Itinerant Chronicler

Isle of Cascade Part 3 of 3

"We fled," started the voice a loud but raspy voice that was familiar to Adiel, "the war started we fled. Cowards, all of us. Must protect the island from all enemies, it is the task given us for all eternity."

"The war has ended; surely you sense that we are not your enemies. We are your countrymen. Can you not sense who I am?" Adiel said. He got no reply, suddenly the presence was gone.

Captain Gagen watched the Pernicious come into gun range, but it did not fire. As Gagen watched a strange thing happened. The storm that carried the ship suddenly subsided. The Pernicious was also now at a complete stop only a few hundred yards from the Eitan. 

The entire crew of the Eitan could now see the decimated crew of the Pernicious. Their transparent bodies lined the side of the ship looking at the both the Eitan's crew, as well as the ship herself, with hungry eyes. 

The sight was unnerving to say the least. The entire crew wondered what this new development meant. For long minutes nothing happened, and Gagen was becoming impatient and nervous.

"Send for Adiel!" he called out behind him. He was worried to disturb him but he needed answers and Adiel was the only person who could give them to him. Adiel had already left his quarters however, and was heading quickly towards the captain.

"They have been cursed for abandoning their post during the war," Adiel said running up to stand next to Gagen. "They fled during the war and they were cursed to forever protect this isle from enemies."

"Who cursed them?" Gagen asked

"Likely someone who was on the island," Adiel answered.

"Why do they not attack?"

"I think I managed to impress on them that we are their countrymen and not their enemies, but I can't be certain." Adiel said, he was holding something back and Gagen knew it.

"Sir look!" a crewman from above yelled.

Gagen looked to the ship and saw her gun ports opening. He raised his spyglass and looked at the ship. He was horrified to see it was already covered in holes, and the sails were indeed in rags.  

What bothered him the most was that he saw the crew finally. They ran about the ship. Everyone appeared to be rotting before his very eyes. The sight made his stomach wretch, but he could still not see the captain.

"It seems you were unsuccessful," Gagen said gloomily. "Send word to Cyril; tell him the time is now." Gagen said.

A puff of smoke and a loud boom told Gagen that the Pernicious had opened fire on the Eitan. Suddenly the presence was back in Adiel's mind. He was momentarily stunned by it, he was not expecting it, he still held the key in his hand the key his father had given to him when he was a small child, but the spell should have been broken.

"Mutiny! I am not in command,"came the same raspy voice.

"Take cover!" Gagen shouted. Just then a cannonball smashed into the side of the ship blasting away part of the port hull. Adiel could hear the Eitan's own guns firing below decks, answering the attack.

Gagen could see his crew's aim was true but they passed right through the ship as though it was not even there. "Weigh anchor! Set full sail! Get us out of here!"

Furiously the crew worked to get the Eitan in underway to try to save her, but all aboard knew it was a likely futile exercise. Suddenly the voice was once again in Adiel's mind

"Flee! The curse of the ship cannot be broken until mine is." Suddenly Adiel understood.

"We must release the soul of the captain! There was a mutiny aboard the captain himself cursed the ship and himself for their cowardice. We must free the captain to free the ship!" Adiel said.

"How do we do that?" Gagen said as another cannonball hit then side of the ship, and another hit the deck. The Eitan was being slowly destroyed by the barrage.

"We need a family member of the captain, we need his blood!" Adiel yelled over the crashing cannonballs and the exploding wood.

"Where the blazes do we find that out here!" Gagen screamed.

"Me," Adiel said calmly, the captain is my father. "You see I haven't told you everything. My father's disgrace is my disgrace. I must satisfy it." Without another word he ran back towards his quarters leaving the captain with a dumbfounded look on his face.

Adiel ran back to his desk to the silver bowl of water that somehow had not been disturbed by the violent attack. He quickly pulled a small dagger from his belt and sliced his hand. He dripped the blood from the wound into the bowl, and began to mutter strange words. While the undead had just been proven to exist the knowledge of curses was widely known.

The blood within the bowl shifted and changed colors forming the face of a man, a proud man with weathered features. He looked at Adiel as if to say something, then he smiled briefly and disappeared from view. Adiel opened his eyes and felt the presence leaving, continuing its journey. Adiel felt a sense of true happiness and gratitude. He smiled wide as tears streaked down his face. He knew beyond all doubt he had just freed his father from his self-imposed torment. 

Just then a cannonball crashed through the wall of his study knocking him against the opposite wall. Adiel looked around dazed for a brief moment, he saw his father standing in front of him. His honor restored he looked proudly at his injured son and held out his hand to Adiel, then all went dark.

Gagen watched in dismay as the Pernicious was systematically dismantling his ship, while he could seem to do no damage at all to the Pernicious. The main mast had been shot away so they were not going anywhere. They were sitting ducks. Gagen had resigned himself to the fact that the Eitan was lost, when suddenly the Pernicious stopped firing. He glanced over at and saw that it started to fade from view, after a very short time, both the ship and the crew disappeared, as though they were never there to begin with.

"Adiel did it", Gagen said to himself, "he broke the curse." He took a brief moment to give thanks then started barking out orders. He now had a chance to save his ship. The ship's hull was full of holes but most of them luckily were above the waterline and they were likely to remain afloat.

He could see the isle in the distance his source of salvation now that the Pernicious was gone.

The Eitan had been anchored at the Isle of Cascade for two weeks. There had been no more signs of the Pernicious and the crew finally relaxed. They were working to repair the Eitan enough to make it back to harbor so they could refit the ship. The damage to the upper decks was heavy. Thankfully the ship was in no danger of sinking which was an amazing thing.

Captain Gagen lost 15 men in the attack and Adiel. The cannonball that crashed through his quarters turned out to be the last shot fired by the Pernicious. His late father's cursed ship had killed him. Adiel had been right. His blood lifted the curse, but he genuinely was sad that Adiel himself did not survive.

The monk had saved the lives of everyone on board the Eitan and countless other ships that the Pernicious would had attacked. The sins of the father had been erased by the son. What greater gift could a son bestow upon his father? The crew did him the honor of giving him a sailor's funeral. They knew that Adiel had saved them, even if they did not understand how. Captain Gagen never told his crew the whole story; he did not feel they needed to know it. All they knew was that the curse had been lifted and that was enough.

Years later even after Gagen had been offered more powerful ships he kept his command of the Eitan. He closed off the quarters where Adiel had been killed, and forbid anyone including himself to enter. As a result the Eitan got the reputation of being under the protection of a kindly and benevolent spirit, which resided in those quarters, especially after it managed to defeat a cursed ship. 

Gagen never said anything to dispute this. After all, he believed it himself, and he personally knew the spirit that  protected the Pernicious ship and he knew his convictions and his sense of honor; even if he did not realize these virtues until after his death. Occasionally he would hear Adiel's voice in his mind during tense moments, calming him, guiding his judgment and occasionally complaining about the rocking of the ship.

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