Sail With Me (A Discovery Series Book)

by Christy Major

  SAIL WITH ME

  A Discovery Series Book

  By Christy Major

  Copyright 2014 Christy Major

  Cover Art by Dar Albert at Wicked Smart Designs

  www.wickedsmartdesigns.com

  Edited by Janet Hitchcock

  www.theproofisinthereading.wordpress.com

  All Rights Reserved

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owners except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Author Contact:

  Website: christymajor.weebly.com

  Email: cdepetrillo@yahoo.com

  FB: www.facebook.com/christymajorauthor

  Dedication

  To all who yearn for more,

  all who wonder “what if,”

  all who have the courage

  to follow their dreams.

  Table of Contents

  Note From the Author

  Sunal Names and Pronounciations

  Sunal Words and Meanings

  Dreams

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  CAST WITH ME

  About the Author

  Coming Soon

  Note From the Author

  The fictional Sunal Empire found in this book is based upon the Aztec civilization which Spanish conquistador, Hernando Cortés, defeated in the sixteenth century. I’ve always been fascinated by this historical event—a vivid illustration of what can happen when two cultures collide. The Aztec Empire did not fare well against the powerful Europeans. Their beauty and innovation were destroyed in the name of exploration. I decided to weave a tale with a more hopeful outcome for the Sunal.

  Human history is full of amazing events. Asking questions and playing the “what if” game with these events can lead to interesting fiction ideas. What if the Spanish didn’t conquer all the Aztecs? What if a small group outsmarted Cortés and found their way to safety? What if they rebuilt their entire empire in another location? What if Europeans helped them do it? These were all questions I asked myself as I researched the Aztec Empire and outlined SAIL WITH ME.

  What historical period fascinates you? Learn everything you can about it then toy with the facts. You’ll be surprised at the characters that leap into your brain and share their stories with you. You might even be inspired to pick up a pencil, hunt down a piece of paper, and rewrite history.

  Sunal Names and Pronounciations

  Acalon: (ah CAH lon) means canoe

  Chimalli: (chee MAHL ee) shield

  Citlali: (seet LAHL ee) star

  Coatl: (Kwa tl) serpent

  Eréndira: (aay RAYN dee rah) smiles

  Adanitupachi: (ada NITU pah chi) Sunal god of sun and war

  Itzli: (eets LEE) obsidian

  Ixchell: (Ish ELL) rainbow

  Matlal: (mah tlal) dark green

  Dimazuno: (dima ZUNO) leader

  Teiuc: (TAY yook) second born

  Aochmin: (a OCH min) listener

  Tiegan: (TY gan) little princess

  Tizoc: (TEE zahk) chosen

  Tochtli: (TOCH tlee) rabbit

  Yaretzi: (yah RET tzi) loved

  Yaoti: (YAY oh tee) warrior

  Xochitl: (SOH chee) flower

  Zolin: (ZO lin) quail

  Sunal Words and Meanings

  cihuapilli: princess

  hueltiuhtli: sister

  nantli: mother

  pilli: son

  tahtli: father

  The sea kisses the sky

  and stretches

  to the ends of the Earth

  like a waiting embrace.

  I stand on one shore

  wondering what secrets

  the horizon holds.

  She whispers my name,

  pulls me from my daydreams,

  and promises adventure.

  Dreams

  “One of these times, we’re going to get caught out here, Charlotte.” Benjamin huddled in the darkness beside me.

  “We’re not going to get caught.” I scanned the docks. Empty of people, but full of beautiful boats. “And so what if we do.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Benjamin said. “By the time your father gets back, too much time will have gone by for him to punish you. Me? I have to go home where my father will enjoy giving me a good whipping.”

  “You’ve been afraid of a good whipping since you were seven,” I said. “You’re sixteen now. Have you gotten whipped yet?”

  “Well… no.” He fiddled with the buckle on his boot. “But it’s coming. I can feel it.”

  “Don’t be silly. You’re taller and healthier than your father. He can’t whip you. Besides, Lady Elizabeth would punish me if we got caught. Which we won’t.”

  I motioned for him to step up onto the dock behind me. He did so because he always did what I wanted. That was why he was my best friend.

  “Lady Elizabeth won’t whip you,” he said.

  “No, she’ll sit me down and remind me how a proper young lady is supposed to behave.”

  I scurried to the end of the dock, and Benjamin followed behind me like a silent shadow.

  “How many times has she done that now?” He poked my shoulder.

  I had to smile at the playful smirk on his face.

  “I can’t seem to get the hang of proper young lady etiquette.” I shrugged. “She probably wouldn’t let me see you anymore either, if we got caught.”

  “How come?” Benjamin’s mouth turned down at the corners.

  “Well, I’d undoubtedly blame you for dragging me out here.”

  His mouth dropped open now. “Me dragging you? I don’t think so, missy.” He nudged my shoulder then grew serious. “You don’t think she’d stop us from being friends, do you?”

  “She couldn’t stop us, Benjamin. Don’t worry.” He was always worried about something. “Come on. This is the one.”

  I led him to the smallest sloop tethered to the end of the dock. The vessels around us bobbed up and down against their lines like prisoners eager to break free of their bonds. Wanderers longing to drift wherever the sea might carry them.

  Cloaked by the night, we climbed up the rickety ladder at the stern and boarded the boat. We crept to the bow, a faint sea breeze awakening my senses.

  When we reached the front of the ship, I clasped the railing, its splintered wood rough but welcome against my palms. I wa
s aware of Benjamin standing beside me. He was a good sport about all this sneaking around.

  “There it is.” I traced the moonlit horizon that kissed the ocean’s silvery surface. The scent of sea salt and sun-baked wood danced around me. The gentle sway of the ship soothed my restlessness.

  “I don’t know why you like coming out here so much, Charlotte. It’s just water. A great deal of it.” Benjamin turned around, his back to the sea, and leaned against the railing on his elbows. He didn’t hear the call. Didn’t feel the pull. Didn’t wonder what was at that distant and mysterious line between sky and sea.

  Not like I did.

  “It’s getting to the other side of the water, Benjamin, and seeing what’s there that’s important.”

  “What do you think is on the other side that you don’t have here?”

  “Something… everything.”

  I closed my eyes and breathed in the sea’s fragrance until all that water whispered inside me.

  “You don’t know how to be happy with what you’ve got,” Benjamin said. The moonlight illuminated his face as he looked at me.

  “What have I got, Benjamin? Tell me. My father and brothers are off sailing while I’m left here serving Lady Elizabeth. What have I got?”

  He was about to answer, but other voices stirred below decks as footsteps knocked on the ladder amidships. A faint lantern glow built in intensity as the footsteps grew louder.

  “Don’t move.” Benjamin slipped in front of me, shielding me from whatever was headed up the ladder. I pushed him out of the way, but he stood more solidly than usual. “Charlotte, please. You can get mad at me for trying to protect you later.”

  In all our times coming out to the docks at night—and there had been many—we had never gotten caught. I had stolen a couple of precious moments, dreaming on the bows of various ships, imagining the day I’d actually set sail aboard one of these marvelous, canvas-winged seabirds. Benjamin had accompanied me most of the time, allowing me to chase my dreams, but trying to tether me to the land at the same time.

  Now we were steps away from being found by the rousing crew of this particular vessel. The lantern light swept across us, and I caught a flicker in the eyes of our discoverers.

  “You there.” The gruff voice was enough to tell me we didn’t want to tangle with its owner.

  “A pretty treasure, Arthur, eh?” another voice rasped as the lantern light grew closer. “We’ll have to do something with the boy.”

  I grabbed Benjamin’s wrist and hopped up onto the bow rail. He climbed up behind me.

  “What are we doing?” His grip tightened on my hand.

  “Hold your breath!”

  “No!” the voices bellowed together behind us.

  “Charlotte… I can’t—”

  “Jump!”

  I leaped off the rail, pulling Benjamin with me. We swooped down to the water, the men cursing from the deck above me and Benjamin howling beside me. When I hit the water and slipped below its surface, all sound was replaced with the rippling melody of the ocean.

  With powerful strokes, I towed Benjamin to the shoreline and pulled him up onto the sand. He coughed and sputtered for some time before raking his shaky fingers through his tangled, brown hair. He rose to his feet, wrung out his soaked tunic, and glared at me with fiery green eyes.

  “Charlotte Denham, if you ever do that again, we’re through. You know I can’t swim.” Water ran down his face in rivulets. He spun on his heel and stomped away.

  “Cripes, Benjamin, I saved us,” I called to his retreating back.

  “Saved us? You could have killed us!” He marched over the sand. His hands flapped out to either side of him as he ranted to himself.

  I sat and drew wavy lines in the sand with my finger. As far as I was concerned that jump into the water had rescued us from an inevitably unpleasant situation. Who knows what those men would have done to us if they’d caught us?

  The night breeze coming off the water raised goosebumps on my wet skin, and my heart was still pounding from the moment of fear, the glorious swim, the excitement of being this close to the ocean. This close to my dreams.

  Chapter One

  September

  “Charlotte, bring us tea in the east garden.” Lady Elizabeth’s gray-blue eyes regarded me from beneath the wide brim of her feathered hat.

  “Yes, my lady.” I curtsied and turned off to the kitchen. My boots echoed loudly on the cobblestone pathway, sending several robins fluttering out of the bushes beside me.

  “That girl still needs civilizing, Elizabeth. She walks like a large animal.” Lady Abigail hooked her slender arm around Lady Elizabeth’s and strode down the path toward the east garden.

  Lady Abigail Bostwick graced us with her presence every week. I simply adored the way she thought I couldn’t hear the comments she made about me when I was a mere step away. Fortunately, I wasn’t all that concerned with how civilized she thought I was or wasn’t.

  I lived with Lady Elizabeth where I served and kept house for her in Southampton, England. My mother had passed some years ago and in my father’s eyes, I could learn all the necessary skills to become a suitable wife and mother from Lady Elizabeth.

  I had no interest in being either.

  True, at sixteen years of age I could have been married and expecting a child, but cripes, that life was not for me. There was only one thing I seriously wanted to do. One thing that made my heart quicken at the thought of it.

  I wanted to go to the Americas.

  My brothers, Eric and Riley, were twelve when my father first took them onto his ship and taught them how to sail. Four years ago, when I turned twelve, I asked the same of my father. He studied me from head to toe as he did only once in a great while. He rarely looked at me for I was a replica of my mother. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a lightly freckled, pale complexion, as did I. When he spoke to me, he was careful to be engrossed in other business so he didn’t have to make eye contact. Didn’t have to open his heart up to the memory of my mother.

  So, when he looked at me, really looked at me, after I’d issued my request to sail, I shrank away a bit. He stood behind his ornately carved wooden desk in his library, looking more like a giant than a man. When his deep green eyes focused on my face for a long, silent moment, I held my breath, unsure if he was going to be angry with me or fall victim to the sorrow hidden inside his heart.

  His reaction was neither anger nor sorrow. Instead, he laughed.

  “Oh, Charlotte.” Between gasps, he held his stomach then eased into his seat behind the desk. “I can’t take you onto the Emily. It’s no place for a girl. Your brothers are supposed to follow in my footsteps and be sailors. You are supposed to follow in your moth—”

  He stopped abruptly, and his eyebrows pulled together low over his eyes. Swallowing slowly, he cleared his throat and turned his gaze to some papers on his desk.

  “Lady Elizabeth Rowley at the end of the avenue is looking for help. I will inquire about it tomorrow.”

  The conversation had ended there. At least in his mind. I didn’t stop asking, but my father began taking longer business voyages. I saw little of him. I’ve worked for Lady Elizabeth since that time and have wondered with each passing day when I will learn what I actually need to know.

  How to get myself to the Americas.

  ****

  I placed Lady Elizabeth’s teapot on the serving tray along with two small teacups. All the pieces of the serving set were white with pale yellow flowers climbing up the sides and around the handles. I poured tea into the two cups, fixing each with cream and sugar as the ladies required. I stirred Lady Elizabeth’s tea with a silver spoon and Lady Abigail’s with a finger I’d dragged through the potted herbs growing on the kitchen windowsill. Uncivilized indeed, but satisfying nonetheless.

  A plate of scones and a petite vase of flowers from Lady Elizabeth’s own gardens finished off the tray. Balancing it carefully, I made my way down to the east garden. It had a br
eathtaking view of the water as the Rowley estate leveled off and dropped into the ocean. Lady Elizabeth and Lady Abigail huddled together on an iron garden bench facing the water. Every type of flowering plant possible from roses to lavender to honeysuckle encircled them, causing the two women to resemble a painting.

  “The nursery is ready,” Lady Elizabeth said as I approached and set down the tray without any casualties. Her hand rested protectively on her bulging stomach.

  “Wonderful, Elizabeth,” Lady Abigail said. “Have you given any thought to a governess yet?”

  I didn’t look up as I lifted the dainty cups, but knew Lady Elizabeth’s eyes were on me.

  “Yes. I’ve given it some thought.” She took one of the teacups from me with her delicate hand and brought the cup to her rose-red lips. “How is Paul’s business faring?”

  With that single question Lady Elizabeth had evaded speaking any more on the governess topic, for Lady Abigail launched into the tedious details of her husband’s dealings.

  I curtsied to Lady Elizabeth and raised my eyebrows in a silent question.

  “That will be all, Charlotte,” she said when Lady Abigail paused to take a breath. “Thank you.”

  Nodding, I walked back toward the main house. When I got to the top of the pathway, I turned around and caught sight of several ships leaving Southampton’s ports from the west. Their sails were full of September winds, and each bow cut a sharp V into the water as it moved. I squinted, taking in the sight of men on the deck of the nearest boat, trimming the sails, securing the lines, living the life I wanted to live.

  I longed to be them.