The Finger of God: a Thalassia novel

by Patrick McClafferty

When Hedric frowned, she did her best to explain. Her thought was intent.

  Hedric looked out over the water and felt the wash of cool humid air on his cheek.

  Dawn murmured. He could feel her probe his memories.

  Hedric interrupted.

 

  Hedric apologized.

  Dawn’s laugh cut him off.

  Hedric reminded her softly.

 

  Hedric chuckled.

  Dawn was silent for some time. There was embarrassment in her thought.

 

  There was a dry chuckle from Dawn.

  From the dockside tavern a chorus of voices rose in friendly laughter. Hedric listened for a moment and sighed. He didn’t give Dawn a chance to answer as he let out a bitter laugh. He stopped for a moment to rub his eyes.

  Dawn was silent for several long moments.

 

  Dawn asked with a knife-edged insight.

 

  Dawn interrupted. She finished firmly.

  Hedric didn’t even bother to suppress his smile.

  The next day the Captain came to the engine room just after breakfast. Hedric was surprised to see dark rings under her eyes. “I may need to borrow Doander from you, Hedric.”

  “Of course, Captain.”

  She smiled lightly. “We left so quickly from Greenville, that we are missing two of the sailors I count on to man the cannons. I’ll have to use Doander on one cannon and Lexi on the other. You will have to do extra duty here, as will John Tilbet, the other navigator. You’ve met him, haven’t you? Big strapping lad, a few years older than you. Blond hair?”

  “I’ve met him.” Hedric replied flatly. The son of the cargomaster was tall, good looking and a bully. He never failed to remind Hedric he was the runt of the litter.

  “Good.” Captain Isenhart was glancing around the engine room, her mind obviously elsewhere. “Ah, I don’t suppose that you’re proficient with a weapon?”

  The comment frightened him. “My uncles both taught me the staff. I’m not as good as they were, but…” He let the comment trail off.

  “Talk to the purser. I think that he has an old one he can let you have.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She nodded once, turned, and was gone. He stared at the closed door for a long time after she departed.

  The next day was dark and overcast, a thin fog hanging over the water like a shroud. It smelled like a crypt. Creeping along at quarter or half speed, the Golden Fleece would occasionally glide to a stop as something unidentifiable loomed out of the curtain of mist. The weather, once warm had turned chill, and Hedric found the heat of the boilers a comfort rather than a curse. The telegraph chimed. ALL STOP. Hedric disengaged the drive gear, and he could feel the boat slow. There was shouting on deck, and he glanced out of the porthole. He wished he hadn’t. No more than fifty feet away was what was left of the sleek Albatross, beached on a sandbar. Rent and torn by cannon fire, she had great gaps showing right into her hull. Bodies littered the deck and various pieces of human anatomy floated in the murky brackish water.

  “Ahoy, the trader.” A wavering voice called across the water. Hedric saw a figure move on the shattered deck, and then another. A third was crawling. “Save us! For the love of god. Don’t leave!”

  There was a clatter over his head and a longboat momentarily blocked his vision. It was no more than a handful of minutes before they had recovered the seamen from the Albatross and were under way again. It felt like hours.

  He didn’t sleep much that night, and the next day began much the same, with cold wet weather, butterflies in his stomach and a feeling of dread in the air. Around mid-day the Captain came by, escorting a thin seaman with a bandage around his head.

  “Engineer Swimming, I’d like you to meet Edward Simms. He was an engineer on the Albatross. He can assist you.” She gave him a flat look. “I have to borrow Doander for a while. Do you understand?”

  Hedric felt his breath catch in his throat. “Yes, Captain. I understand.” He touched Doander’s arm as he left in the Captain’s wake. He turned to Edward Simms. “You’re new to this engine, so I’ll make things easy. Tie down or lock up everything. EVERYTHING!”

  The older man frowned. “Aye, I got ye. Yer mighty young fer they job, ain’t che?”

  “I know engines.” Hedric shrugged. “Will there be a problem?�
��

  The sailor’s grin revealed several missing teeth. “Not from me. I appy I be alive, ye know whats I mean?” He began picking up random tools with no further comment.

  The telegraph rang for FULL AHEAD, and Hedric had no sooner engaged the gears, than a great crash of a cannon sounded over his head. The boat shook, and Simms sat in a corner hiding his head in his hands. “We’re dead, all dead,” he moaned.

  Hedric gave the man a swift kick in the leg. “Get up! I need your help NOW! Bitch and moan later. Make sure that the boiler has plenty of wood for…” The crash felt like it was coming from the engine room itself, and Hedric was thrown to the floor, his head banging sharply against an engine support. For a second he saw stars. The chiming telegraph brought him to his senses, and he lowered the speed to half. He wiped a warm trickle on his face, and saw his hand come away bloody.

  Simms was getting unsteadily to his feet. “Ye all right, lad?”

  “Yeah, I…”

  The door flung open and a wild eyed Doander staggered in, dark gunpowder smudges on his face, and his hands were black. “Tad. You gotta come…” He took a deep breath. “Doctor says for you te come.” The cannon crashed again, and he grabbed Hedric’s arm in a crushing grip. “She’s hurt bad, Tad. Doctor can’t fix er. Said te get you.” Simms was staring.

  “I can’t go. I’m the only one who…”

  “I’ll stay. You go. Go NOW!” Doander shouted.

  Hedric left at a run. There was another crash of cannon fire, and he bounced off of a wall. Chaos on deck. Great sections of the railing were torn and splintered, and one cannon upended. Pools of blood marked where sailors had fallen. The Captain looked up from coaching another gun crew, caught his eye and glanced quickly astern. He turned, and behind him the big gun barked again. A glance showed him the pirate vessel, two hundred yards away and trying to escape. The last shot from the Fleece landed home, and the pirate’s funnel slowly collapsed. Flames licked up from the smashed cabin as the attacker lost way. The fight was all but over now.

  A cluster of people squatted next to the stern gun, all looking grim. Doctor Welter looked up, his dark skin smeared with the blood of others. “Tad.” He reached out to touch the boy. “I know what you did for Doander.” Hedric looked down and gasped. Lexi lay at his feet, a foot long sliver of wood had passed just beneath her right breast and bright blood flecked her lips. She was crying. “You’re the only one who has even the smallest chance of saving her. What should we do?”

 

  Dawn’s mental voice was stern, unforgiving.

  “Take her to sick bay?”

  “Full.” Doctor Welter replied sadly.

  “Take her to my cabin then. I need to be alone with her for a few minutes.” The doctor nodded and hands lifted the stricken girl.

  For some reason, that he couldn’t fathom, the cats were there too, almost hidden in the shadows of a corner. Lexi lay twitching on his bunk, dying.

  The door shut and Hedric turned to see the doctor. “I think I’ll stay.”

  Hedric sighed, and put his hand on Lexi’s bare neck. He could feel the ragged thread of her pulse.

 

  Hedric looked down at the girl’s face, starting to turn gray.

  There was a light laugh. He began to draw his hand away, and Dawn stopped him.

  So he stood there, hand on her neck as Dawn fed his strength into Lexi. He felt the heartbeat steady, saw the color returned to her face. The room went in and out of focus, the floor seeming to become unsteady and Hedric dropped to his knees, but never losing his touch with the girl. Her eyes fluttered about the same time the splinter of wood fell to the floor.

  Lexi’s voice echoed inside his head.

  Hedric tried desperately to calm her.

  She glanced down at her bloodstained shirt. He could feel her panic rising. Her eyes opened and swung to face him.

  He chuckled.

 

  He thought desperately, as he struggled to hold down the thrashing girl.

 

  Hedric felt very strange having multiple conversations in Lexi’s head. He knew exactly how she felt.

  Moran replied quietly. Hedric could feel the girl’s panic drain away.

  There was still more than a hint of terror in the girl’s thoughts.

  Hedric commented smoothly.

  Dawn commented dryly.

 

 

 

 

 

  Hedric thought about it for a second.

 

 

  Lexi giggled somewhere in the background.

  Doctor Isaiah Welter watched stunned, as the girl who was certain to die healed herself before his very eyes. Or, was healed. He looked at the young boy, kneeling at her side. He didn’t look like much, but…Alexandra Smith suddenly broke out into a huge toothy grin and sat up, stretching her arms wide. She flushed brightly as her shredded shirt flopped loosely, and turned shyly to the boy.

  “Ah, would you happen to have a spare shirt, Hed…Tad,” she corrected quickly.

  He gave her a wink. “I think that I have something right…” He pulled a new shirt out of a drawer, and handed it to her, then turned his back so that she could change. The doctor noted that the reflection in the porthole gave the boy an almost perfect view of the girl.

  Lexi gasped, clutching the tattered shirt closely, and turned to face the boy. “You…you were looking at me in the…” She stopped, mouth hanging open. “How did I do that?”

  The boy was looking back, with the same stunned expression. “I don’t… it shouldn’t…”

  “I don’t care.” The girl laughed suddenly. “Look all YOU want.” The doctor caught the subtle emphasis on the word “you.” With that, she casually took off her old bloody shirt and dropped it on the floor. Doctor Welter noted professionally that all signs of the fatal wound were completely gone, and that Alexandra Smith was an attractive young girl on the cusp of womanhood. She buttoned up the new shirt slowly, and the boy was blushing
to the roots of his hair, but he didn’t look away. Finishing the last of the buttons, she faced him, hands on her narrow hips. “Well?”

  He studied her for a long moment, his faint smile appreciative. “It looks better on you, than it does on me.”

  She reached him in two swift steps, took his face in her hands and kissed him soundly. “That is for saving my life, for my not believing you, and for everything else.” Hedric sat down heavily on the floor, eyes slightly glazed. “What’s the matter with you?” Lexi asked. “Never been kissed by a girl before?”

  “No.” The boy replied breathlessly.

  “Well now.” She gave him a speculative look, and a slightly wicked smile. “Well now indeed.” She looked up and blinked, as if seeing the doctor for the first time. “Doctor.” She said, nodding briefly as she left the room, that same little wicked smile on her face.

  “A formidable young woman indeed.” Doctor Welter muttered to himself. If young Tad Swimming started running right now, he might be able to escape her—but maybe not. He looked at the slowly fading glaze in the boy’s eyes. She had already sunk her claws in too deeply.

  Chapter 4

  Thirty-three days later, on a mild sunny day, the Golden Fleece steamed into the deserted harbor of Treebeard. A few gulls circled, morosely searching for a fisherman, but the streets and the city were empty. Dust blew aimlessly down the dirty street, and not a face showed in a window, nor a bird on a branch. The mild day took on a sudden chill, as Hedric arrived on deck. Seamen bustled to tie the boat off at the empty pier, casting worried glances over their shoulder at a nameless dread hovering over the town.

  “Mister Gralt will be leading a search party into town. Any volunteers?” Hedric caught the Captain’s eye and nodded briefly. A flicker of a grin crossed the woman’s face. “In lieu of volunteers, you, you and you will go.” She pointed to three seamen, seemingly at random, until Hedric noted that all besides him were tall and heavily muscled. “See the purser for weapons, but remember, don’t take chances. I want live seamen, not dead heroes.” Her eyes rested on Hedric for only a heartbeat.