Keeper of the Grail (24 page)

I drifted under the water once, then again. Each time I burst to the surface spitting out water. My legs were cramping and I had no strength left. Exhausted and not sure I was going to make it, I came to the surface only a few yards away from the boat. With every ounce of strength I had left, I kicked mightily. It was not enough.

I felt something hard knock me on the shoulder. Reaching up I grabbed a piece of wood and was pulled through the water. It was Robard leaning over the side of the boat and pulling me in with his bow.

Hands lifted me up and over the side. I slumped to the floor with Robard holding me up by the shoulders. He shouted at the captain to get moving, and Maryam took the dog from my grasp. She set it on the seat in front of us, and it shook the water from its coat, looking at me and barking happily, its tiny tail wagging. It jumped into my lap eagerly licking my face. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

When I could lift my head, I looked back at the dock to see Sir Hugh pacing back and forth yelling at his men to “find a boat!” but they grew smaller and smaller as we moved farther out into the harbor.

Safe at last.

O
N THE
S
EA

31

T
he crew took up a fast rhythm as the oars sliced through the water. We moved past the ships lying at anchor, around several galleys and barges, until we came to the last ship, anchored farthest from the shore. Well, at least the captain
called
it a ship. It looked as if it could barely float. Of course the lighting was poor. The moon had set, and only a small flame came from the torch the captain had lighted. As we drew closer, I saw that it was true. The ship was a wreck.

First of all, it was small. Very small. A quarter the size of a Templar ship, and with very little draft, so it sat high in the water. Three oars reached out from each side, and a single mast held a tattered sail hanging from it. The railing around the main deck was broken in places, and it looked all in all like it might sink at any moment.

“You booked us passage on this?” Robard said, his voice full of disbelief.

“Well. Yes. But looks can be deceiving,” I replied. In fact, I thought in this case, looks were perhaps as accurate as could be. I had a horrible feeling about it.

As the longboat pulled alongside the ship, one of the crewmen scampered up the anchor line, and in a few minutes a rope net came over the side. We climbed aboard. Standing on the deck of the ship I saw that it was even worse than I had first thought. After the captain fired several torches to give us light to see by, I wished we had stayed in the dark.

The deck was warped and rotting. Several of the boards were curved up at the ends. The sail was in terrible shape. It looked to have more holes than fabric. And it stank—an odd combination of unpleasant odors.

While the crew hurried about in an effort to get us under way, the captain approached me. “You can stow your gear below if you wish,” he said. Since the smell on deck had already made me nauseated, I didn’t believe the hold would be any better.

“No, thanks,” I replied. “I think we’ll sleep up here on the deck.”

“Suit yourself. I know she doesn’t look like much, but trust me, she’ll get you where you want to go. Eventually. Long as you’re not in a hurry, she’ll do you fine. Now, you owe me some money. Don’t forget you’re going to have to pay extra for the dog and the girl,” he said. “An extra ten crosslets each should do.”

“You’ll get an extra five crosslets total and be happy with it,” I answered.

The captain started to protest, but with a hiss from Robard, and seeing the venom on his face, he decided not to press the issue. I felt around inside the satchel until I found the bag of coins. Turning my back to the captain, I counted out half the promised price and handed it over. There was no sense in letting him know how much money I had. I vowed then and there that the satchel would never leave my side while we were aboard ship. The three crewmen lowered the long oars into the water, and slowly the ship began to move. The captain also took a position on one of the oars. With each stroke of the oars, the little ship crept closer to the mouth of the harbor. The eastern sky was starting to lighten, but the stars were still magnificent, and for a moment I was captured by the beauty of the night sky.

The thought of Sir Hugh managing to rouse a ship to give chase intruded on my reverie, and I began pacing the deck.

“Can’t you go any faster?” I asked the captain.

“We’re short some crew. If you and your friend there take an oar, that’ll even things out and we’ll go faster. We can’t raise the sail until we clear the harbor,” he said.

Robard, who was standing by the mast, snorted, pulling at the tattered sail.

“Yes. Raising this sail. That will certainly help,” he said.

“Besides, if we raise sail now, we risk running her up on the rocks at the mouth of the harbor. Wouldn’t want that. Best to row around them,” the captain said.

Rocks? Why were there always things to vex me on a ship? I hated ships.

With a heavy sigh, I moved behind one of the crewmen and took an oar. Robard did the same and now the oars were fully manned.

“Grab hold of this oar here, missy,” Denby said. “Someone’s got to man the rudder now. It gets tricky around these rocks.”

Maryam switched places with the captain without complaint. He took the rudder, and for the next several minutes we did nothing but rock back and forth to the rhythm of the oars. A short while later he gave the order to raise sail and two of the crewmen hoisted the canvas, securing the rope holding the sail to the railing. It was a small sail, simply hung from a crossbeam tied to the top of the mast, but it did catch what little breeze there was, and we began moving faster.

For the rest of the early morning we sailed and rowed toward the west. I kept a sharp watch for pursuers but saw none, and slowly began to think we had finally escaped Sir Hugh. If there truly were Saracen patrols spotted near the city, as we had heard in the jail, perhaps he would be unable to divert men and resources to come after us. But he would try to avoid the battle, coward that he was, and get out the fastest way possible without arousing suspicion or calling attention to his cowardice. He would most likely try to escape by ship or ride farther west before the city was encircled, under the guise of gathering reinforcements or alerting other Templar Commanderies of the coming attack on Tyre.

That would disguise his real purpose, however. He at least suspected that I had the Holy Grail or knew where it was. Sir Hugh would be coming for me. Maybe not right away, but he would not give up. I needed to make sure I got to Rosslyn before he did.

Morning dawned with no other ships in sight. We ate a morning meal of hard biscuits and some dried fish. The fish was nearly inedible to us but the dog seemed to enjoy it. The provisions on the ship were paltry and disgusting. There were several barrels of dried figs and dates aboard, so at the very least we could survive on those.

The next thing was to decide what to do with Maryam. Each gust of wind took us farther from her home. We discussed it among ourselves, and finally agreed to try to put as much distance between Sir Hugh and us as possible. Then, when the time was right, we would find a port city and secure Maryam passage on a ship back to her homeland.

We slept during the morning, finding a tiny shady spot in the shadow of the sail, and took turns dozing on the deck. I did not trust the captain or his crew. And Maryam, Robard and I came to the same silent conclusion that one of us would need to keep watch at all times.

That was how we passed the first three days aboard the ship. The captain wanted to put ashore at Cyprus to see if he could find more passengers or arrange for cargo to be transported, but an extra five crosslets persuaded him to keep sailing. I didn’t want to stop so close to Tyre and give Sir Hugh time to catch up. Any time we spent not moving toward England was time he could narrow the chase. Anywhere we stopped, people would see us, leaving a trail for him to follow.

Toward dusk of the fourth day a storm rose. All day long the crew and captain acted strangely. The captain took the rudder, constantly looking off to the east, studying the sky as it filled with dark and ominous clouds. He changed course in the afternoon and we began sailing almost straight north. Since we were still in the Mediterranean, it was likely that we would hit land soon if we kept heading in that direction. The wind picked up considerably and the little ship plunged forward. What had been gentle swells became larger waves, and the ship heaved and crashed over them.

As we sailed along, the captain muttered to himself about “the ugly head” over and over. I thought he might be crazy, so I asked one of the crewmen what he was referring to. There was a tale, the crewman said, of an ancient god who cut off the head of his enemy, tossing it into the sea where it drifted for eternity. As it floated in the sea, the head would rise and fall with the waves. The legend said that if the head faced down, the waters would be calm, but when it showed its ugly face skyward, then a horrible storm would follow. The crew feared that somewhere on the sea, the ugly head now faced toward the sky.

Robard snorted when he heard this, cursing me for hiring a captain who was both drunk and insane.

“The only ugly head here is his,” Robard said, pointing at the captain.

A few hours before dusk, the winds died down and the waves settled somewhat, but it was only the calm before the real storm. As dusk approached, the sky went almost completely black without warning. Lightning crackled overhead. Rain fell hard and sudden, and we were soaked through in minutes. The wind roared from the east, and the ship tossed in the waves that crashed over the bow of the boat.

Captain Denby and a crewman lowered the sail, giving each of us a length of rope.

“You’d better tie yourself to the railing. You don’t want to get washed over,” he shouted over the wind.

With no argument from us, we looped the rope over the railing and around our waists, tying it fast. The dog began whimpering. There was no way to secure her to anything, so I scooped her up in my arms, and she quieted as I held her.

The thunder and lightning came again and the rain fell harder. The captain yelled orders to the crew, but it seemed no one was listening, and indeed there was little they could do. The ship was at the mercy of the storm.

Up and down we went, splashing and crashing through the waves. It was a good thing we were lashed to the railing or we’d most certainly have been washed overboard. The dog began fidgeting in my arms, so I loosened my tunic, stuffing her down inside; she lay against my chest with just her face peering out.

I checked my ropes and held fast to the railing. The satchel was secure on my shoulder, but I felt it again to be sure. Robard was shrieking at the top of his lungs, curses and requests for the storm to do things to itself that were most likely impossible. Maryam said nothing, but I saw the worry on her face. She had had no choice but to come with us, since Sir Hugh would have had no qualms about killing her, I’m sure, and she was miles away from her home and her people, very likely to drown in the ocean.

There was a mighty thunderclap and the wind gusted hard against my back. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed. The air around us went bright white. In that instant a loud crack shook the ship, and I looked up to see that lightning had struck the crossbar. It had snapped, and now hung in place by only a few splinters. The wind whipped it back and forth until it finally gave way, crashing down toward us.

“Look out!” I shouted over the noise and wind.

Shoving Maryam as far to the left as her rope would allow, I pushed myself against Robard in the other direction. The crossbar splintered on the railing between Maryam and me. Pieces of it flew in every direction, and I howled as a large splinter pierced my calf. The dog wiggled, thrashing inside my tunic, and I clutched my chest with one arm, trying to calm it.

The railing was smashed and only Robard remained tied to it. Just then the ship pitched wildly in the waves and I saw the bow cut into a huge swell. The front of the ship rose until it was pointing almost straight up in the air. I heard shouts from the crew, but the wind was so strong and the rain so hard in my eyes that I couldn’t see them anywhere.

I heard a screech from behind me and turned in time to see Maryam plunge into the water. Then the ship dipped again, righting itself. The wind punched me to my knees and I slid along the deck in the same direction. As I tried to stand, the ship suddenly pitched below me and the deck rose up again, slamming me onto it backfirst. I felt with my arm for the dog, who was quivering and scared but still tucked safely inside my tunic.

“Tristan—Maryam! She went over!” Robard shouted.

“Help!” Maryam’s voice was barely audible over the shriek of the wind.

I scrambled to my hands and knees, looking aft to find Maryam holding on to a piece of the anchor rope that was still secured to the deck.

“Hang on!” I yelled to her.

Staggering over to Robard, I handed him the dog. He took her in his arms, then tucked her safely inside his tunic. I tried to crawl back to Maryam, but the tossing of the ship made it nearly impossible. Inching closer, I saw that she couldn’t hold on much longer.

Finally, with the wind howling around me and the rain pelting my face I made it to the rear of the ship. Maryam was just out of my grasp. I shouted at her to climb the rope hand over hand until I could reach her, but she was being dragged through the water, too terrified to loosen her grip on the rope for even a second.

I looked back at Robard, who was too far away to help, and I still couldn’t see or hear the captain or the crew. Perhaps they were lost already.

“Maryam! You need to climb up the rope! Climb closer!” I shouted.

She just screamed and gripped the rope more tightly. The ship pitched upward again, and she disappeared beneath the water.

Then a strange thing happened. Over the noise of the wind and rain, I could hear a new but familiar sound. It was a faint humming that I had heard twice before, both times when I was in mortal danger. It was the sound of the Grail.