Stratagem

Kai watched in shock as the sudden gust of wind jerked the ship and threw Zane over the edge. Was there anything he could had done to stop it? Could he have somehow prevented what had just happened?

He turned to Cole, who bore a similar look of shock and horror, and asked the question that was dominating both their minds. "What did we just do?" The nobleman did not really expect an answer. He was not even certain that his voice had carried over the winds.

Cole jerked his eyes away from the railing Zane had flown over moments earlier and opened his mouth in an attempt to speak. His hands trembled uselessly at his sides. "Get me out of here," he said in a voice barely loud enough for Kai to hear. "Get me out of this bloody rain."

Whatever anger in Kai held in his eyes slowly melted away to compassion. He held out a hand and placed it on Cole's left shoulder. The dark robed man was apparently too overwhelmed by what had just happened to care about the physical contact.

"Let's get to the Bridge," Sir Cole said shakily. He turned slowly and began running with unsteady legs toward the steps that lead up to the second level of the deck with Kai right on his heels.

Cole opened the Bridge's door and stormed in. He glared at the four or five stone warriors working controls and pointed at the open door. They got up and left immediately.

The Dark Knight ran over to the wheel and gripped it with both hands, knuckles white and trembling as he steadied the bucking ship. "What am I going to do, Kai?" He asked in a low, shaky voice.

Kai shut the foot and joined him at the wheel. He shook out his hair, spraying icy droplets in all directions, though Cole did not seem to notice or care. "I...don't know." Kai's voice was broken.

Cole wiped his face on his wet sleeve. This was not supposed to have happened. Terror seeped through his skin with the rain and chilled his bones as he thought of what would happen when he returned to his master.

Kai finally broke. He stomped his foot on the floor and let out a frustrated growl. "Why did you need to go and do that?" He shouted, pointing at the large round window in front of them that showed a grey, stormy sky. "What did you hope to accomplish by killing Pixal like that? Why did you give Zane those keys in the first place? How did you not-"

"I gave him those keys because I knew that Zane would not disobey me!" Cole shouted back, hands clenched tightly on the wheel. "And I never intended to kill that wench! I..." His mouth opened up to finish his angry retort, but he faltered and fell silent.

"Your knife hit her in the chest, Cole!" Kai exclaimed. "You threw a knife into the chest of a woman expecting what to happen?"

"I was not aiming for her chest!" Midway through the next sentence, Cole's voice broke and fell to almost a whisper. "I was aiming for her left leg, but...the ship buckled, and a gust of wind threw me off balance."

Kai struggled to find any sort of comeback, but found nothing. The ship jerked under his feet right then, and he took a step to steady himself. "Why on earth would you not want to kill her?" He finally asked. "You seem to love hurting people, what made this woman different?"

Cole's white knuckles released the wheel, and he pushed a button that Kai assumed was the auto-pilot. He turned to his prisoner and sighed. "While you're at it, Kai," he said quietly. "Why don't you just go ahead and yell at me for Zane's death as well. You seem to love handing out blames."

Kai shook his head quickly and backed up a step. "I cannot blame you for Zane," he said in the same quiet voice. "I let go of him when the ship jerked. His death is my fault."

Cole snorted. "At least I know you're somewhat honest," he said. He walked over to a large screen against one wall and pressed a few buttons. An electronic map appeared moments later, and he started gnawing on his lip. "Kai," he whispered. "What am I going to do?"

The nobleman raised an eyebrow and glanced at the strobing blue light that hovered over a stretch of water only a few miles from shore. "You're the master, you should know what you're doing." Kai said tersely.

"But I don't!" Cole slammed his wet fist on the keys, making water droplets fly. "I have no clue what I'm doing!"

Kai blinked once and stepped backwards. This was not the Dark Knight that he knew, nor was it Sir Cole.

This man before him with scraggly black hair and wide green eyes was simply Cole. A man with no real path or control in his life; who wanted more than anything to be freed of his mental prison.

And now this man stood before him with pale, trembling fingers clenched tightly on a control keyboard with knocking knees. Black brows that usually rode like dark clouds over his eyes were pulled up, as if by invisible strings, revealing the broken shell of a man who once was, but was now no more.

Those broken eyes turned slowly and met Kai's, full of reluctance and fear as they turned away again and settled on his white fists. "He..." Cole swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly. "He won't be happy with what I have done."

Having Zane fall over the edge of the ship had obviously hit them both hard. "Who?" Kai asked, his voice softening a touch. "What do you mean?"

Cole's back straightened, and he walked over to a corner where several towels were folded fastidiously. He selected two off the top of the stack and walked back over to Kai. "Overlord," he answered, voice tense and full of anger. "My orders were to get the sons of Lord Kaytake and Lord Julien to the Dark Island unharmed. Do you realize what kind of punishment I will receive for failing my mission?"

Kai shook his head, though he already had a good guess. He accepted the towel and wiped his face dry as he waited for Cole to finish venting. At least his anger was coming out in the form of words instead of punches.

Cole ran his towel through his hair as he spoke. "If my lord is kind enough, this infraction will give me a few hours in the fire chamber, then maybe some time in the water."

Kai's mouth opened about half an inch in shock and horror. "How many times has this happened?" He asked.

Cole's head gave a subtle shake. "Does a tree count the number of times an animal has eaten its branches?" He asked. "I've been trying to learn to shrug it off. Counting my scars won't help get me out of this living hell."

Kai might have been inclined to feel some pity for him, had he not been so caught up in his own guilt. He could not help blaming himself for letting Zane fall over the edge of the ship. The final look of desperation on his companion's face as his body flew over the railing was a memory Kai knew his mind would not give up easily.

Zane had been a good friend to him, almost like as a brother might be. His love for his sister, his country, and even his enemies made him unique and mysterious. He was the type of man who could make even the hardest of hearts melt like ice with a simple smile.

And Pixal? Well, she was...different. She obviously loved her brother, and would do almost anything for him. She was sweet in her own way, but very spirited and sprightly. It was no big surprise to either Kai or Cole that she had attempted to escape; she was a free spirit, and cages did not suit her well.

"Cole?" Kai spoke up carefully.

The Dark Knight gave him a sidelong glance as he unclasped his cloak and draped it neatly over a chair. "What?" His voice was like a silenced gunshot. Fast, deadly, and strangely accurate.

"What if..." Kai scratched a spot at the back of his head as he tried to gather his thoughts into words. "What if we didn't go to the Dark Island at all?"

Cole's towel fell to the floor silently, and his hands fell limp at his sides as he turned his body to face Kai. "Then I'd die like my family," he said sharply. "And you would die with yours."

Something in his eyes told Kai that he was not joking. This was not a ploy to keep him from escaping, it was the hard truth being handed to him by a man who seemed to genuinely care, in his own strange way. It was obvious that Cole did not like his job, and thought that no one deserved to go through what had been done to him and his family. The soft hint of compassion in the otherwise harsh green eyes said it all.

Kai sighed and crossed his arms casually over his chest. "What if we waited until we reached the Dark Island, then escaped the ship? You know, sort of like what we did with Zane about a week ago?"

This suggestion caught Cole flat-footed, and it took his several seconds to firm a response. "Did you know..." His voice came as a soft growl. "That day when we captured Pixal and I accidentally got drunk, I told Zane some things similar to that... At least I think I did. I don't remember much of what happened that day. I think my words might have been: 'Things are not as they seem.'"

He took a calming breath and gave Kai a twisted grin. "The things a man will say when he's under the influence of drink, eh? I think what I thought I was saying was something more along the lines of: 'As soon as we get to the Dark Island, we can escape.'"

Kai blinked once and shook his head almost imperceptibly. "Those two sentences sounded nothing alike," he said.

Cole laughed lightly and pressed a few buttons on the screen. "Give me a break, it was the first time I'd ever been drunk."

The Southern nobleman paused a moment before replying. "That was your first time?" His tone was incredulous. "Were Zane and I that stressful for you?"

Cole jabbed a finger toward Kai's chest in gesture. "You'd better believe it," he said. "When you screw up the plans of a man with obsessive-compulsive problems, you had better expect the worst."

Kai sat down in a chair awkwardly, not really enjoying the feeling of his wet clothes clinging to his skin. "If I had known back then that grabbing Zane and running off with him near that river would cause you so many problems, I would have done it sooner."

Cole snorted and walked back over to the wheel. "Your opinion of me is rather high," he said cynically.

Kai grinned half-heartedly. "What are friends for?"

Cole froze in place and was silent. "That was sarcasm, right?" He asked.

Kai suddenly felt embarrassed by his words. "Yes," he said quickly. "What did you think I was saying?"

"N-nothing." Cole said. "Nothing at all..." He cleared his throat, more to break the silence than anything else. "Why would we be escaping?"

"What do you mean?" The ship bucked again, making Kai grip the table to keep from sliding across the room.

"Now I'm not saying that I'll help you or anything, I'm just curious. If we did manage to escape, what would we do once we left the ship? Hiding out in a dark cave will only delay the inevitable."

Kai shook his head. "No, Cole." He held up a hand and clenched it into a wet fist. "If we give up and go straight to your master, we will both be dead. But if we are hiding in the woods, we will have hope."

"...Hope?" Cole rolled the word over his tongue, tasting it carefully. Judging by the way he said it, hope was a foreign word to him. Men like Cole did not have much faith or aspiration, that much was certain.

"Yes," Kai said, rising to his feet. He walked over to Cole's side and looked into his eyes, trying to project his fervency to his master. "Hope, Cole. We may get out of this alive, as free men."

Cole's eyes were full of fear and doubt. His prisoner had touched on the two big words that, until this moment, he did not realize he had been longing for in these two pain filled years of terror.

Hope.

Freedom.

...Yes...

No!

Cole gnawed on the inside of his cheek, filling his mouth with the metallic flavor of his own blood. He hated the taste. It reminded him of the pain he had been forced to endure, and of the many times he had crumpled to the floor in a pool of his own blood, hoping that when sleep came, he would never wake up again.

Hope... A belief that things will turn out for the best. A faith in your own ability to survive against all odds, perhaps? Or maybe Kai was referring to a hope and dependency on one's comrades, a prospect Cole was not ready to embrace.

But when push came to shove, he could have faith in his own ability to survive... Maybe?

Cole looked over his shoulder fearfully, making sure that they were alone in the room before he turned back to Kai and said in a low, breathy whisper. "When do we start?"