Renegade (4 page)

I
floundered in the ship's wake. Whitecaps lifted and dropped me. Water swirled around me. And the Sumter ship, crewed by elementals, pulled away.

From behind me came the sound of breaking glass. When I peered over my shoulder, the men we'd trapped inside Dare's ship were smashing the portholes.

“Thomas!” someone shouted.

I turned back in time to see my father launch himself off the back of the Sumter ship. Clasping a rope in his right hand, he sailed over me and landed a couple yards past me. For a moment, he was still, the rope slack in the water. Then it pulled taut, wrenching his arm.

I grabbed his free arm as he skimmed past me. Dragged along behind the ship, we slipped under and resurfaced again, over and over, stealing a breath every chance we got. Father's face was a mask of pain as he fought to keep hold of both the rope and me.

I lunged for a piece of the rope and caught it in my free hand. Ahead of us, Alice, Tarn, Ananias, and Jerren pulled the other end toward them.

I blocked out everything except my hand on that rope and the desperate need to breathe.

“Take it, Thomas,” Father said.

There was another rope in the water just ahead of us. I slapped at it and wrapped my fingers around the end. Straightaway, Ananias tied off the rope securing our father and turned his attention to me. With everyone else helping, he dragged me toward the ship's stern. I was so close that I could literally touch the hull, but there was nothing for me to hold on to.

“Don't you let go!” Ananias screamed. “You hear me?”

I didn't answer. Just clasped the rope in both hands as they pulled me from the water. Inch by inch I broke free of the undertow, first my shoulders, then chest, and waist, and legs. Progress was quicker now, but I was forced to take my full weight or risk losing my hold on the rope. I hugged it tight against me, and shut out the pain from the wounds on my chest.

“I can grab his arm.” This from Tarn as she leaned over the metal rail. “I've got you, Thomas.”

She pressed her claw-like fingertips deep into my arms, securing me. I focused on keeping my element inside me, limiting the echo. Even so, it seemed like an eternity passed before I was able to get a hand onto the railing, and Tarn grimaced the whole time.

The others grabbed my tunic and legs. They pulled me over the railing and deposited me roughly on the deck. There they left me so that they could attend to my father, who was still floundering in the swell.

I tried to keep my eyes open but the sun was bright and the salt stung. I gave up fighting and filled my lungs with the fresh breeze instead. In the background, voices grew louder and more excited as my father's rescue progressed.

Someone touched my arm. Fingers ran across the back of my right hand. “I was scared we'd lost you,” said Rose.

It was a relief to feel her there beside me. “Uh-uh. Seems like everyone wants to keep me around.”

Her breath tickled my ear. “You and Alice did it. I don't know how, but you pulled it off.”

“So they're not following us?”

There was a moment's pause as she adjusted her position to regard the ship. “They're opening the sails right now. They're going to follow, all right.”

I punched the deck. “I trapped them. How did they get out so soon?”

“Dare probably helped them.”

“What?” For a precious few moments, I'd forgotten about Dare. Now the name set my pulse racing so fast that Rose pulled away from me immediately. “When did he cross to the other ship?
How
did he cross?”

Before she could answer, there was a loud groan as my father collapsed onto the deck a couple yards away. I should've been overjoyed that he was safe, but I couldn't get Dare out of my head.

“Hey,” coaxed Rose. “This ship is faster, remember? We're free now.”

Free
. I could tell that she meant it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was wrong. I opened my eyes and looked around me, still searching for Dare even when he was gone.

Father was wheezing. “Thomas?”

“Here,” I answered.

Just hearing me speak seemed to calm him. He lay still as the giant sails above us flapped in the wind, and the ocean slid by, putting precious distance between us and our pursuers.

While Ananias and Tarn tended to my father, Alice approached me. I shielded my eyes as I looked up at her, silhouetted by the bright midday sun.

“Your chest is bleeding nicely again,” she said.

I touched my tunic, and felt the telltale sticky wetness. It would hurt even more once the rest of me stopped aching. “How about you?” I asked. “I saw that crazy jump you did between the ships. You didn't have to be so dramatic, you know.”

She stared at her left foot. “I didn't want to give Dare extra time to react. Anyway, I thought I'd nail the landing. Serves me right.”

“Where is Dare now?”

“What?” Alice tilted her head. “You didn't see him?”

I was sure my heart skipped a beat. “No. Why?”

“I heard him below deck,” she explained, “so I went down. Couldn't find him anywhere, though. Then I heard footsteps on deck. Figured it was you. By the time I got back up, you'd gone. And Dare was following you onto the other ship.”

I couldn't bear to look at the others. “Did anyone else see him?”

“No,” said Ananias. “He was out of sight by the time we got on deck. . . . You really didn't see him?”

“I was kind of busy, you know? The hatch door gave out, and I fell. I only just got away before one of the men fired at me.”

“I'd say you had a lucky escape,” said Alice.

“Lucky? Don't you get it? Dare's a
seer
. What if this is all part of his plan?”

Ananias smiled. “Then I like his plan. Sure beats blowing us out of the water.”

The others seemed satisfied by this. More than that, they seemed relieved. But I wasn't.

How had I missed Dare? Why had he allowed me to escape? For that matter, why did he let me live at all?

And how long before everyone else started to ask the very same things?

Alice saved me from the silence. “Come on,” she told Jerren. “There's work to do.”

“Where are you going?” demanded Marin.

“To find the galley. The Sumter colonists kept this ship stocked: food, water, maybe even medicine. No one's eaten since yesterday. Rose's and Griffin's wounds are going to get infected if we don't clean them soon.”

“What about the other ship?” asked Ananias.

“We're faster,” said Alice.

“But we don't know where we're going.”

Alice didn't miss a beat. “Yes, we do. We're going back to Roanoke Island.”

Marin snorted. “In case you've forgotten, we risked everything to
leave
that place.”

“Then where else should we go?”

“There must be other colonies.”

“Sure. Just like Sumter. And look how that turned out.”

“Pirates control Roanoke now,” said Tarn. “It's why we left.”

“No. We left because
you
were too weak and injured to fight back,” spat Alice, waving a finger accusingly at her mother and Marin. “And now my sister is dead, and my father too.”

“But Roanoke Island is in ruins.”

“So we'll rebuild.”

Tarn placed a hand on her daughter's arm. “We don't have the technology.”

Alice shook her off. “We don't need technology to survive. To eat.”

“There's nothing there for us anymore!” shouted Marin.

“You sure about that?” Alice took a step toward Marin. It was a signal that she wouldn't back down anymore; a reminder that she was taller and more powerful too. But as Alice turned her gaze to me again, I knew exactly what she was about to say, whether or not the time was right. “The pirates have a prisoner on Roanoke,” she announced. “A Guardian, no less.”

My father pulled to a seated position. He shook his thick wavy hair, spreading droplets across the deck. “There are no Guardians left but us, Alice,” he said, indicating himself and Marin and Tarn. “I can promise you that.”

Alice gave a single nod, as if she were giving his statement proper consideration. “I know that's what you think, Ordyn. But you're wrong.”

“Then who is it?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Go ahead, Thom. Tell them.”

Everyone was silent now. They must have sensed that the information, whatever it was, would change everything. Only, I didn't want to be the person to share it. How could I possibly explain that my mother was still alive, thirteen years after the Guardians had supposedly watched her die?

“Who is it, Thomas?” Father asked.

I felt caught. And played too—Alice had diverted attention away from herself and onto me. Even Jerren seemed surprised and uncomfortable at the turn of events.

I cleared my throat. “It's Mother,” I said to Ananias, because I couldn't bear to face Father. “Our mother is alive.”

F
ather glared at me, as if I were playing a cruel joke on him. “Why are you saying this?” he growled. “Are you and Alice so determined to return to Roanoke that you'd make up this . . . this hideous lie?”

I wished I had proof enough to convince him, but according to legend, my mother had died on the morning after Griffin was born. That's what we'd always believed, anyway.

“It's no lie,” said Jerren softly. “I saw her. When Dare visited Sumter a month before you arrived, she was with him. She even told me you'd be coming.”

“You saw a woman, that's all,” snapped Ananias. “She could've been anyone.”

Jerren raised his hands, palms out like he was preparing to deflect punches. “She arrived with Dare—the only woman on board his ship. The pirates treated her differently too. Respectfully.”

“Then she was his wife.”

“No. They're related. If you saw her, you'd understand.”

Ananias seemed ready to argue another point, but when he looked at our father, he stopped.

“Skya . . . died,” said Father to Marin and Tarn. He licked his chapped lips. “You saw her drown.”

Marin nodded. “We saw her facedown in the ocean, yes. She was badly wounded, Ordyn.”

“You saw her
drown!
” he roared.

Tarn cleared her throat. “I watched Dare pull her from the water. Watched him cry as he dragged her on board his ship. She was dead. It was obvious. All the Guardians saw it.”

“Really? Or were you just too cowardly to help her? Why risk getting hurt when she was taking the punishment for you, right?” Father was shaking, and it had nothing to do with his saturated clothes. The turmoil of the past thirteen years played out on his face. “You told me that Skya was dead!”

“She
was
!” Tarn frowned as she realized how ridiculous that sounded. “You know better than anyone how she was during those last few weeks—how she was always talking about the solution; saying she'd do anything in the world to save Griffin. When she drowned it seemed like she'd known all along what would happen. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? She was a seer.”

Ananias looked at our father, then at me. The events of the past couple weeks had left him a shell of his former self. What was he thinking now that he'd discovered our mother had been alive all these years?

Just as importantly, what would Griffin make of the news?

I rolled onto my side and stood. My chest constricted. With every heartbeat, a searing pain spread across me.

“Where are you going?” Alice asked.

“I think Griffin deserves to know the truth as well, don't you? Just a shame that he'll be the last to know.”

Alice must have detected the anger in my voice, because she brushed by me.

“You going to beat me to it, then?”

She flicked her head dismissively. “No. I'm going to look for food and medicine, like I said I would. It'd be nice if your wounds could heal before your mother has to see them.”

Now I was really angry. I felt caught in the middle of a fight I hadn't even started. We should have been celebrating an improbable escape. Instead, Alice had risked fracturing our group to make sure that we'd set a course for Roanoke.

“Why did you make me tell them about my mother, Alice?”

“Don't you think they ought to know?”

“I think it should've been my decision.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Want to know what
I
think? I think I just distracted everyone from the most awkward question of all.”

“Which is?”

“How you didn't notice Dare joining you on the other ship. And why he chose to let you live.”

Determined to have the last word, she turned her back to me and headed downstairs. I didn't follow, but lumbered across the deck to the prow. Griffin hadn't moved from the ladder they'd used to board the ship. Nor had Nyla. But where Griffin was lying down, Nyla was sitting bolt upright, facing forward, as if she'd already consigned everything behind us to the past.

Griffin watched me with narrowed eyes, like he knew I had something important to say. I sat beside him and stretched out my legs.

The signs came slowly at first. I wasn't sure how to tell Jerren's story so that it would make sense. Griffin didn't stop me, though. He didn't ask any questions either. Just let me tell it all in my own words.

When I was done, he glanced at Nyla.
We. Know,
he signed.

I looked at Nyla too. “What's he talking about?”

“We already know everything,” she explained. “I've known for weeks. Ever since Jerren told me about the conversation he had with your mother. When we all escaped from Sumter yesterday, I had to tell Griffin the truth. He deserved to know.”

Though Griffin couldn't hear a word, he nodded in agreement. I searched his face for signs of anger or concern, but unlike Father and Ananias, he seemed completely at peace.
All. Right?
I asked.

Griffin's lips twitched upward in a smile.
Always. Think. Mother. Die. For. Me.
He let out a long sigh.
Mother. Alive,
he continued, emphasizing the last word
. Not. My. Fault. Anymore.

I thought back to the day before. When Jerren had found his parents' bodies hidden on an island near Fort Sumter, he'd said he felt
relief
. Four years of wondering if he could have saved them were dispelled in an instant. Looking at Griffin, I saw that same relief now. From now on, he wouldn't have to carry the guilt of believing that our mother had given her life to save him. Not as long as she was still alive.

We. Find. Her,
I promised him.

He returned a nod, but it wasn't convincing. Griffin didn't place much weight in promises or blind optimism. At thirteen, he was younger than everyone but Dennis, but he appeared as wizened as the Guardians as he raised his hands and signed:
You. Have. Journal?

I hadn't thought about the journal at all. Didn't want to think about it now, either. We'd just escaped yet again, but we weren't in the clear yet. Dare was giving chase, and our crew was in mutiny. What would yet another journal prove?

Where. Journal?
Griffin pressed.

Not. Here,
I returned.
Gone
.

I didn't bother to point out that the journal would have been ruined if any of us had attempted to swim with it. I didn't tell him that it was already gone when I visited Rose, either. Whatever those journals might have exposed—more secrets and lies, no doubt—was in the past now. The sooner Griffin moved on, the better.

Only, he wouldn't move on, of course. Over the past couple weeks, as we'd battled pirates and storms and rats and death, Griffin had never let up in his desire to learn about our past. Now that he'd been exposed to rats, and almost certainly contracted Plague, it seemed less likely than ever that he'd give up his search for the truth.

What kind of brother was I for thinking that he should?

I couldn't go back and find the journal for Griffin. But maybe I didn't need to. It could only have been taken by someone who had visited Rose's cabin on the other ship. Someone who had known what secrets the journals contained, and who wanted them kept that way.

All signs pointed to a Guardian. But which one?

Griffin's and Nyla's eyes drifted past me. Someone was crossing the deck toward us.

It was Jerren. “You'd better come below deck,” he told me.

“Is there a problem?”

“Not if you're hungry, or need medicine. But if you were hoping to find a stash of weapons, you're out of luck.”

“Where are the guns, then?”

“I don't know. But like I say, you should come with me. Alice found this room, and . . . well, it's not like anything you've ever seen.”