Page 19 of Hooked By a Hero
With wordless agreement, they grabbed hold of whatever rope, bar, or bit of the ship they could and pulled themselves along in the direction of the ship’s wheel. Caspian had only learned the barest minimum about steering a ship in his many travels, but his scant knowledge would be better than nothing.
Making their way up to the wheel gave Caspian and Elias another stark view of what was happening on the ship. The shouts and chaos around them had all the hallmarks of a losing battle, but which side was losing was yet to be determined. Caspian caught one of the tougher sailors stabbing a convict in the gut, then pushing him off his sword and straight over the side of the ship.
But in the other direction, Dick was engaged in combat with Mr. Cox, and before Caspian or Elias could do anything to help the first mate, Dick punched the man square in the jaw, then shoved him to the railing just as the ship tipped to that side. Mr. Cox went hurling over the railing and into the churning waves.
“No!” Elias shouted, reaching out as if he could save the man, even though it was too late.
The gesture knocked him off-balance, and it was all Caspian could do to tackle him and pin him to the deck to keep him from falling over the side as well.
There was nothing they could do but huddle there while the ship rocked, watching as men were run through or flung overboard. The worst of it came when Caspian spotted Mr. Ferrars and what looked like a young sailor stumble out of the forecabin. For a moment, Caspian’s heart lightened when he realized that Ruby had gone so far in her disguise that she’d chopped all her hair off.
That brief moment of lightness was ruined a moment later when a huge wave crashed over the side of the ship, knocking everyone off their feet. The wave was so ferocious that it swept violently across the deck, taking everything, including Mr. Ferrars, with it.
“Grandpapa!” Ruby shouted, reaching for her grandfather even as her body slammed against the foremast. She managed somehow to hold on, but it was too late for Mr. Ferrars. Caspian watched in horror as the old man was swept right over the edge of the ship and into the ocean.
“The poor man,” Elias groaned, clutching Caspian’s shirt.
Ruby continued to cling to the mast, but it was clear to Caspian she was in shock and that her grip would not last. That was enough to propel him to his feet, Elias struggling to stand with him. Together, the two of them moved with the rolling of the ship to stumble and grasp their way through the easing battle until they were able to reach Ruby and cling to the mast with her.
“He’s gone,” she wailed, looking at Caspian and Elias with terror in her eyes.
It was worse than that. Moments later, a vicious cry rose up all around them. Still clinging to the mast as tightly as theycould, Caspian, Elias, and Ruby looked around to see that most of the men who remained standing on the deck were convicts or sailors who looked like they were in league with the convicts.
Worse still, when they inched their way around the mast, preparing to make a run for the hatch leading down to the middeck, Caspian caught sight of Captain Woodward, bloodied and barely upright, being dragged along the deck to the jeers and shouts of the man who remained.
“He’s lost,” Elias shouted against the sound of the wind, the rain, and the shouts of victory. “Tumbrill, Dick, and the convicts have taken over the ship.”
“What are they going to do?” Ruby cried out, her whole body shaking as Caspian sheltered her as best he could with his own.
A partial answer to their question came as Tumbrill stumbled up to the captain, doing a remarkable job of staying on his feet as the ship pitched. He grabbed hold of Captain Woodward’s face with one hand, leaned in close, and said something to the man that was swallowed up by the storm.
Then he took a half step back, placed his hands on Captain Woodward’s chest, and shoved them man hard over the railing and into the sea.
Ruby screamed and covered her face. Elias glanced to Caspian with a look that said, “All is lost.”
Tumbrill turned to the men who were trying to gather around in the brutality of the storm and called out, “The ship is ours now!”
Shouts of victory rang through the air.
Tumbrill silenced them with, “We still have this storm to weather. It’s only just begun, and there’s no telling how long it will last. Every man to your positions! We’ll make it through this, and then we’ll head for land and live like kings!”
Another cry of triumph swelled above the sounds of the sea and the storm.
“We have to get below,” Caspian called out, dread of the situation they were now in filling him. “We have until the end of this storm to come up with a way to survive this ordeal.”
Elias and Ruby nodded, then he and Elias helped Ruby across the drenched deck and back to the hatch that would lead them to the relative safety of the deck below. Even without the storm, Caspian was certain there were no more safe places on the ship. As soon as Tumbrill and Dick secured their hold over the passengers and remaining crew, there would be hell to pay for all of them.
Seven
Elias could not decide whether he wanted the storm that raged around them in the hours and days that followed to die out or whether he wanted it to go on forever. It felt as though theFortuneand its remaining inhabitants were being tossed between capricious sea gods who used them for sport. Whatever faith he had that the crew knew their duties and would carry them through to calmer waters was dampened by not knowing how many of the knowledgeable seamen remained.
That was the chief problem that concerned him as he and Caspian huddled together in Elias’s small cabin. Dick and Tumbrill were in command of the ship now, and as far as any of the passengers knew, as soon as the rain and wind and high seas stopped, they would finish the murderous job that they and the sea had started.
“We have to do the best we can to keep the passengers safe,” Caspian told him as they stumbled through the middeck after hiding for what felt like an eternity, even though it could only have been one day. “We have to do all we can to keep the mutineers from harming any of the prisoners.”
“Agreed,” Elias said, following Caspian as they knocked on cabin doors to ascertain how the others were doing…and if they were still alive.
Caspian remained strangely calm throughout the ordeal. If Elias did not know better, he would have thought that Caspian was already certain he would survive what was easily the most harrowing event of Elias’s life. The man had absolutely no fear of the sea whatsoever, and only mild concern where the likes of Dick and Tumbrill were concerned.
