Before she could finish what she was saying, I felt the smallest hint of wind feather across my cheek. Dahlia and I locked eyes as a thin strand of her hair blew across her face. I could hardly believe it until I heard the sound of fabric rustling above me. I peered up to see the main sail rippling with movement. The first I’d seen in weeks.
I stood, rushing toward the helm to relieve Nikolai, a mix of dread and excitement making a mess of my thoughts. As soon as my hands clutched the pegs on the wheel, the sails went taut against a strong gust of wind. The ship staggered forward, nearly knocking everyone off balance. It had been a while since we’d felt movement beneath our feet. Men stumbled about, rushing to various parts of the ship to attend to duties that had not needed tending for many days. The ship rocked. The sails creaked and stressed against a deliberate current.
We were moving and we were moving fast.
It seemed we’d been snagged on a hook and something was reeling in the line, just like Dahlia said it would. The water was moving again and the breeze, like a living thing, pushed us onward as if it was playing a game.
But a strong wind and rough seas were a far greater comfort than the stillness we’d been enduring.
“Vidar,” Dahlia said, rushing up the steps to meet me. “Rough seas ahead.”
“Aye, I thought as much,” I smiled maniacally, accepting the challenge. “Take Meri below and tuck her in. I’ll get us through.”
I screamed aloud that I wasnotafraid;
that I never could be afraid;
and others screamed with me for solace.
~ H.P. Lovecraft
I brought Meridan into Mullin’s quarters, navigating the fog-filled passages as the men scurried about, elated at the movement of the ship. I had never felt Meridan so weak. I searched her body for injuries and found nothing, but she was heavy against me. Mullins followed us to his quarters where I set her on his bed.
“Meridan,” I said, sitting beside her.
I brushed the backs of my knuckles against her cheek and was met with what felt like pure ice. Naros were naturally cold, adapted to the frigid depths of the ocean, but this felt different—disquieting. The once-vibrant freckles that sparkled in the shadows had lost their glow, and her skin appeared pallid, reminiscent of my own, missing the usual radiance that accented her ethereal beauty.
“What happened?” I asked.
Mullins hovered over us with a lantern, hisheart beating loudly.
“Rocks ahead,” she said. “There was nothing yesterday. Then, the current captured me. I could not get back until I swam deep, out of its grasp. And… they were watching. So many of them.” I stood to quickly relay the news to Vidar when she reached out, clutching my wrist with chilled fingers. “They are coming,” she whispered, her eyes wide but surrounded with the shadows of her exhaustion.
“Look after her,” I said to Mullins. “Feed her. Whatever she needs.”
“Right, then,” he said, taking my place beside her on the bed.
I marched back up toward the helm, climbing steps two at a time.
“There are rocks ahead,” I told Vidar. “And enemies in the water. They are coming.”
As if he’d been itching for some excitement outside of aimlessly towing his ship through windless fog, his eyes lit up with determination.
“Man the harpoons!” he commanded. “Arm yourselves, men!”
The men rushed to their stations. Billy and David emerged from below soon after, carrying armfuls of flintlock rifles for the men to begin loading. There still wasn’t much to see, but as soon as everyone was at their stations, the crew fell silent, listening to the quiet sea. It was a relief to hear the sails fill with wind again. We were certainly moving and with purpose, but into what, none of us were certain.
After an hour of accelerating winds and sailing through increasingly angry waters, the fog finally granted us a small mercy and began to thin. None of us had seen proper shapes in some time. It was almost blinding when the haze began to clear and a night sky peppered with millions of stars greeted us. The men began to cheer into the night as the blanket of mist fell away. Fists beat the air in celebration, but when I looked at Vidar, I could see the realization on his face. The way his eyes narrowed said he was seeing what Iwas seeing. A night sky that wasn’t ours. A sky with far too many colors. Too many stars.
“Where the fuck are we?” he asked.
I rested my hand on my cutlass and tried to find familiar constellations only to be faced with mystery.
“The other side of the world,” I said under my breath.
“Impossible. That journey would have taken us far longer than a few weeks.”
“Perhaps, if we’d sailed any other direction. But we didn’t sail in any direction. We went through the Myre. Like going from one room to another through a curtain no one knew existed.”
