The Perils of Archipelago

by B A Simmons

  25: Tricks of the Trade

  “What do you want?!” Edwin screamed. “You already have our cargo.”

  Whether the men understood his Engle or just didn’t care, he didn’t know. They said nothing, just broke what they could break and stole what they could steal. After several minutes of pure intimidation on Edwin’s crew, they left, following the porters carrying the crates of elixir.

  Ches emerged from the hold with Ian. They’d sought refuge there when they saw the threatening strangers aboard. Duncan and Eugene checked their bunks; Edwin looked into his cabin. All the weapons they had on board were gone. Taken or tossed overboard, Fabiano’s men were thorough. The only exception was Edwin’s lightning spear, and he knew it no longer held the power it once did.

  “What just happened, Edwin? Where’s James?” Eugene said.

  “We’ve been robbed, and they’re holding your brother hostage until I bring them more elixir.”

  “More elixir? They just took everything we had left,” Duncan said.

  “They mean more from Kenneth, from Isle de James.”

  “It’ll take us at least five weeks to get back there and another three to return here. We can’t leave James with them that long,” Eugene said.

  “That’s as long as they’re giving us to get the supply and return for him!” Edwin said.

  “Or what? We come back for him in eight weeks or what, Edwin?”

  “I don’t know, Eugene.”

  Eugene snatched the lightning spear out of Edwin’s hand. “I’m going for him right now.”

  “Eugene, wait!”

  “We can’t leave him there!”

  “We’re not going to, but we need to be smart about this. We need a plan.”

  Eugene stopped and looked back at Edwin, then to Duncan, who understood Eugene’s panic better than anyone else.

  “What’s your plan?” he said.

  Edwin shook his head. “I need you to help me figure it out.”

  Night came over Pearl City before Edwin left the Anna Louisa again. The city was still alive and vibrant with nighttime activities. Several taverns and inns had musicians and dancing, while street performers gathered in the city square to entertain the citizens, and food vendors sold them grilled and roasted fish and sea bugs.

  Edwin carried his lightning spear with him, waving it to and fro like a baton. An hour later, he found himself at the gate outside Fabiano’s house. His efforts to be noticed on the way were not misspent. Two men came from the trees behind him. Edwin recognized them as two of the miscreants who had ransacked his ship.

  “You meechers forgot something,” Edwin said, holding the lightning spear toward them. “I’ll exchange this priceless antique for my friend.”

  The men looked at each other as if to verify that neither of them understood Edwin. They grinned at him and moved forward. Before they could lay a hand on Edwin, he took up a defensive stance with the spear raised over his head.

  “I warn you! I will use this magic device against you!”

  Edwin knew they didn’t understand his words, yet he hoped they understood his tone. In any case, they did not stop moving toward him.

  “Zaaap!” he shouted at them and pointed the spear at the man on his left.

  To the amazement of his companion, that thug suddenly grunted and fell forward onto his knees. His hands gripped his head, and he groaned, looking dizzy. Blood began to flow from behind his left ear.

  “Uh huh? I told you!” Edwin said. He pointed the spear at the other who took a step back. Edwin pointed a finger at the entrance. “If you don’t want me to stun you, open that gate and call your master!”

  “No,” the man said, shaking his head.

  “Zaaap!” Edwin said.

  However, this time the shot did not connect with the target’s head. Instead, he felt the impact against his back, where his armor protected him. The thug realized Edwin’s trick and turned his head toward the trees. There, Ches and Ian stood with slings they’d fashioned from Edwin’s clothes. Another stone flew from Ches’s sling straight at the thug’s head. He ducked, drew his sword and cursed at them in Iyty. Just as he began walking toward them, Edwin came from behind and jammed the point of the lightning spear into his ear.

  The thug collapsed to the ground, rolling and howling in pain. His companion, whose head still gushed blood, rose to his feet and mumbled something before a second stone to his head sent him to the ground—never to rise again.

  The commotion brought them attention from inside the house. Several servants and guards now made their way to them. Ches rushed forward, taking hold of the wounded thug’s sword while Edwin pulled the falcata out from under the dead man.

  Taking a firm hold of his scalp, Edwin placed the blade against the wounded man’s throat while Ches and Ian stood their ground next to him. A group of half a dozen men, armed and angry, flung open the gate.

  “Stop!” Edwin shouted.

  The group halted, noting the visible threat to their colleague and the body of the other. One of them stepped forward and spoke to Edwin.

  “What you want?”

  “My crewman. Your master, Fabiano, has him here. Bring him out to me now, or I will kill this man.”

  “Eef you keel a-him, we will-ah keel you. What doss dat gain you?”

  Edwin looked up at the house, the furrows in his brow deepened. “If I kill him and you kill me, then he . . .” tilting his head at Ches, “will kill you.” Edwin nodded toward Ian, who stood with a stone ready to launch. “And, he will then kill . . . that man, there behind you. The skinny one.”

  The man narrowed his eyes, signaling either confusion or contempt. “You weel all die. Okay?”

  Again, Edwin scanned the house. This time, when he returned his eyes to the enemy spokesman, a smile came with it. “And what will you do when we kill your master?”

  The man frowned and then followed Edwin’s eyes back up to the house. There, he saw the figure of Fabiano dangling from the large balcony window of his lounge. He cursed and shouted a command at the rest of the men with him. The group rushed back, closing the gate behind them and ascended into the house.

  Edwin smiled—their plan worked. He released the thug from his grip but brought the pommel of the falcata down on his head before leaving. He ran, with Ches and Ian, back down the road toward the city, knowing Eugene, Duncan, and James should be right behind them. Just before reaching the outlying buildings, they joined up. The younger Bell brother looked none the worse for wear, though Duncan seemed to favor one leg.

  “I bashed my knee on the wall in climbing it.”

  “We could have come out worse,” Eugene said. “Well done drawing their attention away. Fabiano had just the one servant with him when we got in the house.”

  “We’ll have them all after us again if we don’t get away from this island,” Edwin said.

  “What about the elixir?” James asked. “We can’t just let them have it.”

  Edwin smiled, “Dash the elixir, man! We risked our lives for you. I’m not taking that chance again, not for elixir. Now let’s go!”

  They ran through the streets, keeping their eyes open for assailants and thugs trying to stop them. Scrambling aboard the Anna Louisa, they threw off the mooring lines and set to rowing out from the harbor. As far as Edwin could see, no one followed them. No alarm bells sounded, and no city guards set out in a pursuit ship.

  Out in the blue lagoon, with the waves lapping gently against the hull, Edwin settled his nerves and began to feel something other than adrenaline. He felt angry at himself for being naïve. He felt angry at Fabiano and Marcel for their deceit. He felt the loss of three hundred stolen doses of elixir. Yet, overcoming all of this negativity, a feeling of relief and joy. His crew and ship were safe.

  ***

  We are safe . . . on land, Rob told himself again. After the car-dun breached, Rob took the Entdecker closer in by the reef. As dangerous as sailing that close to the rocky coral is, Rob would rather risk that t
han the beast he’d just witnessed tear into a bantam whale.

  He brought the ship through the opening and straight up onto the beach. Without taking the time to rouse Tom or Piers, he ran up the trail to the hut shouting for Doctor Morris as he approached. Jacob appeared in the doorway, his falchion in hand.

  “Rob? What’s going on?”

  “Car-dun! Have you seen it? Where’s Doctor Morris? Didn’t you see it?”

  Rob pushed past Jacob to gain entry into the hut. The darkness made it difficult to see what was where. He tripped over something, a sea chest. He struggled to get himself up again. Feeling for the walls with his hands, he found a cot and pushed up from it. Bang! He smacked his head on a shelf.

  “Rob? What are you doing?” Doctor Morris asked. His voice came from the annex.

  Rob slowed himself enough to let his eyes adjust. He saw Morris standing with an oil lamp in the space between the back wall of the hut and the annex. Jacob, behind him, bent down to right the tipped-over sea chest.

  “It is a car-dun,” Rob said, catching his breath. “I saw it . . . eating bantam . . . whales, just outside . . . the lagoon.”

  “Oh, yes. We saw it too, didn’t we Jacob?”

  “Three weeks ago, on the west side of the island. Doctor Morris thinks there’s a cleft in the mountain, an underwater cleft, that is. It seems to emerge there during the night, especially when the wind is up,” Jacob said.

  “Not every night. In fact, your sighting tonight, Rob, would seem to confirm that it comes out to hunt once every month or so, depending on the previous catch.”

  Rob was flabbergasted, his mind racing.

  “We were here for the entire rainy season; more than three months. We didn’t see it once.”

  “I heard it.”

  They all turned to see Tom’s silhouette standing in the doorway. He came in and sat down on a cot. “I heard something that I thought was another hellhound, sometime after we first landed here. As we searched the island and found no other hound, I figured it was my imagination. Now I know it wasn’t.”

  “During the rainy season, you probably spent a great amount of time in here. Easy to miss a creature out in the sea, even one as large as that.”

  “I’ll get the cook fire going. I bet you boys are hungry. I know I am,” Jacob said, and he left the hut.

  “Where’s Piers?” Doctor Morris asked.

  Tom answered. “He’s still down with the Entdecker. I left him there as a rearguard as we had no idea why Rob ran off after landing. I’ll go tell him all is well.”

  After Tom left, Morris gestured to Rob to follow him. They walked through the annex and into the Duarve House. In the corridor in front of the locked door, Rob saw a chair, fashioned from lashed tree branches. Beside it were loose pieces of parchment, a second lantern, and the tablet containing Aweth’s journal. The door remained shut and as Rob confirmed with a firm tug, remained locked as well.

  “You weren’t able to open it,” he said.

  Morris raised an eyebrow. “No, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been successful.”

  “What have you discovered?”

  He handed Rob a piece of parchment. With the lamplight, Rob saw written dates and times. Next to each of these was either the word “full” or “partial.” As he studied it, he noticed a pattern.

  “This is a schedule . . . for the satellites?”

  “Good, Rob. Yes, I’ve figured out their schedule. We know when one will be passing over us. The difficulty is in divining the entry code for the door. It’s difficult enough with my limited knowledge of Duarvish. The idea that the code could be any combination of these characters is even worse.”

  “There are only three buttons on this panel. How have you not figured out the code yet?”

  “I suspect that each of them may need to be pressed more than once in some type of combination.”

  Rob gaped, “Then there could be any number of possible combinations. We don’t have time to try them all.”

  “Exactly, therefore, I’ve been scouring Aweth’s journal again to find some clues, anything that might narrow it down for us.”

  “What have you found?”

  Morris sighed, “Nothing. Not really.” He paused and coughed. The cough sounded harsh, not the normal clearing of one’s throat.

  “Are you alright?” Rob asked.

  “Oh, it’s nothing. Just a cough.”

  “How much time have you been spending in here?”

  “Not enough.”

  “I’m serious, Geoffrey. The dust alone can’t be healthy, not to mention there could be worse than that in this air.”

  Morris straightened up his back and cocked his head to the side. “You just called me Geoffrey.”

  Rob blushed. “Sorry, erm . . . I meant to say—”

  “No, no. It’s fine. In fact, I’m flattered and not just for your concern over my health. If you feel you can use my first name now, as you should, then you must now see yourself as my equal—no longer my student.”

  Rob looked down at the parchment again. “I don’t think I’ll ever be your equal, Doc—I mean, Geoffrey. At least, not in intellect.”

  “Nonsense, Rob. I’m but a man, like you. I make mistakes, and I’m mortal. Though, I do think this marks a turning point in our relationship. You and I have more to discuss here than just this door, and I hope you’ll stay long enough for us to do so.”

  “I’ll stay long enough to open this door. We’ve got a bit of powder on the Entdecker . . .” Rob noticed Morris shake his head at this. “I know, I hate to destroy anything, even a door. But if we can’t get inside any other way . . .”

  “I’ll consider it . . . but only as a last resort.”

  Morris began coughing again. He couldn’t stop. Rob took hold of his arms and pushed him back down the corridor and through the annex. The sun shined in the clearing around the hut. Jacob had cooked up a pot of porridge and seared strips of hornbuck for breakfast. He heard Morris coughing and watched as Rob drew fresh water from the stream.

  “Maybe you can convince him that’s more than just a cough. Ayday knows he doesn’t listen to me.”

  “You see what I’ve had to put up with (cough) while you were away, Rob. The man won’t leave me to work in peace. He’s always trying to make me eat properly (cough), get out in the sunlight and (cough) sleep.”

  Jacob shook his head, but there was a smile on it as he did. Rob made Morris drink a full cup of water, then refilled it and ordered him to sip until the coughing abated. Tom returned with Piers and fresh rations from the ship. Piers was indeed hungry. He helped himself to the food without speaking to anyone and gobbled down more than even Jacob.

  With full bellies and empty bowls, the group rested for an hour. Rob made Morris promise he wouldn’t go back into the Duarve House without him and then fell asleep. He did not sleep long as his mind refused to stop thinking of how to enter the door, even in his dreams. He awoke to find only Morris still at the hut. The others, he figured, must have gone down to the ship or perhaps scrounged about elsewhere on the island.

  Morris sat on a stool with his back against the hut and looked to be asleep, but as Rob came to his feet, intending to see if anyone else was inside, the old man spoke.

  “You aren’t going back in there without me, are you?”

  Rob smiled. “The thought did cross my mind. If only to fetch your notes and study them out here.”

  Morris opened his eyes and leaned forward. “Wait. There are things I need to tell you while the others are elsewhere.”

  Rob furrowed his brow. He hadn’t thought that Morris was a man of secrecy. Yet, he knelt by the stool and allowed Morris to recline again.

  “Have you heard the legend of Isle de Prime?” Morris asked.

  Rob nodded. “Yes, we all learn about the island our ancestors first came to from the darkness. They say it exists somewhere, cut off from the rest of the islands of man, but that the people who live there are magical.”

  “Th
at their magic allows them to live many years longer than ordinary men, and that they will kill anyone who tries to obtain their magic, yes?”

  Rob nodded again. “Yes, that’s part of the story. My father said the island is one of those the Servi control and they worship ancient relics there.”

  Morris chuckled, which made him cough. “Yes, I’ve heard that one, too. The Servi do worship ancient artifacts, but not on Isle de Prime.”

  Morris paused, waiting for Rob to understand.

  “You’re telling me that Isle de Prime is real? It’s not just a story?”

  The old man nodded and smiled. “It is real, but it is not one of the Servi Islands. In fact, it’s not even close to their islands. It lies to the west.”

  “You’ve been there?” Rob asked, unable to hide the astonishment in his voice.

  “I was born there. But, that is not what’s important. Listen to me, Rob. There’s so much I need to tell you. I am sick. I know the air in the Duarve House is bad for me. But at my age . . . what else could I do? We must discover what’s behind that door.”

  “Geoffrey, your health is more important than that. I’m not letting you go back in there. I’ll get your notes. You can go over with me what you’ve already tried and when the next satellite comes over, I’ll go in and try opening it.”

  “Listen, listen. It is important. I have lived a long time, longer off Isle de Prime than on it, but I have learned in that time to prioritize. We do not have magic on Isle de Prime.”

  “I didn’t think—”

  Morris put his hand over Rob’s mouth. “Shhh. I must be the teacher again. No magic, but we do have technology greater than anywhere else on the planet. We have maintained much of what our ancestors brought with them from Earth. Yes, that’s right. We are of Earth, Rob, just as you suspected. It is not where we go when we die. It is where we came from . . . and where we hope to go back to.”

  “Go back? How?”

  “I will get to that later. Right now, I need you to understand, in case I don’t leave Hellhound Isle. Understand that while Isle de Prime has more and better technology than even the Falcon Empire, they guard it dearly. That much of the legend is true. They will not let anyone else have it, unless they decide it’s for the greater good of humanity. Even then, it’s only a little bit of the knowledge they possess.”