“Throw him out!” the commander said. And so they did.
The soldiers carried the smelly urchin just outside the door-he moaned the entire time. Then, giving him a grand heave-ho, the two soldiers sent him reeling into the dark waters of the harbor.
Levi ranted at Ethan the entire way until they had passed the bridge leading them to shore and the housing district of Hopple. Then he settled down and looked around, searching for any soldiers who might be lurking in the streets. “How ya doin, lad?” Levi said with a toothy grin.
Ethan grabbed his outstretched hand and shook it as though he’d never been so glad to see anyone in his life. “I can’t believe you’re here in Hopple!”
“I better be, if I’m to bear you and Gideon to Macedon with the Word of Shaddai.”
“You? You’re providing our passage?” Ethan could barely contain his excitement.
“Aye, it was Isaiah who sent me here,” Levi confessed. “He’s a crafty old man.”
“I suppose he is,” Ethan said. “We’ve got to get back to Joseph and Micah. They’re keeping watch over the chest in a cave not too far from here.”
Ethan turned intending to lead Levi through the village toward the cave in the badlands beyond. But standing there, soaking wet and angry, was the smelly sailor whom Ethan had brawled with in The Salty Dog. “Where do you think you’re going?” he shouted.
Ethan prepared for another round with the disgusting brawler when the man stopped short and pulled off his seaman’s cap. His black head of hair came off with it. Underneath, a short layer of black hair bristled. Instantly, the puzzle pieces clicked into place.
“Gideon!”
“Shhh!” he hissed.
Gideon reached out a hand to Ethan, and his body odor wafted toward their noses.
“Oh, man…whew! Gideon, you really do stink!” Ethan said.
“I know, it’s disgusting ain’t it?” he flashed a rancid grin, teeth caked in something green, akin to algae.
“Let’s not dawdle, lads,” Levi warned. “We’ve got to get the Word loaded onto my ship and shove off without alerting those soldiers. The sooner we get back to the cave, the more likely we can get out of port unnoticed during the early morning hours.”
They ran at a brisk pace up the hill toward the boundary of the village.
“Gideon?”
“Yes, Ethan?”
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to run ahead of you.”
“Aye lad, good idea,” Levi said. “If I don’t get upwind of his foul funk, I’m liable to lose my dinner.”
SUCH SWEET SORROW
As it turned out, Gideon’s bath was sooner forthcoming than expected. He and the others arrived at the cave in good time where Joseph and Micah stood watch over the Word. And having taken the chest from the two priests, they bid them a safe journey back to the Temple and sent them on their way with the horses and wagon. The best way to get the chest to Bonifast’s new ship was by water.
They walked back to the sea, apart from Hopple, and entered the harbor with the chest. The air-filled container floated weightless on the water as Ethan, Levi and Gideon swam with it around the docks toward Captain Bonifast’s new ship. In the partial moonlight, Guards patrolled on the stone walkways above, but they paid little attention to what might be lurking in the water below.
They drew near the new ship, which was moored to the outermost dock. “What’s it called, Captain?”
“Yeah, what’s the name of your new girl?” Gideon said, grinning.
He gave the priest a cynical look. “Well it’s not the grungy priest, that’s for sure,” he hissed. “She’s called The Trinity.”
Ethan and Gideon considered the excellent choice of name. “I like it,” Gideon said. “It’s very appropriate.”
They swam around to the port side, facing away from the dock. There they found one of Levi’s new crewmembers waiting for them. He climbed down a ladder hooked on the rail and helped his captain carry the chest up to the main deck.
The new ship was smaller than the Maelstrom had been, but she looked far less worn and possibly faster. Up above them, Ethan heard the crew scurrying about lightly on the deck, preparing for a silent departure, if possible. The wind blew favorably, and the moon remained hidden by dense cloud cover-time to set sail.
Ethan bypassed Gideon climbing up the ladder. Instead, he realm shifted, reappearing on deck next to the captain. Levi utilized hand signals and whispered to his crew, as they made ready for departure. “Mooring lines away,” he called to some and, “unfurl the mainsail,” to others.
Ethan watched him, admiring the man. Captain Bonifast was a true seaman, only happy when he was sailing the great oceans where danger ever lurked. The man had not been the same since the destruction of his former ship, the Maelstrom. Now, that same wild light had returned to his eyes, and Ethan knew a great adventure lay ahead of them.
Trying to prepare such a vessel in the dark was truly a difficult task, but to try and do it without making any noise was nearly impossible. Mordred’s soldiers patrolled the docks already. Unfurling the massive canvas sails simply required too much activity to go unnoticed.
“You there, what are you doing!” a soldier shouted from the dock.
Everyone onboard froze in place, searching for the origin of the call with dread. Two soldiers stood off the starboard side with muskets ready and swords at their sides. “You’re not authorized to leave at this time of night!”
Gideon called for a weapon, but Ethan flew into action first. He realm shifted, then shot down to the docks, appearing beside one of the soldiers. He pulled his sword and dispatched him quickly. The other whipped his musket up toward Ethan’s chest, cocking the hammer back. Ethan rotated his body around the barrel of the long rifle, as the soldier fired, then struck the man squarely with his weapon. Still, the shot had been heard all over the docks.
“Catch the wind, boys!” Bonifast shouted. The men flew into action without any further concern for noise or being seen. It was now too late for any of that now.
Soldiers filled the docks as the shot roused a few, then they in turn called the others from their revelry. Fortunately their drink had dulled their senses-they fired on the Trinity, but showed little accuracy. Ethan ran toward the other soldiers, until he heard Gideon call for him. “Ethan, don’t try it! Get onboard!”
The ship pulled away as the musket fire increased. Then an explosion erupted from the smoky haze swelling around the docks. A had cannon fired. Some of the soldiers were shooting at the Trinity from a small ship moored nearby. The cannon ball sailed over the deck punching through some of the rigging equipment.
Bonifast responded. “Port gun crew, blast everything!”
The crewmembers, operating the guns, opened fire on anything and everything on the port side as the ship moved away from the docks. After the first volley everything became quiet. No one returned fire. Pain-filled cries filtered through thick white smoke. Ethan appeared back on deck next to Gideon, looking winded, but unharmed. The Trinity pulled away, caught the wind, and disappeared through the haze of cannon smoke drifting over the harbor.
Sailors and bar patrons swarmed all over the docks, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. A cloud of white smoke hung heavy over the stonework pathways. Men, wounded or worse, lay strewn everywhere near the place where the Trinity had sat docked for months.
A lone figure walked carefully among the dead-men conscripted unto his service. The Wraith Rider stared coldly at the damage left in the wake of the Trinity’s escape. By rank, he was a captain, by birth he was an abomination. The man stood near one of his soldiers from among the heathen tribes. The injured man reached out to him, his black and red uniform soaked in his own blood from the wounds inflicted tonight.
“What happened here?” the captain said, his voice menacing.
The man shook against his own pain, trying to relay the information. “A ship, trying to escape…”