“What if we go back to before we boarded the ship? Could we stop our past selves from getting on board?” He asked it without any enthusiasm.
“It’s way too dangerous,” Sera replied. “Interact with our past selves? Have two Infinity Rings coexist in the same place? Time and reality are too fragile. It’s probably why the Breaks have done what they’ve done in the first place.”
“Well, thanks for the encouragement,” Dak muttered.
“Uh, it’s not my fault how the fabric of reality works.” Sera shrugged her shoulders.
They lapsed into a lonely silence.
At some point, Dak fell asleep. He didn’t know how much time had passed when he was awakened by the sound of chains. Groggy, he rubbed his eyes and saw that Eyeball was standing there. The man had already opened the lock and was working to remove the chains from the prison door.
Dak jumped to his feet, suddenly more awake than he’d ever been. This was it — they’d come for them. He turned to Sera, who was pressed against the far wall, eyes wide open.
“Hey,” he said, “get the Ring out. We need to . . .” But then he stopped. Eyeball was alone. And there were three of them. They could take this guy easily.
But Eyeball’s next words put a stop to Dak’s scheming. “Need to travel back to the future, eh? Or maybe farther into the past?” He finally got the chains loose and opened up the door, its hinges creaking. “Poppycock. You didn’t think Gloria would let you on this blasted chunk of wood without making sure you had a friend aboard, did you? Come on, now — it’s time to save this ship.”
“DON’T SIT there like a wart on a witch’s nose,” Eyeball said. “Come on!”
“B-but,” Sera stammered. “How . . . why . . .” She didn’t even know where to begin.
The man laughed. “Oh, wash my boots, kid. . . . I’ve been puttin’ on an act ’cause you never know what side the guards are on. Gloria and I were even careful back in town — SQ’s been crawling like lice all over the docks for weeks. But she sent word ahead while you lot took the scenic route. Besides, I’d have hoped you’d seen my crystal clear heart through the beauty of my glorious eye. Now come on. I’ve learned enough meself to know we gots to stop this mutiny.”
Dak looked like his jaw muscles had been removed.
“Dak?” she asked, nudging him with an elbow.
He finally snapped out of it. “I’d just . . . I’d kind of given up. But then you came along by yourself and I was hoping we could beat the tar out of you. And now you’re letting us out. I’m a confused boy.” But then a huge grin lit up his face. “Let’s do this thing.”
“Beat the tar out of me, huh? What a dumb kid.”
“Finally, someone’s said something that makes sense,” Riq said as he walked out the open door. Sera followed, butterflies swarming in her gut. This was it. They were finally at crunch time and she couldn’t pretend it wasn’t scary.
Once they were all outside of the cell, Eyeball gathered them round and spoke in a low voice. “I noticed that smelly boy, Ricardo, sneak down here this morning. So I approached him — oi, does that bloke stink like fish or what? — and told him I was on your side. He didn’t believe me — I thought his rank little heart might explode on me — until I showed him some weapons I’ve hoarded over the last couple of voyages. By hoarded, I mean stole. Anyway, he’s done a fine job of gathering your Riffraff army, as he calls it. Did I mention that boy smells?”
“Yes,” Sera said. “You did. Never noticed it myself.”
“Then there must be somethin’ clogging that little nose of yours. Try pickin’ it more often. Works for me.”
“Ew” was all Sera could get out.
Eyeball got serious. “We don’t have much time. Since word’s gotten out about their plan, the brothers are planning to strike at midnight — I’ve got me own spies about, you know.”
“How do we know you’re on our side?” Riq asked.
Eyeball looked hurt. “Why in the blazes would I be lettin’ you out if I weren’t? I’m doin’ it mainly for the love I have for Gloria, I tell you. She doesn’t know it quite yet, mind your smarts. But me heart’s been hers ever since I first laid me eye upon the glorious vision of her clobberin’ a cow with that club of hers. Ah, what a woman.”
He touched a hand to his heart. “We figured it best to hide our little cahoots, wantin’ to be safe and all. But I been working with her some months now. And so here I am, at your service. One eye or none, I’m the best you got.”
Sera found herself trusting the man. Why would he let them go now if he wasn’t on their side? Dak and Riq seemed to agree with her by the looks on their faces.
“So, what’re we going to do?” Dak asked. “Should we just smash into the Amancios’ room? Throw them overboard? Stop this thing before it even gets started?”
“Don’t be as stupid as you look,” Eyeball spat. “Do that and we’ll be the ones accused of a mutiny. No, sir — we need to lie low until those turncoat brothers make their move against the captain. Then we come in and save the day. Every slimy-haired runt on this ship will know we’re the heroes then.”
Sera couldn’t hide her worry. “That’s the plan? What if the guards come down and see that we’re gone? What if the Amancios do something bad to Columbus before we can save him? Slit his throat or poison him?”
“What if the moon cracks open and drops lamb chops on us?” Eyeball growled. “What if me legs fall off and start dancin’? We’ll do our best, lad. Or should I say lassie?”
Sera’s face colored. “Brute force just doesn’t seem like the most thought-out plan is all.”
Riq shrugged. “Sometimes you just need to go for it.”
Eyeball huffed. “Are we really going to stand here like brain-dead flamingos and talk it over?”
“Like I said,” Dak interjected. “Let’s do this thing. I can barely stand it. If we’re not going to do what the Hystorians sent us back to do, what’s the point of being here? It’s time to act, Sera.”
She looked at him for a moment, then finally nodded.
“Right,” Eyeball grunted. “Up we go.”
They headed for the ladder.
They slipped past the guards at the top easily because they were snoring up a storm, practically lying on top of each other. Eyeball mentioned as they passed that he had helped them with their insomnia by pouring some powder into their drinks — a concoction he’d gotten from a mean old hag he’d met in the slums.
Valerian, probably, thought Sera, though her knowledge of medicinal herbs of the era was limited.
As they slunk their way through the narrow, cramped halls and corners of the ship’s belly, she felt claustrophobic and nauseated and tired of the smells of body odor and foul breath. Soon enough, she told herself. Soon enough they’d be fighting for their lives in the wide open, nothing around them but air and sea.
They finally reached the hatch in the floor that led down to their short-lived sleeping quarters of the previous night. But instead of going down, Eyeball moved past it and stopped at a seemingly random spot farther along. He shushed them, then started running his fingers along the wood of the wall. There was a low grating sound and a panel popped out into his hands — he gently placed it on the ground.
“Weapons,” he whispered.
Sera moved forward to stand beside him as he reached into the cubbyhole and pulled out knives and swords. She held her arms out and he stacked the weapons there like firewood. When the pile got heavy, Riq helped as well. In the end, there was an odd assortment of at least a dozen blades.
“Okay,” Eyeball said, winking his lone eye. “Let’s hope to the sea gods your Riffraff can swing these blasted things without choppin’ their own ears off.”
Sera nodded, then looked at Dak. It lifted her heart to see that his face was full of excitement mo
re than fear. Maybe they could pull this off after all. Eyeball went down the ladder into the sleeping quarters first, then Dak. Riq got on his knees to pass the weapons to them — she saw Eyeball’s large hands reach up and grab them. She followed Riq’s lead, glad to be relieved of the burden.
When she looked back up she noticed her reflection in a tiny metal mirror hanging on the wall. At the sight of her face, a sudden and piercing ache seized her heart and squeezed it. She scooted backward until she hit the wall of the narrow hallway. A deep, black sadness filled her — a feeling she recognized all too well.
She was having a Remnant.
IT DIDN’T last long, ending almost as suddenly as it had started. But the vision that passed through her mind — more like the absence of a vision, as if she were supposed to be seeing something but it wasn’t there — haunted her deeply in those few seconds. In her mind’s eye, she saw her face as it had appeared in the small mirror. And every ounce of her expected a woman’s hands to appear and caress her cheeks, a beautiful face to reach down and kiss her forehead. The fact that it didn’t happen was so maddening she thought she’d scream, or lose her mind completely. But then it was gone, just like that.
A Remnant. She’d had another Remnant.
She looked at Riq, realizing that she must look crazy.
“You okay?” he asked. His face revealed nothing.
“Yeah,” she answered. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just . . . got spooked there for a second.”
Dak called out from below. “You guys coming down or what?”
“Be right there,” she whispered.
“Never mind,” Dak returned. “We’re coming up.”
Sera glanced at Riq again, and he was giving her a knowing look.
“A Remnant?” he asked.
Sera tried to hide her surprise. Then she nodded.
“If we fix the Breaks, you won’t have to deal with that anymore. Saving the world sounds great, but it’s not a bad deal that we get to save ourselves in the bargain.”
It was the nicest thing she’d heard him say. Not so much the words as the way he’d said it. Genuinely.
“Thanks,” she whispered. A small echo of the pain she’d felt in that short burst of a few moments still lingered in her heart. But there wasn’t any more time to dwell on it. Eyeball’s head popped through the opening in the floor.
“Time for battle,” he said.
Sera got the last pick of the lot from the weapons stash — but it wasn’t too bad. A thin dagger about the length of her forearm. It ended in a vicious point and the blade along the side seemed freshly sharpened, the shiny silver surface almost glistening. It felt completely awkward in her hands. She took a few practice jabs and almost stabbed the only eye their new leader had left.
“Watch it, girl!” he barked. “Oops, now I guess they all know.”
Most of the Riffraff army had climbed out of the sleeping quarters, crowding the small hallway. Ricardo was nearby.
“You’re a girl?” he asked. “For real?”
“For real,” Sera said with a shrug of her shoulders. “But I can fight just like the rest of you.”
“Never said you couldn’t,” he responded with a smile.
Sera felt the briefest disappointment that she’d probably never see the older boy again. She might have ended up liking him a lot — if only he weren’t stinky and could travel through time.
“All right, this is how it’s gonna happen,” Eyeball said to the group. “We’ll go wait right below the decks. The little pipsqueak Dak and I will climb up and watch for a signal that the Amancio brothers’ plan is in motion. Then we’ll all move in and rescue Captain Columbus. Easy as throwin’ dice.”
Sera felt like she had to question things one last time. “That’s really it? Our only plan is to fight our way through a bunch of grown men — brandishing weapons we can hardly hold, much less use?”
“Yep,” Eyeball responded with a grunt.
“Okay. Sounds good to me.” She gave him a smile — a sudden confidence had filled her, though she had no idea where it came from. From the Remnant? A feeling that someone loved her and believed in her — even if it was someone she’d never met? Maybe. Either way, she’d take it.
“Then follow me,” Eyeball said. He set off down the cramped hallway, and the Riffraff army went with him.
Sera could smell the salty air as they got closer, could feel the coolness of it. She didn’t care anymore if they had to fight with men twice her size — at least she’d be able to pull clean, crisp air into her lungs.
Eyeball stopped them at the foot of a steep, almost vertical wooden staircase that led up to the decks, then lined them up against the wall. Sera could see the stars through the hole at the top and she felt a rush of excitement. Dak was beside her, holding a curved sword that looked like it could chop heads off with ease.
“It’s called a scimitar,” he said. “Or it will be eventually, but they haven’t actually coined the term yet. It originated in the Middle East, where —”
“Not now,” Sera said. “Not now.”
“Okay.”
But his gaze didn’t drop from her eyes, and a lot was said between them in the next couple of seconds without a word being spoken. That they were best friends; that they’d been through a lot and were about to go through their worst. But they were together and that made everything all right. They could do this.
Eyeball had climbed up the stairs until his head disappeared past the threshold. After looking in all directions, he crouched back down and called for Dak to come with him.
“Good luck,” Sera said.
“Same to you. Remember, as soon as we know Columbus is safe, we need to get out of here. You be ready with that Ring.”
“I will. It’ll all be over soon.”
Dak grinned. “Until we move on to the second Break and have to start all over.”
“Right.”
“Boy!” Eyeball roared — as much as he could while whispering. Somehow he managed it. “Get up here!”
Dak gave one last nod to Sera then scrambled up the stairs, almost face-planting into Eyeball’s rear end before he realized how fast he was going. The two of them slipped into the night air and out of sight. A hush fell over everything.
Sera closed her eyes and enjoyed the clean feel of breathing the ocean air. She’d often heard people talk about the calm before the storm, and she finally knew what they’d meant. At any second, their world was going to explode into action.
Things began to happen.
There was a distant shout, the words impossible to make out. Then another. And another. A scuffling sound, then a bunch of voices at once, arguing. The ring of metal against metal. The quick bang of an explosion — someone had fired a musket. Sera had to restrain herself from sprinting up the stairs before their signal.
Suddenly the booming voice of Eyeball filled the air, turning her heart into a rattling alarm clock in her chest.
“Mutiny! Mutiny! Mutiny! Salvador and Raul are traitors! Rise up and fight!”
Dak’s head popped through the opening at the top of the staircase.
“Riffraffs! It’s time to fight!”
DAK SCOOTED away from the opening as his small army started charging up the stairs and onto the deck. He got to his feet and turned to stand beside Eyeball again. The decks of the ship had been stone silent with no movement only a minute earlier. Now it was utter chaos, people running all over, fighting with swords and shooting muskets — though only a couple of people had those and it took forever to reload them after one shot. This battle would be won or lost by steel.
The problem was that the Amancio-led guards outnumbered the sailors who’d been brave enough to accept Eyeball’s challenge to fight back. Hopefully the Riffraffs would turn that tide as they ran scream
ing in all directions, ready to distract those loyal to the Amancios while Eyeball took the fight to the brothers themselves. It was easy to see who was on whose side — the mutineers were big and strong with shiny weapons, while Dak’s side looked pathetic and unorganized, with mismatched weapons and tattered clothing.
But he remembered the lesson of the American Revolution. In battle against an organized enemy, chaos could be effective. And the mutineers definitely hadn’t been expecting this.
“Come with me,” Eyeball said to Dak. “You and I are going for the big man himself. Columbus needs our help.”
Sera stepped up beside them. “I’m coming, too.”
Then Riq. “Don’t forget me.”
“All right. Just don’t chicken out when the heads start flyin’,” Eyeball said through a rumbling chuckle. “Come!”
Dak and the others followed as Eyeball ran forward, his stocky legs pumping as he jumped over ropes and buckets to charge toward the upper deck where the Amancio brothers were trying to break into the captain’s quarters. Salvador wielded an axe, and one-third of the door was already shredded into splinters. A light rain had begun to fall from the dark sky, causing the lanterns that hung from masts and rafters to sputter and hiss. Dak could tell that the ship was bouncing more, too, and that the moon and stars had completely disappeared above them. The ship was heading straight into a storm.
The captain’s cabin was on a raised deck that had a short flight of stairs on each side. At the bottom of each of them stood guards loyal to the Amancios, fighting off anyone and everyone who tried to gain access to the platform. Raul had just fired his musket at someone and was busily reloading, shoving a long metal rod down the barrel.