by Heath Pfaff
I realized there would be no answers forthcoming from the crew of the ship. They were no ordinary crew. Whatever was wrong with them, I did not believe it was a sickness. I walked towards the door to below decks. I'd known it would probably be necessary, but I hadn't wanted to go that route until all others had been extinguished. Ethaniel was not atop the ship, and the crew would not speak to me. My options were limited. I drew my borrowed sword as I approached the door.
I half expected the entry way to the ships interior to be locked, but the door swung easily open as I pressed it with the tip of my sword. The latch was not fastened at all. Someone had gone through, and not bothered to close it on their way by. The door opened into complete darkness. Where the last of the sun faded from the opening created by the door, so too did the light penetrating the level below the main deck. The ship was eerily quiet on the inside. I stepped into the dark, shutting the door behind me, though I did not allow the latch to catch. I wanted to be able to get out quickly if it was necessary.
I briefly considered calling out to Ethaniel, to see if he would reply, but I did not believe that the other Knight had been dragged away against his will. That would have attracted too much notice. He had left of his own volition, and come below decks. Why would he do that? What secrets did the old Knight keep that he was unwilling to share with those who'd come so far with him? I gripped my sword firmly and pressed on through the dark, listening for any sound of voices. There was nothing. The only sound was the quiet pad of my own feet upon the wooden floor. I had a brief memory of the old stories about ghost ships I had read in my youth. I shook my head, dispelling those thoughts as foolish.
The air was clear and fresh, not the stale, sickly air I would have expected of a ship crewed by those with a terrible, wasting disease. Everything was wrong about the ship and its crew. Ethaniel was part of it as well. He had changed, and had been changing even more recently. He was not the man he'd once been. There was a tie between him and the ship, him and the captain and her strange crew. I couldn't imagine what the connection was, but I knew it was there just the same. I pressed on through the dark.
Footsteps sounded down the corridor from me, and I stopped in place. Someone was coming in my direction. My nerves began to jump, and I took a few deep, yet quiet breaths to ease the tension. I held my position, sword at the ready. The footsteps were soft, widely spaced. It was a Knight. Ethaniel?
The soft padding rounded a corner and my motion sensitive vision traced a winged outline moving through the darkness in my direction. It was Ethaniel. He stopped after a few more steps in my direction.
"Noble." He said, his voice giving me the last identification that I needed to be sure. I did not lower my sword.
"Ethaniel." I replied, uncertain how he had seen me in the complete darkness below decks. The eyes of a Knight could not see in complete darkness, not without movement to trace. Was it the other eyes that had betrayed my position or perhaps it was those dark pits on his face? I understood little of what they were or how they functioned.
"Do you plan on cutting me down in cold blood?" Ethaniel's voice was calm. He wasn't worried, and he wasn't bothered that I had discovered him somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.
"What are you doing here, Ethaniel?" I ignored his questions. I knew they had been spoken to attempt to throw me off, to make me panic. Inside my mind, I could feel the Fell Beast part of me pacing the hollows of my darkest thoughts. It sensed the onset of blood. I stifled it.
"Since when is it my responsibility to answer to your paranoia? Will you strike an unarmed man?" Ethaniel's answer shot back. His reply had been angry, but his voice had not held any of that anger. It was as though he were reciting a rehearsed reply. He lifted his hands.
"You left us without so much as word, and stole away into the bowls of a ship allegedly carrying a crew of gravely sick men and women. I believe that my paranoia is justified in this situation. Besides, even unarmed you are more than a match for me. You have experience, strength, and a repertoire of battle strategies that I cannot hope to compete with. Now, what are you doing here?" I asked the question again, more firmly. Could I kill Ethaniel if it came to it? Would I be strong enough to defeat him? Not with one arm. He was a better swordsman then me, and he was not burdened by the loss of a limb. If it came to a fight, all my strength and speed would not amount to much. At least in the close confines of the ship his wings would be of no use to him. That did little to bolster my confidence.
"You underestimate yourself, Lowin Fenly. Your potential is far greater than mine, even if you are maimed. Your strength and speed are boundless, and your determination is like a mountain." The old Knight's reply struck me as odd. I thought for a moment he was simply avoiding my question again, but he went on.
"If you must know, I came to speak with the captain." He said, and there was a certain sense of triumph in his voice. I felt as though I'd just fallen into a trap of some sort, yet the nature of the trap was beyond me. "I came to get charts for you and the others to study, so that you could rest assured that we are heading in the right direction. Since my word is apparently not good enough anymore, I thought it would be advisable for you all to see for yourselves."
I lowered the point of my sword. It was a good explanation, even if it didn't make complete sense. The charts would be invaluable to us, though I still did not believe the old Knight. Would he really come uninvited into the depths of a ship full of the sick just to acquire some charts? I didn't believe he would, unless he was certain that there was no chance of him actually getting sick. His trip had been quick, as well. How had he known exactly where to go? He surely must have gotten the captain's permission before taking the charts. How long would it take to find the captain, get permission to take the charts, and then to get the charts? Longer than he had been gone, I reasoned. However, I had no solid evidence that proved anything he'd said was untrue.
"This ship is dark, and quiet. Where are the sick crew?" I asked, not willing to let the matter rest yet. Too many questions remained, and too much rode upon getting to our destination safely.
"The disease spreads faster in the light, so the crew stays below decks with the lights out unless they are on duty. When we came aboard, they moved everyone to the bottom decks, to assure none of ours would be near the sickness. Those on duty have been instructed not to socialize or come too close to you. Their coverings are standard practice. As I said, the light irritates their condition, so they remain completely covered unless absolutely necessary." Ethaniel explained. Had he learned all of that in his short time with captain? It seemed unlikely. I was, however, at a loss to call him on anything else. His explanations, while unlikely, were not impossible.
"Let us return to the others with the charts." I said, defeated. I put away the sword I'd borrowed, and turned about. The path back was dark. Ethaniel fell in behind me without another word. The fur along my shoulder blades stood on end. I knew Ethaniel had not drawn a weapon, but I felt no safer for having him behind me.
He was lying. The ship we were on was bad news. I could feel it all the way to the center of my being. Danger lay just below the surface of our situation. I would need to be watchful.
Time passed uncomfortably aboard ship. We saw nothing of the mysterious captain, and the crew avoided us as though we were the ones suffering from a plague. A week dragged by, and then another, all the while we watched the charts to track our progress. Whatever else the ship's crew might be, they seemed to be taking us in the right direction, if the charts were to be believed. We crossed the border into shallow waters late the second week of travel. The fear of the great monsters of the sea could finally come to a rest, but instead of relief, I was filled with a sense of impending doom. I had not grown complacent because of lack of action aboard ship. The mysteries still remained, and, if anything, I had become more agitated by the strange behavior of the ship's allegedly sick workmen. It was two days after the crossing into shallow water that Silver had a run in with one of the crew.
"What?" I asked, standing, and instinctually preparing myself for a fight. I was unsure what Silver meant, but just hearing the word "Hungering" after so long set me on edge.
"I went to make use of the head, and when I stepped out of the room, I knocked into one of the crew by mistake. He fell over, and his hood came undone. The crew is not human, King Noble. They're Hungering." Her eyes scanned the deck as though the crew might attack at any moment. "I couldn't see all of him, but I could make out his red eyes, and that strange pale skin of theirs. She held her spear at the ready.
"You're probably mistaken. The Hungering would never have allowed us to sail on one of their ships, besides, they don't sail normal vessels. They use black drakes." Ethaniel's voice cut in. I ignored him.
Fury was soaking through my body, permeating to the center of my mind. I remembered the bony shoulder I'd grabbed on my first day aboard ship, and the agile way which the crew members went about their business. I remembered the strangely familiar, yet alien movements that I couldn't quite place. It all seemed clear to me in that moment. Silver was right. The crew were Hungering. I crossed the ship, walking towards one of the deck hands that was still going about its job with complete indifference.
I grabbed the thing's hood as I drew within range, and pulled it back. Its head was wrapped in linens, a strand going around its eyes to cover the red glow, making it nothing more than a feint shine, but as soon as the head was uncovered, there was no mistaking the creature that stood before me. The Hungering. I expected the creature to attack, to strike out at me in some way, but it didn't do anything at all. It kept to its task. I stared on in horror.
I recoiled from it, the claws of my hand sharpening without any intentional willing on my part. I was so close to striking it down, but instead I backed away. It wasn't attacking me. It hadn't attacked any of us and we had been aboard ship for weeks. Though the impulse to kill burned through my veins, I would not strike down an enemy in cold blood. Questions flooded my mind, needing an outlet.
"What in the hell is this, Ethaniel?" I called back across the ship. The old Knight did not reply. I spun to face him, storming across the open deck. "What is going on? Why are the Hungering taking us into land? Is there a trap waiting for us at shore? What is your part in all of this?" I demanded, my ire rising with every question that occurred to me. I was certain he had played some part in the events that were transpiring. I reached for my sword. It wasn't there. It hadn't been there since I'd lost it to the great ocean depths. The blade given to me by Uin Delmore was gone forever, vanished into a blackness that seemed without end.
The door leading down into the ship interior opened at the far end of the deck, and the captain stepped forth. She moved quickly, as though she'd been alerted to what was going on. I turned away from Ethaniel and faced her. The Knights were all standing. Those with weapons held them at the ready. I stepped out in front of the other Knights, placing myself between her and them. Such a feeling of hostility radiated from the woman that my skin felt as though it were crawling under her eyes. She started towards me. I widened my stance subtly as she approached, and prepared myself for an attack.
"What is this?" I demanded as she came nearer, waving my hand at the crew around me.
"We're transporting you and your men into shore. That's what you want, isn't it?" She answered, her voice calm, but undercurrents of hostility radiated out from her. She kept coming closer. I refused to step back.
"Your crew are monsters. What are you? You don't move like them. What are you planning for us?" I pressed, but I felt the situation was on the cusp of flying out of control. The captain lunged forward, her body blurring with the speed of her motion. I hadn't anticipated such quickness from the woman. It took me completely by surprise. Her hand latched onto my arm before I could even shy backwards. Suddenly the crew of the ship were alert, moving towards my men, weapons I hadn't known they possessed, drawn. Their hoods were pulled back, and their red eyes burned through the cloth coverings. We were surrounded by hostile Hungering forces.
An image of Kay being dragged away by their red glowing eyes flashed through my mind, and with it came a phenomenal rush of strength. I twisted my wrist with explosive force, breaking the hold the woman had on me and grabbing a hold of her throat, all in one darting motion. Her hood fell back as I lifted her from the deck by her neck. She was human in appearance, but her eyes were terrible. I had seen such eyes before. They were dark gray, and seemed to seep smoke from their corners. They were the same eyes that Ethaniel had taken unto himself when he'd joined with creature known as the shadowlyn. The woman differed, though, as she did not have any other eyes besides those gray ones. The look of hostility in those smoking orbs was exactly as it was in Ethaniel's. In my shock, my grip slackened, and the woman tore herself free and backed away from me. She drew a saber from beneath her cloak.
"We're leaving." I said, as I began to back towards the section of the ship to which our lifeboat was bound. "Everyone, to the lifeboat." The Hungering circled around, but they did not pursue. The woman had pulled her hood back over her head as I released her. She stood at the head of those creatures that comprised her crew, a dark force whose whim they obviously followed.
"We will still take you to shore, Lowin Fenly. Come with us." Her voice had resumed its calm tones, but the anger below it gave it a subtle growl.
"We've come far enough with you. We'll find the remainder of the way on our own." I said, the Knights were behind me, and I could hear them readying the rope to lower us down onto the lifeboat.
"You will die, smashed upon the rocks at the coast. The tides of the coastal waters cannot be navigated by such a small craft." The female captain said, and I could hear the ire in her voice rising.
"We do not die so easily. I don't know what you intended, but keep your ship away from us here on out. If we cross paths again, I will tear this craft apart, plank by plank." I said, forcing the words to sound firm, even though a terrible chill ran down my spine. She'd answered none of my questions, and I didn't believe that she would, even if I wanted to stay and ask them again and again. My men, I believed, would be enough to take out her crew, and kill her as well. She would have to be wary of my threat. I did not believe she would pursue us any further. I felt a tug at my sleeve.
"The others have gone, it's just us now." Malice's voice sounded in my ear.
I nodded, still not taking my eyes off of the woman and the Hungering crew that surrounded her. "Go, I'll be right behind you." Malice's hand released my shirt, and then I heard the sounds of her quickly navigating the rope. I grabbed on behind her, and made my way quickly down the line, only taking my eyes off of the woman and her crew when my line of vision passed below the level of the deck. I severed the rope with my claws as we struck bottom.
"Oars, paddle hard and fast. We all know the direction now. Stay to the charts, we should be able to make it into shore." I ordered, and six of us grabbed oars. I did not take one. Instead, I looked at Ethaniel, who was staring at me, barely concealed hostility playing across his features. His smoky gray eyes burned ferociously. I wondered if the others had seen the eyes of the ship captain as I had. They didn't seem to be paying any extra attention to Ethaniel, and that lead me to believe they had not. I, however, could not get those dark eyes out of my mind. The ship faded behind us, apparently having drawn to a stop.
I was leaving the enemy behind, but I had the sneaking suspicion that I had also allowed the enemy to come along with us. He rowed with the others, seemingly as intent as them to get us away from the ship, but Ethaniel was nothing of what he seemed. The situation was out of my control, and I wasn't entirely sure how long it had been so.
We paddled tirelessly in the direction indicated by the charts until finally, for the first time since we'd begun our seemingly endle
ss journey, land appeared at the horizon. It had been too long since we'd last seen dry land. There was an undeniable giddy excitement amongst us, though Ethaniel did not seem to be affected for either good or ill. I had not spoken to him since leaving the Hungering controlled ship. Indeed, little had been said by any of the crew, though days had passed. Leaving that ship had felt like defeat. I was certain that it had been the correct choice, but getting back in the life boat had been difficult for everyone. I was just thankful the ship had not made an attempt to follow us. I had believed that it might, but I never saw sails on the horizon. That my threat had worked at all on the woman and her strange crew was bewildering.
Of course, I was beginning to realize that I understood very little of what motivated those strange creatures. I had once been told that they lived to feed and expand, but I no longer believed that. The Hungering were driven by some purpose that I couldn't yet fathom. What could they possibly want with Kay, and why would they allow the other Knights and me to sail upon their ship? I looked over my shoulder at Ethaniel. His eyes were elsewhere, apparently far away. He had answers. His gray, smoky eyes were part of those answers. I needed to confront the old Knight. When we reached land, it would be time for him to tell the truth. I would force the point if I needed to. I was tired of the lies and half truths. Was he an agent of the Hungering? If so, he would have to be dealt with.
The water became increasingly violent as we drew closer to land. We could make out the shore, and the tree line beyond, massive mountains sprawling in the distance, but all of that faded to the tumult of the ocean. We went from paddling for speed, to paddling just to keep our boat oriented and upright. We drew nearer, and suddenly there were jutting rocks amidst the waves, knife like protrusions that were covered by water one minute, and exposed the next.
