Chapter Fifteen
Firing Squad
I stood shivering in the immaculately kept Captain’s cabin of the ship that I had been thrust aboard just an hour previously. The man, I took to be the Captain, sat behind the desk that was before me. He idly sat there staring at me saying nothing for minutes on end.
Finally he spoke, “Where’s the scroll of the ancients?”
I shook my head in my best impersonation of incomprehension, “What scroll?”
“Don’t play games with me! We know you had it with you on the island! We haven’t recorded such a signal from the scroll since it was last unearthed some fifty years ago! Now where is it?” The Captain said harshly as he rose from the desk and came around to stand in front of me.
I shook my head in mock cluelessness, “Sir, I and my companion just fell into this strange place from the world above! We’ve been doing everything we can to just survive! What makes you think that we know something, much less anything, to do with this…….”
The backhanded slap caught me unexpectedly and I fell backward to the floor my head ringing. I stayed where I was as I waited for my vision to stop being fuzzy and out of focus.
The Captain was squatting on the carpet beside of me and I glanced at him even as the taste of blood filled my mouth from my split lip.
The Captain shook his head, “You shouldn’t have made me do that, but I’m afraid I have no choice in the matter of forcing you to confession.”
I clearly did not like this man.
Adopting a genial tone at odds with what he’d just done to me the Captain asked, “Our predicament here is dire enough for me to do whatever it takes to make you talk and gain possession of that scroll.”
As he spoke his hand reached out to stroke the side of my face and I felt revulsion sweep through me at his touch. I had an intensely powerful urge to let him know just what I thought of him, but I stuck to the plan.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I am an American citizen and you have no right to treat me like this!”
“Tsk, tsk, this is true, but you see we’re no longer in America. Instead you’re here in this inner hell I call home and you’re going to tell us the location of what we need to win a war once and for all or………” His voice trailed off as he gestured to a guard further back in the ship’s cabin.
The guard opened the door behind him to reveal a grisly scene. Colt was tied to a chair and covered in blood!
He didn’t look conscious and I prayed that he wasn’t already dead. Tears dripped off my face at the sight of him and I started to unconsciously move toward him, but the Captain held me back and finished his threat, “or I cut this man’s eyeballs out and feed them to you!”
How could life be this cruel?
Colt’s bloodshot eyes opened and he moved his head almost imperceptibly in a negative shake, but I just couldn’t do it.
Crying I said, “We threw it out to sea weighted down with a rock near where you found us.”
The Captain patted my cheek as if I was a pet dog.
“Sorry about that dear, but it was necessary in order to bring about a greater good.”
The Captain addressed the other men in the room, “Patch him up and stow them in a cabin until we can verify their story.”
I was yanked to my feet and dragged from the room.
“Colt!” I cried out, but I got no answer as I was hustled down the corridor only to be thrown into a cell like cabin.
There was nothing of use to defend myself with in the cell and the bulkhead door was closed tight. Crying I sank to my knees and did the only thing that I could do, I prayed.
I prayed for Colt. I prayed for myself. I prayed that we’d find a way out of this endless level of hell we’d fallen into!
Most of all I prayed for peace that everything was going to end out all right.
Four hours later the door opened to reveal the captain. He stepped into the small space and instantly I could see that he was seething mad with rage and I immediately expected the worst.
“Didn’t you find the scroll?” I asked, as I felt dread begin to seep into my soul as to what was likely to happen next.
The Captain looked like he was about to explode, “We did and we didn’t! We found the rope with a rock tied off to it, but no scroll! The most important discovery to ever emerge of the ancients is now lost! Drifting on the tide who knows where all because of you and your lover! Take her up topside now!”
I was going to die, but strangely there was something that preoccupied my thinking more than dying at the moment.
“Why were the Japanese trying to destroy it, if it’s so valuable?”
“They were the first to discover it and they didn’t know what they were doing. They made a botched job of trying to implement it and then of all things they lost control of it to the Sea People!”
What he’d said didn’t make much sense, but I guess it didn’t really matter as my continued existence seemed to have come to an end.
I was led out onto the deck back into the orange glow of the shifting overhead clouds. I saw Colt already lined up against the railing and I rushed to him.
“I’m sorry Colt, but I couldn’t let them hurt you anymore”
Colt stared back at me solemnly and said “That’s how I feel about you. I’d have squealed the first moment they’d laid a fist to you.”
“You would have?” I asked softly.
He shrugged, “Yeah. I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you Kim.”
Tears spilled down my face as I looked up at him with my heart in my eyes, “I love you too Colt!”
His swollen lips parted in a smile and I tearfully followed suit with a watery one of my own.
The sound of bolt action recievers on rifles being engaged caused us to both glance over at the row of men bringing rifles up to aim at us.
I turned back to Colt and pressing close to him I said, “Hold me Colt!”
He was already holding me, but at my words his hold tightened. I couldn’t help it as I began to cry again. It wasn’t fair! It just wasn’t fair!
“Kim!”
The urgency in Colt’s voice shook me out of my misery and I glanced up to see the men with rifles lowering them.
Why were they doing that?
I glanced the other way and gasped and held on to Colt tighter. Before me was a beast like no other!
It was a beast that looked an awfully lot like a mythical dragon in combination with the body of a dinosaur. It had partially pulled its great bulk up out of the sea and latched onto the ship’s railing with its massive forepaws, which had crumpled the railing into a misshapen form of mangled steel that bespoke of awesome power.
I must’ve been really lost in my world of private sorrow not to have felt the ship dip over under the weight of the monster that clung to the side of it.
For a beast it seemed to possess a great intelligence, if it’s imposing gaze that drifted back and forth over the ship’s crew was any indicator to go by. Then most alarmingly of all, the beast spoke, “Where is the captain?”
Shaken hearted sailors pointed toward the bridge and the great head of the beast swiveled in that direction.
The voice of the beast spoke again more loudly than before, “You were warned of what would transpire if you continued to search for the scroll. Not only have you transgressed the will of my masters but you have also decided to add to your list of crimes the slaughter of innocents. You full well know that the Sea People are a tolerant people content to leave those on the surface to their own devices, but you have breached that etiquette by threatening the life of the sister of a Sea Prince and for that your life is required in return.”
No answer came back from the bridge that remained devoid of any visible life. The great head of the dragon swiveled back to the petrified firing squad and spoke once more, “Bring him to me or this entire crew along with the ship will perish.”
Without hesitation the sailors rushed off and soon thereafter a bunch of them including officers of the ship brought the Captain to the forefront kicking and screaming. They thrust him to the deck beneath the great head of the dragon and drew back quickly from him.
The Captain looked up and cursed loudly for a moment before saying, “If I’d only found that scroll I would’ve had the means to boil you in a pot and serve you on my table!”
The dragon’s only response was to shake its head and say, “It would seem that some will never learn, no matter how much warning is given. The knowledge of the scroll is corrupting and if it were possible my masters would have destroyed it long ago.”
The Captain hotly retorted back with, “You’re just trying to hold us back from our destiny! Everyone knows that the Sea People unlocked the technology of the scroll and have used it for their own gain!”
The dragon shook his head somberly, “The Sea People have no need of such dark words of import as they are content with who they are and with their lot in life, which is something that you would have done well to learn. Perhaps if you had, then there would not be this proverbial war that continues to ravage the peoples above water. Your crime for continuing the search of the scroll has been noted and by order of the Sea People you have been committed to the Undersea prison of Lagro.
Without further ado the dragon suddenly leaned near and snatched the Captain up with his teeth and tossed him into the upturned waves around the ship. The Captain screamed and flailed about, but abruptly was dragged under by some unseen force.
The great head of the dragon swiveled back to us and I drew closer to Colt even as my mouth turned dry in expectation of what would come next.
“Your brother is alive and well and I have been instructed to tell you that he will meet with you soon. You will be returned to the island that you were taken from.”
At those words the great head inclined towards the bridge of the ship and dutifully the ship changed course.
Completely at a loss for words I managed to get out with enough volume to form a question, “My brother is alive and well?” I asked both disbelievingly and hopefully.
“He is and he has been made a Prince of the Sea People, by virtue of his selection as a mate by a daughter of the King.”
Wow! It sounded like Keko had been having his own time of it in this strange world. He was a Prince married to the daughter of a king!
“Why didn’t he come? I want to see him!”
“He is coming. He will meet with you on the island soon. He may be your brother but now he is also the Prince of a great people with the responsibilities that come with the role of leadership. The release of the scroll once again has caused a crisis of search. Should such a scroll fall into the wrong hands a disaster of epic proportions could result. A disaster that could affect all the people of this inner world and even the world above. This ship will take you back to the island now.”
Without further words the massive dragon let loose of the ship and sank beneath the waves.
Talking dragons! What could be next?
I shuddered at the possibility of that.
We stayed where we were by the railing unmolested by the ship’s crew, who appeared only too eager to return us to our island.
*****
I stood there on the beach watching as the dingy that had brought us here headed back out to sea. Had all this upheaval really turned a complete cycle in less than 24 hours to see me back on this beach with Colt?
I looked to Colt and I felt tears of tiredness and emotion seep out of the corners of my eyes. He looked awful, but he was here alive and we were together and that was more than I had ever hoped for after being taken from the beach the first time.
I went to him and wrapped my arms around him and his came around me. I buried my face in his shirt loving the security and warmth of his presence.
Colt spoke in a choked tone that had me looking up quickly, “Back there I thought I was going to lose you. I……I don’t want that to ever happen.”
Looking into his eyes I saw my future and with emotion equal to his I said, “Neither do I!”
I wanted to kiss him, but I was so short and the sand gave way beneath my toes as I tried to reach him. I abruptly found myself lifted free of the sand and pushed back against the trunk of a tree, as Colt’s hands bore me up and held me there.
Eyes tightly shut I accepted the brutal kiss of passion that was pressed upon me. The force he kissed me with hurt, but I didn’t care. It was as if all the longing and passion within Colt had been unleashed in a torrent of raw need and I reveled in it, because I was the recipient of all of his strongest desires.
It was heady to feel how much he wanted me and I felt overwhelmed by the outpouring of need for him that his kiss and touch awakened within me with every passing moment. My legs curled around his waist and I held onto the powerful shoulders that had my strength many times over in ability.
I knew where this was headed and I wasn’t doing anything to stop it. No, instead, I was doing everything I could to encourage him.
I left being upright against a tree trunk to suddenly feeling myself being pressed into the sand. This was right. This was so right!
*****
The old headman of the island turned away from the beach and the couple who lay on it to make his way back into the forest and to the village beyond. His face was wreathed in a smile even as his soul felt at peace.
Change was coming. Change for the better. He had known that ever since the girl from above, who was like his people had come to them.
Change however would have to wait for a little while the old man thought to himself. A native boy passed him in route for the beach, but the old headman waved him off. There were to be no interruptions of the couple that lay on the beach experiencing love.
He explained as much to the people of the village and they looked at him askance as the concept of giving privacy to a lovemaking couple was not of their tradition. The headman insisted all the more vehemently, as he helped usher in the change to his people that he knew the girl and the God, who had given him a vision of the future, would bring to them.
*****
The ship heaved to and there was a plop as the castoff rope landed in the water with a splash. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the second attempt snared the prize.
The rope was pulled back in and up the side to the throng of curious onlookers. The rope thrower’s hands had no sooner secured his prize than it was wrestled out of his hands by a violet jerk of another’s.
“Ere clear back now ya scurvy swine and let Captain Sally give it a look!”
The pirate crew only for a brief twinkling of time held back before they closed in to stare at the unrolled scroll in the Captain’s hands from overtop one of her bony shoulders. Captain Sally squinted at the scroll before her, but she had no head for numbers and letters, an X was good enough for her.
“Hey we’re ya be Swogs? Get yourself over here before I’ze cut something off of ya you’ll miss!”
The wizened up little pirate called Swogs was pushed forward through the curious group of onlookers.
“Read what it says man and tells us what the pretty shiny paper says.”
Swogs did as ordered and as he read the scroll began to glow more and more brightly. Almost for a match to the scroll’s brightness was the avarice that gleamed from the eyes of the listening crowd.
Captain Sally held up a hand and Swogs stopped reading.
Captain Sally turned with a cruel smile to her crew of cutthroat’s and said, “Boys I believe I can see how it’ll be. What a day it is for a blimey lot of scum such as we! Stand lively and weigh anchor for we be soon about a change of fortune! Soon we be the masters of Undersea!”
The crew roared out in raucous agreement and threw themselves into the efforts of getting the old galley up to top speed. The pirate crew sang out in a lusty ditty as the pirate galley reached a speed it hadn’t seen in years.
Captain Sally closed the door of her cabin and shoved Swogs into a chair that looked about to collapse.
“Now you be a telling me the rest of what that piece of fancy writing has to say now that we got a bit of privacy!”
Swogs looked up from the scroll, “I don’t be a thinking that there is much more to be a saying rather than there is to be a swearing.”
Captain Sally tossed an old mug at the man as she burst out with distemper, “Make sense or I’ll be a dunking your foul hide into the briny to be a shark’s play toy! Don’t you be a thinking to fool the likes of me!”
Swogs now with his face damp with sweat, which only served to smear the grime of his unwashed features the more stammered out in a rush, “There’s plenty to read! I only was a meaning to say that it says you got to swear as to what it’s saying.”
“Ahh you daft man why didn’t you tell me so? Be on with it then and tells me what old Sally be a needing to swear to for by golly I will be a doing it!”
Obediently Swogs read out what the scroll said to be sworn to and with a cackle Captain Sally sat back in her chair and swore to every last thing that was read aloud.
Time went by and Swog’s nervousness increased as he felt the ship seem to skip over the waves, and watched the Captain not quite be herself. She’d never been good, but now…… well he’d had to stop looking at her for she gave him the chill.
Suddenly Captain Sally stood and came around the table to him. Swogs drew back in fear and was about to get up, when her hand caught him by the throat with a strength beyond her own that found its root of force in the hell of the demon that she’d sworn in.
“Ahhh Swogs I ain’t going to be needing you to say anymore, because I can read it for myself now. We’ll keep this our little secret you and me won’t we.”
It had not been Captain Sally’s voice that had spoken and Swogs died painfully to the tune of a laugh issued forth from hell itself. Many a pirate topside looked toward the deck hatch in consternation of what had caused the sound they’d all heard emanating from the Captain’s quarters.