I decided to take a different take on this chapter. Its been a while since the last one, and this has a slightly different feel to it; moreover, this one contains the setting for the future plot. Sorry the chapter’s not that long; I didn’t really spend too much time working on it, so forgive me if it doesn’t feel complete. So enjoy another addition to DOTN! That’s an order!
Chapter 16: Unforseen Consequences
Reynard paced around with heavy footsteps through the crowded bar. Everyone inside quietly sat around waiting for him to make a final decision; he’d been pondering amidst the his own band of pirates for about five minutes now, but still hadn’t come up with a solution. The navy had a good dozen men positioned outside the tavern, waiting for the moment the rectangular wooden door would fly open. They all had their muskets in hand; any attempt to catch them off guard would surely be futile.
Reynard stopped once he reached the table next to where Ivan and Stealthy were both seated. He raised his strong hand up to his chin, and glanced over towards a group of able men. “You three,” he said in a commanding voice. “go get the barrels.” He pointed over towards the back door that led to a storage room. The three men nodded their heads and speedily headed over there.
Ivan laid is hands out in front of him. The uncertainty as to what would happen next was making him feel sick. He would speak up, but that would most likely cause more problems than it would resolve.
Stealthy had been sitting calmly the whole time, acting as if there wasn’t any danger outside of the building waiting for them. He turned his head over towards Reynard, who was taking a seat next to the two.
“So,” Reynard said over towards Ivan. “It looks like you’re not so incompetent after all. Not only have you managed to spend almost an hour with me and still somehow stay alive, but you’ve also been able to summon a squadron of navy personnel to surround the entire building! For this, I congratulate you.” He said with a wide reaching smile.
Ivan looked up from the table to meet Reynard’s eyes. “Honestly, I have nothing to do with that; the last thing I’d do is ask a navy man to help me.” He answered, only to remember the fact he’d gotten along with Jack pretty well.
“Well at least you managed to survive.” Reynard added, getting up from the table and directing his hands over towards a couple of small barrels brought in by those three pirates. “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same will happen for your little navy buddies.” He placed one of the barrels near the door, and kept the other one close by. He took out his sharp, glimmering cutlass, and plunged it into one of the barrels, spilling gunpowder out from its thin slit.
Ivan watched as Reynard continued by grabbing a nearby candle and placing it near the door. Oddly enough, he placed the candle right next to where the gunpowder was spilled; if the candle would fall, the gunpowder would then ignite, causing a massive amount of destruction.
“Now then,” Reynard walked over towards the center of the room. “Should we wait for our navy friends to enter? Or shall we make our own destination?” Everyone in the room save for Ivan and Stealthy gave an ominous grin after hearing Reynard’s question. Immediately, they got up from their chairs and piled through the storage room entrance.
“What are they doing?” Ivan asked, watching the last of the pirates stuff themselves into the small choke point.
Stealthy took a deep breath before facing Ivan. He knew what Reynard was doing, but what he didn’t know was how he was going to do it. “He’s…” his voice fell under the newfound emptiness within the room. “telling everyone to go through the back entrance. Every time we find a new base, we make sure there’s another means of escape.” He said, pointing towards the back room. The pirates were now mostly out of sight, with the only ones left waiting for Reynard.
Reynard walked over towards the two, and motioned for them to get up. “Would you like to stay here and wait for the navy to fall into my little old trap? Or would you two prefer coming with me?” He asked, making the two get up from their chairs and walk over towards the back room.
Ivan closed the door behind him. Now when the navy entered the house, they’d be met with an unwelcome surprise; one that Ivan could do nothing about. The group of navy soldiers would surely die, and it would all be the fault of Ivan. Reynard took a key from his pocket, and locked the door behind them. Now they’d reached the point of no return.
Over towards the end of the room were a couple of strong looking pirates guarding a gaping hole in the wall. One of the pirates held a torch in his hand, and the other one looked just like the man Ivan had seen digging back at the mines; the same man that he’d seen before discovering about Stealthy.
“Chester, Roald…” Reynard said as he opened his hand up. The two men promptly opened themselves up to let them through. They followed the two on through a dark rocky corridor. Reynard got up close to Stealthy. “This time, make sure nobody gets through.” He said, showing him a large cabinet near the opening.
Stealthy rolled his eyes and headed over towards the cave’s entrance in order to seal it. Ivan kept walking with Reynard further into the cave, and as they went further into the cavern, Stealthy’s torch slowly faded from sight.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Hold positions!” Jack raised his hand to keep the navy soldiers in check. They’d been waiting for five minutes now for any pirate to step outside the door. However, they hadn’t seen any sign of life inside the building, only a small beam of light crept through the fogged window, and the free swinging door hadn’t moved an inch. Getting the party under his command was the easy part; the hard part was making sure there weren’t any pirates lurking about, waiting for the opportune moment to ambush them.
The rustle of the trees accompanied with the cool night’s breeze made seconds feel like minutes, and minutes feel like hours. The soldiers kept their muskets held high, waiting for anything out of the ordinary to happen.
“What shall we do now sir?” Asked one of the navy soldiers.
Jack faced the waiting soldiers with an uncertain look on his face. He knew if anything, they’d most likely be storming the building instead of waiting for anyone to exit. On top of that, they all had no idea how many people were inside, or if they were armed or not.
“You should engage Sergeant, but not immediately.” Jack answered. “We still don’t know the extent of the danger we’re facing.”
The naval soldier nodded and returned to his recent position. Jack knew they’d have to go in all at once in order to make it look like they were a larger force than they really were. Jack looked over to his left to see Howard with his hands folded, and his eyes hazing upon the seemingly empty building. It’d only been about an hour since they’d met each other, yet they both felt as if they knew how each other worked, as if they’d fought before. Howard walked over to where Jack was quietly observing the scene.
“Any ideas?”
“Yes.” Jack took a deep breath as he readied his weapon. “Alright, men, let’s move in.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Ivan walked further through the long walkway. Reynard was apparently leading them to the other side of the island, judging by how far they were going. Reynard directed his torch over towards only certain areas within the cave. Even if the navy could somehow follow them, they’d certainly get lost in the complex maze.
Reynard motioned for the two guards to go on without them. He was planning to speak only to Ivan.
The two eventually moved out of sight, there light sources no longer making an impact on where Ivan was headed.
“I’ve been… searching for you for quite a while. Many records of your existence are either kept secret or have somehow managed to flee from existence.” He said in a dark, smooth tone. “Fortunately, I have ways of obtaining confidential information, and I especially have ways of retracting events from existence. What I really mean by this is that I’ve rarely seen anyone with such secrecy, yet such a reputation that is seen in you.”
Ivan looked over towards the cave ground. Now Reynard was speaking as if Ivan was on his side.
“Ivan, I know you’ve refused my proposal before, and I genuinely have no problem with that. Now I’ve shot your father before, and escaped from him after he tried to stop me. After that, I never saw him again, he disappeared from my life; true, I did hear about a few pirates encountering him from then on, but I never met him again myself. That is why I give you a new proposal.” Reynard led Ivan towards a fork in the path. Over the right a couple of pirates waited for them with torches in their hands. Over to the left was a mysterious dark expanse Ivan wouldn’t want to get lost in.
The intersection had a particularly warm feeling around it; presumably, it was because of the volcano, but perhaps it was just because Ivan was sweating so much. There were many things Ivan wanted to know about his father, particularly about the mysterious faction he was involved in. Ivan trembled under the nervous uncertainty of what Reynard would do next.
“My proposal is this: You go on your own, forget about me, the mission, everything. And in turn, you let me make my own way, let me follow the code as I please. Any pirate is out there for freedom, including me. Your father knew that very well, which is why he only hunted those that supposedly abused their freedom. Of course, everything I do is of my own freedom, which should be the entire basis of the code. It doesn’t matter what other pirates want me to be like, act like. It doesn’t matter that they all wish to change my ways, to make me different. But what does matter is when fellow pirates try to stop me, to make, me change my ways, to force me to be different. Every act a pirate commits these days is formed on the base of freedom, whether it’s plundering a naval shipment, or assassinating a naval governor, everything I do is perfectly fine.” He said, laying his hands out in front of him. “It’s my own choice to live the way I do, pirates should especially realize that.”
“But I wasn’t sent by pirates, I was sent by the navy.”
“True, true. But did you ever for one moment think about declining such a mission? Perhaps it would’ve been best for you to chase me like this, and I know the navy wishes me dead, but you must realize now that this wasn’t your fight to be fought; we have no real personal quarrel with each other. It is true that your father was in a similar position, but even he realized it would’ve been best to stay quiet and forget about the whole thing.” Reynard held up his torch, and moved towards where the two directions split up. “So what do you say, forget about the whole thing and act like it never happened? Or come with me and show the Caribbean the meaning of freedom?”
Ivan froze upon hearing Reynard’s words. To some extent, he even agreed with him. He certainly did have the freedom to do certain things. But another feeling that crept inside him was the one that made him wish he could end Reynard right now, to end the entire mess here and now. He wanted nothing more than to see the dead remains of Marcus lying on the floor in front of him. But there was also another confliction inside of him that wanted Reynard to live. Strange as it seemed, he almost wanted Reynard to go his own way, and never cross paths with him again. Alas, only the latter choice was possible at the moment, finishing off Reynard was certainly not an option now.
Ivan reluctantly took the torch from Reynard’s hand. He turned to face the mysterious direction that led away from Reynard’s.
“Good. I see this may be the last time we ever see each other.” Reynard said, lifting his hat off his head and waving it off towards Ivan. “But if its not, this is the only warning you’ll ever get.” And with that, Reynard walked off into the darkness, following the path lit by his colleagues’ torches.
Ivan sighed as he too turned over towards his own path. The only way to go now was forward; the past was behind him, and the path he chose not to take beside him. He went on his way, hearing soft sounds as he went.
He turned around to face another one of the periodic noises coming from behind him. He quickly examined the general direction.
‘I guess it was nothing…’
He turned around, but almost fell back once he saw something come into the light.
“Stealthy?”
“Yes, its me.” Stealthy said, stepping out of the shadows. “Don’t ask how I got behind you… or in front of you.” He casually remarked, leaning on a large chunk of volcanic rock.
“But… what are you doing?” Ivan asked, curious as to what Stealthy was up to.
“Well, I just thought that since you and I don’t have the best relations with Reynard at the moment, maybe we can… work together?”
Ivan looked down at the ground. It was true he wanted nothing more than to get Reynard. “Work together? Why would I trust you?” he asked.
“Truth is, you technically can’t. But since we’re aiming for the same goal, I think we can… earn a sort of mutual respect towards each other, to the point where we need to trust each other in order to advance.”
Ivan carefully examined the situation. Any other day he’d immediately perish the thought, but today, things had been going in a slightly different direction. Stealthy didn’t seem like the backstabbing type, at least in one sense. And he certainly wasn’t one to shy away in the face of danger.
“The friend of my enemy of my enemy of my friend is my enemy… or something like that…” Stealthy said, lighting the torch in his hand by bringing it up to Ivan’s.
“But what would you have to offer me?”
“Don’t you remember our little scuffle back at Tortuga?” Stealthy asked, approaching closer to Ivan. “I’m a pretty good fighter, and I know how Reynard operates. If you need anyone to take him down, I’m your guy.” He said, letting his hand out towards Ivan’s. “So what do you say, we both work our way towards a similar goal.
Ivan almost shied away from the opportunity, but after a quick re-think, he begrudgingly shook Stealthy’s hand. “So, you have any plans on what we should do first?” Ivan asked, walking along the rocky corridor next his new accomplice.
“Well,” Stealthy grabbed his chin and gave a devious smile. “First, I think there’s someone I need to meet…”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Sergeant, you’ve got your men in the ready position?” Jack asked, watching the navy soldiers conduct themselves closer towards the door.
“Yes sir, they’re all ready to open the door…” The Sergeant headed closer to the door as well, another soldier had his hand ready to force it open once the command came. “On your call.”
Jack looked towards Howard. They both nodded, and Jack yelled out the command. “Breach!”
The navy soldiers reacted quickly, forcing the door open. Something didn’t feel right though, once they entered, something just wasn’t natural.
“Back! Move back now!!”
Jack barely had time to understand fully what was going on, for in a split second, the soldiers disappeared in a bright, loud flash that engulfed them all in a fiery blaze. Jack flew back from his position, and watched the planks fly off of the house, many of them reaching much further than the ten meters Jack had distanced from the building. Jack felt every nerve in his body scream at the unmistakable feeling of burns erupting on his skin. All the naval soldiers that went near the door were now completely gone, whether it was the fire or the shrapnel, they were all no longer existing.
Jack fell heavily onto the soft sand; a couple of large planks barely missed where he was now lying. He looked over towards Howard, who seemed to be hit by one of the wooden pieces. He could see blood coming from his side, but he still appeared to be moving.
Jack felt his eyes closing in on him, and his head felt light, almost as if it were rising. He slowly accepted defeat, as he began to fade from consciousness.
The loss came swiftly, and without notice. There was nobody to tell him he lost, just himself.
Perhaps it was the steady breeze that made its way across the backside of the island.
Perhaps it was the newfound smoke on the island that wasn’t coming from the volcano.
Perhaps it was the knowledge that an entire squad of naval soldiers was wiped out within the span of a few seconds.
Perhaps it was the fact that his associate was now in the hands of bloodthirsty pirates.
Or perhaps, it was just the disposition of the night.
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Comments? Anybody really like this story? It would be good to know this stuff.