by Inmon, Shawn
“All I need is passage to Lasta-eh,” Alex said as he dropped back down the ladder. He hurried back to the rear. Senta-eh had already bundled their possessions together and appeared ready to abandon ship if necessary.
“The captain thinks they will try to come aboard.” Alex moved to the very back of the ship and peered over the railing. The trailing ship wasn’t just closer, it was nearly upon them.
“It looks like when they catch us, not if. So, when they board us, we should have our weapons handy, but stay out of sight. The captain will try to strike a deal with them, but if it comes to blows, I told him we would fight for him.”
“Why?” Senta-eh asked.
It was an excellent question, and one that Alex hadn’t really considered before making the offer. “Because it felt like the right thing to do.”
A shudder ran through the ship as the smaller ship nudged against them. Alex slipped the thong of his stone hammer over one wrist and his stabbing sword in the other. Senta-eh strung her bow and shouldered her arrows. Werda-ak likewise armed himself. Monda-ak looked from one to the other, obviously confused. Alex spoke quietly to him. “You’ll know what to do. If there’s a fight, kill them. Don’t wait for me. Just kill them.”
Ahead, loud voices echoed. There was the sound of scuffling, then quiet returned. Alex crept close to the corner and listened, Senta-eh and Werda-ak directly behind him.
Hidden safely out of sight, Alex heard the captain shout, “You! How can you betray me like this?”
As opening negotiation tactics go, it wasn’t the best. Still, Alex hoped for a peaceful resolution and that the captain would pay whatever price was necessary so they could continue on their way.
Whoever the captain spoke to answered quietly. “You are an odd one to speak of betrayal.” That voice was deep and malevolent, full of danger.
The next sound was a gurgling that Alex had heard too often—the death rattle.
Alex stepped around the corner and saw that a man had rammed a long sword through the throat of the captain and stuck him to the wall. The captain bleated and clawed at the sword, but the deed was already done.
The man holding the sword focused only on the captain, watching his death throes. Beside him, though, half a dozen men stared at Alex. Three had arrows drawn and pointed at him. The other three held shields and short stabbing swords—good weapons for a battle in a limited space like the ship offered.
Finally, the captain’s life fled him and he sagged forward, still pinned to the wall. With a dramatic flourish, his killer slid the sword out and watched him fall to the deck. Only then did he notice Alex and his weapons.
“If you’ve come in defense of this man, you are too late, and you gave your allegiance to the wrong man. He is dead and if you move to avenge him, you will be as well.”
Even as he spoke, more of his men came clambering over the side until the area in the front of the ship was crowded with them. They all carried weapons of one sort or another.
Alex saw their fate if they resisted. He dropped his hands and said, “We are only passengers on the ship. I heard the fight and came to see what it was.”
“Good decision,” the man who had killed the captain said. He turned to the man directly behind him. “Who is left on board?”
The man turned and scanned the men who had boarded their ship, seeming to count in his head. “Only Braka-ak. He is sick in his bunk.”
“He is always sick when I need him, it seems. Leave him. His fate will be his fate.” He turned back to Alex. “This is my ship now. All passengers will leave now or die, starting with you.” He turned to the man behind him. “I’m going below to check the cargo. Give the people on board to the count of two hundred to be off the ship. If they are not off by then, throw them overboard.” He hurried below to see what he had plundered.
The man he had spoken to said to Alex, “You heard the captain. You have to the count of two hundred to get off the ship.”
“Where are we to go?” the woman who had shared the back of the ship with Alex wailed.
“You can have our ship. We are not killers. Take it, sail on your way.” He turned to the man beside him. “Can you count?” The man said he could not. He went down the line looking for someone who could, finally landing on a young boy not much older than Werda-ak who said he could count to two hundred.
“Start counting, then.” He turned to the other men. “When the boy hits two hundred, anyone still on board goes over the side. If they resist, kill them.” He hurried down the stairs after the new captain.
Alex did not wait. He ran down the steps to the cabins. As he ran down the narrow passageway, he pounded on doors left and right. “We must leave the ship! Right now, right now! We must leave the ship right now!”
Doors flew open and people objected loudly. “If you have complaints, address them to the man who just killed the captain. I recommend that you follow me.” He was heartened to see Versa-eh emerge fully dressed, carrying a small bag. Filled, no doubt, with whatever valuables she had stolen in Grinta-ah.
Alex ran back on deck and told Senta-eh and Werda-ak to climb down the netting that had been attached to both ships and help people down.
The boy stood on the deck counting loudly. “Seventy-nine, eighty! Eighty-one, eighty-two...”
“Hurry!” Alex said. “If you can’t hurry, I hope you can swim, because these men look like they would be happy to throw you overboard.”
The men standing on the deck cheered and shouted that they would indeed be happy to throw everyone overboard.
The last of the passengers clambered over the railing just as the boy reached one-hundred and eighty. The first mate cast one last, longing look around the ship, then jumped over, followed by Alex.
Alex clambered down the net as fast as he could, but even so, the men above cut it loose just as he touched the ship below and he nearly fell in the water.
As soon as the lines were cut, the beautiful ship they had been on moved away, widening the gap with every passing second. Their new home bobbed and swayed in the water.
“Can you sail this?” Alex asked the former first mate.
“Not by myself,” he answered, “but if I have help with the sails, yes.”
“All is not lost, then,” Alex said. “We will help you however you need.”
A shriek emerged from downstairs and a man, soaked to the knees, came running up to the deck. “We’re scuttled!” He stopped and realized he didn’t know anyone he was looking at. “Who are you?” Then, he looked at the stern of the three-masted sailing ship pulling away. “Ah, god’s blood. They left me behind. Can any of you sail?”
The first mate raised his hand.
“They scuttled us before they left. I don’t how much time we’ve got before we go down, but it’s not long. Our only chance is to head for shore and hope we land in a place that doesn’t have beasties by the dozen.”
“Do you think we can make it that far?”
“No,” the man said. “But I think I’d rather go down trying than sit here doing nothing.”
The former first mate said, “You take the wheel. You and you,” he said, pointing at Alex and Werda-ak, “come up in the rigging with me. I’ll show you what you need to do.”
There was a flurry of activity and lamenting from the former passengers, but Senta-eh joined the men on the rigging. None of them had any idea what they were doing, but the first mate directed them, and in just a few minutes, the sails were deployed and they were at least moving.
Braka-ak, the man left behind, steered the boat hard west, hoping to make landfall before they sank.
From his place high up in the rigging, Alex scanned the ship. “Are there no boats to get into if this one sinks? Lifeboats?”
The former first mate looked at him and laughed.
“Guess not,” Alex muttered. Just seemed like it would be a good idea.”
They caught a nice wind that moved them along, but the more water they took on, the more their progress
slowed. Eventually, the coastline came into view, but it was obvious they weren’t going to make it there.
“When we start to go down,” Alex instructed Werda-ak and Senta-eh, “look for something that floats. A timber, or a barrel or something. Hold on to that. I know you can swim, but none of us can swim as far as we need to.”
The first mate added, “You won’t need to worry about it. This stretch of water is infested with Tripta-tas and Stinda-tas. They’ll kill and eat you before you have a chance to swim that far.”
“That’s comforting,” Alex said. He scanned the horizon. Perhaps a mile in front of them, he saw a small island. “Can we head for that instead? We’ll never make shore.”
The first mate peered ahead. “Yes!” He cupped his hands and said, “Island, two points west. It’s our only chance.”
Braka-ak immediately adjusted their course and it became a race of physics. Would water fill the ship and sink it before they could cover the distance to the island or not?
Alex found Monda-ak and pulled him close. “We’re going to go for a swim. You stay close to me.”
Monda-ak gave a small woof of understanding that could barely be heard among the screams and moans all around them.
At that point, they realized they had done all they could. They simply awaited their fate. The ship drew deeper and deeper, until the cold water was lapping over the deck. After that, everything happened fast. The small ship began to break up and water poured over the deck.
“It’s not far!” Alex shouted. We’ve got to swim for it!” He dove off the railing just as the water crested and pushed the boat down.
Screams echoed across the water. It was obvious that many of the passengers could not swim. They tried to grab for anything near, but mostly just thrashed about in the water.
Just before they jumped, Alex saw that Versa-eh had slung her small bag over her shoulder and jumped with them.
From then on, it was every person for themselves. Anyone that stopped to play lifeguard would almost certainly drown or be eaten before they could get ashore.
Alex, Senta-eh, and Werda-ak all left everything behind and swam unencumbered toward the island. He put his head down, and focused on moving one arm in synchronization with each leg kick. He was surprised when the knuckle of his right hand scraped against a rock.
He stood and looked behind him. There was chaos in his wake. Some people were still back by the ship, flapping around like a drowning bird. Others, including, he was thrilled to see, his own party, were not far behind him. Monda-ak padded ashore and began to shake the water off himself. Alex waded out deeper and grabbed first Senta-eh, then Versa-eh and pulled them toward the shore. Werda-ak swam to shore with easy, sure strokes.
Behind them was a field of destruction. The former first mate and Braka-ak were next to shore, but many of the passengers lagged.
One woman thrashed spectacularly, then her head zipped beneath the water, never to resurface.
“Tripta-ta,” the first mate said wearily.
Immediately after that, one head after another was pulled beneath the waves and did not come back up.
In the end, only seventeen souls made it to the island.
If they thought their trouble ended there, they were optimistic.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The Uncharted Island
Alex waded out into waist deep water again and again, pulling people ashore, then going back for more. Finally, there were no more to be saved.
He collapsed to his knees on the small patch of sand and dirt at the water’s edge.
“You can do what you want to, of course,” the former first mate and now fellow castaway said, “but I’d move back from the water’s edge a bit. Stinda-tas will sometimes come ashore in search of a meal.” He looked at the sheen of blood that reflected the first light of day, then said, “There should be enough fresh meat out there to keep every stinda-ta fed for a while, but why take chances?”
Why take chances? Everything I’ve done in what seems like forever has been one calculated gamble or another, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
Still, he forced the near-overwhelming exhaustion from his mind, got to his feet and walked further onto the island. He gathered his small band around him.
“We’ll need to scout this place. See what there is for food, whether there are any predators, that sort of thing.”
“If there are predators, we are out of luck, unless they respond to angry words,” Senta-eh observed. “We have no weapons.”
Alex raised his voice. “Did anyone make it off the ship with any weapons?”
Grim silence was the only response.
“You’re right,” Alex answered Senta-eh. “But I think that means we need to be even more aware, so we can stay away from them and out of harm’s way.”
Alex looked around at the island. It was their salvation, as they all would have either drowned or been eaten without it, but it wasn’t much. There was a ring of rocky, dirty sand all the way around the edge of the island, but the middle was just a tangle of underbrush so dense it looked nearly impassable.
Alex remembered when he and Sekun-ak had been stranded weaponless on their first return from Denta-ah. They had fashioned weapons of a sort. Since then, Alex had also learned how to make combat with a straight stick, if the right sort can be found.
“Let’s travel together. If we meet something dangerous, it will be better if there are more of us.”
“Or, we might just make a better buffet,” Versa-eh observed.
“That, too,” Alex agreed. “But what else are we going to do? Werda-ak, keep your eyes open for fruits, berries, or plants that have roots that are edible. The rest of us, let’s look for stones or flint we can use to start a fire or turn into weapons.”
Monda-ak led the group into the underbrush because he carried his weapons with him wherever he went. Their progress was slow, because the natural foliage was so thick, but they did make their way into the interior of the island. Werda-ak found some plants and berries that were safe to eat and they all found at least a few sticks and rocks that could be turned into the most rudimentary of weapons.
When they returned to the beach, Alex glanced down at Versa-eh’s legs. There was a long, slug-like creature attached to her calf.
“Versa-eh! Come here! Turn around.” Alex kneeled and pulled the leech off her leg. He stood, holding it and grinning. Then he looked closer and saw that there were droplets of blood on her leg and that the leech itself was puffed full. He dropped it, then Versa-eh pointed at him and said, “They’re all over you!”
Alex looked down and saw that he was, indeed, half-covered in the slimy, blood-sucking slugs. Alex was not prone to panic, but he began to slap at himself, trying to knock them all off at once.
Sensa-eh and Werda-ak chose that moment to look down at themselves and saw that they, too, had been leeched.
For a few moments, there was a cacophony of jumping, screaming, slapping, and an odd sort of dancing in the clearing as they all tried to rid themselves of their unwanted riders.
They all spun around, knocking them off each other’s backs until there was a small carpeting of the blood-engorged insects on the ground. Finally, they had them all off and stood panting and retching.
Monda-ak padded up to the pile of leeches and sniffed them. Alex saw what was about to happen, but he was too late. Monda-ak tasted one, then devoured the others.
Versa-eh fell to her knees and vomited. Everyone else looked nauseous, but managed to not vomit.
Almost immediately, they realized that they were feeling ill, not just at the grotesquerie of what they had witnessed, but from the leeches themselves. The color drained out of their faces, and they all sat down before they fell down. Werda-ak said he was afraid he might pass out, but managed to stay mostly upright.
After a few minutes, the feeling passed and they were able to stand upright again.
Monda-ak, who had a stomach that had never met something it did
n’t love, seemed none the worse for wear.
They all agreed that unless or until they were near to starving, they would not venture back into the underbrush. They sat on the ground and went over their pile of sticks and rocks. Werda-ak was able to find some thin vines at the very edge of the bushes and after a lot of effort, they were able to produce two crude wood-handled hammers and an even cruder stone knife.
Alex had found one piece of wood he hoped to fashion a bo stick out of, but the wood had a curve in the middle that threw it out of balance, so it was useless.
One of the other men who had made it to shore had fashioned a stick and string that he had used to start a fire, so they at least had warmth. That evening, the seventeen survivors sat around the fire in misery. Even Alex, who seemed to have an endless amount of ideas and enthusiasm, had fallen into despair.
As the sun set and they were facing a long, hungry night filled with unknown dangers, Alex walked to the beach at the western side of the small island. He stared out at the coastline they had been heading for before they had been shipwrecked here. It was close enough to see, but well too far to attempt to swim for, especially in beastie-infected waters.
Senta-eh appeared beside him. “Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
“Right!” Alex said with as much mock-enthusiasm as he could muster. “Here we are, stranded on this lovely island with no food, ugly little leeches that want to kill us and who knows what else? Oh, and Lanta-eh is still being held hostage, and I don’t have a single idea about how we’re going to get to her, let alone rescue her.”
A sudden scream sounded from the group they had left behind. They turned and sprinted back, but other than the fact that everyone was standing around agitated, nothing seemed wrong.
“What happened?” Alex asked.
Werda-ak said, “I think we built the fire too close to the water. That guy Braka-ak had fallen asleep by the fire. Some huge monster climbed up out of the water, grabbed him by the ankle, and hauled him away.”
