by James Somers
Ethan looked back to the sky where the vortex of spirits churned above Emmanuel Bay. This battle is going to get very ugly, he thought. Then a brilliant light, like the sun breaking through clouds, shone down upon Ethan.
When he looked up, Ethan saw an entire legion of angelic beings like the one he had seen the night before. They flew in formation high above King Stephen’s fleet. Each one of the heavenly warriors held a large broadsword in their right hand. Wings of purest white carried them through the spiritual ether.
No one onboard the ships saw the heavenly host, except Ethan. He looked back at the cloud of demons swirling in the sky over the bay. “Perhaps not so black a day as I supposed,” he said, smiling.
The naval piers came into view, stretching out into the water. Dozens of tall sailing ships sat moored there. Others started to come away from the piers where they had been docked. King Stephen’s fleet had definitely been spotted now. High above the bay, perched upon the white granite cliffs, stood the palace of the king and the city of Emmanuel. This would be their final target.
Captain Bonifast had prepared especially for this initial run at the harbor. The Maelstrom and the other ships started into the bay with the beach, piers, and Mordred’s ships to their starboard side. Bonifast had as many of his guns as possible lined up on the starboard side so he could shoot at the enemy ships like fish in a barrel.
The stage was set. Angels soared in the ether above, ready to attack the demons swarming over the harbor. The ships of King Stephen’s fleet ran full speed to get within firing range. And some of Mordred’s ships were leaving dock in a scrambled attempt to take on the rebel armada while others remained moored to the piers.
The Maelstrom charged ahead of the other ships. Bonifast beamed as he surveyed his quarry—birds caught sleeping in their nests. “FIRE!” he screamed. This word was one of the last Ethan heard during the firefight that ensued.
BETRAYAL
The Maelstrom shook as though it were caught in the midst of a thundercloud. The boards beneath Ethan’s feet vibrated almost continuously as shot after shot of cannon fire leaped away from the starboard side of the ship. Multiplied arcs of smoke trailed from the Maelstrom toward its targets.
Captain Bonifast watched with intense satisfaction as his gunnery crews fired, reloaded, and fired again. Years of experience in sea warfare allowed them to perform the tasks with keen precision—a well-oiled machine. Ethan watched them, awe inspired, as they worked ceaselessly at their task like ants bringing in their food stores for winter.
The Maelstrom kept up her speed as Captain Bonifast stayed their strafing run through the harbor. The ship trailed a cloud of smoke behind her, adding to it with every destructive volley. Bonifast watched his targets.
Wood burst into splinters upon the decks of the enemy ships. Bodies tumbled through the air. Masts burst asunder and fell like cut timber into the sea. Bonifast’s special guns blasted through the hulls of enemy vessels, causing them to take on water and list to one side. The crimson sails, bearing the black standard of Mordred, shredded under fire and fell from their rigging, the picture of defeat.
The plan appeared to be working. The Maelstrom led what at first appeared to be a successful surprise attack on Mordred’s navy. Then Ethan heard screaming. He turned to find Gideon with his bow in hand at the portside rail. He pointed frantically toward the rest of the armada, which had been following the Maelstrom on her strafing run of the harbor.
Ethan ran to the portside rail and saw why Gideon was screaming. Behind them, the attack was not going well at all. In fact, the mercenary ships, which Ethan had noted the day before as having demonic activity onboard, now turned their cannons on the other ships in King Stephen’s army.
The armada ships loyal to King Stephen shuddered in the crossfire between Mordred’s vessels and the mercenary ships they supposed had been fighting with them. Within minutes, the traitors pounded them into submission.
Ethan managed to gain Captain Bonifast’s attention and motioned for him to hurry over. Trying to yell anything over the barrage of cannon fire was impossible. When Bonifast ran to the portside next to Ethan and saw what had happened, his wild look turned to fury. “We are betrayed!” he bellowed. The captain ran for the alarm bell, sounding it repeatedly. Only its piercing ring could capture the attention of the busy crew in the midst of all the cannon blasts.
The crew responded with an immediate cease-fire, awaiting the captain’s orders. “The mercenary ships have betrayed us, lads! Spill the wind from our sails and bring us to a halt. Helmsman, hard to starboard! Gunnery crews, make ready!”
Some of the mercenary ships had taken up a hot pursuit of the lone Maelstrom, now that the other ships loyal to Stephen were sinking or too damaged to fight. But contrary to what might have been expected, Bonifast would not run. Ethan watched the captain as the wild fire returned to his eyes.
Captain Bonifast’s order brought the Maelstrom to a near halt, sending her careening sideways, her starboard side and starboard cannons exposed to the oncoming ships. To the captains of these mercenary vessels and the few of Mordred’s navy which had managed to get into open water and take up the pursuit, it made the Maelstrom a much bigger target to shoot for. Unfortunately, the bulk of their cannons were located on the sides of their ships.
Captain Bonifast gave his gunnery crews the order as the pursuing ships tried to slow and correct their headings. “FIRE!”
All of the Maelstrom’s starboard guns lit up with puffs of gray smoke and flame. Multiple shells, including many of Bonifast’s special variety, hurtled into the hulls of the oncoming ships. The advance of the enemy ships all but halted now as they attempted to get out of range of the Maelstrom’s guns. She was still the largest ship in the harbor…at least until Mordred’s Man-O-Wars rounded the white cliffs of granite below the king’s palace.
Ethan looked to the sky and saw a terrible battle raging between hordes of demons and the heavenly warriors from Shaddai. Though the angels were greatly outnumbered, none of them suffered defeat. The angels are keeping the demons occupied while we fight down here! Ethan realized.
But with the larger warships approaching from the port side of the Maelstrom, at the other end of the harbor, the outcome began to look bleak for success. They had managed to cripple Mordred’s ships in the harbor, but many more ships had been missing. Mordred had baited them with a few dozen choice targets while using the others to spring the trap.
Bonifast called through the ship’s internal megaphone system. “Portside gunners, Fire!”
Another tremendous volley of cannon fire erupted from the Maelstrom toward the approaching Man-O-Wars, five in all. But the Man-O-Wars returned fire against the bare broadside of Bonifast’s ship. Cannon balls streaked through the air, leading trails of smoke.
A wave of shells smashed into the side of the Maelstrom with tremendous force. “Hit the deck!” cried Bonifast as another wave of cannon shot tore across the deck. Ethan immediately realm shifted out of harm’s way. He stood there, watching as Captain Bonifast and Gideon threw themselves to the deck.
Wood from the railings, masts, and other equipment shattered, spraying in every direction. The bodies of men from the gunnery crews on deck flew into the air or were smashed by iron balls traveling at high velocity.
For Ethan, everything slowed down. He tracked the iron cannon balls through the air, like birds riding the wind on a summer’s day. His sight penetrated the smoke to find the enemy ships now surrounding the Maelstrom. They would soon attempt to board her.
Ethan looked to the sky where the fight between angels and demons still raged. Ethan did not know what to do. The cannons continued to pound into the side of the Maelstrom. The enemy intended to clear their way of any resistance before boarding the old pirate ship. Ethan whipped his blade at a shot that would have killed Gideon and Bonifast, deflecting it into the sea. The sword reappeared in his hand a moment later.
Most of the deck crew was dead or missing by now. Mordred’s Man-
O-Wars glided in to take their prize. Their crews hurled grappling hooks across the span of sea between ships in order to pull alongside and get across. Ethan ran to Gideon and Captain Bonifast. They were both dazed and confused, lying face down on the deck.
The air filled with smoke around the battered Maelstrom, but it did not prevent Ethan’s preternatural eyes from seeing the boarding party from the closest Man-O-War. Within moments, the enemy would cross over to the Maelstrom.
Ethan, still in the spirit, grabbed the clothing of both men and hoisted them up onto his shoulders. He did not know how he had the strength to do so, but he was certainly glad for it. Ethan took his friends and ran down the stairs, taking them below deck.
The hallways down below had filled with smoke and the floors and walls were stained with fresh blood. In some places, the walls had burst out from explosions caused by cannon fire. Ethan set Gideon and Captain Bonifast down on the floor and materialized in the physical world again.
He shook them, shouting, “Wake up!”
Groggy, the men began to recover. “Captain, we must escape!” Ethan hissed, hoping the boarders wouldn’t hear him.
Gideon started to stand on his own. Captain Bonifast shook himself and said, “What’s happened, lad? Where are we?”
“The crew on deck is dead. I’ve pulled you both down below. We have to find a way off the Maelstrom before it’s too late,” Ethan said.
Just then, all three heard the heavy thump of boots pounding the deck above them. Hearts raced. “We’ve been boarded,” Bonifast whispered.
SELF DESTRUCT
Captain Levi Bonifast patted the wall where they were standing. “They’ll not have you my beauty,” he said to the ship as if consoling the glorious old girl over their predicament. Then the captain turned to Ethan and Gideon there in the half-light and said, “Come on, boys, we’ve got a job to do before we leave.”
Normally, Ethan would have been smiling at the thought of doing a job of nearly any sort with Captain Bonifast—he was such an interesting fellow to be around. But the wild look on the captain’s face had transformed to one of desperation.
It was the kind of expression that one might find on a mother whose children she is about to defend to the death in the face of overwhelming odds. It was the same face Ethan saw in nightmares when his mother pulled him and his sister from their beds—the same grim resolve to look death in the eye, then run headlong toward it.
“What are we going to do?” Gideon whispered as the boys followed the captain down into the depths of the ship. Ethan followed, suspecting it would be terrible whatever it was. Captain Bonifast did not answer Gideon’s question.
The captain had chosen a course of action. Nothing would deter him from what was about to take place. He grabbed two oil lanterns from the wall as they descended almost as far as was possible. The captain handed one lantern to Gideon, then with the other, he pushed through the door at the end of the hall.
Gideon asked again, “where are we—”
He stopped in mid-sentence as the door Bonifast had gone through swung closed before him. It read, Powder Room. Gideon turned with the lamp in his hand to look at Ethan. Ethan swallowed big, but the lump held firm in his throat. He hunched his shoulders at Gideon and waited for the warrior-priest to follow the captain. Gideon turned back to the door and proceeded through cautiously, his grip tightening on the lamp handle as he did so. It would not do for fire to drop in this room.
When Ethan and Gideon went inside, they were struck by how many barrels sat stacked inside. “There must be a few hundred of them,” Ethan said.
Gideon put another hand on the handle of the lamp he was holding. They saw the glow of Captain Bonifast’s lamp down a corridor through the barrels. It bobbed back and forth carelessly. Then the captain slowly crept back toward them and the door. Under his arm, he carried one of the smaller barrels. Bonifast poured a steady line of black powder onto the floor.
“Back out the door, boys,” he said. They complied quickly. It was a bad idea to argue with a man holding twenty pounds of uncorked black powder under his arm and holding a glass oil lamp in the other.
Captain Bonifast followed them out the door. He continued to pour the black powder line on the floor, over the threshold, and down the hall beyond. When they reached the end of the hall at the stairwell, Bonifast emptied the rest of the powder in a small pile and set the barrel down. “Listen, men, when we head up the stairs we’ll be going for the galley on the next deck. There’s a large window of stained glass coming out the rear of the ship. We’re going through it before this blows.”
They heard the thump of boot steps above them again. “We’ve got to hurry, lads,” Bonifast said.
Ethan and Gideon knew where the galley was. They ran ahead of Bonifast, leaving him on the stairs with his lantern in his hand. Levi Bonifast slid his palm over the wooden planks one last time, as though caressing the cheek of a dying wife. “Goodbye old girl,” he whispered.
Captain Bonifast tossed the lantern down where the mound of black powder lay on the floor in the hallway. The glass bell shattered, releasing the flame and igniting the powder. By the time the hiss of burning powder began to run down the hallway toward the fully stocked powder room, Levi Bonifast had already gone.
Ethan and Gideon paused at the open entrance to the galley. The sunlight beamed through the stained glass window at the far end. “Where is he?” Gideon asked.
No sooner had he voiced the question, than Captain Bonifast appeared in a hard run. “Don’t stop, lads! We’ll be lucky if it doesn’t kill us too!” He ran past them into the galley. The captain threw his body, shoulder first, into the window. It exploded outward, sending shattered glass and Bonifast into the sea below.
Ethan and Gideon ran hard and leaped through the shattered window after him. Ethan shifted into the spiritual realm as he left the ship. He watched both Gideon and Bonifast hit the water below. The captain’s words pounded in his brain—“we’ll be lucky if it doesn’t kill us too.”
Ethan shot downward into the sea and found his two friends dazed and struggling against the current. When the powder room went off, it would blow out the bottom of the ship first, causing a massive concussion wave in the water, killing anything in the vicinity.
Ethan concentrated on holding them and grabbed the two men by their clothes. He surged forward—his body traveling through the ether while their mortal forms dragged through the blue water.
Ethan focused on the white granite cliffs before him. They were still several hundred yards away. The water’s drag on Gideon and Captain Bonifast held back his progress as Ethan fought to get his friends to safety. Bonifast and Gideon held their breaths, unsure if it was Ethan pulling them.
Only seconds had passed since they had entered the Azure Sea. Captain Bonifast still counted down in his head.
The men of the boarding party, from one of the Man-O-Wars, descended steadily into the bowels of the wounded Maelstrom. They encountered several members of the crew along the way. Their captain dispatched them without mercy. He did not like prisoners.
Presently, they heard the sounds of shouting and of glass shattering. They continued deep into the ship to investigate. A faint, flickering light caught the eye of the captain of the Man-O-War. He led his boarding party down the stairs to the lowest deck on the ship. The design and layout were unfamiliar to him. It was difficult to ascertain exactly where they were. Several of the men, with lanterns, came to the front and handed the captain a light.
They descended into a dark hallway. A door stood at the far end. A flickering light outlined the doorframe, coming from the room beyond. The smell of cannon smoke hung in the air. The boarding party reached the door at the end of the hall and the flickering light. The captain held up his lantern to read the writing on the door. Powder Room. The Man-O-War’s captain screamed, “GET OUT!” These were the last words any of them would ever hear.
Ethan pulled upward and his friends breached the surface of
the water. Both Gideon and Captain Bonifast gulped air as they found themselves hauled like fish from the Azure Sea by invisible hands. Bonifast’s count ended—“two, one.”
Ethan had managed to get his friends nearly 250 yards from the battered Maelstrom before the black powder ignited. KA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! The explosion sounded like a hundred cannons trying to go off at the same moment.
The Maelstrom bloomed like a fiery flower behind them before the sound ever found their ears. The old pirate ship erupted in every direction at once, sending flaming debris into the sky. A shockwave surged outward from the explosion like an invisible juggernaut, smashing everything in its path.
The three Man-O-Wars, surrounding the Maelstrom, ripped apart as the shockwave hit them. Their sails were shredded and set on fire as the masts splintered, falling like trees toppled by a mighty wind. A fiery cloud engulfed the entire lot of them, as more explosions erupted from the powder stores onboard the enemy ships.
When the shockwave hit Gideon and Bonifast a second later, it sent all three of them reeling. Ethan was pulled by their bodies as the blast wave tossed them all back into the sea. Ethan shifted back to the physical world after they hit the water. His friends quickly came back to the surface for air.
Levi Bonifast watched as the black mushroom cloud rose from his ship. There was nothing recognizable about the old seabird now. Had it not been for the fact that they were all in the water, the two young men might have noticed several tears tracing down Bonifast’s stubbly cheeks. “I guess I’m a civilian now,” he muttered under his breath as the three men bobbed in the sea.
SEWER RATS
The Maelstrom was no more. Nothing but ash and burning debris remained. But Captain Bonifast, Ethan, and Gideon did not linger to watch it burn. Bonifast had a plan. “We’ll enter the palace ourselves and find your sister,” he told Ethan.
“But how? How can we get inside from here?”
Here was a good two hundred yards from the granite cliffs now towering above them. They were crowned at the top by the king’s palace, now the home of Mordred himself.
