Eden Legacy

by Scott Toney

  Stowaway

  Jonah sat silent and still inside a hidden compartment he had discovered in a closet of the boat headed for Cush. There was barely room to breathe, let alone think. He had lived off of dried plants and a small amount of fruit he had brought with him, for days, but would soon need to venture out and find something to keep him from hunger. He had no idea how far away Cush was as he placed his last bit of dried basil in his mouth.

  What will they do with me if I’m discovered? It might be better to jump into the river now.

  He sat for a moment, contemplating his future and trying to stretch his toes in the close space, when he was startled by loud thuds and shouting coming from the deck above him. Splashes came from outside of the room he was hiding in.

  His head bumped on the hidden door above him and he cursed under his breath, hoping nobody had heard.

  Metal clanged, men yelled and loud noises seemed to come from everywhere. Then all was silent except for the voice of one man that he could not make out.

  Surely they were being robbed. Questions raced through his mind. Who had won? If they had been overtaken then would they be allowed to survive? What should his next move be?

  There are probably men watching the waters. If I jump overboard I could find an arrow in my back.

  He placed a hand on the coarse wood door above and slowly lifted it, peering cautiously about the chamber before him. A barely made bed was directly in his sight and a cat lying lazily on its mattress, but no knights were in view.

  This may fall to me. I should check what’s going on.

  He slowly stood and walked out of the hiding place in the closet, stretching his muscles and feeling pain sear through his bones as his body had room to move for the first time in days. He clasped a slim sword that leaned against a wall of the room.

  Meow!

  “Shh..” he silenced the feline. It stretched its paws, lazily rolling over and closing its eyes once more.

  His shoes were soft soled, which was a blessing as he slowly made his way through the hall of the vessel’s lower deck. With each step his heart raced and he swore that he could hear it about to explode out of him. Then he came to the stairs leading topside, and stopped.

  “What a find!” a scratchy voice boomed from above. “Here, we were sent to plunder the wealth of Cush, and what do we find but the knights and armor of Havilah!” A roar of applause burst out along the deck. “Thomas will be so pleased! Something tells me though, it’s ye armor he wants and not ye minds and skins!”

  Jonah’s heart raced. What should he do? Should he turn back and hide again beneath the closet’s trapdoor? “Don’t let us die in vain!” his mother’s voice entered his thoughts again. I have to do something. He took a step onto the stairs leading to the upper deck.

  He went one step after another, hugging the edge of the stairwell so that the boards wouldn’t creak, and then stopped when he could barely see the upper deck. Shivers ran through his body as he saw the knights of Havilah tied up next to the far rail of the ship and men who looked like barbarians holding swords to their throats.

  “I’ll enjoy killing ye,” a massive man with a red bandana around his head and markings on his back spoke. His arms moved as he talked and Jonah was horrified to see that he had four arms moving from his sides. In three of his hands the man clenched swords. “But the pleasure won’t come out of vengeance for Thomas. No. We’ll enjoy ye deaths just for the fun of watching ye die.”

  This was clearly their leader. If I attack him, Jonah thought, then surely they will kill me quickly. But if I don’t try I’ll probably be found and killed anyway.

  With a thrust of his legs Jonah burst onto deck, charging for the four-armed man’s back with his sword. He could hear muscle tear and bone break as he plunged his blade between the man’s shoulder blades, hoping to get his heart.

  The barbarian roared, flailing his swords in the air and stumbling around to see who had attacked him.

  Jonah stood unarmed before him, his sword still lodged through the man’s back and out of his chest.

  “Kill him!” the man bellowed, coming at Jonah with his swords.

  Jonah backed up quickly; searching for something he could use to defend himself with. Then, from above, a single arrow shot down and lodged between the barbarian’s eyes and through his skull. Blood spewed out from the impact and the four-armed man fell, his body booming lifelessly on the deck, his swords scattering toward the restrained knights.

  “Now is our chance!” a young boy’s voice called from the crow’s nest above as three more arrows zipped down and stuck in the skulls of two mercenaries and the neck of another. “Free yourselves or they will kill us all!”

  Jonah looked around and shuttered as he realized that all of the barbaric mercenaries were deformed like their leader. Some had extremely large hands, one had three legs and yet another had only one eye in the center of his giant forehead. Jonah ran towards the cyclops as the cyclops came for him. He threw his body into the man’s legs, knocking him to the ground.

  Nearby, one of the knights had been able to kick one of the leader’s swords near himself and use its blade to set him and some of the others free. The knights attacked the mercenaries hand to hand until they could disarm a few of their enemies and get swords to defend themselves with. Soon both knights and mercenaries lay dying beneath the battle raging on deck.

  Jonah ran from the cyclops, knowing he would be killed any moment now, but happy that he had been able to accomplish something meaningful with his sacrifice. He ran to the front of the ship, praying to discover something to use as a weapon there.

  The cyclops lumbered toward him, his sword clutched in his massive hands.

  Please God, whatever God you are, please save me, Jonah thought. He backed against the front rail, ready to leap overboard.

  Then, just as the cyclops raised his sword to deal his death blow, an arrow shot through the man’s head and stopped halfway out of his skull. The mercenary collapsed on deck before him.

  “Take his sword!” the boy shouted from the crow’s nest. “They need you in the battle!”

  “Thank you!” Jonah shouted as he pried the weapon loose from the cyclops’s calloused hand. He scanned the deck and headed for the closest pocket of battle, where the knights were barely outnumbered.

  Clang! Clang! The sound of steel beating against steel rang across deck.

  Jonah was near the battle now, looking for a hole so that he could engage the mercenaries, when a sword came through the knight in front of him and then was drawn back through his body. Jonah quickly thrust his blade into the battle, hitting the knight’s attacker’s sword and allowing the man to limp in retreat across deck.

  Clang! Clang! Sweat flew from his forehead as he battled with the attacker. It seemed the man could meet any move he made. He was only thankful that so far he was able to defend himself and do the same. Clang! Clang! Another man behind him came at him with a sword. Clang! He fended off the man’s blow.

  “Need a hand?” a knight beside him asked as he tossed his opponent over the vessel’s rail. He then cut at Jonah’s first opponent’s leg with his sword and the man pulled himself overboard instead of risk further injury.

  “Thanks,” Jonah breathed heavily as he beat back his new opponent’s sword. Clang! Clang! The battle raged on. After a few more moments of fending off his opponent’s attack Jonah cut into the man’s ribcage.

  As the mercenary turned to run a knight cut him down. “We almost have the ship back,” the knight said. He was the knight that Jonah had first heard talking in the field. “I have never been so happy to discover a stowaway on board in my life!”

  They headed for the center of the ship now, where a few mercenaries still held their ground. There were many more knights than mercenaries now and they quickly took the lives of four of the final five men. The last man, a man whose shoulders looked like they were made of stone, was taken hostage to question later. He had a circular tattoo in the center of
his forehead and gave a loathing look to Jonah as he was walked in rope restraints below deck.

  Jonah looked about him. Bodies and blood covered the deck. The bodies of at least eight knights were strewn about and the bodies of at least the same amount of mercenaries were being lobbed overboard. They splashed while bursting into the water below. He looked over the boat’s side and saw a kind of dock on the edge of the river. Blood stained the water beside it. “Is that where they boarded?” he asked.

  The knight who had slain Jonah’s final man turned to him, his face red with exhaustion. “They were waiting for us, or waiting to pillage whatever ship may come along at least. But to make it here before us they must have come straight from Vane, the land beyond the Euphrates River, never stopping in Havilah to speak with Thomas. I fear what we will find once we reach Cush.”

  “Lift anchor! Man the sails!” a voice called over the commotion as men wrapped their wounds all around them. “We must make haste before the survivors gather others! Surely they’ll come down the river after us!”

  “And this time we’ll be ready for them,” the knight said to Jonah. “Do I know you from somewhere, young man?”

  Jonah felt the weight of the sword in his hand, the weight of the life he had taken bearing down on his soul. “I lived with my family in Castle Ah until Thomas murdered them. I would have died too, had I not jumped from the balcony and escaped.”

  The knight clutched Jonah’s free hand with his own. “I heard what Thomas did. That is part of the reason I left his service. He wasn’t always that kind of a man.”

  Jonah’s hand shook in the man’s strong grip. “If I cross his path again, I will kill him. I will avenge my family.”

  “And I won’t fault you for that.” The knight looked to the sky. “May I be fortunate enough to be there with you and help you deliver the final blow. The man that Thomas has become is a man who does not deserve his life. Come, boy, let us see if we can find some armor for you in case we are attacked again. We traveled without armor before so that we wouldn’t be discovered. Now we must be prepared for anything.”

  Dark clouds rolled over in the sky above as Jonah followed the man below deck. Wind whipped across his skin and the vessel’s men hailed him with praise, happy that this stowaway had provided them with at least a few more days of life.

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