The islanders — and Charity, Blank, and Billy — greeted the arrival of Chase Boat Four with jubilation and an hours-long celebration, despite the mixed news that Ishmael and the others bore: that no matter what Pip promised, the possibility remained that someday the Gilded might stumble upon them.
Gabriel said, “Should these Gilded ever find us, and should they mean us harm, we shall defend ourselves. ’Twill be okay, Ishmael. ’Twill be strong. ’Twill survive.”
“’Twill never, ever be a slave t’anyone,” Diana added.
“But . . .” Gabriel gave her a serious look. “We shall dismantle the barricade and have music again.”
Diana hesitated, then agreed. “For now.”
It’s very dark, and the fires are little more than glowing red embers. Almost everyone has climbed into a hammock or crawled into a hut, and Ishmael longs to do the same, but Fayaway is pulling him down a walkway.
“’Tis a thing ye must see,” she says.
At the edge of the village, she picks up a torch and leads him through the jungle and up the hill to the cave where the islanders’ ancestors first found shelter after being shipwrecked many generations ago. The great orb is full, and the night sky is awash with twinkling pinpricks, but the entrance to the cave is ominously dark. Torch in hand, Fayaway leads him inside. The air is stale, but thankfully not rancid like in the pirates’ cave. In the flickering orange light she shows him crude wall paintings.
“They tell a story.” She guides the torch along the wall.
It takes Ishmael’s eyes a moment to adjust — not only to the dim light but to the crude drawings. Gradually, he starts to make sense of what he’s seeing.
The first illustration is of a ship lying on its side while people wearing PFDs struggle and lifeboats row away through tall waves.
The next drawing is of an entrance to a cave like this, with small figures playing outside and larger ones carrying bows and game.
Next, people in waist-high water, using nets to catch scurry.
Next —
Ishmael’s heart jumps into his throat when Fayaway points out a figure with long dark hair, leaning on crutches, his thin legs dragging behind him, surrounded by children.
Can it possibly be?
He follows her torchlight to a larger drawing of the man on the crutches again. Rising above the figure like a halo is Archie’s favorite design — the circle with the tree inside, the tattoo that all the islanders have on their necks.
Ishmael’s heart drums, and despite the cool cave air, sweat breaks out on his forehead. He points deeper into the cave, still in the dark. “What’s back there?”
“Old things,” Fayaway says.
“Of the survivors?”
When she nods, he starts toward the back of the cave. Fayaway follows, the glimmering torch illuminating old crudely made pottery, broken bows, shreds of old fishnets, a shoe, some rope, and —
Ishmael drops to his knees. With tears welling in his eyes, he picks up a rusted leg brace with torn, decaying Syncro straps.
“This”— he chokes, tears running down his cheeks — “belonged to my foster brother. To Archie.”
Fayaway kneels beside him. “Then ’tis Archie in the paintings. ’Twas here hundreds of years ago. ’Twas one of the survivors of the wreck.”
“The Jeroboam,” Ishmael croaks.
“He has not left,” Fayaway whispers. “’Tis still here in all of us. In the air and the ground. In the wood of our walkways and the thatch on our huts. And in our hearts and minds. Ye have found him, Ishmael, and so long as ye art here, ye shall always be with him.”
Fayaway leans forward so that her forehead presses against Ishmael’s. He smiles through his tears. I feel you, Archie, he thinks. In these gentle people. In their strength and kindness. In this beautiful place. You and me together. Always.
He rises to his feet and takes Fayaway’s hand. They leave the dark cave and step out into the orblight beneath a sky of shimmering stars and galaxies. He pauses to take a deep breath of the night air. He’s reached the final harbor, whence he will unmoor no more.
He’s back home, with Archie. Finally.
END NOTE
The Cretaceous period lasted from the end of the Jurassic (roughly 145 million years ago) until the beginning of the Paleogene (roughly 66 million years ago). During that time, the climate on Earth was considerably warmer than it is today. Tropical sea surface temperatures may have gotten as warm as 107°F (think: really hot shower). This is roughly 30°F warmer than the warmest oceans are at the present.
Scientists believe the increased temperatures were caused by widespread volcanic activity, which produced heightened levels of carbon dioxide. The production of large amounts of magma, or molten rock, possibly caused by the movement of the Earth’s crust (also called plate tectonics), also pushed ocean levels up, so that vast areas of the continental crust were covered with shallow seas.
As a result, more than 80 percent of the Earth was covered with water, compared with roughly 70 percent today.
In addition, the position of Earth’s landmasses changed considerably during the Cretaceous period. At the beginning of the period there existed two supercontinents, Gondwana in the south, and Laurasia in the north. By the end of the Cretaceous, the positions of the various continents were nearly the same as those shown on maps today.
GLOSSARY
Aft situated toward or at the stern
Amidships of, pertaining to, or located in the middle part of a ship
Anthropecene a geologic chronological term for the epoch that began when human activities had a significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems
AWOL absent without leave. Away from duties without permission
Baclum bacterial luminescence. Luminescent bacteria emit light as the result of a chemical reaction during which chemical energy is converted to light energy
Bait special reward
Berth sleeping accommodation on boats and ships
Bow the forward end of a vessel
Breasthook a V-shaped timber or plate connecting ship timbers or stringers of opposite sides where they run into the bow
Bridge the forward part of a ship’s superstructure from which the ship is navigated
Bulwark the side of a ship above the upper deck
Bumper a device for absorbing shock or preventing damage (as in collision)
Capstan a vertical-axled rotating machine developed for use on ships to apply force to ropes, cables, and hawsers
Chock a heavy metal casting with two short horn-shaped arms curving inward between which ropes or hawsers may pass for mooring or towing
Cleat a fitting on ships to which ropes are tied
Cleaving deck a deck on which large creatures are flensed and cleaved
Cutting in See Flense
Davit a system that is used to lower or raise a smaller craft from or onto a larger one
Davit hooks hooks used to hold a smaller boat
Derma-jet infuser a type of medical injecting syringe that uses a high-pressure narrow jet of the injection liquid instead of a hypodermic needle to penetrate the epidermis
Fathom a unit of length equal to six feet (1.8 meters)
Flank speed a ship’s true maximum speed
Flense (v.) to remove the blubber or skin of large beasts
Fluke the part of the anchor that catches in the ground, especially the flat triangular piece at the end of each arm
Forecastle the forward upper deck, or part, of a ship
Full ahead flank speed
Gunwale the top edge of the side of a boat
Grappling hook a device with multiple flukes attached to a rope
HMD head-mounted display. Worn while in virtual reality
Hawser a thick cable or rope used in mooring or towing a ship
Head a ship’s toilet
Hold the cargo space belowdecks in a ship
Keelhaul a form of punishment meted out to sailors at sea. The sailor was
tied to a line that looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, and dragged under the ship’s keel
Lee side the sheltered side; the side away from the wind
PFD personal flotation device, life jacket
Port left
Pot the accumulated funds from which individual bonuses are paid
RTG radioisotope thermoelectric generator. An electrical generator that uses heat released by the decay of radioactive materials to create power
Scupper a hole in a ship’s side to carry water overboard from the deck
Sick bay a room on a ship set aside for the treatment or accommodation of the sick
Slipway a ramp at the stern of a ship to assist in hauling harpooned creatures onto the flensing deck
Sound (v.) to dive swiftly downward. Used of a marine mammal or a fish
Starboard right
Stern the back part of a boat or ship
Stick a harpoon
Superstructure the parts of a ship built above its hull and main deck
Swabbie a member of the crew, typically of low rank
Swell a rolling ocean wave; not cresting
Tender a boat for communication or transportation between larger ships or shore
Thwart a structural crosspiece forming a seat in a boat
Transom the planking forming the stern of a square-ended boat
Turnbuckle a device for adjusting the tension or length of ropes or cables
Virtual reality (VR) a computer-simulated environment that creates physical presence in the real world or imagined worlds. Virtual reality replicates all sensory experiences, including taste, sight, smell, sound, and touch
Wheelhouse also called a pilothouse, a glass-enclosed room from which a ship is controlled by the ship’s pilot
Windlass a machine used to let out and heave up equipment such as an anchor
Z-pack a zettabyte packet. A unit of information used in virtual reality
Zirconia electrolysis a process, based on oxygen-ion-conducting zirconia electrolytes, that electrochemically reduces carbon dioxide to oxygen and carbon monoxide
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With oceans of paternal pride, I gratefully acknowledge my daughter, Lia, who created the cover illustration for this book, and my son, Geoff, who read a nearly five-hundred-page version of the manuscript and made many insightful and useful editorial suggestions. It’s not only more than enough to make the old man proud; it brings a tear to his eye as well. I love you both, and thank you both. I am also indebted to my wonderful and benevolent editor, Kaylan Adair, who devoted many extra hours to this endeavor. With patience and aplomb, she handled the editing with one hand and her newborn son with the other. Thanks also to all the other supportive and dedicated folks at Candlewick who helped make this novel happen. Finally, to Barb — my anchor, my muse, my PFD — with love.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2015 by Todd Strasser
Cover illustration copyright © 2015 by Lia Strasser
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2015
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2015936912
Candlewick Press
99 Dover Street
Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
visit us at www.candlewick.com
Todd Strasser, The Beast of Cretacea
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