Eloy's Legacy

by Kara Timmins

  There were cheers and hollers from the group. Some shouted Aster’s name. They disbanded haphazardly, and Malatic and Neasa made their way to Eloy’s side.

  Captain Kern rolled out a sealed barrel, cracked the wax on the hole at the top, and filled cups of the amber liquid around the group. Eloy looked down into his cup without really seeing the murky drink. The liquid was all too familiar.

  Eloy, Malatic, and Neasa sat on a crate in silence and sipped at the sour beverage as the others drank and talked. The more the others drank, the louder their voices became. Eloy reminded himself of what Amicus had said after the funeral ceremony for Goodwin and the others: the people of Oppo had a way of dealing with their loss, and there wasn’t a right way for it to look.

  The three might have sat there all night, on the outskirts of the others, had they not been interrupted.

  Oisin and Niall closed in on them from both sides of the crate. The two men had matching bulbous noses with the same cleft at the tip, the same gray eyes, and the same mess of brown facial hair sticking out wildly from the bottom half of their faces. They weren’t twins—Malatic had asked early into the trip together—but they were close enough in years and appearance that most of the crew interacted with the two brothers as if they were. They may not have shared a womb, but Niall had taken over residency not long after Oisin.

  “Y’all don’t seem to be drinking,” Oisin said.

  “Y’all should be drinking,” Niall said.

  “Guess we’re just thinking about Aster,” Eloy said.

  “That’s what the drink’s for,” Oisin said.

  “Makes the thinking less of a burden,” Niall said.

  Oisin tapped at the bottom of the cup Eloy was holding, coaxing it up to Eloy’s mouth. Eloy took a sip before putting it down on the crate behind him. He found himself tired of drinking sour, mind-warping liquid at the urging of others. He wanted to respect the beliefs and practices of the crew, and he wanted to meld into their group, but he didn’t want to be controlled by it.

  Niall looked at the cup Eloy had put down before giving him an assessing look.

  “We’ve been wondering,” Niall said, a smile shifting the chaotic scruff of his face.

  “Yeah, we were wondering,” Oisin said.

  “What were you wondering?” Malatic asked, finishing off his cup and putting it next to where Eloy had put his.

  “We were wondering,” Niall said, “what three non-sea people want to be on a ship for.”

  “You don’t seem like natural sea folk, is all,” Oisin said.

  “We’re looking for something,” Eloy said.

  “Not much to find at sea but sea,” Niall said, “and you don’t seem to like the sea.”

  “We’re looking for something on the other side of the sea,” Eloy said.

  Oisin and Niall looked at each other over the heads of the three.

  “Has Captain Kern not told you where we’re going?” Neasa asked.

  “We didn’t ask,” Oisin said.

  “No need to ask if we don’t care where we go,” Niall said.

  “Here’s the thing.” Oisin leaned in closer. “We’re not really sea people, either. We’re more sea people than you three are, but we’re not Oppo people.”

  “Nope,” Niall said. “We weren’t born to Oppo people.”

  “But we grew up there,” Oisin said, “lived around the ships. The ships that didn’t move. We hung around enough and got jobs to keep the ships.”

  “Truth is,” Niall said, “we don’t care where the ship goes, as long as it goes. We’ve been waiting for this.” He puffed out his chest as he took the sea air into his lungs.

  “As long as it goes,” Oisin said, “we don’t care. But you care, and that got us wondering.”

  “Got us wondering,” Niall said, “what it is you’re out here for. If you aren’t just in this for the sailing.”

  “We’re looking for something,” Eloy said again.

  “We heard you.” Oisin leaned in closer. “We didn’t hear you say what you were looking for.”

  “We didn’t hear.” Niall picked up the drink Eloy had put down and finished it. “But we’re curious as to what that might be.”

  “We don’t know what it is, exactly,” Eloy stood up from the crate and moved to lean against the railing. Even leaning, Eloy was slightly taller than the brothers. “But we’ll know it when we see it.”

  “And you’re sure this, whatever it is you’re looking for,” Niall crossed his arms over his chest, “is on the other side of this ocean?”

  “I’m sure,” Eloy said.

  “Well!” Oisin leaned against the railing next to Eloy. “Now that’s got me excited.”

  “I’m excited,” Niall said.

  “We never thought about anything other than the ocean in all these years,” Oisin said, “but now I’m thinking about what’s on the other side. You let us know if we can help you when we get to this land.”

  “We’ll help you if we get to this land,” Niall said. “Exciting stuff, the unknown of it.”

  Niall uncrossed his arms and picked up Eloy’s empty cup. “You go fill this again. Captain Kern will take it as an insult to Aster if you don’t fill it at least twice, all three of you.”

  “Thanks,” Eloy said.

  “Don’t mention it,” Niall said. “That’s what we do. Help out our fellow travelers, right?”

  “Sure thing.” Malatic stood up and finished off his own cup.

  “Well, all right then.” Oisin pushed away from the railing and walked toward the crowded barrel, his brother following close behind.

  “What do you think that was about?” Neasa asked.

  “Not sure,” Eloy said. “But we might be able to use their help when we get to land. We don’t know what we’re going to find there.”

  Malatic stared after Oisin and Niall. “We’ll see.”

  5

  Most of the crew drank well into the night. Even though Eloy had slept most of the day, turning in early to take advantage of an almost empty sleeping quarters was too enticing to pass up. He found sleep easily, and it didn’t feel like any time had passed before someone was shaking him awake again.

  The room was full when he opened his eyes, and the stench of hot breath heavy with drink was sour and choking.

  “Eloy.” Neasa kicked at his foot. “Get up.”

  “I’m up,” Eloy whispered. “Everything okay?” He looked over to see a still-sleeping Malatic.

  “Everything’s okay,” she said. “But I need you to see something.”

  “Is it morning?” Eloy pushed himself up against the hide-covered boards with a creak.

  “Just barely,” she said. “Come on.”

  Eloy followed her up the ladder and through the hatch. Emerging from the confined noxious air and into the open was like a birth. The dewy air was cold, the bone cold of morning, but the freshness of the air made the bite of it sting less.

  There were three other crew members on deck, but they were all dozing. Neasa was the only one keen enough to keep adequate morning watch.

  “Have they been asleep this whole time?” Eloy asked.

  “Pretty soon after morning watch started, yeah,” she said. “But it’s pretty calm out here. I would wake them if I thought I needed to. That’s not what I woke you up for.”

  Eloy followed her toward the front of the ship to the starboard stern. She went up the lookout pole, and Eloy went up behind her, hands grasping the metal pegs just after her foot moved. He hated the height of the lookout basket; it made his body break out in beads of cold sweat. But he never said the fear out loud.

  “It’s there.” Neasa pointed at the horizon.

  The light blue of the morning sky was barely perceptible. What little change there was in the gradient was mostly at their backs, but there was ju
st enough light spilling around to see the line where water and sky met.

  Eloy squinted, trying to focus on what she wanted him to see. There was only one thing it could be, and the heat of excitement grew in his chest, but he wanted to be sure. He could see Neasa staring at him from his periphery, and the look on her face told him she wasn’t doing as good of a job as he was at containing his excitement.

  Then he saw it.

  If he’d been the one on lookout, he would have missed it. Along the line of the horizon was an irregularity, a jagged edge where the straight line of nothingness had lived for so many weeks.

  “Is that land?” Eloy asked.

  “It looks like it to me,” Neasa said, “but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just seeing what I wanted to see. I can’t even begin to imagine what we’ll find. Will there be people? I have to start thinking about how I’m going to collect and keep the plants we find for when I go back to Valia.” Her voice was rising and speeding up.

  Eloy couldn’t keep back a laugh.

  “What’s funny?” Neasa asked.

  “I’m not laughing at you,” Eloy said. “I’m laughing at me. The only thing I thought about when I saw land was getting off this ship. But you’re right. There’s so much more to be excited about.”

  “I’m going to go tell Captain Kern.” Neasa dropped to the rungs and climbed down with the ease of someone used to scaling tall trees.

  Eloy waited to follow. It looked like such a small thing, the variation of color and shape of the horizon, but the difference was everything. It was an end point he hadn’t been sure he would find. He saw the possibility of exploration and discovery. More than anything, a promise of resolution was on the horizon.

  The feeling inside of him, that urged him toward the path that was promised to him, wasn’t sleeping anymore. He could feel the warmth of it building in his chest and reaching out for the land. He was close. It would be over soon. He just had to get there.

  Just a little bit farther.

  6

  Eloy made his way back down the rungs when there was enough morning light to find his footing easily. He didn’t have the grace Neasa had, and his ability to stomach heights wasn’t what it had been when he’d been a kid climbing trees to watch large wildcats. Captain Kern walked up as Eloy reached the bottom.

  “How’s it lookin’ up there?” he asked.

  “Good,” Eloy said.

  Captain Kern grabbed the rungs and started his ascent. “That’s what I hear.”

  Neasa sidled up to Eloy and looked up at the captain, waiting for the third and final opinion. Even in the golden rays of the morning sun, the hollow parts of her face looked shadowed: the sixteen weeks at sea had taken their toll. Eloy was sure he had the same signs of poor diet and fatigue on his face, but the overgrowth of facial hair undoubtedly hid it. Not for the first time, he felt guilty for having brought her along with him on his unmapped hunt.

  “That’s land all right,” Captain Kern called down.

  The words transformed the tight contours of Neasa’s face until it looked like what Eloy remembered from the first time he saw her, in the early days of their adventure in the forest of Valia. Her thoughts were already far away from Eloy, the Siobhan, and everyone on board. Eloy was sure her mind was already exploring the land. She was already on her own unmapped hunt.

  7

  The word of land spread through the crew in what felt like only moments. Everyone was up and moving around with an energy Eloy hadn’t thought possible after emptying the barrel the night before. Crew members pulled ropes and moved sails with the same vigor they had when the Siobhan had pushed off from Oppo. And Malatic seemed changed too. Gone was the tight crimp in his forehead that had taken hold since the first day at sea, but the ocean sun had permanently pressed the line where it had been into his skin. Every mention of the pleasures of being on firm ground seemed to make Malatic stand a bit taller. The quips out of his mouth were more like those Eloy remembered.

  The wind seemed to share their excitement too. Each sail filled and rounded like the chest of a proud man, pushing them toward the land.

  The shore was upon them before Eloy knew it. Juts of sharp rock, rough and commanding, cut against the gentle blue of the clear sky. The rocky terrain of their new world stood like a monument to the unknown, the undiscovered, the wild.

  The Siobhan was still a few ship lengths’ distance away from shore, but the water below was no longer deep opaque blue. The ocean was now clear, and little fish darted around in a synchronized dance over white sand.

  Captain Kern moved to Eloy’s side. “You’ll go first with me.”

  Eloy turned away from the ship railing to face the captain, who pointed at a small boat readied at an open edge of the ship railing.

  Eloy nodded.

  “The other two too,” Captain Kern said. “Get your things. We’re going now.”

  Eloy didn’t need to be told twice. He didn’t know why Captain Kern wanted Neasa, Malatic, and him on the first boat out, but Eloy wasn’t about to complain.

  Eloy, Neasa, and Malatic were ready and waiting by the little boat even before Captain Kern was back with his own bag strapped to his back.

  “Beamon and Teuvo, you’re rowers.” Captain Kern pointed at two men in the group of milling crew.

  Beamon and Teuvo walked forward and took a seat in the little boat.

  “Now you three.” Captain Kern pointed at Eloy.

  The little boat fit two people per row at its thicker center, and one at each end. Eloy sat at the back, Neasa and Malatic in front of him, Beamon and Teuvo after them, and Captain Kern at the front.

  Oisin and Niall took hold of the side of the boat.

  “Leave some fun for us,” Niall said.

  “You gotta leave something for us.” Oisin winked.

  Niall and Oisin pushed the little boat off the side of the Siobhan. Crew members on deck grunted as they held the ropes that were secured through a pulley and tied under the rowers. Eloy and the others tried to hold still as they swayed back and forth.

  Beamon and Teuvo extended the oars and skimmed them across the water. Eloy didn’t look back at the Siobhan. He didn’t want to look at it until they were ready to head back to Oppo. Instead, he looked down at the world below. The water teemed with life in every variation of color. Clumps of purple fish undulated, blob-like, as they swayed back and forth, splitting as a grey creature the size of a fox swam, swaying back and forth, through their cluster.

  Neasa leaned so far over the edge of the boat her nose was almost touching the surface of the water.

  “Okay, now,” Captain Kern said, “let’s be ready.” He pulled out a two-pronged short sword from the sheath at his side.

  “Ready for what?” Eloy pulled out his own sword from the sheath at his back.

  “For what we don’t know,” Captain Kern said. “We have no idea what’s on land. Be ready.”

  Neasa and Malatic removed their own weapons, their shoulders squared and ready in a way that made Eloy feel both nostalgic and sad.

  Eloy was out of the boat as soon as it snagged against the sand of the shore. He wanted the stability more than he’d wanted water after being lost in the salt flats. He wanted to feel the world under his feet again. He forgot about rational caution or Captain Kern’s call for readiness.

  The sea water splashed around him and he ran to the warm white sand. Wide leaves from tall trees waved at him in every shade of vibrant green from the forest beyond the beach. He let his eyes drink it in. And he waited for the relief he had been dreaming about from the relentless sway of the ocean.

  It never came. He couldn’t shake the movement of the sea. Even standing still on solid ground, he felt like his body was rocking back and forth. He couldn’t control the groan that croaked from the back of his throat.

  Captain Kern splashed up behind him. “
It takes a while to shake the sway.”

  “How long before it goes away?” Eloy asked.

  “Depends on the person. A few days for most.” Captain Kern tapped his sword against the blade Eloy was now holding at his side. “Get your weapon up and keep an eye out.”

  Malatic walked up and stood on Eloy’s other side. “Anything in particular we should be looking for?”

  Neasa stepped past the other three, her excitement shining.

  Captain Kern pointed at the mess of foliage in front of them. “That’s our concern. If we can make sure there isn’t anything in there, we can set up camp on the beach. The rest of the crew will come up behind as they get here.”

  Eloy looked over his shoulder to see that Beamon and Teuvo were already halfway back to the ship to get more of the ship’s crew.

  “Let’s go,” Captain Kern said.

  Captain Kern took the lead and Malatic, Neasa, and Eloy walked behind him in a line. Captain Kern had seemed like a capable enough leader during their trip over the sea, but Eloy didn’t know what kind of fighter the man was. Eloy knew Neasa and Malatic, though, and even if he couldn’t rely on the man leading them into the unknown, he could trust them.

  Eloy was already sweating in the early morning sun. The heat of the day seemed to redirect off of the sand like they were tiny shards of glass, warming him from the bottom up.

  All four sets of eyes scanned the shadows in the dense foliage. Eloy could see the outline of little creatures darting around shield-sized leaves as the sun bore down on them. But he didn’t see signs of big movement, no sign of something big crouched and ready to make a move.

  Captain Kern seemed to come to the same conclusion, slashing his blade against the twisting vines and leaves to make a clear path.

  Eloy thought he’d feel relief from the warmth in the shadows, but the sticky heat was worse than being directly under the sun. The forest of Valia had been warm, but its warmth was like the heat trapped under a blanket, oddly comforting. What Eloy felt in this forest was sweltering and sticky. The moisture in the air was so thick he had to take deep inhales to feel like he was getting enough air. He was used to making his body work, but it only took a few steps for him to feel winded and exhausted.