Chapter 9: Phaeacia
"May I stand unshaken
Amidst, amidst a crashing world?"
- D'Angelo
'Unshaken'
1
Arthur woke to an empty bed. It had been a while since he had a roof over his head in a place that wasn't a hotel, and he still woke up feeling like he was missing something. The sunrise was peeking through the drawn drapes, casting an orange glow into the room and warming the sheets that would otherwise be cold from his absent partner.
Kieran. He had spent the night with Kieran. It was almost too difficult to comprehend.
Now wasn't the time to be questioning his sexuality, or what the others may think should he tell them. He was never against men loving one another, but he sure as hell never took it into account for himself and what he liked. He had only been with women in the past, and he thought he was fine with that, but Kieran was… Kieran.
Arthur got dressed and checked around the house for the other man but he wasn't around. He was about to head out to see if he may have taken a morning fishing trip down by Owanjila, but he found a letter on the dining room table before he left. He took a seat and started reading.
Dear Arthur,
There's nothing I wanted more than to wake up with you this morning, but I cannot rest until this war is over. Colm needs to be dealt with. I may know where Jack is being held. He has a safe house up in Mount Hagen, south of Lake Isabella, I'm sure you know where.
I need you to go back to Shady Belle and tell the rest of the group. I couldn't go with you. Someone needed to go up there now, and it needs to be me. I need to put a wrench in the machine that is Colm O'Driscoll. I owe it to you all. This is my proving.
I hope you don't see this as me running away. For the first time in my life, I'm running towards the fight, and I'm not afraid. It's no longer about me, it's about my family. You and the gang. If I die before you get there, know I went with pride. And if Jack dies with me, I ask for nothing more than your forgiveness.
I will see you soon, my love. In one life or another.
Kieran.
2
The harsh ice winds felt like whip slashes on Kieran's skin. He could feel his exposed flesh turning red from the crisp air as he ascended up the mountain. He had a job to do. A purpose that belonged to him.
If there were any horse or footprints embedded in the snow from yesterday by Colm and Jack, then the weather conditions had swept them away throughout the night, though Kieran didn't need a trail to know that they were up there. He was sure of it. To take from Dutch Van der Linde something so precious would be beyond wars among the camps. This was life or death, and Colm intended to survive.
Kieran reached the peak of the mountain quicker than Colm probably did. He was determined, and Jack's life was on the line.
"Colm!" Kieran shouted, huddled over to protect himself against the freezing temperatures. "Come out!" There was noise coming from the large shack, and he hoped that it wasn't some wolves or a bear that had made it a home. "Come out and let's talk like men!" He knew that if Colm was in there then he would be keeling over in laughter at the idea of him talking like some big man, but he was past caring what Colm thought about him. He wasn't a stable boy right now, nor was he anyone's prisoner. He was Kieran Duffy.
"Lookin' for me, boy?" Colm's voice came from the larger shack. Kieran turned and aimed his gun up at the man. He looked half dead already, his skin turned ashy from the cold temperature, but Kieran wasn't looking at that. He was looking at Jack, who looked frightened yet was keeping his composure enough not to provoke Colm. He had a death grip on the child's shirt to keep him from running off, and even in the snowy mountains it make Kieran's blood boil.
"Kieran!" Jack called out, and it made the man feel a surge of determination seeing the look of desperation on the boy's face at the sight of him. Kieran hoped that Jack knew he wasn't leaving here without him, he just couldn't tell him in words.
"Now don't tell me you came all the way up here by yourself?" Colm said.
"I could ask the same of you."
"I've got all the insurance right here." Colm moved his gun from Kieran to Jack. "As long as I've got the boy, you ain't shootin' nobody."
"Let him go, Colm."
"I don't think so. He's worth too much to me."
"He's just a boy! He ain't got nothin' you need."
"No, that's where you're wrong. See, it ain't no mistake you knowin' I was up here. I knew your desperation to please Dutch's group would bring you to me, and there ain't nothin' your gang would want to protect more than little Jack. But this don't have to be the end of the line for you, boy. Either way I got you. The only thing you gotta choose is whether you wanna live or die. Join me and earn some real money. Join me and live." Kieran just laughed and shook his head, not trusting a word he said. That line was crossed long ago.
"After I've abandoned you twice? Murdered dozens of your men? I'm supposed to believe you truly think that Kieran Duffy has any place in the O'Driscoll gang? I was never anythin' to you or your people. You don't care about your men, and your men don't care about you. I didn't leave your gang because all you care about is money, I stayed with Dutch's gang because he cares about family."
"Family?" Colm's whole attitude changed. He was no longer welcoming Kieran back into his group, and now gave him the same look he always did. He was used to seeing him switch like that. "You ain't family to him, boy! Dutch never bothered to send anyone out to look for you went you went missin'. It wasn't Dutch nor Arthur that saved ya. It was the Mexican, and he weren't even lookin' for ya! He came for the boy, and you just happened to be there! You call that family? No, that's luck." Jack tried to pry open Colm's fingers as he tightened his grip on his shirt, but he wasn't strong enough. Colm only leaned in to tease Kieran. "You could die up here, son, and they won't even waste their breath on carryin' your dead body back down to bury ya. That's if they bother to come up here to save you at all. Put your gun down, and you won't lose here, boy. Come with me and everyone lives. If you wanna make this difficult, then I'll keep you alive just long enough to see little Jack here die, then all of your friends die, and then you die." Colm cocked his gun. "Choose."
Kieran took in the clearest breath he had ever taken in his life. It was shaky, but the cold air filled his lungs and he had never felt so alive. "Go to hell."
Colm just smiled.
3
A sound came out from the forest around them, and some of the group thought they had all gone crazy as they tried to find the disembodied voice.
"Dutch!" It became clearer, and Mary-Beth pointed out Arthur riding into camp, his horse panting from being pushed to their limits.
"Arthur." Dutch replied, leading the group towards the man, although Arthur didn't dismount.
"We gotta go to Mount Hagen right fuckin' now. Kieran thinks that Colm may be up there with Jack."
"Oh, Jesus." Dutch huffed a laugh, looking around at the rest of the crew as though they were going to laugh with him. "You're gonna follow that O'Driscoll boy into a mountain of snow?"
"Enough of that, Dutch." Arthur was done playing around, not that he was in the first place. "I'm going, and we go together. That's what we do. Now get your coats and get on your damn horses, we're not gonna stop riding until we get there."
Most of the gang didn't need to be told again. They listened to Arthur the same way they usually listen to Dutch. In that moment, Arthur was the leader of the group, and they did what he asked, not because it's their job to listen but because they trusted him, more than they'd trusted Dutch in a while.
"Seriously, Arthur." Micah spat. "What part of your soiled little brain isn't picking up that this is just one of Kieran's ploys to get revenge on us not letting him into our family?"
"I know it ain't a ploy, but the reason I'm goin' doesn't have to be your reason too, Micah. If Kieran really is lyin', for your peace of mind only, then why wouldn't we go? There will be O'Driscolls up there, Colm most likely. Don't you want him dead? Why wouldn't we want to follow the bear into the cave?"
"You really are a blind man indeed, cow poke."
"Think whatever you want, you little rat, but I'm goin', and by the looks of it, so is everyone else. You'll follow Dutch wherever he goes, and so I ask you, Dutch, now more than ever." Arthur looked to his friend, although he questions if that's what he is nowadays. "Are you with me?"
Dutch looked up at the man on the horse, and he saw beyond the desperate eyes of a man on a mission. He saw a young Arthur with nowhere to go, an Arthur that was looking for a family. He remember a younger version of himself reaching out a hand to the boy, taking him in and calling him son. That's what he saw, and that's who he followed up the mountain that day.
4
They reached the peak of Mount Hagen about an hour before sunset, when the sky was starting to tint with pink but was still bright.
"Is this the place?" John asked once a large shack became visible. It was the only shelter they saw since they rode into the snow.
"I think so." Arthur said, but all hesitation left his voice once he spotted horses hitched around the corner of the cabin. "Yeah. Yeah, there's Branwen. They're here all right."
"Or they were." Micah chimed in, as though anything he had to say was important.
"Oh, they're here." Dutch said, eyes squinting, staying alert.
The group dismounted their own horses, and the sound of their guns clinking as they armed themselves would be heard from inside the cabin even before John called out.
"Come out!" He yelled. "You wanted us here, you got us! Give us Jack!"
Silence followed as the group stared down the cabin, approaching slowly, but then the door creaked open, and Colm emerged from the dark once more. Dutch saw the manic expression he was so familiar with, though Colm was hiding behind another man for cover. That man was Kieran. He wasn't struggling, just locked eyes with each member of the gang. The eyes said something. They read letters of what may be a dead man, words that he couldn't write or speak out loud.
"You've come all this way, Dutch." Colm teased. "For once, let's end a fight without spilling blood, huh?"
"Oh." Dutch drew it out. "It's far too late for that, Colm. It was always supposed to end this way."
"Was it?" Colm moved his head to Kieran's other shoulder and tightened his grip on him, who kept quiet and didn't flinch. "Was I supposed to end up like you? A strong leader herding his people like sheep? That's a fairytale life for an outlaw, Dutch. I don't need your people. I don't need mine. I just need the money on your head, and I'm gone."
"That's a big ask comin' from someone with none of his men standing by his side." Sadie said.
"Like I said, I don't need 'em. I got all the assurance I need right here. And besides, I'm not lookin' for a war. I'm looking for a deal."
"You want me to turn myself in?" Dutch asked.
"In exchange for Jack?" Colm's head jerked to inside the cabin. "For Kieran? I think that's a pretty good deal if you ask me."
"What makes you think we won't come for you once you're gone?" Bill threatened.
"Oh, I'll be gone." Colm whispered. "I'll be long gone. I may as well be dead to all of ya."
"There's all of us, and one of you, Colm. Why don't we just shoot ya?" Arthur called.
"And risk putting a bullet in poor Kieran here?" Arthur's eyes turned to Kieran, who was looking back at him. He wasn't asking to be saved, and had looked like he was ready to accept death should it take him. Arthur wasn't ready for that. He really wasn't. "You're all loyal to the wrong man. Did any of y'all know that Dutch wanted to let Kieran here die, when he knew he didn't kill little ole' Sean? That's right. I told him all about this little weazel's attempts at takin' down my men in Rhodes, and how Sean died protectin' him. Ole' Dutch didn't fill you in on that, did he? No. He lied to you. And don't y'all think that this was the first time. Nor will it be the last, I can assure you of that."
"It's over, Colm!" John shouted. "Give us Jack! Give me back my son!"
"Sure, John." Colm said. "But first you need to realise that this man is worth more to you in jail than free. Hand him over, and you'll get your boy back."
"Not an option." Sadie said, cocking her weapon. "Let them go. Now."
"A traitor trade, that's all this is. An innocent child and a stable boy for a murderer."
"Nothin' you ain't." She retorted.
"That's right. But I ain't got you all doin' my biddin', do I? At least not all the time." He smiled. "Make your choice." The air fell silent of voices. The wind was like the beating drum of every person's heartbeat. "Make it." He got no answer, and all patience was long dissolved. With all the breath in his lungs, Colm screamed. "Make your choice!"
A shot was fired.
Nobody expected it, so they all shared the same expression of shock, and from that they couldn't tell immediately who had been shot, if anyone.
But they soon got their answer.
Colm pushed Kieran away, shoving him towards the group. The boy stumbled a little, but even once he caught his footing he crumbled to his knees. It was then that Arthur saw that he was shot. Right through the stomach.
"Kieran!" Arthur yelled, and no one in the gang had heard the man sound so broken. He had been there during the deaths of many friends, but he never sounded like that.
Dutch looked down at the men, watching what happened because of their loyalty to him. In his daze he turned to look to his side.
Micah. His gun was raised, the wind carrying the gunpowder smoke with it through the mountains. He shot Kieran.
Dutch was trying to piece together what had happened before he heard another body fall. He thought it may have been Kieran, or Arthur holding him, but instead it was Colm. The man had a hole in his stomach, in the same place as Kieran.
The bullet that went through Kieran went straight through Colm, too. Two birds, one stone. Or at least Micah saw it that way. The rest of the gang wasn't willing to make that sacrifice. Though it only took one bullet to make that decision, and that decision was already made.
Colm fell in the doorway of the shack, his blood pooling out and painting the snow a deep red. His hand snuck up onto his body to feel the wound. He knew in that moment he was going to die, and unlike Kieran, he didn't want to accept it.
Dutch approached the dying man and watched him squirm. The moment Colm looked up from his bleeding stomach to Dutch, his fear switched from death to the man that could give it to him.
"This is what you wanted, ain't it, Dutch?" He smiled, but there was no happiness in it. "I guess you won. It was a good fight while it lasted. You know it, too, don'tcha? It gave you life. What's worth bein' free if you ain't gotta fight for it, right, old friend?" He struggles to rise up on his elbows, his heavy heart rate only pounding faster and causing him to bleed out quicker. He raised up a hand to Dutch, wanting him to take it. It was a man's game, but Dutch only stared the man down. This became so much more than a game the day Colm murdered Annabelle.
The raised hand began to shake, the fingers curling and freezing before it fell with the man.
Colm O'Driscoll was dead.
Game over.
Dutch felt a wave wash over him the second the body fell still, the fear frozen on Colm's face.
He closed his eyes and led his head fall back, taking a deep inhale of the mountain air. Of freedom. The fall of Colm O'Driscoll. But it still wasn't the rise of Dutch Van der Linde. It may have been his fall, too.
"Kieran." Arthur called, taking hold of his body and laid him on his back. His eyes were glazing, tears falling onto Kieran's freezing cheeks. The rest of the gang felt like they couldn't do anything but watch. "Kieran, stay with me. Keep you're eyes open. Keep 'em on me, you hear?" Kieran did this, but his gaze was distant, fading. A small smile formed on his lips.
"Arthur." He managed to say.
"That's right, I'm here." He said, brushing Kieran's hair from his face. "I'm not goin' anywhere, and you ain't neither, all right? So just stay with me."
"Arthur… I…" Kieran started, but his world started to go black, and the voices around him were beginning to fade, his heart still beating to the sound of Arthur's desperate pleads.
"No! Stay with me, Kieran! Stay with me!" Arthur held him tight, not letting him go. "Kieran!"