Doing as they were told, the pair quickly had the large net put in place. Once Rey and Bally made the final connections, they climbed for the top. Above them, the Mate and a couple of the crewmen gave the taut ropes a firm pull, hoisting their contraption to the deck and setting it down, allowing it to rest there.
Staring at the rigging above them, Ami could see shapes and shadows in the flashes of light above them. “Dear God, this is real,” she sobbed, her hair plastered against the side of her face as water dripped from her chin and ran down her neck.
“Ami! Get in,” Piers screamed, indicating one of the empty barrels. Pushing her towards it, he placed their small bag of provisions in the bottom and then helped her climb over the side.
“How do you know it will float?” she begged. “How is it going to keep out the sea?”
“It’s made to hold water, love,” he said calmly, soothing her as the others clamored to their own casks. “It will keep the sea out. Scrunch down and put the lid on. You can push it off when you are away from the ship, so you can stay dryer until then. Use the handle Bally built inside to pull it into place.”
Obeying, she knelt down in her tube, sitting on her bag and holding her knees to her chest, then pulled the rope to be sure the lid had sealed above her. Shivering, she waited while he attached the lid to the handle on the side of the barrel with a small section of rope, so it wouldn’t be lost when she pushed it off later.
Rey and Bally each secured their lids to their barrels as well, and then climbed inside the empty casks. The older of the two shouted, “Aren’t you coming with us?”
“I’ll have to swim out to you,” Piers bellowed back, tying his covering on last. “Put your lids on and get clear of the ship. I’ll get you out into the water and then swim out to meet you.”
“Ok,” Rey agreed with more conviction than he felt. In truth, he could have sworn he had just said goodbye to the other man for the last time.
Placing the lid over the last barrel, the one intended to be his, Piers smacked it firmly, then shouted, “We have to get this over the side, now!”
A small group of the crew had gathered around as the trio prepared to leave. Staring at the first mate, it wasn’t hard to figure out they were abandoning the ship. Ordinarily, they might not have agreed with the course of action, but with the beast flying overhead and tearing down the masts, they were inclined to agree with getting rid of the girl. The dragon was after her, and the sooner they got her off their boat, the better, and before it had been completely destroyed preferably.
Pulling on the ropes, the raft was hoisted and swung wide. Letting it down a little less gently than Piers would have liked, he swore loudly, but what was done was done. Cutting the lines from the pullies, the makeshift sanctuary bobbed across the water, bouncing wildly on the waves, but it floated.
Piers stood stock-still, watching as the three were carried away from the ship. As the distance between them expanded, he knew his odds of reaching them to get aboard the smaller craft grew slimmer with each foot. Grinding his teeth, he had no doubt he had made the right choice; if he couldn’t reach them, at least they would survive.
A blast of hot air caught his attention, and he snarled, “So, the fire comes!” Leaping into action, he crossed the deck and pulled a sword from the rack at the end of it. Then he turned on his heel and waved it into the air. “Fight me then!”
In the darkness of her barrel, Ami could feel the churning of the water and hear it beating against the wooden slats. They no longer sat on the deck of the ship. Pushing up on her lid, she worked her fingers under the edge and held it firmly against her head, as if it were a large, flat hat. The droplets stung her fingers as they pelted the covering, but she gripped it tightly to keep it in place.
Holding the gap at about six inches and tilting it so that the rain landed and dripped off the back, outside the barrel, she watched the silhouette of the ship burning in the growing distance as the current carried them away. “Piers!” she shouted when she recognized his form, fighting and slashing at the giant beast as it swooped in and clawed at him with its hind legs.
Lifting their lids in a similar fashion, Rey and Bally joined her, awestruck by the scene before them. “I can’t believe this is really happening!” Rey called to the other man, his eyes wide with a mixture of fear and rage. “We shouldn’t have left the ship!”
“We had to,” Bally replied, indicating the girl with a raised chin. “The Mate trusts us to look out for her!”
Shaking his head, Rey wasn’t so sure. Glancing at the young woman, she appeared in shock, with bits of water still hitting her in the face and dripping from her chin. “Don’t watch, Ami,” he begged. “Please, love. Close your lid and stay inside.” He didn’t want her to watch the other man die.
But Amicia couldn’t tear her eyes away. “Dear God, please save him,” she begged, her blue lips whispering into the biting wind.
A moment later, the entire vessel rolled, spilling the remainder of the crew and cargo into the sea as it broke into smaller pieces. Screams floated on the wind, with the smell of blood and charred flesh. The light of the blazing remnants cast an eerie, glowing shadow across the water, a bright orange, with wedges of black where the waves crested and obstructed the view.
“My God,” Rey breathed in utter disbelief.
Tears on his face, Bally stared, speechless, as the trio had a great view of the slaughter. The dragon, whose wings spanned more than twenty feet, rolled and dove at the water time and again, grasping at the floundering hoard with massive talons. Lifting the men out of the surf, it squeezed the life out of them, one at a time. Alternating, the beast spewed flames, burning those who clung to the remaining timbers of the vessel.
Bawling uncontrollably, Ami called to Piers a few times before Rey caught her and pulled her up to face him, ignoring the rain that drenched him as he did so. “Be quiet!” he commanded. “The longer the dragon spends over there, the better our chances of surviving over here!”
“Exactly,” Piers agreed, shoving his sword between the barrels and wedging it into place before using the rope to hoist himself up. Not pushing the lid off of his barrel, he clung to it for a long moment by lying over the covering to catch his breath after the treacherous plunge. The fight had stolen his wind, and the swim had been a struggle, but he had made it, and for a moment, he was simply thankful to be alive.
“Mate!” she squealed, tears of relief streaming down her face.
“I’m here, love,” he soothed, pushing the cover off his cask and shoving his right foot in, followed by the left. Once he had gotten himself into the bobbing barrel, he placed his lid over his head like the others. “I strongly suggest we all close up and hide. We’ll talk when the sun comes up and decide what we’re going to do next.” If we survive the night, he added mentally as he squirmed his way into the narrow tube and pulled his lid into place above him.
The Drift
Cramped inside his canister, Piers awoke to the sound of Ami coughing, most likely sick and vomiting. Leaning his head against the wooden slats behind him, he breathed deeply to clear his mind. The events of the night before seemed jumbled, landing on top of each other, and confusing him at the moment.
It had been a squeeze getting in, and the round walls had prevented any real movement as he slept. He felt stiff, and his body ached. He remembered the swim… and the dragon. The ship is lost. The crew is lost. We are lost. The reality of it crushed in around him, tighter than the slats that held him in place.
Opening his eyes, he could see streams of light with tiny particles sparkling and floating in them; thin rays shooting in one side of the container and landing on the opposite wall. Forcing his left shoulder firmly against the curved wall, he managed to get his right hand up to touch them, reflecting them off his fingers. He smiled at the simple beauty of the light, as if he were a small child toying with a candle for the first time before being burnt.
As his head cleared, he realized that they were beams
of sunlight, allowed in through holes that had been punched in a ring a couple of inches from the top of the barrel, just below the line of the lid from the outside. Airholes. He hadn’t thought of that; fortunately for them, someone had.
Pushing up on the lid, he slid it off and let it fall. The tether to the side held, and it banged around noisily as it landed and bounced against the wall of the cask and splashed into the water. Judging from the sound, they sat at least two feet above the water line, maybe more, but the flat had floated just as he said it would.
Pushing his arms above his head, he narrowed his broad shoulders and worked his way out. Standing, he huffed noisily, gripping the edge. On the opposite corner from him, Amicia’s back was to him. He couldn’t reach her, but he could tell that the young woman had been ill, as she leaned over the side, her face hidden by her own barrel.
“Ami,” he said sharply. “Look at me, love!”
Holding up her hand, she signaled to him but didn’t lift her head. “I’m ok,” she stammered. “I just need a few minutes. Maybe some food.” Spitting, she vomited again, then whined.
The two lids on the containers that flanked her slid off almost in unison, and the two other men appeared. Closer, Rey laid his hand on her back, offering comfort. “Steady, girl.”
“I’m fine,” Ami managed tartly, wiping at her spittle. “I was sick in the hold, too, the first morning I woke up there. It’ll pass.”
Off to the east, the bright sun had cracked the sky, the ball of fire sitting almost clear of the water. The ocean between them shone like glass, with the rays reflecting off of the smooth surface. A beautiful dawn, on any other morning they might have missed it, but not this morning. This morning, it was all that they had.
“There’s holes in my barrel,” Piers pointed out, giving them a distraction so the girl could have some peace and recover. “Who do I have to thank for them?” he stated gruffly.
“Yeah, I put them there,” Rey replied sternly. “You didn’t ask for them, but if Bally were putting on handles inside the lid, I thought we might like some air.”
“Thanks,” the first mate nodded with a grin of approval. “I missed that. I guess that makes you my new first mate.”
“First mate,” Bally interjected, still frowning in concern at the blonde as she turned to face them, leaning her rear end against the edge of the barrel for balance as she moved. “I guess you get to be captain, then? And I get to be crew,” he laughed at the prospect, certain his situation had not really improved.
Pausing for a moment, they all considered the outcome of the ship’s sinking and then began to giggle uncontrollably for several minutes. Caught up in the jovial spirit, even Amicia laughed while holding her belly. They were alive, and for at least a moment, pure jubilation ran through them.
Soon, the boisterous mood ebbed, and they looked out at their surroundings at the wide-open sea on all sides. No waves crested, no ripples formed, and on every side the sky met the water on the horizon. Taking it in, the group grew somber.
“Where are we?” Amicia finally asked. When no one replied, she summed up their situation in a single sentence. “So, the ship is gone, the rest of the crew is dead, and unless we have a bit of luck, our corpses will rot in these barrels.”
“Well, that puts a pretty fine point on it, now doesn’t it,” Piers sneered. She looked up at him with sullen eyes, and he continued. “Wallowing won’t help us, love. Aye, I’m in charge. The Captain went down with the ship, and we’re all that’s left. So, I say no sulking allowed!” he boomed.
His loud voice startled the others, as he had intended. They needed to get square with reality if they were to survive. The three of his remaining crew stared at him, not about to argue his position among them. They would already be corpses, rotting in the sea, if it had not been for him and his quick thinking. They would go far under his leadership, or at least they each hoped that they would.
“We’re all agreed then,” he said more calmly, cracking the faintest of grins. “We’ll all keep a positive attitude here, no matter what comes of us. We need to assess our situation without letting it tear us down. If we do it well enough, we just might make it out of this. Or to the next step. I’ll take even that at this point, as one step leads to another, until there are no more steps to take.”
Nodding, the others voiced small forms of affirmation, and Ami asked timidly, “Does our new ship have a name, Captain?” The ill-fated Sea Serpent had not been a grand vessel, but this was certainly a step down in her estimation, positive attitude or not.
Her question amusing, he smiled more fully. “Of course it does! This here is The Bobber!”
The group laughed once more at his frivolity, and he held the smile. “We’re alive, Ami. Let’s keep it that way.”
“Aye, Mate,” Rey nodded, then faltered, “or Captain. That will take some getting used to.”
“Then leave it alone,” Piers shook his head. “I was only joking. Mate works for me. We four are going to get through this, whatever our titles.”
Anxiously, they chuckled again, each deciding that they would get through it, no matter what came at them, but all secretly hoping it wouldn’t be the dragon.
Looking around more aggressively, Ami sighed, “Well, on the ship, in the hold, eating seemed to help. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get a snack.”
“Sure,” Piers agreed. “Pull our bag up and let’s see what you packed us.”
Bringing the sack out of her tube, Ami placed it in the center of their raft, on top of the water barrel. It appeared smaller than when she had carried it around before with the clothing in it. It seemed to hold less, now that it held all they would have for food for who knew how long.
“It will be enough,” Piers reassured, as if reading their thoughts. Opening the bag, the outside had gotten wet, but her leather lining had kept their supply dry. “Nice work,” he praised, indicating her packing skills with sincerity. “We’ll leave it in the sun to dry the outside later today, and it will be good as new.”
A few of the bread pods had been crushed, so he divvied those up for their breakfast. “We’ll stick to small meals and ration what we have. The longer we can make this last, the better off we will be.”
Closing the bag, he pushed it back towards the girl. “I think you require the least amount of room, so put it back in yours for now. But please be careful. If we lose that, we’re in trouble,” he warned with a wink.
“Don’t worry,” she reassured as she positioned it back in the bottom of her cask. “I won’t let anything happen to it.”
“Right,” Rey agreed, opening the lid to the water to reveal his second surprise. He had put the little metal cup inside it, and it floated on the surface. “Is anyone thirsty?”
Grinning broadly, the first mate clamped him on the shoulder, praising him even more loudly than he had about the air holes. “That is a magnificent contribution. We’ll be able to drink without dribbling any through our hands and to ration our supply of fresh water as well.”
“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” Rey beamed. “I saw the cup on the wall when I chose the barrel, and so I grabbed it.”
“I’m glad that you did,” Ami grinned, accepting her cup to drink. Piers was still ranked highest among the men in her eyes, but Rey had definitely moved up in her estimation of him in the last few minutes.
“We’ll have to refill the barrel when it rains,” Bally pointed out, also accepting a cup full of the precious liquid. They were all well aware that the water around them would be poison if they were to drink it; even a little might be enough to kill them.
“Yes,” Piers agreed. “The water is more valuable than the food. We won’t last more than a few days if it runs out.”
Shuddering, Ami nibbled at her hunk of bread, her eyes trailing over the glassy surface. “I never expected it to be this calm,” she admitted in a meek tone.
“No, it’s rarely this smooth,” Piers informed her. “It’s as if the wind has completely died
away.” Facing Rey, he too surveyed their surroundings, noticing a patch of land far off to the south, beyond his companion’s head.
Seeing the other man’s expression, Rey turned and saw the island as well. “Is that land?” he demanded, his voice catching a hint of excitement.
“I’m afraid that it is,” the older man replied somberly.
“Why the long face?” Ami asked eagerly. “If that’s land, then we can be saved. All we have to do is get there.” Thinking of her mirror, she squealed, “Or we can use my glass to signal for rescue!”
“Right,” their new leader agreed, “but that is a long way from us, so a signal would be useless at this point. And, unless my senses deceive me, we are not headed towards it.”
“We’re moving west, aren’t we,” Bally observed while squinting at the small mass on the horizon.
“Aye, I believe that we are,” Rey agreed.
Crossing her arms, Ami assumed a small pout, the most she dared with their positive attitude motto. “Ok, so what lies to the west of us then?” She had been eager to get there since her mother died, but suddenly the idea of it filled her with dread.
Silence fell over the group as they each considered what they knew about the path they appeared to be taking. When no one voiced a reply, she pushed, “You’ve been there, Mate. You said that you were on a ship that visited the west, so what’s out there, beyond the coast of the ring?”
“We saw land,” he informed her quietly, “Like that in the distance, and we never got close to it. We were attacked by a dragon, same as we were last night, only this time I didn’t see what actually happened. I was a kid then. The cabin boy, so that tells you how long ago it’s been.”
His eyes wide, Bally gaped at him. “You never told us this before, Mate. You actually met a dragon, and you never said!”
“Aye, I never said,” Piers snapped. “You think most people want to hear about such things? Believe in such things? I’d be branded a mad man for sure!”
Dragon of Eriden - The Complete Collection Page 9
