Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  Dajuan and his men were upon him and he started backing away, keeping his fist clenched and thinking about the one horse he saw when they first got on the island. That single horse would have to be enough. Purdue continued thinking about it as he retreated away from Dajuan. Dajuan was cackling now, relishing the apparent panic on Sam's face.

  “So that pearl isn't going to save you after all, is it, hmm?”

  Sam could see past Dajuan and his cronies down the shoreline—a horse was racing down the beach toward them. Sam just had to stall for another few seconds and then he would have a chance of not being brutally murdered by these vengeful buffoons. The horse was faster than Dajuan and barreled past, running right next to Sam.

  Sam threw himself on top of the horse. Thankfully under the pearl’s influence, the horse helped him get on. It wasn't easy without a saddle but the horse seemed to take his comfort into consideration. His new steed galloped down the beach, out of reach of Dajuan and his men. Sam glanced back and saw Dajuan trying to pursue the horse on foot, roaring with profanity. If the horse had been just a little slower—arrived a moment or two later—then Sam would have been brutally killed. That one horse on the island had been his rescuer thanks to the pearl that he held tightly in his hand. He would have much preferred sweeping his attackers away with a wave or dropping them in a sinkhole, but he was glad that the pearl that controlled horses had done something at least. He couldn't complain too much since it saved his life.

  Sam didn't have much experience in horse riding. This particular case was probably different than most other peoples' considering he was controlling the horse's direction with a magic pearl rather than just naturally performing as a rider. He had to admit though, as the horse galloped toward the end of the island, running along the edge of the sea, it was a rather beautiful sight to behold.

  There was something about this horse too. One single horse on this tiny island that had been submerged when they arrived. How was that possible? The truth was that it wasn't. There was definitely something more to this place, and gave even more credibility to all of Daisy Judge's weird stories. It was hard to deny some of the things she said now.

  The horse brought him up to the tip of one of the trident island's prongs. Maybe, through the power of the pearl, it understood his desire and where he wanted to go, obliging to carry him the rest of the way.

  There was a pedestal of driftwood on the edge of the sea, resting in the mud. A silver oyster shell rested on top of the pedestal, the oyster's maw open and waiting for its contents to be returned. Poseidon knew how to give a good presentation with a very pleasing aesthetic but Sam didn't have time to admire it for long. He might have gotten away from his pursuers, but they were catching up, sprinting down the beach, to his prong of the trident island. Sam kept the horse that had been his savior close by, just in case he needed help again. He pushed his worries about Dajuan aside. He couldn't think about that yet. No. He needed to focus on completing the task at hand and that meant getting the pearls back where they belonged. He could worry about his own life later once that was over and done with.

  He approached the pedestal and looked across the water to his left. From a bird's eye view, he was on the farthest right end of the trident. From where he stood, he could see the shape of Daisy Judge approaching her own pedestal and even beyond that, he saw the tiny silhouette of Erica doing the same. They were all at the tip of the trident's three blades. They were all ready. This had to work—it just had to.

  Sam gave a nod to the horse who just watched intently like it was waiting for the moment he released the pearl. Maybe it was waiting to never have to worry about being controlled again.

  Slowly, Sam placed the pearl in the silver shell and watched as the oyster shell closed with a sudden bite. If his hand had been any closer, it would have taken it along with the pearl. Once the shell was sealed shut with Poseidon's pearl inside, there was silence. The only sound was the water touching the beach.

  Suddenly, the waves offshore grew much louder and noticeably larger than before. The island started shaking violently, almost knocking Sam off his feet. He did his best to stay standing and balanced but it wasn't easy. He looked back toward the island and Dajuan was having just as much trouble staying off the ground. The return of the three pearls had definitely done something; Sam just wasn't sure what exactly was happening as a result.

  The tides started spilling over the sand, reaching much farther than they were reaching just moments before. The massive waves were ripping chunks out of the shoreline and the tremors were growing stronger.

  Sam could tell that the horizon was growing slightly higher—no—he was descending. He looked down at his feet. The little trident island was collapsing in on itself, starting to sink. It was returning back to the sea with the pearls—Poseidon was reclaiming his property. The god would drag them all down to the depths to meet him.

  Sam glanced to the horse that had been standing beside him but it was gone. He looked down, hoping to find prints of its hooves but those had been washed away—maybe it had all been washed away—just gone.

  They would all drown if they stayed on that sinking strip of land any longer. They needed to get back to the boat. Sam glanced across the water and saw that Erica and Daisy were already hurrying back toward the boat, away from the waves that were devouring the shore. It would be more difficult for Sam to do the same, considering he had a human wall of vengeful criminals blocking his exit route. Dajuan only looked mildly annoyed about their dangerous new surroundings. His focus was still completely fixated on Sam.

  Sea water was pouring over the beach, wrapping around Sam's ankles. Within minutes, the whole island was going to be under water. There wasn't time to waste on Dajuan. Sam would have enough trouble surviving without having to worry about fighting someone like that. Unfortunately, Dajuan didn't share that perspective. He rushed up to Sam, his stomps creating big splashes under his feet.

  “Enough running!” Dajuan roared. He looked ready to rip Sam apart. “We will end this now! Right now!”

  Sam knew he couldn't fight Dajuan and his gang. Even Dajuan alone looked like he would be too much for Sam to handle by himself. And yet here he was, his back against the ocean, his feet sinking beneath him, and with murderers ready to kill him. He wouldn't stand a chance in this fight, especially without the pearls and now even without a horse. All he had left were his words.

  “Couldn't we do this another time?” Sam asked with a half-hearted smile. “Maybe some time when we're not all about to drown? Let's get to the boats before you try to kill me. How about that? That sounds fair for everyone, if you ask me.”

  Dajuan wasn't the negotiating type and he wasn't easily amused. He didn't say a word before he rushed at Sam, nearly tripping from the quaking sand beneath them. Sam tried to fall back but he couldn't in time, and there wasn't exactly anywhere to go. Dajuan tackled Sam into the wet sand, immediately pinning Sam down.

  Dajuan snarled above him. “No magic pearls. No horses. No nothing. You are not going to get out of this. Not this time.”

  The man was incredibly strong. He wasn't nearly as unspeakably large as his predecessor, the Wharf Man, but Dajuan might as well have been. He was something of a rock-solid boulder crushing anything beneath it. Within seconds, Sam knew he wouldn't able to overpower his far stronger foe. He did his best to protect himself to keep Dajuan's hands away from his throat but the man just grabbed hold of Sam's face instead. His palm pushed against Sam's nose as his fingers squeezed his skull. Dajuan shoved Sam's head into the mud, pressing his face down into the water that was starting to cover the sinking beach.

  “You are going to drown. Just like you and your friends drowned the Wharf Man.”

  Sam's face was being held into the muck that was quickly turning into the shallows. More and more water was pouring over the sand. Mud and salt pressed their way into his mouth and nostrils as Dajuan tried to keep Sam's head in the rising water. Sam tried to pull his head back up but it was pinned
down too well. The rest of his body thrashed about uncontrollably, trying to break free to safety; every fiber of his being, every instinct, yelled at him to survive—but he couldn't. There was no chance of pulling himself free of his enemy's grasp. In minutes, he would drown in the shallows and Dajuan would be his murderer.

  Sam regretted a lot of things but in that moment, those regrets centered around not being able to be a bigger help to Nina and Purdue, especially recently. This was his first real assignment as a member of the new Order of the Black Sun, and while he succeeded, he wouldn't ever get a second assignment. No, he wouldn't be able to help his friends in the future, when they might need him more than ever. He never wanted to go out so violently but as their jobs had seemed to have gotten more and more dangerous, he should have probably expected the worst. Maybe it was just a matter of time. Maybe that was all it had ever been.

  Now, he really wished he was with Purdue and Nina on this mission. Together, they might have found a way to actually avoid this mess—and even if they didn't, he would have felt better dying alongside his friends. But sometimes—most of the time—that was outside of a person's hands. He wouldn't be able to determine his own end. He would just have to accept it when it came—and it was looking like he was really going to have to accept it now.

  Water kept rolling over his face and his head sank further and further into the mud. He kept trying to catch air with his mouth but every time he did, some of the mud splashed into him, making it even more difficult to catch his breath before being dunked into the rising water again.

  Sam Cleave let out a primal yell, trying one last time to break free of Dajuan's grip, but once again, it was futile. He was going to die on this sinking island. Maybe he would even meet Poseidon in the end, and become just another person to have been drowned by the sea.

  There was enough water to submerge his face and Dajuan obviously noticed. He forced Sam's face into the brine and mud. Sam breathed what would probably be his last breath. He knew he should have been conserving air but he was far too panicked. Salty water forced its way into his mouth, and down his throat. All he could feel was water. All he could taste was water. And he couldn't hear anything but occasional splashing from the rest of his body. This was it.

  Dajuan's powerful arms kept Sam's head in the water—but suddenly those powerful hands loosened their hold on Sam's face.

  Sam was startled but his survival instincts took over. He pulled himself up and out of the shallow water, choking and gasping. He looked up to see what had happened, half expecting Dajuan to be laughing and relishing the pain he was inflicting

  Instead, Dajuan was standing over him with a look of surprise on his face. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes were narrow with confusion. Sam looked over him and one thing in particular immediately stood out.

  A metal shaft was sticking out of Dajuan's stomach, and blood dripped from the pointy end of it. It looked like a harpoon had skewered Dajuan, running him through. Dajuan tried to speak but his mouth was full of blood.

  Sam looked past the man that had nearly killed him and saw Aya standing a few yards behind Dajuan. His group of cronies were all lying on the sinking beach, either unconscious or dead. Aya sure looked great standing over them. Her own crew were backing her. They had ambushed Dajuan's men, and given the empty harpoon gun in Aya's hands, she had been the one to take the shot at Dajuan. Those former pirates had come to Sam's rescue—and his heart filled with relief.

  Dajuan, being the towering, intimidating figure that he was, turned around despite the harpoon sticking through him. He grit his teeth and snarled at the sight of Aya.

  “Really?”

  Aya handed her empty harpoon gun to one of her men and another crewmate of hers handed her a loaded one. She aimed it at Dajuan.

  “Really.”

  Dajuan wrapped his fingers around the metal impaling his body and wiggled it around, looking like he was trying to pull it out. That fool, Sam thought, he is probably doing so much more damage to his internal organs. Then again, Dajuan didn't seem like the type to care if he was dying as long as he was frightening people with his power.

  “I should...I should kill you, Aya...” Dajuan stuttered, spitting out blood into the water at his feet. “I should have killed you a long time ago. The Wharf Man should have just said so, and then I would have without hesitation. I always...always hated you...”

  “Aw, thank you,” Aya said. “I share the feeling.”

  Aya fired another harpoon. It spun through the air and lodged itself into Dajuan's left shoulder. He fell down onto his back, creating a large splash as he tumbled. He was groaning in pain, still alive, but the water around him was starting to fill with streaks of red. The heir to the Wharf Man was a far cry from where he was just moments prior.

  Sam stood over his enemy, enjoying the reversal of fortune. The salty taste of the sea water was still stuck to the roof of his mouth and was all he could smell. Part of him wanted to return the favor and dunk his wounded enemy's head into the rising water. But he wasn't really going to do that, even if he really wanted to.

  This was Aya's victory. She had known Dajuan and the threat he posed far longer than Sam had. They had what sounded like a long, unpleasant history. She deserved to be the one to bring the heir of the Wharf Man down—Sam just wished that she would get it over with a little faster, before all of them were swept into the sea.

  One of Aya's crewmates handed her back the other harpoon gun, freshly loaded with a new metal bolt. Hopefully, this would be the one to deal the killing blow.

  Aya aimed the point of the harpoon at Dajuan's head. The vicious man tried getting up, despite his body being riddled with metal shafts. “You think this ends with me?”

  “I do,” Aya said. “And it does.”

  She fired the harpoon.

  Dajuan collapsed back down into the rising water. He would never get up again, and once the island sank, he would be reunited with his mentor, the Wharf Man. They would have to build a new criminal empire at the bottom of the sea. Hopefully the fish would be easy to threaten into submission.

  Aya didn't smile, but she looked very content. The Wharf Man and his minions had ruined her life. Now she could finally rest more easily.

  “I won't miss him,” Sam said. “But we need to go. Now!”

  The island he pulled from the sea was sinking back into the sea, like he had never raised it at all. He would have been a bit sad about it but he was too busy running for dear life. The water level in some sections of the island was rising up Sam's shins and it felt like the place was sinking faster now than before. Soon enough, it would be returned back to its watery grave. They just needed to get back to the rowboats and then they would be okay. He just kept reminding himself of that fact as they ran. There was a way to escape, they weren't trapped. They just had to get to the boats.

  It was nice of Poseidon to try and drown them all as a reward for bringing the pearls back. Though maybe that was some ancient way of thanking them. The world was very strange back then so it felt like it could be possible. If that was the case, then Sam was glad that such violent gratitude had fallen out of fashion.

  It was hard to move on top of the rumbling island as it sunk further and further into the water but it was luckily a relatively small piece of land to have to get across. They could see the boat up ahead as they pushed through the water but the island shook hard and plummeted further in on itself, most of it slipping deep into the water. The water was now up past their waists and the land they were walking on sunk too far below them so they couldn't step on it anymore. They had to swim toward the rowboats. The sinking island unfortunately started pulling all the water inward with it, making something of a vacuum that was hard to escape. Sam paddled as best as he could, throwing his arms out and kicking his feet as much as he could, trying to break free from the pull of the sinking island. It was like the island was getting back at him for pulling it up to the surface. The island wanted him to see how it felt but if it succeede
d, Sam wouldn't be able to get himself back up. He had escaped Dajuan's attempts to drown him only to now have the island itself wanting to bring him down. When would everyone realize and accept that he had no interest in filling his lungs with water?

  He could see the rowboats up ahead, as more water swept into his face. He shook his head, trying to get it out of his eyes. Daisy and Erica were waving their arms wildly in the air, trying to signal him toward them. He could see them and the boat just fine. Getting to the boats was going to be the very difficult part, since he could make any progress in the water as the island's pull kept trying to take it downward instead of forward.

  Someone yelled behind him and he glanced backward to see one of Aya's crewmen getting too tired against the flow of water, gargling on sea water, holding his hands up and disappearing under the water. There was no way he was going to get out and soon enough, they would all be joining him down below. Sam couldn't keep up his padding against the currents for much longer. Once he tired, there would be nothing keeping him afloat. He would end up drowning after all.

  The rowboat that Erica and Daisy were on was being pulled in by the vortex too. Their faces filled with terror as they shoved the oars into the water and tried to keep the boat from capsizing. Sam watched in horror as it tipped over, breaking apart from the sheer force of the vacuum that the sinking island was leaving in its wake. The boat crumbled beneath them and both women crashed into the sea. Sam couldn't see them past the water that was in his face. He didn't know if they were able to tread water or if they were immediately pulled under. He tried to see them but even if he wanted, he couldn't get to them.

  The pull was too strong and Sam felt himself unable to resist it any longer. He slipped beneath, into the dark, cold, silence of the sea. He looked down and saw the shadow of the island falling beneath him. He might end up back on the island at some point, once he had sunken down to it with all of the life choked from his body. Aya wouldn't be able to get him out of this one with a swift shot of a harpoon. The boat was broken and Daisy and Erica were probably drowning somewhere nearby too.