Page 2 of Valka

“Better than be eaten as a meal. It’s a kindness if you ask me,” another answered just before he took a running start and jumped over the side.

Ridley was terrified, but couldn’t just allow the women they’d taken on board to die below. He fought the tilt of the ship, the rains and winds battering him as he began to work his way back to the hold he’d sealed them in not that long before the captain had been snatched off the ship. He was determined in his mission to give them the opportunity to save themselves if they so chose.

Even the peal of several of the beasts just overhead wasn’t enough to deter him. If he died, and it appeared he and all the rest would, he didn’t want to stand in front of his creator while trying to explain why he didn’t even try to give the women a chance at survival. To allow them to drown, chained in the hold with no attempt to save them would be nothing but pure evil and there would be no forgiveness on the other side.

A sudden blast of wind knocked him off his feet and he slid another eight feet across the now 60 degree angle of the deck. At the last moment he managed to grab the edge of the frame the hatch fit into. His feet braced to keep him in place while he struggled to unlock the hatch, then threw it back to expose the dark interior of the hold and the women he knew were inside.

Another series of waves washed across, threatening to knock him into the ocean. Instead, he threw himself into the now open hold.

Chapter 2

“What’s happening?” one of them demanded, screaming and crying in desperation.

“We’re going down!” he answered breathlessly as he struggled to release the first woman he came to. He felt a slight relief as he heard the click of the lock holding the chains around her wrists in place. He shook the lock free and tossed it away. “Go up the ladder, run for the side and jump off. The shore is near. Don’t stop no matter what you see or hear.”

“What’s up there?” she asked.

“Just jump over the side. Don’t stop,” he repeated.

“Gracie, do what he says. He cared enough to come after us, he wouldn’t send us to die if that’s what’s going to happen anyway.”

Gracie looked at the woman chained on the next row over. “You’re right, Delia. Godspeed to you all. May we all make it to freedom.” She rose to her feet and started for the ladder Ridley had come down.

Ridley in the meantime had managed to free another woman.

“Wait! I’m coming with you!” she cried.

Gracie looked back at her. “Hurry it up, then!”

The second woman did her best to catch up with Gracie and followed her toward the ladder. By the time she was halfway up the ladder, looking up at Gracie about to go through the hatch, several more women were at the bottom of the ladder and starting their climb up.

“Hurry up!” the last of them demanded, slapping at the feet of the woman above her.

“I’m going,” another answered, clinging to the ladder and moving as quickly as she could, with every woman below her only a rung apart as they gave all they had to try to survive.

Just as the last one cleared the top and Ridley moved over the next row of women, the ship listed, throwing Ridley off his feet and causing him to loose hold of the ring of keys. “The keys! I’ve lost the keys!” he shrieked horrified that he’d lost the only way to free them in the shallow, filthy water they all sat chained in.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, as he splashed hopelessly in the water, searching for the keys. “I’m so very sorry.”

“Keep looking. You can’t stop looking!” the woman called Delia ordered.

“I’m trying,” he said, almost in tears.

“Look over closer to the lowest part. They may have slid there under the water!” another woman suggested.

“And hurry up, that we might have a chance!” Delia demanded. This one, Delia, was the oldest of all the women, and was always the most difficult to deal with. She never cried and begged, instead standing strong, advising them all nonstop of exactly what fate would befall them as soon as she had the ear of someone in power. It was many a time the captain had ordered her gagged, and even thought of throwing her overboard more often than not. Only the threat of not delivering the exact number of females promised kept him from doing so.

Splashing around in the water he jumped to his feet suddenly, holding the key ring above his head. “I’ve got them! I’ve got them!” he shouted triumphantly.

“Release us!” Delia shouted. “Hurry before it’s too late!”

“I am. I’m trying. I’m so very sorry, ladies. I didn’t know you were here until I was already aboard the ship. I’m sorry,” he muttered, as he finished freeing another woman and moved on to the next.

“Can you not move faster? Did you hear me? I said to release us! Release us this minute!” the older woman demanded, attempting to slam her hands on the wooden floor at her sides and instead splashing the water that was pooling around her. The rattling of the chains that wrapped around her wrists, holding her in place, reminding the young man as well as herself that time was of the essence.

“What do you think I’m doing, woman?!” he snapped, stopping in his attempt to take the chains off the wrists of another.

“Do you not see me doing all I can?!”

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