“My dad found out that I came to visit you the other day,” Carvin said sheepishly. “I managed to dodge all but one punch. This was the one that got me.”
“What a horrible thing,” Jackie said. Her heart went out to him, despite the fact that he was still one of the people holding her captive.
She finished dabbing his face and suddenly realized how close she was to him. The kiss happened before she realized what she was doing and when she finally stumbled back from him they both looked away in embarrassment.
“I am sorry,” Carvin stammered. “I shouldn’t have done that.
“No I shouldn’t have,” Jackie started.
“I am going to find a way to help you,” Carvin declared suddenly. He straightened his tunic and a determined look entered his face. “I swear it I will find a way to help you get back to your family.”
With that he vanished out the door and fled, as the soldiers in the hallway locked the door.
Jackie sat on her bunk for a time, hugging her legs and trying to sort through the range of emotions that filled her. She remembered reading in her phycology class at the university about Stockholm syndrome and she wondered if that was the only reason she was becoming attached to Carvin. He seemed so different when compared the rest of the people she had met in this world.
Chapter 10
Below Decks
“It’s a trap!” Jacob nearly shouted as he materialized on the deck of the wooden masked cargo vessel. In front of him, Tasker and his raiders were getting ready to board the silent warship before them. He had stopped for a moment in route and slammed the same hatch shut on the first ship and threw the locking bolt shut, drawing shouts of alarm from below.
“What are you talking about, boy?” Tasker hissed from where he was crouched on the deck near the railing. In his hands he held a rope with an iron hook and was ready to throw it across the short distance and tie off to the warship.
“Soldiers are on the decks below waiting to attack once we’re on board,” Jacob gasped. “I locked the hatches, but I don’t know how long that will hold.”
“You did well, boy,” Tasker said with a smile. “Now that we know, we can finish what we came here to do.” Tasker let his hook fly and caught with a solid thump on the side of the Ironship. All along the railing a dozen more ropes flew across the shrinking gap and all across the wooden ship strong hands heaved with all their strength to bring the ships together. There was a sickening crunch when the vessel met the Ironship. Immediately scores of rebels swarmed up the sides and spread out across the deck racing for the few other hatches that remained unlocked. Soon they were all secured, and a string of muffled shouts and calls came from below the deck.
“Puck, I believe it’s time for your newest friend to make an appearance,” Tasker said with a smile as they listened to the repeated shouts and blows coming from inside the ship’s hold as the soldiers tried to escape.
Puck walked to the side of the Ironship and raised his right hand to his lips. A piecing whistle broke out a moment later and echoed across the water. Jacob looked worriedly at the hatch door, which was beginning to give way with the efforts of those below decks. Suddenly a beautiful sound broke over the side of the vessel and an odd looking creature landed on the side of the vessel. Jacob stared with wide eyes as the creature walked slowly towards the hatch way with her great deep black eyes fixed on the crumbling latch.
“Close your eyes, boy,” Tasker said as he slapped Jacob on the side of the head. “And cover your ears, unless you want to live out the rest of your life in the depths of the siren’s grotto.”
Jacob followed his instructions, closed his eyes and turned his head away. He slapped his hands over his ears to lessen the effects of the song that was already working its insidious magic on the Adherents trapped in the ship’s hold. Jacob risked one short glance as the latch gave way but instead of being attacked by dozens of soldiers he saw the first glassy eyed Adherent step from the ships hold and walk calmly to the edge of the ship and dive into the water below. He clenched his eyes tightly shut once more as the siren turned towards him and smiled. He nearly followed her, but Tasker’s hand grabbed him, and he covered his ears once more.
When silence finally reined on the Ironship, Jacob stumbled to his feet and looked around shaking his head to clear the last echoes of the song. He could not tell what the strange looking woman had been singing, but he knew he’d nearly followed the Adherents over the side of the ship.
“When the Greeks finally got sick of losing ships, they drove the sirens out of their waters, and the remaining ones scattered across the world,” Puck said sadly. “When I bargained for her help, I nearly stayed in her grotto myself.” Puck looked over at Jacob and shrugged. “Once you enter a siren’s grotto, you never leave it. Most never want to. They will die of starvation with happy smiles on their faces.”
Jacob shuddered. All around him rebels broke into frantic activity as the looming shape of the second Ironship emerged from the fog just to the west. “I think the soldiers on the other ship are free,” Jacob said to Tasker.
“Aye, lad, that they are.”
“Will she … will the siren come back for them too?” Jacob asked hesitantly. “Because I don’t know if I can handle that again.”
“Lad, that siren will not be seen in this world for hundreds of years,” Tasker replied. “She’s taken her fill of this world for a long time. Temptation is a horrible thing. You almost gave in to her too. It’s a good thing I was here to bring you back to your senses.”
The second Ironship was less than five hundred yards away as Tasker brought the first ship around. A rhythmic sound came from deep inside the ship as he pushed a long lever next to the wheel forward and spun the wheel as tightly as he could. There was a shout of surprise from the other ship, and then the flashes of musket fire as the battle was joined against the rebel ship that had tied off on the other side. “Make ready to board the other ship!” Tasker shouted as he brought the Ironship around and aimed it straight at its sister.
Jacob read the name of the ship as he watched the gap close between the vessels, The Black Stone.
“Hail …”
Jacob nearly laughed when the sentries’ eyes went wide with surprise to see a sister ship behave so. The three ships came together with a resounded crunch. Instead of a hundred Adherents claiming a swift victory, a swarm of goblins and freed slaves launched themselves into the back of the line of soldiers, firing their muskets at the wooden vessel floating forlornly fifty yards from the Ironship. There was a chorus of shouts and cries as half the soldiers were knocked unconscious or tossed overboard in the first few moments of the fight.
An hour later, the battle was over, and the few remaining Adherents were locked safely in the ships smallest hold, stripped of their weapons and robes.
“South to Madeline Island,” Tasker called across the space that separated the two ships. Nearly six-hundred of his fighters were now milling about the decks of the two ships, many of them bent over their magical muskets while others showed them how to arm the devices and how to fire them. Two thick columns of black smoke soared into the air as the massive engines in the bellies of the vessels roared to life, and the water surged passed the great hulls.
“What of the other ships?” Jacob asked. “I thought there were two more out there somewhere?”
“We can’t help that now,” Tasker said. “If we sail now, we can be tied off to the harbor at Madeline Island before they realize who is on board.”
“Shall I move forward and see what’s happening at the castle?” Jacob asked. Jane was on the first vessel. He had seen her when she stepped out of the cabin and looked across the water towards him. He waved at her and smiled, but all she did was frown at him, and his wave faltered until he dropped his hand to his side. “I wonder why she’s so mad?” Jacob muttered under his breath.
“I sent Flying Cloud and Bella to scout the island,” Tasker said as he leaned closer to Jacob.
Su
ddenly the cannon mounted to the rear of the vessel boomed loudly, and they both turned to watch. Jacob stared with his mouth open as the massive ball of iron tore across the water and slammed into the prow of the next Ironship as it emerged from the heavy fog bank. The shot slammed into the hull near the water line. A moment later a second explosion tore through the side of the vessel, and it listed to that side almost immediately.
“Lucky shot,” Tasker muttered as he watched the tiny forms of the Adherent soldiers struggle to keep the vessel from rolling completely over. “Go meet Flying Cloud and Bella and tell them we’ll be there in less than two hours.”
“How will I find them?”
“I think they’ll find you before you find them,” Tasker said with a smile.
Behind them the fourth vessel finally emerged from the last remnants of Jane’s thick bank of fog, and in the distance their cannon roared to life. Jacob gulped as he saw the massive iron ball soar into the air but he quickly realized that the shot had no chance of reaching them. A cheer rose and a roar of taunts followed as Puck’s goblins pointed and laughed. A few of the freed slaves even fired their muskets back at the last Ironship, but the shots traveled only a short distance before falling into the water.
Jacob stepped into the Divide and found Jane’s map once again, he examined it for a moment until he spotted the outlines of the castle and then stepped out onto a hill on Madeline Island overlooking the castle. It was the one place he thought was tall enough to look down at the castle, and the top of the hill was covered with massive trees.
“Bella?” Jacob called softly, not wanting to announce his presence to anyone in the area. He looked down at the castle and watched for any sign of movement amongst the buildings that he had scouted when he returned from Bayfield a day earlier. No one moved inside the castle walls and only here and there an Adherent walked the ramparts. On the nearest wall a black-robed Adherent leaned over the wall looking down, when suddenly he cried out and clutched at his chest. With slow and exaggerated movements he toppled forward and fell over the outside of the wall and landed with a muffled thump on the ground.
“Well, I found Bella and Flying Cloud,” Jacob muttered. He jogged down the hill and ran towards the wall, which seemed to grow bigger as he approached. It was built of massive reddish-gray granite stones. He figured the outer wall reached a height of forty feet. Two towers anchored the northern side of the outer wall, and they rose another twenty feet past the top of the wall. He saw Flying Cloud dragging the watchman from where he had fallen into the thick brush that still grew about fifty feet from the wall. Flying Cloud glanced at him but must have known he was coming because she continued dragging the figure of the Adherent into the brush and hid it under the thicket.
“Is he … ?” Jacob asked warily. He had never seen anyone who looked as limp as the Adherent was and he shuddered.
“Jacob, he would’ve killed us given the chance,” Bella piped out as she fluttered through the trees and came to a halt on his shoulder. “We can’t take chances if we’re going to free all who are slaves of the Adherents.”
He looked over into her serious eyes and frowned. “But isn’t there some way we can handle this without killing people?” His eyes kept straying to the thick underbrush where Flying Cloud had finished hiding the body, and he shuddered uncontrollably.
“Jacob, most of these men and women joined the Adherents because they wanted to,” Bella replied patiently. “Most have committed terrible acts against the people who refuse to follow them. Before you arrived here, when the Adherents were gaining power, they forced those they deemed undesirable to wear a white circle on the outside of their clothes. Those with the circle were targeted for many horrible things. Their money and homes were taken, they were driven from the cities and forced to live in separate compounds. Many disappeared into the northern mines. This all happened under the sight of men like this, men who, if they had stood up together, might have stopped all this before it started. Instead we sat back and said it wasn’t our problem. We didn’t want to get involved. Suddenly, when we awoke, the bully on the corner was not just a bully anymore but a tyrant.”
Jacob’s mouth snapped shut. He closed his eyes as the visions of the news shows he had seen last year in school talking about the Holocaust floated through his mind. His history teacher was Jewish and had gotten permission to show the older students old news reels of what had happened under the Nazi regime to his people. It was something that would stick with Jacob for the rest of his life.
“All right,” Jacob nodded. “What does Tasker want us to do?”
“Clear the lookouts as best we can,” Bella replied. She pulled the string of her small bow. “If anyone’s captive inside, we could free them as the ships landed and create a little chaos.”
“I’ll take care of the captives,” Jacob volunteered. “You clear the sentries.”
Flying Cloud smiled to him as she walked back to where he and Bella were talking. “It’s good to see you, Jacob,” she said. “When I first saw you, I worried I might not have the strength to drive the poison from your body.”
“I never got the chance to thank you,” Jacob replied as he looked down into the great pools of her eyes. “Thank you …” he stammered as she stepped even closer. His face blushed furiously.
“You’re welcome,” Flying Cloud responded. She leaned up and kissed him lightly on the cheek, then stepped back and shook her head as if realizing that Bella was still present. “Stay safe.”
“I will,” Jacob replied. His hands were shaking as he raised his shield and stepped into the Divide. A second later he was standing outside the building he had seen earlier where the slaves might be held. The last bit of light was fading as he rounded the front of the building and hurried to the door. It was open. He took a deep breath, then slipped inside, into a small room with a tiny desk pushed against the wall.
Sitting at the desk with his back to the door was a robed Adherent, who raised his hand into the air, a motion for silence. “Wait. Do not interrupt me,” he commanded imperiously.
Jacob shrugged. He pulled his sword and set it carefully alongside the man’s neck with the blade where his eyes were drawn to it. Bella may be ready to end lives, but he’d avoid it if possible. Better to use the threat of violence than actually hurt anyone unless he was left no choice.
“How dare …” The Adherent’s voice faded as the sword slid forward easily parting the material of his robe.
“Where are the keys to the cells?” Jacob asked quietly. He looked at the man and smiled. “My friends and I know most of your soldiers are away trying to trap us. Obviously that effort fell short. Now, I’m going to ask one more time for the keys to the prisoners’ cells, and I want you to think really hard about the sword sitting on your collar. I should tell you also that those coming after me have no problem returning what you’ve done to them over the past years. You should be happy I’m here first.”
The Adherent glared at him but very carefully removed a large iron ring from a belt secreted under his robes and turned very slowly towards the door that Jacob motioned towards. “Let’s start with that one.”
“You’ll never get away with this,” the Adherent muttered.
“Well, until someone proves to me that I can’t get away with … this,” Jacob replied, “let’s just pretend I don’t care.” The door opened up into a long hallway with a dozen cells on each side. Each was locked and bound in cold iron. In the first cell were half a dozen cages, each containing a fairy. Many were sleeping, but they came to life quickly as the Adherent entered the room. Smiles filled many of their faces when Jacob entered after the man and motioned for him to begin freeing the fairies.
“Who else is held here?” Jacob asked as the first of the freed fairies weakly fluttered over to him.
“These cells were for those too strong or in our case too small to be held in the bigger areas. A couple of minotaur from the Greek islands are in the next cell over, and down at the end is an elf hunte
r, I believe,” the fairy replied faintly. “I’m not sure about the other cells.”
“Let’s go get the elf first,” Jacob said to the Adherent as he prodded the man in the back with his sword. Sullenly the Adherent led him to the end cell and worked the key in the lock, finally letting the door swing open. Inside was an athletic looking being that resembled a human except for his slightly pointed eyes and ears. He was sitting quietly on the bunk with his eyes closed as though resting. The moment the door opened he looked up.
“What’s this?” the elf said with a smile as he rose gracefully to his feet. “The great keeper of the prison has finally met his match?”
Jacob stared openly as the elf suddenly grabbed the Adherent and artfully threw him against the far wall in a display of skill that would have left Steven Segal gaping. A groan and a crunching sound came from the Adherent as he slammed against the wall and slumped to the floor unconscious.
“My thanks, lad. I’ve been waiting to do that,” the elf said with a smile. He held up the keys he’d deftly removed from the Adherents grip when he struck and pointed to the door. “Shall we go free the others and see if we can find a way off this accursed island.”
“We don’t need to find a way off right now,” Jacob said with a smile as he looked at the unconcious Adherent on the floor. He stepped back and let the elf close the door. When the lock was secured, he started to turn away, but the elf caught his arm and held it in an iron grip.
“My name’s Baenn. I have to find the princess,” Baenn said as he held tightly to Jacob’s arm.
“If you are talking about Eriunia,” Jacob replied, “she’s safe. We freed her from the cell where they were holding her. She’s with Tasker and the others. She should be here soon.”
Baenn smiled and released his grip on Jacob’s arm. He danced a little jig in the middle of the hallway and motioned the human on. “Come then. Let us release the others and make ready for their coming.”
He jogged to the next door and flipped through the keys until he found the one he needed. Moments later the chains which held two big horned human-looking creatures were freed. They offered their thanks in deep guttural voices. Jacob turned his head and looked up just in order to look the minotaur fully in the face, and the sheer amount of muscle on them was mind boggling.
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