Chapter 9

"Returning to the Victory"

Swimming as fast as he could, Eric tried desperately to get to his wife and daughter on the HMS Victory. Normally, it would be viewed as cowardice to abandon his army in the eyes of his soldiers, but the safety of his family was Eric's top priority. Many of his men were being slaughtered and the oceans were already brewing with the blood of soldiers from both sides.

"Eric!" cried Victor, who was swimming from not far behind. However, Eric was not pleased by what Victor was doing, for in his mind, Victor was deserting the Danish navy.

"Victor, get back to the ship!" ordered Eric. "This doesn't concern you and you are defying my orders of deserting your fellow men!"

"It does concern me, sire!" cried Victor as another body fell into the water. "Vanessa is on that ship and she is my main concern right now!"

"Get back to the ship!" cried Eric again. "That's an order, you hear me?"

But, while the two men were arguing, the French musketeer assigned to kill Eric had the king of Denmark in his range and for a moment, it seemed like Eric would be killed.

"Now, I've got you, you Danish swine!" thought the musketeer, but then John saw what was happening and leaped at the musketeer, causing him to fire and miss his target. This caught the attention of Eric and Victor, who turned to see John battling the musketeer and then killing him with his knife.

"Go, your highness!" he cried, picking up the dead musketeer's rifle. "I'll hold them off!"

Eric smiled at this and he and Victor continued to swim towards the Victory, who continued to be in the protection of the British ships, who had started to gain the upper hand on the French, disabling one of them. The crew of the Caesar had managed to overpower the crew of the Formidable, and those that were thrown into the sea were either killed by the wounds they sustained or by the mersoldiers who had come up to stab the nearly dead French and Spanish soldiers to death.

"We've got them on the ropes, John!" cried Sir Percy, shooting a French soldier with his rifle. "The rest are retreating or giving themselves up!"

"Yes, but where is Pelley?" asked John, as the new commander of the French navy was nowhere to be found. "He's not here!"

But, they couldn't think for very far as the French soldiers continued to fight back. For when he saw the French musketeer killed by John, Pelley and several of his toughest men had sneaked aboard a longboat armed with guns, knives and shackles for Ariel and Melody when Pelley would bring their naked bodies back to his fleet as trophies of their victory, despite the fact that they were losing.

"The British and Danish think they are going to defeat me?" remarked Pelley. "When there is a will, there is a way and I will make sure of it."

He then saw Eric and Victor swimming towards the Victory and seeing this as an opportunity, Pelley grabbed his pistol and fired at the two men.

"Sire, watch out!" shouted Victor as he pushed Eric away from the bullets that were being fired at them. Victor was pushing Eric under the water to get him out of view of Pelley's fire. Unfortunately, this meant that Victor himself was at risk and all that they could do was swim for their lives.

Soon, they found themselves out of the range of the blasts coming from Pelley's fire, but they were not out of danger.

"Faster! Faster!" cried Pelley to his men that were rowing. "Our leader's freedom awaits!"

Climbing aboard the Victory, Eric and Victor were pulled to safety and then led into the bottom of the ship towards the prayer room.

"Are you hurt, your highness?" asked a soldier. "What happened out there?"

"My ship got overpowered," panted Eric, trying to catch his breath. "However, we are seeming turning the tide against our enemy. How is my wife and daughter?"

"They are fine, your highness," said another soldier. "They have been in the prayer room all day."

Little did they know at that moment, Pelley and his men had rowed to the side of the ship and quietly climbed up onto the ship almost quiet enough to the point where no one on board could hear them. A pair of English soldiers standing guard were not aware of the situation and before they could scream for help, the French soldiers stabbed them and their presence was known with the sounds of gunfire.

"What was that?" cried Eric. "What was that gunfire?"

The king of Denmark ran up as fast as he could with Victor and the other guards following behind, struggling to catch up at times. Loud screams could be heard as the platoon of heavily armed French soldiers slaughtered the British and Scottish soldiers who tried to defend the Victory.

"Impossible!" cried Victor, amazed at what he saw. "How could he…?"

"He just did," interrupted Eric. "I know what he wants and he is not getting it. Come on!"

Eric charged at the French soldiers and swinging his sword, tried to keep them from getting below deck and towards the prayer room. However, the king of Denmark, filled with exhaustion from fighting on his fallen ship, was quickly beaten and Victor was no match for the other soldiers either, his own strength drained to the point of exhaustion as well.

"They weren't even worth my time!" cried Pelley, who then turned to the still large group of soliders. "You half, head for the brig and free Villeneuve and our captured comrades. The rest of you come with me, where we will seek our prizes!"

A loud war cry from the soldiers were heard and the two groups of soldiers split up as Eric and Victor struggled to their feet.

"No," groaned Eric as he got to his feet. "Ariel….Melody…."

Eric was badly hurt from the unstoppable onslaught against him and his fleet, but he needed to protect the ones he cared about the most and together with Victor, they gathered several soldiers and went to intercept them.

But, would they be too late?

Down in the prayer room, the silent prayers were interrupted when the loud sounds of banging on the door were heard. Everyone in the room suddenly began to grow fearful of what was going to happen to them.

"Its them!" cried one of Vanessa's servants. "They've defeated the Caesar!"

"Don't let them in here!" shouted Ariel as several of the wounded soldiers grabbed whatever they could to barricade the door. Melody was also starting to become very scared for none of them knew what was going to happen next.

"Keep God on your side!" cried Vanessa as the hastily made barricade was starting to quickly break down.

"Open the door!" shouted a French soldier. "We know you are in there, Queen Ariel! You husband is dead and soon, you and your daughter will become our prizes!"

A whitened look came onto both their faces and it seemed at that moment that all would be lost. In their minds, Eric was indeed dead and Vanessa was also worried as well for she didn't know the fate of Victor, her lover and soon-to-be-husband.

As the barricade gave way, the soldiers came into the room and the gates of hell were opened…