Unhonored
Page 18
Ellis reached out with her free hand and gripped the piece of broken top rail above the lettering.
Fragments and splinters of wood began swarming about her, drawn somehow to the order of her will. Pieces of the railing cracked into place, their sound the first she had heard since silence had descended on the chaos.
Sound returned with a vengeance. The storm of shattered dreams now howled at her with the fury of a nor’easter. The timbers of the ship crashed into place with deafening finality, forming the ribs of the hull against which the planks slammed in a cacophony of sound. Three sections of the bowsprit sprang into place, mending the fibers of their splintered wood with a crunch. Ropes, cables and stays whipped through the air, lashing themselves in place as the masts drove downward through the reassembled deck. The strips of tattered sails wove themselves together out of the fog. The ship was reassembling itself as though in the reverse of an explosion, pulling itself back together from its shattered remains to become whole once more.
Ellis swung over the side and planted her feet upon the reconstituted deck as the gathering ship sailed through the ferocity of the chaotic tempest still raging about her. Driving rain began to pelt her face as she gripped a backstay for support, facing the bow. The wind rushed at her from out of the chaos and tried to drown her as well as her words but she would not be denied.
“I choose,” she screamed into the storm. “I choose!”
* * *
“I choose,” sobbed Ellis as the ship around her shifted form and the sky became painfully bright.
This time the memory was fresh and clear. She was standing again on the deck of the schooner Lola R. She was making her way out of the harbor in the passage between Summersend and the lighthouse on Curtis Island. The expanse of Penobscot Bay and the Atlantic Ocean lay beyond. It was midmorning on a chill October day but she wanted to stand on the deck despite the biting wind.
“Are you sure, Ellie?”
The voice was warm in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.
She sank backward into his embrace though her eyes remained fixed on the old house by the sea that she now thought of as home.
“Yes, Jonas, I’m sure,” she heard herself say, and knew that she meant it with all her heart. “I suppose I love this place more than about anywhere else in the world. But after losing you, I realized that I loved it because it was where I found you again.”
“You found me?” Jonas chuckled. He was wearing his heavy long coat over his uniform but she felt comfortable in his arms. “I thought I was the one who found you here!”
“Maybe we found each other,” Ellis chuckled. “Can you at least concede that much?”
“As you wish.” Jonas smiled. They were passing the lighthouse now, the sweep of its great eye shuttered during the day. “You’ll like Halifax. There is a real need for nurses there and as an army engineer we’ll see a lot of each other until I’m shipped out. And when all of this is over, Ellis, I promise, we can find each other again.”
“Here?” Ellis purred. “Let it be here at Summersend.”
“Of course,” Jonas agreed. “If that’s where you choose.”
“I do choose,” Ellis said, turning her back on Summersend at last and facing him. Her hands rose to his back and she pulled him close.
She sighed into his coat. “I do choose … I choose…”
* * *
“… you.”
Ellis wept the word into a peaceful, breaking dawn.
Ellis realized she was standing at the bow clinging to the backstay, now facing a new and breaking day. She blinked through her sudden tears.
She now stood on the foredeck of the Mary Celeste as it sailed across a gentle sea. There was only a slight swell, which the ship took easily as it bounded through the waters. She could hear the hush sound as the bow broke through the water beneath her. The gentle rustle of the sails behind her murmured comfort in her ears. Off the larboard beam—she smiled at the memory of her father teaching her the old nautical term for directly off the left side of the ship—there was a terrible storm, ink black at the horizon cut through occasionally with flashes of lightning. The clouds of that storm billowed dark and menacingly into the sky, but in the distance forward off the bow she could see the faintest line of a sunrise beckoning her toward clearing skies.
We’ve outrun the storm, Ellis thought. We’ll make it home.
“Welcome back, Ellis,” said a young man’s voice behind her.
Ellis turned expectantly but her face fell when she recognized him. “Silenus? However did you get here?”
“I was going to ask you the same question,” Silenus Tune replied. He was wearing the same suit she remembered seeing him in when they had first met in the Nightbirds Society. “I heard you call me here … so I came. We all did.”
Silenus gestured back aft down the deck of the ship. Past the hatch covers toward the quarterdeck, Ellis was relieved to see Jenny, leaning slightly over the rail so that she might see what lay on their course ahead. The following wind blew about a few wisps of her hair that had escaped the tight bun at the back of her head and she seemed delighted at the freshening sea air.
Beyond her, Dr. Carmichael clung to the ladder leading back to the quarterdeck. He had lost the demonic brick-red skin tones, the horns, tail and cloven feet. He again appeared as she had first met him in the guise of her uncle. He had managed to retain his boater hat. Nevertheless there was a sad cast to his eyes that she did not remember before and he seemed ill at ease despite the serene passage of the vessel over the gentle sea.
On the quarterdeck, as she expected, stood Captain Walker at the helm. As she was pulling the ship together from the carnage about her, it occurred to her that they would need a seaman familiar with the operation of the craft. His face still carried the countenance of a hound dog but his eyes were brighter and he stood taller on the deck, his hands wrapped comfortably around the handles of the ship’s wheel.
Next to him stood Ely Rossini, his face more peaceful than Ellis ever remembered seeing it.
“Let go and haul, if you please, Dr. Carmichael,” Captain Walker called down the length of the deck in a booming voice.
“I should be delighted to assist,” the doctor groused, “if I had any idea what you just said.”
Ellis frowned. “Why is Lucian here?”
“Only you can answer that, Ellis.” Silenus smiled. He turned away, calling back to the doctor. “He means we’re on the best course for this wind and we need to trim the sails accordingly.”
“And just how am I supposed to do that?” the doctor shot back.
“I’ll come and show you,” Silenus said.
“Wait, Silenus,” Ellis said, putting her hand lightly on his arm to detain him.
“What is it, Ellis?”
“Is this all?”
“All what?”
“All that followed me,” Ellis murmured. “I called to so many from the chaos, offered them a place to come.”
“Don’t blame them, Ellis. They were afraid,” Silenus said. “Afraid of Merrick. Afraid of you. More afraid of where you were going, maybe. But you managed to salvage the Day after all before we all fell into the Umbra. Surely, the souls of the Tween must be grateful to you for that.”
“What happened to them?” Ellis asked, genuinely concerned.
“I can’t answer for all of them but I can show you some,” Silenus said with a smile. He reached behind him and pulled around a hard, leather tube that had been slung on his back. The young man quickly undid the latch and removed a beautiful brass telescope. He pulled it open to its full length, put it up to his eye and then handed it to Ellis as he pointed. “There. About two points to starboard of where Captain Walker stands.”
Ellis picked up the telescope and raised it to her eye. Her view skittered along the horizon until she centered on the dark form in the distance of their wake. It was a brig not unlike the Mary Celeste in size and rigging as near as Ellis could tell.
&n
bsp; “Who is it?” Ellis asked.
“Merrick, I should think,” Silenus said. “Perhaps Margaret. We really don’t know who won the Day between them. Whoever they are, they are falling further behind us. They cannot catch us now. We’ll make the Gate before they can possibly stop us.”
Ellis pulled the spyglass away from her eye.
“You’ve done it, Ellis.” Silenus grinned. “We’re free!”
“What about Alicia?” she asked.
His smile fell slightly as he looked at the deck.
“Silenus Tune,” she said as she looked at the young man. “What about Jonas?”
He glanced at her and then toward the storm in the distance off the side of the ship.
“No,” Ellis said, setting her jaw.
“Please, Ellis. Jonas came to get you out,” Silenus pleaded. “He came to help you get Jenny out.”
“No!” Ellis shouted. She started back down the length of the deck, moving quickly past the deck hatch cover toward the quarterdeck. “I’m not leaving him!”
“It’s what he wanted,” Silenus said, gripping her arm and turning her back to face him. “He knew the risks when he came.”
Ellis pulled her arm away from Silenus. “You have no idea what risks he took or why he took them. I know! I know because I chose!”
She turned back to the ladder at the rear of the deck, pulling herself up onto the quarterdeck.
“If you do this, you put us all at risk, Ellis!” Silenus shouted. “Not just us, but everything he tried to do. You’ll make his sacrifice meaningless!”
Ellis ignored him. She strode to where Captain Walker stood at the helm. “Captain, steer to … to larboard.”
The captain looked at her in horror. “Beggin’ yer pardon, ma’am, but we’re running with a favoring wind and we’ve no real crew to man the sails.”
“You’ve got Ely here and Silenus to help you and Dr. Carmichael for that matter, for all the good he’ll do you. Show them what to do and I’ll steer the course.”
“Ma’am, I think you had better just—”
“You’ll never get out of the Tween without me, Captain, you know that,” Ellis said in the firm voice that she had inherited from her mother and which she had used to great effect in the hospital wards with her “angels.” “Follow me and you may yet live.”
Walker considered this for a moment and then stepped back.
“Take the helm, ma’am. Steer your course and I’ll do my best to keep the rigging in trim.” The captain turned to the young man standing on the quarterdeck next to them. “Come with me, Master Ely, and I’ll show you a thing or two about the sheets.”
Ellis gripped the handles of the heavy wheel with both hands as Walker and Ely moved to the larboard rail.
“At your leisure, ma’am,” Walker called as he put his hands to the lines secured around the belaying pins.
Ellis only nodded and started turning the wheel.
The bow of the ship swung to port.
They were heading straight into the storm.
“I choose,” Ellis said into the gathering wind. “I choose us.”
THE END OF PART TWO
NOVELS BY TRACY & LAURA HICKMAN
THE NIGHTBIRDS
Unwept*
Unhonored*
BRONZE CANTICLES
Mystic Warrior
Mystic Quest
Mystic Empire
Tales of the Dragon’s Bard
Eventide
Swept Up by the Sea
St. Nicholas and the Dragon
NOVELS BY MARGARET WEIS & TRACY HICKMAN
DRAGONSHIPS
Bones of the Dragon*
Secret of the Dragon*
Rage of the Dragon*
Doom of the Dragon*
ALSO BY TRACY HICKMAN
THE ANNALS OF DRAKIS
Song of the Dragon
Citadels of the Lost
Blood of the Emperor
The Immortals
StarCraft: Speed of Darkness
Fireborn: Embers of Atlantis
Wayne of Gotham
*A Tor Book
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
TRACY HICKMAN and LAURA HICKMAN have been publishing game designs, books, and stories for more than thirty-five years. In addition, Tracy is a New York Times bestselling coauthor of many novels, including the original Dragonlance Chronicles, Dragonlance Legends, Rose of the Prophet, and Darksword trilogies, as well as the seven-book Death Gate Cycle. Tracy and Laura live in Utah.
Visit them on the Web at www.trhickman.com, or sign up for email updates on Tracy Hickman here and for Laura Hickman here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Epigraph
1. House of Dreams
2. Mistress of the House
3. Masquerade
4. Shadow Play
5. Unwarranted Acts
6. Below Stairs
7. Mrs. Crow
8. The Garden
9. Alicia’s Folly
10. Ruins of the Past
11. Hide & Seek
12. The Waltz
13. A Spot of Tea
14. Dollhouse
15. Soldiers
16. The Place
17. Summer’s End
18. Figurehead
19. Library
20. The Blank Page
21. Margaret’s Day
22. End of Dreams
23. Into the Storm
Also by Tracy & Laura Hickman
About the Authors
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
UNHONORED
Copyright © 2016 by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Cliff Nielsen
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-3204-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4299-5333-7 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781429953337
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First Edition: October 2016