Part Five - The sinking of The Abigail

Mathew discovers the secretes behind the sinking of The Abigail.

That morning Michael and Mathew headed to the west side of the island where The Abigail sank, as they studied the waters Michael proclaimed as he pointed, “Donners Pass can be seen from here, you can even make out the rocks that peer out of the waters” Mathew interrupted, “there is no way they could not have seen the rocks, if we can see them from land.” “Exactly” Michael finished.
Daisy, who was flying in circles above them, began chirping loudly and then landed on a nearby tree, still chirping and squawking. 
“What is it girl, what do you see?” asked Mathew. Daisy then flew down to him and circled him, then flew off towards the lone mountain that peeked above the main lands.

Mathew screamed at her as he ran after her, “wait for me, please wait” Michael followed yelling “what is she up to?, where is she headed?”
Mathew was running as fast as he could and replied “we will soon find out”
After quite some time, fatigue set in and both men stopped running and begin walking, only to hope to not loose Daisy as she flew closer and closer to the mountain side.
As they finally approached the mountain, they both noticed a small path that offered a way up the side of the huge hill and they started up it, not so much as speaking one word, they had lost sight of Daisy long ago. As they grew closer and closer to the top, a modest hut began to take shape and appear, they stopped walking and both drew their swords, looked at each other in silence, and then began heading towards the hut. Just then Daisy flew down and circled them as they walked.

hey approached the hut and four scruffily men came out of the hut with their swords drawn and what appeared to be the leader of the group yelled “what business do you have here?” Mathew answered “we come in peace; we are only here to find out about the sinking of The Abigail.” One of the men laughed, and said “what business is that of yours?” without hesitation, Mathew approached him then before the man could react, Mathew proceeded to disarm him of his sword with one quick motion of his own sword, then stuck the tip of his sword into the man neck and sternly said “this is no laughing matter,” The leader attempted to strike Mathew from behind with his sword but Michael intercepted him, blocking his blow and then spun around and struck him dead in belly, killing him instantly. The other two men stood completely still, crying out for their lives, as they dropped their swords. Michael order them to the ground as Mathew began to interrogate the man he had disarmed; a thick stream of blood was now coming out of the hole that his sword pierced into his neck. “If you value your life, you will tell me everything you know about The Abigail, and its sinking. “Mathew said as he forced the man onto his knees, after he withdrew his sword.
“I know nothing” cried out the man, “lies” answered Mathew as he proceeded to back hand him several times. Finally the man answered and began to tell Mathew what he knew, “Lord Victor of the vessel Gaylee” he then paused and closed his eyes and begged for his life.
“If you wish to live, you WILL talk” replied Mathew, the man cried out
“Lord Victor will have my head for even speaking his name” Mathew interrupted him and said “right now you should be more concerned with what I will do to you, I will feed you to my hawk, she eats very slowly, you will beg for death”
Michael joking interrupted them “Daisy wouldn’t eat that filth” At that moment Daisy flew down, bit off his ear, and then walked over to Michael as she chewed it. “Arrrrgggghh” screamed the man as he covered the side of his head, trying to stop the bleeding. “Ok, ok, ok, I will tell you everything” he paused then said in a crackling voice “Lord Victor planned the attack on The Abigail, he did not tell any of us why or what he wanted, he had us board the vessel with him on the Island of Hills, its last stop on its journey here and we were to set fire to the freight compartment as it approached Donners Peak, after we did what he ordered of us, we came back up to the deck only to see him approaching his ship in a rowboat, he left us to die along with everyone else.”
“Why did he wish to destroy the Abigail and all its passengers and not take any of its goods? That makes no sense “

“He did it, to cause the shipment to be a total loss and force the people of Justice to rely on him for their needed supplies, I gather” replied the man,
One of the other men a much younger lad, interrupted their conversation and said “NO, he did it to capture the woman he had with him, the shipment loss was just an added plus for him, as well as making the people of Justice even more scared of him, I have told you that, many, many times, you will not listen to me”
“Shut up” interrupted the other man,”you’re mad” they all then began to argue.
“Silence all of you, before I cut out all of your tongues and feed them to my pet”
Mathew walked over to the younger man and questioned him about the woman, “tell me what you seen,” he then looked at the other two men and threatened as he drew his sword, “if either of you so much as nods your head, I will assume you wish for me to remove it from you” he said with a such a voice that they both knew he was serious.
“Go on” Mathew said to the young man, “Leave out nothing”.
The young man went on to say “after they set fire to the ship, they ran up to the deck, then they headed for the other side of the ship  and proceeded to lower a rowboat, Mathew interrupted him “what were you doing all this time?” he replied, “I was to be look out, make certain no one could go down into the gully and catch them, ”he then raised his voice and gave them a deep stare, “If I were to know what you were doing, I personally would have stopped all of you myself.” He paused, cleared his throat and looked back at Mathew “I was told they were only going down there to rob and steal.”
“Then what happened?” asked Mathew,
“I looked out over the sea towards The Gaylee and I seen Lord Victor and a woman in the rowboat; she was struggling with him,
I then ran to where these men where lowering the rowboat, on the opposite side of the ship that The Gaylee was sitting,” he explained as he pointed to the other two men, then went on to say, “so they could not have seen her, and they were too busy escaping the ship before it exploded, leaving me behind, mind you”
“Just what did she look like?” questioned Mathew, with a look in his eyes that would make even the hardest of men weep. “I am sorry, my Lord, it happened so fast, everything was a blur to me, I …”
Michael interrupted him, “Wait just a minute, and how on Gods earth did you know there was a woman with Lord Victor, if you can not describe her? Not even her hair color, what she was..? The young lad interrupted back “She had the longest, brightest of red hair I have ever seen sir, that is all I can tell you my Lord, her back was to me, and I was in no desire to study her, mind you”
Mathew gasped and then began pacing. He then paused and his face turned bright red as he gazed at the other two men, then back at Mathew, “My Lord …
Could she have been someone you know?” Mathew replied “Annemarie’s hair was of the brightest yellow in all the land, it was as yellow as the most beautiful daisy in all of Gods earth it could not have been her.”
“I am so sorry my Lord, she was on The Abigail, I gather?” he asked
Mathew took out the locket and explained how he came about it “an old woman in the nearby village claims she found it on the west shore of this island, where The Abigail sank, it was Annemarie’s” he said as his voice crackled.
“Oh my gosh, sir” interrupted the young man, “let me see this locket”
Mathew handed it to him, “I found this very locket on the floor of the main deck, as I was in charge of being the look out, I forgot all about it. He then explained with uncertainty in his voice, “I believe I was still clutching it when I jumped overboard, that is how it must have found its way to shore” he scratched his head and then went on back to his story.

“I did not know what to do, I was scared, I just jumped over board and preceded to swim to shore, the Abigail must have exploded seconds after I jumped.” Showing the scars on his arms, “I woke up on land, and my whole body hurt and I had burns everywhere,” he paused and looked up to the heavens, “I am a very lucky man to have survived” he then went on to say “Lord Victor never came for us, we decided to set camp on the highest hill to protect ourselves from the wild”
Mathew asked “why did you not just go into the village and board the next vessel so you could go back to where you belong?” the young man replied “I wanted to but I was warned, that the town folk may recognize us as being of The Gaylee and imprison us,” Michael interrupted “Lord Victor has made very bad enemies with all the nearby islands, including the Island of Justice, there is a 50,000 gold price on his head.”
The young man went on to say “Even though I just came to know Lord Victor, I could not take that chance”
Then his focus went back to the locket and Annemarie “I am so sorry for your loss my Lord, you do know that no one on board survived, if this locket” he said as he handed it back to Mathew “was your Annemarie’s” he paused then said “maybe she sold it, maybe someone else had it and she was not even on that vessel” he said with a hopeful meaner. There was silence amongst all the men for an eternity, then Michael said “I am very curious of who this woman with Lord Victor is and what he wants with her,” he paused and then his voice grew strong as he looked at the young man and asked “what is your name, why would someone of your nature be involved with these filthy scum,” he gestured as he pointed to the other men. The young man replied “Sir, I am Derric Wilmon, my family and my whole village were either killed or captured by the Perninties men when they invaded and took over my home of the Island Kismand, I escaped one night and hid in a crate aboard a ship, and it voyaged to the Island of Hills, I vowing to return and take vengeance on them,” he paused, wiped the tears off his face and went on to say “I met up with Lord Victor who promised me riches if I were to join his crew and his word that he would take me back to the Island Kismand to take vengeance on the Perninties”
“Derric” interrupted Michael “I am afraid I have to tell you that Lord Victor is of the Perninties.” Derric’s face turned blank.   
Michael then said “Lord Mathew. What shall we do with these men?” he said as he pointed to them, “We shall let the people of Justice handle this matter” he replied as he picked up all of their weapons off the ground and handed them to Derric and said “Young lad, you carry these for me, you are coming with us” A huge smile came upon Derric’s face as he said “Yes sir, my Lord”
Mathew then preceded to catch fire to their hut, then they all three started walking away as the hut began burning to the ground, “Please do not leave us to die” begged one of the men.“ No one spoke a word and then finally Derric spoke “just as you left the whole crew of The Abigail to die, so shall you” Michael then said “Once the town folk hears of this and come for them, they will only beg for death”

That night Mathew and Michael were walking along the deck of their ship talking and drinking the brandy Elias gave them, “Lord Victor will be next to impossible for us to war alone Mathew, you do know that any attempt on our part to promote war with him will result in our own blood loss” Michael continued  “We do have one of the strongest of all vessels in all of the lands,  but we stand no chance against his massive army of ships, it is well known that Lord Victor commands over three other vessels given to him by King Nathaniel, ruler over Perninties. So not only do we have Lord Victor and The Gaylee along with his other three ships, to defend ourselves against, but we also have King Nathaniel and his fleet of 150 vessels that will be called to protect our friend Victor.” Mathew interrupted, “Isyfeyne has 300 vessels, King Madison is at war with Perninties for control over the surrounding islands, including this one, with his seal, King Nathaniel will stand down his backing of Lord Victor, King Nathaniel is an intelligent man, he is well aware of the size of King Madison’s fleet, he does not wish to provoke an all out war with Isyfeyne.” Smiling he went on to say “once we possess the proper seal from King Madison” and King Nathaniel gets word of it, Lord Victor will be all alone, Michael interrupted “except for the four vessels he controls over” Mathewl confirmed “Yes, Lord Victor and his four ships against us and our one ship, The Winema, the strongest vessel in all of Gods land.” They then tipped their glasses.
Mathew then said “but we do have one huge issue  ...” Michael interrupted “Getting the seal from King Madison”

Mathew replied “Yes, King Madison is already planning on charging me with treason for going to Perninties, he wishes to not provoke King Nathaniel into war, why is this Michael when his fleet is twice that of theirs?”
Michael replied “King Nathaniel wishes to control all the independent islands and has taken control of the only two he could, he wont further try his luck, and King Madison wishes to avoid massive bloodshed, he knows full well he could wipe out all of King Nathaniel’s fleet but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, including his own peoples,” Michael then said with a very stern voice “he will avoid war at all costs.”

“So how do we convince King Madison to give us the seal, Michael?” “We go see him and then just ask him for it, that’s how” replied Michael.
“I gather you have a plan then?” questioned Mathew “Yes I do, oh yes I do” replied Michael with a huge smile. Mathew asked “and what plan is this, do tell,” “Tomorrow … I must work out all the details, there is much to consider” replied Michael. Mathew then said “Very well then,
I have a drunkard to go see and thank.” Mathew finished his brandy; nodding to Michael he headed off the Winema.
“Wait … ummm Mathew, I need to ask you something” Mathew turned and looked at him with a puzzled look “What is it you wish to ask?” Michael walked up to him then turned and looked at Daisy who was fast asleep perched on the door way to Mathews quarters, then asked  “How on Gods earth did you teach her to do that?” “What… Sleep?” replied Mathew with an even more puzzled look. “No, No; I mean, when she bit off that mans ear, then brought it to me … it’s as if she knew what I had said, and was mocking me …. You must think I am mad,” he began to laugh; “A bird mocking me” “Ha ha ha ha”  “Michael” interrupted Mathew. “She WAS mocking you” “But” replied Michael; Mathew interrupted “Daisy does what she pleases, I have gained wisdom from her, I don’t teach her, she teaches me” smiled Mathew as he patted her head. “Don’t you have more important things to be worried about right now other then mocking birds, I recall something about … Ummmm Oh yes, I remember now …. Does King Madison mean anything to you?” Mathew asked jokingly. “Yes my Lord, I am sorry” replied Michael as he started off towards his quarters, by then all the hands were laughing and making jokes under their breath, and Michael heard them all. Mathew then yelled at them, “Silence … I am certain you all have work that needs tending to, am I right, or should Daisy start MOCKING each and every last one of you, one ear at a time!” Daisy awoke at the sound of her name being called, looked around and then went back to sleep” Mathew then picked up the half empty jug of brandy and yelled to Michael just as he was reaching for the handle to the door of his room, “Michael?” then he held up the jug for him to see, Michael hurried back, took the jug and hurried to his room and slammed the door behind himself. All the hands lost complete control and a huge wind spilled from deep inside their guts and came out of their mouths like one great wave of laughter. Mathew then finally joined in for it was all he could do to hold it back

Author's Note

Thanks for reading