Across The Sea (25 page)

“Please, Francis. We can’t
survive this together, and for that, I’m truly sorry. But you are
not chained up. You don’t have to die.”

“Neither do you.”

“Hide until this war is over.
Then find--”

“The hell I'm hiding!” Francis
shouted, cutting Michael off.

“Go!” Michael demanded,
infuriated. “Now!”

“Never. Not without you.”

“I will not have you die.”

“I have the Dream Finder. I
have the Dream Finder, Michael. I’ll come back here with her. I’ll
turn the tables on them.”

“You are not to return,
Francis.”

“I’ll come right back…”

Francis turned and ran back the
way he came.

“No Francis!” Michael yelled.
“No! Do not come back here!”

At the end of the main tunnel,
Francis climbed the spiral stairway and ran out the worn, wooden
cabin, not bothering to shut the door. Alianna was waiting for him.
He would not abandon her, and he would not abandon Michael either.
He would find a way.

He ran down the winding path,
prepared at any moment to hide if he saw Bodin and his men coming
up from the opposite way. He reached the foot of the hill and began
his run across the vast, empty valley.

Boom
.

Boom
.

Distant thunder. Cannons.

Clang
…

This sound was also distant.
Metal hitting against metal.

They’re on
land now
, Francis realized.
Troops. Troops are advancing. And this is where
they’re all heading since it’s the largest empty space on the
island. This is where the English and the Spanish are about to
meet.

Francis sprinted, more
desperate than he had ever been in his life. He had to remove
himself from this valley. He thought he could hear the marching of
the men. The shifting of thousands of legs. The thousands of steps
against the hard ground. He ran toward where he believed he had
entered the valley before. However, it was so far, he could not be
certain. He looked up at the hills and mountains surrounding the
valley. Ahead, a little toward his right, he saw them in the
distance: side by side, a line of men moving together. Fast. Behind
them, more men. A colossal mass all moving together.

Toward him.

Francis turned to look in the
opposite direction. Another dark mass of men was moving down the
hills. Francis tried to concentrate on running faster. He had to
reach the edge of the valley on time, lest these two armies trample
him. He gleaned the ground for a weapon. A thick branch lay a few
feet ahead. He snatched it. He would fight to stay alive.

He screamed. Feral. A battle
cry.

He then heard other battle
cries. These were savage.

Toward his right, he saw the
Spanish in their dark green uniforms, along with their pirate
cohorts in their red cloaks. All brandished weapons such as swords,
crossbows and battle axes, and all rushed toward the centre of the
valley. Francis turned his head to look in the opposite direction.
Multitudes of armed British soldiers in navy blue uniforms were
racing toward the centre as well. He was caught in the middle of
two tidal waves of men about to collide. They sped closer, the
noise of their sprinting feet rupturing the air.

And all about to crush
Francis.

Ahead, at the
edge of the valley where Francis was running toward, the two armies
began to meet, clashing in a terrible tornado of crashing metal.
Soon, right before him, more and more, the two armies came to
blows. Francis looked behind him. The same.
Maybe I should just fall to my knees and put my arms up over
my head. No one would see me. I’d be covered from sight.

But it would be like drowning.
I’d be stomped on and cut to pieces.

More and more waves hurtled
into battle. Francis tried his best to run around them, but as the
two armies joined, he would no longer be able to move; he would be
torn apart. Swords swung all around him. He ducked. Heavy, fast
footsteps sounded behind him. He spun around.

“Take my hand!”

From several metres away, Lily
sat atop a tall, shimmering, dark chocolate horse, galloping toward
him with her left hand outstretched. Francis reached out his own
left. Both hands grappled one another, and Francis ran a few steps
beside the horse before managing to climb atop and sit behind
Lily.

“Hold tight!” Lily shouted.
“Riding is a whole new thing for me!”

Francis now
had a higher, clearer view of the fighting. He saw blood; lots of
it. It was ghastly. And Lily was diving right into the midst of all
this chaos.
Poor thing has no clue what
she’s doing
, Francis thought.
She’ll get us both chopped up.

Lily made the horse turn left.
Then right. Managing to avoid some of the battle. She turned the
horse right again, then left, then right. She was nearing the edge.
Francis held his breath; they just might make it.

A dark green uniformed man
charged at Lily with a sword. Her left foot came out and she kicked
the man in the head as they galloped on. Out of the corner of one
eye, Francis saw another dark green uniform up ahead, charging at
them from the right side with a crossbow. The man stopped and took
aim. Francis did not know what to do. He whipped out the branch
from his belt and held it like a spear, aiming it at the soldier –
as he let out a roar.

The Spanish soldier, thinking
the spear real, dropped down flat on the ground for protection, and
Lily and Francis flew onward.

Lily kicked another man in the
back, and out of the way, as the horse jumped up onto higher
ground, and out of the battle-decimated valley.

With the rest of the way clear,
Mica rode on between two hills.

“I have a friend,” Francis
said. “She’s nearby.”

“Lead the way,” Lily
answered.

Behind them, they could hear
the clanging of swords and the shouting of men.

“I thought…” Francis tried to
catch his breath. “I thought they killed you.”

“They tried,” Lily said. She
turned and smiled at Francis. “But I had other plans. Mainly you
and your brother.”

Francis smiled back. He was
thrilled to see his friend again.

Lily turned to look ahead. “Do
you know where he is?”

“I saw him. He’s in chains,
underground. The locks can’t be opened with a belt. He told me to
hide until the war ends but I want to go back now, but with some
sort of plan.”

“We’re together now,” Lily
said. “We can save him together.”

Francis gave Lily directions to
the Dream Finder.

They neared the tree where
Francis had left Alianna. As they rode Mica around it, Francis felt
nauseous. The Dream Finder was gone.

“Maybe this is the wrong
place,” Lily said. “Maybe you made a mistake.”

“I don’t think so,” Francis
replied.

“Neither do I,” said a gruff
voice on Francis’ left. Francis whipped his head around.

Bodin stood under another tree,
flanked by Captain Leonard and Ratwell. Alianna stood with them,
both her wrists in manacles attached to a chain; the other end of
which was gripped in Bodin’s left hand. Elroy stood a little behind
them. As did Martino and a dozen Spanish royal guards.

And the King of Spain.

“I shall have my horse returned
now,” the King said. He was no longer wearing a gold crown but a
round, brown fur hat and fur coat.

Lily said nothing as she
dismounted Mica. Francis did the same.

“These people,” Francis began
to tell Bodin, “they’re not that different from the people who
killed your family.”

Bodin grinned. “You’re
mistaking me for someone else.”

“I guess I am,” Francis
answered. “But I warn you, if you don’t join Lily, Alianna and me
against these men, when all this is over, I will kill you.”

Bodin grinned again. As did
Captain Leonard, Ratwell and Elroy.

Lily watched as two royal
guards helped the King mount Mica. Out of nowhere, a large hand
struck her, hard across the face. Lily raised her fists to fight
off her attacker, but Elroy hurried behind her and held both her
arms back as Lily looked up in rage at the man who had just cuffed
her. It was Martino. Francis stepped forward to intervene but Bodin
grabbed him by the shoulder and rammed him to the ground.

“Francis,” Alianna pleaded.
“Please… no.”

Francis looked up at the Dream
Finder, as he stayed where he was. He would comply.

Martino stared the enraged Lily
in the eye as he seethed, “One never stares at a king.”

Lily held her tongue. She knew
she could not say anything back; she and Francis were
outnumbered.

“The time has come for us to
see this to its end,” Bodin announced. “We must now do what we all
came here to do. Each and every one of us.”

Francis and Lily were pushed
ahead up a path which spiralled around a mountain. There was no way
to escape this time. Bodin had placed Captain Leonard, Ratwell and
Elroy ahead of Francis and Lily. Behind them were Bodin with the
chained Dream Finder. Bringing up the rear was Martino and the
Spanish royal guard with the King of Spain riding Mica.

They reached a hole in the
rock: a tunnel entrance leading inside the mountain. The Spanish
royal guard helped the King of Spain dismount Mica, a few torches
were lit and everyone entered. Mica was left at the entrance, the
reins of his harness tied around a rock.

“You never mentioned this
tunnel before, Bodin,” remarked the King of Spain, whom Francis now
knew had once been the infamous and nasty Admiral Rogalles. It was
strange – surreal Michael would have said – having Sir Robert of
Dreighton and Admiral Rogalles standing this close, real, and
holding Francis as their prisoner. Francis turned to look up at
Bodin. Everyone here was at his mercy. These islands had been his
obsession for decades. He most likely knew everything there was to
be known about them. They soon reached a steep, stone stairway
spiralling down. They all descended. It seemed to take forever, but
the narrow stairway finally ended and they walked on into another
tunnel. After a few turns, Francis noticed other dark tunnel
openings in the walls and then the light of a flame up ahead. Soon
Francis recognized where they were as they passed lit torches hung
on the wall at intervals. They were walking toward Michael’s prison
cave; only this time, it was from the opposite direction from which
Francis had originally arrived. Bodin, with the chained Dream
Finder in tow, pushed his way ahead of everyone and put out the
torch he held by hitting the top a few times against the rock wall.
He reached the opening of a cave, dropped the torch and entered.
Everyone followed.

Francis saw the lump of grey,
with long, matted hair, in chains on the rocky floor. Lily
gasped.

“Look up, boy,” Bodin ordered.
“Guess who’s come to visit.”

Francis realized that Bodin had
no knowledge of Francis and Michael meeting earlier.

The lump in chains rolled over
to look up at them. Once Michael’s eyes fell on Francis, he was
visibly disappointed. His eyelids appeared weighted down. He tried
a smile but Francis knew that it was only to make him feel
better.

“Well,” Bodin said, sounding a
bit surprised. “After all this young boy went through to get to
you. Frankly, I expected a reunion of a much more intense
strain.”

Bodin looked in Francis’
direction and then back at Michael. Francis could tell from the
look in Bodin’s face then that he had just realized Francis had
already been here.

“Fine, let us get on with
things.” Bodin took a step toward Michael. “I am certain that there
is no need to tell you, Michael, that the many who have stood in
our way on this long journey, are all dead. Do not force my hand
concerning your little brother and his little friend.”

Michael stared at Bodin with a
look that Francis had never seen from his brother before. Michael
barely moved a muscle, but inside, Francis could tell, Michael was
as volatile as hell boiling over.

“This is Alianna,” Bodin said,
as though the words would cut Michael to the bone. “She is a dream
finder.”

Michael stared up at him.

“You know what I will do if you
do not co-operate,” Bodin added. He turned to Alianna. “Read his
dreams,” he ordered. “Or my kind attention will turn to the
children. And we all know you love children. I have two now. I’ll
hurt the first one so you’ll do my bidding before I touch the
second.”

Lily knew
Bodin meant her as the “first one” and she wanted to shout
something out, but she could tell by the sombre mood in the cave
and by the way Francis and Michael said nothing that perhaps her
mouth would only aggravate matters. She had to turn her mind,
instead, toward thinking of a way out of this place. She surveyed
her surroundings. It all seemed hopeless.
I can’t let myself think that way
,
she thought to herself.
Not even for a
second.

Alianna stepped forward, toward
Michael. Francis could see that her body was aching as she knelt
before his brother with some difficulty. “I shall require my hands
free,” she requested.

Bodin bent down and, with a key
attached to a silver key ring, undid one of her manacles. Francis
saw that the ring held four other small keys, and these were
square, flat and jagged on two sides. Though much more diminutive
in size, these four keys were of the same technology as the key
Francis had found on Bodin’s ship.

Bodin snapped the opened
manacle shut, onto one of Michael’s chains.

Alianna stared up at Bodin,
disappointed. But what could she do?