Slave Of Destiny

by Derek Easterbrook

  As he turned a corner of the structure and approached the front door, he saw a man. Wayne knew him by sight, but that was all he knew.

  “Wayne?” he asked solemnly.

  “Yes” he replied. “And yours?”

  They stood looking at each other for a time before he replied. “Marcus! Do you think she will show up?” he asked.

  Wayne looked thoughtful for a moment, before he replied. “Yeah, I think so because I overheard her planning to go ashore for a swim and they will be there all afternoon. You know it took us quite a while to find her and then I had to make sure it was her – the princess. I don't think she wanted to be found because she’s working as a chambermaid.”

  “Is that my payment?” he inquired politely.

  “Oh. Sure. Here” he said, handing the package to Marcus. “I’ll be back here tonight.”

  He knew he could only slip away from Jack’s entourage for a brief time. The rest of the crew was busy whoring after months at sea, but he was looking more to his future.

  Chapter 5

  Michael was scared. He and Sally were tied up to a post in a room with a dirty wooden floor and they had some sort of tape over their mouths. They were both worried, but Michael felt responsible for her. The room that they had been left in had no windows, but he could just make out some chairs and a table. The walls in the room appeared bland, no paint nor decoration, just a dingy wood finish. There were stairs off to the right side of the room, towards the back. Michael knew that his vision had adjusted to the darkness, but still couldn’t see much. The only light that was entering the room came from the stairwell, so he lay there reflecting on the past events and everything that had happening to him.

  The two of them had only gone ashore that afternoon for a swim. Michael didn’t even think about looking out for Mad Wayne, because he had left with Jack and the other crew to pick up the extra supplies. He was just happy to be there with Sally, but some men must have subdued the two of them with chloroform as soon as they arrived at the waterfall.

  “Why would someone want to hurt us?” he thought.

  Michael heard the footsteps before he looked up, but no one came up the stairs straight away. Slowly the footsteps sounded again before someone entered the room and turned on the light.

  “Marcus, is that you?” Sally thought as the figure approached closer.

  “Hi there bitch. I bet you didn’t think that I would be involved in all this.” he said, his words more a statement rather than a question.”

  He reached over and harshly ripped the tape off her mouth.

  “Ow” she cried. “Marcus, you hurt me you mongrel.”

  Marcus ignored her remark and looked at her. She seemed thinner now and there was no joy in her face. He moved away because she looked frightened, as if she expected that he might do her harm. He stood there in silence unable to comprehend her fear.

  “Why, Sally? Why? How could you leave me and our marriage for… that?” he spat out, pointing to Michael. “I want an answer, not lies. I want the truth!”

  “Me? Sally is married? I remember Marcus as her evil step-brother. I’ve got nothing to do with all this madness” Michael thought, becoming worried.

  “I had to leave Calcutta, because of the great famine and it wasn’t safe to stay there anymore” she said.

  “Your father, the Maharaja, is the reason why the great famine began. His partnership with the East India Company and their imports of cheap tea and cocaine left half of the labourers without work, so they turned to drugs to ease their pain. Then the company began to export all the wheat the people grew, so along with a severe drought, the population began to starve” he said, pointing out her ignorance.

  “My father would never do that! The people love him!” she shouted.

  “If they loved him, then why did you leave?” he snarled.

  “I…I…They…” she sobbed, trying to reply to his chilling words.

  “There’s no need to say anything, because it will all be over soon. Your kidnapping will force your father’s hand. He will have to leave Calcutta and move to the province, before the British armed forces throw him in jail. You will be coming with us, but I still don’t know what to do with …him” he snarled.

  “Please don’t harm Michael, because he has nothing to do with all this” she sobbed. “I only just met him on The Teresa.”

  “Shut up bitch. I’ll leave him for Mad Wayne to deal with” he said, placing some more tape over her mouth. “We have to leave on the Vega with the high tide. Untie her, Snake!”

  Michael squirmed and wriggled as best as he could, but it wasn’t enough to stop Snake from untying Sally and dragging her away.

  He could hear the heavy scuffling footsteps echoing down the stairwell, then a door creaking open before slamming shut. He knew he had to escape, but as the minutes dragged on he knew he had little chance of that.

  The post Michael was tied to was large and square with fairly sharp corners. Maybe he could fray the rope enough to get free. It appeared to be his only hope, so he began his task while believing that Captain Thomas should be looking for him, thinking he had run away again.

  * * *

  Two hours later Michael had sawn through the rope and was just removing the tape off his mouth, when he heard footsteps coming up the stairwell. There wasn’t any place to hide, so Michael decided to take his chance and fight his way out.

  “Mad Wayne!” he said. “Trust you to be messed up in all this.”

  “I arranged to kidnap the lovely Sauli Bhanj, but I demanded to take my turn with you” he snarled. “It was so easy to take the two of you together.”

  “Is that Sally’s real name?” Michael enquired as he felt in his pocket for the oily rag.

  He pulled it out, unwrapped it and pulled the dagger out of its sheath. The small dagger felt comfortable in his hand, so he dropped the rag and the sheath and prepared for battle. Mad Wayne was a towering bear of a man and he filled the exit.

  “Stinkin’ little brat. I’ll teach you for makin’ a fool outta me and stabbing at me” he cursed, feeling confident. “You won’t hurt me with that little thing.”

  Mad Wayne ambled over to him, but he didn’t even have time to raise a fist. Michael’s right arm came up with a smooth swift arc, pushing his dagger into Mad Wayne’s chest, finding his vital organ; his heart. Wayne’s eyes stared at Michael with disbelief as he raised his hands to try and remove the weapon. Wayne tried to speak, but failed, before he tried to speak again. Blood was streaming down his dirty shirt and, as he tumbled forward, he vomited blood. Wayne fell heavily onto the table, smashing it to pieces before tumbling to the floor. Blood leaked everywhere, but Mad Wayne remained deathly still with his eyes fixed open. Michael stood there looking at the grisly corpse for several minutes, making sure Mad Wayne was actually dead, before he walked over and removed his dagger. He wiped it clean on Mad Wayne’s shirt, before Michael located the sheath and the rag. He wrapped the dagger back up and placed it deep in his pocket, still trembling with rage and shock. There could be other guards around, so Michael cautiously made his way down the stairs and out into the humid night air. The Teresa mustn’t be too far away; probably over that low hill, so he wearily followed a worn path in the general direction.

  It was about four in the morning when Michael found an overhanging rock, so he crawled underneath it and fell asleep.

  Michael continued on his journey after three hours sleep, still not sure if he was going in the right direction. All of a sudden he heard voices, so he quickly moved off the track and hid behind a thick bush.

  “Nawala siya Babalik tayo” Pedro said to Carlinga as the two men ambled past his hiding spot.

  “I wish I could understand what they’re saying” Michael thought, seeing the other man nod as if he agreed with him.

  Michael waited for five minutes, until the two men had well and truly walked well away, before he continued on his way. Fifteen minutes later he paused, because the sound he could hear was
a waterfall. When Michael reached the falls, he slaked his thirst, before continuing on the track which would take him down to Pertamina Beach. A longboat was about 100 yards out and it was coming his way.

  “Alby” Michael shouted, waving his arms.

  “I’m so glad to see you” he shouted as the boat hit the sand.

  “The captain was so pissed off when you didn’t come back last night” Alby mentioned, shaking his head.

  “Sally and I were kidnapped. I managed to escape, but two people took Sally away” he said sadly, before he added. “I killed Mad Wayne.”

  “What did you do, Lad?” he asked as if he didn’t really hear him correctly.

  “The kidnappers left me tied up, so that Mad Wayne could come back later and dispose of me. I…I…I managed to cut through my bonds just in time, before I stabbed him in the heart” Michael gulped, explaining why he was late.

  “Captain Thomas will want to hear this, so we better head back to The Teresa” Alby said grimly.

  * * *

  “I want you to tell me your story again but slow down this time, because I could nay understand a word you said” Captain Thomas admitted when Jack and Michael were in the captain’s cabin.

  “Yesterday afternoon Sally and I went ashore as planned. Constance explained to us about the proximity of the waterfall, so we went straight up there for a swim and a bath. I guess I wasn’t paying much attention, but the next thing I remember is waking up in a dingy room. A man called Marcus, her husband, arrived there with another man called Snake. He took her away after he mentioned he was going to use her as a pawn to overthrow the royal family in India. He left me tied up, but I managed to saw through my bonds, just before Mad Wayne found me. He threatened to kill me for stabbing at him yesterday, but I managed to stab him in his heart with the dagger Alby gave me. Is Sally’s real name, Sauli Bhanj?” Michael asked.

  “Yes lad, that’s her real name, but I was trusted to take care of her. I too thought she would be safe going ashore” he admitted. “Did they mention where they were taking her?”

  “I assumed that they would be taking her back to Calcutta to force her father, the Maharaja and the royal family, to step aside and flee to the province. Marcus said that they were leaving on the high tide last night” Michael mentioned. “We have to follow them and save her!”

  “We can’t do that Lad, because that means they would have fourteen hours head start. We left India because of the Great Famine. There is an intense drought in the Deccan Plateau which resulted in crop failure. However, the export of grain to England by Lord Lytton is playing a massive role in the famine. These exports will result in the deaths of millions of people. The government of Bengal and its Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Richard Temple, tried to import cheap rice from Burma, but he was criticized for excessive expenditure, so it was stopped” he said. “Believe me, it will only get worse.”

  “I don’t think the Indian National Movement will harm members of the royal family. They just want them to step aside, so that Dadabhai Naoroji can influence British public officials to promote Indian welfare. He wants the leader of the Indian Association of Calcutta, Surendranath Banerjea, to unify the Indian people under a common political program” Jack mentioned.

  “We better leave soon, because someone will be looking into Wayne’s murder and they will be looking this way. There’s still time to sail away, so Jack, get your men to raise the anchor and the sails. Keep the reef in them though, because the winds will still be strong. The sooner we leave the better” he said grimly.

  “So it’s all settled then. We’re just going to leave Sally to her fate” Michael said; rage engulfing him as he stormed out the door.

  “There isn’t anything we can do” shouted Captain Thomas, understanding his grief.

  * * *

  The Teresa had barely cleared the point of the island when a sudden burst of wind brought her close to the reefs, but without the fine skills of the skipper they would have been shipwrecked. The sloop held its course for the entire day due to the strong southerlies, but the winds turned more to the west with the approach of night and the reefs in the sails were removed. The moon was in its last quarter, so it rose much later. Michael crawled up to his secret spot, sat down and thought about Sally. The phosphorescence sparkled in the water, almost as if the water was on fire. The crew had been quiet during the day, as if they too were reflecting on what had happened to Mad Wayne.

  “I’m going to find you again one day, Sally” he whispered, hoping she would remember him. He opened the small locket she given him, on that faithful morning. Michael originally thought her to be of Asian origin, with her dark hair and eyes, but to find out she was married was a complete shock to him.

  ***

  Sally’s voice was firmer and louder now. “Marcus, I don't think that I could ever lie to you, and what would be the point of lying now. What is done is done, and there is no going back or remaking the past.”

  “Greed, envy, pride and vanity, I think they all played their parts in why you left me. I wanted to give you the things that I couldn’t buy. I know you wanted excitement and were tired of living on my meager income. You were tired of my poor friends, and their low-class wives, and the burden of being a wife all at once” he suggested.

  “I wanted to keep my, beautifully smooth and young looking skin. I wanted my beauty to last forever. I didn’t want to look like some of your friends” she admitted. She paused and then spoke again. “I think I was always like that, even as a child; I was selfish and self-obsessed. You tempted me with your promises and I fell into your trap. I imagined you were my path to freedom and away from my strict family At least, that is what I foolishly believed was freedom.”

  “It didn't take you long to replace me, did it?” he whispered, his desperation and regret mixed with anger dripping from his every word.

  “I'm sure my sister Rani was there to comfort you, probably the day after I left, and offer her sympathy” she retorted, disregarding his last remark.

  Sally’s words revealed an angry bitterness that Marcus couldn’t understand. After all, it was her, not him, who had left and thrown away their life together. Marcus didn't respond as he should have, because, in truth, he had known of Rani’s desire for him from the very beginning. But it hadn’t mattered until the day he returned to their home to find that Rani had left him as well. Reflecting on the two sisters, Sauli and Rani, Marcus could hardly believe they were actually sisters.

  “You’ll come crawling back to me when your family becomes outcasts” he said as he left the cabin and padlocked the door.

  * * *

  “Where are we, Captain Thomas?” Michael enquired the next morning.

  “We’re skirting around the edge of Malaysia, Michael” he explained.

  “How long will it take us to reach our destination?” he asked.

  “That’s a long way away. Are you becoming bored now that Sally’s not here?” he surmised.

  “No, not really!” he mumbled. “It’s…It’s because The Teresa is barely moving.”

  “Don’t let Horace on the helm hear you say that, because he would be deeply offended and he would take that remark as an insult” he gaffed.

  Captain Thomas had a deep, powerful laugh, which made you feel happy as well.

  “Why are you in such a rush” he asked me.

  “What I really meant to ask is when are we going to stop and lower the anchor again?” Michael explained.

  “Look over there on the port side. What do you see?” he asked.

  “I can see some islands. Why aren’t we heading for one of those?” he asked.

  “We can’t land there because they’re teeming with pirates! Vijendra is the most ferocious and merciless one of them all and he would slay us without a second thought” he mentioned.

  “What about the British and the Dutch, why haven’t they stopped him?” he asked.

  “Oh, they have tried to stop him by attacking his stronghold, but he retaliated an
d attacked a few of their settlements in return. No one has tried it since. I think your wish to speed up may come to reality. See those dark clouds over there, they sure don’t mean we’re going to get more smooth sailing” he said. “I have to get back to my navigation and plot our new course.”

  * * *

  The captain hadn’t been wrong in assessing the dark clouds, because, later that night the sea began to get restless again. That afternoon the dark cloud mass grew larger and larger until it blotted out the setting sun. Bolts of lightning traced jagged paths across the darkening sky and the rumble of thunder grew louder. The Teresa was a magnificent three-mast schooner and very heavily constructed, but the first gust of wind nearly lay her over. The seas began to rage about them as the crew scuttled up the masts to reef the sails. Horace held the wheel with all his strength, but he had little control because the sea raged on, dragging them closer to the island and their dangerous reefs.

  An island, silhouetted by the lightning, grew larger and larger until its immense cliffs towered over the schooner. The waves grew into mountains while the wind roared furiously through the rigging. Rain bucketed down, washing the decks as if it were getting ready for another scrubbing.

  “It must be a cyclone” Michael overheard someone mention to his friend.

  “All crew on deck. The Captain’s going to try and tack” shouted Jack.

  Pitching wildly, the Teresa, battled bravely, but she constantly creaked and groaned with every onslaught of the waves.