1. Jonto #2
While the body of the storm was still far out to sea, he didn’t like what he saw and turned completely around to get a better look at the puffs of white and gray clouds building on the horizon. Some billowed upwards like towering mountains, while others flattened into a dark, foreboding layer.
Jonto, Nico, and Tadeu had all been sitting with their backs to the gathering storm, and in unison, they stood and stared out over the sea. Tadeu was the first to speak. “It’s moving fast, My Lord. I think we should run for home.”
Luc pointed down to the water, which, unnoticed by them, had shifted from a tranquil blue to a dark, brooding gray.
“He’s right, Jonto. It’s coming in fast.” She pulled in a deep breath of sea air and caught the mingled scent of salt and rain as the breeze brought the first faint traces of the oncoming storm.
Both Nico and Jonto immediately agreed, and once again, Luc took the wheel while the three men hoisted the sails, hoping to catch a favorable wind.
Favorable wouldn’t have been her choice of words for what was happening, though, as the storm was on them before they were in sight of the entrance to the bay.
Jonto hoisted the storm jib, and he and Tadeu reefed the sails to give them better maneuverability and reduced heeling while Nico tied down and secured all the loose items on the deck.
Initially, Luc steered so the wind was coming from the stern, but as the white-capped waves increased in size, Tadeu called to her over the wind, which had turned from a brisk breeze into a near hurricane-force gale in a matter of a quarter-hour.
The seasoned sailor put his hand to the side of his mouth and yelled, “Heave to!”
As carefully as she could, Luc tacked the sailboat until the bow faced into the wind.
Nico worked his way to her through the wind and rain while Jonto and Tadeu adjusted the sails so they caught less wind and therefore worked against one another.
The bow repeatedly pointed skyward as the steadfast ship rode on the crest of a wave, only to plummet into a deep, heaving trough, where it rode for only a moment before climbing the leading edge of the next terrifying swell.
Just as Nico reached her, a swirling wind caught their sail and forced the bow far enough to port that the next wave completely swamped the deck.
Luc screamed as she watched first Tadeu and then her beloved brother being swept off the deck and into the terrible, tumultuous sea.
At the last second, as the raging wall of water lifted him over the port gunwale, Jonto swiveled around and, for one panicked moment, stared with wide-eyed disbelief into his sister’s desperate, terrified eyes before he disappeared beneath the churning waves.
She screamed her throat raw, fighting Nico as she desperately wanted to follow her twin into the heaving, tempestuous sea.
The impossibility of living without him in her life made the thought of remaining on the ship untenable.
Without his laughter and good cheer, his love and steadfast support, what would be her reason to go on?
The big man wrapped her in one giant arm, holding onto her as he fought the wheel, needing to bring the bow back into alignment with the wind and waves.
His massive arm was so large that the tips of her fingers on each hand didn’t touch one another as she wrapped them around the bulky forearm and tried in vain to loosen his grip.
When that didn’t work, she flailed about, scratching and biting anywhere she could get a purchase with her nails and teeth.
She had to get away. Needed to get to her brother.
The waves lashed at her face, filling her mouth with seawater and burning her eyes with salt and silt that mingled with tears of grief and unbearable loss.
Despite her hysterical attempts to free herself, Nico managed to heave to once again.
With his bow pointed into the wind, they once more rode the bucking waves skyward before plunging into their watery depths.
The wind roared as it attacked and slashed, scraping skin, biting deep into eyes, flooding noses and mouths with salt that burned and closed throats desperate to draw in air.
It scraped faces raw, scraped tears from burning eyes, and saliva from mouths not fully able to close.
The ghosts of the sea howled their fury, jerking Nico’s body this way and that as he held onto the spokes of the wooden wheel with a stranglehold born of desperation and duty to his Master and Mistress.
The beast ripped ropes from their cleats whipping them into a frenzy until they resembled the grasping arms of a kraken flailing blindly around the spars of the caravel.
Nico held on to Lucrèce and fought the storm until his body was close to exhaustion.
After what felt like days, the storm eventually blew itself out.
The gale-force winds subsided, and the biting, slashing rain gentled and eventually stopped altogether.
Still, Nico held onto her, fearing what she’d do if he let go.
Completely exhausted, Luc pushed feebly at the arm circling her waist, trying to force it away from her.
When he could loosen his grip on the wheel, Nico gently pushed the hair from her face. “He’s gone, Luc. Going with him helps nothing.”
After crying and fighting for so long, Luc finally surrendered to the inevitable.
Her brother was gone. She leaned limply against Nico, and when he loosened his grip, her legs wobbled for a moment and then folded beneath her.
She dropped to the deck and, with her eyes swollen and red, pleaded with her friend using words that scarcely rose above a whisper.
“We have to search. We have to go and look.”
“There’s no way to find him, My Lady. Him or Tadeu. They’re gone.”
“I don’t care. I have to try. He’s my brother, my best friend, and the Lord of the Jontoreaux family.
If I don’t at least look, I’ll see him every time I close my eyes.
” She looked up into his face as she tried to make him understand.
“I’ll dream about him bobbing in this ocean, calling for me, and I’ll hear him shouting that he’s still alive and that I have to search.
He’d search the entire ocean for me. I know he would.
” Her face crumpled again, but no tears came.
With a sad nod of understanding, Nico silently walked forward to hoist the sails.
Luc forced herself up and took control of the wheel. For the next several hours, she tacked back and forth, back and forth, looking for any sign of her brother. Nico brought her food and water, knowing she wouldn’t stop to eat or drink.
For what seemed like the hundredth or maybe the thousandth time, she tacked east yet again and squinted at movement off the starboard bow. Her shoulders suddenly stiffened. “Nico! Over there. Is that someone waving? Do you see it? Nico!
Nico moved to the bow and stared out over the water.
He saw the splashing, but he’d been a sailor long enough to recognize the churning waters of a shark feeding frenzy.
Without a second thought, he ran back to her, waving his arms in a back-and-forth motion across his chest. He knew beyond any doubt they needed to stop their forward progress.
“No, My Lady. Go back. It’s not what you think.
I beg you. Please turn around and sail away. ”
She stared with wide, disbelieving eyes at the big man barreling towards her. “What?” She leaned to the side, trying to see around his hulking body. “They’re splashing, Nico. It’s Jonto. I know it is. I know that’s my twin brother. I can feel him out there. We have to help him.”
Nico reached her and put his hands on her shoulders. “No. It’s not what you think.” He heaved a sigh and stared into her eyes. “Sharks like to feed after a storm. My Lady, please. It’s not your brother out there. At least not Jonto as you want to remember him.”
Either not hearing or choosing to ignore his words, Luc resolutely stared out over the muddy water. She steered the caravel closer until she saw the horrifying sight of a pink discoloration of residual blood surrounding the fins of several sharks circling something bobbing in the waves.
Knowing she wouldn’t stop until there was no doubt her brother was gone, with a heavy heart, Nico furled the sails, grabbed a gaff pole, and expertly hooked the curved end around what was left of the mangled body.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw Luc standing frozen behind him, staring in wide-eyed horror with her shaking hand covering her mouth.
Turning back to examine the body, he found what he’d most wanted to see.
A gleaming ring was still attached to a partially severed finger.
With his belly against the gunwale, he reached down, retrieved the ring, and, with a quick flick of the gaff, sent the torso back into the gaping jaws of the circling sharks.
Luc’s startled shriek carried on the wind.
“What are you doing? We can’t just leave him out here.
” Channeling what she could remember of her lady mother ordering about the servants, she pulled herself to her full height and assumed the imperious stance of a Lady of the Manor who expected to be obeyed.
Pointing to where the body had disappeared beneath the waves, presumably into the jaws of a shark, she ground out her words through gritted teeth, “Get him back. Get him back, now.”
Nico sadly shook his head and addressed her while looking over his shoulder.
“No, My Lady. The Lady of the Sea wouldn’t be happy if we stole what she’d claimed as hers.
” As he spoke, he wiped blood and seaweed from his master’s ring, which he carefully slipped into his pocket, hoping his mistress hadn’t seen.