"I'm cold." Arielle mumbled as she took a step closer to Eden and the warrior wrapped her cloak around her, never taking her eyes off the raging fire in front of them.
It had started with something quite common in the harbor. A Genoese merchant insulted a Venetian sailor and the quarrel turned into a fight, drawing in the whole trader's quarter and the emperor's guard. The armor of the guard jingled as they drew a ring around the quarter and slowly tightened it with ready lances. Now soldiers clashed with traders, sailors with laborers, neighbors with neighbors. And soon after a shout rang out over the pandemonium and when the crowd turned towards it, they saw a warehouse engulfed in flames. The breeze off the harbor fanned the fire and soon it spread across half the Venetian warehouses. Those who weren't still fighting against each other were now fighting for a way out that the soldiers didn't make any exception for. The only way out was by sea.
Among the shouts and splashes, Eden saw the nearest caravel hurriedly making ready to leave port and grabbed Arielle by the arm and nearly flung her onto it. Before Arielle could figure out what was happening, they were both a ship sailing to Venetia.
"I didn't have a chance to say goodbye," Arielle murmured somberly, her head half turned to the burning docks, "or gather my things."
Eden hurriedly grabbed her journal out of her gambeson, scribbled down a few lines, tied the note around a small piece of wood, and with excellent aim, threw it straight at a Venetian sailor down at the dock. He yelped as it hit him in the shoulder, read the note, and looked in the direction of their ship.
"100 ducats for it! 200 if it gets there before I do!" Eden yelled.
The sailor tore his cap off his head and waved it about wildy, jumping and hooting.
"I sent for our things." Eden said calmly, wrapping her cloak around Arielle again.
"Did you say 200 ducats? That's a lot of money."
"We'll worry about it when our things arrive in one piece."
"You never cease to amaze me."
Eden wasn't sad to see them off so soon; she had no great love for the tense city. Some called her an inquisitor, some called her a heretic, but most considered her the deliverer from the plague. But Constantinople was not a city that was ever burdened with gratitude towards others. It thrived on trade, but was weary and suspicious of the foreigners it brought with it. They all mixed together in the huge, bustling harbors and ports where city-states, empires, kingdoms, and republics bickered with each other with deep seated hatred they carried from their homes. And if geography wasn't enough, crosses, stars and crescent moons were thrown against each other in a match over the one, true God. And when there was nothing else left, they could always join forces in the eternal, vague clash of the West and the East. And there was no solace to be found at sea where the rivaling masses on land where matched by cunning pirates on water. The Byzantines hated all these things.
Soon Eden was swarmed with protests and pleas for her to rid them of all the evil they were surrounded by. And as Arielle ran to and fro trying to help as much as she could, Eden simply folded her arms and shook her head. She heard the reasoning behind each ask, but in their eyes, she also saw the command. The Byzantines, used to commanding an empire and not to being refused quickly grew irritated and then enraged. They soon accused her of bringing the very evil they had asked her to rid them of. In the end, the honor Marcus had offered was only the one she could see in the bard's eyes.
Arielle, in turn, was loved. After Marcus told a few of his men about the bard's tales, she soon found herself telling stories to the entire city guard and then throngs of citizens who came to the inns and squares where she appeared. Arielle loved to tell her stories and cherished the crowd's reactions, but they soon grew tiresome and the bard knew that the only reason that they didn't follow her around absolutely everywhere was because there was always a certain brooding warrior nearby.
Constantinople was soon a distant, smoking stain on the horizon. A lanky captain who looked like he had never been to sea before came to see the live cargo he hadn't accounted for and interrogated each one thoroughly as to whether they weren't perhaps Genoese and if they had paid. The gruff, stocky, broad-shouldered boatswain and quartermaster, who looked like brothers, followed the captain around, grunting aprroval or dislike every so often. The captain peered at Eden when she said she was from Florentia and Arielle from Avignon and that they were returning from Jerusalem. When he opened his mouth to say something more, Eden quietly paid their fare, staring at him coldly. He weighed the coin purse in his hand and continued to stare at her with pale, slightly sick and scared eyes. She replied with a sinister smile that even made the boatswain uneasy. The captain grunted again and avoided them as much as he could.
The horseman kicked up clouds of dust around him. His horse strained, his own breathing was loud. The earth shook and the rocks rattled. The whole earth seemed to be racing with the same urgency as he was. Billowing clouds chased his fluttering, white cloak.
And then he suddenly pulled to a stop and everything went still. She heard the horse snorting loudly. She heard the sand gritting between the rider's teeth. He looked directly at her as he drew his sword. She heard the blood pumping in her ears as he kissed the blade with reverence. And then he just watched and waited. White flower petals began to gently drop from his cloak and cover the ground. The white began to glow and blind her as the rushing of her own blood in her ears drowned out everything else.
Eden awoke with a jolt and immediately looked for Arielle. The blond was fast asleep, grasping Eden's shirt tightly in her fists. Eden sighed heavily and looked across the dark, dank, creaking hold. Her back hurt and the smell of the sleeping travellers and crew made her grimace.
"Lawrence, you bastard." she whispered.
She heard the faint echo of the captain's laugh and almost thought he was laughing at her.
Arielle rested her head against the damp pillar. When Arielle had finally learned to somehow cope with her seasickness, she quickly learned that the sea took less kindly to strangers than the Byzantines did. After about two weeks aboard, the skies and waters drew together, enclosed the ship in a cold, miserable embrace, and didn't seem to want to let go. Her home became the cramped, stuffy quarters beneath the deck. She listened to raunchy sailor stories and the whimpering of the two children aboard while drops of water dripped onto her head and seemed to bury themselves into her mind. She drew her knees up more closely and pulled the damp, ragged blanket around her as she thought back on the barren plains, wooded hills, and rocky paths that had always been their constant companions and wondered why she had ever hated them. Winter was never mild on land, but out at sea, it cut to the bone in a way Arielle could have never imagined from the seafaring stories she had read.
"Never knew a man could be so cold."
Arielle raised her eyes to see a young, heavily bearded man sitting across from her, curled up exactly the same way she was. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled lightly as a few strands of his ginger hair fell into his eyes.
"You've read my mind. And I'm no great friend of the sea to begin with."
The man smiled widely now and nodded.
"May I?" he asked, pointing to the barrel next to her.
"Sure."
He shuffled over and propped himself up against the grain filled barrel.
"I'm Kajetan." he stated simply, thrusting out his hand.
"Arielle. You're not from the city states, are you?" she said and after feeling the smooth skin of his hand, "Nor are you a sailor."
"Aye, you have a keen hand and ear." he responded, rubbing his palm, "My life was never meant to be lived out at sea."
"You can say that again." Arielle chuckled.
"So how is it that you're aboard this wooden tub?"
The smile faded from her face as she glanced above at the creaking deck.
"My friend and I... we got caught up in mayhem at the harbour... the fire... and now I'm here."
"Ah yes. I had just come to sell a few wares of my own. I've never seen such violence." he acknowledged somberly, "Where is your friend?"
"Right here."
They both turned startled to see Eden standing not far from them, her arms crossed over her chest, eyeing them closely. Kajetan didn't move a muscle, unable to make out whether the brooding woman wanted to kill or ignore him. He finally let out a breath when she shifted her gaze and walked up to the bard, crouching down beside her.
"How are you feeling?"
"Less nauseous when I'm down here and generally better than before."
"It gets better with time."
"Perhaps, but please let's not stay aboard long enough to find out." Arielle moaned and Eden patted her shoulder.
"Worry not, she's in good hands," Kajetan added and stuck out his hand, "I'm Kajetan."
Eden's stern gaze travelled from him, to his hand, and back again and he suddenly began to lick his lips several times.
"You're far from home, Hungarian." Eden said evenly and shook his hand briefly.
Arielle noticed a strange look pass over Eden's eyes when their hands touched and even when Kajetan had already turned to smile again at Arielle, Eden was still looking at him with a peculiar expression on her face.
"I'll go see if there might be a drier place in this floating coffin." the warrior said and before Arielle could say anything more, Eden had left.
"A bit moody that friend of yours." he said, settling back against the barrel, "but I think she likes me."
"She must. You still have your hand."
The bard quickly started to wish that seasickness was the greatest of her worries. If it wasn't rough waves or high winds, obscene sailors or maggots in the food, it was pirates or storms and she seemed to spend half her time praying and the other half wishing hard she was somewhere else. Eden's constant muttering about the daft crew didn't help. The constant threat of pirates, three foiled attacks, and sailing out of season wore the passengers and crew down. The bard wanted to tell stories to better the foul and forlorn mood on board, but noticed that sailors were far different from townsfolk and very few spoke enough Latin to understand her. So instead she had long talks with Kajetan. He told her about the wife he loved with all his heart, about the bookkeeping he did for a rich merchant, about God whom he worshiped most ardently, about the two boys he had put to rest. Overcome with the sadness of that last story, Arielle told him of how she had thought she had lost the greatest friend she had in this world, but in the end, somehow, Eden had found her way back to her. Kajetan listened quietly, was silent for a long while and at the end finally nodded his head and said that it truly did seem to be a miracle of God's making.
"I often wonder," he said one day while standing at the bow on a unusually sunny day, "how man can not believe in God when he sees all this beauty and natural grace."
"I guess it's not always this beautiful," Arielle replied, watching a few large fish racing along the ship, just beneath the surface, "and that's what makes us doubt."
"But it's ironic, isn't it? It's our very doubt that makes the world so ugly, so cruel and cold. We are victims of a misery of our own making."
"Perhaps. But I've also seen light appear in the darkest of places. Hope where you would never expect any. A sword that defends the weak." Arielle said softly and Kajetan gazed at her silently for a while.
"She kills, you know."
"I know."
"Killing is a sin." he said after a while.
"I know that too. And I'm sure that the Hospitallers and Templars and Crusaders also know that."
"That's something different. That's for the grace of God and salvation."
"And do you think Eden kills because she's simply bored?" Arielle said in a sharper tone, turning to him, "Each has their own path towards redemption and demons to conquer. Sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes we do grand things that no one understands."
Kajetan stroked his beard for a long while as he gazed out at the sea, almost silently humming every few moments as if he was having a deep conversation with himself.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." he finally said and neither said anything more.
Eden was quieter and much more passive around Kajetan than her usual annoyed, skeptical self. She listened to him quietly, but rarely spoke to him almost as if she was afraid her words would break him. She simply whittled away on small pieces of wood, as she was doing now, while he and the bard talked and if Arielle didn't know any better, she would have thought Eden was ignoring them both.
"Contact! To the port! Unmarked sails!"
Eden slowly put away her knife and carving and rested her hand on the hilt of her sword as they all gazed up at the deck which was now creaking like mad from sailors running to and fro. The deck and the hold were now in stark contrast; topside everything was busy with running and shouting and below everyone waited in silent anticipation.
"Not again! Not again, damn it! I can't take this! Why they just kill us and be done with it!"
A frail looking man jumped up and began pacing to and fro, pulling on the few remaining wisps of gray hair that made him seem much older than he was.
"Be calm, brother." Kajetan said when he noticed the man looking at him, "We'll be alright."
The man looked at him, stunned. He licked his lips nervously, shook his head, and stomped over to the bearded Hungarian.
"Calm? How can I be calm?! I'm stuck inside a few wooden planks held together by the mercy of God where nearly everything around wants to kill me and you tell me to be calm? Why?" he man now shouted, grabbing Kajetan by his tunic, "Why should I be calm? How? Give me but one good reason! One reason!"
Kajetan simply stared at him, his mouth hanging open slightly.
"I'll jump, I swear it brother! I'd rather die at the hands of sea creatures than pirates! What if they torture me? Or sell me into slavery? Or eat me?! By God, what if they eat me, the savages!"
Shock and soft cries were heard from the corner of the hold while a few sailors making their way up the stairs chuckled to themselves.
"You should all take to the water! It's the only way to save your lives!" the man shouted, pointing his thin finger at them all, "They all just want to kill us here!"
"Sit down and calm yourself." Eden said to him, standing slowly, "You're creating a stir for no reason. Sails at sea don't always mean pirates."
"Sails don't mean pirates?! Of course they do! What would a woman know?" he cried and then turned to Kajetan again, "What would she know? What would she know brother?"
Kajetan only slowly shrugged his shoulders.
"I need to go, I need to escape this place!"
"Wait! Stay and calm down." Arielle said trying to hold the man back.
In a feat of strength neither one of them knew he had, the man pushed Arielle back hard into Eden's arms and ran up to the deck.
"Are you alright?" Eden whispered.
Arielle nodded.
"Man overboard! Man overboard!"
The bard and warrior rushed topside and pushed their way to the railing, looking in the direction the sailor was pointing. They saw a hand, a splash, and then it was quiet.
"Lord rest that poor bastard's soul." the sailor whispered, "Idiot just jumped straight into the water. Ain't no one survive that cold."
"Where are the pirates?" Eden asked.
"What pirates?" the sailor asked, blinking a couple of times at her.
"You saw unmarked sails."
"Ah, aye, we did! 'Twas a large fishing boat in the end. Lot a stir for nothing. Now best go below. 'Tis no place for a woman."
Eden rolled her eyes and lead the quiet bard back down into the hold. She sat down next to her, wrapping her strong arm around her and Arielle rested her head against the warrior's shoulder.
"What happened?" Kajetan finally whispered after a while, "Was it... Was it him?"
"It interests you now?" Eden responded.
Again Kajetan said nothing, his mouth hanging open slightly. He finally sighed and leaned against a sack of spices, his back turned to the stairs.
"It was him." Arielle finally said quietly after a while.
"I'll pray for his soul then." he whispered, pulling a wooden rosary from his pocket.
Arielle could almost hear Eden grinding her teeth.
The wind whipped Eden's raven hair around wildly as the warrior leaned against the railing, but seemed to do little to the fog that surrounded them. Arielle took in a deep breath, finding the sea air refreshing to what was below deck. The sound of the water slapping the creaking hull and the sails flapping in the wind filled the air while most of the crew slept below. Moonlight broke through every so often, reflecting off the fog and making it seem almost holy.
"When do you think we'll reach Venice?"
"Soon. A few days at most."
Arielle nodded and peered out into the distance.
"How do they know where to go in this? You can't really see much of anything two ships' lengths off."
"Sometimes they don't." Eden answered and glanced at the bard with a bit of grin.
"You always know how to lift my spirits."
"At your service, m'lady."
Arielle replied with a soft swat to the shoulder and a shake of her head. She looked back out across the sea and imagined that this would probably the closest she'd ever be to being inside a cloud. She wondered if this is what birds saw when they flew free, high up in the air.
"We'll be quite close to home soon." She said quietly.
Eden turned to see a sadness settle in the bard's eyes that always seemed to age her far beyond her years. The same sadness seemed to settle on Eden's chest, making it harder to breathe. It was ironic in a way, they had outrun and outfought everything that the world had thrown at them, but this was the one thing they couldn't seem to get away from no matter how hard they tried. Eden wrapped her hand around Arielle's.
"Contact starboard! She's coming at us!"
The guardians whipped their heads around to see a ship at full sail suddenly appear from the fog like a demon. Eden immediately realized that it was no lost fishing boat when she peered at the sails and saw they were Genoese. The captain stumbled out of his quarters as one of the mates rang the deck bell frantically, screaming at the top of his lungs. The captain glanced in a dazed confusion at Eden and she darted to the hatch.
"All hands on deck! We're under attack! All hands on deck!" she yelled and left the hatch open as the lower deck exploded into frantic commotion and yelling.
"What are you doing? How dare you command my ship?!" the captain demanded, shaking his fist at her.
"You have 30 seconds to prepare for a fight and you need every hand you can get," Eden snarled back, "or soon you won't have a ship to command."
The captain swallowed and balled his fists, but said nothing, instead trying to stare Eden down.
"Captain, she's going to ram us!" the rigger cried.
"What?"
"Brace! Everyone brace!" Eden yelled at the top of her lungs.
The guardian darted over to Arielle, embraced her with one arm, and crouched down against the railing just in time as the Genoese ship rammed them hard. The whole ship groaned as it tipped violently to one side, sending splinters, weapons, and men sliding across the deck and leaving the unlucky ones flying overboard and into the sea with a scream.
"All hands on the starboard side!" the quartermaster yelled, running out from the lower deck and quickly assessing the situation, "Move your lazy asses or I'll kill you myself!"
"No," Arielle said as Eden turned to her and opened her mouth, "I'm not going to hide away. You said you need all hands on deck and I have perfectly good hands. Besides, you need someone to protect your back."
The bard waited for Eden to protest angrily, but instead saw a smile cross her face and a nod.
"But be careful," Eden said, "and check whether everyone below deck knows what's happening."
Arielle nodded and dashed off to the hatch as Eden pushed her cloak to one side and drew her sword, marching towards the hooks and lines that were being thrown onto their ship.
Arielle ran down the entire lower deck, shouting at all the men to go above and protect them from impending doom. When one of the passengers objected, Arielle threw him a glare that Eden would have been proud of and after a few moments, he got up and made his way above deck grumbling under this breath. The women and children followed the bard to one of the crew quarters in the stern and were told to wait there until the battle ended. Arielle ran to return to the fray when she noticed Kajetan hiding behind one of the crates.
"What are you doing? Didn't you hear that we're under attack?"
"That's exactly why I'm staying here." he mumbled.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"I'm sure there are enough men up there to hold this ship."
"This is the sea, Kajetan. You don't get to hide. You either fight or you die." Arielle explained impatiently and then grabbed him by his tunic, "And you're as able-bodied as the rest of them."
When Eden turned to the shout of her name, she saw Arielle practically dragging Kajetan up onto the deck.
"What's wrong with him?" Eden asked, trotting up to them both.
"He needed a lot of persuasion." Arielle replied.
"Did he? Go and help hoist the mainsail." Eden told him, "Now!"
He flinched and timidly made his way towards where Eden was pointing, his shoulders tense and his hands covering his ears.
"The wind is picking up. I'm hoping if we can douse the sail then we can get away from this." Eden said, looking up at the rigging.
Arielle looked out across the deck now cluttered with bodies, weapons, shattered wood, and pieces of rope. All the parts of men and things tumbled and rolled across the deck haphazardly as the ship bucked against the wind, waves, and their aggressor. Shouts of men and the clanging of clashing swords fought for dominance against the flapping sails, strained rope, and groaning wood. Slowly the mainsail made it way upward and began to pull them away from the Genoese aggressor.
"Check if we don't have a huge hole in the hull. Can you do that?" Eden asked Arielle and the blond nodded, "Take Kajetan with you."
"Where will you be?"
"I need to make sure our little friends don't follow us."
When Arielle and the Hungarian disappeared beneath deck, Eden sheathed her sword and then took a huge running leap across to the other ship. The battle almost seemed to stop for a moment as everyone looked on in awe as the warrior jumped a distance that didn't seem possible. Eden rolled across the deck and unsheathed her dagger just in time to catch an oncoming blade. She deflected it and cut into the sailor's arm, sending him down in pain. The warrior battled through four more sailors until she reached the mast and began to scale it like a hellish cat. She made quick work of the mast lines, sending the mainsail fluttering down to the deck before the Genoese crew knew what was happening. And before they could catch their saboteur, she had already jumped back across.
The Venetians noticed the two ships separating and the Genoese running around in a confused anger and began to whoop and holler at their success and the favor that God had undoubtedly shown them. Eden scoured the deck to find Kajetan curled up in a ball on the quarterdeck, clutching a piece of rigging.
"Where's Arielle?" the warrior demanded.
"Down below." he answered softly.
"Why?"
"She can't get back up."
In an instant, Kajetan found himself dangling in Eden's powerful grip.
"Where the hell is she, you cowardly bastard?!" she roared at him.
"The ship kept rolling this way and that." he explained weakly, "One of the crates fell. I couldn't get it off her."
He barely finished his sentence when Eden tossed him aside like a rag doll and went running below deck. Most of the lamps had gone out making it dark and the sound of the sloshing of water made Eden quicken her step.
"Arielle?" Eden called out as she made her way to the hold.
Near the bottom of the steps in the hold, Eden's feet hit water and a shiver went down her spine.
"Arielle? Arielle?!"
"Eden?" came the weak cry.
"Arielle! Don't move, I'm coming!"
Eden sloshed through the floating debris in the hold, fighting against the pitching ship until she reached the bard who was struggling to keep her head above water.
"Are you alright?"
"A crate fell on my leg. I can't move it." she explained as Eden positioned herself around the box, "It's heavy. Kajetan said it wouldn't budge."
"Oh did he?" Eden replied through clenched teeth.
In one strong motion, Eden yanked the crate off Arielle's leg and sent it flying into the water. Arielle yelped in both surprise and relief. She felt strong hands travel gently up her leg.
"It's not broken, is it?"
"No." Eden replied, letting out a tense breath, "Where's the hole?"
"Down a little further underneath that lamp. It doesn't seem too big, a crack about the length of your hand."
"Good girl." Eden replied, helping Arielle wade over to the stairs, "Time to plug it before we sink."
Eden sloshed as quickly as she could towards the sail locker in the bow. She fished around for a hammer, ax, and picked up a small block of wood floating on the water. She hacked the block into a rough wedge and waded her way back to the opening in the hull. She pushed the wedge in and then hammered it in with all her strength. Soon the stream turned into a hairline of water. The bard watched on in utter wonder as Eden pulled a large piece of timber out of the water and pushed it up against the makeshift repair on one side and the stair railing on the other, grunting, pushing, pulling, and hammering at it until she was satisfied that it was exerting enough pressure on the hull. She dropped the hammer back into the water, turned, and scooped the bard into her arms and Arielle wrapped her arms around the warrior's neck as they unsteadily made their way up the stairs.
"You know, despite this usually happening in distressing situations," Arielle said, resting her head against Eden's chest, "I always love it here."
"You just have it too good with me." Eden chuckled.
"And I have no intention of changing that."
The ship suddenly swung violently to one side again, slamming Eden into the wall on the lower deck.
"Something tells me that wind wasn't a godsend, but an oncoming storm." Eden said through her teeth, placing the bard down on her feet.
"Exactly what we need." Arielle muttered, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Listen, you stay here while I see if our renowned captain knows what to do."
"Oh no, I'm not leaving you just to get crushed by something again while you have all the fun. I'm coming with you." Arielle replied, pressing her finger against the warrior's chest.
Eden knotted her eyebrows and then sighed. She watched as Arielle took a wobbly step forward, gritting her teeth.
"I can walk." The bard said and Eden simply nodded.
Up on deck there was a lot of running and the captain was yelling orders to douse the sails firmly. Wind and rain swept against deck and to Arielle it seemed that the battle was still raging, only no longer against the Genoese.
"Furl the sail, now!" Eden demanded, shouting over the thunder and shrill of the storm.
"The Genoese are still out there!" the captain retorted, pointing his finger out towards the sea.
"They don't have their mainsail. Besides no one in their right mind would chase us in this storm!"
"I can't take that chance!" he snapped and turned away.
"I don't know if you haven't noticed, but you're out at sea." Eden snarled, grabbing his shirt and forcing him to look at her, "This is one, large, floating chance!"
"I won't have a woman ordering me around!" he finally cried, tearing himself away from her grip and slamming his fist against the mast.
"Then don't think of me as a woman, but someone smarter and more capable than you." Eden replied and without waiting for the captain's reaction, she yelled again for the rigger to trim the mainsail.
The rigger didn't ask twice and began to furl the sails when a violent gust snapped one of the ropes, whipping it across the deck and sending a few men painfully flying over the railing.
"Man overboard! Man overboard!" the boatswain cried out and ran to ring the deck bell.
Eden ran over to the side along with some of the other sailors, all of them peering over the railing into the water. Amid the slanted rain, the sailors began throwing ropes out to the men in the water, using the flashes of lightning to locate where they were. Arielle hobbled up to the railing and cried out when she fixed eyes on one of the men.
"Eden, Kajetan is there in the water!"
As the warrior hauled one of the sailors back up on deck, she shifted her gaze to where Arielle was pointing. Kajetan was struggling to keep his head above water so much that it almost seemed to her as if he wasn't even trying. The waves grew rougher, slamming one of the men against the hull, sending him below the surface.
"Damn it, men! Look lively unless you want to rest in Poseidon's arms tonight!" Eden roared down to them.
Two began to swim with all their strength against the waves towards the rope she and the boatswain were holding. They both grabbed hold and the crew joined in pulling them back onto the deck. Halfway up, one of them lost his grip and fell back into the dark waters with a groan. Eden left the crew to pull the first man up, took another rope, tied it around her waist and gave the end to the quartermaster. Before he had the chance to ask what she was doing, the warrior plunged into the water and fished the tired sailor out before anyone realized she was there. She tugged hard at the rope and called for the crew to heave and soon they were both on deck, chilled to the bone and breathing heavily.
"Eden, Kajetan is still down there!"
The warrior gathered the rope again, swung it above her head, and threw it out as far into the sea as she could.
"Swim, Kajetan, swim!" she yelled.
Kajetan kept floundering, the waves pounding against him and pushing him farther away.
"Too far out, he is." the boatswain muttered.
"He can do it." Eden replied, "I know he can."
"Eden, do something! He's drifting too far!" Arielle said, hobbling up to the warrior.
"Swim Kajetan! For the love of God swim!"
The Hungarian only drifted further away until one of the waves crashed over him and he disappeared from view. One by one, the crew sighed and either crawled below deck and out of the storm or back to their duties. Eden led the distraught bard back below deck, peeled off her wet clothes and wrapped her in a rough, but fairly dry blanket. She then took off her gambeson and began to wring as much water from it as she could.
"You didn't save him," the bard finally whispered, "You didn't even try."
"He didn't want to be saved." Eden replied quietly, not taking her eyes off her task.
"How do you know that?" the bard asked, snapping her head towards Eden.
Eden sighed and looked at the bard, not knowing whether it was her exhaustion or her fear speaking. The warrior spent a few moments composing her thoughts, trying to push down how angry she was at Kajetan.
"You don't know who he was, do you?" Eden finally said gently.
"Who he was?" Arielle repeated.
"Kajetan is a sleeper."
"A what?"
"A sleeper?"
"I'm sorry, but you'll have to explain that to me." Arielle said shortly.
"He's like us a little, but doesn't know it." Eden said, placing her wet gambeson on the floor.
"He's a guardian? How can someone not know that? Couldn't you have just told him or shown him somehow instead of letting him die?"
"Again, he chose not be saved. And it's a different type of not knowing." Eden said, shaking her head, "They're chosen who've lost their faith in God."
Arielle went silent for a few moments, her gaze never leaving the warrior.
"But Kajetan prayed so much. And spoke so highly of God."
"He believes in God. But his faith is gone." Eden explained and looked at her calloused hands, "Usually the effect of great human tragedy."
"His sons..." Arielle said quietly as her eyes grew wide in revelation and then grew wider still as she pierced Eden with her gaze, "You knew from the very beginning, didn't you? And still you said nothing."
"You can't simply wake a sleeper. They have to awaken on their own."
"So you'd rather let a good man die than try to force him to see his divine gift?" Arielle questioned sharply, "We're guardians and should help others of our kind."
"Help is not the same as making a choice for someone."
"Eden, this is a human being we're talking about. It's a real life that was lost."
"And your reverence for it blinds you." Eden retorted and then sighed at Arielle's hurt look, "Do you know how sleepers usually awaken? They find themselves in a situation so dire or have to make a decision so hard that it equals or even overpowers the pain or anguish that made them sleep. And there they have a choice to live or die. To live means to continue with the burden of not only their pain, but also the weight of being a guardian. To die means to have all that go away and know peace."
Arielle knotted her brows and looked at her feet. She tilted her head slightly to one side and then the other while squinting her eyes every so often. She looked back at Eden with a look of lost recognition on her face.
"Kajetan actually chose to die?"
"He did," Eden said quietly, "and he made that choice long before he fell into the sea. Now he'll answer for it before his maker."
Arielle only nodded and looked at her own hands. The warrior sighed heavily and walked over to the corner, arranged a few sacks and beat them a lot harder than she needed to, and lay down against them.
"Time to sleep, my bard." she said gently.
Arielle made her way over and lay down next to Eden without raising her gaze from the floor. Eden stroked the bard's back to the calming swaying of the ship until the tiny whimpers died down and the bard's breathing became deep and slow. And all the while Eden wondered if it was Kajetan's sensitivity that made it too hard for him to awaken and was it Eden's hard heart that never let her sleep.
Perhaps it was because the crisp night air helped cool her mind that Eden liked to take walks along the deck after most of the crew was fast asleep. The boatswain grunted a good midnight to her, but she didn't reply, her eyes fixed on tiny lights flickering in the distant, dark horizon.
"Not far now." he muttered behind her.
"How long?" she asked, her eyes fixed on the horizon.
"A couple of days, I'd say. The lagoon is a treacherous thing."
Eden nodded and after a few moments, the boatswain walked off. The distant strings of lights shone like strewn jewels of Venice's growing empire and they tickled Eden's eyes with promises of power and pain. She leaned her forearms on the railing and wondered whether the city state was the same as she remembered it- full of color, life, money, secrecy, and lies. In a way, Venice reminded her of herself and she didn't know whether to love or hate it.
And on opposite shores of the Adriatic, Xena and Gabrielle watched the ship pass by.
"Will I be cast into Hell's fires if I say that I'm glad the sea took Kajetan?"
"It doesn't become you, Xena." Gabrielle replied, "It is a life after all."
"I know. But he was a weak one. Lilith would have changed him and he was too close." Xena explained, her hands balling up into fists, "He's lucky I didn't strike him down myself."
"Always the defiant warrior," Gabrielle chuckled quietly, "Forever my protector."
Xena sighed heavily and relaxed her hands, turning her gaze from the ship.
"Why are you so far away?" she asked, her tone turning softer and with a hint of sadness that was so rare in her.
"Because it isn't time yet, my love." Gabrielle said softly from the opposite shore, "But I promise we'll find our way back to each other."
"I sometimes doubt..."
"I know you do. And if you doubt in them then believe in me. I am the truth of who you are."
Xena smiled and nodded and they returned to quietly watching the ship sail by.