Chapter LXXXI: Crossing the Atlantic
2 January 1610
Darkness overtook the weaving waters of the Atlantic as the earth’s weary and watery eye shut close under her eyelid of night. The single galleon that skidded across the surface darted across the wide ocean with unflinching speed. It was in the cooling atmosphere of that evening that the barely lit deck of the San Domingo creaked as the ship tossed along the water’s surface.
She had a light load, indeed. Just enough for the provisions of those few on board and the crew; this was another speedy run between the Peninsula and the New World. Guided by charts, maps, and instruments, the ship would make her way to Vera Cruz with all speed. Housed within the belly of the wind propelled vessel was a swing lamp and a wide table.
The meeting had been over an hour earlier and most of the crew and passengers were already asleep. Willem, however, leaned against the table and let his fiery red hair hang loosely over his forehead. He was no spy, although the past few months he had received a crash course in the kind of work Raul and Riku did. Nonetheless, he was the lone soldier in the midst of these workers of cloak and daggers. His swordsmanship was second to none with the exception of Renault, but it did not make him feel any easier about the task he was told they must fulfill once they arrive in the New World.
“It will not be just as easy as going inside and getting it and leaving,” Willem recalled Renault telling them earlier during the meeting, “we wanted to make sure that aside from the regular security surrounding it, that no one could easily break in and take the Timepiece.”
Van Axel once more looked at the diagrams laid down in front of him. Being an officer and an Aristocrat from the Netherlands meant that he had a rudimentary idea of mathematics and engineering. His education in the officer’s school and trained in the tradition of General Schenkhuizen—their regional hero—meant that he had no small bit of cunning ingrained into him. Nonetheless, the complex routes and machinations he saw in front of him baffled his mind. He wanted another look when no one could see him.
“Is it hard for you to understand it?” someone from the door asked; Willem nearly fell over as he looked in that direction.
“Madeleine!” he let his shock out through the call.
“I couldn’t sleep…” the young girl sighed as she floated into the room. She made a turn before bumping her hip gracefully against the side of the table. Her laced hands led her arms to weave over her chest. “You have a hard time keeping up with us during the meetings, don’t you?” she added.
When Willem heard her say that, he couldn’t feel the usual tug of playfulness that marked that girl’s usual demeanor. Instead, there was sincerity that bounced off the walls from her voice. Faced with such a candid question, he hid his face from her by looking down at the papers again. “I’m just reviewing the mission, that’s all…”
Madeleine twirled about again and stood to Willem’s left. She gave him a sideways look. “I expected that kind of excuse from Raul, not from you.” When Willem kept staring at the paper underneath him, she continued. “I know you’re trying your best, Willem. But it’s alright to tell us when you’re having trouble.”
“I’m a lieutenant of the Spanish army,” he said it like a sigh. His gloved palm eclipsed the document he studied as if he was trying to hide his eyes from the mass of information pouring from it. “I wasn’t trained to read about spy procedures and booby traps.”
“There will be a time when your talents are needed,” Madeleine said while placing a finger to her cheek as if in thought. “Aside from your fighting prowess, the mind of a soldier is not a terrible thing.” Again, Willem did not respond to her. “After all, you would not be here with us if you were so incompetent.”
“I’m just here because the Cardinal sought it fit to give you all a bodyguard.”
Madeleine shook her head rigidly. “No, silly,” her smile cracked through the serious expression just a tad, “I meant you wouldn’t have made it out of Persia alive if you were so incapable of keeping up with people like Raul or Rikhard.”
That statement made Willem pause and his eyebrows contracted as if the back of his hand on the table possessed a grave puzzle for him to unravel just by looking at it. “Perhaps…” he said with his expression still contemplating what the young lady said, “you could help me understand some of these?”
His head turned just enough so that his emerald greens caught a glimpse of the young woman smiling at him through the palisade of his crimson bangs. “I’d be happy to,” Madeleine replied. She brought the piece of paper he was studying out from underneath his palm without breaking eye contact.
Before she could hold the paper closely, the ship lurched in one direction and Madeleine found herself falling forward. Crashing into Willem, both only managed to stay on their feet through Willem bracing the table. His other arm had instinctually found its way around the young woman’s waist. Shooting a glance up after the blow, Madeleine blushed slightly as she steadied herself and stepped out of the soldier’s embrace. Willem, for his part, did nothing but stare indecisively.
“It… We…” Willem tried to say.
“It sounded like we hit something,” Madeleine quickly interjected before turning towards the doorway and dashing out. Willem swallowed a second before following her.
---
Renault’s glass of his favourite Burgundy had not survived the little quake that awakened him from his sleep. Barely managing to save his bottle from sharing the same fate, he straightened the container onto his bed before finding his shoes and avoided the broken glass. Shooting straight away from his bed, he huffed pants into the cold night air—this was not something he was young enough to do, he groaned to himself.
“Madeleine what’s going on?” he called out to the figure that best matched his niece. Even with the lamps, it was still too dim to make most anything out.
“It felt like we hit something,” his niece replied. Stepping onto the deck from the officer’s quarters, he followed Willem and Madeleine to the edge of the boat. He could already hear the night screw scurrying about making sure everything was secure while the sleepy ones downstairs were awakening and coming atop.
“We’re no where near land,” Renault complained tiredly, “we shouldn’t be hitting anything out here.”
“Since I stumbled towards the starboard side, then it must have hit us from there.” Madeleine deduced while darting her eyes into the wine dark sea.
“What’s going on?” Raul called out from behind.
“I think we hit something,” Willem called back to him beckoning him over to the starboard side of the ship. Riku was quickly but quietly in tow.
“Could it have been another ship or debris perhaps?” Riku asked while following the trend of looking about the water.
“Captain,” Renault shouted to the skipper of the vessel who was busy doing a check on the ship, “was there any damage below deck?”
“Nothing,” the seaman responded, “if something did hit us, it didn’t damage the hull.”
Renault nodded and returned to contemplating the water. Madeleine was the first to turn around to him.
“Uncle,” she began to explain holding up both of her hands as if to mould her explanation into a ball with every word, “considering the force of the shock… if we didn’t suffer any damage along the hull… that could only mean that whatever hit us had to have spread out its force along the entirety of the hull.”
“What do you mean?” Willem asked turning away from the water as well.
“Well,” Madeleine began to explain with her eyes preoccupied as she spoke as if she was reading the answer out of the air, “let’s suppose that we were hit by something small but heavy. If that were so, so much force would be concentrated on such a small area that it would have punctured or damaged the hull. You felt the force, it was rather large. But since we suffered no damage, the force was spread out throughout the entire length of the boat.”
“So whatever hit us was big?” Raul asked out loud without turning around.
“I believe that’s a good guess…”
“It couldn’t have been a wave, it was too much of an abrupt and hard shock… maybe it was a whale…”
“Commander Renault,” the skipper called out to the man. “This man here says he saw something about the time that we were hit.”
Renault and the others turned around to face the captain of the boat and one of the sailors standing next to him. “It was a like a giant shadow, sir,” the man started. His Portuguese accent was a bit hard to understand, but all persevered. “Longer then the ship it seemed… like some massive whale… but it was bigger than any whale I’ve ever seen in my career, sir. It was smooth and slender and uniform underneath the moonlight although I admit I didn’t get a good look at it. The water around it foamed before it submerged back into the water.”
Renault scratched at his chin attempting to figure out what this could mean. Madeleine was similarly lost in contemplation while Raul and Willem stood in attention hoping for some more information. Riku turned back towards the ocean wanting to perhaps see a second glimpse.
“If possible, captain, I’d like to ask of you to double the watch tonight just in case we have another encounter with whatever this thing is,” Renault commanded before turning to the younger ones, “the rest of us will take shifts on watch with the crew.”
“Yes, sir,” Willem replied eagerly, “I volunteer to take the first watch.”
“The rest of you get some rest,” Renault ordered as he turned around to try and clean up the broken glass in his quarters before heading to sleep again.
The others filed into the hold once again and Willem straightened and stretched himself with a grunt in preparation for his watch. The cool salty brine of the air made him give a little shiver as soon as he finished extending his arms, but he quickly recovered and placed a steely look outwards towards the shifting waves. He was most surprised to see a young woman step up to the side of the boat to his right. “Should I begin your lesson now?”
“Lesson? Aren’t you going to sleep?”
“I promised to help you out, didn’t I?” Madeleine laughed at him.
Willem betrayed a little smile.
---
“The fact that I have betrayed Raul and the others to you should be enough to convince you that the rest of this plan will succeed. Or at least, that I will do my part.” Alvaro de Guzman’s impatience was clear through his speech. His teeth were held tight against each other even though his body seemed completely relaxed leaning up against one of the city’s buildings near the dark alley where just the other week he had thrown money into like a master throws a dog a leftover bone.
Although the tone was the same dissatisfied exasperation, the sound from the shadows of the alley was not so uncontrolled. “Very well,” were the quick words, “we will proceed with your plan.”
---
The powder mixed into the red wine perfectly. No trace of it was left even around the neck of the bottle. Alvaro made sure that he swished the liquid around enough to get every last visible particle to enter into its alcoholic stasis. He had to be quick. He knew that the page who brought the wine to the Silent Room would be returning to the kitchen very soon. Satisfied that he left no mark on the bottle except for a slight fizzle from the bubbling surface, he quickly quit the room.
The page had been prompt and the tray which held the glass and the bottle were lifted off of one of the kitchen’s many countertops. Alvaro could not help but peer through a door opened just a crack. Feigning a trip to the Silent Room, Alvaro followed the young page into the depths of the Palacio Real.
“General Schenkhuizen is retreating to Alexandria before the southern Persian army can cut off the route,” Alvaro could hear one of the workers of the room reporting back to the Cardinal.
“Very well,” the Cardinal said as he barely noticed Alvaro and the boy enter the Room. Once the wine was poured and the glass filled, Alvaro found a seat in the far back of the Room to observe. The Cardinal, busy with the reports of the Persian fronts advancing and how desperate reinforcements in Alexandria were being held up by insurrectionists there, at first did not notice his beverage provided for him.
“If the Cardinal is poisoned,” Alvaro remembered from the conversation earlier in that day, “then the Silent Room will once again be in chaos. It would be perfect timing for the operation the three specialists were to undertake with Raul and the others.” It was the speech Alvaro gave that prevailed on the masters of the shadow to attempt this plan.
Alvaro did not have to wait too long. The Cardinal took the goblet in his hand.
“This will cause certain death,” Alvaro recalled the man in the shadow saying. “And there is only one antidote. He will not survive.”
The Cardinal pressed the goblet to his lips… and took a large sip thirstily. Alvaro’s eyes widened at the action. A cough happened. Then another. It was not long before the entire Room focused its eyes on the Cardinal. Loud hacking coughs that the Room could not even muffle were now coming from the elderly frame. Covering his mouth desperately, the Cardinal could not hold back red liquid from seeping out from between his fingers.
It was an involuntary cough; just enough so that acidic blood dripped into Taguchi’s mouth and trickled down the side. His voice—more like whimpers—pushed air rapidly albeit briefly through the tiers of his lips. The spray landed on Pablo’s face and clothes. Pablo had one hand was still on Taguchi’s neck while the other held the knife deeply into the boy’s stomach. Both of Taguchi’s hands were on Pablo’s wrists, but neither was strong enough to pull the powerful thrust away.
Taguchi’s eyes could only frantically switch from one side to another on the other boy’s face. He wanted to ask why, but the laceration in his stomach prevented any words or even any sound past that initial scream. Pablo forced the issue, however, as the taller one pulled back and let Taguchi crash against the floor with both of his hands cradling the bloody spot where he had been stabbed.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way,” Pablo said as he stood a pace from Taguchi’s head. Blood from his blade was already dripping down to his boot. “Now that you have given the Keys to your friends… you have to stay out of all of this, Junno.”
“W…why…” Taguchi tried to say with his eyes beginning to water from both the pain and the confusion.
“You can’t go back anymore,” Pablo repeated what he had said earlier. “People have to make a decision about where they’re going to go. You cannot go down the path we’re going down, Taguchi. You wished for a normal life and now you’ll get it if you can survive.”
Already a small pool of red began to stain the perfectly white tiles on the floor a dark vermillion. It was time for Pablo to leave. Taguchi heard the others’ footsteps but was too dizzy from tasting his own blood in his mouth to vocalize anything except for the occasional shudder and whimper. He could feel the entire room seeming to spin out of control in front of his eyes. Darkness began to take hold as his nightly eyelids closed on top the tumultuous ocean of his tearing eyes.
Chapter LXXXII: Close Your Eyes (coming soon)
