An Enemy's Rescue

“Get up, Elady!” I heard harshly in my ear as a hand shook me.

I rolled over pulling my wool blanket closer to myself. “What is it?”

“Pirates.”

Now I was awake. “What should I do?”

I sat up and focused on my awakener. My eyes cleared and focused on…Wes! Wordlessly he grabbed my wrist and pulled me through the hold and into the Folk-sole.

“Where are you taking me?”

“I’m hiding you. Those pirates find a beautiful girl like you on this ship and you’d better wish you’re dead.” With that he roughly pushed me into a closet. “Stay there until Hans or I come for you.”

The door shut and I was alone. I slumped back against the solid wood at the back. Shouts were heard above me, the clash of swords, and the cries of the dying. Some even fought below deck. Close to my hiding place. I shuddered when the moans of a dying man reached my ears from the very room I was hiding in. The fight seemed to last forever. It would be impossible to describe how long. Could’ve been six hours, could’ve been only one.

I do remember something wet at my feet. Water. It reached my ankles. Then made its way up to my knees. The ship was sinking! I pushed hard against the door only to discover it was locked. I jammed my body against it, using all my strength at the solid door, hoping to break the lock. No use. I fell back exhausted.

The water was at my waist now. We were sinking and I was trapped forever in a closet. Doomed to drown. Doomed to go down into the horrible depths of the sea I despised so much in a locked closet. The Anthony stone would do no one any good down there. My brother would either be found and killed by Roderick or sail on forever never knowing what happened to his family. I knew it would do me no good but I began to cry.

It was at my chest now, my neck, my chin. In one more effort to save myself I forced myself at the wood. It gave way. I swam out to meet face to face with Wes. He’d unlocked the door. He’d returned for me.

“Come.” He dragged me through the water, up the ladder, and onto the deck. I heaved a deep breath of air and coughed up the water in my lungs. Men were fighting furiously on the deck.

Wes drew his sword, it was stained with blood. With his right hand he yanked me through the chaos and with his left he fought. I assumed he was left handed. I almost tripped over a dead man but he didn’t stop for me to recover myself, probably didn’t even notice. In the midst of the battle I caught a glimpse of Hans being backed into the steering wheel by three pirates. Wes shoved me behind a broken board of the ship and hacked at one of them from behind. I closed my eyes as blood spilt. Down the first one came in a pool of crimson. And Wes began at the other. Hans easily finished the last one off.

“We’ve got to get Elady out of here!” He swung his sword at another pirate with his efficient left hand. “We can’t risk her discovery!”

Hans nodded.

“Stay here until we return.” I had hissed into my ear. I knew it was Wes but he was gone before I could turn around and see his face. Shortly he returned. “Hans is at the boat. Come on.”

Numbly I let him pull me through the crowd without any resistance to his force. My head felt dizzy from my near death experience and my body was too cold and frightened to function properly. I didn’t want to glance around at the scene about me with Wes slashing his way through the battle so I stared at my feet and hoped the left handed fighter knew what he was doing. We were at the edge of the ship I looked down to see Hans in a dory over the side. “Get into it.”

“I’m not much of a climber!” I protested.

“Too bad.” He grabbed both my wrists and flung me down over the side and dropped me into it. Then he followed behind me. I was stunned. Thousands of thoughts whirled about in my head. What had gotten into Wes? Why was he helping me? Especially since everything I was and did irritated him?

I slumped back against the side of the dory lightheaded and scared. “You won’t ever have to worry as long as Wes knows you exist,” Hans’ words echoed in my mind. They had proved true. Wes had saved me from pirates and saved my life. Roughly, but he got the job done. Now we were all escaping in a dory from the sinking wreckage of the Jeanette Marie. That was just about all that I could get straight in my head, for visions of swords, pirates, blood and roaring crashing waves filled my head and I couldn’t think. My hands were numb from the cold but that didn’t help me feel more alert, on the contrary I could feel myself slowly losing consciousness. Something warm and soft was wrapped around me and that was all I remembered.

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