Chapter Eighteen
Aboard Lady Ambergris II:

Amber awoke with a start. In the darkness of their cabin… something was wrong. Each night as she'd gone to sleep… she'd familiarized herself with her sense of where the others were… where they should be… and where they shouldn't be. As at the mission… she'd found a way to secure the door despite Derrick's laughter at her precautions.

She'd laughed back teasingly as she'd joined him in the bunk, "Deal with it," and then she'd kissed him passionately and the on-going disagreement was forgotten.

Now her eyes opened suddenly and she struggled to sense what it was that had awakened her. She scrambled with a cry from the bunk; neatly grabbing her cutlass as she struggled with the barricade she'd built.

Almost as instantly, Derrick was at her side, pulling it away from the door.

"Stay here!" she yelled as she raced into the dark passageway. She could sense someone just ahead.

But Derrick pulled her back. "It's all right, Amber. It's only Caspar." He pushed her against the plank walls and then passed her by. He was unarmed.

"Damn!" she snarled and followed him. As she came up on deck she saw Wingate and Derrick talking. Wingate stared at her… or more precisely at her sword and stepped back from Derrick.

"Calm down!" Derrick shouted at her and then turned to Wingate. "What did you see?"

"I'm not certain. But something's out there. That's why I shut the engines off and came for you."

"Show me," Derrick said as he motioned for Wingate to lead the way. Once the three of them were on deck, Wingate grabbed a spotlight and shown it out over the water. "I can't quite make it out," he said. "But it's moving."

Derrick angled the spotlight slightly and then cleared his throat. "It's a submerged chunk of ice. Not much above the water level."

"Big enough to do us some damage?" Wingate asked.

Derrick nodded as he swept the spotlight about in the water. "Didn't it show up on the radar?"

Wingate shrugged. "Yeah… well something did. I just didn't know what it was."

Derrick nodded. "There's another one," he said. "Tell you what, Caspar. Go on to bed. I'll take the watch tonight. I don't think even anchoring here would be safe."

"We'd go down like the Titanic?" Wingate snorted.

Derrick nodded. "Yes… we would indeed."

Wingate sniffed a bit as he turned to leave. "I wasn't on it. I just heard about it. Were you there, Amber?"

"No," she replied.

"My sister was," Derrick offered as he turned the spot off and headed for the pilothouse. He paused and shuddered slightly.

Amber thought he was cold. "You need warmer clothing."

"I'm fine. I just… " He shook his head as he started the engines. When they were running once more, he set a course and steered expertly between the bergs that he saw reflected on the radar.

By this time Wingate had gone below. Derrick looked so preoccupied, Amber feared to leave him. "What's wrong?" she finally asked.

He glanced up at her. "Nothing… just thinking about the Titanic."

"She went down on it… didn't she."

Derrick settled into the captain's chair and nodded. "She was in second class… but went below to help those in steerage. She was trapped. She once mentioned it when I was studying about the disaster."

"And ya can visualize what happened," Amber said gently laying a hand on his shoulder.

"To some extent… except…" his voice trailed off.

"What?"

"At the time she told me… I remembered the event… but from another perspective. You recall I mentioned to you that growing up I sometimes had memories that might have belonged to Darius?"

Amber nodded.

"This was one of his. I'd forgotten it until Caspar mentioned the Titanic. Then it all came back to me."

"Hearing of the disaster?"

Derrick nodded. "And knowing she was aboard… and likely dead… He was frantic… and fearful that she was lost forever."

Amber glanced out over the dark ocean. "Odd that would be a memory ya'd have."

"He always worried about her." Derrick laughed. "I worried about her," he added brightly, "but she was always the strong one."

"I'd like to meet her someday."

"Maybe you will." He rubbed his bare arms and shivered.

Amber kissed his cheek. "I'm getting ya some warmer clothes. Here." She held out her cutlass. "Humor me."

Derrick took it and laid it on the map table without comment.

A few moments later, Amber returned to the cabin to pull on warmer clothes before grabbing his to carry up to him. She considered grabbing his sword from under the bunk where he usually kept it, but she doubted he'd want to keep it with him… instead she grabbed a knife and stuck it into her waistband. Thus armed… she returned above.

Derrick seemed lost in thought when she returned. Amber laid the clothes on the table and reached up to brush a lock of hair out of his eyes. She laughed as she knotted her fingers into it. "Yar hair's growing," she said and tugged at it. "In a fight an opponent could grab hold."

Almost immediately Derrick thrust out with one arm and chopped down on her arm… swiftly turning her about and forcing her down onto the map table. He snatched the cutlass up and raised it over neck. Then he froze.

"Derrick!" she cried out. "It's only me!"

The young immortal focused on her and stepped back… dropping his arm and releasing her. He looked at the cutlass and tossed it back on the table muttering, "Sorry."

"What was that about?" she said angrily. She nearly picked up the cutlass to run him through.

"From shortly after he became immortal, Darius always kept his hair short for the very reason you mentioned. He didn't want an opponent to have a handhold on him in battle. He didn't have a beard, either."

"I didn't know that."

"No reason you should. Later… when he was a priest… it was for other reasons." Derrick shook his head ruefully. "I really am sorry. I was still recalling what little I do remember from his memories when you pulled my hair. Instinct took over."

"As well it should!" she barked. "Immortals exist to kill one another!"

Glaring at her, Derrick roughly pulled on the sweater and long pants and slipped into the deck shoes before resuming his position behind the wheel.

"I'll stay up with ya," she offered, trying to make peace again and erase the events of the past few moments.

"No… there could be more bergs. I can sleep tomorrow when there's daylight. You go on to sleep." Derrick looked at her sadly as if he too regretted his actions… as if they were a part of him that he held tightly under control.

"Nonsense," Amber said leaning against the console. "I'll keep ya company."

"There's no need."

"But I want to."

"But you need to sleep. You can watch tomorrow while I sleep."

Amber snorted as she crossed her arms. "Yar a stubborn man."

Derrick chuckled.

"… and a most peculiar immortal. This whole trip is crazy… ya do know that, don't ya? Immortals kill one another. It's just the way it is. We're on this ship in the middle of the ocean with four other immortals… any one of which could suddenly turn and kill the rest of us."

"Would you kill me?"

Amber sighed. "My teacher once said I should never care too deeply about another immortal… because one day… we might have to fight. If I cared… I might hesitate."

"And do you care?" he asked curiously.

Amber shifted position uncomfortably as she laid the knife on the table and met his questioning gaze. "Yes."

"But you don't believe the others do."

"No."

"Then you should continue to be vigilant." He turned to gaze out over the dark water… his face thoughtful.

"What are ya trying to do?"

Derrick shrugged. "Why do I have to be doing something? Can't I just want to show you and the others the ocean? Take a trip? Travel?"

"But it doesn't make sense!"

"Ah… but all of you except perhaps Michelle have lived for many lives. You've had chances to see the world and all the places you've ever dreamed of. Yet… I rather think that in my one life… I've gone more places and seen more wonders than all of you put together."

Amber snorted. "Some of us had to keep an eye out for headhunters. It was more about surviving."

Derrick began to laugh. "You sound like Adam."

"Your brother-in-law or whatever he was?"

Derrick nodded and let out a great chuckle. "He said he spent decades sometimes hiding in monasteries or schools or libraries… any place he didn't figure other immortals would happen on. Said he did a lot of reading over the years. He once said that survival is the name of the game."

"He's right, ya know."

"Is he? Sometimes I wonder." Derrick smiled. "Get some sleep."

Amber let out a deep sigh and leaned in to kiss his cheek. "I really worry about ya" Nevertheless, she returned to their cabin. But she didn't sleep… at least not deeply… nor very well.

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Niebos:

Eleanor braided her hair and tied off the end with a band, then threw it over her shoulder as she stepped out onto the veranda of the villa. Above her, the clouds puffed like cotton balls as they drifted across the bright blue sky. In the distance, she could see fishing boats in the Aegean and nearby could hear the sounds of workers singing in the vineyards. It was another day in paradise.

She hugged herself as she thought of the mental encounter that she and Methos had experienced last night. She was missing him terribly… and found that oddly reassuring. In previous centuries when they were parted for periods of time… she sometimes had not given him a thought while she plunged into a new life… or visited with friends in an old one. But since their bonding nearly twenty years ago, things had changed. He was with her constantly… usually only a presence quietly looking over her shoulder sometimes… or a gentle laugh when she did something wrong… as she was in his life. It had taken them a long time to reach this point… and she was content in the knowledge that he would always be a part of her… no matter what.

He was asleep now on the far side of the world… and she let him sleep. She had work to do. Waving at Phillip, she joined him on the terrace where he took breakfast and curled onto a chaise with a cup of steaming coffee. "What's up?" Eleanor asked as he scanned his PPC likely reading news headlines.

"War and rumors of war," he said with a shrug. "Same ole… same ole." Then he chuckled slightly. "You look well rested," he smirked.

"Mmmm…" Eleanor said easily and winked as she drew her legs up under her and leaned back carefully. "The advantages of bonding. Even when we're apart… we're not."

Phillip snorted. "I like my privacy… thank you very much."

"So did I once." she stuck her tongue out at him and then sobered slightly…pushing the imp deep within her as Denara and Marianna came racing out onto to the terrace. She lifted her daughter into her lap and focused on her story. Denara rolled her eyes at the excitement of the young girl as she climbed onto one of the patio chairs and filled a plate with fruit and breakfast pastries. Eleanor smiled to herself. She knew that despite her bored looks to the contrary… there were times that Denara liked having someone her own size around… even if that someone really were just four years old.

Later, Eleanor made rounds in the clinic. The immortals remained as they had been, although Eleanor continued to see spikes in some of the brain wave patterns that suggested that some of them might finally be returning to themselves. She circled Kenny's with a red marker. "His are happening more and more frequently and at a higher level," she told Greg Powers.

Greg nodded. He had a special interest in the boy. Like John, he'd taken the mind of one of their own while in the dream-state. It made sense that Kenny might be the next to return to them. Greg wondered though how well the predatory boyman would take accept his place in the new immortal world. "The more I've studied him and his past, the more worried I get," Greg said.

"True," Eleanor said as she re-hung the chart on the foot of Kenny's bed. "It seems he took the game very seriously." They wandered on down the ward, chatting pleasantly.

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Kenny had heard them. For once his hearing had been able to focus on the voices he heard outside the well in which he was imprisoned. The boy considered what he'd heard. The well was dream… not real. The male voice had stolen his quickening or his mind somehow. The female thought he'd awaken soon. Kenny balled a fist and slammed it into the rocks. Pain flared in his hand as the bones broke and his skin was torn by the sharp edge of the rock. He stared at his hand. Quickening flared across the rents in his flesh until his skin was once more whole and healed. He flexed his hand, grunting as the bones healed and slipped back into place. It hurt. But it proved one thing. He was alive. He was still immortal. And there was a world waiting out there for him. All he had to do… was find a way out.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Kenny tried again to climb the slippery wet stones of the well. Once there had been someone here with him… but he needed no one. He could do this on his own. And once he found the way out… he'd kill them all… all the immortals who'd trapped him here. He would take their heads, and absorb their quickening. After all… in the end there could be only one… and he wanted to be the one.

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J. D. ran barefoot through the surf in the wake of Chou and Denis. "We're not supposed to be out here," he called out.

"Do you always do what you're told to do," Chou laughed as he splashed through the water. He followed Denis onto a ledge of rock and the two of them knelt in the water as they pointed into the deeper area off to one side.

J. D. joined them. "What is that?" he asked as he saw what looked like rings and a chain in the deeper water.

Denis punched Chou and shook his head with a warning.

Chou shrugged. "It's one of us. A bad one. Phillip keeps her chained up down there. We're not supposed to know."

J. D. whistled. "Is she dead?"

Chou nodded. "For the moment."

J. D. leaned closer to the water and tried to make out details. He nearly fell in when Chou pushed him with a laugh. "Hey! Not funny!"

Collapsing in the surf, Chou rolled in the splashing waves as he held his sides and crowed with delight. Time had dulled his understanding and fear of Nestor. To him, it was just poor Valeraine trapped down there until Phillip saw fit to release her. He'd noted that Phillip came out here every day and had waited until he was busy at low tide one day to check out the bay and its ledge of rock. When he'd seen the chains and felt the immortal presence in the water… a cold almost slimy presence that almost seemed to freeze his soul, he'd figured out that it was here that Phillip had hidden the possessed Valeraine. He'd told Denis… and now they told J.D.

Chou realized that the big immortals likely preferred that the small ones not know exactly where Valeraine was hidden… but it wasn't as if they would release her. They just weren't really frightened of her. She was Valeraine… one of them. She'd never hurt them.

J. D.'s aura of potential immortality remained a secret among the two child immortals. Methos, Phillip, Eleanor, and the others had sworn them to secrecy and warned them to keep an eye on the boy whenever they were off with him.

"It's important he lives to grow up," Phillip had said. "He may be different from the rest of us. That's something we still have to discover."

"You mean he might die and not come back?" Chou had asked.

Phillip had nodded. "Or he might die and still continue to age. Until we know more about the differences of both him and his sister… it's best to let them grow up."

"Alisaunne came back," Denis had commented.

Phillip had shrugged. "But she is…" the swordmaster had paused. "… not quite right. It's best to wait. Promise now lads. It's important."

So they'd promised to watch over J. D. But as Phillip didn't know they knew about Valeraine's watery grave, they hadn't promise not to tell him about that.

"Tide's coming in," Denis said as he stood up. "We best get back."

The three boys started back to the shore. J. D. cast another look behind him at the rock ledge and the water beyond. He'd have to come back here another day when he was alone and explore. He wanted a better look at the body chained in the water. Then Chou called out for him not to dawdle. J. D. sped up to join his friends.

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