“That they did,” Milly said. She was less optimistic about how the people of Respite would respond to the news they brought, and the offer the knight of Argartha would make. She figured most people would choose to stay on Respite, and that would be her recommendation. Peter and Randy had been right; she never should have left. There was nothing better over the horizon, except the world’s future, which meant nothing if you didn’t experience it with those you loved.
Her hand dropped to the head of Peter’s axe. Her Glock had also been returned, and she planned to give it to Randy when she got home. The weapon didn’t feel right in her hand anymore. She was done fighting, for good.
A puppy tore onto the deck, stopped, his head jerking from side to side. Milly and Robin laughed. When the dog saw them, he bolted across the deck, leaping the last few feet and crashing into Milly. The Santa Maria II had been at sea eight days when the captain discovered Axe, one of Pepper’s pups Milly had smuggled onto the ship. It had been the middle of the night when Axe started wailing and chirping, and Milly had been surprised to see the smile on Captain Jerrford’s face when he’d discovered the animal. She imagined things might’ve been different if she and the menagerie weren’t getting off the ship before the real mission began.
Robin stroked Axe. “Where’s Turnip?” she said.
“Resting in the hold below with Ratgut,” Milly said. The Argarthian sailors were superstitious and believed every vessel needed a cat aboard. So it was that Turnip met Ratgut, and what Turnip would do when Milly disembarked, she didn’t know.
The early summer weather was warm and the seas calm. The Santa Maria II’s sails were trimmed tight. It had taken twelve days to sail down the east coast of the old US and around the tip of Florida. They encountered no other vessels, and as they rounded Cuba and cut across the Caribbean Sea, six more days passed before they passed through what was left of the Panama Canal.
“It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?” Rene said. He’d joined them on the bow as the sun started its descent to the horizon in the west. The knight had been a wealth of information, and Milly knew the people of Respite would love his stories of the old world.
“What’s hard to imagine?” Robin said.
“The construction of the great canal. It’s an engineering feat of the old world and the new,” he said. “As you guys know, the two major locks that lift and lower the boats on each end of the waterway no longer function, and large vessels can no longer navigate the forty-eight-mile series of lakes, rivers, and man-made channels that connect the two mighty oceans. Only small vessels like ours can pass thanks to Argarthian engineers who developed a counterweight system utilizing parts from the old locks, and a series of chains and pulleys that lift or lower the vessel instead of displacing or adding water to the locks or adjusting the giant metal gates.”
“Yeah, those engineers are geniuses,” Milly said. “Them and their chains.”
Rene laughed.
There had been a scary moment when the Santa Maria II floated in its harness and a chain and pulley failed, sending the crew scrambling to lower the boat before more chains broke. If they’d lost too many chains, they couldn’t have passed the western lock, and the Santa Maria II would’ve been stuck between the east and west locks.
The sun set on another day, and the night brought dreams of home.
The Santa Maria II headed north along the western shore of Mexico when a white one-eyed crow squawked and dove at them. Larry led them to Tester, who waited with the Jolly Roger, which he’d readied for launch.
“Took me a year just to get to Mexico, and I stayed clear of Stadium,” Tester said. “Hansa found me in the jungle and brought me to the boat. She hung around for a bit, then said you guys would be here soon. Then she left. She said you guys would understand.”
Milly did.
Tester didn’t baulk when Rene demanded he leave his weapons behind. If it was up to Rene and Mora, Tester wouldn’t have been permitted to come with them, but it wasn’t up to them. It was up to Milly. It was her boat and she was its captain.
Their trip back to Respite across the Pacific Ocean was considerably less difficult than when they’d left. The current worked in their favor this time, and the beginning of August found the Jolly Roger cutting through a light chop into the shallows around Respite.
The beach was packed with people. Spyglass Station saw them coming and sent out word across the island. Milly had never seen anything as beautiful as Respite. She remembered wishing ‘good riddance’ when she’d sailed into the great unknown, but as she looked on her home, joy filled her for the first time in her life. It wasn’t too late. She’d made it back and she would make everything right. Her hand dropped to Peter’s axe. Almost everything.
Milly remembered little of the landing; the hot sun on her face, the Jolly Roger hitting bottom, and jumping into the water with all the cheering people. Curso hugged her, but didn’t look Milly in the eye, and that more than anything else told her it was over between them. She barely recognized Randy. Time had marked her son, without extinguishing the fire in his eyes. Milly squeezed him as tight as she could.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “You were right. You were right.”
Hazel and Tris waited on the beach.
Milly wasn’t done. Not by a long road. She had to speak with Hazel and Tris, then Vera and Jerome’s parents. Milly didn’t see Haven. Robin got carried
