I have never felt more alive than those two days of voyage to Bracchano. Here I was, Captain of a sturdy ship and a seasoned crew again. It felt as if a world lay before me; a feeling I had not known since I built the cabin. I vowed never to go back to that sorry place. Let Erik do what he will with it, or better yet, let the wood rot and the entire structure crumble. This was the life for me. I was eager to reach Bracchano and complete what I originally set out for. Once I killed Ascianus, I could be free again. I knew that I had to make amends with Isabel and my son in order to accomplish this; I could not do it without them. The past couple of days were tense, and our lives were uncertain; the stress tormented us greatly, and I believe that is why we acted the way we did. Isabel must have been thinking the same thing, for she was the one that approached me. It was not long after we set sail from Mangrove Shoals that she found me on the stern basking in the Ugur’s rays and admiring the cerulean waters I once knew so well.
“A magnificent day for sailing, isn’t it?” She asked. She wore a plumed hat that complimented her purple tunic, black trousers, and leather boots. I reckon she must have pilfered them at the hideout. Gone were the tattered rags that were her old clothes. She carried herself lightly and her body was more relaxed than I have ever seen her. I could see how easy it was for Alexander to fall for her. She had spent so long being my enemy that I failed to recognize her beauty.
“Aye, it is.” I agreed. “It’s days like this that remind me why I enjoyed being a sailor in the first place.”
“I’ll say.” She leaned against the railing beside me. “Despite the storms, the austere conditions, lack of adequate food, and the countless other perils, this right here makes the lifestyle worth it. I had a captain once tell me that only two types of people like the sea: the crazy and the desperate. I like to think that I am not desperate.”
“I’ve known you were crazy from the moment I met you.”
She laughed. “And how could you tell?”
“Because you are just like I used to be: headstrong, brash, and confident. That, and only a madman would dare sail straight through the Swallows in the middle of a storm.”
Her face blushed a deep red from my compliment. “What can I say? I had no choice.”
“You did. We still had a chance to catch the winds driving us further out to sea by the time you made the decision, but I think you preferred a challenge. Don’t change that about you, that is how legends are made.”
She blushed even more. Her plume fluttered in the wind. “You flatter me, Dagomar,” she said. “And it was I who came to flatter you. I wanted to thank you for what you did back there with The Fishermen. If it were not for you, we would have been rotting at the bottom of the sea as an offering to Parthos.” She paused. “I have treated you poorly since I met you back in Cold Harbor, and for that I am sorry.”
“What I did back there was not for you,” I replied. “I was merely trying to survive.”
“And in doing so you saved me. For that, I am in your debt.”
I cannot help but love how fate works sometimes. Here before me stood one of the best sailors I have ever seen proclaim their debt to me when not three days ago she killed my friend and tried to collect my bounty.
“Thank you,” I said. “you are an exceptional person and I consider myself fortunate to have you accompanying me.” I paused. “Don’t think you are off the hook though; I still have not forgiven you for the death of Shiloh. He was a good man and a dear friend of mine. He did not have to die.”
“Maybe,” Isabel agreed, “but I still stand by what I did, and I think the Dagomar of day’s past would too.”
“You might be right, but that person is no more. You have the Baron of Bracchano to thank for that.”
“And we will see he gets what is due to him,”
I sighed. “I hope so. I would be lying if I said I did not have my doubts. This mission is not one I can do by myself, and I worry about my son. I mean no offense, but we are also here to rescue his wife and he has been shagging up to you this entire journey. It’s like he has lost himself and forgotten what he came out here for. His actions the past few days have just baffled me completely.”
Isabel pursed her lips and smiled sadly as she looked to the ground. “Alexander is unsure of what he wants,” She moved to place her hand on his shoulder. Her touch was gentle yet firm. “but at the very least you know what you want, and that will be enough. We will soon reach Bracchano, and when we do Baron Ascianus will die. That I swear to you.”
******
The sun was low and had cast a blazing array of orange and reds that emblazoned the sky and shimmered on the surface of the sea. I had just finished a shift at the helm and was walking to my cabin when I crossed two young whelps leaning against the port rail. Their buckets were filled with water and lye and the sponges seemed untouched.
“Get back to work you lazy toads,” I snarled as I walked past.
“Fuck off, old man, I serve Commodore Dondolo, not you.” One of them replied.
I halted in my tracks and was in disbelief at what I heard. The audacity of a lowly man like himself to speak to his Captain like that. I did not know if he was drunk or just stupid, but I would not have it.
I turned around and found the larger of the two with black hair and a tattoo of a moon under his left eye smiling at me impetuously. The smaller one looked just as shocked as I was.
My glower was fierce enough to startle the smaller man to the point he began to scrub the deck furiously. The one with the moon tattoo remained defiant as ever.
“What did you dare say to me boy?” I said, low and fierce.
The moon tattooed boy stood up and dared to meet my face. He stared at me with a grin full of shit.
In an instant I headbutt him, forcing a loud thud. He yelped and staggered back as he held his nose with both hands as blood flooded through his fingers. I did not wait for a response. I hit him square in the jaw with a right hook. His body quickly hit the deck and I did not relent, kicking and beating him savagely enough that a crowd formed around us.
“How dare you speak to your captain like that,” I roared between punches. “You are lucky that I don’t tie you to the hull and drag you along for your insubordination!”
No one dared to interfere as I unleashed all of my fury out on the moon tattooed boy. Once my fire died down, I roared to the crowd. “Any other bastard here dares question my authority on this ship?”
Silence. The boy was unconscious. His body was covered in blue, purple, and green colored welts and his face was swollen to the point it was hard to identify any of his features. Blood smeared over his entire face. “Someone clean this bloody mess up,” I snarled.
I retreated to my cabin and shortly after the incident there was a knock on my door. Alexander entered. I tensed at his sight. We had been avoiding each other when we could since the beating on the Priestess’ ship. A gulf had grown between us and I felt that I could no longer predict what his intentions were.
He stood there awkwardly, waiting for me to invite him to take a seat. When he saw that I had no intention of doing so, he took it upon himself to sit on the stool by my dresser. He had changed since he first appeared on my doorstep. His long blonde hair was tied neatly in a bun, his cheeks and jaw seemed more defined despite the sandy beard he was growing, and he seemed to move with a confidence only a man that has been in battle has. The stress that was visible across his face the past week seemed to have completely washed off and left him with a face of a hardened man.
“Quite a show you put on out there, eh?” He said.
I grunted in agreement. “The bastard had it coming,” I replied. “I don’t know where that fool came from, but no one should ever speak to their captain the way he did.”
“Aye. He was indeed a fool.” Alexander paused and let out an awkward chuckle. “I haven’t seen that side of you before. There was such passion in your voice. Passion and rage. When I first met you, I thought it was impossible to see you feel so strongly over something. I mean for Maiden’s sake, it even looks like you are enjoying yourself. Being out here suits you, doesn’t it?”
And in an instant, it felt as if the gulf had never existed. I couldn’t help but smile as I reflected on how good I felt the past couple of days. “I reckon you’re right,” I agreed. “It does.”
“And I couldn’t be happy for you.” Silence lingered in the air as the two of us enjoyed each other’s presence. Alexander shifted in his stool, struggling to find the right words. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, his face pointed towards the floor. “I have been a fool the past few days and I’ve lost sight of what I came out here to do in. It’s funny in a twisted way, you came out here and found your way, while I do the same and lose mine.”
“You haven’t lost anything,” I replied. “Take it from me. The version of yourself you thought you lost is still with you; it always will be. Even if you become a sorry bastard and try as hard as you can to repress him for years. Ultimately, he will always find his way back.”
His smile was warm. He looked on me with me as much gratitude as if the Maiden appeared and blessed him with a fortune of florins that would last a lifetime. “No matter what happens, when this journey is all said and done, I will walk away proud to have known you.”
“And I you. You saved my life when you showed up at my doorstep. For that, I thank you, son.” Son. I saw him wince at that word and a small twinge of pain shot me through me. Maybe he will never truly love me as a father, but that won’t stop me from loving him as a son.
Another awkward pause lingered between us. I tried changing the topic. “We’ll be reaching Bracchano’s water by late afternoon tomorrow. I have a few ideas of a plan, but I am also eager to hear your thoughts.”
“Ah, the fun stuff,” he said playfully. “That is the other reason I came to visit. Isabel and I were about to sit down for supper. We were hoping to discuss our plan. Would you care to join us?”
******
We docked our ship in an unnamed cove, five leagues south of Bracchano. Sandstone cliffs stretched from the shore and curved inward, creating a safe harbor from the waves and a great space for hiding our vessel from anyone sailing down the coast. The sun hung low in the sky as Alexander, Isabel, and I disembarked with very little supplies and our weapons. I wrapped my sword in a long piece of cloth which I then strapped on my back and covered with my pack. My son did the same with his sword while Isabel let her two thin daggers sit freely on her belt. She had grown fond of her plumed hat over the past two days and wore it despite our insistent mocking.
“We will be no longer than a week,” I said to the bosun. He was a short old sea dog, his skin tanned and wrinkled by years of Ugur’s rays and scars that lined his muscular arms. He had a broad chest and balding white hair that he covered with a red bandana. “You will wait here until then. If I am not back by then, sail back to Dondolo.”
“Aye sir,” he grunted.
Isabel and Alexander described their plan to me over dinner and it was an agreeable one. We would enter the town from the south and pose as travelers from Cronosia. We would be visiting my sister, Alexander and Isabel’s aunt, that was on her death bed. Alexander had informed me that the Baron’s villa was located on the outskirts of the town, nestled between a short escarpment. We would wait until night to sneak in. Due to Ascianus’ iron grip over the city, the villa’s security was supposedly light and we would only have to get past a small contingent of guards as Isabel kept watch. As Alexander searched for his wife, I would find Ascianus and strike him down where he stood. My thirst for blood was so violent as we disembarked from the ship that Ascianus’ death was the only thing I could think of. After five years of self-hatred and grief, I would finally have my revenge, and nothing but the Dark Maiden or the Old Creators themselves could stand in my way.
The shadows grew long as we took the road north and one by one the stars emerged from in the purple sky. One day, I would join Natalie amongst the stars, until then I had to satisfy myself with knowing my task was soon at hand. We made camp a short distance from the road in a small thicket of junipers. The fire we built was meager, but none of us minded as we supped on rations of hardtack and salted beef that we took from the ship. We sat in silence, passing a bottle of rum and listening to the chorus of cicadas on the steamy summer night.
“So Dagomar,” Isabel said, finally breaking the tension. “Do you think you’ll go back to Dondolo and the Fishermen once this is all over?”
“I’m leaning towards it,” I replied, chewing on my hardtack. “I owe them a ship, and they will be expecting it back.”
“Yeah, the last thing you want to do is scorn someone like the Priestess,” Alexander said. “She’d hunt you down to the ends of the world, I reckon.”
“You’d be right, I say. Although I don’t think I’d mind her hunting me for a bit, eh?”
“Look at you go, you salty dog,” Isabel joked. “Tell me Dagomar, how is she? I bet she has some real exotic tastes.”
“She’s as wild as you would imagine,” I replied with a smile. Oh, how I craved her touch at that moment. “If I am being honest though, I think I would return even if the Priestess wasn’t incentive enough. They have ships that need sailing and cities to plunder. It’s time I came back into the world.”
“Here here!” Alexander cheered.
“What about you, Isabel?” I asked. “What will you do after all this?” I eyed Alexander as he shifted in his seat.
“I will go back to sailing, of course,” she said as she took a swig from the bottle. “Surely there is a Captain somewhere between Marnes and Cronosia that has need of my service.”
“So, this will be over then?” I asked the two of them. “Just like that?”
“Isabel and I have been discussing this for a while now. What we have is just temporary,” Alexander said. Isabel refused to meet my gaze. Instead, she twirled a stick in the dirt. “Don’t get me wrong, it has been fun, but I have a wife- a wife I will see again very soon, and when I do, I will be completely devoted to her.”
“Besides,” Isabel added rigidly. “a life on the sea is not for Alex, as we have all seen, and I cannot imagine anything else.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “I do hope that if our paths at sea cross again, we are on the same side. For I would surely lose in that contest.”
“Come now, I’m sure you would give me a couple of good licks before that happened,” Isabel joked.
We all laughed at that. We spent much of the night around the fire laughing and telling stories. Isabel told us stories of her upbringing in a small Chichiran fishing village. I regaled them with how I rescued the Priestess from the Naga in the swamps of Taiyibah. Alexander, feeling relaxed and spirited from the rum, even sang us a song, one of his favorites he had learned growing up called Delilah. It was a glorious night and even after all the hardship we had endured I felt a bond with both of them. Bonds of kinship and affection that I have not felt in a long, long time. I toasted to the three of us every time I had the bottle and it did not take long for me to succumb to the effects of the drink. As I drifted off to sleep in my drunken stupor, all I could think about was how lucky I was to have met my son, and how extraordinary he had turned out to be.
******
The fire had been reduced to smoldering embers when I woke. Dawn still seemed to be hours away. I looked around and found both Alexander and Isabel’s packs, but could find no trace of either of them. That was when I heard a flurry of sharp whispers coming from the nearby trees. Groggily, and with my head pounding, I walked towards the noise.
“I can’t do it!” The whispers cut through the silent night. “Not after what we’ve been through.”
“Yes, you can,” Another voice whispered. “We are so close. You can’t bail out now.”
“It feels so wrong.”
“I know, I’ve come to like him too, but you need to remember the reason you went through all of this trouble in the first place.”
It took me a second, but I recognized the two figures whispering as Alexander and Isabel.
“What are you two doing back there?” I called out, slurring almost every syllable possible. “Is everything alright?”
They jumped at the sound of my voice. My son emerged from the shadows. His thin silhouette glowed in the moonlight.
“Dag,” Alexander said. “You’re awake.” He approached me slowly, his face tight and his lips pursed. Slowly, he reached for my shoulder with his bony arm. “We thought the bottle got you nice and well cooked.”
“Aye,” I replied. “I woke up and no one was there. Figured something was amiss.”
My son smiled sweetly at me, but I could see the pain stricken in his eyes. At the time I thought none of it; I was a drunk and a fool. “Nothing is amiss, father.” For a second, his grip on my shoulder tensed before he released. He patted me on the shoulder. “We were just stealing off into the night to enjoy each other one last time.”
“Ah, I see. Enjoy it while you can lad,” I joked.
Content with their explanation, I turned around, and there stood Isabel. Her body was rigid and her face clenched. She shook her head dejectedly. She carried a thick and sturdy branch in her right hand.
“I’m sorry I have to do this Dagomar,” she said softly.
Before I could respond I felt a surge of pain from the impact in the side of my head. I don’t remember hitting the ground.