Merry

  Chapter eleven

  Seconds later my eyes shot open.  People still stood around me, and I no longer the felt pain in my middle, but I hardly noticed these things.  I was aware only of the simple, insistent call: come to me.  I staggered to my feet, and everyone stood back to give me space.  Come to me.  I had to follow Lord Fitch into the fountain.

  “Merry?” Caspian said.

  I barely heard.

  Follow me.

  I put my hands on the side of the fountain and gazed into the dark water.  Come to me.  I stepped up onto the wall of the fountain.  Everyone gasped. You will be mine.  I started to jump again, but strong hands caught me and dragged me away kicking and screaming.  Come to me!

   “I have to go!” I screamed.  “I have to go with him!”

   “Merry, snap out of it!” I heard a shout.

  The call became more insistent so that I heard nothing else.  You will not escape me this time.  I let myself go limp and the grip on me lessened, letting me jump to my feet and dash for the fountain.  Again, someone caught me.  I felt a stinging slap to my face, and suddenly, my vision cleared.  A woman’s freckled face hovered in front of me, foggy because of the hot tears streaming down my face.  I still heard the voice, but not as all consuming.  Come to me.

   “Merry?  Merry, can you hear me?”

  I saw Caspian in front of me and felt arms about my waist, pinning my arms and holding me tightly.

   “He wants me to follow him,” I said.

   “You can’t do that,” he answered.

   “I can’t get his voice out of my head,” I whimpered.

   “Okay, then listen to me.  Can you do that?  Listen to me.”

  The ground started rumbling again.  The voice started anew, and when the man holding me lost his balance, I broke free to run for the fountain.  Merry Blame, you will be mine.  Another stopped me once more.

  “Ma’am, the mountain is going to blow at any second.  We must to leave now.”

  These words were directed at the woman who slapped me, I realized.

  “Let me go!” I screamed.

  They dragged me away.  The fountain moved further and further away until obstructed by trees.  The newcomers took me to the rowboat despite my thrashing.  They did not tie me up, though I heard someone suggest it. Suddenly an ear-shattering noise broke my trance.  Fire exploded from the top of the mountain fire falling over the entire island.  We had made it off just in time.

  Caspian forced me onto the ship.  Lord Fitch continued calling; however, his hold over me lessened.  When I stopped fighting, the arm around my waist released me and its owner, Caspian, came around to look at me.

   “Merry?” he asked carefully.

  I raised my eyes to look at him.  “Present,” I said in a bad attempt at humor.

   “For good?”

  I shrugged and shook my head.  “I don’t know.”

   “Can you still hear the voice?”

  I nodded.  He put his hands on my shoulders to look into my face.

   “Listen to me, it’s gonna be okay, we’ll figure this out.”

   “I’m not a baby,” I muttered.

   “I’m doin’ my best,” he said.  “Can you help me any?”

  I shook my head.

   “Okay, let’s sit down.  What’s your favorite color?”

   “Blue.”

   “What kind of blue?”

  …

  I shot up, panting on a cot in a ship’s cabin, just woken from a nightmare.  As I caught my breath I remembered being brought into the cabin and promptly passing out.  The voice no longer tormented me, but stayed in the back of my mind. I ventured out onto the deck.  Sailors I did not know watched me carefully; I tried to ignore them.  A tall, middle-aged woman approached me.  I recognized her as the freckled one who slapped me out of my trance at the fountain.

  “Feelin’ better, Miss?” she asked.

  I nodded guardedly.

  “Good.  None of my men wanna have to jump into the ocean after you.”

  I just looked at her.

  “I sent one of my men after you to see if you knew Gregory had found the fountain,” Mabel said.  “Why’d you lie?”

  “You were the master he spoke of?” I asked.

  She nodded.  “If you’d told him the truth about the fountain, Gregory might not have been able to take you away.  You died, there at the fountain,” she said.  “That water brought you back.”

   “The men on the ship I was on had been away from their families anywhere from one year to ten,” I said.  “If I had told your man, would they have gotten to go back home?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted.  “If we had killed him, yes.  But you’re right.  It was likely that we would’ve failed.”

  “I thought about it,” I told her.  “I thought about throwing the canteen of water overboard, but they could’ve just got back to the source.”

  “You don’t gotta defend yourself to me,” she said.

  We looked at each other a moment longer, then she left me.  I walked to the edge of the ship and felt the eyes of the sailors on me.  I supposed they thought I might throw myself overboard.

   “Merry?”

  I turned around to see Caspian coming toward me, looking worried.  He relaxed when he saw that I was in my right mind.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Remember that lady I told you about?  Mabel?  This is her ship.  They got here a little a late,” he said wryly.  “But they’re takin’ us back to Hangman’s Harbor.  Is the voice gone?”

  There was still more I wanted to know, but I answered his question.

  “I can hear it in the back of my mind.  What happened to the others?  The ones from Lord Fitch’s ship?” I asked.

  “I suppose they left.”

  “Will they go back to their families now that Fitch is gone?”

  “I hope so, but I don’t know for sure.  I know that’s where I’m goin’.”

  We ate dinner in the captain’s quarters with Mabel.

  “You realize now that Gregory is dead all of his property belongs to you,” she told Caspian.

  “Wouldn’t he have left it to somebody else?  He knew of me only a day before we left,” Caspian said.

  “He wasn’t expectin’ to die.  He did everythin’ in his power to make sure he stayed livin’, so, by default, the closest family member receives everythin’.”

  Caspian did not look thrilled to hear this news.

   “I know it’s no pleasant task, but we must eventually discuss what will be done with Gregory’s property.”

   “I’ll think about it,” he said tightly.

  He finished eating his food quickly and excused himself.  Mabel sighed in exasperation.

  “I don’t think he likes being reminded of his heritage,” I said.

  “Nobody would,” she said.  “But it’s his responsibility and he’ll have to learn to deal with it.”

  She looked said.  Was that guilt in her eyes?

  …

  Dressed in the trousers and shirt that Mabel attained for me, I took to the deck once more.  I felt uneasy.  I had been thinking about what I would do once we got to Hangman’s Harbor.   I knew I had to get my family out of Lord Fitch’s dungeon, if they were still alive, but I likely could not stay with them.  Father probably hated me, and I was not sure I could live with them, the guilt of what I had sentenced them to eating at me.  I would never die.  My family, however, would.  Their lives would seem like but a moment to me.  Any connections I made with people would end, but I would go on. I reminded myself of the rhyme on the fountain.

  Give up this quest while you may,

  For it will not be long before your sins will make you pay.

  What did that even mean?  ‘Your sins will make you pay.’  What price would I pay?  I found a dark corner where I curled up until I fell asleep.

  When I woke, shadows covered everything.
 The sky was clear, and the stars lit my path as I wandered around the ship.  The men on the night shift paid me no mind, for which I felt grateful.  I held free reign over the ship.

  I saw a figure leaning on the railing, head down.  As I drew closer, I recognized the form as Caspian.  I leaned on the rail next to him.

   “Couldn’t sleep either?” he asked.

  I shrugged.

  He took a deep breath.  “Does it bother you?  Bein’…immortal?”

  I did not answer at first.  “Yeah.”

   “Me family…they’re gonna die before me.  And I wonder what happens when the world ends.”

  I shuddered.  That last thought had not crossed my mind. We were quiet for a while as we each contemplated what our futures could hold.

   “Do you think I might become like him?” Caspian asked.

   “Like who?”

   “Fitch.”

   “That’s a stupid question.  Why would you think that?” I asked.

   “At first I didn’t believe that he really was me father, and then it...just started making more sense.  I just don’t want to end up that way.”

   “Somehow I just can’t see you killing and torturing people just for the sake of seeing their pain,” I said dryly.

   “I don’t think so, but a lot can happen in an eternity.”

  I thought about my own future, and the words played over in my head: your sins will make you pay.