Chapter 7
Aflash of light illuminated the small cabin. Thunder split the air, followed by a crescendo of rainfall.
Hollering from the crew, muffled by the downpour, made it to my ears in indistinguishable mumbles.
On my toes, I craned my neck to witness the angry storm outside through the small window.
Then I heard it, in the distance past the drumming of the rain and crashing of the waves.
It was faint and distant but there. A small lilt on the sea.
A harp? A lute? Who brought an instrument on a ship? Let alone played it amid a storm.
The ethereal sound ebbed in and out of my ears, rising and falling like the tide. My breath slowed to its sound. It was a voice, no, a chorus of voices both haunting and enchanting singing with the music.
Men no longer yelled orders to one another. Only that music, the storm, and the waves were audible.
Suddenly, the ship pitched fast and hard. My feet gave way at the large shift that sent me slamming against the wall. My back panged from striking the unforgiving wooden panels that lined the room.
Something wasn’t right.
I gathered myself to my feet and ran for the door, twisting and pulling at the knob desperately, but it did not relent.
“Let me out!” My fists pounded against the only exit. The rain fell fast and my heart raced to its tempo. “Please! Let me out!” But there was no response. The music was loud now, drowning out all thought. It surrounded me. Was I going mad?
Finally, the knob convulsed and the door opened.
It was the drucia, her sacred clothing drenched, plastered to her face around her wild, bulging eyes.
She pulled down her mask, eyes darting side to side in panic, trying to will the words into my mind, but finally she spat, “The sailors are in some sort of trance!”
“Do you hear that singing?” I asked. Her mask sagged below her chin as she nodded yes. She fell to her knees and traced the prayer beads on her wrist, rocking back and forth. “Allfather, Terragos save us!”
Stepping around her, I went through the doorway and up the steps to the deck. Cold rain crashed all around, blurring my vision as I made my way across the deck, trying to keep upright as the waves rolled beneath the ship.
I saw him, the captain, thank the Guardians. He stood working at something, surely redirecting us.
“Captain,” I yelled. But he did not turn around, and only kept working away. “Captain!” I shouted louder through the rain and that ghostly song, but nothing.
Finally, grabbing his broad shoulders, I swung him around and demanded, “Captain, what is happening?” But he didn’t reply. His face held only a groggy grin.
Shaking his large body as hard as possible, I screamed in his face, “Answer me!”
But he said nothing and returned to his work.
The other sailors did the same, like they were drunk or dreaming, silently working at ropes and sails manning the ship like there was no storm pounding at their backs, nor a ghostly song shrieking in their ears.
Through the wind and rain I made it to the edge of the deck. Through the haze of the storm, in the distance I spotted a rocky fixture jutting out of the sea.
The rippling of sails pulled my attention. Chumly and others hoisted them just right to catch the wild storm’s gust, lunging us straight for the rocks.
A light glimmering beneath the water caught my eye.
My hands met the slick railing of the ship as I leaned to get a better look at the sea, dizzy from the height.
Another light appeared, then another. They were surrounding us just beneath the sea.
Light somehow swimming alongside the hull, like they were guiding us to those jagged outcroppings.
Rocks grew larger as we neared, waves crashing on their jagged teeth.
Chumly passed by me, a mound of rope in his hands.
“Chumly! Chumly!” I screamed desperately.
“Stop the ship! There are rocks ahead. You must stop the ship!” But he only continued past me.
They all ignored me. Walking phantoms headed to their deaths.
Unsettling grinding threw us all forward. The ship splintered and cracked as wood met rock, water whooshing into the belly of the ship. Quickly, the nose of the bow pitched down.
The music pierced my body, my mind, wild, sharp, and loud now, wailing in the rain.
Then the sailors all stopped in their tracks like pillars.
A heartbeat passed, and then they marched in unison. What the fuck was happening? The captain passed me, still in a trance, heading straight for the nearest guardrail. His gaze was transfixed on the stormy horizon.
I ran before him, digging my heels into the deck and using all my might. I tried desperately to stop him. But it was useless. With ease, he pushed past me, put his hand on the guardrail, and to my horror, jumped into the dark, swirling waters.
One by one his men followed.
And I was helpless, left to watch every man jump off the ship, to their deaths.
The music stopped.
The rain eased to a patter, my ears left ringing from the absence of music, but the waves continued to crash against the boat with relentless force. Each impact threatened to send me tumbling into the frigid, dark waters that pulled the vessel ever closer into the sea’s embrace.
Fighting to hold on with a white-knuckled grip, I hauled myself, hand over hand, up the railing of the almost-vertical ship. Wiping water and red ribbons of hair from my eyes, my muscles seared with pain. I willed them to be strong as each surge of waves weakened my hold.
But where was there to go? There was no more climbing, no escaping, only the empty black sky above and the roiling blackness below. This is what I wished for—I guess. Maybe Nymphaea was real and she had heard my plea. Sent a storm to claim me instead of an unwanted man.
A bitter scoff fell from my lips. Guardians be, could she not think of a better fucking way of helping me that didn’t include dying?
Vega would wail when she heard the news.
Sent away on my first trip without her and I wound up dead.
But that was the only person I clung on for.
Not me. Not anymore. Vega would find solace eventually and maybe she would understand that this was better.
Death was better. This cold, watery grave was better than ten or twenty years trapped in some cold marriage bed.
This was freedom, and this could be my choice.
Summoning the courage, I counted, One, two, and with a final long breath, three. Surrendering, I let go.