Here's chapter 17. Its a long one, so prepare yourself for a long read. There isn't much action until the end, but there are important conversations in it. Enjoy!
Chapter 17: The Crumbling Cavern
Two young men had lost their brothers that day. Both Sharktooth and Billy sobbed as they fled from the collapsing tomb of El Patron. When Sharktooth saw his brother fall in combat, he didn’t know what to think. He had screamed and tried to get to him, but he wasn’t able to do anything about it due to all the ghosts. After Guy had fallen, he didn’t see him again. No chance to embrace him one last time. No chance to say goodbye. He was just gone.
Billy was worse off. He come back from the dead with no memory of his brother. He had been with him for less than a few days without memory of him. Even though they were together, it just wasn’t the same since he couldn’t remember him. He couldn’t remember the time that they were reunited ten years ago. The time they sailed together as not crewmates, but two loving brothers. The time that they fought against
The Harkaway and defeated Jolly Roger. When he finally remembered everything they had gone through, Davy was gone.
As soon as Billy stepped back out of the tomb, he made one last look at Davy. He could see stone collapsing around his brother. Davy was losing strength and El Patron was closing on him. He tried to go back to save him, disobeying Davy’s wish for him to leave. Before he was able to reenter the tomb; however, Meg grabbed him from behind, tugging him back.
“No!” Billy had screamed. “Let go of me! Damn it, let go! I have to help Davy! I have to help my brother!”
“You’ll be killed too!” Meg cried. With the help of Dog, Billy was dragged back away from the tomb, cursing and screaming at them. His last vision of Davy was that of a column of flame exploding, before he lost sight of him. Billy wanted to stay behind and sob for his brother, but the tunnel was highly unstable around him. He reluctantly followed his mates back the way they came. As they ran, Billy allowed a few tears to stream down his face. He glanced at Sharktooth who was doing the same. Too much was lost this day. He then looked at Smelly, his dog who he now remembered. Smelly, as he ran, looked at his master with a sad expression. Billy thought that he even saw a tear run down the dog’s eye, but he knew that dogs couldn’t cry.
Everyone continued to run for about a half hour, until Dan finally collapsed. He fell to the stone floor, breathing heavily in massive gasps. Everyone else took this opportunity to rest up, catch their breath, and drink something that they had in their packs. Now that they realized it, they had had no food for an extremely long time. The last time they ate was a few hours before they entered El Patron’s tomb.
Zolina pulled out two bottles of rum and four canteens of water. Once the drinks were passed around to moisten their lips, a bit of dried meat was passed around for a bit of nourishment. Nothing was said during the small meal. Everyone was too exhausted to say anything. Finally, after the meal, Sharktooth spoke.
“I can’t believe that Guy is… gone…”
“Davy too,” Billy choked. “Too many lives were lost today.”
“Billy…” Kate said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Why?!” Billy shouted into the still air of the cave. “Why is it that we are always separated!? Whenever it is that we finally are able to find each other, we are torn apart! WHY?!”
Billy was standing up not, tears streaming down his face.
“Billy…” Kate said again. “Everything’ll be all right.”
“No,” Billy said softly. “It won’t be all right, don’t you see!? My brother who I had lost. My brother… my brother that I had never said goodbye to before I died aboard
The Harkaway… I never got to say ‘I love you’ to him.”
“’tis a cruel world Billy,” Dan said. For a moment, people looked at him wondering if he was being sarcastic, but his expression showed that he meant it. “But just because one person is gone, doesn’t mean that you are too.”
“Davy once said that family is not just blood,” Sam said. “But those that you care about, and those that care about you. Davy was just as much my brother as yours. I served with him for something like ten years. His loss is affecting us all. But we’re here for you. Don’t consider yourself alone.”
Billy looked at Sam. Between them passed a deep look of understanding that only brothers could share.
“You’re right,” Billy said. “Thank you. All of you.”
Billy sat back down, looking at the ground. Smelly whimpered and laid his head on Billy’s lap. Billy gently scratched the dog. Zolina cleared her throat, getting everyone’s attention.
“Well now that we know our original mission was a failure,” she said. “What are we going to do next?”
“We get the hell out of here, that’s what we do!” Sharktooth said. “This isn’t our battle anymore. It wasn’t our battle to begin with. Let’s not get stuck in something that isn’t our business. I’m sure El Patron is just going to stay in this hole, and even if he escapes I’m sure that he can be taken down by the Royal Navy. After all, he’s just one ship against an entire armada.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Dan snapped. “El Patron is trying to get out of this place, and he’s going to succeed. In fact, I doubt that we have much time before he and his crew can get out of these mines. Days probably. And then what is he going to do when he’s free? I’ll tell you, he has two things. He’s going to want revenge. He told us! He wants to destroy Tiberius’s descendants, meaning that even though Davy is dead, he still is going to go after Billy. He’ll chase us across the globe if it takes that, but he wants any Fireskull dead.
“Not only that, but before he was defeated by Tiberius Fireskull, he had gone on a mad sinking spree where they had sank probably hundreds of ships. When he comes back, him and his crew will probably do the same, or worse. Every ship in the Caribbean will be at risk of attack by his ships! Remember that ghost ship that attacked us on the way in? That’s proof of everything that’s going on!”
“How did I not realize this before?” Zolina gasped. “All those strange happenings, its because El Patron has grown power. He’s got so much power that he is raising other ghosts with him, explaining all the rising dead! That ghost ship that we encountered, it was a regular ship once that was attacked by ghosts that were under the command of El Patron!”
“He’s forming an armada,” Dog said with a combination of awe and fear.
“An armada that will be unchallenged by any other,” Dan continued. “All these ghosts that have been raising, he has control of them. That’s why he was able to raise Billy. He’s forming an army… but why?”
“So that he can get control of the Caribbean?” Sharktooth interjected.
“I doubt that,” Meg stated. “El Patron was never interested in that kind of power before, why would he want it now?”
“He could be forming this armada of the dead for any reason,” Billy said. “What we need to worry about now is how we stop him before he succeeds. If he succeeds, no ship will ever be able to sail our seas again. Not to mention that he’ll be after the
Shadow King anyway because of me.”
“Aye, let’s worry about his motives later,” Kate said. “For now, we should sleep. I’ll take first watch.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, laying down. Billy was unsure what to think. Davy was gone, and a foe that was probably more powerful than Jolly Roger would stop at nothing to kill him.
~~~~~~~~~~
The group woke up early and had a brief breakfast. They quickly got moving again, hopefully towards sunlight. They had been in this mine for days now, and they hadn’t seen sunlight for far too long. Not to mention that they had no idea what was going on onboard the
Shadow King.
It was hard to tell if they had been in a certain place. It was as if the mine was messing with their heads, not letting them know if they were heading towards day or heading towards death. They walked for almost the entire day, stopping once for lunch and twice to rest for a few minutes. They encountered no ghosts, much to their surprise.
After many hours of walking, they came to a familiar site. They were in a large circular cavern with a dome-shaped ceiling. In the middle of the cavern was a totem. The burial place of one of El Patron’s enemies.
“Impossible,” Sharktooth said. “It can’t really be this easy! We walked for much longer than that getting down there!”
“El Patron is making it easy for us,” Billy said. “He has so much power, I’m certain that he can control the mine a bit, making it easier for us to get around. He wants us out of the mine as fast as possible so that we are easy targets.”
“Well I certainly want to breathe some fresh air,” Meg muttered. “Come on! We’re not far from the exit!”
The Sorcerors picked up their pace a bit. When they were halfway across the cavern; however, they heard a voice. Smelly started barking viciously, and everyone turned around, expecting the worst. Instead, they were greeted by someone they had met before.
“We meet again,” Dr. Bellrog said, grinning. “I’m surprised you made it out of there alive! Kudgel and I were worried about you.”
“Kudgel smash!” Kudgel said, swinging his sword.
“Bellrog, you scum!” Billy accused. “You knew that El Patron lived! You knew we were heading straight into a trap!”
“Well of course I did!” Bellrog said, clasping his hands. “El Patron hired me to lead you all to him. That way he could kill you all in one sitting! Although now that you have escaped, he is furious. I have one last chance to prove myself. SHOW YOURSELVES!”
About a half dozen ghosts of El Patron’s crew materialized around Bellrog and drew their blades. Bellrog cackled and said, “Kill them all, except for the Fireskull. Capture him and let El Patron have him.”
With lightning speed, the ghosts charged at the Sorcerors, who barely had time to draw their swords before they were upon them. Kudgel had joined the fight too. He was a deadly fighter. Not only was he merciless with his heavy blade, but his strength was enough to shatter even one of the best forged swords. Billy approached him with his own broadsword, careful to avoid his blows.
“Hey! Stupid!” Billy taunted. Kudgel turned toward him and roared.
“Kudgel not stupid!” he bellowed.
“Right…” Billy muttered before charging him. Kudgel’s swings were enough to cleave a mast in two, which was why Billy stayed far back. What he did notice, though, was that every time Kudgel swung, the momentum made him lose just a bit of balance. Billy took note of that.
Billy let Kudgel swing a few times, allowing his foe to tire out a bit. Meanwhile, he fought a few other ghosts that were battling him. Finally, he saw his opportunity. Kudgel made a powerful swing that was meant to decapitate Billy. Billy ducked, and as the swing finished, Kudgel lost just a bit of his balance. Within half a second, Billy leaped at his foe, bringing his sword down vertically and running a deep gash down Kudgel’s chest. Kudgel bellowed in pain and stumbled back. Billy took this opportunity to throw a fireball at him, which exploded a few centimeters away from him.
Kudgel flew back, slamming against the wall and crumpling to the floor. The chamber shook, and everyone froze.
“Get to the exit tunnel!” Billy ordered. Nobody waited, because right then, rocks began falling from the ceiling. The impact of Kudgel slamming against the wall had made the room unstable. Even the ghosts looked ready to flee.
“Fools!” Dr. Bellrog bellowed. “Yellow bellied cowards! Destroy them! I will not allow them to esca—”
Billy winced as he saw a rock a bit smaller than his head slam down on Bellrog, who immediately crumpled to the ground. The ghosts hissed, and ran towards the escaping mortals. Kudgel had dizzily gotten up and was dazedly following the ghosts. But before they could continue their advancing, there was the sound of a large crack.
Everyone froze, and slowly looked up. A massive crack was spreading across the ceiling, loosening up a massive chunk of rock.
“Time to go,” Dog whispered. Smelly whimpered and the Sorcerors made their getaway as the massive slab of stone dislodged from the ceiling and crashed down on the crowd of ghosts.
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I hope you enjoyed this one! Looking at what I have, this story may be a lot longer than
Shadows Rising. Hard to say how much longer, but it will definitely be longer. Please post comments!