Ashes of the Earth (31 page)

Without
a word Jori rose and settled at the opposite end of the hold.

Hadrian
gazed without focus into the shadows, numb to the cold and the
lurching of the boat.

Suddenly
his knee exploded in pain. Jori was back, bracing herself on a beam
as she kicked him. "To hell with you!" He could see streaks
of tears down her cheeks. "To hell with your dead family! I'm
sick of all you damned survivors! We're nothing to you! To be real in
your world, you have to be dead! We're just shadow people! We never
count for anything. The only real people to you are in your
nightmares. Nothing we do matters! We just playact for you, keep you
alive so you can wallow in your grief. Screw you and screw your old
world! Your world is gone. It's never coming back! I am not a shadow,
Hadrian Boone! And I don't live in a shadow world, you do!" She
kicked him again and was gone.

When
he returned to cutting logs again, he carried several loads, then
crept into the companionway to the galley and opened the small locker
there. He quickly studied its contents. Needles and cord for patching
nets. A hammer. A coil of rope. He grabbed the hammer and rope, then
quickly hid them behind the firewood at the stern.

The
increasingly cold wind kept pushing the Anna off her course. Wade was
fighting the helm when Hadrian ventured inside the wheelhouse,
basking in its warmth for a moment. "I know this boat," he
said. "Let me relieve you."

"Why
would I do that, schoolteacher?"

"I
want to get to Carthage as fast as you do. You need some food."

"Scanlon's
in charge of the galley." As the big man shifted on his feet,
Hadrian saw a sawed-off shotgun hanging on pegs near the wheel.

"We're
both working for Sauger now," Hadrian tried.

A
wave violently hit the bow, breaking over the deck. Wade glanced at
the compass, then reached into his pocket for his tobacco plug and
bit off a piece.

"You're
a horse's ass, Boone. No one works directly for Sauger or Kinzler
except Fletcher and Shenker. I work for Fletcher. And you're on my
crew now. I think when we get home, you can live behind my shithouse.
I'll have you clean my spittoon and chew book pages to soften them
before I wipe my arse."

"I
guess I underestimated you, Wade. I should have known better, after
that magic you worked in prison."

"Magic?"

"The
way you were in prison one minute, then suddenly driving the Anna
away with Nelly and Shenker."

Hadrian
had to sidestep as Wade spat tobacco juice in his direction. "You
are one dumb fuck. Fletcher said it to Sauger. You're too softheaded
to be useful. No real survival instinct, he said. It's what makes you
so unpredictable."

"Maybe
it's more like survival isn't my first priority."

Wade
gave a snort of laughter. "Exactly," he said, as if his
point was proven. He swung the bow into another wave and checked the
compass again. "You never understood. You thought I was in
prison on account of another knife fight. But I was only there
because of you."

"I
still don't understand."

"Right.
You don't understand shit about the way Carthage works. I was there
to keep an eye on you, keep you busy, keep you drunk if need be. Once
Buchanan released you, there was no need for me to stay."

"You
mean one of the guards in the prison is a jackal."

Wade
laughed so hard tobacco juice dripped down his beard. "You never
will understand."

Hadrian
made his way to the hold and found a corner where he could sit and
brace himself against the pitching of the boat. He sat in silence,
trying to sleep, but overtaken by new questions and fears. Wade was
right. He was too softheaded to understand how Sauger and his league
of criminals thought. He stared into the darkness. Snowflakes started
tumbling through the open hatch.

She
appeared before him again, wrapped in a blanket.

"I'm
sorry, Jori," he said before she could speak. "I don't mean
you to be a shadow."

"I'm
cold," she said, then settled beside him, covering him with part
of her blanket.

"Is
it true what Emily said?" came Jori's voice after a few minutes.

"What
she said?"

"Is
it true the ending of the first world was your fault?"

His
torrent of emotion broke through. It came out as a groan of pain, but
after a moment all he could do was laugh.

He
slept and woke to find Jori's head on his shoulder. The hold was
filled with moonlight, and the worst of the storm seemed to have
passed. He sat very still, feeling the cadence of her breathing
against his body, daring to touch a strand of her hair that hung
across his chest. He felt his strength returning, his mind clearing.
He gently leaned her against a beam and climbed out onto deck. For
once survival was going to be his first priority.

When
he returned to the engine room he found Tull had made a little nest
in the firewood and seemed to be nodding off. He studied the engine
once more, and as he returned to the deck a hand reached out of the
darkness.

"Dax
says we can have soup in the galley," Jori announced. "Scanlon
is back in the wheelhouse with the captain."

Hadrian
sat in silence at the galley table. The fish chowder was hot and
plentiful and he emptied two bowls before looking up to see his
companions staring at him. As he pushed the bowl toward Dax for a
refill he noticed the boy's pained expression.

"What
is it, Dax?"

The
boy did not reply but took the bowl and refilled it.

"At
St. Gabriel when I saw you in the kitchen," Hadrian said, "they
had hit you. Why?"

Dax
frowned. "I asked Scanlon if they were his tools at the saw pit.
That's all. He didn't take kindly to it, said that's no way to get
the secret."

"Secret?"

"You
know. I told you about them ghosts."

Hadrian
stared at him in confusion. Dax had never explained why he was not
interested in crossing over, even while helping others do so. "My
God, Dax," he said with a shudder. "You mean the secret of
how to die and come back. There isn't any. They don't do it."

Dax
frowned again, clearly not convinced. At least he wasn't ready to
die. He stared at Hadrian expectantly. When Hadrian did not speak, he
glanced nervously at the companionway.

"The
skipper came in a while ago," Dax explained. "I said we
might have a job of it, watching for that little lantern in this
weather. He cuffed me in the ear. But then he calls me to his side
and apologizes. Says when we get back he will have me made a full
jackal for all my brave work. He says at every ceremony new jackals
get a new knife and a silver statue." Dax searched Hadrian's
face as if for an answer. "But there ain't no knives and
statues. Wade don't know I watch those ceremonies, from the window on
the roof of that house by the harbor the jackals use. Why would the
scrub lie? And that Scanlon, he has a gun in his belt. The sergeant's
gun. Why does he need that?"

The
color drained from Jori's face.

Hadrian
glanced at the galley hatch, expecting one of the crew to burst in at
any moment. Then he spoke in low, urgent tones. "You have to
stay awake, both of you, and stay together. Don't drink or eat
anything they give you. It's a game they're playing, to keep us from
resisting." The real game, Hadrian now realized, was between
Sauger and Fletcher. Sauger had exaggerated his interest in keeping
Hadrian and his friends alive as a bargaining chip, so Fletcher would
be indebted to him when he'd finally consented to Fletcher's demand
for revenge. "They don't mean for us to make it to shore. But
they can't afford to take the time to stop out in deep water,
especially in this weather. When I come to you, you must both be
ready and do exactly what I say. No questions. No talking. Do you
understand?"

Jori
nodded stiffly. Dax, casting confused glances at each of them,
finally shrugged. "Okay. Sure."

The
swells had begun to subside and the sky had cleared by the time
Hadrian finally glimpsed the thin line of darker shadow along the
southern horizon. Carthage was visible in the distance, not because
of its dim lights but due to the threads of silvery smoke rising into
the starlit sky.

He
retrieved the rope and hammer, then quickly tied the rope to the bow
of the skiff before lowering the boat and tying it to the stern rail.

"In
five minutes," he explained to Dax as he descended into the
hold, "you must go to the engine room and tell Tull the skipper
says it's time to get some breakfast before reaching shore. When I
leave, count to three hundred, slowly, then go to him. Scanlon is
asleep on a bunk in there. Don't wake him." He turned to Jori.
"You need to get past the wheelhouse without Wade seeing you,
then after Tull goes into the galley, make your way to the stern."

The
engineer was dozing again as Hadrian brought his last load of wood.
He quickly slipped into the shadows past the pile of firewood and
stretched out in the darkness. Moments later Dax called down as
instructed. Tull groggily rubbed his eyes then climbed up to the
deck.

Instantly
Hadrian was on his feet, loading the boiler to capacity with oak
logs, then grabbing a long bolt from the rack of parts on the wall.
He fixed the bolt into the holes of the boiler door handle, pulled
the hammer from his belt, and pounded the six inches of bolt that
extended below the door latch, bending it at a sharp angle. The door
would not be opened again. He turned the air intake to maximum,
smashed its handle, then, with a silent apology to Jonah, smashed
closed each of the stems that served as relief valves.

The
grey light of predawn was edging over the horizon as he found Dax and
Jori on the stern deck. Carthage was less than three miles away.

"They
mean to kill us," he said to Dax, putting a hand on the boy's
shoulder. "When the boat stops offshore they are going to shoot
us and dump us into the water." His companions stared at him but
said nothing. "We are getting into the skiff and rowing to
shore. Dax, when we reach land head toward town and find a hiding
place."

"We
could overpower them," Jori suggested. "Then take the boat
to town."

"We
can't overpower those three," Hadrian said firmly. "They
have guns. And this boat won't exist in another five minutes. The
boiler is going to explode."

Jori
seemed to sag. "Hadrian, we'll freeze out on that water,"
she protested.

"We'll
die for sure if we stay," he replied, then pulled on the skiff's
line. Dax shook his head uncertainly, then leapt into the small boat.

Jori
silently pushed past Hadrian and climbed over the side. Hadrian
untied the rope then patted the rail and looked back at the fishing
boat. "I'm sorry," he whispered to the Anna, then eased
over the stern.

"We'll
head east, a couple miles above town," he explained as he began
rowing. They were barely a hundred feet away from the Anna when he
heard furious voices. He'd prayed the boat would continue on her
course, leaving them behind, but Wade now was shouting frantic orders
and the Anna was coming about, heading straight for them.

Seconds
later the pistol began barking. A splinter of wood exploded inches
from his leg.

The
rising offshore wind was pushing them toward land but the Anna's bulk
meant she was being pushed faster in the same direction as she turned
in pursuit. Wade's curses grew louder, interrupted by confused shouts
from the engineer. Scanlon emptied the pistol then leapt to the bow
and lifted a boathook over his head as the Anna closed the gap.

Jori
frantically put her hands over his, desperately trying to move the
oars faster. Dax stood in the bow, lifting the little anchor as if to
throw it at Scanlon, who now bellowed in anger.

A
moment later the Anna was on them, splintering, then crushing the
stern of the skiff, and Scanlon was swinging the hook at Hadrian's
head with a furious roar.

Then
suddenly the Anna and her crew were no more. Hadrian did not remember
the sound so much as the abrupt rushing of air and debris, the
illusion of a brief but powerful deluge as the shards of the boat
rained down around them.

The
skiff was gone and he was in the water. His clothes quickly filled
and the frigid murk pulled him down. Then a hand gripped him and Jori
hauled him onto a large slab of wreckage from the Anna. There was no
sign of the Anna's crew, only pieces of the hull floating in a
circle.