The Children of Archipelago
Page 32
She couldn’t help but smile at Rob’s question. However, the sounds of cannon fire from the camp took her attention back to the danger at hand.
Edwin and Liliana pulled at Rob who stood with his hand outstretched toward a bloodied and astonished Tyler. Without taking his hand, Tyler followed Rob and his companions back to the Anna Louisa.
“Eugene, Duncan— get us out of here!” Edwin said and he found his own armor and crossbow. “Everyone be ready! We’ve overstayed our welcome and our hosts are in a foul mood. Trina, help me load the three-pounder.” Then, pointing to Tyler, he said, “Ches, you watch that man. Don’t let him move.”
Tyler sat himself on the deck, still holding his confiscated spear.
Liliana took Rob into the cabin and made him lie down while she opened Edwin’s medical chest. Rob did not protest, though his attention was split between her and the bustle out on deck.
“I’m sorry,” Rob said.
Liliana looked at him with a smile on her face. She shook her head at him as the tears returned to her eyes.
“You don’t need to be sorry, Rob. I came for you as much as Ludo.”
“No, I don’t mean Ludo. He made the right decision. I’m sorry you had to leave Porto Profundo to get me. I know how much the movement against Cesare means to you. I can’t go back with you. I’m sorry.”
Liliana leaned in and, finding the only spot without a bruise or cut, kissed him on the head. She told him the news about Octavo having been dead before they even implemented their plan. She told him of the protests and barricades around the university. She told him of the shouting matches she’d had with her father and of the last words she spoke to him.
“It is all right, Rob. You are worth leaving all of that behind.”
Tears spilled from Rob’s eyes and the two embraced. Then they both jumped at the sound of cannon fire, immediately followed by the whoosh of a shot passing just over them.
Out on deck, Edwin saw l’Intercettore two hundred yards in front of them, waiting. She signaled them to drop anchor and prepare to be boarded. He did not heed them but aimed the Anna Louisa directly at their starboard quarter.
“Not this time,” he muttered. “Ready with the cannon? Wait for my order to fire!”
Trina glared at him as if he were questioning her judgment. Still, she obeyed the order and squatted by the cannon with one eye on the Falcon ship and both ears listening for Edwin’s voice.
“Cap’n, please tell me you don’t mean to ram them,” Eugene said.
Edwin did not reply but kept his ship on the collision course.
“Everyone hold on to something!” Duncan said.
l’Intercettore did not know what Edwin intended either and so tried to get themselves underway to avoid a collision. However, the wind wasn’t in favor of a speedy get away. They fired again. This time the shot came from a stern-mounted ballista. The heavy bronze-tipped bolt struck just below the water line on the Anna Louisa’s starboard bow.
With fewer than fifty yards between them, Edwin called out to Trina.
“Aim for their steerage!”
A moment later the three-pounder fired and the crew all watched the impact take out the cockpit of the Falcon ship. Edwin turned hard to port and the Anna Louisa passed l’Intercettore’s stern with a foot of room to spare. Edwin realized that his ship was slow to answer the helm and ordered Eugene to take over.
He dropped into the hold and moved forward. James and Duncan followed him and the three men stood there getting their feet wet. The last shot from l’Intercettore had punctured the hull. Water spilled in at an alarming rate.
“Damital!” Edwin said. “That’s more than tar ropes are going to fix.”
“We can put some canvas over it once we pull it through.” Duncan said, though the doubt in voice was clear.
Eugene shook his head. “That’ll make the hole bigger and harder to plug.”
“Keep us afloat as long as you can. We’ve at least got to get back to King’s Isle. Or perhaps Isola del Regina would be better, though we’d be fighting the wind,” Edwin said.
“You’d better make up your mind fast.”
The Anna Louisa sailed eastward, along the coast of Isola del Trono, but even with the wind behind them, her speed slackened. The crew dumped everything they could overboard. The three-pounder, the water barrels and the food, save for a small amount they kept in case of shipwreck. They took turns working the pumps, but as the sun hung low over the island it became apparent that their fight was for a lost cause. The ship slowed to a crawl and the men working the pump stood in waist-high water.
“Cap’n, she’s lost,” Eugene said.
Edwin nodded. “No. No, we’ve got to save her. We can take her in to the coast and make repairs.”
“We do that and we’ll be caught. The Falcon’s are going to come looking for us.”
“Well, this is a fine rescue,” Tyler announced. Edwin visibly jumped at the sound of his voice. “I would love to see it out, but I think I’ll be on my way. If any of you are smarter than you look, you’ll follow me.”
With that, Tyler dove into the water and began a gentle backstroke toward the shore.
“There goes a meecher!” James said.
“Yes, but we’ll all be in that same position soon. Get the dinghy ready,” Edwin ordered.
The crew worked together at loading the dingy with what water and food they could fit while ensuring that all eight still aboard could fit. It would be a tight fit.
“Edwin! Look!” Trina said
She pointed to the south where a familiar square-sail had reappeared and now made for them with all speed.
Rob appeared, bundled in bandages and smeared in salve, requesting the far-see. With the scope pressed to his good eye, he began laughing hysterically, one hand pressed to his sore ribs.
“It’s the Entdecker!”
“Rob, you said the Entdecker was destroyed by a car-dun,” Liliana said. “It must be some other ship that looks like her.”
“I’d know that ship anywhere. That’s her, which means Tom is at her helm!”
Not wanting to destroy Rob’s elation, no one else expressed their doubts. Yet when the ship slowed and then turned to come alongside them, they saw the name painted on the port bow. The man at the helm yanked on lines and stays to furl the sail, before turning to greet them.
“Hoy Edwin and crew! Would you like to come aboard?!” Tom said.
They all burst out in laughter and tears. Here was a man they thought dead on a ship they thought lost to the sea. There couldn’t have been any more joyous and happier crew anywhere else in the world at that moment.
Tom’s smile faded as he recognized the man whose face was half-wrapped in linen. He waited until Duncan and the Bell brothers had drawn the ships together before crossing over to embrace his cousin and assist him back aboard their ship.
All they could salvage from the Anna Louisa was transferred to the Entdecker and the dinghy taken in tow. The deck was packed with people who stood solemnly and watched the bow of Edwin’s beloved ship dip beneath the waves. Her stern protruded from the sea as a grave marker suspended by the pocket of air trapped at the aft end of the hold.
Drawn as they always are to such commotion in the waves, sharks began to swim around the ships and Tom took this as their cue to leave. He took them southeast and hoped for a clear passage to their destination. Edwin appeared on the quarterdeck a few minutes later.
“I’m sorry about your ship, Edwin,” Tom said. “She was a good one.”
“Yes, she was, but it’s alright. I always wanted to get another ship. I suppose this will force me to do so.”
“I can recommend the ships from Aruth. Their carpenters are masters at the craft of ship building.”
Edwin smiled, “You’ve been sailing by yourself for days on end. How about a break? Let me take the helm.”
Tom hesitated a moment, then relented. “I suppose you’ve proven yourself a decent sailor. Keep her headed
due southeast. Make for the gap just west of Isola del Corona.”
“Do you plan to cut across the southern coast of King’s Isle, or farther south, around Kymberlite?”
“Neither. We have to make a stop somewhere else before we go back to Engle Isle.”
Edwin wanted to go further into that topic, but Tom descended to the main deck and joined Rob, Liliana and Trina.
To the west, the sun dipped below the horizon plunging the sea into darkness and allowing the Entdecker to pass through the Falcon Archipelago without being noticed by any of the ships sailing from Porto Profundo with the news that Federico d’Silva challenged the claim of Cesare Aquila for the throne of the empire.
Farther west, the people of Engle Isle watched the sun set with altogether different eyes. The Falcon Army had gone and peace again reigned over their tiny island. The tables had turned, but neither people knew what lay in their futures.
As Rob searched the ship’s supplies for something other than stale bread to eat, he came across a familiar object. A Duarve tool taken from Hellhound Isle; meant for the Nemo Society on Isle de Prime. Rob smiled as he again remembered his last conversation with Doctor Morris.
Overhead, the Ayday star burned bright as it coursed across the night sky. A triangular object reflecting the light of a far brighter, actual star... and it called to Rob Engleman.
The End
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About the Author
B.A. Simmons grew up roaming the mountains of the western United States. He still finds time to explore and run the trails. He started writing when only 10 years old and hasn’t stopped since. His love of science fiction is only rivaled by his love of history, or his love of family.
He attended Utah State University where he graduated with a degree in English Education in 2011. He teaches junior high school English and social studies. He is a self-professed sesquipedalian ludditish renaissance man.
He currently resides in Ogden, Utah with his amazing wife and kids, two dogs, a cat and myriad of imaginary worlds.
Published works include the Archipelago Series with 4 of the 5 books available now.
Book 1: The Voyage of the Entdecker
Book 2: The Hellhound Consortium
Book 3: The Perils of Archipelago
Book 4: The Children of Archipelago