by H. N. Klett
She felt a jolt like lightning through her body. She pitched forward and convulsed as her body seized. Hailey crashed to the floor and her head swam into darkness.
Chapter 21
Hailey was surrounded by light. She stood in a room that was warm and inviting even though it was vast and empty. She turned about slowly, and upon returning to where she started, there stood an older gentleman.
His face was clean shaven and betrayed some wrinkles of age. The crown of his head was bald, wreathed by short white hair that stretched around the back of his head from temple to temple. He was tall and lean, not muscular. The most peculiar thing about him was his eyes. They were a color she had never seen before, as blue and iridescent as the sky. He stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, his face turned up in a mild grin as if patiently waiting for her to speak.
“Did I do it? Are they safe?”
The figure looked amused. “Yes, dear. You did it. Everyone was infected by the nanites was saved. Better than saved, actually.”
Hailey looked at him, puzzled. Nanites?
“It wasn’t really a plague that affected people, it was more like tiny automations run amok in their bodies. The nanites’ job is to fix people, not hurt them. I’ll explain more about it later, when we have time.”
She felt oddly at peace. She looked up and listened around the brightly lit room; she neither saw nor heard anyone else. Not even a whisper of air moving. She could only come to one conclusion. Hailey let out a gasp.
“Am I…” Hailey stopped and let the words drop.
“No, no, no! You are quite alive. I simply borrowed you for a moment. We are in a room inside your mind as your body recovers, that’s all. I thought it was time we meet.”
Hailey recognized the figure’s warm and soothing voice, a voice she had heard only moments before.
“You’re the book,” Hailey gasped.
The man cocked his head and glanced to the side as if to think about it for a moment and then replied, “Well, yes, in a way. I’m certainly a part of the book, but I’m a bit more than that, you see. I am a bit too large to be contained in just one small volume.” He winked at her and his eyes seemed to glow.
“Then there are more… of you? More books?”
“Well, not just books. I am in many things, really. In fact, you opened my door and stepped inside.”
Hailey’s eyes went wide. “You mean you are the spirit of the cave?”
The figure chuckled at that and shook his head.
“Spirit of the cave, how funny…” He looked at her, amused. “Yes, I am part of the book, this cave, even this whole place you think is an island, but I’m not a spirit. I am a program.” The figure noted the expression of confusion on Hailey’s face. “Think of me as a machine. My name is Lucien.”
“So what is this? Why is it that I can see and hear you now? How come you haven’t appeared to me before?”
“Well, it took some time to bond with your mind. It usually doesn’t take long, but you didn’t have the book in your hands very long. Anytime you did have it, you were always having it taken from you.” His eyes twinkled as he smiled at her and continued. “Over time we formed a bond that makes you receptive to communication with me without the book. If you are here on this island, I can appear to you inside your mind. It takes a lot of energy to do, so we have to be where my energy is the strongest.”
“So why do we need to meet like this? Is there something you need to tell me?”
He tilted his head and pursed his lips a bit as though thinking.
“Tell you, yes, but better than that, show you.”
He extended his hand and the room went dark. Beside him, a large blue sphere appeared, smeared and dotted with whites and browns that lit the space and cast a warm reflected glow on them both. It was a highly detailed view of Ephryae, spinning there alone with them in the dark.
He looked over at her, pleased with himself as Hailey watched with fascination. Lucien dramatically swept his arm and the globe expanded around them and through them until they were in the center of it all. Everywhere she turned, there was her world plastered as a globe about them. She was actually in the map.
She stood there, gaping. Taking it all in. She didn’t hear Lucien walk over and stand next to her.
They both stood there as the world turned around them.
“Nice, isn’t it?”
“Wonderful!” She turned to him. “How is it that you can do this…” She trailed off, looking at him, feeling awkward. She couldn’t remember his name. It was unlike any she had ever heard before. She looked at him apologetically.
He kindly rested a hand on her shoulder. “Lucien. Don’t worry, you will remember it in time. There is much you will learn as time goes by. About this map, about this world, even how we got here.”
Hailey looked at him, confused.
“You see, you are a part of a long chain. A heritage that stretches back through time, back to the first people that arrived here on Ephryae.”
“You mean the Ancestors,” said Hailey.
“Yes. The people you call the Ancestors. Where do you think they came from?”
Hailey felt like she was back in school. “The stars.”
“Good! And how did they get here?”
“They crashed from the sky.” Hailey thought back to the Dark Star and how it had plummeted out of the sky after being hit by some kind of energy bolt. Thinking about it triggered something and it finally clicked in Hailey’s mind. “This isn’t a cave. It’s a ship!”
Lucien gave a small laugh and clapped his hands.
“Excellent! Yes, this is a fragment of what once was a great ark that traveled amongst the stars. You, my dear, are a direct descendant of one of the ship’s survivors…”
“The Navigator.”
Again the man smiled. “Yes, the ship’s navigator.” He began to walk, and Hailey joined him. The world still turned around them.
“Ah, there is so much you need to learn about, but right now we don’t have a lot of time.”
He stopped at a door that appeared out of nowhere. He looked at her and opened it. “We’ll have to start here.” He motioned for her to enter.
Once inside, Hailey could see that they had stepped into a vast library. Its great red carpets led to row after row of leather-bound volumes that hung on tall wooden shelves stretching as far as the eye can see.
He stood before her and extended an arm.
“What better place to learn than in a library?” He nodded at the rows of books. “In here are the ship’s logs, its information bases, and the chronicles of all of those I have helped throughout the centuries.”
Hailey noticed that there were figures milling around the shelves, looking at the books.
“Who are they?” She watched them with great interest. They were all women.
“They are the Navigators who came before you.”
Hailey turned to Lucien, surprised. “What are they? Ghosts?”
“No. Just afterimages. The book makes a copy of your mind to store and keep for reference.”
“So there are copies of all of them?”
Lucien turned to her. “Anyone you want to talk to in particular?”
Hailey awoke suddenly, feeling disoriented, and she looked around to get her bearings. Her senses wouldn’t tell her much; they were all too confused. All she could figure out at the moment was that she was on a soft, comfortable bed. Someone had cleaned her up. Large blurry figures seemed to float in front of her.
“She’s awake,” Kyra said.
Dr. Vinkler leaned over her and looked into each of her eyes, shining a little light back and forth between them.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
Hailey’s eyes snapped into focus on the doctor. She could see the concern registered on his face.
“I’m fine.” She moved around a bit. She no longer felt stiff or sore, or even tired. She looked at the doctor, amazed. “I feel better than fine, I feel gre
at!”
Captain Zordebran stepped forward out of the crowd that ringed her bed. He held his hat nervously.
“Good, so you can tell us what happened. I mean, what kind of witchcraft was that?”
“What do you mean?” Hailey looked at him, puzzled.
A voice to her left answered the question. “He means…” Hailey turned to see the sandy-colored eyes of Hadyn Winder on her. She looked down and noticed that he was also holding her hand. “When you got to the device and turned it on, we all passed out. When we woke up, all of our wounds were healed.”
The hulking form of Olau stepped forward. “Look,” he said, pointing to himself. There were no cuts or scars on his body as he had before. Where an eyepatch had covered a scar, there was now an eye. More startling was that hook on his left hand was gone. In its place was an actual hand. Olau opened and closed his new hand in a fist over and over again. “What kind of witchcraft is this that I could regrow my hand?”
“Was it the plague?” Kyra stood behind Hadyn. In one hand was the book, and the other the cylinder from before. She extended it to Hailey, who held up her hand and shook her head.
“I don’t need to see it. I know what it was. It wasn’t a plague at all, more like a swarm of tiny machines that get into your blood. The Ancestors used to use them to repair human tissue and fix people. When released without instructions, they just keep multiplying in your system until your body shuts down and you die. That’s what happened in Cowl’s Ridge. That device in your hand gives them instructions. In this case, I must have told them to repair everything.”
Olau was still opening and clenching his fist over and over.
“How do you know?” Kyra asked.
“Rachel told me about it. We talked about a lot of things actually…” Hailey stared off into space for a long moment.
Everyone in the room looked puzzled as she recalled the conversations she had just moments before in the library. She had learned so much in so little time. What could more time bring? Hailey blinked and shook off her contemplation of the conversations for the moment. Changing gears, she looked to Hadyn. “So what happened to the Queen and Graver? Do you have them?”
“Well, no. A whole lot happened while you were out,” said Hadyn. He still held her hand and reflexively put his other behind his head to scratch.
“After you and Kyra ditched me while I was wrestling with Graver, I almost had him when the Queen shot me in the chest with the pistol you dropped. I was dying, but I guess you fixed that.” He smiled weakly at her. “When I woke up they were gone and so was their boat.”
They must have realized that the automated defenses would be up before they could get to the top, Hailey thought.
“I found both you and Kyra passed out at the top. Kyra came around quickly, but we couldn’t wake you up. We decided to bring you inside. Oddly enough, this sick bay was the only thing lit up in the whole place.”
It was no accident, she knew. Hailey swung her legs around off the bed. Standing was difficult, but manageable. She felt like she hadn’t gotten out of bed for days.
“So how long have I been out?” Hailey asked Hadyn.
“Only a few hours,” he said as he came around her and rested a hand on her back to help her balance.
“Long enough for us to get a good look at this place,” said Kyra, moving to her other side. “This place is huge. Large enough to sleep an army! Shall we go check it out?”
Captain Zordebran stepped in front of Hailey, blocking them from leaving the room.
“Hailey, I wasn’t joking when I welcomed you to the Dark Star. You are one of us now. Most of us are direct descendants from the original crew of the Pirate Queen’s ship, the Revenge. For generations we have grown up, waiting for the missing member of our crew to come back to us. We are family. Your family.” He leaned down and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You will always have a home with us.”
For a moment, Zordebran’s hard features softened and he looked Hailey in the eye. She could see his sincerity and was touched by it.
Hailey thanked him, and the captain released her. Sensing the gravity in the room, Olau shouted, “What are we doing hanging around here? We have rooms of treasure to check out!” The group gave a cheer and they all filed out of the sick bay to explore the vast halls and floors of their prize.
The space was cavernous, and lining the walls were room after room filled with one kind of treasure or another. As in Pirate’s Cove, everything seemed sterile. Not a speck of dust, nor any insect could be found, no matter how hard Dr. Vinkler searched.
Rooms full of gold, priceless furniture, and lost artworks were only the beginning of what was found.
One room held a workshop full of gadgets that defied imagination; magic mirrors, weather equipment, and machines big and small that they couldn’t even begin to figure out. In the corner of the room they found more giant balloons for their ships, several dozen pumps like the one that was on the Dark Star, and even plans for a new design of a flying ship designed by Rachel’s father, Malcolm Feron, from Jakar, dated from around the time of the Pirate Queen.
Hailey watched as Chloe squealed with delight at it all and flitted about the workshop like a hummingbird, going from item to item with glee.
Hailey walked about from room to room, and in each one someone seemed to find something that made them happy. Dr. Vinkler found even more medical and surgical supplies outside the fully stocked sick bay. Olau found an armory full of weapons, many of which he had never seen before. Kyra found a room full of clothes of every style and set to trying on as many as she could. The gunner master, Malik, found a room full of cannons and powder with shot of every kind. Hadyn found a room containing metal horses like the ones Hailey had seen at the colonial mansion. Zordebran stumbled upon a room full of casks of wine, rum, and other spirits piled to the ceiling. Everyone found a room of their own desires. Everyone but Hailey.
She found herself walking the corridors alone, thinking about everything that had happened. At the end of the hall was a window. She leaned against it and looked , letting her thoughts swirl with the mists outside as she replayed everything in her mind. Finding the book, being chased, losing her dad, the fight with the Queen and Graver, saving the day, and then meeting the voice behind the book, Lucien.
She also thought about what they had talked about. She, Lucien, her mother, and a young lady named Rhiannon. Hailey knew her by another name.
The Veiled Queen.
The last light of day crept slowly thorough the mists, giving them a red tinge. Hailey knew that the sun was going down, and she couldn’t help but think it signified that there were dark days ahead. Though they celebrated victory now, the war they’d started would be long.
The Queen would never rest until she got the book back. It was too important to her plans, that much Hailey knew. Her younger self was terrifyingly twisted and cruel. Rhiannon had been looking up dark and evil things when Hailey’s mother, Rebecca, had wisely taken the book from her and sent it away. Hailey didn’t know what the Queen’s plans were exactly, but she did know that the Queen was looking for tools to help her control everyone as though they were her playthings. It somehow involved the Book of the Navigator. But how?
Her thoughts jumped to her dad, who might have known, but he was gone. He’d valiantly given his life trying to protect her. His loss weighed enormously on her heart. Her family was completely gone now, save for Grandmother Rose.
Lucien had told her that her grandmother was alive, but how would she take the news about her son? Had she saved her only to have to kill her again with grief? Grandmother Rose had lived through the disappearance of her husband with dignity and grace, would she be able to do so again once she found out about the death of her only son?
Hailey was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t hear Hadyn walk up to her.
“There you are…” He looked her over. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown?” His eyes seemed to flash with his teeth as he smiled at her
.
“Yeah, sorry, I have a lot on my mind.”
“Understandable. Hey, listen, Olau grabbed a couple of casks of wine and the others are bringing up the food stores from the Virtuous, why don’t you join us?”
“Maybe in a minute.” Hailey looked away.
Getting the hint, Hadyn turned to go. “Suit yourself. How often do you get a dinner catered courtesy of the Queen herself?” He chuckled and started to turn away, but Hailey grabbed his sleeve.
“Hadyn,” she said, and he turned. He seemed surprised at her grasp but still regarded her with warm affection. His eyes made her lose her train of thought for a moment. He looked back at her as if waiting.
“I wanted to thank you. For before. For saving me.” Hailey stumbled over her words. She felt her face flush.
He let the moment hang there between them, then Hadyn winked at her and said, “Don’t mention it.”
She let him go and he walked away. Down the hallway he turned and smirked over his shoulder, then said, “Join us whenever you are ready, Your Highness.” He went through the door of the great hall without looking back.
She stood there for a long moment contemplating the long, empty hallway. Your Highness. From what everyone was telling her, she hadn’t only inherited the book from Rachel. She’d inherited her crown, and with it all the responsibilities of a leader at war. She had much to do.
Hailey had learned from her time in the book that there were other descendants of Rachel’s original pirate fleet out there on the seas, hiding from the world in the mists. It was Hailey’s job to bring them back into the light. To rally the pirates and resume the fight started by Rachel over two hundred years ago. This time, the stakes were even higher. The Queen was insane and willing to slaughter cities, even continents, to get whatever she wanted. Not only were they fighting for liberty, they were fighting for their very lives. And through it all, Hailey was had to rally everyone under the black flag of rebellion and lead them to victory.