Renegade (3 page)

F
ootsteps pounded on the stairs. Alice appeared in the doorway, but seeing Rose in my arms, she hesitated. Her expression turned unusually sympathetic. “We really need to hurry,” she said.

Rose was groaning now. Not from the pain of her injuries, I suspected, but from my element, which grew stronger as my pulse accelerated. On Sumter we'd practiced combining, so that my element channeled
through
her instead of
into
her. But there was no way that she could engage her element now, not when she was so weak. When she stopped grimacing, it was only because she saw my expression and didn't want me to feel bad.

“Here,” said Alice. She stood with her back to me and tapped her shoulders. “I'll carry Rose. You make sure the others get on deck.”

I wasn't sure that Alice would be able to support Rose's weight, but I helped Rose onto Alice's back anyway. Alice took off up the stairs as easily as if she were carrying a sandbag across the beach.

I returned to Nyla and Griffin's cabin as they emerged. They staggered along the corridor and paused before the stairs. I offered to help them, but Griffin waved me off.

Up on deck, I counted heads. We were all present, looking bedraggled and forlorn. Even Rose and Dennis's mother, Marin, was there, short and stocky, her features wrenched into an all-too-familiar scowl. I hadn't seen her caring for her daughter below deck or helping the other Guardians above; but then, it was no secret that we'd brought her on board against her will. She'd clung to the dream of a new home on Sumter, and hadn't appreciated being rescued. Even now I wasn't sure that she realized how vulnerable she'd been. If we'd left her there, she wouldn't have lasted the night.

Ananias tilted his head toward the approaching ship, which was about a quarter mile behind us. “They're watching us, so keep low. They mustn't see what we're doing.”

Across the deck, my father lowered a rope ladder over the port side, readying for the escape.

I scooted over to Alice. She fixed her eyes on the ship, searching for any clue that might give us an advantage. “Same five men,” she murmured.

“There might be more below deck,” I reminded her. “Maybe some injured crewmen too.”

“I don't think so. Anyone who was injured wouldn't have been able to make it on board—not with everything that was going down at Sumter. No, they're operating with a small crew. And it's our job to get those men onto this ship and trapped below deck. If we do that, there's nothing to stop us from getting away.”

“And if we can't?”

She peered at me from the corner of her eye. “Just think of Griffin, and Rose. You know what's at stake.”

My father was already helping Tarn and Marin onto the rope ladder, so I crawled across the deck and joined them. When she saw me, Tarn furrowed her brows. “I don't like this,” she said.

“We don't have much choice,” I replied. “Dare will be here any moment.”

She exchanged a glance with my father. “How did you all escape from Sumter, Thomas?” she asked. “From what I've heard, you were trapped in a room. Chief and his men were armed. Dare was there too. So what happened?”

I couldn't be sure, but her tone sounded suspicious. It annoyed me, that. With Dare closing fast, and others waiting to descend the ladder, I didn't have time to answer, or even to consider why she'd ask me that question now. I turned my back on her and beckoned Nyla and Griffin over.

One by one, the elementals slid first one foot and then the other onto the ladder. The rope was strong, but the ladder shifted from side to side as the ship rocked in the swell. The healthiest of our crew—Tarn, Marin, Dennis—treaded water, waiting to assist the injured.

When it was my father's turn to go down, he paused. “I'm staying with you,” he said.

Alice, who was on the other side of the deck, spun around. “No. Only Thomas and me. Dare has a history with you, Ordyn,” she reminded my father. “We need him to believe he'll get no resistance from us.”

Still my father hesitated. Then, as the Sumter ship sailed toward our starboard side, he followed the others into the water.

I raised the rope ladder and untied it, hiding all evidence of what we'd done.

“May as well throw it in the water,” said Alice, joining me. “We won't be needing it anymore.”

“How are we going to get onto the other ship?”

“The deck's lower than this one. We'll jump.”

I tossed the ladder over the side. It floated for a moment, and then sank. When I turned around, Alice was crouched beside the hatch door that led below deck. “Once the men are trapped down there, you get out, hear me? Even if I don't make it, you bolt that door and board the other ship.”

“I won't leave without you, Alice.”

“Yes, you will. And if I have to, I'll leave without you too. Because this is bigger than either one of us, you hear? This is
everything
.”

The Sumter ship pulled alongside us. The sails had been reefed, allowing the vessel to glide to a halt. As Alice had said, it was lower in the water, so I couldn't see anything except the masts, but I could just make out the men's faces peeking at us over our ship's railing. Each of them held a gun.

An object flew onto our deck and landed with a clatter. Before I could get a good look at it, it was dragged backward, scraping angry lines in the wooden planks. With a clang, it anchored against the railing—a hook, tethering the ships together.

Instinctively I edged closer to Alice. “You ready?” she asked.

I didn't even know for sure what was about to happen. “Yes,” I lied.

A hand appeared on the railing. Then an arm. For a moment, I considered attacking him before he had a chance to get on board, but Alice gripped my sleeve and held me back, forcing me to stick to the plan.

We edged toward the Sumter ship, close enough to see a sliver of the deck. Close enough that when, with a twitch of her head, Alice directed my attention to the water, I made out the heads of the elementals as they slid to the far side of the ship. None of the men was paying any attention to the ocean, though.

My father was watching me. Ananias was as well. They were waiting for a nod, the signal that they were clear to board the Sumter ship. Neither Alice nor I could give it yet, though.

The first Sumter colonist slid over the rail and landed on the deck. Someone tossed a rifle up to him. He pointed it at us, hands shaking, and yelled, “Ship's secure.”

Alice had the appearance of a cat poised to pounce.

Another man labored to climb aboard. He was older, bald. As he took up position beside the first man, he rubbed his leg and frowned.

A third man joined them. Even older. Even slower. When he caught his rifle, he took several moments to aim it.

I wanted to ask Alice if she'd noticed the men's condition when she'd spied the ship. Was
this
why she wanted them to board—because they were possibly even weaker than us?

As the fourth man joined the others I afforded myself another glance at the deck of the Sumter ship. I feared Dare more than all the rest of the men combined, but he wasn't climbing the rope. I couldn't see him at all.

“Where's Dare?” Alice demanded.

“Preparing,” replied the first of the men.

“For what?”

“You know why we're here. Now where's the solution?”

Alice took a small step forward. Immediately, the men jammed the rifles against their shoulders, arms rigid, eyes wide. From their body language it was obvious that they were wary of us. Maybe even afraid. Alice shuffled back again at the sight of four restless trigger fingers. Whether or not they intended to harm us, it seemed all too possible that one of them might accidentally fire his weapon.

“The others are below deck,” said Alice.

“Then bring them up.”

“So you can take the solution and kill the rest of us, you mean?”

The man glanced over his shoulder. “We have other weapons than rifles. Less lethal, but possibly even more painful. Would you prefer it if we used those?”

“Actually, I'd prefer it if Dare came on board to bully us himself. He's one of us, you know.”

The man laughed. “An elemental, yes. And we can see how much he likes you. Enough to lure you to Sumter. Enough to watch you die—”

He broke off at the sound of footsteps from the Sumter ship. Dare emerged from the stairwell, and regarded the men coolly. “What's going on?” he demanded, voice smooth yet menacing.

“The solution's hiding out below,” answered the man, sounding less confident than before.

“So what's stopping you?
You
have guns.
They
are children. Get him now.”

“What about our ship?”

“I'll guard this ship. Just make sure you take those two below deck to guide you. And if they resist or refuse,” Dare added, like it was an afterthought, “just burn the ship. Fire has a tendency to make even the smallest creatures scatter.”

Y
ou heard Dare,” the man told us. “Lead on.”

When Alice held her ground, he stepped forward and jabbed his rifle into her stomach. She stumbled and fell. Instinctively I reached for the barrel, but before I could pour my element along the metal shaft, shocking the man, Alice grabbed my ankle. “Don't do it, Thom,” she muttered. “Think of the others.”

The men stared at the deck planks, as if they were visualizing people hiding out below. But I was looking at the ocean instead, and the figures floating beside the hull of the Sumter ship. Rose lay on her back in the water, eyes closed; it was probably only her element—water—that prevented her from drowning. Ananias and my father continued to watch me, waiting for the sign to board. But with Dare still on the Sumter ship, that would be suicide.

“Let's go,” the first man said. “Now!”

Head down, shoulders slumped, Alice led us to the hatch.

If the men were suspicious, they didn't show it. But they weren't taking any chances, either. Two of them pointed their rifles at her, while the others nudged me along behind her.

I stole a final look at the Sumter ship, and our families bobbing up and down in the water. There was nothing I could do to help them, or to warn them that Dare was still on board. It seemed obvious now that someone would stay to secure the Sumter ship. But why did it have to be Dare?

A rifle barrel snapped against the backs of my legs, urging me onward. Alice and I pulled open the large hatch door and let it swing onto the deck with a crash. I figured that Father would know that sound and realize we were heading below deck. Since I hadn't signaled to him, he'd also know there was a problem.

I was first through the hatch. I walked down the stairs slowly, keeping the others close behind. Although I couldn't see them, I was sure that if we were bunched up, it would be harder for the men to move their weapons about.

The worn wooden stairs creaked under the weight of six people. The men were breathing heavily—was it from exhaustion, or fear? True, they had guns, but they must have realized that they were heading into the bowels of the ship, where they'd be outnumbered by elementals.

Sure enough, the footsteps stopped. “I'll wait here,” said the last man in the procession. “We need to cover ourselves.” There was a murmur of agreement. “I don't think the girl should go on, either. Doesn't take both of them to show us where everyone's hiding.”

I craned my neck to check out the men's positions on the stairs: two immediately behind me, rifles raised; another two behind Alice, also poised to fire if provoked. Each man grasped his weapon with both hands, which meant that they didn't have hold of the rail that ran along the wall.

Alice gave a slight nod and flexed her fingers in readiness. “Go ahead, Thom,” she said calmly. “I'll be right here.”

I spun around and grabbed the two rifle barrels immediately behind me. My pulse was racing and my element surged through them, shocking the men. Alice whipped her hands back and jerked the other men's rifles forward. Off-balance and without a free hand, all three of them tumbled down the stairs and careened into my two guards. I jumped out of the way as the five bodies crashed to the base of the stairs.

Alice seemed to take the brunt of the fall, but she was also the first to emerge from the pile. One guard separated himself from the others and tried to extricate his rifle, but he was still fumbling with it as I kicked it into his chest. Another man ripped it from him and swung it toward me.

I grabbed Alice's outstretched hand. Even before we combined—before the fire leaped out—I imagined it. Felt it, even—the shape of the flame and the intensity of the heat. And as the fire burst through the air, it was exactly as I knew it would be.

The men shrank back. Not one of them held on to his weapon.

It was tiring to combine, though, and Alice seemed surprised by it, maybe even unsettled. Barely a moment passed before the flame weakened. Sensing it, the men shielded their faces with raised arms and edged toward us. Alice and I backtracked halfway up the staircase, anxious to escape while we still had control.

One of the men retrieved his rifle, but the wooden stairs were smoldering. Smoke obscured his view. He aimed the barrel in our direction, but there was only a harmless click as he pulled the trigger.
It must be the heat,
I thought, but neither Alice nor I waited to find out. As he roared in anger, we scrambled up the remaining steps and rolled onto the deck.

I slammed the hatch door and Alice slid the large steel bolt across, imprisoning the men below.

“Let's go,” she said.

We were halfway across the deck when there was a new sound: blunt objects pounding against the hatch door. It bulged slightly with each strike, straining the hinges.

“They're going to break through,” said Alice. “We need to get everyone on board the other ship, and quick.”

“Are you crazy? Dare's still on it.”

She ran a few steps and peered at the ship. “He's not on deck.”

“So?”

“So this is our chance. Give me a moment and signal to the others to get on board. And whatever happens, keep that hatch door closed.”

Right on cue, the men struck it even harder than before. One of the hinges came up with it, freeing the metal screws from the splintered wooden deck.

Alice took off running. She stretched one foot onto the deck railing and launched herself across the gap between the ships. I held my breath as she landed on the other deck with a thud and rolled to a stop.

I couldn't tear my eyes away until she stood. Favoring her left leg, she hobbled over to the stairwell and out of sight.

Beside me, four rifle butts drummed in alternation, rocking the hatch door. The men were like trapped hornets, growing fiercer with every passing moment. They would break through soon, it was obvious.

I scanned the deck for something to use against them. There were no weapons here. No other elementals with whom I could combine. But there was a large wooden crate, so I pressed my back against it and drove with my legs, sliding it toward the hatch.

Another hinge broke free from the deck, but with some of the crate resting against the hatch, the door didn't budge at all as the men pressed against it. I took a deep breath and pushed again so that the crate was centered over the hatch. Enough to hold them back for a little while longer.

I sprinted across the deck and leaned against the rail. Father was signaling frantically from the water. Tarn cradled Griffin in her arms. With only one good arm each, Ananias and Jerren struggled to stay afloat.

Where was Alice? Where was Dare?

I was scared for her, but she was right: We couldn't wait any longer. No shots had rung out from below deck, so maybe Alice hadn't found Dare. Or he hadn't found her. Either way, getting everyone on board would increase our chances of overpowering him.

I climbed over the rail and jumped onto the deck of the Sumter ship—not as dramatic as Alice's leap, but the landing hurt plenty. There was a lightweight metal ladder hooked over the deck rail, so I unclipped it and carried it to the bow, secured it to the rail, and extended it into the water.

Father drew the others closer to him. I would have stayed to help them climb, but a loud crack from the other ship confirmed what I'd feared: The crate wasn't heavy enough to keep the men trapped.

It was hard work to climb back up the other ship. The rope tethering them together was thick, with razor-sharp wisps that pierced my skin. No wonder the Sumter men had labored to cross from one vessel to the other.

As I reached the deck, the chest moved slightly. A hard thump from below and it dipped as though it were sinking.

“You need to go,” I yelled to the elementals on the next ship. For a moment I wasn't sure that anyone except Ananias had made it on board, but then Jerren climbed over the rail as well and the two of them sprinted to the mainmast, following my instructions. I released the metal grappling hook that held the ships together and tossed it onto the deck of the Sumter ship.

Still no sign of Alice or Dare. Something was terribly wrong.

I grabbed a wooden pole from the deck and stood guard beside the crate, which was perched precariously above the hatch. I just needed to give the others time to get the Sumter ship moving, but with each strike from below, the crate shifted. As a narrow gap opened up to one side, I drove the pole through and stabbed blindly. One man cried out. Another grabbed the end of the pole and wrenched it, dragging me forward. I landed on the crate. Hard.

The hatch door finally gave out.

Sprawled across the crate, I dropped onto the top stair, which promptly collapsed under the weight. I reached up and grabbed the edges of the deck as the staircase crashed to the ground.

My legs dangled uselessly below me. I knew that if I let go, I was as good as dead. It wasn't a question of
if
the men would kill me, but
how
. One of them broke free from the carnage and found a rifle.

Ananias was shouting my name. Father too. Even with all the other sounds—the men's groans and the creaking ship—I clearly heard the fear in their voices.

Summoning all my energy, I swung one leg onto the deck, and then the other. I kept waiting for the man to fire. He wouldn't miss from such close range.

The bullet never came.

I pulled to a stand. The Sumter ship loomed large before me, but not as close as before. Too late, it dawned on me that the reason they'd been shouting to me is because they were leaving. Everyone stood against the railing, arms stretched out as though they might catch me as I jumped.

As I ran across the deck, the last thing I heard was the men screaming Dare's name. Maybe they were imploring him to stop us, or maybe they were angry for listening to him. I didn't care anymore. I was too focused on getting away.

Just as Alice had done, I drove one foot onto the top railing and launched myself at the Sumter ship as it eased away. The air rushed past me, the ship seemed to draw closer, and I honestly believed that I was going to make it across.

Instead I came crashing down in the water. I was close enough to feel the hull as it brushed past my fingertips.

I sank under and resurfaced as the stern glided by.

I was stranded.