by Jen Minkman
With a desperate shiver, I realize he’s right. We are no longer safe here.
“How do you suggest we do that?” Nathan asks. “William says there are only twenty men on board, but they all have lethal weapons that we don’t have.”
“I could ask the best hunters of my old manor group to join us,” Saul says. “If we are fifty, surely we can overpower a group of only twenty?”
I frown. “You want to try and sneak our own weapons on board?”
“That’s the idea, yes.”
“How can we carry them on board the Crusader without being found out?” Ben protests. “That’ll never work. It will turn into a blood bath.”
“So what do you suggest?” Saul snaps irritably.
“I don’t know.” Ben stares at the floor. “Maybe we can try rowing to the Crusader in a small sloop and board the ship secretly after dark. Kill them in their sleep. We only need a few people for that.”
The silence following Ben’s words signify that we’re actually taking his risky plan into consideration. Dangerous as it might be, it would mean putting far fewer lives on the line than if we sent a boatload of armed people their way.
“I’d like to give it a try,” I say softly.
Saul’s head jerks up. “No, it’s too risky.”
“That’s for me to decide, not you. I have every right to try and save my best friend,” I challenge him with an angry glower on my face.
His eyes soften. “Okay. You, Ben, and me. Tonight, after the sun has set.”
William needs to rest – doctor’s orders – but he can’t relax. I brought him charcoal and paper so he can make a sketch of what Aldin looks like, the bishop who has decided to wage war on Tresco. He needs to be taken out at any cost. He tells us where we have the best chance of sneaking aboard undetected – on the aft side, where a ladder reaches halfway down to the waterline. We take our own rope ladder, sharp knives, a small spear, and a few clubs.
“Why are you so adamant about going on this mission?” I inquire softly, watching as Saul sharpens the tip of his spear with a knife.
He smiles sourly. “Maybe I want to protect you?”
“No.” I shake my head. “You wanted to come even before I said I’d go.”
“You’re right.” Saul stares at the knife in his hand. “It may have been Ben who came up with this idea, but I was already prepared to get out there and lead fifty soldiers to that battleship before this. I want to save our island. It’s the only world I know. And I want to free Tony, because he once helped me see things more clearly when I was in a dark place.”
I nod wordlessly. Although I don’t know exactly what Tony told Saul at the time to convince him to surrender, I do know that the man from Bodmin always managed to find the right tone for the right occasion.
“We’ll give it our best shot,” I reply.
26 – Leia
After the bishop’s men bring us back to the lower deck and lock us up in our cabin, it seems like an eternity passes in silence. By the time the sun is dipping below the horizon, we still haven’t seen any sign of life from William. The only silver lining in this situation is that at least they all locked us inside one cabin, so we can talk without continuously having to knock on the wall.
“Walt,” I say in a small voice.
My boyfriend is sitting on the bed, his gaze empty.
“I’m sure he’s still alive,” Tony tries to cheer him up. “Your dad is a good swimmer. The bullet only hit him in the leg.”
Walt remains silent. He doesn’t look at us. His hands ball up into fists. When he gets up at last and walks over to the window, his eyes fixed on the sea, he says between clenched teeth: “This ship must be destroyed.” He turns around and the hatred in his eyes makes me cold inside. “By any means necessary. What they are trying to do to our people – what they’ve done to my father – that is unforgivable.”
All energy seems to drain away from Tony’s body. “Yes,” he agrees hoarsely. “I’m so sorry. For all of this.”
“But what can we do?” I wonder desperately.
We stand there, in complete silence, until Tony finally breaks it. “I have a plan.” He lowers his voice. “That cannon that Aldin used to shoot at the tower? They use explosives to fire it. The same kind of explosives we use in the coalmines in Bodmin. If we can get out of this cabin, we need to get to the arsenal on the starboard side. I worked in the mines for a few years. I think I might be able to rewire the detonators to a timer and use the explosives to blow up the entire ship.”
“You mean like the bombs they used in the old world?” Walt asks breathlessly.
“Yes.” Tony’s mouth is set in a grim line. “Exactly like that. If Aldin is so hell-bent on death and destruction, we’ll give him some.”
“Good.” Walt doesn’t even bat an eyelid at the prospect of blowing up twenty people. “And once we’ve destroyed this ship, will we be safe?”
Tony hesitates for just a beat too long.
“You think we won’t be,” I conclude.
“President Jacob will do everything in his power to find this island,” Tony admits. “There aren’t that many maps with details of this coastline as well as the currents, but I bet there are some. The safest thing for you to do is leave Tresco, sail away in your own ships, and start anew somewhere else.”
The thought stabs at my heart. Leaving the island where my father is buried. Where I met Walt. Where east and west have reconciled. Where would we go? Back to the frightening mainland?
Tony seems to guess my worries, since he gives us both a serious look before continuing: “In North Devon, there’s a free-thinking region by the name of Exmoor. They’re different there. Wilder. More like – you. And off the coast of Exmoor is an uninhabited island called Lundy. The Exmoorers venture out there sometimes, to hunt puffins. Other than that, they don’t go there, even though the island does have preserved buildings from the old world. There are libraries. Temples. I think there’s even a lighthouse. It’s like Tresco, only smaller. And there is no Wall.”
I close my eyes and try to imagine what that could be like. A new home close to a coastal town we could be friends with. An island without boundaries.
“Leia,” Walt says softly, moving up close and wiping a tear away from my cheek. “Everything will be all right. We’ll be fine.”
Just then, someone turns the doorknob. I stop breathing, my eyes darting from Walt to Tony. This might be our only chance to get away. They’re coming to bring us food.
When the door opens, everything happens so fast that it’s almost as if we had time to discuss this and coordinate our attack. Walt plunges headfirst into the door, slamming it shut so quickly that the person on the other side cries out in pain when the door hits him in the face. I yank it open again, allowing Tony to jump out, drag the guard back in, and knock him unconscious with a couple of blows to the temple.
Walt dashes into the hallway to pick up the tray and the dry bread rolls spilled all over the floor. After he comes back inside and closes the door, we all stand there painting for breath, looking at each other.
“We tie him up,” Tony says decidedly. “Leia, you tear one of the sheets into strips. Walt, you search him for his keys. I’m going back out to get a few guns and syringes.”
Before we can protest, Tony is gone.
“Oh my Goddess,” Walt whispers as we tie up the guard and gag him with the remaining piece of sheet. “I can’t believe we just did that.”
“You told me everything was going to be all right, didn’t you?” I tease him in an excited voice. “Are you telling me those were just big words? Acting tough again, are you?”
Walt shakes his head wearily. “You never change, huh?” he mutters.
By the time we’re done, Tony enters the cabin again, handing us each a gun. He smiles when Walt shows him the guard’s keyring. “Here’s what we do,” he says. “We leave this man here and we lock him up. If we’re lucky, no one will come to check here, and even if they do, th
ey’ll think we’re inside, sleeping. In the meantime, we hide in one of the storage rooms on the lower deck and wait until Aldin’s men are asleep. And then, we’ll find the room where they keep those cannons.”
A strange tremor shakes my body at the thought of this ship being blown to smithereens in one giant explosion. I am thrilled to know Aldin and his accomplices will die in the flames, and shocked that this is really how I feel about causing so many deaths.
I have never hated anyone this intensely, not even Saul.
27 – Leia
Once the Crusader is in deep sleep, we steal out of the storage room we were hiding in. Nobody noticed we were missing. We haven’t heard any shouts of people looking for us or checking where that sailor with the food tray went. Tony’s ruse was successful.
My heart beats in my throat as we tiptoe down the corridor, Tony at the head. He doesn’t know where those cannons are any more than we do – we’ll have to make do with trying to pinpoint the origin of the one shot that was fired and guess where the sound came from.
After trying more than ten doors on both sides, we descend to the decks below. I wish we’d brought that handy flashlight, because I can’t see a thing. My hand is on Walt’s shoulder, who in his turn is carefully following Tony.
Suddenly, I hear Tony’s voice whispering in the darkness. “I think it’s behind this door. I can smell the explosives.”
He opens the door on squeaky hinges. By the light of the full moon falling through the five portholes in the room, I see a row of weapons – large, long tubes, their mouths hungrily aimed at the island. So this is the heart of Aldin’s power over us. And this throbbing, beating heart will also be his demise.
Tony immediately walks over to one of the cannons and opens the back of a tube. He inspects the interior, then moves over to the next weapon. He remains notably quiet. Walt and I are just standing there a bit helplessly. When our friend finally rejoins us in the corner of the room, I ask: “So, can we do something?”
Tony looks at me. A nervous muscle in his cheek pulls at one corner of his mouth. “I think you should get on deck now. Find a place where you can jump overboard without harming yourself, and drop into the sea. It’s not a very long swim.”
“What about you?” Walt wants to know.
“I have to reconnect the explosives to the detonator so everything will go off as planned.”
“We can wait for you.”
He slowly shakes his head. “No, you – you should go now.”
My heart stops. I search Tony’s eyes in the semi-darkness. He meets my gaze and doesn’t look away, not even when my eyes fill with tears. “We’ll jump off at the aft end,” I say unevenly.
“Then that’s where I’ll go, too.” He smiles sadly and takes a step back. “Now leave. Don’t dawdle. I’ll be right behind you.”
“You want the keys?” Walt offers. “So you can lock the door behind you until you’re done. Suppose someone enters?”
He holds out the key ring and Tony takes it from him with slightly trembling fingers. “Good idea,” he says. “Now beat it, you two.”
Blinded by tears, I turn around and stumble out of the arsenal. Walt follows suit. He grabs my arm and supports me when I almost trip on the stairs.
“You okay?” he whispers. “No worries, we’ll make it.”
I just nod dumbly. He doesn’t understand.
We climb up via the stairs and end up at the spot where Walt’s father disappeared over the railing. From here, it’s only a short walk to the stern of the ship, but I anxiously finger the weapon in my pocket when I hear voices.
“Ssh,” Walt whispers. He pulls me behind a stack of boxes. Not a moment too soon, because the next second, two sailors pass us by. They don’t see us in the pale moonlight. I don’t have to use my gun. No one expects to find us here.
After the two men have disappeared from sight, we stealthily move on. Fortunately, we don’t bump into anyone else on our way to the rear end of the ship. In the deep silence of night, we move to the railing and look down, at the waves crashing into the side of the ship.
“We should go,” I quietly say.
Walt takes my hand. “I want to wait for Tony. He said he’d be right behind us.”
I swallow hard. “Walt, he’s not coming.”
“Of course he’s coming,” Walt says stubbornly.
I look him in the eye and slowly shake my head.
His blue eyes fill with a dull pain.
“He has to set off those cannons,” I whisper. “I don’t think he knows how to rewire a detonator or connect it to a timer. He’s no Henry. I could see it in his eyes. If this ship is going to blow, he has to do it manually.”
The blood drains from Walt’s face. “I told him we should destroy this ship at any cost,” he says, his voice cracking on the last word.
“And we will,” I reply gently, but clearly. “He will. He’ll save us. We really need to go, Walt. Or we’ll be killed together with Aldin and his men.”
He shakes his head one more time, staring unseeingly into the distance. Now he understands why Tony sent us away. Why he told us that story about Lundy Island before we left to find the cannons. He wants to give us a chance, now that he’s irrevocably changed our world, incapable of turning back time.
“You’re right,” he says with difficulty. “Let’s go.”
Without saying another word, we climb over the barrier, hold hands, and drop down into the deep, dark waters.
The force with which I hit the water knocks the air out of my lungs. My head goes under and I wildly start to tread water to get back to the surface. Walt’s hand slips out of mine, but I can feel him swimming next to me. When I resurface, I look around in the cold moonlight to get my bearings.
There. Far away, I see the winking light of the lighthouse that is still intact. We must be at least a mile out, and for a split second I feel disheartened at the distance between us and the safe shores of Tresco. But that won’t help us. I kick off my shoes and swim over to Walt with a few long strokes. “Are you ready?” I pant.
“Yeah, let’s go,” he mumbles, wiping the seawater from his eyes. Or maybe they’re tears.
Although I make every effort to swim as fast as I can, it’s as if the coast stays out of reach. It doesn’t seem to get any closer. When I look over my shoulder, I see we’ve left the Crusader far behind, though.
Walt slows down and swims next to me. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m all right.” I take a deep breath. “I wish we could rest for a while.”
“I thought I just saw a boat in the water,” he says, a frown creasing his forehead. “It might be a sloop that was cast adrift by the storm. Can you see it too?”
I narrow my eyes to slits and peer out, holding my breath in anticipation. Walt is right – I do see a boat in the distance. And it’s not empty – there are people on board. “Someone’s coming!” I say excitedly.
With renewed vigor, I start to swim in the direction of the vessel. Walt is right beside me. When we come closer, I can make out a young, blonde woman at the helm.
“Alisa!” Walt cries out at that moment. “We’re here!” He frantically waves his arms.
“Walt?” Alisa’s voice echoes off the water. “Is that you?”
“Leia’s with me,” he hollers back.
Only a few more yards to get to the boat. My heart freezes when I spot Ben and Saul sitting behind Alisa, pulling at the oars. What the blazes are they doing here?
“Did you escape by yourselves?” Alisa inquires, relief evident in her voice. She helps us both into the boat and embraces Walt and me in turns. “Oh, thank Goddess. I have no idea how to get on board. William told us there’s an aft ladder, but…”
“William?” Walt grabs Alisa’s hand. “My dad is still alive?”
“Yeah, he washed up earlier today,” Saul replies in his dark, gravelly voice. “He’s in the hospital, but he’s doing reasonably well.” His eyes dart to me. “Hey,” he greets me, s
uddenly sounding awkward.
“Hey back,” I reply a bit sourly. “You team up with Fools these days?”
He looks away. “Yeah. Something like that. Where’s Tony, by the way?” His gaze scans the water.
I choke up. “On the Crusader.”
“We have to go get him,” Ben says.
“Nee.” Walt shakes his head. “He stayed behind on purpose. Tony is going to destroy the ship.”
“What?” Saul’s voice shoots up. “But…”
He doesn’t get the chance to argue with us. At that moment, a deafening, roaring bang stirs the air, chasing the sound of thunder across the waves, scorching the hair on our arms with searing heat. Behind us, the Crusader is swallowed up by a giant, all-consuming ball of fire. To my left and right, I hear metal debris from the explosion zipping through the air and splashing into the water. Instinctively, I duck for cover, though I know that won’t help one bit if I am really hit by one of those things. My heart hammers wildly in my chest.
And then, our sloop is hit by a tidal wave, which capsizes the boat. The darkness of the water gobbles me up, threatens to pull me under. I wrestle, wrestle, and manage to emerge only when it feels like I will never breathe fresh air again. In a panic, I look around me. Where is everybody?
To my left is the boat, upside down in the water. I hold on to the edge and raise my voice. “Walt! Where are you? Alisa!”
I see two heads appear above the waves. One blonde, one dark.
In the distance, the Crusader is eaten alive by a relentless ring of fire, making the ship disappear into the deep, dark sea.
28 – Alisa
Gasping for breath, I break the surface of the sea. My hands blindly feel around to find the boat. They hit something. When I open my eyes, I see Walt, Leia, and Saul hanging on the edge of the capsized sloop.
“Where’s Ben?” I croak, holding on to the boat for dear life.
Saul shakes his head. He doesn’t say anything, his face a pale, drawn mask.
“Where is he?” I yell. “Have you guys looked? Where’s Ben?” I frantically turn my head to all sides.