by Perrin Briar
“It’s okay,” Bryan said. “No permanent damage done.”
“I’m sorry too,” Stoneheart said. “For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t have really let the men have you.”
Cassie and Zoe folded their arms and looked away. Clearly they still needed some time before they could bring themselves to forgive him for that.
“I guess you guys ought to be getting back to your world now,” Jim said.
“You can still come with us, if you want,” Aaron said.
“I’ve got things to do here,” Jim said.
“Are you sure?” Aaron said.
Jim looked at his elder brothers. The family he’d always wanted.
“Yes, I’m sure,” he said, before grinning ear to ear. “Besides, I get to be king here.”
“I guess we can’t compete with that,” Aaron said.
They embraced. Cassie shook the young prince’s hand.
“From pauper to prince,” she said. “There’s a story there somewhere.”
“I’d like to say ‘Thank you for everything,’” Bryan said. “But, well, you know.”
Admiral and Stoneheart smiled and nodded.
“You can stay with us here, if you want,” Stoneheart said. “We’ll need modern ideas for a new, modern world.”
“There’s plenty on the cave wall to keep you entertained for a few hundred years,” Zoe said. “You don’t need us.”
The family approached the edge of the precipice, held hands, and looked down into the swirling vortex. It filled them with fear.
“Are we ready for this?” Bryan said.
“To commit suicide?” Cassie said. “Is anyone ever ready?”
They held hands.
“On the count of three,” Bryan said. “One, two…”
“Wait,” Aaron said. “I can’t.”
“Oh, jump already!” Admiral said.
He shoved Bryan over the edge and into the swirling vortex. Bryan’s weight brought Zoe, Cassie and Aaron in with him. They bobbed in the water, moving slowly.
“This isn’t so bad,” Cassie said, wiping the water from her eyes.
“We haven’t even started yet,” Bryan said.
The water picked up speed, gaining in momentum the closer they came to the center of the whirlpool. They kept hold of one another’s hands. The rush of water blew their hair back, refreshing. As they approached the seabed they all screamed, but it was lost to the roaring tempest rush.
The seabed opened up at the last second, like a giant mouth, and the family flew into it, spinning end over end.
It was dark and hot, heating up to a temperature they could barely stand.
53
THE FAMILY was spat out one by one, kicking up puffs of dry black dust. Zoe screamed and landed on Bryan, winding him, her knee finding him between the legs.
“Are you all right, Bryan?” Zoe said.
“Super,” Bryan said, his voice a few tones higher than usual.
“Can I help?” Zoe said.
“I think you’ve helped enough,” Bryan said.
He lay on his front, his face in the dust and his hands cupped over his crotch.
“Just give me a minute,” he said.
“Look at this place,” Aaron said.
“One thing’s for sure,” Cassie said. “We’re not back in Kansas yet.”
They were in a black ash fire-blasted world of fire and brimstone. Geysers of hot air belched sulphur, and red hot seams of fire wove across the arid landscape.
“My God,” Aaron said, peering around at the others. “We’re in hell.”
No one disagreed.
EPILOGUE
ADMIRAL couldn’t recall a happier time. He joked and played with his brothers, something he hadn’t done since he was a child, before the weight of his father’s expectations fell like a ten ton weight upon his shoulders. Perhaps, with his brothers’ help, he might be able to beat the madness he felt nipping at the inside of his mind into submission.
He began to wonder about the cloaked figure. Was he real, or just a figment of his imagination? There had been something otherworldly about him. Perhaps the world existed only in the Admiral’s mind.
But had he also dreamed the blueprints? Had he drawn them in his sleep? No. He didn’t believe that. He possessed neither the skill nor the creative ability for such things. But he did know he never wished to see that figure again.
The full weight of what they needed to do in the coming years made him feel tired already. They would have to present Jim to the king and convince him he really was the long lost prince. Then the twin brothers would have to protect and educate their little brother in all the ways of New London and how to play at the complicated political games the lords and ladies were so fond of. He would need to become a master, as his father was. Jim was of an age where his father’s influence could no longer stifle nor poison him. He could develop by himself at his own pace.
Jim was in the middle of his pirate impression when the water began to burble. It hissed with spray from some unseen underwater pressure. Their ship’s boat struck something under the surface.
“Get back!” Stoneheart said. “It’s a monster!”
“It’s not a monster,” Admiral said, voice distant. “It’s a pod.”
The glass front opened, revealing a figure clothed in black.
So he was real after all, Admiral thought. He knew he was, of course. But that didn’t mean he wished he wasn’t. The blood seeped from Stoneheart’s body as he stared in fear at the black cloaked man, who just sat there, unmoving.
“I have to go,” Admiral said.
He felt like he was watching himself say this.
“What?” Stoneheart said. “No. You can’t.”
“I have to,” Admiral said. “Or he’ll take us all.”
“He can’t,” Stoneheart said. “He only has one pod. We can’t all fit in there.”
Gas hissed from a dozen pods as they rose from the depths. A second ring formed around the first. None of the other glass doors opened.
Stoneheart scrunched up his face and put his foot on the pod. He shouted at the figure at the controls.
“You can’t have him, do you hear me?” Stoneheart said. “He belongs to us! He’s our brother!”
The cowled figure did not respond, and sat there, unflinching, unmoving.
“It has to be this way,” Admiral said. “There is no other.”
“We can fight them!” Stoneheart said.
“They have weapons and technology we can’t even dream of,” Admiral said. “We would not survive them long.”
He put his hand on his twin brother’s shoulder. After all these years, after all this time, they only got to spend a few minutes with one another.
“You can do what needs to be done,” Admiral said with confidence. “I’m sorry I won’t be there to help you.”
He bent down to Jim.
“I’m sorry most of all to you, Jim,” he said. “Or should I say, my king. I’m sorry for not seeing the kind of man you’ll grow up to be. A great man. But I hope you’ll remember me, for this decision if not for anything else I may have done.”
He turned and stepped into the pod. The glass door slid into place with a solid thunk! The pod immediately began to sink beneath the waves, the two dozen other pods following soon after.
Admiral wondered how long he would get to live before the cowled figure would jettison his body into the open seas. Not long, he surmised. The cowled figure’s thumb was already hovering over the big red button on the joystick.
He would get killed by a monster in the water after all, the worst monster he had ever encountered. He said a prayer and prepared to accept his fate.
Veins of Fire
Rosetta #1
“TELL ME what I’m doing here,” Admiral said. “And why I’m not enjoying the state banquet I’ve been looking forward to for the past week.”
First Mate gulped, swallowing hard, and began to recite the explanation he’d prepared. He
hoped to God it met expectations. The admiral had a reputation as someone who did not like to be disturbed. A hard nut. It was best not to disappoint him.
“A contingent of locals came across the Nebuchadnezzar in the Gulf of New Scotland six hours ago,” First Mate said, loosening his collar with a finger. It suddenly felt very tight. “She was sat there, adrift. She made no attempt to communicate, no attempt to make first contact, and no one was seen on board. Finally, one of the locals cultivated enough courage to tap on the ship’s hull.”
Just as they were doing now. The rowboat they were sat in drew alongside the Nebuchadnezzar. The men held the boat steady as Admiral reached up and seized the rope ladder. He began to ascend. First Mate followed in his wake. The climb was easy, and the men on board snapped to attention once Admiral presented himself.
“A woman leaned over the side, peering down at them,” First Mate said, resuming his report. “She had a big smile on her face and said she was wondering when one of them was going to come say hello. She declared herself the captain of the Nebuchadnezzar and wanted to speak to a British official.”
“A British official,” Admiral said. “And you sent for me?”
A fresh sweat broke out on the First Mate’s brow. It had been with a great deal of introspection that he had finally called the admiral of the British fleet. He hadn’t wanted to, but rules were rules.
That’s why orders were so important—they were designed not only to give someone a job to do, but to protect them should their actions come into question. Usually, upper levels of command were not called in for such occasions as this. Their time was reserved for the big decisions, for providing direction.
But First Mate had an ace up his sleeve.
“You wished for us to contact you, to keep an eye out for anyone we thought didn’t belong in our world,” he said.
Admiral came to a stop. He turned to face First Mate.
“You mentioned a woman,” he said. “Is she…?”
“One of the ladies from the family?” First Mate said. “No, sir. She’s certainly not one of them.”
“Then who is she?” Admiral said. “And how do you know she’s not a pirate?”
“She says she’s not,” First Mate said. “And, well, there’s the little matter of the technology she carries with her.”
Admiral cast a look over the assembled men on the deck. Now he looked, he could see they were spooked by something. It was in their frenetic body movement, in their roving eyes that could not stay still on a single object. It was in their feet that jittered side to side.
“Are we to expect a great deal more of these people from now on?” Admiral said, grumbling under his breath. “Coming here to visit us from on high as some kind of tourist attraction?”
“With all due respect, sir,” First Mate said, “the lady in question doesn’t strike me as the tourist type.”
“How do you mean?” Admiral said.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to see for yourself, sir,” First Mate said.
Admiral nodded.
“I understand she put up something of a fight,” he said.
“She did indeed sir,” First Mate said. “She being a lady meant the pirates underestimated her. They did not wait to put hands on her the moment she came on board. She even sent our own men sprawling across the deck.”
Admiral’s eyebrows rose on his forehead.
“She sent men sprawling?” he said.
“Yes sir,” First Mate said with a small smile on his lips. “Sprawling. The men’s own words.”
“What set her off in the first place?” Admiral said.
“Our men didn’t treat her with the respect she felt she deserved,” First Mate said. “Which is the same reason she decided to take control of this ship. Apparently the pirates mistook her for a sea spirit at first. She was adrift at sea. After she managed to convince them she was a mortal woman, they were only too happy to let her on board.”
“And then?” Admiral said.
“And then…” First Mate said, before turning red. “She was insulted by the men’s attentions.”
After news of the sunken Mary Celeste had reached the ears of the pirates, a deep feeling of unrest had settled in. She, along with the legend of Stoneheart, was the backbone of the pirate nation. And when news surfaced about Stoneheart being a long lost descendant of the British throne, all hell broke loose. The pirates and the British were family.
As the number of pirates increased, the newly crowned king decided to set them up in their own towns along the British coast. There was no way they were going to be able to fully integrate with the rest of the British empire, not yet in any case. You couldn’t build a bridge over centuries of animosity like that. It was what the new king wanted, but it was not what was in the hearts and minds of the people, and they were what really mattered.
“Where are the injured men?” Admiral said.
“We put them in the captain’s quarters,” First Mate said. “But I wouldn’t go in there if I were you, sir.”
“Why not?” Admiral said.
“It’s… not fit for civilized eyes,” First Mate said.
Admiral smirked. He was often surprised by the meekness of the British persona.
“I am admiral of the British navy,” he said. “I’ve seen things that would curl your hair. I think I can bear to see whatever’s on the other side of this door.”
He pushed the door open. On the floor was the former pirate captain and his senior officers. They lay on their front with their asses in the air. It was an odd position, but as he looked closer it became apparent it was entirely necessary. For, protruding from their rears, were…
“Oh my God!” Admiral said.
He shut the door and held his hand over his mouth. He was silent a moment before locking eyes with First Mate.
“Can our doctors help them?” Admiral said.
“They believe so,” First Mate said. “The only way to deal with them is to remove the… foreign objects as quickly as possible.”
“How did she get the oars all the way up there like that?” Admiral said.
“Without much difficulty, apparently,” First Mate said.
In all his years as captain of the Mary Celeste, Admiral, formerly known as Stoneheart, had never seen anything quite like what he had just witnessed. There was cruelty and torture, and then there was sadism…
“Does she have superhuman strength?” Admiral said.
“Funny you should mention that,” First Mate said. “She is built a little… differently to the rest of us.”
“Differently how?” Admiral said.
First Mate searched for the right words, but they didn’t come.
“It’s perhaps better if you come look for yourself sir,” he said.
They walked down the stairs to the lower decks.
“How’s your father now?” Admiral said by way of conversation.
“He’s fine now, sir,” First Mate said. “He’s got his own room and pencils and he works with the other cartographers. I see him every day I make port. He’s much happier now.”
“Good,” Admiral said. “It’s thanks to your father that we have a chance to become something more than we are, how we can develop.”
Half a dozen men with dark bags under their eyes stiffened and saluted as Admiral and First Mate approached. First Mate pushed the door open and stepped inside.
On the other side of the table sat a woman. She was disheveled, her clothing torn, worn around the edges. She was clearly misplaced. She did not belong in this world, like an element in a painting, etched in a different style to the rest. She did not conform to the usual meekness of the British female population. They would not have met a man’s eye, not on the first meeting, especially when he was of such an obviously superior stature as Admiral. But here she was, glaring at him with a fierceness Admiral had only ever seen in the eye of the most dangerous pirate elements.
She had not changed out of her clothes, a style of dress Adm
iral recognized immediately as that of surface dwellers. How a woman could show so much of herself and not feel ashamed was beyond him.
She wasn’t Cassie, never mind Zoe, not even close. To think a little lady of this size had inspired such fear in fully grown, and even overgrown, murdering pirates and British sailors was quite something.
“Hello,” Admiral said. “I’m Admiral. How are you?”
“Now you make idle chit chat?” the woman said. “Let’s get down to business. I’m through wasting time. I’m looking for a family.”
“We have many families here,” Admiral said.
“I appreciate that,” the woman said. “But the family I’m looking for doesn’t belong here.”
“And why wouldn’t they belong here?” Admiral said.
“Because they’re from another world,” the woman said.
“Can you describe them?” Admiral said.
“No,” the woman said. “Because I think you know precisely who I’m talking about. It’s what comes with being trained in the army. You quickly learn how to recognize subtle nuances in human facial expressions. I suspect you’re the same, even from a world such as this.”
She squinted, eying Admiral up and down.
“Except you’re not really who you say you are, are you?” she said. “You’re pretending. You, like me, would have picked up on the subtle shifting of the brow muscles, the slackening of the jowls. I can tell you’re the kind of man experienced at hiding his emotions. You’re exceptionally good at it, if you don’t mind me saying. But alas, not good enough. Everyone has their tell. Now, stop wasting my time and tell me where they are.”
Admiral blinked in surprise at her outburst. Not so much at her directness, but at her apparent ability to see through bullshit when she smelt it. She was right, of course.
After Stoneheart’s brother was taken from him by the cowled figure in his floating pod device, it was decided between himself and Jim that it would be best if he took up his twin brother’s position as Admiral. It meant a smoother transition for Jim when he assumed the crown.