landed so Marjan wouldn’t fall. I turned, pulled out my knife, and sawed the last grappling hook’s rope until it snapped.

  The sea around Sedna gurgled, pulling her deeper into it. The foremast disappeared, entering the water at a slant.

  I looked about the Lily Black for an anchor but saw only wreckage. An anchor could slow our landing, easing the inevitable crash. Or it could keep us like a ball on a string, to be tossed again and again. Better to be flung once and bear the violence.

  White water surged toward us, crashing on board, foaming at our feet. Sedna drifted farther from us and crashed against a rocky outcrop. She splintered into flotsam.

  As Sedna was sucked into darkness, the Lily Black surged closer to the rocky shore, the water against our back like the hand of God.

  “To the mast!” I yelled above the waves. We stumbled to our feet, our fingers scraping the wet wood for balance.

  We clung to the mainmast and each other, the ship breaking up around us with each small collision. A rumble of rocks beneath us tearing open the hull. The roar of the ship colliding with a rocky outcrop on the port side. Each crash deafening, sending a spray of icy water into our faces.

  I swallowed the bile of panic rising in my throat. We barreled toward the coast. I gritted my teeth and thought of Pear
l, her red hair a flare of color amid the gray sea and white ice, the front of the canoe breaking the water in small ripples. The Lily Black shook so hard my bones rattled, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

  When I opened them I saw only the coast coming at us. Rocks, sand, surf, a bleak gray sky above. The bones of a whale on shore. I blinked. The skeleton was half the size of the Lily Black, a surreal object that looked out of place, mistaken. A shipwreck already before us, victim of the wind and waves.

  In one final push we were lifted out of the sea and into the air, tossed like a child’s toy.

  I sat up, pain coursing through my body. I lifted Daniel’s leg off my arm. He blinked and shook his head as if trying to shake water out of his ear. Blood left a trail down his temple and cheek, dripping off his chin. I reached out and wiped it with my thumb.

  I struggled to stand, my left leg weak and throbbing under my weight.

  “We need to get off,” Daniel said, his voice groggy and distant. The wreckage could be pulled back into the sea with the tide.

  Daniel lifted Marjan over his shoulder. Thomas leaned against Wayne and hobbled forward. The ship had the crushed and scattered look of something pummeled with a hammer. Broken wood, scrap metal, fallen sails strewn across the deck, tripping us up.

  I squinted up ahead. The rocky shore was covered with moss and lichen. To the right stood a steep cliff, with a sheer drop of fifty feet. To the left, the gentle slope of a mountain rose, streams and small clusters of aspens breaking its face. The whale skeleton rested at the foot of the cliffs, fully intact, as though it could acquire flesh and swim back into the sea.

  Several seabirds picked around a few tide pools. The air hummed with their raucous calls.

  We were lucky it was low tide. The sea foamed, only a foot deep under us, and the Lily Black shifted its weight, already settling into the coast. It was so cold I kept breathing on my fingers.

  I helped Daniel over the broken gunwale and he jumped into the shallow water. He stumbled and fell to one knee, Marjan’s head bobbing backward from the impact. I leapt down, the cold water piercing me like a blade.