Ebb Tide: Book 1 of the South Wind Saga

Chapter 9

YES.

That's what he says to me as I climb. As if I was walking into his open arms, craving his embrace. As if I was lifting the sheet to welcome him into my bed. YES, you are coming back to me, he says, you finally realise I'm what you always wanted and now we will be one together. Like every creep who ever lived, he thinks he can push me into his arms.

He's so stupid. He's got no idea what he's done.

I don't remember most of the climb. Blong, above me, pauses once or twice and calls when I stop. My eyes are streaming, my nose running with snot, my mouth wet. Am I mourning the loss of my home? Or am I just choking on the smoke in the air? Honestly, its neither. I'm just so damn tired. All my feelings are dead right now. All but one.

A fire burns. He has destroyed everything I have loved. And so, he will find, all I have left is hate.

He wants me? He can have me. He's going to get more Matai than he can stand. He's going to take me until he chokes.

WHY DO YOU RAGE SO? His thoughts are unctuous and condescending. YOU CANT DENY WHAT WE SHARED YESTERDAY. WHAT WAS BETWEEN US. I HAVE CHOSEN YOU, MATAI. ABOVE ALL OTHERS.

You're a disgusting grub. I'm going to squash you like I've squashed all others of your kind.

MY KIND? I AM UNIQUE, MATAI. I AM ASCENDED. AN EVOLUTION, THE FIRST. BUT NOT THE ONLY. COME TO ME AND YOU WILL BE MY PROPHET. TAKE MY SCRIPTURE TO YOUR FRIENDS SO THEY CAN SHARE IN OUR LOVE.

And what love is that? The love of rotten meat? You're nothing but a maggot, mucking up a corpse.

THE WORLD HAS CHANGED. YOUR SPECIES IS DYING. HUMANITY, THE GREAT EXTINCTOR, FINALLY FALLING AT ITS OWN HAND. I AM FULL OF SECRETS MATAI. OPEN THE DOOR AND I WILL SHARE THEM WITH YOU.

You destroyed my home. You killed all these people. I will not let that go unanswered.

I FREED YOU MATAI. CUT YOUR BONDS TO THIS EARTHLY PLANE. THAT SHIP WAS LADEN WITH YOUR GUILT AND LOSS. ALL GONE NOW. YOU ARE FREE.

Free. What a word. He's right though, I am free. He has reduced me to battered girl who struggles onto the deck of the ship, utterly exhausted. Below, the lifework of my father and mother burning to the waterline. For thirteen years I spent every day keeping that boat going and now it is gone. He's right. I am free. Utterly, inalienably free.

I think, if left to my own devices, I might have collapsed when I reached the rail. Slumped on the deck, too exhausted to move, no escaping this hell ship now. Sorry, Blong, I failed you. We're trapped. Four hours until sunset and then it's all over. Sure, I'll fight until the last, until weapon fires weapon stops for the final time. But there is only one ending to this story.

But he's so damn stupid, so fucking arrogant, that he doesn't know when to let things lie. Instead, he comes, gloating, reminding me of my weakness, as if that was something he could leverage, something that would break me open.

I don't think, I say, you understand how levers work.

A long pause and then a flat WHAT.

A crash makes both Blong and I jump. For a moment I think a hatch has burst open, the metal door smashing back against its frame and I struggle to get my feet under me, to raise my rifle and shoot the oncoming horde.

But. Nothing. Nothing different on deck. The cranes are not burning so much, Crane Four mostly smouldering, smoke spilling from up its operators cabin where the cable – and then I see what made the noise. The crane's winch released and the cable, with its heavy hook and counterweight, deployed. It plunged down and clanged onto the deck. The winch's clutch must have failed; I expect that they're meant to lock in the event of a failure but I guess that mechanism is rusted up or otherwise not working. The cable is unreeling and spooling on the deck, like an infinitely long snake descending from a tree.