Adrift

by Travis Smith

  John hit the wall at nearly full speed and looked up the high cliffs almost twice his body height above him. “Where is it?” he asked. “It’s supposed to be here.”

  7

  “Where is what?” The Stranger demanded, glancing back over his shoulder at the chaos behind them. The tentacles continued bashing the line of pirates relentlessly. Individuals were crushed beneath the weight of the slimy appendages, smashed against the rocky cliff wall like bugs beneath a boot. Boulders crumbled and fell from high above, crushing others still and knocking the rest over the ledge.

  “It’s supposed to be here,” John muttered again hopelessly.

  The Stranger turned to see Captain Julian and three other pirates still in pursuit a short distance away. He drew his sword.

  “It is no matter,” John said, standing upright and drawing his sword as well. “We are safe now. The beast will take care of them.”

  “That is your plan?” The Stranger demanded. “To let the punisher eradicate their darkness?” The beast pounded the walls behind him as he spoke, sending explosions of rocky debris in every direction. An image of the sand-dwelling beast from the Daskan Desert flashed through his mind. Kryp, a terror from another lifetime. “Their allegiance has switched.”

  “The punishers will eliminate their evil so that we good may flourish,” John said halfheartedly.

  The Stranger planted both fists on the man’s chest and shoved him backward into the rock wall behind him. “Perhaps in your cradle-tales, you fool!” he spat. “They answer to different lieges now. I don’t suppose you’ve gotten the memo, out here relaxing on this cursed isle!”

  John swallowed hard and stood back up, stealing an uneasy glance at the inescapable beast below.

  The Stranger turned to face Julian as he approached. One of the tentacles swung upward from below in a deadly arc and swiped the feet of one pirate out from beneath him. He flipped twice in the air as his body was launched backwards into a second pirate behind him. The two landed in a heap and rolled over the edge of the cliff. Their captain did not flinch or bat an eye as their hollers dwindled in pitch in their free-fall.

  “Look at this lot o’ fuckery ye’ve caused me!” Captain Julian barked, coming to a stop in front of The Stranger and John, his face contorted in deranged rage.

  The Stranger did not hesitate a moment. They were all as good as dead in this dead-end anyway. He leapt forward and clashed his sword into Julian’s. “A slight sight short of the fuckery your lot have caused me!” he growled. Armed and one-on-one, his fury brought a frightened look of shock to Julian’s eyes that even the beast below hadn’t conjured. The last pirate by Julian’s side stepped back a pace with his sword at his side.

  The maelstrom of death continued far behind them, but only Julian and the one other had made it this far. As The Stranger bore down against Julian’s blade, a tentacle smashed the second shell-shocked pirate against the cliff with a gut-wrenching crunch. The tentacle withdrew itself and the instantly deceased pirate’s corpse, leaving only a crater and a small splash of gore on the cliff.

  “It’s here!” John yelled ecstatically from behind The Stranger. “Have your revenge, and let’s go!”

  The Stranger turned to see Maria Vilsen lowering a long wicker ladder from the cliff above.

  8

  John leapt onto the ladder and began his ascent. “Hurry!” he called over his shoulder, taking pause to look back at The Stranger.

  Julian had stumbled backwards upon his rump and stared up at The Stranger with uncharacteristic disquiet. The Stranger could sink his sword into the man’s gut and carry on with nary a second thought, but that would be too easy. He’d already won.

  “Piteous swine,” he spat, stepping back and putting his blade back into its scabbard. “I have a message for your master,” he growled, bending forward with the intent of seizing the man’s weapon. Before he could continue, he was driven backwards by the force of one of the tentacles crashing down from above. The thing crushed Captain Julian on the spot and dragged his lifeless body over the ledge and into the pools below.

  The Stranger jumped back to his feet and stole one glance below at the punisher beast. It swung two of its tentacles up toward him. He narrowly avoided this attack by dropping flat on his stomach as the things smashed into the cliff behind him.

  “Hurry!” Maria called from the cliffs above. She turned away from the ladder and drew her sword as she ran out of sight. “A few of them are still up here! Robert can only hold off so many!”

  “Come on!” John demanded, climbing off the top of the ladder to the cliff above. He got down on his knees and reached an arm below to help The Stranger climb faster.

  The Stranger leapt onto the ladder before the punisher could execute another attack and began to climb. He reached out for John’s hand when a shadow appeared behind the man.

  “No!” Maria wailed from a short distance away. “Look out!”

  But it was too late. A pirate behind John drew his cutlass and buried it deep within the man’s side.

  9

  As The Stranger watched the life leave John’s eyes above him, Maria came crashing back into view. She collided with the grinning pirate and sent his cutlass spiraling over the ledge. The two went crashing over the edge of a small boulder and rolled down a hill into the trees and out of sight.

  The Stranger slowly climbed the rest of the way up the ladder and moved John’s limp body away from the edge of the cliff. He glanced around to find utter silence and not a soul in sight. He could still hear the muted clashing of Robert’s sword in the distance, as well as the small scuffle between Maria and the pirate somewhere in the nearby thicket.

  “John?” he whispered, kneeling beside the man who had rescued him multiple times.

  John, lying in a copious pool of his thick blood, wheezed a quiet succession of rapid, shallow breaths, but he did not acknowledge his name.

  The Stranger glanced around again. He recognized this area as the place where he had jammed sticks into his shackles in a vain attempt to free himself on the previous day. He looked behind him and imagined a nearby shore. A nearby shore where a small craft was docked.

  “Thank you,” he whispered, his hand on the dying man’s chest. He secured his weapon at his waist, turned, and ran as fast as he could toward the shore.

  10

  The Stranger careened back down the sloping hill on the opposite side of the cliffs. He cut a slight shortcut in the direction that he thought the boat lay, and he came crashing out of the forest and onto the shore before the sun had reached the halfway mark to midday. A tiny speck in the distance, he saw the dock from which he’d nearly escaped two nights ago.

  The Stranger ran until his heart pounded in his chest. His lungs felt like two quivering sacs of air within him. He’d been running nearly non-stop since sunrise, but now he could see his great escape. Now he could finally see himself sailing into the horizon, back across The Great Sea and into Reprise to reclaim his family.

  He reached the dock and climbed aboard the ship. It was empty and fit for the sea, just as he’d left it. He readied the ship’s small sails and turned to begin untying the hawsers from the dock’s bollard just as a man stepped out of the forest a short distance away.

  Chapter 14:

  The Final Memory

  1

  The Stranger and his family set sail from the southernmost tip of Sodar for the final time at sundown. They had skirted along the coast of the great nation, from The Desert of Dask to the Renskar jungles. The realm had brought them nothing but dismay and barbarity, but they were hopeful to find peace at last on the horizon.

  The company had fled the jungles with their previously empty satchels filled with as much succulent fruit as each member could carry—save for little William, who cooed cluelessly in his mother’s arms all the while. Robert Vaga took this as an indication of relief to come.

  “Well,” he said to his son as their stolen ship sailed off into the western sunset, “our s
ustenance worries are no more. We have enough now to feed our family for three lifetimes!”

  “Yes, until the melons rot and the berries wither,” said The Stranger, not quite cynical, but verging on overly pessimistic. “And there are plenty of fruits, but what of the meat? What about fresh greens?”

  “Son,” Robert put a hand on his son’s shoulder, “we are a family of fishermen. We will find meat in the sea.” He smiled jovially, but The Stranger’s eyes remained distant and anxious. “Look at that sunset. We have the world before us. We can settle anywhere we please and find food. The world is full of food.”

  “Or we may hit Fordar and find the new authorities waiting with bounties on our heads. Worse still, we may sail beyond Fordar and right off the edge of the earth!”

  “My son, there are countless uninhabited isles beyond this place. We will find a new home. We will make a new start.”

  The Stranger gazed into the distance in silence for a short time. “Perhaps,” he agreed at last.

  “Most definitely!” Robert said, patting The Stranger on his chest. “Somewhere out there is our new home. A tiny, beautiful island, with plenty of fresh water and game. A remote, uncharted location where we may begin our lives anew.”

  2

  They sailed for five days without incident or sighting of land. Late on the sixth night, Robert stood on the deck of the ship, watching the waves ripple softly in the light of the sinking full moon overhead. He turned upon hearing a footstep behind him.

  “Sorry to startle you,” his son said quietly.

  “No matter,” he replied offhand. The two stood in silence for some time before Robert spoke again. “There really is nothing like the gentle sea breeze on a calm night such as this.”

  The Stranger nodded in agreement.

  “I regret that I never took you sailing as often as my father did with me,” he continued.

  The Stranger chuckled. “Well, I daresay we’ll have had our fill after this journey.”

  Robert smiled and nodded his head.

  “Is something on your mind, father?”

  Robert deliberated for only a moment before speaking. “In truth, I’ve come to fear you may be right.”

  “About what?” he asked.

  “About sailing beyond Fordar and off the edge of the earth … We’re in unknown waters now, and these seas get awfully monotonous day after day.”

  The Stranger laughed. Five days out from the countless horrors they had faced in Sodar, his spirits had risen remarkably. “We’ve been sailing but a few days! Something will come up. Just keep your eyes peeled for that island you spoke of.”

  Robert nodded, but he seemed unconvinced.

  The Stranger pointed back the way they had come. “Think of all the adversities we overcame in that nightmare land! We made it out alive, and we did so with food in our hands. We’ve escaped Reprise; we’ve escaped Sodar; we’ve come this far, and we will prevail again, should the time arise.”

  “I know,” Robert conceded. “My head’s just in a fit after such a long voyage. We’ve no suitable supplies with which to make fishing lines, and there’s been no port in sight.”

  “We are fine,” The Stranger assured. “No one is going hungry yet. We will find a dock before our supplies diminish. Why, look right there!” The Stranger pointed to the horizon. The faintest speck could be seen beneath the bright light of the moon.

  “You don’t say,” Robert said in relieved awe. “I told you we’d find our island.”

  The Stranger laughed and hit his father playfully on the arm. He turned and looked to the opposite horizon, and his breath stopped short.

  Out of the darkness, an unmistakable set of royal white sails was racing toward them from the east.

  3

  The Stranger rushed quietly downstairs and entered his quarters. Laura and William were sound asleep together in their small bunk. He heaved an uneasy sigh as he watched them sleep so peacefully. At last he placed his hand lightly on Laura’s head and kissed her. She smiled in her sleep and breathed a deep sigh of sleepy acknowledgment. He gave a similar kiss to his son, but the child was sleeping like a rock, and he gave no indication of gratitude.

  Would it be worth it to wake them? Why interrupt their tranquil dreams and force them back into the grim waking realm?

  “What do we do?” he asked Robert as he made his way back outside on the deck.

  “You let them sleep?” his father asked, staring determinedly at the distant craft in their stead.

  “Yes. I see no reason to wake them and rouse fear in them just yet.”

  “I agree,” Robert said.

  The Stranger looked from the encroaching barony ship to the island he’d seen on the opposite horizon. The distance was far too great. He could scarcely even trick himself into believing that they could make it to landfall before being intercepted. “Well?” he asked his father.

  Robert turned at last to face his son. “Well, what?” he said impatiently.

  “What can we do?”

  “There is nothing to be done,” his father replied. “If that ship carries who I fear that it carries, we have no choice but to accept what is to come.”

  “We can fight.”

  “Do you believe he came alone?”

  The Stranger’s mind raced in terrified, frantic circles. How could his father just give up after coming so far? He looked back to the distant island and envisioned a new life, a perfect life. Now he saw no way that it could become a reality.

  “Go, son,” Robert said, defeated. “Go be with Laura and William. We have no choice but to surrender.”

  The Stranger crept disconsolately back down to his sleeping quarters. He knelt beside his wife’s bunk and wept silently through the night, her hand in his own.

  4

  The Stranger stood back up only when he heard the thud of a plank followed by several footfalls onboard their ship. He left Laura and William still sleeping peacefully.

  He raced up the stairs and onto the deck with his hands held before his face, but this did not stop one of Bernard’s men slamming the hilt of a cutlass into The Stranger’s nose and forcing him to his knees with the help of another.

  Bernard stood expressionless at the edge of the stolen slave ship, his arms folded behind his back. As many as thirty elegantly dressed pirates were spread between the two ships, racing about in a frenzy, searching for prisoners. Their new garb was fanciful, but their faces remained as haggard and unkempt as ever.

  “Bernard,” The Stranger pleaded, “we will surrender. Just let me wake Laura and William alone to tell them.”

  “Give me his weapon,” Bernard said dryly. The pirate to The Stranger’s left snatched the White Sword from his waist handed it to his leader. Bernard drew the ancient sword and sneered at it in silence.

  “I implore you, Bernard—”

  “Get the woman and child,” he interrupted. Two faithful servants obliged and raced down the stairs to the chambers. “Where are the elders?”

  “We are here,” Robert growled. He was being dragged up the stairs by two of Bernard’s men, closely followed by two more carrying Diana in her nightgown. “And we will not fight you.”

  “Oh, I have no doubt,” Bernard said. “’Twouldn’t be a lengthy battle, I assure you.” He nodded pertly to Robert as his men brought him too to his knees.

  Laura shrieked from below the deck. Her scream was followed by the familiar screeching wails of her newborn son.

  “We accept our punishment, Bernard,” The Stranger said. “Please do not frighten my William. He did nothing to deserve this.”

  “This is your punishment, fool,” Bernard spat, “and it will be dealt justly, accepted or not!”

  He drew the White Sword and held it before his eyes. The Stranger had seen the blade glow mightily in his hands. He had felt it thrumming beneath his grasp, and he knew its power all too well. In Bernard’s hands, the ancient, magic sword looked lame, but no less deadly.

  Bernard brought the tip of
the blade to Robert’s neck.

  “No!” Diana and her son yelled in unison.

  “Bernard, I would not raise that weapon against you!” The Stranger called. “Take us back to Reprise. We will work for you!”

  “You had your chance!” he hissed back. “The barony has no place for insolent, entitled swine such as this.” He reared his arm back and readied to swing.

  “Please don’t do this,” Diana wept. Tears streamed openly down her face. She thrashed in the grasp of the two men who were holding her back.

  “Shut your muzzle, ye wench!” Bernard screamed. “This man is nothing to me!”

  Two pirates returned to the deck, one holding a sword to Laura’s neck and the other holding a squirming, shrieking William by his smock like a badly behaved kitten.

  “Stop hurting my baby, you filthy yob!” Laura screamed.

  “Take the child to our ship,” Bernard said, lowering his blade. “Take care that he is well looked after.”

  Robert opened his eyes and breathed again when Bernard retracted the large sword. He looked to his wife and whispered, “I love you.”

  “No,” she pleaded, sobbing. “No, no, no, no, no. Stop this.”

  Bernard looked at Laura and deliberated while she thrashed and screamed at the top of her lungs. “Take her, too,” he said at last. “She may be of some use yet.”

  “No!” The Stranger screamed. “Laura! William!”

  Bernard turned back to Robert, who writhed in the arms of two pirates and attempted to whisper solace to his wife. “Piteous,” Bernard growled.

  The Stranger flailed with all his might, and at last a third pirate stepped in to help hold him down. “Stop this, Bernard! Stop this madness, my brother!”

  5

  Bernard wheeled immediately upon The Stranger and slapped him across the face with the broad side of the White Sword. “Do not call me that!” he screamed. “You are no more a brother to me than any man in my crew! You were never a brother to me!”

  “I stood by you from childhood, brother!” The Stranger screamed back. “These men may blindly follow you now, but our bond will always be stronger! Our bond is in our blood!”