waves.
'All of you in!' ordered Christian, face never leaving the predator. 'All but me!'
'You cannot destroy that monster!' cried Kat, snatching his wrist. 'There is only death for you here!'
'And I am tired of running from it!' he bawled back, slapping off Kat's hold and charging for the creature. The Dreadknot saw Christian coming, so dropped its food and opened its arms to the arriving captain. The pair thumped chests in a bear hug, and under raining fire and water they wrestled over the deck, man and monster embracing until the wood underneath surrendered to their weight; and gravity dragged both to the incinerating depths of the Bounty
***
Like the stuffed guy atop a bonfire, I reached the nest to discover Eddinray sitting dazed at this frail lookout post — the height nauseating and heat too intense to bare.
Harmony yelled for us a long way down, and worryingly, the fire had now singed away the ladders I'd ascended; the canvas under me was also a searing sheet of white heat.
'Eddinray!' I chocked. 'Up!'
The knight murmured back, and weak from blood-loss myself, I slumped over his face and nearly toppled from our perilous periscope. Flames were like an axe chopping into all three masts, and ours suddenly tipped to one side, bringing us closer to the sea and snapping me out of my mental slur. I ignored the increasing pain and smoke tempting me to sleep — I focused the strength back into my muscles, then regained that all important balance.
'Eddinray!'
***
Captain Christian and the Dreadknot crept eye on eye in a roasting vat of yellows, whites and oranges. Clutching a hand over his heart, a repentant Christian spoke from it. 'Our Father — who art in heaven — hallowed be thy name.'
The crisping creature thud toward his toes, the insane captain luring the thing deeper into the inferno.
'Thy Kingdom come — thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!'
Further he retreated, and closer the Dreadknot followed. Christian's blood came like stress through his facial bandages — he wanted the predator and the predator wanted its prey. Clumsily, the captain stumbled backward and fell down the hold steps, snatching a hanging lantern on his way
***
I slapped Eddinray's cheeks raw until he opened his eyes and came to his wits.
'What,' he asked, blurry, 'where's the fire?'
'We're in it! Get up!'
The mast keen to break off into the sea, I heard our friends calling from the drifting boat, encouraging and inspiring bravery. 'Eddinray…we have to jump! Can you do that?'
'Do what?'
'That's right,” I grunted, wrapping his arm over my shoulder. 'Just a nice dive to a warm pool. Harmony's waiting to towel you down.'
Eddinray's flustered face looked happy to be coaxed, so I guided us to the edge of the breaking nest and examined the dive to choppy waters. It was a daunting drop to swirling seas, but with the fire toasting my legs, it was now or never.
***
Christian backed off as far as possible into the hold, our vacant chains dangling on a wall near the scattered casks of black powder and white canvas. He squashed a rat under his boot then teased the lantern in-front of the Dreadknot‘s snout; the wailing, ash ridden beast still thirsty. 'Forgive us our trespasses — as we forgive those who trespass against us! Lead us not into temptation — but deliver us from evil!'
The Dreadknot sprang forward and picked up the flailing captain, but before Christian could be eaten or broken, he tossed the hot lantern over a punctured sack of black powder. 'For thine is the Kingdom — the power and the glory — for ever and ever!'
Bounty exploded…into a hundred thousand smithereens.
34. Reflection
Kat laid me flat on that open boat to recover myself. An ashy fire came down with the rain and the last traces of Bounty burned like a Viking funeral over the choppy water.
'Godwin?!' wailed Harmony, over the sides. 'Godwin?! I can't see him Kat! The smoke…it's too thick!'
Drifting between the bobbing shrapnel, she and Kat searched for Eddinray. Nauseous, I sat up to gasp at the dead mutineer beside me, his face riddled with splinters. Without warning, our lifeboat tipped to one side, and Eddinray climbed on-board. 'Can't hear a thing!' he yelled, spluttering. The knight fell over me like a wet fish, and Harmony embraced his sopping shambles, while our open boat sailed free from the wreckage…
***
The last of the well water was gone, some used on the bite at my neck, the rest used to heal burns and burst eardrums. Those disappearing drops of precious gold unnerved us all — our security blanket was gone.
Most of my clothes had gone up with Bounty, I claimed the dead man's moth-eaten blazer before Kat threw his corpse overboard. Drying out was impossible in this permanently wet environment, and floating aimlessly in the dead of night, it was hard to be optimistic about our chances.
'A watchful eye on stirring waters people!' said Eddinray, taking prominent position at the bow to observe one of many developing whirlpools. 'I will guide us through this minefield!'
With no moon to light the way, Kat sat in the centre of the boat and pulled on two oars; meanwhile Harmony, focused her eyes over the horizon. 'How to get out of this one?' she pondered.
'We don't.' I answered, body wasted.
'Resignation?' she said, surprised. 'Doors do not appear as such here, Daniel. Open your mind. There will be a way!'
Kat's grunt seemed to agree, but he gave no opinion as to what this magical door may look like.
'My hearing is improving!' announced Eddinray, louder than necessary. 'Yes it is! And I couldn't possibly assist you with the rowing samurai; alas my strength is weak still.'
Kat expressed only contempt for Eddinray, to which the knight remained oblivious.
'During his time here,' said Harmony, thinking aloud, 'Captain Christian said he came across no land whatsoever, therefore our door must be in the sky, or on the water itself.'
'But where?' cried Eddirnay, slapping a fist into his palm, 'Perhaps underwater?'
'Of course!' Harmony exclaimed, suddenly. 'There! Look there!'
Bright faced, the angel pointed out a whirlpool growing dangerously close to our little boat. 'That is our door!” she announced. “There is our portal!'
We all creaked our necks to this guzzling vortex. It sure didn't look like a door, but Harmony insisted, and her angelic intuition somehow gave the notion credibility; after all, no sensible mariner would run his ship into a whirlpool, and that logic would ultimately contain men and ships alike here forever. 'Row boys!' urged Harmony. 'Row!'
Backs facing the swirl, all of us grabbed the ends of unused oars and rowed toward the churn. Several heaves later the oars became unnecessary, for we had reached this black hole's event horizon, and there could be no turning back. 'Don't be scared!' yelled Harmony, so certain as our boat began to turn and descend.
'I'm going to be sick!' announced Eddinray, throwing his mouth over the speeding sides.
We four collected in the centre of the boat, whilst the water grew like walls on all sides. The sea like a closing hand, it then began crushing our boat into leaks and splinters. 'Hold your breath!' I howled. 'Hold your — '
The boat imploded, and the instant our bodies touched water, the hammer of the sea fell hard upon our heads.
***
