Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 20:08:14 +0300 Reply-To: Rapier Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Rapier Subject: In The Dark VI of VII IN THE DARK (c) by Marko Lidman Part VI 1704, France, Bretagne, island Ushant Lord Daumier, or, as he was nowadays known: Jean Daumier, looked out to the western sea, waiting for a specific sign. First he had been badly shocked by the way his life had changed, but now, as he had remembered the earlier incidents he had been forced to move to another location, he was convenient. It didn't mean that the boy who had ruined his latest life wouldn't be dealt with, after all the boy HAD killed him and forced him to leave his daughter alone. In fact, he was just preparing to meet the boy again. Slowly the sail came from behind the horizon. Jean Daumier saw it and ran, slipping in the wet, partly frosty, grass, down to the shoreline to his sloop, extremely fast and exceptionally manoeuvrable ship. With her he could catch the merchant vessel even if she tried to escape. "Men, the ship is coming. Get me to it as fast as you can!" "Aye aye, sir." The hired captain of the ship yelled and went with his men to ready the ship for the short sprint. Daumier had been looking for Francis Carrera for over a year now. At first he had followed his tracks, but had lost them after a few weeks. Then he had moved to Brittany, or Bretagne, to live with the people of his long gone childhood. Bretons, immigrant Celts from Ireland and England, had had their own land before it had been annexed to the French crown a little after Jean Daumier's birth, in 1532. '1532... What a year...' Daumier mused. He had been sixteen then, fighting furiously against the french conquerors. He had been one of the young men who didn't want to give their freedom of choice to frenchmen. As far as Daumier knew, Carrera hadn't found out what he really was in the whole time he had been on his own. At least his informant had said so. 'Informant, huh?', the thought. The 'informant' had been the most scared man he had ever seen. Someone had sent him to him to tell him about Carrera, but Daumier hadn't found out who was the real source before the wimp had died. He was half afraid he would have to find it out eventually. 'Who knows that I was looking for that boy?' he asked himself for the hundredth time. The sloop detached from the misty shoreline of island Ushant and quickly sped through the surf. Ex-lord Daumier stood on the front deck, his rapier in his right hand, preparing for the coming battle. Inevitably the merchant ship came closer and finally her dozing lookout-man yelled a short warning before Jean Daumier and his dozen men broke the silent winter morning by firing their eight cannons. -------------------- 1704, At sea, west of Bretagne, on a voyage to England Francis Carrera woke up suddenly as the noise of the cannonballs crashing through the deck caught him. It took a moment for him to reorient himself and meanwhile also Jack Shepherd got himself up. He had always been a deep sleeper, but when he finally woke up he was usually more awake than Francis, who woke up easily but had to reorient himself before he could really do anything. "What do you think is happening?" Francis asked, still somewhat sleepy. "Well, I don't know. Maybe the seagulls are having a party... WE ARE ATTACKED, FOR GODS SAKE! Pick up your sword and follow me, NOW!" That woke up Francis. In the small cabin Jack's yelling was really all he needed to get fully awake. He stuffed his tunic under his trousers and followed after Jack, grabbing his rapier and dark green beret from the cabin-table on his way out. The sight on deck was horrible, the attacking ship had hit a bullseye. Sailors were groaning in pain all around and the few who remained couldn't load the remaining cannons before the next attack came. -------------------- Jean Daumier ordered his sailors to bring them on merchantman's side. All offensive movement on the merchantman's deck had ended after their second shooting and Daumier felt sure of himself. The sloop got to the other ship's side safely and the twelve men boarded the ship with Jean. He could feel the other of his kind somewhere on the ship, but couldn't see him anywhere. Some sailors were kneeling on the deck, hands up, with no intentions to fight against Daumier or his men. Daumier left three of his men to guard the men and sent six below the deck to bring up anyone who might be hiding down there. With the three men who were still with him, he went to the closed door of the aftercabin. "You two, break down that door," he ordered two of his men, who obeyed immediately. They kicked the door a couple of times to find out how sturdy it was, then they went to find something heavy to open the door with, soon returning with a broken of mast. Repeatedly they hit the door with the mast, until it finally began to give in. Daumier ordered a short break so that the men who he had sent under the deck could be called up to help them with their attack. Who knew how many men there were, desperate enough to attack them? "Get the other sailors below the deck, so they cannot cause any surprises" Daumier ordered his men. "Sir, there is quite a load of muskets down there... It might not be a good idea to let these sailors get them." "Well, get rid of them somehow! They can swim, order them overboard!" Finally they were ready to attack the last stronghold. Four of the attackers readied their muskets as two of them picked up the mast again and broke the door. The men carrying the mast backed away from the line of fire as the sailors inside shot their weapons. At the same time the four Daumier's men shot their muskets. Some of the musket balls found their targets and a couple of Daumier's men groaned in pain in unison with some sailors inside the aftercabin. Then the remaining sailors charged to meet Daumier and his men. Daumier quickly recognised Francis Carrera who was one of the first men to come out and attacked him himself. "Now, kid, you are going to fight me fair! You will not get me from behind again!" Daumier yelled as he attacked. Francis backed of, surprised. He had thought about the possibility that lord Daumier might still be alive, but never had he really, really, believed in it. And now Daumier was back, clearly intending to kill him for good. 'But... How can he be alive! I killed him when I last saw him! Why didn't I die the last time? What the hell is going on here!?' Francis couldn't get a hold of his thoughts and so he didn't really have a chance when Daumier came after him. After only a few strokes Daumier saw a gap in Francis's defence and thrust his sword in Francis's abdomen. Daumier caught Carrera's falling body and pushed it overboard, it would be wiser to kill him when no-one else was around seeing. He turned just in time to deflect someones desperate attack. The attacking man was white-faced and Daumier could see the horror and urge in his eyes. 'Apparently that boy has made some friends on his short travels,' Daumier mused and made an attack of his own. Suddenly the attacker disengaged and jumped to the sea after his friend. 'Damn, this is getting really complicated!' Daumier thought as he looked after the diving man. Boredly he turned to see how his men were doing and saw that they had defeated the remaining sailors. He found the leader of his men and walked to him. "Okay, throw these sailors to the sea and get this ship back to the shoreline. Then you and your men can take your own ship and go where ever you like!" "Don't you need us any more? You can never get this boat anywhere without some men!" "Well, I'll think of something. If this ship is still here the day after tomorrow, you can have it, but if not, you'll know I thought of something." "You have not yet paid in full, me and my men won't leave without our money," the leader said casually. "You will get your payment! As soon as this ship is anchored near that shoreline over there, I'll tell where the rest of your money is!" The underling turned to his underlings and they begun to work with the ship as Daumier turned back to the sea. He could see a man dragging an another man behind him as he swam towards the shoreline. He couldn't resist a smile as he saw that the dragged was the man who had first jumped to save Carrera, only to get saved by the man he had jumped after. -------------------- Francis hit the ocean loudly and drowned quickly. He had no strength to fight back as his life seeped through his fingers from the wound he had in his abdomen. Strange sensation really; he didn't really feel the pressure of the water around him, it was as if it didn't affect him. He laughed at the crazy feeling. 'I laughed! How can one laugh under water?' He started panicking again as he understood. "I can breathe! I can breathe under water!" 'Hearing' his own voice calmed him down a bit and when he reached the bottom, it wasn't really deep around here, he was ready accept anything. Even the fact that the wound in his abdomen had healed. Francis tried to stand up and walk around. It wasn't as easy as he had hoped; water pressure was definitely affecting him. After a few tries he managed to get up and even swimwalk around a bit, but not for long. He saw his friend diving for him, searching his body. It wasn't the wisest thing to do, but nonetheless Francis sneaked behind Jack and tapped him on his left foot. Jack turned hastily and gasped for air as he saw Francis in good health grinning at him. Unfortunately gasping for air is not a very smart thing to do when you are diving at sea. As Francis saw what happened, he took a firm grip of his friend and headed for surface and air. -------------------- The last part will come out in a couple of days. But, as I have told before, this story will continue in the sequel I'm just writing so all of the questions will not be answered YET!! Don't forget to send comments to: * The secret of a warm heart is a fireplace | __ (just throw it in to the flames...) |/ \ Check out my WWW-page for a cool gif of a rapier O[&%&%&%<====>================================================- \_____/|\__/ Dedicated Amiga-user now and in the future | -Rapier (malidman@kauhajoki.fi) * (http://kauhajoki.fi/~malidman/) =========================================================================