The Deep (24 page)

“Well, if you’re that good at taming wild
horses, maybe you should let me sit in the saddle,” I grumble.

He dutifully moves backward as I slip into
the saddle. A tiny, pleasant thrill runs through me when he slips
his arms around my waist. It feels so – intimate. Maybe even more
personal than the kiss he gave me earlier. I gently kick my horse
in the sides and we follow the path back down to the village
center. Once there, we join Daryl and gallop at full speed along
the Scilly Way toward Hope Harbor.

When we arrive at the docks, the quays and
piers are bustling with people. Swarms of spectators are watching
the ships, waving at the
Explorer
as she gracefully sails
toward the harbor. Everyone laughs and points excitedly at the
vessel. Children are singing old hymns.

I can’t help but shed a few tears. This is
what it would have been like if Annabelle’s Fleet had ever entered
Hope Harbor. Many people have waited for something like this all of
their lives.

The Phileans are nowhere to be seen. They
probably went home, tail between their legs, angry at the
Explorer
for coming back safe without being swallowed by a
maelstrom out to suck Unbelieving apostates into the deep.

“Luke Almighty,” I hear Saul gasps behind me.
He slips from the mare’s back and looks around him wide-eyed,
taking in the city, the watchtowers, and the giant ship in the
harbor. “It’s so – big. Everything’s so different.”

I dismount and walk over to Daryl. “Will you
keep an eye on Saul for me?” I mumble. “If one of the Phileans sees
him here, a fight might erupt. Their leader is dead and our ship is
back, so they’re not happy.”

My boss nods. “There’s no end to this mess,
is there?” he laments, a tad piqued. “Why can’t people just be
happy with the way things are?”

“No idea.” I shrug. “What’s with the other
ship?”

“No idea,” Daryl echoes.

The gray, hulking monster is trailing behind
the
Explorer
, coming into port but not heading for the main
quay. Maybe they can’t dock because their draft is too deep. The
vessel does look gigantic, so that’s no surprise.

In the meantime, the
Explorer
has
dropped anchor. The gangplank is extended and our travelers pour
onto the quay. They are welcomed by friends and family who want to
know everything about their visit to the Other Side.

I resist the urge to run forward like a
little child and look for Walt. My task should be, first and
foremost, to supervise this joyous return together with Daryl and
my colleagues. And besides, I don’t want to leave Saul standing
here all by himself. I haven’t seen Ben yet. He was released from
the hospital yesterday, but he’s not the fastest stallion of the
herd yet.

My stomach twists nervously as more and more
people spill out onto the docks and I still haven’t caught sight of
Walt. Nor or William and Leia. Have they stayed behind? Surely they
haven’t? My eyes land on Nathan, standing a little ways away from
me and also anxiously scanning the crowd.

“Isn’t Leia with them?” I hear Saul wonder
about the same thing. He takes a step forward and warily observes
the multitude of travelers in the harbor.

And then, something horrifying happens.
Something beyond my understanding. An ear-shattering, booming noise
blasts from the gray ship sailing behind the
Explorer
. Not a
second later, our left watchtower collapses into dust and bricks,
the stones tumbling into the water. The light in the tower goes
out. For the first time in one hundred and fifty years, the fire
has died.

Did that ship just destroy our tower from a
distance?

My jaw drops. I can’t utter a single word,
don’t know how to break the deafening silence that follows this
mindless destruction. I don’t need to, because at that moment, a
booming voice blares across the water, also seemingly coming from
the strange ship.

“Citizens of Hope Harbor,” a sharp, nasal
voice drones. “We have taken Walt, your future leader, hostage. And
we have Leia, leader of the eastern rebellion, as a second captive.
If you want to get them back alive, we expect a ship full of
healthy men between the ages of twenty and thirty in return. Let
them board the
Explorer
and make sure they won’t resist when
we ask them to board our ship tomorrow morning and sail with us to
Cornwall. These conditions are non-negotiable. If you don’t comply,
we’ll destroy your city and still take what we want. You have seen
what we are capable of.”

A deep silence follows this announcement. No
one speaks. No one moves. The children’s revelry has abruptly died
down. People gape at the tower blown to pieces, tears in their eyes
and streaming down their pale cheeks. They stare uncomprehendingly
at the ship in the distance, lying there like a terrifying,
invading smudge of gray defiling the blue surface of our old,
familiar sea. A predator waiting to strike our city.

When the Bookkeeper finally clambers onto a
low wall and raises his hands. The crowd waits for his words with
baited breath. “Hope Harborers,” he starts out, before his voice
wavers and cracks. He doesn’t know what to say. Doesn’t know how to
act. Whatever Nathan was expecting from the
Explorer
’s
return, it certainly wasn’t this. And I am equally at a loss. Tony
and Henry were good people who enthusiastically told us about their
world. What has gone wrong?

Before I know what I’m doing, I hoist myself
up onto the parapet to stand next to our leader and look at the
throng of people. Slowly, my eyes scan the crowd. I see Carl and
Daryl. I see my parents, holding on to each other. Ben is here and
has found Saul, standing next to his older brother with a
tear-stained face.

I lift a trembling hand and point at the gray
ship. “Is this what we have waited for?” I begin, my voice loud and
clear.

My audience stares up at me nonplussed,
unsure of what I’m getting at.

“Is
this
what we have waited for all
these years?” I repeat, more fiercely now. “After all the dreams
we’ve had about Annabelle? The quiet hope we cherished that we’d be
saved? Will we allow an unknown enemy from the Other Side to
demolish our city because they think they can rule us?!”

The crowd starts to mutter resentfully,
shaking their heads.

“Phileans, do you still think it’s better to
wait for salvation from across the seas?” I say sternly. “Because
if you do, then these are your allies. If you are really that eager
to sail with Annabelle’s Fleet, maybe
you
should volunteer
to board that ship and send fifty of your strongest men away to
Cornwall.”

The disciples of the now deceased Phileas
glance at each other nervously, clearly uncomfortable with my
words. They stare at me helplessly.

“No, we don’t want that,” someone finally
admits. Timothy, an elderly man who was by Phileas’s side on the
Newexter square not three hours ago.

“Splendid.” I glare daggers at him. “Do you
think it might be an idea to come together, east and west, and come
up with a plan to rid ourselves of those bastards on their gray
ship before they shoot all of Tresco to a pulp?”

“Yes,” Timothy says timidly.

“Who wants to help us?” I shout in a booming
voice, addressing the multitude. “Who is brave enough to save our
island?”

Ben and Saul both silently raise their hands.
More people follow – young, old, men, women, Phileans and
progressives. Old differences are cast aside under this pressure.
We can only face a strong enemy like this if we work together.

“Who wants to ride out to Newexter?” Nathan
calls out. “To warn our friends over there of the danger?”

Carl steps forward. “Consider it done.”

With a shaky sigh, I notice my outburst has
drained me of all energy. My knees tremble as I lower myself onto
my butt, sitting on the parapet like a small child suddenly tired
after all the excitement. I’ve done my part – Nathan and Daryl are
taking control and start dividing people into groups with different
tasks, bringing order to chaos. Everything passes me by. It’s as if
all the noise fades into the background and I hide away in a safe
cocoon.

When I finally look up, it’s because someone
puts a hand on my shoulder. It’s Saul. “That was quite a speech,”
he says with a faint smile. “You know how to rev up a crowd,
girl.”

“I wasn’t manipulating them, if that’s what
you’re saying,” I splutter. “It came straight from the heart.”

“I know.” His dark eyes are warm on my face.
“I could sense that. That’s why it worked so well.”

“What – what is the Bookkeeper doing?” I look
around searchingly.

Saul’s face turns serious. “He’s getting
fifty tough guys to board that warship and attack as soon as they
get to the goons running it.”

“How?”

“I don’t know yet. But I do know one thing –
that hostage situation isn’t going to end well.” Saul squats in
front of me. “These people from Cornwall won’t let Walt and Leia go
once they have our people. Why would they?”

“Then why send fifty men at all?” I say with
a sob. “If my friends are dead anyway.”

“Of course we’re sending in those fifty men,”
Saul grunts. “I’m going too. It’s the only way to get on board the
Crusader
.”

I frown. “How do you know the ship’s
name?”

Saul takes my hands in his. “Because William
just washed up on the beach. With a nasty wound in his leg and an
explanation for what’s going on.”

They gave William his own room at the
hospital. He’s just been in surgery, but the doctor said he
couldn’t do much besides taking out the metal object lodged in his
leg. The weapon that shot William has torn through the muscles of
his thigh. He’ll never be able to properly walk again.

We sit silently by his bedside – Nathan,
Daryl, Saul, Ben, and I. Saul was the one who got Walt’s father out
of the water, together with Ben. They saw him swimming for his
life, a little ways away from the main docks.

William looks broken. I don’t know whether
the salt on his cheeks is from the sea or from dried-up tears.

“We shouldn’t have gone to Cornwall,” he
whispers, once he’s gotten us up to date about what had gone down
in Dartmoor. “The people on that ship are dangerous, and we led
them straight to Tresco.”

“Don’t say that,” Nathan objects. “It’s a
good thing we know more about the world than we did before. Without
Tony, we would still have lived in ignorance. We never would have
been reunited with the people on the other side of the Wall.”

Saul slips his hand into mine. Despite the
grim situation, his gesture still brings a small smile to my
face.

“We can’t change past events,” I say
determinedly. “We have to look ahead. Protect Tresco, like I said,
in a unified effort.”

“And to do that, we need to stop the crew on
board the
Crusader
,” Saul pipes up. “Bishop Aldin can’t be
allowed to ever make it back to Cornwall alive. Or any of his men.
If they do, it will only bring more looters and plunderers to our
shores. Or delegates of that president you mentioned.”

With a desperate shiver, I realize he’s
right. We are no longer safe here.

“How do you suggest we do that?” Nathan asks.
“William says there are only twenty men on board, but they all have
lethal weapons that we don’t have.”

“I could ask the best hunters of my old manor
group to join us,” Saul says. “If we are fifty, surely we can
overpower a group of only twenty?”

I frown. “You want to try and sneak our own
weapons on board?”

“That’s the idea, yes.”

“How can we carry them on board the
Crusader
without being found out?” Ben protests. “That’ll
never work. It will turn into a blood bath.”

“So what do you suggest?” Saul snaps
irritably.

“I don’t know.” Ben stares at the floor.
“Maybe we can try rowing to the
Crusader
in a small sloop
and board the ship secretly after dark. Kill them in their sleep.
We only need a few people for that.”

The silence following Ben’s words signify
that we’re actually taking his risky plan into consideration.
Dangerous as it might be, it would mean putting far fewer lives on
the line than if we sent a boatload of armed people their way.

“I’d like to give it a try,” I say
softly.

Saul’s head jerks up. “No, it’s too
risky.”

“That’s for me to decide, not you. I have
every right to try and save my best friend,” I challenge him with
an angry glower on my face.

His eyes soften. “Okay. You, Ben, and me.
Tonight, after the sun has set.”

William needs to rest – doctor’s orders – but
he can’t relax. I brought him charcoal and paper so he can make a
sketch of what Aldin looks like, the bishop who has decided to wage
war on Tresco. He needs to be taken out at any cost. He tells us
where we have the best chance of sneaking aboard undetected – on
the aft side, where a ladder reaches halfway down to the waterline.
We take our own rope ladder, sharp knives, a small spear, and a few
clubs.

“Why are you so adamant about going on this
mission?” I inquire softly, watching as Saul sharpens the tip of
his spear with a knife.

He smiles sourly. “Maybe I want to protect
you?”

“No.” I shake my head. “You wanted to come
even before I said I’d go.”

“You’re right.” Saul stares at the knife in
his hand. “It may have been Ben who came up with this idea, but I
was already prepared to get out there and lead fifty soldiers to
that battleship before this. I want to save our island. It’s the
only world I know. And I want to free Tony, because he once helped
me see things more clearly when I was in a dark place.”

I nod wordlessly. Although I don’t know
exactly what Tony told Saul at the time to convince him to
surrender, I do know that the man from Bodmin always managed to
find the right tone for the right occasion.